by Damon Hunter
“It doesn’t,” Riley replied.
Thompson didn’t like the sound of that, but it was out of his hands.
Bo waited until Thompson was gone before he turned to the others and said, “Anyone else thinking he had something to do with those bombs?”
“We were in the Quarantine Zone for nearly a week,” Ana said, “and all he wants to know about is the one day we were in that nut job’s compound. I’d say he’s worried about something Carson was doing.”
Before anyone could answer, a big guy with a tattooed neck came through the door. He nodded at them and smiled before walking to the window. He stood there awhile but no one came to take his order. He walked over to the table and said, “Looks like the lunch crew is taking a lunch break.”
“They were there just a minute ago,” Katelin said as he moved behind Bo.
“Bummer. I was hoping to get a bite to eat before.”
“Before what?” Ana asked.
“This,” he said as he slammed Bo’s head into the table with one hand while he drew the sharpened spoon with the other.
Ana leaped to her feet and grabbed his hand as he brought down the spoon towards the back of Bo’s neck. He jerked his hand away and punched her in the face while still holding Bo’s face on the table. Bo tried to get free but the big convict was too strong.
Katelin jumped up and grabbed her chair, planning to use it as a weapon, but he kicked her in the chest before she could swing, sending her sprawling to the ground.
Bo quit trying to get loose and pushed the table instead. Without the table under his face, he fell forward and instead of taking a fatal wound to the neck, he got shanked in the top of his shoulder.
Ana came up over the table and Gideon pulled the spoon out of Bo’s shoulder and stabbed her in the stomach. He pushed her away as he pulled the spoon loose. Bo was trying to stand but Gideon stomped on his back. He put his knee on Bo’s back holding him down. He looked to see the kid was down and the young woman was too busy holding her wound to get in the way this time. He raised the spoon to finish off the first of his three victims.
Before he could bring it down, someone grabbed his arm. He looked back to see Curtis, a man he had never seen before. He didn’t see him long, as Curtis punched him in the face.
Curtis twisted Gideon’s arm until he dropped the bloody, sharpened spoon. He was looking to deliver another punch when Gideon came up with the fork and stabbed him in the throat. Gideon rose to his feet and jabbed the fork into the TMRT soldier’s neck again. Even as his neck began to spray blood, Curtis tried to grab the weapon, but he was too slow. Gideon stabbed him again, this time putting the fork in deep. He tried to pull it free, but the blood made it slippery and Curtis fell to the floor with the fork still buried in his neck.
Gideon turned to look for the spoon and saw the teenager had recovered enough to come at him.
He smiled and said, “Bring it on, little girl.”
Katelin grabbed her bowl of hot soup and threw it in his face. While he was reaching for his burning face she smashed the bowl across the top of his head. Gideon took a step back to recover and felt steel penetrate his kidneys.
He spun and swung at Ana as she pulled the sharpened spoon out of his back. The swing missed and she jumped forward, driving the spoon into his chest. He grabbed her this time and had his hands on her skinny neck before she could pull the shank free and stab him again.
Katelin punched and kicked him as he began squeezing the life out of Ana, but her blows had no effect.
Bo rolled to his feet and saw Curtis pull the fork out of his neck. In doing so, he sped up his loss of blood and was dead before the fork hit the floor.
Katelin grabbed Gideon’s ear and tried to twist it off. He let go of Ana with one hand and knocked her away with his elbow. Before Ana could get loose, he was back to choking her with both hands. He didn’t see Bo until the fork was jammed into his ear.
Bo twisted the fork and pulled it free. He thought the bloody mass that was stuck in the tines looked a lot like brains. He didn’t take any chances, however, jamming the fork into their attacker’s eye.
Gideon dropped the girl and swung blindly at his attacker, knocking him away before he could pull the fork out of his eye. He was reaching for it to pull it out when something hit him and pushed the eating utensil deeper into his face.
Katelin swung the chair, putting the back right on the fork and driving it into the convict’s eye. She swung again, driving it further into his eye socket. Gideon tried to back away and tripped over his own feet. Katelin stepped forward and pounded on the fork with the chair until the entire utensil disappeared into their attacker’s face.
He was still trying to grab the fork and pull it free as he lay there. With his one good eye he looked at the teenager holding a chair above him and said, “Who are you?”
“Killer Kate, motherfucker,” she told him before using the chair to pound the spoon into his chest the same way she pounded the fork into his face. The sharpened spoon took out a chunk of his heart and Gideon died instantly on the cold, bloody mess hall floor.
Kate looked at Curtis. “I thought he was a creep, but he saved us.”
“He might still have been a creep,” Bo said as he helped Ana to her feet. “I know that look he was giving you and if he was thinking what he looked like he was thinking, he was still a creep, but he did save us.”
“Who was this asshole?” Katelin asked.
“I don’t know,” Ana said between gasps for air. “Maybe we didn’t lie to Thompson as well as we thought.”
Bo looked at his shoulder. “If I thought we could trust them, I think we all need a trip to the infirmary.”
Ana looked at the wound in her stomach. “I didn’t go through all that shit to get killed by a spoon.”
The door opened and they all looked up, expecting the worst. When they saw Torrance, they were not sure if it was a good thing or a bad one.
Torrance looked at the bodies on the floor and the trio of battered, bruised and bleeding young people. He went to the window and saw, for some reason, the mess hall workers manning the window were gone.
“What happened here?!” he asked even though he had a good idea.
Bo pointed at Gideon. “This asshole tried to kill us. Curtis died trying to stop him.”
“Shit,” Torrance said. “I never thought they would move this soon. We need to get to the infirmary.”
“I agree,” Ana said, “this hurts like hell.”
“Sorry to say,” Torrance said, “unless it’s life or death, we aren’t going to be there long enough to patch you up. Let’s go.”
Torrance opened the door to see Agent Riley with a gun in his hand moving quickly his way. Torrance had done enough surveillance to know Riley was behind this. Torrance shut the door as Riley was raising his weapon.
Torrance ran his hand across the wall and a control panel appeared. He punched in a code and the door locked.
“What are you doing?” Bo asked. “I thought we needed to get to the infirmary?”
“We do,” Torrance said as he moved to the other side of the room, “but there is a CIA spook outside with a gun who has another idea.”
“So are we trapped here?”
“No, the segregated area has an extra hallway built on the outside,” Torrance said as he made another digital keypad appear and punched in another code. A door none of them had been able to see slid open. “We need to hurry. He will be able to override the code I used to lock the door.”
Bo helped Ana as the three of them hustled into the passageway. Torrance stepped in as the door to the mess hall opened and Riley stepped through. Torrance drew his sidearm and fired a quick two shots before moving away and closing the door. He knew he hadn’t hit the CIA spook, but hoped the idea that his quarry was willing to shoot back might slow him down.
Bo and Ana started to head for the door they could see at the end of the passageway, which they figured led them off the segregated floor.
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“Other way,” Torrance said. “Quickly.”
He moved them deeper into the segregated floor and opened the first door he came to. The four of them went through and found themselves in the quarters that used to belong to Curtis.
Torrance closed the door and then told them, “We need to wait here, he will have tapped into the hallways surveillance cameras. The rooms are not being surveilled.”
“Won’t he figure it out?” Bo said as he helped Ana to the bed.
“Yes, but he won’t know which one.”
“You don’t think he will check this one first?” Katelin asked.
“Yes I do, which is why we need to be ready for him,” Torrance said as he reached behind his back and drew another pistol. He tossed it Katelin. “I assume with her hurt you’re the best shot.”
“Damn right,” Katelin said as she racked the slide on the TMRT standard issue forty-five and chambered a round.
“I didn’t figure you to be the type to carry one gun, let alone two,” Bo said.
“Yeah, well, I kind of like it that way,” Torrance told him as he looked at his phone. “He’s not the only one who can hack into the security monitors. He’s punching in the code now.”
“How thick are the doors?” Katelin asked.
“He is staying to the side against the wall.”
“How thick are the walls?”
Torrance pointed with his gun to the spot where Riley was in the passageway as the door slid open. “Not thick enough.”
Torrance and Katelin opened fire on the wall, each putting four bullets in a group right around where Riley’s head and shoulders were. Torrance looked at his phone and saw Riley was bleeding, having been grazed across the cheek and taken a round in the shoulder he had leaned against the wall. Riley closed the door and took aim at something on the ceiling. Torrance lost his feed on the passageway monitor.
“He still alive?” Bo asked.
“Yeah,” Torrance told him. “Get her up, we need to move.”
“Won’t he see us in the hall?”
“Hopefully we slowed him down.”
Bo helped Ana up and said, “We aren’t exactly at full speed either.”
Torrance found another hidden keypad and opened the door.
Katelin watched as Torrance, Bo and Ana went into the hall. She didn’t figure they would make it to the end before Riley intercepted them. She had watched Riley hit the code to close the door and figured it to be the same to open it. If Riley moved fast to cut them off, she figured she could flank him. She touched the wall where Torrance had and the keypad appeared. She punched in the four digits Torrance had, but nothing happened. She tried it again and got the same results.
She was thinking there must be an entrance and exit code. She had not seen what numbers he pushed to open the door, only the ones he used to close it. She was two steps toward the door when she heard the door slide open. She was pretty sure she had not done it. Katelin dove over the bed and landed on the other side as someone came through the door.
Bo and Ana had not gone far before Ana said, “Where’s Katelin?”
Torrance look back and saw she hadn’t followed them, “Keep going,” he said as he headed back towards the room.
He only made it one step before Riley came through the door with his gun raised. Instead of trying to beat them to the exit, he had chosen to flank them from behind. Torrance knew he would never get his pistol up in time, so instead he dropped it and raised his hands above his head.
“You should have tried to kill me. You would have failed, but that way you wouldn’t have gone out like a pussy,” Riley said and centered the barrel of his weapon on Torrance’s face.
Katelin put a bullet through the back of Riley’s head before he could pull the trigger. Riley dropped dead on the hallway floor. Katelin stepped over him and grabbed his gun.
“You should only talk shit after you pull the trigger, dumbass,” Katelin told his dead body.
“I know I shouldn’t complain, but what were you doing staying behind?” Torrance asked.
“I was planning on flanking him.”
“How did you know he would come through this way?”
“I didn’t. I just got lucky.”
Torrance nodded and said, “We still need to hurry. The thing about CIA spooks is there is always another one around. I should know.”
They took his advice and started moving towards the infirmary.
Chapter 20
The Infirmary - TMRT Checkpoint - Phoenix, Arizona
“Do you two realize that what you’re suggesting is quite literally insane?” Barrington asked after Talbot and Vance laid out their plan for escape.
“Of course we do, but do you have a better idea?” Vance said.
Barrington didn’t answer.
“If we can prove my cure works, it will change everything,” Dr. Talbot added.
“Will it? If, as Torrance claims, they are planning to kill all of you because of things you know, then what will it change? You will still have first-hand knowledge of a plot to set off a nuclear bomb on American soil.”
“Two bombs, actually.”
“Even worse. The point is, cure or no cure, you will still have the knowledge and someone, presumably someone very powerful, will want you dead.”
“That will change if I cure the rot.”
“You don’t even know if it will work,” Barrington told him.
“And if you don’t help us, I never will.”
“You set up a way for me to get out through the Oregon border before,” Vance said. “Is that still intact?”
“Yes, I wasn’t going to dismantle it before you got out of the QZ. You haven’t been back long, so I haven’t got around to calling it off.”
“Good, don’t,” Vance told him. “If the cure flops we will make a run for the northern border. If we can secure a transport, we can make it.”
“You’re asking a lot,” Barrington said. “When they find out I helped you, and I don’t see how they can’t, my head will be on the chopping block.”
“Then come with us,” Vance said.
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously,” Torrance said as he came into Vance’s room, carrying Ana. He looked at Talbot and said, “Give her a field dressing and get ready to go. The timetable has moved up and my guess is they will know I’ve helped you, which will lead them to believe you helped them as well, General Doctor Barrington. Meaning your head is already on the chopping block.”
Vance sat up as Katelin came in carrying two guns, followed by Bo sporting a nasty wound on his shoulder.
“What happened?!” Vance asked as Barrington moved to give Bo a quick field dressing while Talbot patched up Ana.
“They already moved against them,” Torrance said.
While Barrington used a staple gun to seal Bo’s wound, he said, “I’m still a General Doctor. I can secure a transport.”
“Wouldn’t a car be better?” Torrance asked.
“No. When you said we need to go with them, you don’t know where we were going.”
“Where are you going?”
“Right into the heart of the quarantine.”
Chapter 21
The Holding Pen - TMRT Checkpoint - Phoenix, Arizona
“We need to conduct a tour of the armored transport they used as part of the debriefing,” Barrington told the guard as they moved through the holding pen.The guard looked dubious, especially when he saw the General Doctor had the long and short katanas from the storage locker in his hands.Torrance added, “This is directly from General Doctor Thompson.”
“Does General Doctor Carruthers know about this?”
“I have no idea. She is not conducting the debriefing, so I don’t see what that she has to do with anything.”
“She is the ranking officer at this checkpoint.”
“She may outrank me, soldier,” Barrington said, “but I outrank you.”
“I was told no one was allowed inside.”
“I assume this was told to you by someone who outranks you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now someone who outranks you is telling you people are going to be allowed inside.”
“She looks hurt,” he said, pointing to a slumped over and pale Ana. The field dressing Talbot had given her was already starting to bleed again.
“Yes, which is why we should get this done.”
The guards stepped aside and the seven of them entered the transport. As soon as everyone was inside, Torrance shut the hatch and sealed it.
“Strap yourselves in,” Vance said as he moved towards the cockpit.
Barrington went to the monitor and saw the guards were getting communications through their headsets. The man who had questioned them began banging on the door with his fist.
“Someone found the bodies,” Torrance said as Vance fired up the engine.
“That man has good instincts. He stood up to me even though I outranked him because he could feel I was full of shit. If my career survives, I think I’ll make sure he gets promoted,” Barrington said.
“Hang on,” Vance told them. “This is going to be a little rough.”
He put the transport in gear and sped for the gate. The gate was tall and solid, but it was designed to keep the infected out, not keep an armored vehicle in. When the plow in front of the transport struck the gate, it gave way and they found themselves on the wrong side of the quarantine line.
Barrington moved to the front and sat next to Vance. “We need to get far enough east to get out of the drone strike area. We are dealing with people high enough on the food chain they could reprogram the drones to disregard our transponder signal.”
“Got it,” Vance said as he kept moving west at the vehicle’s top speed.
“As soon as we’re clear, we should head north.”
“We need to stop in Quartzsite first.”
“This plan is already crazy enough. I don’t want to pull rank but…”
“You can’t pull rank. I’m done. Fact is, so are you. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what you’ve done, but we have one more thing to do. It’s only a hundred and thirty miles. With this thing on the open road, it is less than an hour and a half away.”