Zombienaught

Room 1

Isaac was woken from his deep sleep by an old man bellowing loudly.

“What’s going on?” He asked groggily. The last thing he remembered was
getting on the train station from Flinders street station, heading for Boronia,
where he lived.

“Nobody knows.” Explained a girl to his left. Sitting up, he saw what she was
wearing. What everyone, himself included, was wearing. A black and white
convicts uniform, Black boots, and a simple leather cord around the waist.
Hanging from each persons cord was a sturdy ten inch combat knife and what
Isaac recognised as a M1911 .45 calibre pistol, though it had been extensively
modified. Propped up against the wall were several rifles similar to the AK-47
Kalashnikov.

“You Isaac?” The girl asked. Isaac nodded. The old man picked up a bundle and
tossed it to Isaac. Isaac tore into the parcel. It contained the same rifle,
sidearm, knife and belt the others had. He slung the pistol holster and knife
sheath from the leather cord, then tied it around him. Then, gingerly, he picked
up the rifle.

“Man!” he murmered. “I’ve wanted this gun since I was seven.”

“Easy,” The girl said. “It’s not as easy as the videogames make it out to be.” She
held her hand out. “I’m Maddie.”
Wow! Isaac thought. Hot, and she knows how to use a gun. I think I’m in love.
Isaac took her hand and pulled himself to his feet.

“Care for a demonstration?” Maddie asked, picking up her own Kalashnikov

and shouldering it. Isaac nodded.
“Ok.” She said. “Feet spread evenly apart, stock placed firmly against your
shoulder. Left hand sits here on the forward grip. Magazine is fed into the
receiver here.” Maddie pulled a magazine of ammo from her pocket and slid it
in to the rifle. She pulled the cycling bolt, puling a round into the chamber,
then aimed and fired. Bullets erupted from the weapons barrel. Suddenly the
lights overhead went off.

“Torches on everybody!” The old man yelled. “It must be starting. Whatever
“it” is.” Isaac drew his pistol and fumbled around until he found the knob that
turned on the weapons inbuilt flashlight.

“Maddie!” A man in his mid-twenties called. “Get yourself and the boy behind
the barrier.” Isaac felt Maddie’s hand close around his wrist and wrench him
behind the waist-high stone wall, which he hit his knee on and went sprawling.
He looked up as the man turned his flashlight on him.

“What are you doing down there?” he growled. “If you can’t run, we’ll leave
you here. We don’t need dead weight.”
“Get off his case, John,” Maddie said. Isaac looked at John, as he pushed
himself to his feet. A tremor ran through the ground.

“What’s going on David?” Maddie asked.

“Hell if I know.” The old man responded, loading his rifle from a box on the
ground. Isaac took a handful of clips for each weapon and stuffed them in his
pockets, then took another handful.

“Holy shit!” Yelled David. The torchlight from the AK-47 revealed a hunched
over, muscle-bound figure at the far end of the chamber.

“Fire! Fire!” David cried “Leo, keep an eye on that door, let us know when it
opens.” Isaac turned off his flashlight and holstered his pistol.

“What are you doing, boy?” John asked, midway through reloading his assault
rifle. Isaac unslung his rifle, loaded it and fired. The kickback nearly dislocated
his arm. In the torchlight, the creature was terrifying. Seven foot tall, rippling
muscles and glowing orange eyes. It slowly lumbered towards them, using its
oversized arms to keep it from toppling over.

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“What the hell is that thing, David?” Leo asked, throwing another glance at the
steel door, followed by a trio of shots.

“For the last time, I DON’T KNOW!” David roared. “Jesus, you hit seventy and
suddenly you know everything.”
“Doors open.” Leo called. The group filed through the doorway, the monster
close behind. John backed through the doorway laying down suppressing fire.
The creature lashed out and struck the dislikeable man in the chest, knocking
him back several feet. The assault rifle clattered to the ground and was
crushed beneath the behemoth’s feet.
“John!” Isaac yelled. John drew his sidearm, but didn’t have time to remove
the weapon’s safety before his head was crushed between the monstrosities
hands.

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 Room 2

Isaac unloaded into the creature while it was busy bathing in John’s bodily
fluids. Eventually, it keeled over. Maddie wiped sweat from her brow.

“Is that it?” She asked. David shrugged. Isaac slid a new clip into the
Kalishnakov. Leo took a step towards the twisted corpse on the floor.

“I’m going to examine the Cadaver,” He explained. “I was a surgeon before I

ended up here.” David nodded. Leo approached the body. Isaac wandered
around the room. It was about forty meters long, with two sets of stone
roadblocks ten and thirty meters into the room. Leaning against the roadblocks
were several Ruger mkII scout rifles. Isaac was more familiar with this type of
rifle, as he and his father had used them when they had gone hunting on their
annual holiday to America. Having fewer rounds in the clip was a fair trade off
to being able to fire from further away.

“Weapons here!” He yelled. Suddenly a trapdoor in the roof swung open and a
second creature dropped to the ground. The tremor the creature created was
enough to knock Leo over. The pistol he had been carrying skidded away from
his hand, but Leo was able to crawl backwards and retrieve his weapon. He
turned and fired off several shots before the creature bought one of its
enormous fists down on Leo’s legs, crushing them. Leo howled in pain. The
monster raised its fist again. Leo fired two shots. One of them punctured the
creatures left eye. It roared and lashed out again. Its arm caught Leo as he
tried to get up and shattered his skull. A pool of blood gushed from his head.
Isaac, who had been watching the entire event in horror, lined up a shot
through his scope and fired. The round struck the creature in its empty eye-
socket. Deep red ichor spattered the ground, but the monster continued to
limber forward. He fired again. Three more pulls of the trigger and the clip was
empty. Isaac reloaded and continued firing. The creature staggered backwards
as fifteen high-calibre round hit its chest and stomach. It was busy
disembowelling a tall, blond haired man, so Isaac had time to reload and fire

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another volley. Maddie, David, and the others fired as well. Maddie had
swapped her Kalashnikov for one of the scout rifles. David and the other two
that Isaac had never spoken to kept the AK-47’s. Isaac’s rifle clicked empty. He
reached into his pocket for another clip, but found none. Isaac had no choice
but to drop it and draw his sidearm. The rifle hit the ground as the monstrosity
past the first barrier. He drew the M1911, flicked off the safety and fired. The
semi-automatic pistol bucked in his hand as each round was spat from the
barrel of the gun. Isaac reloaded and fired again. The creature dropped to its
knees. David ran up to it, grabbed onto its shoulder and swung himself onto
the monsters back. Isaac tore bags of ammo from two more of the rifles, then
slung the third rifle over his shoulder. David removed his knife from its sheath
and repeatedly stabbed it in the neck. It slumped to the ground. David
dismounted it sheathed his blood-stained knife. He took his first step towards
the group when the creature grabbed David’s arm and pulled, tearing off the
limb.

”David!” Maddie yelled. David looked down at his shoulder, a surprised

expression on his face.

“Oh” He murmured. The creature swiped its arm and struck David in the chest.
The sound of bones breaking echoed throughout the chamber. Isaac stepped
in front of David’s broken body and fired three more shots from his pistol
before holstering the empty weapon and unslinging the rifle.

“Leave me, kid.” David gasped. Isaac nodded and shouldered his rifle.

“One more shot.” He muttered. He waited until the creature was halfway
between both barriers, then fired once. The bullet punctured the monster’s
remaining eye. It bellowed angrily, tears of blood streaming down its twisted
face.

“Door’s open.” Maddie sobbed. Isaac followed the traumatised girl into the all-
consuming darkness of the third room.

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 Room 3

The group sprinted to the far end of the room. There were no spare weapons.
Isaac could hear the beast blindly crashing into the stone barriers of the
previous room. They were safe, for now at least. Isaac took a moment to
examine his new surroundings. This room was smaller than the last one, and
narrower. It wouldn’t take the behemoth long to reach them.

“C’mon!” Isaac muttered, running his hand along the walls of the room.
“There’s got to be weapons in here somewhere.” His flashlight illuminated a
dumpster pushed against the wall. On top of the dumpster were several bags
of grenades. Isaac hung two bags from his belt. His left hand dipped in and
pulled one out.

“Look out!” One of the strangers called. “Another one!” As the man finished
his sentence, a second monster pulled itself to its feet.

“Two of them?” Maddie half sobbed, half screamed. Isaac tore the pin from
the explosive device and tossed it with the accuracy he had gained from years
of sporting. The grenade detonated, throwing shrapnel in all directions. The
creature didn’t even flinch. It lumbered straight through the smoke even as
pieces of steel floor embedded itself in the beasts flesh. Isaac shouldered his
rifle and fired five quick shots. He reloaded, fired, reloaded again. It was
becoming a pattern. The creature, its muscular body riddled with bullet holes
and steel floor fragments, lumbered forward. Isaac’s rifle emptied for the fifth
time. He slung it over his back and pulled another grenade from his waist. He
tossed it. Maddie and the other man threw a grenade each, then resumed
firing. Explosions erupted all around the grotesque monster. Isaac drew his
pistol, fired fifteen times and was in the middle of reloading when the second,
blind behemoth crashed through the doorway. Isaac primed third grenade and
let loose. The creature screamed in rage s its damaged body was racked with
pain. Isaac removed his empty sidearm clip and slammed home a fresh one.
While the pistol lacked the stopping power of the AK-47 Kalashnikov and the

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range of the Rugger Mk II scout rife, the M1911 had a decent rate of fire and
didn’t take too long to reload. Isaac fired a single round from the M1911blood
spurted from the creatures forehead. Enraged, it charged. Isaac switched back
to the scout rifle and emptied the clip into the closer monster. It stumbled
backwards. Isaac reloaded, and felt a huge fist strike him in the chest. He flew
back, hitting the dumpster. His scout rife was crushed underneath the insane
monsters feet. Isaac drew his pistol, the only weapon available tom him. A
second handgun lay on the ground a few feet away. Stunned, he reached for
the handgun. His hand closed around the weapon and Isaac hauled himself to
his feet. He fired. Thirty bullets buried themselves in the beast’s chest. It
keeled over. Isaac fell to his knees clutching his chest. His pistols fell to the
ground beside him.

“Isaac?” Maddie cried, running to his side and leaving the other survivor to fire
on the creature by himself. “Are you ok?” She asked, offering him her hand.
Isaac slowly pulled himself to his feet.

“Yeah.” He grimaced. “I think I might have broken a few ribs though.” Maddie
picked up both pistols and handed them too him.

“Ah, guys?” The stranger asked. “I hate to interrupt your lovey-dovey moment
over there, but a little help?” Maddie looked at him, hesitated, then gently
kissed Isaac on the cheek.

“Coming, Mike.” Maddie shouldered her rifle and fired.

“what?” Isaac muttered to himself. He reloaded the pistols and fired when the
door sprung open. “Doors open!” he coughed. Maddie and Isaac both backed
away from the creature, firing. Maddie tripped over and fell to the floor as the
monster charged. Isaac stepped out of the elevator.
“Get back!” Mike yelled, grabbing Isaac by the shirt.

“Go” Maddie yelled as the behemoth loomed over her. “Sorry”. The doors slid
shut.

“Maddie!” Isaac screamed.

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 Room 4

Blood vomited from Isaac’s throat. Mike, the only other survivor, looked
worried.

“Will you be all right?” he asked. Isaac nodded. The elevator doors slid open
and Mike helped Isaac limp to the far end of the room, where three chain-guns
had been set up on an elevated stage, with one ramp leading up. Several M72
LAW rocket launchers were stored under the stage behind a metal grid,
presumably to prevent the monster from getting whoever was under there. A
steel bridge ran from one side of the room to the other, leading to a small
cage. Mike manned one of the chain-guns.

“C’mon Isaac.” He said. At that moment the elevator door slid open and a slim,
bloody figure stepped out. Isaac raised his pistol. Then he recognised the
blood-stained features.
“Don’t shoot!” Isaac yelled to Mike. “It’s Maddie!” It was Maddie. Maddie
missing left forearm and covered in blood. “Maddie! Hurry, it’ll start again
soon.” Maddie started to reply, but collapsed. Isaac started to move to her side
when the doors sprung open for a third time and a fourth beast charged out,
flattening the poor girl. Isaac winced at her strangled scream. He flicked the
safety off of his pistol and fired fifteen rounds into it. Mike turned on the
chain-gun and fired. The deafening whir of machine-gun fire blocked out
everything else. Isaac scrambled for the ramp. He climbed up it and searched
for a way to get to the bridge. He found it in a small ledge, barely
distinguishable from the wall, that led up to the bride. He climbed up. A
Dragunov sniper rifle sat in the middle of the bridge. Isaac grabbed it, peered
the scope, and fired the first round. The specially hardened bullet struck the
beast in the head and crumpled.

“What?” Isaac exclaimed. The Dragunov was one of the best marksmen’s rifles
in the world, using a large calibre round. On a human target, it would have
blown the head and upper torso clear off. Isaac fired four more rounds, this

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time concentrating on the torso. Four small spots of blood appeared on its
chest. Still it moved forward slowly, bellowing. Isaac emptied the Dragunov
clip, reloaded, and contemplated his next move. He would only have time for
one more shot before it moved under the bridge. Isaac lined up the shot, fired,
and dropped the rifle. As the creature moved underneath him, Isaac drew his
knife and leapt onto its back, much the same as David had done. He stabbed
into its neck and left the blade embedded there. He pulled out his M1911 and
fired fifteen times into the monsters skull. The last three shots punctured its
skull, revealing the pinky-grays of its brain. Isaac could feel the chain-gun
rounds thudding into the monstrosity’s body. How it was ignoring what could
only be described as pure agony. It should be dead. But it wasn’t. Isaac
removed the knife from the beast’s neck and stabbed into the brain. The
creature roared in pain and flailed. Isaac fell backwards and slid towards the
elevator. He picked up his fallen pistol. He drew his spare and fired both
weapons. The bullets struck it in the back. The whir of the chain-gun
continued, and the beast lumbered towards the man on the stationary
emplacement. It was as if the creature didn’t feel pain. Isaac limped towards
the elevator and pressed the button. The lift began its accent towards him.
Now all he needed to do was survive.

The beast tore a piece of the floor out of the ground and held it above its head.
Isaac reloaded his guns and emptied them again. He only had a handful of clips
left for each handgun, and the pistols lacked the stopping power needed to
bring down the creature. The monster threw the lump of concrete at Mike,
who didn’t have time to get away from the projectile. He was crushed
underneath . The floor shuddered as the weakened structure strained to
support the creatures weight as well as the stages and Isaac’s. The behemoth
fell through a hole in the floor as the elevator doors opened. Isaac stepped in,
the whole floor collapsing behind him.

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 Basement

Isaac stood in the elevator, alone of all the people that started this insane
journey. His rips were giving him some grief, and his side was covered in purple
and yellow splotches. Isaac slumped back and replayed the events of the
past...hours? It had felt like days to him, but it couldn’t have been more than
three or four hours. The elevator stopped its decent. The doors opened,
revealing not much. It was pitch black. Isaac drew his pistols and turned on the
weapon’s flashlights. He was standing on a scarlet carpet. A long corridor
stretched out before him, lined with dozens of doors. There was no way he
could explore them all.

“Ok then. Just follow the yellow brick road. He smiled to himself. “Or in this
case, the red carpet.”

Isaac’s light only dimly illuminated the corridor’s darkness. He was halfway up
the passage when he stopped and looked at a door. It was no different to any
other door he had past: polished oak, with a shining brass doorknob. But
something was drawing him to this room. Isaac couldn’t hear or see anything
coming for him, so he opened the door and stepped inside.

The narrow beams of torchlight from Isaac’s pistols lit up the room. Three large
pods stood at the far end. Isaac examined the pod. They were easily large
enough to contain the monstrosities that had slain the others. This thought
brought back the memories of the people he had fought beside. John, Maddie,
David, Mike. Shaking with anger, he left the room.

A large steel door was set into the wall at the end of the corridor. Isaac was
fairly confident that even the 50 calibre rounds from his Dragunov wouldn’t

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puncture steel. Thinking of the long, cumbersome rifle made Isaac unsling the
rifle and lean it against the wall. Isaac began to think of his family, and the
corned silverside they had been going to have for dinner that night.

Isaac’s brooding was cut short by the whir of electronic locks being spun out of
place. The door slid open. Isaac stepped through. Every inch of the room,
except the floor, was covered in computer monitors. A single man sat at one of
the computers. Isaac drew a pistol, loaded it, and levelled it at the man’s head.
The man in the chair spun around to face Isaac, ignoring the gun as if he had a
weapon directed at him every day.

“Are you going to shoot me Isaac?” He asked in a cold, cruel voice. “Don’t you
want to know waht it was you face this afternoon?” Isaac lowered his pistol.

“I thought so.” The man stood up. He was tall and thin, lordly in a way, but for
his face, which was scared. His bright emerald eyes burnt into Isaac’s dull blue
ones.

“Go on.” Isaac said, the handgun hanging loosely by his side.

“I am Professor Dimetri Valho. Each week, the government supplies me with

eight “volunteers” that I place n my werehouse. I clone them, enhance them,
the originals I mutate. You, Isaac, are just a clone. You’re dispensable.” Isaac
raised his pistol again.

“Shut up! Who the hell are you to mess with human life like this? Who made
you God?” Valho’s last two sentences struck him hard. “And what do you mean
I’m a clone? I remember my life.” Isaac thought back to the train trip, where a
group of masked men had high jacked the train and gassed him, bringing him
here. But he couldn’t remember before that.

“I gave you the memories of your kidnapping, but I didn’t think you would
survive today’s events. I thought you would be the first to die.” Valho
explained.

“Shut up” Isaac yelled, firing. The professor was thrown back.

“Zombie...naught.” He gasped.

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 Train Station

Isaac stood on the train station. It had been a week since he had returned
home from the warehouse. He wasn’t allowed any strenuous exercise due to
his fractured ribs.

“Zombienaught?” He asked, as he had every morning. “What could it mean?”

“Isaac!” A voice called from across the station. He turned. Max Rought, a boy
from Isaac’s class, strode towards him. “I’ve got something to show you on the
train. You’re going to love this.” The train pulled up. Isaac and Max stepped on.

Max pulled his laptop from his bag.

“It’s called Zombienaught. It’s this awesome youtube series I was shown last
night. The new episode’s out today.”

“Zombienaught?” Isaac asked. The screen showed eight people in a room

behind a stone barricade.

“Holy shit!” Max exclaimed. “’Zac, is that you?” Isaac looked closer at the
screen. The view changed.

“yeah, looks like it.” Isaac watched as the him on the screen test fired the AK-
47 with a black haired girl. Seeing Maddie bought up intese feeling of longing
in him. “Maddie.” He murmered.

“What?” Max asked. Isaac shook his head sadly.

“She was a girl I met while I was in there. I thought we could maybe see more
of each other if we got out. She was killed. Murderd.” He explained.

“Don’t be stupid Zac. It’s a youtube series, a fake.” Max stopped when he saw
Isaac’s face.
“A fake?” Isaac asked, reaching into his bag. “Tell me, Max. Is this a fake?”

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slowly, Isaac pulled the pistol he had used to kill Valho with. He ejected the
clip. “If you look in the clip, you’ll find one round missing.” He said. Max
examined the bullets.

“Are these real?” Isaac nodded. Max handed the clip back to Isaac, who
inserted the magazine into the weapon and put it back in his bag.
“That was real. A lot of people died.” Isaac closed the Zombienaught window,
then deleated the file.

“Hey, whata ya doin?” Max said.

“That shouldn’t be seen.” Isaac decided coldly, shaking with anger.

“Isaac?”
“What?” he roared. The train slowed, then stopped.

“Hang on, are we at a station?” Isaac heard someone ask.

“No.” Replied another. “Where in the middle of a tunnel.” The train lights went
out. Somebody screamed. Isaac pulled the pistol out of his bag again, more to
comfort himself than anything else. A window shattered to his left. Isaac
switched on the weapon’s flashlight. A fist of rotting flesh stuck through the
window. A grinning cadaver clambered through the hole. Three more followed.
The corpses moved fluidly, more like living beings than dead people. They
descended upon the people of the train and began their killing spree.

“Aw, shit.” Max cried. “Zombie.s I hate zombies.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Isaac sighed, raising the pistol. Three shots rang
out in the dark, then silence...
By Mitch Achten

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