The Hive (Rasper Book 2)

by Kathleen Groger

  “Where should we go?” I asked Rollins.

  “The armory. We need more weapons.”

  I hoped he had an idea of where the armory would be located because the base was big enough that it would take forever to find it blindly.

  “Isn’t this base the home of the infectious disease place?” Adam asked Rollins.

  Rollins nodded. “Yes, Fort Detrick was the home to USAMRIID, the Department of Defense’s head laboratory for biological defense research,” he said in a very matter-of-fact military tone.

  “What happened to all the viruses and diseases that were kept here?” A chill skittered across my skin as my voice gave away more concern than I had intended. “Maybe we should go somewhere else.”

  “The contagions should still all be safely locked up.”

  He said should. Should. We were going onto a base with diseases they write horror books about and the best he could do was should. I took a deep breath to remain calm. I needed to sound level-headed and rational. “Don’t some of them need temperature control?”

  “We’ll be quick and avoid that part of the base.” Rollins pointed to a brick building that still looked in pretty good shape. “We need to go in there.”

  As we dashed inside, the sky turned the color of a fresh bruise. I kept imagining all the diseases, like Ebola and worse, loose in the air. Our boots thudded along the cement floor. The building looked like everyone had stepped out for lunch. Only a few broken chairs seemed out of place. Rollins shined his light onto the small nameplates on the walls next to each door. “Adam, look for the commander’s office.”

  Rollins and I spun in half circles with our guns raised searching for anyone hidden in the doorways, behind desks, filing cabinets. Adam stopped and held his hand up. We all froze. A sound louder than the scurrying of a rodent, but not as loud as a human, echoed down the hall. Rollins motioned us to the right side while he slid along the left wall. The door to the closest office was open. I swept the Glock in front of me. The room seemed empty, yet my skin prickled. Taking a deep breath, I caught the faint scent of rotten eggs. We weren’t alone. I motioned back to the guys. The only place for a Rasper to hide was behind the desk. Rollins approached from one side while I covered the other. Adam grabbed a golf club from its resting place against the wall, then stood in front of the desk.

  Rollins ticked off the countdown with his fingers. When he got to one, we both lunged at the desk. It was empty.

  Then time seemed to slow down. I turned.

  A Rasper wearing fatigues blocked the doorway, trapping us inside the office.

  Adam brought the golf club up and swung at the Rasper. The Rasper moved faster. He grabbed the club. They wrestled for control.

  I tried to get a clear shot, but they turned so fast I was afraid of hitting Adam. Rollins pulled a serrated blade from his boot and jabbed it into the Rasper’s back. The Rasper howled while he released the golf club.

  It clattered to the floor. Adam snatched it and bashed the Rasper in the knees. Rollins motioned for Adam to move, then he shot the Rasper in the face.

  Black blood spurted, covering the floor, the desk, the ceiling, but missed drenching the guys by inches, although they’d been hit with spatter.

  Nausea clawed against my gut, and I forced down the urge to be sick.

  “Think there are more?” Adam glanced at Rollins’s knife sticking out of the back of the now faceless Rasper. I knew he had to be wondering why Rollins hadn’t given it to him since he didn’t have a gun because I was questioning the same thing.

  I crept into the hall, scanned, listened, smelled. Nothing moved, made a noise, or stunk besides the dead Rasper. I leaned back into the doorway. “Not yet. We have to move. They’ll be coming soon.” They always did. They traveled in packs like rabid wolves circling their prey. With us playing the part of the prey.

  Rollins yanked his knife free and wiped the blade on the Rasper’s pants before stowing it away. We continued our search for the commander’s office. My nerves tingled as if I had injected caffeine into my bloodstream. Had the lone Rasper been a scout? Were the rest out there planning their ambush? We needed to find the weapons so we could get the hell out of here.

  “Here it is.” Adam tapped the gold nameplate with his golf club. Then he twisted the knob of the frosted glass door. “Damn it. It’s locked.”

  “Break it.” I didn’t like the idea of making the noise, but we didn’t have a choice. Besides, they were probably already on their way because of the gunshot.

  Adam shifted the club like a baseball bat, then he swung it like a pro into the door. The glass cracked then shattered, landing on the floor in thousands of tiny pieces.

  “Hurry.” Rollins jumped through the opening while Adam and I were a little more cautious entering the unknown room.

  Adam looked around the office with a bewildered look on his face. He knocked over a small bronze horse statue with the end of the club. “There’re no weapons in here.”

  “That’s not why we’re here,” Rollins said.

  Dear Lord, let the man have a purpose. “Then why risk this office?”

  He tapped a safe about the size of a personal refrigerator. “For this. It will have the combination to the armory door.”

  I zeroed in on the yellow magnet on the safe. It read Secret. “You mean to tell me they kept the combo to the main weapon safe in a little safe they tagged as secret?”

  Rollins gave a salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Small problem though.” Adam’s voice sounded more annoyed than fearful. “We don’t have the combination for this one. How are we going to get it open?” He smashed the golf club against the safe.

  “I could shoot the lock mechanism.” I wasn’t sure if it would work or not.

  Rollins shook his head. “No. That would burn the papers inside.”

  “Well, what then?” The reverberation of the club smacking the safe again shot through my teeth. Anger bubbled up my throat. I wanted to lash out, to destroy the little metal mockery to our goal. “Do you think we have the strength to bust it open by hand?”

  “Worth a shot.” Adam shrugged.

  Rollins went around the commander’s desk. “Hang on. Let me check something.” He kicked the rolling chair back, crouched down, opened and slammed drawers. He cursed a few times, then picked up the old-style, multi-line phone from the desk. He flipped it over. A smile that looked more like the Joker’s than a soldier’s crossed his face. Was he okay?

  “Why are you smiling?” I said with a slight hint of anger in my voice.

  “I met the commander once, and everyone said the same thing about him. He was combination challenged.” He turned the bottom of the phone toward us. “He hid the combo here in case he forgot.” He ripped the sticky-note from the phone, then tossed the phone across the room.

  Guess we were way past caring how much noise we made.

  He twirled the safe’s dial. My heart double tapped when the distinctive click signaled the unlocking. Rollins swung the door open and rifled through a surprisingly large stack of papers. “Got it. Let’s go.”

  “Wait. Let me see the combination before we go. Just in case.” I held out my hand.

  Rollins nodded and handed it to me. “Good idea. Hopefully nothing happens to me between here and there.”

  I hoped so too. I hated to admit it, but I needed his skills and knowledge. Yet, there was a nagging sensation warning me not to fully trust him. I shook my head. For Megan’s sake, I had to trust him. That is, until he gave me a reason not to.

  Adam leaned over. We both committed the combination to memory, then I handed the paper to Rollins.

  “The armory will be an interior room inside another building. I’m pretty sure I know where it is.” Rollins tucked the paper in his tactical vest’s chest pocket as he led us from the administration building.

  We moved single file with Rollins in the lead, Adam and his club in the middle, while I watched our backs by continually walking backward a few steps.
We passed nearly intact buildings and others that had been half swallowed up by the earth. I prayed the armory was still in one piece.

  The entire time we walked, I couldn’t shake the sensation of being followed. But I never caught sight, sound, or scent of Raspers.

  “It looks in good shape.” Rollins’s deep whisper cut through my thoughts, and I realized how much focus I had lost.

  The brick building sat on the side of the base that didn’t have a gaping chasm caused by an earthquake. The door was unlocked, so we slipped inside. It took us less than five minutes to find the armory. It was down a dark hallway and totally on the interior of the building where no natural light penetrated. Rollins took out a flashlight from one of his many pockets. The door to the weapon hold reminded me of a bank vault. It was about seven feet high, four feet wide, all metal, and locked with a combination lock.

  “Are we clear?” I asked the guys.

  Rollins did a sweep of the hallway. “Clear.”

  I spun the dial and entered the numbers I’d memorized. It didn’t unlock. I tried it again. Still nothing. “Let me see the paper again.”

  Rollins gave me the paper.

  I had stupidly messed up the last number. I had to focus. I spun the dial. This time a faint click sounded, and I opened the massive door.

  A wave of air filled with the scents of oil and metal shot from the armory.

  We stepped in.

  A prickly sensation shot down my spine. I spun. A guy, dressed in all black, snuck up on us and pulled Adam in a chokehold while holding a gun to his temple. The golf club clattered to the ground.

  3

  A gun muzzle was pressed against Adam’s head. Rollins and I kept our guns on target.

  “Thank you so much for opening the armory. Now, lower your weapons or I shoot him,” the guy commanded in a deep I-am-used-to-being-obeyed voice.

  There was no way I was putting down the Glock. Adam looked at me, his eyes showed no fear. Could he move fast enough to give us a clean shot? A slight swish of fabric announced the entry of two other targets into the room both dressed entirely in black. Dual red dots danced across my chest. Crap.

  “Scythe, is that you?” The figure to the right of Adam moved forward.

  Who the hell was Scythe? I turned to Rollins. Instant panic ripped through me as I watched him laugh and lower his gun.

  “Son of a bitch. What are you doing here, Bowie? I haven’t seen you in ages.” The two shook hands and slapped each other on the back.

  I caught sight of the side of Bowie’s neck. While there was a small scar that ran from the corner of his eye to his right ear, there was no yellow. He wasn’t a Rasper.

  Bowie smiled. “It’s okay, Kalis.”

  Kalis, the leader dude, turned to Rollins. “Are they with you?”

  Rollins nodded. “Yes. You can let him go.”

  Kalis released Adam, who immediately picked up the golf club and stepped to the side.

  What was going on? The other two guys greeted Rollins with a handshake and back slap like it was their secret code. “I hate to break up the reunion. But who the hell are you?” I turned to Rollins. “And who is Scythe?”

  “That’s my code name.” Rollins pointed to us. “This is Val and Adam. I got the pleasure of meeting them at Site R. They are immune to the sting.”

  I kept the gun tight in my hand, but not aimed at anyone anymore.

  All the guys lifted their chins as if they were impressed. It struck me how alike they all looked. All extremely healthy. All normal-skinned, no yellow. All over six feet. All muscle bound. All dressed exactly alike. All with short hair that should have been much longer because of the loss of power. The realization made my gut twitch. Something wasn’t right. They had been somewhere there was power, food, water.

  Kalis made his introductions. “I’m Kalis. That’s Zombie. He’s Bowie.”

  “What are you doing here? I thought you were based out west.” Rollins’s voice held a note of hesitation that I didn’t think the soldiers picked up on.

  “We came here to pick up a package. Figured we’d grab some extra weapons and ammo to kill the sallow-skinned mutant-things before we got the hell out of here.” Kalis gave a go ahead motion. The other two soldiers filed into the armory with impressive precision.

  “Hang on.” I dodged deeper inside. “We opened it. We get first pick.”

  Bowie flicked on a flashlight. “I think there’s enough for everybody.” His light illuminated a treasure trove of handguns and assault type rifles that made the gun section at the MegaCamping we had raided look like small shoebox.

  “There are M9s, M4s, and my favorite, the M16.” He lifted the weapon. It looked like the AR-15 my dad had owned.

  “Am I seeing a M249 SAW?” Zombie grabbed a gun that looked like it was straight out of a Terminator movie.

  “You bet your ass it is,” Bowie said.

  “It would be disrespectful to pass up such luscious lovelies. They’re not doing anyone any good locked up in here.” Zombie ran his hand along the barrel of the gun like he was in love.

  Adam and I each reached for two of the Berretta 9mm handguns. As I shoved them in the pockets of the pants, I could tell they had a little more weight to them than my Glock. I loved the tactical pants but still wished I had my backpack. “Where’s the ammo?”

  “They keep the ammo separate in the ammo depot.” Rollins gripped one of the M16s.

  In fact, all the soldier guys took M16s in addition to the handguns they’d grabbed. It made me wonder if I should too. It seemed big and hard to handle.

  Rollins must have sensed my hesitation. He picked up a smaller version of the M16 and handed it to me. “Here, take this. It’s an M4. It’s smaller.”

  I slung the gun’s strap over my shoulder. “Then let’s get the ammo.”

  I wanted to ask why they didn’t keep the ammo and weapons in the same place, but I was already the only girl in a sea of testosterone and I didn’t want to give them one more reason to think I couldn’t hold my own. The most important thing was to go along for now until I had ammo. I didn’t trust this group of too-perfect-looking soldiers.

  Adam seemed to have the same feeling because he also grabbed an M4.

  All of us filed out armed but bulletless. Rollins closed the door and spun the dial, making it impossible for the Raspers to gain access.

  Another black-clad soldier stood further down the hall.

  “Dudas, look who’s here. Scythe and some kids he found.” Kalis told the soldier.

  Dudas only nodded, then he tapped behind his right ear and spoke so softly that I wouldn’t have heard without my enhanced hearing. “Package secured. On the move.”

  Then I spotted a black backpack on Zombie. It was sleeker than a schoolbag and seemed to be a hard case. Had he had it on before? I hadn’t noticed. It had to be the package.

  We all walked past Dudas. He brought up the rear of the procession, adding to my uneasy feeling. It was too convenient they were here of all places and at the same time we were. Were they working with Zigotgen? I wanted to get away from them. I needed to get Adam alone, and if he agreed, we were gone. Rollins could stay with the soldier guys if he wanted to. It would suck at the loss of extra firepower, but if I was honest, my verdict on trusting him was still out.

  However, the potential risk of stumbling into the wrong area of the base and contracting some airborne disease or running into a bunch of Raspers made me unsure of the best course of action.

  When we came out of the armory building, another soldier was guarding the entrance.

  “Dirk, we’re good to move out,” Kalis told him, not bothering to mention who we were.

  Dirk jumped into the driver’s seat of one of two parked Jeeps with a large gun mounted to the top. Kalis took the wheel of the other one.

  “Come on, it’s faster than walking.” Zombie climbed in.

  I stopped. “What’s in your backpack?”

  “Just military shit.” Zombie winked.
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br />   I gave Adam a side-eye. He shrugged. Great. Guess we were going along. We got in Dirk’s Jeep.

  We passed building after building. Those on the left side of the street were destroyed, those on the right weren’t. We circled around the base on a road that seemed to lead us away from all the buildings. My stomach dropped. Was it a trap?

  I tried to make my voice calm. “I thought we were going to the ammo depot.”

  “We are. Ammo depots are typically kept away from the main buildings for safety reasons.” Rollins tapped his fingers on the doorframe.

  We reached a fenced area with three cement-block buildings with metal roofs. Kalis stopped his Jeep at the gate, blocking the entrance. Zombie got out and sprayed something that looked like silly string over the locked gate. In seconds, it opened.

  “What did he just use?” I needed a can of it.

  “Military prototype. Classified. Sorry.” Dirk looked anything but sorry.

  As if that shit mattered anymore.

  Kalis drove to the first building. Bowie jumped out to read a sign that was too small of print for me to make out even with my extra vision. He climbed back in the Jeep. We drove to the next building. At this one he nodded. He tried the door, but of course it didn’t open. Zombie and Dudas got out of the other Jeep and jogged over to where ours idled.

  “The only way to breach the door is to run the Jeep through it,” Dudas said with somewhat of a southern drawl.

  “Why not use the same stuff he did on the gate?” Maybe he was out.

  Dudas shrugged. “It doesn’t work on concrete.”

  I glanced up at the sky. It was going to be dark in about two hours. We needed to be somewhere safe by then. The crash of the Jeep slamming into the door brought my attention back to the present. Kalis backed up, revved the engine, plowed the Jeep against the door again. He repeated the process five times before the door was destroyed. The Jeep hissed and smoked. It was toast. The entire front end was smashed, and it surprised me that Kalis had gotten the thing backed up enough for us to get through the ruined door.