“She’s a little pissed off at you,” Tyrell commented.
Andrea raised a finger, pointing it at his face in warning.
Tyrell raised his hands in submission.
She instantly wanted to strike him too. But, she forced calm on herself, taking a series of deep breaths.
“Okay, we are done here,” she finally said.
With Tyrell limping behind, they made their way back to the complex’s water storage reservoirs and the shelter beyond.
Even though Andrea was still seething inside, by the time she returned, her blazing anger had reduced itself to burning embers. She gathered Jesse, Eve, Kate, and Cory around a small table. Tyrell was on a nearby cot with his leg propped up on pillows. The dizzying hum of activity buzzed in her ears.
She had no idea what the exact time was. She sensed that her body was craving nourishment even if her mind was not. It had to be near dawn now, so she arranged for food. A few minutes later, it arrived piping hot.
“Eat,” she said, breaking the silence that had existed between them ever since they had left the infirmary.
She picked up a set of chopsticks and began eating from a bowl of rice. Steam filled her nose. She detected tiny bits of reconstituted egg and vegetable in the rice, which should have made it more appetizing. But after putting a bite to her lips and tasting it, she spat it back out. She could still taste the bitterness of the conference room and the warm food only heightened the sensation.
She set the bowl down beside her, resting the chopsticks on the rim.
“We’ve got to seal the hatch,” she said suddenly.
“What?” Jesse asked, rice dribbling from the corners of his mouth. He sat up a little straighter in his chair. He was holding his chopsticks clenched in his fist, and had been using them like a shovel to get food in his mouth.
“We’ve got to cut ourselves off from those animals outside,” she said. “We should have done it already. Seal us all inside.”
“Can that be done?” Jesse asked. “What about food? Air? Electricity?” Then he paused, glanced at his knee, and put a hand on his leg to stop it from shaking.
“Yes, it’s possible,” Andrea replied, “and we’ve got to hurry before the others find out about…all this. The conference was supposed to have ended by now.”
“What sort of weapons do we have access to?” Jesse asked, holding up the Mac-10. “Is there an armory?”
“I don’t know for sure,” she replied, shaking her head. “David knew, I think. It’s hidden. I think it’s locked away close to Cyrus’s quarters.”
“Damn,” Jesse swore. “And the door? Which one?”
“There are two, but it would be best if we could close the outer blast door near the entrance.”
“And you are sure that will lock them all out?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she replied, slightly uncertain.
“Then what?”
She shrugged. It was a start. Lock everyone away. Maybe they could figure out what to do when things calmed down. There should be enough food and water to last a long time.
“She’s right, we should get out of here,” Eve said, adding to the conversation.
Jesse ignored her. He stood and hoisted the Mac-10’s strap over his shoulder.
“Show me how to shut the damn blast door, hatch, or whatever the hell it’s called,” he said.
Andrea stared at him for a moment. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Cory said from behind them both. “No.”
“No?” Jesse responded quizzically.
“I’m leaving,” Cory said, seemingly out of breath. “Got to go…” He tried to stand, but instead staggered forward, falling against a desk, and collapsing to the floor.
“He’s not going anywhere,” Jesse said, turning his head back to Andrea. “But he’s got a point. What good will it do us to stay locked inside? Eventually, food will run out. Then what? We’d just be delaying the inevitable. Let’s get out while we can. You said there were settlements south of here. Maybe we can get there, find some help.”
“Too risky,” Andrea said.
Cory’s eyes remained glazed over. He coughed. “No,” he said again, reaching his hand up. “The raptors. Virus. I have to get to it before it is too late.”
“Too late?” Jesse asked. “What the hell do you mean?”
“What is he talking about?” Tyrell asked from the cot.
“It’s—” Andrea started to say. She went to Cory and helped him back into his chair. He tried to wave her off, but she did not falter. She saw stubborn determination lurking behind his gaze, as if he were trying by will alone to cut through a bank of mental fog.
After she had Cory sitting on his own again, she scooted a chair next to him and rested a hand on his knee. She needed to gather her courage and not let her anger get the better of her. Maybe lying to him would help. But could she lie to him? Would he see through it? Maybe she could tell him a little lie now to give him comfort and keep him under control. Jesse was bad enough. She couldn’t deal with another china-shop bull screwing up her plans.
“There is no virus,” she said bluntly. “It was all a lie.”
Cory wobbled in his seat, saying nothing.
“You don’t believe me?” she asked.
He remained quiet.
“I know this might be a little…hard to take,” she said. “I hate being the one to tell you, but…” She drew another breath, a deep one. “We were all suckered into that giant mess. The entire SESP organization was such a big lie. A total mind screw. No better than a damned cult.” She looked down, looked up. He seemed to be taking this better than she had thought he would. She half-expected him to jump up or start shouting her down, calling her a liar. So many in that movement were nothing more than repressed adolescents, too stupid to grow up and begin thinking for themselves.
She continued, “I have been to Bunker 12. And, yes, I once even lived there.”
She waited a moment, letting it sink in, watching for reaction before continuing. “And you know what? We were all betrayed. No one really knew what happened or why. Now, I’m the only one left.”
Laying her hands on her thighs, she pressed herself straight. “I was part of the project from the start. They used my research. They used me. It was my goddamned life’s work they stole.”
She looked around, seeing Jesse and Eve leaning in closer, shocked expressions on their faces. She could not tell what they were thinking, but it wasn’t good.
“I was angry,” she said. “Furious. But when they offered me a choice between living and dying, I chose to live.” She lowered her head to her chest. “Maybe that was my mistake,” she mumbled.
She could remember it all so clearly. The very same man who had abandoned her years ago had saved her. He found her in her lab and scared off the raptors before they could attack her. At first, she’d lied to herself that he’d done it for love. Then he stole her away, eventually telling her about the organization and how it was saving the world by destroying it. She’d essentially been kidnapped and brainwashed. She tried twice to get away, but they caught her both times, only to be returned and forced to continue her research. She never knew where she was most of the time. It was always work or be killed. Eventually, she became far too fearful to attempt escape.
“You are wrong,” Cory said. “You do not understand. There is a virus. It will…” he trailed off.
“That was always a false hope,” she said, giving him a shaky smile and rubbing the tops of her legs harder. “What they really had in mind was much different. Only a few people ever knew about it. I was disposable, so—”
“Let me go,” Cory said, cutting her off. “I will prove it. It is there.”
Andrea took a breath, let it out slowly. She hoped he would believe her, hoped that he wouldn’t see through the lie she was about to tell. She would need his help here, much as she hated to admit it.
“I’m afraid not,” she said. “Really, I wish it were true.
I’d be the first to go back there with you.”
“I’ll go,” Jesse said suddenly, surprising her.
She turned and peered at him over the frames of her glasses. “Are you crazy? Didn’t you hear what I just said? There is nothing to find there.”
“I promised Cory that I’d take him,” Jesse said, as if it were as easy as that. “And once we get there, we can figure out if he is right or not.”
“I know I am right,” Andrea said.
“I’m going too,” Eve interjected, piling on.
Andrea shushed her. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“Are you so certain?” Jesse asked. “And does it really it matter in the end?” He spread his hands, palms up, fingers splayed. “We have to find a way to protect all this. And that’s not going to happen by locking us all inside and starving to death.”
She let out a grunt of dissent. But she knew he was right. She had just admitted how deep her involvement with the organization went, and they’d absorbed it without ripping her head off. She’d been responsible for so many deaths. Billions, perhaps. She sucked on her bottom lip for a few seconds, considering.
“Okay,” she said. “There was a virus. I know because I helped test it. And it didn’t fucking work.”
“It is there, and it will work,” Cory said.
Andrea asked, “Okay, what if—?”
Cory cut her off with a raised hand. “We are going. You can stay behind if you want.”
Jesse nodded his agreement. “We have to know for sure, don’t we?”
“Okay,” Andrea said slowly. New plans began to form in her head. If there was any way possible to undo this mess she’d caused, she owed it to all those who had died to at least attempt to find it. There were places in the complex even she was not allowed in. So, Cory could very well be right.
“Yes…yes…” she said. “We’ll do it your way. You, Cory, and I will go. Kate can stay—”
“No,” Jesse stated firmly. “I’m not leaving Kate behind again.”
“She has to stay here.”
“No,” Jesse repeated, giving his head a stubborn shake.
Andrea needed Kate to remain. She was only a child, but she had the basic medical training the others didn’t. But, then it just seemed so preposterous to leave such a young girl in charge of all this. “Okay,” Andrea said reluctantly. “She goes.”
“I’m going too,” Eve said.
“Hell no,” Jesse replied as he stepped closer to her. “No way you are going. Not after—”
“Kate goes, I go,” Eve stated firmly.
Kate, who was standing near Eve, nodded in agreement. She circled behind Cory and pressed something against the cut above his eye. He winced, but held still.
“I don’t want her along,” Jesse said. “Not after what she did.”
Andrea didn’t want Eve to come along either, but she had been around Kate long enough to know that she generally had a good sense about people. If she thought Eve should come, then she should come along.
“Eve goes too,” Andrea said.
“No,” Jesse and Cory both chorused.
Kate left Cory’s side and went to Jesse. She took his hand in hers and held it cradled between her fingers. He seemed puzzled by the gesture.
“She goes,” Kate said, then let go and returned to Eve.
“I…guess she’s coming too,” Jesse said. He lifted his hand and gawked at his palm where Kate had touched him.
Mumbling incoherently, Cory stood. He stepped once and halted. He reached out for the table, blinking heavily. Andrea knew he shouldn’t even be moving, let alone traveling anywhere, but she wasn’t about to stop him.
“How about in…twenty or thirty minutes?” Jesse asked, checking an imaginary watch on his wrist. “If we leave that soon, we can get out while things are still stirred up. Slip past unnoticed.”
Andrea nodded, even though she was not sure slipping past would be possible.
“Kate, come with me,” Jesse said. He picked up the lantern and switched it on.
“Where are you going?” Andrea demanded.
“One final sweep,” Jesse said. “Then we’ll all meet up by the blast door.” He turned, looking as if he’d forgotten something. “What about… Tyrell?” he added.
“What about him?” she asked.
“Can you trust him?”
She planned to have him remain behind to protect the women and children. But could she trust him? He’d be the only guy locked inside with them. Then she rethought it. Maybe she had it backward. Could she trust the women to leave him alone?
“Yes,” she finally said, in answer to both her question and to Jesse’s. She didn’t have much of a choice. “You okay with that?” she asked Tyrell.
He grinned his reply. She looked for any deception in it and saw none. Though, she could not be certain. And then she thought of the poor women outside. The hollowed out souls that’d been used up by those knuckle-dragging vermin. Could she somehow save them too?
“Twenty minutes,” Andrea repeated firmly. “We meet where he said, the entrance tunnel, next to the blast door.”
Then she suddenly realized how much needed to get done in those twenty minutes and swallowed hard.
-10-
LET'S TRY THAT AGAIN
JESSE WAS RUNNING on fumes by the time they had all gathered inside the long tunnel just beyond the blast door. The tunnel led from the heart of the mountain to a half-circle opening at the other end. Bluish moonlight reflected off the white-painted surfaces, lending a fluorescent weight to the scene.
There was no one guarding the entrance, so Jesse took the rare opportunity to grin at his good fortune. He and Kate had searched the empty complex, from the offices, to the rooms piled high with supplies stripped from the surrounding countryside. But they found no weapons or ammunition. They did encounter a few locked doors that had to remain unchecked. There just wasn’t enough time to break in or hunt down keys.
But the complex was clear of all the two-legged vermin to the best of Jesse’s knowledge. Only the women and children and Tyrell were left. Andrea had assured him leaving Tyrell locked inside was for the best. But Jesse wasn’t so certain. The temptation would just be too high. Again, he didn’t really have a choice.
They’d also worked out a plan for one of the women to go to the entrance and listen each day at sunset for a distinct knock. As for food, Andrea had calculated that those left behind should have enough supplies to last them at least three to six months. Which, Jesse figured, was plenty of time for help to arrive, if it ever did arrive.
The bodies of the men killed in the conference room would be disposed of via the sanitation system. Tyrell volunteered to take on that grisly task. He’d also make sure David was not among them. Andrea had requested that David be preserved somewhere, and they would come back and bury him properly. She was insistent not to have him hacked up and flushed away like the rest.
Ready, they said their goodbyes, helped close the blast door, and exited the tunnel. Cory even managed to make it on his own. Jesse stopped to take a breath of the fresh mountain air, letting it reinvigorate him. A scant sliver of moonlight remained along with a million tiny points of light. He scanned the area as far down the road as he could see. New growth pine and other conifer trees blocked much of the view.
It was half a mile to the first of the outbuildings. Even further to the garage, which was a long way on foot with Cory staggering most of the way.
But, fortunately, some of those that had attended the quickly organized conference had left behind their vehicles. Parked against a concrete wall were two electric golf carts, each painted black with a glowing pale-yellow sun and ray logo on the side.
“Let’s go,” Jesse said, sliding behind the wheel of the first cart. Shaking, Cory got in the passenger’s seat. Andrea, Kate, and Eve climbed on the back and sat in the rearward facing bench seat.
“Ready?” Jesse asked.
After hearing mu
mbled approvals, he began flipping switches, and clunking a shifter until figuring out how to turn on the cart and get it to back up. The electric motor whirled, jerking them all backward. He let off, clunked the shifter to go forward, and stomped on the accelerator, pinning it against the floorboard. The cart lurched forward, and the speed leveled out at a pace no faster than a slow run.
Wrapping his fingers around the steering wheel, he rested on his forearms, mentally begging the damn golf cart to move faster. It didn’t. Flipping various switches, he found one that turned on a single working headlight, which was not much brighter than the pre-dawn moonlight.
Many long minutes later, they reached the bottom of the hill. The cart slowed even further as the road leveled out.
Jesse sat up straighter in his seat. From behind a row of orange cones, three men stepped out to block the way forward. Jesse weaved around the cones and let the cart roll up alongside the men. Andrea stepped off the cart and came around from the back seat to confront the men. The gray streaks in her hair glowed brightly in the moonlight.
“Yes, what is it?” she asked bluntly.
“’Doc, what are you doing here?” a guard said. “Are they done already?”
“Yes,” Andrea lied. “You will have new orders soon. Hold tight and let us through. Urgent business.”
“Where’re you going?” the man asked.
Andrea did not hesitate. “Excuse me?” she asked in an offended tone. “You will let us through…now.”
“Where’s Gonzalez? Tommy?” the man asked.
“They’re still meeting. Let us through. Now, or Cyrus will hear about it.”
One of the men shoved the other two aside. “Hey, you’re that crazy dude from the arena,” he said to Jesse. “You and…” He looked inside the cart at Cory. “Hey, it’s him. The sword guy.”
Cory stared at them for a moment. He raised a hand and wriggled his fingers. “These aren’t the droi—”
“We’re in a hurry,” Andrea said, cutting him off. “Would you like to explain to Cyrus why you made us wait?”
The man seemed to consider this, while inspecting each person on the cart in turn. The other two whispered something to each other, while smiling at Cory. Finally, the first guy shrugged then stepped aside and waved them through.
Righteous Apostate: Raptor Apocalypse Book 3 Page 8