Colony Z: The Complete Collection (Vols. 1-4) (25 page)

“…is someone in there?” Owen yelled. “Do you need help?”

“If they needed help, Owen,
why is the door locked from the inside?”

Owen didn’t have an answer for her. And he didn’t get one from whatever stood behind that door.

“Hey! I think you can unlock the door from in there!” He yelled, trying to help without bashing the door in.

Silence.

“Hannah, step back.”

“What are you doing, Owen?”

Owen pushed Hannah back, since she didn’t seem to want to do anything even remotely productive. He prepared himself to run and break down the door. Someone was in that basement, and he was going to help them get out. Not for their sake, but for his own damn curiosity.

Even after Owen crashed into the door, and Hannah screamed again, it wouldn’t budge. Owen realized it wasn’t like in the movies. You couldn’t just bash doors down when they didn’t want to open for you. No, you had to do things the hard way.

“Give me your hairpin, Hannah.”

Hannah stepped away from him, even farther than she already was, and shook her head.

“Owen, I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but I have a feeling if there’s something trapped in there, it deserves to be in there. Besides, if it’s human, it would be smart enough to open the door, don’t you think?”

“Give me your hairpin, Hannah.” Owen wasn’t going to listen to her. He was just going to keep going until she gave him what he wanted. His determination was admirable, if he had known there was someone dying inside. But Hannah gave him every reason to walk away, and yet he choose to open the door. He choose to, and Hannah didn’t have the power to stop him.

“Hannah, I mean it.”

“What makes you think nothing’s going to come out and hurt us? Why are you being so damn stupid, Owen?”

“Hannah, what if it was you in there?”

“What is this, Jeepers Creepers? It
isn’t
me in there, Owen. I wouldn’t get myself trapped in the basement of a morgue. It isn’t answering you. Why would you want to help it? Do you realize there are dead bodies in there?”

“Yeah, and one of them is obviously still alive!”

Hannah didn’t answer him and didn’t step forward. So he took a deep breath, walked over to her, and put his hands on her shoulders.

“Hannah, baby, it’s not the end of the world. There’s someone trapped in that room, and we should help them. I know you’re scared. So am I. But that doesn’t make leaving them there okay. How would you feel if we looked in the paper tomorrow and saw that we could’ve saved them?”

“Owen, I don’t want you to die down there.”

“I’m not dying
anywhere
, Hannah. Neither of us are. We’re not dying here, we’re not dying tonight, and we’re not dying anytime soon. You’re not thinking straight, and you’re being selfish. Now, please, Hannah, for the love of God, give me the hairpin.”

“…okay, Owen.”  Hannah took the pin out of her hair and handed it to him. “But you better be right.”

Owen took the pin, picked the lock, and opened the door.

And he was anything but right.

At first, the room looked pitch black, so Owen reached along the wall and flipped on a light switch. The stairwell down didn’t show anything of use, so Owen began to walk down. Hannah, very reluctantly, followed.

Once they reached the end of the stairs, Owen could see a figure lying in the middle of the floor. He ran to it.

But they were too late. Whoever this man was…he was long,
long
gone. There was nothing left of his face that was even close to salvageable. Something had attacked him. And whatever it was, it was hungry. It looked like something literally tore off the skin on his forehead and then continued down until there was nothing but bone and some barely recognizable bits of flesh.

“Owen…Owen what happened to him?” Hannah began crying. “Owen, why did we come down here?”

Hannah turned toward the stairwell to try to get away, and another scream came from her. Owen turned from the body quickly to see what was wrong, and even he wanted to let out a scream.

The thing that stood between them and the door upstairs looked like something that had walked straight out of a bad horror movie. It had obviously been a man, but it was now covered in red blood (probably that of the man on the floor) and it had ripped skin hanging from its teeth. It was wrapped in half a sheet, and its eyes were big, red, and vicious.

But it didn’t see them. In fact, it was too busy staring at the man on the floor to see anything else at all. Owen threw a hand instinctively over Hannah’s mouth to keep her from screaming again and getting them caught. The thing stared for several more seconds, and then began to tromp up the stairs.

“Where is it going, Owen?” Hannah whispered. “Owen, we can’t let that thing leave! We need to call the police.”

Hannah was right; they needed to do something about it. But there wasn’t much they could do if they were sitting there waiting for a cop. One who probably wouldn’t even believe a word they said. No, this thing might get to town and, if it did, there would be more than just one dead tonight. Owen’s instincts kicked in, and he knew he needed to act now. But his legs wouldn’t move.

“Owen!”

Owen grabbed Hannah’s arm and pulled her up the stairs, his body waking up. They flew through the open basement door and ran toward the light, where the thing was already standing, about the push on the door. The only barrier standing between that nightmare and the real world was a single sheet of glass. And Owen was horrified when he saw what was beyond it.

Henry was there. He was standing there, waiting for Owen and Hannah to open up. He must have thought they were pulling a prank on him or something, calling him out in the middle of the night and having some half-naked, bloodied up guy show up.

“Henry, move!” Owen yelled as loudly as he possible could. But Henry just smiled his cocky little half-smile as the door opened.

“Owen, is this your new girlfriend?” He laughed. “Funny stuff, man.”

“Henry, he’s telling the truth!” Hannah yelled, and Henry looked surprised to see her. “Run!”

The thing slowly approached Henry, who backed away toward his car. He continued to chuckle, this time a little nervously.

“Alright, guys, that’s enough.” He said. “I’m not falling for it. Now let’s get in the car and get out of here before…hey, what the hell are you doin’?”

The thing had reached him. And it wasn’t going to wait for him to finish his sentence before it took a bite. It opened its mouth and bit down, right on Henry’s shoulder. Henry cried out in pain, as the thing took a chunk of his skin out. He fell to the ground, shaking, and the zombie-like creature walked away through the rain, down the road toward town.

“Henry!” Owen yelled, leaving Hannah and running to where he lay on the ground. The thing was getting away, but Owen didn’t dare try to stop it. Not after seeing what it was capable of.

“Hannah, call the police!”

Hannah dialed the number as Owen kneeled over his friend, trying to get him to snap out of it. But he continued to shiver, shake, and stare at Owen. Eventually, his eyes shut. Owen could hear Hannah frantically trying to explain the situation. She hung up the phone and came running out into the rain with her boyfriend.

“Owen, they’ll be here as soon as they can…”

“I shouldn’t have opened that door. I should have left it shut.”

“Owen…Owen, you didn’t know…”

“I should have left the damn door shut!” He yelled into the night. “Come on, Henry, wake up.”

Henry’s eyes slowly opened, much to their surprise, and Owen jumped back almost a foot when they did. Henry had always had bright blue, beautiful eyes, part of the reason he was so popular with the girls. Now they weren’t blue. They were red, and they matched that of the thing that had just left them. Owen heard a low growl come from Henry’s throat, and he knew what was about to happen.

“Hannah, get back inside!” He yelled. “Now!”

Hannah stood and ran, Owen close at her heels. Henry stood and slowly began to follow, not in any rush. He knew he had them right where he wanted them. When Hannah and Owen got inside, they realized the doors didn’t lock at all.

“Why don’t they have locks?!”
Hannah yelled.

“I told you, there’s always someone here! Why would they need them?”

“Why aren’t they here now?”             

“I don’t know!”

The two ran back across the room and toward the stairs, where Owen pushed Hannah down into the stairwell and slammed the door behind him, again locking it from the inside. She began to fall from the momentum, but Owen grabbed her arm and pulled her back to her feet. He could practically hear their hearts beating.

Everything was quiet. They could hear the heavy breathing and movements of Henry outside, once he even bashed up against the door. But Owen covered Hannah’s mouth and forced her to keep quiet so it wouldn’t suspect that they were down there. Even if it did, for now, they were safe.

‘It’. That’s what it was now. It wasn’t Henry, it wasn’t human, and it wasn’t possible to bring him back. Henry had become whatever the monster down here was. And Henry was going to do everything in his power to make them turn into the same thing.

Owen led Hannah down the steps to the cellar, shielding her from seeing the dead body across the floor. Blood was beginning to pool around its head, but where the blood was really coming from he didn’t know. There wasn’t a cage for it anymore, with the skin ripped off. He prayed this one was really, honestly dead. Because he didn’t know what he would do if it started moving.

Then he caught sight of something that greatly interested him.

“Owen, what’s going on?”

“Wait a minute…” Owen crossed to the body and kneeled down next to it, leaving Hannah where she was and picking up something that had been laying on the floor. He turned it over in his hand and then clenched his fists. Now he knew what was going on. He knew exactly what was going on.

“Owen?”

“They were testing on the bodies down here, Hannah.” Owen said angrily, his voice calm but his words fierce. “The government was testing on the bodies. And whatever it is they gave them…it spreads.”

“What are you talking about, Owen?”

Owen threw the FBI badge that had been in his hand across the room to where Hannah stood. She looked at it in surprise, but did not touch it.

“He’s god damn FBI, Hannah. He’s part of the government. He’s here testing on the bodies. Look at the table. Look at all the stuff they have set up. The door was locked from the inside so no one would get in.”

“…are those…” Hannah pointed to the steel wrist and ankle bands that were attached to the table. “What are those for…?”

“To make sure they didn’t get away when they came back.”