Chapter 29: Descent

"More zombies are arriving every few minutes," Sam says in panic. "They're coming in from miles around."

"That's why we need to do this now," Veronica replies. "Before long there'll be too many for you to hope to get away."

"I can't say I'm pleased that Five and I are walking into a building that is quite literally filled with zoms." Nadia grimaces, adjusting her pink glasses. "I mean, we had a look in there. There are zoms on top of zoms, zoms mushed up against other zoms, some zoms are standing inside other zoms-like right inside their hollow, twitching rib cages."

"Thank you for that vivid description," Sam mutters under his breath. "And I know it's not the safest. If we had any other option..."

"But you understand it's important?" Veronica asks, and she gets a nod from Nadia.

"It's what we came here for. Comansys has taken our people. If we're gonna get them back, we have to know where Comansys has gone. And they've cleared out every other one of their known locations. This is the only one they couldn't get into to clean up. If the intel about where they've taken our people is anywhere, it's in there."

"So why are you complaining?" She asks, crossing her arms.

"I like complaining. It's part of who I am." She looks at the lowering platform suspiciously. "Is that thing secure?"

"Vince and I used it all the time," She says, and I narrow my eyes because that is not what Nadia asked. "I can lower you down here while the zoms are distracted by that bucket of blood on the other side of the building. Should give you time to get over to the entrance." She hands me and Nadia a small vial of blue liquid-the same liquid we just used in the field for her tests. "Once you're in, pour this over you. The formula's very volatile and your body heat will burn it off quickly. It should give you twenty zom free minutes; Don't waste it."

Nadia sniffs at the liquid, her face scrunching up in disgust. "This stuff absolutely stinks."

"When I was at school, one of my mates gave me some pheromone spray that was supposed to attract women," Sam says, and I roll my eyes.

"Did it work?" Nadia asks.

"No."

She scoffs. "Reassuring."

"A dog did come up and hump my leg, but that sometimes happened whether I had the spray on or not."

I snort. "You're such a dork."

"Yeah, I-I think we've already established that."

"Just like how I'm a smart Alec?"

"Yeah."

"You don't fancy coming along with us, Veronica?" Nadia asks, and the teenager shakes her head.

"If the formula fails, I'll need to be able to refine it, which I can't do if I'm dead."

"But it's not going to fail, is it?" Nadia gnaws on the inside of her cheek worriedly.

"Statistically, it's quite unlikely," She answers. "The compound's volatile, but the test we just performed was promising. Of course, ideally I'd like to rerun it another eight to ten times."

"Oh." Nadia looks at me with a fearful look, and I return it. "Right. Well, come on, Five. Last one in gets to smell like rotten eggs."

I step up on the platform with her, instantly grabbing her arm when the platform starts to lower down. She purses her lips as her eyes glance over to me, but she doesn't say anything. I'm sure she's like everyone else and is wondering how I can face hordes of zombies, people firing bullets at me, crazy cannibals and everything else only to be terrified by heights.

Well, when they're in a helicopter that gets shot down, they can tell me how stupid my fear is. Until then, they can keep their mouths shut.

The platform hits the ground with a thud, and I nearly fall over and drag Nadia with me.

"Good landing," Sam chuckles. "The zoms outside haven't spotted you yet. Run."

And that's exactly what we do. My legs are already feeling a bit worn from the test I just helped preform with Veronica, but I still have a lot of energy left. That, along with the excitement and fear that's coursing through my veins, helps keep me going.

There are no zombies in sight right now. That bucket of blood has lured almost all of them away, but I still have my axe with me, just in case. I also have my pistol, and Nadia has hers. The only problem is my gun only has three bullets in it and Nadia's has seven. Not to mention the loud noise would draw the zombies to us.

All in all, we can only use the guns if it's absolutely necessary.

"We're not going to able to get through the doors," Nadia says. "This place is locked up tight with those security shutters."

"So what are you suggesting?" I question. "We don't exactly have time to do any elaborate ninja spy moves to get in."

"Never said we did. We'll just have to get in through the window."

"Sure that won't set off an alarm?"

"I think the zoms inside would've set off an alarm a long time ago if there was one. Just remember to use your axe to break the window. We can't risk cutting ourselves."

I nod. "Yeah. Not a good thing to do when you're surrounded by thousands of zoms."

We reach one of the closer windows, and after making a quick check to make sure there are no zombies standing around, I use the blunt side of my axe to break the glass. We're hesitant to slip in, since it's a bit dark, and there could be a zombie hiding in the shadows. But we hear nothing from the inside-no growls, no groans, no moans, meaning we're okay... for now.

I climb inside first, Nadia second.

"Uh, can you give me some light?" Sam questions, making me jump, which makes Nadia snicker. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. I have camera feeds into the building, but everything is very dark."

"I think Five has a small torch," Nadia says, and I reach into my backpack to find that I do indeed have a small torch. I'm surprised I didn't find that when I was digging through my backpack on our way up here.

I light up the torch, shedding a bit of light in the hallway.

"Better?" I ask.

"Yeah. I see you. It's a really bad picture though, like the ones with the thermal cameras in the ghost hunting programs."

"This whole experience has been a lesson for me in how to encourage runners in the field," Nadia sasses. Then she opens up the vile of blue liquid, encouraging me to do the same. "Okay, Five, time to give ourselves the world's worst B.O."

I laugh, mostly because I know it's true. We both gag as we splash the stuff on us.

"This smells so bad," I cough.

"Yeah," She agrees. "I'm gonna say Zombie by Veronica is not going to be a massive hit."

"Better stinky than dead," Sam says, then hums in thought. "That should be a saying. I still can't see much, guys. Could describe some of what you see?"

"We're in a simple corridor," I reply, looking around at the bare walls with peeling paint. "Nothing here."

"Hard to know, but if the layout of this building is anything like the layout of the other Comansys buildings the Ministry knows about, you follow the corridor down to the right, and the file room should be on the second door to the left."

Nadia nods. "Got it."

We start moving, quickly, quietly. Our eyes watching, our ears listening for anything that might prove to be danger. We don't have time to go slow, but still we must be cautious.

When we turn the corner, we stop. There's a shambler there, not looking at us, just staring at the wall, a low moan leaving its throat.

"You see that, Sam?" Nadia whispers. "Five's approaching it."

"Take it slow," He says, and I take a few quiet steps toward the it.

No reaction. The zombie just keeps staring at the wall, finally pressing its head into it.

"This stuff really works," Nadia giggles, and we move past it, still watching, still cautious.

"Stay alert. Get along the next walkway as quickly as you can. That's clear, and there's-there's more in the... looks like hydroponics lab ahead. You'll have to run through them. Remember, you've only got another... eighteen minutes and fifty seconds of those pheromones working."

"How many zoms are we going through?"

"As a rough count, um, forty-seven?"

I wince. Running around twenty-four was scary enough, now we're about to run through a room that has double that amount.

"Well, Veronica, here comes the real data," Nadia sighs. "Come on. Eighteen minutes to go."

Getting into the next walkway is easy enough. I just have to make sure I don't trip over anything. But my muscles tense when we reach those labs. I can see them all through the little glass window that's in the door. God, there's so many of them.

Nadia's breath hitches, her eyes going wide as she glances at me. I let out the breath I'd been holding before opening the door, and running. I keep my eyes ahead. I can't look at the zombies, even if they can't really see us. Nadia runs beside me, doing the exact opposite of me and looking about in fear.

She gasps when I turn into the next room (that is also full of zoms) and let out a yelp of pain. I hit my hip on a trolly full of test tubes. Some of them fall, shattering on the ground, the liquid in them spilling everywhere.

"Run!" She yells, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the room as the zoms move toward the trolly, attracted by the noise.

I look back, sighing in relief when I see none of the zombies following after us.

"Well, that was... a rush," I say.

"I'll say," Nadia pants. "They didn't respond, but-but I kept feeling like they're just about to."

"Yeah, well they still might," Sam says as we pass a couple of more zombies. "You need to work fast. Found the files?"

We reach the file room just as he asks that. "We're in the right place, at least."

"You've got uh, just under fifteen minutes left," He tells us. "Can you find what you need?"

Nadia leans over one of the desks, eyeing some of the papers. "Got some paper files here-emergency evacuation for senior personal. I just glanced through it. I don't think it's complete. One page just says, 'you'll all have been briefed on the importance of Laetitia Greenwald.' They've italicized her name. Obviously someone important."

I stumble backward into a desk, eyes wide in shock. Nadia's head snaps over to me.

"What's wrong?"

"I..."

I've heard her say this before.

"Sorry. I just had a deja vu moment."

She blinks, but then shakes her head and looks back at the papers. "The name doesn't ring any bells, but maybe someone at the Ministry will know her. There's some stuff about the plants. Veronica will like that. It says it has 'adverse reaction in humans.'"

I grimace. "Great. We find that out after we've drenched ourselves in it."

"It's also 'seriously contra-indicated with the regenerative therapies'. I'm gonna get as much of this as I can. They worked on a centric file store system here. Wouldn't help to take a laptop since they've got nothing on them. I'm pulling off as much as I can from the main frame. It might take a while."

She pulls out a small hard drive and plugs into the computer, and the equipment beeps.

"It's going to take a bit of time," She says, walking around to some of the other desks.

"Um, guys..." Sam says.

"Look," Nadia laughs, "someone's left their diary lying on open on their desk..." She picks it up, and after scanning a few words, she frowns. "That's weird. It's not for work appointments; It's personal. What happened to closing it with a heart shaped locker and hiding in your knicker drawers so mum and dad wouldn't find it?"

"I could never keep a diary," I say. "My hand writing's terrible so I could never reread it later."

"Guys!" Sam shouts. "You know how Five smashed a few test tubes and stuff while you were running through that lab?"

"Sorry." I shrug.

"No. No, I don't-I'm not blaming you. It was accident. But I think it's had some like, weird effect though. God knows what they were experimenting with in that lab or how it's... fermented since then." He gulps. "The zoms are uh-well, they're going sort of crazy. Loud and angry... bad news."

"That still can't detect us," Nadia replies. "We're wearing Zombie by Veronica, remember?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking ahead here. Five, I need you to head out of that file room. Go back the way you came, then head towards the pools. There's some kind of like, fire alarm there. I'm thinking you go there, turn on the alarm, it'll distract the zoms away from where you are, and keep your route clear just in case."

She nods as I head for the door. "Yeah. Good plan. If you do that, Five, I'll get these files off and then we'll get out of here."

I open the door and head out, heading around the hydroponic labs with a plan to getting back to my original route. Running through these offices is going to take up a bit more time, but I can't risk going through those labs with all those angry zoms. Plus, those chemicals could react with the pheromone liquid on my skin.

Veronica's only ran one test on it, and that was literally half an hour ago. We have no idea what would happen if it were to come in contact with another chemical, and I think it best not to risk it.

So I head through the offices until I reach a familiar hallway. There are a few zombies wandering around, but they take no notice to me. I don't take much notice to them, since all I can think of is how I heard Nadia say those words I heard when I slipped and hit my head.

It's been awhile since that happened. Honestly, I'd forgotten about it until she said it. I remember I heard a few other people's voices-Sam, Jody, Owen, I think Amelia too. I don't remember what it was they said though. The only person I remember clearly is Maxine.

If I just heard Nadia's words, does that mean we'll hear from Maxine soon?

I take a left, following the sign that says 'Pool' on it. I'm guessing Comansys had a pool here is because that make their offices 'fun', or whatever.

Not so fun now that it's full of zombies.

"Okay," Sam says, "you've got eleven minutes and twenty seconds of effective action from the pheromones left. Plenty of time. Just keep heading in that direction. The alarm's at the far end of that corridor, just beside the pool room's entrance."

"Meantime, listen to this. I flicked all the way to the end, and you'll never believe what's in this diary," Nadia says.

"You've got the files though, right?"

"They're copying over. Nothing more I can do to help it along," She answers. "But listen. 'I always loved you. That's what you have to understand. I know that you used to say I loved you too much. I don't get that. How can you love someone too much? I just want it to be like it used to be.' Are you getting crazy, crazy vibes with this?"

"Pretty much. Yeah. Uh, just down that hallway, Five."

"'You never told me why you left; You never explained it. You said all those stupid things about needing space and needing time, and the next thing I heard, you were moving in with someone knew. It hadn't even been six months. It hadn't even been six months! I thought if I could bring you back, get you to remember how good it was between us.'"

"Is this gonna end with Crazy McCrazyPanrs killing someone with a saw?" Terror is practically dropping from his voice.

"Why a saw?"

"I don't know. Just feels right. I'm getting 'saw' vibe from Mr. or Miss Crazy. Saw or... maybe hammer."

"Oh, no. It gets a lot more interesting after that."

"Just a sec. Okay, Five, pull down that alarm and then run."

I grab the little handle and pull down at the fire alarm, wincing at the loud, repetitive noise that starts going off. Thankfully there's no running water here so I won't have to worry about the sprinklers.

"Okay, go. W-wait, did that zombie floating around in the pool just turn to look at you?"

I look through the glass doors that lead to the pool. "Uh... shit. Yeah."

"Get out of there."

•

"Okay, it's working." Sam sighs with relief. "Zoms are heading towards the swimming pool, even the enraged ones. Should keep you safe for now."

I open the door to the file room, which gains Nadia's attention for a quick second. Then she looks back at the computer as I head inside and shut the door.

"Files are getting there," She says. "Just need another ten minutes."

"You've got five minutes, twenty-eight seconds. Do what you can."

"Roger that." She grabs the diary from the desk. "Listen to this though. This diary gets mental. He or she goes on for ages about 'how they love you, how they want you. They just have to show what they mean by love', and then... 'I persuaded P to help me, managed to get through the reluctance. Said it'd be a good test of what the drug could do when properly refined. Not crude control of the motor centers, but fine control of motivation. Control of the spirit.'"

"Oh, man. Are you hearing the pitter patter of tiny mind controlled feet?" He asks, voice laced with worry.

"Didn't go well for them though. Later there's a bit where it goes, 'You're not yourself anymore. You tell me you love me, yes. I see it in your eyes that you mean it. But do you mean to mean it? Do you want to mean it? I don't know how long I can go on like this.'"

I shudder at just how creepy that sounds. That's the kind of stuff you hear in horror movies.

"My guess is they could go on with it like that until they had the bright idea of doing whatever it was that caused the zombie apocalypse," He says, and I nod.

"Yeah. Maybe."

"No matter that right now. You two have to go. You've got files to carry and less than five minutes now. Time to get out of there."

Nadia grabs her backpack that she's stuffed with paper files, and pulls out the hard drive from the computer and shoves it in her backpack's pocket.

"Maybe we'll be able to come back and get some more of this stuff. We haven't even taken a tenth of what's on files."

"Yeah, but move now. That stuff's wearing off by the second," He states as we exit the room. "Head to the exit to your left and keep moving down that corridor."

I hear growls from behind me. We both spin around, and I grab my axe when I see a group of five zombies stumbling towards us. One of them lunges, and I swing, taking off its head off before it can grab ahold of the two of us.

"Shit," I curse.

"You were supposed to have four more minutes!"

"Doesn't look like we do," Nadia says. "Run!"

We turn and bolt, and I keep my axe in hand, cutting down every zombie that gets too close. Our shoes screech against the tile floors, but I can barely hear the sound over our heavy breathing and the groans coming from behind us. With each hallway we pass, another group of zoms join in on the chase.

I swing my axe into another zombie's skull, kicking my leg up to push it away so the blade won't get stuck. Every second is valuable now.

We keep running, obeying every one of Sam's commands without question. Each turn, each twist.

"Five, zom to your left!" He yells, and with a grunt I swing to my left, turning my face away so I won't get any of the infected blood in my mouth or eyes. It spatters against the walls and onto the floor.

We finally reach the broken window we used to get in here, and Nadia jumps through first, not stopping for a second. I do the same, being careful not to cut myself. I have specks of zombie blood on me. If one drop of it gets into an open wound, I'm done for.

"I am never leaving the coms room again," Nadia pants as we sprint toward the treetop base.

"The ladder's at your nine o'clock, about twenty meters. More of them approaching from the fields. Get up into the trees."

Nadia practically jumps onto the ladder, climbing up like a monkey. "I am never leaving the coms room again!"

I follow her, and looking up I see Veronica's head pop up from the platform. She reaches out to Nadia.

"Take my hand."

She does, and is helped up onto the platform. She helps me up as well.

"Thank you," I say. "Now, time to get out of here. What's our plan?"

"There are three ways you can get away from here," Veronica replies. "You can go over the zombies via hang glider, run through the zombies using Molotov cocktails, or we can use what's left of the pheromones to get through the them."

"How much of that stuff do you have left?"

"I have enough of the zombie pheromones for one person. It'll last maybe five minutes, and I have just two drops of the human pheromones left in liquid form."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning you'll only be able to make two zombies smell like humans."

I shake my head. "That won't work. There are like, a thousand of them around that base down there. Plus there's only enough zombie repellant for one person."

"Well, I'm not coming," She says. "I've got three years' worth of food here and these zoms will give me an unrepeatable amount of study. But the two of you should go. Pick your plan quickly. I'm 100 percent sure they all will work. Well, eighty-five percent."

"Well, the pheromone one's out," I say.

"And really, there's only one plan that isn't completely stupid," Sam adds, to which I nod.

"Exactly."

"Hang glider."

"Molotov cocktails."

We say our answers at the same time, and we both gasp.

"You expect me to hang glide out of here?" I gape.

"You want to run through the zombies?" He screeches.

"Well, I'm certainly not hang gliding out of here! You know I'm terrified of heights."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just thought you were terrified of dying more, because that's exactly what's gonna happen if you decide to run through the zombies!"

"Not true!"

"Very true!"

"Fine," I say, slapping my hands dramatically against my sides. "We'll let Nadia decide since she obviously wants to get out of here safely."

"Alright. Fine."

"Fine.

"Good.

"Good."

I look at her expectantly. "Nadia?"

"Yeah..." She rubs the back of her neck awkwardly. "I'm not going."

"What?" Sam says, and I deadpan.

"You literally said two minutes ago you were never going to leave the coms room again."

"There's so much more down there to learn," She says. "And... you need help here, Veronica, with your experiments, don't you?"

She nods. "Yeah, and besides, you'll need us manning the noise makers here if you're going to have any chance of getting through the break in the line, Five."

"Oh, so you're all okay with her choice then?" Sam scoffs. "You better not get yourself killed."

I roll my eyes. "I'll be fine."

"It's... it's been really good working with you, Five." Nadia smiles. She hands me her backpack, and her pistol. "We'll see each other again. I know we will."

"Looks like it's down to you, then." He sighs heavily. "I hope you've made the right choice. Now, if you're gonna make it in time, run."

And I do. I race down from one platform to the next, my heart pounding in my chest. I hear Nadia and  Veronica set off the noisemakers to keep the zombies that were in the base from following after me. That's about four hundred off my track already, but I'm literally about to run right into a swarm of zoms.

I pray that the calming plant will at least make some of the fast zoms slower. I have my axe strapped to my back, over my two backpacks, and I have a gun in my hand and in the holster on my hip. Ten bullets and a bloody axe.

Let's do this.

I reach the end of the platforms, so I drop a rope ladder and scurry down. My feet hit the ground with a thud, and I start running straight for the wave of zombies headed right for me.

Veronica already has the Molotov cocktails on hand. Now all I have to do is wait for her and Nadia to get into position, which I pray is very soon.

"This is literally the worst idea anybody has had since the zombie outbreak," Sam grumbles.

"So, the idea is to punch a hole in the zom group that Five can run through," Nadia says, mostly for herself. "You've tested this, right, Veronica?"

"Yes. We've had good results."

"How good?" Sam asks.

"Very good."

"How good?" This time it's more of a growl.

"We got close to the target zone two out of three of our launch test," She answers.

"How close?"

"Very close."

He growls again.

"Good luck, Five," Nadia says. "See ya soon, I hope."

"Very reassuring," I say, rolling my eyes.

"Get ready," Veronica says. "We're launching in three, two, one!"

I see something fly above my head for a split second before the ground shakes slightly, and flames erupt in front of me. It happens again, and again, and I keep running. I keep running as burnt zombie parts fly in every direction, as the plants and trees and grass all start to catch fire.

"You can't run through the middle of that. It's an inferno." Sam's words stop when he watches me do just that. "Wow... you actually are running through the middle of that. You really want to prove that this was the best choice, don't you? Veer left. They thin out in that direction."

I obey.

"Now right. Great!" He cheers, but it doesn't last. "Uh, the good news is, you're basically clear of the burning zombies since most of them have been reduced to crisp crawlers. Heh. Bad news is a second group has picked you up and they're looking pretty fresh. Run!"

•

"Give me a quick glance backwards if you can," He asks, and I turn back, smiling when I see not one zombie following me. "Great. Well, you're five days out from Abel. Want me to turn on the offline operator?"

I scowl. "Don't you dare."

He snickers. "Yeah, I thought not. You've done great work in the treetops, you know. All that research seems to be coming together, right? Everything's heading toward something that could keep the zombies away. And if we can do that... nah, I don't wanna jinx it."

"If anyone's the jinx here, it's me."

"I guess you're right on that one," He laughs. "But in all seriousness, we have to stop putting you into these situations. Life's not safe anymore; We know that, but if you take too many chances, sooner or later you'll draw the Ace of Spades."

Yeah, I know.

"I don't know if you realize it, Five, but you're uh, you're kind of an inspiration around Abel. Sometimes I hear them talking about you-some of the stuff you did with Sarah before she died, how you brought down Van Ark, and going after those bloody kittens." He laughs. "Don't think I didn't hear about that, because I did... Anyway, my point is... you might be getting too valuable to lose. When a person becomes a legend, you have to take care not to lose them to the zombie horde.

"I don't know what Abel would do without you. I don't know what... what I'd do without you."

I keep running, mouth agape, unsure what to say. "I... I don't-"

"Uh, I shouldn't have said anything. I made it awkward, didn't I? I-look, forget it."

I blink. I remember him saying that.

"But-"

"Hey, listen, I've got some good news for you. When Amelia heard about your documents, she authorized some of our remaining fuel for a bike run. You're getting picked up," He says quickly. "I think it should be about... five or six hours until it reaches you? Until then, just head west. Nice, easy pace.

"You've done amazing work. I know we can find Comansys and our people, and even better, I think we're gonna find out how the apocalypse happened."

I can feel him smiling, and I smile back.

"Enjoy the sunset, Five. You earned it."

A/N: Here you go, guys! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!