Stone Soldiers 6: Armageddon Z (8 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

The first thing he noticed was bright light, pouring into his eyes. It was not the way he was used to waking up—i
t hurt. When he tried to lift his hand up to shield his eyes, he found that he was tied down.

Kenji blinked several times and slowly came to. His eyes focused and he saw that a bright surgical light was shining down on him. And he was strapped to some kind
of medical table, tilted at an angle, almost standing up, in a white room.

Josie Winters and the telepath, Gloria were there.

"Mr. Nakayama?" Josie asked, leaning in, momentary blocking the bright light.

Kenji was almost fully awake now—only a bit of th
e grogginess remained. He looked down and saw multiple tubes and wires sticking out of his body. He was connected to intravenous feeding tubes and some kind of catheter. He was wearing a hospital gown.

"Wh-where am I?"

"We're in Florida—Argon Tower," Josie answered said. "You've been sedated for awhile."

"Sedated? How long?" Kenji was feeling a bit of panic.

"Five weeks."

"No!" Kenji said. He had failed.

"Calm down," Gloria said. As soon as the words left her lips, Kenji did feel calm. She was playing with his mind.

"Did it happen?" Kenji asked, a cold chill racing up his back. "The zombies?"

Gloria and Josie exchanged troubled looks.

"Yes," Josie said. She moved in and began to unbuckle Kenji's left wrist.

"Dammit," he said. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, but the drugs in his system were still too strong. The room spun more with his eyes closed than with them open.

"You can't end it," Gloria said. "The drugs we've been pumping into you inhibit psychic ability. Your powers won't return for s
everal hours."

"What happened?" Kenji asked. It was so frustrating. He had thought for sure he had finally beaten this.

Josie moved to his other wrist and undid the straps over it. Kenji already was raising his free hand to his face. He had some stubble there—he'd been shaved while he was under. But not recently.

"They checked the stadium like you said," Josie explained. "There were canisters just where you indicated. We had some good people get infected, but we thought it was contained."

Done with his hands, Josie knelt and worked on the straps around Kenji's ankles.

"What happened?" Kenji was rubbing his wrists now. They felt sore and chaffed, even with the slight numbness remaining from the IV sedative.

"Whoever is behind this released the spores a few days later—in Ohio. Another game."

Gloria moved around to Kenji's side, gently holding his upper arm. Josie did the same opposite her. They eased Kenji forward, off the medical table. With her free hand, Gloria pulled the IV loose from his arm.

The floor was cold under his bare feet. His legs barely worked and he was sure he'd have collapsed to the ground without their help.

"How bad is it?" Kenji asked. He felt thirsty-his throat was dry from not having had anything to drink in so long. Or maybe that was th
e after effect of a feeding tube. Five weeks was a long time to be kept unconscious.

"We're evacuating Miami," Josie said. She pointed down, below his belt. "I'll let you get that one."

Kenji glanced down at the catheter and tube she had indicated. Grimacing, he reached under his hospital gown and pulled it slowly free. It was one of the worst feelings yet in this never-ending, undead nightmare.

Josie and Gloria steered the young man to a nearby chair. A small table next to it had his clothes on it, launder
ed and neatly folded. His shoes were on the floor beside the table.

"Why are we evacuating?" Kenji asked. "Are they close?"

"They're just outside the base."

A door to the room opened and Jimmy walked in, barefoot. "Shake a leg, girls!"

He looked Kenji up and down. "Out! Let the man get dressed alone."

Gloria and Josie nodded and walked out, closing the door behind them.

Kenji dressed quickly then walked out as well. The room beyond was some sort of medical lab, with multiple doors branching off of it—to other cells for sedated prisoners he guessed. Jimmy, Josie and Gloria were waiting for him.

"I'm heading up to the roof," Gloria said. "Make sure you three aren't long."

"We're good," Josie said, smiling. Then she turned to Kenji. "Let us know if you have any problems—we have a couple more folks to pick up on the way."

The three left the medical lab after Gloria, walking the opposite direction from the telepath, down a long corridor lined with tile and fluorescent lights. Kenji had no idea where they were g
oing.

"What is this place?"

"The monster factory," Jimmy said. "It's where we made our army."

At last they came to a large blast door at the end of the corridor. It popped open a few inches, then began to slowly cycle open on hydraulics. As it opened, Ken
ji saw it was like the door to a bank vault—thick, with locking pins all around the outer edge.

Beyond the door was a vast chamber—larger than the dock he'd been in on his last visit to Miami. Over one-hundred feet across, the huge, multi-storied chamber w
as built around a large pool of water. Fifty feet across itself, the pool was filled with crystal clear water, over which a steel bridge extended, from one side of the chamber to another. Surgical tables and equipment carts sat on the bridge, while bright lights and mechanical-looking arms hung down over it from the high ceiling.

"Is this another boat dock?"

"No, it's the Fountain of Youth," Josie said, pulling a small plastic bag from a pocket of her vest. It was a clear, plastic bag, normally used for sandwiches. It was bulging with what looked like ashes.

"Seriously?" Kenji was more than a little surprised.

"Part of the merry process," Jimmy said. He pointed to the bridge. "That's where the magic happens. Where we turn men into living statues."

Josie wal
ked to the edge of the pool and opened the bag. "I hope this works," she said, then dumped the bag's contents in.

Ashes poured out of the bag, some hanging in the air, while most fell into the water.

"I don't-" Kenji started to say.

Jimmy held a finger to
his own lips, motioning for quiet. The finger began to elongate, a sharp nail extending from the tip. Thick fur began to erupt from Jimmy's pores, rapidly covering his body. His face deformed, his nose and mouth stretching out as his head assumed a more canine-shape.

"It's just a precaution," Josie said, stepping back from the edge of the water. "Just stay back and you'll be okay."

The Fountain was roiling now—as though it were boiling in one spot, out of sight, just below surface, near the edge of the pool.

Jimmy was fully transformed now. A towering, nearly seven foot tall, wolf-man creature, with bulging muscles under his thick, blonde-brown fur. His loose pants and t-shirt clung to him tightly.

A hand came up from the water, breaking the surface and grasping at the edge of the pool. The fingers were long and slender—a woman's hand. Another hand appeared, gripping at the edge as well. The woman in the water pulled herself up and her head broke the surface—covered in long, red hair.

She coughed several ti
mes. "Somebody give me a hand!"

Jimmy stepped forward, extending one of his werewolf clawed hands down to the edge of the pool. The redhead took it and was lifted out of the water.

Kenji looked away, embarrassed. The redhead was completely naked, and very beautiful.

"Damn it's cold in here!" she exclaimed when Jimmy set her down on the edge of the pool. She looked Kenji up and down suspiciously as he tried to avert his gaze.

"How long was I out?" the redhead demanded.

Josie stepped to a nearby table and sco
oped up a large bath towel. She handed it to the redhead. "Two months, Laura."

What?" Laura said in surprise. She began drying her hair out, the werewolf watching her intently.

"Jimmy!" Josie snapped, pointing her finger the other way.

Jimmy shrugged and t
urned away.

Laura now began drying her body off, without even the slightest hint of modesty. "Two months? What the hell? I die saving the world and you guys just left me in a jar?"

"A bag, actually," Josie said. She picked up a medical coat and held it out while the redhead finished drying herself off.

"Where's Mark?"

Josie frowned. "There's not a lot of time to explain, Doc. But we need to evacuate the building."

Laura shrugged and took the labcoat and slipped it on. "Who's the new guy?"

"Kenji Nakayama," Kenji said, looking up and extending his hand. His eyes dropped to Laura's still exposed breasts and he blushed.

"Where is everyone?" Laura said, struggling with the labcoat. It was several sizes too small, but she finally managed to fasten it shut in fro
nt. "And what's with giving me Pam-sized stuff?"

"How do you feel?" Josie asked, regarding Laura suspiciously.

Laura looked back and forth between Josie and Jimmy, then smiled. "What? You thought I was going to eat you? C'mon, I-"

The redhead stopped talki
ng suddenly, a weird look crossing her face. She reached up to her mouth and felt at her teeth. She held a hand out and looked at the back of it, then at her fingernails.

"Holy shit! I'm cured!"

Jimmy rapidly shrank back to human form as Kenji looked on, utterly and totally bewildered. "I don't understand..."

A mechanical voice sounded from speakers around the room. "ATTENTION STAFF, THIRTY MINUTES REMAIN UNTIL THE FINAL EVACUATION TRANSPORT. ALL PERSONNEL PLEASE REPORT TO THE ROOF."

"C'mon," Josie said to Laura. "I'll explain on the way."

***

The long hallway from the Fountain of Youth Chamber took them to a large freight elevator that they all boarded.

"Zombies? You're kidding, right?" Laura said as the elevator ascended. Josie had been trying to bring her up to speed as they walked.

"Zombie apocalypse—I swear," Josie said. "We've lost the continent."

"In two months? Guess you should have de-iced me sooner."

"I'm sorry," Kenji said, interrupting. "You were dust? She poured you into
the
Fountain of Youth?"

"It's not a big deal," Jimmy said. "I've died twice."

Kenji looked at Josie.

"Not me," the young girl said.

"That's debatable," Laura said. "Don't forget Mexico."

"Hold on," Kenji said, raising his hands. "He's a werewolf, Colonel Kenslir is some kind
of immortal super soldier, Josie can freeze things with her mind, and there's four guys running around made of living stone."

"Forty-three guys," Jimmy corrected.

"What?" Laura asked, surprised.

"We had to make some reinforcements."

"You can make more stone soldiers, but you left the vampire to rot in a Ziploc?"

"You're a vampire?" Kenji asked.

"Washington was worried about bringing you back," Josie said.

"I was a vampire," Laura said to Kenji. "I'm cured now."

She turned back to Josie. "Then why'd you bring me back now?"

"Colonel said to. We need all hands on deck."

Laura smirked. "He missed me, didn't he?"

"You're a vampire," Kenji said, shocked. The black office building in Miami just couldn't get any weirder.

The elevator finally came to a stop at the tenth floor and the doors opened. Josie glanced at a piece of paper in her hand and waved for everyone to follow her. "C'mon—we have to go get someone."

Laura and Jimmy walked out behind Josie, looking around. Jimmy reached back and grabbed the still-shocked
Kenji by the shirt and pulled him from the elevator.

"I thought this floor was off limits," Laura said as they walked through a small, lounge-like room. It was lined with chairs and vending machines, with several TVs hanging on the wall.

Kenji noticed a layer of dust on everything.

"Colonel said someone was here we needed to get after we picked up Mr. Nakayama and you."

They came to a large set of double doors. Electronic bolts could be heard clicking into place when Josie reached for the door. She jumped back reflexively, then blushed in embarrassment.

"I think they were unlocking," Laura said, pushing one door open.

Beyond the double doors was a very large room, filled with scores of odd, hexagonal machines, sitting upright, almost the size of vending machines. An electrical hum filled the air, coming from the machines.

"Those are supercomputers!" Kenji said, stepping around Laura and Josie. He recognized them from college. Very old supercomputers. And there were at least a hundred of them.