“It had nothing to do with me. I swear it.”
“What are you mixed up in?”
“I can’t say. I don’t want you involved in this.”
“Oh sure, but you want my help.”
She had a point. He had to keep her uninvolved but he also needed her on his side. “There are some people that want a piece of me. I can’t say any more.”
“So you did have something to do with that bomb.”
“No! But they may have done it because of me. They know about me working there. Jane, these people are freaking nuts.”
“Why do you need my help?”
“You’re the only one I can trust. Will you help me?” There was a long silence before she answered.
“Brent, I think you need help. Do you want to come here?”
“No. I’m being followed. We need to meet someplace safe.”
He wracked his brains. It would have to be somewhere they both knew and that she’d get right away. Even with the call box, he wasn’t sure things were secure.
“Okay, let’s play a game. I’m gonna give you a clue but we don’t say the name of the place. I know it’s complicated, but you never know who’s listening.”
He knew it sounded like a line from a spy movie, but it was the safest way.
“Don’t worry I won’t give the game away.”
“Yeah, yeah I got it. Remember where we used to sit on that bench, the one with your student’s name carved on the arm?” He knew it was a long shot, he hoped she’d remember the spot. He pushed the last of his coins into the phone’s hungry monster slot.
“Yes. We used to sit and eat corn chips.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “The very same. I’ll meet you there in one hour. Can you make it by then?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be there.”
He replaced the handset as soon as he heard the loud buzzing from the receiver. He smiled confidently. It was highly unlikely these whackos had managed to monitor the call. There was no reason for them to connect an old flame to him.
****
Taylor sat on the faded green metal bench, deep in thought as he watched the near black canal drift aimlessly by. It had been a long time since the spilt. She’d never been able to take the long hours and days away from home. What she needed was a regular guy not a workaholic.
He scanned the length of the canal for signs of people. The place was a popular haunt but not today. It was too early for the lunch-time crowd and way past rush hour. Then he saw Jane walking down the grassy footpath towards him. As she drew near him, her slim body and attractive face reminded him of why he’d fallen for her. The slight breeze tussled her long brown hair as her blue eyes fixed on him.
“Jeez, Brent! You look as if you’ve been sleeping under a bridge.” She sat down alongside him and stared in astonishment.
“Well at least one of us looks good. You haven’t changed since I saw you last.”
She pulled the collar of her jacket up. “I’m surprised you even noticed. You were never about long enough.”
He could hardly argue the point with her and in any case she was completely right. Taylor lowered his eyes and sank back in the old bench.
“Seriously, what’s happened, you look awful?” She reached over, affectionately touching his arm.
“I was captured by these people, they drugged me but this guy helped me escape.”
“Doctor Landon?”
Taylor was bewildered. “How’d you know his name? I never mentioned it.”
“I... It was all over the news. They said you killed him.”
“What? They killed him and Gary and a hell of a lot of others.”
He looked away. “I’m sorry. Look I’m here aren’t I? How can I help?”
He looked back at her and stared keenly into her striking blue eyes. “You mean that? You actually mean that?”
“Brent, you need help. What can I do?”
“I gotta get out of town, I need time to think. They’ve shut my account down and they want me.”
“Who do you think is doing this?”
He held his head in his hands in desperation. “I don’t know. I don’t know if they’re from the Government or... I just don’t know.”
“Why don’t you tell the police? Let them sort all this out.”
“Can’t trust anyone. This has gone way past big. Even the cops could be in on it, hell they could even turn me over to them. I’ve got to get out for a while.”
The shrill tone of her mobile cut through the air. Anxiously she scrabbled in her pocket and switched the device off.
“Who was that?”
“I don’t know? It’s not important.”
“Did you tell anybody about meeting me?”
“Of course not... Anyway, you’re not going to leave town without money. How much do you need?”
“It’s just a few hundred; I’ll pay you right back as soon as I can get set up. Then I’ll...”
He stopped suddenly as he made out two cops with another two guys in suits heading towards them. He jumped up and glowered at her.
“Jane what the hell have you done?”
“Brent don’t run! You’re sick; they’re only here to help you.”
Taylor gave her a disgusted look and fled into the surrounding woods. He heard the men calling after him, but in moments he’d merged into the greenery.
****
The Montana countryside shot past the passenger window. Taylor turned his head to face the endless road ahead. Only the air conditioning of the huge semi made the journey bearable.
“Hey buddy where’d you say you’re headed?”
Taylor glanced across at the driver; he seemed alright, but he was one talkative guy. However, the good thing was that Taylor could make up and say whatever he wanted to.
“Canada.”
The driver looked over at him. “I didn’t catch your line of work.”
“Oh this and that, but I guess it’s logging mostly.”
“Funny thing that, I was looking at long haul work, like you know, ice trucking. But in the end it’s easier driving away from snow, not into it. You see it’s my rig, did I mention that? Well I didn’t see the point in trashing my only source of income.”
“Yeah that’s a good idea. Kinda tempting fate I suppose.”
The driver nodded and continued about his work and Taylor hoped that would be that.
But to his disappointment the man looked at him and continued with a new line of irritating interrogation.
“Hey, you been following the news about that guy back East?”
“No, I reckon not.”
“Oh you’re like my old lady she thinks the news is a commercial break. News is educational and education is good for you. I even watch some of the foreign news. I like to think of myself as an educated kinda guy.”
“You were saying about this guy, back East.”
“Oh shoot yeah. The one that killed all those people. Now that’s a real interesting story, don’t you think?”
“Why?”
Taylor had the distinct feeling this story was not one he should pursue. However, his curiosity got the better of him.
“Well first up, they reckoned this guy blew all those people away and there’s this big manhunt. Then they put the explosion down to a gas leak. Then he kills those cops. Now...”
“So this same guy killed some cops too?”
“Yeah, he killed two cops and a girl near some canal or some place. Human interest, so now you’re listening.”
The driver aimed a self-satisfied smile at Taylor. Taylor started to experience a deep sense of queasiness as his stomach turned over.
“Who was this girl, what did she have to do with it?”
“Some teacher or something I think. The news said she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But the funny thing was that you’d have thought a story like that would have run and run, but it’s gone. Almost as if they pulled it.”
“What about this
nut, did they have any ID?”
“No they never had his name.”
Taylor worked hard to conceal his horror. If these people had killed two cops, it was obvious they’d not let anybody get in the way. But if it was a dirty fight they wanted, then they’d picked the right man. He looked over at the driver.
“How far you got to your destination?”
“Less than forty miles to go. There’s a truck stop near my last call, look, I’ll drop you off. There’s gotta be someone headed up that way, we’ll ask around. That okay?”
That was the best option he’d get out of this sorry mess. It wouldn’t take long for him to reach Burnsville, maybe a few days at most.
****
Eastman looked around his office at Anne and Benteen then broke the stunned silence. They’d all three been transfixed at Taylor’s account of the last few weeks.
“Taylor, if you are really immune to all this, you could reverse the process. Stop it!”
“I’m no medic. I’m used to putting holes in people, not patching them up. The late great Dr Landon said Tellermine had a theory that I’d some type of natural immunity, maybe triggered by the infection. But there was a problem. Not only do my antibodies kill NB33 they do a pretty good number on healthy cells too.”
“So do we need some of this NB33 as well?”
Anne Lenski looked over at Eastman and shook her head pessimistically.
“It would make little difference. The moment NB33 comes into contact with healthy bodies, it begins the conversion. We have enough examples of that.”
She moved forward in her chair and frowned at him. “What blood type were you before this change?”
“O Positive. Why?”
“I ran a full test on your bloods. They don’t correspond to any known types, human or animal. The question is can you provide a cure for this virus?”
Taylor rubbed his tired eyes and shrugged. “Tellermine thought that I could be part of a tiny percentage that was immune. But he never got the chance to prove it.”
“But what percentage?”
Taylor looked over at her and shook his head. “Landon said there were hundreds of those damned things, all failed test subjects.”
“Anne, can you fix all this with his blood?”
“I don’t know Brad. I’m going to need lots more tests and ask lots more questions. There has to be an answer to this. But I don’t know what?”
“Yeah well, let’s not get too carried away with all that Doc.”
She looked at Taylor and smiled. “Relax, no sedation or restraints this time around, Mr Taylor.”
Eastman massaged the back of his neck, tired after the long night. “Anne, when do you aim to start all these tests?”
She closed her note pad and looked directly at Taylor. “No time like the present.”
“Oh, I can hardly wait. But in case you’ve forgotten there’s still the pressing matter of Armageddon to deal with?”
Eastman tipped his head forward. “Yeah well, he does have a point there.”
“Okay, I’ll give you an arm full for now and you’ll have to wait until after for any more.”
Eastman glanced over at Benteen who’d sat without a sound through the whole story. “Gerard I hate it when you do this. I know it sounds crazy, but we have to accept this situation...”
Benteen held up his hand to stop Eastman.
“I ain’t got any issue with this story; a man gotta be crazy to run into the wind ‘cause this medical stuff is good hard evidence, so it supports what he’s been going on about. But one thing I don’t get, if you’re this public enemy number one, how come we ain’t heard of you, till now?”
“They want me off the system not all over the news.”
“Kinda like least said soonest mended.”
Taylor nodded his approval at Eastman. “That’s pretty good. Yeah, I like that.”
“That was something my wife used to say.”
“Now you’re both cops right? So even all this way out here with the Pony Express or whatever, a guy who kills two cops has to rate, at least a mention on an APB.”
He paused and studied the two lawmen. “And you two know exactly what about any of this?”
Eastman and Benteen exchanged a fleeting look at each other. Taylor was right; the case had sunk without so much as a trace. Benteen doubtingly shook his head. “I don’t know about that. How could they pull something like that off anyway?”
Taylor leant forward in his chair and held up his hands and extended his blank fingertips.
“Oh easy. Real easy.”
Chapter –Twenty-Four
“He’s dangerous. If we don’t get out of here soon, we’re going to end up like Osborne.” Dr Thornson, a thickset man in a white lab coat paced around the small rock- walled room. The walls, floor and ceiling had been fashioned from bare rock. A single strip light and a small table and chair completed the space. Abruptly he stopped and faced the older man. “We should’ve left when we had the chance.”
Dr Hasslein was not used to being challenged, this was his department, but he had the same opinion as his junior. “I agree with you. It’s obvious he’s becoming more unstable. But right now he needs us. If the moment ever comes when he does not ...”
“Dr Hasslein, what we’re doing here is wrong; evil. I don’t want anything more to do with it.” Thornson looked at the other man intently.
“Oh please, don’t give me any of that ‘holier than thou’ routine. You knew full well what was going on here. You wanted fame and fortune, like the rest of us.”
Thornson looked away, pinching the bridge of his nose between his finger and thumb. “That’s before I knew where we got the subjects from. But you, you knew all the time.”
“I was wrong, I... I thought we could do some good.”
“I think he deliberately infected Osborne with the virus. There were teeth marks on his arm. He exposed him to one of the TS. I also think he started the fire.”
“He’s paranoid, delusional. He thought Osborne was involved with this ‘so called plot’. We have to be very careful.”
“If he finds out what we’ve done...”
“He won’t. It’s just you, me and Linda. He can’t find out.”
“I spoke to Dunson just after the lock-down; a lot of his people aren’t pleased about things down here. But it’s not only the security people.”
Hasslein nodded his head. People were unhappy and worried at the direction the project had taken. They couldn’t afford further test subjects reaching the surface. Since the fire, the base had been enveloped in a cloud of apprehension. Everybody was on a knife edge.
“Our esteemed leader must know what’s going on.”
“Of course he does. What worries me is why he hasn’t done anything do about it.”
The high pitch wail of the emergency alarm screeched through the room, startling the two men. Hasslein dashed to the heavy bulk head door and swung it open, beckoning Thorson to follow. The carved rock corridor was a hive of action; lab coated and business suited figures scurried to and fro.
Yellow emergency lights blinked in time to the howling alarm, adding mayhem to the frantic melee. Hasslein and Thornson made their way to a young stern looking woman with short cropped brown hair.
Hasslein clasped the shaken woman’s arm. “Linda, what’s happened?”
“There’s been an explosion on level four.”
“Anybody hurt?”
“No, but one of the confinement cages has been breached.”
Thornson drew back his head, putting his hand to his mouth. “Lord! How many got into the base?”
“They didn’t get in, they got out.”
“Out?” Hasslein looked at her in confusion.
“The blast re-opened one of the old escape tunnels, the ones supposed to have been sealed.”
“Don’t they lead to the surface?”
Linda nodded her head slowly at Thornson.
“How many got out this time?” Hi
s face was pale and drawn, the days of stress finally getting the better of him.
“Twenty six, but five were down for termination in any case.” Thornson guided the others into a small rocky alcove set away from the bustle of the main corridor. Uneasily looking all around them, he spoke softly but with urgency.
“We can’t afford to wait any longer. We must act now while we still can.”
“Calm down! What we can’t afford to do is draw attention to ourselves.”
“Yes Thornson we don’t want to end up in a confinement cage.”
“All I’m saying is...”
“Dr Hasslein.”
All three spun about to face the man in a suit standing a few feet away from them: a tall man with dark piercing eyes.
“The director would like to see you Doctor.”
“I’ve got work that...”
“The Director means now.” The man undid his jacket button briefly exposing the handgun tucked into his belt. “He’s very insistent.”
****
“Come on Luke, we gotta keep going.”
Zach Clayton brushed thick green branches away, clearing a path through the tree line. Luke was moving much slower; his leg was showing signs of infection. He knew he should’ve taken Luke to town sooner, but the injury hadn’t looked that bad. He’d managed to patch the hole in Luke’s leg back at the cabin; now he needed a doctor. Luke’s face was wracked with pain as he forced himself through the dense trees. It was hard to keep up. He couldn’t manage another step.
“I’m all done in.”
“I know, but there ain’t no telling how many of them things are about here.”
Uneasily, Zach scanned the surrounding wooded landscape.
“How far we got to go till town?”
“I reckon we’re somewheres past the Airbase, so it can’t be far now, but we gotta keep going.”
It was obvious it wasn’t safe to use the track – too many military patrols. Avoiding the creatures had forced them into the woods; the problem was that neither he nor Luke had walked this area for years. Sure, they’d been up here in vehicles, but that was a darn sight different to walking the ground.
“Zach I gotta stop, my leg’s bleeding out real bad now.”
Containment_A Zombie Novel Page 34