by JT Sawyer
Going into such an unforgiving environment would be challenging enough even with winter skills under our belts. Plus we’ve all been living in the tropics for months. Hell, I’m not even acclimated to the cooler weather here. Carlie realized that by the time they got to the facility, Duncan might be dead and whatever dangers he had faced would be staring her team in the face. Still, she couldn’t leave him there to die and then there was the vital need to still secure the original viral strain.
She sat forward, resting her arms on her legs, gazing down at the faded tiles and then back up at Lavine. “Alright, when can we be wheels up?”
Chapter 42
Carlie and her group had assembled in C-Wing. The rear armory contained cold-weather clothing, footwear, and other critical items for coping with extreme weather. With Shane having the most experience conducting extended cold-weather operations with the SEALs, he did a crash-course in how to dress and how to prevent hypothermia, frostbite, and snow-blindness. Afterwards, everyone began searching out their size amongst the white-dappled parkas lining the concrete wall along with insulated mittens, wool balaclavas, long underwear, and the army’s infamous extreme cold-weather boots, also known as Mickey Mouse boots amongst military personnel.
Once they were outfitted, Carlie walked everyone over to the weapons locker and outfitted her team with the necessary firearms—standard M4 rifles and Glock 19 pistols along with seven magazines for each weapon and tactical flashlights. Each person still had their tarnished machetes from Mexico and these were outfitted with new sheaths given how jungle rot had claimed most of them. Nine-inch fixed blades were issued as well as personal trauma kits and a rucksack with a three-day supply of MREs and water. Their accouterments were rounded out with the addition of radios and ear-mics.
While they were silently stowing their items and contemplating the mission ahead, Eliza entered the large chamber. The rest of Carlie’s team looked up at her bold walk and lithe figure.
“Go easy on her, she’s still raw,” said Carlie.
“Sure thing, Mom,” said Jared.
“Especially you, smart-ass.”
“Notice how she was looking at you when she said that?” commented Shane with a laugh.
“Hey, I can be a good influence on the youth of today.”
Amy shook her head. “You’re more like one of those uncles you weren’t supposed to go camping with as a kid.”
Before Jared could reply, Matias raised his hand, motioning him to be quiet. “You oughta zip it, cowboy, before you get pummeled any further. You’re outgunned here.”
“Why you being so nice all of a sudden? You smack your pretty head during training earlier?”
“You’ve never seen my nice side. I only bring it out for friends,” Matias said with a chuckle.
“Ouch, that’s low, amigo.”
“Oh, you walked into that one, tough guy,” said Carlie as Eliza walked up to the table and she turned to greet her. “You’ll have to forgive my crew, they still think they’re sitting around the campfire on the beach.” She stepped back and introduced Eliza, who was wearing fresh camouflage fatigues, boots, and a baseball cap which kept her hair contained except for a swath that draped over her cheek.
Eliza nodded to everyone and tossed her backpack on the metal table. “Grateful to be here. Thank you for having me on board.”
As everyone walked forward exchanging handshakes, Eliza would give a nod of recognition as she recalled each face in relation to where she had sat on the return helicopter flight from Tucson to White Sands months ago.
All except for Jared. After shaking, she raised her hand to her chin and darted her eyes around the room. “Hmm, sorry, I just don’t remember you. Are you sure you were a part of that group?”
Jared looked around the room with wide eyes. “Hell, yes, I’m sure, darlin’. You don’t recall this face, seriously? The southern gent who regaled everyone with tales of his worldly adventures?” He stepped back, smirking. “Just who do you think saved everyone’s ass in Tucson in the first place so they could be on that helo?”
Eliza’s lips were holding back a crooked smile. She shot a fleeting look at Carlie then back at Jared while sliding her hand over her mouth.
“Oh, I see, I see what’s going on here,” he said, glancing at both women while thrusting his hands on his hips. “OK, I get it. Carlie put you up to this, didn’t she? Just to get a rise out of me.”
“I’m not at liberty to speak about such classified intel,” she said, hiding a laugh behind her hand.
Jared grinned and shook his head. “Ooh, that’s good and I know a good con when I see one, darlin’—why, you are going to fit right into Carlie’s little band of crusaders.” He stepped forward and placed his arm around her shoulder, giving her a sideways hug while glancing over at Carlie, who was already smiling.
Chapter 43
After their bonejarring flight along the turbulent west coast of Canada on a C-130, they arrived at the partially operational Eielson Air Force Base, twenty-six miles southeast of Fairbanks. Thirty minutes later, they hastily boarded a double-rotor CH-47 Chinook, one of four remaining military helicopters in the region. The pilot was a blond-haired man named Harley who was a part of the three hundred people left at the base which consisted mostly of civilians and support personnel. The trip took two hours as they headed along the windswept snowy landscape and rugged mountain ranges to a remote valley east of the gates of the Arctic National Park.
“So you guys are connected with the other group out of Fort Lewis that commandeered one of my helos a week ago, eh?” said the pilot.
“That’s right,” said Carlie. “Were they in the same bird as this one?”
“No, they took up a Blackhawk as per their pilot’s request. Damn shame, as that was our only one.”
“Yeah, damn shame that they haven’t been heard of in a week and could be dead, too.”
“Copy that. No disrespect intended. We’re just stretched thin at our base. I haven’t even been up in a month as our fuel supply doesn’t warrant it. But when the sec-def himself calls then you know it’s gotta be serious.”
“The sec-def contacted your personally?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Nothing—that just doesn’t seem like him; he’s usually not the type to take direct responsibility.”
The pilot chuckled. “Never met the man but he’s supposed to be a real sonofabitch—though he did increase our spending budget up here significantly the past few years so I won’t complain too much. All he told me was to make sure the package you were retrieving made it back safely.”
She shook her head in disgust. No mention of us returning safely, just the goods. Duncan and his team could be erased off the planet and it wouldn’t matter to him. She looked below at the frozen wasteland and jagged peaks. She turned back to the pilot. “What do you know about where we’re headed?”
“Nothing other than the coordinates you provided. The other team just said they’d be back within the day if everything went well. I didn’t even know there was anything out this far.”
“Very few people do, even on our end, until lately.”
“Well, with these brutal temps, we can’t afford to linger here overnight so if you could make this a quick exfil, that’d be great. Otherwise, we’re gonna be sleeping in snow caves to deal with the -70 degree weather that’s due in when night falls.”
Carlie nodded and then returned to looking over the barren landscape below as a valley came into view and the onboard GPS unit began flashing. As the helicopter swooped below the ridgeline and circled the facility, Carlie saw the partially exposed rotors of Duncan’s helicopter below. An undulating wave of snow had drifted over the side, nearly obscuring everything but the topmost elements. After scanning the facility entrance below, she motioned the pilot to set down a hundred yards out from the main doors.
She put on her insulated shooting gloves and then brought up her tinted snow goggles from their resting place on her neck as every
one around her went through the same motions. After unbuckling, she kneeled before the door and flung the parka hood onto her head. As the landing pads of the helo set down smoothly on the snow, she immediately yanked open the sliding door and jumped out while everyone followed behind her in unison.
Rushing to the entrance, she initiated the numeric password on the keypad while the rest of her team covered the area. The metal doors struggled to open, the metal groaning and grinding from the extreme cold. After quickly sweeping the immediate entrance, the team slipped inside, sealing the doors and shutting out the tempestuous winds behind them.
As the internal heating fans in the ceiling activated, Carlie pulled back her hood and walked forward, holding her M4 at a low-ready. The ankle-level lights had flickered on and, as her eyes adjusted from the blinding sunlight outside to this artificial setting, she could see a tangle of bodies strewn about the rear section of the structure. She proceeded slowly, her heavy Arctic boots crunching down on spent shells along the tiled floor, until she came to the first body. It was one of Duncan’s men, the uniform so mangled and bloody that she couldn’t make out the headless man’s name tag.
She wiped the back of her mitten across her lips as she felt her mouth go dry. Looking up, Carlie saw that there were three soldiers and five mutants spread along the floor. Shane walked past her and knelt down beside one of the creatures whose yellow skin was as smooth as obsidian. He prodded its sinewy limbs with the muzzle of his rifle. “This complexion reminds me of those fast-moving mutants that got on board the Farragut with us a few months back.”
Eliza weaved between the crumpled bodies and stood over a wiry creature in a wool sweater whose head was only half-intact. “I saw one of those things in Idaho. It took down General Adams, springing on him like it was a leopard. I’d never seen anything move that fast before.”
“Yeah, they are different than the other flesh-munchers,” said Jared. “Some side-effect of the original virus that was designed to create super-soldiers, according to Pavel.”
“Strange that they all have the same glossy look to their skin,” said Matias.
Carlie scanned the rest of the chamber and then moved towards the rear double doors beyond the bodies. She flipped the polycarbonate lid on the wall keypad and typed in the entry code as Shane read off the numbers from his portable micro-tablet. The rest of the group stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their rifles steadied ahead. “Remember, if there’s a bunch of those things headed at us then use short controlled bursts and we will do bounding moves backwards and retreat to the helo if necessary,” Carlie said, looking at Eliza as she knew the rest of her team was well-practiced in team tactics by now.
As the second set of double doors hissed open, relinquishing their air-tight seal, she saw two more dead zombies on the floor to the right, their heads split open by rifle fire. The only thing in the circular room was a control panel on the cement wall to the left and an elevator in the middle, its shiny silver doors reflecting off their rifle-mounted flashlights.
Carlie moved past the carnage and over to the elevator doorframe, staring down at the solitary red button. “Looks like there aren’t many choices to be made here, eh.”
“And this goes where exactly?” said Jared.
Shane slapped the button with his knuckles. “Let’s find out. I hate anticipation.”
“Man, I liked it better when we only had to worry about finding coconuts and spearing fish,” said Jared, his jawline tightening.
Carlie grabbed the tablet from Shane and looked at the diagram again. “There are nine sub-levels from here. Duncan must have descended to the last level to get to the containment lab where the viral specimens were housed along with rescuing any. We’ll head to level nine first. If that doesn’t work then we’ll sweep the other levels one by one on our way back up.”
Hearing the elevator come to a halt, they stepped back and readied their rifles. The doors opened and they saw the chamber was empty but everyone’s eyes moved in unison up to the right corner where a single streak of blood ran the length of the wall alongside several crimson handprints.
The muffled sound of exhalations faded as the group grew silent. Carlie muttered something foul in Russian and then forced herself to move forward until she was at the entrance. She blinked several times and then slowly entered the elevator, her wooden legs stepping cautiously as if the floor was comprised of thin glass. She stared at the swath of blood and then looked behind her, each person’s face a mirror of her own. Everyone began stutter-stepping forward in a single motion like a school of fish inadvertently plunging into an abyss until they were lined up around her.
She depressed the 9th sublevel button and watched as the doors began closing, the two stainless-steel panels sliding together agonizingly slowly while the main entrance doors to the outside world in the distance faded from her view. Carlie felt like she had swallowed her fist and she tried hard to clear her throat. She looked over at Matias, who had his eyes closed, his lips silently expressing the words to a biblical verse she had heard him utter before during times of adversity. Jared had his hands tightly wrapped around the wall railings as he stared unflinching at the doors while a vein in his neck bulged outward. Shane stood ready at the entrance with his hands trained on his rifle, his boot jittering rhythmically on the faux-wooden floor tiles. Amy kept biting her lip and letting go as she stood ready between Shane and Matias. Carlie looked at Eliza beside her and the young woman met her eyes. For a moment, Carlie thought she saw the former innocent expression she used to witness on Eliza’s face but then it disappeared and her face hardened up like clay drying in the summer sun, erasing her youthful appearance. She could see the months of tension from combat etched onto her face. Eliza was rolling her right thumb in circles along her index finger but otherwise stood in quiet confidence with her weight forward on her toes. Carlie realized that the young fighter was no longer someone that had to be coddled. Whatever emotions were bubbling beneath Eliza’s surface were something she had birthed on her excruciating journey and would serve her in the coming moments and beyond. Carlie felt the weight on her shoulders lessen and took in a deep breath. Her focus returned to the mission and she felt the familiar but controlled surge of adrenaline moving through her disciplined body. She glanced up at the numbers on the overhead panel that were counting down to nine then back to her friends who, like her, were plumbing the alcoves of their souls.
Chapter 44
As the elevator reached the lowest level, everyone sprang into their positions, their rifles leveled forward at the polished steel doors. As the two doors slid open, Carlie saw the headless corpse of a zombie lying three feet away then a wave of stench nearly bowled her over—a thick scent of decomposing flesh hung over the chamber. She squeezed the handle of her M4 and slowly moved forward, straining for any movement, but only heard the low background hum of the facility’s fusion reactor and the occasional bleep of a computer monitor.
She exited, sweeping her rifle to the right while Shane covered the left and everyone else arrowed ahead. Spread around the immense room were the mangled bodies of at least thirty other creatures, their heads split open by .223 rounds. Spent brass glistened along the black tiles in every direction as they proceeded towards the main computer console in the center of the room. These rifle rounds were eventually replaced with 9mm pistol rounds, followed a few feet later by two more of Duncan’s men.
The room was a hundred feet long by sixty feet wide. To either side were stainless-steel tables lined with laptops, notebooks, computer tablets, face masks, and assorted laboratory equipment, most of which was strewn haphazardly along the surfaces. They walked silently, being cautious not to step on any broken glass or anything that could indicate their presence. The bloody figures on the ground resembled lab workers with their white coats and blue hospital scrubs underneath. What the hell happened here?
Behind the tables to the right was a series of floor-to-ceiling metal shutters that were closed. At the rear of the main ch
amber was a hallway that went to the right. Carlie raised her fist, indicating everyone to stop. She scanned the inanimate zombies by her feet and saw that their heads revealed gaping knife wounds. Damn, Duncan and his guys must have burned through all their ammo by this point. She grit her teeth, steeling herself for the image around the corner that she dreaded seeing, that of Duncan’s body.
She motioned to Shane and Matias to cover her while she prepared to cut past the corner and sweep into the hallway. She counted down from three and then swiftly rounded the corner while the two men moved in behind her. Twenty feet ahead were six zombies pawing at a large window to the left. Before they had even turned to move, Carlie dropped two of them with smooth headshots. The others pivoted and sprinted at her with blinding speed, causing her to shuffle to the side so Matias and Shane could engage them as well. A second later the shattered corpses were splayed over the tiled floor. Carlie pointed two fingers at the end of the hallway to a single metal door and both men bolted to its terminus to check for further hostiles.
“It’s locked shut,” she heard them say as she moved before the window on the left and peered inside the med lab. Slumped on the floor, leaning against a metal cabinet, was Duncan, who struggled to stand up. Beside him were two more of his men, Ruffalo and Mendez, who were similarly debilitated. She couldn’t see any signs of trauma but knew that they must be weak from lack of nourishment if they had been locked inside all this time.
Duncan moved forward with a lopsided frown and proceeded to talk but she tapped her ear, indicating she couldn’t hear him through the thick glass. He pointed to a security panel on the wall opposite the vault-like door of his room.
“I got it,” Jared said, moving over and tapping on the red release button. The vacuum-sealed door popped open, releasing an overwhelming smell that resembled that of a musty gym rank with sweat and body odor.
