Free Cryonic by Travis Bradberry Page A

in hazmat suits, and soldiers flooded out of the building. Some ran for their lives, while others stumbled out with that awkward, bloodthirsty stride that meant only one thing. That’s when I noticed Carson, his arms full of groceries, strolling down the sidewalk toward our building like everything was hunky dory across the street.
    â€œOh no, look. It’s Carson.”
    Alex and Celeste followed my finger and saw him. They looked worried. The attacks had spread to our side of the street and up and down the block.
    â€œI’m going down there,” I said.
    I ran for the door and took the stairs down to the first floor. When I came out front, I couldn’t find Carson in the melee. A panicked tenant covered in blood pushed past me into the building. I crouched behind a car. Infected soldiers and doctors paced the street in front of me. A doctor in bloody white scrubs ambled in my direction. An automatic weapon stuck out of his back like a dorsal fin. The bayonet was lodged in his spine. He raised his nose in the air, turned toward me, and growled. I stumbled backward awkwardly, and he started moving in my direction.
    I crawled under the car. The doctor lay down and tried to come in after me. He snarled and screamed as he reached in after me, but the gun in his back pressed against the bumper and stopped him from crawling in any further. Seeing one of them up close was terrifying. His eyes were dull and vacant, and when he opened his mouth to growl, a putrid stench emerged from deep within his abdomen. The skin on his fingers was stripped down to the bone from clawing and scratching. Somehow he was moving and alive though his body had expired. Beyond the bayonet in his spine, he had massive bite wounds in his neck that left the severed arteries dangling like drooping flower stems. I thought about jamming my heel into his face, but I hesitated. Alive or dead, it didn’t feel right to smash somebody’s face in.
    Safely out of the doctor’s reach under the vehicle, I looked around for Carson. I spotted him near the entrance to his building. He was lying on his back with a doctor of hisown on top of him. The doctor was biting and clawing at Carson who was flopping about like a fish. I pulled myself out from underneath the vehicle and ran over to help him. Carson’s groceries were pinned between him and the assailant, and they appeared to be keeping him alive. I grabbed the doctor by the shoulders and ripped him off Carson. The doctor flew back onto the pavement, then quickly turned in my direction and bared his teeth. I recognized him immediately. Dr. Feng.
    A burning hatred engulfed me. I’d never wanted to kill anyone, but after everything he’d done to me, seeing Dr. Feng attacking Carson made me want to end him. He may have been dead already. Who knew for certain? All that mattered was he was up and moving and hurting people and I was going to put a stop to it. I walked calmly over to the car I had been hiding under. The doctor impaled by the assault rifle was struggling to get to his feet. I put my foot on his back, grabbed the butt of the rifle, and pulled it out of him as I thrust him back onto the ground. I turned around and saw Dr. Feng was back on top of Carson, who now had his hands free and was struggling to hold Feng out of biting range. I walked up behind Feng and drove the bayonet into the back of his skull. The blade protruded between his eyes and stopped less than an inch from Carson’s cheek. Blood and cerebrospinal fluid dripped out the wound onto Carson’s face.
    I hadn’t anticipated the blade was going to come so close to Carson. I was overcome by emotion and acted without thinking. Feng’s limp body lay draped across Carson. I pulled the blade out and pushed him off with my foot. Carson looked terrified and confused. His jumpsuit was covered in blood and grains of rice. People were beingattacked all around us, and the screaming increased. I helped Carson