I swallowed past the sandpaper lining my throat. “What number is Megan a part of?” I prayed he would say five but knew he wouldn’t.
“Thirteen.”
I shook my head as anger swirled through my gut. “Are they dead?”
“No. But the level of how alive they are is debatable.” Rollins balled his hands into fists.
I sensed the anger I was feeling caged inside him ready to explode.
I circled around a few of the tanks. All of their heads were bald, and each one had a scar that ran vertical along the back of their necks. “Why did you want me to see this?”
“I want you to understand whom you are dealing with. No matter what they tell you, no one volunteered except Dr. Hanover.” Rollins walked to the ninth tube, placed his palm against the glass, and traced a design that resembled a heart before quickly pulling it back.
He had to know the woman inside. Probably even cared for her. “I’m sorry.”
Rollins turned, his face an emotionless mask. “You need to hide the laptop you have tucked away in the back of your pants. I don’t care why you have it, but you can’t keep carrying it around.”
His response caught me off guard. “Okay. The only place I can think of is in my room.”
Rollin paused, then said, “With the chaos right now, we’ll be able to make it there with limited interference. Then we’ll focus on finding Dr. Collins. Or what’s left of him.”
Rollins and I dropped the laptop in my room, then searched our assigned areas. We were stalked by two Raspers. The mutants almost trapped us. We managed to kill them both but had zero luck locating Dr. Collins. We made our way back to the office to regroup with the others.
“Anything?” The director looked up from the monitor he was watching.
The room reeked of testosterone and worry.
“No. Here?” Rollins asked.
“Dr. Collins not only made sure the other Bugs found hosts, he must have told the Raspers outside how to get in.” The director pointed to the screen, and we all watched as Raspers filled boat after boat and rowed to the complex.
The familiar-looking Rasper with a goatee seemed to be looking right at the camera like he knew it was recording.
“Kalis, make sure your team is there to greet them at all the entrance doors. Do not let them inside.” The director rolled his neck as Kalis and his men left the command room. “Rollins, you and Val go get the ones who used to be our coworkers.”
“I’m going with them.” Adam held up his gun and stood with his legs spread in a defiant stance.
“Adam… ” The director shook his head. “Be careful.”
“Taylor, any luck finding where Dr. Collins is at?” I licked my dry lips. It hadn’t taken him long to find everyone when he showed me.
Taylor narrowed his eyes at the screen. “He’s not here. He’s not in the building.”
“Impossible.” Dr. Morgenstern stomped to Taylor’s side.
“Since he’s a Rasper, would he still show up as Dr. Collins? The Rasper I questioned said his lifeform ceased to exist and was absorbed by the Colony,” I asked, not expecting anyone to know the answer.
“Are there markers for anyone not named?”
“No.” Taylor tapped keys on the keyboard. “I have rebooted everyone’s chip. Everyone should be online.”
While the system could track the location of everyone on a sweep, I also knew the system could be tricked as Taylor had done with ours the other night.
“I’m just guessing at this, but—” Taylor’s words carried a quizzical tone. “It looks like the chips need power. The ones we have implanted in us appear to generate their energy from our own bodies. Our own life-force. They evolve to be more one with us. It’s actually a very clever design. It’s made so a chip from one person can’t be removed and inserted into another human or animal to disguise their signature. Whoever thought this up was a genius.”
“Thank you.” The director did a slight mock bow. “It’s my design.”
“So that’s why we can’t see Dr. Collins? As a Rasper, is he considered to still be alive?” Adam asked.
The director ran his fingers down his goatee. “Interesting. If a person becomes a host, they cease to exist as who they were.” He laughed a small humorless laugh.
Was he losing it?
“I would have thought there would be some of the person left. What then? Does the Colony hold the ‘minds’ of everyone turned, like a hive-mind? Know all their secrets? Fascinating. That would mean this queen could know everything every person knew?”
“Oh God. Then she would know where we are.” Adam spoke what I was thinking.
“First things first. We need to get rid of the Raspers already here before we can worry about some queen.” Rollins pulled his gun across his chest. “Taylor, are you able to run a scan as to how many people there are in the facility and how many there should be? This will give us some type of count of what we are up against.”
“That will take some time.”
“Understood.” He turned to the director. “Sir, will Raspers be able to get past door locks since their chip is no longer working?”
The director took a second before he spoke. “It will slow them down, but if they get their hands on one of our computer programmers, they might be able to override the system.”
“Okay, have everyone who is not infected stay in their lockdown place.” Rollins tapped the back of his ear. “Bravo Team, the director will send you the location of two computer programmers. You must protect them at all cost. Copy that?”
I could tell by his reaction they had.
Rollins turned. “Taylor, can you change the codes for the doors?”
“Maybe, it will take time.”
“Understood. See what you can do.” Rollins turned to us. “Val, Adam, and I will find Dr. Collins. Are you two ready?”
Adam and I nodded, then the three of us left, making our way into the main circular section.
“Let’s start at Collins’s lab.” Rollins searched the doors and picked the third one to the left.
After entering a security code, we walked through a long hallway that spiraled around and around. We finally reached the bright white lights of the pristine laboratory, but it was empty. No Dr. Collins. No one at all.
The only thing that looked out of place was the black scorch marks marring the one sidewall.
“Adam, look at those marks. They’re just like the ones in the barn. Remember, the Rasper who had been Dr. Kane was able to shoot his venom like a weapon?”
“They can shoot their toxin?” Rollins asked, sounding surprised. “The other ones didn’t. How does it work?”
“One did. He shot the toxin out from his nail. I would assume they all might be able to do it now, being connect to the hive and all.”
Rollins tapped behind his left ear. “Kalis, be alert. The Raspers can shoot venom from their finger with the pointed nail.” He tapped behind his ear again.
“Where the hell is Dr. Collins’s room?” Adam’s tone gave away his frustration.
“All the staff rooms are underground in the old lava tubes. The doctors have a separate wing off the main circle.” Rollins led the way back to the main circular room.
Every few seconds, I glanced over my shoulder making sure no one surprised us from behind. At the main section, Rollins paused and counted doors. When he reached out to touch the keypad, I heard a whoosh sound behind me.
“Wait.” I spun around, gun aimed and ready.
Two Raspers wearing the gray uniforms of maitenance workers appeared at our eight o’clock. I shot twice at the taller one on the left. He collapsed to the floor as Adam and Rollins both fired at the second guy, taking him down.
“Let’s go.” Rollins turned back.
I aimed at the dead bodies. “No. Wait a second.”
“I don’t think they were turned long enough to grow a Bug.” Adam didn’t take his eyes or aim off the bodies.
“Hang on.” Rollins eje
cted his magazine and reloaded in one swift move. “Are you saying after a Bug stings a person, they become a Rasper, then after a certain amount of time, a new Bug grows inside the person?”
“Yes. The sting carries their reproductive fluid. How do you guys not know this?” I counted aloud to thirty. The bodies didn’t move.
“Look, my job now is to kill Raspers and Bugs. We were never told they reproduce in humans.”
“Well now you know.” My tone was a bit bitchy. I still wasn’t sure how much I could trust him. “Okay. Let’s go.”
We walked down a corridor that was darker than all the others I had been in. It seemed like there was only a light every twenty feet or so and not the fancy LED lights I’d seen elsewhere.
“Is the lighting normally like this?” Adam echoed my thoughts.
“No. I have a room down here too. It normally has those LED lights everywhere. Looks like it might be emergency backup lighting.” Rollins held his gun ready to fire. He paused at the first door on the left. “I’m not sure which room is Collins’s. We’ll have to check all the ones we can get to open.”
“I’ll take the right side,” I said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Adam, cover our butts.”
Rollins did a three-finger countdown then tried to push open the door. It didn’t budge. We repeated the same procedure for every door. The only one to open was Rollins’s own room.
“Well, good news is he shouldn’t be able to be in any room except maybe his.” He tapped behind his ear. “Kalis, what room is Dr. Collins in?”
“Help us.” The words whispered across my neck.
Either I was going crazy or maybe the damn doctors had implanted a communication device behind my ear. The thought started to grow. If they had, who was I hearing? I took my right hand off the gun but kept it tight in the left. I moved my fingers through my hair until my index finger hovered behind my ear. It felt normal. I tapped the skin behind my ear like Rollins had done.
“Hello,” I said so softly I doubted Adam heard me.
No one answered me. Shit. That left only one option.
“His room is here.” Rollins’s voice cut into my thoughts.
He walked three doors down from where we stood. “Doctor? Are you in there?” He pounded on the door.
The only response either one of us got was the flickering of the lights.
“Something’s wrong.” Adam wore a look of alarm.
We were plunged into darkness.
“What happened to the lights?” I strained to see something, but it was as if we had been sucked into a blank nothingness. My extra sight wasn’t helping. I could be standing next to a Rasper and not see them.
“Kalis, do you read me? Kalis, come in.” Rollins’s voice boomed through the blackness. “He’s not answering. Do either of you have a flashlight? I gave mine to Zombie.”
“No.” I had a worse thought. “Will we be able to get out if the backup power isn’t working?”
Rollins’s voice carried from somewhere in front of me. “This building is not like a normal building you are used to. Here, if the power is out, almost everything hard locks down. The big guys don’t want shit just escaping because someone didn’t pay the power bill.”
I knew he was trying to lighten the mood a little, but my thoughts floated back to the zoo, where a damaged barrier let the lions free. In a place like this, there was no telling what they had hidden behind some of these doors. Things possibly scarier than Raspers or Bugs.
“There is an emergency exit halfway down the hall.”
It was disturbing talking to the guys without being able to see them. At least I knew their voices were real.
Rollins spoke again. “I have to warn you. It’s a little challenging, and without light, it might be dangerous.”
“Could someone cut the power to this wing?” Adam asked.
“I would think so if they had enough knowledge of the workings of the building.” Rollins seemed calm, but there was something in his voice. He was more concerned than he was letting on about why the backup power was not working. “Let’s get together. Val, go to your left and you should reach me. Adam, go to your right.”
I walked toward his voice with my hand out and touched him in seconds.
“Okay. I’ll lead the way. Keep a hand on the person in front of you.”
As we shuffled along in the dark, I got a horrible déjà vu to when Adam, Megan, Bethany, and I had crawled through the drain to the black-ooze-filled monastery. Megan and Bethany. They would both probably still be safe if Adam and I hadn’t stumbled upon their cabin in the woods. That seemed like such a long time ago.
Rollins brought our progress to a halt. “It should be here somewhere. Feel the wall for a box about the size of a sandwich. Should be about shoulder level.”
I let go of Adam and searched the cool concrete wall in front of me. I slid my hands up, down, across, then I touched something. A zap of electricity charged through my skin. It wasn’t a box, but Adam’s hand.
“Here it is,” Rollins called out. “Gimme just a second to open it.”
With a pop, something opened, but it was too dark to see what.
“Okay. Here’s the deal. This is an emergency exit. There’s a small metal-rung ladder that runs down the length of the building’s internal core. If you lose your hold, you will fall a long way down into water. Without light, a water rescue would be impossible.” Rollins’s tone was soft yet serious.
“Got it. Don’t let go,” Adam said in a much higher voice than Rollins.
Of course it went down. And was probably a tight space. And was definitely dark. I took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this.”
I made my way to the entrance. After securing the gun in my pocket and tapping the Glock in its pouch, I placed my hand on the side of the opening.
“Just go all the way down. There’s a platform at the bottom with a door that leads back inside the building.” Rollins patted me on the shoulder. “Call up when you touch the bottom. The railing can’t hold more than one of us at a time.”
“See you down there.” I tried to sound confident, but my heart jumped into my throat and I fought the urge to panic. I felt the space, found the metal rung, turned, and Rollins startled me by grabbing my waist.
“To make sure you don’t fall.”
I nodded, then lowered myself down. My right foot touched. My left missed the rung. It swung out for a heart-stopping moment, and my lungs seized up like I had plunged into frozen water. I got them solidly on the rungs, took three deep breaths, then I began my descent.
The ladder was cold, and the space smelled of water and mold. There was a small amount of light coming from somewhere. It should have made it easier to see, but it didn’t, it made it worse. Now, I saw shades of gray and black instead of nothingness. Shadows like wisps of smoke circled around me.
I continued my descent, telling myself with each step it would be over soon. When I had passed about fifty rungs, the temperature changed. Arctic air billowed out below me. I chanced a quick look down but only saw more shadows gliding around like the ghosts of all the lies that had been told here.
I extended my boot to the next rung. Shit. There was nothing there. I pulled my leg up. The coldness on my hands from the ladder was like a time clock counting down. With each passing moment they got colder and colder. I moved my hands down another rung to just below my ribcage. I had to reach down with my foot as far as I could to find the next rung. My arm muscles started to scream. If the bottom wasn’t there, I would need to pull myself back up. I stretched my leg a little farther, and my boot scraped something solid. I had made it to the bottom. Or so I hoped. With a quick prayer, I let go of the rungs. In seconds, I landed on solid ground.
“I made it,” I yelled to the guys.
Neither of them answered me.
“Adam?” My heart bounced against my ribcage. “Rollins? Answer me.”
Neither of them did.
I reached up and pounded my fist on the lowest ru
ng, making an ear-burning clang. “Guys?”
Still no answer.
Now what? Go back up?
A scratching sound not unlike the sound of a Rasper’s nail on metal wafted down the tube.
“Val, Raspers are coming out of the rooms.” Adam’s voice was a hushed whisper that I probably wouldn’t have been able to hear if I didn’t have the extra hearing.
The sound of gunfire rattled my ears.
I jumped up and grabbed the rung.
“If we get separated, meet back in the director’s office.” Adam’s tone was forceful and urgent.
An explosive boom rocked the ladder. I let go. I wasn’t quick enough.
Shards of the metal rungs rained down, then a body crashed into me, slamming me to the concrete.
22
All of the air was forced out of my lungs. I struggled to catch my breath. I had to get the body off me. Using any extra strength I possessed, I pushed at it until I pulled free. My hands and clothes came away covered in a sticky substance that had to be blood. I crab-crawled backward until I hit the rounded wall. My chest heaved up and down as I gulped for air.
I did a quick assessment if anything was broken. There didn’t appear to be, yet my hip cried in pain from where it slammed into the concrete floor.
Who was it? Rasper? Rollins? Adam?
I wanted to know, needed to know. But I also didn’t.
I counted to three, took a deep breath, and on the exhale, closed my eyes.
I could do this. Had to do this.
I crawled to the body.
It was too dark to see if they were a Rasper, but it was definitely a male. I felt for a pulse and came up empty, except for more goo on my fingers. In the shadowed darkness, I couldn’t tell if it was red or black.
I grabbed the guy’s right hand and checked his index finger. Pointed nail.
I rocked back, and my chest unclenched. It was a Rasper. Rollins or Adam must have pushed him down, assuming I had already gone through the door.
With a popping sound from my hip, I struggled to my feet. I felt along the wall to the left of the ladder, searching for the door, when another thought hit me. Rollins had said if we fell we would hit water. There had to be a drop-off from the concrete. Where was it? I got down to my hands and knees. With a methodical pattern, I felt along the concrete. I had crawled forward about two feet when the floor gave away to nothingness. I eased along the edge and hit the body. I shifted so I could kick the Rasper over. I didn’t need to deal with his Bug in the dark. With one swift shove of my boots into his hips, the body rolled off the edge of the platform.
The Hive (Rasper Book 2) Page 14