by Park, Grant
“Ethan.... No!” Cassie shouted.
“We don’t have time to argue about this, just go!” Ethan pushed Cassie round the corner and carried on running at full pelt; Caleb had to grab her arm to keep her moving as bullets tore the ground apart around Ethan’s feet, with only seconds to spare they made it round the other side of the building and fell to the ground gulping down breaths of air.
“We have to help him,” Cassie said as loudly as she dared. Caleb looked over to see Ethan disappear into the building running parallel with the one they were hiding behind; the doors instantly exploded behind him and the tank quickly came into view.
“He is doing his job, Cassie; we have to do ours, now come on!”
Caleb raced down the other side of the building with Cassie in toe, circling the building and bringing them back to the corner with the hole blown out of it; Caleb used the blast hole to peer out to see where the tank had gone; it was now alongside the building that Ethan had gone into, firing every rocket and chain gun it had into the side of it, this had to be their chance.
“Ok, let’s make a break for it,” Caleb said and they rushed across the road flattening themselves against the brick of the Thorp building on the other side, “There is an entrance round the back, but we will have to weave all the way through to get to the control room. Are you ok to carry on?”
“I’m fine,” Cassie said through laboured breath, “Let’s do it!”
They sidled their way around the great grey building at the back of Thorp between it and a large building the workers affectionately called ‘the hangar’ at the back towards the rear entrance. It didn’t take much to break through the safety glass of the rear door, the pommel on the back of the Naginata made short work of it and they were quickly rushing by the faux black marble reception area and into the industrial inner workings at the centre of Thorp it’s self.
It was only when they had pounded their way along several of the cold steel gantries and up three flights of stairs that they finally paused for breath.
“How.... How far do we have to go?” Cassie asked leaning against a railing and placing her hands on her knees.
“It’s not too far now, just along to the left and up a flight of stairs; that’s the control room there behind that glass there.” Caleb said pointing to his left, “But watch where you’re leaning, that pool beneath us is where they keep all of the uranium; you don’t want to fall in there.”
Cassie all but threw herself from the edge of the railing and stared into the murky blue waters below the walkway, “No, I don’t think I do,” she looked at him with a smile, “What are we waiting for? Let’s go,” the smile on her face quickly dropped away though; and Caleb didn’t have to wait long to find out why.
“Oh you’re not going anywhere, darlin’!” the voice echoed around the concrete and steel around them and Caleb spun round to see a rodent looking man with piercing grey eyes stood behind them pointing a rather lethal looking rifle right at him, “Don’t even think about it, Romeo!” he said with a sneer, “Drop it! You ain’t going anywhere either!”
_________________________
“This is shite!” said Sullivan who was still in a strop. The hail had turned to rain but it still made more noise on the Land Rover roof than Del was happy about, “How come we have to sit here while everyone else gets to fly about blowing shit up?” Sullivan piped up again.
“Because, Sully you dumb bastard, we still have enemies unaccounted for and we are supposed to be on the lookout for them. If you’ve got a problem with your station then take it up with Knox; or better yet take it up with Deane, it’s his bloody fault you’re here.”
“But Deane’s dea....”
“I fuckin’ know Deane’s dead you fucker, and I would still rather have him here than you! Now shut the fuck up and get your eyes down them fuckin’ noculars!”
Sully really was staring to grate on Del’s last nerve, the prick just wouldn’t shut up; even now he could feel Sully’s tiny little mind ticking away just trying to put together some other mundane sentence to spoil the otherwise peaceful morning.
“All I wanna know is....” and there it was.
“Shut the fuck up, Sully!”
“.... how come....”
“Nah, I mean it Sully, I’ve spotted something!”
“What is it?”
“Oh, would you fucking believe it? It’s fuckin her, it’s Fosters’ daughter. Buckle up Sully my son; we’re going in!”
Del took off at full speed, bouncing the Land Rover over every obstacle in his way; it was only when he was ramming it through the plant gates and several of the zombies that he noticed that Sully was still desperately trying to put his seat belt on. It didn’t fill him with the mirth that it usually would though; not when he had that bitch Cassie Fosters in his sights. She was going to pay dearly for what she had done; this was all her fault, this whole thing, it was her fault that the bunker was compromised, it was her fault that they lost Conway in the bunker and all of the lads in the other Land Rover, then Gordo and Cookie, It was her fault that these fucking creatures even existed; it was scientists just like her that created this mess. But most of all she was going to pay for what happened to Deane, if he hadn’t had to leave the bunker then he would be just fine, it was her fault, all of this was her fault, and she was going to have to pay.
_____________________________
Ethan only just made it through the doors before they exploded into a thousand pieces behind him; he tumbled to the floor and rolled behind the solid oak reception desk. He gave himself a fraction of a second to look back to see how much of a lead he had; they were approaching faster than he had anticipated, he didn’t have time to dither. He threw himself back onto his feet and out of a door leading further into the building, he took a turning that led to a stairwell and rushed up to the first floor; he knew this would corner himself but it would also force them out of the tank and on foot, giving Ethan the advantage over most of the troops.
Ethan heard the vehicle stop and he edged his way towards the windows on that side, just enough for the heat sensors to pick him up; the windows erupted inwards throwing segments of glass around the room and Ethan retreated to the hallway a good distance from the stairwell but with a decent view of it; there he waited patiently to hear footsteps coming his way.
The rate of fire from the tank didn’t stop though, if anything it increased, and rather than aiming for Ethan they concentrated their fire on the ground floor. Had they picked up another heat signature? Had he knocked something over down there and started a fire? Cassie hadn’t followed him in had she? Ethan flinched at the thought.
Abruptly the firing stopped. It must have been at least three minutes of constant firing, it would be a real mess down there; it wouldn’t be easy getting out. He heard a repetitive clanging like someone striking metal with a hammer, ‘All that could be left down there is the.... oh shit, the steel struts supporting the upper floors!’ Ethan was up and running towards the back of the building before he had even finished the thought process. He heard the tank engine roar and moments later the floor beneath his feet started to twist and contort with a series of momentous explosions.
Ethan shot out the glass of one of the windows on the other side of the office as he ran through, but the whole world was sinking behind him; the rest of the windows shattered under the strain covering him with shards of glass, still he ran. He reached the window only to see the second floor above him slowly sinking down and found himself with no option but to hurl himself from the building. As he fell he saw the gaping hole beneath him contorting like the mouth of an angry creature; he pulled in his arms, holding his rifle close to his chest, and braced his legs for impact. He landed with the grace of an aging hippo on to a pile of rubble but received no injuries for his effort short of a mildly twisted ankle.
But just as he was blessing his remarkable good luck, the darkness of the first floor collapsed down on top of him with a deafening crunch.
&nbs
p; __________________________
“Sully, can you hear me?” Harper shouted into his radio; Cassie couldn’t believe she was now at the mercy of this cretinous bastard, “Pick up you stupid bugger!” a crackle came from the radio before a muffled barking voice, unmistakably Staff Sergeant Knox, broke through.
“Keep off the radios, Harper!”
“Shit!” Harper said before pressing the button on the radio and talking into it again, “Sir, we have Miss Fosters and another civilian here in our custody.”
There was a long pause before Knox replied, “Good work, Harper; give us your location.” it sounded like there was heavy static through the radio as Knox spoke.
“We are in the big black and red building, Sir; apparently above a big pool of water filled with plutonium. Sully is round the back in the land Rover.” There was another pause.
“Stay put, we’re coming to you!” Knox replied eventually.
The smile that spread across Harper’s face was repulsive, God how she loathed him.
“Looks like the jig is up, Missy”
“Oh? I don’t think so, not by a long shot.” Cassie said stubbornly.
Harper barked a laugh, “Back up from the gun, Romeo; and drop the stick too.”
Cassie could see the reluctance in Caleb’s hands as he placed his staff against the railings; suddenly there was a loud boom from outside which shook the platform forcing Harper to take his hand away from the rifle and reach for the handrail; Caleb took the opportunity and with a quick flick of his hand and foot he used the staff to send the rifle that was lying on the gantry flying up towards Harper’s face. Shots were fired but Cassie was too busy running towards the opposite end of the walkway, she made it through the door and was more than pleased to see Caleb follow her through.
“Which way...?” Cassie cried.
“Follow me!” Caleb said before disappearing down a hallway to the left; it wasn’t far, but far enough to allow Harper to take a few pot shots before they disappeared round the corner and up some stairs. Shortly they came to a door and Caleb hammered in a code on the keypad, the door opened with a clunk and they dived inside, slamming the door behind them. Cassie heard bullets ring against the door as it closed but they didn’t seem to do much damage on their side.
“Don’t worry about him now, that door is solid. Now we have to kill the core!”
Caleb danced around the room, turning knobs and flicking switches, occasionally punching codes or commands into computers. She knew there was nothing she could do to help so Cassie tried her best to keep out of his way.
For a while she heard pitiful tapping on the door to the room which must have been Harper trying to break his way in, but eventually it stopped; it brought Cassie to a sudden realisation though, there was only one door into the room.
“We’re not going to make it out of here are we?” Cassie asked with grim certainty.
“I don’t know about me, but I think you could make it.” Caleb said absently.
“What do you mean?” Suddenly the incessant shrieking of the alarm stopped, Cassie had grown so accustomed to it that the silence it left made her uneasy, “What do you mean I could make it?” she almost shouted.
“Just give me two minutes,” Caleb said calmly holding her gently by the shoulders and sitting her at a computer, he moved over to a computer at the other side of the room, “Now type in ‘Command code Atlantis dash M.R.’ now hit return on three.... two.... one.... punch it!”
“It’s flashing up a load of zeroes at me now!”
“That’s fine,” Caleb rolled his chair over to her and took control of the keyboard, “It’s just the countdown sequence,” he typed in one zero, zero, zero and hit return. The countdown started immediately ticking down.
“Ten minutes, is that going to be enough time?” Cassie asked worriedly.
“That’s for the main reactor, we are quite safe here. But this one over here,” Caleb rolled his chair back over to the other computer, Cassie followed, “this is for Thorp,” The screen was already flashing the series of zeroes. Caleb looked to her with his sad brown eyes, “How long do you want to live?”
Chapter
25
The Flow of Blood
The question rang through her ‘how long do you want to live?’ surely he was joking. She looked back into his eyes, his expression hadn’t changed, “Wait.... wait just a minute,” she stammered, “What do you mean? You said that I could make it out of this.”
Caleb looked away with a resigned laugh that wasn’t at all sincere, “I did say that, didn’t I?”
“What did you mean?” Cassie asked after a moment.
“I don’t know if you have noticed, Cassie but you have something.... sorry, are something that is in short supply.”
“I don’t follow you,” she said, confused.
“You’re a woman, Cassie; and there are not many of you left.” she was left reeling, how could she have been so stupid? “While you are here concentrating on saving the world, those men out there are thinking on a much more primal level. They’re not here to stop you, Cassie; they’re here to catch you.
“But yes, you’re right; it’s not about how long you want to live, it’s about how long I want to live. When we open that door they will come in here and take you away, and most likely shoot me, I am surplus to requirement in their eyes.”
“Wait, Caleb, just wait. What if we don’t open the door?”
“Then you will die with me, and I won’t let that happen; Twenty minutes before the ground falls away from this place I am going to open that door and I won’t let you stop me; it will give you plenty of time to escape the area.”
“But what if we don’t destroy this place, what if we leave it be; we don’t have to destroy it do we?”
“It’s too dangerous to leave, a million and one things could happen in here that could cause disaster for the people who survive; for you, for Brandon. I can’t let that happen.”
Cassie could see in his eyes that he was prepared to do anything to keep his son alive, even if that meant him dying himself. There was something behind those big brown eyes that Cassie couldn’t quite put her finger on that reminded her of her father; maybe it was the reason that she felt so drawn to him.
“No!” She had already lost her father, she wasn’t about to lose him too.
“No?” Caleb asked quizzically.
“No, I won’t let you just give up. You are too used to only being able to rely on yourself, Caleb. You’re not alone anymore; Ethan and Jim are still out there, we still have hope, you can’t give up now.”
“I dunno, Cassie....”
“No, you don’t! So I’m telling you! We are going to get out of here alive!”
“Ok!” he said excitedly with a broad smile that lit up his face, “How we gonna do that?”
“Umm.... ok, how about through here?” Cassie said pointing to the large glass window that pointed out at the pool and gantry where they had escaped Harper.
“No chance. That glass could withstand a rocket being fired at it; we’d have a better chance trying to chew our way through the brick walls.”
“Oh; ok then, how about service ducts? There must be air flow getting to here from somewhere.”
“Well, yeah; there is the air con here,” he walked over to a large unit on the ceiling covered in vents, “but it is only fed through a four inch pipe. You do have a nice athletic figure, Cassie; but you ain’t that thin,” he said with a smile.
“I guess we could always just chew through the brick walls then?” she said exacerbated.
“Good plan; I think there is some salt and pepper in the cupboard over there.”
“You just don’t give up do you?”
“I tried to give up, but you wouldn’t let me.”
“I mean with the jokes,” Cassie sighed, “Even now you can’t help yourself,” she could feel herself welling up and the words caught in her throat a little.
“I’m sorry, Cassie; but if I’m gonn
a die,” he stepped forward, brushed her hair away from her face and wiped a tear from her eye, “I’m gonna die laughing, life’s too short”
Was that another joke? Cassie couldn’t tell; and she didn’t want to know.
Cassie took a step back. Men had a terrible way of clouding the mind. The wolves were baying at her door and all she could think about was kissing this man, that wasn’t her, she was no damsel in distress; and she wasn’t about to wait around for Ethan to save her either.
“Set the timer for twenty minutes. We’re leaving!” she said firmly.
“What? Wait.... What?”
“Set the.... you know what? Never mind,” she walked over to the computer and punched in two, zero, zero, zero and hit return. The timer instantly turned from twenty minutes to nineteen fifty-nine and started counting down.
“What the hell are you doing, Cassie?” Caleb said in a panic.
“Leaving...!”
She strode over to the door and typed ‘Thorp’ into the alphanumeric keypad, as she had seen Caleb do before; not the best secret code in the world. She opened the door. Harper was stood there with his rifle up at his shoulder aimed right at her; he dropped the barrel a little, just enough to show her a leering grin and relaxing his trigger finger to the side of the gun.
“Come to your senses did you, Darlin’?”
“You could say that,” she replied flatly. Quickly she snatched her hand up and moved the barrel of the rifle away from her, pointing it at the wall, reached into her belt and pulled out the pistol that Ethan had given her and pointed it at Harper’s face; she drank in the range of emotions that spread across his face before she pulled the trigger, shock, fear and rage, all in a matter of seconds. She squeezed the trigger and he dropped in a spray of blood, leaving her holding the rifle by its barrel.
“Wow...!” Caleb said from behind her. She turned and passed the rifle to him, grabbed him by the collar and kissed him deeply.