I swung my arm, the improvised knife I held connected with the chest of the creature attacking me, I darted quickly out of the way, swinging around the tree behind me as the thing recovered from my blow and stumbled towards me again. A voice in my mind whispered "Go for the throat, let the blood pour!" I placed one leg back to steady myself and drew the Bayonet back, waiting for my moment. "NOW" the voices screamed in unison, I swung with all my strength, it dragged as the blade connected with ligaments and bones in the things neck, It let out a strangled moan, the congealed blood spurting, some of the warm fluid hit my bare arms, but my vision was fixed on the thing in front of me as its body began to fall in my direction. I sidestepped out of the way of its fall, the leaves on the ground flew around as the body disturbed their sleeping position. I breathed a sigh of relief before placing the blade back into the holster on my belt before setting off at a half sprint to the nearest escape shaft.
The earliest memory I hold was being on the back of a boat, I was being held as I waved at a woman. An old lady, I can't remember her name although I remembered she was French as she had taught me to speak it as a child. The boat had taken us all the way to England, I was travelling there with the closest approximation of a mother I had ever known. A young woman by the name of Stasja Belinski. I had been with her as long as I can remember, along with the voices inside my head, the ones that guided me from danger, who screamed in delight when I killed, the ones who soothed me when I cried. Thousands, most of them chanting words I didn't understand.
When we arrived in England we met up with a man on the docks. This man had short black hair, he was tall and lean, his face though held many scars from acne and a fair few fights. He accompanied us to a small village where he put us up in a tiny cottage just on the outskirts and left Stasja with a shotgun. For three days we stayed in this house. It had an odd smell. Like damp and rot and burning coal, although the house looked exceptionally clean. It was one particularly cold night that he came back for us. He grabbed us both, told us to pack what few belongings we had, we headed out into the garden, underneath a particularly large conifer tree was a concealed entrance to a tunnel. For what felt like hours we walked through the endless sandy walls until we reached a heavy metal door. He knocked three times and shouted"they're here." The door swung open and the smell of tobacco smoke filled my nostrils. A short and stern looking woman with long wavy auburn hair glared at us with her ice blue eyes from beneath her fringe, her expression so severe I remembered how I had been frightened by this woman. She searched Stasja for weapons, she found none, the shotgun having been left at the house. When she turned her attention to me the voices rose from their whispers, Shouting contradicting arguments back and forth to one another as I watched her scrutinising me. Suddenly Stasja was taken away and the woman picked me up. I remember wanting to lash out at the woman but one voice rose above the rest to keep me calm. "Bewahren Sie Ruhe mein Engel"
I let the woman take me though several passages into what looked like a Doctors room. She sat my tiny frame on the large leather chair, she began checking me over, listening to my heart, looking into my eyes. She had looked more and more worried as she continued her examination of me. She asked me my age, I replied, I was six. Her eyebrows raised at this. She muttered something under her breath that sounded like "Far too advanced". She gave me simple puzzles to complete, Then another, each one getting harder as we went on. She seemed both pleased and worried I could do them. Two men entered the room, They began muttering in English to each other, I was quick to learn, but not that quick, I remembered a little of their talking. In particular they mentioned a set of numbers repeatedly, that's probably why they're stuck in my mind so strongly. One, one, five. Effects. Advanced. Unnatural. I remembered the voices beginning to murmur angrily, which was usually a good sign of me loosing my temper. I looked away and caught sight of a mirror. I quietly slid from the chair and walked over, my shoes making a quiet tapping noise. I felt them look at me, one went to make a move for me but the woman stopped him. I walked up to the tall reflective pane and stared at the girl looking back at me, Her facial features were sharp and distinct, her cheekbones high in her sallow face, framed by blonde hair, the thin pink lips pulled in an amused smile as I took in the sight of myself. My piercing green eyes taking in the slight wisps of red that ran intermittently though the green shades. I stepped back from my reflection, watching my skinny frame move. The voices started shouting things, I panicked, my brain flitting between fight or flight, I ran forward at the girl in front of me, I caught the three people behind me rush in my direction as I raised my fists in anger. Before they could reach me I hit the glass. It shattered around me. The voices seemed happy for a moment as my reflection shattered, the glass rained down around me, bits digging into my hands where I struck it. The next few moments were a blur as the woman cleaned the blood from my wrists and removed the glass. I didn't notice the pain. I just watched her as she worked, delicately prizing the shards from my fingers. She looked up at me and said "What is your name?" I remember not being able to understand her question. She sighed when she realised why I wasn't replying.
I retrieved a rope from a nearby tree overhanging the long tunnel. I hated this route but I was alone and night was drawing in ever quicker. I took a flare from my belt and struck the tip against the tree beside me, The light blazed into existence and I dropped it down the tunnel. I grabbed the rope and using the specially designed grips on my boots I shimmied my way down slowly. As I descended I looked out for the ladder that met the rope about halfway down the tunnel. Eventually with the light growing brighter as I left the outside world I spotted the glint of the ladder, I transferred my hands to the ladder, then my feet and continued my decent. I dropped the last couple of feet into the circular room made of carbide steel and dropped to the ground, I lay with my hands over my ears and as flat as possible as the motion detectors activated the security system. Gunfire filled the air as five machine guns let rip from their concealed places within the walls, bar the one foot of space we allowed for anyone using this entrance method. I stayed still and counted the beeps of the security system re-setting. One.. Two.. Three.. Voices from the other side of the door. Four.. Five.. Six.. Keys gangling as they were placed in the lock. Seven.. Eight.. "Disengage the system!" Nine.. The door slid open. I jumped to my feet, brushing off the protective leathers I wore. Nathan watched me as I did so, "Hurry up!" He begged, I walked through the door and into the bright lights of the Drakelow Facility. Nathan jogged up beside me. "Had a run in then?" I looked at him and smiled, giving him a look that indicated a coming sarcastic remark. "Nah, I just fancied covering myself in blood." He laughed before excusing himself with a reminder for me to go to the infirmary to get checked over before I went out again, standard procedure but he had an irritating habit of keep telling me, like I was still a child who needed nagging.
I continued my path to the hub, a massive circular room where the core of Drakelow's databases were located and also where we correlated our research, the "think-tank" if you like. I was hoping to find "Smoke". This was the woman who called the shots, I needed to pass the information over before we proceeded further with the arrival of our new Scientist. I eared myself a few looks from my blood covered appearance which I ignored. I reached the main doors of the hub and flashed my ID card at the stationed guards. They gave me a nod and pulled down a handle and the doors slid open, The room was dimly lit from the glowing lights of the machines, it buzzed with all the electronics that encompassed most of the space inside. I made my way to the stairs from the balcony and headed towards the round glowing machine in the centre, Stasja and "Smoke" were stood in the centre, they watched me come down the flight of steps. As I approached the Stasja took in my appearance with a raised eyebrow. I rolled my eyes, she really wasn't going to get used to me being able to going out was she."Smoke" turned to me a please smile stretching her thin top lip even thinner.
"You got the message to the village then? How are they holding up?" She asked. Her voice was strong and deep for a woman, the melodic tones rang through the room like music, It was even better when she sang, a strong timbre that surprisingly managed high notes with ease. I remembered always requesting her presence when I was sent to bed as a child so she could sing me to sleep...
At the age of ten I started to receive lessons in combat, I had previously been taught little portions of self defence arts such as Karate, but I had shown no prowess at them. Always being deemed "Too violent" by my teacher. A woman known as Eve Clarke or "The Smoke" due to her excessive unhealthy habit. She had then drafted in a teacher who proceeded to teach me how to wield swords and knives. I had excelled, my dexterity allowing me to quickly advance above my expectations. A trait Eve had informed me was probably due to exposure to "Element 115" as she refereed to it. I had little interest in why, how or what this element did, all I know is that their theory was I was subjected to it in my mother's womb. Which had given me increased natural abilities, and it probably attributed to the voices I could hear in my mind, not that I had told anyone about them.
Why had I been exposed? That was easy, my father had been a member of "Group 935" according to Stasja, so that must explain it? Right? Something went on there when my mother was bearing me? Or I was conceived? Something like that, I told you I wasn't interested in science that much. Dear old ma died giving birth and the rest is unknown, a fact I've learned to live with. Last we know of my father he was seen fighting the hordes at a facility in Germany, with three others of unknown origin before disappearing. We didn't know if they were killed, they escaped, or anything, although the massive machine in front of me gave me a few ideas. The large metal structure glowed with a brilliant blue light, the Swastika displayed proudly on the front by its original creators. This example they had managed to hijack from the Der Riese facility after many attempts at destroying the hordes. Most important to me however were a set of initials that had been etched into the back of the machine. E.R. The initials of my father, and also my own. This is just the beginning of my hunt to discover more about the man I never knew and to try and rid the world of the Zombie plague once and for all.
"Ahh, I have something I need to show you." Eve said, standing, lifting another cigarette to her lips and pulling a box of matches from her pocket, she took a moment to light up, filling the immediate vicinity with smoke. She turned and waved her hand for me to follow. I followed her to one of the many doors leading off the hub, this particular one was where we hid new technological finds. Excluding the Teleporter, which was far too big to fit in there. I felt my excitement rise, hopefully this would be weaponry, I was itching to use something new. She jammed one of the keys from the bunch that was permanently attached to her hip unless in use, then unlocked and opened the door, walking in and flicking a switch to light up the room.
The room consisted mainly of lockable metal cupboards, and a table in the centre which housed a very wide variety of tools. Upon said table there was something small and red, I walked straight up to the table, my heavy boots clunking awkwardly on the concrete floor. I took the toy into my hands and took a closer look before laughing and turning to Smoke.
"This some kind of joke?" I asked, a sneer reaching my lips as I guessed her games.
"Not at all Ella, when have I been known to play jokes on you?" She said, grinning, she walked over and went to take the toy from my hands before stopping, a look of concern crossing her features. She looked at it in my hands, as I looked down some of the glass panels were emitting a very soft glow, only noticeable due to the dim lighting. She took it from my hands and we watched the lights fade.
I should be concerned, but a lifetime of strange occurrences made things like this seem normal. Like when they got that Teleporter back a few months ago and whilst assembling it I had cause a portion of it to power up slightly. Which for a while had earned me some weird stares but Smoke had then demonstrated how useful it was by being able to recreate part of what had been damaged by the zombies. She had stated that she wouldn't have been able to do it without the ability to see how it was meant to work. Now in every case of unknown technology it was handed to me. Just to see. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it never hurt to try.
"I need 115, you're not enough." She stated, not really to me but more to herself, she turned and placed the gun back on the desk. I rolled my eyes, she had some weird theory that for some reason my exposure to element 115 when I was a baby had created an "Aura" as she termed it, some bullshit she tried telling me, trying to get me involved with the science behind it. Hell, I didn't care, the only thing I was interested in was the fact that it had made me faster and stronger than I should be.
Before I really registered what was happening I was ushered back out of the door, smoke leaving me with no more of a word, just leaving behind the sickly air. I knew what she was going to do though, she was planning an excursion out, probably out of the continent, hopefully I could persuade her to let me out this time.