“Take it easy,” Springer said.
Instinctively, we arranged ourselves in a half circle and silently unholstered our weapons. We didn’t point them, but kept them at our sides, our fingers on our trigger guards. Greta let out a low, steady growl. If she hadn’t been on a leash she would have laid into this unfortunate bastard six ways from Sunday.
The man was gibbering now, pleading with the raindrops that fell on his face. I could barely make out what he was saying. “F-first m-my wife,” he said. “Then … then my s-sss—dammit—my son. Mah … my little girl …”
He fell to his knees, sobbing, his body wracked with the painful memories of whatever it was that had happened to him and his family. I saw Holly about to go to him, but something told me to stop her—to keep her safe. Erzen went instead, holstering her weapon and putting a gentle hand on the man’s shoulder. Instantly, he stiffened and snatched her wrist with his good hand. Letting out a low, chilling moan, he jumped to his feet and slipped his arm around her throat, cutting off her air. We drew our weapons and pointed them at the man’s head.
“I’ll snap her little neck like a branch,” he said. “I don’t care anymore.”
Erzen struggled to reach her gun, but he grabbed her hand and jerked her arm behind her. She cried out. “It’s your fault,” he said into her ear. “My wife, my son, my daughter. Why did you have to burn them? I-I could have saved them! I wanted to save them!”
“Calm down,” Pederman said. “Tell me your name.”
“Shut up! It’s too late!”
As we watched helplessly he retreated, dragging Erzen with him. I thought about letting Greta go, but he might have time to kill Erzen before the dog could hobble him. The man continued moving backwards into the darkness. We began to follow, but a single gunshot echoing in the emptiness of the night stopped us. Erzen staggered forward, rubbing her throat and coughing. She didn’t appear to be bleeding.
Holly stayed with Erzen while the rest of us ran past her into the darkness. There on the wet asphalt, the man lay motionless, the left side of his head missing, rivulets of bloody rainwater streaming away from his body. Another figure stood close by holding a weapon at his side.
It was Hannity.
“Still not safe,” he said, and walked off, disappearing around a corner.
NO ONE WANTED to tell Isaac. Holly, the guys and I stood there faking smiles as he lay in his hospital bed, weak and in pain. The room was surprisingly pleasant. Morning light streamed in through the large, single window, softened by the grime on the outside. Isaac was hooked up to an IV. On a side table stood a plastic pitcher of water and a stack of paper cups. A tray sat next to it with a half-eaten breakfast of weak-looking scrambled eggs and pale toast.
“How’s the food?” I said.
“Now I know why I became a doctor instead of a patient.” Isaac tried smiling, but I could see he was miserable. “They tried giving me Dilaudid for the pain. I opted for ibuprofen.”
“No wonder you’re grumpy.”
“Is this a social visit? I’m expecting my attorney.”
Pederman stepped past Warnick and Springer. “Doctor Fallow, we learned last night that the mayor is closing down the isolation facility.”
“They can’t do that—”
“It’s already in the works, I’m afraid.”
“But what about the patients? Our tests?”
“We don’t have any details yet, but it’s definitely off-limits.”
“And here I thought you guys were in charge.”
“Yeah, well. Our mission here is ending,” Warnick said.
“I see. Makes sense after what happened at Robbin-Sear.” Isaac tried sitting up. Holly and I each took an arm and helped him. He winced from the pain in his side. A small patch of dried blood crusted his hospital gown. “Thanks. If they’re shutting it down, that can only mean one thing for those patients.”
“The incinerators,” I said.
“Exactly.”
Holly’s eyes went wide. “They’re going to kill those people?”
“They’re infected,” Isaac said, a resigned look on this face.
“But that’s murder!”
Warnick turned to Pederman. “What if we placed guards at the facility so no one can get in or out?”
Pederman shook his head. “You saw the bloodbath at Robbin-Sear. We can’t risk that happening again.”
Warnick persisted. “Isaac, what did you say the mortality rate of those patients is?”
“It’s high.”
“The mayor will argue that the others will die eventually,” I said. “In the meantime he can’t risk infecting healthy people.”
“Dave’s right.”
“And after they burn the bodies,” Holly said, “there won’t be any evidence.”
We stood there, silent for a time. Holly took my hand. I could feel her fear. Something nagged at me but I couldn’t put my finger on it. A feeling—or a memory. I let it go. “When do you think you’ll be out?” I said to Isaac.
“My doctor advised remaining here another few days. I advised him that he was a horse’s ass. I plan to leave tomorrow, with or without his permission.”
“Are you sure that’s the best thing?” Holly said.
“What do you prescribe?”
Though he was testy, Holly remained unperturbed. “I think you should split the difference. Get out of bed and do some work in your office. Sleep here at night. That way, if there’s a problem, you’ll be taken care of.”
Isaac scowled like a ten-year-old with a bedtime. I expected him to excoriate my wife. “That’s … a very good idea,” he said. “I’ll do it.”
“Thought you would,” Holly said, smiling.
“How are you feeling, by the way?”
“Still a little dizziness, but I’m fine.”
“Taking your vitamins?”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Good. Make sure she does, Dave.”
“Sure thing.”
“Well, we should get going,” Pederman said. “Doc, let me know if you come up with any ideas about the isolation facility. Or the virus. They can’t keep this town locked down forever.”
“I’ll be thinking long and hard about it,” Isaac said. “Thanks for stopping by.”
“Do you think he’s safe here?” I said to Pederman when we reached the elevators. “They did try to kill him once.”
“I’ll send over a couple of guys to stand guard.”
“I want to take a walk out back,” I said as we exited the hospital.
“What for?” Holly said.
“I want to have a look at something.”
We made our way around to the rear of the hospital where the incinerators were located. It seemed to me there were a lot more bodies now. The two Black Dragon crews handling the actual incineration and disposal of ashes were at least as big as the ones we’d seen the last time.
“Do you think there are still that many draggers out there?” I said.
“Could be,” Warnick said, “unless …”
“Unless they’re lowering the bar,” Holly said.
As we moved closer, two cops appeared, holding their weapons. I recognized them from the meeting the night before. “Can I help you?” one of them said. His expression didn’t spell helpfulness.
“We’re checking to see how the disposal is going,” Pederman said.
“It’s all under control.”
“Great. I’ll enter that into my report.”
The cop said nothing. He and his partner holstered their weapons and stood at ease, waiting for us to leave. These guys were no more cops than I was.
Holly shook her head as we made our way to our vehicle. “Curiouser and curiouser.”
“And weird too,” I said.
That thing in my head kept nagging at me as we pulled into the command center, but I couldn’t bring it into focus. Pederman had said something to Isaac that I couldn’t remember, and that made the feeling worse. The whole thing was d
riving me crazy. As we left our vehicle, Holly stopped in front of us and pivoted. I knew that look and that stance. And I also knew it was best not to argue.
“This is wrong,” she said.
Pederman remained patient. “Which wrong are we discussing?”
“We can’t stand by and let those people in the isolation facility be put down like stray dogs at a pound.”
“She’s right,” Warnick said. “We have to at least try to stop it.”
Pederman shook his head. “I don’t know. Ever since this situation went sideways, it’s hard to know what’s right.”
“Protecting innocent people is always right,” I said.
“Knowing what we know and doing nothing …” Holly said. “I don’t want that on my conscience.”
Pederman turned to each of us. The look of defeat in his eyes, there only a moment ago, turned to defiance. “Warnick, how many soldiers do you think we’ll need?”
“One squad should do it.”
“If I say no, you’re going to do it anyway, aren’t you?”
“No,” Warnick said. He was dead serious. “We won’t go against you.”
“Does that go for you, too, Dave?”
“You should know there are never any guarantees,” I said. “If we don’t do something, those people are dead.”
“Hmm. That’s what I thought,” Pederman said. “Well, I didn’t want to keep my pension anyway. Let’s do it. Warnick, assemble your team. I’ll be joining you. We leave in an hour.”
I whispered to Holly. “Are you sure you—” The look she gave me told me not to finish that sentence.
All I could think about as we rode towards the isolation facility was protecting Holly. I knew it had been her idea to do this, but she was carrying our baby. I didn’t want to lose either of them. And though we were wearing body armor and helmets, I knew that anything could happen. Griffin and Fabian had insisted on coming, but Pederman had shot them down. He wanted only professionals on this mission.
Warnick, Springer, Holly and I rode in a Humvee while Pederman and Erzen rode with the rest of the squad in an LMTV. As we approached, we passed around a dozen men in Black Dragon uniforms, walking along the security fence. At first I thought nothing of it, but there was something about the way they moved. We parked near the fence and got out.
“Hey,” Pederman said to the soldiers as they approached. “What are you guys doing out here? And why haven’t you reported in?”
They continued towards us, as if in a dream, and I knew they weren’t right—like the human-eating soldiers we’d encountered in the forest when we’d rescued Nina Zimmer’s husband, Steve.
“Something’s wrong,” I said.
“Hey, I’m talking to you—” Before Pederman could finish, the one in the lead let out a death shriek and they rushed towards us as one, surprising us with their speed. They grabbed one of our guys and disemboweled him with bayonets before we had time to react.
“Take cover!” Warnick said.
We ran behind our vehicles to give us time to get more weapons. The first few closed in as I raised my AR-15. I fired wildly, catching one of them in the chest. Angry, he tore the gun from my hand and tried to bite me. From the corner of my eye I saw Holly approaching. She fired at his head at close range. Blood and brains coated the windows of the Humvee, and he fell, groaning.
“You’re welcome,” she said.
“Holly!”
I yanked her away from another oncoming attacker, retrieved my weapon and blasted his head in two. He dropped inches from where she lay on the ground, having lost her balance. The other soldiers managed to subdue the rest, firing repeatedly at their necks and heads. When the shooting was over, we examined each of the bodies. None of them was corrupt—they looked normal. I bent down next to one and pulled back his eyelid. The iris was purple.
“Hey, look at this,” I said. The others came over. As they stood around me, the iris went from purple to brown. “Just like Ariel.”
Pederman knelt down to examine the body himself. “Is this what our other men looked like?”
“Hey, guys?” I looked up—Erzen knelt next to another of the bodies. “This one’s still warm.” We walked over to join her. “I don’t think these guys were undead.”
I knelt down and checked his eyes. “The virus is continuing to mutate. It’s making the draggers more—”
“Human,” Holly said.
Springer lifted a lifeless arm with his weapon and let it drop. “Except they want to eat us.”
We collected the weapons off the dead and walked over to the guard shack behind the closed gate. It was empty, as was the parking lot inside the fence. Everything was quiet. Springer took a closer look at the gate. The fence was at least seven feet high, with three strands of concertina wire running along the top.
I laughed. “Please don’t tell me we’re climbing over.”
“Wait,” Warnick said.
Mounted on one of the fence posts was a metal plate printed with the words FIRE DEPT. Springer pulled a key from his pocket, flipped open the cover and inserted it. When he turned it, a motor whirred and the gate opened.
“After you,” he said to Pederman.
Once we were in, Springer closed the gate again using a switch in the guard shack. My stomach knotted. There was no telling what we would find. “How do you want to do this?” I said.
Warnick signaled to Springer and both walked ahead of us. The front doors were locked. “Springer, do you have a key?” Springer was the keeper of the keys for Black Dragon, which made up for his irritating personality.
“I might,” he said, digging into his pocket. “Here.”
We raised our AR-15s as Springer unlocked the doors. Taking a deep breath, he swung one of them open. One by one, the entire squad went in. It was dark and silent inside. Someone found the lights and switched them on.
“What happened?” Holly said.
The building was empty. Only the Plexiglas cells and medical equipment remained. Wary, we kept our weapons ready as we moved farther in.
“Looks like we’re too late,” Springer said.
Warnick shook his head. “You think?”
As we passed a row of cells, I checked to see if the patients’ charts were still there. They were gone as well. We kept moving towards the rear and found a row of offices along the rear wall. Springer flicked on the lights in one of them and we went inside. When we’d been here last, I recalled that each office had contained a desktop computer and large monitor, as well as an external hard drive for backup. In this office at least, the computer and other equipment were missing.
“Let’s check the other offices,” I said. “I want to see if there are any computers.”
It took us less than ten minutes to make our way around the perimeter of the building, checking each office and conference room as we went. We didn’t find a single piece of computer equipment, and we didn’t find any physical patient records or other files. When we got to the last conference room, we went in and sat in the stainless steel and black leather chairs.
“You think they’ve already incinerated them?” Holly said, laying her weapon on the table.
Springer leaned back and put his feet up. “Had to.”
“And took the evidence.”
“I don’t think those patients are dead,” I said.
Pederman gazed out the glass divider at the rows of empty cells. “What makes you say that?”
“Just hear me out. Remember when we brought Ariel in? And she did that thing with her eyes?”
“Yeah, right before she attacked us,” Warnick said.
“Right. And remember when we found Steve Zimmer and our missing soldiers eating that guy?”
“Yeah,” Pederman said, getting exasperated. “What’s your point?”
“And those soldiers outside?”
“That’s it,” Holly said, “I’m gonna hit you.”
“Don’t you guys see?” I said, cringing a little as Holly shook her fist
at me. “The virus. It’s evolved.”
“Dave, we already know that,” Warnick said.
“No, it’s doing what they wanted it to do. Erzen, you said it earlier. One of those guys we shot was still warm. He wasn’t undead. It’s working.”
“What’s working?” Pederman said.
“Oh, no,” Holly said. “He’s right. It’s what those scientists wanted to achieve but couldn’t. The virus would always kill the person who was bitten. And they would come back as draggers.”
“They’re not dying anymore,” I said. “But they are changing. Into I don’t know what.”
“You mean these things we shot were alive?” Erzen said.
“Yes, and that’s why I don’t think they incinerated these patients. I think they moved them to another site. To study them further.”
“Why didn’t they take those soldiers?”
“These guys just wandered out of the forest. Who knows where they were when the cops cleared this place.”
“So where do you think they took the other patients?” Warnick said.
“Evie said she heard about another facility that was not in Tres Marias.”
“Mt. Shasta,” Pederman said.
“And I suppose you think we should go there,” Warnick said to me.
“As a matter of fact. Look, do you guys agree that everything that happened here in Tres Marias was an experiment?”
“Well, not at first,” Warnick said. “The dog infecting your friend was an accident.”
“Sure, but they took advantage of it, running their protocol as more and more people were infected. I keep thinking about that little village in Guatemala. Bob Creasy planned to try that experiment again—probably in some other poor country where no one would ask questions.”
“But this dropped into his lap right here,” Warnick said.
“Exactly. They got their breakthrough. They might not need Tres Marias anymore.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Mr. Pederman, it was something you told Isaac earlier. I couldn’t get it out of my head. You said they can’t keep this town locked down forever. You’re right. Whatever it is they’re planning, we have to try and stop it before it’s too late.”
The Dead Series (Book 2): Dead Is All You Get Page 20