A World Reborn: The First Outbreak (16 page)

“Stop it!” She hissed at herself, drawing
the attention of those infected in her immediate vicinity. Determinedly, she
pushed past the frightening thoughts lurking in her mind and refocused on her
self-imposed mission, jostling around and between the infected.

Several, tortuously slow minutes passed,
and then she was at the edge of the private rooms. At her feet, there were a
few posts holding a rope barrier that had been knocked over and further along,
a couple that remained standing. Clearly, this was normally used to stop the
uninvited from wandering into the rooms where the big gamblers were winning or,
as was more likely to be the case, losing. Melissa stepped over the fallen rope
barrier and approached the first of the private rooms; the door to it was open,
and from a quick glance within, it appeared there had been a last stand of
sorts, with the poker table used as a kind of barricade. The bloody skeletal
remains and high arcs of arterial blood sprayed across the walls however,
highlighted the fact that it had proved ineffective, and they had been
unsuccessful in their attempts to keep the infected at bay. The avenue of
private rooms, six on one side six on the other, led to an emergency door at
the end with a glowing green exit sign above it. Perhaps, Melissa thought, she
was going to get through this after all.

Melissa, now clear of the infected, risked
one look over her shoulder, and saw the horde behind her standing impassively,
at least for the most part. One or two were looking intently at her, their lips
curling like an animal would before it growled a threat. A single infected
turned its body to face her and took an uncertain step in her direction.
Melissa heard an almost imperceptible sound, a kind of mechanical click that
she heard only due to her heightened sensitivity to all stimuli. She was
certain the infected wouldn’t have heard it over their moaning and grunting,
but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the sound had attracted them to her.
Half a dozen were now turning towards her, and the one who had moved in her
direction was now taking a second step, albeit with as much uncertainty as he
had taken the first. Melissa heard the click again, and was certain it was
close to her. The first thought she had was that there was something in one of
the private rooms she was passing, but it seemed closer than that. A third click
was followed by a fourth and Melissa was now certain the infected were
following her. Seven of them were advancing slowly down the corridor, their
pale eyes focused on her, their slack jaws opening and shutting as though
anticipating good eating.

Fear began to overwhelm Melissa. She was
near the door, about a dozen more paces, and wondering exactly why the infected
were pursuing her now. She risked a quick look down towards the collar and her
heart sank. The green light had turned to red. When she heard the mechanical
sound, the light flickered back to green, only for another click to turn it
red. It must’ve been damaged in the fall, some internal mechanism that kept the
suppression effect active was slipping between an on and off state, and this
was why the infected were now following her. She was, she imagined, appearing
and disappearing before their eyes. The collar clicked one final time, and the
light went out completely.

“Shit!” Melissa said to herself as she
broke into a desperate run, shoulder slamming into the emergency door. In her
state of panic, Melissa didn’t quite connect with the bar, so the door didn’t
open.  Instead, she rebounded heavily and nearly lost her footing but, somehow,
she managed to stabilise herself in time to catch sight of an infected coming
at her from the last of the private room on the right. He growled and then
lunged at her, hoping to sink his teeth into Melissa’s face, but he was greeted
by the business end of the bat she was carrying instead. The strike was brutal,
sending blood and teeth flying out of his mouth. Melissa was sure she heard the
sound of his jaw break. He fell to his knees and twisted to his right, his neck
bent in a momentary stun. Melissa raised the bat high and slammed it into the
back of his head. She was certain she heard his neck break but didn’t have time
to check to see if he was dead as she felt something grab her left shoulder.
Melissa jerked away and spun, successfully dislodging the hand of the infected.
It was a woman this time, missing a sizable piece of her right cheek. Melissa
attacked her with the bat, bringing it across in a powerful horizontal strike
across her face. She followed it up with a second, and then a third, sending
the infected woman to the ground. There was no time to deliver the killing
blow. The seven advancing down the corridor had been joined by a dozen more and
the leaders were less than a ten feet away. In addition, exiting from the same
room the woman had emerged from, another three were coming, their crescendoing
chorus of growls and menacing moans joining the rising sound of the ones in the
corridor. Melissa charged into the door again and managed to hit the bar
precisely this time, pushing it open.

She found herself in the harshly lit
corridor that served as a way for hotel and casino staff to move unobserved
around the ground floor. A glance revealed there was no sign of any infected in
the corridor. There were however, certainly plenty behind Melissa and they were
quickly approaching the doorway. She turned and slammed the door, but one of
the infected got her hands in the way, and although it certainly broke her
fingers, the door didn’t shut. Instead, it rebounded back a little. Gritting
her teeth, Melissa, put all her weight behind it and pushed hard, but the gap was
widening an inch at a time. She saw a man’s arm reaching through and flailing
wildly in the hope of grabbing onto Melissa. She still had the bat in one hand
and instinctively swung it clumsily at the arm. It connected, but did little or
no damage, and it didn’t deter him from continuing to flail it in her direction
either. Suddenly, a massive amount of resistance was exerted against Melissa’s
push. The door began to open even more, not quickly, but with a certainty that
made Melissa grind her teeth together and push back with every ounce of her
strength. It was, however, pointless and she knew it; she was slowly being
forced backwards and the door would soon be wide open. She looked quickly up
and down the corridor. On her left she saw nothing she could use; to her right,
she saw a metal shelving unit up against the white wall, with an assortment of
boxes on the shelves. It looked just wide enough to block the corridor if she
pulled it down onto its front, but she knew it wouldn’t hold them back very
long. Melissa looked between it and the now half open door. One of the infected
had managed to get his leg in and was trying to push his fat gut through the
gap. Taking a few deep breaths to pump herself up, Melissa suddenly released
the door and broke away to the right, running as fast as she could and, once
clear of the shelves, turned and grabbed them, yanking it over and forming a
small obstruction against the advancing horde. She watched as they filed
through the now fully open door. They were focused on her, not even assessing
their surroundings. The infected approached, with the fat one in the lead.
Melissa quickly considered her options. She had the gun and a few clips of
ammunition. If she could head shot them all then she could probably clear this
group, but the sound would almost certainly attract more. She had the bat, and
felt confident that if they didn’t manage to clamber over the shelves in a
large group she could take them down one by one, perhaps even in twos, but if
there were more than she thought, she’d get tired and then she’d be
overwhelmed. Glancing over her shoulder, Melissa could see a few doors here and
there and a turn off to the left and right. A glowing sign hung from the
ceiling with the word “Exit” and an arrow pointing right, which Melissa assumed
was the route to escape in the case of a fire.

Assessing her options, Melissa realized she
had no clue where Roy was or how she could get to him, and stopping to ask him
now didn’t seem like the best course of action. She could retreat into the
corridors and hope she could find her way, but there could be Reborn soldiers
or even more of the infected in any one of them, and then she’d be trapped
between two threats. She decided she needed to hide, to let the infected lose
her scent and go back into their loitering, idle state, if at all possible.
Melissa grabbed the collar around her neck and shook it violently, hoping that
whatever connection was loose within would suddenly reconnect, but it remained
inactive. The fat infected was at the shelf now, and he stumbled, falling flat
on top of the back of the shelves. He wasn’t fazed, and began crawling
forwards, using his fat hands and fingers to claw his way towards Melissa. She
raised her bat over her head and slammed it down on him, repeating the motion
twice more to break open the infected man’s skull. She retreated a few paces as
the next three infected reached the barricade. They were trying to clamber over
it, but they were unable to get over cleanly with the fat infected laying
across the shelves.

Melissa felt it was time to leave, to take
her chances and head towards the turns in the corridor. She moved quickly but
didn’t run, wanting to conserve her energy in case her circumstances demanded a
burst of speed.
At the end of the corridor on the right were double
doors with a metal bar to open them; the fire exit that would lead away from
the hotel’s exterior.
To her left was a much longer corridor,
which Melissa suspected might eventually lead to the back of the cashier’s
desk. Not sure what to do, Melissa sprinted down to the right passage, hoping
if she could get outside she could shake the pursuing infected from her trail,
but as she hammered into the doors, they didn’t  give. It seemed they were blocked
from the outside. Melissa figured this was the Reborn’s doing; they were
obviously intent on insuring no one could use it to escape. Returning swiftly
to the junction in the corridor, she saw that two of the infected had managed
to clamber over the shelves and were now approaching her, shambling faster as
though the thought of Melissa as a meal was spurring them on. The others were
still having trouble navigating over the obstacle, so Melissa decided to take
care of the two speeding at her. A female infected was in the lead, advancing
faster than the male who was about two paces behind her. Melissa raised her
bat, and swung left to right, striking the woman in the temple. Her skull made
an awful sound and she slumped to the ground. Melissa turned her attention to
the male, who was now almost upon her. She swung out at him but failed to
connect with the top of his head, instead, hitting him square on the jaw. It
broke and a spray of blood erupted from his mouth as he hit the wall, stumbling
slightly. Melissa reared back to strike him again but felt a hand suddenly
grasp at her ankle. Melissa wasn’t prepared, and when the female infected she
thought she’d killed pulled on her leg, Melissa lost her balance and fell down.

The male infected recovered and started to
move towards the momentarily stunned Melissa, who watched helplessly as the bat
gently rolled away from her. She cursed herself for deciding to fight, but knew
now wasn’t the time to berate herself as three more of the infected had almost
clambered over the shelving unit. The male was walking towards her, his eyes
wide in anticipation as he thought of tasting her flesh, but it was the female
who was the more immediate problem. Melissa quickly raised her free leg up and
tried to kick her, but while her boot made contact with her skull it didn’t
dislodge her grasp on Melissa’s leg and before Melissa could kick her again,
the male infected dropped to his knees and was lunging forward, leaving Melissa
a split second to react before he flopped on top of her and pinned her down.
She kicked him with her free leg - with a fierceness born of panic - and
managed to knock him backwards. It was then that the female, seemingly
recognizing she couldn’t bite though Melissa’s jeans, dragged herself upwards
and rolled the thick material up, exposing the flesh. Melissa tried to kick at
her again, but the male infected had recovered and was now grasping her once,
free leg. Now she was trapped. Fear shot through Melissa. She began trying to
reach awkwardly behind her to grab the gun secured in her belt, while watching
in horror as the female leaned in to bite her. Melissa felt the handle of the
gun in the palm of her hand in the same instant she felt a searing, penetrating
pain in her leg. The female infected had bitten her. Melissa yanked the gun
free and fired at the woman’s head, sending a shower of blood and skull
fragments exploding out from the back. She quickly lined up a shot and executed
the male, who had been futilely trying to gnaw at her other jeans leg.

Melissa was horrified, feeling that at any
moment she’d turn into one of them. The change had been almost instantaneous
with the woman she’d seen, but that wound had been fatal. Then she noticed that
the other infected were still coming at her, still eyeing her with the ravenous
look they had eyed her with earlier. There was a chance she was immune to the
infection, she thought to herself; after all, some of the people in the Pit
hadn’t turned when they’d been bitten she recalled, but then that opened up a more
terrifying line of thought. If she didn’t get away right now, then she would
suffer the agonising death she’d envisioned earlier.

The next three infected were over the
shelves and advancing, shambling and shuffling faster than she’d seen them move
before, probably incensed by the smell of fresh blood in the air from her
wound, plus the loudness of the gunshots that had reverberated through the
utility corridor. She lined up her gun and fired at them, hitting the first in
the neck and lower face before finally landing the killing shot. She followed
it up with two precise shots and executed the other two infected, but there was
now a surge of over a dozen into the corridor from the casino. Worse still, coming
over the barricade Melissa saw a pair of hotel staff - a maid and a croupier,
both of whom had joined the ranks of the infected. Melissa tried to crawl away
but her leg flared in pain and she realized the infected woman’s teeth were
still sunk deeply into it. Melissa had two choices: she could either yank her
leg free and risk ripping flesh or put the gun down and try to pry the woman’s
mouth open. Melissa chose the latter, dropping the gun on her left side and
reaching forward quickly. She grabbed at the woman’s chin and hair and levered
her mouth open, feeling revolted as she watched the woman’s teeth pull free, which
caused blood to leak from the wound. Her leg now freed, Melissa pulled back and
grabbed the gun. She thought about going for the bat, but saw it lay beyond the
body of the first, dead male infected, close to where the horde was advancing.
Not wanting to expend ammunition unnecessarily or risk getting a second bite,
Melissa began to stand, ready to move down the longer corridor, away from
advancing the infected.