The Village of Dead Souls: A Zombie Novel (18 page)

Greg asked, "Why the courthouse?"

"All the hospitals are too close to the quarantined areas. The courthouse was far enough into the green zone and even the public wouldn't suspect there to be re-ans in the basement. It was like hiding them in plain sight."

Nemi looked at both Greg and Prometheus. "We will have to assist Gunnar and his troops in rescuing K.C. She holds the prophecy and will play a valuable role if we are to complete our mission."

* * *

Dr. Towers stared at the red blood cells moving across her monitor. After months of running the same tests, she finally saw the pattern emerge. She flipped through the pages of a file next to her keyboard and ran her finger down a data table until she found the numbers in question. Behind her, Daniel walked out of the large walk-in freezer and stacked several Petri dishes in his hand onto a table.

"Sample 1628 is showing the same pattern as samples 1439, 1011, and 956."

Daniel placed the dishes on the shelf of the glass cooler as he pondered what she said. "Are you talking about the transfer between red blood cells when exposed to radiation?"

"Yes, it is not acting like a virus at all."

Daniel walked over to Lisa and glanced over her shoulder at the screen. She pointed to the one of the cells. "Look here. When the infected cell is irradiated, the contagion is not only not
affected
, it transfers to the closest non-irradiated cell."

"You mean-"

She interjected, "That's right. I don't think we're dealing with a virus at all. This looks and acts more like a parasite as we earlier suspected."

Daniel walked over to a pile of files on a nearby table. He searched through them until he found one close to the bottom of the stack. As he scanned the pages inside and said, "This would explain
,
why two months ago we started to show results with serum 461
,
but failed with the next three."

"That's right. We were trying to kill a virus which only transfers to the next cell by
mitosis
. If we vaccinate all the cells against the parasite, when it transfers to what appears to be a healthy host cell, the serum will stop it before reproduction occurs."

Daniel smiled and walked back over to Lisa. While staring at the screen, he placed his hand on her shoulder, and said, "This is the breakthrough we've been looking for."

She placed her hand on top of his to hold it in place. "With this data, we should have a beta version of a re-an vaccine as early as four or five weeks from now."

The sound of breaking glass from a distant room startled both scientists
,
causing them to turn toward the disturbance. With a loud bang, the door to the lab burst off its hinges and fell to the floor. Several people dressed in black clothes, black hats and sunglasses poured through the opening. They swung baseball bats wildly through the room
,
smashing equipment and knocking over files.

Daniel stepped in front of Lisa and called out, "Stop!"

Hellion, with her dreadlocks pouring out from under her black knit cap walked up to him pressing the end of her baseball bat into his chest. "We are here to protect the Second Lifers. You're going to stop your torturous experiments and let them live."

As her crew continued to destroy the lab and all their work, Daniel pressed his palms into his forehead. "You have no idea what you're doing. We were weeks away from a cure."

Hellion replied, "You can't cure a life."

Pink walked up to her and said, "We gotta go. The police are on their way. You've already worked you way to the FBI's top ten
.
I don't think you need to move to number one."

As Hellion backed away from the two scientists, she pointed her bat at them and said, "If you continue your research, we'll continue to destroy it. We are here to protect the Second Lifers and will continue until they are allowed to live free with the rest of society."

She along with her crew quickly disappeared through the door leaving the lab in ruins, as the strobe of police lights flashed through the windows.

* * *

Still wearing her orange jumpsuit from the jail, Hellion sat behind the table next to Pink and watched Judge Patterson look through the file and
then he
hand
ed
it back to the bailiff. An open window near the front of the room, allowed the only airflow in
to
the old building. "I'll allow this to be admitted
,
"
the
judge said.

Chris Schring, their attorney, pointed to his defendants and said, "Your honor, these women are not international
terrorists.
They're simply
activists
who are
exercising their freedom of speech. The event of two nights ago at the Collins Institute Lab was a protest which got out of hand. The prosecution's motion to deny bail is unwarranted."

Judge Patterson took off his glasses, set them down, folded his fingers together and glanced at the raven
,
which landed on the ledge of the open window. "Counselor, your clients are not being charged with trespassing by chaining themselves to a tree. They have some misconstrued sense to defend these creatures
that
are intent on killing us. The destruction of the Lab is the least of their worries. The magnetic spike they allegedly planted within the military's network along with this laundry list of charges brought up by the FBI, Homeland Security, the ATF and the
U.S.
Marshals, means
that
I will be hearing their case until long after I retire. They seem to have a vast web of friends to help them with all these unscrupulous plans. I'm not taking the chance of letting them out of my sight where this network will help keep them hidden. And, don't try to use the
,
t
hese creatures have rights defense. I fully support the military's intent on wiping them off the face of the planet. They are an abomination and scourge to civilization."

Chris replied, "But your honor-"

Screams, commotion and gunfire from the hallway interrupted his rebuttal. Hellion along with the rest of the courtroom quickly turned toward the doors as they burst open. Several zombies armed with primitive weapons, swords, axes and clubs, poured into the room. The observers tried to fight them off, but a black zombie with a samurai sword quickly sliced off hands and thrust his way through the crowd. Several more of the undead, including a man in a blue dress, swung axes and
bats,
taking down all the living
that
stood
in their way. They continued to call out in their strange moans, as they pointed to different people in the room.

Two of the undead pounced on the judge and brought him to the ground next to his bench. They bit into his face and shoulder pulling out strips of bloody flesh with their teeth. He tried to fight back, but his wounds proved to be too severe and Patterson died as his blood ran across the marble floor.

Hellion and Pink ducked under the table as their attorney swung his briefcase at the zombie in the blue dress. An undead in a motorcycle rider's jumpsuit grabbed Pink and pulled her out from under the table. Chris punched the zombie in the face, knocking him down. The samurai sword wielding re-an thrust his blade into Chris's abdomen. As the attorney glanced down at the blood running out of his wound, he looked at his clients and motioned his head toward the open courtroom window. While he fell to the ground, Hellion grabbed Pink's hand and pulled her toward the window through the mob of fighting. A zombie pinned the bailiff against the wall next to them. As the court officer tried to push the re-an off him, the undead bit into the man's neck
,
spraying blood over the two women. Hellion grabbed Pink and pushed her out the window. The zombie grabbed one of her dreadlocks, jerked her head back and kept her from leaving. The bailiff pulled out his gun, placed the barrel against her lock of hair and shot the re-an's hand off. Diving through the window, Hellion quickly glanced back and saw the bailiff overrun
by
two more zombies
, now
feasting on his organs.

* * *

Gunnar led the charge down the courthouse hallway followed by his squad of living dead soldiers. The humans let out screams and ran in the opposite direction. The Viking slowed and raised his
battle-axe
high to signal the other dead. He pointed to a set of double doors, and said, "Brother Greg, take your men through those doors to see if she's inside."

As Greg and his men burst through the doors, Gunnar continued to lead the charge down the hall. Drew grabbed the leader on the shoulder, and pointed to a stairway. "This is the way to the basement."

Gunnar stopped, stared at two of his soldiers, and said, "You stay here with your group and protect our backs as we go down into this cellar."

Running down the marble stairs to the
basement,
he could hear the crash of metal trays and glass. In the dark hallway, he pointed to the room where he thought he heard the noise. His soldiers smashed through the door and they poured inside.

The room had been set up as a makeshift lab with metal cadaver tables, grossing stations and necropsy equipment. Scattered trays and broken glass on the floor, told the story of the quick and hasty exit by the workers. Strapped down on one of the tables at the far end of the room, Gunnar saw the naked body of K.C. He and the others ran through the maze of tables and equipment to free
her,
as she remained
unmoving
. They unfastened the straps while the Viking called to her, "My sister, we are here to gain your freedom."

K.C. remained motionless with her eyes closed. With all the straps pulled off, he grabbed her shoulder and slightly shook her. "It is considered poor manners to sleep through your rescue. Wake up K.C.
,
so we may take you back to our stronghold."

With his thumb, Drew opened her right eyelid. The white clouded pupil told all of her rescuers the story. Placing his hand on her chest to feel for a heartbeat, Drew replied. "It can't be." He held two fingers against her neck. "I think she's dead."

One of the zombies in the back of the group said, "We're all dead."

"I know we're all dead and none of us have a pulse
,
so it's hard to confirm when we are no longer one of the living dead. It does appear
that
the person we knew as K.C. no longer inhabits this body."

Gunnar placed his hand over her eyes. "The Valkyries have brought a new warrior to
Valhalla
." He lifted his hand and addressed the rest of his soldiers. "Tonight
,
we will celebrate our sister's triumphs."   

Drew interrupted, "There's more to this than a fallen soldier and don't debate with me that we are already dead. But, it appears the living have figured out a way to kill us. If they did this to K.C.
,
it won't be long until they can do it to the rest of us."

After a moment of silence, Gunnar placed his hand on Drew's shoulder. "We will address this issue at a later time. Our task at hand is to wrap up our sister's body so we can take her with us and give her a proper Viking send off."