Raven Moon by Eva Gordon Page A

at his camera. “Actually they were eaten to the last bone. Given the circumstances, the survivors agreed to blow up the building.”
    Don’t they always eat every bit of flesh? Rave cocked her head. The lab must have kept thousands of zombies. A shark feeding frenzy came to mind. “But you got out.”
    “Six of us managed to escape but we were all bitten by turned humans. We left the building but the other five scientists were savaged by the creatures that followed us out. I hid beneath a manhole and waited until they left. I figured I could leave a recording so others would know. Then at the first sign of a fever, I would put a bullet in my brain.”
    “What’s the point, we all know about the zombies, Mr…?” asked Cashel.
    “Gary Nichols, I worked in the lab’s media department.”
    “I’m Rave and these are my men, Cashel and Beccan.”
    He fingered his blond hair back and glanced around them. “Things are going to get a hell of lot worse. While hiding beneath the manhole, I heard a truck and the creatures’ fierce screams. I peeked and saw men netting and then hauling away five of them. I worried the men were sadistic tankers and quietly filmed them.”
    Rave tensed hearing him mention tankers. Vicious gangs known as tankers were thugs who preyed on helpless survivors. The term ‘tanker’ evolved from the fact that these dregs filled their gas tanks to reach and raid one town after another. “Good thing you hid. The tankers captured the zombies for their sick arena games.”
    “Except they acted more like the military. They were probably a new militia scouring for survivors. I dragged myself out but I was too late to warn them before they sped away. If those things escape…” He shook his head as if it was his fault.
    Rave raised her brow. “Hmm. Why would the militia bother collecting zombies?”
    “Because those things are not human zombies.”
    She looked at her men, who seemed to have blanched. “Not human?” Could they have been attacked by the human hating Vircolac werewolves? It would explain why he had not turned. “Did they look like wolves, I mean werewolves?”
    “No, more like primates from hell.” He pointed to the overturned truck with bars designed to transport wild animals. The explosion probably sent the vehicle flying.
    Cashel frowned. “Impossible.”
    Rave blinked and not in her usual flirty eyelash batting way that drove men wild with lust. She met his eyes. “Not possible, all studies showed the zombie disease never infected apes.”
    “Early during the Z-phage pandemic, we secretly manipulated the virus to infect chimpanzees. It worked and the specimens turned.”
    Appalled, Rave gave him a scolding stare. “Why the hell would you do that?” The idea was as bad as remaking ‘Planet of the Apes’ after the first much better classic. An even newer remake, ‘Planet of the Zombie Apes’ would suck big time.
    “To test for a vaccine. After they turned, we had no choice but to shoot them. However, two weeks ago, within our underground sterile level four lab, Dr. Giles experimented on a new vaccine and it worked on the ten infected chimpanzees. None turned. He sent a team to pick up the last twenty chimpanzees from the enclosures. We were elated when the vaccine appeared to work. They turned but at a slower rate, proving the vaccine didn’t work. Then, they escaped.”
    “How many?”
    “Thirteen died in the explosion but fourteen, maybe fifteen escaped the building before the bomb was detonated. Those men took five.” He nervously glanced around as if expecting the apes to swing down at any moment. “They had been locked in level four, but they broke out and attacked us. These creatures are stronger, faster and far more coordinated than human zombies.”
    “Are you sure their bite turns humans?”
    “Yes, but at a slower rate. A week instead of two days.”
    “What about other species?”
    “They injected lab dogs, rats and even chickens but they never