“Into the belly of the beast,” he said ominously. Possibly the worst thing he could have said.
My heart sped up, as I looked down into the darkness. I really wished there was a van I could sit in, with a computer. That I could handle. The thought of being trapped down there freaked me out.
I glanced at Danny. He looked equally freaked out.
“I’ll go first,” Dr. Kettering said.
He lowered himself onto a ladder and slowly began to descend.
“Guess I'll go next,” Danny muttered.
I brought up the rear. Below us was in complete darkness and Dr. Kettering had switched off his flashlight in case we were seen. I gripped each rail tightly; my palms were slick with sweat now. I tried not to look down into the void.
We seemed to go down a long way. Dr. Kettering had said that it was only three levels deep, but maybe they had expanded.
My foot bumped against something.
“Watch it,” Danny snapped. It must have been his head.
“Sorry,” I muttered. As I moved down the next rung, my hand slipped and I fell off the ladder. I let out a short scream, but only fell a couple of feet before I landed on something soft.
“Are you trying to kill me?” Danny said, pushing me off him. I quickly got to my feet, glad to be back on solid ground. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Dr. Kettering turned the flashlight back on, keeping it trained on the ground.
“This way,” he whispered. I was glad that Danny couldn't see my face in the dark. We moved through the tunnel. The darkness and the close proximity of the walls made me feel claustrophobic. I tried to breathe as evenly as I could through my mouth.
Danny stopped suddenly and I walked into him.
“What is your problem?” I snapped.
“Mine? You're the one trying to crush me. Or are you just trying to throw yourself at me, in a very obvious way?”
I shoved past him so I could see why Dr. Kettering had stopped. He had the flashlight beam pointed at a stone wall.
“Tell me that's not a dead end,” I said.
“It appears they have blocked up the exit from the other side.”
I groaned, this had been a complete waste of time. Danny took the flashlight and shone it around.
“They didn't do a very good job, look,” he said. He was pointing above out heads. They had filled the hole in with piles of rocks but they didn't go all the way up. About four feet above our heads, there was a gap.
“It might not go all the way through,” I said.
“Only one way to find out. Boost me up,” he said.
Sighing, we each supported one of Danny's feet and lifted him up so he could get a look inside.
“You can get through, but it's going to be a tight squeeze.”
“You and Danny will have to go in,” Dr. Kettering said.
“What?” I cried.
“If Danny can barely get in, I would never be able to and you need me to boost you up.”
“Why can’t Danny go by himself?” It was probably a horrible thing to suggest, but I couldn’t help it.
“You will need to get to the control room and hack in. You remember where it is from the plans?” Dr Kettering said.
I nodded. It didn’t make it any easier. He laced his fingers together to boost me up. I placed my foot on his hand and grabbed for the edge of the hole. I heaved myself up into it.
Danny was just ahead of me, “Come on,” he said.
The gap was about three feet wide. It narrowed the further you went. Danny squeezed through. There was barely a wide enough gap on the other side for him to balance on, before he dropped out of sight. I waited to hear a scream or a splat, but heard neither.
“Hurry,” he whispered.
I moved through the gap, finding it difficult myself. I balanced on the ledge too and looked down. It was quite a jump. Danny was pacing impatiently.
I took a deep breath and tipped off the edge. My whole body juddered as I landed on the stone ground.
“Are you okay?” Danny asked.
“Yeah, fine,” I lied. I was going to feel that landing for a while.
“Where’s the doc?” he asked.
“He can’t fit through, we’re on our own.”
“Are you kidding? Where are we even going?”
“I remember the blueprints. We need to find the control room. It’s on level two in the center of the complex.” I said it with more confidence than I felt.
Blueprints were one thing, but who knew how many obstacles we would encounter. But we were here now. We had no choice but to go on.
I took the flashlight from Danny and led the way. We followed another tunnel. The further we moved, the lighter it became. Emergency lights were dotted along the wall.
Eventually we came to a door that led into the complex.
“Ready?” I asked.
Danny nodded, “Let’s do it.”
I turned the handle slowly and opened the door. The lights were much brighter on the other side of the door and I blinked rapidly. Tucking the flashlight into my back pocket, I looked out into the corridor.
It was clear. I took a step forward, waiting for alarms to start ringing. They didn’t.
The floor was blue, the walls white. The corridor led in both directions. I tried to picture the blueprints in my head.
“Left,” I said.
Sticking close to the wall, we made our way along. When we got near to the corner, I froze. There was a camera. It was pointing in the direction we needed to go.
Danny leapt up towards it, caught the wires and yanked them out.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, “They’re going to see that the camera’s down.”
“Better they think it’s a faulty camera than an intruder,” he replied.
We moved down the corridor, which turned left. I looked around the corner. There was another camera at the end. At this rate they would find us long before we reached the control room.
We dismantled the next camera.
Finally we reached the room. There was one man inside, feet propped up on the desk in front of him. He was fast asleep. A dozen monitors were on the wall in front of him. Four of them were black from where we pulled the wires.
“How do we get him out of the room?” I whispered.
“I don’t think we do. We need time and control of the cameras.”
“You’re not suggesting we kill him?” I said.
“No! Are you nuts? We need to tie him up.”
That seemed easier. There were plenty of cables inside we could use.
“Okay, so we grab him?”
Danny nodded. He counted to three and we ran into the room. Danny grabbed the guy around the neck and clamped a hand over his mouth to keep him from yelling. I grabbed his legs to keep him from thrashing around. He thrashed anyway. His knee came up and collided with my chin.
I stumbled backwards away from him. Once his legs were free, he stood up. He was a big guy and easily dragged Danny with him.
“Jack!” he cried.
The guy grabbed Danny and lifted him up by the front of his shirt. He slammed him into the wall.
I looked around for something to use as a weapon. I hefted a paperweight and cracked the guy on the head with it. He stumbled and fell on top of Danny.
“Get him off me,” he gasped. I dragged the guy off him. He was conscious but barely. I grabbed some cables and tied his legs, then his hands.
Danny got to his feet groaning. “That hurt.”
“Get over it and help me,” I snapped. I wasn’t doing all the work here.
We bundled the guy into a closet and locked the door. I wedged a chair against too.
“Do your thing,” Danny said, waving a hand towards the computers.
“Sure, anytime you want to pitch in and help, let me know.”
“I just got squashed trying to take that guy down,” he argued.
I turned to the computer to see what I was up against. Due to the hour, there were only about a
dozen people working in the complex. There was a living area near the surface, which is where I assumed everyone else was.
I cycled through the cameras, looking for the lab. It was empty.
“I can unlock it from here; we can grab the x01 and get out.”
Danny wasn’t listening. He was staring at one of the monitors.
“Danny? Did you hear me?”
He looked at me, his face was pale. “That’s what it did to them?”
Confused, I moved closer to the monitor. It showed a holding cell with five people crammed into it. They moved around the room like sleepwalkers. They would bump into each other as they moved, but they didn’t seem to notice. One of them moved closer to the camera. A woman. Her eyes were glazed over, vacant looking. Her mouth was smeared with red. She looked like a walking corpse.
“I remember her. From the subway. She was carrying some groceries. She dropped an apple from the bag and I picked it up for her. She seemed like a nice lady,” Danny said. I could see tears in his eyes.
I didn’t know what to say. I still couldn’t believe that this was real. That they were real.
“If we can get the virus, at least we know it can’t happen again.”
He nodded, “You’re right. Let’s do this.”
Chapter Ten
Lance
I couldn’t sleep. For one thing, I couldn’t get comfortable on this crappy mattress in the 9x9 cell I was currently lying in. I needed my orthopedic mattress from back home. How could the staff stand living here?
It wasn’t the only reason. Being this close to the infected didn’t do much to relax me. They were securely locked away, but after spending the day watching them, a locked door didn’t seem like enough.
We had run the tests all morning, after the infected male had been dealt with. The techs ran cognitive tests and reaction times. They were slower that most people, but reacted to stimuli, especially loud noises and rapid movement. It was possible to get past them by moving slowly and quietly as their eyesight had been affected. Something I made note of in case I ever had to use it.
Once they discovered their prey, they wasted no time in tearing it to shreds. If the subject wasn’t completely devoured then they got back up a short while later. They were impervious to pain and utterly ravenous. According to the scientists, the need to eat was a natural response, but that didn’t explain why they kept going. People tended to stop eating when they were full. The infected didn’t seem to get full.
Only five of the original infected now remained. When we arrived at the compound there had been ten. The decision had already been made to cull them tomorrow. Breton’s orders. He didn’t seem too happy with the results and I knew why. He planned on using them as soldiers on the battlefield. Their resurrection trick would definitely come in useful, but they were too slow and they couldn’t take orders. I knew that wouldn’t stop Breton from working on x01. This was just the first stage and God knows he had enough top scientists at his disposal to figure it out.
Breton had also tested effective killing methods for them including infecting the infected with other deadly viruses, gassing them, shooting them and, in one case, burning one of them to a cinder.
The other viruses had no effect. Gassing and shooting them did nothing. Burning seemed to be the only reliable way to get rid of them.
And I’ll happily light the match.
Turning over, I tried to force myself to relax. It wasn’t happening. I got up and stretched my cramped body. Maybe a drink would help me sleep.
Unfortunately, alcohol was forbidden down here. It wouldn’t do to have drunken lab techs in charge of deadly viruses. The staff were cycled every couple of months to prevent them from developing cabin fever. I had been here a few hours and I was already feeling it. I don’t know how they managed.
I knew one place that I would find a drink. Breton’s office.
He hadn’t said much today, but I could tell he was already planning his next move. He was a chess player by nature and I knew he was already five moves ahead of everyone else. After my failure to capture Reese and Spratt, I wondered if I would still be on the board when this was all over.
I found a bottle of Scotch hidden in Breton’s desk. It was already open, so I figured he wouldn’t miss a glass or two of it. Pouring myself a measure, I moved to the window that overlooked the main work area. The floor was still stained red from earlier tests even though they had hosed it down. Their groans were going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
It was deserted now. I would hate to work here. Underground with a cocktail of nasty critters that could be unleashed. The incident on the train proved how easy it could be.
The intern had vanished. I had people looking, off books, but there was no sign of him. If Breton found out...Then again, I was the one he looked to when it came to cleaning up messes like this. I doubted he would question me.
Thomas Hill’s time was limited. He had no family to go to and no money. He was just a rat in a very large maze; it was only a matter of time.
I poured myself a second drink and returned to my cell. Once they were taken care of, I could go back to the city where it was safe.
*
Danny
“Have you found it yet?” Jack whispered. She was in the doorway keeping watch while I went through the vials again. This was becoming a pattern. At least this lab was smaller than the other one so there weren’t as many vials to go through. Hopefully this time it wouldn’t be water.
“Remind me again why I’m the one searching for it?” I asked.
“Aren’t you immune?”
“I’m not eager to test that,” I muttered.
I went through the whole fridge, no x01. Damn, did they know we would be coming here too?
“It’s not here.”
“It has to be,” Jack said.
“You’re welcome to look yourself,” I said.
She gave a frustrated sigh and pushed me out of the way. She went through all the vials too.
“It’s not here.”
“No, really?” I exclaimed, the sarcasm dripping from my words.
She gave me a withering look. I looked around for somewhere else. I found a smaller fridge in the corner, locked with a keypad.
“What about in here?” I asked.
“How are we going to get it open?” Jack asked.
“Can’t you just do your thing?”
“My thing? I hack computers. There are thousands of possible combinations to open this.”
“What are you two doing in here?”
We both froze. A tech stood behind us. He was in his thirties with close cropped blonde hair.
“I don’t suppose you know the combination?” I asked.
He backed out the door. I ran at him, trying to stop him from alerting any guards. We collided and both fell to the floor. This guy was slippery. He wriggled free of my grasp and got to his feet. He took off down the hall.
Jack leapt over me and went after him. By the time I caught up to them, the tech had a bloody nose.
“You bitch!” he cried.
I held up the item I had taken from the lab. The tech’s eyes widened, “What are you doing? Don’t open that vial.”
“We want the combination to the safe. Tell us what it is or I’ll open it.”
“Are you crazy? You could kill us all!” he cried.
“Actually I am crazy. And I will release this, now give us the combination.”
I tried my best to look like a psycho. The tech seemed to buy it. He reluctantly led the way back to the lab, protesting all the way.
“There’s a reason it’s locked, man. The stuff in it is worse than what you’re holding. If you guys are with one of those radical groups...”
“We’re not terrorists, we want to stop this company using the virus we’re looking for,” Jack said.
“We study it; we don’t plan on releasing it.”
“Then how do you explain what happened on the subway,” I asked.
“We don’t want it happening again. We plan on destroying it,” Jack said.
He shook his head, “You won’t get out of here. This place is heavily guarded.”
“We got in undetected, didn’t we?” I said.
He folded his arms, “I won’t give you the code.”
“Fine,” I shrugged, I reached for the stopper in the vial.
“No!” he cried, “Okay!”
He punched in the code and the door opened. There were three vials of x01 inside.
We stowed them in a cooler, while he stood muttering in the corner.
We backed out the door and locked it behind us. It wouldn’t be long before he got out and alerted security.
“Let’s go,” I said, racing off back towards the tunnel. When I reached the wall, I looked back for Jack. She wasn’t with me.
“What the hell?”
“Danny! What’s going on? Did you get them?” the doc called from the other side.
“Yes, but Jack’s not here. I’ll be back.”
“Danny, no. Give me the samples.”
I didn’t have time to climb up with them. I tucked the bag behind some rocks and ran back to find her.
As I turned the corner, two guards were dragging her along the corridor. She was unconscious.
“There’s another one!”
One of them let go of her and ran after me.
I took off down the corridor. I didn’t want to risk going back into the tunnel, so I did my best to lose the guy. I turned corners, weaving all around the complex, but the guy kept up with me. As I skidded into another corridor I came to a dead end.
The guy cornered me. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the vial I had threatened the intern with.
“Stop. I’ll drop this, I swear.”
“You ain’t that stupid,” he said.
I wasn’t going to be a lab rat either. I had no idea what I was holding or what it would do. I reached for the stopper. The guard went for me.
He punched me in the face, causing an explosion of pain and wrenched the vial from my hand. I fell into the wall, my head spinning. I’ve been punched a few times in my life but never with as much force as that.
After Zombie Series (Book 2): Before Page 7