Desolation (16 page)

 

Andrew shook his head and closed his eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about that right now,” he said. “I’ll explain it
all soon, I promise.” He opened his eyes and looked at her. “Just please
come along. I know you don’t like him, but if he even looks at you funny
I’ll kill him myself.”

Jerri considered it and looked over at Chris.

 

Chris was busy wiping his face and dusting himself off, standing
up.

 

“Are you sure we need him?” she asked.

“Positive,” Andrew said. “I have no idea where the tunnel is and
I’m not sure about how to get to Camp 7. He had had a whole
underground network he used.”

Jerri nodded and rocked Jacob in her arms.
Jacob squirmed underneath the blanket, making cooing sounds.
“If he tries anything,” she said, “I’ll kill him myself.”
Chris approached the group and cleared his throat.

“So, um, I guess I’m taking you to Camp 7 from what I
gathered?” Chris asked with a shaky voice, “Um, is everybody ready?”
Andrew turned towards him and nodded.

 

“Excellent,” Chris said, forcing a smile. “Well, uh, let’s head to
the tunnel and get out of here?”
24

C
hris led Andrew down medical’s administrative hall towards a
secured room located at the very end.
Jerri cradled Jacob close against her and followed from a
conservative distance. She didn’t like the arrangement, but she felt like it
was her duty to get Krystal’s baby out of the camp. She owed that much
to her friend.
Chris stopped at a door adorned with the Homeland Security
logo. The sign on the door read ‘Medical Surplus’. It had a small window
in the center and was locked by a biometric scanner.
Jerri remembered it quite well.
Chris gave Andrew an uneasy glance and pointed towards Jerri.
“The blindfolds. Those goddamn blindfolds!” Andrew said with
aggravation.
“The blindfolds?” Chris asked.
“Yes! I refuse to wear one this time! I don’t care what you say!”
Andrew shouted. He narrowed his eyes and glared at Chris.
“Well… that’s my policy,” Chris said, shuffling his heel on the
ground. He picked up a lab coat off of one of the wall hooks and tossed it
over to Andrew.
Andrew caught it.
“Fine, dammit, fine!” Andrew shouted.
“Blindfold…? What are you talking about?” Jerri asked, looking
at Andrew with confusion.
Andrew shook his head and groaned.
“He refuses to take anybody through his tunnel without
blindfolding them,” Andrew said, giving Chris a disgusted look. “That’s
the price of passage… Isn’t that right, you asshole?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Chris said. “No blindfolds? No passage.”
“You’re not touching me,” Jerri snarled, cradling the baby close
against her.
“I’m sorry,” Andrew said. “I’ll keep you and Jacob safe, I swear
it. If he tries anything funny, I’ll kill him.”
Andrew tore the sleeves off of lab coat and tossed the rest of the
shirt aside.
“I’ll do yours then he can tie mine,” Andrew said. “I don’t want
him touching you.”
Jerri tensed but relaxed as Andrew’s harsh battle-scared hands
turned to velvet in an instant. She allowed him to gently wrap the cloth
around her eyes and tie the blindfold around her head.
Besides, she figured, if worse came to worse she could always rip
the damned thing off.
Andrew turned towards Chris and nodded, stuffing the other
piece of fabric into his pocket.
Chris nervously turned back towards the biometric scanner and
placed his hand on it.
“Welcome, Dr. Christopher Kilpatrick,”
the computer announced as
the supply door slid open.
Jerri blindly stepped into the storage room. The boxes of
bandages still sat in the corner and the air smelled stale.
Andrew stepped beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder,
making her startle.
“Just hurry up,” Andrew snapped. “I can’t see a fucking thing
with this on!”
Chris punched in a code using the keypad underneath the
biometric scanner.
“I’ll lead you both down safely, don’t worry,” Chris said.
The floor rumbled and a portion slid back, revealing a spiral
staircase that led underground.
The stench that came up from the hole was horrendous and
smelled like formaldehyde. A series of harsh white lights powered on in
the hole and illuminated the metallic steps.
“Take my hand and follow me, Andrew,” Chris said from behind
Jerri and Andrew.
“Andrew…” Jerri whimpered, cradling Jacob.
“I’m here,” he assured her.
Andrew led Jerri down the staircase slowly, keeping his arm
cradled around her.
Jerri blindly walked down the steps nervously, clutching Jacob
with one arm and the knife with the other.
Chris followed in the rear.
The stairs were covered in rust and the paint was peeling off of
the walls. Mold and moss covered everything. As soon as the group made
it halfway down the staircase, the hole above them sealed shut.
Jerri startled badly and almost tripped down the stairs.
“Relax,” Andrew said, preventing her from falling. “It’s on an
automatic sensor.”
Jerri almost asked where they were going, but she didn’t want to
know.
At the bottom of the staircase they came to a large room, the
walls lined with rusted shower heads. Racks of dusty biological white
hazmat suits hung neatly on the wall at one end. The overhead lights were
dim, but still functioned. A sally port stood on the far wall. Unlike the
other sally ports on the surface, the subterranean one was massive and
had heavily reinforced doors that were caked with rust.
A sign hung above the sally port:

It had been nearly six months since the last virologist and chemist
were extracted and taken to Camp 7’s larger research division.
With Camp 6’s research halted, it had been a long time since the
white-suits on the wall had been worn.
Chris walked over to the sally port and slid the heavy door open.
The computer had been deactivated and the decontamination systems had
been powered down for ages.
The door groaned as it slid along the track.
“What’s happening?” Jerri quickly asked, reaching to take the
blindfold off.
Andrew lowered her hand back down.
“It’s just the door leading to the underground tunnel. Chris
opened it. Everything is fine,” Andrew said.
“Now, um, keep your blindfolds on,” Chris said as he led the way
down the hall.
Abandoned laboratories lined both sides of the hall and empty
steel holding pens lined the center. Dust and cobwebs covered the once
pristine equipment and rats scurried across the floor.
Andrew walked with the blindfolded Jerri at his side, staring
uneasily in the empty recesses and crevices of the research department.
He felt bad about blindfolding her, but he knew that she would never
understand the importance of what they were once trying to do here. She
would never understand the importance of the test subject’s sacrifice.
At the end of the hall Chris pushed open another door and
nervously motioned for Andrew to walk through.
Andrew led Jerri through and came to the end of the hall. He
turned towards Chris and nodded.
Chris grunted and rolled the sally port shut, resealing the desolate
lab.
“You’re clear,” Chris said.
Andrew took the fabric out of his pocket and pretended to
remove it from his eyes just as Jerri removed her blindfold.
Jerri quickly stepped away and looked around, confused and
frightened. She clutched the baby tightly and looked at the massive sally
port.
“What was in there?” Jerri asked, eyeing the door behind them
closely.
“Just a hallway,” Chris lied.
Jerri knew that he was hiding something from her. Before she
could protest, Chris brushed past her and walked towards a sealed hatch
on the wall.
The hatch was etched with the words Surface Access.
Chris grabbed the large wheel on the hatch and started turning it,
grunting with each rotation.
The hatch swung open and revealed an iron rung ladder.
“I’ll hold Jacob while you climb up,” Andrew said, holding his
hands out towards Jerri.
“I’ll manage,” she said. She held onto the baby with one arm and
grasped the ladder with the other. Moving slowly and methodically, she
ascended up the ladder.
Andrew frowned and reached for the ladder when Chris grabbed
his arm with a weak grip.
“Why are you doing this to me?!” Chris whispered.
Andrew tore his arm away from Chris and narrowed his eyes at
him.
“Keep your voice down!” Andrew whispered. “What are you
talking about?”
Chris held his arms out at his side, pleading.
“Since when did I run an underground freedom railroad? That
was never part of the deal! The people you brought me never left the lab!
I never even have been up that manhole! I just waved to the white-suits as
they came and went! Remember?! You help me find… volunteers… and
we both got paid a few extra rations!
That
was the deal! Now you have me
traipsing civilians through classified areas and risk exposing everything?!
What are you doing?!
What are you doing?!
”
Andrew clenched his teeth together and jabbed his finger in
Chris’ chest to drive home his next few words.
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up. It’s in the deal now, okay?! I like this girl
and I don’t want to leave her behind! Be happy I care enough about our
friendship that I convinced her to let me take you with us, even if just
temporarily,” Andrew whispered harshly. “Besides, you want to talk about
deals…? Was selling serum to religious radicals ever part of the deal?
What were
you
thinking?”
Chris backed down and held his open palms up towards Andrew,
nodding, defeated.
“I-uh…” Chris stammered. “They told me that they would seal
their dorm shut… they just wanted something
strong
… I didn’t have any
Acexa and, of course, they were immune to PT-12… it was the only toxin
I had available… They promised to keep it quiet and ceremonial-like.”
Andrew resisted the urge to strike him.
“And you believed them? You jeopardized the safety of the entire
camp, you idiot!” Andrew spat. “
Why?!
”
Chris looked away, ashamed.
“They had some M for me… and our supplies are getting low… I
didn’t see the harm in it, honest,” Chris whispered. “They said it would
quiet and they wouldn’t let it spread, honest to God, Andy.”
Andrew shook his head, disgusted.
“It’s pathetic what you’ve become,” Andrew said. “You need to
let that bitch go. It was an accident, okay? How was I supposed to
know?!”
“Are you coming?” Jerri shouted down the manhole, voice
echoing.
“Coming!” Andrew shouted in a pleasant voice. He gave Chris a
cautious look and whispered, “Keep the act up. Don’t fuck this up for
me.”
Andrew started climbing up the ladder.
“Like you fucked up everything for me,” Chris said under his
breath, full of pain and resentment. He knew that Alison would have liked
to escape. Sadly, she never had a chance.

25

J
erri grunted and shoved the hatch open. Granules of sand
fluttered down the shaft and pelted her face, making her cough and close
her eyes against the onslaught. She shielded Jacob against her chest to
protect his delicate eyes and peered out the top of the hole.

The desert seemed to stretch out endlessly. Camp 6 was burning
over a mile away and looked out of place in the desolated landscape.
Aided by the flicker of flames and the moon shining above, she saw the
marauder encampment set up on a hill a few miles away from the camp.
Their campfires flickered as they waited for the camp to tear itself apart.

Deeming her immediate area safe, Jerri scurried out of the hole
like a rat, looking haggard, dirty, and exhausted.

 

Andrew and Chris followed up behind her, keeping quiet.

Andrew surveyed the area and saw the remnants of a trampled
path along the desert floor, all flattened shrubbery and desert fauna. At
the end of the path there was a dirt road that stretched out for miles into
the darkness away from the camp. He figured that was the path that the
research team used to use.

Chris stared in awe at the burning camp, both captivated and
terrified at the same time. He never wanted a spike so badly in his life.
“Well, you know the way better than I would,” Andrew said to
Chris, snapping the man out of his meditative stance.

Chris spun towards Andrew, confused.
“Lead the way,” Andrew said as he pointed towards the dirt road.

Chris spotted the path and quickly nodded as he started to walk
blindly into the desert.

 

Andrew followed with Jerri by his side.

As they walked along the dirt road, darkness swallowed them and
made every thorny bush around them seem like an observing foe. Jagged
stones jaunted out from the sand and lizards slithered through the small
tussocks of dead grass that peppered the landscape.

The bonfire that was once Camp 6, the marauders, and the
shamblers soon became a distant spec and an unpleasant memory as the
group trudged on for miles through unknown territory.

Jerri cradled Jacob’s sleeping body close against her as she walked
next to Andrew. She was freezing and could see her breath; quite a
contradiction from the scorching daytime highs.

“You know,” Jerri said, finally breaking the long stretch of
awkward silence between them, “when I was a teen I used to love hiking
in the desert at night.”