Pandemic

Dual Strain Industries

08:49 Hrs, August 11th

Central Laboratory - The Core

The room was lit solely with a single red light. Computers and television screens lined the walls and filled the center of the eleven by eleven foot room. Papers were scattered all over the place, as if someone took a stack and threw it across the core in a rage. The three men in the room paid no attention though as they rushed about the room, switching control panels.

A door to the back of the room slid open, pouring a rectangle of standard artificial light into the room. A tall man in a suit stood at the entrance, all large staircase behind him which disappeared into the floor above. His pure white hair, sagging face, and wooden cane showed how ancient he was. "Any news yet?" He asked wearily as he strode into the room, the door sliding shut, the red light taking over once more.

"Yes President Silverton." The old man swung his cane around idly as the core operator spoke. "Sir, why do you carry a cane if you don't use it?"

"That's besides the point, now tell me the news." Mr. Silverton smiled lightly, but the tone of his voice commanded that the small talk be cut short.

The core operator looked from Silverton to the cane. It was a strange cane. Extremely thick, especially at the handle where a thin piece of curved metal stuck out of the wood. He wanted to press the subject but decided against it. "As you know, there was a containment breach at 20:46 on August 9th and that one minute later the quarantine was compromised and the entire wing of the facility was shut down."

"You're telling me things I already know." Silverton interrupted. "How is my son?"

"I am getting there. Now, at 21:24 yesterday you gave the order to move in troops through the emergency entrance of Hydra. With the GPS tracking devices you implanted we followed their invasion closely. They stopped halfway through the first floor for several minutes, then radioed for extraction. As ordered the tank remained on top of the door. They stayed there for several more minutes then moved on, their ranks remaining tight and coordinated. Then at 21:47 near the entrance to the Grid they began acting sporadically, breaking ranks. 35 of the 37 men did not move after that and we presumed them dead. One of the remaining two approached the emergency door and at 21:58 we lost contact with the tank, and moments after we presumed that man dead outside the facility. The other soldier, we later realized it was the sergeant, descended down the elevator shaft and our satellite lost contact with the tracking device. We began to think the mission was a failure but then, at 22:21, we received a radio transmission from him." He played the message. For several minutes they sat in silence, listening to it.

"Zombies? Silverstrain? What does all that mean?"

The core operator swung around to a computer and, after entering a password, opened filename "Specimen 000330248". A picture of a grotesque creature appeared, along with pictures of its eyes, claws, and endless streams of data.

"So we have an animal running loose. So what? What about the zombies?"

"We were ready to discount that statement until this morning. The GPS trackers are moving again. Every single one. Now, we don't know if Silverstrain ate the GPS trackers, but they are all moving independently of one another, suggesting that the soldiers are somehow moving again, or there are at least 37 different creatures, each who only swallowed only one tracker."

President Silverton was silent, stunned. "But what about my son?"

"You heard the transmission. Everyone in the facility has been turned into one of these things."

"But maybe he-"

"Stop worrying about your son!" The core operator shouted. Realizing the fault in his outburst and lowered his tone. "It's time to worry about everyone. By the data we have compiled, the emergency entrance has been breached and this virus or parasite is spilling out into the air. You must have a contingency plan. Put it into effect."

President Silverton stood dumbfounded. His company, his life's work, was crumbling before his eyes.

One of the other core operators got up and left, the rectangle of light blinding everyone for a moment before it disappeared again.

Silence engulfed the room once again.

"Sir." The other operator in the core called out. "Come take a look at this."

Silverton gave a final glance at the first core operator, and both scurried over to where he was sitting. 'What is it?"

He pointed to one of the many closed-circuit television screens. There was a hallway and a sealed door.

"What's wrong? I don't get it."

"Look closer at the door."

Squinting to see the key detail he was missing he finally found what he was supposed to be looking for. Six razor sharp claws were tearing through the door tediously, three in one direction, three in the other. "Where's that door?" Silverton asked worriedly.

"That's the transit tunnel that connects Hydra lab with Central lab."

President Silverton knew the layout of the buildings and realized how much trouble they were in. Central lab was the center of Dual Strain Industries. Like all of the Dual Strain labs it had seven sublevels. On the third sublevel long tunnels, referred to by the Dual Strain personnel as transit tunnels, led to the other labs; Osiris, Hydra, Malidus, and Synchron. These hallways were each one mile long. When an entire wing of the facility was quarantined the entrance would be sealed by a six inch steel door and everyone in the transit tunnel would be herded back to Central lab and a second six inch steel door would seal the tunnel at both ends. If Silverstrain is capable of tearing one of these doors open then what else can it do? Am I even safe in the core? Would I ev-

"Sir!" The first core operator yelled out, as if he was trying to break Silverton's trance for some time. "We need to act now or this will just be a repeat of Hydra!"

He snapped out of it finally. "Send our Central lab security to the door, and call in reinforcements from Osiris, Malidus, and Synchron. Tell everyone else in all wings in the facility to evacuate and wait for further notice." As the President said this he realized that he was destroying the underground enterprise he had built, but knew there was no other way.

The core operator glided over to a control switch and flipped it. Instantly a loud high frequency siren pierced Dual Strain Industries for five seconds. Then he flipped back the switch. The core operator grabbed a mic normally used to make announcements. "All security from all wings of the facility report to the Hydra transit tunnel entrance immediately. All other personnel evacuate at once and wait for further notice." He put down the mic and thought for a moment. "What about us?" He motioned to himself and the other operator. "Should we evacuate too?"

"No. Without you I can run the facility." Then, realizing that his company was dead, changed his mind. "Go Ahead."

The two men thanked their boss. "Sir, do you want us to disable the quarantine system for Central? When Silverstrain breaks in power will be cut off and the security would be helpless."

"Do it."

The core operators flipped a large red switch and rushed out of the room, a rectangle of light appeared for a moment, then disappeared again. Silverton just stood there almost in tears. His son, the facility, all the people within it. It all struck him at once and he had an eerie feeling that it was his turn now. At this idea he rushed over to the television screen he was watching earlier. There was a gaping hole in the door. Is it too late? Is it already in Central lab? His eyes darted over to the Central lab entrance of the transit tunnel. The door was undamaged and several dozen armed Dual Strain security guards stood there talking with each other, probably wondering why they were there.

There was movement on the first screen and he looked over at it. The terrifying monstrosity known as Silverstrain stood in front of the gouged door looking around, as if it was learning, understanding.

The creature looked back in the doorway and made a strange hand gesture. It bolted down the hallway, a grey blur against the white backdrop of the wall. The blur flashed across the cameras sometimes running on the floor, sometimes on the ceiling. It was hard to tell with the grainy resolution.

Silverstrain stooped at the six inch steel door that separated it from Central lab. A set of claws shot out of its hand and it punched a hole right through the door.

On the camera on the other side of the door President Silverton witnessed the security in chaos, letting loose their clips on the protruding arm, completely severing it. Silverstrain let out a roar, made silent to Silverton by the lack of speakers, as it pulled back the remaining stub, brown liquid pouring from it. Suddenly muscle tissue rushed out of the stub and constricted upon itself to form a perfect replica of the limb that it just lost.

Limb regeneration? Brown blood? What is this thing? Silverton watched as the monster rushed back to the Hydra doorway it had already torn open, its new limb not handicapping it in the least. At the door it roared again, again muted by the camera, as it ripped open the door further. Zombies began pouring out of the gap and running down the tunnel. More and more filled the hallway. A dozen. Fifty. One hundred. Two hundred. Silverton lost count in the mass of shifting bodies.

Silverstrain looked around. Then its eyes, its cold, deadly eyes, locked onto the camera. It dashed forward underneath the camera's vantage point. Then its face appeared inches from the camera. Its silver skin, its orange demonic eyes, its razor sharp teeth dripping with saliva, all came into grizzly detail. It stared right through the camera, straight at Silverton. He felt fear bubbling and swelling within himself. A raised claw momentarily came into view before the screen went fuzzy. Then the rest of the transit tunnel screens lost connection as well, as if they were a stack of dominoes being knocked over.

It understands cameras. But did it see me? Silverton disregarded the notion, too scared to believe it. He looked back to the camera that stood watch with the security guards. They were watching the door intently, guns aimed at the hole that was struck through it.

Several minutes passed. Nothing happened.

~Silverstrain destroyed every single light in the hallway in order to completely conceal its movements. The zombies approached and stared dumbly at the strange creature, as if waiting for something. Scanning the area with its numerous visions it noticed a weakness in the structure. It jumped onto the ceiling and proceeded to tear it apart.~

President Silverton waited silently, knowing that the conflict would occur in minutes, and decided in seconds.

~It came to what it was looking for. It crawled into the hole it made in the ceiling and walked up to a concrete wall. Silverstrain reared back and, collecting its strength, collided with it at full force.~

President Silverton watched as the creature crashed through the wall directly above the door. The security was caught off guard, expecting it to come through the door again. As bits of rock rained down on them and dirt clouded the area, Silverton strained to see through it. A stream of blood shot across the room as if someone had thrown a bucket of it wildly. Gunshots cut through the dust as fountains of blood spouted throughout the room. A final gunshot, answered by a final geyser of blood, signaled the end of the conflict.

The dust cleared revealing the uninjured Silverstrain covered in bloody bits of flesh. Severed bodies and body parts were strewn across the floor, laying in a pool of dirty blood. The creature turned around and for several minutes tore open the steel door. Zombies flowed in and began to pick at the remains of Dual Strain's last defense. Once they were all in the room Silverstrain roared. The hollow creatures dispersed, searching the building for anyone left.

President Silverton waited in the seventh sublevel of Central lab, the lowest in the facility. There was only one entrance, and only one exit. He kneeled next to a table using it as cover. He held his cane awkwardly.

The minutes came and went, slowly eating away at his sanity.

The rectangle of light opened up on the room revealing a zombie. Silverton pulled on the thin piece of curved metal protruding from the cane. Woodchips blew apart from the cane and the zombie jerked back in a spurt of brown fluid, a loud bang echoing through the building.

~The loud bang flooded into its ears and it instantly pinpointed the source of the noise. It raced forward for its target.~

Where the cane was torn apart the end of a gun barrel was revealed. Smashing the cane over his knee the last of the wood fell off, uncovering a tactical 12-guage shotgun. Pumping it for a second shot, he watched as the door closed on the zombie's leg. The door remained partially open, a thin line of light stretching vertically around the core. President Silverton wanted to close and lock the door but knew it was impossible. All the metal sliding doors in Central lab were controlled by the core, and not knowing how to operate the system made any attempt useless.

~It ran down the staircase leading to the core, and the door slid open for it. Curious at the automated door system it paused.~

President Silverton saw the rectangle of light shine in once more. He couldn't see what had caused it to open, but a demonic silhouette played about on the far wall.

~It disregarded the strange technology and stepped into the doorway.~

Silverton fired his 12-guage once more and the monster's stomach was shredded in a spray of brown fluid. It slumped against a wall in the hallway, then disappeared from view as the door closed. His mouth was gaping open. After all that it was that easy to kill? He pumped the shotgun again, just in case.

A moment passed. The door slid open and Silverstrain rushed into the core, completely healed. Silverton fired again and the creature jerked back, its right shoulder blown apart. The wound healed instantly as the claws struck out of his hands and feet. It charged forward as he pumped his weapon again.

Silverstrain jumped, turned, pushed off the ceiling, and rushed down on its prey. President Silverton lifted his shotgun but the beast was already on top of him. The gun blazed again and brown liquid exploded across the room. The creature stumbled backwards, its head completely eradicated. Only its lower jaw remained, the razor sharp teeth pointing upwards at nothing.

Silverton pumped and fired, intent on killing this thing for good. Its upper chest was annihilated. Pump, fire, its lower chest and right leg were shredded. Pump, fire, it was completely severed at the waist. Both halves fell lifelessly to the floor. Silverton stood up and, walking over to the top half of the corpse, fired again. The muscle tore apart, putting a clean hole in it. He fired again but there was only a click. He was out of ammo.

He panted as his adrenaline deserted him. He stared at the body, trying to see if it was healing. He saw nothing.

But then he did see it. All the wounds he had created were very slowly healing, but they were healing nonetheless. It was as if someone was bringing the creature back through time, its wounds being undone as it went.

Fear pulsed through his mind as he ran up the staircase away from the invincible fiend. But the top of the flight of stairs was blocked by a horde of zombies. He turned to flee back into the core, but heard a roar from inside. I'll take my chances with the zombies. He rushed forward swinging the shotgun like a club. The zombies merely grabbed him and dragged him down the stairs towards the core. Tilting his head back he saw the world upside down. He saw Silverstrain limping up to him, teeth bared. It must be weak from blood loss. And somehow I must be needed to regenerate that brown fluid. Hot breath flicked across his face. The teeth surrounded him. I think I know my use. The teeth closed in upon him.