Episode Two

Medicinal Research

"This is amazing!" Maria said, going through the posters and samples. "They've set up a miniature CDC lab right here! I could do so much research! You two don't mind if I do, do you?" They shrugged.

"Go right ahead," Victor encouraged. She grinned and looked through some of the research files as the two helped themselves to some food. "Wait, listen to this. 'The virus evolves, as all other viruses, but it appears this virus mutates to better attune the host to the surroundings, rather than the virus to the immunities. In essence, the virus is able to MUTATE the hosts into several strains of different infected, so as to further increase the infection rate'. It evolves us."

"That's creepy," Jon commented, mouth full of Twinkies.

"Creepy, yes, but also very interesting. It looks like they only have samples of some of the infected, but records of others. Think you guys can bring me back some blood samples?"

"We've got to risk our tails to get some zombie blood?" Jon asked. She nodded. He sighed. "Damnit... Fine. But I won't like it." She grinned and nodded.

"Here are a few syringes. They describe something that pounces it's victims and attempts to tear them apart, something that jumps on your back and tries to run you around, and, it says here this one's EXTREMELY dangerous, some sort of creature that is huddled up and cries. When startled, it attacks with huge claws and attempts to rip you apart."

"Well all of these sound like a walk in the park," Victor said smiling. Jon couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "So where do we find these daisies?"

"I'm guessing on deck, if these reports have already been filed about them." Victor nodded.

"Alright, then. Can we kill them first?"

"It's preferred that you do. Just don't take any samples from where you shot them. I don't want to have to extract lead if it isn't already in the blood samples."

"Then I guess we're off." Victor and Jonathon headed out of the Safe Room and Maria slid the bar into place behind them.

"Where should we go first?" Jonathon asked.

"I don't know. Let's just look around." Jon nodded and they wandered for a while. They explored the rooms, finding interesting things, like women who had been naked, lying dead where they were at the time of infection, booze in some of the mini-fridges in the higher class cabins (which Victor drank quickly after), and miscellaneous other things throughout the rooms. But, finally, they found one of the infected strains they were after.

As Victor was downing a bottle of booze, he let the bottle drop to the floor and break. Jonathon was busying himself brushing it under the bed when he heard a low growling noise. He slowly turned to the door where a peculiar figure was crouched, wearing a jacket with the hood up to discern any facial features. Crouched on all fours, the creature slowly started forward. Victor came out of the bathroom after having vomited up all of the alcohol in his system to see the creature. The crouched figure, startled by this newcomer, pounced, aiming for Victor. It tackled him to the ground, attempting to rip at him with his claws, before Jonathon came over and kicked it in the face. Its skull collapsed inward, destroying the brain and the creature ceased to attack, falling over dead. Victor got up, gasping for breath.

"Thanks, man... I'm guessing this is that Pouncer she was looking for?" Jonathon nodded.

"Yeah. Pouncer... no, it was more hunting us. I think I may have seen it out of the corner of my eye down the hallway a bit. It's more of a Hunter."

"Hunter... I like it." Victor stabbed the syringe into the now soft part of the Hunter's exposed skull, taking a good amount of blood. "I'll write it on here so we know. 'HUNTER'." He put it back in the padded case Maria had provided them so the syringes wouldn't break. "What's next?"

"Next is the one that jockeys you around."

"Alright, let's go find him." Though this was easier said than done. They searched for a long deal of time without finding any sort of creature. They found a large, bloated figure that vomited some sort of vile, zombie-attracting substance, which they named the Puker, a zombie with a long tongue that emitted some sort of noxious gas which Victor so perversely named the Tounger, before making several perverted comments about it, and a zombie in a straight jacket that screamed and attracted other zombies, which they named the Screamer. But no jockeying zombie.

"This is tough!" Victor said, wrapping gauze around the wound on his arm he'd contracted. "Fuck, man." He sighed, sitting down in a large, comfy armchair they'd found, rubbing his temples. Jonathon heard some weird noise, like a maniacal laughing, but far off.

"You hear that?" Jon asked. Victor shrugged.

"Go check it out," he suggested. Jon shifted awkwardly before nodding and heading down the hallway. The laughing became louder and louder, until Jonathon stepped on a board, making a creaking noise, and the laughing stopped. He put his ear to the door he thought he'd heard it in, then stepped back a few steps, squinting at it. Suddenly, the door burst open, and a deformed looking infected jumped onto his back, squealing with heinous, demented laughter.

Jonathon struggled with the creature, but it just laughed and continued to jockey him around blindly. Suddenly, he felt a sting in his shoulder and fell to the ground. The creature twitched a few times before Victor shot it in the face. He held his pistol, smoking from the execution, in one hand, and a combat shotgun in the other. He helped Jonathon into the armchair, looking to his shoulder and frowning.

"Sorry," Victor said. "I got you good, didn't I?" Jonathon didn't know what he was talking about. He looked down and moaned, wishing he hadn't. A large bullet hole, obviously from a shotgun slug, had penetrated his shoulder, miraculously missing too much bone or any arteries, but it was bleeding profusely.

"This is going to hurt a lot, okay kid?" Jonathon nodded, gritting his teeth. He cried out as Victor pried the bullet from his shoulder, and almost screamed when he sprayed it with antiseptic. He wrapped it in gauze and patted it gently. "Move it around a bit, see if it hurts too bad." He rotated his left arm in a circle around the joint. It didn't hurt that bad.

"Nope, it's good," he said, smiling weakly. Victor nodded.

"Don't use it for your gun," he advised as he stabbed the creature with a syringe, taking the blood out. Jonathon nodded appreciatively. Suddenly, there was a moan. A long, sad moan, followed by several racking sobs. "This is it. The last one. We got the Hunter, and the Puppeteer. Now we need to kill this Bitch."

"Bitch? Really, Victor? How about Witch?"

"Eh. Nonetheless, you stay here. I'll kill it."

"No, she said it was extremely dangerous. I'll come for backup." Victor frowned, then nodded.

"Alright. Follow about 10 feet behind me." Jonathon nodded, and Victor started leading the way, Jon in tow. As they wandered, the crying increased in volume. Checking each room carefully, they finally found the source: a female public bathroom.

"You've got to be joking me," Jonathon mumbled quietly. Victor put his finger to his lips, a sign to stay silent. They slowly pushed open the door to assure it didn't creak, then entered quietly. The lights were dim and flickering, giving very short, dim glimpses of the room. They saw a figure, huddled in a corner, crying softly, fingertips replaced with talon-like claws. Its eyes were piercing red.

"That's that Witch thing," Victor said gently, Jon nodding.

"How're you going to kill it without startling it? I have a feeling we can't get too close." Victor paused a moment, thinking hard and looking around. Finally, his eyes sparked and he smiled as he had an idea. Ever so slowly, he laid down onto his belly, surveying the area around the Witch. Then he got back up.

"Alright, here's the deal," he whispered in Jonathon's ear. "I'm going to turn on the lights. Hopefully that'll stun her long enough for us to blow out the bolts on those stall doors. The stalls will collapse on her then we can finish her off while she's pinned." Jonathon nodded, surprised at the brilliance of the plan. "Alright, ready?" Jon nodded. "One... two... three!" He flipped on the lights. The Witch looked up, gasping, then started groaning, rising to her feet. The two dropped to the ground, Victor firing blind shots with his shotgun, Jonathon attempting to target the bolts with his pistol. One of the stalls finally heaved and collapsed onto the female zombie, now crying out in pain.

Victor ran over, leveling his shotgun as he did, and squeezed the trigger, firing a clear shot into the Witch's skull. The being was silent. Victor sighed and shoved the needle under her skin, getting the last blood sample.

"C'mon, let's head back." They began traversing the metal labyrinth once more, getting "lost" a few times, Victor incidentally finding a bottle or two of beer when they had.

Finally, they'd reached the Safe Room once more. They heard yelling from inside and started beating on the door, thinking the worst. The bar slid off and the two rushed in, finding Maria screaming over a radio that had been set up.

"You can't do that! There are PEOPLE onboard!"

"I'm sorry, ma'am. We just can't risk it. We've been told to take the ship down, no matter what."

"Wait, what?!" Jonathon yelled. "Take down the ship? How?" Maria sighed.

"They're planning on using a missile from a submarine. They're going to sink us."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Victor slammed his hand on the table. "We have your god damn samples, by the way." He set the case down on the table, picking up the microphone.

"Listen here, you. We've got at least three people still alive on this goddamn ship! You have to evacuate us!"

"Can't do that, sir. We've been given strict orders from the President of the United States himself."

"God damnit, listen to yourself talk! You're condemning innocent people to death! You can't do this!"

"We can and we will. Now I advise you find a way off that ship before we fire the missile. You've got two hours. Not like anything can really get off there anyway, aside from people like you."

"God damnit!" Victor slammed the mic onto the table. "We've got to get below deck, to the submarine, before they sink this ship. They nodded. Maria bundled several of the other samples and the reports into a backpack and slung it over her shoulder, holding her pistol.

"Let's go." They nodded. This was going to be hectic.