Protocol One

by Jacqueline Druga

  I could do it, I could make it. It was only one flight.

  37 – Visions

  I heard the footsteps pick up pace on the metal steps as I raced to the top.

  Peter must have been watching through the camera, because he opened the door as soon as I arrived, pulled me in and locked it.

  I emerged into a cigarette smoke filled room. Nelly had one arm crossed over her stomach as she leaned on the counter, smoking her Pall Mall.

  “Where are the kids?” I asked, setting down Joie, then looked at Peter. “What’s going on?”

  Everything felt rushed, it was hard to breathe. I tried to take it all in. Before Nelly or Peter could answer, someone was banging on the switch room door.

  Continuous banging.

  The voices were muffled, but I could make out some of the words. They were definitely threatening to break down or shoot the door.

  Peter threw off a strangely irritated energy, and walked to the counter that held all the controls. He leaned forward as he pressed a button.

  I couldn’t see the monitor, Peter’s body was blocking it, but clearly he spoke to the person on the other side of the door.

  “Hey, asshole. This is a safe room. You can’t blew up the door. It also has a fail safe moron, in case of infiltration. So go on, piss me off a little more, because all I really care about in this bunker is in this safe room with me. I’ll release the Sarin gas, kill off all you people and spend the rest of the apocalypse living happily ever after with a hot chick. Test my nerd ass on that one.”

  He stared down, exhaled and stood up.

  “Did they leave?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” Peter replied.

  “That was a really good lie.”

  “That wasn’t a lie.”

  “Which part?”

  “The Sarin gas part.”

  My eyes widened and I felt the puff of smoke seep under my nose. “Nelly, where are the kids?”

  “Goddamn little bastards.”

  “Who?”

  “The kids.” She hit her cigarette again.

  “They’re children.”

  “They’re in on it.”

  I faced Peter.

  Hand behind his neck, he nodded. “They are.”

  “What …” I threw up my hands. “Is going on. What is the situation?”

  “OK,” Peter sat down. “When Tony was unable to get a hold of everyone, I switched the monitors to see what was going on. We weren’t monitoring the areas that were patrolled. By the time I saw, he was on his rampage and flew out.”

  I pulled Joie close to my hip. “How many of them are in here?”

  “Well …” Peter said. “There were ten remaining of the ones that arrived. Three are kids. Which left three women and four men.”

  “Ok, that didn’t answer my question. Are the fire hall people here?”

  “Yes.”

  “How many are here?”

  “Seven.”

  “No. no.” Surely Peter was confused. I waved my hand. “How many broke in?”

  “None.”

  I blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “We had it all wrong.” Peter turned his chair to the monitors.

  “We saw someone coming in.”

  “We did,” Peter answered. “And I have been piecing together what happened and I think I have it down. Like I said we weren’t actively monitoring the areas we had patrolled. When Tony couldn’t reach Abe, I worried, when he couldn’t reach Ben, I pulled up this.” A few clicks on the keyboard and the image on monitor four switched to Ben holding up his hands. The person holding the gun on him was out of the picture.

  “Who is that?” I asked.

  Peter rewound. “No sound on replays.” He clicked. “Watch. This was before Abe even went up.” He forwarded it. “Now look.”

  Stew, or as the others called him, Birthmark man because of the birthmark on his check approached Ben.

  “Ben talks to him.” Peter narrated. “No problems. All is fine and then …”

  I gasped in shock when Birthmark man pulled a gun on Ben. There was an exchange and the radio sailed to the ground. It looked as if Ben was going to get the better of the situation until another person entered the room wearing an arctic gear coat. His face was completely shielded, as he helped to overpower Ben. Birthmark man held him at gunpoint. “Who is that?”

  “My guess … Lenny.”

  “Lenny left,” I said.

  “Yeah, after this … watch.”

  As soon as Peter said that, the big man in the Arctic coat slipped out the blast doors and the doors closed leaving Ben under armed guard.

  Peter swiveled his chair. “I went through the footage. Again, we only have four monitors and we use them wisely. One of them always shows the outside. We watched the outside of storage, never inside. When I pulled up that feed, that’s where I realized Lenny was hiding. He never left. He made us think he left. When he hid.”

  “Why did he make us think he left? That makes no sense.”

  “Yes, it does,” Peter said. “We think he leaves, we start focusing on what’s outside our home instead of inside. What you and I saw was Lenny heading to the hatch with a flashlight, because he knew Tony would send someone up that hatch. Focusing outside, keeps the focus off the others inside.”

  “What happened to Abe?” I asked.

  Peter switched the monitor. “Unfortunately, we lost him. He beheaded him.”

  The image showed Abe’s remains.

  “Don’t look.” I told Joie.

  “Why?” she asked.

  I threw out my hands.

  Peter continued, “Lenny came down the hatch, dropped the arctic gear, and gathered the others.”

  “I am completely lost. Where are the other fire hall people? The ones that stayed back.”

  Nelly chuckled once. “What part of inside job aren’t you getting? There were never any people at the fire hall. That crew that came here … that was it. They had their story all together. They told us they hated Lenny. Made us think that Lenny left. When all along it was part of the plan to just over take the joint.”

  Finally I understood. They were smarter than we gave them credit for. They led us to believe there was an outside force we had to watch out for, when all along, they were the ones.

  “Not all,” I said.

  “All,” Peter replied.

  “The kids.”

  “Crafty bastards,” Nelly griped. “I was chasing them. We get to the walkway and the strawberry blonde, Amanda, pulls out a gun. They kids freaking laugh and run to her. I was ready to give up when Peter here pulled me in this room.”

  “I was watching,” Peter said.

  “How many people have we lost?” I dreaded asking that.

  “Just Abe,” Peter answered.

  “Where’s Tony?”

  “With the others.” Peter pulled up the monitor. “This is a live feed.”

  The video showed the dining area. Tony was in a chair with his hands tied behind his back to a chair, as was Skyler, Ben and Craig. Melissa and Duke were not tied, but had guns pointed at them.

  It was hard to make out, but it looked to me like Birth Mark man, the Breast Feeding mother and another man held them hostage.

  “How did this happen?” I asked. “I mean … how? And how did three of them get all of our people under control?”

  “First,” Peter explained. “When Tony arrived up at the bay, Ben was at gun point so Tony dropped the weapon. They could have turned it. But these sickos have Baby John at knife point.”

  I looked to where he pointed and sure enough, the one man without a weapon, held the baby. The kids were running around freely in the room as if nothing was going on.

  “We’re missing two and Spencer.” I said.

  “Level Five. Agriculture,” Peter explained. “They left him to chase you. He raced down there. They have him now. But he’s armed. Always is. The weapon is in the back waist of his pants. He just is waiting for a chance.”

  I
brought my hand to my face and ran my fingers down in frustration. I noticed something happening in the dining area. “What are they saying? Can we hear?”

  “Yeah,” Peter turned up the volume.

  “Pipe down!” Birth mark man yelled at Skyler. “All of your distraction tactics are not gonna change things.”

  “Then what are you waiting for!” Skyler blasted.

  I saw the look on Tony’s face, he was thinking and he kept tossing warning glances at Skyler.

  “We’re waiting on Lenny.”

  “Where is he anyhow?” Meagan asked. “What the hell. We’re doing all his work.”

  “Let him go. He’ll be here,” Birthmark man said. “He wanted to have a little fun with that one’s girlfriend.” He pointed at Tony.

  Tony lost his cool and, hands tied, he raged forward, chair and all toward birthmark man. Before he could reach him, Melissa cold cocked him with the butt of the rifle, sending Tony flying back.

  Joie watched and screamed.

  Quickly, I covered her face. “Oh my God. He’s okay, baby, he’s okay.”

  Joie whimpered against my shoulder.

  “Where is Lenny?” Peter asked. “I lost him.”

  “So did they,” I replied, “He’s dead. Joie and I took him out.”

  “Wow. Good job, and good psychological game on them. They have no clue.”

  “Okay. Okay.” I held up my hand. “Listen. This has to stop. We can stop this. We outnumber them.”

  “They’re armed.” Peter argued.

  “We still outnumber them. Spencer is not down, not yet, he’s on his way up and they’re moving slowly. He’s waiting on something, I can see. That’s why he’s moving slow.”

  “He’s moving slow because he can’t breathe,” Peter explained. “He has pneumonia. Anna.”

  “There has got to be a way. And we have to do something before they find out Lenny is dead.”

  “I agree. But what are our options?”

  “We take them.”

  “Yes. Sure.” Calmly, Peter nodded. “We take them.” He stated. “How? How? We have you. Who, by the way, is the most qualified because you took out Lenny. After you is a child. We have me. I’m a science guy. We also have an aging, depressed, ailing cop, and a chain smoking seventy-five year old woman. We are not the Avengers here, Anna.”

  “There has to be some way. Something. If we just put our heads together and think.” I said.

  “If you two don’t mind.” Nelly struck a match and lit up another cigarette. “I have a plan.”

  38 – Avengers

  “This is so crazy,” Peter said. “This actually may work.”

  While Peter was busying being the narrator of the video feed, and while we were engaged in a conversation, Nelly, puffed on her cigarette, looked at the situation and came up with a plan.

  Everyone was involved.

  It hinged, though, on the first part working.

  That involved Nelly.

  It also involved the fact that the two with Spencer believed wholeheartedly that she was feeble and not a threat.

  There wasn’t time to argue, she spewed forth the plan like General Patton. We listened, nodded and agreed. It was the only plan we had.

  Taking the .38 handgun from the switch room drawer, along with Tom’s hidden bottle of bourbon, Nelly, extinguished her half smoked cigarette, warned us not to throw it away and left the switch room.

  She knew they were moving slowly up the stairwell.

  We didn't have audio on the feeds from the stairs and we could only hope that Nelly was doing what she said.

  “If they hear a non threatening sound, they won’t shoot first or get violent,” she said.

  Nelly’s plan was to sing in a drunken manner, while making her approach before they saw her. She held the bottle in her hand. The small handgun was in her other hand, concealed under the long sleeve of her over sized sweater.

  Was she singing?

  We guessed she was, because the woman and man who escorted Spencer stopped in the stairwell. They even looked like they were laughing.

  Spencer however, was more diligent in watching them.

  Finally, we saw Nelly come into view and as planned, she stumbled down the steps.

  “Oh, they aren’t buying this,” Peter said.

  But he was wrong.

  Stationary on the steps, Nelly swayed back and forth. The woman near her reaching to grab her arm. Holding the bottle in her left hand, Nelly took a drink, then instead of lowering it like she pretended to do, she did a back handed swing of the bottle smashing it into the face of the woman.

  The woman tumbled back and before the man could even rush forward in reaction, Nelly extended her other arm and fired a single shot.

  “Holy crap.” Peter commented. “She’s an elderly female John Wayne.”

  I wanted to scream with joy when I saw it. The woman was down, the man was shot, and in youthful enthusiasm, I high-fived Peter and then Joie.

  She did it. Nelly did it. When she first told us she was a good shot, I wasn't too keen on believing her. However, she had just proved it to us.

  Part one.

  Sound traveled and echoed in the bunker and we knew it. Immediately we watched those in the dining area for a reaction to the shot.

  Peter and I had talked about it.

  There were only three of them there and six of us in that room.

  There was no way they were going to take a chance and send someone to follow a single shot. Not when, to the best of their knowledge, there were still three of their people in the bunker.

  We wagered on only their acknowledgment of the shot, and we were right. It was time for part two of the plan.

  Nelly and Spencer arrived back at the switch room.

  The man was shot in the chest and they left him to bleed out, while they had locked the unconscious woman in a storage closet on the third floor.

  “That was amazing planning,” Spencer said. “Thank you. I was waiting until they brought me to the others, but this is much better.” He watched the monitor and studied. “Have they moved much at all?”

  “No,” I answered and the kids seemed to be staying with the baby on the far side of the room.”

  “Good,” Spencer stated. “We know what to do.”

  I held up three fingers to Peter. “Three seconds. That’s all. That’s all you need to do.”

  “I got it.”

  I took a deep breath.

  Nelly was also the brainchild of the second part. She reminded us that the exterior stairwell wasn’t the only way to get from the lower level of Hive Two to the dining level. The spiral fire escape staircase, east of the artificial window was also an entrance.

  It was a good plan.

  There were only three of them.

  “We all have one shot at this,” I stated. “One. If we each do our part, this should work.”

  Spencer was armed, as was Nelly. Since I was deemed some sort of hand to hand combat Rambo because of Lenny, I had Peter’s pocket knife.

  The plan was this. Spencer would take position, with his back flush, out of sight, against the exterior door, while Nelly and I made our way up the spiral stairs.

  To get to the lower level, we had to use the exterior staircase. This meant sound. Feet on metal.

  In order to pull it off we needed a distraction. We had two. One was Peter and the other was Joie.

  I crouched down to be at her level. “If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to do it.”

  “I can do this. I want to save Daddy.”

  I couldn’t believe I was putting a child in danger. Nelly was convinced that her theory of non threatening sound would hold true.

  After giving Joie a kiss and quick embrace, we left Peter and all quietly made our way down the walkway.

  Once we made it to the top of the stairs, Spencer rushed into position and we signaled Joie to begin.

  She stared vocally at first. Steadily singing a children’s song. We hurried do
wn the exterior steps into the lower level.

  Joie was loud.

  She clicked her feet against the floor as she skipped and sang.

  Nelly and I moved across the lower level and to the spiral staircase.

  “Hold it. It’s just a kid,” I heard one of the men say.

  We inched our way up the stairs.

  “Oh, hey Daddy.” Joie said happily. “What are you doing? Why are you bleeding?”

  Please, be careful, Joie, I thought and placed the ear piece to my radio in my ear, while hooking the radio to my belt.

  “Come … come here baby, come here. Stand by Daddy.” Tony said.

  We were nearly at the top.

  “Get the kid.” Meagan stated.

  “No!” Tony yelled. “It’s my child. She can stand by me.”

  “I want to be by Daddy.”

  Finally we had made it. Eyes over the edge, Nelly and I stayed low. I held up my finger to Nelly and mouthed the word, “One shot.”

  She winked, took aim and pointed out. Her way of conveying, she was good.

  I couldn’t see Spencer at all. I hoped he was good, too.

  Joie stood by Tony.

  “Where ... where’s Anna?” Tony asked.

  “Oh.” Joie put her finger to her mouth. “She’s with some man. He was kissing and hugging her, “Joie sang her words with devilish sarcasm. “I let them go. It was yucky. They love each other. Does that bother you Daddy? Are you mad?”

  Tony closed his eyes.

  Meagan, Birthmark man and the other man laughed.

  I lifted the radio and whispered. “Now.”

  Peter was on. After only a slight hesitation, the sprinkler system was set off and the water sprayed down.

  All three captors exposed their weakness when their attention was drawn up in surprise to the spraying water.

  I sprinted forward at the same time Spencer emerged from the door way in SWAT Team fashion. They were waiting on me. It had to be timed. We couldn’t take a chance on Baby John. I arrived at the man who held him. Everything moved so fast, I didn’t even have time to comprehend what all was happening. My pocket knife sank into the flank of the man holding Baby John at the same time that Nelly fired at Meagan.

  Down went Meagan and the second shot was a single bullet fired at the forehead of Birthmark man.