"That stinking son of a bitch!" he seethed. "If I had to fall down into the deepest pit of Hell just to drag him with me, I would."
"You can still do that," Sarah told him.
He snapped his head at her. "God, you're delusional. It's over!"
"There's another way," she said.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"There's still a way to get to him. Are you in or are you out?"
Bill didn't know if he was more flabbergasted by her disconnection from reality or her tenacity. But the burning hatred in the pit of his soul wanted vengeance.
"I'm in."
17
THE PLAN
The three of them traveled through the narrow path in the woods after coming off the dead-end road. It was sometime after midnight, although none of them knew quite when.
The place was eerily silent. Sarah had no idea if there was a shipment from the convoy of trucks on the docket tonight; her plan had quickly been unraveling lately, and though it wasn't ideal, this was all they had left. One last shot at getting into the base and rescuing Wayne. Killing Glass and stopping his means of producing zombies were important objectives, but Sarah didn't know how much they would be able to accomplish now that it was just the three of them, with Tommy hardly being in shape to do much of anything, despite his cries to the contrary.
Tommy kept up as best as he could, though his vitality was low. Sarah repeatedly urged him to sit this one out, but he insisted that he still owed her one after she and Carly had both saved his life.
Bill carried on through the woods, a multitude of pistols and rifles rattling around on his person. He took every last bit of weaponry from his decimated camp that he could carry, and he intended to use as much of it as possible on Jack Glass. There was blood in his eyes, and Sarah knew that his killer instinct would be useful to her.
"How much farther is this place?" Bill asked.
"Not far now," Sarah said.
"And are you going to let me in on your plan yet?"
"I want to make sure I'm right about this place first," she said.
"You don't even know if this is gonna work?"
"At this point, what difference does it make if I'm wrong?"
He grunted and mumbled something bitter under his breath. He knew she was right. The whole thing had already gone down the drain; what was one more disappointment?
They crossed the rope bridge and came out into the clearing where the odd and mysterious building sat in the middle of the secluded woods. As soon as Bill saw it, he reeled back and put a hand to his mouth as if he were touched by the sight of a long-lost friend.
"What's wrong?" Sarah asked.
"You crazy bitch," he said. "I can't believe he's still using it..." He turned to Sarah. "How did you know this was here?"
"Me and Tommy followed a line of semis all the way here," she explained. "How do you know about this?"
"I can't believe I didn't recognize this place," he said, ignoring her question. "It's been a long time since I've been here."
"What's in there?" Tommy asked. "What are you guys talking about?"
"You'll see, kid," Bill said, unable to wipe the smile from his face.
The clearing was devoid of soldiers, and the whole area around the building was dark. Sarah stopped and listened, but she didn't hear the telltale sign of any climbing engines in the distance. As far as they could tell, they were alone, and the building, unused for the moment.
"It looks like we're in the clear," Sarah said, rushing over to the door. "But let's not waste any time."
The others hurried to keep up with her, and Tommy's curiosity gave him enough energy to push him on. He wore a thick sweater now to keep his body heat in as he struggled to stay warm after his blood loss. He was still in bad shape, covered in dressings all over his stab wounds, but he bravely pressed on; whatever Sarah had in mind, he was going to see it through to the end.
"So... what is it?" he asked, holding back a cough from his weak lungs.
Sarah muttered numbers under her breath as she punched in the code. After the fifth digit was entered, the door rose. Light poured out into the clearing from inside, blindingly harsh. When their eyes adjusted to it, they stared at the inner contents of the building, and Tommy was left with more questions than answers.
"There's... there's nothing here," he said.
The interior of the long, rectangular building was empty. A grid of spotlights were fixed to the ceiling and bathed the steel walls and concrete floor in a brilliant white. But that was where descriptions of what they saw ended.
"But... I don't—"
"Get in, kid," Bill said, clapping him on the shoulder. He and Sarah strode past him into what appeared to be a rather modern interior that had been taken care of over the past nine years, unlike the rest of civilization.
Tommy was still confused, but he stepped inside. Sarah looked around and found a panel on the wall next to the door.
"This must be it," she said. She pressed a button and suddenly the shutter door started to close. When it was shut, there was a moment of pause, then the entire floor rumbled.
Tommy's eyes widened, and at first he thought it was an earthquake, then he suspected that the walls were about to cave in on them in some sort of elaborate trap.
But it was none of those things; the floor was simply being lowered, because the entire building acted as a huge elevator.
When Tommy realized what was happening, only then did he suddenly notice how much the building smelled like stale diesel exhaust.
Sarah and Bill stared on expectantly as they crossed the length of the floor to the far wall. The wall rose up in front of them as the floor sank down, deeper and deeper into the earth. Sarah found herself getting flashbacks to the hidden laboratory they'd found under the police station. She had already been right about the building hiding an elevator, and she just needed the sight of one more thing to confirm her theories and give her plan a chance at succeeding.
Then the bottom of the wall came into view and a large space opened up beneath it. It was all brightly lit just like the elevator had been, allowing them to see every detail. The underground area was a lot larger than the elevator, with marked lines on the floor to the left and right just as they came out, appearing to denote parking spaces long enough to fit tractor-trailers. And across the large floor space, sitting in front of them like a shining toy on Christmas, was a long, silver train.
"There it is," Bill said with a smile, stepping off the elevator. "Looks like they refurbished it, too. Or maybe I'm just not used to looking at nice things anymore."
Sarah just grinned as Tommy looked on in amazement.
"Where does it go?" he asked.
"What, are you dense?" Bill asked.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Sarah said, "but I believe it goes to the base."
"How did you know about this?" Tommy asked her in awe.
"Two trucks don't disappear in a clearing with a building that can only fit one," she said. "It was the only explanation. You also don't need five trucks' worth of supply for a lab, and there would be no reason to stockpile things out in the middle of nowhere when there's a huge base nearby. Whatever they were hauling, I knew it was going into there. The only thing I don't know is how Bill is in the loop."
Bill walked to the front of the train, staring down into the dark tunnel before it. "Remember how I said I used to do business with Jack, delivering some unmentionables?"
The revelation hit Sarah like a ton of bricks, and she was surprised she didn't put it together before.
"This is how we did it," Bill said. "Kept it away from prying eyes."
"And this leads right into the base?" she asked.
"I suppose so. Back then, all that was there was a little depot. I didn't recognize the area when we scoped it out, but I guess Jack must've turned it into an entire base at some point. That would've been after we had our little falling out, and after those walking corpses came."
"But
why deliver something illegal to a depot in the middle of nowhere?" Sarah asked.
"The building up top was just a cover; a shell. The real goods stayed underground, delivered by train to a hidden facility that didn't exist, if you know what I mean. It was right under the depot, and I'm guessing it's still sitting under the base right now."
"How did Glass manage to build all this right under everyone's nose?"
He snorted. "Don't be stupid. You don't get major corruption in a cop shop without the chief of police being on the take. Jack was just the middleman. But it looks like he's bumped himself up a couple spots since then."
"Did Wayne know something about this?" Sarah asked, shining a flashlight into the darkness. "The three of you were close, you said."
"You'll have to ask him when you see him," Bill replied coldly.
"Why still use this train, though?" Tommy asked. "It's not like anyone's watching anymore. Why not just drive the trucks to the base if they're bringing in supplies?"
"The base is a long ways out from here," Bill said. "Bringing them here instead of rolling over all that winding road saves on fuel. The train's a straight shot to the base. Plus this keeps bandits like me from waiting outside the gate and stealing a big score. Out of sight, out of mind."
"Do you know how to run this thing?" Sarah asked him.
"That wasn't my job, but I'm sure it can't be too hard to figure out," he said.
Sarah looked back toward the elevator. "Well it's now or never. Let's get the truck and load the train before anyone finds us."
"Shut it!" Sarah yelled out.
Tommy pulled his head back into the cab of the train and slammed his hand onto a button on the control panel.
The door to one of the train's compartments slid shut.
"Okay," Sarah called out, waving her arm so Bill could see her in the side-view mirror of the tractor-trailer, "we're good!"
Bill nodded from inside the truck and put it into gear, slowly rolling it away from the train. He cranked the wheel to the side and took the truck over to one of the parking spaces at the side of the subterranean area. When he had it in place, he cut the engine and hopped out.
"Just like riding a bike," he said. He took a moment to admire the train as Sarah joined him. "Okay," he added, "ready to go?"
"We're ready," she said.
The train had a driver's cab on each end of it, presumably so that it could be driven back and forth on the same track. They headed for the cab on the tunnel-side of the train as Tommy stared at them through the window. A sense of tremendous dread wormed its way through his guts, and coupled with his weakness, it felt like he was going to vomit. His body trembled, but he held it together. He sucked in a sharp breath. He didn't know exactly what was ahead of them, but he would do his best. When Bill climbed into the cab and shuffled him off to the side, clapping a meaty hand on his shoulder again, Tommy just smiled weakly and didn't say anything.
Sarah settled in behind the controls and deferred to Bill for help. When they had it figured out, Sarah drew in a deep breath and stared off down the tracks as the headlights on the train poured over them. This was it. The moment she had been waiting for for the last two months, the moment she had been training for. They loaded all of the weaponry they could take into the cab with them, and she prayed to God that this would work. She disengaged the handbrake and reached for the throttle to get the train moving when something echoed from outside the window. She leaned her head out to look.
The elevator was being summoned back up to the building in the woods. Someone was coming.
18
LOADING
"Shit!" Bill said.
Tommy got even more nervous. "What's happening?" he asked, craning his neck to look out the window.
"It's got to be a convoy," Sarah replied. "They're here to load up the train."
"Can't we just get out of here now before they come down?" Tommy asked, getting antsy.
Sarah shook her head glumly. "They'll radio in to the base before we even get there. They're going to be on guard, and then this won't work."
"What does it matter?" Tommy argued. "They're going to see us coming from a mile away anyway. We're not even disguised!"
"I think I can help with that," Bill said, looking out the window. He crawled across Sarah and shoved open the door, stepping down onto the concrete.
Sarah engaged the handbrake and shuffled out after him, pausing in the doorway to turn her head back to Tommy and tell him to stay there.
Bill took a rifle with him, and Sarah took a pistol, and they went to the back of the train without saying a word to each other, like they both had the same telepathic thought.
There was noise echoing above them in the chasm of the elevator shaft. Before long, another tremendous sound rattled down to them and it was clear the elevator was descending once more; the first truck was coming.
The cold air of the tunnel filled her lungs as they leaned against the back of the train, Bill sidling over to the edge and peeking around the corner. Tommy stayed in the cab like he was told, but he was freaking out, realizing that the train was still running; he didn't even know which switch or button it was to turn off the headlights much less kill the engine. But Bill and Sarah let him stew in his own fear as the lip of the elevator lowered past the ceiling and the wheels of the truck came into view.
Bill shrank away from the edge of the train and bumped into Sarah. She waited for his signal to pounce. They both knew the soldiers in the tractor-trailer would find it odd to discover the train already running with the lights on, and they would stop to investigate.
As soon as that same thought ran through both of their heads, the truck pulled to a stop just as soon as it had started to roll off the elevator. The two soldiers sitting in the cab stared at the train for a good long moment, then glanced at each other underneath their obscuring black helmets. The driver put the truck into park and then climbed out of the cab. The passenger followed suit and the two of them slowly made their way over to the front of the train, holding their rifles. When they reached the steps leading up to the door, the driver climbed up first as the passenger waited behind with his rifle aimed up.
The frightening visage of the soldier made Tommy jump and scurry away to the end of the bench seat from him. Then he threw his hands up, pleading with the soldier not to shoot as the gun was aimed at him. Tommy's eyes were wider than a deer's as he waited to be shot.
The driver turned his head and looked down at his partner. "Just a kid," he said.
When he turned his head back to Tommy and reached out to pull open the door, Bill started running and Sarah followed. Bill plowed into the passenger of the truck standing on the ground as Sarah jumped and drove her shoulder into the driver's legs. Both of them were taken to the ground, the driver spectacularly so, and both hit the concrete so hard that the wind was knocked out of them. Before they even knew what happened, Bill and Sarah had already disarmed them and pulled their helmets off. They no longer had the protection of their helmets' advanced armor and they stared down the barrels of certain death if they even moved a muscle.
"Who are you?" one of them grunted.
Bill took the butt of his rifle and slammed him in the face with it. The soldier's unprotected head rocked back and bounced off the concrete, causing his eyes to swirl around in his skull. The other one tried to get up to stop him, but Sarah kicked him in the chest and knocked him back down. When the first one was out cold, Bill turned his attention on the other one, who held his hands up in front of him to shield any blows.
But Bill knocked his arms away and crashed the rifle down onto the bridge of his nose. The man started to shriek, but Bill continued to hammer him until he was silent.
Sarah stepped forward. "What the hell are you doing?"
He ravaged the two men with the rifle, crushing their faces into gruesome messes and causing a shower of droplets and thin ribbons of blood to fly in every direction.
Sarah yanked his arm and spun him around. H
e had a look of pure rage across his face, like a wild animal in the middle of a bloodlust. "You didn't have to kill them!" she said angrily. She looked at the mess he made. There was blood splashed over the concrete around their heads, and some on the once sterling metal of the train as well.
"There's going to be more coming down any minute!" she barked at him.
And as if to make her the prophet of their own misfortune, a buzzer went off somewhere behind them, followed by a squawking and agitated voice.
"Get the load off the lift! What the hell's taking so long?" the voice demanded. There was an intercom box attached to the wall between the elevator and the tractor-trailer Bill had parked.
Sarah looked back and saw that the trailer of the semi was still sitting on the elevator. They must not have been able to call it back up while there was weight on it.
"We have to clean this up," she said, "and fast."
"We'll take their uniforms, then we can dump them in the back of the truck there," Bill offered, coming down from his insanity. "After we do that, I'll park the other truck."
Bill ran over to the intercom and punched his hand on the button. "Just a minute," he said. "We had a little mishap down here."
"Mishap?" the voice asked. "What's going on down there?"
"Nothing," Bill said, leaning on the button, "just ran into a troublemaker. We've got it under control. We'll clear the elevator in a minute."
Sarah snapped her head over her shoulder at him as she urged Tommy out of the train to help her with the bodies. She didn't know what Bill was getting at, and she didn't like it.
He came back over to her and saw the look on her face. "There's only two uniforms and three of us. We're also going to need to explain this mess on the ground."
She looked at him as if to say So...?, but she began to understand.
"You've only got one arm," he continued. "It'll look suspicious if you try to pass yourself off as one of them. Me and the kid will put the uniforms on. You can be our prisoner." He smiled a mouthful of yellow teeth, and Sarah finally saw the wretched bandit that he had been hiding quite well.
Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 5): Scourge of Evil Page 16
