Karma // 10k Fic // Completed

Underground Labs

"This must be it. Citizen Z said to look for a metal shed with a roll-up door." Warren said.

"Like this one?" Murphy asked from beside me as I put the van into park.

"What are they all looking at?" 10k asked.

"Our entrance," Warren said.

"Obviously" I muttered.

"You think we're in the right place? Looks small." Murphy asked. Warren got out of the van along with Doc and Murphy. He walked away with his hands cuffed together and the zombies I thought were people came charging at our van. Warren jumped in the passenger and Doc booted me out of the driver.

"How much ammo do we got?" Warren asked, turning around.

"Two bullets," 10k said.

"I got one," Doc said.

"One?" She asked.

"I told you." he defined. She turned to me.

"Four in my sniper, and..." I opened my pistols looking at how full they were. "Six in my pistol," I told her. She rolled down her window and yelled for Murphy. He came back to us and opened the door.

"Follow me," he said. I scooted out the van.

"Karma wait! How do you know?" She asked him.

"I don't," he replied. I shrugged my shoulders and got the rest of the way out. I jumped onto Murphy's back and we all hugged onto him as we walked to the door.

"Man, I hope nobody sees us," Doc said, making me giggle. He raised my mood just a little. We got inside the lab and looked around. There wasn't much to see. We walked into an elevator thing and when we reached our floor Warren opened it up. We walked out to see dead zombies littered everywhere.

"All those zombies up there must've wanted something down here," Warren said.

"Same thing they always want. Brains." Doc said.

"No. Something different. Something inside is attracting them like a magnet. I can feel it." Murphy said. Warren grabbed a key card off the ground and we went through the door. There were dead zombies sitting around a table for someone's birthday.

"Happy damn birthday," Warren said.

"Uh, reminds me of my 50th," Doc said.

"Happy birthday Doctor Kur" 10k said trailing off the name. The cake was cut so we couldn't make out the full name.

"Dibs on the last rose." We all looked at Murphy. "What? I can't help it. Damn vaccine makes me crave sugar." Murphy said.

"Well if you start craving brains, let me know," Doc said.

"Ha-ha." Murphy fake laughed. Something crashed and we all brought our attention to the doorway it came from.

"Puppies and kittens," Warren said. "Here they come. Come on, let's take cover."

"Three thousand and two."

"Well I hope that was a zombie," Doc said as he fired at a running z. His last bullet.

"Incoming at eleven o'clock," Warren said.

"That's all you, kid. I'm out." Doc said. 10k fired. He missed.

"Damn." he cursed.

"It's okay, kid. Remember that time in Missouri at the Piggly Wiggly?" Doc asked.

"Frozen food section?" 10k responded.

"Guys? Zombies." Warren said. Doc threw the cake at the zombie's face and 10k piked it from behind.

"Three thousand and three." Music started playing.

"What is that?" Warren asked.

"It sounds like a phone," Cassandra said. We followed the sound until we found a phone.

"Looks like he was texting his wife or somebody when it went down," Doc said picking up the phone. "Something happened at the lab today. Can't talk now. I'll call you later. Won't be home till late, not telling us why. Putting us under quarantine. Will update when I know anything. Starting to get scared, something very wrong. Something infecting us. We might not get out of here." he read off the texts. "Tell the kids I love them." damn. The phone went off.

"What? This is a new message here from Citizen Z. Operation Bite Mark. If you get this message, please respond. Hacked and searching lab mainframe. Discovered files you should be aware of. Really weird stuff. Find working computer. Search HZN1 test results backslash backslash code name level nine. Password, red death." Doc said. Murphy pulled the dead guy out of his chair.

"What was the passcode?" Murphy asked using the computer to do what Citizen Z asked.

"Red death. Catchy." Doc said. Videos of monkeys popped up on the screen.

"Not surprising they were doing animal testing," Warren said.

"Yeah, but what were they testing? Look at the date on these videos. It's the year before anybody was infected. How did they know to be working on a vaccine before anybody was infected." Murphy asked.

"What's this?" Warren asked, pointing to the screen.

"That's her. That's Doctor Merch. That's the bitch that did this to me." Murphy got heightened.

"Okay, okay." Warren calmed him down. He played the video.

"Let's start again from the beginning." Merch said.

"Doctor Merch, I just got through telling you."

"Tell me again. We're just trying to help you."

"Don't believe her!" Murphy yelled.

"I took the suit off after my shift."

"At what time?"

"7:15, like I said."

"And then what?"

"Tossed it in the incinerator and went straight to decontamination."

"Let's back up a second."

"How many times are we gonna..."

"When you took off your suit, in what order did you remove your items?"

"I followed protocol."

"Which is?"

10k tapped my arm then tilted his head to silently tell me to follow him. I sighed and did so anyway.

"What?" I asked annoyed he pulled me away.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing. I'm fine" I told him.

"Ever since we got Murphy back you've been distant." He said leaning against the shelf.

"I'm always distant. You're not special." I said looking at our group. He put his hand on my arm and I stepped away.

"See. This is my point. You grab my hand at the golf course and now you won't even look at me." He said.

"I didn't grab your hand." I tried to play it off.

"Yes you did, your hands are the only ones that fit in mine." He said.

"Whose hands have you been holding?" I asked with more sass than I intended.

"Why are you mad at me? What did I do?" He asked.

"10k! Karma! Let's go!" Warren yelled and I left to catch up to her.

"You ok baby girl?" She asked. I just nodded and kept walking.