Even in the dazzling artificial light, Taylor could make out the tension on the soldiers’ faces. He had to act fast. The best way out of this type of situation was to take charge: look as if you had the right to be there. At least that was the theory. Taylor hoped he could still sound like an officer.
“I’ve got orders from General Stone to deactivate the device, Corporal.”
Taylor started forward but Wyllie blocked his path.
“Sorry Captain. I need to see the orders first.”
“This is verbal, Corporal. You can call the General yourself if you want.”
Wyllie stepped back a few feet and levelled his M16 at Taylor.
“I’m gonna have to see some kinda ID here, Sir.”
This guy was good, maybe too good. The tension in the cave was almost unbearable with each side unable to predict the next move. Suddenly Harper cried out, “Wyllie, he’s that guy who escaped!”
The sounds of weapons being cocked and safety catches releasing reverberated around the cave. In an instant both sides were staring down their gun barrels at each other.
Wyllie kept his weapon aimed at Taylor.
“Listen, there’s a doctor working on a cure for this. All we’re asking for is time.”
“Cure? There’s no cure. This is God’s punishment for the evil in that town.”
Wyllie almost spat the words at Taylor as his voice rose in pitch. “That town needs to burn and you all need to burn with it.”
“How about I jam that M16 up your ass, for a damn start?”
Wyllie gave Benteen a dark look and aimed directly at his head.
“Go ahead and try.”
It was all going dangerously wrong, it was clear this guy was unhinged. However, Benteen was not exactly contributing to détente. While the reactions of the other four soldiers didn’t seem to support this guy, Taylor wouldn’t chance them when the lead started to fly. In fact in the next few moments he knew somebody was going to cut loose. As Taylor worked out which of the soldiers to hit first, Ford suddenly lowered his rifle and stepped back from the others.
“I’ve had enough of this crap! I’m not going down for the death of a town.”
Wyllie gave him a hateful stare. “Keep your damn weapon on them, you lousy maggot!”
“Shove it! I’m gonna shut that freaking thing down.”
With that, he broke away from the others and stormed off into the dark tunnel.
Wyllie was beside himself with rage as he stared after Ford. The remaining three soldiers kept their weapons trained on the townspeople, uncertain as to what to do next. Abruptly, Wyllie stopped and took aim at the retreating soldier. The red aim point of his M16 darted about on Ford’s back until it finally come to rest on his neck.
“Ford! Ford you come back right now. Do you hear me? Ford!”
The flash of Wyllie’s M16 lit up the cave like daylight, accompanied by a deafening roar, as he sent two rounds into Ford’s back. The impact of the high velocity 5.56mm rounds sent the boy crashing to the ground. Almost instantly, Wyllie’s head exploded as Harper squeezed two shells into him.
“Jeez Harper! You gone crazy?” wailed Smithy as he looked from Wyllie to the shooter.
“Yeah maybe, but not as mad as he was.”
“Okay, let’s be cool about this,” cautioned Taylor. “Now we don’t want to shoot any of you and we sure don’t want you to shoot any of us.”
“Smithy, go check on Ford,” Harper called over, never taking his eyes off the other group. Smithy flicked his eyes at Harper. “Yeah, but what we gonna do now?”
“Go check on Ford. Now!”
Slowly, Smithy lowered his rifle and began to walk backwards, away from the two groups, keeping his eyes on the crowd from Armstrong. Then he turned around and continued into the cave. When he drew alongside the still body of Wyllie he stopped and called back.
“What about Wyllie?”
“Pop another in him if he’s still twitching!” said Harper.
He looked at Taylor then gradually brought his weapon down.
“Now what’s all this about a cure?”
Taylor returned Harper’s look, hesitated, then brought down his weapon. He reached over and caught hold of Benteen’s barrel and slowly pushed it towards the ground. Although the situation had calmed dramatically from a few moments ago, it was obvious it was far from resolved.
“There’s a lady back in Armstrong working her butt off to put a stop to all this. She’s got a chance of finding a cure.”
He paused; it wasn’t good to give too much away at this point.
“Now, you people go blasting that town and that’s it. Game over. No more cure. It’ll take just one of those things to get away. Just one.”
“Hey guys, the kid’s all right!”
Harper un-cocked his weapon and flicked it to safety, then put the M16 onto his shoulder. He made his way down the tunnel, Dodge following after him. Harper called down the tunnel, “Smithy! Get him topside and use the vehicle to get him outta here.”
Benteen gestured back up the tunnel. “You’d best take one of us with you. I got two guys at the entrance. With all this shooting going on... well, it’s best to be safe.”
“I’ll go,” said Johnson, stepping forward.
“Harper, we need to stop that missile. Show me where it is and I’ll make it safe.”
He nodded at Taylor and pointed into the depth of the great rock passageway.
“Yeah sure, follow me.”
Taylor beckoned to the others then glanced over his shoulder to see that none of the townspeople had moved. Benteen walked over to him.
“About time I reminded you who’s running this. I’m the law and I’m in charge.”
Taylor rounded on him; there was no time for any of this.
“Well Mr ‘I’m in charge’, after you disarm this state of the art weaponry system, without setting the damn thing off, mind telling us what your next move is?”
“Yeah, well...I –”
“Oh hell, lighten up Gerard, you ain’t no Tom Cruise.” Colt pointed to Taylor.
“This dude ain’t done so bad.”
“Yeah, at least we’re all still alive,” Burke agreed, standing beside Taylor.
Out-voted and outnumbered, Benteen had no option other than to stand down.
“Don’t get no big ideas down here, Taylor. These folks are my responsibility.”
Harper called out to Smithy and Ford as they drew near to the group, “That was a real wise ass thing you pulled back there, kid.” Then he gave him a broad grin, “but I suppose you did all right.”
“He was lucky the armour took the worst of it, but his arm’s messed up.”
Smithy had applied two field dressings to Ford’s shoulder. Shaken, Ford looked at Harper and smiled nervously at him. “You think my arm’s gonna be okay man?”
“Nah, they’ll take one of your legs off,” Harper said, shaking his head.
“Legs?”
Dodge winked at Smithy. “I had this cousin who went in to get his tonsils done. Some clown turned the gurney around and now the guy sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks.”
Smithy leant forward and pointed directly at Ford. “Yeah and he ain’t lying neither.”
Both groups erupted into chuckles and laughter; even Benteen had to smile. Smithy held onto Ford, and together with Ray Johnson, they left the others and made their way up to the surface. Harper and Taylor led the way, while Benteen and the rest walked behind them. After a short time they came to a set of stairs and a lift. Harper waved his hand towards them. “Lift’s out. We’d better take the hard way.”
****
The men stood at the bottom of the stairwell; the space was similar to that of the entrance level. It had the same look of having been carved out of the ground. They continued past some small rooms and a storage area, then Harper called a halt and pointed to the device on the box cart.
“That it?” asked Benteen dismissively, training his beam over the objects.
/>
“Yes that’s it,” answered Taylor, moving in for a closer inspection.
“You know what this thing is Harper?”
“It’s a heat weapon, sure.”
Taylor moved in still closer. “I take it you didn’t set this up then?”
Harper joined Taylor near the device and gave a puzzled stare. “Why, what’s wrong with it?”
Taylor pointed to a small square cavity where two disconnected leads dangled down. “If you had, you’d have noticed that the timer’s missing.”
Dodge shook his head and looked at Taylor. “What’s this about a timer?”
“It’s about the same size as an iPad. It should have an LED, counting backwards. You know, kinda 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, bang!”
Benteen pushed his way to the front and eyed the two soldiers with suspicion. “Timer? What they done here?”
“There should be a programmable timer unit on the damn thing, but it’s not there.”
Harper looked at Taylor and gave an indignant shrug. “We never had anything to do with this; we let King do all that crap and...”
“King! King was in charge of this?”
“Yeah we just provided the muscles and hardware. He set it up and went looking for some guy’s lab. We didn’t hang about.”
“Hell, if this bozo’s taken that timer thing, then that’s our job done. It’s harmless.”
Taylor gave Benteen a pained laugh. “King may have taken the timer but the thing is still armed. He’s only gotta plug it in and we’re back to square one.”
Price pointed at the warhead. “You know about these things. Can’t you disarm it?”
Taylor gave him an irritated look. “I don’t have any tools and in any case, he’s probably booby trapped the booby traps. We’d be doing the job for him. Harper, this guy with the lab, it wouldn’t be Dr Tellermine would it?”
Harper nodded at Taylor. “Who is this guy anyways?”
“He’s the creep who started all this. Benteen, we got to get that timer back, then blow this place the hell up.”
Benteen looked at Taylor in bewilderment.
“You gone loco or something? I thought the idea was not to pop these things off. All of a damn sudden you want to blow one up.”
Taylor looked from Benteen straight at Harper; he had no time for banter.
“Where’s the second missile located?”
“Well yeah, but...”
“No time for buts, we’re all on the same side now.”
“Sure. About half a click from the camp near the ECM jammers.”
“Benteen, we gotta get word to Eastman. He’s got to take that missile down, right now.”
Ethan Mason rubbed his finger anxiously over his top lip as he looked at Taylor and Benteen. “What about us? What are we gonna do?”
Taylor pointed his light at the darkened stairwell leading to the unknown. “We’re going down there.”
Chapter – Twenty-Five
The group picked their way through the debris strewn corridor of the third level. Fire damage was apparent throughout the whole area; the heavy reek of smoke and charred flesh hung in the air. Something bad had happened here and everyone could feel it. Taylor scanned the hewn out corridor before them, desperate to locate Tellermine’s lab.
Hopefully there’d be something he could pass on to Lenski, but he felt sure King would have found anything useful by now. In all probability he’d now be on his way to the warhead. However, that particular information would not be finding its way to the others.
“This King guy, how’d you know him?”
Taylor turned to Harper. “I had the pleasure of working with him in the war.”
“You were both spooks then?”
Taylor gave him a hard look. “I told you, US Army Rangers. King had his own agenda.”
Taylor stopped as he arrived at a fork in the passage; he looked back at Benteen who called a halt. One path ended in a large metal door, barred by a hefty metal rod that slid through the handrails. The second path snaked around a bend into total darkness. Damaged bulkhead lamps blinked like deranged signal lamps. Dodge lit up a plastic wall map with his helmet light. “Hey, what’s that guy called?”
Taylor and the others gathered around the map. It gave directions to all locations on the level, including the ‘Restricted Area and Medical Research Lab’.
“That what you’re looking for?”
Taylor smiled at Dodge but before he could answer, a guttural snarl drifted around the darkened corner. All eyes turned to the bend and the group aimed their weapons in the same direction. After what seemed an age, one of the creatures scrabbled over the rubble and lumbered towards them. Taylor held his hand up and whispered to the group, “Nobody shoot, we don’t want them to...”
Ethan Mason fired at the creature, killing it instantly. The gunshot rebounded like a base drum. Benteen was furious. “What in hell did you do that for?”
He marched up to Mason and snapped in his face, “I sure hope he was on his own!”
Boulle held up his hand to quieten the others and turned his head towards the bend in the corridor. “I reckon that’s some of its buddies coming, right now.”
The sound of the advancing ghouls resonated about the confined space.
“Let’s spilt!” Tom Price yelled, racing past the others towards the other end of the passageway. Taylor watched as the horde of flesh eaters advanced on them. So many in such a tight space could well prove difficult. Sure, they had enough firepower to deal with them, but the noise would bring every festering ghoul in the base down on them.
“Hey guys, in here.”
Taylor spun around at Price’s voice. The man was frantically pulling at the set of barricaded metal doors, trying to dislodge the shaft. There was something not quite right about the set up. Taylor looked again; the metal rod had been jammed through the door rails from the outside. It wasn’t to keep things out; it was to keep things locked in. Taylor caught sight of a discarded metal plate near the door and recoiled in horror as he read the roughly painted note: Keep out! Infected inside!
Price wrenched the bar out from the rails but even before it hit the ground, dozens of creatures burst out from the doors. The others could only watch as the things fell on the helpless Price, tearing him apart as they ate him alive.
****
Eddy Joe stood with his arms spread across the roof of his squad car; the warm metal felt good against his bare arms. He was making the most of this short interval; Main Street was all but deserted, which in his view was just as well. It wouldn’t do to have too many folk about. Most had gone home to wait it out. Preacher Goodman and Father O’Donnell had held a combined service some time back, but now the church was empty.
He glanced at his watch; Brad and the others had been gone near two hours. So far, no great fire ball in the sky. Emma and the kids had taken to the old bomb shelter under the house. Eddy Joe knew he should have sent her off to Ma’s, but now it was too late. After all the time they’d lived there, who’d have thought that anybody would ever need the shelter. Sure he’d made it into an extra room – Gerard had helped paint the walls – but that was a long time back.
Yeah sure enough, he’d been a cop an awful long time. It had just been him, Gerard and Eastman for a while. Just straight forward police work but he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Now the notion that Armstrong was the centre of some kinda Top Secret stuff was beyond him. Still, here he was, standing waiting for whatever came their way.
He looked up as Kate Black pulled up in front of him in her squad car. She was a fine looking girl but she was as tough as anybody he knew.
“Hi Eddy Joe, I got to talk to you.” She closed her door and walked over to him. “I think we have us a problem.”
She looked worried, as if there wasn’t enough already going on.
“I hope it ain’t a big one.”
“I just got through with the Clayton boys. Said they’d seen an army of those things headed our way.”
&nbs
p; His face lit up and then he burst into laughter. “Shoot! Them boys are born liars; they’ve never known nothing else. I reckon they...”
“What about Red Cloud? Is he a liar too? Because he said exactly the same thing.”
Eddy Joe stopped dead. The Clayton brothers were one thing, Red Cloud was different. “Okay, get hold of Mitch, tell him go take a look, will you?”
She shook her head and sent him a blank stare. “I don’t know where he’s at. I can’t reach him.”
He gave her a mystified look in return. That had to be one of the dumbest things he’d heard today. “What you think we got these for?” He patted his radio set and smiled.
“Yeah, well that looks like something else I got to tell you about. When’s the last time you used that?”
He keyed the handset. “Eddy Joe calling Kate. Do you read me? Over?”
“Kate not reading you, ‘cause all the radios are down. Over.”
She jerked her thumb at her squad car. “And they’re down too. Clara said the whole system’s dead.”
“Even the CB’s?”
Slowly she nodded her head. “We got no communication with anybody.”
“Yeah, we do. Us. You go get Jimmy, have a look what he’s about.” He got back into his car. “I’m gonna chase down Mitch.”
****
Eastman watched from the grassy ridge as Sarge skirted across the broken ground towards him. The guy was in his element. He grinned as Sarge crawled up alongside him and the others to make his report.
Sarge lay against the crest and lifted the visor on his fatigue cap, wiping the sweat from his eyes. “There’s six or seven guys, mostly M16’s and some heavy duty stuff too.”
Eastman frowned; anything heavy duty he could do without.
“How heavy duty?”
Sarge brushed the dust and grime from his M16. “A grenade launcher, two M60’s and a 50 Cal. That heavy enough for you?”
Eastman shut his eyes. “That’s more than enough artillery, thank you.” He edged back up to the top of the ridge, taking care to keep his head low. The position lay about 800 dusty yards off no man’s land, tucked neatly behind a long ridge. To the rear was a second ridge and beyond that, the mountains. The only things visible were the two ECM towers, standing out like some type of modern art against the natural landscape. To the left and right of the target stood rows and rows of razor wire, glinting in the warm afternoon sun. Bodien sidled up to Eastman and looked out across the barren moonscape. “How we gonna do this, Brad?”
Containment_A Zombie Novel Page 36