Prologue

Prologue

 “We need to deliver this to Safe space”

 Julia gives the parcel to her assistant whose hands were shaking as rivulet of sweats drips from her chin, clenching her fist on the parcel.

Julia turns to the laptop beside her and pull out the flash drive with her blood stained hand, shoving it into her pocket.

“Hey!” she shouted at her Assistant who seem carried away by the horrible sight in front of her.

 “Look at me” She says, drawing her face close to hers. “It's no use, we have to go!”

“He's dead” Her Assistant cry out.

“Yes, and if we don't get out of here, we'll also be dead”.

 She turns her face again to the body lying on a pool of blood,, but Julia pulls her away, heading to the door.

 The alarm blare loudly as Julia passed through the partially dark narrow hallway, slightly brightened with red lights. The blood stain on the walls didn't seem to bother her as she confidently picks up an assault rifle from a headless corpse.

She tightens her bloodstained hands to its handle, after ejecting the magazine and mounting it again, she pulls the safety.

“Let's go”. She said to her assistance, who creep behind her as they walk past hoards of corpse. 

Suddenly, she stops and aimed at the dark end of the hallway. Her secretary clenched her body against hers as the moaning sound gets louder. A human figure shuffled towards them, growling, with its unsteady movement like it's going to take forever to get to them. Its left hand dangled freely, while the right hand looks roughly eaten. Julia notice its broken ankles but still manage to drag its feet. As soon as it got closer, Julia squeezes the trigger and a bullet shell dropped alongside the horrible looking man.

 “Let's keep moving” She said.

Her assistance screamed in fear soon as they take the left turn at the end of the hallway. Without hesitating, Julia clench her fist on the trigger, shooting sporadically at the hoard of zombies in front of her, a few dropped before she ran out of ammo. 

“We are so dead!” Her assistance whisper to her ear, clenching her body to hers, using her as a body shield against the incoming zombies. 

 Julia took a deep breath as the Zombies lunges to her. She holds her gun tightly and shove the butt of her gun to a zombie's head severally until its skull made a cracking sound. Hurriedly, she turns to the glass box on the wall beside her, and smash it with her elbow. She pulls out the emergency axe that was behind the glass, quickly, she lands it blade on a female zombie's head. Congealed blood spurt on her face and she struggled to pull out the axe. 

 “They are coming” her assistance screamed, pointing to the other zombies who were so close to them.

 Suddenly, multiple gunshots echoed from the end of the hallway as the zombies begins to jerk and fall to the floor one after the other with bullet ripping through their bodies. As soon as the shooting stops, Julia let go of the zombie and raised her head to see three armed men waving at her.

“Come on, move it!” The tallest man in the middle shouted.

Julia sighed. “Thank goodness, sergeant Jeffery” 

Her assistance hurried past her, dashing towards the men.

Julia wiped the blood on her face with her stained handkerchief before tossing aside. “Where are the others?” She asked the armed men in front of her as she approaches him carefully, trying not to step on the corpse.

“This is all that is left, they breach the parameters, we were overpowered almost instantly”. One of the men replied.

“We have to get to the chopper” She said.

“I'm afraid that'll be a bit difficult, the elevators are down, and the stairs up are filled with Zombies, I suggest we just lay low and wait for back up, besides I don't think any of us can fly a chopper”.

Dr. Julia snapped. “We don't have much time, I have found the solution, and it needs to get to Safe Space as soon as possible, as for the helicopter; leave that to me”.

 “Where did you learn how to fly a plane?” Her assistance asked.

“Long story”

 Julia pulled a handgun from one of the men holster, she corks it and turn to the hallway which leads to the stairs. “Let's go”.

 One of the men leads the way, while Julia and her secretary followed. The two other men walk behind, shooting their way through the raft of zombies, as they moved in a single file.

 The stairs seem messier than usual with bullet holes riddled on the wall. Julia's assistant yelled, immediately she felt a grip on her leg.

“Help!” She shouts.

 A half bodied zombie with dangling intestines held on to her, despite not having legs, it still manages to clench its fist around her legs and yank her to the floor, she crashed and it started drawing her close to its mouth. As soon as it faces made contact with Marian leg, bullets riddled through the zombie's back, and slowly it let go of her. The man who shot the zombie rushed to pull her away from its body.

Julia hurried to her assistance. “Marian, It's ok, you're safe now”, she said, patting her back.

Marian buried her face in her palms as she sobs. “I can't do this” She said.

“You can, you have to, we have been through thick and thin, and this is our chance to save the world from this horrible pandemic”.

 “You don't understand” She points to her leg bleeding from a bite mark.

 “Oh no” Julia said, she stood up and take few steps backwards trying to hold back her tears.

“Take it” Marian toss the parcel to Julia. “Go safe the world”.

Slowly, Julia pick it up and shove it into her right pocket. “I'll come back for you” She muttered in tears.

“Let's go!” One of the armed men shouted as hoards of zombies shuffled from the end of the hallway. One of the men leads Julia up the stairs while the others shoots at the zombies to buy some time. Marian took a deep breath then she managed to stand on her feet, grabbing a gun. She corks it and joined the others trying to take down the wave of zombies.

“If I'm going to eventually die, I'll die my way”. She said before squeezing the trigger, shooting angrily at the mass of zombies rushing towards her.

 Julia shuts the door behind her as soon she got out with the last surviving guard. 

The gunshot coming from the door suddenly stops, then the screams of the guards echoed. Trying not to think about what happened down there, she hurried to the chopper. Suddenly, a dozen of zombies rushed out of a corner, shuffling towards her.

“Go! I'll cover you” The last surviving guard said as he shoots at the incoming, angry zombies.

 She opened the chopper door but as she tried to step in, a zombie pulled her from behind. Slamming her to the ground. Quickly, she pulled out her gun and exhaust her remaining ammo on its body. As soon as it drops close to the chopper, she stood up and hurried in. It didn't take much time before the blades begins to rotate. Unfortunately, zombies already flood around him, at that moment she had no choice than to leave without him. There's no way he's going to make it- she thought.

Finally, she's airborne, controlling the chopper as good as she can. Struggling to avoid thinking about those she lost in the past, now that she have the cure with her, she's going to produce more as soon as she gets to Safe Space, hopefully life can be back to what it used to be.