"Ah, God, can you please be a little more gentle?" Mark begged.
"Trust me I'm trying, but this isn't as clean of a bite as it looks. These sharks have a crisscross bite pattern that is making this more difficult than it should be." George explained.
"Am I going to lose the leg?" Mark asked, he tried to sound confident, but his voice quivered.
"I'd say there's a ten percent chance of that, but I'm working on it, so don't think about that right now." George said and bent over Mark's leg to work.
"The bastard snuck right up on me." Mark recounted to the others. "They're more clever than I gave them credit for."
"Yeah, they tried to trap us in. I wonder if the sickness is the cause of that." Cindy thought aloud.
"Maybe it's just a pack hunting thing. I mean it's not like I'm an expert on sharks, but it's a possibility." Kevin suggested.
"You've seen Shark Week one too many times." Alyssa laughed out.
Kevin smiled and wrapped his arm around her.
"Hey, Jim, what about that blockage you were talking about?" Yoko asked.
Jim sat up and turned back to the monitors. "Yeah, right, I saw a warning on one of the screens about a vent that's blocked, or clogged, or something." He hit a few keys and the message popped up.
WARNING BLOCKAGE IN EMISSIONS TOWER
"When I tried to find a camera in the Emissions Tower, I just got this." Jim hit a button and the screen turned black. "The camera's not out because every so often you can just barely make out some movement, but that's about it."
He started typing again and the monitor flicked from black to showing a corridor. The camera panned around, showing some zombies lingering around a few of the doors in the corridor, and ended at a T-intersection.
"What are we looking at?" Cindy asked.
"Give it a second." Jim said and held up his index finger. Almost as soon as he finished a gigantic wasp flew across the screen.
"Shit!" David cursed. "How big is that thing?"
"That's what I'm saying, those things are huge." Jim explained.
"Those? There's more than one?" Yoko asked.
"I've seen two so far, but I can only guess that there's a hive somewhere. I've never only seen one or two wasps."
"Damnit, how are we supposed to fight those things?" David's frustration was evident.
"I might be able to help actually." Kevin said. He walked over to where Jim sat and opened one of the drawers on the table next to the monitors. Inside was a large can of pesticide.
"You've got to be kidding me." David laughed. "How is that going to do anything to them?"
"Hey now, they're still just bugs, this thing kills bugs. You might want to give it a try before you knock it."
David looked at the can and smiled. "I have a better idea." He walked over and took the can from Kevin and walked over to the corner of the room.
"Okay, Mark, I think you should be fine, but you need to stay off that leg as long as possible." George said as he stood up. "That means you can't come with us."
"I figured as much, I was planning on sitting this one out." Mark said with a nod.
"That means you're down a person." Alyssa pointed out.
"I guess so, but we should be fine." George noted.
"Kevin, you should go with them." Alyssa suggested.
"I can't, I'm here for you." Kevin sounded confused.
"I'm here safe in this office, I've got Jim and Mark here with me, they need you." She pressed.
"But, what if…?" Kevin sounded like a cornered animal searching for a way out.
"Come here." Alyssa ordered.
Kevin walked over to her and sat down. Alyssa took his chin between her index finger and thumb.
"I'll be here worrying about you. You don't get to worry about me, is that understood?" She demanded.
"Yes." He almost sounded sullen.
Alyssa pulled his face close and kissed him long and hard. When she let him go, Kevin cleared his throat and stood up. "I'll be back."
"All right Schwarzenegger." Alyssa grinned.
David came back to the group. "This is my answer to your shitty pesticide." He held out to them a homemade flamethrower. A lighter had been attached to the can with some duct tape and broken just enough that the flame was larger than it was supposed to be. He squeezed the knob twice in short bursts. A brilliant green flame shot out both times.
Kevin frowned in admiration. "I suppose that could work a little better, but I'll keep my shotgun just in case."
"Damn right it will. Those goddamn bugs will only know what hit them once they are already frying. We'll see if you get any use out of that shotgun." David bragged.
"Now that we have weapons and our group, Jim can you tell us what we're looking at?" George asked. "Do you have a map of the area?"
"All of these cameras are disjointed since some of them are blacked out, so I really can't tell you which room leads to which room. What I can tell you, though, is that right here," Jim pointed to one of the monitors. There was what looked to be a large piece of paper stuck to one of the walls of a hallway. It had a design that appeared to be a map. "This could be what you're looking for, and I think this might be the room where the elevator lets you out anyway."
"Great, that should make it less impossible." Kevin complained.
"It's just a few bugs, they can't be worse than the leeches." Cindy reminded them.
"Those leeches were terrible." George recollected. "Let's not get over confident though. Come on."
"Oh, wait, before we go, we should leave this with you." Yoko added. She reached into her backpack and took the P-Base out. She left it on the table next to Jim.
"I'll make sure to take care of it." Jim said with a smile.
With the first ingredient secured, they started toward the next. David examined the flamethrower in his hand as they made their way to the elevator.
"That thing better not explode on us when we're using it." Kevin warned as he called the elevator. The bell dinged and the doors slid open.
"I can't say that it won't, but it shouldn't." David explained as he walked into the elevator, still looking at the flamethrower.
"That's reassuring." Kevin mumbled.
George pressed the button for the fourth floor basement and leaned against the wall.
"What do you think are our odds of this vaccine working?" Cindy leaned close and whispered to him.
George set his jaw as he considered the question. Peter was a damn good doctor, and researcher, but unless he had been working on the actual disease, he didn't think it would work. Peter wouldn't have called George here unless it could work though, and that would mean…
"Peter's good at what he does, I can't ask you to trust him, but I do." George finally said.
"And I trust you." Cindy squeezed his arm.
"Thank you," George wrapped her hand in his. As much as he wanted to stay like that, the elevator bounced to a stop and the doors rolled open into the room Jim had shown them on the monitor.
"I can see you guys, it looks like I was right." Jim said.
Cindy took the radio from her belt. "It looks like you were why don't you keep being right and tell us where to go?"
"I wish I could, but you're going to have to look at that map there to figure that one out. I'll let you know what I can though."
David walked over to the map and pulled it off the wall. He scanned the paper for a minute and pointed to something. "Found it, it's not too far away."
George looked over his shoulder and followed the room marked "Emissions Tower" back to where they stood. It was only about five rooms away. Hopefully they would be able to get what they came for and get out quickly.
"This isn't that bad. Cindy can I have the radio?" George asked and held his hand out. She gave him the radio and looked at the map. "Jim, it's not that far, can you just tell us if you see any more of those wasps?"
"Will do, just watch your backs, there are a lot of dark spots."
"We'll do our best." George finished and gave Cindy the radio back.
"According to the map, we have to go that way." David said, looking up from the map and pointing to a door off to their left. "It should lead to an access waterway. So I guess we won't get to dry off yet."
"I was just starting to get a little comfortable too." Kevin complained.
"Getting a bit too used to that nice security room, huh?" David joked.
"It had its perks." Kevin retorted.
"I'll bet it did." David said with a wink.
"Why don't we quit the banter and get going boys." Cindy smirked.
"Yes ma'am." David tipped an invisible hat at Cindy and started toward the door. As David had said, the door read Access Waterway and led into a sewer-like construction with cement walls arched into a cylindrical enclosure. Directly in front of them was a set of stairs leading into a shallow river of water. Just above the din of the running water, George heard a soft clicking.
"Anyone else hear that?" He asked.
"Yeah, what is that?" Kevin added. He brought up his shotgun and aimed it down the stairs. Without waiting for anyone to answer, he began down the stairs. As soon as the sound of his boots clopping against the stairs mixed with the clicking, the clicking stopped. Kevin paused for a moment, but soon continued down the stairs cautiously. He stopped at the end of the stairs and just before the drop into the water. Hugging the wall, he slid out and peered around the corner. "Shit!"
Kevin screamed and pulled himself back around just in time to miss the largest spider George had ever seen launching itself at his head. The spider had odd green and black strips on its hairy back that made George think of a sickly tiger. It turned back toward Kevin with unnatural speed and raised its two front legs. Kevin let off a shot with his shotgun and sent the spider flying into the gate behind it. The spider landed on its back and for a split second looked like it was in trouble of not being capable of getting back onto its legs, but it righted itself quickly and hissed at Kevin. It raised its legs again and before Kevin could get a shot off, it squirted a dark green liquid-y goo at him.
Kevin fell backwards onto the stairs when the goo hit him. He cried out and wiped at his face, peeling the goo away and spitting the bits that got in his mouth out onto the stairs. David and Yoko were already firing at the spider as Cindy and George rushed to Kevin's side.
"Are you okay?" George asked.
"I feel like I'm going to throw up, that shit got in my mouth!" Kevin growled through coughing fits. "Other than that though, I feel fine."
Cindy produced a handkerchief from her pocket and gave it to Kevin. "We had better keep an eye on you just in case though."
"That was my thought too." George added. The firing had stopped and when George looked up, the spider was twitching lifelessly. "Is it dead?"
"I would say so, we shot it enough." David said.
"Good, I need to look at it." George said to no one in particular as he rummaged through his medical bag. He took out a syringe and an empty glass bottle. Carefully, George approached the corpse and prodded it with his foot. The spider shifted, but it looked like death throes to George and so he leaned in closer. He moved the mandibles and searched for any sacs that would carry the poison. It took him longer than he would have liked to admit—he usually operated on humans after all—and extracted some of the poison from the sacs. He injected the poison into the glass bottle and placed both the needle and the bottle in a side pocket of the bag. "I don't know if these things can spread their poison around through that goo, or if they need to bite you, but if you start to feel sick Kevin, I should be able to make you an antidote with this."
"Wow, Doc, you can do that?" David asked.
"Don't be too impressed, in theory I can do that. I just hope I don't have to test that." George corrected him.
"I hope you don't have to either." Kevin said as he used the wall to stand up. "I think I'm good now, why don't we just get out of this damn room."
Following Kevin's advice, they made their way through to the next area where they found a scene of unrealistic destruction.
"Oh my God." Cindy whispered.
"How could this happen?" Yoko asked.
Before them was what remained of two large cargo trains. The tracks that they had once rode upon were curled up into the air and in certain sections were so completely torn up that large holes in the ground had replaced where they once were. The trains had collided a few hundred feet from where they stood and merged together from the force. Most of the cars were overturned and bent in angles that would have crushed anything inside.
George saw blood stains and burn marks covering large parts of the walls and in the distance, near where the trains collided, he saw bodies, but none of them were whole. It looked to him like some sort of explosion under the tracks had occurred and rent the area in two. Could they navigate this wreckage? As if answering George's unspoken question, David reassured everyone.
"The door we need to take is over there." David pointed to where George had seen the bodies. "We just need to find a way over there."
"There has to be a way over." Yoko said. "Maybe we can get across through one of those cars."
"Let's take a look." Kevin said and cautiously approached the nearest car. The pathway to the door they had to go through was clear except for a large gaping hole that fell down at least two stories next to one of the trains. Luckily, it looked like the train crossed the chasm. The car was balanced precariously over the chasm, only being held up by its wheels. Kevin tried the door on the car next to them and it opened easily. "Okay, let's take this slowly, I'll go first and see if it can support my weight."
When no one objected, Kevin climbed the short set of stairs onto the train and carefully made his way through the car. He walked to the end of the first car and stopped. Kevin hopped a short experimental hop. When the car didn't move, he tried a higher jump and then continued. The car didn't move.
"It feels pretty sturdy actually." Kevin said and continued through to the next car.
"Why don't you head through Yoko?" George suggested.
"Okay." Yoko nodded and climbed into the car. She passed through quickly and went into the second car about the time Kevin exited the train on the other side of the chasm.
David went next walking carelessly through the car. The car rattled softly as he moved. He stopped suddenly, aware that he was shaking the car, and continued into the second car with more care.
"You go next, I'll be right behind you." George said to Cindy and gently pushed her toward the stairs. She went up without need for any more coaxing. The car creaked as she moved so she slowed down and crept into the next car.
"George, wait until she comes out, I don't like how it's moving." Kevin shouted from across the chasm.
"I was just thinking that." George agreed. He took the medical bag off his shoulder and walked over to the edge of the chasm. "Here, hold this for me?"
Kevin held his hands out and George tossed the bag across the chasm. He caught it and placed it next to his feet. After another minute, Cindy walked out of the car and joined the rest of them. "Okay, go ahead!" Kevin shouted.
George climbed the stairs and took a look around the car. He was surprised to see seats. He had thought it was a cargo train by its size, but there must have been a train stop for the university here. Thankfully, it didn't look to have any passengers at the time of the crash.
He took his steps warily, making sure to limit his movement. Despite his caution, the car shook and rattled with each step. Where Kevin had been able to jump up and down, George felt the car sway with each step. He held onto the poles next to every other seat to steady himself as he walked. George was only a quarter of the way through the car when he heard the crack.
One of the wheels that was holding the car up snapped off. The whole car shifted slightly, causing George to slip and slide, but since he was holding onto the poles, he did not fall. For a moment, he thought he felt the car quaking, and thought he was going to go over the edge, but realized that it was him that was shaking. He took a minute to calm himself and tried to will his heart to beat slower. After a while, George began to move again. The car swayed much more now and so he had to move even slower. By the time he was halfway through the car, he was concentrating entirely on placing one foot in front of the other.
Step.
Step.
Step.
George was only a few more steps from the end of the car when something caught his leg and pulled him to the floor. He crashed down with a resounding thud. He turned over to see a lone zombie pulling itself toward his leg. It moaned as best it could with half of its face missing and only a few stray tendons holding its flapping jaw onto the other half.
George wanted to kick at it, but instead tried to push its hand off. It wasn't working, the zombie's grip was too tight. He tried to back away to the door, but it held his leg steady.
"Shit, shit, shit," George cursed and futilely pushed at the zombie's face. "Get off me damnit!"
"George, what's going on?" Cindy called out.
"One of these bastard's got me!" He answered.
"Shoot it and move on!" David exclaimed.
"My gun's in the bag!" George shouted back. "To hell with it."
George kicked violently at the zombie's face, rocking the car with each blow. There was another crack outside and the car shifted enough that the zombie was thrown to the side and George was able to use the momentum to knock it off. It stumbled backwards and hit the windows of the car heavily. He scrambled to his feet and made his way shakily into the second car just before the third and final crack sounded.
The train cried out with one loud groan as the car he had just been in slid into the chasm, pulling the second car in with it. George fell backwards and caught onto one of the poles before he could fall through the door into the first car. He was dangling above the open doorway as the car slowly slid into the chasm. It stopped falling, but slid across the edge of the chasm and swung side to side, threatening to fall over, but not following through.
Breathing heavily, George pulled himself up so that he was hugging the pole and didn't move. He could hear the others calling to him, but all he could concentrate on was not slipping and falling. George hung there until his arms burned from the effort of keeping him up. When it was clear he had to move, George struggled and hauled his body up to the first set of seats. He stood on the seats and caught his breath.
Moving sloth-like, George climbed along the seats slowly, stopping every so often as the car swung back and forth to steady himself. He pictured himself climbing a ladder; it was easy since he was making the same movements. Hand over hand and foot over foot he made his way half-way through the car. When he reached the half-way point, he faced a problem. There was a gap between the seats that he couldn't cross by stretching. He was going to have to jump.
The car rocked and swayed like a pendulum, scraping and crying along the edge of the chasm making it hard for George to position himself into a suitable jump. He clambered up onto the last seat and hunched over unsteadily. He had to wait for the right moment to jump, if he jumped while the car was swinging the wrong way, he could miss the pole. George waited and watched as the car swung, calculating the most opportune time to jump. So, when the car swung back again, he leapt up and just barely caught the pole. Quickly, he readjusted his hands to compensate for the movement of the car and pulled himself up so that he could once again stand on the seats.
George didn't stop to catch his breath this time, the car was swinging more and more because of his climbing, and the metallic groans grew louder. He didn't have much time. If the car was going to fall, it was going to do it soon. As fast as his body would let him, George climbed up the seats one by one.
When he finally reached the door, the car had slipped farther into the hole and the door was no longer level with the edge of the chasm. George stood on the side of the door and squeezed through the narrow entrance. David and Kevin held out their hands for him, but he couldn't grab their hands even with the car swinging as it was. Once again, he would have to jump.
"You're going to have to catch me." George ordered.
"That's fine, just jump, we'll catch you." Kevin reassured him.
George he crouched down and got ready to spring forward. He took a deep breath and measured the swings of the car.
Toward. One.
Away. Two.
Toward. THREE!
George pushed off as hard as he could and slammed hard into the edge of the chasm, hitting it with his stomach. He folded over onto the floor so that only his legs were hanging over the edge. George felt two pairs of hands grabbing at his pants and hauling him over onto solid ground. He just laid there for a while breathing heavily. The car began to steady itself and eventually only swung a few inches either way.
"That was insane." Cindy said to George as she knelt down next to him. She pushed some of his hair away from his eyes. "You're going first next time."
"If I didn't risk my life, I wouldn't be able to lay here and have you care for me though." George said with a smile. Even though he was smiling, he could feel his legs starting to seize up again. "Here, help me up? I need to walk off some of this adrenaline."
Cindy pulled him up and George paced around, trying to get the pain to subside. He could feel his muscles tensing, and the pain was spreading.
"Are you okay to go on?" Yoko asked.
"Of course, just give me a minute to realize I'm not actually swaying still, and I'll be right as rain." George joked. They had to move on, the pain would subside soon enough and pacing around wasn't doing him any good. "I think I'm ready now, we can continue."
David led them through the door with the map held at his side in one hand and a pistol in his other hand. They entered the hallway Jim had shown them on the monitor with the zombies and wasps. There were doors at varying intervals along either wall until the right side abruptly stopped into the head of the T-intersection. From there the left wall continued the pattern of rooms, but the right wall had no more doors.
The radio at Cindy's side crackled. "I can see you guys. I don't see any of the wasps, but be careful you have two zombies waiting for you at the turn up ahead. They are right around the corner."
"Thanks Jim." Cindy replied.
The sound of the radio must have alerted them because as soon as Cindy replaced the radio at her side, the moans began. Two men in casual business attire and lab coats shuffled into view. Their faces were bloated and gross, unlike any other zombie George had seen. The only thing that came close was in the hospital in the woods where the plants had merged with the zombies. George shuttered at the thought.
"I got them." David said and took a few steps and shot the zombies in the head with two quick shots. He was far enough back that when the sores on the zombie's faces broke and puss and blood squirted out, he was clean of the splash area. "Oh God, what the hell?"
David covered his mouth with the back of his wrist and retreated a few paces.
"What happened to them?" Cindy asked.
"Do you think it was the wasps?" Yoko suggested. "I know bugs like that can cause allergic reactions, but I can only guess that, enhanced as they are, they might cause this."
"So getting stung is not an option." Kevin said.
"Yeah, I don't really have enough Epinephrine for that. Hell, I don't even know if that would work." George mused. "Let's just try to not find out."
"Then let's keep moving." David said. "There should be some stairs or something around the corner because we have to go up a level."
"I think I remember seeing a ladder on the monitor." Yoko added.
David nodded and walked around the corner. Sure enough, the ladder was right there, and so he began to climb. The ladder led them to an access hallway full of pipes and grated walk ways. There was only one exit, however, and the door read: EMISSIONS TOWER.
"Finally, now we can get this thing and get out of here." Kevin sighed and opened the door.
He hesitated to take a step when he saw what lay beyond the door. Inside, the Emissions Tower was covered in sticky, hexagonal, wax-like structures. The din of buzzing was ever present, and George could see movement overhead. They had found the hive.
