by Dirk Patton
“Air ducts!” I said when I finally got his meaning.
“Da! Climb up!” He said, smiling.
“Better than nothing if we get trapped,” Gonzales said, shrugging.
I nodded again and gestured for him to lead the way.
21
I managed all the stairs to the lowest sublevel without a problem. Not as fast as I would have made it before my injury, but my brain seemed to be adjusting to the new normal. I hoped it would continue to get better, then forced myself to quit thinking about it. It had been close to twenty minutes since we’d set up the WP grenades, and I was starting to worry that the militia was going to break through. There was no doubt they’d be slowed, but if they were determined enough…
Pushing through the door from the stairwell, we spread apart to scan around us. Almost immediately, I saw a heavy door standing a few feet open, Johnson’s signature wiring job dangling from the wall.
“He’s been here.”
I kept my light focused on the wires for a moment so Igor and Gonzales could see them. Swinging it up, I could tell that the rest of the doors in that direction had also been opened.
“They’re all locked this way,” Gonzales mumbled.
I turned and saw half a dozen doors tightly closed, their keypads intact.
“Try the radio,” I said.
He did, with no better results than all the other times.
“Lead on, Master Chief,” I said, pointing down the corridor with the open doors.
Normally, I’d have been happy to take point. In fact, I would have preferred it. But putting a man on point that has a visual deficit is putting the entire team at risk.
Progressing down the corridor, the doors quickly became farther and farther apart. It took me longer to notice this than it should have, but in my defense, I still had one hell of a blinding headache. Calling a halt, I stepped to one of them that was standing a few inches ajar and pulled it open.
The room behind was cavernous. There was just no other was to describe it. Square, or close enough to not matter, it was easily sixty yards on a side, and the ceiling soared far above.
“How the hell did they do that?” Gonzales asked, craning his head back.
“Must have taken space out of the two levels above us,” I said.
“Yeah, but why?” He asked, waving his hand at the empty space then turning to look at the man-sized door we’d come through. “What are you going to do with an area this big when nothing larger than a person will fit through the door?”
He had a very good point. Beside me, Igor was aiming his light at the far wall, peering intently. Without saying anything, he strode across the smooth floor, boots ringing sharply on the hard surface. After a moment of watching him, Gonzales and I followed.
We caught up at the end of the far room. He was closely examining a panel with a keypad and several large buttons. I looked at it for a moment, then began slowly moving laterally, inspecting the surface of the wall. A few yards from the edge, I found a narrow gap, no larger than the thickness of a sheet of paper.
Following it with my light, I saw that it went all the way to the ceiling. Watching me for a moment, Gonzales trotted the length of that side of the room and quickly found a matching gap. Nearly the entire wall was a door. I couldn’t tell which direction it would move, but it was definitely there to allow very large objects easy access into the room.
“Here,” Gonzales said.
He was standing near the midpoint of the wall, shining his light on the floor. I hurried over to see marks most likely left by rubber tires. It only took a few more seconds of looking to find another set, and they were massive. Whatever had been driven out of the room was heavy as hell and riding on some pretty big wheels.
“Where you think that door goes?” Gonzales asked.
I stared at it for a long moment, then shook my head.
“Good question, but we’ve got more important things to worry about at the moment.”
He nodded and headed for the exit. We were halfway across the room when brilliant lights built into the ceiling suddenly sprang to life. Pausing, we looked at each other for a second before hurrying forward. In the corridor, we turned left to continue our search.
I sighed in frustration when I got a look at just how long the hallway was. Before, with only the illumination of flashlights, it had been impossible to gain a perspective of the sheer size. But now, it was easy to see that it stretched into the distance, dwindling to a point before it was possible to see the end.
Continuing our path, we walked for several minutes past partially open doors. I was impressed with how many Johnson had breached, and at the same time was beginning to feel a gnawing bit of concern. Gonzales had told me the man was working around the clock, and I was beginning to worry that devotion to duty may have become an unhealthy obsession. Well, the first step was to find him and the two women. I’d worry about the rest once I knew they were safe.
The Master Chief brought us to a stop with a raised fist. We quickly moved against the walls, rifles coming up as he signed he’d seen movement ahead. We stayed frozen for several seconds, scanning the long corridor. Glancing quickly over my shoulder, I was pleased to see that Igor was facing the opposite direction, covering our rear.
“What’d you see?” I mumbled after nearly thirty seconds had passed.
“Movement at the limit of my vision,” he said. “Way down there. Couldn’t tell what or who it might have been.”
“OK,” I said. “Let’s go see. Nice and quiet.”
“Copy that,” Gonzales breathed, staying tight against the wall as he moved forward.
I hoped the Master Chief had just gotten a glimpse of our missing people, but I wasn’t going to bet our lives on it. Sure, we’d been holed up inside the facility for several days without running across anything other than the occasional infected Rachel had warned me about, but that didn’t mean there weren’t other occupants. The place was just too damn big. A mariachi band could have been performing non-stop on a different level, and I doubted any of us would have known.
We pushed forward, our pace suffering as we halted at each open door and carefully checked the room behind it. Actually, that’s how we should have been proceeding the entire time, but I’d gotten sloppy. I’d like to blame it on the headache, or the damage to my eye, or any other number of things, but in the end, it was my own impatience.
Five minutes later, we’d covered slightly over half the distance to the point where the Master Chief had seen movement. We’d just finished checking a room that was nearly as large as the first one we’d entered. Igor had stayed in the hall while Gonzales and I cleared it, shaking his head to let us know all was still quiet when we emerged.
As we took the first few steps to resume our search, a blaring siren sounded, seemingly directly over our heads. Each of us jumped, startled by the sudden noise in what had been an almost perfectly quiet environment.
“What fuck?” Igor hissed, looking around.
Before I could say anything, or even shrug my shoulders, a pre-recorded voice began announcing that a fire had been detected on Level A. The militia had made it through, and my little surprises were burning away.
22
The strident alarm spurred us to move faster. We still checked the rooms we were passing, but with a significantly lesser degree of thoroughness. As we reached an open door, I would maintain watch in the hall while Gonzales and Igor entered and took a very brief look around. We were running the very real risk of missing a hidden enemy that would then be in our rear, but I had a very real sense that we were running out of time.
“Contact,” I called as the Master Chief and Igor were about to step back into the hall.
I dropped to a knee and maintained aim with my rifle in the direction we’d been moving.
“What do you see?” Gonzales called, staying concealed behind the heavy steel door.
“Two with guns,” I growled.
“Far?” Igor asked.
<
br /> “Two hundred yards.”
Two figures were clearly visible in the corridor. They appeared to be facing a door as if waiting for something. I couldn’t make out many details, only recognizing that they were armed because of the shape of their outlines.
“Try the radio, Master Chief,” I called softly.
I heard him speaking as he transmitted. Almost immediately, a nervous-sounding Vance responded, asking about the alarm. The SEAL told him to shut up, and I couldn’t help but grin to think how a Commander would take that from a Master Chief. With the radio quiet again, Gonzales broadcasted another message to Johnson.
Moving next to me, he shook his head and handed over the radio. Digging through his pack, he found a small spotting scope and held it up. I nodded and moved aside so he could lean into the hall for a better look.
“It’s them,” he said, turning to grin at me.
The relief was obvious in his voice. I had to give the man credit. He hadn’t allowed his personal feelings to get in the way of acting professionally.
“Let’s go,” I said. “But stay sharp.”
As we began moving again, one of the figures glanced in our direction. There was a brief pause, then something was said and they spread apart, raising their rifles.
“Friendlies!” I shouted. “Major Chase coming in!”
“They can’t hear over the goddamn alarm,” Gonzales said when they didn’t relax.
“OK, lower your weapons. Let’s not have a friendly fire incident.”
We allowed our rifles to hang on their slings as we hurried closer. Soon, one of the figures, which I could now tell was a woman, lowered her weapon and stepped away from the wall. It was Chelsea. She said something to the other, who slowly moved into clear view. Johnson. After a moment, he raised a hand in greeting, then swiveled to face an open doorway. I picked up the pace, and we quickly covered the remaining distance.
“Militia is in the facility,” I called.
Chelsea’s smile turned to a frown of concern, but Johnson didn’t look away from whatever was holding his attention. I pushed past the girl and stopped next to him, freezing when I could see through the open door. A moment later, Gonzales stepped behind me and I heard his breath catch.
“What the fuck?” He breathed, his rifle swinging up.
Johnson gently placed a hand on top and pushed it towards the floor.
“Easy,” he said in a quiet voice. “She’s got this.”
The room we stared into was the largest I’d encountered so far. Far bigger than the one where we’d found the exterior door built into the wall. Encompassing the majority of the room was what appeared to be a containment bubble built of six-inch-thick Plexiglas. Inside was an apparatus out of a movie.
It was blocky, yet cylindrical at the same time, with arm-thick cables that passed through ports in the surrounding walls and disappeared into the floor. A large computer station was located at the base of the machine, and Nicole was seated in front of a terminal, typing furiously. It was none of this that had given us pause. We’d gotten used to seeing the unusual. But, we hadn’t gotten used to seeing three infected females standing calmly and watching someone work.
“What the fuck is going on, Sergeant?” I asked, unable to tear my attention away from the scene.
“Those infected were locked inside. Anyone’s guess how that happened. Anyway, they treat Nicole like she’s one of them. Let her come inside with them and haven’t laid a finger on her.”
“What the fuck is she doing in there?” Gonzales said.
I could tell he was having a hard time restraining himself from charging in and yanking Nicole to safety.
“That’s the power source for the facility. We found it a few hours ago. When the lights went out, Nicole said she might be able to fix it, so we came back and she went inside. Got the lights back on, too.”
“Why weren’t you answering the radio,” I asked.
“Battery died. Sorry, sir. Forgot to get a fresh one the last time I was up top.”
“We need to get her out of there!”
Gonzales had had enough and started to push forward between Johnson and me.
“Don’t go in there!” Johnson said sharply, grabbing the SEAL’s arm. “They see one of us in the room, they go batshit. I don’t get it, but if we stay out here, they’re calm.”
“Let’s give it a minute, Master Chief,” I said in what I hoped was a calming voice.
“Sir! They could attack her at any moment!”
“They could, but they haven’t,” Johnson said. “She told me about when you guys were bringing her out of Seattle when you first found her. On the way to the boat? Said the females ignored her.”
“They did,” the Master Chief acknowledged after a long silence. “But I don’t fucking like it. She shouldn’t be taking the chance.”
“Tried to tell her that,” Johnson said. “She wasn’t listening to me.”
As he finished speaking, Nicole removed her hands from the keyboard and looked around. Slowly, she stood, her attention focused on the infected. They watched her the way a cat watches a mouse hole, but didn’t exhibit any aggression. A step at a time, she made her way to a door that was more of a hatch set into the clear glass shield. Manipulating the lock, she slipped through and quickly secured it, locking the females inside.
Gonzales couldn’t be held back any longer. Shoving past, he raced into the room and swept Nicole into his arms. Inside the containment area, the females went crazy the instant he appeared. They pounded on the walls, pressing their faces against them with lips skinned back from their teeth. I was pretty sure they were screaming, but the thickness of the Plexiglas completely muted all sound. Johnson, Chelsea and I stood there, watching them attack the barrier.
“We need to move,” I shouted into the room.
Gonzales broke away from Nicole and, grabbing her hand, led her into the corridor in a rush. I had about a thousand questions, but we were out of time. The enemy was inside the walls.
23
We moved down the corridor at a fast pace, heading for the closest set of stairs that would take us up to A level where the rest of our group waited. I was concerned, as this was the same level where the militia had breached the facility. The fire alarm was a pretty conclusive indicator that they had managed to dig their way through the rubble.
It was always possible that one of the WP grenades I’d set up had popped loose on its own, but I doubted it. They’d been wedged in tight, and I was confident the only way they’d been released was by the debris having been shifted. Now, my hope was that the ensuing fire would buy us the time we needed. And that it didn’t spread too far, too fast, and trap us.
Igor was on point, and I followed his broad back as we charged down the hall. Johnson and Chelsea were right behind me with Gonzales and Nicole bringing up the rear. Everyone had lots of questions, but there would be plenty of time for that later. If there was a later.
We were in a bad spot. Multiple levels below ground with only a central bank of elevators and two separate sets of stairs providing a path to the surface. My plan was to rendezvous with the other members of the group in the hangar, then evacuate the facility. Once outside, we’d take the fight to the militia.
I wasn’t terribly concerned about taking on their numerically superior forces in the hills and rocks of the desert. Not with a Russian Spetsnaz, an Army Ranger and a Navy SEAL on my side. I’d gotten a look at the ragtag band of wannabes that comprised the ranks of the militia. They shouldn’t pose a serious threat.
But, if we became trapped in the enclosed spaces inside the facility, their numbers would drastically swing the odds in their favor. Sure, we were better trained and vastly more experienced, but fighting on the enemy’s terms goes a long way to offset those advantages.
Igor slowed suddenly, boots slipping on the polished floor and I nearly ran into his back. We’d reached the access door into the stairwell and he was pausing before opening it. Quickly, everyone stacked
up behind us and I could hear Johnson and Gonzales mumbling, telling the girls to remain silent and close to them.
With his ear pressed to the steel door, Igor tried to detect any sounds from the stairwell but gave up with a shake of his head.
“Much noise,” he said, pointing at the ceiling mounted fire alarm siren that was still blaring. “We go?”
Before I could respond, the alarm shut off and silence once again descended over the facility.
“Go,” I said, nodding.
Not hesitating, he cracked the door open and peered inside. After several seconds, he pushed it wide and stepped through. I was on his heels, breaking to the side, my rifle aimed up at the first landing above our heads. We held there for a few seconds, then, failing to see or hear a threat, I signed for Igor to start moving.
He had only climbed half a dozen steps when a loud clang from above froze us in place. Rifle aimed and at the ready, I held my breath. Seconds later there was another bang, this time easily identified as a steel door being slammed open against a concrete wall.
Voices floated down to us, too faint to understand what was being said. But, it didn’t matter. The militia was in the stairwell. I signed to the people behind me, then tapped Igor on the back. We were retreating. For the moment.
“How the fuck do they know we’re down here?” Johnson asked when we were all back in the corridor and the door was closed.
“They don’t,” I said. “No way they can. They’re just spreading out, looking for us.”
“Power’s back on,” Gonzales observed. “If they make it to the security office, they’ll find our people in the hangar.”
“Call Vance, Master Chief,” I said. “Give them a heads up. They may need to bug out without us.”
He nodded and stepped away to use the radio.
“Other ways up?” I asked Johnson.
“One more set of stairs, and the elevators. That’s it, as least as far as I’ve found, and I’ve been pretty much everywhere.”
