"I'm not sure how much longer we can take it." I tell Citizen Z on the radio.
We are currently pulled over on the side of the road because Cassandra is throwing up again. Despite our best efforts her infection is spreading. None of the antibiotics are working and her wound won't stop bleeding. I don't know how much longer she is going to live and I can tell by Warren's eyes she is thinking the same thing.
"It's only about another 150 miles to Fort Collins." Citizen Z says and I sigh. I watch as Cassandra throws up again and Tommy hands her some water while rubbing her back.
"We have a man down, Cassandra. She's not looking good." I tell him. I look the other way and see Murphy staring out the window of the car with a lost expression. "And then there's the package."
"What about the package?" Citizen Z asked frantically.
"I don't know exactly but Murphy's acting weird. More than usual." I say. "Where's this new destination?"
Ever since Zimmerman kidnapped Murphy and me he's been acting strange. I don't know if it's because he is realizing the extent of his abilities or if it's because he is scared of what the doctors might do to him. He's told me some stories of what it was like to be experimented on and he gets a far away look in his eyes when he talks about being bitten eight times.
"Just get Murphy to Fort Collins, Colorado." Citizen Z urges.
"What happened to California?" I asked uneasily.
The whole reason I joined this mission was to get back home. After we ditch Murphy at the lab I can continue on my own. But honestly I don't know if I want to be alone again or if I can make it there by myself. It's still a lot of ground to cover, especially alone.
"Labs dark again. Maybe for good. You've been redeployed." Citizen Z explained and I sighed.
"By who's orders?" I asked.
"Well I started picking up a teletype signal on the old civil defense frequency. At first I thought it was a hacker, but turns out it's Doctor Merch." He says quickly and my eyes widened.
"Wait, the Doctor Merch? As in the woman who injected Murphy?" I asked quietly hoping Murphy didn't hear the doctors name.
"Yep, just bring Murphy to Fort Collins, Colorado. Doctor Merch will be waiting for you guys." Citizen Z says happily.
"So, no more California?" I ask double checking.
"Colorado is the new California." He confirms. I say goodbye before walking over to Doc and Warren. I tell them the update and Warren sighs as Cassandra vomits again. When she is done Tommy tries to lift Cassandra but she quickly gets light headed.
"How much gas do we have left?" Warren asked Doc.
"About half a tank or so." He says shrugging.
"Do you think we'll make it 150 miles?" She asked.
"Only if it's all downhill." He says and I can see the stressed look cross her face. "We're low on ammo too."
"Come on, I'll drive. We should get going before it gets dark." I say to them and they nod solemnly.
Doc goes over to help Tommy get Cassandra into the back of the van. I'm glad we don't have to haul Murphy to California anymore since we're pretty much running on fumes, but it saddens me thinking we're all going to go our own way pretty soon. As we drive down the road Doc tells Murphy how he is going to miss him and then he talks about Murphy becoming a lab rat.
"Doc." Warren warns. "Dean, how much further?"
"65 miles or so, give or take." I shrugged.
"Anyways what are you going to do when all this is over, kid?" Doc asked Tommy.
I glance back at him in the rearview mirror and see Cassandra's head is resting in his lap as she sleeps. Worry shoots through my veins at the ashen look on Cassandra's face but I ignore it and focus on the road.
"Oh I don't know I still have 6,998 to go. I'll probably go with D to see if there's anything left of her home. Afterwards I might head somewhere up north. Z's don't like the cold." Tommy says and I can feel his eyes watching me.
"I don't fare to well in the cold either." Doc says with a chuckle, "Dena?"
"Uh I'll probably keep going towards California with 10k." I say thoughtfully, "Maybe look for some kind of sign to tell me anything about my brother. If there's nothing left for me back home I might start heading north. I might just walk until I hit Camp Northern Light. Citizen Z apparently has video games up there."
"Oh yeah that's right! You're from Pasadena, duh." Doc nods before turning to Warren. "Roberta?"
"I might go with Pasadena and 10k for a while. I've never been to California." She says and I grin.
"You're welcome to tag along." I say and she grins at me.
"How bout you, Doc?" Warren asked.
"Maybe I'll buy a boat." He says with a dreamy look in his eyes. "Sail around the world. Maybe find an island where there isn't even a Z in their alphabet."
Doc's response causes the rest of us to chuckle. We then ride in silence as Doc entertains us with elaborate stories about adventures. Eventually we make it to the coordinates Citizen Z gave us. However, it doesn't look like much. There is a metal shed and a hoard of zombies, and that's about it.
"What are they looking at?" Tommy asked as we all watched the z's stand motionlessly facing the metal shed.
"Our entrance." Warren sighed.
"Are we sure we're in the right place? It looks small." Murphy commented uneasily as Warren climbed out of the van. She opens the passenger door and Murph gets out to stand next to her.
"Lemme see your hands." Warren instructed only to receive a confused look from Murphy.
"My hands, why? What is this a hygiene thing again?" Murphy asked as he held out his hands. Much to their surprise Warren immediately locks a set of handcuffs onto Murphy's wrists. "What the hell are these for?"
"They're looking for a group of civilians transporting a prisoner. I don't want anyone mistaking. you as a zombie." Warren explained.
"Bullshit." Murphy snapped. "You don't trust me. After all the times I've saved your ass."
"Trust has got nothin to do with it. I don't want anyone piking you after we got you this far." Warren attempted to explain but Murphy just rolled his eyes.
"Let's just get this over with." Murphy growled before walking towards the shed at a fast pace.
Warren and Doc call after him but he doesn't stop. Because of the vaccine Murphy effortlessly walked past all the zombies before directing their attention at our group. He sends us two thumbs up as I pull Doc back into the van while the hoard of zombies swarm towards us. They pound against the doors shaking the van back and forth.
"How much ammo we got?" Warren asked our group.
"Two bullets." Tommy said after checking his clip.
"I got... one." Doc sighed.
"One?" Warren questioned.
"I told ya!" Doc argued.
"What about you, Dena?" Warren asked and I shook my head.
"I don't have any. Guns aren't my weapon of choice remember." I explained while gesturing to the axes and various piking weapons strapped to my belt. Warren has a calculating look on her face. I know she is trying to figure a way out so I roll down the window slightly before yelling, "Murphy!"
"What? Oh, do you want my help?" Murphy asked sarcastically. After a moment of deliberation he sighed before walking back to the van. He throws the sliding door open and grins at me.
"Drug walk?" I ask and he nods. Everyone looks at us confused before Murphy says, "Group hug."
The others question him and Murphy mumbles something about us trusting him. He puts one of his arms around my shoulders like he did at Mesa Pharmaceuticals and the rest of them huddle close. Slowly, but surely we make it to the entrance. That is where we step into this elevator that looks more like a metal cage.
"Sure doesn't look operational." Warren sighed when we entered the lab only to find everyone now dead.
"All those zombies up there must've wanted something down here." Cassandra says as she leaned heavily on Tommy for support.
"Yeah, but what?" I asked as I looked around the room.
"Same thing they always want. Brains." Doc nods.
"No, it's something different. Something inside is attracting them like a magnet. I can feel it." Murphy shook his head.
"Now why doesn't that make me feel any better?" I asked uneasily as I picked up a swipe card from a dead body. We use it to get into the next room where a birthday or more like deathday party has been set up.
"Puppies and kittens." Warren says after a loud crash is heard. It sounded like someone knocked a bunch of plastic bins off of a shelf.
"Here they come." Doc says as him and Tommy aim their guns in the direction of the noise. I help Cassandra behind a cabinet while Warren takes off Murphy's handcuffs.
"3,002." Tommy says after he shoots the first zombie. Doc kills the next one but now he is out of bullets.
"Incoming at eleven o'clock." Warren called as a third z runs towards us.
"That's all you kid, I'm out." Doc nodded towards Tommy. I watch as Tommy takes the next shot but the bullet ricochets off of the metal shelf instead of embedding itself into the zombies brain. "It's ok, kid. Remember that time in Missouri? At the Piggly Wiggly?"
"Frozen food section right after Dena and Mack wiped out in a shopping cart?" Tommy asked with a grin and Doc nods.
"Guys, zombies." Warren sighed with an eyeroll. Clearly she doesn't remember what happened. Doc shoved the cake into the zombies face while Tommy snuck up from behind and killed it with my hammer, well Garnett's old hammer.
"3,003!" Doc cheered and the sound of a cell phone starts to go off.
While the others question it I get up to insearch of the phone.. I find it and see that a guy was texting his wife right before he died but the last message, the newest one, was from Citizen Z. He gives me a password for some files and I move the dead guy out of the chair to search the files.
In these files there are videos from when they were testing the vaccine on monkeys a year before anyone was said to be infected. The second video Doctor Merch is interviewing a lab assistant about decontamination. Doc and Tommy vote to try to leave but Warren, Murphy and I put a stop to it.
The phone rings again and it's Citizen Z so Doc answers it. They talk for a few minutes and from the bits and pieces I gather that we have to decontaminate before going into the lab. I also hear something about nuclear bombs with leaves an uneasy feeling in my stomach.
"Naked?" Warren asked once Doc explained that we had to strip down to decontaminate.
"That's what he said. Then our close go in this chute here to get decontaminated with some liquid nitrogen." Doc explained.
"What are we waiting for?" Murphy says as he begins to unbutton his shirt.
"For y'all to turn around. And no peeking!" Warren says as she throws off her jacket.
We all turn in different directions as we strip off our clothes. I have to help Cassandra since she is barely even standing anymore. Once all our clothes are in the decontamination chute we all stand in a circle with our backs facing each other.
"What now?" Warren asked and I handed them all goggles.
"Eyes up front young man." I say to Tommy when I catch him looking at me. This causes him to blush and mumble a sorry. I chuckle a little and I'd be lying if I said I didn't give him a once over too. "Cassandra, are you good?"
"I feel like I'm gonna pass out." She mumbles as she gripped my shoulder to keep herself upright.
"Hang in there, girl." Warren says from Cassandra's other side. "Doc, what next?"
"10k's gotta hit that button marked decontamination in front of him." Doc said before turning to look at Murphy. He says something about the guys scars and I'm tempted to look and see for myself but I don't want to risk seeing anything else.
"Ready?" Tommy asked everyone and there is a chorus of yes'. He grabs my hand interlacing our fingers and I give his hand a reassuring squeeze. A moment later he slammed his other hand down on the big red button in front of him.
We are surrounded by an orange light as a hissing sound fills the room. When it's finally over our clothes are done with decontamination so we all get dressed.
"I think I fried my gonads." Doc says after we all finish changing. That's when Cassandra collapses against a wall almost bringing me down with her.
"Cass! Cassandra!" I exclaimed as I crouched down in front of her. Her face is covered with sweat and despite her dark complexion she looks pale.
"I don't think I can go much further." She whispered as Tommy crouches down next to me with worried filled in his eyes. The three of us have grown close since starting this mission. It makes sense we are all within a year of each other age wise and we're the youngest of the group.
"No, we're not leaving you." I say stubbornly.
"I'll carry you if I have to." Tommy says with the same stubborness in his voice. After a moments hesitation Warren finally agrees. The others lead the way as our trio brings up the rear.
"I'll cover you. Stay close." I say to Tommy and pull out both of my axes. He nods as he shifts Cassandra in his arms to make her more comfortable.
"Wait this says quarantine, can we just respect the sign?" Doc asks and Murphy stares at him.
"Dude, what are you high? We're infected already." Murphy says before entering the room. There are multiple cells and weird experiments in each one.
"Check this out, this ones gone." Tommy says while pulling me over to an open door. He already set down Cassandra against a wall where she'll be safe.
"The question is where did it go?" I ask while turning back to the others.
"Whatever it is it's still in here." Doc says uneasily as multiple creatures run through the flashlight beams. They look like zombies but something's off.
"Murphy, can you do your thing? Communicate with them?" I ask and he says he'll try.
"Guys these aren't regular zombies. They're some kind of mutant thing." He says uneasily and then they run at him, "I don't think they like me!"
Tommy pulls me into a corner. None of us can do anything about the zombies since we don't have any ammo and because of the very limited light in the room, we don't want to accidentally kill Murphy. Suddenly there is a sickening thud and the zombies fall to the ground headless.
"Let's go find Merch." Murphy growled as he dropped the zombie heads. He then turned and walked away without another word.
"What's going to happen when he finds Merch?" Warren asked a bit uneasily as Tommy went to go pick up Cassandra, who was looking worse by the minute.
"I dunno, but I'm glad I'm not her." Doc tells Warren.
"Be ready for anything. Let's go." Warren says to us before leading us after Murphy.
"Stay close." I whisper to Tommy as I follow our two older team members.
Tommy nods his head and points his flashlight over my shoulder, giving me ample clarity in the darkness while still having full use of my weapons. We finally catch up to Murphy and I try not to focus on how labored Cassandra's breaths now are. I glance back at them and my eyes fill with worry and sadness. This is what Addy was afraid of. Knowing there is nothing we can do for Cassandra now makes my heart clench with sadness and worry.
"Stop, stop..." Cassandra says weakly as she pushes on Tommy's chest.
"No, I can carry you. You're going to be fine." He insists stubbornly before she gives up and turns her attention towards me. I can see the pain in her eyes and my heart breaks.
"Please, Dena, I'm going to get you all killed." Cassandra says to me and I sigh knowing she has a point.
"Ten, set her down. Over here." I say as I put my axes away. He looks reluctant but nonetheless he sets her on the floor leaning against the wall. When I crouch down next to them Cassandra's eyes roll back in her head and her head lulls to the side. "Hey! Cass, come on!"
"Is... is she...?" Tommy asked but he doesn't dare finish his sentence. My hands are cradling her head and my fingers search her neck for a pulse.
"No, she's still alive. But just barely." I whispered and I looked up to see Warren standing behind us with concerned eyes.
"Hey, we can leave her over here." Doc says to us while pointing down the hall. Tommy picks up Cassandra's unconscious form as we follow Doc down the hall to a supply closet that happens to have a gurney in it.
"What... what happened?" Cassandra asked groggily as she regains consciousness.
"Nothing, Cass, you can stay here and get some rest, ok? We'll come back and get you after we finally hand off Murphy." I tell her gently as she grabbed my hand.
"Here, I've been saving this special since New York. I want you to have it. Just incase." Warren tells her as she loads a single bullet into her revolver.
"Thank you, Warren." Cassandra whispered gratefully. The older woman pats her shoulder as a final goodbye before leaving the room.
"Hang in there darlin'. We're gonna find you some antibiotics and we're gonna get you straightened out in no time." Doc says encouragingly to Cassandra and she nods weakly before he too leaves the room.
"Come here." Cassandra whispered as she squeezed my hand. I know she wants to tell me something private so I lean down so that she can whisper into my ear without Tommy hearing. "I love you like you were my own sister. Please stay strong even after I go, don't let it push you away from the others."
"Ok, I won't let that happen." I say quietly.
"And promise me, promise me you'll take care of him. He needs you." She said and we both glanced over to where Tommy is standing. He has his back turned to us giving us some privacy.
"Of course, I will. I promise." I tell her nodding.
"Good." She says and before pulling me into a tight hug.
I feel tears press against the back of my eyes but I try to hold them in. There is a bad feeling in my gut that this is goodbye. After we pull away I leave the room so she and Tommy can say goodbye. Not long after Tommy leaves too and gives me a tight hug as Murphy goes in to say his own goodbyes to Cassandra.
"Lets go." Murphy said after he left the supply closet. We all follow him down the hall to a biocontainment lab that he found a trail of gore leading to.
"Could this place get any creepier?" Doc asked sarcastically as we cautiously entered the lab.
"Yes." Warren stated bluntly.
"Oh, that's so gross." I say when my eye catches a heavily decomposed upper half of a corpse. I gag while turning away and Tommy holds onto my arm worriedly.
"It's alive." Warren said with astonishment.
"Is that Dr. Merch?" Doc questioned as Murphy moved closer to the creature.
"No, somebody else. I think it's the lab tech from the video." Murphy said and Tommy nudged me as he nodded to the creature.
Hesitantly I look over only to see it weakly pressing a button on the keyboard next to him. A video begins to play on the computer screen. The lab tech is in it and he was supposedly the first person to get the vaccine.
"It must have worked. It stopped him from going zombie." Doc says attempting at optimism.
"Yeah, but it won't let him die." Warren says sadly as Murphy knelt down to whisper to the creature. They all focus on the lab tech but my attention goes to Citizen Z who appeared on the computer screen.
"You guys got company. It looks like Dr.Merch and two guards coming your way." Citizen Z says on the monitor. There is a banging on the door and three people walk in. The others go to meet them but I stay back near Citizen Z's monitor.
"Dr. Merch, we meet again finally." Murphy says but when the doctor takes off their mask it isn't the lady from the videos. It's some bald guy we don't know.
"Sorry to disappoint but Dr. Merch didn't make it. I'm Dr. Kurtz, her boss." Dr. Kurtz says and I get an uneasy feeling in my stomach.
"Is this Dr.Kurtz for real?" I whisper to Citizen Z while angling myself in front of the monitor so our surprise visitors don't see him.
Uneasily I wait for CZ's reply as Kurtz talks about experimenting on Murphy in California. Murphy walks back over to me as the lab tech whispers something to him and an uneasy look crosses his face. We can't trust this guy. When look back at the computer screen Citizen Z is screaming silently. He holds up a sign that says kill the doctor.
My eyes widened and I grab my axes defensively. Before I can do anything though there is a banging on the door and Cassandra bursts in. But this isn't Cassandra, there is a bite mark on her cheek and her eyes have that same cloudy look that Murphy's eyes have.
"Don't shoot." Cassandra's voice says but it's not her. I recognize the bite on her cheek and I immediately know she is under Murphy's control. "I'm not dead."
"Kill him." Murphy says and Cassandra goes feral jumping onto one of the guards and attacking. Automatic gunshots go off and Tommy tackles me to the ground.
"Are you hit?" He asked frantically as he searches me for wounds. My eyes follow Murphy's movements as he runs out of the room.
"I'm ok. Someone has to go after Murphy." I growled as I hurry out of the biocontainment lab leaving the others behind.
"Murphy! Murphy!" Citizen Z screams as we get back to the decontamination center.
"You lead us into a trap!" Murphy yells angrily.
"No, I didn't you have to believe me!" Citizen Z says frantically.
"No, I don't!" Murphy exclaims and goes towards the exit.
"Murphy, stop!" I exclaim grabbing his arm. "Think about what you're doing. If you open that door without decontaminating a nuke will come and kill all of us!"
"Why should I care?" He says slowly.
"Damn it Murphy! It's because we're your friends!" I exclaim and he reaches for something behind him.
"They're not my friends." He says while looking at me and I furrow my eyebrow. "But you are."
Before I can say anything he hits me over the head with something and I collapse onto the floor. As I drift in and out of consciousness I hear alarms blaze and a voice yelling. I also feel the weird sensation of my hair swinging back and forth as if I am being carried. I get dropped onto something hard and that's when I black out for sure.