"Outbreak:The Demon in the Fortress"

"Outbreak:The Demon in the Fortress"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

It was an old school building. He remembered taking classes there during his 1st year of Medical school. 2 flights of marble stairs separated the ground and 2nd floor. It was where he found himself running towards along with 4 other people that he had managed to save along the way.

Candy and Angel were cornered by 2 zombies and were screaming hysterically when he found them. He had swung at the zombies skulls and they fell down to the sides. He had to scream at the 2 young girls to bring them back to this awful reality. 

Henry and El were trying to fend off the undead with shovels that they have found in the university garden. He helped them get out of their particular mess as well and they joined him. 

All five were now running up the stairs. He went to check if there was any danger. He turned right to look at the long corridor. 5 doors on his left and a single double door at the end which he knew ended in the huge lecture room. He checked out each door while keeping a watchful eye on the stairs. None of the zombies were following them at the moment but in his experience it was better to be safe than sorry. None of the doors were open. He knew this because he was there when they decided to transfer all the offices to the more modern Main Building. He knew that only a few people would go here since it was still used as a lecture area but there were none scheduled today. 

He asked El and Henry to ram down the first 3 doors. The rooms revealed large storage rooms.Broken tables and chairs. A whole row of old projectors that have gone out of fashion since everyone was now using laptops for lectures and presentations.

He had to make quick decisions. He was hauling out some chairs as he gave instructions to everyone. 

"Guys , I have seen and survived this situation before. The last time this happened the corpses only remained reanimated for 2 days. If we could barricade ourselves here and hold them off here I know that we would be able to survive. We just need to barricade the stairs and since we are on the 2nd floor none of those things could climb up to get us."

Everyone was in a state of shock. No one had the presence of mind to ask where or when he experienced this event before. All 4 followed his orders. The physical act of moving all the materials needed for the barricade was making a lot of noise.The group was busy piling things on the first landing when the first wave of Zombies appeared. 

He knew what to do. " Please keep on piling things here. Do not stop. There are more of them coming."

If the 4 were exhausted they never seemed to show it to him because they worked even faster. Adrenaline is now flooding their systems. Preservation of one's life takes precedence over something as trivial as fatigue.

The stairs were actually a good defensive position. Most of the undead in the first wave were shamblers that usually fell down or fell back. They  were easily pushed to the side of the stairs. Some would even have broken legs. Broken legs meant that someone could easily crush their rotting heads with a good thump.

He began hitting zombies in the head as they took the first step up. Black blood and rotting gore was splattered all over his white smock gown now. He was much too busy to take it off and the stains would remain there forever. While he was doing his one man defense , the wall in the 1st landing was almost complete. Several layers of Oak Tables now formed a great barrier. All 4 were shouting for him to come up.After crushing a crawling zombie he bounded for the stairs and jumped over the oaken barricade. 

A second wall was built on the top of the 2nd set of stairs before the rooms as a second defensive line should the first one be overwhelmed. 3 of them would sleep at a time. There were always 2 people on the wall of tables who would push the ghouls that would make it to the top either to fall on the side or back. The Wall was erected. The Fortress was sealed. 

___________________________________

3 Days Later....

Ten Soldiers were sweeping the area of the old Lecture hall. The HazMat team has cleared this zone and alerted them to a structure that might contain survivors.

"Sir , there is a barricaded staircase in the old lecture hall.Many undead bodies have piled outside but there are no signs of a breach. We are positive that there are still survivors in that area." One of the soldiers reported to Lt. Abude. The Lieutenant was a moustached man with short cropped black hair who never believed anything that he could not see for himself.

Lt. Abude checked the safety of his gun. the modified hazmat gear they were all wearing were effective against undead attacks but it was always a different case with humans or those who were half way being undead. 

He motioned for his team to make a way in the tables and to be wary of booby traps. He just had to admire the defensive set up. Whoever did this knew what they were doing. After all the undead stopped moving on the 2nd day a massive clean up all across this island still continued. The search for survivors became a second priority because the local government feared that a whole wave of undead attacks would ensue if any of the uninfected population would be reached. They believed that the next wave would be imminent. There were no specific orders to rescue survivors once they were encountered and Lt. Abude had to do this by his gut feeling.

The opening in the wall of tables revealed an elderly man with a lone bite on the left side of his neck. Only his supper torso retained its human shape , his lower half seemed to have been eaten away. Like professionals the soldiers did not even flinch at the sight .One probed the half eaten man for movement. Satisfied that this one did not reanimate Lt. Abude gave the hand signals for his men to proceed with caution.

He noticed that a secondary wall was on the 2nd floor. It was not as well constructed as the first one.He reasoned that the people who holed out here were never expecting the undead to climb up stairs all that easily. If nothing could come in here...Lt. Abude drowned his suspicions for now but at the back of his mind he knew  something was wrong with this picture. The 2nd wall was intact and there were no zombies here either. After they have opened the 2nd wall it revealed the body of a young attractive girl. She was topless and both her breasts were chewed out. The look of shock on her face frozen for all eternity. The Lieutenant kneeled beside the girl and closed her still open eyes. 

Finally reaching the corridor of the old lecture hall the soldiers turned right and found slumped in the middle of the floor  , face first was the body of another man. He did not seem to have any other injuries except for the fact that the top of his head was open. His brain was gone. Checking for syringe puncture marks Lt. Abude confirmed what he was up against. He found the marks just below the neck of the mans shirt.Whoever did this did it quick and with great skill. Probably from behind while the man was not looking. He gripped the gun in his hand much tighter and walked on. All the doors on his left were open. His men did not find anything else in them. There was only one door left to check. The one at the end of the corridor that read.Main Lecture Hall.  

Even without giving a command the men looked at their commanding officer and formed ranks behind him. A lead checked the last door and motioned that they could easily breach it. Lt. Abude gave the signal.

The door broke open and 5 men burst through it with guns drawn , pointing at a wide semi-circular pattern that would have taken down any undead in their immediate vicinity.

"What took you guys so long?" a raspy voice said. It sounded more annoyed than relieved. His blood splattered lab coat identified him as Adam De leon MD. Behind the doctor was another female spread eagled as each of her limbs were fastened by chains.The right half of her skin was already removed. The other side was left intact. From her face down to her legs showed off features that she was also as attractive as the other woman on the 2nd floor stairs. When she saw the soldiers she opened her mouth to show that her tongue had been cut out and she was screaming at them in the way that a pained animal would scream. Wordlessly the scream went on.

"We have found Dr. De leon sir." Lt. Abude said to the little radio attached to his right shoulder.

"You have your orders Lieutenant." said the staticky voice. 

Lt.Abude aimed his .45 at the doctor.

"I have isolated the causative agent. I have found the cure." The Doctor said with a sad smile. "I could prevent this from ever happening again."

"We know that you have Doctor. The Day Zero project does not need your knowledge or anyone else knowing of it."

A single shot rang out in the main lecture hall.

In a matter of minutes the whole place was in flames. The soldiers would later claim that several survivors have turned inside the secured area and that an ensuing firefight ignited stored chemicals in the old building.

No one raised any questions about what happened. The Day Zero Project controlled everything else.

The Cure is gone. Along with the Demon who risked so much for it.