Zombies: The Black Rock by Simon Smith-Wilson Page A

broken doorway was Levi. He had led them to this
house, promising them a wealth of supplies.
    ‘ Where
is the food?’ asked Colt, marching down the hallway.
    ‘ It’s
in the cellar,’ replied Levi, pointing to a close door beneath
the stairs.
    ‘ How
do you know all this?’ Sheridan had been meaning to ask him
since the moment they met.
    ‘ This
was my house.’
    ‘ Did
you know these people?’
    Natasha
walked by them both without even a glance.
    ‘ Ellen
was my sister in law. The children were my nephew and niece.’
    He
headed into the living room, leaving Sheridan with the kids.
    ***
    The
light of his torch offered very little illumination, as Colt inched
his way into the cellar. He cocked his head to one side, straining to
listen for any sounds of movement. The room was pitch black and the
howling winds outside concealed any noises. Slowly, he took one step
at a time. His torch scanned the darkness. Experience dictated that
if something didn’t feel right then something was probably not
right. Going into dark cellars during a zombie apocalypse really was
classified as a bad idea. The issue was that they needed supplies.
The group was hungry and they had found nothing more than scraps
since leaving Green Hills a week ago. Lisa came down the stairs
behind him. Her torch searched the far corners of the room, as Colt
focused on what was directly in front of him. In the middle of the
room, hanging from a ceiling, was a bulb and chain. Colt pulled on
the chain. He braced himself for the assault that was about to
happen. The bulb clicked on, lighting up the small cellar. It wasn’t
as big as the darkness misled them into thinking. Stockpiles of
tinned food and bottled water were stacked against the walls. There
were clothes, sleeping bags, camping equipment and weapons. This was
a gold mine. And better than anything, there was not a single zombie
in sight.
    ***
    The
large white helmet amplified the sound of his breathing. Breath
misted up the visor, as Doctor Baby approached the black rock. The
middle-aged man wore a white biohazard suit and carried an oxygen
tank on his back. In his hand was a black briefcase with all his
equipment. Four hundred yards away high ranking military officials
and renowned scientists watched from a secured room. The black rock
stood at nearly a hundred foot high and was about fifty foot across.
The black rock sat directly in the centre of a deep crater. The
impact of the asteroid had completely destroyed Winchester. Wiping
away century’s worth of history in a blink of an eye. Dark
brown ooze covered the craters landscape. It was an inch deep and
felt like you were walking through slushy snow that was starting to
melt. At the base of the black rock was a ramp that led into a dark
cave. It was as if a drawbridge had been lowered. Doctor Baby clicked
on the two torches attached to his shoulders. He could feel his heart
rate rapidly increasing, as he approached the mouth of the cave.
White smoke was slowly billowing out of the interior. He swallowed
down the lump in his throat. This was the moment he made history.
    ***
    ‘ I
am entering the black rock,’ said Doctor Baby.
    Doctor
Fills glanced at the other people in the secure command room. Two
dozen important people were stood by the reinforced glass window,
overlooking the crater. The figure in the white biohazard suit looked
so small in comparison to the black rock. The Doctor paused for a
brief moment before heading up the ramp. Commander Val tensed up,
stiffly. This was the moment he had been pushing for. This black rock
held the secret to the zombie plague. The asteroid was the cause of
the mass outbreak.
    The
Doctor walked up the ramp.
    The
entire room went silent, as he disappeared into the mouth of the dark
cave.
    ‘ This
is incredible,’ gasped the voice of Doctor Baby.
    His
words came out of a speaker above the glass window.
    ‘ I
have never seen anything like this. This isn’t an asteroid.
This is a space...’
    The
ramp