December 6, 2011 by Mark Lidstone

Zombies II – Chapter 4

This is the fourth 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 three here.

PROJECT GERRA

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

Victoria stares at the blinking cursor on the computer screen. Her fingers hover over the keys on the keyboard as she weighs her options. Realistically, she knows that there’s an endless number of passwords that she could try. The odds of it being one of these two were very low.

She figures she has nothing to lose and enters “elizabeth” into the password field and presses the enter key.

The login screen vanishes and the desktop icons quickly load in. There are three folders that stand out. “Zones,” “Squads” and “Project Gerra.” She opens the Squads folder.

The folder contains a single text file named “Squadron Report.” Victoria double-clicks the file.

The file displays a list of names divided by squad titles. The first list is under the header “Alpha Squad.” She doesn’t recognize any of the names but three of them have the letters KIA written next to them in red font.

Under that is “Bravo Squad.” Over half of the names in this list have KIA next to them.

She moves to “Charlie Squad.” There are only two names without the red KIA tag. Carson Dunville and Evan Dunville. Victoria closes the file.

Next, she opens the “Zones” folder. The screen is immediately populated with hundreds of PDF files, each one is named after a city. She opens the first in the list, “Airdrie_Alberta.pdf.”

At the top of the file is the city’s name in large, bold letters. Under that is an image of a map followed by a table filled with details of the city.

Area: 33.10 km²
Population: 28,927
Reported Casualties: 5,438
Reported Infected: 16,326
Date Overrun: November 22nd, 2011

Below the table are four photos of the damaged zone. Doors are torn from their hinges and the walls and floors are covered in blood. The final picture depicts a large pile of bodies, each one with a bullet hole in their head. She can only stare at the explicit photos for a short period before she has to close the file.

Victoria picks another file at random and opens it. The header reads “Winnipeg, Manitoba.”

Area: 464 km²
Population: 633,451
Reported Casualties: 434,003
Reported Infected: 180,189
Date Overrun: December 1st, 2011

She closes the file without looking at the pictures. She scans the folder until she finds “Vancouver_BritishColumbia.pdf” and opens it.

Area: 114.71 km²
Population: 578,041
Reported Casualties: N/A
Reported Infected: N/A
Date Overrun: December 6th, 2011

Victoria pauses at the date. December 6th is today but the attack was only hours ago. Was LT. Morris in here updating the file as the attack took place?

She closes the PDF and right-clicks the icon, bringing up its properties window. She scans the window until she finds what she’s looking for. “Modified: December-2-11, 4:34:00PM.” Nobody has edited the file for days but the date of the attack is exactly right.

She checks the computer’s calendar to make sure there isn’t a problem there but it displays the proper date and time. The only way this is possible is if the editor knew when the attack was going to happen.

Victoria closes the file and the folder. She finds the “Project Gerra” folder and double-clicks it. It’s empty. She sighs in frustration. Did someone delete the files? Could it have been Elizabeth? Why would she delete the files but leave the letter behind? She clicks on the search bar and types “Project Gerra.”

The screen switches to a search window where a cartoon dog animates as the software searches through the files. “No Matches Found.”

She tries searching for only “Gerra.”

“No Matches Found.”

Victoria slumps back into her chair and rakes her fingers through her hair in frustration. There has to be something. She stares intently at the search bar as a thought forms in her head. She types in “elizabeth.”

Two results return, both text files. One is titled “Elizabeth” and the other is called “For Elizabeth.” She opens “Elizabeth.”

She quickly scans through the words in the text file. It appears to be a poorly written poem. At the bottom is a line that reads “Happy Birthday, Elizabeth. I love you. See you soon.” She closes the file and opens the other.

“Elizabeth,

If I know you as well as I think I do, you’re scanning the files on my computer now instead of leaving like I’d asked you to. You’ve always been adorably stubborn. Maybe what you read here will be enough to convince you to leave.

I haven’t found out a lot and what I have found out is mostly word of mouth. It all started, for me, when that thing appeared on the hill. I still don’t know who or what he was but he seems to be some kind of leader or commander. It was obvious there was going to be an attack but nobody was doing anything about it.

I went to Kris knowing he’d know more than I did. I found him in his office, sitting behind his desk. There was an empty vodka bottle gripped in his hand and his face was buried in those massive, tattooed arms of his.

I had to shake him to wake him up. I asked him what was going on but he only shook his head and stared into his empty glass. After some prodding he mumbled that it was Project Gerra. He told me we were all going to die here but we were bringing those fuckers down with us.

He grabbed my arm and told me I had to leave the base, to find you and get you out of here. I said I couldn’t leave him behind. It was then that he switched from my best friend, Kris, to my superior, Col. Hann. He told me it was an order.

I couldn’t leave yet. I had to find out what Project Gerra was. I asked around and pieced together what I heard.

I know the orders were to allow them to attack. They needed as many zombies here as possible before Project Gerra could be initiated.

I searched the internet for ‘Gerra.’ As it turns out, it was the name of the Babylonian god of fire. Fire, Elizabeth. I think they’re going to torch the safe zone. Fuck, maybe all of Vancouver. It would kill thousands, even tens of thousands, of the monsters that had gathered here for the attack. They can’t evacuate; that leader one would figure it out. This means everybody dies along with them. Every soldier. Every civilian.

This is why I need you to leave. There isn’t much time, Elizabeth. I’ve heard different activation times but all of them say Project Gerra will take effect within twenty-four hours of the attack.

I should have left. I should have listened to Kris and gotten you out of here. Now, it’s too late for me. The nausea and headaches have started. It’s only a matter of time before I’m one of them and I can’t let that happen.

I love you Elizabeth.”

Victoria stares at the computer screen, re-reading the letter. It’s clear that she needs to find Jacob and get as far away from Stanley Park as possible.

A sound in the hallway pulls Victoria’s attention away from the computer. It’s very familiar. It’s the sound of something slapping against the floor. It gets louder as it nears the door but it doesn’t stop.

She realizes what it is. It’s the same sound she’d heard when she was being dragged by Dunville and Jacob’s sneakers were slapping against the floor behind her.

“Jacob!” she screams.

She jumps up from the chair and sprints across the room before pulling the door open. The hallway was destroyed by the Savage that had chased her earlier. The floor is cracked and covered in pale blood. The door across the hallway is missing, its pieces lay scattered on the floor.

Victoria turns her head just in time to see her son. He turns the corner and runs down the hallway where Dunville had died.

“Jacob, stop,” she shouts.

She runs after him but when she turns the corner, he isn’t there. Instead, she sees Dunville’s mangled body near the stairwell along with the group of zombies she had left behind. The majority of them slowly crawl along the floor. Some are missing arms, others are missing legs – the result of the Savage’s attempt to get to Victoria before they could. A few stand upright but all of them have their backs to Victoria, staring at the stairwell door.

There’s no sign of Jacob anywhere. There are no rooms in this hallway, only the broken door that leads to the stairwell. That’s where he must have gone. It wouldn’t have been too hard to get past the crippled crowd. She needs to follow him.

A loud groan erupts from the end of the hallway. Victoria stares in horror at Dunville’s body as it slowly moves. His head rises as he stares up at her with white eyes. His shoulders have doubled in size and his right arm is giant with bulging muscles. He tries to push himself to his feet but collapses to the floor with a scream of pain. His jeans tear loudly as the muscles on his left leg rapidly grow to impossible sizes.

Victoria realizes he’s transforming, becoming the same kind of monster that attacked him. It won’t be long before he was a Savage, charging down the hall towards her. She needs to get to the stairwell quickly.

She has no idea whether Jacob has gone upstairs or downstairs. If he’s trying to leave the building, he would have definitely gone downstairs. But, if that’s where the attack started, the entrance way would be crawling with zombies. If he’s looking for her, or a place to hide, he probably would have gone to the floor above them or even to the roof. She needs to decide where she’s going now because once Dunville turns, there won’t be time to think.

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

Does she:
A: Go upstairs
B: Go downstairs