Omega Virus (Book 1): Beta Hour (30 page)

I
looked Jessie in the eyes, and she nodded
;
tears still
streaming. I took her arm and put the injector gun to her skin; I pulled the
trigger. Her eyes went wide and her pupil’s dilated. She fell back in her chair
and began to convulse. I grabbed onto her and held her still.

“Hang
in there!” I said. “Just hang in there! It’ll be over soon!”

She
shook so badly I feared she would swallow her tongue, but then finally after a
long seizure she stopped and fell forward. I caught her in my arms, and my eyes
began to water because I knew that even though I had just saved her life, I'd
sealed my fate. Of course, the silly hologram video would never come to pass.
Tiffany had died, and I soon too.

“Oh,
Jessie,” I said. “I’m so sorry! I love you, and I’m so, so sorry!”

Jessie's
eyes opened, and she wrapped me in a tight hug. “Why are you sorry Zach? I
forgive you! I don’t know what that hologram video was, but we can finally be
together because I love you too!”

“Jessie,”
I said. “That’s just the thing.”

“What
is?” She took my hands and squeezed, but then her eyes grew wide. “The fever!
No, no, no! Don’t tell me! Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say!”

“I’m
sorry,” I said. “I have to… this
was
the only cure
left. Jessie, we can never be together because I’m infected with the Omega
Virus.”

LEVEL 37 – NO HOPE

Jessie's tears
were full on. “Show me your bite! I refuse to believe it!”

Everyone
else stared in silence. Being out, I no longer had a reason to hide it. I
rolled down my sock, revealing the grotesque wound. The flesh around the broken
skin had already turned gray and green veins ran up my entire leg.

“How?”
Jessie cried, leaping from her chair. She stomped up to me and pounded her
fists against my chest. Earlier on, it might have hurt, but I'd become so numb
I could barely feel the pressure.

Strike
after strike she continued. “Why? Why? Why? Why did you give me the vaccine?”

I
reared back and shook my head. “Because I want you to live!”

“What
about what I want?” She cried. “Doesn’t that matter to you? Aren’t my needs
important?”

“Of
course! That’s why I saved you!”

“Don’t
you understand?” Tears ran down her rosy cheeks. “I knew I was going to die! I
accepted it! I knew there was no hope left, but then you gave my hope back, and
once again it’s been taken away! I would have been happier for you to continue
on. When did you get bit?”

“When
I was leaving the lab with the vaccine,” I admitted. “Dr. Belmont caused me to
get bitten. He stopped me and a Corpse grabbed hold.”

Jessie
fell to her knees, holding her face in her hands. “You idiot! You’re such an
idiot!”

I
looked to my friends, and no one said a thing. Dave averted his eyes, Jeff
glared, and Wesley had his back turned
;
shaking his
head.

“Didn’t
I do what was right? I went through hell to save her!”

But
no one defended me.

Jessie
snapped. “You did what a selfish coward would do! You saved me so you could be
happy! I’ll never be happy with you dead!”

Of
all the things she said, those words stung the most. I hadn’t saved her so I
could be happy. I saved her so she could have a chance at life. But the more
she cried, the more I realized it had been for me. I would die with a smile on
my face. Her words were
true,
I'd turned out to be an
asshole. But I didn’t care.

“Jessie.
I love you.” I pulled away and walked to Wesley.

“Let
me do it,” I said. “Just like Tiffany did. I know you still have a gun hidden
somewhere, right? Let me shoot myself. Give me the dignity of choosing how I
die.”

Wesley
spun around and smacked me with the back of his hand. “And here I thought I was
an asshole!”

I
staggered and grabbed my stinging face. Blood dripped from my nose and onto my
lips. I couldn’t speak; I felt betrayed.

“We’re
moving forward,” Wesley announced. “If we can’t find another vaccine, we’ll
make one!”

“Why?”
I asked.

Wesley
stayed silent for a few moments then said. “Because you’re my friend, a comrade
in arms; a player two. I expected us to be the two bad-asses that took on the
Zombie Apocalypse together. I know I haven’t acted like it, but I saved you for
a reason. I knew where you were when I came with the motorcycle. You loved
killing zombies too. You may not have known it yourself at that moment, but I
saw something in you that I haven’t seen in any other for years.”

“I
don’t understand,” I said. “How did you know that? Were you stalking me? What
do you know about me? And since when do you care?”

Wesley
shrugged. “Jessie’s right. Tiffany’s right. You are an idiot. A stupid, selfish
idiot.”

His
words hurt more than his backhand. Had my choices turned everyone against me?
The girl I loved? The guy I actually kind of looked up to?

“So
here’s the deal,” Wesley said. “We’re going now, except for you, Zach.”

“Why
not me?” I snapped. “If something happens I can be the sacrifice and—”

“That’s
why!” He snarled. “You aren't a martyr. You will survive this!”

I
staggered to a table and sat down. Everyone smelled good. As always, Wesley
proved right. I couldn't go.

“Hurry,
then.” I conceded. “Find the vaccine.”

“That’s
exactly what we’re going to do.” Wesley walked across the room to a wooden
panel that looked like an elevator with a golden door.

Jeff
walked past and shook his head. “If you aren’t here when we get back, I will
find you, Corpse or not and kick your ass.”

Dave
stopped in front of me and sighed. “We’ll save you, man, don’t worry. You saved
my life now I’m going to save yours.”

Finally,
Jessie rose to her feet but didn’t say a word as she passed.

My
heart trembled, threatening to break. “Aren’t you going to say goodbye?”

She
didn’t look back. “I’m not saying it. You want to know why? Because it’s not
goodbye, farewell or even see you later. It’s like they said, be here when we
get back, or else.”

Jessie
kept walking, and I let my head fall into my hands. She said one last thing
before they boarded the elevator.

“Zachary
Mastiff, I love you.”

With
that, they were gone.

I
sat there for several minutes in silence. I kept looking at the stage and
picturing the G.O.D. Report Part 2. I imagined my ‘uncle’ Beauregard standing
there along with the bride and groom.

What
did it all mean? How could Tiffany and I ever get married? Even if she were alive,
she hated me. So the images we saw were some sort of projection of the future?
We strayed from our paths, though. It all started with Tiffany’s death, and
turning would be my punishment. Why had Grandfather come searching? And how did
Wesley know about me?

Nothing
made sense. The report had cut off midway. Beauregard wanted to tell me how to
fight, but Grandson either deleted it or took it for himself.

“This
sucks.” I glanced at the paper with Grandson’s handwriting and read it again.

What
had he done with the others? I spied the fountain pen he had used. I walked
over and picked it up. Next to his message I wrote my name.

‘Zachary
Mastiff’

I
tried to find the difference in the handwriting, but they were identical.

“Who
are you?” I stared hard. “And why are we completely alike?”

I
continued to write…

“I
always loved video games—And I was damn good at them. I even planned on
majoring in Game Design. Zombie games were my favorite. Taking out the undead
was addicting. So naturally, I thought I’d kick ass if the zombie apocalypse
ever came.

UNTIL IT DID.

Now
the virus runs through my veins. I can smell my friends… living flesh and
blood. I’m infected, and they know it. It’s only a matter of
time,
yet, they won’t let me end my life. They think there’s still a chance.

BUT
THEY’RE WRONG.

The
world is a moving, corpse-filled wasteland.

There
are no extra lives, no continues, no cheat codes.

AND
THIS IS NO GAME.
”.

At
the bottom of the page, I wrote one last thing.

“Jessie
Bluefield, I love you.”

I
took the pen then and stabbed it into paper, leaving it upright.
As I sat back and stared at it.
Would I really spend my
final moments sitting in a chair as a loser full of self-pity? Did I deserve
this to be my fate? I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I thought about
Tiffany. It would have been nice to be married, and to experience a life filled
with love. Even if it had been with her instead of Jessie, it still would have
been nice.

Tiffany
had been my childhood girlfriend, and we were from Ohio. Had she remembered any
of it? Or had Beauregard stolen her memory too?

I
found myself chuckling. What irony! I fell in love with the wrong girl, and
before that, I messed around with the wrong girl. Just a month before I'd been
a nerd, who, as far as I had known, never had a
girlfriend.
But to my amazement, three girls had fallen in love with me. I let two of them
die, and the third could be getting herself killed while I moped. Jessie left
to save me, and I didn’t deserve as much.

My
chuckling turned into hysterical laughter. I grabbed the sides of my head,
digging my nails into my scalp. The more I heard my laughter, the more I didn’t
recognize it. The noise seemed so loud and foreign I almost startled thinking
someone else entered the room. I doubled over and let my face hit the table. A
sharp pain cracked through my head. I had given myself a bad, bad headache. The
pounding hurt and made my eyes water even more.

“Why
does my luck suck like no other?” I pounded my fist. “Why! God dammit, why!” I
screamed and flipped the table.

It
knocked into the pedestal, and they both crashed to the ground. Then I saw a
long silver gun tumble out of the pedestal and land near my feet. I picked it
up and looked it over. Words were etched into the side, ‘Desert Eagle’.

“A
magnum,” I whispered.

I
pulled out the clip and sure enough, it there
were
nine bullets, and likely one in the chamber. I could easily take myself out
with it. I only needed one. But why had there been a powerful gun hidden
inside? What kind of game did Grandson play? I realized then, he wanted me to
find it.

“Mr.
Mastiff.” A voice spoke.

I
spun around, looking, but I stood alone.

“Who’s
there?” I lifted the gun, ready to spend nine of those ten shots on the
intruder.

“You
should recognize my voice by now.” He said. “You hear it every single time you
open your mouth.”

“Grandson!”
I breathed. “Show yourself so I can shoot your sorry ass!”

“I
would rather wait on that. If you don’t mind, I would like you to take your
little gift and come find me, you know, so we can clear the air about some
things.”

“Why
would I want to talk to you?” I aimed the gun around.

“You
want to talk to me for many reasons.” He said smugly.

“Name
just one!” I said.

“Okay,
I have answers to your questions.”

“You
mean you know why we’re identical?” I asked.

“It
took a while, but I finally figured it out thanks to the G.O.D. Report.”

“And
what was that with the marriage?” I asked.

“Now,
now.” Grandson chuckled. “Do you think I’ll give away my secrets so readily?
Humor me; show yourself in my presence. I can’t come to you.”

“And
what if I stay right here?” I said. “What then?”

“Then
you die, turn into a ‘Corpse’ and when your friends get back, that is if I
allow them to come back, they will have to shoot you in the head. That will be
enjoyable to watch I must admit. Maybe even Jessie will do it, your love. And
how could you love someone like her? Tiffany was much preferable.”

“You’re
an asshole!” I snapped. “Even if I come to you I’ll still turn into a Corpse!
Why shouldn’t I blow my head off right now?”

“You
asked for just one reason.” He said. “But I have three. Do you wish to know the
other two?”

“Sure,
why not?” I gripped the magnum so tight my knuckles were white.

“Because
if you make it to me, you won’t become a Corpse. You won’t die. I will make it
so the virus will not take away everything you hold dear!”

“You
mean you have another vaccine? You’re a liar! You said it was the last one, and
the others were gone!”

Grandson
laughed. “I still have to give you one last reason why you should come.”

“What
is it?” I shouted. “What is your game?”

“My
game?” He asked. “Isn’t life itself just a game after all? Everything is a
game! That’s what it is all about, isn’t it? Just a big, huge, fun game!”

“Stop
screwing with me!” I screamed. “Tell me the last damn reason!”

“Fine,
you downer, you,” He said. “The last and final reason you should come see me is
that I have released a Level 04 Super-Corpse into the base and at this exact
moment in time it should be finding your friends and tearing them limb from
limb.”