Our Undead (60 page)

Paula:
It's happening. It's happening
again
. I have to find my
family.

Paula darts away from Brent
and Dorian, for the cafeteria's exit. The young men watch her
leave, and then bring their attention back to the bustling dining
hall. Dorian makes the first move. He makes a beeline for the
closest collection of people, and Brent follows behind him. The
people are so tightly packed together around the spectacle that
Dorian and Brent have quite the hard time pushing through to the
center.

When they get there, they
are met with a very familiar sight. A woman sits on the floor by
one of the long dining tables. She is holding what looks to be her
husband in her arms and is whimpering profusely. The man looks to
be in a bad way. His eyes fight to stay open, and his breathing is
unsteady and jerky. He hasn't gotten any on himself, as Heather
did, but a large pile of blackened vomit sits beside the couple,
making an inconsiderate gap in the crowd.

Brent:
Shit. What happens now?

Dorian looks at his subordinate. There is no answer he can
think to give.

FREE-FOR-SOME

The whole room is at a
stand still when the doors open and Holden is the one who appears
in the entryway. General Feleider may have been expecting him, but
his three teammates are not sure what to make of Holden being the
General's possible personal middleman. Billy isn't as surprised as
the rest of them. He remembers being sent to the ground by Holden's
brick wall of a chest in the hall and how menacing the whole event
had been. He already had his suspicions about the scary man.
Margaret recognizes him too, but is too anxious to care or think
beyond what is in front of her eyes. They shoot back and forth from
Holden and what is happening with the group, to Abe, still trapped
on the elevated examination bed. Even though all eyes are on him,
Holden holds a sturdy poker face and walks into the room, heading
toward Feleider and the rest.

Feleider:
Kush Holden, you have something for me?

Holden pushes his way
through into the circle and reaches into his inside vest pocket as
he passes Margaret and closes in on Feleider, who stands at the
circle's end. He stops in front of the General and hands over what
was in his vest's pocket.

Feleider:
Thank you, very much.

Sharp:
Kush, what's going on?

Feleider:
If you don't feel the need to respond, that's fine, Holden.
Just let me take care of this, and we'll be on our way. I have a
man and truck waiting to take us to the nearest
lift.

Feleider takes the
communicator back out of his pocket and inserts the thumb drive
into its side. He pushes a few of the buttons and the communicator
chimes in alert. Feleider lowers his hands back down to his sides,
keeping hold of the communicator that is in
mid-transfer.

Feleider:
Well, that's it, everyone. The formula is being sent as we
speak. In just a few seconds the transfer will be complete. I might
as well take this time to tell you something important. When I told
you before that Doctor Alyster was dead, that was a lie…
He's
dying
, inside of his lab right now, holding on to his life as long
as he can before triggering this compound to
self-destruct.

Rohan:
Why would he do this!?

Feleider:
Rohan, that question has two answers. First, he waits to
ensure that the formula has been safely delivered. The second
reason is that, well, there was a mishap during testing. It seems
the formula still isn't perfect after all. I've been informed that
the men he was testing on have turned into… like him, only much
more vicious. Which would account for the old doctor's current
state.

He nods his head in Abe's
direction.

Gwen:
You
injected your own men with the parasite?! You
monster.

Feleider:
No need for compliments, Gavine.

Keung:
So,
you're saying that there are infected men somewhere in this
compound? We should tell the people!

Feleider:
The imperfections were subdued thanks to my large accomplice
here, although, I
have
heard rumors of the parasite breeching the
quarantine of the lab. No matter, though. You know,
self-destruction and all.

Keung:
I
have to go and find my family.

Rohan:
I,
as well.

Both doctors, Rohan and
Keung, leave Laboratory D-9 in a hurry to go and find their
families.

Feleider:
That was a good idea. If you all have family and friends
here, I would suggest you do the same thing.

Suddenly, the little
communicator's alert goes off again.

Feleider:
Ah, it has been sent. Looks like it's about time for Holden
and I to be on our way, as well. Shall we?

General Feleider detaches
the thumb drive from his communicator and gives it back to Holden,
who slips it back into his vest's inside pocket. They both start
for the door, but their path is obstructed almost immediately by an
unsatisfied aggressor. Sharp stands in their way, physically
placing his hand on Holden's chest.

Sharp:
You
two aren't going anywhere yet. Holden, I always knew that you were
your own man, even though part of a team, but I never figured you
for a traitor.

Holden stands firm,
unbothered by Sharp's words. Looking down on his questioning
teammate, he remains expressionless and unflinching. To the rest of
his fellow Mav-Elite, it's as if Holden had turned into a robot or
something.

Feleider:
We have no time for this. Remove him so we can be on our
way.

With one beastly arm,
Holden pushes Sharp aside. Even with his strength and preparedness,
Sharp stumbles over himself, but he bolts right back and gives
Holden a great double-armed shove to the chest. He only gets
knocked back a couple of short steps… The man is
big
.

Kerrick:
Now, guys, I don't think we should be getting into
a…

But it's too late. Holden
grabs Sharp by his shirt and thrusts him forward. Sharp tries to
swing at Holden's gorilla mug but finds himself flying through the
air. He slams into the floor, sliding past Margaret and skids to a
stop near the base of Abe's ensnarement. Abe tries to look down,
but can't see directly under him because of his neck being locked
in place. Holden stomps his way over to Sharp but gets interrupted
by Kerrick's stepping in between.

Kerrick:
Guys, c'mon! This is neither the time, nor the
place.

Sharp:
Matthew, get out of his way!

Erika:
He's right. This place could be going up at any minute. We'll
settle this when we get out of here.

Sharp:
No,
I think we'll settle this
now.

Sharp charges for Holden,
but Kerrick holds true. Sharp ends up running into Kerrick's
welcoming bear hug. The hotheaded super soldier struggles for a
brief moment with a man he isn't even supposed to be fighting with,
but eventually manages to escape Kerrick's grasp and get to Holden.
He swings for Holden's face again, once with the right, then with
the left, but misses both attempts. Holden throws a heavy right
punch of his own, but Sharp ducks under it and counters with a left
hook to the gorilla man's midsection. It hardly affects Holden, and
he brings around his own heavy left, but Sharp is able to dodge
that one, too.

They continue throwing
punches, dodging and countering each other, while everyone else
watches from the sides. Kerrick chooses to back off, knowing that
once those two get started, there is no way to stop them. Their
scuffles usually persist until one of them gets too tired. Most of
the time, it's Sharp who exhausts himself first, but he has also
seen the scrapper lay Holden out a few times. He would have to
intervene if they get too crazy, but for now, Kerrick stands beside
Erika and Billy. Margaret maneuvers herself away from the melee,
going closer to where Bernard and Gwen stand by the control panel.
Feleider stands near them as well, entertained by the show going on
in front of him.

Sharp:
You
snitch prick!

A flurry of punches carry
the boxing match forward. Holden blocks each one and returns some
of his own, but Sharp's defensive skills are just as finely tuned.
He dodges Holden's last punch by falling over onto his side and
counters with a scissor trip. He has to hack into the back of
Holden's tree trunk like legs to bring the giant falling forward,
and when he hits the ground, Sharp scrimmages around to deliver a
lethal knee to Holden's side. He follows that up by straddling
Holden's back and throwing punch after punch to the side and back
of his head.

Sharp:
Backstab your own men, Kush? I'm gonna make you eat shit when
we get out of here!

Admittedly, the knee to his
side was painful. It stunned him for a second, but listening to
Sharp's high pitched, arrogant, cocky voice arouses a fire inside.
Holden uses his hands to push himself up instead of blocking the
barrage of punches coming from the back. Sharp stops punching and
wraps his arms tightly around Holden's neck, clinging to him when
he feels his body lifting from the ground. Holden does what he can
to get Sharp off of him, swinging him around and reaching behind
his neck for him, but the more he moves the tighter Sharp makes his
grip. He resolves to ramming his back against anything hard in the
area. Luckily, all of the surrounding desks and beds are adjoined
to the floor. For all his efforts Holden is unable to get Sharp off
of his back.

Erika:
Mmm, maybe you should step in now.

Kerrick:
Maybe
you
should step in now.

Erika:
Tch, fine! I'll stop them, candy ass.

Kerrick:
Relax, I was kidding. I'll stop them… Try to. I like that
though, you calling me candy ass.

He shoots a flirtatious eye
at Erika, and she dismissing him, pointing to the brawling men. How
could he think to flirt with her at a time like this? But then she
remembers who she is dealing with. He approaches the two men.
Holden is still trying to wag Sharp off of his back, but the
fighter won't let go.

Kerrick:
Okay, that's enough, guys. Come on. Don't make daddy have to
break you two up, now.

They ignore him as
expected. He ends up having to do what he really doesn't want to,
and sticks his hand in to try and separate the two of them. When he
gets too close, Holden swings hard to the left and continues, going
in circles. He takes Sharp for a ride and Kerrick has to duck out
of the way to avoid his whip-tailing legs. Around and around they
go, getting closer and closer to Margaret. By the time she thinks
to move, it's too late, and they collide with her. The impact sends
her easily to the ground.

Billy:
Margaret!

Erika:
Jesus...

This sparks action from
everybody in the room, everybody except for General Feleider, who
simply moves a few feet to the side when Gwen, Erika, and Billy run
over to make sure Margaret is okay. The three of them stoop down
around her. Bernard, who was already close by, chooses to remain
standing. The whole situation has him a little stiff. Sharp and
Holden continue to tussle back and forth, undeterred by the fallen
cripple. Kerrick fights the good fight and continues trying to
break up the bad one.

Kerrick:
Guys!
GUYS!!

Billy:
Margaret, are you okay?!

Margaret:
Yea, I'm fine. Ugh, let's just get Abe and get out of
here.

Hearing what she said,
Feleider ponders inwardly about how much time they actually have
left. How long did the good doctor intend on staying alive? If he
could be in two places at once, he would know that at this very
moment, Doctor Alyster's breaths are scarce and concise. The last
bits of life drift out of his body as he sits up against the legs
of his examination bed. His eyes are still open, but much like the
zombies' he had helped to create, they stare into nothing. He holds
the controller in his hands on his lap, ready to initialize the
compound's self-destruct sequence, but his body goes limp and the
button goes unpushed. A deathly silence falls over the lab, but
then…

Alyster:
****HEEEEEEEEEEEEEAVE**** (coughs)

The old man's eyes pop wide
open, as does his mouth. No words leave his lips, nothing but the
sound of the inward heave and one last hacking bark. He doesn't do
much in his two extra seconds of life, but he does what he came
back to do. He pushes the button. Red lights begin blinking on the
system controller, the beginning of the end, as the good Doctor
Alyster's body exhales one last time.