Wheels and Zombies (Book 3): Aground

by M. Van

  The soldiers didn’t raise their weapons, and I considered this a good sign. Sergeant Tyler stepped forward. The man did not look happy. The soldiers, including Mars and the sergeant, formed a half-circle around us. Just far enough out of reach. Ash had been right. Although they had let us out of the room, the men didn’t trust the decontamination procedure enough to come close to us.

  “So now what?” Angie asked in a none-too-friendly voice.

  “We are getting you out of the mountain, without Warren finding out,” the sergeant said. Surprised, my mouth spoke before I had a take on it.

  “He doesn’t know we’re here?” I asked. I noticed a touch of overexcitement in my voice. Mars shook his head.

  “He knows, but the general is denying him access to buy us time,” he said. “The general knows how important it is to get this information out, including the three of you.” Angie glanced around at the faces of the two men, including the three soldiers. As usual in their similar getup and close-cropped hair, the men all looked alike to me. Fortunately, they wore name tags.

  There was Cullen who seemed to be the highest-ranking of the three. He had a seasoned face and a touch of gray coming out from under his cap. He also stood in front of the others. Donovan was younger and the shortest, while Stevens towered over both of them, but he was shorter than I was.

  “You guys all agree with your commanding officer?” Angie asked. “Even though the man that sits in his office right now has the authority of the president.” Her words hit me as shock. Did she have to emphasize the power Warren wielded?

  “We know who Warren is,” Cullen said. “He might have the president’s ear, but we know he had a finger in what caused all this. All of us have lost loved ones to what that man did.”

  Angie nodded in satisfaction. “Then lead the way.”

  Part Three

  Outbreak

  Warren

  “So this is where you went to hide,” Warren said as he stepped out of the decontamination room and into the lab. One of his men had deactivated the room’s decontamination facilities and he hadn’t bothered to change into one of the biohazard suits like Matley wore. Although the defined regulations served their purpose, he knew the chance of contracting the infection was slim.

  Matley eyed him thoughtfully as he approached her where she stood next to her desk. She had removed her protective mask, which in itself was proof to him that the lab was safe to enter. Sweat coated Matley’s face, and her usually fuzzy red hair sat matted on her head.

  “Not hiding,” Matley replied in a strained voice. “Just found a better work environment.”

  Warren grinned and let his gaze wander across the lab. This place looked fine for run-of-the-mill research but had nothing on the laboratory he used to occupy in Florida. Matley knew this from having worked there alongside him. Fortunately, she couldn’t have known about the pathetic resources he had to work with now and said, “I see … better.” He pulled up his nose and followed it with a smug expression. His current lab might be inferior, but that wouldn’t stop him from feeling the satisfaction of berating his former associate—even if it was based on a lie.

  General Whitfield might have used every bureaucratic tool at his disposal in an attempt to delay handing over his two guests, but Warren knew it wouldn’t be long before he had them again. It had taken one phone call to Trenton Doyle, the White House chief of staff who turned out to be willing to provide him with access to the facility, and his men were already roaming the insides of the mountain to find 101 and 102. Doyle would do anything to protect his president and, with him, himself. He wanted a cure, and Warren was the only one that could give it to him.

  “We could have solved this problem already if you hadn’t interfered,” Warren said as he walked up to Matley and stopped in front of her. The bulky woman crossed her arms, unimpressed by his gleeful smirk.

  “Is that the problem that turns people into mindless corpses or the one where you can’t seem to figure out how to make an enhanced human being?” Matley said. “Because I solved the first one.”

  Warren’s eyes widened at Matley’s admission. Had she actually figured it out? He narrowed his gaze and cocked his head. She wasn’t the type of person to boast. If she had solved the problem, it would significantly boost his mood.

  “I’m listening,” he said. Matley snorted a laugh. The sound made a chill run up Warren’s spine. For as long as he had known the woman, his body had revolted against her presence.

  “You expect me to tell you,” she said and laughed in his face.

  “I expect you to tell the president of the United States,” he said.

  “Oh, is that who you work for these days,” Matley said amused. “I must have missed the memo.”

  Warren’s gaze drifted to the computer on the desk, and he shrugged. “You can either tell me, or we’ll just have to find it ourselves.”

  Matley’s face hardened, and Warren noticed her nostrils twitched. The hate that radiated toward him coming from the woman’s eyes was palpable.

  “You couldn’t find your head up your ass,” she said through clenched teeth. As she said it, Matley’s gaze shifted to the door that opened into the lab. Warren didn’t have to look behind him to know William had just made his entrance and a smile crept on his face.

  “Dr. Matley, you remember my aide William,” he said. Matley’s eyes widened as she watched the bulk of a man approach. She knew William all too well. The man who had no qualms doing the things others deemed inhuman. Matley had used his services. The woman might act all self-righteous, but Warren knew that she would do anything to reach her goals. That’s why the two of them had worked so well together. Well, almost anything. She hadn’t responded well in Florida as he ordered every cancer patient in their care to be inoculated with the concoction he’d made from 101’s blood. Although he still didn’t know whether Matley’s discomfort had been caused by the body count or the safety issues concerning the lab.

  If he had a little more time, he might have asked her, but then William stopped at his side. Matley retreated a little. Her eyes shot from left to right as if to find a way out of the lab. Warren knew William would have taken care of any prying eyes, and Doyle would have occupied the general to the point of death by boredom.

  “I’ll give you one last chance to work with me,” Warren said. “You can help me solve this puzzle.”

  Matley sucked in a deep breath and swallowed hard. Then she clenched her jaw and tried to stand firm. Warren shrugged and glanced up at the big man standing next to him. “Perhaps you would like to take care of this,” he said, “and then see whether you can get some men up here to help me search this dump’s mainframe.”

  William nodded as he took a step closer to Matley.

  | 25

  We moved at a rapid pace through the bowels of the mountain. Cullen and Stevens walked ahead while Donovan walked behind us. The sergeant and Mars took up the rear. I couldn’t bear to look at him—afraid of what I would see in his eyes.

  Although all of them seemed to have vowed to get us out and knew the vaccine flowing through Angie’s veins might become the salvation of the human race, it occurred to me that they all, including Mars, kept their distance from us—probably assuming we were contagious. I didn’t know whether that was true, though. I didn’t feel any different, and Angie didn’t act any different. Not wanting to chance it, I kept my arms close.

  Ash adjusted her pace to my stride and rolled by my side. I was afraid to look at her—afraid to be the one she had turned to and not being able to meet certain expectations. Mars’s words haunted my thoughts, creating doubts in the darkest corners of my mind.

  The halls around us changed as we went from the darker inner workings of the main facility to the brighter, more office-like interiors from, well, offices. We heard some turmoil as we entered a narrow hallway. Voices echoed down the hall from around a corner. One of the airmen lifted an arm in a balled fist. Cullen stopped, and behind him, we all followed his exa
mple.

  In silence, we listened to the commotion. The voices were distinct, although I didn’t immediately recognize them, except for one. I would have recognized that booming voice anywhere.

  “We are here under the authority of the president of the United States, you will let us pass,” William spoke in a loud voice. The protests must have come from a couple of guards posted at the section that connected this building to the large, open cavern and the massive doors we needed to reach in order to exit the mountain.

  “Shit,” Angie said under her breath. I seconded that, but kept quiet. The sergeant moved past us and stopped at Cullen’s side.

  They exchanged a few words before Sergeant Tyler waved a flat hand toward the rear. He motioned us to go where we had come from. Ash gave me a worried look, and I imagined mine wasn’t far off. She would have recognized William’s voice too. The man had pretended to be our friend. We had helped him and had let him into our home, only for him to betray us by turning us over to Dr. David.

  As I turned, I caught Mars’s gaze as well. He too looked worried, but his worry seemed to be directed at me. He took me by the arm as I walked past him. Shocked, I looked at his hand. He was the first person to touch one of us since we’d stepped out of that decontamination box. Mars, however, seemed indifferent. He drew me in with those eyes, and though I could still feel the pain he had caused with his words, I couldn’t pull away.

  “Stay close, all right. This is no different from JFK,” he said in a low voice. Not sure how to react, I nodded. He was probably right, although it had been zombies chasing us down the hallways of JFK and not men with guns. He flashed me a grin and for the first time in a couple of days saw that twinkle in his eye. It reminded me of that conversation we’d had on the bus where he had explained that in face of a certain death by zombie, he needed to redirect his nerves, which had turned into flirting with me.

  I forced myself to restrain the smile that twitched at the corners of my mouth; for the sake of my own sanity I couldn’t afford to let myself get into this again.

  The others shuffled by while we stood there in that empty hallway with William’s voice booming around a corner. Ash waited for me halfway down the hall—her expression curious.

  Mars released my arm, and without another word, he turned to follow the others. Ash waved at me to hurry up, and I did.

  The soldiers directed us the long way around. A single hall must have separated us from that open area, and now it seemed we were miles away. Hallway after hallway appeared around every corner. Steps led up and down until Cullen motioned us to stop with his fisted hand. Tyler gestured for us to lower to the ground. I held on to Ash’s chair to keep my balance. This was not my thing, although, ever since JFK, running around hallways seemed to have become a theme in my life.

  Behind me, Angie and Mars sat in a similar crouch. Ahead Donovan moved forward to check if the coast was clear. Ash shifted in her chair so she could glance over her shoulder.

  “I think I preferred the zombies at the hospital,” she said in a nervous whisper. I hadn’t been at the hospital with her during the first stages of the virus outbreak, so I glanced in turn over my shoulder to check Angie’s reaction. She nodded at Ash.

  “No argument from me,” she said with a slight grin. I hadn’t been there with them, but I needed to agree. Zombies didn’t frighten me as much. Nor I assumed would they Angie or Ash. We all had the same zombie repellant running through our veins. As long as we kept out of their way, they’d keep out of ours, although the thought of them being held at bay by the Mississippi River was a comforting one, if only for the people living west of the river.

  At the end of a hall, Donovan came to a stop. He waited for a moment before he turned on his heels and waved at us to retreat. Someone must have been coming if he was this spooked. Sergeant Tyler sprang into action and tapped the shoulders of the two other soldiers. As if they were synchronized swimmers, they turned and ran to us.

  I grabbed the handles of Ash’s wheelchair and spun her around. Using the momentum, I shoved her chair so she’d pick up speed and then headed after her. Angie and Mars followed.

  With that chair of hers Ash had almost reached one of the junctions that veered off to the right before any of us had managed a decent sprint. She slowed her chair and spun around to wait for us. When I caught her gaze, I waved and mouthed the words “go, go” at her. She nodded and grabbed her wheels to turn into the hall when suddenly all her movement stopped. Her eyes were fixed on something I couldn’t see. I ran faster, and arms and a torso came into my vision. A black coat with hands covered in black gloves reached for Ash.

  A scream tore from my throat as those hands grabbed Ash and yanked her out of the chair. The figure stepped out into our hallway, turning to face me, and recognition flared. William held Ash by her collar, raised above the ground. Her skinny legs dangled as he held her up with one hand. With a single motion, he threw Ash’s limp body down the hall. She hit the ground hard, and I screamed her name as she skidded across the floor like a rag doll. It occurred to me he didn’t want her to take off in her chair. I had to adjust that thought when that big man grabbed the chair to lift it over his shoulder.

  My eyes grew wide at the sight of a wheelchair heading for me midflight. I ducked against the wall. The chair grazed me but kept its momentum. I didn’t stop to check where it landed, but instead continued my sprint toward William. William held his ground. Of course, he would. The man looked like an oversized football player. What the hell was I going to do?

  Too late I remembered the soldiers at my back holding guns, but by then I couldn’t stop. I slammed my shoulder into his waist and felt as if I had run into a wall. William wrapped his thick arms around me and pinned my arms to my side. He squeezed so hard some of my bones cracked, although I didn’t think he had broken anything. Still, it hurt.

  William stood several inches taller than me, and I looked up at his square jaw that had formed into a nasty grin. Behind me, I heard voices followed by footsteps further down the hall.

  “Lower your weapons,” voices called out in unison. I couldn’t see, but I figured from the widening smile on William’s face that they were his men. He squeezed harder, and I had trouble breathing. Behind him, I saw Ash pushing herself up in a sitting position. Fear radiated from her face.

  Without any expectations, I tried to wriggle against William’s strong arms, but it was useless—he was too powerful, I realized—until I brushed a hand along a pocket of my flight suit. I could be the biggest idiot at time. The gun I had grabbed of one of the airmen at the lab still sat in my pocket. I just needed to reach it.

  Behind me, the men argued. I heard Tyler’s voice disputing the authority of the men and explaining that as long as general Whitfield hadn’t said otherwise, they were to escort us to the main hall. Another man, whose voice I didn’t recognize, repeated his request for the soldiers to drop their weapons.

  “We are here in the name of Dr. David Warren, head of the Federal Mortem Defense Team under the authority of the president of the United States,” the man spoke. Apparently, the soldiers didn’t comply because he repeated his words.

  At that point William seemed distracted enough, and I reached into the pocket of my flight suit. I grazed my thumb along the weapon to check if the safety was off. Then I wished I hadn’t because for the life of me I couldn’t remember if the switch had to be up or down.

  Refusing to dwell, I eased the gun from my pocket. As she noticed it, Ash’s eyes widened, but in the same instance, she shook her head in disbelief. It wasn’t the first time I had forgotten to pull a gun in trouble.

  It had happened when we’d first met Father Deacon, one of Dr. David’s lackeys who collected infected people so David could experiment on them. The poor old priest had believed there to be a cure so that his family and the members of his parish would be saved. Still, I hadn’t drawn the gun while it was sitting on my lap, and if I had, it might have spared us a lot of trouble.

  I hope
d this time it wouldn’t turn out that way. Blindly, I aimed the gun and hoped to hit William in the leg. It should be enough to bring him to his knees. I pulled the trigger. The loud blast echoed inside the closed-off space. William twitched, but only so minimally that I feared I must have grazed him. I started to pull the trigger again when his eyes fell on mine. Then he stumbled a little as if he needed to find his balance.

  “You stupid bitch,” he fumed. Spit from his mouth reached my face. He shoved me backward with such force that I didn’t even feel the motion until I hit the wall. Pain shot through my back. My vision swayed when my head connected with the concrete. My feet miscalculated the distance to the ground, and my body slumped to the floor.

  I heard Ash calling out to me, but the sound barely penetrated the haze that roared in my head. Shots were fired, and I shook my head to focus. When my vision returned, I could see one of the soldiers on the ground. He lay face down and a pool of blood spread across the floor. I couldn’t tell which one of the soldiers it had been. Without being able to read the name tag, it was hard to keep them apart. It didn’t matter though. They were all men performing their duty; none of them deserved to end like that.

  It took me a moment to register the rest of the scene. About five men in black stood halfway down the hallway past Mars, Angie, Sergeant Tyler, and the remaining two soldiers. Behind the men in black at the beginning of the hallway stood more men in green. I couldn’t make out how many, and I couldn’t tell on whose side they were. Other than Mars and Angie, everyone seemed armed and had raised their weapons. The fact that Sergeant Tyler and the remaining two soldiers had kept their weapons raised made me hopeful. Maybe those men in green at the end of the hall belonged to us.