Payne of the Bites (Pt. 5)

"Deep below the underground lab facility, every known staff and assistant who had launched on a scientific discovery leading to combat now faced annihilation and terrible risk." Originally intended as a test subject to replicate the highly trained assassin John Wick, the test subject has now gone completely feral within the lab. After slaughtering hundreds of armed soldiers occupying the lab, the facility's higher-ups elected to shut off the whole underground laboratory within hours of the attack. Except for the higher-ups, no one understood why the bio weapon had decided to turn on its creators."

Francis began stumbling towards the hospital's ledge. Zoey couldn't understand what was going on since bullet holes and blood covered his chest. In Zoey's head, madness began to take over. Another team member has been lost to whatever thing has invaded the cosmos since the pandemic began. A freezing breeze blew over them on the Mercy Hospital's roof.

Zoey watched as the bloodied motorcyclist stumbled down the balcony of the rooftop after shooting Francis for almost strangling the sad addict. Returning to the military "comms," there had been no signal; all glimmer of hope was vanished. Zoey's past continued to haunt her. Her pour soul relapsed because to the pill addiction she detailed while taking pain killers on her voyage through the walker apocalypse. Actually, quite a few notches back.

However, Zoey's life was not always this gloomy. Her college had won a world swimming championship. The injuries Zoey experienced would never have introduced her to the pain reliever medication if it hadn't been for her unforeseen timing. This setback led her to leave the sea and, eventually, school. Months passed before she was able to sober up and heal.

Before dying, the possessed Francis managed to bring those memories to the surface, while Zoey recognized she needed something to alleviate her anguish. Francis awoke on the floor outside the hospital moments after falling to his alleged death, bullet wounds still piercing the biker's jacket and into his chest. Francis, dazed and perplexed, began roaming through the city streets in search of shelter. The moon over Francis radiated a red halo. The floor around the motorcyclist was smoke-engulfed and appeared darker than usual.

A man a mile away remained motionless, watching Francis fumble around in confusion. It was the masked welding figure, ready to exact his vengeance. Francis was more well prepared for any form of conflict. Only the red pale moon, the motorcycle, and the masked man stood out as I wondered where all the dead walkers had gone. Without warning, another masked person, this time appearing to be a female, stabbed Francis in the back multiple times with a short switch blade.

The other masked person approached Francis, and with a fast elbow to the female killer's face, Francis attempted to flee. It was here that the biker's defects and trials came to a head. Francis had no idea he'd be racing for his life from genuine knife-wielding assassins. Francis, who was corned and outmatched, tried pleading with two cloaked people. However, there was no reaction.

Only the sound of footsteps approaching the motorcyclist could be heard. A third figure, wearing a completely different mask, appeared from behind the chain link fence Francis had been leaning against and delivered the final blow to the abdomen. Within the mist, a dark, rusted meat hook began to form. The meat hook flashed orange and hummed an odd sound. The first mask figure who had been stalking Francis all along stood up and motioned toward the rusted glowing hook.

The anguish would not cease when the hook wrapped its jagged edges around Francis's chest. Three more hooks wrapped themselves around the biker and stabbed Francis through and through. As the biker screamed and bled out, the rusted meat hook began sinking into the floor, transporting Francis back to the horrific place it had once been. The picture of a tall woman in a bunny mask reappears in and out of Zoey's sight as she drops out on the Mercy Hospital rooftop.

The former swimmer turned addict's brain appeared to be tugged by dehydration and over medication with pain drugs. This tall woman not only wore a bunny mask, but she also carried a bloodied axe. Zoey's story has only just begun.

Copyright © 2019 “LUiS Thompson”