53
“
Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking
.” Brooks looked at his dead captain. “I just can’t get that song out of my head, you know? It must be the elevator. Triggered that song or something, I don’t know.” The dead man took a step toward Brooks, but Brooks fell silent and the thing stopped, looking at him quizzically. It was just Brooks and the dead soldier in the elevator. The agent made a face. “Ew, you’re a mess.” It came at him again, and stopped when he stopped talking. It reached for him, but didn’t grab, then it put its hand down.
A swift kick with a combat boot to the solar plexus that probably would have killed a living man, sent the creature sprawling. It got back up slowly, but immediately, and turned around, surveying the confines of the elevator. Brooks drew the captain’s knife from his side scabbard and stabbed the dead man between the shoulder blades. There was no reaction, and the thing continued to look about the steel walls. “Got to tell you, Cap, I like you better this way.”
The elevator opened, and dozens more dead came traipsing toward it. Brooks stepped out and pushed some in and then stepped back in himself. His tally was one hundred and fifty-one, a sizeable force to attack the traitors and scientists with, and IEDs were unlikely to destroy his soldiers unless they suffered severe head trauma. The CIA man couldn’t wait to get back to Nebraska to talk with Recht. The swarm that would certainly have not reached the stadium yet consisted of more than eight hundred thousand. Almost a million soldiers if he could figure out how to control their movements.
This is better than a bare-handed strangulation!
Recht might have his own personal army of thugs, but lookey what I have.
He smiled.
When I’m done with that sick preacher, I’ll move on to Alcatraz and have some more fun. It’s like Christmas!
54
The dead major and the dead security guy were easy to find, and their keys were appropriated. Dr. Crisp was another matter. He was nowhere to be found. Androwski began to get nervous. “He’s got to be in one of the other rooms.”
Bob raised his eyebrows. “Dude, those doors don’t lead to
rooms
. This is an entire
facility
, just as big down here as up there.” He pointed up. “There are buildings down here, and a swimming pool, and a supermarket, and a geothermal power station. There’s even a series of fish ponds full of, like, ten species of fish. It will take you a week to check everything.
“Don’t have a week. They’ll get in here unless we close that door. Where would be the most logical place for this Crisp guy to hole up, or go if, well if exactly this happened?” Andowski spread his arms indicating the re-killed dead.
“The labs. Guy couldn’t stay away from the computer labs. Most administrators administrate, but Crisp is extremely hands on.”
Brenda raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Wait, there are computer labs down here too?”
“Yeah, it’s a
fa-cil-ity
. You didn’t think a nuclear holocaust or zombie apocalypse would actually stop the work these guys did, do you?
Dallas stepped up. “Where’s the labs, kid?”
“Through there,” Bob indicated the door that the pounding was coming from.
Dallas rolled his eyes. “‘Course. Prolly another damn elevator shaft too. How come we’s always findin’ secret unnergroun’ places anyways?”
“Wilcox, Stenner, cover. Seyfert, you, Dallas, and Anna cover the civvies. Fall back if we get overwhelmed, but take as many out as you can. Rick, you get any roamers. Breach on one. Three, two…” Androwski pulled the door open and a lone dead woman fell forward. The SEAL stomped on the back of her neck twice, and she flopped in place. He kicked hard, her head snapping back, and the un-life left her. She was the only creature at the door.
Androwski didn’t turn around as he shone his tac-light into the yawning darkness of the doorway. “Cover. Wilcox, do not shoot me.”
The SEAL panned the light back and forth, then stepped through the door. In a few seconds, the corridor was bathed in florescent light as he had discovered a light switch. A short corridor ended at a glass door, and beyond was a large area with many desks and computers. Oddly, although the corridor had held a dead woman, there wasn’t much blood, and the far door was closed.
Androwski came back through the door. “Okay, head count. We line up these bodies and figure out how many are missing, then we find them. Bob, how many were down here.”
“Forty-three with me and Tim, so forty-one.”
Seyfert moved to help with moving the bodies, but Anna stood in front of him. “And just where are you going, Sergeant Dumbass?”
“I… I was going to help with…”
“Nope. You’re gonna sit down.” Everyone was looking at her as she righted a wooden chair. “Right here. There’s no goo on this chair so plant it.” She pointed at the chair and the SEAL groaned as he put his bottom on it. She looked down at him, arms folded. “Screw with my bandages again, and I’ll shoot you myself.”
“I’m not a sergeant…”
Dallas started to chuckle as he looked down at Seyfert. “He he. Tough as nails except in the face o’ wimmin. I bet—”
“You too, Redneck,” she said and righted a second chair. “A concussion, bullet to the leg, and getting thrown down an elevator shaft? Sit! You can both provide cover with your asses in those chairs.”
The big man did as he was told, the SEAL grinning at him. “Shut it, pard, not a word.” Seyfert raised his hands defensively.
When the bodies were lined up, Androwski counted them three times. “There are only twenty three. That’s eighteen potential Limas unaccounted for.”
“This place is huge, you can’t possibly think that everybody got killed right here. The bathroom,” Bob pointed, “did you check the bathroom?” Androwski and Rick looked at the unassuming wooden door. “I saw some wander in there on the monitor. I was pulling for the guy that was hiding, but he can’t have made it. Door opens in.”
They worked the bathroom as they did every door they came across. The SEAL would push the door open, and Rick and Wilcox would blast whatever was on the other side, while Stenner would be a backup. “On one…” Androwski counted down from three and kicked the door on one. It moved forward a half inch and stopped. There was dead weight behind it. “Excellent.” He moved forward and knocked on the door. The team waited a full minute without hearing any signs of undead before Androwski pushed the door open. The light was on, and there were two destroyed zombies on the floor apparently taken down by blunt force trauma. The SEAL moved into the room and was covered by Rick and Wilcox, Stenner holding the door. The four stalls were kicked open one at a time, but revealed nothing but toilets.
Bob showed up a moment later. “Huh.”
Wilcox looked at him. “What? What huh? Huh what?”
“Well, the guy that was hiding in here was a black dude, don’t know his name. Neither of these folks is black. That’s a huh-able conundrum, don’t you think?”
Androwski started looking around again and was confounded. “So where the hell did he go?”
Rick pointed at the wall, and everyone turned to look. “In there?” A large vent grate was above the last stall. Androwski stood on the back of the last toilet and shone his light through the grate. He then slung his rifle, reached up and pulled the grate off with ease. “Rick, take this.” He handed the grate to Rick and unslung his rifle again. Shining the light down the vent, he could tell that it went for about six meters, and ended in a T-junction. “He must have gone in here. There’s no place else to go.”
Bob ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “So this means we have a potential zombie in the air conditioning?”
“Unless you want to go find him.” Androwski cupped his hands in front of his mouth. “Hey! Anybody alive in there?”
“Aw man, the zombies came in this bathroom almost two weeks ago. There’s no way that guy is alive in there now, or at least he’s damn skinny with no food.”
“We can’t worry about that now, we need to find that key.” The group left the bathroom, and Androwski started giving orders. “Dallas, Seyfert, you watch the civvies. Wilcox, you cover the elevator, and let us know if anything comes down. Everybody else,” Bob pointed at himself and raised his eyes questioningly, “yes, Bob, you too. Everybody else come with me.” As an afterthought, the SEAL asked Ravi to come too.
The corridor to the lab was bright, and mostly clean, and the lab doors were hermetic. “Looks familiar,” Rick said as he peered through the glass. “How the hell do you get funding for something like this?”
“You’re kidding, right?” asked Bob. “This is the US government. Their funds are, like, limitless.”
Androwski turned his head. “Focus.”
They moved into the labs in cover formation, checking corners and behind desks. No blood, no undead, no living people in the first lab. Bob accessed the second lab with his security ID badge, and it was much the same. The last door, made of steel with a small window, where the others were glass, remained locked as it would not accept his card, “Thought this might happen. I needed clearance before I could access these last labs. Somebody always had to go in there with me.”
“So how do we get in there?”
Bob knocked on the door. After ten seconds, he knocked again. “Well, at least we tried. I don’t know if there’s—”
A scared voice came over the door intercom, “Yes?”
“Doctor Crisp?”
“Yes, who is it?”
Bob pressed the intercom button. “It’s Bob! I’m here with some military types, and some scientists from MIT. They need your key to shut the elevator down so the army of zombies that is on the floors above us can’t get down here and eat us.”
A moment passed before the person on the other side responded, “Bob who?”
“Bob, the IT guy! You and me used to play cards. You sucked and I took all your money.”
“Where are all the infected people that were out there before?”
“Dead. Well, dead-
er
. Re-killed? I told you, there are Navy SEALs out here.”
The doctor peeked through the window and Bob waved. Dr. Crisp seemed to waver a moment, then opened the door and stuck the barrel of an M16 in Bob’s face. Bob put his hands up.
No one raised their weapons. “Dr. Crisp?” The man’s gaze flicked to Androwski. “We’re here to work on the virus with you. We’ve brought people you may know.”
Ravi stepped forward. “Hello, Allan.”
“Ravindra?” Crisp lowered his weapon. “I don’t understand.”
“Dr. Crisp, we need that key now.”
“Of course.” He pulled a chain from around his neck and produced a key, just as the lieutenant received a panicked call from Seyfert.
Private Wilcox leaned against the door frame to the elevator room, his back against one side. He was thinking that this place could be made to be extremely safe if they could close the door. If there really was food and water down here, that’s all they really needed. Again, if they could close the door. He was thinking about hot fudge sundaes when the elevator doors closed. He flipped the safety off of his M4 and strode forward. The elevator was rising.
Wilcox ran out into the common room and shouted for Seyfert, who stood with a groan. “Dallas, cover the civvies.” Dallas stood with a groan, and checked the action on his shotgun.
“What is it, Wilcox?”
“Elevator is going back up!”
“What did you touch?”
“Nothing! It just started on its own!”
“Uh…that’s bad.” Seyfert accompanied the young man back to the elevator lobby. The car was already on the way back down. The doors opened with a soft
ding
when it reached their floor, and the survivors had a side view as they opened. A dead man clad only in a filthy tank top moved out of the elevator and surveyed his surroundings. He looked left and noticed the living men. The reaction was immediate, and the thing started toward them moaning. Several more undead followed their comrade, and they traipsed toward the men, who immediately fired a volley of bullets at them. The men backed up and shut the lobby door, but not before Seyfert saw the doors to the steel box close, the elevator returning to higher floors. Seyfert and Wilcox ran back to the scientists and Dallas as the pounding and scrabbling started on the other side of the door.
“Androwski, come in! Come in, over!”
“
What is it, Seyfert?
”
“Elevator is carting Limas down by the dozen!”
“
Have Dallas get the scientists down the lab corridor, you and Wilcox cover! We’re on the way!
”
“Dallas, you heard, get them there and get back here ASAP! Wilcox, start pushing some of this shit up against the door.” Seyfert indicated the overturned tables and chairs and the bloody couch. There wasn’t much.
Dallas, having sat back down, groaned again as he stood, and hurried off with the two women as the SEAL and the Army kid began to push the ruined couch against the door to the elevator lobby. The door was heavy wood, but the frame was already beginning to shake as the things shoved from the other side. They could hear the needful cries through the oak.
“Come on, pile up more shit!”
They were pushing the juke box against the couch when Androwski, Stenner, Anna, and Rick came running in the common room. All four newcomers immediately began assisting in the barricade. When every object in the room, including a three-hole punch and a stapler were packed against the door, Androwski started giving orders. “We hold as long as possible here, then we fall back to the labs. There’s a heavy door at the last lab that we can use against them, they won’t be able to get more than two or three to push on it at once. Rick, you and Anna use the sniper rifles to cull as many as possible, get them coming through the door, and try to clog it with bodies. Dallas, we’re trading weapons, you take this.” He handed the big man his MP5SD3 with three extra magazines, and the Texan reluctantly passed his SPAS12 to the SEAL. “Aim true, there won’t be any drop in such close quarters. Selective fire is here.” Androwski pointed to a small lever on the side of the weapon. “Switch to full auto only if you need. Dallas, Rick, and Anna, stay to the rear and get any strays. Don’t shoot us! Only fire if you have a five-foot clearance on either side of one of us, you guys fire right down the middle. The rest of us will move forward to ten feet from the targets in two teams right and left, and fire at them as they come through. Do not run in front of friendly fire! Wilcox, you’re with me, let’s go!”
When the four living men were five meters apart on either side of the lobby door, Androwski shouted for an ammo check. Magazines were ejected, inspected and replaced. Dallas put two extra mags on the floor next to him and the last in his pocket. Rick swiped his arm across a table in the lab corridor clearing it of various paper supplies and dragged it out into the common room. He and Anna set their bipods on the table for support Rick put the earbud for his XM408E in his ear. Anna was using Martinez’s SR25. She looked over at Rick. “Cheater.” He smiled and winked at her. “Don’t miss.”