Taking Laura?s request into account, Galt and Johnny went back to the infected room. Just as they?d described it, bodies lay all over the room and a lone infectee was shambling back and forth. Galt slid back the latch and tried to unlock the door. A quick jab from the pistol dislodged the handle and the door swung open. The zombie stared blankly at the two and lunged. As the beast wrapped its hands around Galt?s neck, it slumped over as Johnny drove his flashlight into the back of its head.
Following more grisly cleanup, the group got the communications system back online. The radio transmitter was working but the tower still needed some work. The group hoped it could get a message out before the end of the week to anyone who was still within range. Once more they settled back into the mess hall for another pillaged feast of nonperishable spiced up with a couple rats Gremlin had trapped in the bunks.
As night drew upon the group again, Rob found himself in the newly secured room, busily working at his laptop. He was trying to access a flash drive he found in one of the dead men?s hands. So far it was proving difficult. It appeared that the drive contained sensitive information regarding the military?s withdrawal from Malton but that was all Rob could gather about it. After hours of cursing at the computer and trying to find a password, he cracked it. He reversed the serial number found on the dead man?s ID and entered in the first four characters into the computer. Within seconds, he was logged into the flash drive and began looking at the files.
The drive seemed to contain nothing of an official nature, just several audio files from the soldier. The entries into the journal dated back to the start of the quarantine and he made constant references to the ?higher ups? never giving out clear orders. The soldier also made allusions to someone who was hanging about the compound in civilian clothes. Rob reasoned that this observer was sent by the CIA or some other government body, how else could they stay around long enough to be noticed.
While Rob chronicled his digital exploits in his own audio journal, a stranger was moving behind him. The watcher?s voice calmly intoned ?Nine?Ten?Ready or not, here I come.? Rob swung around in time to feel the blow of a pistol to his skull and he reeled in his chair. The figure before him had some sort of respirator on that muffled their voice to a harsh radio screech and obscured their face. The shining eyes of his assailant told Rob something bad was going to happen.
Looking at their quarry through the mask, the killer holstered the pistol and approached the man in the chair. ?Stay with me, Robbie, I need you to listen here for a sec??
The wounded man nodded.
?Alright, now, you?ve found something very important on that little disk and I need you to hand it over to me. ? The eyes of the killer seemed oddly compassionate for someone who?d just beaten him. They must be trying to mess with his head.
?Robbie, listen, I need you to focus. Give me that disk, if anyone else finds out about that, we?ll have a big problem on our hands.?
?T-Take the disk?I don?t w-want the damn thing.? Rob replied, his head throbbing.
?Good, I knew I could count on you. Just leave the rest to me.?
The killer stood up and pulled the drive out of Rob?s laptop. They threw the disk to the ground and crushed it under their heel, grinding it into a coarse powder of silicon and metal.
?Hang on, this?ll just take a second??
The killer knelt down to Rob and pulled his head over to the side. The gash on his head was openly bleeding now and his eyes remained unfocused. The murderer pulled out their gun and held it pressed up against Rob?s chin. A finger pulled back on the trigger and before Rob could protest, half of his college-educated brain was all over the wall.
Rob?s killer stood up and looked at the laptop, still recording every noise in the room. They looked at the little box of plastic and tauntingly said, ?It?s your turn to count now, but remember, no peeking.?
