Zuri sat watch next to Kyle as the man slept peacefully with stable vitals. She looked at the IV drip that had been the only source of infusion that kept the man alive. Kyle was much thinner than the last time she saw him which wasn't surprising given the fact that he had been laying unresponsive all this time. She leaned in to observe the man's face. Except for the steady breathing, there was no other movement. Zuri bit her lips as a conflicted look flitted across her face. "Kyle, I - I am sorry I have to do this. It is for my brother. He- he is the only family I have left so I need to find him no matter what." unconsciously her eyes teared up as she pulled out a syringe with a transparent liquid in it out of her pocket. She stood up and walked towards the IV drip and stood before it for a long time. Her hands fiddled with the object for several minutes but she couldn't bring herself to take the final step.
The moment Dr. Hansen started showing interest in her, Zuri knew that he was up to no good. At first he tried to get on her good side offering her sweet deals and protection. But she was not swayed in the slightest. Kyle's group had been very good to her. She liked all its members. They were friendly and strong. Zuri felt completely safe and free ever since she joined them. This was the first time she felt so after the apocalypse started.
Seeing that she was more stubborn than he had expected, Dr. Hansen finally resorted to threats. He said he knew where her brother was and that she would never see him again if she didn't help him out. Hearing this Zuri knew that she had no other choice. She had been on a frantic search for her brother for months now. Yet I couldn't find the slightest clue. It had been only recently that she decided to finally give up and erected a DIY tombstone for him. Just at this time this man came over and threw her whole mind into chaos again. If she could she would have killed the man right then and there.
After hearing Dr. Hansen's demand, Zuri had wanted to turn him down. but when she thought of the possible consequences she couldn't bring herself to do it. In the end after continuous pestering, Zuri finally gave in. After all, Kyle was in a coma. No different from a dead person and would be a burden sooner or later if he didn't wake up. On the other hand, her brother was her whole world. She couldn't just give up on him now that she knew that he was within her reach. This brought her to today's situation.
Zuri decided to harden her heart and just get it over with. Before she poked the IV drip with the unknown liquid, she shot Kyle one last apologetic look and froze in her action. Kyle's eyes were fluttering. He looked in a daze and out of sorts but he was in fact awake. "You are up!" Zuri rushed to him in excitement as she observed his every movement.
"Hey girl!" Kyle whispered in a very weak smiling voice but it was enough to fill Zuri's face with a beaming grin. "I feel very tired." he tried to clear his throat and said in a hoarse voice all the while while his eyes drifted back close.
"Rest. Just rest. I will go and inform the doctor." Zuri didn't care that the man was not listening to her and excitedly stood up. She suddenly paused as she was about to run out and looked down at her hand. The syringe with the liquid in it was still held tightly in her fist. She shot a glance at Kyle and decisively broke it into two and threw it into the trash. Whether she would regret it later or not, she didn't know. All she knew was that she didn't want to think about it. 'I am sorry brother.' Ignoring her breaking heart, she rushed to find the doctor to check up on Kyle.
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When Rhys rushed back to their site, the news of Kyle waking up was floating around everywhere. Surprised and excited, Rhys rushed towards the clinic where Kyle was kept at. Before he got there, he already saw a crowd of familiar faces blocking the entrance. All of them had happy grins smeared on their faces. As they spotted Rhys, they patted him on his back and cleared out a way for him.
Inside Kyle was sitting up on the bed. Zuri was busy helping him eat some porridge, while Isabella was sulking in a corner as she occasionally shot pitiful looks at her husband. Only seeing the woman like this did Rhys notice the angry frown on Kyle's face. It was obvious that they had a fight. He was such a loving husband that he always tried to accommodate Isabella and make her happy. Out of all the times Rhys had known Kyle, this was the first time Kyle looked so angry. 'What could have happened?' Rhys wondered to himself.
While he was pondering about this, Kyle already noticed his presence. "Rhys." Kyle said his name stiffly. To Rhys's surprise, the already deep frown deepened even further when the man looked at him. "Come here!" There was a tone of command in Kyle's voice. Seeing the situation, Zuri smartly moved aside to make room for him. When Rhys was within his reach, Kyle quickly swung his fist and punched him in the stomach. Kyle was weakened from his long coma, but Rhys still keeled over and groaned in pain. "What kind of stupidity have you been up to while I was out. hue? Was your brain eaten by a zombie?" He hissed in anger. Due to the strain he started coughing violently and it took a moment before he stabilised himself.
James and his brothers had also entered the room with Rhys. Seeing Rhys struggling on the floor, he moved over to support him. Little did he know that Kyle would also smack him in the back of his head. James looked at Kyle with grievances in his eyes and lowered his head in guilt, giving up on helping Rhys. Without a single word, he already understood that he got the smack for allowing Rhys to roam around without control.
Meanwhile Rhys's eyes fell on Zuri who had been as quiet as a mouse until now and understood immediately. 'Seems like someone has already narrated everything that had happened while Kyle was in a coma. And the version was not in his favour.
"Brother, please calm down and rest. It is not good for you to get this excited." Rhys tried to reason with Kyle as he struggled back to his feet.
Kyle just scoffed at him and turned his head away too angry to talk to him in front of everyone. Rhys looked around him and saw the numerous audience at the door and got annoyed. "What is everyone standing around for? If you are done watching the show then scram." With his roar almost everyone except the few who were in the room left hurriedly.
Once everyone was gone Rhys cautiously turned toward Kyle and asked, "Brother how are you feeling? Is there any discomfort?"
"The only discomfort is to my heart for having raised such a senseless boy and marrying such a brainless woman." Kyle gritted his teeth. "What kind of nonsense have you two done while I was in a coma? Hue?! You think it's the end of the world if I die? It's NOT! Blaming others when all the facts point otherwise and using others like their lives mean nothing to you - I don't even know who you are anymore!"
Isabella seemed to have calmed down ever since Kyle woke up. After she tried to recall her actions, she realised that they had been very petty and childish. In all her pain and anger she had forgotten to blame the people who had threatened Kyle with her life before he left on the mission. She had jumped the gun and blamed Ash just because everyone said it was his bullet. But now seeing her husband moving and talking, the shattered pieces fell into place and she realised that she made a huge mistake. "Honey, please don't be mad anymore. I was just so much in pain at the thought of losing you that I made some stupid decisions." Isabella shed some tears as she tried to have her husband not look at her like a stranger any more.
"Why are you still here? Didn't I tell you to leave my sight? I will deal with you later. Now get out!" Kyle's aura was so frightening that Isabella could only hesitate for a few moments before running out of the room bawling her eyes out. In all their years of marriage, Kyle had never talked to her in that tone before.
After she left the room Kyle's eyes snapped towards Rhys who could only shift under his glare uncomfortably. "Rhys, is this how I taught you to treat someone you like?"
"Wh- what do you... but I..." Rhys was dumbfounded by the questions that he was momentarily unable to form proper sentences.
"What? Are you trying to make excuses now? I wouldn't be surprised if the boy hated you after all the irresponsible stunts that you have pulled. How many times have I told you that if you are chasing someone then you should treat them with the utmost respect as if they are your whole world? And if it's someone as invaluable as Ash, then you should have already died three times over for him!!!" Kyle shouted at him while throwing a kick at the man standing before his bed. The sudden movement made him break out into a coughing fit. Zuri immediately rushed forward to provide support. When he saw her, Kyle started complaining to her instead, "He is already this grown up but still hasn't learned a single thing I have taught him. Completely useless. I have no idea where he gets this from. It's definitely not from me!" Zuri just nodded along in complete agreement to his words. She even added a few of her own thoughts into the mix.
On the other hand hearing his remarks, a pair of cold chilling eyes fell on Rhys who was on the floor once more. Jule slowly walked towards Rhys and picked him up, "If this is how you like someone, then it's better for you to stay single your whole life. At least so no one else has to suffer. Stay away from Ash after we get him out." Jule whispered with anger and a trace of disgust before tossing him away. He had been shocked yet at the same time not so shocked to hear that Rhys liked Ash that he felt the urge to say his thoughts.
Rhys looked at Jule with uneasiness in his eyes. His heart was giving him strong warning signals. The kind he had only experienced once before in his life. It was in kindergarten, when another kid stole his only toy. Back then he was too powerless to do anything and could only watch as his things got taken away. This time looking at Jule, Rhys got the same dreadful feeling of facing a strong opponent. He didn't not like this feeling. And Kyle's words of 'Ash probably hating him' ringing in his head was not helping the situation.
"Kyle, we can all spend the day agreeing that Rhys is stupid, but I think it is more urgent for us to get Ash out of that hell hole. The longer he stays there, the more his life is in danger." Jule cut into all the ongoing conversations and stated loudly. He still remembered how urgent the situation was. Although he was also extremely glad that Kyle was awake again, his priority lay in finding a blue-eyed boy who always looked at him with sparkling eyes.
"You are right." Kyle answered. "Before that there are a few things that I need to share. It is about why I was targeted in the first place." Zuri flinched in fear and her eyes slowly teared up. Kyle immediately noticed it and patted her hand in comfort. She had already confessed to him before on what Dr. Hansen had tasked her to do and what was at stake. Kyle was eternally grateful to her for having put his life ahead of her brother's. Not many would have done that. Even if she had poisoned him, Kyle would still not have blamed her.
"When I snuck into the lab that time I saw the live zombies that they kept in cages. There were several of them. Around 5 or six. But what shocked me more was that they kept live people in cages there as well." Kyle looked at Zuri again in apology, "Sorry child, I didn't see anyone that resembled you."
"Dr. Hansen said he is in there somewhere. So it must be true. Zuri said with hope in her eyes. "I will go with you to find Ash! I want to rescue my brother."
"Good, then let's go." Jule completely took over the situation and then led her and her brothers out of her room after wishing Kyle a speedy recovery. Rhys clenched his fists as he watched from the side not knowing whether to follow or not.
Kyle saw his hesitation and sighed, "There is no use sulking in front of me. Stop acting like you have already lost the fight and get going." Rhys looked at him with slightly red eyes. "Oh and Rhys, this time don't let him go." Rhys nodded and hurried to catch up with the others. When we were almost out of the door, he heard Kyle shout after him "And don't forget to beg for forgiveness you shithead!" A small smile spread across his lips as he ran off.
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Iris and two of her colleagues stood in front of the tightly guarded side gate to the lab. The Kobras were in charge of regularly supplying the lab with important cargo. As such they were already quite familiar with the whole process. Yet at this moment when she waited for the two guarding soldiers to give them entrance rights, her palm was already covered in cold sweat.
Like routine, the guards opened up the large containers they were rolling in and swept a glance through its contents. Although it only took a few seconds, Iris's heart was already beating so loud in fright that she was certain they must have heard it. Every second felt like an hour as she held her breath while they scanned through all 5 containers. "No one has notified us of any deliveries today. Isn't it a week earlier than usual?" One of the soldiers said as he closed the lid to the last container.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
"Well we were able to procure all of it faster this time. After all, you know it will spoil if we delay it too long. I don't know anything about them not notifying you but you have already seen us deliver the exact same thing every month. It's already a long standing order so they must have thought it wasn't necessary to inform you each time. After all they are all very busy people" Iris responded in as much of a calm voice that she could muster but her heart was beating even louder than before.
The soldier paused for a second as he observed her with narrowed eyes before finally taking out a walkie talkie and speaking into it. "We have a delivery of 'substance Z' . Are you expecting it?" When Iris heard this she nearly fainted. Just a few months ago her life had been great. She was doing well as a member of the Kobras and she held the respect of a lot of people. Yet now here she was aiding her enemies to sneak into the lab. She just wished that she could leave it all behind and bolt away at this moment.
Yet, she respected Amelia too much. She had been given the ins and outs of the situation and was asked to cooperate with Rhys and the bunch. Thinking about the risk, if nothing was done, she agreed to help out.
There was a long stretch of static at the other end of the receiver. Except for a few far away muffled sounds, nobody came to answer them. The soldier frowned. He has never been inside the building. His and his partner's duty was to guard the outside. Yet he did know that the scientists always eagerly expected these regular deliveries each month. Hearing no one answer Iris let out a heavy sigh of relief in her heart. "So, are you gonna let us in or will you take responsibility if we can't recollect everything in a week?"
The soldier stiffened for a moment and then threw a look at his partner who slowly nodded his head. "You know the drill right. As soon as you pass the cargo to them, you get out right away. No lingering."
Iris immediately nodded and as soon as the gates opened she pushed the carts along with her men onto the road that led towards the side door. Soon they turned a corner and were no longer under the soldiers' observation. The door that they arrived before was not guarded but was password protected instead. Normally someone from inside would meet them outside to guide them into their storage unit to unload the cargo. Yet today, since they arrived earlier than scheduled, there was no one to meet them. Iris sighed in relief as she knocked on the lid to the container that she was pushing and then walked forward to observe the padlock next to the door.
While she was in the middle of it, the containers behind her opened and Lena and Zuri's head's poked out of them. Both of them did not have good looks on their faces. But they pushed down their disgust and discomfort and asked in a whisper, "Are we in the clear now?"
"There is no one around at the moment but we are not inside the building yet." Iris responded which immediately made the girls hurriedly climb out as if escaping from something as quickly as they could. They went over to the other carts and opened them. Immediately a foul smell wafted out. A pile of broken limbs and heads appeared before their eyes. If they hadn't kind of gotten used to the idea on the way here then they would have hurled just like the first time they saw this pile of dismembered zombie flesh. Lena wouldn't imagine that she had spent the last 15 minutes covered in zombie limbs just to get here.
"What on earth do they do with all this stuff?" Josh asked while gagging as he climbed out of the container. Jule was silent as he followed suit from where he was hiding. He would rather not keep silent than talk about this traumatic situation.
"So how do we get in?" Rhys asked as he stood to the side, having a stoic expression on his face. If he wasn't covered in zombie fluids and reeked like rotten garbage just like the rest of them, then they might have thought that he arrived here in some other way than they did.
"We need the help of our computer specialist." Iris responded as she considered if she should just tap in the last set of digits that she remembered being used in the past instead. All eyes immediately fell towards the inconspicuous man who had been dragged along against his will.
Tom had just climbed out of the container, when a lot of expectations fell upon his shoulder. He didn't like being here. In fact, he had tried to keep a distance from Rhys's group especially to avoid any scenarios like this. Yet he had always been a cautious person as such never completely took away the foot he had in their boat. So, when he was caught eavesdropping on the secret planning session between Amelia and Rhys, he thought he was done for. One was his past group. One was his new group. For some reason Amelia immediately recognised him as the 'repair guy'. After all, his new job was to fiddle with all the junk that the search teams brought back and fix them. He was quite valuable.
Rhys had always had a bit of distrust towards Tom ever since they first met at the Tesco. But Amelia insisted that having him for this mission would make their lives much easier. As such, without even consulting his opinion he was dragged into going. Furthermore he had to be covered in a pile of rotting flesh to get here. One had to know, he was a clean freak.
Tom didn't even have time to adjust to everything that was happening to him before he was nailed to where he stood under their gazes. "So are you gonna start doing something or not?" Josh asked in exasperation as he pushed him in front of the padlock.
Tom was silent and took out a small screen out of the bag he was carrying and connected the wires to the lock. Under everyone's curious eyes he started tapping away against the screen as string after string of code appeared and disappeared. It made the others dizzy just by watching.
After about 10 minutes, the light on the padlock turned green as a sign of success. "There, I am done! Can I go now?" Tom asked as he was about to pack away his device.
"Hey wait! Can you also invade the cameras inside? Lene asked excitedly as she felt like she was in a spy movie. Hearing her exclamation the people had a variety of expressions on their faces.
Jule's eyes flickered to the surveillance camera that was a few metres away and his face fell. "No one has come to check on us even though they saw Iris and her men coming over with the containers. Do you think we are exposed? There could be a trap waiting for us inside!" He stated his concerns.
The camera was not pointed at the door so it was unlikely that anyone saw the additional people that stood there now. Yet it was indeed weird that no one had come over to open the door for them.
"What now? Are we turning back after coming this far? Iris asked as he had a hand on the door. Wondering if she should open it or not. Looking at the door a bad feeling filled Rhys.
"Don't open it yet!" Rhys said. "Have him invade the cameras first. If they have a trap prepared for us it is better to go in knowing."
Tom sighed and before anyone could urge him, he took the initiative to hack into the network that was only available to the lab. Since all of his skills fell under computers and mechanics, he didn't have much use in this era of no internet and lacking electricity. But he knew that the lab must have access to some military based satellite data source to continue their activities, so he had long ago hacked into their system to steal the network. Although this was the first time for him to spy into the lab, no morality issues prevented him now from doing it when the need arose. Thus this time re-accessing the network was a piece of cake for Tom. Once he crossed the firewall, he swiftly found the control centre and fiddled around for a while before his screen finally changed from 0s and 1s to a bird-eye view of the control centre of the lab. Everyone immediately crowded around him to take a look.
Oddly there was no one in the control centre. The chairs were in disarray and there was paper scattered on the floor. "Is that blood?" Lene asked as she pointed to several dark stains on the floor and walls. Jule narrowed his eyes at where she pointed and he deeply frowned. "It looks to be a few days old." He answered while his jaws ticked with foreboding. "Switch to another camera!" Jule exclaimed.
Tom changed to another room quickly and immediately several gasps of shock and surprise came from all around him. His own hands were trembling as he saw the 100s of zombies roaming the halls.
"What happened here?!" Zuri asked in shock and worry. "My brother is he-" she could not finish her words as she suddenly got choked up. No one knew how to comfort her.
Seeing the situation on screen. Iris immediately backed away from the door. She was so glad that she hadn't rushed in there a moment ago. 'This is more than I signed up for!' She thought bitterly in her heart.
'Ash!' Rhys exclaimed in horror at the thought of something happening to him. He hadn't had the chance to apologise yet! 'No I had to go in and find him!'
"I guess that's it" Iris stated "We should go back and inform everyone. Maybe the situation can still be brought under control. After all, there are a lot of soldiers in the camp."
"No there aren't any spare soldiers in the camp." Rhys stated as he pointed on to a few men that he recognised as higher military personnel. "The lab must have called for backup to the military when they saw the situation get out of hand. Only they also didn't fare well! And thinking its just a few zombies, they must not have thought it a big enough issue to inform the residents in order not to cause panic."
"How is that possible! They are well trained soldiers!" Josh exclaimed in disbelief. No one answered him. "So what to do now?"
"Iris is right, we should go back and inform everyone. If the military can't help anymore that means everyone is in danger. Maybe the experienced raid teams can still handle the situation?" One of the men who came with Iris said in an unsteady tone.
"I don't think there is that much time." Tom said in a monotone voice while we swiped through the rest of the cameras. People immediately gathered around him again. The front entrance to the lab was swarmed with zombies. But they were not behaving in their usual way. They were clearly divided into teams and were throwing their whole body weight at the door in waves. The door was already shaking in its last ditches of protest. It was just a matter of hours before it fell.
Suddenly a chill went down everyone's back. If they hadn't decided to come here today. Then tomorrow they would have been caught unaware and died under the sudden zombie horde that originated from within their safety net.
"How is this possible?" Zuri asked in surprise.
Iris's eyes filled with horror as she spotted a torso of a zombie being carried by a humongous zombie. She recognised them both. The huge man was one of the guards that the lab employed. He easily caught people's eyes due to his large frame. The other, was the intelligent zombie that her group helped bring back. That solved the mystery on how the soldiers failed to clear out a few zombies.
"You there!" Rhys pointed towards the man who had before stated that they should leave and inform everyone. "Go now and report on what's happening." The man didn't wait for further instructions as soon as he heard he could leave, he rushed off as if his pants were on fire.
"W-what about us?" Iris asked as a bad feeling filled her heart.
Several pairs of eyes fell on her. "Tom! See if there are any survivors!" Rhys stated as he clenched his fists.
Tom looked at the group's serious expressions and then resigned to his fate. While swiping through the footage, something caught his eye and he stopped his movements.
"What is it?" Rhys asked as he leaned over him. On the screen, in a small room, sat 5-7 people in white lab coats huddled together as they were too afraid to even move. "Scientists!" Rhys spat with anger and disgust.
"Are we not gonna help?" Josh asked in uncertainty.
"No!" Rhys didn't even hesitate before answering.
"No matter what you may feel like, they are the ones who have a chance of finding a cure or maybe a vaccine against this zombie virus." Iris said as she looked at the man with disbelief. "Are you sure you can put you petty stubbornness above the fate of all humanity?"
"What do you mean by 'my petty stubbornness'" Rhys roared as her words poked at his consciousness.
Before the two could get into a verbal argument, they heard Tom's words drifting over towards them. "There was a section of the surveillance system that had access protection. I was able to hack in and I think you should take a look at this."
People crowded around him again immediately on hearing his words. There was a child chained towards a wall. "Emma!" Jule exclaimed in worry and shock. The girl had stretched out the chain as far as it would go and was reaching out towards something while bawling her eyes out. She looked exhausted and the chain around her legs seemed to have scraped the skin open. Although she wasn't in the best state, at least she was still alive. „We have to get her out of there." Jule quickly turned to Tom and asked, "Do you know where in the building she is?"
"W-well" I can download the building blueprints from their database but exactly knowing where she is might be a challenge." Tom answered honestly.
"Okay. Then do that first we will somehow figure out her location." Lene was also impatient when she saw the child. She was so young yet had to experience such a horrible thing. 'Who on earth would chain up such a small child?' She was indescribably upset. "She is reaching out for something or someone. Do you think it could be Ash? He might be in the same condition as well."
Rhys clenched his fists at her words. The thought had also crossed his mind. It was better to be in that state than be dead before he could start making up for his mistakes.
After waiting for a few minutes, Tom successfully downloaded the blueprint of the building that was before them. Rhys immediately leaned over it to try and find any kind of clues. But there were too many rooms and too few clues.
"Let's strike out the rooms that it cannot be. Looking at all the surveillance footage, all the rooms from here to here are swarmed by zombies." Jule marked down the rooms with an 'x' where there was no possibility. After a few minutes only a number of rooms remained unmarked. "This should be the room where the scientists are at, based on the dimensions. Then that leaves us with these two rooms and the basement.
Iris looked at what he pointed out and stated, "This here is the warehouse. All their food and equipment should be kept here. We always drop off the cargo there so it is unlikely that the little girl would be kept there."
Hearing that Rhys nodded in relief. That just left two places and the one with the most likelihood was the basement. "The quickest way to the basement is by passing through experiment lab 3 and then through the mess hall and down the corridor. Tom, check how the zombie traffic is on route."
Tom flipped through the areas that they mentioned with a stoic expression. "How are there so many?" Zuri exclaimed as she looked at the footage of the planned path.
"Even if every single person in the lab and the rescue team turned, we didn't have that many scientists and soldiers to add up to this number." Tom said as he quickly fished out the registered scientists list that the lab kept in their database to check the number. "Looks like the lab held more people than the several that went missing. I am assuming that every few lone survivors that arrived in the perimeter of the camp were snatched up to be kept there." He paused for a second and then added "I guess I should be lucky I arrived in a group." The people around him were silent.