Seeds Of Hunger

Chapter 13: Long Roads

Steve Ayr hid in the supply closet as the Leech walked by, its lips pulsating, looking for its next meal. Steve had seen one of those suck Carly dry and then it had tried to come for him. He had found Carly screaming when he had walked in on it killing her and ran. Steve watched the monster walk by and listened for its footsteps down the hall. Certain the creature was a good distance away, he hurried out of the closet and into the research department where he entered the combination for the door lock. The door slide and the metallic latch clicked, locking the door unless the code was entered. Steve strode to his desk and sat down, his brown hair sticking to his forehead. He'd been awake for seventy two hours, hiding and running, from the dangers of the building. The scientists, who were experimenting with the plant and already turned into cannibals, were eating each other. Now, out of fresh meat, they roamed the institute looking for a meal or a few that had died one way or another.

Steve was on his internship for bio-organic chemistry from UVA and decided on the Carnegie institute because it was close to home. Now he feared his family was dead and he would soon join them. Steve had been scavenging the building as much as he could but the moans and screams of those the infected found had terrified him, enough to keep him from thinking rationally. When the initial panic hit, one of the scientists hit the lever that transported the plants into the freezer that killed the majority of them. The rest had died from lack of inadequate care but to Steve, it was one less thing to worry about.  Steve closed his eyes and wished that he had evacuated the building when he could have. But he was young and wanted to start his research with the plant as well. Steve, however, didn't know that it had saved his life.

Steve awoke with a start, not realizing while fantasizing that he dozed off. Steve took a few moments to check his surroundings, momentarily forgetting where he was at.  Steve shook himself awake and walked over to the cupboard and grabbed a warm soda. Popping the top, he sat back down at the computer and started typing. Hearing the keyboard click was soothing to him as he used to do computer coding back in high school. He let his fingers flow over the key board, typing everything that had occurred since he had arrived four days ago. It was more for distraction than anything else and Steve knew that but still, he typed. After an hour of continuous typing and his fingers becoming numb, he stopped himself and read through everything. If anyone alive came through here they should know what they were getting into. The further you went into the labs the worse the infection got and Steve had no reason to go back into there; he barely escaped the first time.

Steve chugged the last of his soda and stretched, knocking over the chair, and scaring himself. You're alright, quit freaking out over everything, his mind raged. He looked over towards the counter and thought about continuing his work but thought against it. He knew enough that he didn't understand what the reports told him about the plant but now that they were dead it didn't really matter. From the experiments they were a definite candidate for curing Alzheimer's, but they also restored enough brain function to bring the dead back to life and try to eat the living. Something that no one would know until it was too late. Steve had known a lot of the scientists here because they had come and lectured at UVA and he had talked with them. Now they were infected carriers, spreading the parasites by eating those not infected and continuing the process. Steve had gone through the stages of grief early in the outbreak and now he was numb. His crush on Carly was replaced by the fact that now she wanted to eat him if she saw him. Carly had been around Steve's age but just a few more months older and incredibly pretty. Not anymore, Steve thought, as he input the code into the door. He still had the slip of paper in his pocket from his first day, when he was introduced to the facility, containing the six digit code. Steve almost had it memorized as he took it out of his pocket to double check the numbers. The keypad next to the door flashed red when the code wasn't put in correctly. Once more and you had sixty seconds before an alarm flashed and security came to find you. Usually to the good humor of the other scientists, it was a good tease and a meeting with the security chief about proper pass code procedures. They're probably all dead by now, Steve thought, as the keypad turned green and the door slide open. Steve walked through the door and felt something heavy land on his back, as he began screaming.