The sputtering “gack” sound that came close by reminded him that he still had a job to do. He lifted his head to see Reynolds on his back, his chest rapidly rising and falling.

  Pierce stood, a motion that took a lot of strength. He lumbered to Reynolds and fell on one knee next to him. Reynolds was coughing blood, the muscles on his neck contracting and relaxing. He turned his head to Pierce.

  The hate and fury that were supposed to be on his face were not there. He smiled at Pierce.

  “Well… well done, Pierce,” he said.

  “Why did you do this, captain? We all trusted you with our lives. We were a team.”

  He wondered why he even bothered asking. Was he trying to find reasoning behind the captain’s actions or simply giving him a chance to redeem himself for the sake of all the missions they went on together?

  “There are far more important things than camaraderie, Pierce. I thought you, of all people, would understand. This project will change the future of our country. I will die in peace, knowing I did my part.”

  Pierce stood, disgusted by his former captain. He had been wrong. Reynolds wasn’t after revenge. It really was about the mission. Reynolds was a true believer.

  More screams penetrated the air. The gunshots in the distance had pretty much stopped by then, which could only mean one thing—the infected were running the place.

  Even as that conclusion entered Pierce’s mind, more infected barged inside the hallway. But Pierce couldn’t leave just yet. He couldn’t give Reynolds the pre-death serenity he claimed he had.

  Pierce raised the C4 in his hand for Reynolds to see. “You can die knowing you gave your life for nothing because I’m blowing this place sky high.”

  At the sight of the explosive, the enmity returned to Reynolds’s face. His expression downturned in a scowl, punctuated by the bullet wounds in his chest. Pierce counted at least seven holes.

  “You’re not going to change anything, you hear me?!” Reynolds shouted. By then, Pierce was already walking backward, still holding the C4 theatrically at head level. A sense of déjà vu struck Pierce of the time he and Alpha Team tied up Captain Reynolds in Welco Labs.

  Reynolds’s threats transformed into blood-curdling screams as the infected piled on top of him like lions on prey.

  Pierce was running down the corridor toward the elevator. From here, he could see it was open, the doors blocked by a corpse. The growling of the infected was behind him. Some of them had ignored Reynolds and focused on the runaway prey.

  Pierce jumped over the dead body of the soldier blocking the elevator then turned around and kicked him hard to unblock the door. He slammed the B9 button multiple times. The elevator closed just before the infected crashed into the doors.

  A grueling moment of suspense later, the elevator began descending to floor B9. Reynolds’s screams faded within seconds, but Pierce knew he was still alive, still screaming as the infected tore him to pieces.

  Against all the pain in his body, it made him smile.

  James

  “Come on up, you don’t need to worry,” Daniel said when he noticed Angela and James’s hesitation. “It’s not a trap. I’m in the security room, and I can see the entire lab. It’s safe in here.”

  That seemed to put Angela at ease slightly. Her shoulders relaxed, and she began the climb up the stairs. Some parts of the facility were engulfed in darkness. Others were brightly lit with ceiling lights, revealing what disarray the place was in.

  There was no shortage of corpses even in here. People in janitorial uniforms, formal attire, and lab coats lay in the middle of the hallways. Heads were split open. Eyes were gouged out. Jaws were torn apart. Limbs were scattered everywhere.

  Something told James that no heavy firearms were involved here. The massacre in front of him had been made by bare hands, and that made him realize just how brutish the infected were. Maybe the parasite gave them inhuman strength.

  “Just down the hall, the room to your right,” Daniel said on the speaker.

  His omnipresence gave James the impression of a celestial being. A nibble of skepticism refused to let James go. What if this was all a trap?

  A ridiculous thought wormed through his head that maybe the parasite had evolved in some people and given them better communicative abilities; rendering them smart enough to deceive non-infected humans until they could spread the parasite to a new host.

  Angela didn’t seem concerned one bit as she walked past the dead bodies, stepping into sticky puddles of blood. She kept an eye out, though, scrutinizing every corpse she walked by.

  James had seen enough zombie movies and TV shows to know how deceptive corpses could be. One moment, they’re motionless, and in the next, their hands are hugging your leg, their teeth sinking into your flesh.

  No. This isn’t The Walking Dead. James shook his head.

  “In here.” Angela stopped in front of a room with the sign “SECURITY” on it. She placed her hand on the doorknob, looked at James, gave him one nod of approval, and then pushed the door open.

  ***

  “You’re here. Good,” a male voice from inside the security room said.

  The chair in front of the monitors spun, revealing a man with slick hair in a lab coat smiling at the newcomers.

  “Dan,” Angela said.

  Daniel stood up. “I’m so sorry. I thought you went to the military checkpoint and died. I heard that the army’s killing civilians and tried to warn you, but my messages and calls didn’t get through.”

  “They’re purposely blocking communication. They’re trying to purge the city. We barely made it out of there alive. Lost one group member.”

  Daniel shoved his hands into the pockets of his lab coat.

  “Angie, you look like shit,” he said.

  “Yeah, surviving a zombie apocalypse for a whole week tends to do that to you.”

  “I’m glad to see you’re safe, though. I really am. He eyeballed Angela for a moment before his gaze fell on James. “I don’t believe we’ve met. My name’s Daniel.”

  He put a hand forward, ignoring the ancient bloodstain on the floor.

  “James.” They shook hands, a gesture that seemed so trivial at a time like this.

  “He’s kept you safe this entire time, huh, Angie?”

  “Actually, it’s the other way around.” James let out a chuckle.

  Daniel reciprocated the laughter. He sat back down on the rotating chair and spun to face the monitors.

  “This facility won’t last forever,” he said. “See? It’s only a matter of time before they break through.”

  He was pointing to one of the cameras showing the infected pounding on the glass walls.

  “You’d think that a company researching deadly parasites would have better protection,” James said.

  “True. But that isn’t what the company officially does.”

  “What do you mean?” Angela asked.

  “All of this… everything you know, it’s just a front for more secretive things.”

  “Like research of deadly parasites?” James asked.

  “Precisely.”

  “You had told me over text that it was a parasite. If you know what it is, then you must know how to cure it, too, right?” Angela asked.

  Daniel shook his head then uttered a sentence that caused James’s hopes to plummet like an anvil dropped from the second floor. “There’s no cure.”

  He pressed his lips into a thin line and observed his visitors. Angela and James needed more answers, and Daniel must have sensed it because he added, “It can be slowed down with antibiotics, but even then, it’s only a matter of time before the parasite develops resistance. As a contingency, we tried to find a cure, but we failed?”

  “We?” Angela lowered her chin. “You were working on this?”

  “I was part of the research team experimenting with the parasite, yes. I would have told you, but I couldn’t. The company is very strict about what we share. Even my family doesn’t know what it is exactly that I do. They think I’m working on vaccines and other such things.”

  He let out a dry laugh.

  “We still don’t have an answer to the most important question: what parasite is this?”

  Daniel crossed his legs and shifted slightly in his seat. “Ever heard of toxoplasma gondii?”

  Both James and Angela stared mutely. James could swear that he’d heard the name before, but he knew nothing about parasites.

  “Toxoplasma gondii,” Daniel repeated. “A parasite that can only thrive in the intestines of felines. It infects rats and affects their brain somehow, mind-controlling them to allow themselves to be eaten by the cat. The parasite itself does not harm humans. There have been speculations that it can affect behavioral changes to a small degree, but there’s no evidence to support such claims. Most people live with it without even knowing they have it.”

  “And that’s what makes it so perfect, right? The fact that it can remain hidden until activated?” Angela asked.

  Daniel nodded. “The company was highly intrigued by the behavioral changes. They wanted to see if they could use it as a weapon.”

  “A weapon?” James’s eyebrows rose.

  He should have been surprised, but he wasn’t. After reading about all the covert projects the CIA was part of, was something like this really that much of a shock?

  “Yes, a weapon. They established Welco Labs as a pharmaceutical front in Witherton where the experiment was to be conducted.”

  “You got me a job here…” Angela said, disgust in her voice.

  “I got you an honest job, which is what the company needed. Do you think the entire company consists of evil scientists trying to destroy the world? They need normal people with normal jobs, Angela. You started as a cleaner, and it would be perfectly possible for you to later join the science team if deemed worthy. They’d give you things to work on, but those would only be a smokescreen. The company’s real investment lies in projects like toxoplasma gondii.”

  “So, they wanted to use the parasite as a weapon? How, exactly?” James asked.

  “If they managed to control what psychological changes the parasite induces, they’d be able to mind-control the population. But their goals changed somewhere along the way, and they went a completely different route. It may sound cliché, but most of these shady companies—hell, even governments—want only one thing.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “An obedient and compliant nation.” Daniel uncrossed his legs. “That was the initial plan, at least.”

  “You’re a monster.”

  “I’m just a scientist. Look, the project was already underway when I joined. They spent years testing it on animals, making breakthroughs in mind control before deciding to move the experiment here. If I hadn’t accepted, someone else would simply take my place.”

  “Okay. So, why Witherton? Why move the project to a small town?” James asked.

  “That part should be obvious. The project was ready to begin the next phase, which was experimenting on live human subjects.”

  “They wanted to experiment on people?!” James was appalled.

  “Not wanted. They did.”

  “What?!” Angela’s voice was high-pitched.

  “About two years ago, there was that scare about a possible pandemic. You remember that? People were urged to go to the closest clinic for mandatory tests. We administered the parasite via throat swabs and tongue depressors infected with t. gondii. Citizens were infected without even being aware of it. Only children under five weren’t infected because we didn’t know how the parasite would react.”

  “That’s disgusting. You people deserve to die,” Angela said.

  If Angela’s insult bothered Daniel, he didn’t show it.

  “I never did that,” James said. “The tests, I mean.”

  “What do you mean?” Daniel asked.

  “I just didn’t go. I was busy with work, and after the second notification about the tests, they stopped asking me to come.”

  “Hmm, it’s possible that they missed you entirely somehow. Files did get messed up a little bit with newcomers and people leaving the city.”

  “Come to think of it, I moved here about two years ago.”

  “Then it’s perfectly possible that they just missed you. You were lucky. You might not be infected yet. Unless you ingested some feces. Because that’s how the parasite transfers from host to host.”

  A smile crept up on James’s face until he stifled it. He didn’t want to give himself hope just yet. For all he knew, he could have easily contracted the parasite anywhere in the meantime. He had more than enough time for that to happen.

  “What about the ones who moved out of the city in the meantime?” Angela asked.

  “They were being tracked by the company. I’m suspecting that, by now, they’ve been eliminated by the company,” Daniel said.

  “Jesus Christ. But the parasite didn’t become active until now. Why?”

  Daniel crossed his legs again and interlocked his fingers. “Everything was fine at first. The experiment seemed like an overwhelming success. Crime rates started dropping. The city’s economy grew. That kind of thing. Then, they wanted to go back to the original plan of using the parasite as a weapon.”

  “And how would they do that?”

  “Just look outside the window, and you’ll have your answer. The experiment that the company wanted to perform on Witherton citizens backfired badly and bit them in the ass. Their own weapon turned against them.”

  “How did things get out of hand?”

  “People complained about feeling sick. Then there were reports of violent attacks, and… well, you know the rest.”

  “But what happened?” James spread his arms.

  “We lost control of it. Actually, we never had it in the first place. We thought we did, but the parasite is so good at concealing certain things that there was no way for us to know. I ran some tests, and I’m pretty sure that I have an idea of what’s going on.” He leaned forward. “The parasite has either evolved, or something unforeseen has caused it to go apeshit. It controls its human hosts with the intention of spreading as much as possible.”

  “That’s one smart parasite,” Angela said.

  “It’s just its evolutionary trait. Think about it. Every species on this planet does what they have to do in order to ensure they survive. Microorganisms are the best example of that. Think of rabies. Rabies is transmitted through direct contact with saliva or brain and nervous tissue of a human or animal. When infected, the host develops hydrophobia, which causes excess oral salivation. The virus has adapted somewhat to its hosts, and it is able to increase its chances of spreading.”

  Daniel leaned back. The chair creaked under his weight. “Toxoplasma gondii is the same. Except, it’s still in its infancy. It needs time to adapt to its human hosts. You’ve seen how they behave out there, right? Terrible motor abilities akin to a toddler and incoherent speech. You might have heard them speaking, even.”

  James thought about all the gibberish he’d heard the infected speaking. He specifically remembered Travis when he attacked him back at the restaurant.

  No control! Outside! Find the host!

  “At first, I thought it might be a way to communicate with the parasite,” Daniel said. “Unfortunately, it’s just the parasite echoing random words of the host. There’s no doubt that, if given enough time, t. gondii is going to adapt so well to human society that we won’t ever be able to tell the infected apart from the non-infected.”

  “But are the hosts still alive when infected? Are they… aware?” James asked.

  He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer to that question.

  Daniel inhaled through his nose. “I ran scans, and it’s difficult to say for sure. The brain activity is there, but we don’t know if the physical actions performed by the human are done so by themselves or if it’s done by the parasite on their behalf. Look at this, for example.”

  He spun in his chair and pointed at the monitors. One of the external cameras was showing a lonesome infected pacing back and forth and hitting himself in the head.

  “See this behavior?” Daniel asked. “My hypothesis is that the infected humans are still aware of their actions, but not in control of their own bodies. They’re fighting for it, hence the behavior that we see on the camera. But it’s a futile fight. Once the parasite hijacks the brain and nervous systems, it’s all over.”

  Daniel rested his hands in his lap, intermittently glancing at Angela and James. James hung his head down, contemplating everything Daniel had just told them. It was a lot of information.

  “So, your company abandoned you here?” Angela asked.

  “Our research team was to be extracted in case of an outbreak, but that was only in theory. They never intended to rescue us, so most of us are dead now. All those years of hard work and overtime, and this is how they repay us.” Daniel let out a forlorn laugh.

  “Are you really that surprised?” Angela shifted weight from one foot to another.

  “No. I expected as much. We’re all expendable. But there’s one thing that the company doesn’t know, though.”

  “And what’s that?”

  Daniel stood up, a forefinger raised. “When this facility was built, some of the original research team members were aware of the potential danger of something like this happening. So, they built an underground escape route unbeknownst to our superiors. That’s how a lot of the staff escaped the city.”

  “There’s a way out?” James’s eyes grew wide.

  Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out a small key. “Only the initial research team had access. Inside the storage, in the second-floor basement is a fenced-off area that you can open. There’s a “no trespassing” sign, but I think you’re okay to ignore that.”

  He handed the key to Angela and gently closed his hands around hers. There was a moment of reminiscence in their eyes—a long-lost past between two former lovers. Angela gingerly accepted the key, staring down at it in her palm.

 

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