Forest Park: A Zombie Novel by Jamie Marks Read Free Book Online Page A

Aleksandr, completely hidden from the last Ice Age until we found it, or it found us.” The Doctor walked over to Shapinkov and placed his hand on his shoulder. “They’re really quite amazing, Aleksandr. A miracle of nature, yet unnatural; to think that such a thing could exist boggles the mind. I have no real concept of what they are, or what the virus truly is. Even so, I’ve kept trying to understand. I had no other choice other than to create a weapon using the virus so that I could keep control over my specimens. I’m a weapon’s man, Aleksandr. Without finding a use for the Dead things, they’d have taken them away from me and given them to some fool like Vatutan. I did what I thought I had to do, what needed being done to keep them, to keep them mine.”
    Shapinkov stepped away from his friend.
    “So I made a weapon, one that’s worse than anything dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. This weapon doesn’t just destroy cities and vaporize enemies in their hundreds of thousands. It creates a completely new breed of human beings driven by instinct and blood lust. I have created a killing machine. I packaged and delivered a totally soulless creature.”
    “You had a choice. We’ve always got a choice,” said Shapinkov.
    “I wish your son hadn’t become one of the infected, but I had to use him, to help me --- to help us understand. He was already infected and when I first saw him, I thought of you and our friendship, but I could not let that stop me. Either way, you’re too late to save what remains of him. He’s already been moved to the new research facility. However, I will help you find him. I promise, if that’s what you want, I could authorize him to be euthanized right now with a few calls if you don’t wish to wait --- just tell me what you want, and we can walk away from this.”
    Shapinkov turned and walked away from the Doctor as if to consider what his friend had said. “I want you to know, Doctor, your work won’t be forgotten, and I guarantee that Georgi’s suffering will have a meaning. What’s been done in this place is abominable, a forfeiture of being a civilized human being. This is not only my judgement. It is also a judgement made by others who helped me find the truth of what happened here --- of what you made my son a part of.”
    Shapinkov raised his Desert Eagle and fired it into the Doctor’s face; he then turned the gun on Vatutan and fired again. General Aleksandr Shapinkov stared at the creature whose brothers and sisters would inherit the earth and offered it one last prayer.
     
     
     
     
    TURKEY
     
    They had crossed the border with their prize, half a dozen vials that the general referred to as liquid gold. The general had refused to leave with them, he’d said he had to stay behind to finish what he had started, Sergei wasn’t sure what he had meant by those words, but he had an idea.
    Sergei’s smart phone began to beep, it was time. Pulling over to the side of a dry and dusty road, Sergei along with his men looked back toward the border. “Get ready, boys.”
    FLASH
    Their general had said his final goodbyes with a two kiloton nuclear blast.
     
     
     
    FBI HEADQUARTERS
     
    Special Agent Cornelius Ambrose slammed his phone down with a clunk, and it was for that reason he preferred a solid piece of plastic on his desk, and not the now more familiar hands-free version. For what seemed the one hundredth time that morning, Ambrose spun his leather chair around so he could stare outside his window, which overlooked Pennsylvania Avenue and as he did his phone rang again. Fuck it.
    He ignored the incessant ringing as best he could and attempted to place everything he had learned from the past few hours into some semblance of order, but the need to close his eyes for a few moments was beginning to win. He lifted the phone from its cradle hoping for a few minutes of silence.
    Tilting his chair back, Ambrose shut his eyes. Just a few minutes will do .
    He had only just