'The fugitives we've got at the hotel had visitors, too.'
'Don't tell me something's happened to them?'
'Taken two of the kids.'
'No! Why'd they do that?'
'Fallback position. If you hadn't given up the virus at Breathdeep, it would have been a hostage situation.'
'Would have?'
'I hate to say it but your giving up the virus probably stopped a very ugly result over here.'
'Where are we at now?'
'A stolen helicopter took off from a rooftop six blocks from the hotel, then dropped under the London radar. As you've just told me they got what they were after, I can't imagine they'd be keen to take a couple of teenagers with them.'
'But you don't know that for sure!'
'You're correct.' The commander sighed. 'Albert, can you give me a quick summary of what happened?'
'I'm going back through the surveillance camera records now. Chopper dropped on the roof of the holding pens. They hacked the main computer somehow, then popped all the doors on the bunker. I was on my own in the lab with my assistant.'
'You're not hurt?'
'No. I can't tell if they expected to find us here but they were armed. They fired a shot and I thought they'd killed my assistant.'
'See them?'
'No, they all wore black masks and flight suits. Scared us witless with the guns and barely said a word.'
'They must have said something.'
'Oh, yes, "Zombie virus", several times. Heavy accent but I couldn't say from where.'
'Well a chopper's not going to take them far. They've probably met up with a plane between London and your lab. There are a couple of old airfields near the coast.'
'I expect that's how they got in undetected.'
'They took the only phial there was?'
'Doug, they have no idea what they've done. This… this is going to end very badly.'
'More than just for them, I suspect,' Hodgeson said in a grave tone.
'And you've got to find those kids before that ends badly.'
Having lifted off from Breathdeep in the helicopter, the intruders flew the phial of zombie virus thirty miles northeast. It was confirmed later that the helicopter had made a rendez-vous with another helicopter shortly arrived from London. At an abandoned airfield, the agents boarded a long range cargo plane. While all the men in the helicopters had been completing their tasks, two stayed behind to replenish the plane's fuel from stolen stocks. With all the men and the virus aboard, the plane then flew below radar height, heading out beyond the Atlantic coast. Needless to say, they succeeded in concealing the plane's eventual destination.
Chapter 4: Baggage
In the hotel bar, Janet and the others tried to piece together what had happened.
'Sergeant, how did they get into Breathdeep?'
'Another helicopter, apparently.'
'So, these people wanted the virus?'
'That's what they took. If they'd had trouble at Breathdeep, Steve and Alex would have been in reserve.'
Janet dropped into a chair, her hands were shaking and her voice cracked when she replied, 'They got all they wanted?'
'They only took the virus, not the vaccine or a ZDT. They probably didn't even know about those because they're so new. They hacked the electronic systems, knew exactly what they were doing.'
'Wait, wait,' Janet said confronting the sergeant directly, 'how do you know they haven't taken my son with them?'
'Excess baggage.'
'How dare you call my son…'
'I'm sorry, ma'am. I mean it was a very slick operation. Fast in and out, no hanging around, no unnecessary cargo.'
'You mean they might not have taken Steven and Alex with them?'
'We hope to recover the kids soon.'
There was a moment of tense silence. Rachel and Maisie were huddled together, looking very pale.
Bill had been sitting on a corner sofa, holding his wife's hand. 'What about the tasered guy?' he said.
'The medics are with him now,' the sergeant said. 'We hope to have some answers shortly.'
Janet accompanied the sergeant to debrief the sentry who'd been found by the door to the courtyard. A young soldier was resting on a stretcher, his tunic and shirt were unbuttoned and there were a pair of angry-looking red wounds on his chest. As soon as the sergeant stood beside him, the soldier pushed himself up onto one elbow.
'It was all so quick, sarge,' he blurted out, half-heartedly attempting a salute.
'At ease, private. Start at the beginning.'
'There was only one of them at first. Outside the windows, there.' He nodded towards a pair of French doors leading to a courtyard. 'Had on a uniform, see, same as us. Done up like brass he was.'
The sergeant answered Janet's quizzical look. 'A senior officer.'
'Senior my ar…' The soldier stopped at a sharp look from Janet. 'Sorry miss,'
'It's Mrs, thankyou.'
'Continue,' the sergeant said.
'He held up some ID. Looked genuine enough. Couldn't really see through the glass, and I let 'im in. Then two or three more jumps out from behind the bushes, like. Stuck us with the taser before I could ask what was up. Must have blacked out.'
'High power contact taser, by the look of it,' one of the medics said.
'You didn't see them leave, son?'
'Nah, if I had, I'd of shot the ba… blighters. Sorry, Mrs. I'm feeling a bit rough.'
'That's alright, private, I appreciate the sentiment. Shouldn't he be in hospital, sergeant?'
The sergeant nodded at the military medics, who then lifted the stretcher and took the young soldier away.
'I'm going to have all the unnecessary exits boarded up.'
'But what about my son?'
'We're going to start between here and the roof used by the helicopter.'
'No-one heard or saw anything?'
'We chose a deserted part of London to conceal you until you were out of quarantine and we were certain the Minister and all his 'employees' were rounded up.'
Janet and the sergeant returned to the bar, to find the others in earnest discussion.
'Why pick on us, though?' Graham said.
'Yes, do you think they knew there was any connection between us and the virus?'
'How could anyone know that? Our borders are sealed.'
'Wait a minute, I can only think of one person who knew about us and would pass on information.'
'That commander chap?'
'Of course not, he and Mason worked together when the zombies attacked Stannicvale.'
'The Minister?'
'Exactly. I take it they haven't caught him, yet, sergeant?'
'I can't say and while someone is dealing with that, I've got to find those two missing kids.'
'Can I help?' Fred said.
'You only, like, want to go around with the guys with the guns, Fred.'
'Maisie!'
'But it's true. Don't let him, Mrs Reynolds.'
'We need to stay put,' Janet said. 'And that includes you Fred.'
Chapter 5: Where's Steve?
Alex was within a couple of steps of the TV room when she saw a soldier she didn't recognise come out of there. He looked quite senior, having more insignia than the ones she'd seen around the hotel earlier.
'Is Steve in there?' she asked.
The soldier nodded but as soon as Alex passed him and turned into the doorway, he grabbed her from behind and placed his hand hard over her mouth. Besides Steve, there were three men in the room, all wearing ski masks. One of them immediately taped Alex's mouth and tightened a heavy cable tie around her wrists. She saw that Steve was also taped and bound. Seconds later, they were bundled out of the room, down the corridor towards the side of the hotel. They were shoved along, past a soldier who was lying unconscious on the floor, then out through the garden into a van waiting with its engine running by the gate onto the road.
Alex was lifted off her feet and carried into the back of t
he van. Steve followed immediately afterwards and they were dragged further in by two of the men. The van set off, with the driver taking it up through the gears at a brisk pace but not pushing the engine so hard it made a lot of noise.
Alex discovered that trying to scream with tape over her mouth had little effect, other than to make her feel even more frightened. The van kept going straight but it stopped after only a few minutes. It turned a single corner, just before it came to a standstill, like they'd pulled into a side road. The rear doors flew open, they were hauled out and then hustled into a dark building and along three or four corridors. Each man had a torch with which they lighted their way downstairs into a basement, dragging the kids along with them. Apart from the one in uniform, the other men kept on their ski masks.
In a room smelling of damp, they were shoved against a wall. One of the men put his torch down on a table. It shone enough light against the blank wall that Steve and Alex could see the man making a signal for them to sit down on the floor. In his hand he held a rectangular object on which he pressed a button. It gave off a high pitched whine and blue sparks sizzled between two spikes on the end of it. The kids wasted no time in sitting down. A smell of ozone wafted towards them and the man laughed at the expressions on their faces. He stayed with them, while the uniformed man and the other two stood outside the door to the room.
Alex thought Steve looked scared but he didn't look too badly knocked around, which was about how she felt. The man in the fake soldier's uniform spoke into a radio but Alex didn't recognise the language. Then nothing much happened for about ten minutes, while Alex and Steve felt the cold seeping through their clothes. Alex shivered and tried to change her cramped position, which prompted taser man to demonstrate his device again. A second radio message came through and the men stubbed out their cigarettes, gesturing and arguing amongst themselves over what to do with their captives. The uniformed one turned to Alex and Steve, saying two words only in English, 'No move!' He jabbed his finger downwards. To reinforce the point, taser man waved his device in their faces before joining the other men as they ran off down the corridor.
Steve and Alex heard the sound of the men's feet, apparently going further up into the building, rather than back to the van. After the footsteps faded to nothing, the kids waited, listening to the drip of water somewhere in the darkened half of the room. Alex counted three hundred drips, then she strained to push herself up onto her feet. If she kept her eyes away from the torch, she could see some way into the darkness. The room had the look of a laundry, with a metal-topped table and a line of large machines glinting in the shadows. It felt old and damp and Alex could see her breath in the torchlight.
Steve made a noise and Alex turned to look at him. He was still kneeling on the floor. She turned her back to him and carefully felt for his face. Taking the edge of the tape, she pulled it back from his mouth.
'Well done!' he said, changing places to remove her piece of tape.
Relieved to have her mouth uncovered once more, Alex took a deep breath of the dank air and immediately regretted doing so.
'Cigarette smoke and mould. What a vile combination!'
'Never mind the smell, we've got to get out of here.'
'You really think they're not coming back?'
Chapter 6: Brute Strength
For a few moments they stood still, holding their breaths but the only thing either one heard was the drip, drip of the water and the thump of their own hearts.
Steve answered Alex's question. 'I don't think so.'
'Thank goodness they didn't bind our legs.'
'Didn't need to when they could zap us with the taser.'
'That's what it was! Don't they have wires that shoot out?'
'Not the sort that guy had, they just press the spikes against you and it knocks you out. Or if you're unlucky it gives you a heart attack.'
'Nice! I'm even more glad they've gone now.'
'We need to get out of here. Mum will be worried sick.'
'Getting these things off our wrists would be a good move. Why couldn't they have put them on with our hands in front of us?'
Steve laughed. 'Oh, that would have made it way too easy!'
Steve backed up to the table to reach for the torch and managed to pick it up without dropping it on the floor. He flashed it around the room, making a quick survey. It was indeed a laundry, with water dripping from a tap into a steel sink. Other than the sink, a metal table and the washing machines, the room was empty.
'Nothing here. We could do with something to cut the cable ties. Pliers, preferably.'
'The thing on my wrists is really tight.'
'Mine's quite loose, still,' Steve said.
'How'd you manage that?'
'I read about it in a magic book once. It's an escapology trick. When someone is going to bind your wrists, you cup your hands, so it keeps them apart. You can also yell, like it's so tight it really hurts.'
'I'd have had no trouble with that bit!'
'Except your mouth was taped shut. A proper escapologist can do it so well anyone who ties them up thinks the ropes or whatever are competely tight. The truth is they've kept enough gap to be able to get their hands out.'
'Can you do that?' Alex's eyes were full of admiration.
'Not quite. But I can move my hands around a fair bit.'
'There's nothing I can see in here can help us. Let's try another room.'
Steve walked backwards carrying the torch into the corridor with Alex following close, giving him directions. There was a musty smell to the passageway, with patches of mould on the walls and puddles on the floor.
'This was most likely a hotel that was left when people moved out of this part of London,' Steve said. 'You know, to buy up vacant properties further south.'
'Can't be in a very good part of town if it went out of business.'
'Should mean that once we get outside there won't be anybody much around and with any luck we can take the van.'
'What if the guys come back?'
'We keep our ears open.' Steve said, trying a door marked Cleaning Stock and finding it unlocked. Inside were shelves carrying neat rows of aerosol cans of polish, spray cleaners, boxes full of tiny bottles of shower gel and cartons of miniature bars of guest soap.
'Oh, this is good stuff!' Alex said, 'I wish I had my hands free.'
'As I was saying,' Steve continued. 'If we hear anything, we run for it. This place must have hundreds of rooms we could hide in and more than one way out.'
All the doors were labelled and before long they found one bearing the name Maintenance. The door was locked but at the second attempt, Steve succeeded at kicking it open. The noise of splintering wood was incredibly loud in the silent corridor and they stood still, holding their breaths and listening. There was no sound of the men returning, so they went into the room.
'I don't know why they bothered to lock this door, it's been pretty well wrecked in here,' Steve said.
There was stuff strewn about everywhere: plumbing and electrical spares, paper, broken light bulbs, nuts and bolts, and on the floor about a thousand cable ties in different sizes and colours.
'Oh, just what we need!' Alex said.
Steve strained to look over his shoulder as he shone the torch around. 'There's a knife there but I don't want to use that.'
'Especially as neither of us can see what we're doing.'
'There're plenty of tools scattered around, though. There must be pliers somewhere.'
Alex took the torch from Steve, while he found a large screwdriver and used it to poke around the workbenches under Alex's direction. At the point of giving up, Alex realised the bench which ran right along one wall had a row of drawers. It was easy to pull each drawer out and let its contents spill onto the floor. After flooding the floor with containers of screws, washers, assorted copper fittings, paint brushes and other paraphernalia, Steve pulled down a drawer full of small tools, including a single pair of pliers. Alex bent down and tried wit
h great difficulty to retrieve them, fumbling around behind herself while rolling about on the floor.
'Don't you dare laugh!' she said but couldn't help from having a laughing fit of her own. Steve joined her, until they were all laughed out. The torch had rolled across the floor but they were too weak from laughing to do anything about it. When they had calmed down sufficiently they struggled, back to back, to pick up the pliers. Finally, Steve's fingers closed around them.
'Got them!'
'At last. Come on, get me out of this thing.'
Steve carefully eased the pointed nose of one side of the pliers between Alex's wrists. Feeling his way without being able to see, he trapped the cable tie between the cutting surfaces and squeezed until there was a loud click.
'Oh, that's better!' Alex said, rubbing her wrists and shoulders.
'My turn now, please.'
Alex was able to easily get the pliers into position around Steve's cable tie.
'What's the matter, Alex?'
'These things are unbelievably tough.'
'They're made out of hard nylon.'
'No kidding. I can't cut through this. How did you do it?'
Steve laughed. 'Brute strength?'
'OK tough guy, how are we going to cut through yours?'
With her hands, free, Alex was able to operate more effectively. Eventually, using a hammer and chisel with Steve's hands resting against the edge of the workbench, Alex punched through the plastic band.
Steve turned to Alex and she hugged him. 'Thanks for that,' he said, hugging her in return.
'What the hug or cutting you free?'
'Both,' Steve laughed. 'OK, we need to get to our hotel.'
Finding their way back outside took longer than they thought, having been turned round several times in their search for the pliers. When they stepped out into the street, they saw that the van was still where it had been left.
'That's handy,' Steve said. He opened the door with a smile that very soon faded when he saw what was inside.
The cab was occupied by a shadowy figure. At first he thought it was the men who'd taken them before and he turned to shout for Alex to run for it. Two more figures appeared from round the sides of the van. They each wore dirty raincoats and had grubby, unshaven faces. Alex recoiled from the thought of what their hands probably looked like.
British Zombie Breakout: Part Three Page 2
