by Jeff Olah
In walking to the grocery store, he came upon three delinquents tormenting a three-month-old Chihuahua near an electrical fence. After running the individuals off, Randy turned back to check on the puppy and noticed it had also given chase and was lapping at his heels. Pleading with his parents to keep the dog, but to no avail, Randy decided he would move in with his uncle and never return home. He spent every minute with his new friend until he left for the military just three short years later. The day he left for boot camp was the last time he felt that strong bond. Angus was the best friend he ever had. Randy hated hurting animals, even ones that meant to do him harm.
Stepping around the fallen beast, Mason knelt, picked up Randy’s weapon and looked him in the eye. He knew where his friend had gone. They spoke many times about his affinity for all things four-legged, although the time for dealing with this would have to wait. They needed to keep moving toward Blackmore and just as important, off this mountain.
Another thirty minutes and Major Daniels pointed Mason in the direction of the running trail used by many who were employed behind the walls of his research facility. He’d used this very trail many times when the stress of leading a unit that numbered in the hundreds got the better of him. He knew exactly where on the mountain they were and by all accounts would beat his nemesis to the punch. “Mason, we’re maybe forty minutes away, twenty if we can run the remainder of the trail.”
Travis brought up the rear and followed the path with his eyes until it disappeared fifty feet ahead. “Mason, it might be a good spot to drop the tracker. You don’t want it too close to home.”
“Good point.” Mason pulled it from his pocket, looked it over one final time and tossed it back down the hillside. It came to rest near a downed Feeder hunched over a shrub, put there by one of the four men now vacating the area.
“What’s the plan once we reach Blackmore?” Travis asked.
Randy laid his hand on Travis’s shoulder. “Kid the only thing you need…”
“Not much time for a plan,” Mason said, looking for some assistance from his father-in-law. “If we arrive first, we’ll need to either get everyone out or ready the place the best we can. Richard, what do you suggest?”
The Major tugged at his chin, the stubble of a days’ worth of growth peeling the dried blood from his hands. “Travis will be able to confirm this, although Marcus Goodwin is not coming here to scare us, nor is he looking for a battle. He is coming here to kill each and every person that didn’t take the ride over with him. In the last six months, this man has completely lost his mind and is intent on annihilating everyone that’s still left at Blackmore.”
“Is Blackmore armed?” Mason asked.
“Yes, very well. We have an entire basement stockpiled with enough gear to arm a small country, although…”
“Although what?” Randy asked.
“No one has been in there since the infection broke out. It’s beneath Building Six and we have no way to access the lower floors,” Major Daniels said.
“Why?”
“That building is filled with Feeders that are a bit different than the others. Let’s just say they are much more difficult to put down, they are quite fast. We don’t have enough manpower to take on that challenge. Not now. Our best chance is to get everyone out before Goodwin arrives.”
“Don’t you mean our only chance?” Mason said.
Major Daniels nodded confirming Mason’s statement. “That’s correct. He’s coming here for me more than anything else. He wants to destroy my world… and that includes killing everyone I hold dear. When he shows up, I want you to focus on getting everyone out and down the other side of the mountain. There is much better coverage and Goodwin has only ever flown in from the rear. This is unfamiliar territory for him and his men.”
“We are all going together, that includes you. April would never…”
“Mason, there is no other way. You and the others need to get everyone away from here. I’m going after Goodwin on my own. He needs to be eliminated… before he can do any more damage.”
103
The initial impact rocked the building. Overhead lights flickered off and on before swaying side to side. Monitors in the Command Center toppled. Instrument trays inside the Cage slid into one another and careened onto the cold tile floor as the building’s foundation came to rest. Parker scrambled to retrieve her glasses and hopped back into the desk chair. After a reboot of the system, she was able to bring the lobby into view through a camera mounted in the corridor, just beyond the damage. A small fire had broken out in the lobby causing the blast doors to release and seal off any form of entry… or exit.
Remaining calm, Parker virtually moved through the entire facility, room by room and confirmed their secured status. I guess this place really could survive anything short of a nuclear blast. With her mind at ease, her next mission was damage assessment. The video feed confirmed that the damage was strictly confined to the entrance and lobby. Knowing these areas were inaccessible would indicate her new family suffered very little, if any injury. Nevertheless, Parker’s next assignment would be to find and account for everyone inside the building.
Exiting the Command Center, Parker had a good vantage of both ends of the hall, to her left sat Tessa tending to April. They both appeared to have fallen, but succumbed to no serious injuries. Without registering much else, she headed toward the kitchen and noticed Savannah at the door to the bedroom. She too appeared shaken, although not in need of assistance. Turning to the kitchen, a foot was visible with the missing flat, open toed shoe not twelve inches away.
Parker knew it was Eleanor, and before requesting assistance from Tessa, she’d see if it was something she could handle on her own. Hurrying to Eleanor, she took a quick look and noticed a tiny trail of blood running from her mouth as she lay unconscious. Parker ran to the counter, grabbed a handful of paper napkins and an ice pack from the refrigerator. As she readied the supplies, Savannah had entered and knelt beside Eleanor looking for guidance from Parker.
“What do we do?” Savannah asked.
“Let me have a look,” Parker said sitting behind Eleanor and cradling her head.
“Is she ok?”
“I think she‘s fine… ELEANOR… CAN YOU HEAR US?” Parker said with a slight uptick in volume.
Blinking through the pain, she looked surprised to be horizontal and also lying across the two women. Eleanor rubbed the side of her head and winced as she realized how she ended up on the floor and why she was here. “April… I need to get to her.”
“Honey, your daughter is fine,” Parker said as she helped Eleanor into one of the kitchen seats. “Tessa is looking after her. You just need to sit still for a bit… Here’s some tissue, the blood in your mouth looks like it came from you biting your lip, although you also has took a nasty bump to the head.”
“Parker,” Eleanor said. “What on earth happened… are the men back?”
“No, that wasn’t them and I hope when they do arrive, it’s not quite as dramatic.”
“Yeah, what happened?” Savannah said. “Another earthquake?”
“Not quite, we were hit by an unmanned drone…” Parker said. “The entrance and lobby have been destroyed, although we are still secured. The only problem is we are limited to entering and exiting from the rear only.”
“Who did this?” Eleanor asked. “The same people that took my husband?”
“I would assume so…”
At the door, Tessa and April joined the others and sat around the kitchen table discussing their whereabouts and individual reactions, while tending to Eleanor and assuring she was able to once again stand on her own two feet. “I’m fine, other than being a little dizzy, but that’s normal at my age.”
The laughter around the room was infectious and carried on longer than it would have two weeks ago. These women needed something. Something other than what they had been facing since the infection took control of their world and dominated their lives. It felt good
to bond; it made things feel almost normal. They continued to sit around the table, sharing stories and feeling somewhat civilized until the conversation turned back to the men and what they no doubt were facing. Without a formal invitation, reality crept back in and whether they wanted to or not, they had to deal with it.
“The drone… you thinking Goodwin sent it?” Tessa asked.
“I’m fairly new to this situation and the connection to Blackmore, although it does make sense,” Parker said. “Does anyone else on the planet even know about this place? I was only made aware of its existence the day before my arrival.”
The others looked on as Tessa continued. “I wasn’t privy to all the high level conversations, although I spoke with Major Daniels enough to know that this place was a well-kept secret, known only to those who actually lived and worked here.”
“You lived here?” Savannah asked.
“Everyone did. Most were given two-year assignments with ridiculous salaries to compensate for the inconvenience of making this your whole life. We were promised a pretty big package upon the completion of our stay.”
“And…” April said.
“I don’t know. I really only worked with one other person that completed their stay. I never heard from them again. We had others that were scheduled to finish within the year, although they all fell victim to the infection.”
“What about my father?” April said. “I know he didn’t live here.”
“That’s correct,” Tessa said. “He was one of only three people that were able to come and go as they pleased. He was the only one we were able to interact with. The other two were just faces without names. They came for a few hours once a week, met with Major Daniels and were gone soon after they arrived.”
“Could one of them have been Marcus Goodwin?” Eleanor asked.
Sitting forward in her chair, Tessa rubbed her eyes attempting to avoid thinking about sleep. “It’s a possibility. For the last few months, one of men was curiously missing from the weekly ritual. That may have been Goodwin.”
A long silence fell over the group as they tried to process the unusual chain of events that led them to this place. April questioned her mother on her ability to move about and once satisfied, she turned her focus back to Tessa. “I think they should see him.”
“I agree,” Tessa said as she stood and walked to the door. “Justin has… well… I’ll just show you all. Follow me.”
The women moved from the kitchen one by one into the hall, April holding her mother’s hand and guiding the way. As they turned the corner and stood shoulder to shoulder in front of his room, every eye came to rest on the boy only ten feet away. Their reactions varied as Parker turned to Tessa, held open her arms and pulled her in close. Eleanor and April began to weep as they each laid a hand on the glass and Savannah pulled back, not convinced that his condition was anything to celebrate.
“I don’t know what this means yet. This is obviously not something we’ve seen before today. I will have to go in to evaluate him. I need everyone else to stay here,” Tessa said. “Everyone”
April continued to cry as her son, eyes open and leaning forward against the restraints, appeared to be mouthing something directly to her.
104
Sitting with James Dalton, his Lead Technical Advisor just over his left shoulder, he motioned to the pilot that they were ready. Lifting into the mid-afternoon sky, enormous grey clouds pushed toward them from the east. The impending storm begged for the chance to battle any aircraft that dare question its dominance. High winds added an extra complexity to the already extremely difficult task of flying between the low-pressure system and the mountainous terrain. Getting there would be complicated and actually touching down unharmed would be near impossible.
Goodwin, Dalton and the remaining six men of his security staff that crammed into the chopper were all that remained of BXF Technologies. The majority of his staff had left the day of the infection without his approval or any type of notification. The news filtered in from the internet and for most of the morning, his employees gathered inside offices watching the feed. No one made eye contact with him as he made his way around the building that afternoon; they simply grabbed their belongings and headed for the stairwells and elevators. Returning to the sixtieth floor, he watched with a grin from his top floor office as the people he shared the bulk of his waking hours with perished one by one.
From where he stood, the individuals were unidentifiable, although to him they all represented weakness and it didn’t matter who they were. He pictured Helen from accounting being the first out the door, grasping her oversized handbag and heading for the parking structure, only to be taken down five feet from the entrance… she became someone else’s lunch. He laughed at the first savage attack he was personally able to witness. These people deserved what would happen to them as they deserted his fortress. They would have been safe behind his walls, if he had only warned them.
In the first wave of panic, many simply followed the others to their death. He likened this to cattle being slaughtered, not an original thought amongst them. Harry, a mid-level manager from personnel, had instigated much of the original mass exodus from the building. He was the first with any real authority to pack his bag and head out. Goodwin watched the multiple video feeds from within the building as this man he paid a ridiculous salary to ran past and over women and a few of the age-enhanced employees. The stairwell camera proved Goodwin’s theory about this man when he stepped over a fallen co-worker who’d obviously been badly hurt. He didn’t even so much as speak to those trying to help as he opened the door to the lobby and let it slam shut behind him.
This desperate act reminded him why he had little compassion for most humans. Changing the video feed, Goodwin watched as Harry’s race for salvation came to an abrupt end as he reached the lobby and witnessed the bloodbath taking place on the opposite side of the security doors. Goodwin summoned Dalton to his private elevator and both stepped into the lobby as the last of his workers cleared the doors and sprinted for their vehicles. Most didn’t make it to the opposite side of the street and those who did soon realized that the entire city had become a war zone.
Paralyzed with fear that kept him from moving any closer than ten feet from the doors, Harry began to weep as he turned and begged Goodwin to help him get to his family. “I just want to find them and get somewhere safe, you have to help me.”
“Your beautiful wife, your wonderful kids,” Goodwin said, “they’re already dead.”
“What are you talking about… you’re insane.”
“You want to be with your family? Good, I say yes… here’s your chance,” Goodwin said as he snatched Harry’s security badge from the lanyard around his neck and tossed it to the floor. “Get out of my building.” With one hand around Harry’s collar, Goodwin pulled him to the twin security doors and shoved him out into the horrific scene.
Goodwin adjusted his tie and paused for a moment. Before giving his next command, he walked to the glass doors and watched as the world began to change. “Is it ready?” he asked.
Dalton had already begun adjusting the building’s defensive settings from his handheld tablet as Goodwin started for the elevator. “Yes sir, we are live.”
Stepping into the elevator, he turned to Dalton. “Lock it down.”
As the elevator doors began to close, Dalton held out his right hand, holding them open. He wanted Goodwin to witness his plan fully realized. The lobby shook as the reinforced steel security doors dropped to ground level and locked into place. “Mr. Goodwin, the ground level is secured; nothing will enter or exit this structure without your approval.”
The pilot’s voice through the headphones pulled him back to present as the approaching storm and the helicopter rocketed toward one another. Like a desperate game of chicken played out at a thousand feet above the ground, neither blinked. “Mr. Goodwin sir, we’re going to have to fly around this system. It’s much too dense to fly through.”
&nb
sp; Covering the headset microphone with his hand, Goodwin turned to Dalton. “What does that do to our timeline?”
“If it’s centered over the mountain it may cost us thirty minutes, give or take. We won’t know until we’ve reached the apex. Either way, there’s no reason we won’t arrive by sundown.”
Turning to the rear, assuring he had Goodwin’s attention, the pilot pointed to the path they were to take below the enormous cloud cover. “Sir, that’s our window and the sheets of rain appear to be coming down at an angle, not to mention the intensity. This craft with be batted around like a ping pong ball.”
Unbuckling himself and moving to the forward cabin, headphones still intact, Goodwin maneuvered his microphone in close to his mouth and spoke in a slow and deliberate manner. “Can you fly this thing? That’s your only job, can you do it?”
The pilot stared straight out the window into their disaster waiting only minutes ahead. “Sir, I’m not sure you understand. If we try to…”
“I understand perfectly,” Goodwin said. “Either you fly this thing or you get out right now and I’ll fly it… What’s it going to be? DO I NEED TO DO YOUR JOB, or can you muster the necessary courage to do it yourself?”
Without turning to visually acknowledge this directive, the pilot checked his instruments and pushed the chopper forward into the heart of the storm. “I’ll get us there sir… you can be sure of it.”
Decreasing altitude to avoid the most violent section, the men were tossed from side to side as the pilot fought to keep the helicopter in the sky. “Brace yourselves, it’s gonna get nasty for a bit. I’ll do what I can, but it’s not gonna be pretty.”
Pushing himself into the right corner, Goodwin held tight to his tether, pulled his headset off and spoke directly to Dalton. “Is the program for Blackmore operational?”
