One (Alone Book 3)

by Mercedes Prunty

  Reaching his lab he stepped over a cooling corpse, one of the so called rebels, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing at the scene. This was his world now. Closing the door behind him he waited to see if anything or anyone was waiting in the shadows but he was alone. He walked to the secure room which could only be reached wearing a hazmat suit and gloves, changing quickly he then walked into the decontamination zone and was hosed down by a sickly smelling liquid. Passing this area he then entered the zone where he had kept the C.U.R.E hidden. Tapping in a passcode a small draw flicked out revealing another keypad, typing another code in a small hidden recess in the wall, which then opened out containing six small shelves filled with vials of strange almost glowing liquid. Taking a few of the vials he then closed up the shelves and locking the rest of them away.

  Once back out in his main lab he placed them on the table, unsuited and then stared at the vials. The strange eerie glow emitting from them was weird but beautiful, it held the most powerful disease known to man, more powerful than the one they used on the world just six or so years before. This one was a mixture of the rabies and influenza virus but also contained another ingredient that was found only there in the Pyramiden and ice Svalbard regions, ‘Liquid Sunlight’. The so called Liquid Sunlight was found in small strange creatures called Cocopods, there was something in the way they ate the ice algae and processed the light the ice held. They literally glowed in the dark with the light but there was a chemical reaction in their blood which causes them to glow which had become the main ingredient for making the new potent strain.

  Aksel Enok picked up a gas mask he had kept hidden under his desk and put it on then he went over to a small machine he had made and built up around the air vent and opened one of the vials and poured it into the machine and pushed the button to turn the machine on. Instantly it burst to life and began to pump the virus into the air ventilation system. Soon his people would be under his rein and control, soon everyone in the facility would be the way he envisioned and not the way his uncle had. His uncle had wanted to create an almost Aryan race like Hitler had all those years ago but Aksel didn’t want that, he wanted everyone to be infected, he wanted everyone to be the same, blood thirsty and hungry and he would rule over all of them.

  ~

  We stood at a chain link fence looking out over the snowy terrain which looked to be an abandoned airfield. Kian was taking a look around whilst we sat and waited, it was cold, we were all tired and exhausted and we just wanted this to be over. Cain huddled into my chest, I had let him keep my dad’s leather jacket on as although I felt cold it wouldn’t affect me like it would him. His eyes were shut against the chill and small droplets had formed around his nose and had chilled to the spot. I smiled as I stroked his hair and he snuggled in closer, I had never felt anything like this before, the love I felt for him. I knew it was like a maternal thing, I couldn’t have kids or at least I didn’t want to in case I produced a Murphy but with Cain, he was sort of mine.

  “Hey, over here I found a way in and I think it is empty?”

  “Wasn’t this place controlled by your people?” Kaley asked, her tone was a little off and I could see by the paleness of her skin and the redness around her eyes that she was feeling like crap. I could sense it too, the infection spreading rapidly through her veins.

  “Yeah, but in the winter months it’s normally too tricky to get here so we leave it and come back at first light”.

  “First light?”

  “Svalbard and the Pyramiden can be subjected to months of darkness with no light. The facility is only around 1000 kilo meters from the north pole”.

  “No wonder it’s so damn cold”, I said still holding Cain tightly.

  “Well once we’re all in the chopper we will be much warmer”, he smiled.

  “You found one? With fuel?”

  He nodded, “Enough to get us there but not back, but then I have a feeling we won’t be coming back…Will we?” he turned to Kaley.

  She just glared into his eyes, “No”.

  “Kaley are you ok?” I asked, her mood had been getting worse as we had made it closer to our final destination.

  “I will be, once this is all over”.

  “You really want this to be over so soon?” I asked her.

  She turned to me, a sense of sympathy in her eyes now, “I don’t want to say goodbye, not to any of you but it needs to be done. The sooner we do this, the sooner I will feel a whole lot better because right now I feel like crap and I just want to curl up in a ball and…” Die, I knew she wanted to say it but she looked at Cain, something behind her eyes changed and I knew she was seeing something none of us could see.

  “Kaley what is it?”

  She smiled, “Something good, now come on let’s go”.

  Something good? Something good? I thought, what could she mean, how could something good come out of all this? Although I tried hard to come up with something once the helicopter was in the air it was too hard to think with the noise the powerful flying machine made.

  Looking out the window and seeing the white lands below us fly past I felt uneasy and awed, I had never been in a helicopter or plane before and hearing the noise it made was strange, alien. Cain managed to fall asleep and Kaley just stared out through the screen, watching Kian man the controls and fly us to our designated destination.

  Soon through the darkness we could make out lights, the lights let to a heliport on top of a building, Kian looked out closely and frowned, “Well where’s the welcome party?”

  “Welcome party?”

  “Well normally there are guards on most roof tops, although most of them are friends of mine and rebels and would have let us pass undetected but this”, he motioned his hands out to show the unmanned roof tops, “Isn’t normal”.

  “What is normal?” Kaley asked, she looked exhausted and her eyes kept blinking against the smallest glare of light.

  “Guards with guns, walkie talkies, a searching light scanning who ever arrived, checks to see if your infected”, he looked at me and Kaley, “Although that might be a good thing hey”.

  We both nodded, “So which way?”

  “Well I think the best way is through a secret exit hidden in the mine shafts, only the top scientists and security personal know about it and we are less likely to be detected that way”.

  “Wait”, I said, “When Kaley showed me a vision we didn’t go through a mine we went through one of the old abandoned buildings, there was a swimming pool and a cinema. We went through a secret door in a supply closet”.

  “You know about that?” he looked amused and startled.

  We both nodded again but it was Kaley who answered, “Yes Stacie that is what we saw but…recently I saw the mine shaft entrance so I think that is the one we should take”.

  “I agree if anyone did see us approach they will expect us to go in the buildings to look for a way in”, Kian added.

  “Ok well I guess it’s settled then, let’s go to the mines”.

  We climbed down from the helipad through a rather dilapidated building, the floor tiles had crumbled and smashed, bullet holes ripped parts of the walls open so we could peer into damp and dust ridden rooms.

  Down at the main door we paused and looked out over the land, there was nothing, no noise or breath of energy of people trying to get us. I couldn’t sense anything up here as I sent my feelers out but I could sense something below us.

  “Kian do they keep infected here?” I asked.

  He frowned, “They experiment on subjects then kill them, they don’t keep the infected here for long in case it gets out. Why?”

  “I’m sensing a lot of infected here, below us”.

  “The Town”, his face paled, “They wouldn’t have”.

  “The Town? They wouldn’t have what?” Cain said peering out from under my arm.

  He looked wide eyed, “They had a plan for all these people, they wanted to create their own, Aryan race”, he told us, “Something must have ha
ppened, something must have gone wrong”.

  I felt sorry for him, some of these people were his friends, “Hopefully there will be some we can help”, I said placing my hand on his shoulder.

  He took it and held it tight, “I hope so”, we looked deep into each other’s eyes, “I’ll lead you through and show you where to go, we need to take out the main guy, the head of the E.U, his name is Russel Enok and his crazy freak of a nephew Aksel Enok. You both do that and me and Cain can try and get people out”.

  I looked at Cain I didn’t really want him in there with a load of infected people running around but then I couldn’t leave him out here to freeze to death on his own.

  “No”.

  We all turned to Kaley who said it again, “No, you and Cain have to stay out here, it’s how this works now”.

  “We can’t, you both don’t know where to go”, Kian stated.

  “We do, I’ve been here, mentally anyway so I know where to go but for things to be ok in the end you both have to stay out here”.

  “Where?” he said, “I can’t let you go in alone, these people are wacko’s”.

  “Hide in the old Hotel”, she said, “They won’t find you there and wacko’s”, she laughed, “They haven’t met us yet”. Her laugh was hoarse and weak but I could see the determination in her face.

  Kian looked at me, his eyes filled with some emotions, most of which I couldn’t read or understand, “Be careful”.

  “We will”.

  “I’ll take care of him”, he said taking Cain’s hand.

  I nodded, “If something happens and we don’t return within a few hours take the helicopter, refuel it and go home. If we survive we will come home somehow and find you”.

  “I can’t leave you”.

  “I need you to keep him alive for me, nothing can happen to him”, I sniffed feeling a well of emotions ready to burst at the seams.

  “I’ll be fine”, Cain said, “Just go a kick their asses”.

  I laughed and pulled him close, hugging him as tightly as I could, “I will come back”.

  “I know you will, you always do”.

  I turned away from him and hugged Kian, Kian held me close in his arms, “Don’t just say it, do it, come back to us. Me, you, Cain and Kaley, we can all be a family together”.

  My heart jumped in its chest, that’s what Albi had promised before he was taken from me, “Just, make sure you two stay alive for me to come back to”.

  “We will”, and he leant forward and kissed my cheek, a rush of emotions flooded through me and I felt a burning need to just say ‘No, I’m not going, to hell with the world’ but I knew to have them happy and safe I had to do this.

  Kian led us to the mine shaft crossing a vast land of snow, as we neared the mine shaft bright lights boomed on.

  “Kian?” I asked trying to shield my eyes and look to the source of light.

  “That’s the emergency lighting system. When something goes wrong down stairs the lights flood on so people can evacuate and see where they are going…But none of the exit doors are opening? There’s no people?”

  “It’s fine”, Kaley said, “Come on”.

  We padded over the snow, the light illuminating all around us and casting our shadows over the land. Just the four of us left now. Just four shadows heading to their doom in the gloom.

  Kian lead us into a large shaft which looked old and rickety, but I could see steel beams had replaced old wooden ones. Safety first, I laughed to myself as Kian took us to the main door, it was well hidden and in the dark and the gloom I would have missed it.

  “Good luck”, Cain said.

  “Stay safe”, I replied.

  “See you soon”, Kian said lastly.

  Kaley said nothing as Kian opened the door into the bright light of the clinical looking hallway. We stepped into the void of the unknown not looking back as the door behind us sealed shut.

  Chapter Seventeen…

  Kaley strode on ahead seemingly knowing exactly where to go, she took turns and twists with no pausing just led the way in silence.

  “Kaley, they will be ok won’t they?”

  She stopped and looked at me and I was startled to see in the bright florescent light how poorly she actually really looked, “They will be fine”, she told me through cracked lips. Her face was so sickly pale I could see her veins almost popping out of her paper-thin skin, the veins were pumping around a dark liquid which filtered out like spider webs over whole patches of her face, her lips although cracked were also tinted blue and her eyes still jaundice and blood shot.

  “Kaley you look so ill, I think you should stop and rest, just tell me where to go and I’ll find the way, make sure it’s clear and when it is I’ll come back and get you and hopefully…”

  “Hopefully what? Find that so called Cure? The cure is the next stage of the disease, the virus or whatever you want to call it. There is no going back for me Stacie and you know that”.

  I looked at her, she was defeated, in her eyes I could see it, she knew this was the end for her, “Kaley, what is it we are meant to do down here?”

  “You will find out”, she smiled weakly turning away and kept walking, the staggered way her feet moved and how it looked as if every step was so painful to her made me want to scoop her up in my arms, but I knew I couldn’t, she had to go her own way. I knew Kaley that much to know that’s what she wanted.

  We walked down what felt like miles of hallways, stairs, corridors, then more stairs, we took care not to use the lifts in case we triggered something or someone done something to them, I had learnt that from Brighton all those years ago. Thinking of Brighton made me think of Ollie and how far we had come together and how he had been taken from us. I knew that was the start of Kaley’s infection getting worse, maybe it was the shock of it, or the added illness of a broken heart.

  She paused, holding a shaking hand up to stop me, “Wait, through here”, we had come to a fork in the hallway, to our left was another corridor, to our right turned back behind us but directly in front of us was a large door which was a rather pretty, sophisticated and screamed grandeur door. It was made out of solid wood with spirals etched in, in the spirals was what looked like solid gold and gems. As I stepped back to admire it I realised that the spirals actually spelt some words,‘Welcome to Town’.

  “Welcome to Town?” I said and Kaley just looked at it, “Isn’t that what Kian called this place… Town, their home?”

  She nodded, “Yeah”.

  “You already know what it’s like though don’t you”.

  She nodded, “The labs are situated on the other side of the Town. Let’s go”.

  She grabbed the handles and opened the door and I couldn’t help but let out a gasp. The ‘Town’ as it had been called was in fact a ‘Town’. A whole underground town built up to resemble a real town that would have been on the surface. Neat little houses all sat in rows like built up streets like the terraced ones from England, then there were smaller col de sacs with American style homes all detached and much grander in scale, I could imagine the big wigs living there. There were other styles too, Victorian, Edwardian, Tudor, the modern type red brick home to a small block of apartments. Around the homes were trees, pavements lined with freshly cut grass, flower beds and a small fake stream. The ceiling was a screen with a projected image of a sun shining in the sky, I had to wonder whether they made the night sky too at night time, with fake twinkling stars.

  I was taken away from my awe of the place by a howl, a lone howl that was all too familiar. Turning to the direction of it we I came face to face with a horde of silent monsters, they had snuck up on us as we had taken in the view. They all still looked fairly human other than the fresh bite wounds and blood raining down their newly infected bodies but they didn’t look like the creatures back home. The creatures at home were decaying, falling apart and animalistic, these ones were not, they just stood there staring at us, their eyes focused on something we couldn’t see. Then one h
uge man came forward, he too was still human looking but there was something off about him and it wasn’t just the rage that was there in his eyes, deep and wild. He was wearing a long hospital type gown which covered most of his large body. The only parts it didn’t cover where his tree trunk legs, which had large throbbing veins pulsating in them, but something about his veins looked strange, they bubbled in his flesh with an unusual solid look to them. I then spotted the large solid like veins on his neck that strained as he opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a gargled moan filled with a vile looking froth that ruptured out and down his front.

  “The rabies virus, it’s stronger in them”, Kaley said.

  “Yeah, I think I can see that”, I replied, “We need to get past them to the labs”.

  “There’s too many”, Kaley said and I could hear a hint of fear in her voice.

  “Is this like a make it and break it point?”

  She nodded, “One of them, there are a few but if we don’t get past them we have no hope”.

  “Then let’s keep hope alive”, I snarled and let my claws elongate through my hands, I let out a howl almost as loud as the one in Hamburg. The creatures turned to me their eyes confused by my call of authority, “Kaley take them down”.

  She sent out a wave of power and the first few rows of creatures went down, their bodies flinching from the abuse of power which tore away at them and left them for dead on the floor. The big one at the front too had fallen but to his knees, his body somehow fighting against her power, she screwed up her face trying to give more to put him down, blood trickled from her nose and one of her lips cracked wider sending more blood down her chin, like blood in snow.

  “Kaley forget him go for the weaker ones for now, he’s mine”, I commanded and jumped forward to where he was trying to stand back up, I threw a hard slash out with my claws at his neck only to have them clang heavily against something and bounce back to me.