“Hey!” she stuttered.
Jeremiah pushed his whole body up against hers and put his mouth against her ear. She tried to push him off but he was stronger and bigger than her. She felt his hand on her waist, it made her skin crawl. Her mind flashed to the video. Nausea washed over her entire body. He was shaking, he was so furious; there was a gleam in his eyes.
“You will under no circumstances mess this up. If you do one thing I do not ask you to do I will kill you. Slowly. I will kill you slowly. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
She did though.
He backed away from her but kept his arm on her chest. “Do you understand?”
She could feel nothing but soul crushing fear. wanted to give a sarcastic response that would make his blood boil but she had no response. She knew he would do what he said. They stared at each other both hearts pounding. She was sweating heavily and trying to calm herself down as she stared into his eyes.
Suddenly, Pax rounded the corner and upon seeing Hadley’s predicament grabbed Jeremiah’s shoulder and pulled him off of her roughly.
“Fucking get off of her Jeremiah.” Pax was livid. Hadley had never seen him so mad. She wanted to take a step away from him but was stuck in the corner.
Jeremiah put his hands up by his shoulders and backed away from Paxton to avoid a fight. “I was just making sure she understood the mission.” Jeremiah nodded with a wink and walked away. He had a spring in his step.
Pax grabbed Hadley’s hand sharply and they walked to the helicopters. “I wish you were on the same flight as me Had.”
She smiled at him, mustering all the energy she had she replied, “Don’t worry; I can take care of myself.” She squeezed his hand as they walked up to grab their guns from the case. Hadley holstered one at her hip, and grabbed an automatic machine gun. She wanted as much ammunition as she could get, who knew what the next 24 hours would bring.
“Come on Hadley! Everyone’s waiting for you!”
She looked up to see Vanya waving at her. With one last glance to Pax, she ran towards the towering helicopter and pushed through the wind. She ran past Jeremiah who put his hand on her back as she jumped into the copter. Then with a wave to the pilot he followed her into the open cabin. He motioned for the pilot to take off, and then he grabbed a headset and mumbled something into it. Suddenly they were up in the air in an instant. Hadley sat down and strapped into one of the 50 or so seats that were crammed together. She pulled the straps across her chest and waist. She grabbed a pair of headphones and a mic. The noise disappeared to a dull roar in the background.
Vanya was sitting beside her. She leaned over and mouthed, “You and Pax are so cute.” Hadley blushed and rolled her eyes. She had been avoiding her own brain when it came to Pax. She knew, after what Saul had said, that she should have ended it. Now she was going to have hours of sitting and thinking about how horrible she had been. She looked around and Kristen, Stephen, Jeremiah, Vanya, and a few others were sitting staring at each other in silence. The awkwardness was deafening.
***
The helicopter flew high over blackened plains and deserted cities. Hadley was breathless as she watched the landscape below her. She recalled faint memories of lush green grass and epic cities. Though she could never be certain those memories were real or just something she had seen in a book. The skylines should have been wonderful in the early morning sun. But the earth was black. It was barren and crumbling. The trees, or what remained, were dead and dying. The cities were just piles of rubble, like dunes in the middle of nowhere.
Hours, upon hours past. Everyone in the helicopter started to doze off, ignoring everything that was happening around them until they felt the helicopter start to descend. She looked below and saw a few standing buildings surrounded by a fortress of walls and as far as the eye could see destruction. A barren wasteland with one perfect complex in the middle. Hadley couldn’t help but picture the earth exploding around here for years and then finally, when the smoke cleared there was this one unmarked spot.
In the distance the storm was coming, the grey sky billowing with magenta clouds and beneath them an impenetrable wall of white. The precipitation was starting and as predicted, it was a combination of snow and sleet. Hadley hoped they could get out of the area before the storm hit them or it would be a rocky and detrimental ride back.
The chopper landed and the pilot turned off the loud engines. They all undid their belts, took off their headsets and got off onto a large cemented parking lot. Even with the headsets protection, Hadley’s ears were ringing in the quiet. She looked around and there was stillness in the air. She put on a fake smile, expecting the wave of people who thought they were coming to rescue.
However, as they all looked around the reality dawned on the group. There was no one there. It was silent.
Hadley blinked, confused. Jeremiah, looking disgruntled, motioned them all forward, “This way, stay close. They must be waiting inside the lobby. We were fifteen minutes behind schedule so they’d best be ready to go.”
They all acknowledged Jeremiah’s instructions and followed him towards the closest building. The building sat at the top of a long row of stone stairs that once had been expertly set to be perfectly smooth and even. Now chunks were blown out from each, which made stepping a cautious venture. Everyone walked up slowly, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Hadley looked around at the destruction that surrounded this building and its parking lot. It was overwhelmingly black charred earth.
Hadley kept her hands on her machine gun, which was across her chest. She inhaled slowly as they reached the top and saw the destruction before them. The glass doors were shattered and piles of glass scattered the floor.
They stepped through the frame of what used to be automatic doors and into an atrium. The vaulted ceilings framed double staircases that led to large doors at the top. One set of stairs laid in pieces while the other was perfectly intact. The atrium had glass cases aligned through it. Each had a placard and cased a stuffed dead animal. Many of the cases were shattered and the animals stared blankly ahead coated in tiny shards of glass. A sole desk greeted them. It was elegant and smooth with a sign reading “Welcome to the Museum and Laboratories of Extinction”. Hadley tilted her head to the side trying to imagine what lay beyond but her thoughts were interrupted by a blood-curdling scream.
She turned sharply to see Vanya finish her scream. Jeremiah gave her a dirty look and a nudge. She sent him a death glare before focusing her attention back on what had scared her. Hadley followed her gaze, looking up and saw a man hanging from a noose beside a giant eagle hung up with a placard. The man’s head was cocked to one side disturbingly, his neck clearly broken and his skin was yellowing. Dried blood across his chest read RFE. His lifeless form rocked gently back and forth in the breeze. Hadley inhaled sharply bringing her hands to her mouth in shock. No one moved for a moment.
Jeremiah stared dumbfounded, “See what the RFE’s can do?” His voice cracked with anger. He turned sharply and looked at Hadley, ignoring everyone else, his gaze like daggers. He was pulsing with rage and couldn’t understand how Hadley didn’t understand how bad the organization could be.
She had no response. He raised his eyebrows and shoulders awaiting an answer from her. But she had nothing to say, she couldn’t find any words to muster. So they just looked at each other for an extended moment but in the end, she still had nothing. It was like her brain was frozen in time. She looked away from Jeremiah and back to the man.
Was I right to trust the RFE’s? They might be bloodthirsty killers for all I know— she thought. Neither side was completely right. If you look at any war or fight there is always another side to the story. Hadley’s whole life everyone always taught them to put ourselves in the other side’s shoes. But she didn’t know who to trust. At that point she didn’t even know what side she was on, or even if she was on a side.
Jeremiah turned on his heel and they all walked forward. They walked up the staircase t
hat wasn’t in broken pieces. At the top, they took a side door you couldn’t see from the bottom of the atrium. It had a large red sign saying RESTRICTED on it. Jeremiah tapped his wrist across the pin pad and it clicked open. They walked into a breezeway full of doors. Everything here was perfectly intact.
Hadley felt sick; the image of the man’s face was burned into her memory. She looked at Kirsten who was absolutely green. The gun she held shook in her timid hands. An overwhelming feeling of guilt rushed through Hadley.
Could this be my fault? She thought. Based on what she knew she had started RFE. So wouldn’t everything the organization did reflect solely on her?
They continued walking. Keeping in a tight formation. Hadley kept her eyes on Jeremiah, afraid of his next move, afraid he was going to turn around and shoot her between the eyes. She imagined the bullet racing towards her, helpless to do anything, unable to move. She pictured the tiny spinning piece of metal hitting her and everything going black. For a moment, the fleeting thought that it would end everything passed through her mind.
She had to physically shake her head to get rid of the feeling. She didn’t actually feel that way, she had to reassure herself.
They turned a corner and saw the path of destruction. It hit them like a wall, coming out of nowhere. The hallway to this point had been untouched. That was no longer the case.
The explosion went off like a bomb erupting beside them.
The sound rattled them before anyone realized what it was. Immediately they were running back the way they had come in. Hadley saw the walls around them explode into pieces. They were immediately covered in flying bits of drywall. The white powdery dust was engulfing them. They were running through a cloud of powdered drywall. Jeremiah scanned his wrist and they ran out the door. It slammed behind them with a deafening thud.
Hadley heard someone on the other side slam their fist against the heavy metal door and exclaim, a loud deep yell. They flew down the spiral stairs and back out the doors. Hadley’s only thought was to get back on the helicopter and fly away, far, far away.
The whole group started to run through the lobby and towards the staircase. Their only thought was to get on the helicopter, fly away and regroup. They had no idea who they were even dealing with. Jeremiah made presumptions and he knew it was the RFE’s.
Each and every one of them had to stop the instant the helicopter came into view. The dark cascades of smoke plumed into the air. The remnants of the helicopter were scattered around the parking lot. The flames licked at the sky 10 feet above their heads. Considering their height above the parking lot, it was just barreling smoke.
Hadley looked through the smoky rubble and saw someone staring at her. A woman. Hadley blinked and she was gone. She stared into the spot they were and looked frantically for any sign of someone, anyone.
Jeremiah was talking in frantic hushed tones to the pilot. He gave the pilot another nod and stepped in front of us all, shielding some of the wreckage behind him. The flames looked as though they were coming out of his head. In the craziness of the moment, Hadley started to giggle. She tried to hide it but it became uncontrollable. She covered her mouth with both her hands. Jeremiah shot her a look and she made herself cough to cover it up. She finally regained her composure. Jeremiah put his hand over his mouth, debating what to say. Hadley watched the grooves beside his eyes turn down, deep in thought.
He raised his hand. Thinking intently about what he was going to say. “Someone did this.” He stated. Hadley raised an eyebrow expecting him to continue but realized he had nothing to say. He was as baffled at this chain of events. His leadership faltered slightly. He liked to be in control and right now, everything was out of his control. Everyone could see it in his eyes, his distaste and need to prove himself.
“We need to find anyone, anyone at all who might be alive here. So let’s go.” He pushed his way through the group and back to the door to the building.
They left the door we had escaped from and proceeded back up the stairs. They went through the main museum doors. Upon opening the doors, they were greeted by a nine-foot-tall polar bear. His marble eyes stared right through them. Hadley glanced at the placard and read “Ursus maritimus. Artic polar bear, extinct in 2064 due to increased northern temperatures and the elimination of sea ice.” She stared at him, wondering how such a powerful animal could have been wiped out while humans had managed to survive.
“Hadley, keep up!” Jeremiah yelled back at her and she realized she was a few feet behind everyone.
They made their way through the first part of the museum, through what seemed like hundreds of taxidermy animals. Hadley glanced to her left and saw a woman lying in a pile of glass, a large shard piercing through her abdomen. She laid at the feet of a one horned rhino. “Rhinoceros unicornis. Extinct in 2053 after massive fires and droughts.”
As they got deeper into the museum, the massacre became more apparent. There were bodies strewn about everywhere. Both those in government uniforms and those dressed as RFE’s.
It was complete carnage.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Stomachs grumbling and minds going wild they followed the signs to the cafe, hoping to find some morsel of food. They emerged into a large cafeteria that was fully picture windows with rows and rows of metal chairs and tables. Vanya gasped somewhere ahead of the group. As Hadley got further into the canteen, she saw a woman lying on the table. Her head was resting at an abnormal angle, a small drip of blood dried on the corner of her mouth. Her blond hair soaked with blood was strewn across her face and pillowing down onto the bench.
Hadley covered her mouth with her hand, disturbed. Jeremiah motioned for Kristen and the pilot to go look for food in the kitchen behind the cue line. The attack must have happened after hours because the cafeteria was pristine except for a spray bottle sitting under one of the food heat lamps. Hadley looked through the windows and saw the last bit of light disappearing over the horizon. They had spent the entire day looking around, rummaging through only a small portion of the complex. The people who had tried to blow them up were either long gone or were good at hiding. The sunset cast a yellow glow through the room. The reds and oranges reflected dramatically on the steel.
Suddenly a woman’s scream echoed through the vast cafeteria room. The metal accents allowed an eerie echo to ensue. Jeremiah rushed into the back first and everyone else all followed on his heels. The pilot lay on the floor, a pool of blood around his head. Jeremiah reached down and grabbed his wrist. He held it for a moment before he looked up at them.
“He’s dead.” Jeremiah stated.
“Where’s Kristen?” Vanya whispered. Everyone looked around an eerily empty room.
Then the lights went out. Everything went dark. They were thrust into darkness.
It took a moment for Hadley’s eyes to adjust to the darkness. She focused on anything she could. Somewhere in front of her Vanya said, “What’s happening?” her eyes strained to pick up anything, that’s when the panic began to set in.
“I don’t know! Head back to the main room.” Jeremiah said, he turned on the light attached to his gun and they were able to see again, the panicked feeling in Hadley’s chest subsiding.
They walked out of the storage room and back into the main eating area. Everything was dark except for the last glows of the sunset. All the lights were gone. A cold tingle ran up Hadley’s spine. She shivered uncontrollably.
“Okay, we need to find whoever is here. Let’s split up!” Jeremiah stated. His face aglow from the light he was shining. The shadows danced across his angry face. Hadley studied him for a moment, exactly in his element. This was what he was good at, it took him a while to get over the shock but now momentarily she saw the natural leader he was, not the monster she knew. Everyone started to go off, they were all in sync so once orders were given then they just acted. Hadley seemed to be the only one out of step.
Vanya grabbed Hadley’s arm and they started out across the cafeteria towards a doorw
ay on the other side. She had only taken a couple of steps before she noticed Jeremiah’s light pointed straight at the back of her head. It cast the perfect shadow of her against the wall.
“Hey!” he shouted, “Hadley you are coming with me. Vanya go with Fred.”
Vanya’s face said it all; her expression matched perfectly what Hadley was feeling. They were the people they felt safest with and they were being forced to split up. Anger washed over Vanya, but she didn’t dare say anything. She instead turned on her heel and grabbed Fred’s arm. Hadley watched them walk away. In two’s everyone left in separate directions until Hadley and Jeremiah stood staring at each other, alone, across the body of the dead woman.
“Let’s go.” He walked towards her and grabbed her arm. He yanked her towards a door and motioned her to go through it with a push. “You first.”
“How do I know you won’t shoot me in the back?” She asked lightly, though completely serious. They never lost eye contact.
“You don’t.” He shrugged. Hadley had no choice and turned and walked. She had no other choice. The image of him shooting her flashed across her mind again. This time a little too real.
She knew Jeremiah’s gun was pointed at the back of her head. She knew he wasn’t looking at anything but her. He didn’t care about anything other than her compliance. He was watching as her shoulders moved up and down as she walked, an urge to pull the trigger pulsating through him.
She kept walking, careful to catch any movements ahead of them. Jeremiah might not be looking at anything else but she was. She wanted to find the woman she had seen in the smoke by the helicopter.
Suddenly a shadow flashed across the hall for just a moment. Hadley barely caught it in front of her in the gleam from Jeremiah’s gun. It was only there for a split second and then it was gone. But she knew what she had seen. She stopped in her tracks, evaluating, listening intently. She surveyed the walls. They were in an older part of the building. It was in desperate need of repairs. The brick walls were losing pieces. The metal doors had been painted a sickly orange, but it was peeling. Each door had a long window up the side. Lockers lined one side of the wall.
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