Capital Falling Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Winkless, Lance

  On the opposite side of the room, Brian is directing three of the contractors as they push and pull the next storage assembly into place, ready for the forklift to pick up. The four large castors with grey rubber tyres fixed to the bottom of the assemblies make it possible to move these assemblies by hand, but they are very heavy, and it is by no means easy. The men straining to move them must be even hotter than Molly and Brian, cocooned in their orange biohazard suit enclosures as the rubber wheels squeak, rolling slowly across the light blue painted concrete floor.

  Finally, the assembly is in a position Brian is happy with and he gives the three men a double thumbs up with his plastic gloved hands. Two of the men walk away relieved, with their hands on their hips; they head to take a breather whilst the third, a young lad named Olly, puts his arm up onto the assembly, his hooded head dropping against it to also take a breather.

  Molly hears a lot of heavy breathing coming through her earpiece and says, “Well done,” to the three men, but gets no acknowledgement from any of the three in return.

  The driver of the forklift has been waiting patiently, perched up in his seat behind the wheel of the forklift; as he awaits the next assembly to be in position ready for him to lift and for Molly to give him the go-ahead to proceed. As usual, however, Molly waits; she gives the three men who pushed the assembly time to get their breath back, listening through her earpiece for the heavy breathing to die down. The last thing she wants to do is to rush this operation, even though she wants it to be over as soon as possible. So, she waits until she is satisfied that everyone is recovered and ready to proceed.

  A few minutes pass. Olly has moved away from the assembly and the heavy breathing in her earpiece has diminished. And so, Molly decides to proceed with getting the latest assembly loaded onto the truck.

  She looks over to Mark, the driver, who seems to have anticipated her go-ahead because he is already leaning forward and reaching for the ignition key to switch on the forklift’s almost silent motor. Nevertheless, Molly says, “Okay to proceed, Mark,” into the hidden microphone in her suit helmet and raises her hand, showing Mark he is clear to proceed, with a raised thumb.

  Mark selects forward and the forklift almost glides over to the assembly. He takes care to position his forks before they slide under the assembly until they are fully inserted, at which point he applies the handbrake. The three men who pushed the assembly into place converge around the forklift and the assembly with a strap, to secure the assembly to the forklift. One end of the strap is hooked onto the cage of the forklift and then wrapped around the assembly until the other end is hooked onto the other side of the cage. The strap is then ratcheted until it is tight, securing the assembly to the forklift so it cannot fall off, in case Mark has to take some evasive action while moving.

  Reverse is selected and the forklift arches backwards in Molly’s direction, comes to a stop and then starts to move forward towards the rear of the waiting truck. Two of the men are a short distance either side of the lifted assembly, following, ensuring there are no unforeseen obstacles or hazards for the forklift to run into, while Olly is walking in front checking for the same. This might be complete overkill because there isn’t anything for the forklift to run into unless it veers seriously off course and drives into a wall, but Mark’s forward view is impaired by the assembly on his forks so the method is set and stuck to.

  Molly and Brian watch unconcerned as the forklift moves around, making its way towards the truck, Molly has even started to think about getting the next assembly ready for lifting as she looks at the rear of the forklift moving away from her.

  Suddenly, her earpiece is filled with heavy breathing, quickly followed by coughing but she can’t tell who it is coming from; she is just about to shout halt, when it squawks into her ear. She is beaten to it by Brian and the two men either side of the forklift.

  Without warning, Olly collapses straight down onto the concrete floor and into the path of the oncoming forklift. Brian is first to shout halt by a split second, as his hands and feet tingle with adrenaline as he sees Olly collapse. The two men either side are shouting the same as their arms shoot up into the air for Mark to see. Mark—whose mind, if the truth is told, had started to wander slightly to the ‘date’ set up for tonight with a woman he has had his eye on for some time—presses the brake pedal far too heavily.[AJ1]

  The forklift snaps to an instant stop and in the same instant, the assembly slips forward on the forks, towards to end of them, carrying on its journey as the strap on one side inexplicably falls to the floor.

  Molly takes a sharp intake of breath through her open mouth, her eyes wide as she sees the assembly slipping towards the end of the forks, its own momentum carrying it almost halfway off the forks. For a moment, the assembly comes to a stop.

  Panic now courses through Brian’s veins as he sees the assembly slip forward. It comes to a small stop but then starts to tilt, as he realises nothing can stop gravity now; the forklift’s load is past the point of no return and is going to fall and crash to the floor. There is going to be a bio release into this room—he has no doubt about that now, but that isn’t what is making him panic. He has trained for such circumstances; the room is sealed and everyone in the room is contained in their protective suits.

  Brian’s panic is caused by Olly; he has fallen directly underneath the heavy, tilting assembly. Brian moves as fast as his suit will allow to grab Olly’s arm, which is closest to him, just as the assembly’s tilt gets faster and starts to go into freefall. Brian pushes back with all the strength he has in his legs, pulling Olly’s arm as hard as he can, dragging him as far from the point of impact as possible.

  The deafening crash as the assembly hits the floor is immense and reverberates around the room, but probably more chilling is the sound of smashing glass. The front of the assembly has a glass door, smashed for sure, but Molly is more worried about the glass vials contained inside, if even one of those has broken, she thinks, frozen to the spot.

  Re-gathering herself, her training kicking in; she turns around and hits her hand onto the large red button that is on the wall behind her with EMERGENCY also in red, printed above it. Immediately, a shrieking alarm sounds and red lights start to flash around the perimeter of the room. She also knows the airtight entrance door will now be locked, alarms will be sounding throughout the rest of the building and automatic text messages will have been sent to all key people associated with this facility. An image flashes through her head of Major Rees scrambling from behind his desk two floors up.

  Flat on his back, still gripping Olly’s hand and panting heavily into the transparent Perspex of his suit helmet in front of his face, Brian tries to remember if he heard the assembly hitting the floor. Then all at once, he registers red lights flashing on the wall above him and the alarm sound accosting his ears. Brian releases Olly’s hand and somewhat gingerly gets to his feet, almost afraid to look over to Olly; did he manage to pull him out from beneath the impact or is Olly horribly crushed under the heavy assembly?

  Forcing himself, Brian looks down at Olly and a wave of relief passes over him as he sees Olly flat on his back, head and body intact; his gaze moves down to his two legs as the relief grows stronger.

  Brian then notices three orange-clad men jostling hurriedly around the assembly as if they are trying to lift it and Molly rushing over to join them. He can’t understand what they are trying to do, and he is about to tell them to stop, that they will never lift it and that precautions need to be taken before they try and move it when he sees the reason for the urgency.

  For a second, Brian foolishly thinks he is looking at tomato sauce spilt on the painted blue floor, but it is blood pooling around the edge of the assembly and around Olly’s right arm, which has been crushed, like a tomato, from halfway down his lower left arm and right under the now immovable assembly. It is small consolation that Olly seems to have passed out, saving himself from the pain, at least for now!

  Molly shouts at th
e men to stop trying to move the assembly, that they need to prepare and do it properly, but they don’t listen. She pulls on Mark’s arm, telling him to stop, but at first, he tries to brush her off. Eventually, he calms slightly and then surrenders and moves back. As he does so, the other two men also give up and move away. Molly quickly goes around to check on Olly. She sees straight away what has happened to his arm, which is shocking enough but she is far more concerned with the fact that his suit has been breached—and to make matters worse, so has his skin! She stands, her mind racing, calculating the best course of action; the protocol for this situation is to get everybody into decontamination immediately, but how can they if Olly’s arm is stuck? She knows she should still do that and leave Olly here, for now, get decontaminated, then reassess and consult with her colleagues. If she decides to do that, she seriously doubts whether the three contactors would just leave Olly here? She knows what she has to do.

  Molly turns, “Mark?” At first, he doesn’t respond; he is probably in shock. “Mark,” she shouts, making sure she is heard over the alarm.

  “Yes,” he finally replies through her earpiece.

  “What tools do you have with you, I need a knife or a saw?”

  “We have both with us.” As he says it, Molly sees in his eyes that he knows what she is planning to do.

  “You’re not cutting his arm off, no fucking way,” Mark says, sounding like he might be sick at any moment.

  “It is too dangerous to move that,” she says pointing at the assembly, “it is face down and possibly still contained, we have to get to decontamination now and get Olly medical attention. So yes, I am cutting his ‘fucking’ arm off. Get me the knife now!” As Molly finishes, Olly’s body jerks violently, briefly convulsing, and they all see it. “NOW, MARK.”

  Mark turns and runs towards the contractor’s kit.

  “Brian, seal the inner curtain on the loading bay,” Molly orders.

  Brian immediately moves towards the curtains; as he approaches them, he can see silhouettes moving on the other side of the opaque plastic. He trusts that the soldiers outside will follow their orders and not unseal the outer barrier to see what the emergency is, even if they think they can help.

  Molly bends down to see if she can determine Olly’s condition; she looks at his young face through the Perspex, but he still appears to be passed out, whether it’s for the same reason he collapsed or as a result of the accident, she doesn’t know. He is frothing at the mouth and his lips are dark red. She looks closer, checking: SHIT, he isn’t breathing. Has his airline failed somehow, is that why he collapsed? She makes a split second, calculated decision and reaches for his suit zipper and pulls it all the way up, letting air in. Contaminated air or not, his suit was breached anyway. Molly yanks and pulls, struggling to get Olly’s suit off as far as she can, determined to get his head out. She can’t breathe air into his lungs because of her suit but there must be something she can do.

  One of the other contractors gets on his knees, helping Molly. Together, they get Olly’s one arm and head out and as soon as they do, Olly starts violently convulsing again, but this time it is not briefly. His body jerks and spasms violently, as if it has 20,000 volts of electricity coursing through it. Molly and the contractor try and hold him down, but it doesn’t stop; it is so violent that his arm that was trapped under the assembly is ripped free, skin, bone, suit and all. Suddenly, Olly’s eyes snap open, the convulsing stops, his head twists—and opening his mouth impossibly wide, it wraps around the contractor’s arm nearest to him and he bites down with so much force, his teeth rip clean through the suit as if it was orange peel, and through the arm’s flesh, taking a whole chunk out.

  The man screams inside his suit and falls backwards. Molly, stunned, also falls backwards, scrambling away. She sees Olly seem to spring to his feet, his legs sliding out of his suit in the same motion; he is then instantly attacking the second contractor before he knows what is happening. Olly grabs him with the hand that is still attached, his bloody stump helping the hold as he swings his head towards the neck of the contractor. But as his teeth go to bite, the contractor’s head turns, and the teeth bounce off the hoods Perspex front. Olly goes to bite again but again hits Perspex.

  Mark arrives back on the scene and struggles to comprehend what is happening; he sees Olly fighting with one of the three contractors in their orange suit, the other two down on the floor, one of whom seems to have injured his arm. It then dawns on him; Olly is out of his suit and up. How the hell did that happen and why are they fighting?

  Mark drops the knife and goes to break up the fight. Olly has his back to Mark and is frantically trying to attack the other person. Mark grabs Olly’s shoulders and drags him off. The other person loses his balance and falls to the floor facing the knife, and to Mark’s shock, Olly starts to attack him. What’s wrong with him? He doesn’t look well. Mark struggles to process. A searing pain hits Marks shoulder where Olly’s teeth bite into him.

  Brian reaches what he is pretty sure is Molly and starts to help her up; as they get to their feet, they see the contractor who was just attacked by Olly also get up and he has the knife in his hand. At first, they both think he is going to attack Olly who is now on top of Mark, but he doesn’t, he just runs for the loading bay and the sealed curtains.

  Both Molly and Brian break forward, Brian slightly in front, chasing after him. If he gets through that seal, who knows what the catastrophic consequences could be, but he is nearly at the first sealed curtain!

  “STOP,” Molly shouts in desperation, hopelessly. “STOP, DON’T GO OUTSIDE! IT ISN’T SAFE.”

  Molly sees him break through the first curtains’ sealed enclosure all too easily, Brian almost upon him—and then Brian has him. Brian jumps onto his back but as he does, the arm holding the knife goes up and they both hit the second seal as they fall. As they go down, the knife slices a long, curved slit into the protective plastic, the top of which flaps open in the summer breeze.

  “No!” Molly either says or shouts, too shocked to know as she sees the soldiers outside in the bright sunlight raise their rifles and open fire, filling both Brian and the other man with bullets.

  Molly can’t believe what she is seeing as both men’s bodies jerk with the numerous bullets entering them. She sees one of the soldiers giving the cease-fire signal, but not all of the soldiers see it because one of them is aiming at Molly and begins to fire!

  Molly dives to the side just in time for the bullets to miss her, but the bullets continue their high-velocity trajectory and hit one of the long thin black oxygen bottles chained to the far wall of the storage room. The bottle explodes in a bright flash and with a tremendous BOOM, and fire immediately breaks out.

  Molly only has one option, to get to the decontamination room and lock the door behind her. She gets to her feet, hoping against hope that the soldiers won’t fire on her again as she rises. If they do shoot, she doesn’t hear the shots and they don’t hit her as she runs as fast as she can towards the room.

  Molly just raises her hand to the door handle when she is knocked off her feet sideways and onto her back, hitting the floor hard. Someone is on top of her. She panics and tries to scramble to get up, but the person is too heavy; eventually, she gains focus and stares into the black eyes of Olly, smoke billowing above his head from the fire. He is pushing her shoulders down with his arms, a hand on one shoulder and a stump on the other.

  Her panic is uncontrollable as she tries to break free of Olly’s grip, but she can’t. She tries to resist as he lowers his head deliberately, his infested red mouth opening wide. It touches her suit and then she feels the pain slicing into the side of her neck.

  Chapter 3

  I join the white-coated young woman from the medical staff who has just woken me, outside the cage. As I exit, I can’t help but hover outside while the cage door is re-shut to look at Josh and Emily as they sleep with Stacey close by, hoping I am back before they wake. Before I go, I give Catherine, who st
ill looks half asleep, a reassuring smile followed by a feeble wave which she returns as I leave.

  “This way, Captain Richards,” the medic instructs.

  The quarantine cages now flow past on my left side, as we follow the path we entered by and every one of the people locked inside them is asleep. It seems that I am the only one cursed enough to be woken at this hour. Maybe it is a bit of payback from Colonel Reed for my ‘misdemeanours’ yesterday.

  Whatever the reason the Colonel decided to wake me, my head is very heavy, my joints are aching, and my vision is still slightly blurry; what I would’ve given for a few more hours of shut-eye.

  The young medic leads me out and towards the large office which had about five military personnel in it when we arrived, and far from the office being deserted at this time in the morning, there are actually more people in there now. I see them through the bank of windows along the front of the office. There are at least ten people in there, with about an even split between people in military uniforms and medical white coats; at least some of the white coats will be military personnel too.

  As we enter the office, a slight hush ascends over the room, with almost everyone looking over, sizing me up, the new addition to their space.

  I am led towards the back of the brightly lit room and towards a desk that only has a phone on it, its receiver out of its cradle and lying ominously on the desk.

  The medic picks up the receiver and puts it to her ear. “Hello… I have Captain Richards,” she says and then points the receiver at me.

  “Captain Richards, please hold for Colonel Reed,” a young-sounding man tells me.

  Colonel Reed unsurprisingly keeps me waiting so my eyes wander around the room, taking my turn to do a bit of sizing up. The medic who fetched me has sat behind a desk close by and is reading some paperwork through glasses I can’t even remember if she was wearing a minute ago; ‘damn’, I do need to wake up!