The dull thud of the woman hitting the concrete floor was followed by a savage roar. The man was briefly pinned under the woman's broken body, but with the help of the two boys began pushing her dead weight to the side and struggling to his feet.
Before Santos could react, Skinner bent over the ladder shaft, a large white bottle in each hand and poured the liquid down into the room below and on top of their snarling attackers. Without looking back, he shouted. "Eva - grab the big blue bottles and start pouring".
Bemused, Santos grabbed two large blue bottles from the rack, twisted the tops off and began pouring into the well. Skinner grabbed another two and poured. The liquid splashed over the body of the woman below and the floor surrounding her. The man had broken free of the motionless woman and was scrambling onto the ladder.
As he moved, the boys behind him began coughing violently. The man climbed the first few rungs and then began coughing. He rubbed at his weeping eyes and began taking short, shallow breaths. Skinner and Santos could hear the boys below him gasp for air. Santos grabbed another two large bottles and poured. Skinner followed. An overpowering smell wafted up from the room below. Santos and Skinner threw the empty bottles down at the infected pack below, ignoring the sound of violent retching and an overpowering stench rising from the tiny room beneath.
Skinner turned and pushed Santos out of the hidden door leading out to the sixth level. They spilled out onto the floor of the plushly decorated lobby, and the door clicked softly behind them.
Santos leapt to her feet, wincing at the pain in her shoulder, and quickly looked. Skinner sprang up, his head swivelling for any sign of infected players. The whole area was immaculate. Completely untouched.
Santos turned to Skinner. "What just happened?"
For the first time since the madness began, Skinner allowed himself a little smile.
"Finally, my high-school chemistry paid off. Mix bleach and toiler cleaner ..."
"... And you get chlorine gas. Very good MacGyver!" Santos grinned and kissed Skinner lightly on the cheek.
"Tait. Skinner here. Ok - we're here. Now what's the plan?"
They could hear Tait murmuring in the distance with - it sounded like - Tanaka and Itou. A second later, Tait responded.
"Immediately to your left is Tanaka's apartment. You'll see the door opening ... Now!"
They walked toward the large frosted glass doors and right on cue they slid open.
Tait continued. "Good, I can see you. Go into the apartment, through the security doors - I've unlocked them already - and you'll find the intravenous equipment in the second room to your left."
They jogged into Tanaka's spectacular apartment - the glasses placing great works of art around the large master room. Seconds later, they turned left and into a plushly fitted out bedroom. Expensive medical equipment was lined up along one side, and in the centre was what looked like a hospital bed.
"Ben. Over here."
Skinner turned to see Santos grabbing four small canvas bags, each containing a saline bag, tubing, a needle and a hook.
"Ok Tait, we've got them. We're on our way back."
There was a pause. More whispered discussions between Tanaka and Tait. Skinner could hear the urgency in the muffled voices. A brief pause and Tait was back.
"I'm afraid I have some bad news. Mr Harper's condition is worsening quickly. Going back the same way will take too long."
Skinner looked up at Santos. They were now out of Tanaka's apartment and standing in the middle of the large visitors' lounge.
"We've got no choice Tait. It's not like we can just walk back into the NOC through the front door is it?"
"Actually Professor, that's exactly what I have in mind."
#
Itou scrambled under the false floor. He'd struggled to get his bulky frame into the cavity. Every inch was a struggle as he squeezed, pushed and dragged his way through. Above - and now behind - him, he could hear the infected pack hammer with increased fervour against the splintering door. They were close to the kill, and they knew it. Itou's iSight lenses showed a thick line steadily shrinking until it disappeared altogether and a voice chimed politely "You have arrived at your destination."
Tait's voice whispered in his ear.
"Ok, you can stop now. You're in the desk behind and to the left of the pack."
Itou replied simply. "Understood."
Silently, Itou twisted onto his back, his broad muscular shoulders scraping the underside of the floor tiles. Placing one hand at the top of the rectangular tile and the other at the bottom, he effortlessly pushed the tile up and silently slid it to the side. Cautiously, slowly, he bent at the waist until he could see into the room. He was behind an upturned wooden desk in an empty office a dozen steps from the NOC. Exactly where Tait said he'd be.
Itou pulled himself out of the cavity, his eyes fixed to the side of the desk at the open office door. Now out of the cavity, Itou crouched low behind the desk and stole a few quick glances at the infected players smashing a broken desk against the door. There were four of them, all covered in gore. They seemed fixated, obsessed by the entrance. Like starving wolves with a trapped animal, they could sense their victims' fear, and it was spurring them on.
Itou nodded silently to himself. This singular focus was the weakness he would exploit.
He carefully slid two long thin steel arms from his belt. Before leaving the NOC, he'd snapped both from a bracket holding a heavy monitor to the wall. He took one quick look at the pack, crouched down low and whispered, "Ok Tait. On my count."
He edged around the upturned desk. He felt calm. His heartbeat was steady. His eyes stared coldly ahead.
"3...2...1...now!"
At that moment, an enormous crash from the NOC was followed by a dozen voices screaming and jeering. For a split second, an arm reached out through the splintered - almost shattered - door and pawed wildly at the attackers before trying to pull back. The noise had driven the infected pack into a frenzy, and two of the young teenage attackers grabbed the hand just before it disappeared, and hacked and sliced at it. A man inside the NOC screamed in agony as his fingers were severed. Three of the four attackers started smashing themselves against the door, as it splintered some more. In seconds the hinges would break, the heavy door would collapse, and the infected pack would enter the NOC. They could sense they were close. A blood-thirst drove them on. Only one, the muscular shaven-headed leader, reacted differently. He took a half step back from the door and glanced quickly to both sides. He could feel it. Something wasn't right.
John Evans felt a hard, dull thud in his lower back and wondered what it was. He looked down to see a blood-soaked steel bracket protruding from his lower stomach. He felt the air rushing out of his lungs and his knees buckled. He slumped onto his knees and stayed there.
In slow motion, he watched as a powerfully built man in a white shirt, grey suit pants and shiny black shoes, walked calmly past him and up to his three pack members. Evans tried to shout, tried to warn them. But nothing would come. He watched as the man thrust his left arm forward, and a steel bracket jammed into the neck, just below the head, of the teenage member of his pack. The boy crumpled instantly. Evans watched as the heavy set brunette woman turned away from the door and to the noise. He watched as the stranger calmly took aim and jabbed the bracket in his right hand through the woman's throat.
Evans felt the life draining from him. He watched as the man walked back past his two dead pack members - one already dead and the other drowning on his own blood. He watched as the rabid teenage girl turned toward the man. She held large shards of glass in both hands and her eyes were a crimson red. She coiled and sprung toward him. The man dipped his shoulder and pushed up, hitting the girl in the chest and forcing her backward onto the shattered door.
The door crashed to the floor and Itou tumbled into the room on top of the snarling girl. As they landed, Itou jammed the steel bracket in his right hand up through the girls chin and into her skull. The g
irl spasmed and fell to the ground. The momentum carried Itou tumbling into the NOC, and he fell heavily on top of the dead girl and what was left of the reinforced steel door.
Itou heard a loud snap and then a blinding flash of light. He heard distant voices scream and shout. He could hear Tanaka. He sounded distant. Muffled. Itou struggled to understand what he was saying. He felt the air rush from his lungs.
He blinked slowly. Calm, as always.
#
After the noise and chaos, complete silence fell over the room.
Horrified, Hill stared down at Itou's dead body; his neck twisted gruesomely, his eyes staring blankly to the side. Driven by fear and self-preservation, Hill had picked up the heavy bracket left behind by Itou and crashed it down on the infected attacker as he burst into the room.
Only he hadn't killed an intruder.
He'd killed Itou.
Hill bent over and vomited.
Tanaka stared at the dead man. His friend. His clean-up man. The indestructible Itou.
Killed by the cowardly lawyer. A man now retching in the corner and sobbing like a pathetic little child.
Tanaka's world was collapsing. He turned away from the scene to see Harper looking back at him. He looked like a ghost. Pale, dark blotches under both eyes, blood dripping from his side. His face was glistening with sweat. The strain showing on his face, his breath fast and shallow, Harper spoke.
"I told you Mr Tanaka. You've created a different world. Which means different rules. Everything evolves to survive ..."
Harper sucked in a deep breath. His blood-stained shirt was soaked in sweat. He continued, "... you didn't do this Mr Tanaka. You just enabled it. The rest was always going to happen. It always will."
Harper's eyes rolled back, and he fell forward off the desk. Tanaka jumped forward to catch the tall man, but his dead weight was too much for Tanaka and they fell backward onto the floor. Tanaka was pinned to the floor, Harper unconscious and gasping for breath lay on top.
The lights went out. The monitors. The computers. The glasses. All out.
They'd lost power again.
#
Skinner and Santos crept past the charmless uniformity of a high-tech office. There were row upon row of identical glass offices hugging steel and glass desks. Dotted around the floor were random spots of destruction. It was as if a twister had passed through, some offices were untouched, immaculate - while others had been smashed, destroyed, ripped apart. Some still had framed family pictures hanging neatly on the wall. Others were smeared with blood. A few had shattered bodies lying on the desk - left there as some sort of trophy for others to see.
Tait had successfully guided them down through the emergency exit stairwell and past the marauding packs. As they crept carefully along the west side of the large oval NOC in the centre of the floor, the brutal turn of events felt like a nightmare. They had the saline for Harper, and any minute now help would arrive.
Just ahead, a deafening roar erupted from the room - as if every last occupant had screamed in unison. Skinner and Santos froze. A few seconds further ahead, to the north of the NOC - where the glasses told them the entrance would be - the sound of an almighty struggle. Then - seconds later - silence. An eery, frozen silence.
Tait's voice whispered. "Skinner. Santos. I've got you on monitor. Make your way around to the entrance. The infected pack is no longer a threat."
Skinner raised an eyebrow at the tortured language. Holding Santos by the hand, he stepped forward, following the curved wall to their right. Santos walked beside him.
Skinner jerked to a halt. The muscular, shaven-headed man who'd stared at him through the glass, who'd smashed through it with his forehead and sprinted after them in a murderous rage, was swaying quietly on his knees. Blood was pouring from a gaping chest wound. The man was unconscious, dying and yet remained upright on his knees. Santos squeezed his hand tightly, and together they crept forward. A few steps past the kneeling man they found carnage. The door to the NOC had collapsed inward, and lying at the entrance were two, no - three, bodies. As Skinner stepped forward into the NOC, he could see a fourth body. Itou. His head was twisted unnaturally to the left. His eyes stared blankly into the corridor.
Further into the room, Skinner could see Hill curled up and sobbing hysterically. He saw Tait, who slowly got to his feet and nodded his acknowledgement. To Tait's right, Tanaka was on the floor, Harper's crumpled, unconscious body slumped on top of him.
He looked at Santos. Both of them were speechless. What in the hell had happened here?
Skinner looked more closely at Tanaka. The two men locked eyes and for the first time Skinner could see Tanaka for what he really was.
Skinner stepped forward. They had to help Harper.
Then the lights went out.
#
Tanaka struggled in the dark, twisting and shoving under Harper's unconscious weight. With one last twist, he freed himself and staggered to his feet in the gloom.
Over the chatter, Tait shouted, "Hold on everyone. I think this is just the power system recycling. Power will be back up in a minute."
Skinner held tightly onto Santos' hand, and shouted out "Tanaka. We need to get everyone out of here before more of those infected players appear."
Tanaka gazed around the murky room and toward Skinner's voice. His eyes quickly adjusted to the pale yellow of the emergency lighting. He could make out the shell-shocked technicians as they wandered aimlessly, he could see the outline of the players corpses piled at the shattered door. He could even see his friend's body twisted and lying side by side with those dead animals. He saw the four consultants, each among the most respected in their field, reduced to battered survivors scrambling for their lives. Andy Harper, the security expert Tanaka had used and misled, was now bleeding to death at his feet.
How? How could this possibly have happened? He'd built a perfect experience, something remarkable. An immersive experience that freed the soul. Allowing strangers around the world to meet, breaking down barriers, opening up new ways to connect. A new way to celebrate what made us human.
And yet, there he was. Surrounded by death and the darkest deeds of man.
Tanaka took a deep breath. He had to get out and back to Shou. Away from all of this. "I agree Professor. We move out now. I need two men to help Mr Harper and any of the other injured. I will lead the way."
Shadows shuffled through the grey room, quietly, almost respectfully. After Santos had jerryrigged Harper with a saline drip, two men dragged him to his feet while another held the saline bag in the air behind them.
Tait bent over and grabbed the arm of Hill. He was completely distraught. Tait led him past the corpses and out into the murky open area, and stopped beside Skinner and Santos. They looked on as technicians silently filed out of the NOC. Tanaka was the last to leave.
The dishevelled, blood-stained, battered and bruised group - among them some of the most brilliant minds in their field - huddled together silently and shuffled through the dark toward the fire exit stairwell on the north side.
As they moved forward, Tanaka held back. He turned to look back at the chaos and death he'd created. How could he face Shou knowing he'd caused this? How could she grow up in a world that would despise her father? Tanaka - a proud, indefatigable man - started to cry. A gentle sob, alone in the dark.
A punch, or perhaps a weak slap, to his kidneys snapped Tanaka out of his self pity. What was that? He could feel the pain welling up already. In fact it was throbbing. Tanaka turned to his left and looked down at the bald head and muscular form of John Evans as he swayed on his knees. Evans looked hazily up at Tanaka, before collapsing forward face-first. His nose cracked and split on the hard tiles, his head bounced hard off the surface. It didn't hurt. He was dead before he'd landed.
The Sapporo Outbreak Page 29