“Director!” Rivera shouted from the back of the pack. “The detainees!”
They all turned toward him. He was pointing at a small monitor that showed a wide shot of the stadium’s interior from the press boxes above home plate. All three holding areas could be seen in the image, but everyone was looking at the gap in the center-field fence. They watched as two people ran out from somewhere behind the immune compound and through the opening.
“Goddammit!” the director yelled. “How many?”
“At least three,” Rivera said. “Shouldn’t the guards have…” He stopped, obviously realizing no guards were currently inside the stadium.”
“What are you all standing here for?” the director asked. “Go!”
MARTINA RACED TOWARD the back of the stadium, her legs aching from her days of walking. But it was easy to ignore the pain.
Ben was here.
She was so focused on her destination that she didn’t see the two soldiers running toward her until they shouted at her to stop.
She nearly tripped over her own feet, and had barely stopped when two gunshots rocketed across the parking lot. The uniformed men dropped to the ground.
Seconds later, Pax and Nyla ran up, rifles in their hands.
“What are you doing?” Nyla shouted.
“I…I…”
“You need to get back to your post,” Pax said.
“No! I can’t. Ben. He’s there. I saw them.”
“Your boyfriend?” Nyla said. “I thought you told me he was dead.”
“I was wrong. He’s alive. He’s inside!”
She stepped to the side to get past them and head for the stadium, but Pax snagged her around the waist.
“Let me go!” she yelled. “Let me go! It’s Ben!”
“It’s too dangerous,” he told her.
She twisted and turned but couldn’t break his grip. “Let me go. Please! He’s there. He’s trying to get out! I need to help him.”
“What do you mean, trying to get out?” Nyla asked.
“I was watching the stadium and saw that they’ve dug a hole under the gate of the tarped area. Someone was standing outside. When he turned, I saw it was Ben.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“And you think he was trying to get out?”
“Yes! Yes! Now please let me go.”
Nyla and Pax shared a look.
“All right,” Pax said. “We’ll go together. But you need to stick with us.”
“Sure, sure. Whatever. Come on!”
WITH NO STAFF assigned to the medical assessment department other than the two of them, Lawrence and Rivera were the first to reach the armory. Rivera used his code to get inside, and they each selected a pistol because, like most non-security Project personnel, it was the only type of weapon they’d been trained on.
As they exited, Rivera turned in the direction of the lab.
“No. Follow me,” Lawrence said as she started jogging the other way.
“Where are you going?”
Without stopping, she said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to lose a whole group of potential test subjects!”
KEEPING AS CLOSE to the stadium as possible, Gabriel led his team to a ticket-holder entrance along the third-base side. The gates were solid on the bottom, but the tops were covered with heavy wire mesh. As expected, all gates were locked, but Gabriel’s team had come prepared for that.
He nodded at Cahill and Walker. They ran up to the nearest gate and pulled out the reciprocating saws they’d been carrying on ropes under their jackets. Each was equipped with a blade intended for metal use. While the two men went to work cutting through the mesh, the others split their attention between watching the parking lot and keeping an eye on the inside area beyond the gate.
“We’re at our entrance now,” Gabriel said into his mic. “Team B and C, status?”
“Team B, at our gate, almost through.”
Gabriel waited. After a few seconds of silence, he said, “Team C?”
“Sorry,” the leader of Team C said. “Had a little problem with one of the guards. Taken care of now. We’re still on the way to ours, but should be there in the next two minutes.”
The basic goal of the mission was to free the prisoners and cause Project Eden as much trouble as possible. The wish-list goal was a complete takeover of the facility. The next several minutes would decide which one they’d accomplish.
“Done,” Cahill said.
He and Walker pulled out the freed section of mesh and dropped it on the ground. Two volunteers from Isabella Island hoisted another former island resident—a short and sinewy woman—through the hole to the other side. Once she was clear, one of the saws was passed through, and she made quick work of the chain holding the gate closed.
As Team A hurried into the stadium, Gabriel tapped his mic again. “We’re in.”
BETWEEN THE TWO sets of outfield bleachers was a wide concrete wedge running from the center-field wall to the outer wall of the stadium. Ben crossed it in no time and moved along the perimeter fence, looking for a way out.
The only gates he found were locked solid. He spent a few precious moments searching for something to pry one open, but there was nothing in his immediate vicinity.
They would have to go over the top. Not the ideal situation, but better than staying here.
As he turned to head back to the others, a gunshot boomed across the playing field.
DR. LAWRENCE WAS the first out of the dugout and onto the field. Not waiting for Rivera to catch up, she raced past the non-sick holding area and into the outfield. As soon as she hit the end of the fence, she angled her path toward the back of the immune pen.
When she spotted the ditch dug under the gate, she muttered, “Unbelievable.” She turned toward the outfield wall just in time to see the two sections of walls pushed shut. She raised her 9mm pistol and pulled the trigger twice. Thankfully, no screams came from the other side. She needed the prisoners alive.
She ran to the wall and shoved the left half open. In the lit up area beyond the gate, she could see the immune survivors running toward the back fence. If they made it over, her chances of getting them all back would be slim.
She sprinted through the opening, halted ten feet in, and pointed her gun at the escapees. “Stop where you are or I will shoot!” she yelled.
Only those in the back heeded her order.
She moved her barrel just left of the runners and fired off a shot, then quickly did the same on the right.
That stopped them. Even the guy straddling the top of the fence froze, looking at her.
Ben Bowerman, she realized. Their newest inductee.
“Mr. Bowerman, I advise you to climb back down. On this side of the fence, please. If not, one of your friends here will pay the price.”
The kid hesitated for a moment before pulling his leg back over and dropping to the ground.
“Thank you,” she said.
Behind her, she heard Rivera arrive, breathing heavily. “You got them,” he said, sounding both surprised and pleased.
“Why are you doing this?” one of the girls asked. “You’re supposed to be helping us.”
Lawrence smirked. “If you’re running then you already know that’s not true. So let’s not pretend anymore.” She raised her voice. “Everyone line up! Now!”
“What are you going to do with us?” another girl asked.
“You’re lucky we haven’t killed you on the spot,” Rivera said. “Now do as Dr. Lawrence said. Line up!”
“YOU SEE THIS?” Cahill asked.
“Yeah. I see it,” Gabriel said.
THE FAILED ESCAPEES began forming a single line. All except for Bowerman. He walked toward the two doctors and didn’t stop until he was only ten feet away.
“Please, let us go,” he said. “We’re a small group. We promise we’ll disappear and never cause you any problems.”
“Really?” Lawrence sai
d. She nodded past him at the fence. “I believe you and your friends out there already have.”
He looked confused. “What friends?”
“That’s enough. Get in line.”
“No, wait. At least let them go. I’ll stay. It was my idea to try to escape.”
“Is that so?” she said. “Under normal circumstances, that might have changed things, but unfortunately we need more than one test subject.”
“Test subject?”
She smiled and raised her pistol, pointing it at Ben’s head. “But I guess I don’t need all of you.”
She was going to pull the trigger, knew that beyond a doubt, had even started to apply the pressure. But the next thing she knew she was on the ground, trying to fill her lungs with air, but unable to do so. The pain came next, a visceral, scorching pain.
Her hand found the wound on her chest and came away covered with blood.
How…? What…? Tired. So damn tired.
She remembered the prisoners and tried to grab for the gun that seemed to have fallen from her hands. All she could manage, though, was to twist enough so she could see Rivera. He, too, was on the ground, but the top of his head seemed to be missing.
So tired.
She closed her eyes, thinking she’d rest for a second, regain her strength so she could…figure out…what…had…hap—
GABRIEL MOVED HIS eye from his rifle’s scope and patted Cahill on the back. “Nice shot.”
“Thanks,” Cahill said. “You, too.”
Gabriel frowned. “I was trying for her head.”
“Close enough.”
As they rose to their feet, Walker asked, “We go after them?”
Gabriel scanned the back of the stadium, and saw that the group that had been fleeing was heading once more for the fence.
“They’ll be fine. We go inside.”
AT THE SOUND of the first two shots at the back of the stadium, Martina increased her speed, getting almost all the way to the wall by the time the second pair of shots went off.
She raced along the wall, looking for a way in as she tried not to think about the possibility that one of the bullets had hit Ben, but all the gates were locked.
She screamed in frustration.
“Over here!” Nyla yelled from along the fence behind her. “Boost me up.”
Martina raced back. “I’ll go.”
“No. I will.”
“No way!”
“Martina, which one of us is armed?”
Martina almost said to give her the rifle, but she knew Nyla was right. Martina had no firearms experience.
She laced her fingers together. As soon as Nyla stepped into the cradle, Martina thrust up her hands.
“Hurry,” she said as Nyla dropped out of sight. “Please hurry.”
BEN HAD BEEN sure his life was over. But then the doctor had collapsed. Before her colleague could react, he was down, too.
There were shouts of surprise. Ben thought one of them had been his, but he quickly pulled himself together and said, “Come on!”
He raced back to the outside fence and was about to start climbing when he noticed movement to the left.
A woman with dark brown skin stepped from the shadows, a rifle in her hands.
As soon as the others saw her, they stopped in their tracks, a few raising their hands in surrender.
“Drop your weapons!” the woman said.
“We’re not armed,” Ben told her.
“We heard gunshots,” she said.
He couldn’t help but flick a gaze at the two dead doctors. When the woman looked, too, he said, “We didn’t do it. Someone else shot them. I don’t know who.”
The woman sidestepped over to the bodies. She poked a foot against Dr. Lawrence but didn’t bother with Dr. Rivera. When she seemed satisfied, she lowered her weapon.
“You’re the prisoners?” she asked.
“Um, yeah, I guess we are,” Ben said. “Who are you?”
“Let’s just say I’m not with them,” she said, nodding toward the bodies. “Any of you know how to shoot?”
No one moved.
She picked up the pistols the doctors had been using. “Anyone?”
Still no response.
She tossed one pistol to Ben, and the other to Jilly. “You’ll figure it out. Now come on. Let’s get you out of here.”
She led them behind the left-field bleachers and showed them how to help each other over the fence.
“There are more people still in the detention area,” Ben said. “And another inside somewhere. We can’t leave them here.”
The woman thought for a moment. “It’s Ben, isn’t it?”
He was surprised, but didn’t think he had time to ask how she knew. “Yeah.”
“Good to meet you, Ben. I’m Nyla. Show me where these others are.”
TEAMS B AND C each reported successful entry into the stadium. All three teams made their way into the interior and headed toward the home-plate end of the structure.
Here and there they encountered sporadic gunfire, but most of the shooters appeared to have very little idea about what they were doing and were subdued with little effort.
“Gabriel?” Anton Helms’s voice said over the radio as the teams did a final sweep.
“Go for Gabriel.”
“Something here you need to see.”
“Where are you?”
Following Helms’s directions, Gabriel made his way to a set of rooms that appeared to have been converted into a medical facility. Helms and two others were standing by a windowed door.
“So?” Gabriel said.
“Over here.”
Gabriel walked over and looked through the window. A girl who couldn’t have been much more than eighteen was standing a few feet inside, staring back with fear in her eyes.
“Please, let me out,” she said, her voice coming out of an intercom on the wall. “Please.”
Gabriel glanced at Helms. “What’s going on?”
Helms shrugged. “We just found her like this. Said they stuck her in here earlier today after giving her an inoculation.”
“Double inoculation,” the girl corrected.
“Right, double. Apparently they told her she had to wait twenty-four hours to make sure it took.”
“Uh, and why would that be?” Gabriel asked.
Helms turned off the intercom and motioned for Gabriel to follow him. About ten feet over was a set of valves mounted on the wall, with one set of hoses leading to the door of the room the man was in, and another set leading to several metal tanks.
He touched the first. “This one’s on and hooked up to a couple of tanks marked O2.” He skipped the two middle ones and pointed at the fourth. “This one? Well, come here.”
He traced the hose back to a single tank. On the outside was stenciled KV-27a.
Gabriel gaped. They’d all heard the code before. It was Project Eden’s designation for the Sage Flu virus.
“They’re pumping virus into her room?” he asked.
“Pumped,” Helms corrected him. He easily picked up the tank with two fingers under the valve. “It’s empty.”
Gabriel shot a look back at the room. “Why?”
“You got me.”
They walked back over.
“Can you at least tell me what’s going on?” the girl pleaded.
“You’re going to be okay,” Gabriel said, hoping that was true. “The people who were running this place are no longer in charge.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, God. We were right, weren’t we?”
“Right about what?”
“Some of the others and I were starting to think the doctors and guards weren’t who they claimed to be. And that they didn’t really plan on helping us.”
“No, ma’am, they didn’t.”
“Are you the UN?”
“The UN died with everyone else.”
“Then who are you?”
“We’re the ones who are going to figure out how to
keep you alive.”
PAX AND MARTINA heard the sound of running steps just inside the stadium, and then voices. A few seconds later something pounded against the fence and a head poked over the top.
“Jilly?” Martina said.
The girl looked down. “Martina?” She turned so she could glance back on the other side. “Martina’s here!”
Jilly swung over the top and dropped down. She hugged Martina so tight it hurt, but neither seemed to care.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” Jilly said. “You came for us!”
Four more came over, including a man Martina didn’t know, but the others were from her old softball team. She and Valerie even hugged, whatever problems between them forgotten for now or maybe forever.
When the last person dropped down, Martina stared expectantly at the top of the wall. “Where’s Ben? I saw him. He’s with you, isn’t he?” She moved up to the fence and yelled, “Ben!”
“He went back to the enclosure with that woman,” Jilly said.
“What woman?”
“The one with the gun. I thought she was with you.”
“Nyla?”
Jilly shrugged. “I guess.”
“Why would he go back?”
“There were others locked up with us,” Jilly said. “And Ruby…they took her somewhere early today.”
“All right,” Pax said. “We’re not safe here. I want you all to head across the parking lot to those trees over there and wait. Martina can show you where.”
“I am not going anywhere,” Martina told him.
He frowned but said, “Okay. The rest of you go. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“If Martina’s staying, we’re staying,” Jilly said.
“Definitely,” Valerie agreed.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Pax said. “Did you hear those gunshots?”
“We saw two people killed in front of us,” Jilly said. “So, yeah, we heard them. And we’re staying.”
It was another four minutes before they heard people arriving on the other side again.
“Stand back!” Nyla yelled.
Everyone moved away from the fence.
A rifle blasted and the fence shuddered. There was the rattle of a chain, and then a gate a few feet away swung open.
The Project Eden Thrillers Box Set 2: Books 4 - 6 (Ashes, Eden Rising, & Dream Sky) Page 82