Chapter 30 - Silence

June 14th, 2008
5:51am
Maintenance Tunnels

The Fools were once again attempting to navigate through the tunnels beneath Purdue's campus. Scribbled notes and maintenance orders left by a dying man gave them clues to some sort of exit.

"Are you sure we trust this guy's journal to lead us out of here?" Beard asked from the rear, as the group gathered outside of the maintenance room they'd found Marshall Franklin-turned-zed in.

T.Rex studied the diagrams of water mains and steam valves with a flashlight, aware that they did not have many more batteries. After several moments he turned the pages ninety degrees and suddenly things made much more sense. "If I'm reading this right- and I'd like to think that I am - these pipes converge in certain locations before being split to individual building utilities," he told the group. He traced the overlapping lines with his finger, trying to superimpose a mental map of Purdue's buildings above ground to match the facilities underground.

The Fools waited expectantly. Ryan looked up from the pages and saw six tired faces, and he wondered how much more they would have to endure before another break.

"Straight ahead, and stay quiet unless you notice something," he commanded, and the group set off again into the dark maze of tunnels.

Peace led the way with his flashlight, the other lights used up or turned off to conserve power. The group walked single file, pausing at each intersection. The group would wait as T.Rex studied the diagrams for a moment before pointing in some direction.

Straight. Left, straight, right left left.

They were walking along when all of the sudden the light at the front of the column spun, accompanied by a yelp as Peace tripped over an unknown object. The flashlight fell from his hands and rolled away, causing a frenetic light show on the wall of the tunnel.

"Somebody get another flashlight!" T.Rex hissed, and both Beard and Rubble responded with a beam of refreshing light pointed towards the front of the group.

Peace scrambled to his feet, backing away from the obstacle. As the flashlights played over the ground, the Fools saw a corpse laying in the middle of the tunnel, completely still. A dark liquid had spilled from multiple torso wounds and had collected on the ground some distance away

Beard wasted no time pondering the situation. "Cut off its head," he suggested.

For the briefest of moments, T.Rex considered objecting. He wanted to examine the body, to show respect for the dead, and encourage his friends to consider their actions before committing to desecrating another random body. Then he remembered the horrible creatures they'd already fought, all of which had previously been a lifeless body at some point before attacking.

He politely stepped aside as Kamikaze strode forward and crouched next to the body at arm's length. She swung her machete, decapitating the corpse unceremoniously. As they examined the body, it did not appear to have the now-familiar gray coloring of decaying zed flesh.

"Keep moving," T.Rex ordered, desperate to keep the minds of the group away from the grisly scene. He wanted them to focus on the task at hand - escaping the tunnels. The Fools returned to their line formation and pressed on, collecting Peace's flashlight at the bottom of the sloped tunnel.

Shallow left, straight, through a passage made of utility pipes that was so narrow, most of the Fools had to turn sideways and fit their bags of equipment through behind them. They continued on, ducking underneath another set of pipes a little further down the hallway.

"Are you sure this is the right way out of here?" Cowboy whispered to T.Rex.

T.Rex sighed. "No, I'm not. I'm just doing the best that I can."

Another right, and the tunnel they were in suddenly stopped. The Fools crowded around an unmarked door, looking expectantly at Ryan. "Somebody else wanna try this one?" T.Rex joked, reaching for the handle. He winced, turned the handle, and the door opened smoothly. T.Rex held the door and waved everyone by before stepping through himself.

They were now in a much larger tunnel that extended left and right until blackness took over, with linoleum flooring and tiles on the walls. The shape of the tunnel was a large gentle arch, and the flashlight revealed yellow lines painted on the floor. Looking back, the Fools saw the door they'd exited was marked "526 E - Authorized Personnel Only."

"What is this place?" Peace asked, his voice echoing around them.

"Keep your voice down," T.Rex reminded at a whisper. "If I've read this utility map right, it should take us to a safe exit point. A place where we can regroup and then head for Hillenbrand to get Jenny." He pointed down the tunnel. "We should have a long walk that way, so let's get a move on."

The group re-formed. Angel Hair and Rubble led the way more or less side by side, alternating responsibility for the flashlight. Following them was T.Rex, flanked by Cowboy on his left and Kamikaze on the right. Peace and Beard followed, glancing regularly over their shoulders to check for stragglers.

As they walked, their footsteps and equipment made loud echoes, and it made T.Rex nervous. He signaled for the Fools to pause, to make sure the echoes were not obscuring some other noise. The group froze, and the noise of their movement quickly faded. A slight moan drifted to their ears, and T.Rex motioned for the group to spread out in a defensive posture.

If the flashlights are on, T.Rex thought, that might draw them to us. But we sure as hell don't want to fight in complete darkness, and getting caught off guard by a zed in this confined space is gonna be mayhem. "Psst!" he hissed. "Flashlights, both ends - search pattern, go!"

Peace clicked on his flashlight at the back of the group and began sweeping the beam of light to the end of the tunnel, complementing Angel Hair's similar movements at the front end of the group. The rest of the Fools stood nervously, equipment on the ground and weapons at the ready. They all watched the beams of light play down the tunnel, scanning for any threat. After a few minutes, a slow growl reached them.

"That one sounds farther away," Kamikaze whispered, holding her machete tightly.

T.Rex did not want to leave the threat ignored, but was eager to continue. "Rear light out," he whispered, "and everybody grab your things. We continue on, but everybody keep your eyes and ears open. Watch for my signal - we'll stop at intervals to listen for trouble."

Continuing on, the Fools walked even further down the tunnel, pausing occasionally to listen. No other noise reached them. As they continued, T.Rex was estimating their distance in his head, anticipating their next obstacle.

Finally, T.Rex signaled for another hold. The group froze and assumed a defensive stance, but Ryan had other plans. "Alright, now we switch things up," he told the Fools. "I want every available flashlight to search the walls left and right - if my calculations are correct we should be very close to a door just like the one we got into this tunnel with. The tunnel lights are out, otherwise it would be very obvious." The Fools murmured agreement, and then continued on combing the walls with every remaining light.

They moved slower, meticulously covering every inch of the wall. Kamikaze's flashlight died, and T.Rex urged them to speed things up without compromising their thorough sweep.

Finally, Cowboy called out. "I see something! There's a door back here in a little nook!" He pointed his flashlight to the wall, excitedly, and the Fools crowded around. Hidden in a small recess was another large door marked "KLAF - Authorized Personnel Only."

"Yes!" T.Rex shouted, then looked around nervously, regretting his outburst. Then, in a quieter voice he said, "Guys- this is it. This is exactly what I was looking for." He whirled around and clapped Peace on the shoulders. "I need you to get us through that door. I'm not going to sugar coat this for you...we really need that door open."

"What if I can't get it?" Peace asked as he knelt down, digging through is pack for his lock picking equipment.

"Well," T.Rex sighed, "then I'll have to come up with some other brilliant solution, but I can pretty much promise you all it won't be nearly as good as this one. Fools! Let's set up a perimeter and let the man do his work, okay?"

Shuffling around, the Fools stood with weapons drawn, protecting the small doorway. Peace balanced a flashlight on the ground so that it pointed directly upwards, illuminating his target. T.Rex kept looking back nervously as Peace set to work, gently sliding the tiny tools into the lock and twisting.

Peace leaned closer to the lock and squinted, moving his hands very slowly and deliberately. His tongue slipped out of his pursed lips as he concentrated, and the very faint metallic clicking of his tools was the only sound in the entire tunnel.

"Yeah!" Peace suddenly shouted, standing up and pumping his fists in the air. "Ladies and gentleman, you may proceed," he said, as he bowed and gestured towards the door.

T.Rex turned and walked over to his friend. "Thank you, Peace. You've done a great job," he said as he opened the door. "Fools, if you would, please, join me on the other side of this door?"

The Fools, filled with excitement, moved their equipment into the small room on the other side of the door. The only feature of the room besides pipes were a series of metal rungs on the wall. Above the rungs, the only feature of the ceiling, was a metal disk with a few holes letting in a faint light.

"Rubble," T.Rex said with a grin, "do you think you could climb up there and move that cover?"

Angel Hair shut the door to the room as Rubble ascended the rungs about 15 feet into the air. He wrapped his left arm around one of the highest rungs and reached out with his right, pushing against the cover. It didn't move. Rubble grunted, teeth clenched as he pushed again, and T.Rex's smile faded.

Determined, Rubble stopped pushing for a moment and moved one rung higher, ducking to avoid hitting his head. He bent his legs to climb one more step and braced both of his hands on the rungs. He placed his shoulder against the cover and extended his legs, letting loose a primal grunt.

The cover gave way and popped upwards, while soft light spilled in and flooded the room full of Fools. "Time out!" T.Rex said in a quiet voice.

"Huzzah!" the Fools on the ground responded, softly enough as to not draw attention from above ground. Rubble slid the metal cover aside and motioned down at Angel Hair. "Time in," Rubble said softly.

Without another word spoken, Angel Hair scampered up the rungs with both pieces of Rubble's pool cue weapon. "I'll clear the area up here long enough for you guys to bring our equipment up," Rubble said down to the Fools below, and then climbed back into the world.


Current Word Count: 41,424

Author's Quandry

The Brant "Rubble" Bell asked me yesterday if I was

A) Going to attempt NaNoWriMo 2008

and

B) If I would consider making it a sequel to my current story

I can honestly say I wasn't planning on doing the former, and had never considered the latter. That said, his question got me thinking.

For starters, I've learned a lot about writing by trying NNWM 07. Some of it mechanics, like punctuation during dialogue. Some of it is about how difficult it truly is to write 50k in 30 days, even if you love the source material. Things like pacing issues, typos, taking good notes on your own decisions - and more.

Still, I think I made it about halfway through my story by the end of November, and if I was to tackle it this year, I really have to consider my schedule (read: classes). I don't think I can do it. I don't know if I have the discipline, the crazy writing intensity to stick through another novel's worth of work...even if it takes another year to finish like this one.

I guess the only reason I'm making an issue of it is because I'm actually close to finishing this novel, and the ending would greatly greatly influence how the second one might play out - from the surviving characters to the level of devastation the zombies [may have] inflicted on the world. If I'm going to write a sequel, I need to start planning it now and alter the ending of this one accordingly.

After much deliberation, I told Rubble I would consider it. I'd need 2 things:

* A really good story idea. I need some sort of action, a problem, a quest - some driving force for the novel to exist. It seems obvious, but the current novel took shape over weeks of planning, and in the end there was a very poignant rescue story to tell, amidst the backdrop of the zombpocalypse. My theoretical sequel needs a similarly epic premise, and as of now I have none.

* Lots and lots of encouragement and readers. You guys have been awesome so far, helping me fix problems and providing lots of constructive criticism. Your enthusiasm has become mine, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate and enjoy it.

For now I'll keep thinking it over. If you have any thoughts, please [as always] leave 'em.

Thanks!

Chapter 29 - Blackout

????
????
Location Unknown

Ryan drifted in and out of consciousness.

"Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Rehhhhhhhhhhcks..." he vaguely heard somebody calling his name. The syllables sounded like a church bell or perhaps a foghorn, played in slow motion. He tried to respond, but his body refused.

Ryan heard more conversation nearby, but it was garbled and he could only guess which mumbles went with which Fool. As he listened, it was fairly clear which belonged to Kamikaze, the only female of the group - the pitch was much different. T.Rex wondered how long he'd been out, and what might have happened since then. He realized he couldn't remember why he'd lost track of the world. It all reminded him of the time in high school he was in the hospital for surgery, and under heavy medication.

As time passed, T.Rex fought back a panic. What if I got bitten? What if this brain deterioration is part of the zedification process? What if I'm destined to eat - wait a second. If I was gonna end up a zombie, the Fools would've taken care of me by now, surely. Besides, he assured himself, a zed couldn't think of a word like "deterioration". His brain started to warm up and he took a few stabs at some mental math to convince himself no permanent damage was done.

Finally, after several tries, T.Rex's eyes fluttered open.

"Hey!" Peace said from Ryan's side. He yelled something else to the group, but T.Rex couldn't quite make it out.

As the world slowly came into focus, T.Rex blinked awkwardly. The room was mostly dark, except for a flashlight now aimed yet again at his face. The Fools all gathered around him, and T.Rex could see hope in their faces.

Angel Hair spoke to him, but all T.Rex heard was "Jabbajaabba head jabba dabba zed jabba jaabba?"

T.Rex moved his lips tenatively. "Talk...slow," he said with effort. He hoped the rest of his body would catch up to his brain, and fast.

"GLLLAAAD. YOUUU. ARRRR. BAAAACK," Angel Hair tried again.

T.Rex rolled his eyes. "Not loud-er. Head hurts. Think-ing slow."

They all nodded in acknowledgement. "Can you move?" Cowboy asked.

Gritting his teeth, T.Rex managed to move his hand slightly.

"You just wiggled your finger! That's wonderful!" Rubble said, excited.

"Quick heal-er," T.Rex grinned. "Tell me what ha-hap-pened." He was frustrated that he was thinking quite clearly, but the words weren't forming correctly. It was as if he'd just gotten back from the dentist, and his mouth was numb.

"The door hit you when you opened it," Beard explained. "A huge fat zed was leaning on the door and flew out at us. Kamikaze and Angel Hair immediately grabbed you and pulled you away to safety. Rubble dove out and grabbed the crowbar you dropped - he swung it around and caught the zed's ankle, causing it to trip right in front of the three of us." He pointed to Cowboy, Peace, and himself, the group previously stationed on the other side of the door.

Angel Hair chimed in: "You shoulda seen it! The zed face-planted, and Peace and Beard jumped onto it, kicked away the helmet and chopped its head off with their hatchets!" he punctuated his speech with hand motions, smacking his hands together to illustrate the zed falling and chopping motions for the combat.

T.Rex just smiled, and already felt a little better. "Sounds great- sorry I missed it. So where are we? How long was I out?"

"We took care of the zed and then dragged you back in here," Rubble said, spreading his arms out to indicate the room. "That is to say, the room we found with the zed in it. It's some sort of maintenance workroom, and we've found a few things you might like. You've been out for a few hours, and we didn't want to move you much because you were out. Plus it would've been a pain in the ass to carry and defend your lifeless body running around in dark tunnels."

With his strength returning, T.Rex nodded. "Thank you, guys. What did you find?"

Peace disappeared for a moment and returned with some crumpled papers, yawning. "The zed we found shut in here was a maintenance guy for Purdue, and he left a detailed journal. It's pretty disturbing. Here, lemme read you some highlights:"

Marshall Franklin, United States Army Corporal, 249th Battalion, Retired. June 6th, Third Shift.

I was asked to work a double shift tonight because one of the new guys called off again. I cannot stand the work ethic of this new generation, and I can only hope I can set a good example to follow. At any rate, we are still dealing with power outages across campus, and complete blackout areas are noted below. I've managed to re-route what little power we have left to the critical locations, as ordered by my supervisor. I'll be surprised if it lasts through the weekend at this rate.

One other item of note: while checking the master fuse box in section eight, I heard a strange noise at approximately 2:30am. I went to investigate, and confronted a transient hiding behind one of the dormant steam pipes. I lost track of him, but there was a scuffle. I was bitten once on my right hand, and treated myself with the medical kit at the supervisor's station. I will continue to monitor the power situation from the West Control Center.

T.Rex shook his head slowly. "Aww, c'mon. He gets bitten and then stays-"

Peace held up a finger as he scanned over the pages. "Wait, it gets worse. Here's another entry:"

Marshall Franklin, US Army, retired. June 7th, 10:15am.

Nobody reported in for the morning shift, but I'm not feeling well. I feel dizzy and constantly hungry. I've decided to nap in the break room instead of trying to drive myself home. I will check on things after I rest a bit.

Peace squinted in the limited light provided by the flashlight. "It gets harder to read, but then:"

M. Franklin, Army. J 8, 9pm.

Still sick. Haven't heard from the replacement shift, so I'll stay here overnight to keep an eye on things. Power outages all over.

"It goes on and on like that," Peace said. "The guy got bitten one night and stayed here, trying to keep things going and his journal basically records his transformation into a zed. My guess is either somebody locked him in here after he came back to life, or possibly he just locked himself in to protect others."

"What's the last entry?" T.Rex asked.

Peace flipped to the final page. "It just says:"

4. Hungry.

"What the hell does that mean? Like, 4am?" Ryan asked.

Peace shrugged. "No clue. It just says four."

"And we're sure it's him?"

"Bite marks match the description, and we found a positive ID in his wallet," Kamikaze said.

A grim silence hung in the air as T.Rex pondered the meaning of the document they'd recovered. "Somebody take some notes of the important details, and then store them separately from the journal in somebody else's pack. If we make it out of here, this is firsthand evidence that we need to protect if we can."

Ryan gritted his teeth and stood, fighting back a wave of pain and nausea. As the Fools listed to him the various items they'd found in the maintenance room, he felt a renewed sense of purpose.

"Everybody suit up, and get ready to move," T.Rex commanded.

"Are you sure you're okay to go?" Kamikaze asked. The rest of the Fools paused to look at T.Rex.

Ryan narrowed his gaze. "I'll be fine. Let's go rescue Jenny." Together they exited the maintenance room, back into the shadowy tunnels beneath campus...


Current Word Count: 39,539

Delays

I'm going to be out of town for a week, so the next chapter may be a while.

Apologies

Author's Notes

A few things of note to the reader:

1. New poll, on the right sidebar. Thanks for your votes and comments thus far.

2. My story is set in the real world, and, at the time I started it for NaNoWriMo, it was set in the future as well. As of Chapter 24, time has caught up and I'm more or less writing in the "past". I feel like this gives me less artistic creativity, because no I'm not longer completely "making up" people, places, and things. Some of you didn't notice and/or don't care, so if that's you, just keep doing your thing (reading and enjoying my story, hopefully). If you're a stickler for details, please know I'm aware, and have plotted out the story well beyond what I've written - those choices may not reflect reality as we know it today.

3. I've added a disclaimer to the intro, as well as edited a few dates, times, and the inventory list, but none of it will significanly alter what you've read so far.

Finally, I'm close to 40k! I'm closing in on my word count goal!