“I want out, with full benefits. No questions asked.”
“You make it to the roof with Holly in tow, and I’ll make sure you don’t have to work another day in your life. She’s irreplaceable Max, don’t let me down.”
“Just make damned sure the chopper is waiting for us. I don’t want to be stuck on that roof with those things trying to rip us apart.”
“Don’t worry about the chopper. Tick tock, Max.”
The line went dead.
The director was a real piece of work. He’d always had our backs before now, but we’d always been successful. It was easier to shower your team with praise when they never made mistakes. Probably made him some kind of rising star at the Initiative, but now I knew the truth. Chen just thought of us as chess pieces to sacrifice as he pleased. I was done with that shit. Once the doctor was out of here, I was heading to the beach and never looking back.
Maybe things weren’t as bad as I was making them out to be. I only had to make it down one floor and then up six more to the roof. We could do that no problem. All of the quarantine victims were on the lower floors, and the stairwells and elevators should be blocked. So, in reality, all I had to do was hurry, and maybe I could get to Holly before anything crazy happened.
I wasn’t holding my breath to see how long the calm lasted. I knew it would be shattered soon enough. That was how it worked when things were spiraling out of control. All chaos needed was a spark. I hoped when this powder keg went off I was far away.
The stairs by the elevator seemed like a bad idea. If anyone was looking for a way out, they’d head to the front of the building. I knew there was a set of stairs in the back from reading the map on the wall. All I had to do was find them. I left the killing floor behind me and hooked a quick left at the T intersection. My gun was up, but I only had two magazines left, so I wouldn’t be shooting anything I could outrun, at least not yet.
The hallway I was in now was clear. The doors branching off the main section were all closed, and I wasn’t curious enough to stick my head in to see if they were occupied. All that mattered was getting to Holly. That was the harsh reality of the situation. I had to be in this for me so I could live. Not that saving the damsel in distress didn’t have its own appeal, I only wished saving Holly didn’t require putting my life on the line.
The door to the stairs was at the end of the hall. I kept my eyes moving from door to door, but none of them opened. Running seemed like the best option so I picked up my pace. All it took was one of those things making it outside, and the director might just pull the plug on us, Holly or not.
I pulled open the door to the stairs hard and fast. When nothing ran into the hallway, I poked my head around the frame to get a better look. The stairs were clear, and I decided to take full advantage of it. Descending a single floor of stairs took almost no time when you took them three at a time. I banged open the door to floor four and whispered to myself, “Please let me get to her in time.”
Chapter Thirteen
Holly Bowmont
“Stevens, how are we doing with those brain cultures?” I snapped as I walked past his desk.
“They’re getting analyzed now, Doctor Bowmont.”
“Send me the data as soon as the scans are finished.” It wasn’t his fault, running the labs took time, but it was time we didn’t have. I was starting to feel impatient. Something about this virus had me stumped. It was a new feeling, one I didn’t like or plan to get accustomed to.
Stevens turned around to monitor the machine. “You can count on me, Doctor Bowmont. I’ll have the results sent to your system before I review them myself.”
Being a suck up never hurt, as long as you could back it up with solid work. Stevens could handle himself in the lab, and I knew I’d have the data as soon as the machine spewed it out. I left Stevens in my wake and moved over to the next desk. “Harry, how’s your experiment going?”
“See for yourself,” Harry replied casually as he pulled up a video on the big screen.
On the screen were six slides of living tissue. On the first slide, Harry introduced a single drop of contaminated blood. The clean cells were devoured in seconds. On the next slide he cut the amount of infected blood in half, but netted the same result. He repeated the process for each slide. Only on the very last slide did the host cells managed to fight off the spread of the infection.
“Well, that’s not very promising.” We needed something bigger, something that could stop this thing. “Do we know if this thing can infect animals yet, or is it strictly a human problem?”
“We don’t have any lab animals here, but I can have some delivered.”
“Do it. We need to know if the virus can affect animals as well. Also, try working with some natural immune boosters, see if that will help the healthy cells fight off the infection.” God knows that would be too easy, but it was better to eliminate the easiest possibilities first. Nothing was worse than spending months on a problem only to find out that you ignored the simplest option when it was the right choice all along.
“I’ll get the new cultures with samples going and order some mice,” Harry didn’t even look up to see if I heard him, he was already hunched behind his monitor carrying out the next steps.
It was nice when you didn’t have to micromanage your people. I didn’t have time to hover behind everyone’s cubicle, and I didn’t have to. My team didn’t make mistakes. We worked methodically, eliminating all possibilities before moving on to the next theory. Right now we were just looking for a leg to stand on, a single question that we could find an answer to.
“Sasha, have you found anything that will kill the infection?” I knew the answer was going to be no, but I had to ask her regardless of the outcome.
Sasha flashed a mischievous smile. “All kinds of things can wipe this virus out. In fact, it’s rather temperamental. Problem is none of our proven killers can be introduced into the human body without also killing the host. If you’re just talking about clean up, I’ve got you covered.”
“At least we have something viable to decontaminate infection sites. It’s not much, but it’s something. Get a list together and send it to operations.”
Turning away from Sasha I walked to the middle of the room and climbed onto an empty desk. “I know all of you are tired and that this mobile lab sucks, but we have to break this thing open. If one of those people downstairs is infected and this gets free, it’s not just Phoenix on the line.” I let my words sink in. “If you have anything, no matter how small, come and see me immediately.”
This team was the best I’d ever worked with at pulling something apart and piecing it back together in a way that made sense. Science wasn’t something scary, science showed you the world itself was the experiment. All you had to do to unlock the universe’s vast mysteries was be hungry enough to search for the answers. If you were willing to put in the work, anything was possible. Right now that was what my team was doing, they were putting in the man-hours to crack this puzzle open. I was waiting for the key piece of information. There was something that would make everything click, and when it did, I’d know exactly what we were dealing with.
No one rushed towards me with any news, making me feel a little ridiculous for standing on the desk in the first place. I climbed down wringing my hands in frustration as I walked to the door out of the lab. I wouldn’t let this thing beat us. With science there was always a way. All I needed now was the key, but my presence was just slowing the team down. What I really needed to do was get out of here and stretch my legs for a bit.
One of the Hilltop security guards stepped in front of me as I tried to leave. “I’m sorry Doctor Bowmont, but I’ve been instructed to keep everyone inside of the lab.”
“You’ve got the entire floor locked down, where am I going to go?” He shrugged and was about to tell me it didn’t matter when I stopped him. “I can bother Director Chen with this if I have to, I’m sure he won’t mind the disruption.”
I h
ated name-dropping the director. The guy was kind of creepy and the last person in the world I wanted to owe a favor to, but I also needed to take a walk, it was part of my process. Something about walking and letting my mind wander just made things click for me. It worked better outside, but just getting out of the noise would do me a lot of good. Chaos was fine, as long as it was controlled. Right now we didn’t have control.
The chief came up behind the man and tapped him on the shoulder relieving him of the burden of dealing with me. “Now that wasn’t very nice, Doctor Bowmont,” he admonished. “Derrick’s new to the team and just trying to follow orders.”
I smiled at the older man, his silver hair peeking out from under his black helmet. The chief had been with our team since I joined and had pulled our asses out of some pretty tight spaces. I owed him my life three times over. “Come on Sam, I need to get out of here for a bit, even if it’s just to pace in the hallway.”
The chief frowned, but I could see the resignation in his eyes. “Fine, but you can’t go alone.” His eyes dared me to challenge him before he turned and barked at one of the men. “Cortez, you’re with the Doc. Don’t let her out of your fucking sight.” He glanced quickly at me to make sure I knew that was for my benefit as much as the security agent’s before walking back to his post.
“Yes, sir,” Cortez replied automatically as he took position behind me.
An argument with the chief about having a babysitter wasn’t going to help, so I let it drop and headed toward the door. I’d been mostly bluffing anyway. A man like Chen wouldn’t have understood the need for me to step away. A quick glance confirmed my shadow was still in place as I strolled down the hallway. He was staying a good fifteen feet back, and I was happy to see his eyes were only focused on the floor and the doorways. Outside of ratcheting down the paranoia a bit, he was doing a great job. The alarms that had sounded earlier stopped during our examination of Garfield’s body. They didn’t turn the alarms off if everything went into the toilet.
I turned around the corner and headed in the direction of the lobby for this floor. If I could do a few circles it might stop the tension building behind my eyes. Doing circuits in a hospital was kind of sad, like the people that go to the mall just to walk around, but when life gives you something imperfect, you can’t bitch about it, because sometimes there is a guy walking behind you with a really big gun.
One last turn brought me out into the lobby. There was a man in a lab coat leaning over a woman on the ground. There was a puddle of blood, but the man wasn’t calling for help or trying to perform CPR, he was just leaning over her. The woman wasn’t moving, maybe she died and he was in shock. I’d seen that happen before when surgeons lost patients unexpectedly.
“Sir, are you ok?” I moved towards them slowly.
“Doctor Bowmont, step back and let me deal with this.” Cortez slung his rifle behind his back and pulled out his sidearm. He kept the gun pointed at the man as he crept forward.
“We don’t know if they’re infected yet, Cortez. Back off!” He wasn’t going to listen, but I couldn’t let him shoot them until we knew for sure.
“We can’t risk it, Doctor Bowmont, we’ve got live fire orders for anyone breaking out of the quarantine zone.”
He shoved me roughly to the side, and I fell to the ground. I hated feeling weak, it didn’t happen often to me anymore, but I still hated it. Standing up, I thought about rushing the man and jumping on his back to give the man on the floor time to get away. It was the right thing to do, at least until I saw the man kneeling over the woman turn around.
Ragged bits of flesh were hanging from his teeth, and now that he was turned I could see just where those bits of flesh had come from. The woman’s stomach had been torn open, and her throat was ripped out. How in the hell had this happened? This floor should have been secure.
I took a step back, and the agent fired his gun into the chest of the man sending him back to the floor. Cortez must be the kind of agent that couldn’t follow simple instructions, maybe he should have been working at the Park and Ride instead of with the Hilltop. If a live fire order were issued, it would have included instructions to shoot potential targets in the head.
“Shoot them in the head!” It felt as if my heart were about to leap out of my chest. I needed to get back to the lab, back to safety.
The guard turned around and motioned with his free hand for me to calm down. “Settle down Doc, everything’s going to be fine.”
He turned around, and the man slammed into him taking him to the ground. The pistol skittered across the pale white tiles and under an empty gurney. The guard rammed his forearm under the zombie thing’s chin and pushed with everything he had. His eyes pleaded with me for help, but with his rifle pinned underneath him there wasn’t anything I could do.
The pistol was right there, if I could get to it. Was it worth the risk it? Fuck it. Cortez wasn’t going to die because I was afraid to take three steps forward and push an empty gurney out of the way. I hit the gurney hard sending it careening into a wall at the far end of the lobby, and dove for the gun. To my surprise I came up with it in my hand. Feeling pleased with myself for being sufficiently badass, I turned ready to save the day only to see the woman sink her teeth into Cortez’s unprotected calf.
Cortez screamed as I blew the woman’s head off. The Hilltop agent was still struggling against the man on top of him, but it didn’t matter if he won that fight. Cortez had been bitten, and now he was dead. The agent met my eye, and he knew what I was about to do. His nostrils flared slightly as he found an extra reserve of strength and shoved the zombie off of him. Cortez rolled away shoving the necrotic in my direction as he clambered to his feet.
Before the agent could bring his rifle to bare I fired the gun hitting him in the leg and the back. His vest stopped the bullet there, but the impact would have winded him. The leg was a different story. The wound was bleeding heavily, and the leg wouldn’t support him anymore. I was banking on the fact those two shots would be enough to stop him from shooting me while I dealt with the biter headed in my direction.
One thing I knew from my very abbreviated field preparation course was never leave an enemy behind you. In this case I put myself in a pickle, whichever way I turned there was a potential enemy behind me. The rule proved to be true as I spun around and found myself face to face with the necrotic. I fired once blowing his brains across the hallway before ducking and turning to cover Cortez.
His Hilltop issued pants were covered in gore, but Cortez had found a way to wedge himself against the wall. His breath was coming in ragged gasps, and he hadn’t even bothered trying to lift his gun. The automatic weapon lay on the ground next to him. “You don’t have to do this,” he wheezed.
The sad thing was, I did have to do it. I stepped forward ready to end his life when a noise sounded from the lobby stairwell. It came again, and then for a third time even louder. I didn’t have time to worry about mystery sounds, it wouldn’t be long before Cortez started to wise up and realize I wasn’t going to leave him alive. Turning away from the noise, I raised my gun again ready to take the shot only to find a rifle pointed at me.
“I’m giving you the chance to walk away, Holly, it’s the same chance I’m looking for.”
There wasn’t a lot that I could do. Even if I hit him there was a damn good chance he’d still get off a shot or two. One was all it would take to ruin my day permanently. I held out my free hand to let him know I wasn’t going to try anything and lowered the pistol to the ground. The guard eyed me for a moment, and then flicked his head to the side telling me it was ok to go. I didn’t turn around as I backed down the hallway. If he was going to shoot me, he’d have to look in my eyes while he did it.
I was almost to the corner when there was a screech of metal being torn apart. There wasn’t a way to describe the sound, but in my head I imagined the Hulk ripping through an elevator door. I started backing up faster as five people lumbered around the corner. The soldier ope
ned fire, gunning them down and tried to stand up. He fell back to the ground grabbing his leg.
“Take me with you!” he screamed as he fired at people streaming through the lobby doors.
I made it to the corner and turned, running towards the lab. We had to get out of here right now. “Firesale!” I screamed waving my arms over my head. I could already see the team bursting into action. All of them were uploading their data to the Hilltop servers. Then a face I didn’t expect to see again came into view. What was Max doing here?
Chapter Fourteen
Max Meridious
I burst into the lab from the back door and was almost shot by five heavily armed Hilltop Agents. Lifting my hands in surrender, I asked the most important question in the world. “Where’s Holly?”
“Dr. Bowmont is stretching her legs right at the moment. She asked not to be disturbed.” The older man rumbled as he looked me over.
So this was Holly’s protection detail. Hopefully, the man wouldn’t give me any problems. “I’ve got orders from Director Chen to make sure Doctor Bowmont is evacuated immediately. Your team has been ordered to stay behind until all the data from the lab can be uploaded.” And there it was, I’d just sold this man and his entire team out for the chance to get out of the building alive.
“Sounds like something Chen would pull, Sir,” an agent by the far door said before turning and looking out of the window toward the hallway.
One of the other agents snorted. “Send a nice cushy ride for the doc and leave our asses here to fend for ourselves. Yeah, that sounds exactly like Chen.”
The man whose name tag simply read Chief motioned for everyone to get back to work before stepping forward to speak with me. “I won’t get in your way, kid. Just promise me that you’ll do whatever it takes to get her out of here safely.”
Rise of the Necrotics (Books 1-4) Page 10
