He
closed both eyes and then peered up at her again, his expression one of sorrow and a raw agony she could not begin to imagine. “I’m sorry,” she said again, reaching out to touch his shoulder. Robert stared back silently and she blinked back her newly forming tears, pitying him from the depths of her soul. He echoed her action by closing and opening his eyes twice, as if he were trying to communicate. Marla gripped the metal table with her left hand, her knife trembling in the other. “I don’t know how to help you, Robert,” she muttered.
Though unable to move his head, he
looked away. Her eyes shifted to the gaping hole that used to be the lower part of his face and her legs almost buckled beneath her. How could they torture and disfigure him so? Hatred for the perpetrators coursed through her veins. There was no way she could leave him, not like this. It would be easy to free him, but then what? How could he recover? Who would help him? Where could she take him?
Glancing down at
the knife in her hand, Marla shook her head at the gruesome thoughts that flooded her mind. Turning, she took a couple of steps away from the table. She should draw back the sheet and leave before someone found her, but she knew it was not an option. She could not walk away. The minutes passed as she battled with her conscience. After a while only one thought consumed her and in the end she turned back to him.
“
If you want me to leave you here, Robert, blink once,” she said softly, “but if you want this to be… to be over, blink twice.”
Gritting her teeth,
she waited. His eyes darted to meet her own. Slowly, he closed his eyes and reopened them. His gaze seemed to creep inside of her and it made her ache. Then he blinked again. Even though she knew she was sealing her own fate and that the moment would haunt her for the rest of her life, Marla reached down into her rucksack and removed her gun. “Please shut your eyes, Robert,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
When his lids closed
for the last time, she pulled the trigger.
The minutes drew on as she
covered the lifeless body with the sheet and stared down upon it. All around her, the walls closed in. This place was not a haven. It was a living hell.
“Marla?”
The word made her jump and she spun around to find the source of it. She had not heard anyone walk through the open doorway into the room, but then she was unaware of how much time had passed. Everything had blurred. Suddenly, she recognised the man striding towards her. “Jakob!” she called out. “I can’t believe what’s going on here. Someone is experimenting on
people
, not just the dead. I’m…”
She stopped speaking
, realising that Jakob was not alone. The expression he wore was one of anger. “I know,” he stated bluntly.
“You know…?”
“Drop
all
your weapons!” ordered one of the men, raising his handgun.
Marla felt nauseous. “Jakob?”
“Did you not think there were cameras?” another man asked her.
Cameras?
Marla looked up at the walls, and flung her gun and knife to the ground. From behind her a click sounded, followed by footsteps. Turning, she saw four men enter through the door at the far end of the room. When her arms were seized, she did not attempt to defend herself, realising the futility of it. Her body felt numb anyway, detached from it all somehow
“What did you expect to find
down here?” asked Jakob, stepping closer to her. “How come you never know when to give up? How many warnings do you need?”
She trembled, but said nothing,
studying him, this man she had not really known. Who was he? Was there a link between him and Will Acre? She watched his eyes dart along the row of bodies, stopping at the one closest to her: Robert’s. Jakob scowled and shook his head at the crimson spreading out all over the once white sheet.
“What a waste!”
he exclaimed. “You destroyed my experiment.”
“
Experiment?
Yours?
” Marla cried out. “He was a person, not a thing… how could you do that to him? What kind of a man are you?”
She fell silent when he laughed
for it was pointless voicing her feelings. They would fall on deaf ears. He did not care. He was cold. She wondered if she would be next, tied up here and tortured, day after day, night after night. She imagined him enjoying every second of it. The inevitability of it made her knees buckle.
“
Stand up straight, Marla,” Jakob spat. “Why are you looking so sad? I thought this was what you came down here looking for, and you found it. Well done. Welcome to my own personal laboratory. Would you like me to give you a guided tour?”
She remained silent while he continued to eye her, as if she were a mouse trying to find its way out of a maze
he had made.
“
No, I think I know what you were
really
looking for,” he continued, and her mouth went dry, wondering what he would say next.
Marla
cringed.
Who else was down here? Who else had gone missing?
She observed the two men holding her, but they were strangers she had never seen before. Two others stood off to the side, equally unrecognisable. One smirked, so she focused on Jakob. He stared at her for a good few minutes as if deciding something and then he bent down. She watched, expecting him to pick something up or remove something, but instead he began to roll up the bottom of his trousers. Marla blinked. It was his amputated leg; the one with the prosthetic; the bionics that he had spoken so much about.
So that was the secret?
He steadily moved the material upwards,
gradually exposing what lay beneath. Gasping, Marla stepped back instinctively, but there was nowhere for her to go, trapped in the firm hold of the two men either side of her. While she wanted to look away, she couldn’t. The flesh of Jakob’s leg was puckered, the surface dotted with red, open sores. As the cloth rolled upwards, she saw that the skin at the knee looked healthier or less… dead, and when his hands stopped moving at his thigh, she thought she would scream as her mind stepped forward from the place it had been hiding and into the stark reality in front of her. The tattoo of a pair of dice and a card bearing the Queen of Hearts glared back at her.
“
Impressed?” asked Jakob.
“What have you done?” Marla
cried out, feeling nauseous as blood rushed to her skull.
“What have I done?” he
sneered, pointing to his leg. “Progress is what I’ve done. I told you we had isolated the cells that rejuvenate the undead beyond death. Did you not listen to me?”
She suddenly recalled his conversation when she was focused on stealing his security pass.
“You didn’t tell me you were experimenting on yourself?!”
Jakob scowled. “It’s a privilege, like the others here. This is the future. This is what will keep our species from dying out. If the virus cannot be beaten, we have to find a way of surviving
with it.”
“And that’s how you mean to do it? By torturing innocent people?”
“Keep your voice down, Marla, although no one will hear you here. What’s a few lives compared to millions? And Robert was far from innocent,” he reasoned.
“So you’re saying he deserved this?!”
“We have orders, Marla. This place is special. We are the hope for our people to survive this virus. This leg was dead flesh, but I brought it back to life using the cells from those who have turned. It isn’t perfect yet, but it will be. The previous one didn’t quite work out, but Robert’s seems to be better. Sometimes there are side effects, but…”
“Y
ou’re murdering people!” she spat in disgust.
“I thought you would understand me, Marla, but I
can see I was mistaken. You don’t understand science or the predicament we are in…”
“
You tortured Robert. He must have been in agony. Why? Why, Jakob? And you have the virus
inside
you!” she shouted. “What the hell do you…?”
“Take her down below,” Jakob
snapped. “There is no use trying to make you see the light. You already chose your fate.”
“Where are you taking me?” Marla demanded as she fought to free herself. The two men dragged her towards
the door at the far end of the room.
Jakob turned and walked in the other direction. “Goodbye, Marla.
Maybe we’ll be seeing each other again soon. Sweet dreams.”
Tuesday, late afternoon
Tommy knocked on the door again, but there was
still no reply. He tried the handle in vain and checked his watch: 5.36 p.m. – the patrol team returned over an hour ago. Scratching his head, he wandered down the corridor before stopping, glancing back and continuing. Pressing the button for the lift, he took it to Ellen’s floor and tried her door. She answered it with a book in her hand. “Hi, Tommy,” she said, “you okay?”
“Yeah, fine.
I was looking for Marla and wondered if you’d seen her.”
“No, not since yesterday. She was going back out on patrol today. Didn’t you go with her?”
Tommy shook his head. “Not today. She should have been back by now.”
“Don’t worry. She’s probably in the gym or one of the cafeterias,” she assured him, hugging her book to her chest. “You’re worried because of what happened
the last time she went out when she fell?”
“Yeah, ever since then I can’t help but worry. This is the first time she’s been out since that day. She’s only just fit enough and I didn’t want her to go, although I didn’t tell her that.”
Ellen smiled. “Don’t worry. What happened was an accident and she’s got the whole team to look out for her.”
Tommy bit his lip, wanting to say more, but he couldn’t as Marla had not told Ellen the truth about that day and Will Acre’s actions.
“Maybe you should tell her you’re worried,” Ellen suggested. “She might listen to you.”
“Maybe…”
“But you shouldn’t worry. To be honest, I’m not, so that should be a sign!”
“I guess,” he said, smiling slightly. “I’ll just head off. See you later.”
“Okay. Tommy?”
He turned. “Yeah?
”
“You’re going to check the
entire building, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m not that obsessed!” he replied with a
chuckle.
As Ellen closed the door of her room, Tommy paused and leaned against the wall. You’ve got it bad, he thought to himself.
No, I’m just worried about her after everything that’s happened.
I’m not sure who to trust here. That’s realism, not paranoia.
Shaking his head, he sighed and headed towards the lift.
***
Footsteps outside in the corridor made her sit up straight on the narrow mattress. She blinked in the white glare of the single bulb hanging from the ceiling. Whoever was there had decided to walk away again. Standing, she strode towards the metal door and peered through the tiny round hole in the centre, almost eye level if she bent slightly. Squinting, she stared hard, but there was nothing to see except the empty corridor with its eerie blue light.
She wished they would just get it over with. Games were for amateurs; she hated playing them. Cards out on the table; that was the way she liked things, where she could see them in the crisp glare of the day.
Folding her arms, she wandered back to the bed and sat down again. The cell was cold. Tapping her boots on the concrete, she shivered and stared at the brick wall. What she wouldn’t give for a big woolly jumper and a good book right now; just something to relieve the boredom. Outside, the footsteps returned and she jumped up.
“Hello?” she called out, her voice cracking as she hurried towards the door. “C-can you hear me? Where am I?”
The footsteps stopped and she peered through the peephole again, seeing no one there. “How long are you going to keep me here? What are you going to do?” she asked, trying to keep the desperation out of her voice. It was best not to demand anything or anger them, even though she was dying for a drink of water and her stomach growled from hunger.
Whoever it was walked away again.
Games. Games. What was the point? Just tell me what you are going to do with me. Get it over with instead of leaving me here. Don’t I deserve to know?
She sat on the bed and held her head in her hands.
Marla, you really screwed up. You should have waited. What use are you in here now?
***
Ellen jumped at the knock and answered her door with a grin, half expecting it to be Tommy again. Instead she came face to face with Miss Evender, the administrator, and Doctor Baker. Surprised to see them both, Ellen was struck dumb for a second.
“May we come in?” asked Miss Evender in a soft tone.
“Erm, of course,” Ellen replied, stepping backwards to give them space to enter. Grasping her book against her chest, as if it were a shield, she closed the door. She continued to hug it as she waited for them to speak.
“Ellen, please sit down,” said Miss Evender.
The girl frowned and perched on the chair by her desk. Feeling the eyes of the therapist upon her, she wished to tell him to stop. It was making her uncomfortable.
“I, I mean we, have something to tell you,” the administrator continued. “I thought it better to come here rather than ask you to come to my office.”
Ellen nodded, perplexed. “What is this about? Have I done…”
“No, no, it’s just… well, I’m sorry
to have to tell you this, but there has been an accident. Your sister was…”
Ellen stopped listening at the word sister. She dimly heard the rest of the sentences that followed as they rolled through the mist of her consciousness, but she was no longer there. The book shielded her
and her mind took her elsewhere, to a place of quiet where these two people did not exist.
“Ellen, would you like us to fetch someone?” asked Doctor Baker.
She looked up to see the man staring at her from behind his glasses. Wondering why he had let his beard grow so long, she fixated upon it while she bent the pages of the book back further and further until they would move no more.
***
“Hello, Mr Armstrong, sorry to disturb you, but may we have a word, please?” asked Miss Evender.
Tommy
glanced from her face to that of Baker, the therapist, doctor or whatever he called himself, standing next to her. They both looked solemn. With a shrug, he opened the door wider and stepped aside. “Sure, come in, and it’s Tommy. Place is a bit of a mess though. ”
“Not to worry,” said the administrator as Tommy closed the door behind them.
“Sorry I can’t offer you a strong drink,” he joked. When his guests looked at him blankly, he folded his arms across his chest, feeling slightly awkward. They didn’t speak immediately and he shifted on his feet. “Well, is there a problem?”
“Would you like to sit down, Mr Armstrong?”
Miss Evender asked.
“Tommy…”
“Sorry, Tommy.”
“No, I’m happy
to stand. You can sit though,” he added, pulling his jacket off the chair by the desk and hanging it on a hook.
Miss Evender sighed and continued in a softer voice,
“Mr… Tommy, there is no easy way to tell you this…”
Her expression was so peculiar that
Tommy felt his stomach sink. Frowning, he leaned against the door. Something bad had happened. He sensed it.
“...but there has been an accident. I thought it best to tell you here, somewhere private.”
Tommy felt his patience depart as a feeling of dread permeated his bones. “What accident? Who?”
“I’m sorry to have to tell you, but your friend, Marla,
has been killed.”
“What?!” he exploded. “Is this some kind of joke?”
“No, Mr Armstrong, please calm down,” said Baker. “I know this is difficult…”
“Difficult?” Tommy gasped. “What the hell are you talking about? I saw her
yesterday. She went out on patrol today. How could she have been killed? You’re mistaken.”
“No, I’m sorry, o
ur information is correct. Marla has passed away.”
“Passed, my arse!
Where did you get this from?” Tommy demanded and then another thought entered his head. “Have you told this to Ellen?”
Miss Evender nodded. “Just
now, before coming here.”
“This is fucking bullshit!” Tommy
shouted, punching the door of his wardrobe, oblivious to the impression he was making on the other two people in the room, who took a few steps back. “I’m not listening to this.” Tugging open the door of the room, he stormed out and headed in the direction of the stairwell.
“Mr Armstrong?” called Miss Evender, who had stepped into the corridor.
“Fuck you!” he yelled as he swung open the door of the stairwell and vanished inside. He ran down the stairs quickly and out the door on the first level. Without pausing, he hurried along the corridor, taking deep breaths, feeling his head was about to explode. A pressure had descended around his shoulders as though something heavy was pushing them down and he had the impression of being able to hear his heart pounding in his ears. In no time at all he reached his destination and he shoved the door wide open without knocking.
Caballero
looked up in surprise from the papers he was reading. “Tom…?”
“Tell me what the hell is going on!” Tommy shouted at him, approaching the desk, scowling.
The commander stood up, so the two men were on eye level. “Calm down!”
“Calm down? Fucking calm down? What the fuck?” Tommy brought his fist down on the desk. “Tell me now where she is or I’ll…”
“Ah, Marla,” said Caballero as realisation dawned on him. “You mean Marla. I’m sorry, Tommy, but you’ll have to calm down. Please sit.”
“Sit?!”
“Shouting isn’t going to solve anything and I will not tolerate this, no matter the circumstances. Sergeant Mayer, stand down.”
Tommy turned around to see a middle-aged soldier standing in the doorway looking concerned.
“This is my new deputy, so to speak,” Caballero explained calmly. “Tommy, please sit down.”
Reluctantly, he sat with a single glance
back at Mayer. The sergeant entered the room quietly and closed the door. He stood almost to attention with his back to the exit.
“I can tell you everything you need to know, but first let me tell
you how sorry I am about Marla,” Caballero began. “I liked her and she was a very brave woman, admirable. She also saved my life once. We owe her a debt.”
“She saved many people’s lives,” Tommy stated bluntly.
Leaning his right arm on the chair rest, he rested his head in his hand and didn’t speak for a while. Once he felt calm enough, he said, “Tell me what happened.”
The commander opened a file. “I have several statements from the soldiers who were with her at the time. Jeremiah, Parsons…”
“I don’t know them.”
“…and Green who…”
Tommy leaned forwards. “Is his first name Simon?”
“Yes, why?”
“He was on the coach with us when we were travelling from London. I remember him.”
“Green was with Marla, Jeremiah and Parsons at the time of the incident,” Caballero continued. “Are you sure you want me to tell you the details?”
Tommy clenched and unclenched his hands before nodding and resting his head again. He focused on the wooden floor between his feet and listened while the commander spoke.
“The patrol was sent to
Pewsey. They left Haven at 9 a.m. sharp with plans to return by 2 p.m. at the latest.” Caballero paused. “I’m sorry. It was my decision and I take responsibility for it.” Tommy didn’t speak and the commander went back to reading the file. “Mayer here, he was in charge and went out with the patrol. There were three vehicles, each with three soldiers, and the bus, as usual. Marla was in a Land Rover with Green and Jeremiah. On reaching Pewsey, the patrol checked a supermarket and pharmacy for provisions. At approximately 12.13 p.m. there was an incident.
“At this point the soldiers had split up. Some stayed with the trucks. There was a sighting of a lone survivor and Smith followed him into an alley off a main street. He was ambushed by several
undead. Unfortunately, he did not survive. The undead were killed and the soldiers searched the alley, which led to an industrial estate and a few houses.
“The survivor was sighted entering one of these houses. Parsons knocked, but he did not get an answer. Marla wanted to go in anyway and speak to him. There was a disagreement with Mayer. Green agreed with Marla. Mayer wished to explore the industrial buildings. Most of the guard went with him while Green, Jeremiah, Parsons and Marla stayed. Mayer had agreed to this split, telling them to catch up.
“Parsons knocked on the door of the house several times. Jeremiah looked in the windows – there were gaps between some wooden boards, he said – and he was certain people were living there. It was decided to check the back of the house. The back door had been broken and boarded up, as were the windows. At that point they heard cries from the neighbouring house, so they rushed over. The back door was ajar and they went inside. First Parsons, and then Marla, Jeremiah and Green.
“They checked the ground floor, finding two
undead, and a young girl with fatal injuries. Next they checked the second floor where they found the body of an elderly woman. There were a series of rooms joined together, but the layout was unclear and they were ambushed.” Caballero paused and glanced up. “Do you wish me to continue?”