Free Running With The Horde (Book 2): Delusions of Monsters by Joseph K. Richard

room.
                  “It supports itself.” Someone yelled back.
                  “Oh my,” Andrew said as he scrambled back to the group, “this thing actually works?”
                  “Of course it works, Dr. Penrod,” Dick said, “it’s not like we’ve been sitting on our asses for the last several decades. This thing has been down here since 1947 for shit’s sake.”
                  “Did it have a, um, you know?” Andrew asked almost reverently.
                  “A pilot?” Dick replied, “It sure did, doc, that’s one of the reasons why you are here. Back on the bus, kids!”
    The group moved out of the ship room to the anteroom to remove their suits.
    “The suits are largely just a precaution. We are 99.9 percent sure the virus isn’t airborne but we don’t know everything,” Dick explained while he pulled his polo shirt over his head. The scientists were getting into their lab coats.
                  “Virus?” he asked Dick as they trooped down a gleaming hallway. Dick either didn’t hear or chose to ignore him as the group trooped down a hallway toward another set of rooms.
    “Welcome to your new home, Dr. Penrod,” Dick said as they entered the laboratory. It was Dick, Dr. Penrod, Dr. Farnsworth and Todd Coody. The rest of the team had been dismissed to their own respective work areas.
    The lab was a scientist’s wet dream, making all the other labs Andrew had spent time in look like rolling meth trailers in comparison. Like a kid at Christmas he raced around looking at top of the line technology and equipment to meet essentially any lab related scientific need. Todd and Dick followed him around with bemused expressions on their faces while Dr. Farnsworth busied himself at a computer terminal in the corner of the lab.
    “Are we working on a cure for cancer or something? What is this virus you mentioned?” Andrew asked and Todd laughed his irritating chuckle.
    Dick replied, “Been there, done that and have the tee-shirt to prove it. And before you ask, no we didn’t release it to the public. Can’t have everybody living forever now can we? No my friend, you and Todd the Bod here, will be working on something far more important than that.
    “What could be more important than curing cancer?” Andrew asked, incredulous at Dick’s flippant attitude.
    “How about world peace?” suggested Dick.
    “Okay, I get it, you don’t want to tell me. It’s top secret, right?”
    “No I meant what I said, we are going to deliver world peace. I don’t really care if you don’t believe me right now because you will. My time is short today so I’m gonna nutshell for you and trust you can study up in your downtime. What you will be working on, what everyone is working on at the present is a little thing we like to call; Project Simon,” Dick said as he marched Andrew and Todd to the rear of the lab which ended in floor-to-ceiling Plexiglas that looked into a dark chamber. Dick pressed a button and room on the other side began to brighten with a soft light, its contents slowly becoming more visible.
    Andrew gasped and took a step back, bumping into the much taller Todd and causing him to giggle hot breath onto the top of Andrew’s head. The creature in the room was humanoid in shape and was resting in a Dracula-style open coffin suspended at an angle off of the floor. To Andrew it looked like a severely decomposed human being. If this was the pilot the find must be very old indeed.
    The creature was most assuredly dead except for its two terrifying red eyes. They were currently fixed on Dr. Penrod like it was sizing him up for a meal. Zombie was the silly word that kept coming to his mind. What Hollywood might show in a movie but that was ridiculous. The way its eyes seemed to move must have been a trick of the light.
    “Creepy, how it to stares at you, eh, Penrod?” Todd said.
    “You okay, Doc?” Dick asked as