A World Reborn: The First Outbreak (6 page)

“And what’s that, Roy?”

“You’re a guest, a civilian; I couldn’t put
you in danger.”

“Roy, stop dancing around it and get to the
point. I’m a big girl. If I don’t want to do it, I’ll tell you.” Melissa
snapped.

“If you could get to the roof, there are
some emergency supplies up there. Flares, a radio, things that people trapped
on the top of the building by a fire might need to signal for help. If you
could get to it, perhaps you could inform the emergency services.”

“Also, if you have a cell phone you might
be able to call out from up there; whatever is disrupting the signal may not
have an effect that far.” A female voice called out, and Melissa assumed this
was Donna.

“Are there likely to be any of the infected
up there?”

“To be quite honest, Melissa, I don’t know.
I can’t know. The elevators have been running for a few hours and the ones that
are on the north and south side have stopped at the top a few times. All the
executive suites were booked by a private party, who were expecting a large
number of visitors, so if whatever happened down here happened up there you
could be walking into fifty or more of these infected people.”

“Great.” Melissa commented dryly.

“If you want to stay in your room where
it’s relatively safe, I sympathize and completely understand. At some point,
the emergency services will realize what’s going on and send help. I can only
advise you to barricade your door, stay quiet and keep calm.”

Melissa considered what he had said then
gave considerable thought to what she should do. On the one hand, going outside
was obviously dangerous. She’d been forced to kill one of them and the others
she’d encountered had been vicious, single-minded killers. And, as apathetic as
she’d been since returning from the warzone, she didn’t want to be bitten or,
worse still, eaten. She flipped the scenario around in her mind. There were
people trapped in their rooms, some of whom were certain to attract the attention
of the sick inadvertently. Roy had admitted they could break down doors, that
families had been killed. Melissa couldn’t help but wonder how many people had
been warned to stay inside their rooms; how many families? She thought back to
what she’d seen in Africa; the horrors of war which had plagued the country of
Galgambwe. Briefly, she recalled what had happened on the night that had
practically destroyed her; how she’d been forced to take a life for the first
time. She’d done it not just to protect herself, but to protect others. She’d
fallen into a rut afterwards, but she had had the strength in that moment of
necessity to do what she had to do. Melissa considered her options again. She
could stay and hide and hope they never made it to her floor, and if they did,
that they weren’t attracted by a sound she made accidently and forced their way
in to kill her. On the other hand, she could disregard the danger to herself
and try to get help, even though she might die trying. It was a risk, but by
the sound of things, she was the only one in a position to try.

“Melissa, are you still there?” Roy
questioned over the radio, not for the first time since she’d retreated to her
musings.

“I’m here, Roy. If the elevators aren’t a
safe option, what’s my best route to the roof?”

Chapter Three

Melissa had cleaned the blood from her bare
leg and changed before heading out, grabbing a pair of jeans, her ankle boots
and a denim jacket. She figured if they needed to bite her in order to pass
along whatever illness they had, she wanted to be as covered up as possible.
She clipped the radio to her belt, and made her way back into the corridor. Roy
had told her to use either the north or south stairs to go up, as the west side
stairs and elevators didn’t go to the top floor. It sounded so simple, what
could possibly go wrong, she asked herself. As Melissa shut the door to her
room, she briefly wondered what she could use to defend herself. She passed
another fire extinguisher, and while it had proved effective, she didn’t want
to be lugging one up multiple flights of stairs. Eventually, she’d decided to
just focus on staying mobile and avoiding them, if possible. She didn’t want to
fight or kill anyone. For all she knew, there was a cure for whatever virus had
infected these people. Of course, not wanting to kill hadn’t stopped her
before, she thought ruefully. Melissa pushed away this thought; now wasn’t the
time to go to the dark places in her memory.

She decided to use the south side stairs to
get up to top floor. Before doing so, however, Melissa double-checked the door
to the stairwell she’d used earlier. There was no more banging and, pressing
her ear against it, she could hear no obvious signs of them. She stopped
herself from opening it however, in case they were lingering nearby. Melissa
unclipped the radio and spoke to Roy as she moved in the direction of the other
stairwell.

“So, should I go room to room and knock on
doors on the way? Warn people?”

“I think it’s best if you focus on getting
to the roof. If people are in their rooms and don’t know what’s happening, then
they’re probably asleep and will be there for the rest of the night. If you see
someone, warn them, but let’s focus on the task in hand.” Roy suggested.
Melissa thought to argue but realized that essentially, she’d be a crazy woman
banging on doors telling people not to open their doors or crazed, infected
cannibals would eat them. Would she believe someone who did that? Deciding the
answer was a definite no, she agreed with Roy and made her way to the door of
the other stairwell. She pressed her ear to it and tried to listen; there was
no sound but this didn’t reassure her. She grabbed the handle, turned it and opened
it a crack, waiting a second to be sure she would have heard any suspicious
noises. When there was only silence, she pushed it open wide enough for her to
peer carefully into the chamber beyond. It was, for the moment, empty. She
opened the door fully, stepped through and shut it behind her quietly. Other
than the sound of her pounding heart, she could still hear nothing untoward.
Melissa approached the railing of the stairs and looked down and then up; she
couldn’t see anyone, but then, she didn’t exactly have the best vantage point.

“The stairs seem clear.” She whispered into
the radio. “I’m going up.”

“Be careful.” Roy advised unnecessarily.
Melissa clipped the radio back on her belt and started ascending the stairs.

Melissa considered herself fit, but even
so, she had to slow her pace once she got to the thirty-eighth floor as she didn’t
want to wind herself in case she needed to flee. Even so, as she rounded the
corner of the stairs on the forty-second floor she deliberately slowed even
more, to further conserve her energy. She was about to pass the forty-third
floor when she noticed a pool of blood had seeped in from under the door.
Carefully, Melissa grasped the door handle, turned it, and glanced through the
crack in the door. The blood pool had mostly soaked into the carpet of the
corridor, and seemed to have originated from the near skeletal remains of a
group of what Melissa thought to be three people, although it was difficult to
be certain. Torn, shredded remnants of their clothing clung to the bloodied
bones, and Melissa had to swallow hard to steady herself. She was about to leave
when she heard a muffled scream coming from nearby. It was difficult to gauge
how far away it was, but she heard it again, and knew she needed to find the
source. She opened the door and stepped out into the corridor, peering
carefully down its length. The bloody carnage continued, with streaks from
bloody hands along walls and elevator doors, and blood trails leading either in
or out of the rooms further up. There were no definite signs of the infected
that had killed the three near the stairwell door, but Melissa heard the scream
again, longer and more fear filled than ever. Melissa jogged down the corridor,
approaching the midway junction and the passages to the left and right, the
latter also leading to the west elevators and stairs. Melissa heard the scream
again but much closer, and the definite sound of someone calling for help, so
hurried around the corner to the left, and then froze in her tracks. Ahead of
her, banging up against a door, over two dozen of the infected were grouped
together; jostling each other to be the closest to the door. This corridor was
even bloodier than the previous one, and she looked on in horror as she
realized that after they had infected or eaten everyone else on the floor, they
were closing in on perhaps the only survivor or survivors.

Unsure what to do, Melissa knew it was too
dangerous to attempt to fight so many of them, but she still hesitated, not
wanting to leave anyone to such an awful fate. Then, quite suddenly, the
decision was made for her. The door made a loud cracking, shattering sound and
the group surged into the room. Screams the likes of which Melissa hadn’t heard
before scythed through the air, and then they were cut short. Whoever was in
that room was almost certainly dead or infected, and Melissa found herself
hoping they’d been infected as the alternative was a lot worse. Melissa
retreated, not wanting to attract the attention of the group, and began
returning to the stairwell she’d been ascending. Part way down the corridor,
there was a sound from the supply closet on her left, located between two of
the rooms. Melissa froze and looked at the door, listening. Briefly, she
wondered if it was one of them or whether it was a survivor, someone who had
been very quiet in the supply closet while the floor was overrun by the
infected. Melissa approached the door and took a deep breath. She reached out
for the handle and grasped it tightly, leaning in to the door and whispering.

“Hey!”

There was a sound like someone moving, but
no direct response. Melissa tried again.

“Hey, I’m not one of them. Are you okay?”
She questioned, but the occupant of the room was quiet, as though they were
rearranging something. Melissa, gripped by indecision, couldn’t decide what to
do, but knew she didn’t have long to make a choice. She turned the handle and
the door opened. Melissa pushed on it, and the door moved smoothly. Inside, the
room was dark.

“Hello?” Melissa tried again, softly.
Suddenly, a loud growl and a pair of pale hands followed by an equally pale
face lunged at Melissa from the darkness. She recoiled backwards, letting the
thing in the dark fall to the floor between the door and the doorframe. It was
one of the infected, and he or she scrambled frantically to get up. Melissa
reacted without thinking and with no hint of indecision this time. She slammed
the door as hard as she could against the persons head, over and over until the
infected stopped moving. The haze of violence lifted from Melissa’s mind as the
body stopped twitching and Melissa opened the door fully, letting the corridor
light shine onto the body. It was a maid and although her face was partially
disfigured by the door, and a number of chunks of flesh were also missing from
her arms and neck, Melissa could still see that once upon a time she’d been quite
a lovely woman. Sadness, at both the end of a life and her part in it, hit
Melissa hard. It hit her even harder a moment later when she saw a nametag and
realized she might have an idea who she was. The nametag read ‘Maria’ and
Melissa groaned quietly as she remembered Roberto’s sister had been named
Maria, and that she too was in housekeeping. Could this be the same woman? She
found herself hoping it wasn’t; she was sure from the way he spoke about her
Roberto’s heart would be broken if he knew she hadn’t survived. If Roberto was
even alive, Melissa thought further.

There was no point lingering. From the
carnage adorning this and the other corridor Melissa was sure she could be of
no further help, so she retreated to the stairwell and shut the door quietly,
then grabbed the radio from her belt.

“Roy?” Melissa asked, resuming her upward
trek.

“I’m here.” Roy answered after a moment.

“I just passed the forty-third floor. There
were dead bodies by the stairwell, and from what I saw, everyone on the floor
is either dead or one of them.”

“With the way the elevators have been
moving, that’s not the only floor to have been hit like that, I’m sure.”

Melissa sombrely clipped the radio back to
her belt and kept moving. If the top floor had been overrun, she wasn’t sure
what she’d do.

Roy put the radio down on the desk where
Jim had been working a little while ago. It was strange to think he was
probably dead; at least, it seemed likely he was dead. He looked to where Kyle
had been sitting and felt sad that the young man wouldn’t be back.

“Have you made any headway getting the
security system under control, Donna?” He turned to ask hopefully.

“Only a little. It’s a very difficult type
of malware to work around; every time I think I’m making a way into the system,
I get shut down and locked out again.”

“How could something like this happen?” Roy
questioned irritably. “Were we hacked? Like, did someone on the internet hack
us?”

“This is a closed system, Chief. There’s no
external access to these computers.”

Roy nodded, not entirely sure what it
meant. He’d often joked that he only just knew how to program the washing
machine. “So, how did it happen?”

Donna swallowed nervously. “Well, there’s
only one way it could have happened: someone had to have installed it from in
here.”

“You mean it was an inside job?” Roy
quizzed sharply. He may not have understood the technical aspect of it, but he
understood the concept. Someone on his security team had been bought, and had
facilitated this whole mess.

“Yes, Chief.” Donna agreed seriously.

Roy slipped back into police officer mode.
He was trapped in the room, but he still had to do something.

“Donna, do you think you can access the
maintenance logs?”

“I can try. It’s a different part of the
system, so maybe I can get into it without triggering the malware’s defences
and getting locked out again.”

“Okay. Do what you can. I’m going to see if
we kept any of the paper records in the filing cabinets. Unless the damn big
wigs finally made the push to make everything digital, which would mean we’re
screwed.”

“What are you thinking, Chief?” Donna
wondered.

“We may be trapped in this room, but if we
can find out who’s been working on the computer system, we may be able to
determine who planted the malware. If we can do that, then when the police
eventually get here we’ll have a better chance of nailing him or her for all
the deaths he or she’s responsible for.”

Roy pocketed the radio and went over to the
filing cabinets. Opening the top drawer, he began to flip through the paper
records quickly. The first set was just standard security reports, but
everything was sorted by date, so he just had to work backwards through them.

“Chief?” Donna asked pensively from behind
him.

“Yeah?” Roy answered without looking
around.

“If you think someone on the team helped to
make this happen, don’t you think you should warn Melissa?”

“Warn her of what?”

“I don’t know.” Donna said dismissively,
returning to her work. Roy turned to look at her.

“Melissa’s out there alone and in a
situation that’s usually just in movies or television shows. She’s got no way
that I know of to defend herself, and right now, the only people she’s got to
rely on are us. If we tell her someone from security helped to cause this, how will
that help her?”

“I don’t know.” Donna repeated. “Unless she
meets him out there.”

“What she needs to focus on right now is
getting to the roof. If she makes it that far, then we can share our theories
with her about how this started.”

Breathless, Melissa approached the door to
the top floor where the executive suites were located; which were the largest
and most expensive accommodation in the hotel tower. According to the brochure,
each had two bed rooms with their own bathrooms and storage space, a private
room for conferences, and a large lounge and a kitchen-diner area. Some even
had three bedrooms, but these were no doubt more expensive. That meant if the
whole floor was rented out, it could only be for a corporate event or something
similar, some organisation with a lot of money. Roy had said they were also
expecting visitors, which meant she couldn’t even begin to estimate how many
people could have been caught up in an invasion from the floors below. She
reached the door and rested her hand on the handle while she breathed deeply a
few times; regretting she hadn’t slowed down even more on the way up. Even so,
she snatched up the radio and spoke slowly and with an effort.