Necrotic Earth

by SW Matthews

  “I don’t get it,” Rosie said. “Is this building just a dormitory? Surely there must be something else.”

  “There must be a basement,” Piper said.

  “Let’s check the rest of the rooms before we look for a basement,” said Doc.

  They checked the next two doors, finding two more apartments, then came to the adjoining hallway, which was actually just an exit onto a concrete platform that connected the building to the hangar. The large hangar door was closed, as was a smaller door with a window on the northwest corner. They saw no movement, and continued with their search.

  The next three doors told the same story. Three more identical apartments, all with signs of having been lived in. But no actual occupants.

  That changed when they reached the eighth and final apartment.

  As soon as Bandit grabbed the doorknob, a hand pulled the door open from the other side, and a voice said, “Who’s there?”

  Without hesitation, Bandit silenced the man with a sword to the chest. He slumped to the floor without another word.

  “William! He could have had information for us!” Doc protested.

  Bandit shrugged and wiped his blade on the dead man’s clothes. He then stepped over the body and into the apartment.

  “Hey,” said Piper, inspecting the corpse. “This is one of the goons that was with Hoff when he came to our office.”

  “Really?” Rosie kneeled beside Piper. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.” She ripped the man’s ID badge from his shirt. “Hoff, this guy, and the two that went to your dad’s place all showed up together in a black SUV. This must be the driver.”

  “So we are in the right place,” said Doc.

  Piper nodded and put the badge in her pocket. “This is the place. We just need to find the rest of it.”

  Bandit reappeared with a handgun, which he had apparently found inside the apartment. He held it out to his father.

  “I save lives, son. I don’t take them,” Doc said.

  Rosie grabbed the gun. “We don’t have time for idealism, Dad. Pol needs us.”

  ***

  Andy had just swung a leg over the top of the fence when Tuck alerted him.

  “Drone!” Tuck quietly shouted to his friend.

  Andy froze.

  “Looks like it’s just cruising its route.”

  Andy relaxed and started to move his other leg over.

  “Wait! It stopped!”

  Andy froze again.

  “It’s coming this way!”

  “Shoot it!” Andy hissed.

  “I can’t get a bead on it! It’s too fast, and I can’t use my shooting eye—and if I miss, we’re both dead. Just get off the fence and stay still!” Tuck pulled his rifle to his side and flattened himself in the grass, trying to blend in with the earth.

  Andy began to quickly descend the far side of the fence. But he was cold and tired, and he lost his grip. He fell the remaining twenty-five feet and hit the ground hard.

  Pain shot through his left foot and ankle. He wanted to scream, but he remained completely still.

  The drone came within ten feet of the fence, hovered for a few moments, then turned back to the river and disappeared.

  ***

  At the very end of the hallway was an elevator and a stairwell.

  “Stairs or elevator?” Rosie asked.

  “Elevator seems riskier. Let’s take the stairs,” Piper answered.

  The opened the door and stepped onto the landing. The stairs descended four stories below them.

  “Now what?” Doc said.

  “Start at the bottom?” Piper suggested.

  “If we’re discovered, we will be further from escape,” Bandit said.

  “How many more people do you think are here?” asked Rosie.

  “Eight rooms on this floor,” said Piper. “One was vacant, and one is now dead, so six.”

  “Three are dead,” Bandit said.

  “If we assume the two that stole Pol also stayed here,” Doc added.

  “So four are left?” Rosie asked.

  “Plus Cregor,” said Doc. “I’m sure he has a luxury suite somewhere. His ego wouldn’t allow him to reside with the commoners.”

  “Okay then, five,” said Piper.

  “There may be more rooms on the other floors,” said Rosie.

  “Then why would there be an empty one here?” Piper asked.

  Rosie shrugged. “Probably not more, but it’s possible.”

  “Let’s work under the assumption there are five more people here,” Doc suggested.

  Bandit nodded. “I can handle five.” No one disagreed.

  “Okay, let’s start at the bottom then,” said Piper.

  They began their descent.

  ***

  By the time Tuck managed to traverse the fence Andy had removed his boot, and his ankle had swollen to twice its normal size. Tuck inspected it, then removed his knife from the sheath.

  “Take off your jacket,” he said.

  “What?”

  “I’m going to cut the sleeves off of your shirt and use them to wrap your ankle.”

  Andy removed his flight jacket.

  Tuck removed the sleeves from the shirt, tied them together, and secured them very tightly around Andy’s ankle.

  “Okay, okay,” Andy whimpered. “I think that’s tight enough.”

  Andy pulled his boot back on, and Tuck helped him stand. He limped around, trying to put his weight on the injured foot. “Thanks, Tuck. I think I can make it.”

  Tuck helped him put his jacket back on. He then put his arm around his friend’s waist, supporting his left side, and the two of them started walking, slowly, toward the building.

  Chapter 13

  The door at the first landing had a small window, and Piper glanced through it as they passed. It led to a single, huge room dotted with tables and chairs. Kitchen equipment and several refrigerators lined one wall. The other end of the room had four couches and televisions—all off—two billiard tables, and a table tennis set. There was no one in the room.

  “Kitchen and recreational area, or something,” Piper said, “but no one’s using it.”

  “It’s spotless,” said Rosie. “I think you’re right, Piper. I think this place was just built.”

  At the door on the next landing, Bandit peeked through the glass, then quickly moved to one side. “One person,” he said, readying his sword.

  “Wait!” said Doc. “Let’s see first.”

  The others peered through. “Looks like a scientist, maybe?” Piper said.

  “He’s looking away,” said Rosie. “This place looks like an ICU. Like patient rooms.”

  “I’m going,” said Bandit. He reached for the doorknob.

  “Wait,” said Doc, holding up his hands. “It’s just one person, and he’s a scientist.”

  “He could notify someone and trap us below,” Piper said.

  “He’s a scientist who hurt Pol. I’m killing him,” Bandit said coldly.

  Doc sighed and moved out of his son’s way.

  The door was locked with a security panel, but Piper waved the driver’s ID badge over it, and the lock clicked open. Bandit slipped inside noiselessly, crept toward the scientist, and decapitated him.

  The others then entered the room and gathered around the dead man.

  “Did you have to cut his head off?” Doc asked.

  “It’s quick, and kept him from yelling.”

  “This place is an ICU,” Rosie said, looking around.

  Like the floor above, this floor was a single large room, but the far wall had been partitioned into four patient areas, each with a bed, monitors, ventilator, oxygen, and suction. The last area was blocked off by a curtain.

  “Sounds like monitors beeping in there,” Rosie said, pointing to the curtained area. She began walking toward the sounds.

  Doc was covering the corpse with a sheet from the nearest bed. “Rosie, don’t go wandering—”

  �
�Oh my god!” Rosie exclaimed as she pulled the curtain aside. “Dad! Get in here! Oh my god!”

  ***

  Doc pushed past Piper and Bandit to get to the patient bed. An older woman lay in the bed, sleeping or unconscious. Her face was thin, her head was shaved, and her skin so pale it was almost translucent.

  But it was her. He knew it was her.

  “Kat?” he whispered.

  “Is it her, Dad?” said Rosie. “Is it really Aunt Kat?” She was already reviewing the monitors and machines.

  Doc stepped toward the bed, his eyes locked on his sister’s face. “How can this be? She died over twenty years ago.”

  He reached for her hand. It was so frail and cold he feared it would crumble as he grasped it. He looked to Rosie, who was performing her physician duties admirably.

  “She’s had a tracheotomy, and she’s on a ventilator, but stable. Good pressures and tidal volume. G-tube in place, good urine output from the catheter. Vitals are good.”

  “So why is she here?” Piper asked from behind them.

  Rosie pointed to an IV line, which had a second line attached to it. “She’s being sedated with a constant infusion.” Rosie looked at her father. “Everything looks good to me, unless she has a brain injury. I need to find her records.” She left the area and headed to the desk outside.

  “Doc, you okay?” Piper asked.

  He nodded. “I just don’t understand,” he said quietly. Tears started to run down his face.

  ***

  Andy and Tuck approached the building from the east. It was maybe a hundred and fifty feet long and a hundred feet wide, with no windows or doors on this side. Walking as quietly as they could, they made their way around it.

  As they turned the corner to the west side, a second building, single-story, came into view a short distance away across a concrete pad. Andy was about to step toward it when he heard voices, and he and Tuck quickly backed around the corner.

  “I’m ready to get off of this shit detail,” a voice said.

  “Pay’s good. It’s easy,” said a second.

  “Not worth it,” replied the first. “That Hoff guy is nuts, and that little kid freaks me out.”

  Andy gave Tuck a look. “This is definitely the place,” he whispered.

  Tuck nodded.

  “Just hand me that driver,” said the second voice.

  “Plus, Mikey and Steve didn’t come back…”

  The second voice sounded impatient. “Look, I know this is a weird job, but all we have to do is fly this thing and sit back and count our money, so let’s just get this prop fixed and go downstairs and have a drink.”

  The voices lapsed into silence.

  “I guess this is a hangar,” Andy whispered. “Let’s take those two guys out, then we can fly everyone out of here in whatever craft they have in there.”

  Tuck nodded and drew his sidearm. Andy pulled up his shotgun.

  They crept around the corner of the building once more. Farther down the west side of the building was a large door for planes—currently closed—and just a few feet from them was a regular-size door with a window next to it. Peering in the window, they saw the inside of the hangar. The two men were sitting at a table about twenty feet away, working on some machinery.

  Andy ducked and moved to the south side of the door. “It’s just the two of them. I’ll throw open the door, and you go in shooting.”

  Tuck stood off to the side, arms bent and holding the handgun close to his face with both hands. He nodded.

  Andy pushed the door open, and Tuck flew past him, the men in his sights.

  His first shot missed. His second shot caught one of the men in the head. The other man jumped up and raised his hands, but Tuck put two bullets in his chest before he could speak.

  Andy entered behind Tuck. “What happened with that first shot?”

  “Not used to using this eye,” Tuck replied.

  Andy smiled and hobbled after him.

  The hangar held a single aircraft. “This is a Super-Bee,” said Andy, astonished. “I’ve never seen one before. I wasn’t even sure they were actually made.” It was painted white with a blue “Braxton Inc” on the side. The gun turrets were missing and there was no armor plating anywhere. Andy hadn’t seen a craft like this since his final mission in the navy and he felt a slight shiver of uneasiness.

  “Looks a lot like our Bee,” said Tuck.

  “Yep, except it has eight props, and probably a lot of other upgrades too.”

  “About the same size though.”

  “Yeah,” Andy replied. “Let’s see if the comm station works.”

  ***

  They had agreed that Doc and Rosie would stay with Kat while Piper and Bandit moved to the lower floors. They still needed to find Pol, but it was clear that Doc was not going to leave Kat’s side, and Rosie continued to perform her due diligence as resident surgeon, so there was no arguing the point.

  The door on the third sublevel looked in on a dim area. Unlike the above levels, the left side of this floor appeared to be divided into actual rooms. The space they could see was packed with computers and equipment.

  There was no one inside, so they continued down the stairs.

  The last door, at the bottom of the stairway, also had a window in it, but it was covered from the inside. Piper and Bandit looked at each other. Bandit already had his sword in hand. Piper sighed and pulled the handgun from the holster on her hip. She wondered if she could kill someone with it even if she wanted to.

  Gun in hand, she used the ID badge to unlock the door, and the two of them stepped inside.

  ***

  Doc stood quietly at his daughter’s side. Rosie had been working at the computer for several minutes, and he didn’t want to interrupt her work.

  “From what I can see in her files, I honestly don’t think there’s anything wrong with her,” Rosie finally said, still studying the screen. “I think we should just turn off the sedation and see what happens.”

  “I already have,” Doc replied.

  His daughter stopped and turned to face him.

  “I turned it off five minutes ago.”

  She turned back to the screen. “There’s something else funny in here. There are charts for four patients.”

  “Four?” Doc said. “Kat and Pol, but who are the other two?”

  “They aren’t named, but—”

  She was cut off by an alarm sounding in Kat’s room. The two surgeons rushed back in, Rosie to the machines, Doc to his sister.

  “She fighting the vent,” Rosie said. “I’m shutting it off.”

  “She’s moving,” said Doc. “She’s waking up. I think she’s okay!”

  “Of course she’s okay,” answered a man’s voice behind them.

  Doc and Rosie spun around and froze.

  Cregor Hoff was standing in the doorway, tall and straight, in a long white lab coat. He held a handgun, which was pointed casually in their direction, and smiled cheerfully at his relatives.

  “Start the sedative again, and give her a bolus,” he said.

  Doc hesitated.

  Hoff pointed the gun at Rosie.

  Doc reluctantly complied.

  Hoff said to Rosie, “Start the ventilator.”

  Doc nodded at her, and she did as she’d been told.

  Hoff relaxed, lowered the gun, and smiled at his niece. “Ah, little Roswitha! So good to see you again! You have really blossomed into a beautiful woman since I last saw you. You were always the smart one, too, were you not? I was always impressed with your intellect. I was terribly disappointed when you threw it away and decided to go to medical school. What a waste. A surgeon now, I understand? Although you did not quite finish residency, I do not think, hmm? Too busy breaking into my lab, yes?”

  Rosie didn’t respond.

  “And Ocho,” Hoff said to Doc. “It has been a long time. The years have not been kind to you, I am afraid. No, not at all. You are quite fat.” He grinned.

  Doc
was amazed at how young his brother-in-law looked. “Cregor? You’ve barely aged since the funeral.”

  “Life in the lab, Ocho. Very little sunlight. I’m actually very surprised to see you here. I assumed you were both dead, along with the pilot and his wife, although I never received confirmation from my men.”

  “They’re dead,” Doc said flatly.

  “Well, that would explain it. I was notified of an aircraft being destroyed earlier on the coast. Perhaps that was the pilot?”

  Doc nodded sadly.

  “Well, you managed to escape his fate, but you will still certainly die here. I’m sorry, Ocho, but you and your daughter can never leave this place. I am curious though—how did you find us?”

  “Tracker chip, in the boy,” Doc replied.

  Hoff laughed. “Of course! I’m surprised you were clever enough to think of that.”

  “Actually, it was his idea. I suppose he knew you would eventually find him.”

  “He is incredible, is he not?”

  “He is!” insisted Rosie. “He’s the most amazing person I’ve ever met. You must tell me how you did it, Uncle Cregor! And why!”

  Doc looked at his daughter suspiciously, but she was focused on Hoff. Her eyes were wide open, and her expression was one of amazement. Perhaps she was stalling him? Doc could only hope.

  “Oh, Roswitha!” Hoff said with delight. “You may be intelligent enough to understand. To be able to fully appreciate my great achievement!”

  “Yes, please tell me, Uncle!”

  “I shall. Perhaps you will decide to help me instead of trying to hinder me.” He motioned for them to exit. “Let’s go downstairs.”

  Chapter 14

  A black SUV was secured in the cargo space of the Super-Bee. The same one that had arrived at Andy’s cabin what seemed like an eternity ago, starting this whole chain of events.

  “They must have landed close to Ely and drove from there,” Andy said.

  Tuck nodded.

  They moved forward to the passenger cabin. It was immaculate. The walls were beige, highlighted with Braxton blue and polished wood. Four large, luxurious leather chairs faced forward, with enough room around them to fully recline. Each chair had its own polished wood side-desk and a view from one of four large windows. Two screens were mounted on the forward wall, on either side of the door to the cockpit.