Chapter 3: Part 1, False Rescue, Hidden Hope

The barrage of hammering fists had drowned out all rational thought as Corina had fought to maintain sanity in the darkness. A barely audible groan escaped from under the mattress as the arm continued is slithering movement.

"Jen, is that you?... Damnit answer me!" She rummaged around on the floor looking for something to use as a weapon. She grunted with exertion as she tried to lift a large dumbbell that had been lying next to her. It was big and awkward but would smash the skull of whatever was working its way from under those blankets. By now enough of the shadowed figure was exposed to tell that it was Jen. "So help me God! Jen, If you don't answer me I'm gonna smash your damn head in!"

Jen let out a long moan and Corina cocked the unwieldy weight over her shoulder and aimed for Jen's left temple. "Jen, answer me!" She waited a few seconds to see if there was any sign of her former friend hidden within the dark shadow. When none came she pulled the heavy object down with all her might. The weight came crashing around in a wide arc as Corina's arms blurred in the darkness. As the full weight reached the bottom of its path Corina felt a pop in her shoulder and released the weight with a painful gasp. She watched in dismay as the deadly missile narrowly missed its target.

She was scrambling for another weapon when a second sound caught her attention. It was the sound of now two pairs of fists beating on the door. It rattled in its metal frame but seemed to keep, at least for the time being.

"It's Andre isn't it?" An emotionless voice asked somewhere from the back of the room.

Corina turned to face the question and was startled to find that Jen had retreated back into the shadows of the far corner. Probably a defensive move she thought, smart also, it was the farthest spot from the weakening door which rattled again as if to back up this point. The weight of two full grown men smashed against it repeatedly, and Corina thought that she might be wrong with her assessment of the door.

"Yeah, Jackson attacked him. He's hurt and..." Corina paused for a second and reigned in her emotions.

"Jen, listen to me very carefully. You said that you broke into a bioresearch lab. Do you have any data on that dog you guys took? Cause that wasn't Jackson out there." Jen gave Corina a questioning look. "Well I mean it is... but it isn't. Whatever's gotten into him has made him crazy. He attacked me. I think he would have killed me if Andre hadn't stopped him." Corina's heart suddenly sank as she thought of what might have happened to Andre, she had always given him a tough time but she was just playing hard to get. "Andre's either hurt or dead, I heard some terrible sounds as I ran down here. Damnit Jen! What the hell did you guys do?"

"I... I don’t know. That, that dog must've attacked Jackson." Jen leaned forward and stood up. Grabbing a toppled bookshelf she righted it and started putting the spilled books back on the shelves. She's cleaning up, at a time like this! Corina felt like shaking the dazed girl and then thought better of it. Jen suddenly stopped and looked to Corina with an almost lucid gaze. "Carmen and Klaus, they have the data drives. They took them to the Advanced Computing and A.I. lab to work on the decryption. They might know more about what's going on at Vion, and then there is the body that we took. It's still at Saint Bernard's cemetery, in one of the storage sheds."

"Well it's a start at least! Once we find a way to get some help maybe we could go there and get some answers. I've got to be honest though Jen, our situation is pretty desperate and I'm scared shitless." Corina started moving the bloodied mattress over to barricade the door. The flaccid mattress fit awkwardly but appeared to deaden the sounds of aggression that seemed to be amplified by the metal door frame. "Try and find out how to get some light back in this place."

Jen slowly walked over to the radiant heater, unplugged it from the power strip and reset the tripped breaker. Light spilled onto the floor from an overturned lamp stand casting the room in a harsh glow from its naked bulb. There were splotches of blood on the floor from where Jackson had taken his first steps as his new self. Corina looked over Jen for any sign of injury. She was a shadow of her former beauty. Her eyes had taken on a sunken look to them from crying, and their once vibrant blue now had turned to a cold grey. All over the room there were signs of a struggle, one that seemed to have centered on Jen.

"Jen, my God, are you alright? I've been so focused on what has been going on that I didn't realize you might be hurt." Corina raised her hand and Jen backed away reflexively.

"I'm fine!" Jen went back to cleaning and continued talking absent mindedly, almost as if she had no idea that she was doing it. "Jackson had some sort of seizure. When it finally stopped he was... he was dead. Well I think he was, his skin was so cold and I couldn't get a pulse. A minute later he sat up and jumped at me." Jen relived her frightful encounter with a soulless indifference. "He tried to attack me but I hit him with that." She pointed to an ornately carved oak paddle that most fraternities claim to be symbolic but Corina knew otherwise. Jen continued "I hit him in the head over and over." Jen's face contorted with anger each time stressing the word over. "Each time I hit him he fell back slightly but... but it didn't seem to hurt him. He finally stumbled out into the hallway. Then he just stopped and walked away. It was as if something else had caught his attention."

Corina thought to herself, yeah Andre and me. Just then Corina became acutely aware that the pounding on the door had stopped. Jen didn't seem to notice as she continued putting the disheveled room back in order. She quietly pulled the mattress back from the door and put her ear to the cold metal of the door. A metallic smell rose from it and she couldn't tell whether it was from the battered metal or from the blood that covered the floor. She could hear faint voices from the other side but couldn't make out who they came from or what they were saying.

"Jen, I think someone's come to help us. I think it may be some of the other brothers." Corina felt her spirits rise as the thought of rescue crossed her mind.

"We don't need the help Corina." Jen's voice came in haunting waves. "They're the ones who are going to need the help. They're all going to die..."

"What... what the hell are you talking about? Why?" Corina turned around to Jen. Who was now standing in front of an opened access panel that had been hidden behind the bookshelf.

Jen was staring into the darkness at the glittering metal that lay beyond. "Because..." Jen paused as the hint of a smile crossed her pursed lips. It was an unsettling smile that unnerved Corina. "Because we have all the weapons..."