The Longest Road (Book 2): The Change

by Thompson, A. S.

  Again, Diane was interrupted, this time by only one man. His curly brown hair faded into a beard- both equally overgrown.

  “Hi. Ricky Mason, reporter for the Times. Well, used to be,” the man said, nudging his way to the front.

  Diane didn't need the last part to know Ricky’s job title. After years on the job, dealing with good and bad, polite and impolite reporters, she knew Ricky’skind. His ego, way of speech and particular mannerisms said it all.

  “But if you're not here to save us, what are you here for?”

  His companions nodded their heads in collective agreement.

  “I was getting to that,” Diane said with a touch of sass. “I know you all have questions and we will do our best to answer them. But time is of the essence, so let me finish. We came here so I could finish my work on creating a vaccine for the infection…”

  For a third time, a whirlwind of questions, comments, concerns and criticisms swept through the room.

  “Vaccine?”

  “Like a cure?”

  “There's no cure for this thing!”

  “We are all going to die, unless we get out of here!”

  With the help of both Laura and a man in a security guard uniform, Dr. Bauer did his best to placate the group, but the uproar was too much for the three of them. Wild eyed, the group pushed past their blockers, heading straight for Diane. They wanted answers and wanted them now.

  “Back the hell up and let her finish!” came a roar from Eddy Graham. The giant rose to his feet, allowing the table to flex back to its original shape. He marched over and put his body in front of Diane's. “Next person to talk out of line is dealing with me.”

  Immediately, the others drew back, well out of Eddy's long, muscular reach.

  “Good,” he said, stepping to the side. “Floor is yours, Doc.”

  “Thanks, Teddy. Okay I'll keep this short and to the point. As I was saying, we are here for a vaccine. I have created a formula that I believe will be successful in combatting the virus. I was days away from producing it, but unfortunately my mobile lab gear was destroyed in an accident yesterday. Fortunately though, I remembered that this facility is equipped with the materials I need. I just need to get to the lab…”

  “Lab? What lab?” said a female voice from the back. “I'm sorry to interrupt, my name is Isla Page by the way, but I think you have made a mistake. I have been a secretary here since this place opened. There are no working laboratories on site.”

  “She's right,” agreed another. The woman introduced herself as Eliana Fuentes. “I run the WHO's public relations for North America. This is strictly an admin facility. Believe me, there are no labs. I mean we get doctors here like Freiderik and Laura, but they come for meetings, lectures and other business. I've never heard of or seen any labs.”

  Subtly, Doctor Bauer and Laura Gonyea ducked their heads and inched back out of sight.

  Diane inhaled a deep breath and sighed.

  “I guess it doesn't matter now,” she mumbled. “Isla, Eliana, unless you had top secret clearance, you wouldn't know. This building has a secret testing facility located underground. Which is exactly where we need to go to now-”

  “I knew it!” shouted Ricky. The reporter paced around the room, talking to himself. “Thank you, Doc, you just confirmed my source! That's why I came to Vancouver last year! I was going to blow the lid on this place!”

  Isla, Eliana and the others were startled by the allegations, but were downright shocked by the multiple confirmations.

  The only person in the room with a real sense of authority was a rough-looking private security guard. His short-sleeved, dark blue uniform had lines of sweat around the collars and armpits. A nametag stitched onto his left pectoral read, “Charlie.”

  “Dr. Phillips is telling the truth. My company was contracted here. We don't do 'rent-a-cop' stuff,” Charlie said, resting a hand on the 9MM pistol strapped to his belt. “I haven't been underground, but I know where the elevators are. I work that post.”

  “Secret testing facility?” interrupted another man. He was dressed in khakis and a ripped baby blue polo shirt with the WHO insignia stitched on the left breast. “Sorry, my name’s Saul. I-I do accounting here. What do you mean secret testing facility?”

  “Ya, what kind of testing?” interrupted a brunette girl named Ally. She was dressed in black jeans and a red sweatshirt. Silk-screened on the back of her sweatshirt was the same WHO insignia as Saul’s.

  The two others in the room were a young mother and her eight-year-old son. The woman pulled the boy in close, and the two kept quiet.

  Laura and Freiderik stepped forward and nodded in agreement.

  “This facility does serve as an administration headquarters, but it was designed to study infectious diseases. To find vaccines and cures. We do not create bio-weapons,” the doctor declared.

  “Riiiight,” mocked Ricky. “Like you don't make new bugs.”

  “You have to believe us!” Laura exclaimed.

  Ricky wasn’t buying it. “You guys are probably responsible for this outbreak aren’t you? Don't act like you're the good guys. I heard what you and your buddies were working on down there!”

  The cocky reporter positioned himself in front of the Freiderik’s face and continued his investigative questioning.

  Eliana, Isla and Saul shuffled over to Laura and hurled their own questions.

  “When we asked each other what we did, you and Laura said you worked at Vancouver General Hospital!”

  “Ya, you said you just came here as a liaison!”

  “Why did you lie to us?”

  “Is there some secret way out of here that you have been hiding, too?”

  Charlie and Ally did their best to maintain order, but they were simply outnumbered.

  Within seconds, the room was like a Jerry Springer show. People were in each other’s faces yelling, pushing, accusing and shoving. The shocking revelation of a clandestine laboratory had upset some and raised panic among others.

  “The hospital was our cover!”

  “We couldn’t risk global security!”

  “Of course there is no other way out of the building! Don’t you think we would have left by now?”

  Diane tried to yell, tried to break up the squabble but to no avail. She looked to her team for support, but found none. Alex had located a cozy seat at the end of the table, propped his legs up, tilted his Angels hat down and by all outward appearances, was sleeping. Matty was just as useless, leaning forward in the chair. He used his folded arms as a pillow. Eddy simply shook his head.

  “Screw this,” Diane mumbled. Unwilling to wait for the drama to abate, she pulled out her pistol and fired one shot in the air.

  Immediately, the others ducked down in fear, swiveling their heads to figure out who shot and why. Matty, too, jumped up from his nap, surprised and disoriented. Eddy saw Diane going for it and plugged his ears before the shot. Through all the commotion, Alex remained unmoving.

  “Look! I need to get to work, now!” Diane shouted. She holstered her sidearm and continued in a relatively calmer tone. “I don't have time for your conspiracy theory bickering. I need to get down to the underground levels and start on the vaccine.”

  Hand on his gun, Charlie was getting up from a defensive crouch. His prior military training resurfaced.

  “Hate to break it to ya,” Charlie started to say, “but I don't think you're going to be getting down into the underground labs, eh.”

  “Why's that?”

  “Even if you manage to get past the infected still inside the building, which I estimate to be around twenty-five to fifty, you need a special access card, a numeric code and set of fingerprints for the recognition machine. They don't mess around here.”

  “You don't have access?”

  “Unfortunately, no, ma’am. No security allowed down there, just guarding ingress at the surface.”

  “Infected won't be a problem,” Alex said from his same resting position. />
  The others weren't sure if Alex’s confident statement had been tried and tested or if it was just arrogance bordering on insanity. For fear of both, they didn’t ask.

  “Okay, say you do get past the horde down there,” Charlie continued, “you’re still a card, code and a hand short.”

  Diane turned to Matty and asked, “Can you get me access?”

  The computer hacker rubbed his eyes.

  “Panel code, yes. Piece of cake. Security card, most likely. Just need to get to the security office, or wherever you guys make them and do my magic. Easier than the code. As for the fingerprints, sorry, Doc, no-go unless you find someone in the system.”

  “Can't you just add me into the system?”

  “I suppose I could, but that could take me a while. A day, maybe two. Maybe not at all. Can't be sure until I get down there and see what they're working with.”

  “Ahem.” Alex cleared his throat and finally lifted his head. “I think you're forgetting about the obvious. Dr. Frankensteen here, and his psycho bitch friend...sorry not bitch...well actually, ya, let's stick with that. Him and his psycho bitch friend knew about the lab. Er-go, I’m guessing that at least one of them has the top secret clearance you need. And since the doc is like a hundred, I'm putting my money on him to have…”

  “Access,” Diane said simultaneously.

  “Bingo.”

  “It's Freiderik! And he’s only fifty-eight,” Laura hissed, defending her colleague. “And don't call me a bitch!”

  “Whatever. Apparently no one here has seen Young Frankenstein.”

  The shorthaired woman made a move in Alex's direction, but the German doctor held back her fury.

  “Laura, please. It is not worth it,” Freiderik begged, grabbing his companion by the shoulders. “Laura is just my research assistant. She doesn't have access on her own…”

  “But you, Doctor Bauer, you have access to the underground? Don’t you?” Diane asked, marching over to the white haired man. She repeated herself, and then added, “I need you to take me down there, now.”

  Freiderik fumbled for his words. “I-I would but I can't. Fingerprints I have, of course, but they change the code weekly. Also, I lost my card down in the cafeteria on the first floor. It is with my briefcase. In all the commotion, I left it down there. I am truly sorry.”

  “Shit,” Diane cursed.

  “Looks like we are going on a little scavenger hunt,” Alex chimed in. “No one said this was gonna be easy.”

  Hours before Diane had said the same thing. This time the roles were reversed and she felt how Alex probably did at the time. “You're right, smart ass, let's get to it then. Teddy, saddle up. We'll head down in five.”

  “Good to go.”

  “Okay, you guys can work on your little magical cure,” Ricky said walking to the double doors. “When the storm is over, I am getting on that crane and getting the hell out of here. See ya when I see ya.”

  In her tight business pants, Eliana strutted over to retrieve her personal belongings. “I'm with you, Ricky. Wait up.”

  “Where do you think you’re going to go?” Diane asked. “You don’t know what it’s like out there. There’s nothing left anywhere.”

  “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out. Besides, it’s better than being cooped up in here any longer. Starving, dirty, surrounded by those things,” Ricky replied stubbornly.

  Saul and Ally weren’t sure which side of the fence they were on. Stay or go. Good thing for them.

  “I don’t think so,” Alex said, racking the slide back on his pistol. The act stopped Ricky and Eliana in their tracks. “No one is going anywhere until we’re done here.”

  Ricky turned around and stared straight down the barrel of Alex's 9MM Beretta. His hands slowly rose. “Hold on a sec there, buddy…”

  “Not your buddy and shut up.”

  The room was at a standstill. Even Matty and Diane were unsure why Alex was stopping people from leaving.

  Surprisingly, Eddy explained. “Alex is right. They get spotted on the crane or coming down from it and our exit is as good as gone.”

  “Exactly,” Alex said, finally moving his feet off the table. He holstered the Beretta to ease the tension, but kept a hand on his blade.

  “Good call, Alex,” Diane said. “Everyone needs to stay put until I finish the vaccine…”

  Ricky lowered his hands, and reluctantly agreed. “And how long's that gonna be?”

  “Assuming all goes well, a day and a half, two tops.”

  “Two days! Lady, we have been getting by on a daily ration of half an Oreo. I'm freaking starving. I've been cooped up in this damn place for months…”

  “Then I'm sure a couple more days will be a breeze. Besides, we have food. Help yourself to it.”

  “If you clear out the bottom floor, the cafeteria will have all the vending machine food we need,” Charlie said, running his hand over his beard as he paced around the room thinking. “After the infection got inside, the facility went into lockdown. Those doors have kept them from getting in, but trapped us with the ones inside.”

  “So we're just supposed to do what? Stay here and wait?” asked Eliana.

  Eddy turned to her and said, “Haven't you been doing that anyway?”

  “Ya, but we didn't have a way out, duh,” Ricky retorted. “What happened to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?”

  “First, you're in Canada, that’s America, idiot. Second, if you don't try anything stupid, you'll stay alive. You're free to move about the building and you can pursue all the happiness you want after we are done here,” Alex said, walking up and getting in the reporter's face. “Try to bail. Do anything to jeopardize Diane's work or our safety and the hardest decision I'm going to have is choosing what to use to end your life, liberty and happiness. Got it?”

  Ricky swallowed into a dry throat. In his ten-year career as an investigative reporter, he had received his share of threats, but never like this. Never one with so much sincerity or resolve.

  “This is freakin’ bull,” he mumbled, sulking on his way back over to the conference table.

  “Alright, listen up. Here's the plan. Alex, Eddy, and I, will go downstairs and take out the infected. We'll find Freiderik's card and meet back here. Charlie, if you're up for some action, you’re more than welcome to come along.”

  “Count me in,” the security guard said without hesitation. “I'll ask Wes and Dylan, too.”

  “Who?”

  “Two other guards. Buddies of mine from the military. They are on watch. Besides them, that's everyone.”

  “Whoever you trust more, have them stay back with Matty. I don't want anyone trying to sneak off while we’re gone.”

  “Consider it done, eh,” Charlie said, walking out of the room to retrieve his friends.

  “After it's secure, Matty, you'll go with Charlie and get us those codes. Once we have those and the keycard, then we’ll need your hand, Dr. Bauer. Everyone got it?”

  Alex and Eddy had been waiting to get the show on the road. Matty gave a thumbs up, then reached into his bag and pulled out a laptop intent on prepping his role. Ally and the mother and her son took Diane up on her offer and retrieved some food. Isla and Saul stood nervously in the corner. They were still processing the fact that their building housed a secret testing facility. Both Eliana and Ricky sat at the conference table, pouting.

  “Babysitting,” Diane whispered to herself. “This is why I never had kids.”

  1350 hours

  Alex, Dylan, Wes, Eddy and Diane stared intensely at Charlie's hand drawn sketch of the first floor.

  “This design sucks balls,” Alex said bluntly. “Seriously, who makes a building into a giant ring and hollows out the center for some hippy garden? So much lost space. Only in Canada.”

  “Hey, watch out there ya hoser. Wes, Dylan and I, got a ton of pride,” Charlie said, lifting up his right sleeve. There in bright red was a maple leaf tattoo, taking up the entire triceps muscle.
“Got a matching one on the other arm, too.”

  Dylan and Wes both displayed their Canadian pride, too.

  “Don't even get us started on the States,” Dylan said, pulling down his shirt. He wore a Canadian flag tattoo on his right pectoral like a badge of pride. “Baseball...what is that shit?”

  “Watch what you say about baseball,” Alex responded, ready to defend his sport with violence if need be. But the fact that Dylan's ex-military build was twice his, he let it slide.

  Wes was a short, scrappy looking guy with glasses. He pulled up his shirt too, but had to turn around. His pride or lack thereof was displayed on his lower back. “Ya, you guys and your sissy baseball. Play a man's sport like hockey, eh.”

  This time, Alex couldn't hold back.

  “Dude, you have a freakin’ maple leaf tramp stamp. I don't think you have any room to talk about anything,” Alex joked, pointing and laughing.

  Dylan and Charlie surprisingly sided with Alex, and joined in on the laughs and playful harassing.

  “We were hammered one night and dared him to get it.”

  “Ya I can't believe you actually went through with it, Wes!”

  “You waiting for your boyfriend to shoot his maple syrup on that thing?”

  “Ladies,” Diane interjected. Slowly, the locker room banter died down. “Let's get back to business, shall we?”

  “Ya, and shut up guys,” Wes said, moving back to the schematics.

  “So what’s our plan?” asked Diane.

  “Gotta watch out for this part here, eh,” Wes said, drawing an X at a particular intersection. “That'll be bad news for everyone.”

  Dylan, Charlie's best friend, was going to be staying behind with Matty to watch the others, but he gave his strategic input. “You could use this hallway as a choke point. But that would be leaving you vulnerable here,” he said, countering his own argument.

  Everyone was having difficulty figuring out the best assault strategy. Both Eddy and Diane would have given their suggestions, but a construction foreman and medical doctor weren't the most combat sensible. So, the three security guards and Alex bounced ideas off one another.

  The circular design made close quarters combat difficult. Throw in the unknown amount of infected, and that elevated it from difficult to suicidal.