We all followed.
Chapter 16
My stomach twisted as we entered the dark Bunker. With the smell of rot intermixed with the sting of metal, it was hard not to think of that horrible night at 108 that had changed my life forever. The atrium looked nearly the same as the one in my old home. There was a half-circular desk close by the right wall. That’s where Deborah Greene would have sat, back in 108. Deborah was dead, along with everyone else in Bunker 108, my father and best friend included. I half-expected ghosts to float down the halls. I had to do my best to keep it together.
There was a thick metal door behind the desk. I knew what lay beyond it.
“Might not have to go too far after all,” I said. “That door leads to the armory.”
“Nice work,” Samuel said.
Makara hopped over the desk, and gave the door a try. The latch wouldn’t budge.
“Figures,” she said.
Harland had wandered from the group, and was shining his light on a directory on the wall.
“This might help,” he said. “If anyone cares to look.”
Everyone gathered around the map. This bunker was smaller than 108 – I saw that much. It had five levels – 108 had seven – but the layout was much the same. Cafeteria. Commons. Dormitories. An Officers’ Wing. Hydroponics and fusion reactor on the bottom floor.
There was one major difference – there were no labs. Instead, a long tunnel led to the edge of the directory, cutting off there. An arrow pointed upward, off the map. Beside the arrow was the word, “Hangars.”
“Hangars?” Anna asked. “Was this place an airport?”
“Could be,” I said. “Each Bunker was assigned a specialization. 108 and 114 were both medically and research oriented. I don’t know Bunker 40’s designation, but this could have been where planes were kept.”
“Would be nice, just to fly out of here,” Harland said.
No one answered him.
“Nice thought,” Lisa said. “But none of us can fly.”
Harland turned to her, eyeing her up and down. “Now, you’re not bad-looking. What’s your name?”
Lisa shot him a venomous glare. “Done grieving already?”
Harland grinned unashamedly. Lisa turned away with a disgusted look.
“What now?” Makara asked.
“The armory’s accessible from the Officers’ Wing as well,” Samuel said, turning from the map. “So that’s where we’ll go. We can resupply whatever we didn’t have time to grab from the Recon. After that, we can find a way out.” He gestured down the hall. “Let’s go.”
As we walked down the deserted corridors, I noticed that the Bunker was surprisingly clean for something that had been infected with the xenovirus. No xenofungus stained the wall, as it had in Bunker 114. There was only the foreboding smell of decay that promised more trouble ahead.
We came to an intersection. Samuel pointed left, and we followed him.
We walked deeper into the cold bunker, our flashlights bouncing off the walls and corners. It felt as if we were being watched, or that Howlers were waiting for us around the next bend. The fact that we couldn’t see anything past our flashlight beams, nor hear anything, made it worse. There was only the smell.
Soon we stood before an arch in the hallway. Bold letters above read “Officers’ Wing.” Hopefully we could find what we were looking for here.
Samuel motioned me to take the lead. The layout of 40’s Officers’ Wing was basically the same as the one in 108. There were some slight differences I couldn’t explain, but could feel.
I pointed to a nondescript metal door on the left. This one stood half open.
“This is it.”
We turned the corner. Half the guns had been looted, but there was still plenty of firepower left.
“Jackpot,” Makara said.
In addition to the expected handguns and rifles, there were also batons, body armor, grenades, heavy machine guns, and submachine guns. We each already had weapons but we were light on ammunition. I had brought my pack, but the rest hadn’t had time to grab theirs. I rummaged through boxes of 9-millimeter ammo, taking as much as I needed.
“Grab all the ammo you can,” Samuel said. “Alex can carry extra.”
Lisa sorted through packs and boxes until she found .308 rounds for her sniper rifle. She cracked a rare smile. Those rounds were rare, so finding them was a huge boon.
I waited while everyone else loaded up. The plethora of guns before us was tempting, but I liked my Beretta. It felt right in my hands and I wouldn’t dream of replacing it.
It was then that I noticed something was off.
“Wait,” I said.
“What is it?” Samuel asked.
All at once, we realized what was wrong. Harland and Drake were missing.
***
“Hey!”
Samuel’s voice boomed into the corridor outside. He ran out, pistol in hand. He scanned left and right, and looked back at us.
“They’re gone. They’re really gone!”
We all hurried out of the armory. Down the hall was an open door. I could have sworn it had been closed a minute ago. A stairway led down into darkness.
“What the hell are they doing?” Samuel asked.
“I don’t know,” Lisa said. “Maybe they went on without us.”
“Something could have snatched them, or drawn them away,” Samuel said. “I am not leaving anyone behind. Even those two.”
“They left us behind,” I said.
“Snatched them?” Makara asked, with an arched eyebrow.
“I don’t know!” Samuel said. “Just let me think.”
“No,” I said. “Let me. They’re trying to trick us.” Everyone looked at me. “They want us to go after them, so they can ambush us.”
Before anyone could respond, we heard two screams coming from the direction of the stairs. It sounded like Harland and Drake.
“We should just leave them there to rot,” Makara said. “Shut the door, bar it, and find another way out.”
“I said, no!” Samuel yelled. “They need our help. No one deserves to be left in here. Not even them.”
Anna brushed a strand of hair from her eye. “Fine,” she said. “But I think you’re making a mistake. Let’s just finish this quickly.”
“Lead away,” Lisa said.
Samuel strode to the door. He pointed the gun down the stairwell. Makara came from behind and shined her flashlight down. The light revealed nothing but thirty to forty steps descending into a dark, claustrophobic corridor. I knew going down was a bad idea, but I kept my mouth shut.
Samuel started down, and the rest of us followed, our feet clanging off the metal. The stench of death became more pungent as we descended. We reached the bottom of the steps, and there the odor of death in the cold air was nearly unbearable. The corridor opened up into a room.
“Quiet,” Samuel muttered.
The three flashlight beams shot around the chamber, revealing the vertical metal bars of prison cells. We were in the detention center. This one was much larger than the one in Bunker 108. There were twelve cells, six on either side.
And all of them were piled with corpses.
“We need to turn back,” I said.
The door above slammed shut and locked from the outside. The slamming echo thundered throughout the cells.
“So I was right,” I said.
The bodies stirred, convulsed, and began writhing like worms in their piles. The ones that broke free shambled up and charged for the bars, their white eyes glowing and soulless.
“Hold your fire!” Samuel said. “As long as they’re in there they can’t hurt us.”
His voice was barely audible above the din of groans. The Howlers slammed into the bars and doors like wild animals desperate to be free.
One of the cell doors crashed open. Several Howlers lumbered out, moving as fast as their unsteady legs could carry them toward us. Another door crashed open, flooding more Howlers into t
he corridor.
“Samuel, we have to do something,” Makara said.
They howled in unison, moving as one toward us. They were closer – just feet away.
“Samuel!”
“Fire.”
He ducked, and we unleashed our bullets into the infected people. They roared in pain as the bullets entered their chests, their necks, their heads. They dropped, one by one, but more were coming out of the cells.
The first to fall were already bloating.
“Back!” Samuel said.
We moved as far from the bodies as we could. The first of them exploded by the time we reached the stairs. We were well out of range of the splash zone, but we were running out of space to retreat into.
“Fire!” Samuel yelled. “They can’t get close to us! They have to fall where they stand!”
We fired. I reloaded my Beretta, and shot again and again. About two dozen bodies lay piled on the floor. Some were beginning to inflate.
“Back again!”
We retreated up the steps, about halfway. The bodies exploded, sending streams of goo sailing for the bottom of the stairs. The smell was like raw sewage, and it was all I could do not to gag.
“I think that’s all of them,” Makara said.
That was when the heavy sound of breathing filled the chamber. It was coming from something big.
“The hell is that?” I asked.
A giant, freakishly large Howler appeared at the bottom of the stairs. He was at least eight feet tall and twice as wide as a normal man. His thick muscles bulged under thin pink skin. His head was hairless, and his eyes burned like white fire.
Samuel charged forward with a yell. He pointed his gun at the giant’s face, unleashing the rest of his bullets into him. Even after several bullets, the thing didn’t slow. Finally it reached Samuel, grabbing him by the neck. It roared in his face, revealing rows of yellow, razor-sharp teeth.
Samuel aimed right into the giant Howler’s mouth, and fired.
The creature groaned, and loosened its grip. It tumbled to the floor, landing at Samuel’s feet with a crash.
I looked behind. There was nowhere left to run.
I watched in horror as the thing inflated, the liquid surging beneath the skin, building pressure.
The coming explosion would turn us all into these horrible monsters.
Chapter 17
“Run!” Makara yelled.
Everyone ran forward, past the giant, past all the bodies that had just exploded. The entire floor was soaked with purple slime. I slipped across the floor, only saved from falling by Anna’s catching hold of me.
The giant Howler behind us exploded. I kept running, the tail end of the slime splattering where my feet had been just a second before.
I slid to a stop in front of the others.
“Did anyone get hit?” Samuel asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
“Let’s go,” Samuel said.”
“Go where?” Lisa asked.
“Forward. The only way there is to go.”
We followed Samuel into the darkness. Why would they have betrayed us like that?
“They had to have been the same Imperials the Wanderer spoke of,” Lisa said. “I bet they are after the same thing we are: the Black Files. Or, at the least, they are after something in Bunker One and don’t want us to have it.”
“So they used us long enough to get the door open?” Makara asked.
“Yes,” Lisa said. “It’s still hundreds of miles to Bunker One. If we hurry, we can catch up.”
“If we can make it back to the surface,” I said.
“We will,” Samuel said. “I want to teach them a lesson they won’t forget.”
“A bullet in the head will make them forget pretty damn quick,” Makara said.
The corridor ended in another stairwell, spiraling upward. It led to a hatch. Samuel unlatched the door, and pushed it out. We found ourselves in a circular, vertical tunnel. A giant ladder crawled up the side into the darkness above.
“Nowhere to go but up,” Makara said.
“What is it with these Bunkers and really, really tall ladders?” I asked.
No one answered me as Samuel took the lead. Over the next five minutes, we climbed, hundreds upon hundreds of rungs. I tried not to look down. Looking down was like staring into an abyss. It was so dark that I could not tell how high we had climbed.
At last, the group came to a stop. Samuel struggled with the latchwheel at the top – I heard it squeak as he turned it. With a grunt, he forced the hatch open with his powerful shoulders.
Above, the cold wind howled.
We were going back outside.
***
I was the last one to crawl out of Bunker 40. As I stepped into the cold elements and slammed the hatch shut behind me, the squish of the xenofungus below my boots was not exactly a welcome change.
It was evening, and the skyscraper to the south was blazoned orange by the sunset. Unearthly screams and howls emanated from the distance. The monsters surrounded the building, thinking we were there. I didn’t want to stick around to find out how long it would take for them to figure out we weren’t.
We had nothing but the clothes on our backs, our weapons, and copious amounts of ammunition we no longer necessarily needed. Our Recon and supplies were back at the building, surrounded by monsters that we could never hope to break through.
Our choices were fighting our way through, or going on.
“What are we going to do?”
My voice sounded more hopeless than I’d intended. As the others talked about what to do next, Anna stood next to me and grabbed my hand. One by one, her fingers intertwined with mine, and the feeling of her warm hand there made me feel weak. The action surprised me for its boldness. I turned to look at her, but she merely gazed intently at the building, tinted orange from the dull sunlight fading behind the clouds.
“We’ll find a way,” she said. “Just don’t give up.”
What was left of the sun descended behind the western mountains, plunging the valley into darkness.
Anna let go of my hand as the others turned around.
“What did you guys decide?” Anna asked.
Samuel said nothing, and merely shined his light down on the xenofungus. The layer here was thin, and beneath it was tarmac.
“A runway?” Makara asked.
“Yes,” Samuel said. “If there’s a runway here, there should be hangars somewhere nearby. We’ll freeze if we have to stay out here for the night.”
“I don’t see anything resembling a hangar out here,” Lisa said.
“We’ll just have to follow the runway and look,” Samuel said.
“What about the Recon?” I asked.
“One thing at a time,” Samuel said. “I just need to make sure we don’t die from exposure or the crawlers.”
Something caught my eye. A vertical sliver of light appeared in the direction of a nearby hill.
“I think we found our hangar,” I said.
The sliver grew wider and wider, revealing more light.
“It’s built into that hill,” Samuel said. “I think we found our friends.”
“Are they flying a plane?” I asked.
“I don’t care,” Makara said. “It’s payback time.”
Everyone ran ahead, and it was all I could do to keep up. As we got closer to the light, I could make out the shape of a low, sleek jet. As it rolled out of the hill and into the valley, the roar of its engine filled the valley with pulses of sound. That sound would draw every one of those creatures in this direction.
The plane took on a sudden burst of speed. It rocketed toward us, quickly closing the distance.
“Out of the way!” Samuel yelled.
Everyone dived out of the plane’s way as it screamed past us. I turned to watch its six thrusters, arranged in the shape of a circle, burn a fiery blue as the plane arched up from the ground and streaked through the sky. The plane’s sound waves thundered
against the ground as it disappeared into the night.
When the noise died, it was replaced with another one – the monsters, screeching and wailing. They were coming this way.
“Let’s move!” Samuel yelled.
Samuel sprinted for the open doors of the hangar. Behind, the creatures’ unearthly screams came closer.
We entered the hangar doors. We had to find a way to close them before it was too late.
“Search for a switch,” Samuel said. “Anything!”
My eyes scanned the walls. These doors had to close, or we would be overwhelmed. I saw a silver box affixed to the wall. I opened the box and saw the words “Hangar Doors” above one of the many red buttons. I pressed it.
The doors screeched, forcing themselves shut ever so slowly.
I ran back to the front, where the rest of the group stood. Lisa had taken a position on top of some nearby crates, and was readying the scope of her rifle. Anna stood with her katana in front of her, as calm as if she were doing one of her meditations. Makara held her pistol with both hands, facing outward. Samuel and I took our positions beside her, pointing our guns into the darkness.
A large, lumbering creature that might have once been a bear charged between the closing doors, going right for Makara. We unloaded into it, and it gave out a baleful roar as it snapped its jaws. With a long, fleshy arm, it began a swipe of its scythe-like claws at Makara. But a loud crack sounded in the hangar and the beast fell dead. Lisa had shot it in the head.
The doors were almost shut, but before they closed two more crawlers slipped in. They slithered along the ground with their bowed legs. Long, curved teeth lined the insides of their powerful jaws, and their all-white eyes burned fiercely.
They circled around us, waiting to strike. We fired at them, but it was as if they could anticipate our movements. At every shot, they danced out of the way.
Lisa, from above, aimed at one of them, and bided her time for the perfect shot.
One of them broke, going straight for me. Anna stepped in front of me, using her blade as a shield. The creature screamed as its neck was ripped open by the blade, and purple liquid oozed from the gash as the crawler crashed into the floor next to me.
The Last Days: Six Post-Apocalyptic Thrillers Page 52