To Be A Killer

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.