Among the Fallen: Resurrection (29 page)

She looked over at the back end of the wall, a hundred or so drawers and body compartments that sparkled with a frost elegantly. She shivered as she stared over them, most were open and bled a fog of ice that carpeted the ground below them. Alex stood spellbound, gazing upon the area with strange feeling of unease; as for many, this was the final stop in their lives and being situated where it was, it was one last journey the victim didn’t intend on taking.

She walked towards the compartments, her attention immediately drawn to the only one that appeared shut; her curious and troubled mind suddenly full of intrigue. After a few moments, she reached for the handle and with a crunch of metal; she released the lock, stepping away cautiously as the door slowly swung open. Alex sighed as it appeared to be empty, except for a piece of paper.

She approached the compartment and took the file, reading it quietly.

Memo to Staff, Memo to: (All Officers on Duty): From: Acting Chief Michael Mann: Date: 29th July
2012

As of 01:00am 28th July 2012, all departments and all shifts have been called on duty to assist the
Blackwater Curfew and Lockdown of the city, spearheaded by the Beaumont Corporation and
Military Forces. All paperwork and documentation has been frozen and all officers, despite being on
duty are to aid and assist in finding possible infected citizens and helping to gather the uninfected for
transport to a safe location as briefed earlier. All citizens MUST provide a blood test without protest,
anyone failing or refusing to do so well be met with deadly force and is used to the officers discretion.

Anyone misusing this authorization will also be met with deadly force. If any of the public is clear of
infection then you must stipulate the importance of staying in their homes, attempting to leave the
city will too result in deadly force as it is unclear as to the Legacy Virus’ methods of infection and the
Beaumont Corporation has stressed that the virus must be contained at all costs. B.S.C.S Agents are
currently leading all Law Enforcement operations within the city.

It has come to my attention that some of you have decided you would rather leave to be with your
families. You are free to do so but obviously your contract of employment will be at risk of review
after the Legacy Virus Epidemic passes, risking your retirement polices, bonuses and awards.

When you encounter the infected it is important to take the following measures as supplied by the
Beaumont Corporation.

1 – The infected WILL NOT respond to any warnings, if you believe without a doubt the target is
infected, full deadly force is authorized WITHOUT the need to give warning – to be used at your
discretion.

2 – Shooting at the infected will just result in loss in ammunition, all weapon usage including
firearms, batons etc. MUST be applied to the targets head and you MUST avoid contact with the
targets blood, saliva and any other bodily fluids, recommended distance is at present 6 feet/ 2 yards/

1.82 meters.

3) - Unarmed combat/Physical Intervention is STRONGLY advised against and to be used in
emergency situations only as it is a risk of infection.

4) – If a fellow Officer or member of your crew is injured through a bite or scratch, inform your team
and that Officer will be stripped of authority and his badge temporarily on the spot and treated as an
infected individual.

As harsh as these directives seem to be, we must pull together to stop the infection claiming more
lives than possible.

Good luck officers and stay safe!

Acting Chief Michael Mann

Alex put the memo in her rucksack and just rubbed her head in bewilderment; the chaos in the city must have been biblical, and the suffering of her people crippled her heart. As Alex processed the report in her tired mind, more burning questions were raised. Now a new thread of evidence had appeared - the Legacy Virus. It would appear that the ruinous city was full of dark and imminent death-dealing secrets, this Legacy Virus, whatever that maybe, was just another key to what happened. Alex thought over any possible connection between the Swine Flu and the Legacy Virus but thought of nothing, frustrated she put it to the back of her mind and gazed upon the sadistic room blankly. She turned and looked over the corpse tables inquisitively, quickly noticing the sets of handcuffs that hung from the rails. She approached silently, inspecting their cold metal teeth and locks as they glistened with blood in the red light. She shivered coldly, wandering the room and looking over a blood-stained whiteboard on the wall, full of notes, scribbles and morbid photos.

Suddenly, she found a Dictaphone. Alex looked over it in the palm of her hand, rewinding the tape before pressing play.

Dictaphone: Morgue in Police Precinct East

There was a long drawn out static and the sound of people walking around, the tinkering of equipment, running water and mutterings. Alex merely listened, the Doctor suddenly speaking.

Mortician
“The autopsy has begun at 12:30 P.M. on July 25, 2012. The body is presented in a black
body bag. The victim is wearing a standard issue Blackwater Police Department Uniform with
standard Riot Protection attachments. The body is that of a normally developed white male
measuring 79 inches and weighing 130 pounds, and appearing generally consistent with the stated
age of twenty-nine years. The body is cold and unembalmed. Lividity is fixed in the distal portions of
the limbs. The eyes are open. The irises are black and corneas are cloudy. Petechial haemorrhaging is
present in the conjuctival surfaces of the eyes. The pupils are broken and appear to be bleeding into
the rest of the eye. The hair is dark brown, wavy, approximately 2 inches in length at the longest
point. At first glance, I would assume the victim would have been dead no less than five weeks,
however, I have recently been told the victim was perfectly healthy less than forty-eight hours ago
before receiving the obvious bite to the forearm. The rate of decomposition is almost unheard of and
my theory is that the virus heats the body constantly by over compensating the victims core
temperature, forcing the tissue into a further state of decay. That is strange? – I have found a…”

The tape stops.

Suddenly, a door slammed out in the corridor and Alex dropped the Dictaphone in fright. She swiftly approached the door, listening as the sound of a clumsy dragging noise came from the misted hallway. Alex took a quick look around in panic, hastily rushing over to the freezer compartments and inelegantly climbing inside one. As the fear engulfed her soul, she shivered, pulling the compartment door shut slightly, hiding away and watching the entrance to Mortuary in growing anxiety. She trembled as the cold bit into her skin and the noise drew closer, her eyes blinking as her breath steamed, waiting for whoever it was to open the door. Alex waited, quivering in the cold, her skin sticking painfully to the icebound metal as she waited for the door to open, the anticipation held her numbed in apprehension. The lights outside hummed and faltered, casting spiteful shadows around the Mortuary walls. As the room waited for the arrival of the unknown; Alex watched and prayed within the darkness, the fan above her pouring in a fog of ice-cold air.

All of a sudden, there was a crunch of metal as the door steadily opened, steam swiftly pouring into the room as a tall svelte silhouette stood halted in the doorway. Alex covered her mouth in fright as she peered through the tiny gap, her stomach turning over inside as the shadow looked inquisitively into the room. As Alex quickly froze, she shut her eyes, pleading for the shadow to walk away, but it never did. As her black eyes burned in the bitter cold, she watched the figure as it swayed and scratched, its body heaving in painful broken breaths.

Suddenly, the shadow grumbled and sauntered in clumsily, almost drunk looking yet graceful as if he was slithering around the walls. As the frightening and macabre sight heaved itself from the clouded doorway, she gasped and covered her mouth in sheer terror. The strange man stumbled as his tall and slender frame swayed and wheezed, the steam swiftly falling away from its skin with each laborious step.

His boots were bulky and heavy, seamlessly blending into his over baggy black leather looking trousers. His loose belt hung with chains, morbid straps and buckles; decorated with a string of jaw bones that dangled behind him. His torso was naked and scarred with markings, streaming with dirt, blood and tidemarks; but physically, his body was strangely healthy and well built, his skin as grey as stone. The man’s head was bound in layer upon layer of tightly wrapped clear plastic film; blood-soaked from the inside and his features almost invisible. As he stumbled into the room dragging a corpse behind him, the wrapping pulsed as his mouth gasped, sucking the plastic in and out creepily as he huffed. Alex waited, shivering silently as the Asphyxiated man cumbersomely hauled the body across the floor by its feet, callously leaving thick smeared blood drag marks across the metal floor.

She watched in a morbid sense of curiosity as the man gasped constantly from behind the wrapping, his chest rapidly contracting and panicking as his body faltered and stumbled.

Suddenly, he threw the corpse to the ground and stood up straight, violently pulling at the plastic film on his head before abruptly stopping, gazing around his surroundings inquisitively. She watched as the insane looking man looked upon the room with a strange sense of bewilderment, his dead and dirt afflicted skin glimmering in the red light that poured through the windows.

Alex covered her mouth in increasing paranoia as her breathing got heavier, the cold metal biting and sticking to her skin unsympathetically. Suddenly, the corpse groaned and started to grumble on the floor, the Asphyxiated staring down at it as he pulled at his painful plastic wrapped face in confusion. He took a step back and watched the waning body as it painstakingly writhed across the ground, his featureless head tilting to one side as he scratched at his bare chest calmly. All of a sudden, he lunged forward and snatched the female cadaver from the floor, slamming it onto the table and locking its wrists into the cuffs as it struggled.

“Hold still, Silly!” the Asphyxiated man said with the same playful child-like voice Alex heard on the phone, its speech disturbing and almost innocent in tone. The Asphyxiated took a few steps back and watched haughtily as the woman struggled; the handcuffs scraping and clunking on the metal rails as it snapped at him rabidly. He gasped with a few deep and pointless breaths, swiftly reaching for his belt and pulling a rusted knife from it slowly and deliberately. The woman continued to desperately snap at the Asphyxiated as he lightly ran the blade across her face. He watched as it bit the knife, her teeth instantly shattering and her mouth bleeding as he tormented her in a malevolent and nauseating manner. Alex shut her eyes tight and turned her head away as he slowly pushed the blade under her ribcage, tearing through her skin little by little as blood instantly flooded her skin and poured to the ground.

Alex opened an eye as the Asphyxiated plunged his hand deep into her chest, gasping uncontrollably in fright. Suddenly, he stopped, turning his head towards her and Alex’s heart immediately dropped into her stomach. Shaking in fear; she closed her eyes as the man pulled his hand from the cadaver’s chest, wiping it down his leg as he wandered towards the freezer compartments. As the cadaver snapped at the air, the Asphyxiated slowly looked over the metal doors, examining them blindly before instantly hovering his stare over her. As she trembled with apprehension and fear, she stared back at the vulgar creature through the opening with growing dread. He hovered for a few moments, suddenly turning his head towards the woman on the table as it struggled noisily. He clawed at his wrapped head deeply frustrated, pulling at the plastic covering as blood escaped down his chest, huffing and gasping as she watched with a shivering gaze.

Alex held her breath and mumbled a prayer; the creature returning his gaze towards her; his dying chest and unstable breaths almost silenced by the cadaver’s aimless struggling behind him.

Suddenly, he turned away and Alex clutched her mouth gravely, hoping and begging for him to walk away, but he paused, turning towards her and slowly clasping the compartments handle. Alex suddenly gasped as the door was thrown open, the Asphyxiated staring upon her almost as surprised as she was; suddenly taking a scattering of steps back, pulling at his wrapped face clearly mystified.

He slowly tilted his head and his arms dropped to his sides, standing quietly and motionless as she stared upon him in fear.

“Why are you hiding in there?!” The Asphyxiated asked playfully with a child’s voice. Alex couldn’t speak; her voice was almost stolen, as if fear had callously taken it from her. She merely glared back at the creature without a single word, her heart pounding in her chest with escalating anxiety.

Suddenly, the man reached into his pocket and grumbled before checking his other pockets erratically. He eventually sighed and pulled something out. “Would you like some candy?” it said opening his dirty blood covered palm unveiling a mouldy rotten sweet, tacky in gore and far from appealing. Alex wearily shook her head, impassively staring at the creature as it threw the sweet to the ground. Clumsily, he turned and approached the thrashing cadaver on the table. He pulled a knife from his belt and sunk its blade coldly into its head and instantly the cadaver became still. He turned and strolled towards Alex steadily, staring at her inquisitively and obviously fascinated. She watched him as he stood before her, his somewhat elegant body had her almost mesmerized, its haunting absent stare upon her gravely unsettling.