Column Rising: The Fall of Man

“Beep, beep ,beep!!!” my wife yelled in my ear.
“What is it?” I replied to my rude awakening.
“Oh, nothing, it’s just 8:30 AM, and your late,” she said with a grin that was almost evil. My alarm clock usually wakes me up on time, right after my wife, June, takes the kids to school around 7:30 AM. You see, I just got a job at a laboratory underneath the National Library. It was my third day. I hastily got dressed and brushed my teeth, June was yelling at me and I was slipping in the usual, “yes dear”, when I realized it was Sunday, the kids were sleeping, June was laughing, and most importantly I didn’t have to be at work until 9:30 AM.
“April fools!!!” June shouted triumphantly.
“NOT FUNNY!!!” I yelled awaking the kids. It was April 1st 2038. The kids ran down from upstairs. My son, who was 15 and on his schools foot ball team, was followed by his sister who was 14 today.
“Hey dad do me a favor, shut up,” my son said while yawning. He usually is rude on his sisters birthday.
“Happy birthday Stacy,” June said while holding down a giggle over her prank.
“I gotta go, your present is in the closet, up high. Josh get it down for her.”
“Fine,” Josh said arrogantly while I was walking out the door. I got in my wife’s hideous SUV and drove to the National Library.
Technically I was headed for the National Library basement, I was head of Germ Culture Research, we were trying to make a germ that would extend human life up from the nineties into about a century and a half.
“Hello Dr. Troy,” my assistant said as I walked into my office, “they need you down at testing.” Well I guess I’m also sorta the test administrator. I’m Dr. William Troy, some call me The God Masque, I work at Seventh Column, an underground research facility which is working on human advancement projects, so far we’ve been getting weird results like super strength, we used it in soldiers recently and beat down an uprising in Pakistan. Today we’re testing a new germ that we hope will accomplish all our goals.
“Hello doctors, I assume the test is ready?” I said.
“Yes, Dr. Troy, subject J666: Dameon Jawrun.” Dr. Stern replied coldly while pointing at a middle aged man in the accelerator chamber.
“Good morning Mr. Jawrun, how are you?” I said into the microphone.
“crappy, I’m in a cage about to be poked and prodded,” he growled out. I motioned for the test to begin, the needle came down into his skin. The accelerator started up and a sensor in Jawrun’s blood told us how old he was what his medical state was and all kinds of information.
Allow me to explain the function of the accelerator. The accelerator or AZFF209 Time-Space Disrupter, was designed to displace time to a degree that makes it go faster in observing eyes. It allowed us to do hundred year experiments in ten seconds.
As I watched the sensors display, the years climbed and his heart stayed steady.
“1.1 centuries Doctor,” Stern announced, watching the display,”1.5 C, shutting down.”
Jawrun came down to speed, he looked as he did before but with blood running down his chin. The array of pets had been eaten and the Dameon who had been my neighbor for only a day was now dead,-ish.
“What, the, hell?” Stern said.
“He’s a…” I started.
“…zombie,” Stern finished my sentence.
By some random accident we created a creature that, by all meaning of the word was a zombie.
“Gas it.” I ordered, and the chamber filled with deadly Arsenic particles. He should have died, but he was still breathing. It was by mere chance but It could smell us through the glass. It walked up to the dual- mirror and pointed directly at me as if it were saying it would have its revenge.
“Turn on the turrets, tear it apart!” I barked.
The turrets roared and bullets shot into the zombie, blood sprayed every- where. The clean up crew did their job and the germ must have become airborne because that night and out-break occurred. The outbreak spread across the country in a matter of days, but I suppose your more interested in what I did during those days, and how I’m telling you this story.
“April 2nd 2038, outbreak alert, code red. All citizens advised to stay indoors or evacuate the city per hundred mile radius of the city.” The emergency was my virus, my germ. I gathered my kids and wife and called a few of my friends. I knew wouldn’t out run the virus, but rather delay the inevitable, I also knew that we had to fight back.
Ding, Dong. My guests and comrades had arrived at noon perfectly. I quickly established the fact that the outbreak would be deadly, and in my opinion could end all of man-kind if not contained. I offered that we begin a retaliation force to fight against the coming horde.
“We’re gonna need more people Doc’,” John said.
“I agree, start recruiting,” I replied. And we started talking about a name. Eventually every one agreed on the name Resistance Against Zombie Offensive Retaliation, R.A.Z.O.R. for short.
John and Mark were the first to find new members, they did so in the roughest bar they could find, The Bloody Knuckle. The bar was massive, it held five thousand customers on a good day. On that particular Monday it must have been great because we rounded up ten thousand new members, and the bar still had people left over. All the new members were bikers with shot-guns and motorcycles.
Jack and Don found a big number of people too, about the same as John and Mark. They found people who were just as strong and well armed as the last, at a bar called the Falling Axe. We were now over twenty thousand strong and still growing.
Once everyone gathered their share and came back to my house we did a head count.
“ Three hundred…and …sixty-five thousand…two-hundred and… ten,” I recited to my companions.
“I think we go a good number here Bill” John replied to me by an old nick-name.
“Let’s gear up.”
We began picking out weapons and assigning ranks, all of our Elites were armed with a grenade launcher secondary weapon. 365,210 men were ready to fight, we had more but they were either women or children and could not fight.
“The virus, categorized as a Cardiac stimulant is being called the C.C.S. and if infected you will be turned into, what is being defined, a zombie,” the television blared announcing code black and going offline. All communication from here on ward was based on short ranged radio and walkie-talkie relay, our small part of the world had been shut out of satellite communication.
April 3rd 2038, we started a caravan moving west, along the way there were battles between us and the horde that we began calling the Column. In the first conflict, around 2:45AM, there were about fifty of them it was a short, quick battle. It were as if they were a small scouting party, like the Column were getting smarter by the second. If that were true than it meant our enemies could possibly reuse their old memories and grow to strong to beat.
“We just crossed the border chief,” One of my body guards relayed to me.
“good, keep going, the Column aren’t far behind. I know it.”
April 5th 2038, the outbreak followed us closely and we were able to get satellite feed while we were in New Mexico, it seemed the C.C.S. didn’t spread as fast in temperate places. The satellite feed showed that we were right about the Column getting smarter, the base of operations they had established contained the brain of the Column, it seemed that others started growing but the main one was providing the most brain power and keeping the others from growing. We called them Hives.
It became apparent, after that revelation, how we could defeat these monstrosities.
“I speculate that the accelerator is what made this hive, so if we destroy the Hive and the accelerator than we won’t have to worry about another Hive growing to fast.”
“I see, so when do we get started doc?”
“As soon as we gather the ammo,” and so, we started gathering ammunition. The virus evolved and started spreading through animals making new terrifying forms, the worst of all was the coyote. Muscle mass quadruples and the brain power grows faster than it does in humans. As free, wild, creatures they’re basically harmless, but with the size that comes with the muscle mass they become extremely dangerous.
On the way back to D.C. we faced swarms of zombies numbering in the thousands, most were squished and others were blown up. The ride was hard but everyone seemed to enjoy the sound of bone ripping from flesh.
April 9th 2038, we will be arriving in D.C. soon and we are almost ready to blow the Hive and run. There was only one problem, the Column had become a Class 3 outbreak on the verge of Class 4, they almost ruled the world. They were waiting for us.
“Doc,…hey doc take a look,” John said.
“Oh…my…” I replied watching the Column blockade sway to and fro as they approached. “ Guess this might be a little tougher than we wanted, let’s go.” I shouted to break the shocked silence.
As we moved forward I commanded a group of bikers to clear a path to the Hive. They rode forth with guns blazing, destroying all that stood in our way. Bodies flew high, the quite was drown out by the blazing, blasting, sound of war. The once peaceful streets of Washington D.C. ran red with the blood of the damned. It was musical in a way that reminded me of Beethoven.
Once we got inside we made our way to the top of the Hive, and on the way the others were separated from me to plant the other bombs. I got to the top where I was to plant my bomb. As I walked solemnly up the stairs, I began to see a figure that was familiar. It was my old friend, my mentor, Dr. Alexander Stern.
“Alex?!” I said with distinct, identifying surprise.
“Ah… William, It must be so disappointing that I am…” he started.
“How did you get here?” I interrupted.
“My boy, I released the virus, I am Column.”
My mentor who was like a father to me, had not only become Column but he lead them.
“Why?!” I interrogated while raising my hand that held my bomb trigger.
“No time for questions, the trigger that you have, it will kill us both,” he said nonchalantly, “ you won’t make it out in time, but you have a choice.”
“What would that be?”
“Join me, or die.” I began to consider the immortal life and he would probably make me a leader. In this world, that power was very tempting. I would rule the world forever. All that power would be all mine.
Then, I remembered my family, how important they were to me. I knew that once I said “no” I would have to pull the trigger.
“I’m sorry guys, I won’t be coming home, take care of my kids and yourselves.” I whispered into the microphone on my ear just loud enough so that only my friends would hear, “ the war doesn’t end here, but, this battle is ours.” So I then said aloud to the Column form of my mentor, “no”
I pulled the trigger firmly and felt my spirit lift out of my body and into the skies. I watched the Hive implode and destroy all Column in the area, the van with my friends in it out ran the blast wave which destroyed the entire city. The C.C.S. had already wiped out most of man-kind. As I died I watched with hope on the next generation of R.A.Z.O.R. warriors.1

THUD>>>ouch