Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation (38 page)

Hundreds of her kind filtered in through the gate once the truck was moved, and Fi knew there were thousands more that were still on their way to this location.

Fi felt a new kind of burning sensation through her body. Before, such a feeling would have resulted in pain and anger until she extinguished those flames by tearing apart and killing another creature. Now, though, the feeling throughout her body was a warmth that cradled her and let her know that she was on the right path. She knew the others felt the same thing. She could see it in their yellow eyes.

The creatures wandered the property. They felt the pull, but couldn’t figure out how to get to it. Fi’s insides tingled as she walked around. She knew she was close to finding The Discovery, but it also felt so far away.

Fi walked past one of the springs and felt a slight rumbling under her feet. She knelt behind some bushes as the rumbling got louder.

When the rumbling stopped, she heard gunfire followed by four of the yellow-eyed creatures being blasted off their feet.

Some men and women came running out of a structure with a few others hauling two objects behind them.

She watched as they ran toward the front gate.

Fi approached the structure the humans had emerged from and saw a large opening. A room had broken through the ground. Fi knew that the humans had been hiding underground and that this was their doorway. She looked at some of the other yellow-eyed creatures and knew they thought the same thing as she, and sixteen of them entered into the elevator.

This room was the way to The Discovery.

7

In the Elevator at Schoepke Springs

Spicewood, Texas

The elevator climbed slowly to the surface as everyone stood in complete silence.

I feel like a goddamn cow walking into a slaughterhouse
, thought Steele.

They all knew that as smart as those things were, they’d have figured out how to get around the truck blocking the gate by now. It wasn’t a question of whether there were any yellow-eyed creatures inside the gates, it was a matter of how many were inside.

Megan, Wilder, and Fisher raised their guns into firing position as the elevator came to a stop. As the door slowly opened, the question as to how many of the creatures were inside was quickly answered.

A lot.

Wilder was the first to discharge his weapon. The two zombies closest to the elevator door were thrown backward from the force of the rounds.

Walt, Cheryl, and David grabbed their blunt weapons tightly and were ready to protect the EMP bomb and launch pad. Walt thought he saw one of the creatures crouching behind some bushes over by the building, but the infected outside the elevator distracted him from taking a closer look.

Maybe those bastards are hiding because they’re scared
, thought Walt.

The four zombies that were initially shot down were replaced with six more. There was no shortage of yellow-eyed creatures at Schoepke Springs.

Wilder kept the carbine in firing position and slowly walked out of the elevator as he shot the creatures. He was making slow progress, but he also knew that he didn’t have nearly enough ammo to make it anywhere near the gate.

Wilder shot down seven more zombies, but understood that they’d be back up in no time. He saw Walt and Steele using their weapons on the zombies he shot. Walt and Steele either smashed their heads or crushed their legs. One way or another, those zombies wouldn’t be getting up again.

When Wilder’s carbine was out of ammo, he slung it onto his back and drew his Beretta from its holster. Wilder shot down four more yellow-eyed creatures before the firing pin landed on an empty chamber. He was out of ammo. Fifteen bullets didn’t go far when you’re shooting for your life.

He holstered his pistol and grabbed the carbine from his back. He’d fixed the bayonet to it in the elevator and now charged the creatures. Wilder smashed some zombies in the head while he stabbed and thrusted the bayonet into others.

Megan and Fisher were quickly out of ammo as well. Fisher fell back and joined Mears with the EMP bomb. She followed Wilder’s lead, used her empty carbine as a weapon, and smashed anything around her. Her bayonet effortlessly sliced through body parts and slowed down their attackers.

“Remember to go for the knees, legs, and ankles!
”
Wilder shouted.

Walt swung Stevie around and dropped zombies left and right. A zombie charged after Walt and he pivoted to the side and hit the creature in the back of the head. As he pulled the nail-studded baseball bat out of the zombie’s head, Walt kicked another attacking zombie in the side of the knee. Once Stevie was free, Walt crushed the bastard’s other knee. He moved like a dancer as he took on the attacking horde.

After Megan was out of ammo, she rejoined Steele. Steele pulled the launch pad out of the elevator and was about to head toward the gate when he stopped. He saw the yellow-eyed creatures flooding in from around the truck and knew that if they went closer, they’d never get a chance to detonate the EMP bomb. Steele quickly changed directions and the others followed without hesitation.

Fisher provided protection for both Mears and the bomb as they pursued Steele. She defended them both as she stabbed at anything that got close to either of them.

Butsko and Wilder were up front with Steele and Megan. Megan swung the butt of her carbine at one of the creature’s heads, but overextended her reach. Megan stumbled and lost her balance. She fell onto her hands and knees, but was overtaken by five yellow-eyed creatures before Steele could even offer her his hand for help.

“Megan!
”
Steele shouted as the zombies carried her off. Megan’s cries filled the air, and Steele knew that if he lived through this, he’d never forget those screams.

David swung his axe at the zombies closest to him and severely damaged the legs of five of them. He aimed his swings at their knees or necks and avoided burying the axe in the infected’s chests or other meaty areas. The last thing he needed was his axe to get stuck in some belly fat or a rib cage.

Cheryl wielded her crowbar like a pro and used it and her fighting experience to cripple many of the yellow-eyed creatures. Wilder looked over and saw Cheryl effortlessly taking down creature after creature and wondered if she was deadlier with her legs or with the crowbar.

Movement in his peripheral caught Butsko’s attention. He turned to look at the elevator and saw the door closing. He could have sworn, though, that he’d seen movement inside the elevator. He shook the thought from his head and continued to cut a path through the infected with his machete.

“Right here,
”
Butsko shouted as he stopped moving. “Let’s set up the bomb right here!”

Steele stopped pulling the dolly and let the rope fall from his hands. He quickly drew the sledgehammer from the rig he’d built on his belt.

Mears and Fisher rolled the bomb next to the launch pad. Without hesitating, Mears unstrapped the bomb and picked it up. Steele and the others covered Mears as he slid the bomb onto the launch pad.

Butsko had already prepped the bomb in the facility and only had to set the timer on the launch pad. Butsko was thankful these were prototypes that were built solely to be tested. There were no security codes or anything else that slowed him down. Butsko set the timer on the pad for sixty-seconds.

“Let’s go everyone!
”
Butsko barked. “We’ve got sixty-seconds before this thing blows!”

Everyone scattered. They all understood there was no explosion involved with the EMP bomb going off, but they also didn’t want to be standing right next to a device that was about to emit a huge burst of electro-magnetic energy.

None of them got very far due to the increased presence of the yellow-eyed creatures. They all ran toward a small cluster of trees about forty feet away. Butsko figured they had about thirty-seconds until detonation.

They all had their backs against the trees as the yellow-eyed creatures surrounded them. Wilder looked over and saw some the infected checking at the bomb.

That’s it, assholes
, Wilder thought.
Get nice and close
.

The infected closed in on the group. Steele and Walt couldn’t get any leverage with their weapons due to the low-hanging branches but used them to hold the creatures back.

David swung his axe at a nearby creature, but the thing ducked, and David’s axe buried itself into a tree trunk. The creature knocked David’s hands from the axe and jumped onto him. David’s eyes grew wide as he felt the yellow-eyed monster’s teeth penetrate his skull. There was a horrifying cracking sound as the creature tore through David’s skull and started pulling out his brains.

Cheryl screamed at the sight of David’s brains being thrown around and thrust her crowbar through the creature’s throat. She yanked back hard and snapped the monster’s neck.

David’s lifeless body leaned against the tree, his skull hollowed by the creature’s invasion.

Walt managed to swing through some branches and landed Stevie in the chest of one of the yellow-eyed creatures. The force of the swing, though, buried Stevie deep in the zombie’s chest, and he couldn’t free the weapon.

They were being overrun. The yellow-eyed creatures closed in fast.

“Everyone close your eyes!
”
Butsko screamed as the timer reached zero.

The launch pad was surrounded by the infected as they examined the device. Many of them thought this was The Discovery that had drawn them to this location.

A low humming noise came from the launch pad which slowly built up to a high-pitched sound. A loud clicking noise was heard, followed by a
thump
.

The EMP bomb lifted off the launch pad and shot into the air. It reached a height of five-hundred feet in seconds. A small burst of bright light came from the bomb as the outer casing was shed. Then, without warning, a ball of bright blue light emanated from the bottom of the bomb. The small ball of electro-magnetic energy grew in circumference. The energy burst kept growing and looked like it was going to engulf the entire sky.

The blue energy ball stopped growing when it hit a circumference two miles wide. The ball then burst and sent waves of blue-grey energy across the earth.

The yellow-eyed creatures had stopped attacking the humans and watched as the bomb silently lifted off the launch pad. They followed the bomb as it detonated and sent the waves of electro-magnetic energy back down to earth. As the blue-grey waves hit the creatures, they collapsed as though someone had turned them off.

All around them, Butsko and the others watched the zombies drop.

It was over in seconds. The EMP blast did exactly what Butsko and Wilder wanted it to do. The nanites—the cause of the infection—were fried from the burst of energy and rendered the host organisms useless.

8

Underneath Schoepke Springs

Spicewood, Texas

Fi and the other yellow-eyed creatures wandered through the underground facility. They could all feel the pull of The Discovery and knew they were closer than they had ever been.

They walked down the long corridor and came to the “T
”
junction. Fi looked to the left and the right as she tried to feel which direction had the stronger pull. Fi closed her eyes and tilted her head back.

At once, all the yellow-eyed creatures around her groaned. Fi felt it too. Something had happened on the surface above. Something had hurt the creatures up there. They tried to send a warning to all the other yellow-eyed ones right before the event occurred, but they were struck down too quickly. Whatever had happened had occurred in the blink of an eye. Over time, Fi had understood that if she concentrated enough, she could feel what the other yellow-eyed creatures felt. It was almost like they all shared a common brain. Fi didn’t understand it, but if she focused, she could transmit her thoughts and feelings to others of her kind.

Fi hung her head and raised her right arm. The creatures behind her became silent as they focused their yellow eyes on her. She pointed to the right and started to walk down the hallway toward Section C. A few of the creatures followed, but others were compelled to stay in the long hallway.

Whatever had happened above, Fi knew they were safe underground.

As Fi walked down the hallway, she felt the warmth inside her build in intensity. She knew she was headed in the right direction. Her journey would soon be at an end. All the anger and pain she’d felt before had led her to this moment. The times she’d ripped and tore both humans and the other infected apart had all been designed to guide her to this place.

To bring her to this moment.

Fi continued down the corridor labeled “Section C.”

9

Schoepke Springs

Spicewood, Texas

Wilder was the first to open his eyes. Around him were the bodies of hundreds and hundreds of lifeless yellow-eyed creatures. He looked down and saw that one of the zombies had grabbed his foot right before the EMP blast. He shook his ankle and watched the hand fall away.