Frank started pulling Althea while Mason advanced in front of him down the hall. He looked back towards Cate, to make sure she was holding her own, to make sure she was all right. She would need help soon. He just needed to get them a few more feet to safety.
The prisoner at the far end of the hall was still moving slowly, groggily. Mason saved his bullets. There weren’t enough to spare and this one wasn’t a good enough target, yet.
He turned back just in time to see Cate stumble and fall backwards, tripping over Althea’s feet. The two prisoners were upon them in a second. Both latched onto Althea. Cate was free beside her, so Mason leaned over Frank, grabbed Cate’s arm and pulled her back and away from the things with as much force as he could muster. She practically flew towards him, and they both stumbled to the ground next to Frank.
“Get into the room.” He insisted to Cate.
The two things were attacking Althea’s legs, her thighs. She was screaming again, begging. “Help me. Help me!”
Cate stumbled over Mason and headed towards the door.
Frank was pulling on Althea, trying to hold on, but parts of her legs were being ripped away.
Mason started shooting over Frank’s head, trying to aim high enough not to hurt Althea, but low enough to do some damage. He couldn’t get a clear shot at their heads with Frank in the way.
Mason pulled Frank off Althea and Frank, weaponless, ran for the door. The prisoners, distracted, perhaps, by the movement, stopped feeding and looked up at Mason as if anticipating their next meal. Mason started to back away, slowly, like you would with a rabid dog. No quick movements.
He looked behind him. The door was open. Frank had made it inside. That other prisoner, the one who’d circled around, had stopped walking now. It was staring at him too, and it was only about ten yards away.
Althea was still repeating, “Help. Help me.” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Mason was going to kill those things. He took aim. The two on top of Althea first, then the other one.
“Mason, back, now!” Frank shouted.
Mason turned in time to see the third creature charging. Mason broke and ran. He practically dove into the room. As he turned back towards the hall, Cate and Frank were already closing the door behind him.
“Wait.” Mason ordered.
The third creature had joined the other two, digging into Althea’s outstretched arm. Mason quickly took aim and fired. As he collapsed back into the room, Cate and Frank slamming the door closed, he was just thankful that Althea’s head had been an easy target to hit.
Chapter 28
As Cate stood there, back against the door, those creatures banging into it, she hated herself more than she had ever hated herself before. She could’ve helped that woman. She could’ve saved Marisol. If she’d acted faster. She was thinking slowly, responding even more slowly, and people were dying because of it.
Mason yelled “Move.” She did and he tipped a file cabinet into the door. Then she had to move again as he knocked another one over.
“Other side.” Mason gestured and the other agent moved to the door at the far side of the room.
They were in the observation deck. Everything was dark. The emergency lighting in the hall was bright enough for people to find their way around. In this room, there was just enough light to keep a human from walking into the wall.
The creatures kept banging on the door they’d just come through. It wasn’t giving. Mason watched as the other agent maneuvered two file cabinets in front of the far door.
“You okay?” Mason asked.
Cate muttered, “I never even got her name.” She knew she was being maudlin, but she didn’t care.
Those things terrified her. When she’d been pinned beneath him, and his teeth were coming towards her, she could hear the skin being ripped off. She could smell the disease on his breath. She wasn’t afraid of death. If she died, she wouldn’t have to feel anything anymore. But those things didn’t promise death. As frightened as she was of being chewed on, she was most afraid of being turned into one of those monsters, of being responsible for killing more people, seemingly without care.
“Cate, everything happened very quickly.” Mason put his hand on her shoulder, as if to comfort her. “You couldn’t have done anything more.”
“That should do it.” The other agent walked up to them. “My name’s Frank, by the way.”
He held out his hand and smiled and it was so ridiculous Cate had to laugh.“Cate. Nice to meet you, I guess, under the circumstances and all.”
“Yeah, lovely place you got here. Great ambience.”
Cate smiled at him. “It’s seen better days.”
“Yeah, you know what’s nice? Ireland. You should go there one day.”
“Frank, don’t start that again.” Mason griped.
Frank sat down and leaned up against the wall, under the two way mirror. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m thinking we just sleep here and wait until the cavalry arrives.”
Mason squinted at Frank. “You okay? Looking kind of shabby.”
Frank shrugged and said, “I’ve been up for, what, twenty hours? I’m tired.”
Cate could sympathize. This had been the second hardest day in her life. She wished it was over already. She wished Mason would take his hand off her shoulder and wrap her up in his arms and make this night go away.
“You want to tell us what those things are?” Mason asked.
Oh God. If only she knew.
“I don’t know what they are.” She shook her head in frustration. “A few hours ago, they were human.”
Mason took his hand back. “Well, you have to know something. Why don’t they die? Why do they move like that? What did you guys give them?”
She could try to explain. “It’s top secret, of course.”
Frank laughed, “Yeah, I think the secret’s out.”
That was true. This night had taken them beyond security clearance into need-to-know. “We gave them a vaccine. It was supposed to be a vaccine against vampire infection. When I started here, that’s what our goal was. A sort of sterilization project.” That had been a lifetime ago. That had been many lives ago.
Cate continued, “The drug we were working on turned out to be lethal to vees. In testing, a vee ingesting the vaccinated blood died, which opened a door to eradicating the vampire race.”
“Jesus, Cate!” Mason spat. “You were okay with that?”
“They killed my whole family, Mason. You know that. They left me with nothing. I hate them. I do want them dead. They don’t deserve to be alive when everyone I care about is dead!”
Mason turned his back on her, and she knew she’d hurt him. She hadn’t meant to. She wanted to add, “Except you. I care about you.” But she still couldn’t say that.
Mason turned back and glared at her. “So, it didn’t work, huh? You tried to get rid of one race and instead you created something worse. What are they?”
That was the question she’d been asking herself. “They’re humans that we injected with an experimental attenuated vaccine.” She stopped, and forced herself to continue in English. “The vaccine we injected was made with a live, but weakened, version of the virus that causes vampirism. At least, that’s what the original six prisoners are – infected humans. The others...”
Frank asked, “Why do they move like that?”
“It would seem that their blood has merged with the serum we injected and become a mutated form of vee blood. They’re fast and strong because of that. I can only guess the other, semi-catatonic state, is because they’re newly changed and haven’t adapted yet. And some of them were grievously injured before turning. The good news is they don’t seem to heal like vees.”
“Yeah, or die like vees either.” Mason was quick to point out the bad news.
“They die.” Frank piped in. “Just gotta take their heads off.”
Cate went on. “The others, the guards, were infected by the prisoners. I’m guessing
when they were,” it didn’t seem an adequate word, “bitten. They didn’t die, actually. I mean, I think they had started to change, before their human body stopped functioning.”
“So, you fail at curing vampirism and instead you create zombies!” Mason spat out, accusingly.
“They aren’t zombies.” Cate responded, weakly.
“Really?” Mason prodded. “You have a better word for it?”
She wanted to laugh. Zombies. But she was a vampire. And now the dead were coming back to life.
“Hey, mom and dad, hate to interrupt and all,” Frank didn’t sound like he minded one bit, “but do you hear that?”
Mason stopped talking but continued to glare at her. Cate looked away, focused on listening for what Frank had heard. She didn’t hear anything. She didn’t hear any noise at all.
Chapter 29
Daniel could have abandoned her. She was human, and slow. She was pregnant, and even slower. He could’ve left her to die, but he might still need her.
They ran up two flights of stairs until they stepped out onto a floor. Daniel hated to admit it, even to himself, but that thing was scary. It had taken down Jerome, a much larger vee, without too much of a fight. He supposed if he’d stayed and helped Jerome, they both could have defeated it. The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. What did that say about the kind of vee he was?
“Why did that vee attack?” Lisa hadn’t seen what had happened to Jerome, not as much as he had.
“That wasn’t a vee.” Daniel wasn’t in the mood to talk.
“It looked like a vee, I mean, it moved fast.”
“Yeah, unlike you,” Daniel thought to himself.
Explaining - what little he could explain - would just freak her out. Calm Lisa was better than screaming Lisa, even if she was slower to move.
“He was one of the inmates, wasn’t he? A volunteer?” Lisa seemed intent to not let it drop.
“Yes, he was one of your friends’ experiments. When he volunteered, I’m sure he didn’t know he was going to end up being turned into, whatever the hell they turned him into.”
Lisa asked, “They turned him into that?” She really didn’t know.
“Yes. They gave the prisoners some drug that made them different.” Daniel continued, voice and anger rising, “As I said before, the NVIA doesn’t seem to care about the impact their experiments have on vees, or apparently on humans either. They act as if the ends justify the means.”
Lisa looked abashed. Daniel hadn’t meant to get upset. He started off again in the direction they’d been heading. “We are still walking in the right direction, yes?”
Lisa looked around. “Yes, I suppose we are.”
She didn’t know? The woman was just walking at random? He needed her to focus. There was a trap he needed to spring, as soon as he could come up with it.
Lisa collapsed against the wall and started taking long, deep breaths.
“Oh God, don’t tell me you’re going into labor?”
She didn’t bother to answer for a minute. She seemed to be losing her fear of him. Maybe he’d have to do something about that.
“I’m sorry. I think that was a contraction.” She held up her hand, reassuringly. “Just a contraction. You can have them for days before the baby comes.”
She leaned on the wall, like it was holding her up. “I just need a minute.”
She didn’t look like she’d be ready again in a minute. Daniel was about to push her, maybe even to frighten her into moving, but he imagined it must be hard, carrying all that extra weight around. Still, he was in a bit of a rush.
Daniel looked around and his eyes actually spotted something that could help. “Come with me.”
She looked at him wearily, but followed.
He couldn’t believe it, but the sign was true. There was a fitness center on this floor, just past the stairs they’d come up. These people killed for a living. They destroyed families and friendships. They tortured. All in a day’s work. And then, apparently, they worked out?
It was a smallish gym lined with mirrors and filled with barbells and treadmills and other fun, sporting activities. After looking around the room for a second, Daniel saw what he was after.
“Sit.” He ordered, and then added, “Please. We’ll move again in a minute.”
Lisa sat down on a weight bench. Daniel picked up a twenty pound weighted barbell, walked over to the vending machines against the wall, and smashed them both open. He grabbed a bottle of blue energy drink and a few packets of crackers and brought them back to Lisa. She actually smiled.
“No chocolate?” she asked.
He smiled too. And then he got the lady a chocolate bar.
He sat down next to her as she started to eat.
“Thanks for this.” She talked at his reflection in the mirror to save herself from turning around. “I thought I was going to faint.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of.” That hadn’t even occurred to him. That really happened?
He looked at himself in the mirror. He didn’t look like he’d aged another fifty years in the last two hours, even though he certainly felt that way.
Lisa stopped eating for a second. “Was that true? What you said back there? About Stephen and the highest bidder?”
Unfortunately it was. “Yes. I’ve known people like Stephen before.” She was listening like she cared, so he went on. “Not willing to do their own work. Completely willing to steal someone else’s.” He couldn’t keep the hatred out of his voice. “No interest in building a better future, in fixing what’s broken. It’s all about the now. And always, always, out for number one and number one only.”
“And you? What are you out for?” Food had made her braver.
“I’m trying to save my people from your people.” He stood up. This conversation had taken too long.
Lisa stood up, faced him, and said, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For my people.” As Lisa walked out in front of him, Daniel had a sneaking feeling it wouldn’t be so easy to use her as bait after all.
He needed an edge. He looked at his reflection one more time, forcing himself to think of something. His reflection smiled back. At least one of them had just come up with a plan.
Chapter 30
“What are they doing?”
The zombies - she would call them that until they had a better name - the zombies had stopped trying to break in. Or at least they’d stopped charging the door. Mason and Cate and Frank all sat still, listening. Cate could still smell them, but she wasn’t sure if that was because they were still there or if it was just their foulness hanging in the air.
“Maybe they left.” Frank suggested.
“Shhh.” She cut Frank off. She heard something. What was that?
Thack!
Cate screamed as a zombie smashed into the two way mirror. She grabbed Mason’s hand and backed up. “They’re trying to break through the glass.” Could they do that?
Mason held her hand. He sounded much too calm for the situation. “There’s only one. His body is still just human. He can’t smash through bullet proof glass.” He smiled as if to say, just one, harmless little zombie. “I guess he’s just noticed us.”
Cate was annoyed with herself that Mason talking to her as if she were a child afraid of the dark actually did calm her. Still, she was relieved that he was taking a softer tone with her. She had enough stress at the moment.
She was holding the hand of a man she’d walked away from, never offering him the explanation he deserved, while staring at a monster she helped create who could very well kill all of them before the night was out. She felt her guilt trying to rip her gut open. If only she could figure out a way to undo some of the damage.
Thack!
This zombie looked human. He’d apparently been in the same room all night and had no injuries, so there were no rotted wounds to make him appear frightening. But his behavior sent chills down her spine, especially since she kne
w that he was capable of killing her and the others. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to climb the mirror or trying to scratch it away. The zombie was clawing at the glass, which wasn’t the most disturbing part. What finally made her look away was that he kept licking and chomping at the glass, as if there were a tasty meal waiting for him, just beyond his grasp.
Mason squeezed her hand, “You okay?”
She smiled back at him, “No.” And then, realizing there might not be another chance, she said, “could we, maybe, have a talk?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
They walked to the far side of the room, only 50 feet or so from Frank, but it gave them all a little privacy, and Cate felt better not being directly next to the zombie show. They sat down across from each other, knees touching. Silly, how much something like her knee cap grazing against his reverberated throughout her body.
“Before you start in about the zombies or whatever,” Mason laughed a little, like he was saying something ridiculous, and then continued. “I need to know, Cate, why wouldn’t you call me back? Why wouldn’t you see me?”
How to explain not showing up to the funeral, not taking his calls, disappearing with nothing more than a final text telling him to leave her alone. There was no explanation that would convey the enormity of what she’d done. No explanation but one.
“Mason, I…” she started, but he cut her off.
“I know you blame me for not being there. I know you think none of this would’ve happened if I had just gone with you, like we’d talked about. I’m so sorry, Cate. I am so sorry about your family.”
“No. No.” He couldn’t have thought that. All this time. “No, Mason, I never blamed you. Oh God, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t face you because I had changed. I never thought it was your fault for a second. Please. Please, forgive me.”
And then he was kissing her and she was kissing him back and it was the happiest Cate had felt in five years. For a moment, they weren’t trapped in a room, trying to survive. It was just his lips, pressed against hers, his arms around her waist, his tongue testing hers.
Caged (The V to Z Trilogy Book 1) Page 14