The camera moved away as if it had stopped listening, and Wilfred was left with the sound of his own ragged breathing and the banging on the window.
As his fury died, he looked back up at the camera. It was watching John and Alice.
He followed its line of sight.
Warm urine soaked his trousers.
He muttered, “Oh shit.”
The red light on the door’s control panel turned green.
Shunk! The bolts retracted into the door.
“We had to do it, Frank.”
Unable to remove his sore eyes from the monitor, Frank said, “We didn’t have to do anything, Artem.” He flinched as he watched John and Alice tear into the portly Wilfred. Alice, who seemed to have earned alpha status already, went for the neck while John attacked one of Wilfred’s ample thighs.
Clearing his throat with a wet cough, Frank added, “Wilfred didn’t deserve that.”
The room was dark save for the glow of the monitors. Artem’s fingers danced over his keyboard. The clicks continued as he said, “All of the other doors are fine. The locks are solid. They’re safely quarantined up there.”
Looking at the high-five his colleague was holding up for him, Frank returned to watching the scene in the corridor. His tone was dry as he stated, “There’s nothing to celebrate.”
The limp form of Wilfred had been abandoned by the other two. For a moment, he was immobile, but Frank knew what was coming.
First, his left arm twitched. Then his left leg jumped from the floor. Thrashing his head from side to side, he snapped at the air, his paralysed body clearly waiting to catch up. His throaty growl was lessened by the tinny speakers in the control room, but it still sent a chill running through Frank.
Shaking his head, Frank said, “I know they’re in the penthouse, and we’re about as far away as we can possibly be in this building, but it still feels too close.”
Artem’s booming laugh pulled Frank’s shoulders to his neck. It was the kind of laugh that, when you heard it in a restaurant, you discreetly asked if you could move tables. Knocked forwards by his colleague clumsily patting his back, Frank ground his jaw when Artem said, “You’re paranoid, mate. We’re in control here. There’s no way this is–”
Thwip!
Frank looked across to see Artem crash onto his keyboard. Warm metal was then pushed into the soft patch just below his left ear. Tilting his head as far around as he could, he said, “What the–”
“Don’t look at me,” the man behind said. He had a thick Chinese accent. “Keep your eyes on the fucking screen if you want to live.”
A surge of adrenaline pulled Frank’s stomach tight. Holding up shaking hands, he said, “O… okay. Sorry.”
The man behind pushed harder, the barrel of the gun feeling like it would break his skin.
“Ow!”
“Shut up, pussy.”
When Frank blinked, a tear fell onto his desk. “What do you want?”
The man pulled the gun away, and Frank relaxed. Then a sharp pain exploded in the back of his head. The loud crack made his ears ring, and the barrel was shoved into the base of his skull again.
“You don’t ask the fucking questions! Got that?”
Frank nodded.
Crack!
The butt of the gun hit the back of his head again, and his world spun. “Yes,” Frank said, rubbing the already huge lump from the impact. “I’ve got it.”
“I just want you to know that your wife, Juliette, and your two boys are okay.”
Frank’s stomach lurched. “What have you done to them?”
Crack!
“Are you fucking deaf or something? You don’t ask the fucking questions! They’re fine. That’s all you need to know. If you do everything I ask of you, then that’s how it will stay. Fuck me over, and we’ll kill them. And I don’t just mean a bullet through the head.”
The man leant so close to Frank that he could smell cigarette smoke and his breath tickled his ear. “We’ll make rats eat through your boys’ stomachs. Your wife will be forced to watch while my men take turns on her.”
Tears soaked Frank’s cheeks, and a shudder ran through him. “Anything,” he said, his lips trembling. “I’ll do anything you want.”
Pointing at a screen, which showed a family of four in the lift, the man with the gun told him, “Take control of that lift. Stop it there.”
It was hard to type with shaking hands, and Frank hit several wrong keys.
The gun was pushed against him so hard that his head spun. “Don’t fuck about, Frank. Hurry the fuck up!”
Shaking like he had hypothermia, Frank typed furiously. When he checked the monitor, he could see the family looking like they were about to alight the lift. Just before they arrived at the next floor, he hit enter. The lift stopped.
Releasing a stuttered sigh, Frank swallowed against his dry throat and wiped the sweat from his brow. “There.”
The pressure beneath his ear eased off slightly. “Good. Now redirect it to the penthouse.”
“But they have children with them!”
Crack!
Everything sounded like he was listening to it from under water. The taste of his own blood filled his mouth, and he gulped a huge swill of metallic saliva. A wet heave threw half of it back up into his mouth. He swallowed it back down, the bitter taste making him shudder.
“Well?” the man demanded.
Speaking with a slur, Frank said, “You’ve got to stop hitting me. One more, and I’m done for.”
The barrel was pulled away from behind his ear, and Frank flinched as he anticipated another blow.
It never came.
The man behind him calmed down. “So, I have you on side?”
Frank nodded.
“I swear, your family are fucked if you mess this up. Eight of my boys are sat in your front room right now with them.”
It was hard to focus on the bright screen on the man’s phone, especially as it was shoved so close to his face, but when Frank’s eyes adjusted, he saw a picture of his family surrounded by Chinese men with more weapons than a small nation. Gulping another mouthful of blood, Frank said, “Okay. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”
“Redirect them to the penthouse.”
The little girl with the family was no older than three, and she had a doll in her hands. Her brother was playing a game on a phone. With more tears rolling down his face, Frank quickly typed on the keyboard and pressed ‘enter’ again.
The lift came to life. The family inside visibly relaxed, and the dad hugged his daughter.
When it passed what was clearly their floor, the dad pressed the button on the panel. At first, he pressed it hard. Then he jabbed it. Before long, he was hammering it repeatedly.
With his sweaty fingers flying over the keyboard, Frank managed to hit ‘enter’ before the guy pressed the emergency call button. By the time the dad had pushed it, it was ineffectual.
As the family elevated, the man in the room with Frank said, “You know who we are?”
“I’m guessing you’re with the Chinese government.”
“Check you out, brainiac. The accent gave me away, huh?”
Frank shrugged.
“We found out about your little experiment going on today. About your plans to drop it on us.”
I wouldn’t know anything about what they planned to do with it.”
“Bullshit!” The barrel of the gun was now cold, but the bruising pain was still fierce against the back of Frank’s ear. “It doesn’t matter though. When we’re done, you’ll wish you were dead. You’ll probably wish your family were dead too.”
Making tight fists, Frank said, “Leave my family alone. You said you wouldn’t do anything to them if I do as you say.”
“And I won’t, Frankie-boy. I won’t.” His voice dropped to a low hiss. “You’d wish I had though.”
At that moment, the lift reached the penthouse.
“Now open the doors.” The voice of his ca
ptor had moved farther away.
After typing again, Frank pressed ‘enter’ and the doors to the lift opened.
The family stumbled out and looked around. The sterile environment was clearly not what they expected. Then they saw the scientists. The scream from the little girl made even the boy look up, and he dropped his phone. All of them backed into the lift, and the dad pressed the buttons again, clearly trying to close the door.
“They look hungry,” the voice said. “Now let them out.”
“What?” Frank asked.
“Do I need to hit you again?”
When Frank hesitated, the man said, “Think of your family, Frank. My men haven’t had sex in a long time.”
Frank started typing. He did it by touch because he couldn’t see the keys. Everything was a blur.
‘Enter.’
The three remaining doors between the infected and the lift popped open. Each one was flung wide as the scientists charged forwards.
Forcing his children behind him, the dad held a defensive arm up to the attacking mob.
Alice bit a huge chunk from it.
The family screamed.
Wilfred and John crashed into the lift.
The family were silenced.
They were all in the lift when the man said, “Close the doors.”
Hot bile rushed up Frank’s throat, and he vomited on the floor. After wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve, he quickly typed and pressed ‘enter.’ The doors closed.
“Now send them to the foyer. Once you’ve done that, we’re getting out of here. Both of us can make it out.” The whistle of a launched object culminated in keys landing on the desk next to Frank. “We’ll both have time to escape. You’ll have time to get to your family.”
Frank pulled the keys close. Looking up at the sky, he drew a deep breath. Twisting towards the door, he typed his final command.
‘Enter.’
Jumping from his seat, the chair scooting out behind him, he looked at the door to see the man with the gun had already gone. The door was closing.
Grabbing the handle, he yanked it open and headed for the car park.
The car keys were his own. How did the man get them? It didn’t matter. He knew where he was parked.
Imagining the lift descending to the foyer, he pushed as hard as his weak legs would carry him.
His lungs burned.
The taste of sick and blood lined his mouth.
He kicked the external door open.
The car park was on the other side of the road. It was something that had always bothered him; negotiating the traffic each morning and evening was a pain. Today it was a blessing.
His shaking hands made hard work of finding his car key. Weaving in and out of traffic, he crossed to the sound of beeping horns.
He pressed the button on the key, and the hazard lights on his black estate lit up.
Jumping into the driver’s seat, he slid the key into the ignition.
The screeching of tyres distracted him, and a tinted Mercedes destroyed the exit barrier fifty metres away.
Frank turned the key.
Then he saw the wire hooked into his ignition.
“Fuck!”
The flash was blinding.
The roar was deafening.
The heat was searing.
Ends.
This is the story that led to The Alpha Plague series. You can get book 1 for FREE HERE
Pandora
“Elpis, no!”
When Athena tried to stand up, Herm put a gentle hand on her shoulder. It was enough to keep her down, kneeling on the floor in the observation area, staring through the two-way mirror at the little girl in the room on the other side.
Watching the distraught mother for a few more seconds, his heart heavy, Herm turned his attention to Stus, who walked up to the glass and stopped just centimeters away from it. Bouncing on the spot, Stus tilted his head to one side and stared into the room beyond.
Giving Athena’s shoulder one final squeeze, Herm left her where she was and stepped forward too. Holding back far enough so he wasn’t standing next to Stus, he squinted, the long strip-light giving the white holding cell a magnesium glow.
The girl, sprawled on the floor, twitched occasionally as if jabbed by a sporadically-fired electric pulse. As Herm watched her, the damp weight of regret sat in his chest. Then he looked at the other item in the room and his blood turned cold as he studied its dark filigree.
The ornate and arcane mahogany box was so heavy it had taken Herm and several helpers to move it. It was almost as if the potential consequences inside of it increased its mass exponentially. For it to have felt heavy to Herm made sense, he knew of its contents, but why had four fully grown men sweated and panted beneath its illogically considerable weight? As far as they were concerned it was just a box.
Herm held his breath when Elpis twitched, her leg kicking out dangerously close to the wooden crate.
Speaking across him, Stus turned to the distraught Athena. “She’ll be moving better when the drugs wear off.” A deep laugh bubbled from his throat. “That’s when the fun will truly begin.”
Grinding his jaw, Herm kept his focus on the room. To reveal his hatred for Stus would serve no purpose. At least not yet.
First with flailing arms and then legs, the tiny Elpis wrestled against the sedatives for control of her body. As she writhed on the floor, her small groans came through the intercom. She already sounded like one of them.
Rolling onto her front, she pushed off the floor and fell against the wall, leaning into it as she got to her feet.
Despite his stinging eyes, Herm stared unblinking into the bright room. When the time came, he would have to strike fast.
Elpis moaned as she moved towards the door, her shoulder dragging along the wall as if she were stuck to it.
Virtually skipping on the spot, Stus squealed. “Oh my, she’s already behaving like one of them and the fun hasn’t even started.”
How did this man become the leader of their community? First a protector, he’d soon turned tyrant when poisoned by the intoxication of power. Why hadn’t Herm seen this happening sooner?
Elpis suddenly vanished from Herm’s line of sight as she headed for the door. To see her better, he would have to move next to Stus.
Staying put, Herm watched the door handle on the outside of the room. It shook ever so slightly in what must have been a response to her tiny hand batting at it ineffectually.
A few more seconds and there was a slow creak as the handle lowered. When it slipped back into place with a loud crack, tension snapped through Herm’s body and Athena yelped.
How many times would she try to open it? Herm looked at the three solid bolts on the outside. All of them were securely fastened.
Walking, now without need of the wall, Elpis came back into view. Puffy-eyed, her blond hair matted and ruffled, she searched aimlessly, her mouth flapping, her tiny voice crackling through the intercom’s speaker like a bleating lamb. “Mummy. Mummy.”
Upon hearing her, Athena jumped to her feet. Herm stepped out of her path.
With her arms stretched out in front of her, she ran at the intercom. “Elpis.”
Before she got there, Stus drove the back of his hand into the center of her face.
The wet crack was like a thunder clap that turned Herm’s legs weak.
While the bottom half of Athena’s body continued forward, throwing her legs into the air, her top half fell backwards.
She hit the floor so hard, Herm felt the thud in his feet.
Pulling herself into a tight ball, she stared in fury at Stus.
In a flash, Stus had her dark ponytail wrapped in his grip. Gritting his teeth, he lifted her from the floor.
Although Athena kicked and screamed, she was powerless against his raw strength.
Holding her face close to the two-way mirror, Stus said, “The only thing stopping that little girl from hearing her mummy is a press of the intercom.�
� There was a crackle in his voice like static electricity. “I ain’t going to let you press the intercom, Athena. Ever.”
Drawing a deep breath, Herm watched Athena’s face twist, ugly with grief.
With the muscles in Stus’s thick arm bulging, he continued holding Athena, but the jagged edge left his tone. “When do you think Pandora’s curiosity will get the better of her?”
Clinging onto Stus’s wrist, Athena looked like she was fighting to take the weight off her ponytail. “Her name’s not Pandora, it’s Elpis!”
Stus’s livid skin glowed red and he moved his face close to Athena’s. “I know what her name is, you dumb bitch!”
Wincing and crying, Athena spat blood in his face. “Well use it then.”
Tossing her back to the floor, Stus hovered over her, his fist clenched. “You lost the right to tell me what to do the second you ran away. No one leaves the complex. All I’ve done is provided for you and your family and you repay me by trying to escape.”
Turning to the two-way mirror, he pointed at the little girl on the other side. “I made that girl, but it’s your actions that will destroy her. You’re lucky she’s the only one of your children I’ve put in there.”
Putting his body between Stus and Athena, Herm kept his eyes lowered.
When Elpis shifted closer to the box, Stus’s attention returned to the room and his rage vanished. “This is it, Hermes. This is what we’ve been waiting for.”
Herm shook his head. “It’s not too late to stop this, Stus.” He had to warn him. “Once you open that box …”
Throwing his head back, Stus laughed at the ceiling. “You don’t need to tell me. All the world’s evils are contained in that box. I get it.”
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