Righteous Apostate: Raptor Apocalypse Book 3

by Steve R. Yeager

  “On second thought,” he said to the dead man, “I guess you should have been a little more worried about me.”

  -7-

  STUMBLING BACK

  JESSE HOVERED OVER Tommy’s corpse long enough to search the man’s pockets for ammunition for the Mac-10, since this version used the same 9mm cartridges as his Beretta M9. But after struggling to roll the guy over, he found nothing of use other than a locking knife and a miniature flashlight.

  The next man had nothing useful on him either. As Jesse checked the third and final guy he’d shot, he again heard the sound of approaching footsteps. He shifted and pressed himself up tight against the wall, held still. The sounds of the footfalls were much lighter than before and were being made by a single person, not a group. He fumbled for the release on the Mac-10 and ejected the magazine. It was empty. Pulling back on the bolt, he checked the chamber.

  Empty.

  Tommy had been bluffing. Jesse had fallen for it. “Shit,” he said and let the bolt snap forward.

  The footsteps he’d heard stopped, started again, stopped.

  Crouching, he backpedaled past the dead bodies, fading into the shadows of an alcove. The footsteps grew louder. They were coming from the intersecting corridor. He leaned out just enough to shoot whoever came through.

  Then, Anna, the girl who had earlier come to fetch Andrea, appeared, skidding to a stop, head swiveling, hair flipping back and forth.

  Blowing air through his lips, Jesse let the barrel of the M9 sag and came out of hiding.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  The girl took one look at the dead bodies lying on the floor, turned, and started running the opposite direction.

  “Wait!” Jesse said. “Come back.”

  She kept running. Groaning, he started after her.

  “Stop,” he said loudly enough for her to hear. “Please, it’s okay. Andrea, remember? Kate. I’m with them.”

  The girl slowed as if realizing who he was. She stopped, turned around. “I recognize you. You were with her.”

  “Yes, I was. I am. Why aren’t you with her? What are you doing running around? You could—” He stopped himself cold. “Is everything okay?”

  “Kate. She sent me to get Kate.”

  Jesse said nothing. He realized why she had come. Anna suddenly dashed past him, heading to the stairs leading up, carefully stepping over the dead bodies. He spun and followed her back toward Cyrus’s quarters.

  “Why are you out here alone?” he asked her on the run. “Didn’t you hear the shooting?”

  “Yes,” she said. “But…but… I had to.”

  Jesse sucked a worried breath through his teeth. Things really must not be going well for Andrea. At least he had neutralized Tommy’s threat. That might buy them some time.

  Still, he couldn’t stop himself from shaking.

  They quickly arrived at the last door in the corridor. He stopped her before she tried the door and then kept her behind him while using the predetermined knock. The door unlatched and swung open, revealing Eve.

  Anna hurried into the room. Jesse nodded at Eve and stepped inside. Apparently, no words were needed between Anna and Kate, because Kate scrambled to the kitchen, came back with a white canvas bag, and rushed past him.

  “Hey. Wait,” Jesse said, as he blocked Anna from leaving with his arm. She looked eager to follow Kate. He licked his lips, considering whether Kate would be okay on her own and what she’d do when she saw all the dead bodies he’d left in his wake.

  It didn’t take long to decide.

  “It’s okay. Go after her,” he told Anna. Kate, he knew, would be fine.

  Saying nothing, Anna left him and ran down the hallway. He watched her disappear down the stairway, hoping Eve knew where they’d gone. He closed the door and scanned the room. Cory was sitting with his neck tilted sideways in one of the two high-backed chairs and holding a wet cloth against his forehead. Was the guy okay to move? Jesse wasn’t sure. He couldn’t recall if you could move someone with a concussion or not.

  They’d just have to chance it.

  “Where did they go?” Eve asked, appearing puzzled.

  “Come on,” Jesse said, raising the Mac-10. He waved the tip of the barrel at the door, indicating they needed to leave.

  Cory tried to rise, but Eve motioned him to sit back down.

  “We’ve got to catch up with them,” Jesse said. “Got to get the hell out of here. Everyone. Yeah, I think—everyone else is dead. Things are going to get a whole lot worse soon enough.”

  “Dead?” Eve asked, fear growing on her face.

  “Yeah. Pretty sure about it. So we need to get to wherever Andrea is, and that’s not here. Wherever Kate is headed, we need to be. She left to help a girl give birth somewhere, and I don’t know where the hell that is.”

  “We shouldn’t leave,” Eve said. “We have to stay here. He can’t be moved.”

  Jesse lowered the barrel of the Mac-10 and aimed it at her.

  “Oh, it’s that now?” she asked. “Are you going to shoot me if I don’t go?”

  “Shut up and help me with him.”

  “No,” she said.

  “Okay,” he said with anger in his voice. “You know that big Russian guy, Tommy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, he’s loose,” Jesse lied. “Do you want to be here when he shows up?”

  She considered for only a brief moment then hurried to Cory. “We’ve got to get out of here,” she said, restating the obvious as she grabbed him by the arm and tried to lift him.

  Cory was not all there mentally, but he seemed capable of realizing the danger. Jesse moved to help, but stopped when Cory slowly raised his right arm and uncurled his middle finger.

  “What the hell?” Jesse said.

  Then Cory reversed his hand and began stabbing his finger in the direction of the bookcase.

  “What?” Jesse asked, following Cory’s finger and immediately understanding what he meant. “Yeah, okay, got it.”

  Jesse helped Eve to raise Cory to his feet and adjust him until she was holding up most of the man’s weight. She was stronger than he had thought.

  “Don’t let him fall,” he said as he let go and hurried to the bookshelf.

  Lying in front of the bookcase was Cory’s samurai sword, still in its battered sheath.

  “Never leave home without it,” Jesse quipped as he grabbed the strap attached to the blade’s sheath and slung it over his shoulder next to the Mac-10.

  With Eve’s assistance, Jesse helped Cory to stumble outside the room and into the corridor. The sounds he had been hearing for the past few hours, the background noise of the air circulation system, suddenly went silent. The overhead lights flickered and winked out, leaving them in complete darkness.

  Jesse stopped cold. “Shit.”

  “Now what?” Eve asked.

  He could see very little, but as his eyes adjusted, he saw a dull glow radiating from something at the end of the corridor. He remembered the flashlight taken from Tommy and fished in his pocket for it. The thing felt no bigger than a roll of quarters.

  “I got it,” he said. “Hold on.”

  He brought the flashlight out and clicked it. Nothing. He clicked it again. Nothing. He banged it against his thigh and tried again. Still nothing.

  “What are you doing?” Eve asked.

  “I hate these damn things,” he said as he hurled the flashlight against the opposite wall, hearing it bounce several times before coming to a rest. He knew the way to the stairs, and he was sure he could make it there without tumbling down them.

  A yellow-orange glow appeared, emanating from the vibrating flame of a pocket lighter. He recognized the familiar skull and crossbones on its side. Grunting, Cory raised the lighter.

  “Go forward or go back?” Eve asked. “There’s a lantern in—”

  “Back,” Jesse said gruffly.

  They made their way back to the interior of Cyrus’s quarters with Cory’s
thin flame leading the way. A small blue light glowed on a lamp set on the kitchen table, guiding Jesse forward until he reached the lamp and twisted a knob on the side, which filled the room with pale light.

  “Someone killed the power,” Eve said.

  “What about a backup?” Jesse asked. “Generator?”

  “Uh, not sure,” she said. “Not here, at least. That’s why we have these.” She pointed at the lamp as she tried to take it from Jesse. He adjusted everything else he was carrying and waved at the door with the lamp.

  They left Cyrus’s quarters behind and moved into the hallway. The lamp illuminated only a short way ahead, which made it a struggle to get Cory down the stairs, but they managed to do so without dropping him. When they reached the bottom, Eve froze, bringing them all to a halt.

  “You?” she asked. “You killed them? I heard gunfire. That was you?”

  “Yeah,” Jesse said, feeling the squeeze on his shoulder from Cory.

  “They’re all—?” Eve asked.

  “Dead,” Jesse answered. “Leave it. Everyone is dead. David too.”

  “You killed them too?” she asked.

  “No, I shot these guys, who… Never mind. Where did Kate go?”

  “Kate?”

  “Yes, Kate.”

  “She went...” Eve said, trailing off. She seemed confused and couldn’t stop staring at the bodies. “You killed them?” she repeated

  “Eve, listen. We don’t have a lot of time. Where did Kate go? Where is Andrea?”

  “Andrea?” Eve asked slowly.

  Jesse stepped forward, releasing Cory, causing the man to take a stumbling step and pull Eve along with him.

  “Where are they?” Jesse asked forcefully.

  Eve stared at him for a long second. “Level B-1,” she said.

  “B-1? What the hell does that mean?”

  She pointed at the wall. Jesse held the lamp up to it. Painted lines in green, blue, yellow, and red ran along the walls. Every few feet there were arrows that indicated the direction.

  “Follow blue,” she said.

  They did, turning right at the intersection in the corridor and continuing down a stairway, through two adjacent corridors, then up, and finally down a long tube, at least a few hundred yards in length. Jesse began to hear water dripping somewhere, just loud enough to notice. The air changed too, now smelling musty and damp like a cave, not like the stale, recirculated air he had gotten used to. When they stepped out of the tube, he held up the lantern, examining the walls. The neatly painted lines had stopped and been replaced by rough-hewn stone.

  “Keep going,” Eve said. “All the way to the back.”

  Cory began to support his own weight. Jesse was able to let up and concentrate on the way forward. The tunnel continued, but soon looked nothing like the rest of the complex. He smelled fresh water and heard a low, burbling noise.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “Water,” Eve said. “Lots of it. Giant lakes. It’s where Cyrus kept—” Her words cut off when Cory stumbled. She continued, “Cyrus brought me here once,” she said. “There are living quarters on the far side.”

  Soon they passed through an oval-shaped portal. On the other side was a massive door propped open by steel bars. There was a big wheel in the center and latches around its perimeter. It reminded Jesse of something found on a submarine, a very large submarine. When he entered the chamber beyond it, he glanced up and held out the light. He could not see the ceiling. He whistled through his teeth. In front of him were large pools of black water separated by three-foot thick barriers. The lamplight skipped off the water but did not penetrate to the distant walls. Alongside the concrete lined pools was a pathway that led both left and right, and was edged by tubular steel railings.

  “Go right,” Eve said then stepped in that direction.

  Cory stumbled, but he was starting to walk on his own again.

  “Just a little farther,” Eve said. “There should be an orange door on your right.”

  Jesse located the orange door. It was like the other door with the big steel wheel and heavy latches, only this one was much smaller, and closed. He put his ear to it and listened. He heard nothing, but guessed the background noise of running water were enough to drown out any sounds coming from inside. With the butt end of the Mac-10, he made the same knocking signal he’d used on Cyrus’s quarters. Eve and Cory stepped alongside him, staying quiet.

  Nothing happened.

  He knocked again.

  Nothing.

  Setting the lamp down and placing both hands on the wheel, he tried to turn it.

  The wheel didn’t budge.

  He tried harder.

  No luck.

  “You sure they are in here?”

  “Yes,” Eve replied.

  Startling him, the wheel suddenly spun nearly a full circle. He backed away, fumbling for the empty Mac-10. The door squeaked open to reveal a girl in a blue dress standing on the other side of the portal. Jesse had never seen her before. She seemed no more than a child, maybe twelve or thirteen. He let the gun drop to his side and hang there by its strap, where it clattered against Cory’s sword.

  “Eve?” the girl asked. “And you’re Jesse? Andrea said that—”

  “Yes,” Eve replied. She helped Cory through the portal and followed him inside.

  Jesse stooped to pick up the lantern and shut it off. He took one last look over his shoulder at the absolute darkness behind him before setting his palm on the thick seal around the metal hatch. He peered inside, warily.

  Then he crossed the threshold.

  -8-

  CLEAN SWEEP

  DIRECTLY INSIDE THE portal was a narrow landing, followed by a steep series of steps leading up a long tube. The tube was tall enough that Jesse could not touch the top even if he stretched his arms as far as they would reach. Bright light reflected off the white painted walls. Narrowing his eyes against the brightness, he ascended the stairs, followed by a struggling Cory and Eve.

  At the top, Jesse stepped onto a concrete floor. He slowed to a crawl. His knees grew weaker with each step. Years. It had been years since he had seen something so wondrous.

  The cavernous room was at least a hundred feet across and half as wide. Banks of pinpoint lights hung in dangling fixtures from the smooth dome ceiling high above. On the flat surface that made up the floor, partitions had been set up to create small cubicle-like sections, giving the place the appearance of a large office.

  Only, this wasn’t an office.

  He stepped forward on shaky legs, taking it in, struck by the nearly impossible significance of it all. The air was filled with so many conflicting smells that he had trouble processing it. He detected pine, smoke, and ash. Then there were the human smells of people living together in a tightly controlled space, too many to identify.

  And, wherever he looked, he saw people. Women. And…children?

  He leaned against Cory, causing them both to slump like a couple of drinking buddies coming home late from the bar.

  Then, in the distance, over the din of human voices, came the sounds of a baby’s cry.

  A baby? Could it be?

  “Come on,” Eve said as she grabbed his elbow and forced him to help with Cory.

  Mindlessly, Jesse held most of Cory’s weight while Eve guided them toward a beige partition. He was enthralled by his discovery of this place. It made sense, ultimately. He had just been so tired.

  So damn tired…

  They rounded the partition and staggered past a row of hanging white sheets. Women passed them by. All were dressed in the blue smocks he’d seen them wearing earlier during the feast. Some stopped to gaze at him in wonder. He gazed back, stupefied.

  With each step he took, the sounds of the crying infant grew more pronounced, more hypnotic, filling his head until the cry became all that he could hear. Drawn toward the noise, he no longer felt fatigue or pain. He glanced skyward and blew out a breath.

  After passing yet anoth
er partition, he found Andrea and Kate behind it. Kate was holding a baby swaddled in a white blanket with pink and blue teddy bears on it. Jesse braced his hand on the side of the wall and let go of Cory. He stared at the baby then at Kate, nodding absently.

  Then he detected something else, something that was out of place and foul. He straightened. His gaze darted from Andrea to Kate.

  There was blood. Lots of blood.

  On a mattress behind Kate lay a single linen sheet. Underneath it was the clear outline of a body. The white linen was mottled with dark red stains. A glance at Andrea told him what he needed to know.

  His temporary wonder and joy slowly began to leak away.

  “What happened?” he asked, already knowing the answer, but not the details.

  Andrea began rubbing her temples in small circles with her fingertips. Her thick-framed glasses moved about on her face. The bloodstains on her hands cracked like dried mud. Jesse let the question go unanswered and approached Kate, bending his knees so he could match her height.

  He reached a finger toward the crying baby, forcing himself to smile while watching Kate for reaction. She kept her emotions hidden, but she nodded and held out the newborn for him to take.

  “Really?” he breathed.

  Her expression didn’t change. When he reached for the baby, she gently set it in his arms. The baby stopped crying.

  “A boy?” he asked, holding the newborn as if it were the most priceless thing in the world.

  Kate said nothing.

  “A girl then,” he said as he brought the baby against his chest, letting the fragrance of new life wash away the ugly stench of death lodged in his nostrils.

  He backed away and sat on a green box. He hadn’t wept in anything but pain in years. But with new tears forming, he stared down at the newborn child, remembering how he had once held his own daughter, so many years ago.

  Eve moved next him. She bent over and cooed at the baby.

  “Cute,” she said.

  He ignored her.

  Andrea cleared her throat. “Is it over? David is back in charge?”