DEAD ERA- Afterworld

Chapter 10

Jake grabbed a heavy table lifting it with his super strength towards the entrance to block the entrance of the horde. They managed to slow down the horde enough for everyone to make their escape. However, the horde followed them closely; it had to reach its prey if it wanted to eat its fill.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, the whole group turned around to face the hoard which had begun to surround them. There was no way to continue the fight now, they were surrounded. The commander ran in between the two groups; desperately firing every round of ammunition, hoping to stop the zombies as much as possible, and hopefully, buy them enough time to escape.

“Go, find the Antidote. I will take care of this place” Commander instructed, as everyone dispersed. 

     The stranger, Bali, Levi, Jake, and Paul with some other soldiers headed inner, into the facility leaving the commander behind. “The lab is somewhere close to  here, follow me!” Paul said looking at the radar given to all the soldiers 

Following closely behind him, Paul led the way through many hallways until they arrived in front of a room labeled “Lab 1”. After checking inside, they found nothing.

“How about this Lab 2?”

“This area’s clear” Bali informed.

After scanning a few more halls they reached a large laboratory with three rows of tables, chairs, and computers. On one wall they saw several cabinets, but the rest of the walls were blank. Only 5 other rooms were leading into the main facility.

“Alright let’s check these rooms. If there isn't anything there, then we will continue searching for the antidote” Bali announced.

They searched through all the rooms, looking for anything interesting or suspicious, but found nothing. All the while, they felt uneasy. None of the rooms were equipped to hold all the things they needed for the antidote.

While searching one of the rooms, one of the soldiers noticed a small cabinet containing a bunch of bottles of different colors labeled with names. Without thinking twice about it, he picked up one bottle of orange liquid. Looking at Bali, Jake, and the stranger, he offered it to them.

“We will find it, we promise you” the stranger reassured.

“If you say so...” the soldier said as he gave it to the stranger,

The man looked inside the bottle and read the label. His facial expression turned serious as he closed his eyes and shook his head.

“It’s empty, what the hell! Why would it have been emptied?!” the stranger exclaimed?

“I don't know...maybe there's some sort of mistake...? maybe the person who emptied it didn't know that this was poison” the soldier suggested.

“Maybe” the stranger agreed and handed the bottle to the scientist standing next to him. “Take a closer look. Do you recognize this color?”

As he held up the bottle with his right hand, the soldier examined the bottle carefully. He recognized the bottle right away; it was the antidote for the poisonous virus they had been fighting against.

“It must be a fake! This bottle must have been opened by someone before it got emptied. Someone else must have poisoned it, and he hid this bottle inside one of these other bottles without anyone noticing” the scientist said.

They continued to look around trying to find a clue as to who could have done such a horrible thing, but nobody noticed anything. As if on cue, all the lights flickered off. The darkness engulfed the entire facility, making it extremely hard to see anything. The only light source in the room was coming from one of the emergency lights hidden in the ceiling, casting a faint glow on the room’s contents, revealing the empty bottles lying on the floor near the tables. Everything appeared lifeless and creepy. The only noises were their shaky breaths and heartbeats pounding. No one dared move.

“We should probably leave” Paul suggested nervously,

“No, we should stay put...we can find some clues…” the stranger answered

“And we still haven’t even found the cure! We are too late” Levi sighed “We need to figure out what happened, how did it happen, and where they went”

“The commander might already be dead...”

“That won't stop us from helping him, I know it” the stranger declared.

Then he slowly walked over to a shelf containing hundreds of different medicines. He pulled out a bottle with black liquid inside, the color matching perfectly with the one he held in his own hands. He quickly inspected it and placed it back down, then picked up another the same reaction happened. After doing that for 10 seconds, he placed them back down, not finding any further similarities with the bottle he received. Soon after placing one last bottle, he found an envelope. Reaching forward, he grabbed it.

Taking a deep breath, he started inspecting the envelope to find something written inside.

‘Dear Mr. Jones: This letter must not leave your hands. Your safety depends on it’ the letter said,

“Is that the antidote?” the stranger asked as he handed the envelope to Bali

Bali nodded, then ripped the envelope open and unfolded the note inside. He scanned the letter and then looked back up at the group.

   Then a disk fell out from the Envelope, Bali ignored looking at the letter as he read it quietly for some minutes. Just when he finished reading, everyone was waiting for him to say something.

“Looks like they did send help” Bali whispered.

“So what’s our next step?” Paul asked.

“Where do we get it?” 

“from this” Bali raised the Disc, “The antidote location can be known only from this Disc”

 

“That makes sense, but how do we get past all these zombies?” Levi asked worriedly.

“We must take care of them first” Bali replied

      Paul reloaded his gun, “Am almost out of Anmo guys” he said

     “I hope things don't get worse,” the stranger said

     Before a roar echoed around the building, “Is that a Zombie?”Levi asked

       Jake held his ears as he felt a skin-burning sensation, as his brains were banged repeatedly into his skull. He tried shaking his head frantically to rid himself of the pain, but it seemed like everything became blurred. The entire people focused on Jake who was struggling on the floor as his eyes started to turn white