The Complex (The Omega Protocol Chronicles Book 3)

by Courtney McPhail

  They all looked to Malcolm and he gave them a nod of his head.

  Well then, the decision was made. Whatever discussion these two had, it satisfied Malcolm, and Travis couldn’t think of a better plan than to follow his lead.

  After they had given their agreement, Jacob called in the guards who put them in the same ankle chains that Malcolm wore. The chains were long enough to allow him to walk but too short to get a long stride. There would be no running with these on.

  They were led back upstairs and out into a courtyard. There was another apartment building on the other side of the courtyard, white pavilion tents set up between the buildings.

  The scent of burning briquettes hung in the air and he spotted a barbecue between two of the tents. A woman stood behind the barbecue, stirring something in the large pots that sat on the grill. She was joined by another woman who brought over a couple cans, dumping the contents into the pot. Men were sitting at the tables under the tent, chatting amiably amongst themselves and Travis’ heart started to race. There had to be more than thirty of them sitting there eating their breakfast.

  As Jacob led them through the tent, the conversations around them died away as the men looked them over. Travis did the same and realized that he didn’t recognize any of them from the group at the hospital. Just how many people did they have here?

  Three men sat at one table, all of them probably in their mid-twenties, laughing with each other as they shovelled breakfast into their mouths.

  “Good morning, Eddie,” Jacob said when he approached the one wearing a Detroit Tigers ball cap. “The morning scavenge should be leaving in ten minutes.”

  “Truck’s filled up and ready to go, boss,” Eddie replied, flashing a toothy grin. “We’re just filling ourselves up and we’ll be on our way.”

  “Well, good luck out there,” Jacob said, giving Eddie and his men another one of those orchestrated bows. “I look forward to seeing what you bring in. You know the list of essentials.”

  “Got it right here,” Eddie said, tapping the breast pocket of his vest. “We’ll see you after lunch.”

  Jacob led them over to the barbecue where the woman ladled them up bowls from the pot. She was a tall, slender woman with short blonde hair. When she handed Travis his bowl and met his eyes, he saw the dark shadows under them. Those eyes were haunted, seen too much of the awfulness the world had to offer.

  “Thanks,” he said when he took the bowl, smiling at her.

  Fear flashed in her eyes before they darted back down, focusing on ladling up the next serving. He frowned, not sure why his thanks had upset her, but he moved on, picking up a spoon from the utensil tray on one of the tables.

  Jacob led them over to the table where two middle aged men were seated, heads bent together in serious conversation, the plates in front of them forgotten. A man and a teenage boy sat at the other end of table, their eyes on their plates as they ate.

  “Marsh, Crawley, this is Travis and Veronica. They’ll be joining your team today. I’ll leave it to you to fill them in over breakfast. I’m afraid the others will have to take their breakfasts to go. We have work to do.”

  Travis and Veronica watched Jacob lead Malcolm and Nas away, exchanging one last reassuring look with Malcolm before he headed towards the other apartment building.

  “That’s Ben and Aaron,” Marsh said with a nod towards the man and boy at the other table. “They joined up with us about two weeks back. We found ‘em out there on their own and they decided to come back with us.”

  “Decided?” Veronica said, one eyebrow raised. “Is that why they’re in chains?”

  “Well, we aren’t exactly the most trusting type ‘round here,” Marsh said, “But we ain’t bad people. If we were bad, we wouldn’t give anybody a chance to come here. We’d end ‘em before they ever even knew about the place. Instead we try to give people a chance, even if it’s fucked us over before. It just takes a while to prove to us that you’re committed. Ben and Aaron ain’t given us no problems so they’re well on their way.”

  That Travis and Veronica weren’t even one step on their way went unsaid. They were new here and they best watch their step.

  It was hard for Travis to get a proper read on this guy. In his shoes, Travis might make the same implied warning. Marsh didn’t know who they were any more than Travis knew who he was. They were both strangers trying to suss one another out.

  “Did you guys jump them as well? Put a gun to their head and tell them they gave up or they died?” Veronica spat out and Travis held his breath.

  Marsh looked her over for a moment and then pushed up the brim of his hat so she could see his eyes.

  “I’m sorry ‘bout that. Those guys who go out there on the scavenge missions, they’re the toughest out of our people. They have to be to do the shit they do. It’s the only way you can survive outside the walls. They’re only trying to stay safe out there and keep the rest of us back here safe too. I’m not asking you to forgive them but just understand where they’re coming from.”

  Travis exchanged a look with Veronica and he knew what she was thinking. It wasn’t really that much different than the way they had acted once upon a time.

  The first time they met had been when they had each other at gunpoint, ready to shoot each other if they made the wrong move.

  “I think we can take that into consideration,” Travis said with a small smile and then scooped up a spoonful of the breakfast stew. It was surprisingly tasty even though it was made up of mostly beans and canned vegetables. Whatever they did with the spices made it good. Either that or he was just that hungry.

  “So what was it that brought you out to the hospital,” Marsh said. “One of you sick?”

  “Nah,” Travis said, “Just looking for meds to trade. They’re a hot commodity out there.”

  “You guys have been on the road a lot?”

  “We never stopped being on the road,” Travis said. “We’ve been moving ever since this started.”

  “Where are you from, originally?” Marsh asked as Travis spooned up some more stew.

  “Both from Virginia,” Veronica answered for him. “We met at a refugee centre outside Richmond. When it fell, we got out together. There were more of us but we lost them along the way.”

  “And you ended up in Michigan?”

  “Originally, we were just aiming to get as far away from the east coast as we could,” Travis picked up the story. It was even a little fun to construct the lies. “It was completely messed up there. We made it to Ohio where we met up with Malcolm and Nas.”

  “And you joined them. Interesting,” Crawley said. “Most people try to avoid others.”

  “It was an accident really,” Travis replied with a shrug of his shoulders. “We were fleeing from a pack of freaks.”

  “Freaks?” Crawley asked.

  “The infected people.”

  “Interesting,” Crawley said. “Probably a good idea to give them a nickname, makes it easier to forget what they used to be.”

  “Never thought of it that way, but I guess, yeah, it does make it easier.”

  “Anyway, you were running from some freaks,” Marsh said, prompting him to continue with his story.

  “We popped into a building to hide and found Malcolm and Nas hiding there as well. We waited the freaks out and when it was time to go, we decided to throw in with them.”

  “And why is that?” Marsh asked. “What about him made you trust him?”

  Marsh knew what he was doing. He’d easily maneuvered Travis into a position to give up valuable information about the inner workings of the group. He wanted to know how tight the group was, how far they would go for each other. Smart move. Divide and conquer. So what would be the right answer to give?

  “Malcolm and Nas had a destination in mind. We didn’t. A goal gives you something in this world.”

  That answer seemed to satisfy Marsh as he grinned at them.

  “You’re right about that. I think that’s why
things work here. We’ve got goals.” Marsh held up his arms to encompass the place around him. “You can see the work we’ve already done. Reinforced the walls and gate for security. Brought in the cisterns here so we’ve got fresh water. We send out scavenge groups to find food. With winter coming, we’ve stepped things up, figured it was time to clear out everything that was left in town. That’s why our guys were at the hospital.”

  “Do you go out there?”

  “Nah, I’ve always been a homebody,” Marsh replied. “Besides, there’s plenty of work to get done around here. Speaking of which, we better get to work. We’re going to be cleaning out some of the abandoned apartments. Not everyone who lived here stayed or survived. We’ve already gone through the apartments for food and other useful supplies but we want to clean out what’s left. Last thing we need is vermin deciding to move into old couches and beds.”

  Travis scraped the last of the stew out of his bowl, his belly satisfied now that it had a meal in it. In fact, he felt about a million times better and it wasn’t just the food.

  They had a way of getting out of here. That was a huge improvement over where they had started out. Best to get the job done as soon as possible and then they could be on their way.

  “Ready when you are.”

  Subject File #742

  Subject: I feel like an idiot for even believing him for a second. My job was to know when someone was playing me. It took me too long to figure it out.

  Six guards on the walls.

  Two guards at the gate.

  The gate reinforced with a lock and chain.

  Malcolm ran over his observations from the courtyard as Jacob led them into the other apartment tower. He had used their time crossing the courtyard to study as much of the place as he could. If this deal didn’t work out, it was better they had a backup plan.

  There was a guard standing in front of the stairwell door. The guard opened the door when he saw Jacob and they descended to the basement. It looked the same as the basement in the other building. They walked by other lockers and around a corner where a guard was standing in front of a door labelled Boiler Room.

  “How is our prisoner doing?” Jacob asked the guard. The man was older but built like a tank. His head was bald, the lantern light making his pale head shine. His beefy arms were covered in tattoos and Malcolm could see the head of an inked snake creeping up his neck to curl around his ear. Jacob knew to keep men who meant serious business in his group.

  Malcolm wasn’t one to judge a book by its cover but he had to wonder why a guy that looked like that was taking orders from a man like Jacob. Either he had something on these men or he’d done something amazing to win their loyalty.

  “He’s been quiet,” the man replied. “Might be due to the missing teeth.”

  Jacob chuckled and turned to Malcolm. “As you can guess, we’ve made our own attempts at interrogating the prisoner but they’ve been unsuccessful so far.”

  “What information do you want from him?” Nas asked.

  “The man used to be the superintendent here. He’d been with us since the start but a few weeks back, he got it in his head to strike out on his own,” Jacob told them. “Normally we’d wish him good luck and let him be on his way, but he took all our diesel for the generators with him. He tried to sneak back inside to steal more from us but we found him. I want to know where he stashed the fuel he took.”

  “We can definitely help with that,” Malcolm said. “What can you tell us about him?”

  “His name is Sam. He’s been working here for five years,” Jacob said. “No family to speak of. He was reliable in the beginning but something in him changed. He’s a liar. He’ll tell you things to distract you, to confuse you, try to turn you against us, don’t listen. He’ll say whatever he can to get out of here.”

  The way Jacob’s eyes lit up unsettled Malcolm and he didn’t miss the way the man clenched his fists hard enough to turn the knuckles white. He despised Sam but Malcolm wasn’t sure it was because he was a liar.

  “Don’t worry, we have experience telling the truth from the lies,” Malcolm said.

  Jacob either didn’t get or ignored the double meaning. “That’s why you’re here.”

  “You’ll need to remove our chains before we go in there,” Nas said and Jacob’s eyes narrowed. “If you expect him to give up his secrets to us, he has to believe we have some authority.”

  “He’s right,” Malcolm added in his support. “If he knows we’re prisoners, he’s not going to give up anything to us.”

  “Very well,” Jacobs said. “Clay, unlock them.”

  Malcolm massaged his wrists once the zip tie was cut off, getting the blood flowing again as the leg irons were removed. Once Nas was free, Clay opened the door and Jacob led them inside.

  The boiler took up most of the space and the sole occupant of the room was a man chained to a chair. His face was a mess of blood and bruises, one eyes swollen completely shut, his lip split, nose broken and swollen. Dried blood clumped in his salt and pepper hair and his fingers were missing a couple nails and the pinky on his left hand was twisted out at the wrong angle.

  A few feet away from the chair there was a small table, an array of tools spread out on it. Pliers, screwdriver, a blackjack, knives and scalpels, some of them with blood on them.

  “Hello Sam, my name is Malcolm. This is my associate, Nas.”

  Sam let out a groan as he forced his one good eye open, squinting at him under the bright lantern that hung from the ceiling. “You’re new.”

  “We’ve been brought in special, just for you,” Malcolm replied. “Jacob here figured he’d bring in the big guns for you. We’re with the CIA.”

  Sam looked over at Nas for a moment before his gaze drifted back to Malcolm. “Lucky me. Thanks for rolling out the red carpet, Jacob.”

  “You stole from me,” Jacob said, thin arms crossing over his narrow chest.

  “Did you tell them what I took?”

  “You took fuel for the generators,” Malcolm said. “Smart move, it’s liquid gold now.”

  “That’s not all I took, is it, Jacob? You tell them the rest?”

  Jacob stiffened, the corner of his upper lip twitching as he tried to conceal his anger. There was definitely something going on here, the hatred between the two men palpable. A simple theft didn’t breed that kind of animosity.

  “They know you are a liar, Sam,” Jacob said, his voice clipped. “There’s no point in it now. Just tell them where you took what you stole and this will all be over.”

  Sam laughed. “You can’t break me. I already lived through hell when I was here. There’s nothing you can do to me that would be worse than that.”

  Nas stepped forward. “It seems pretty nice here. Walls all around you, supplies, people to watch your back.”

  “You don’t know its secrets.”

  “So, if this place is so bad, why did you come back here?” Malcolm asked. “There’s a whole wide world out there for the taking now, you could have gone anywhere.”

  “I forgot a few things.”

  “They must be important.”

  A small smile crept over his lips, pulling at the torn skin so another bead of blood formed on his lower lip.

  “You have no idea.”

  “Then why don’t you tell me,” Malcolm said, genuinely curious.

  The hatred for Jacob came off of Sam in waves. It would take more than conflicting personalities to breed that kind of animosity. Something had bad had happened between these two and Malcolm wanted to know what it was.

  Sam looked at Jacob, his smile growing. “Tell him, Jacob. Tell him what I took and what I came back for.”

  Malcolm saw the way blood drained from Jacob’s face at Sam’s accusation. Whatever Sam was talking about, it scared Jacob.

  “You took our fuel, Sam,” Jacob said and Malcolm knew instantly it was a lie. “You must have come back for what little you left here with us.”

  “Fuck you, Jacob, you pat
hetic piece of shit.”

  Blood suddenly rushed to Jacob’s face, turning him a bright red as his eyes sparked with a fiery anger. He grabbed the blackjack off the table and swung it at Sam. The weapon was unfamiliar in his hand and his swing was wild so the end only glanced off of Sam’s jaw but it was enough to snap his head back.

  “Pussy,” he spat out along with a mixture of blood and spittle aimed at Jacob but falling short of hitting his shoes. “Can’t even hit me with your own hand.”

  A low growl ripped from Jacob’s throat and he lunged at Sam, laying a series of blows on Sam’s face with his fist. Jacob had been right to use the baton. His punches were sloppy and weak and he was already winded after the first two. It was clear to Malcolm that Jacob had never been in a physical fight in his life.

  Malcolm looked over at Nas who stared back at him with a single eyebrow raised. He had read the situation the same as Malcolm. Malcolm nodded at him and Nas stepped up to put a hand on Jacob’s shoulder.

  “If you break his jaw, he won’t be able to talk,” Nas said and Jacob rounded on Nas. His eyes flashed with a surprising amount of rage and he took a step forward, but then he stuttered as he realized that Nas was much bigger than him. Jacob might have no problem beating a tied up man but one with full use of his hands made his survival instincts kick in.

  “I want to know where the fuel is,” Jacob ground out through clenched teeth. “You made a deal with me that you would make him talk but all I’ve heard so far is bullshit.”

  Malcolm noticed that Sam was watching them now with a suspicious eye and an idea began to formulate.

  The more he learned, the more suspicious Malcolm became of Jacob. Something was off with him and Malcolm wanted to learn more. His plan was risky but if it worked, they’d be in a much better place to get out of here.

  “We did make a deal with you and now I know what I’m dealing with,” Malcolm told Jacob. “We should go outside and talk.”