Bull Story - Chapter 4

Bull Story

A chaptered story by Mineshaft

Set in 2079 on an alternate planet Earth


Chapter 4: Awake?


Medical Report: KXET, August 25, 2079. A scout hit his head in a fall during battle today. No damage other than a minor concussion and unconsciousness was observed, although he was not knocked over and did not trip. He appears to have fainted in shock of some abnormal sight. I didn’t quite see what it was, but I have gathered that it was gun-related. More information to follow.


Everything is dark and I can’t see a thing, but I can tell I’m lying down. My head is throbbing as if somebody smacked me with a mallet. What just happened? Something happened; I just can’t seem to remember what.

Eventually my eyes become used to the dim light and I realize I can’t see because there’s a cool towel over my eyes. When I pull it off my face the room is a well lit infirmary with a few people lying down in beds like mine. One man nearby is only sitting, but looks rather shaken and a little dizzy. He has long gray hair although he looks rather young, wears a tuxedo, and has long goat-like ears.

I swear, some of the people here are freak shows…

“Hey, you feeling any better there?” The sound of Sam’s loud voice makes me jump and the sitting man looks up momentarily. Sam’s shoulders twitch almost fearfully at his movement and he brings his voice down to a whisper. “You fell and hit your head during the fight. Also, there was some sand in your eyes but all the new troops have a problem with that.” He plops down on the side of the bed.

“I heard something about zombie stages. What are those?”

“Well…” he says, fidgeting. “Maya could tell you better than I could.” He turns around and calls to a tall woman in a white medical coat. She turns from attending to a person who seems to have been bitten by a zombie during the battle and walks over to Sam.

Raaku was right, but she’s too old for me.

“Maya, Bokassy doesn’t know what the zombie stages are and I can’t explain them well enough. Can you fill him in?” Sam says, looking up at her. She nods and turns to face me.

“Captain Maya Vine. You’re the new scout, right?” asks the medic, holding her hand out to me. I nod and shake it.

Suddenly my face twists into a painful expression. She’s crushing every bone in my hand and I wouldn’t be surprised if it broke. Maya lets go disdainfully, almost disappointed that my strength didn’t match hers. “Well then” the papers in her arm are set on a nearby table, “There are about five zombie stages, but there could be more. The first stage you’ve already seen. They’re the newly dead and restless people who still have a bone to pick with the world. Lately the higher stage zombies have figured out how to bring corpses back from the dead and that’s caused the problem. Until now they were in check, but now it’s out of hand. First stage zombies are gray and have a small spike on the back of their head. They’re slow, weak, and stupid.”

Taking a breath and tilting her head as if thinking, she continues, “Second stage zombies are a little more upright-standing than first stages and have a longer head spike. They have improved sight and coordination, as well as being about as fast, strong, and smart as an average human. They can speak a few words, but for the most part they moan like the firsts. Third stages are smarter, stronger, and faster than humans, see very well, and speak one language fluently. Their head spikes are far longer and they have claws. End stages are better still, speak many languages, and have very long head spikes. They’re nearly invincible but they’re pretty hard to come by.”

Her expression changes. “Then there’s the mutation stages. I’ve only seen one ever, and I ripped apart every person in the regiment in front of us. They stink like hell; you can really smell them miles away. Impossibly fast, inhumanly strong, dangerously cunning, incredibly rare. Only a very few end stages become mutation stages. Some of them can shape shift and they’ve been reported to teleport, fly, and breathe toxic gas. Don’t want to cross paths with one.” She turns and picks up her files from the table. “Is that all you need to know?”

“Uh, yeah” I say, even though I didn’t hear a word. The entire time I’d been staring at her chest wondering how anyone could get bras in her size. She turns away before noticing that I had been blushing.

Thank God.

Sam swivels his head to look at me. “You weren’t listening, were you?”

I stiffen in shock. “How could you tell?” I ask, embarrassed that he caught me staring at his boss.

“It happens pretty often. Don’t fall for her; she’s too much of a hothead.”

“I wasn’t planning on it.” My head feels far better than it did before and I try to stand up. The room spins when I do but it soon settles into place and I walk over to the wall and back to make sure nothing is wrong with any other part of me.

One the way back I notice an open folder with photographs paper clipped to the sides. On the papers are some paragraphs about some gun experimentation, but Sam picks it up before I can see it. He puts it away with some other files he had been gathering. Suddenly I remember the odd zombie that appeared from my gun. I look over at the bed for my things, which are hanging on hooks over the table. The gun still looks dusty and when I move there to touch it the fire is cold like ordinary metal. I gather my equipment and leave the medical offices.

Where am I going? I can’t seem to tell, but I know that when I finally realize
what I am doing I have walked into a building full of clerks and secretaries. A door on one side of the room is labeled ‘Informant’. I open it and carefully descend the staircase into the dim light.