Times A Ticking

4

"Here is the main lobby." Dad says as he reaches into his pocket pulling out his name tag. He holds it up and scans it. The door slowly opens and we walk in, Dad heads towards the middle of the room and looks around.

"It's just a bunch of computers." Hannah says as she taps on one. Dad smiles and nods his head as he sits down at one and turns it on.

"I thought everything was down." Mom says as she stands behind him placing her hands on his shoulders.

"I notice that the electricity was out on the way down here. It must've went out after we left." Andre says as he steps beside of me. "How does this place still have electricity?"

"Back up generator. All labs have them. Simple protocol." He says with a shrug of his shoulders, I watch as he types random letters and numbers into the computer. The screen turns blue and he slams his fist onto the keyboard whispering a curse word to himself as he stands up.

"Is everything okay William?" Mom asks as she follows him to another computer. He shakes his head and begins typing away again the same code as before. The screen turns blue again and he sighs in frustration.

"Shit. Someone has wiped the system. They must've when they all left, fucking idiots." He says as he stands up and wipes his forehead with his forearm. "Everyone stay here, grab a seat. I'll be right back."

I watch as he disappears through the doors going back into the long hallway. I sit down beside of Mom and watch as Zoey runs up to me. I pick her up sitting her in my lap as I play with her curly blonde hair.

"Sissy, why was Daddy upset?" She whispers into my ear. I sigh softly before I push her hair behind her ears and grab her face between my hands offering a kind smile.

"Daddy is just trying to help us. His job is really hard so we need to be very nice and try to help him." I explain as I squish her face together making her let out a cute giggle.

"Like a superhero?" I nod my head as she points down to her worn out Spider-Man shirt. "Like Spidey!" She say happily making me break out a real smile.

"Yes. Just like Spidey." I give her a kiss on the top of her head and wrap my arms securely around her as she plays with her teddy bear. "Hey Zoey why don't you go and play with Ruby." I say as I set her down.

"Okay!" She cheers as she runs over to where Ruby was at Mom's feet. I stand up and walk to the same hallway Dad went down. I look down the hallways and finally walk over to a door that was slightly cracked open. The same door I had opened before but closed because it was so cold.

I gently open it a bit more and feel the cold breeze hit my face again. I jump slightly as I hear thunder roar from the outside and the rain begin to patter down onto the roof.

I peek around the door and widen my eyes as I see Dad hovering over a dead body on a table. He reaches over and grabs a scalpel and holds it to the forehead of the dead person and slices just the skin open.

The person was strapped down to the table, but they begin to move as Dad slices their skin off. Holy shit was he doing this on a live person? I step inside the room and try to shut the door back gently but it ends up slamming shut making Dad jerk around.

"Shit. Gabby why are you in here?" He asks as he shields me from the person. I stare at him in disgust and back up closer to the door, what kind of monster was he?

"Why are you hurting that poor innocent man?" I ask as the man being him groan and jerks on his t restraints trying to free himself. "This is inhumane Dad!" I argue.

He sighs and shakes his head before motioning me to come to him. I shake my head, but he grabs my arm forcing me to walk to the table.

"Does this look like a human? An alive human?" He asks. I take a closer look and gulp. The man's eyes were yellow and some of his skin was peeled off along with a bite mark on his left shoulder.

I cover my mouth as the smell of rotting flesh hits me. "What is this?" I ask as I step away from the smell and look at Dad.

"Don't tell anyone. This is a virus, and I'm not sure how to well... fix it. I've never seen this before, it affects the brain." He says as he turns away and focuses on the dead man. "It's like they are completely brain dead in a way. Nothing about them is human anymore." Dad says before he grabs a nearby chair and sits in it.

"So they are dead, but also not?" I ask as I shake my head in confusion. "This makes no sense, why can you just give the sick people medicine?" I asks as I sit in the floor and stare up at him.

"Medicine won't solve this." Dad says as he places his head into his hands. I frown slightly and stand up walking over and giving him a hug.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll figure something out. We are all here for you. Just tell me what I can do to help." I say as I pull away from the hug, he slowly looks up at me and cracks a small smile.

"You're such a great kid Pumpkin." He says as he stands up and walks back over to the dead man. He sighs and shakes his head before grabbing the scalpel and cutting more of the skin off its head.

I stand there, not moving one muscle as I watch him closely. He grunts and tosses the scalpel to the side and turns to look at me.

"Go over to that desk, open the top drawer and grab me that knife." He orders and I obey. I walk to the desk that was by the table of tools, as I open the top drawer the man on the table yanks on the restraints more and groans.

I quickly grab the knife and run back to Dad giving him the knife with shaking hands. He grips it and turns away from me holding it up at his head level.

"Gabby. Turn around and cover your ears please." He says in a sweet tone, he peers over his shoulder to look at me with a sad look. "Please. I don't want you to see this."

I gulp and slowly turn around and cover my ears with my hands. I could still hear a bit, I hear a bit of a crunching sound but it was so quiet I couldn't really tell.

After a few seconds I feel him place his hand on my shoulder and I drop my hands to my sides and start to turn around but he stops me.

"Don't look. Just go back to your Mom. Tell everyone I will be out there shortly." He reaches by me to open the door and I notice blood covering his hand and I immediately felt sick to my stomach.

As the door opens I take a small step out, I try to turn around and catch a glimpse of him but he shuts the door in my face not giving me the slightest chance.

I start to walk back towards the main lobby, but my curiosity stops me. I turn back and head to the door my Dad was behind. I press my ear up to it and hear his soft cries, he sounded hopeless. I listen to him mutter a few things but then he says something I wish he never had of.

"We're infected, I can't save us. There's no cure."