“We might need to get out of here sooner than I anticipated,”
“What’s happened?” John asked.
“I don’t want you to think of me any differently. I was under orders...” he paused to take a deep breath, then exhaled and continued. “I had to record someone being killed today, and Hyde was the method of his execution.”
John sat in silence for a moment.
“What did these bastards make that poor girl do?” The old man’s tone was agitated, and Scott had to appease his brother somehow. Try to sugar-coat the task that they made her carry out.
“She is very close to becoming a full caver...and cavers can’t survive if they don’t eat every day.”
“You’re not answering my question, but I think I know what you’re going to say next?”
“Being caver based, she is also a cannibal...and they forced her hand. I didn’t want to be a part of it, but I also didn’t want to disobey orders. The victim was pushed into her cage and I had to watch as she pulled him apart and devoured him. It was... fucked up...” He hung his head forlornly, then quickly looked up again. “Do any of your group know how to use a gun? Because I think you may need to protect yourself until we leave.”
“What about Marcus, Jas and Aggie? You need to get them out as well,” John added.
“That goes without saying. I need Marcus and his know-how. I will arrange to have Hyde transferred out of here, and Judd...I’ve planned for him to join us... I have two privates on the case.”
“Why Judd? We should kill him and leave him to rot.”
“We’ll need him,” Scott said indifferently, but didn’t elaborate.
“Well, in answer to your original question, only Matt and myself know how to use guns.”
Scott smiled uneasily.
“Just be ready by the end of the day. I need to get Hyde sorted out before I can get anything going. Hang tight.”
JUDD WAS IN HIS OFFICE, slouched in his chair, oblivious to anything. It was only when he heard the door screech open that he sat up in time to watch as a gas canister was tossed in. The door closed, and the air in the small space became thick. Judd’s eyes widened as he tried to reach the door to escape, but it was too late. The gas overwhelmed him quickly. He choked and fell to the floor, conscious but not in control of his own body
Jenkins and Kirk entered the room wearing gas masks. One man wheeled in a chair with restraints attached to it. Judd’s unresisting body was stripped of all its clothing, including any underwear. The two men lifted him into the chair and placed his hands in the restraints behind his back, then clamped his feet into the foot rests. They covered his groin with a piece of cloth and wheeled his slumped body out of his office.
“What are you doing? I could have you shot for this.” Judd’s voice was weak as he tried to fight the effects of the gas. Jenkins stopped wheeling the chair and pick up the piece of cloth that covered Judd’s middle, then shoved it forcefully into the restrained man’s mouth.
“I don’t think you are in any position to do anything, captain.” Jenkins carried on wheeling the chair toward the cell block, with Judd fighting the restraints all the way.
SCOTT WALKED BACK TO the cells. It was time for Marcus to play his part in this twisted mess. But how would Scott go about getting him on board? He would have to come clean as to who he really was for Marcus to be able to trust him. He had a mountain to climb.
Scott’s footfalls were hurried on seeing Jenkins and Kirk in the background. They had entered the training room with cleaning equipment, a black body bag and a straitjacket. After a few moments, it became evident by the shrill cries coming from the training room, that they were having a job trying to contain Hyde. Scott shook his head and carried on through to the cells. The door to the block had been left open, and Scott made his way over to the cell where Judd had been housed and opened the flap, careful to remain quiet. There he sat, naked in the wheelchair, his hands and feet still restrained, his head covered with a black canvas sack. Scott reached for his Glock and rapped the barred recess with the handle. Judd flinched...and Scott knew by the muffled groans, he was gagged. He watched the writhing man for a moment, before slamming the eye level shut, which gained him another muffled groan.
Scott’s next stop would be to the girls’ cell, but he couldn’t help glancing over at Marcus’ cell before he arrived. He needed to tell the girls what was going on before he went anywhere near the person most vital to all their success.
Opening the girls’ cell door, he stepped in, and closed the it before making his way over to the two-tier bunk the two young women were sat on. They trembled as he approached. All the empty threats and promises of hurting them had instilled a great deal of fear. Jas, once headstrong and defiant, sat on the bunk, looking as if it was all she could do to hold it together. Jas’ bottom lip quivered, and she looked to be on the verge of tears.
Aggie had always been the weak one, but she had been gaining strength each day, and Scott had noticed the transformation each time he looked in. Where Jas had once embraced her in times of fear, she now embraced a trembling Jas.
“I’m not the enemy, I won’t hurt you,” Mason started. “I had to keep up the pretence for the cameras.”
“What do you want?” Aggie replied. “Why should we trust what you say?”
Scott stared at the floor.
“I don’t blame you for not trusting me, but once you know my intentions, you’ll change your minds about me.”
Aggie still looked sceptical, and Jas said nothing to back her friend up.
“So, what are your intentions, sergeant?”
“If I told you I was John Cummings’ half-brother, and I had been planning your escape since my arrival, would you believe me?”
The implication had the girls looking at Scott incredulously.
“Give over, will you?” Jas piped up. “That’s bollocks.”
She pushed herself away from Aggie and rose to her feet.
“Sit down, please,” Scott said firmly. “Trust me when I say, you need to be ready to move in a few hours. We’re moving out tonight.”
Jas sat down and stared at Aggie. Her brow creased in confusion.
“I have to go,” Scott said as he stood to leave. “Just be ready.”
CHAPTER 16
Scott had travelled the few steps to the next cell. He opened the eye level flap and looked upon Marcus with fascination as he practiced picking an object up with his prosthetic. He looked like he had mastered the art of not crushing things with his new limb.
Marcus remained oblivious to anyone watching him. His concentration blanked out everything other than the task at hand. He hadn’t even heard the door being opened.
“I see you’re getting to grips with your new prosthetic,” Scott quipped. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself.” He tried to stifle a nervous laugh, but he could sense that his attempt at humour was wasted on Marcus.
“What do you want?”
“I’ll get straight to the point, Marcus...I never had any intentions of forcing you to do anything. My only intention now, is to get you all out of here before you are terminated. Do you think you could trust me enough to follow me out of here? And can you help Hyde in any way?”
Marcus nodded, but remained sceptical.
“You have a lab, I know that much. Take me to it.”
“Wait, don’t be too eager to get there. I need to treat you the same way as I have been. I may need to restrain you, for effect, you understand,” Scott said as he grabbed hold of Marcus’ arm.
“Do what you must, sergeant,” he replied as he placed his hands out in front of him.
Scott shook his head. “Put them behind your back please. This must be done properly. Your prosthetic will not be able to break the bonds from behind.”
Marcus obliged.
Scott grabbed a set of restraints from a side pocket of his combat trousers and placed them around Marcus’ wrists. He reached for his gun and prodded Marcus with it.
“Just follow my lead.”
They walked a few steps to the girls’ cell.
“Just to show my allegiance, I am going to afford you the courtesy of seeing your daughter.” He pushed Marcus toward the barred recess and held him there. Marcus smiled to himself.
“Jas?” He waited for her to respond.
“Dad? Is that you? I can’t see your face properly, the light’s too bright through the bars.”
Marcus could hear the excitement in her voice. There was a brief silence before Jas pushed her hand through the bars and touched her fingertips to his face. “Are you okay? Have they hurt you?”
A small laugh escaped Marcus’ lips.
“I’m fine, they haven’t hurt me...but they have given me an all singing, all dancing new limb. What about you? Have you been harmed?”
Jas shook her head.
“We’re both fine.”
Marcus turned to Scott.
“I told you, all for effect,” Scott responded to the growing malice in Marcus’ eyes, “We need to press on, please, Mister Dench.”
Scott shut the eye level back up and pushed Marcus forward.
“We need to make a slight detour before we go to the lab. I thought you might like to see what has become of your creation, and the importance of the job you are about to undertake.”
A STRONG SMELL OF DISINFECTANT escaped the room as they opened the door. Marcus’ eyes immediately fixed on Hyde, who had been fitted with a straitjacket and looked to be sedated. Her eyes were red and puffy, staring blankly toward the back wall.
“What did you do?” Marcus seethed. “Why is she like this?”
“She needed to feed,” Scott started. “She was the means to a man’s end. This is guilt she’s feeling.”
“Guilt? She was forced into this situation by you. You’re the one who should be feeling guilty,” Marcus said, furious at the treatment of her.
“Do you really think that I don’t feel guilty...I do, all the time. I have done since day one. I want to start making it right. We need to get this poor girl out of here, and as soon as possible. I can’t watch her turn anymore. Do you think you can help reverse the transition, or at least put her out of her misery?”
Marcus turned to him. His face unreadable.
“I won’t kill her unless it is necessary. I don’t think I can reverse the process, but I can formulate something to stop the transition. All I need are Benzos, they will prevent her caver from transforming fully. Someone needs to be with her all the time to administer the drug. Do you have anything like that in your medical area?”
Scott shrugged.
“I wouldn’t say we had a fully functioning medical bay. Most of our supply has been run dry. Most of it was used to keep you and Hyde alive. I heard you were both in bad shape when you were brought here. I know that there are a couple of hospitals around this area that came out of the recent attacks with minimal damage, but I’m not sure what would be left now that the scavengers have had time to go through them.”
“I will find a way to combat this, but in the meantime, we need to keep her fed. And it needs to be something that isn’t human. We need to try and get her away the from cannibalism before human flesh is all she craves.”
CHAPTER 17
Scott found just the two men for the job standing just around the corner. The mops and buckets still in their possession. Jenkins and Kirk were his ‘go to’ guys when he needed something fetched. If anyone could find what Marcus needed, they could.
“I have another job for you two,” Scott started, as he noted the startled looks on their faces. “It’s okay, I don’t require you to carry out a job as drastic as the last. All I need for you to do is hunt out some Benzos... simple... now go, quickly.”
“We’ll come find you when our mission is complete, sarge.”
For a moment, Scott smiled as he watched them leave. But he soon snapped to, knowing he had his own mission to carry out. There was the matter of planning a large-scale escape, which would be no mean feat. Arming the survivors was his main objective. The armoury was set a couple levels deeper into the bunker. He set out hoping to find needed weaponry, and whether it would work if he did find what he needed, was another issue. It had been a while.
A THICK LAYER OF COBWEBS and a musty smell greeted Scott as he entered the armoury in search of rifles. The weapons had been boxed after the first bombs had fallen. A thick layer of dust covered everything. Systematically, he pulled sheets from atop a series of locked boxes.
Locks meant the weapons hadn’t been touched. He smiled, then pulled the master key from his pocket and unlocked the first box. All he found were bullets. No, this can’t be right... If the boxes were locked there should have been something other than bullets. With a pinch of panic, Scott opened the other three boxes. Only one contained anything of use. A couple of SA80’s and a landmine. That’ll have to do. He pulled what little there was in the way of weaponry out of the final box and stuffed it, the mine and bullets into a duffel bag he found draped over the back of a chair. He locked the wooden containers back up and headed to the surface, locking the door as he exited.
Scott found it easy to get to the dorms with a duffel bag full of weapons, as nobody he’d passed along the way thought anything of it. It was just a duffel bag slung over his shoulder, as far as they were concerned, nothing else. Upon arrival, the dorm appeared to be deserted. Where was everyone?
Scott stashed the weaponry under one of the bunks and headed to the nearest console, which sat a few doors down from the dorm area. That would pinpoint their whereabouts. His worry subsided when he turned on the console’s monitor. They were fine. The group had been allowed the privilege of venturing outside, under armed escort. Clark, it appeared, had no trust in his guests. Scott classed this as erratic behaviour on behalf of his superior.
He watched a while longer and waited for John and the others to come in again. That would be his cue to go back to the dorms and inform his brother where he had hidden the group’s means of defence.
JOHN WAS GREETED BY a smile from Scott.
“I have brought you a little gift, brother,” he said as he pulled the duffel bag out from its hiding place and lifted the flap for John to look inside. “Do you know how to use one of those?”
John picked one of the rifles out of the bag, just far enough to get a good look.
“I have fired one or two rounds, yes,” he replied nonchalantly. “It’s good you have brought me two. Matt knows how to use one as well...no thanks to Catherine Hyde. She gave him a crash course, but he never got to fire one, as bullets were running thin on our journey here. She very rarely fired her weapon.”
“The time is close,” Scott said. “I’ll send for you in a few hours...be ready.”
Mason tucked the guns back in the bag and buckled it up.
“Hide these well. The guards will be making rounds soon.” With that, Scott turned on his heels and left John and the others to prepare.
CHAPTER 18
The door to Jas and Aggie’s cell flew open banging against the side wall. Scott and a couple more squaddies loyal to him stood in the doorway, beckoning.
“Come quickly, I need you to gather supplies. Privates Smithson and Jordan will help you get to where you need to go,” he whispered as he handed the girl’s a bag each. “They know the layout to this place better than anyone. We need food and water...go.”
The girl’s ran through the corridor, followed directly by the two men.
“We’ll get you out of here” Smithson said, out of breath. “I always knew Clark was an arsehole, but a cold-blooded murderer...that’s a new one on us.”
Jas and Aggie stared at each other. They had no idea what the boy was on about. They had been cooped up in that cell for weeks.
“I’m sorry, what?” Jas piped up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Let’s just say it’s time to get the hell out of here.”
The stock room was full to bursting with long
life products, sealed in small packages. All kinds of meats, vegetables, fruits, milk of all varieties, all neatly placed and well labelled.
“We need to enough food to last at least a week. Fill those bags.” Smithson said. The girls practically threw the food in. None of it looked edible but having lived off army rations all the while they were travelling with Hyde, they had grown used to the cardboard texture and bland taste.
“I think that will do,” Smithson said as they turned to leave. “Jacobs, let’s move.”
SCOTT WAS WAITING IMPATIENTLY for Jenkins and Kirk to get back with the drugs.
“You two, go,” Scott ordered Smithson and Jacobs, “leave the block and get the others from the group of survivors ready to join up.”
No sooner had the two soldiers left, the other two materialised. Each had a bagful of drugs over their shoulders, and thoughtful expressions on their faces.
“Okay, what’s up?” Scott snapped. “What did you find? Or was it more a case of what you didn’t find?”
“It’s what I found, sarge,” Jenkins muttered. “And I want to know if you knew anything about it.”
An uneasy silence blew through the corridor on the back of Jenkins’ question. “I’m not a bloody mind reader, Jenkins...spit it out.”
Jenkins cleared his throat.
“I found something in the hospital I retrieved the drugs from. I knew that the Gordon Hospital was our best bet, so that’s where we headed first. And it was what I found in the cells that has me thinking.” Jenkins paused. “I thought all the cavers were dead?”
All the strength drained from Scott’s body.
“What is your theory, Jenkins?” He asked forlornly.
“What if Hyde was never a caver?”
Scott took a deep breath.
“What brings you to this conclusion?”
“It was the state of the body when I looked in on it that suggested that it had been drained of its blood, and that had me wondering. It was chained to the wall, so it was defenceless. I’m beginning to think that they were also victims, and not the villains as we were meant to believe.”
Hyde's Lament: A Dark Novella (Only The Few Book 2) Page 6
