January 16, 2012 by Mark Lidstone

Zombies II – Chapter 7

This is the seventh chapter in my Vote Your Own Adventure series. You are in control. Vote on the options at the end to decide what happens next. A new chapter will be posted every Tuesday and the voting will end every Friday. Read chapter six here.

VOTING FOR THIS CHAPTER IS NOW CLOSED. A NEW CHAPTER IS POSTED EVERY TUESDAY

MOVING ON

Victoria sits on the floor of the lobby. Her hands are shaking and her eyes are red from crying. She doesn’t want to go anywhere.

Elizabeth sighs and grabs her by the arm, pulling her to her feet.

“Come on,” she says. “We’re going to the base.”

“Why?” Victoria asks. She pulls her arm from Elizabeth’s hold and looks away.

“Because if we stay here, we’re going to blow up,” Elizabeth says with a huff. “We don’t know when this Project Gerra thing is going to kick in, only that it’s going to come down right on top of this building.”

Victoria looks at the crowd of zombies in the center of the room. They continue to stare at the blinking light. Her eyes drift back to her son.

“Why keep going?” she asks. “There’s nothing out there for me. Nothing left. Just six hours ago I had a gun in my mouth, ready to end it. Jacob was the only thing that stopped me. Now he’s gone.”

“So is David,” Elizabeth says. “And the rest of my family. Everyone I loved was torn apart while I followed David here. I left them all behind and now they’re dead. At least when all of this is over, you can go on living. It’s only a matter of time before someone puts a bullet in my head because of what I’ve become.”

“I’m sorry,” Victoria says. “I just…”

“I know you’re ready to give up, Victoria,” Elizabeth says. “I was ready to die, too. I didn’t want to keep living like I was – hiding in a dorm, too afraid to go outside. Who wants to live in a world like that?”

She takes Victoria’s hand.

“I’ve experienced death,” she says. “There were no angels, no music, no dead relatives waiting for me. There was only darkness. I was only dead for a few minutes but I remember every second of it. Maybe it wasn’t death. Just some kind of limbo where I waited while the virus brought me back. All I know is I’m more thankful to be alive now then I’ve ever been.”

She winks at Vitoria and smiles.

“Even if I am a monster.” Her cheerful face and playful smile seem almost terrifying alongside here lifeless eyes.

Victoria looks down at her hand and squeezes Elizabeth’s. She can keep going. At least for a little while longer.

She pauses when she notices the blood on Elizabeth’s sleeve. It starts at the cuff of her shirt and runs along her arm. Victoria lets go of Elizabeth’s hand and looks up. Tiny drops cover the front of her shirt and there’s a faint redness around her mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth says. “I…um…ate.”

“What?”

“I had to! I may have been given a second chance at life but it comes with a price.”

“I thought you could control it,” Victoria says.

“I can!” Elizabeth pauses. “Of course I can. But, a girl’s gotta eat.” She forces a smile and shrugs.

“Who was it?” Victoria asks.

“I didn’t hurt anyone,” Elizabeth says. She rolls up the cuffs of her sleeves to hide the blood. “It was David.”

“Oh,” Victoria searches for an appropriate response. “Um…how was it?”

“I’ve had better.”

Victoria’s jaw drops.

“I’m kidding!” she says. Her bright smile returns. “How do you think it was? It tasted terrible. I was nearly gagging the entire time. But as horrible as the whole thing tasted, it felt amazing.”

“Fair enough,” Victoria says. The entire situation makes her extremely uncomfortable. But, looking at everything that’s happened, she figures she can handle it. “You are what you are. Just don’t eat me.”

Elizabeth holds up her hand. “Scout’s honor,” she says.

The two turn their backs on the lobby and push through the door, breathing in the fresh air. Victoria still feels empty. She thinks about what Jacob had said. How he had searched for her to make sure she was OK. She’s no longer sure whether she spoke to Jacob at all or if it was all in her head, but she knows she has to keep going. For him and Elena.

“So,” Victoria says. “How are we going to get you into this base without getting shot?”

Elizabeth shrugs. “Maybe I can wear sunglasses.”

Victoria smiles. “Yeah, I’m sure that will work. Maybe we’ll find a pair on a zombie during our walk.”

“Don’t use that word, please,” Elizabeth says. She bites her bottom lip briefly. “It makes me sound icky.”

~*~

They barely walk an hour before the two find themselves standing on a hill overlooking the abandoned army base. There is no sign of anyone in the area.

The walk there was mostly uneventful. They had only run into a couple of zombies on the way and even those were too damaged to pose much of a threat. It appears the army’s plan to gather them all in one place was working. They were all in the lobby of the dormitory, staring at a blinking light.

Victoria and Elizabeth slowly walk down the beaten path toward the base. The entire building was surrounded by a thick, metal fence with a chain-linked gate at the entrance.

“Elizabeth?” Victoria asks. “What was that blinking light back at the dorms?”

“I have no idea,” she says. “But I’m thankful for it. Those zombies found it much more interesting than us.”

“I thought we weren’t allowed to use that word.”

“I am,” she says. “You’re not. It’s our word.”

Victoria rolls her eyes and smiles. In the short time that they’d been together, she’d grown fond of Elizabeth. She was thankful to have her around.

“Why didn’t it affect you?” Victoria asks. “The light, I mean.”

“I don’t know,” Elizabeth answers. “Remember when I told you I was hearing voices?”

Victoria nods. Now that they’re closer to the gate, she can see it isn’t closed all the way. They could easily squeeze through.

“Well, when I was in the lobby,” Elizabeth continues. “I couldn’t hear them. In fact, I stopped hearing them shortly after I left my room.”

Victoria squeezes through the opening in the gate. Elizabeth follows but has to slide it a little to get through.

“When you went to David’s office,” Victoria says. “Was there anyone on the second floor?”

“Nope. It was empty.”

“When I left it to go upstairs, it was full of uh…z-words.”

“Maybe they all went to the light thingy?” Elizabeth says.

“Yeah, maybe. That would mean someone turned it on around the time that we left your room.”

Elizabeth stops walking and Victoria waits for her.

“The same time the voices stopped,” Elizabeth says.

“Have you heard any since?”

Victoria nods. “Yeah, when we past the wounded ones on our way here.”

“Then it must have been the light,” Victoria says. “It was cutting off your connection with the others.”

Elizabeth’s lips part as she catches on.

“Are you saying the voices were them?” she asks. “Like, their thoughts, or something?”

Victoria shrugs.

Elizabeth groans in frustration and walks past Victoria and towards the door of the building. “As if I wasn’t weird enough already.”

Victoria laughs and follows her to the door.

“I guess we go in?” she asks.

Elizabeth looks back at her with a worried expression. “Do you have sunglasses on you?”

“If we see someone, close your eyes.”

Elizabeth lets out a heavy sigh that blows her red hair from her face. “Fine…”

Victoria pauses with her hand on the door handle. “Hey,” she says. “Do you hear any…voices?”

“All clear.” She smiles but Victoria noticed the shaking in her voice.

Victoria pushes the heavy door open. She steps into a long, dark hallway. The walls are gray and a dim, fluorescent light flickers from the ceiling.

“Hello?” Victoria shouts. Her voice is deafening as it echoes loudly off the thick walls.

Elizabeth screams and slaps her on the shoulder. “What are you doing?!” she whispers. “Are you trying to get me shot?”

Victoria ignores her and moves to their right. A large poster hangs, framed, from the wall.

“It’s a map,” Elizabeth says, moving to Victoria’s side.

The map depicts the long hallway that runs through the entire building, cutting it in half. At its end is an exit. Along the hall is a series of rooms. Most of them are offices. There are two bathrooms: one male and one female.

Near the back of the hallway, on the left side, is a room labeled “RECORDS.” Next to it, on the same side, is a room labeled “ARMORY.”

“So, where do we go first?” asks Elizabeth.

“We might be able to find out more about ‘Project Gerra’ in the Records room.”

“True,” Elizabeth says. “But it wouldn’t hurt if we grabbed something to defend ourselves with.”

“Yeah, if there’s anything…”

Victoria notices something on the map. She places her finger on a room about four times the size of the others. It has no label.

“What’s that?” Elizabeth asks.

VOTING FOR THIS CHAPTER IS NOW CLOSED. A NEW CHAPTER IS POSTED EVERY TUESDAY

Which room?
A: RECORDS
B: ARMORY
C: Mystery Room