Dead Hunt by Kenn Crawford

didn’t unlock itself, so somebody has to be
here. Everyone meet back here in five minutes.”
    Paul looked at her. Slightly puzzled and
rather annoyed.
    “Who the hell put you in charge?”
    “You did!” she snapped back.
    “What did I do?”
    “Not a damn thing,” she answered as she
turned her back to him and walked away.
    “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he
yelled after her as she disappeared around a corner.
    Michael patted him on the shoulder. “It means
you didn’t do a damn thing when we walked in here. So she did.”
    Paul’s face still held a puzzled look as
Michael headed upstairs.
    Lucy walked into an all white room filled
with computers and laboratory equipment.
    “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” she said
to no one as she headed for the open window.
    She looked at the greenish stain above the
window, then quickly pulled the window shut and locked it. The
others soon found her in the lab.
    “What the fuck is this place?” Paul asked as
he entered the bright lab.
    “I need a drink,” Lauren said as she turned
and headed for the kitchen.
    “I need a hot shower and get out of these wet
clothes,” Emma announced.
    “Something’s not right,” Michael thought out
loud.
    “Let’s see,” Paul said. “We are in the middle
of fucking nowhere in some sort of secret laboratory with
flesh-eating zombies outside. Seems about right.”
    “Wait!” Michael yelled, running to the
kitchen. The others followed as Michael yelled to Lauren, “Don’t
drink that!”
    Lauren paused just long enough for Michael to
pull the glass from her open mouth. He tossed it into the sink,
shattering the glass.
    “It’s only water,” Lauren explained.
    “Listen, what do you hear?”
    Everyone froze and listened intently.
    “Don’t hear a damn thing,” Paul told him.
    “Exactly,” Michael said bluntly. “Other than
that bear, we didn’t see or hear anything. No birds or crickets.
Nothing.”
    “So?” Lauren asked.
    “So we are in the middle of the forest on top
of a mountain and we can’t hear a damn sound?”
    “Enough with the cloak and dagger bullshit,”
Paul told him, “just tell us what the hell you’re talking about.
What do birds and crickets have to do with Lauren having a drink of
water?”
    “This place is deserted, and there’s some
type of high-tech lab here. I don’t know what the hell happened to
the people up here or down there, but the only way for anything up
here to get down there is through the water.”
    They looked at him, not quite fitting all the
pieces together.
    “Don’t you get it? Water runs down hill. So I
think whatever happened up here got into the water and caused all
that shit down there.”
    “Oh, that’s just fucking great!” Paul said.
“It was your bright idea to come up here, and now you’re saying
that this is where it all started?”
    “I don’t know if it started here,” Michael
admitted. “I just know we can’t take any chances until we figure it
out.”
    “I think he’s right,” Lucy told everyone.
    “Oh, look,” Paul said sarcastically. “She
agrees with him… There’s a shock.”
    Lucy just rolled her eyes and tried to ignore
him. “Follow me. I want to show you guys something.”
    They followed Lucy into the lab. She pointed
to the window.
    “That window was opened when I got here. And
look, there’s some sort of stain above it.”
    “Yeah, so that stain could have been there
for years,” Paul said.
    Michael looked out the window then pushed it
open again.
    “Way to go, Einstein,” Paul yelled to him.
“Open the window and let whatever’s out there in here.”
    Michael ignored him as he leaned out the
window, his eyes following a tiny, green trail down the side of the
building, then off into the darkness.
    “I can’t really tell,” he informed them as
his eyes reached the end of the light cast from the window. “But I
think a trail of that stuff leads down to a creek over there. So
maybe whatever leaked out