Fifteen minutes had past since Rhodes and Alex parted right outside of the complex. Walking back inside, Rhodes found himself never feeling so happy before in his entire life. Having been born to a strict family who rarely showed any affection he remembered running away at age fifteen and joining the military. Since then it had been his entire life. Now walking down here, cut off from the rest of the world he began to feel the weight and pressure of his life slowly begin to slip away. Ever since Alex arrived here a few months ago he knew for sure that he had fallen in love. Not being the best at relationships, he knew she was different. The two had been just started sleeping together, and he knew how quickly word spread down here. Starting to feel his temper raise, he knew if any of those idiots said anything he would kill them. Alex was special…
Smiling he went into Cooper's office and sat down with the rest of the men. All the while he kept thinking of Alex's beautiful sparking blue eyes.
Alex meanwhile made the most fatal mistake of her life.
She went into the mess hall alone.
Feeling excited that she had found the synthesizer, and it's excellent condition she walked down the corridor with it tucked underneath her arm and softly humming to herself.
For the first time in awhile she felt happy.
Ever since Ryan had died she really didn't know what she was going to do with herself. But somehow she felt safe here…she had made friends, and met Jim. Thinking of him she smiled and pushed the door open.
The mess hall was a huge room with cave life ceilings. Alex often joked that it was the size of a football field. With her boots clicking against the pavement floor she noticed Anderson sitting at one of the tables with his head down. Stopping, Alex watched him for a second and sighed.
Besides Steel, and Rhodes she really hadn't gotten that close with the other men. She horses around with them, and played cards almost every night…yet still she hadn't really gotten the chance to know them yet. As far as she knew Anderson had problems. He was in the middle of a "mental breakdown" as Sarah had mentioned once. And more then once as Rhodes and her laid in bed, he would often complain about how emotional Anderson was getting from the stress.
Biting down on her bottom lip she couldn't decide whenever or not to stay. She knew she might disturb him. Thinking of John and McDermott, she had seen them in the radio room while walking in. Sighing she stuffed one of her hands in her pockets and shifted the weight of the synthesizer under her arm.
That's when Anderson looked up, his eyes raw from crying.
"Alex?"
Alex stood there for a second having no idea what to say. Taking a deep breath she looked embarrassed seeing him like this.
"Ummm, sorry I didn't think anyone was here."
Anderson quickly wiped his eyes before forcing a smile.
"No…it's okay, just having some lunch."
Anderson motioned towards one of the small metal trays in front of him. Holding up his fork he smiled again and motioned for her to come over.
"I didn't want to disturb you…"
Suddenly Alex felt extremely uneasy. Thinking of turning around and joining up with John and McDermott didn't seem like a half bad idea.
"Alex?"
Alex walked over before setting the synthesizer down on the table, Anderson looked it over.
"What's that?"
"It's a synthesizer."
"Oh…I've seen those before, their like a piano right?"
Alex smiled, Anderson really didn't seem like that bad of a guy, just scared and lonely.
"Right…I found it out in the caved with some other junk…"
Anderson watched her nodding, Alex noticed he was unshaven and his eyes were bloodshot.
"How does it work?"
"I'll show you…"
Alex turned around, her back facing Anderson as he sat watching. Leaning over, Alex blew dust away and began to turn it on when it happened.
Anderson's face crumpled up in rage before he grabbed the metal fork in his hands and jumped up. What he saw instead of Alex was a zombie…a filthy zombie.
The same as the ones outside…waiting to come in and eat him alive.
Knocking his chair back it almost happened in slow motion, springing at Alex he wrapped his arm around her neck and jerked her backwards. Alex didn't even have a chance to scream.
Her eyes bulging out, Anderson's arm wrapped tightly around her nearly choking off all of her air. Her boots skidded against the ground before Anderson raised the fork and raised it. Alex watched, trying to struggle and get away.
That's when Anderson stabbed her in the neck.
Alex's eyes became huge when he drove the metal right into the side of her neck with all his force. Right away dark, almost purple blood began to squirt out and spray across the floor, nearly ten feet away. Anderson grinned in the middle of his madness and twisted the fork inside her and drove it up. Alex escaped a horsed groan before he let go and let her fall to her knees.
Alex fell down to the ground like a pile of bricks. Blood sprayed out like a fountain, first down her neck and blouse like a waterfall, then to her jeans and onto the floor. Blood gushed through her laced fingers that tried to cover the wound. Seconds later she watched as Anderson watched her, dropping the bloody fork to the ground.
"Bitch!"
That's when he kicked her in the ribs.
Alex was able to scream, blood choking up from her throat. Falling to the ground on her side she tried to protect herself as Anderson kicked her again, his voice raising as he screamed.
"You bitch!"
He screamed again, driving his boot into the side of her. Doubling over, Alex held herself as more blood sprayed on the ground. Laying there she began to choke and feel blood start to drip from her mouth. Everything began to spin as she held onto herself, praying that someone would come. Laying there in her own blood she didn't know why she deserved this. After everything that had happened this would be her end? Laying there, as her legs began getting numb she stared up at Anderson and saw he had lost his mind.
John was right…it was a mistake being here.
At that exact moment, down the corridor Cooper stopped mid-sentence and froze. All of the men, sitting around smoking and drinking beer froze as well. Rhodes who was standing beside the maps stopped as well. That's when in the distance they heard Anderson's screams.
Right away everyone looked at each other. That's when Cooper stood up quickly and began to run. The others followed quickly. Steel grabbed his gun and ran past everyone, making the lead.
John and McDermott watched as the men rushed past the door, right away the two men looked at each other and knew something was wrong.
Getting up, they followed behind.
By the time Cooper and Steel flung the door open, everyone seemed to crash into each other in the small doorway. Cooper's cigar that he had been smoking fell from his mouth. Steel meanwhile looked in complete shock.
That's when Rhodes pushes the men aside and came between Steel and Cooper. He froze as well.
Anderson was sitting on one of the tables, right beside the synthesizer which was covered in blood.
In fact…
Blood was everywhere.
It was sprayed all across the floors as if somebody had thrown buckets of red paint down. It splattered against a few of the tables and chairs. Alex meanwhile was laying in the biggest puddle of it, her clothes soaked and her head down.
"ALEX!"
Rhodes screamed running as fast as he could, Steel and Cooper ran behind him.
"ALEX!'
Rhodes screamed at the top of his lungs, his boots pounding on the floor. The rest of the men along with John and McDermott stood in the doorway watching.
Rhodes nearly slipped in Alex's blood, his boots skidded for a second before he broke down on his knees and grabbed her. She laid there, slumped over like a used rag doll. The side of her neck looked as though it had been chewed open. The blood wasn't pulsing and pumping through as it had seconds ago. Instead it slowly trickled down in the sticky puddle she laid in.
Her blouse was soaked, once a light blue…now an ugly purple. Her jeans were stained and so wasn't her skin. Streaks of blood covered her, and she looked white as a ghost, her lips and eyelids blue. Rhode's eyes bugged out as he began shaking her, completely hysterical. Cooper and Steel simply stood there before Steel looked over his shoulder and yelled to some of the men to get the doc quick. Right away most of the soldiers turned around, bumping into John and ran out…not wanting to see anymore.
Their stomachs had turned.
John and McDermott slowly approached what was going on…all they could see was blood.
Rhodes held onto Alex, begging for her to wake up. Cooper stepped closer before shaking his head.
"She's gone captain."
Rhodes looked up as he gently rocked Alex's lifeless body in his arms.
No…God couldn't be that cruel. Alex couldn't be dead.
Looking down at her, his eyes wide and crazed he saw she was really dead. Cooper placed his hand on his shoulder before Rhodes violently stood up, shoving his hand away. Alex's body rolled to the side, half deep in her own blood. Standing, his clothes dripping and now stained he drew his pistol out and looked at Anderson who was still rocking back and forth, his hair had Alex's blood in it.
"Captain don't!"
Cooper started, but Rhodes didn't care. He fired six times straight at Anderson, knocking his body down and falling into a tangle of metal chairs. The loud gunshots filled the air as Rhodes kept firing until his gun clicked empty.
Standing there, Steel looked over and saw what Rhodes had done to Anderson, his eyes then dropped back down to Alex's mangled body. Cooper slowly and with care stepped behind Rhodes and took his gun from him. Silence now filled the room before the door swung open again and Dr. Logan, Fisher, and Sarah came running.
Steel stood up and yelled at the rest of the men to stay out. Quickly Johnson shut the door behind them. Miguel looked in for only a brief second and thought he was going to be sick. The doctors came running, their lab coats flapping behind them.
Sarah stopped for a second and looked at all the blood, her stomach gave an uneven shake before Fisher quickly kneeled down in the blood and felt for Alex's pulse.
Nothing.
Looking up, he shook his head to Cooper.
Rhodes saw this.
"Don't just stand there! Fucking help her!"
Cooper eyed Steel and watched as Dr. Logan opened his medical bag.
"Steel…"
Rhodes went to run back over to Alex but Steel grabbed him and held him back. Rhodes fought, kicking up his legs before Dr. Logan produced a syringe and began to walk over.
"Don't you crazy fuck! Let me go!"
Steel held him down as Dr. Logan gave him the shot. Rhodes kept fighting for another few minutes before his kicks and screams began to weaken. Seconds later Dr. Logan helped Steel place him on one of the tables.
"He's sedated."
Cooper stood back sighing before rubbing his temples.
"Take the bodies…bury them…I'll get my men to clean the mess up…"
Cooper turned and slowly began walking away. Sarah meanwhile stared down at Alex's body and tried to find control. She didn't want to cry…mostly in front of Steel.
Dr. Logan asked Steel if he would help carry Rhodes to the medical bay. Steel picked Rhodes up in a single scoop and walked out with Dr. Logan in front of them.
Fisher stood up, wiping his hands on the sides of his pants. John then stepped forward.
"We'll get some bags from the labs…carry them up top."
Sarah wanted to say something, wanted to stop things from happening so fast. One of her friends were just killed…didn't anyone see that? Looking over at Anderson's body she felt sick to her stomach. Taking a deep breath she nodded.
An hour later Miguel and Torrez were both mopping up the mess. Twice Miguel had to turn away from gagging. They blood came up easy with the mop and hot water. Soon it was just pink suds in the buckets they used. Scrubbing they tosses out the two tables that had gotten ruined along with the chairs.
It took nearly two hours to finally clean everything up. At one point Torrez picked up the bloody fork and held it up. This made Miguel sick and he ran to one of the trash binds to throw up.
The mess hall looked exactly the same now, as if none of these horrible things had happened just hours before. Pushing in the chairs, Torrez cracked some remark about never wanting to eat in this room again. Before leaving, pushing the mops and buckets away, Miguel motioned towards the synthesizer.
"What about that?"
"Just toss it back in storage."
Minutes later they flicked off the lights and left everything in darkness.
Steel, Miller, and Rickles were in charge of burying the bodies. It was nearly sunset when the graves had been dug.
Exhausted, and hot from working in the sun, Steel spit and leaned against his shovel. Laying in the grass were two black rubber zip up bags. Alex in one…Anderson in the other.
Just then they heard the platform start going off, turning they waited until Dr. Logan appeared…his lab coat still covered in stains.
"How's the captain?"
For once the men didn't taunt Logan or call him names. Logan pushed his broken glasses up on his nose before walking over.
"He'll be sedated until later tonight…I have Fisher and Sarah watching him."
"Jesus…"
"Cooper wants to speak with you all…I'll finish here."
"Yeah right old man, you'll give yourself a fucking heart attack."
Logan watched the beautiful sun began to change the sky's color into a deep shade of red. In the distance the zombies groaned and pressed against the fence.
"You did most of the work…I'll destroy them as well…Cooper's orders."
Steel glanced at the men with a very uneasy eye before nodding. Unhooking one of his guns he handed it to Logan.
"Just make sure in the head…that's the only way they won't come back."
"Don't worry, I know."
The men all nodded in agreement before dropping the shovels and walking to the platform. Seconds later the beeping filled the air and they were gone.
Logan stood looking at the two body bags, before watching the sun set.