Bloodshed (Book One in the Apocalypse Trilogy)

Chapter 9: The Station

Location: Crater Zone/Research station

Johnny

4 Days Later

The hot desert sun was beating down on their backs as they trekked along the desert. The bags were heavy on their backs, their mouths were dry and they were all starving. The cans that Williams had found were full of mould, and they had run out of their own supplies.

Johnny looked at his companions. Williams was staring at the horizon, probably looking for the research station, Cal was looking at the map, and Jake was quietly soldiering on. He was a tough kid, never complained once.

“Please tell me we’re almost there,” he panted. Cal looked up from the map.

“We should be there,” he said. “The map says that it should be within sight.”

“I don’t care where it is, I just hope that there’s food,” Williams muttered.

Jake stopped walking and fixed his gaze on a spot in the distance.

“What’s that?” he asked. Johnny squinted at the spot Jake was pointing at.

“Is that a building or something?” he asked.

Cal and Williams also looked, and they started walking to the spot. As they neared, they realised it was a building- or what had once been a building. Half of it had collapsed onto the desert floor, and the white paint was peeling. A sign above the glass entrance, the only thing that wasn’t damaged, read “CSV Research Station”. Scattered around the collapsed building were a helicopter pad (no helicopter), a garage and a supply shed.

“What does CSV stand for?” Johnny asked nobody. However, he was surprised when Williams answered.

“Carter-Smith Virus.”

Jake, Cal and Johnny all looked at Williams, questions in their eyes.

“The zombie virus was created by a man called Daniel Carter-Smith. He was trying to create a drug that would make people stronger and longer-lived. He had labs all over the world working on it, but he accidently made a person that was almost impossible to kill.”

Cal broke the short silence that followed. “Let me guess. Side effect was flesh eating?”

Williams nodded grimly. “The first victim was an intern trying to get to uni. He was feeding the thing and it tore out his throat. And instead of creating a virus, they were now working on finding a cure.”

Johnny finally asked the question that was on all of their minds. “How do you know all this?”

"I was Carter-Smith’s bodyguard.”

***

Johnny was slightly shocked. One of his best friends had protected the man who had created the death of the human race.

“Was?” Jake asked.

A grim smile came across Williams’ face. “Well, not now. But after the first one escaped, Carter-Smith was ordered to evacuate. We were in Indonesia, and there was one seat left on the evacuation plane. There was me, him and the poor kid with his neck missing slowly bleeding out on the landing strip. He wanted to leave the kid behind. This was before I knew it was a contagious thing. I told him no, that we could save him, but he just started to run to the plane without me or the kid. I shot him in the head, and the plane took off with his body dangling from the ladder on the side.”

Johnny shook his head. “Man, you are one sick son of a bitch.”

Williams laughed bitterly. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done it. He was going to leave both of us.”

“What happened to the kid?” Cal demanded. Williams shrugged.

“He died, and I left before he reanimated.”

Johnny decided he had heard enough. He walked through the door to the collapsed building. At the end on the lobby was a steel elevator, with a pass code pad on the side. Maybe Williams knew.

Sure enough, he did. 4-2-9-5-0-3, and the door slid open. Cal seemed to have no problem with the fact that Williams had practically helped to kill the world, but Johnny wondered if he himself would ever get used to the idea.

“Going down?” he asked the others. Before they got in, he lit a joint and followed. He definitely needed it.