They climbed the steps and followed Tony down the long, zombie-filled hallway. Their necks were secured to the wall, as were their arms and legs. He couldn't understand why Fisk would want to keep zombies inside the complex, unless he was using them as guinea pigs for his research.
Tony unlocked the door to each room and let them in. The tall man walked in a striking manner, his spine erect and his arms barely moving from his side. Virgil was struck by the cosmic nature of his hair, which hung down in a ponytail well past his shoulders. It was a void of almost black hole proportions and it radiated with a mysterious intensity under the Tuscan lamplights. By the time they reached the last room, Virgil realized that he was the last one remaining. Tony opened the door and stepped aside to let him enter. Virgil peeked his head inside and saw a spotless room. But standing against the far wall were three chained zombies groaning and hissing.
“There you are, sir. Try and get some rest before dinner.”
“Surely you must be joking. How can I get any rest with these three zombies watching over me?”
“In due time you will not even notice them. Suffice to say, sir, this is how Dr. Calloway wants things around here.”
“Who are you and how did you end up here, Tony?”
“I was a PhD student in microbiology at Stanford. Dr. Calloway hired me to perform some important research into the nature of bacteria when the plague broke.”
“What do you do here now?”
“Assist Mr. Calloway in his research. Help run this place. Survive. That's about the gist of it.”
“Are you Mexican?”
Tony laughed. “Lakota tribe of South Dakota. But there will be more about myself later.” He started to close the door. “I've heard and read a lot about you, Doctor Snow. You are an amazing virologist and practically a legend in the field.”
“Call me Virgil, please,” he said. “And I'm far from being a legend.”
“With all due respect, Virgil, I beg to differ. Even Dr. Calloway has spoken about you in glowing terms, going so far as to say you should have won the Nobel.”
“Peace Prize?” He laughed at such foolishness. “But seriously, Tony. How am I supposed to get any rest here with those dead things growling at me?”
“You'll not even notice them after awhile, I promise. Their vocal chords have been removed so that they cannot make any noise, and they're fastened securely to the wall, so you need not worry about them escaping.” The hint of a smile formed over his lips and he leaned in ever so slightly. “I see you have a special one.”
“Special one?”
“A person who can walk among the dead.”
“Yes, but how did you know?”
“Something like that is very easy to detect,” he said, tapping his temple and breaking into a smile. “Now rest up until dinner.”
The door slammed and Virgil found himself alone in the room with the three chained zombies reaching out to grab hold of him. He turned the door handle and tried to open it but found it locked. A feeling of claustrophobia swept over him. Sweat coursed down his forehead and armpits. He sat on the bed and tried to control his escalating anxiety. His heart raced in his chest and for a moment he feared he might suffer a heart attack and die right here in this room. The zombies attached to the wall glared hungrily at him, screaming in a vacuum. Their teeth were black and bloody, and their skin appeared in various stages of decomposition. How would he ever sleep knowing such horrible beasts stood near?
He walked over to the window and tried to open it and breathe in some fresh air, but the windows had been locked tight. There was no escaping this place. He stared out over the campus grounds and took in the manicured lawn and meticulously kept flora and fauna. His eyes shifted to the zombies chained to the concrete floor, anomalies among such natural beauty. Fisk must have gone mad. He'd come to know the man well and thought him a brilliant if eccentric mind. Possibly, there was something he'd missed about the man, a hint or some clue that he'd been mentally unstable. He wracked his brain but couldn't remember anything that might have tipped him off. Of course that had been many years ago.
Outside the gate, he saw the massive horde shuffling about like a marching band tweaked out on dope. He found it hard to believe that he and the others had travelled all this way only to end up locked away in this diabolical asylum. It worried him that Tony knew of Annabelle's gift. The lifting of his migraine headache had obviously been the first clue of her arrival. He'd lived with Annabelle for so long that he'd completely forgotten about the headaches that plagued those in her absence. It occurred to him that Fisk and Tony might keep Annabelle for themselves and cast the rest of them aside.
But there was nothing he could do about it now, locked away in this spacious and modern room occupied by three starving zombies. He yawned, realizing he needed a quick nap before dinner. Taking his mind off his troubles, and the silently screaming zombies, he fell back on the comfortable mattress and fell asleep, forgetting about the three of them glaring hungrily at him.
* * *
Dar twisted the door handle but found it locked. She clutched Styx and walked into the room and sat on the bed. Three zombies stood thrashing against the wall and pulling at the chains attached to hooks. Styx wiggled out of her arms and stood in front of them, his little hands down by his side and clutching his ax at a safe distance. The older he got the more he'd begun to develop a healthy respect for the dead.
“Want me to key dose zombas, Momma?”
“No. Leave them be.”
“Why?”
“This is not our home.”
“Okay, Momma.” He walked back to the end of the bed and sat next to her, and stared at the thrashing zombies.
“Close your eyes, buddy, and go to sleep,” she said, laying him down.
Dar began to sing the lullaby her father used to sing to her as a little girl. Now The Day Is Over. Tears bubbled in her eyes remembering those moments. And when her father was gone, she remembered her mother punishing her by locking her in one of the house's many closets. She could handle most anything except being locked in a room or closet. How many times had her mother locked her away when ‘entertaining’ one of her romantic interests? Her mother's methods of torture were subtle yet effective, leaving emotional scars she found hard to forget. Being locked in this room brought back all those repressed memories. She opened one eye and glanced at the three zombies, their mouths open and screaming in thundering silence. The dead, she realized, had absorbed the brunt of her wrath. Where before she directed her rage inward, she now took it out on the dead.
* * *
It seemed like he had just drifted off when he heard a bang at the door. Virgil raised his head and saw Tony standing there and beckoning him to wake up. Groggy, he made his way into the ornate hall and followed him as each member of the group got let out of their rooms. The others looked as tired and weary as he did and he felt almost sorry for bringing them here.
They made their way down the far end of the hall, their footsteps echoing against the walls. Elevator music played out of speakers embedded in the mahogany wood panels, which were affixed at equal intervals. The combination of zombies and music created a bizarre effect, and he felt as if he were stuck in some surreal dream. They passed into a large banquet hall and were directed to sit at a sixty-foot table cut from a massive pine tree. He stared up at the ceiling and noticed that every inch of it was covered with colorful, hand blown glass. Along the back of the wall stood a row of zombies, clawing and screaming in silent fury.
He and the others sat down at the polished table. Trays of food sat covered in front of them. Virgil glanced at the nervous faces of his fellow travelers and wondered what they were thinking. Tony stood at the end of the table and watched over them with the equipoise of a dutiful servant.
“You all must be very hungry. Please, help yourself to the food,” Tony said.
“I’m starving,” Gritz said, rubbing his large hands together.
“Where's the big guy?” Dar asked. “Because we're on a tight schedule, Lurch, and need to head out of here by dawn.”
“Unfortunately, Dr. Calloway couldn't make it for dinner tonight due to the time constraints of his lab work. But he would like to extend his warmest greetings to you all, and he promises to meet with you first thing tomorrow.”
“What kind of bullshit is this? First you lock us in a room filled with a bunch of zombies doing mime and now you're saying the big cheese can't even meet us for dinner?”
“Yes, unfortunately he's conducting a time-sensitive experiment that's been years in the making. If he leaves the sample unattended it might spoil thousands of hours of important research.”
“What about all the zombies standing around here, Lurch?” Dar asked. “How did he manage to secure those fuckers to the wall like that? And why did he do it in the first place?”
“Dr. Calloway requires tissue samples in order to conduct his research. This way it makes it easier to access them rather than having to go out and gather them up and risk our lives in the process.” Tony raised his arms up. “Please, help yourself to the delicious food I prepared. There's plenty of it so eat to your heart’s desire.”
“Looks delish!” Felicia said, eyeing it all.
They passed the bowls around and dug in. Gritz waited for everyone else to serve themselves first before piling his plate so high that Virgil thought the food might topple off it. Dinner consisted of corn, mashed potatoes, French fries and cube steaks drenched in brown gravy. Virgil cleaned his entire plate and went in for seconds. The food was salty but delicious, and he washed it down with three cold glasses of lemonade. Once everyone had stuffed themselves silly, Tony walked over to a side cart and brought out a large Bundt chocolate cake glazed over with vanilla icing. Placing it on the table, he cut it into wedges and passed the portions around. Although his stomach was bursting at the seams, Virgil took his plate and quickly gulped it down, and then asked for seconds. It was no wonder he was so fat.
After dinner they sat around and conversed about all that had happened. The others told of their experiences at the camp Dar had presided over in Boston. They explained how their small group had managed to escape after Brabas blew up the Common and then how they ended up at the Amish compound.
When it was Tony's turn, he told of growing up in the Black Hills of South Dakota as a member of the Lakota tribe. A prodigal student, he was sent away to school at a young age, eventually earning a PhD at Stanford University in Human Biology. He explained how he'd been commissioned to do a post-doc fellowship with Dr. Calloway when the plague broke. All the other employees were let out to return to their families, but since he was so far from the reservation, it made more sense to stay on and wait in seclusion for the epidemic to burn out. But when it didn't, he'd stayed on and helped Calloway try and find a cure for the disease.
“Well?” asked Dar. “Have you made any progress?”
“I believe we have.”
“You going to tell us what you discovered, Lurch, or do we have to wait for the Hallmark movie?” she snapped, to which everyone laughed, even Tony.
“I'll let Dr. Calloway address that question come morning,” Tony replied. “But for now, you must all be very tired. It's about time I returned you to your rooms.”
“But why do our rooms have to be locked?” Felicia asked.
“I'm very sorry about the inconvenience, President Roberts, but we have many sensitive apparatus located throughout the complex and we can't chance corrupting our samples or any of the lab equipment. Any breach of protocol could ruin years of hard work. And with all the donors stored around the complex, we can't take the chance that one of you might wander out and become infected.”
“If you knew the shit we went through just to get here, you wouldn't break a sweat about our safety,” Dar said.
Tony laughed. “No, you're probably right. Still, this is how Dr. Calloway wants his facility run.”
“Sounds like a military man,” Gritz said, patting his full stomach.
Tony stood, the cue for them to head back to their rooms. Virgil could barely move he was so full. After a quick shower, he'd planned on hitting the sack. He recalled that their suites had once been reserved for important businessmen, investors and governmental dignitaries who visited Gentel Labs to better understand the process of collecting and identifying genetic samples.
Calloway had been somewhat of a celebrity back in his day, appearing on television shows and magazine covers. Wealthy and handsome, he cut quite a figure when gallivanting among the rich celebrities and Hollywood elite who sought out his company. And there was always a beautiful woman on his elbow. Time magazine had even once named him their man of the year. Despite the sheen of his celebrity, Virgil remembered him as a serious-minded individual who controlled almost every aspect of his company.
The zombies in the hallway became excited as they approached, thrashing and pulling against their chains. They entered the dimly lit corridor and Tony let each member of the entourage back into their room for the night. Once they reached his room, the last in the hallway, he felt ready to pass out from exhaustion. He couldn't wait to stand under the hot stream of a shower and let it wash over his tired and sagging body, and then slip under the covers and fall fast asleep. Tony unlocked the door using the card key and held it open for him, and then slowly shut it once he walked through the threshold. The gentle click of the door informed him that he was alone again. But then the door clicked opened.
“What's up?”
“Dr. Calloway has requested that he speak to you personally.”
“This late at night?”
“Yes. Dr. Calloway is very excited to see you and can't believe you actually made it back here alive.”
“I'm looking forward to speaking with him as well, Tony, but I'm extremely tired and stuffed from that delicious dinner. Can't it wait until morning?”
“I'm afraid not.” Tony smiled.
“Okay then. Let's make it quick.”
Exhausted, Virgil followed him resignedly back down the hall, barely able to keep his eyes open. They made their way through two sets of security doors before walking down another long, dimly lit hallway. Piped in music echoed lightly through the hallway. Like everywhere else in the facility, the dead roared in silence, but this time he paid them no attention. Tony stopped in front of a plain white door located at the end of the hall.
“How did you disable their voices?”
“Dr. Calloway removed their vocal chords.”
Virgil tried to make sense of these words. “But how did he do it? Is it possible to anesthetize the dead?”
“Of course not, Virgil. You know as well as I do that their tissue is already dead and that they feel no pain.”
“The only other possibility is...is that he did it when they were still alive.”
“There's much you don't know about the dead, Virgil. Dr. Calloway will be happy to update you on his latest discoveries.” Tony reached for the door before whispering in Virgil's ear, “There's much about this facility you don't know.”
“I'm sort of getting that feeling.”
Tony stuck the card key in the door and waited for the lock to engage. He opened the door and let him in. Once Virgil stepped inside the lab, the door behind him clicked shut. He looked up, stunned by what he saw.