Dead Days Zombie Apocalypse Series (Season 5) Page 7

  Saw a gun to her head as rats and mice scuttled across the floor.

  Mr Fletch wanted to go back. He wanted to fight. He’d never wanted to protect something so much in his entire life.

  But he was scared.

  Mum was right. He was just a coward.

  Just a good-for-nothing, socially retarded coward.

  So he crawled over to the door.

  Pushed it open.

  Sneaked inside and called the emergency line while the screams and the squeals went on.

  He waited for an answer.

  But when he finally got one, he heard a blast.

  Heard the screams stop.

  The struggles stop.

  “Hello? Emergency services? Anyone there?”

  The alarm rang out. The men shouted at one another, scurried away. Rats and mice squealed and scratched and gnawed at anything and everything they could.

  “Hello? Is anyone—”

  “Stepson’s. Animal research. Level four. Please.”

  He didn’t register the rest of the conversation. He wasn’t even sure if there was a rest of the conversation.

  He walked over to the door. Pushed it open, shaking like mad.

  Peeked out into the labs.

  Carrie was still in there.

  But she was lying on the floor.

  Blood pooling out of her head.

  And in her right hand, rats and mice feasted on a cheese and tomato sandwich.

  * * *

  Present day …

  Mr Fletch stared at the computer screen and the shots of his beautiful Orion army.

  He stood over the controls in the darkened room. Placed a hand on the lever. The lever that would start the process. Initiate the lockdown.

  Instigate the purge.

  “You sure about this, boss?” Harry asked.

  Mr Fletch thought back to the last time he’d shown uncertainty. The last time he’d been indecisive. Twenty-three years ago when he’d crawled out of that lab and left Carrie to die.

  Twenty-three years ago when he’d allowed his work to be destroyed. Crawled away like a pathetic little wimp and watched his world burn as a result.

  Never again.

  Never.

  “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my entire life,” he said.

  Then he lowered the lever.

  Watched the lights cut out on the screens.

  The exit doors lock shut.

  The red alarm lights flash.

  And the doors to the Orions’ caverns open …

  CHAPTER ONE

  RILEY

  By the time the group reached the fifth floor of the Labyrinth, Riley was used to killing again.

  It was afternoon. When they’d crossed the boundary between the fourth and fifth floor, Riley had seen rain falling outside. But it could be any time, any weather back up here in the windowless hell that was the Labyrinth. The web-like mass of corridors, like tunnels in an ant’s nest. The place where Riley, Jordanna and Chloë had been trapped not long ago. The place where Tamara, James and Tiffany were still trapped.

  The place Andy Wilmslow’s “close friend” Steve was.

  The place they had to infiltrate.

  And the place they had to escape.

  Riley, Chloë and Jordanna followed Andy through corridor after corridor, all of them the same. White tiles on the floors and the walls. The occasional break where metal doors were installed.

  Lights. Bright-as-shit, retina-burning lights.

  All so similar.

  All so disorienting.

  “Thought you said you knew this place,” Riley said.

  “I do,” Andy said, jogging down the latest blank corridor, not taking a moment to turn around. “Just a bigger place than it seems. From the outside. Hence the name.”

  They took a left and ran down another identical corridor, footsteps echoing against the tiled walls.

  “So quiet up here,” Jordanna said, panting as she ran.

  And Riley agreed. There was something … off about this floor. Something weird about the silence. They’d killed people downstairs. Killed a number of people—a number which Riley had forgotten, which couldn’t be a great reflection on him—and they’d been guarding the low-security areas.

  But now they were in the high-security area. The highest security area of all. The place where humans became Orions; where Mr Fletch’s darkest experiments culminated.

  “Usually this quiet?” Jordanna asked.

  “No,” Andy said. Riley heard the concern in his voice. “No it isn’t.”

  “Then why’s it—”

  “I gave you the chance to get out of here. Gave you all the chance to get out of here.”

  “We’re not talking about—”

  Andy stopped. Turned round. His cheeks were flushed, sweat rolled down his forehead. “When someone finds Mr Fletch, hell’s gonna break loose in this place. We’ve just gotta make sure we’re as far away from it as possible. So you either follow me and trust I know what I’m doin’ or you try to make your own route through this place. But if you do that, you’ll die. That’s a fucking promise.”

  Riley looked at Jordanna and Chloë. Chloë hadn’t muttered a single word, but Jordanna looked uncertain.

  “What?” Riley asked.

  “I just …” Jordanna started. “We have a chance.”

  “We can’t leave anyone behind.”

  “I’m not saying we—”

  “If we walk away, we leave our people behind.”

  “I didn’t leave you two behind,” Jordanna said, raising her voice. “But I’m being rational. Maybe … maybe Andy’s right. Maybe we should get out of here. While we still have a chance.”

  Riley shifted his gaze over to Andy. He was walking again. Walking fast. Getting ready to jog.

  “No,” Riley said. He started walking too. “We stick to the plan. Find who we can and help Andy find Steve.”

  “And if everyone’s dead?”

  “Then everyone’s dead,” Riley said, running now. “Least we get our closure. At least we tried.”

  “You don’t have to torture yourself. For leaving me behind that first day. It’s gone. Done with. Long time ago.”

  Riley felt his jog slowing instinctively as he followed Andy round another corner. Behind him, Jordanna and Chloë were jogging now too, although at a much slower pace.

  “About the truck. Leaving me there. You and … you and your friend. You don’t have to kick yourself for—”

  “This isn’t just about you,” Riley said. And that was the truth. It wasn’t just about Jordanna anymore. Wasn’t just about the guilt he felt for leaving her behind all those months ago. Wasn’t just the guilt about leaving everyone else behind either.

  It was about the people he cared for.

  The people who’d risked their lives to be here for him.

  The people he couldn’t give up on.

  He followed Andy further down another corridor. Andy was peeking through the glass in some of the doors now. Muttering under his breath as he passed them, like he was crossing them off in his mind.

  “We close?” Riley asked.

  “Should be … should be this corridor or the next. Your friends. They could be spread out. They … they could be unconscious. They might not even be … whole, exactly—”

  “Let us be the judge of that.”

  Andy nodded. Kept on jogging down the corridor. The bright lights crackled overhead. The silence of the Labyrinth grew progressively intense. “Just tryin’ to prepare you,” he said.

  “Seen enough shit to be prepared for a lifetime,” Riley said.

  He felt a twinge in his left leg.

  A twinge that reminded him.

  Reminded him of the Apocálypsis virus still inside him.

  Getting progressively worse.

  Defeating the cure, like Mr Wellingborough told him.

  The very reason he’d come here, and yet it paled compared to his new goal.

  Save my
friends.

  Save my family.

  “This is not right,” Andy said.

  He’d slowed so much that Riley almost bumped into him. “What’s not?”

  He peered through the glass windows to the rooms, frown lines worming across his head. “They should be in here. They were in here. I don’t understand how they can be gone. How long’ve we been in the Labyrinth? Twenty minutes, tops?”

  “Where else could they be?”

  “I don’t … I—”

  “Thought you were security here or something?”

  Andy paused for a moment. Then, “There’s some things even security don’t know about this place. Come on.”

  They followed Andy further down the corridor and dread built inside Riley. The silence, the emptiness, it all seemed so … wrong. So off. The lack of security. The lack of anything. He couldn’t explain it. Fuck—not even Andy could explain it.

  Something wasn’t right in the Labyrinth.

  Something was very, very wrong.

  “They have to be down here,” Andy said, approaching a corner. “I can’t think where else they’ll …”

  His voice stopped.

  The lights cut out to complete blackness.

  Flashing red lights illuminated overhead, barely bright enough to reveal the corridor.

  “Shit,” Andy said. “Oh shit.”

  “What?”

  Bangs echoed through the building. The sound of locks snapping shut.

  Or sliding open.

  “Oh shit.”

  “Andy, what the fuck’s happening?” Riley shouted.

  He didn’t have to answer.

  An alarm sounded overhead.

  A voice cut through it.

  “Initiating lockdown and purge. Please evacuate the Labyrinth.”

  “Fuck,” Andy said. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

  The alarm rang on. Red lights flashed. More door locks clicked.

  “What’s lockdown and purge?” Jordanna asked.

  Andy turned. His eyes were barely illuminated, but Riley could see fear in them.

  Jordanna shot forward. “Andy, tell us what the fuck—”

  “We’re fucked,” he said, his voice quivery and fragile. “It—it means we’re fucked.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “We need to get out of here. We need to get the hell out.”

  Riley moved slowly through the darkness. Even though red alarm lights lit the corridor in a hellish hue, it was still so pitch black. Like a blanket of nothingness had been thrown over them, tightening its grip on their bodies with every step. The only sound was a bell. A loud, ringing bell that gave Riley a headache, made everything else seem somewhat out of place.

  Made it seem like things were moving in the darkest shadows.

  Andy Wilmslow’s breathing was shaky and fearful. He was walking ahead of the group, leading the way, but he appeared uncertain. Shaking his head and muttering to himself. “We’ve got to leave. We can’t fucking stay here. We’ve got to leave.”

  But further they moved down the corridor. Peeked through the glass windows into the rooms where Andy was convinced Tamara, James and Tiff would be. Seemed less certain about this “Steve” guy now. Hadn’t mentioned him in a while.

  Yet, on they walked. Into the darkness. Into the unknown.

  “Got a nasty feeling about this,” Jordanna said. She was just behind Riley. He could tell from her voice that she was glancing over her shoulder, peeking into the darkness desperate not to see anything moving but convinced there would be. Just like Riley.

  “Not much we can do about it now if what Andy says is true,” Riley said. And judging by the state of these corridors, Andy was right. There had been a lockdown of some kind. Mr Fletch had closed down the “Labyrinth”—the building they were inside—in an attempt to capture those who’d defied him.

  “What’s he usually do to defectors?” Jordanna asked, as they turned another corner into more red-hued blackness.

  Andy looked over his shoulder. Gone was the strong, self-assured man who’d saved Riley from certain death down in the hangar. “That’s the thing. There’s never been a lockdown.”

  “Then why you so sure it’s a bad thing for us?” Riley asked. “Maybe it’s what we need. Some kind of distraction. Gives us the security of the shadows—”

  “I know Mr Fletch,” Andy said, quashing any false optimism inside Riley. “I know what he’s like. How he operates. I couldn’t pretend to know how he thinks. He’s way too clever for that. But I know he doesn’t half-ass things. And when he gives a shit about somethin’, he gives all the shits.”

  He turned away from Riley. Looked down the next corridor, which had two doors either side of it.

  “Believe me, mate,” he said. “This isn’t good news for us. Not in the slightest. My main worry’s just how bad it’s gonna turn out.”

  Riley followed Andy further down the corridor. He couldn’t deny he was creeped out. In truth, if he had a choice of being stuck in here—stuck in the middle of the unknown—and outside the walls with the creatures, he’d pick the creatures any day. Sure, they adapted, like any good virus. But they had their limitations. They were familiar. Mostly predictable.

  In here, the possibilities were infinite.

  And that was truly terrifying.

  “I … I saw Ivan.”

  Chloë’s voice came out of the blue completely. So much so that Riley had to turn and look at her to check he wasn’t imagining things.

  She was looking right at him, eyes lighting up in the circling red lights.

  “You saw him? Saw him when?”

  Chloë took a shaky breath. “When … when Mr Fletch took me to … to Tiff.” She paused. Caught her breath. “He … he was in there. But he wasn’t himself.”

  “You sure you saw—”

  “It was him,” Chloë said. “I … I couldn’t not recognise him. But his—his teeth. They were … they were gone, some of them. But some of them were sharp. Long and sharp. Like—”

  “Stop.”

  Riley didn’t have a chance to process Andy’s word before he went tumbling into the back of him.

  Andy was completely still.

  His breathing was even more shaky.

  And he was staring up ahead at something.

  Something in the darkness.

  Something in the shadows.

  “What d’you—”

  “Be very quiet,” Andy whispered. “Crouch down. Be very still.”

  Andy started to crouch. Riley still didn’t know what he was talking about. He’d seen something. Something in a dark spot where the red alarm lights didn’t cover. A guard? Someone else who’d been locked up in here? Maybe that was a good thing. They could use them as a hostage. A bargaining chip to work their way out. Collateral.

  “I don’t see what—”

  “We’re going to count to three and we’re going to walk away. Very quietly.”

  Riley could feel Andy’s heart vibrating his skin. He blinked, squinted, wished to God he’d got some glasses by now. He still didn’t see what Andy was talking about. Still didn’t understand. Still didn’t …

  Then, he saw it.

  It was only small at first. The smallest movement in the darkness.

  Only he realised he wasn’t looking at darkness. No, he was looking at something dark.

  Something with jet black flesh.

  Something big.

  Riley edged back slightly. Jordanna and Chloë moved too. But as he moved, he couldn’t shift his focus from the thing in front of him.

  The beast sinking its teeth into the chest of a white-coat, intestines splayed out all over the corridor, glittering in the red glow.

  An Orion.

  “Go. Now.”

  Riley moved backwards. All kinds of questions raced through his mind. Weren’t the Orions supposed to kill creatures? Why was it eating a doctor? And why the hell was it wandering around the Labyrinth corridor?

  And then it dawned on him.

&
nbsp; The truth illuminated right before his eyes.

  “This is the lockdown,” Riley whispered. “They … they’re a part of it. They’re hunting us.”

  Andy started to say something in response.

  Then a door clicked behind Riley, behind the group.

  Riley stopped.

  Held his breath.

  Turned around.

  A metal door creaked open.

  “He’s … he’s not just locked the main doors,” Andy said. “He’s fuckin’ unlocked the interior doors.”

  Riley wanted to run. He wanted to get the hell out of here.

  But then he saw the darkness creep out of the open door behind him.

  Saw its jet black flesh.

  Its long, dagger-like teeth lit up in the red glow.

  And opposite it, another door edged open.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Riley watched the third Orion creep out of the metal door just metres ahead.

  He knew he should move. He knew all of them should move. But he was stuck. Stuck in a trance, trapped in a daze. Caught like the proverbial rabbit in the headlights.

  Because there was an Orion blocking their way down the corridor.

  And there were now two Orions blocking the other way.

  And even though these monsters were bred to hunt creatures, the first one didn’t look too fussy about feasting on a doctor.

  All Riley’s worst fears about what might happen if the Orions got out of this place were realised in an instant.

  But he couldn’t afford to stick around.

  “We need to move,” he whispered.

  He looked to the left. Nothing but wall. Nothing but fucking tiled wall all the way up to the doors where the two Orions stood, where they sniffed at the air, made that awful gasping noise as they breathed. He looked at them, all seven-foot-something of them, and he found it impossible to believe they were once humans. People, just like him.

  Mr Fletch’s distorted vision of a post-apocalyptic haven basking in the red glow of the alarm lights.

  Riley turned and kept as still as he could. One false move and he knew they’d see him. The first Orion they’d seen was still eating the doctor, still sinking its awful teeth into his body. But there was a gap to its right. A route.

  A route that could culminate in a dead end.

  But the only route they had.