She had her reasons for turning her back on Eric but one of them was not how weak he was. As she followed silently to the left rear of Bullosky, Mandy wondered why these people were deceiving themselves into thinking that they really could best someone with the incredible skill-set of Eric. Here she was, assuming that she would be protected or placed somewhere that Eric could not get to her and all they did was put her in a room in the one place that Eric would assume she would be. Someone had suggested that Eric wouldn’t care one way or the other about her anymore because he was hanging around with Destiny now. Mandy didn't really care for that line of thought because it suggested that Eric was basically just using her instead of her using him. She understood that the truth of the matter was likely that they both used each other. The fact that Mandy had been the one to desert him however was what made her feel more in control in the situation. All of that being how it was, she would be fine if she never had to see him again for a myriad of reasons.
Finally her thoughts were interrupted by the demonic admiral stopping in a hallway. For that moment all Mandy saw were walls, floor and ceiling so she just shrugged, “What? If you made me walk all this way for nothing I'm going to kill myself before you have the chance to and take you with me. I am pregnant you know?”
Bullosky scowled at her comment but true to form, allowed more from her than he would anyone else because of who she was carrying inside. He said, “If you will close your mouth and be patient for once human, you'll see something other than what you think you see.”
Mandy quickly shot back, “If I was good at being patient, I would still be hanging out with Bayne.”
Bullosky ignored her words and began to run his hands over the wall in a specific pattern. Though she didn't try to remember it, she did notice that it was something he seemed to know very well as he didn't have to concentrate at all to do whatever it was. One thing for sure, it was a pattern. Finally something happened. The wall of the hallway cracked. Literally a slight hint of light began to peek through a crack that had been created in the wall in the form of a rectangle.
“I'll be damned,” she said with no pun intended, “It’s a door.”
“The door is of little consequence after you see what is on the other side,” Bullosky said proudly as the section of wall slid back and revealed a hidden corridor. The corridor looked more like a hospital basement than anything else with pipes and odd electrical looking lines running all over the place. Instead of the blank hallway that they had just left, this one had windows and doors all along the walls. Bullosky smirked as he turned to walk down the corridor, “This way.”
Mandy was so interested in what was going on in this hidden section of O.A. that she forgot about being nauseous tor the first time in over a week. The first room they came to that she could see into via the window was completely empty. The second window on the opposite side of the corridor showed two gurneys with bodies covered by a sheet. Whether this was the morgue or something more was up for discussion but it damn sure was interesting. Still, Mandy couldn't see how Bullosky planned to earn her trust in the situation just by displaying hidden medical corridors and morgues.
The more she expected Bullosky to stop and start the grand tour, the more he kept walking. She passed another window on her right. That room was slammed full of zombies who at least appeared to still be alive. The next room on the left had only one zombie with tons of medical equipment hooked up to him. As the kept walking down the corridor, around corners and further into the secretive section of O.A., Mandy saw everything from zombie-demons, regular zombies, empty rooms and one covered gurney that appeared to have female human hair hanging off the side. All total there were five gurneys with sheets covering them that she figured could be human or at least human-like figures. After several turns and more mysterious windows she couldn't take it anymore, “What is this place? Did I see humans back there?”
Bullosky didn't even turn around, “Not for you to know or worry about Mandy. Just know that we are in control in more ways than you know. There are plans, counter-plans, emergency plans and fail-safe plans all in place. Worry if you must about Bayne coming for you but if he ever shows up here, I promise he will be sorry. We are going to the room just up ahead.”
When he finally stopped, the long and winding corridor had finally stopped at a closed door with a keypad. Mandy pointed passed him, “Tell me we're going in there.”
He pointed at a door off to the left, “No. We're going in here.”
“I want to go in there,” Mandy pointed again.
“No!” Bullosky demanded.
“Yes! I want to see what is going on behind that door Admiral!” Mandy demanded.
Bullosky smiled, “Yours is a special place with Organic Ascendancy Mandy, but not that special. You're not ready to see anything going on behind that door. Take my word for it. What you are about to see behind this door is going to be difficult enough. Let's go.”
Mandy crossed her arms and pouted for a minute but there clearly was no changing the demon's mind this time. She walked into the doorway first and saw a short little room with another door and keypad in front of her. Bullosky stepped passed her and entered a code that she couldn't see because he blocked her view. The door opened freely to larger room. As they walked into the room, Mandy thought the whole trip had been some grand scheme to get her into a padded cell. For a moment she actually thought the door would shut behind her and she would be stuck in this large room forever. Thankfully that didn't happen. Unfortunately, what she saw on the other side of the pane of glass that was revealed on one wall of the room was just as unsettling and would be much harder to explain.
It took Mandy a moment to fully grasp what she was looking at. On the other side of the glass was a very large room that looked as much like a laboratory as anything she had ever seen. There were test tubes all over the place of varying sizes. Along one wall was a series of hard steel tables with instruments that would make a dentist wince. A series of columns made it difficult to see all the way across the large room and what might be on the far wall but one thing she knew she saw was a dark haired little boy.
The boy looked to be about age four or five and was apparently sleeping in a bed that was enclosed in a tube. By far the strangest thing about the room was that there were ten little boys just like him in bed tubes stretched between two columns. Mandy was standing next to the glass when she finally found her voice, “What the hell are you doing?”
“I'm so glad you asked,” Bullosky said. “Destiny is a legendary figure around this place and I have a real problem with that. One thing that she did for Organic Ascendancy that cannot be denied however is what she accomplished when she severed Eric Bayne's right hand.”
Mandy gasped and then asked breathlessly, “You cloned Eric from the hand?”
“We cloned the DNA and created cells using creativity and maybe a tiny bit of magic.” Bullosky nodded, “This should let you know that we are capable of doing whatever we need to do in order to win this war. The demons,” he added almost as an afterthought, “And Organic Ascendancy will win this thing. It is all of us against two; one legendary savior in his prime and one likely-wounded and defiant soldier.”
Mandy motioned towards the cloned humans, “I'm not saying that this isn't impressive but you must not really think that this thing will still be going on when they get fully grown. Even if you accelerate their growth somehow, and I do not want to know how you do that, they'll still be grown far too late to do anything but freak Bayne out.”
Bullosky enjoyed a small laugh, “Mandy, we are not planning to stall until these cloned Bayne's are grown. They are a long-term plan and above all else, an experiment.”
“Then how are they supposed to help me feel more positive about our chances? This changes nothing,” Mandy argued.
“True,” Bullosky said flatly, “But we have a few more tricks up our sleeve about four times more powerful and strange as this. We cannot talk about them just yet but make sure you
feel certain that we are going to take Bayne down. What we are going to do next to him will do a great deal more than simply freak him out, I assure you. Be patient, wait and you will see.”
Mandy shook her head at what she saw before her, “If you say so. I know this is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. If you have something worse than this, I'll be patient for now.”
Bullosky grabbed her shoulder just sternly enough to turn her to face him and said, “Mandy, I understand why a human like yourself is afraid of what will happen when Eric Bayne finds you. You turned your back on him and tried to kill him in the process. Who wouldn’t be angry at you?”
“This is not helping,” Mandy said dryly.
“Let me finish,” Bullosky said in what sounded almost like a caring voice.
It never ceased to amaze her how differently she was treated just because she was carrying a certain man's child. Mandy sighed, “Okay, shoot.”
“Assuming Bayne stays alive long enough, all will change when he sees our next move. When he sees what we have waiting for him it will drive him to his knees. It will crush his spirit and his very soul. He will have no chance to fight back. When that happens, getting revenge on you will be the very last thing on his mind. Trust me.”
Mandy shook her head at the very fact that an actual demon had just told her to trust him. What the hell had she done in her life to deserve this? “Whatever you say Bullosky. If you think anything you can do will ever put Eric Bayne on his knees, you're the craziest son-of-a-bitch I've ever seen.”
Bullosky smiled a knowing smile and said, “I guarantee it.”
Tired of looking at a laboratory that she really didn't want to believe existed, Mandy led the way back out the door and down the corridor. She kept her head down refusing to look into any windows until she got back to the main hallway door. It was then that she saw that she had no way to open the door. Bullosky stepped passed her and the door opened. Mandy said, “Good god, you just open doors with your mind now?”
Bullosky shook his head, “Not quite.”
The door opened and Dr. Isaiah Neal walked through with his head down. He was going so fast and was so distracted that he walked right into Bullosky and almost fell down from the recoil. He looked at the demonic admiral, then to Mandy and back with a shocked expression on his face. “What in the fuck is she doing here?”
Bullosky grinned, “Relax doctor. She needed to be shown something that would give her some confidence in our plans.”
“If you...”
“I did not show her anything of consequence Dr. Isaiah; only experiments,” Bullosky said, “Relax for once.”
Nothing else was said and Dr. Isaiah stormed down the corridor for reasons Mandy was extremely glad she did not know. All she wanted to do was get out of this area of the facility, get back to her nice quarters and completely forget everything she had just seen. She left Bullosky behind, finding her own way back, stepped into her quarters and got started doing just that.
Chapter 8
“What in the fuck is wrong with you?” Eric asked as he walked towards the large facility. From the looks of it close up, it might have been a successful sawmill at one point in time. Nothing inside of Eric, absolutely nothing, wanted to open any of the doors to the inside of the warehouse and walk in. Finishing taking his irritation out on Destiny, he said, “You drove us through the woods to escape O.A. soldiers and we find ourselves stranded at the end of the road with a big ass sawmill the only thing to keep us company. Well,” he glanced at the O.A. soldier who was bound tightly, gagged and sitting on the ground in front of the truck, “And him.”
Destiny sighed, “It beats having to take on another bunch of them doesn't it? Especially when you consider this last one we took down is about the only one out without a demonic and zombie escort.” She looked back at the bound soldier as well, “Dumbass.”
Eric was now walking around the side of the warehouse looking for the same thing that Destiny was looking for at the front and on the other side. He sighed and yelled so she could hear him, “I guess so unless you count the part where we have to find a way inside of this fucking place. For my money, we can send the O.A. lackey and check for signs of life after a few minutes. If he lives that long then we assume it is safe for us to go inside too.”
“Eric,” Destiny yelled, “Are you actually afraid of old warehouses or something? You've killed more than one demon and yet you are afraid to open this place. That makes no sense.” She paused briefly, “I think I have something.”
Eric's memory flashed back to the group of cannibals that he had wound up staying with. Their large barn had something of the same look as this large warehouse if you tripled the size. He shook his head, “You don't know what I've seen or you'd pause before walking in too. What do you have?”
“I've seen plenty but nothing that made me scared of opening a building,” Destiny said. “After clearing the weeds off it looks to be a big bay door. If we can get the thing to raise up far enough, we could slip inside, wait for the group of attackers we expect are on our heels to leave and then check out ourselves.”
With a sigh Eric said, “That sounds as good as anything. I'll circle back around and bring the truck and the O.A. bastard around to where you are.” He didn't hear her reply but didn't need to in order to know that was what he needed to do. Within a few moments he was walking towards the truck. Motioning towards the soldier he said, “Get in unless you need my help like last time.”
Despite his general irritation, Eric found the quick way the soldier worked towards his feet and rushed to the open side door absolutely hilarious. With a quick laugh he jumped into the driver’s seat and began the slow but steady drive around the side of the building. At one time this would have been a smooth concrete drive around the building but now it was littered with busted concrete and potholes. It took a full three minutes before he could see Destiny tearing the weeds off of the door with her sword.
When he pulled up he took notice of the icky look on her face. After getting out he grabbed some of the weeds with his bare hand and threw them off the door. Then he said, “Wow, after all you have done in your amazing life, I cannot believe you are afraid of a few weeds.”
“Okay,” Destiny said with a smile.
“No, I mean really,” Eric said with a shrug, “You're so courageous and nothing scares you but you're all icky when it comes to tall grass. I just don't get it. It makes no sense.”
“Okay, Eric,” Destiny sighed, “You made your point. I get it; you're an ass.”
Eric looked at the right and left sides of the door and then at the top. After a glance at the top as well, he took his sword in his left hand and sliced through the metal on one side of the door. The sharp sword only hesitated for a slight moment through the cut. Eric kicked at the bottom of the door and saw it give a little. He stabbed the door with his sword and opened it quickly with a heave upward. With the door opened he addressed Destiny's snide little comment, “Yes, I am and don't forget it.” He led the way into the warehouse.
He heard Destiny and the soldier walk in behind him. From the silence he might assume they were stunned by how well the place looked as much as he was. As he stared at it and walked around a little bit, he saw that it was basically like a huge assembly line. On one side of the facility a tree would be brought in, from the looks of the one still on there it was brought in with the limbs clipped off, and the bark was shaved off. It was moved from there to a machine with a huge belt system that would throw it through a few blades so that the tree was sliced into several sections. On it went from there until they could make the tree into pieces of lumber to be trucked way and sold to a retailer or someone who wanted it.
It was about that time that he noticed their prisoner was moaning loudly into his gag. Destiny cut him a glance and Eric was about to tell him to shut his mouth before he heard something. With a knowing look on his face, Eric walked out to the truck, hopped in the driver’s seat and drove it inside. He got out and shut the b
ay door and on his way back passed the truck, reached in to grab one of their mobile comm devices. He turned it on and stood near Destiny, “This should be interesting. Oh and you,” he said to the soldier, “Don't assume I need you alive and well. I just need your face.” Eric placed the point of his sword directly at the O.A. soldier's throat, “I have no problem giving you a terrible war wound before we get back to your home base, so you might want to shut the fuck up.”
The young fellow became as quiet as death itself as Eric held the comm device out between the three of them. Once the switch on the side was flipped to the on position, voices could be heard immediately.
“You know they had to come through here,” one scratchy voice said. “It was the only direction they could have gone based on the tracks we saw.”
“Yeah but that doesn't mean they're here Johnny,” a high-pitched male voice said.
“Billy,” a third and deeper voice said, “Just because you don't want to go inside this place doesn't mean they aren't here.”
The high-pitched voice said, “It doesn't mean they are!”
“Look,” the scratchy voice came through, “The tracks lead right up to the pavement.”
“And disappear within a few yards,” high-pitched voice finished the thought.
“Billy, man you're embarrassing yourself. We work with these things now you know? You don't have to be scared of them anymore.”
“I'm not afraid,” the high-pitched voice said, “They just freak me out man. Goddamn things crawling all over the place.”
The Great War (Surviving the Zombie Nightmare Book 5) Page 9