Experiment Undead

The assembly hall becomes quiet. The only sounds are from the soldiers outside shooting the soulless. The colour drains from all the adult’s faces.

‘CureTech Laboratory? That’s who’s responsible for all these deaths, my husband’s death,’ Jane says angrily.

‘How’d you know where it began?’ Kelly asks nervously.

Todd steps forward, ‘The soldiers here told us that emergency services were called from the building by a scientist who had been infected at CureTech Laboratory, telling them they needed to secure the building from anyone leaving immediately. Explaining a virus had broken out after a fellow scientist went against their superior’s orders and created it. The scientist claimed it was making people extremely violent and deadly. Emergency services thought it was a prank call until it had spread through half of Colac by midday. At the same time, hundreds of people were rushing into the emergency room at the hospital, covered in bite marks and turning into flesh-eating monsters. That’s when they called the army in and knew it wasn’t a prank.’

Kelly holds her hands up, ‘It was a mistake, okay,’ she says.

‘Oh, you think?’ Jane shouts in anger.

I stand by Jane’s side and hold her hand to keep her calm.

I look Kelly in the eyes, ‘You need to tell us everything that happened in that building,’ I sternly tell her.

Kelly nods and takes a deep breath, ’We had homeless people volunteering to be involved in medical experiments in exchange for food. We turned them away because the experiments would have been illegal on humans. But one of the scientists was adamant she had created the cure for rabies. She had infected a monkey, pig and other animals with the rabies virus and successfully cured them. Excited, she asked to have it tested on a human but was immediately declined until further testing had been done on other animals. She was also told that other appointed scientists were to shadow her work. The scientist didn’t want to share her hard work and the credit for the cure with others. She was frustrated and angry that she was declined a human host but then remembered the homeless people wanting to volunteer in exchange for food. So, she took to the nearby streets, approached the homeless, and told them she was after volunteers for sleeping trials. They all thought all they would have to do was lay on a bed and sleep with patches and wires attached to their heads so she could watch their brain waves as they slept.

At midnight she entered the building, knowing no staff other than a few security guards would be there and set the homeless up in a private room where she waited for them to fall asleep. Once they were deep asleep, she restrained them to the beds and injected them with the rabies virus. They began to convulse, and when the convulsions stopped, they all woke with fevers and hallucinated.

After a couple of hours of monitoring them, she injected them with the possible cure she had made. She stepped back and watched as they all began to convulse again. Within a few minutes, they all flat-lined. Using the machines, she tried to resuscitate them with no luck. The scientist covered their faces with the white sheets, confused about what had gone wrong. She was so sure it would work.

The scientist wanted to check on the animals she had cured the previous day, hoping to run more tests on them. But before she opened the door to where the animals were kept in their cages, she could hear the monkey screeching in rage and the pig grunting loudly. She peered through the window on the door to see the animals were completely violent.

The rabbit she cured was eating the face of another rabbit, and the monkey was covered in blood. In a rage, it tossed a large cage across the room. The pig was ramming aggressively into the cupboards and cages, trying to get to the uninfected animals to feed from and infect. Other animals were acting aggressively, too, even though they were all missing chunks from their bodies and had major blood loss. They should technically have been dead.

The scientist continued to watch through the window on the door knowing the animals would attack her if she entered. She didn’t want to risk becoming infected. She noted that within twenty minutes, each freshly bit animal would convulse and become erratic and aggressive like the others.

The sun was rising. Staff would soon be arriving, and she knew she couldn’t hide the out-of-control animals that now had cannibalistic tendencies.

As she continued to monitor, she heard screams from the room where the deceased homeless men were. She raced to the room to see scientists and two security guards panicking. The homeless men were gnarling and snapping their teeth, frothing at the mouths. They had bitten the security personnel and all the scientists, but me and…’ Kelly pauses briefly in thought, ’Becky, the one who created this virus, who happened to be my close friend. We ran from the room, and one of the security men followed. We tried to shut him in with the others, knowing it was the only way to contain the virus. He was much taller and stronger than us, so he easily pushed the door open and ran, yelling for everyone to evacuate the building.

I pressed the red emergency button, and the building’s alarms sounded, alerting everyone inside of danger.

Curdling screams were then coming from the animal containment room. Becky and I ran towards the room and halted when the infected animals came running up the corridor. Staff scattered throughout the building, screaming. At least half of them have been bitten by the infected animals.

Becky and I ran down the stairs and to the second floor. We found staff on the floor convulsing while others walked around strangely, slightly slumped over. As one turned, Becky and I noticed their distorted faces and their eyes were completely dark. They ran towards us with guttural moans and flailed their arms aggressively, trying to grab us.

We ran into a nearby empty office, locked the door, and used as much furniture as possible to barricade the door while waiting for help. Becky and I ended up in a big argument about the experiment. She told me everything she had done and from when I arrived to work with other scientists to find rabid men attacking us.

I looked out the window as we waited for help to arrive. I could see people on the street approaching some of the infected. Probably to ask if they were okay, I would assume. I watched as they grabbed the people by the shoulders or arms and bit them. Everyone in the street became frantic. A dozen police cars turned up and began shooting the infected. More and more infected were leaving the building and outnumbered the police infecting them too.

I knew the hospital was only up the road. I hoped they could help, so I rang them using my mobile phone, asking them to send a few ambulances for medical assistance, only for screams to be heard from the other side of the phone.

‘People are attacking medical staff and patients. Please don’t attend the hospital. It’s too dangerous,’ the woman on the other side yelled frantically. Beep, beep, beep, the phone then went dead. I told Becky what had been said.

‘Does that mean this virus has already reached the hospital?’ she asked.

‘Yes, it has. We can’t do anything but wait. Hopefully, the police managed to call the army to contain the city,’ I said to Becky.

After four hours of waiting, helicopters appeared in the sky. As soon as the soldiers had cleared half of the infected in the street, I grabbed onto the fire rail exit outside the window and climbed down. Becky followed until we were on the ground.

‘We should follow the soldiers. They’ll protect us and take us to safety,’ I told Becky.

‘No, I need to go home. I need to protect my family,’ she said.

We parted ways and headed in opposite directions. I haven’t seen Becky since. I haven’t seen anyone alive since then. I managed to break into someone’s house. No one was inside. The owners had rummaged through draws and cupboards to pack essentials and leave town quickly. I stayed there until I ran out of food this morning. I knew I had to get out of this town to survive. The power wasn’t working, and my phone couldn’t make calls anymore after I had called the hospital. I had no way to contact anyone. I found car keys in the house, checked the double garage, and found the car I had arrived here in.

It was only a matter of time before I became infected if I stayed there. There were hundreds of infected everywhere along the roads. I jumped in the car and sped through town, hoping to find refuge. Hundreds of the infected followed until I came around this corner, and now here I am….’

‘You didn’t even see one survivor?’ I ask her.

‘Sorry, kid, it would be a miracle if there were any more survivors out there.’

Oscar stiffens and quickly walks out of the assembly hall. His Uncle, Todd, runs out after him.

General Maywood barges inside the hall, drenched in sweat and looks very worried.

‘Everyone, pack your belongings. The soulless have infiltrated through the first set of gates,’ she says through ragged breaths.

We all scurry to our beds and pack anything we own laying around.

‘Hey, kid.’

I turn to see Kelly staring at me.

‘My name is Penny. Jane… I mean, my mother already told you that,’ I frown.

‘Oh, okay,’ she says uncaringly, ‘I have a question.’

‘Um, okay. Ask away, I guess.’

‘Why do you all call them soulless?’ she asks curiously.

‘Well, once infected, they die and no longer have a soul, then they come back, but they’re no longer human, just soulless creatures.’

‘Huh, that’s a very interesting way of looking at it,’ she says, intrigued, as she pulls a notebook from her satchel and jots something down.

I walk away and resume packing my bag. I throw the strap over my shoulder and help Liam pack his.

General Maywood runs back into the hall, more worried than before.

‘Everyone needs to gather round,’ she shouts for everyone to hear.

Nate quickly enters the assembly and stands with us. He looks exhausted and concerned.

General Maywood stares intently at us, ‘I alerted Major General Burgov of our situation and informed him he needs to send backup immediately along with the bus to take you, civilians, to safety,’ she pauses and wipes the sweat from her forehead, ’Major General Burgov is unable to help us. The entire country and parts of other countries are infected. Half the people who left town to escape were infected, spreading it to nearby towns, only for those infected to spread it to the next town. It spread from one town to another like a domino effect.

Then infected people hid their bite marks when they were attacked and bitten at the Melbourne airport by the infected before getting onto planes. When they became soulless on the planes, they infected other passengers. When the planes finally landed, the soulless broke free, infecting everyone at the airports. Unfortunately, this means no one’s coming to rescue us. Our fate is in our own hands. We can only depend on ourselves now to survive.’

We all stare at each other in shock while processing the news while Carrie, one of the other survivors, passes out behind Todd. Jane rushes over to her with a bottle of water and holds her head up to help her drink. Todd crouches down and lifts Carrie, and she wraps her arms around his neck. They smile subtly at each other, and he places her on the closest foldout bed.

Carrie shakes her head from her trance. Her long red hair flows from the movement, ‘I have a family. I live with my parents. They need me!’ Carrie says, distraught.

‘We all have loved ones out there, and they are all most likely infected or dead,’ General Maywood says, stepping toward Carrie. ‘But regardless, if they were alive, it would be stupid and foolish to go back and search for them anyway.’

Carrie abruptly stands, ‘We can’t just leave them! We can’t leave Colac knowing some of our loved ones are still alive!’

General Maywood gives her a stern look, ‘The sooner you accept they’re dead, the better.’

‘You bitch,’ Carrie says as her hand flies toward General Maywood’s cheek.

General Maywood swiftly grabs her wrist before it can strike her, twists Carrie’s arm, and forces her to the ground.

She leans into Carrie’s ear, ‘It’s my job to keep the survivors I have here alive. If that makes me a bitch, then so be it,’ she says and lets go of her hold on Carrie.