Infection 6
#7 of Infection
Coauthored & edited by Averis
Infection 6
A Death in the Family, Rise of a New Hope
Laying in the bad that I will die in, I waited for my last breath to come. I kept replaying the events of the past two weeks in my head. Everyone's last thoughts should be something happy. Not filled with the doom and gloom of the world outside. I consider myself lucky to die of disease rather than from one of those things or bleeding out. We had a great two weeks.
"El," I said weakly.
Walking over she smiled at me, "The pain will be over soon, my perfect days with you will be over soon." The sadness that she was trying so hard to hide was shining through so obviously, her heart was breaking just to watch me like this.
"I know you'll be broken up o-o-over my loss but I want you to stay strong. You're a natural born leader, we both know that. I also want you to know that I will never truly be gone from you, keep that in remembrance. I love you," I said weakly.
"I don't want to be around the living anymore after this, you know me well enough to understand that. I spent years alone, and even these others that have survived through this world can't stay with me after this. You opened a part of me that I wanted to keep locked away, the deepest part of me you invaded and pulled the truth out kicking and screaming."
Behind El one of the other two girls, Jenny, came in and said "Dad says you need to come see this El." her voice showed her terror, something was wrong.
Growling El walked out.
********* Bradly Hall
Hearing El slam the roof stairs door open I knew she wasn't in any better of a mood than previous days. As she came over to my position I simply pointed and she said "Fuck this day." The zombies had been coming closer for days but today there was an army of them filling all the streets in sight.
"How are we going to get out of here," I asked.
"Bomb," El said while suddenly walking along the edge of the roof.
"Where would we get the ordinance for that," I asked.
"Downstairs, we have all the ingredients to make napalm, high grade dynamite and thermite, those will easily slaughter them." She said while looking down, apparently looking for the best place to throw them."
"Well what about the sewers?" I asked
"What about them?" she asked while turning back to look at me.
"Wouldn't that be better than compromising the structural integrity?" I asked.
"Have you looked for the entrance to them, because the one in the hospital basement is bolted shut to the point that attempting to get it open would be even more dangerous than throwing explosives into the street." She said while hopping of the edge of the roof and walking back to me.
"We need to consider all viable options, I just want to be prepared," I said.
"Besides, it isn't like the city is built on stilts or has an extensive subway system; explosives wouldn't do that much to us so long as we don't get them too close to the building." She said while starting to walk back towards the door.
"Well fuck, that puts us in a bit of a bind," I said.
"Everything these days puts us in a bind, eventually we'll choke to death because our arms are bound so tightly we can't breathe," El said while picking up a stone and tossing it over the side.
"Would we die instantly on impact at this height?" I asked, thinking of a murder suicide pact.
"Well, this building stands 7 stories, and it's possible to die from much lower, but given the mass of zombies I would have to say it is unlikely that you would die." She said looking at me strangely.
"Sorry, just thinking of something stupid, just hoping maybe we'd be able to avoid the inevitable by offing ourselves, however it isn't a viable option. About Marcus..." I said.
"If we get overrun then I will kill him myself, exactly as I promised I would," some of her old hard exterior showing through.
"Maybe we should do it before that way there is no other option," I said, "Do we really want to risk our own lives?"
"Yes, giving up without a fight is the coward's way out, living is always a fight. The strong stand tall and keep knocking down the problems that face them, the weak get demoralized and die poorly or take their own lives. I will fight to the end to let him die a peaceful death." She said with fire in her actions and ice in her voice, I knew that we would survive somehow, or at least El and Marcus would until he died naturally.
"So how's Marcus," I asked.
"Dying" she said before storming back down the stairs to the roof.
Following her I said, "Look I don't know how long you guys were together but we have to face the unavoidable fact that he's dying. That being said we need to eliminate the possible threat of him turning, because if he does were screwed."
Whirling around and pointing one of her air cannons at me El said "You and I both know that the contagion isn't air-borne, it is transferred through blood and other bodily fluids, and in a living subject it takes twenty four to seventy two hours to kill then turn them. Husbands and wives and young lovers and those who gave blood after being infected unknowingly spread it at first, afterwards bites from the infected spread it. All the blood in this place has turned black if it was going to turn and if any of it was going to turn him he would be a monster already."
"'You don't know if there isn't an air borne virus, I saw the first infected. I was there to medivac them out, there were wounded. All of them wore highly flexible bio hazardous combat suits they were there to stop the weaponization of the virus, they were making bombs." I said.
"One drop of spit, one fleck of blood, that is all it takes. There is no way that this crap isn't a bio-genetically engineered virus, but I saw the computers the military had analyzing it, this virus can't be airborne because it dies without a liquid to sustain it and protect it, and you said that those guys were wounded, that is when they got infected. There is nothing else to be said about this; unless we get overwhelmed he can't turn." Dropping her weapon back into its holster she continued back down the stairs and turned off into the third floor, where they kept the medical storage.
"We'll see in a bit then wont we?" I asked out loud.
******** Felicity
As the door slammed open I was startled to see El storm in and walk right part where I was organizing the blood to give to Marcus from those that were infected or not his type. Taking an empty gallon jug off of a shelf she set it down and started grabbing other things from different shelves. "Do you need any help?" I asked her.
Hall following in seconds later saying, "We're fine dear Just get back to what you were doing."
"I'm making pre-heated Thermite and balancing the amounts on very careful scales, then I'll be making high yield dynamite, you might want to leave, and take the blood you have sorted up to Marcus's room." El said while grabbing things rapidly from different shelves and locating a scale.
"I'm here trying to convince her of the unavoidable," Hall said.
"Killing all the zombies outside, yes, I know. Marcus is dying, yes, I know, I am not going to kill him before he dies naturally from his cancer." El said while slowly balancing parts of the different vats she had surrounded herself with into the metal gallon jug while taking a heater and putting it on a very low setting and directing it at the jug.
Deciding to leave them to their bickering and get away from the explosives that El was making I took the blood that was Marcus's type and carried them back to his room. Walking in I asked "El knows how to make bombs right?"
"Are you kidding we all know how to do that. Hell the five of us could have made a nuclear weapon capable of destroying a city of around one hundred mile radius," Marcus said weakly, coughing up some blood.
"Oh, okay, because she's downstairs making something called preheated thermite and high yield dynamite, seemed like a good idea to leave her alone." I said while hooking up a new blood bag to where his old was mostly empty from internal bleeding.
"Good idea especially if Hall is bugging her, about me..." he said trailing off.
Deciding to let him rest I headed towards where Jenny was holed up most of the time to stay out of El's way. Her mood swings were deadly; she had already accidentally hurt us all in the few weeks we had been here. Arriving at Jenny's door I knocked and said "It's me, Felicity."
"Come on in, is El with ya," she asked.
"No, she's busy building explosives to deal with the zombies around the building apparently. So leaving her along is probably a good idea right now." I said walking in and seeing Jenny sitting in the bathroom doorway again.
"She knows how to make those?" she asked shocked.
"Apparently, I check with Marcus to make sure she isn't just being suicidal, according to him their group knew how to make dirty nukes." Shrugging I sat down across from her at the foot of the bed, "So how are you today?"
"Been better but I think we all have been better, and I'm not surprised Marcus can make one since he made those bikes, those are amazing, and how are you?" she asked.
Raising my paw and wobbling back and forth I said "I was alright until I got worried that El is going to blow us up, she isn't stable or anything near that right now, especially with your dad always egging her to kill Marcus."
"He is being rather persistent, but he's just trying to protect all of us. What do you think the best solution is, being as you know him better," Jenny asked.
"True, but I don't think I've ever met someone as stubborn as El, she's only tried to kill me a few times and been stopped by Marcus, so I owe him a bit. Honestly I think that between your dad and El there isn't any number of those things that can come and overtake this position so we might as well let her be happy in letting Marcus die naturally since I'm worried that if we push her she'll either throw us out of the building or kill us." Shaking my head I just stopped talking after saying that morbid thought.
"Maybe your right, but there's always the possibility dad's right, same with El. we'll find out soon enough. We both know she's not going to let us bury the body after his death," she said.
Sighing I said "True, maybe there is another reason why she's making the explosives."
"No clue, the only one who possibly could know is lying on a bed dying," Jenny remarked, "and I don't think he even knows."
"True, she's pretty unknowable, I get the impression that even he doesn't know what to make of her. These last two weeks, the time she is around him, that's the nicest I've ever seen her act with the exception being of when she didn't tell Marcus of how she came to meet me," saying that made me remember the situation myself and start blushing.
"I don't know how Marcus got away with calling her all of those nasty things, I guarantee if we said those words she'd kill us," Jenny said.
"Love changes everything, always has and always will, the coldest hearts thaw and the fieriest personalities calm. I just wish I knew I would find something like that in this world, but with what's left of it, I don't know that I'll find anyone for me, man or woman." I said smiling a bit bitter-sweetly.
"Well there are other survivors, I've been listening to a few radio signals claiming that they have a cure, not sure what to make of 'em though," she said.
"Who knows, I'm not even sure if we'll survive this hospital, let alone making it through this urban wasteland." I said while getting up to look out the window after moving the curtain aside.
"Well there has to be more out there, there was that settlement where dad and I lived for a while, sure it was a bunch of thugs but it did show a glimmer of hope." she said.
"Maybe..." I said, watching a zombie start to eat another.
******** Several hours later, a couple hours before nightfall Bradly Hall
"Is this really your plan?" I said while looking over the dozen jugs of explosives and thermite that I had helped El bring up to the roof.
"Yeah, what's wrong with it; they all die and no others will be able to get closer due to the resulting rubble and fire. Afterwards we can go out and make a wall of fire from napalm 2 since that stuff hardly ever goes out before a few days have gone by, we'll be fine." She said while setting up several of the jugs to throw them rapidly one after another.
"I hope you're right about this, because if you aren't then you're killing us all," I said.
"Well, we'll die quickly then rather than being eaten by one of those. But I'm not wrong." Picking up the first jug of thermite El was about to throw it when suddenly Felicity threw the door to the roof open and yelled "Marcus got worse!"
"What's worse mean," I asked.
Ignoring my question El put the jug back down carefully before sprinting towards the door and grabbing the top while pulling in her legs to jump over Felicity and land at the bottom of the stairs there.
"Alright I guess I'll know in a second lets go," I said irritated.
******** Marcus
"El, where's El," I asked Jenny.
Suddenly hitting the door frame El changed her momentum and was at my side immediately. "Marcus, I'm here." She could see how much worse I had gotten, I knew I felt much worse than even an hour ago.
"El I haven't got much time left, I want you to know that I love you with all of my heart, and that loosing you hurts me like something I've never felt before, or since. You'll always be my teddy bear." I said feeling much more drained, I closed my eyes.
******** El
As soon as he stopped speaking he let out a sigh and the machines we had gotten working again started beeping that he was dead, not believing it I checked his pulse myself. Feeling nothing I fell to my knees crying on his bed when I heard Hall enter the room.
For anyone else I would have just shot him then and there to make sure that nothing could happen, but I couldn't stand the thought of harming him more, even if his body was just a shell in the shape of Marcus now.
Setting a paw on my shoulder Hall said, "I'm sorry for your loss, we'll be outside." With that he, Felicity and Jenny left.
Feeling empty so inside I stood up and looked down at Marcus, his fur matted and knotted from the past two weeks. Blood spotting his fur from when he was coughing up parts of his organs. His eyes were still open so I closed them slowly, their empty gaze taking me in for the last time. Looking around I saw the Luger that I had promised to use to put a bullet through his head when I suddenly heard a sharp intake of breath from Marcus. "What the hell?"
Running back to him I saw and heard him breathing but when I checked for a pulse he still didn't have one, "Marcus, are you there?"
"... What the hell was that, I feel like I got hit by a freight train," he said.
"Um, you're dead apparently, but you obviously haven't turned into one of those things because you're talking to me." I said while waving my paw in front of his eyes and seeing them follow it back and forth.
"Well I guess dying isn't as bad as I thought, just worried about myself deteriorating now." he said holding his hands up to look at them.
"Yeah, and no heart beat means no blood flow, kinda mitigates other activities from occurring." I said laughing slightly, making jokes while being relieved that he was still alive.
"Well there are alternatives, but I'm just happy I got you for as long as you're alive anyway," he said.
"So would you like to help me with a little idea to kill the zombies surrounding us?" I asked him, smiling a bit manically.
"You really need a therapist, and does it have to deal with me killing them?" he asked.
"Noo, well, sorta, it involves a lot of explosives. I'm gonna lob them off the roof and shoot the thermite ones while they're falling so that they explode due to the pressure I put them under, then shoot the dust to ignite it, afterwards throw the dynamite off and that will explode from the burning thermite, thus killing all of them in the area and if I throw it in the right place the buildings around is will fall and crush the remaining zombies. I figured you can throw them now that you're better." I said smiling at the ingenuity of the idea.
"Alright I guess I could try, Hall is going to be pissed though," He said.
"He's been pissed for weeks; I don't think he knows how to be in a good mood." I said walking out of the room and seeing Hall standing right there. "Uh, hey Hall, how's it goin?"
"What's going on in there, I heard you talking to someone," Hall said.
"Um, yeah, the situation has become weird..." I said chuckling with no idea how to explain it.
"Try me," he said, face contorting into a snarl.
"Well I died but I'm not dead, but I'm not one of those things, maybe something to do with the cancer. All I know is I don't want to eat you." Marcus said.
"What he said." I said pointing at Marcus.
Pulling his gun out of the holster hall said, "I don't trust you."
Stepping in front of the gun I said "Care to put it to the test that you can shoot before I disarm you and then kill you with your own gun."
"Maybe I do," he said.
Watching his muscles I knew he didn't have it in him to try since it risked me killing his daughter at the same time.
Putting it back in his holster he said, "He bites anyone, and I do mean anyone I won't hesitate to kill you both, God as my witness."
"I will kill him myself." I said
"As long as we have an understanding," he said moving out of the way, "proceed,"
Nodding I started running up the hall and then up the stairs, grabbing the incendiary rounds loaded pistol that I had put down on the way.
******** Marcus "Hall, you and I need to talk later," I said following El up the stairs, when I came out the door at the top I asked "Where do you want me?"
Pointing to a set of three jugs El said "Over there, I'll finish setting these up then we can start." Running around carrying different seemingly identical metal jugs to different spots around the roof. Walking over to me finally she said "Okay, that first one there has thermite in it, I'm hoping I got the mixture right to the way that Boom showed me once, she made super thermite without needing to use nano-adjusted ingredients, that will burn hot enough and spread far enough that it will incinerate the entire street for half a block.
After that the middle one is the dynamite, throw that in at the doorway of that building there," pointing to a three story apartment building right across the way, "and from my calculations it should fall at a 45 degree angle from the doorway, crushing that intersection there, and that third one is a flammable super-heavy gas that will act as an explosive flamethrower basically."
"Alright let's get the fireworks going," I said as I hurled the thermite.
Pulling her air gun out El squeezed off three shots in quick succession and not half a second later the canister exploded with the pressure it was under, a light dust seemed to start spreading until El fired her incendiary round filled pistol and while the fire wasn't instant enough of the preheating was still there that all of the thermite was at least beginning to smolder. Picking up the Dynamite I threw it right where El pointed, right in the middle of part of the thermite. The noise of the impact drew several of the zombies towards it right before it exploded, shrapnel of it flying all the way to whiz past my ear. The building across the way started to crumble in its corner facing the intersection it was on.
"Well, after the building finishes falling throw the heavy gas in the street where there is the most zombies left, try and make it land in some of the thermite, shouldn't be too hard though." As she looked over the destruction I saw what she meant, the ignited thermite had covered a lot of the area of the streets below.
After throwing the gas canister in an appropriate position we followed a similar procedure at each of the other four corners of the building, effectively cutting off the zombies from us since they couldn't climb the rubble, a few places though our Humvee could easily just drive up a mostly intact slab.
"That takes care of that," I said.
"Yeah, Boom would have been proud, or disgusted at how inefficient it was, not quite sure since she was so obsessed with perfect explosions. That girl was a goddess with a hand grenade, or a land mine, or any other explosive." El said, watching some of the zombies still smoldering in the streets.
Behind us Felicity walked onto the roof, "So what now?" she asked, unsure of her continued survival in this world full of infection.
"We work on surviving, check the radio signals; maybe set up our own colony, there's a whole wide world out there. Let's just make each day count," I said.
"And we'll take it all by storm, after all, in this world, getting infected is forever." El said before taking out her air gun and aiming at a few living zombies below, picking them off rapidly.
Grabbing El's shoulder I turned her around while pushing her air gun out of the way and smiled at her lightly before kissing her, surprised at first she then dropped her gun and grabbed me tightly. Kissing her deeply I knew that this would all be different now, but somehow nothing would change anyway, exactly how it should be.
...Infection forever...