Dead Force Rising (9 page)

“How are you feeling?” a feminine
voice spoke, one she recognized as belonging to Karen Williams.

“I’ve been better,” Thorn told her as
she turned her head to face the woman seated near her bedside.

“I would imagine,” she said with a
tight smile. “The Sergeant has been pacing about the complex for the past six
hours snapping at everyone. He’ll be happy to hear you’re awake.”

“Is he alright? He didn’t get hurt
fighting, did he?” A bit of panic vibrated in her voice at the thought.

“No, he is perfectly fine. You’ll
find that the men of the unit heal remarkably fast. Perk of the job, I guess,” Karen
said with her closed off smile.

Thorn couldn't help feel the woman
had a wall built around her a mile high, blocking out any happiness. It was
sad, Karen seemed like a nice woman and no one should have to feel alone
surrounded by so many people. Something, or most likely someone, must have
caused her to lock herself away.
 

“Well I’m going to go inform the
doctor and Sergeant Rose you're awake. You relax and try and get some rest
before they come poking and interrogating you,” Karen said standing and heading
for the door. “I’m really glad you’re alright.”

“Me too,” Thorn told her with a wink.
“I’ll talk to you later, Karen. Maybe we can have lunch together sometime.”

“I’d like that.”

CHAPTER NINE

John sat at the small card table in
the corner of the dayroom with the rest of the team playing five-card draw with
piles of dimes and nickels. Over the past hour, he figured he was into Hark for
a good five dollars worth of change. It was much better than either Bell or
Beamer, who both were working on their last dollar or so.

“So where’s Thorn this evening?” Beamer
asked sarcastically. “I figured you would be working on her daily physical.”

“She went to dinner with Miss
Williams,” John said with a grunt.

He
 
wasn't
at all happy with the two women going into town with
only a pair of guards but he couldn’t really supersede the General's orders without
revealing the relationship between he and Thorn. They had been rarely apart in
the past two weeks since the attack and John was surprised the old man hadn’t
already called him on it. Most the time they would simply cuddle on the couch
watching movies or sit on the bed talking. He’d been too afraid to go farther
than that, to risk biting her again.

“Miss Williams, in that sexy tight
pencil skirt. I’d do dinner with her,” Bell said with a wag of his eyebrows.

“
You planning
on going cougar hunting?” Hark asked amused.

“You don’t have the right weapon to
hunt that cat,” Beamer said with a snarl as he tossed his cards into the middle
of the table and folded.

“Which means she turned the asshole
down,” John said with a loud laugh, which all but Beamer echoed.

“Funny, ha ha,” Beamer grumbled as he
stood and headed to the soda machine.

John looked at his cards, a pair of queens,
a two, four, and a Jack.
Looks like he’d been holding the
ladies.
They played the remaining hand in silence as Hark dealt him
another Queen and then called.

“Three ladies,” he said with a smile
as the other players shook their heads and tossed their cards in the center of
the table. Things were starting to look up.

“All DF team members report to the
briefing room immediately,” a deep, male voice called across the intercom,
ending the game.

“What the fuck's happening, Sarg?”
Bell asked as they all stood and hurried toward the room attached to the
command center.

“How the hell am I supposed to know?
I’ve been with your ugly ass all day.”

General Striate was sitting at the
head of the large oval table, a dozen photographs scattered across the table in
front of him. He had a look on his face that said something bad had gone down.

“Sit down, gentleman. It appears that
the puppet master for all the activity in the area has decided to escalate the
action.” The General pointed toward the pictures and waited for each man to
grab several. “Two attacks in the past twenty four hours. One female at
location one about two blocks from Miss Grant's home and a male and female at
location two on the opposite side of town. Both females sexually assaulted and
brutalized so severally they’re unidentifiable.”

“Are we certain it's one guy?” Hark
asked.
flipping
through his copies of the scenes.

“He left a calling card.” Striate
informed them, tossing the last two of the set of print into the middle of the
table.

A crudely written name scrawled in
blood was found at both locations
Thorn.
John attempted to take a breath but his chest was too tight. She was the target
and now she was topside with only two regular guards and a secretary. As far as
they knew something was stalking her at that moment.

“Have you contacted Miss Grant and
Miss Williams to have them return to the nest?” Hark asked.

“I have. Lt. Carmichael is attempting
to reach them now. However, as of ten minutes ago, neither of the ladies would
answer the cells I gave them before they left. We should have a marker for the
GPS in each soon as well.”

“So
what’s
you order, sir?” Beamer asked as he slipped on a pair of shades that made him
look even dorkier than usual.

“To start, lose the glasses. I want
you all to suit up and head to the Inferno Club. They have some blood rave
happening there tonight and that a lot of easy prey. Keep your coms up and be
ready to be called in to pull the women back to the nest if we discover they
have a problem,” the General ordered.

John wanted to scream. He didn’t want
to go hang with a bunch of vampire wanna be kids. He wanted to go get his woman
and make certain she was back here in the Nest where he was certain she would
be safe from whatever stalked her. Standing, he headed stiffly toward the
armory his sense of duty doing battle with his heart.

****

“Excuse me, Miss Grant,” the taller
of her two military escorts interrupted just as the waiter brought out two
slices of cheesecake with strawberries. “We have orders to return both of you
back to the base as soon as possible.”

“What wrong?” Thorn asked as Karen
requested the waiter bring two to-go boxes and the bill.

“I don’t know, Miss Grant. I only
know that I am to have you either back to the base in the next ten minutes or
the General will have me peeling potatoes for the remainder of my enlistment,” he
told her looking about apprehensively, one hand resting on the pistol at his
side.

When the waiter returned with the
bill, both women threw a twenty on the table and dumped their dessert into the
small Styrofoam boxes. The bill was only thirty-two dollars and some change,
which meant that the cash was more than enough to pay and make the server happy
with the tip.

“Where are Sergeant Rose and the
other members of the team?” Karen asked as they were ushered into the running
Jeep.

“According to dispatch, they were sent
out to an attack site. We’re to contact them if we run into trouble,” the
driver said as he pressed down the accelerator and sped away before Thorn even
had time to buckle her seatbelt.

There was a high-pitched squelch
across radio as they did what Thorn liked to call mach nine trough the city
streets. At this rate, she was surprised they didn't have the cops chasing them
down, military or not. At least the man knew how to drive.

“DF leader One to Santa confirming
you have the package,” John’s voice came across the radio making her laugh at
the call signs. Evidently, she was some sort of Christmas package.

“That is confirmed, Sir.
 
The package is safe in the sled heading for
the South Pole,” the driver acknowledged into the radio mic.

“That’s ack….” The transmission
stopped and was followed by what Thorn thought to be screams.

“Shit, what happened?” She asked,
leaning forward in the seat and grabbing the handheld microphone from the
driver's hand.

“DF Leader
come
in! DF Leader
come
in!” she called before the second Thorndier
took it away.

“Miss Grant! If he is involved in a
combat, you could distract him.”

Thorn had not thought of that and suddenly
she felt very foolish. She could cause him to get injuries or worse because of
her panic. Damn she had a hell of a lot to learn about being part of a military
team. Hanging her head, she rode silently the last few minutes of the trip back
to the base, her hand firmly in that of the woman and friend at her side. Fear
and anxiety still overwhelmed her but
she
 
wasn't
about to let it get the better
of her common sense again.

The control room was abuzz with activity
when they entered, requiring Karen to leave Thorn standing there as she went to
attend her important duties, which made Thorn feel
 
a bit out of place and useless. If this was to
be her world then Thorn needed to find her nitch and contribute. This standing
around just waiting sucked.

With a moan, she headed toward the medical
lab. She could at least get things ready just in case they brought in a new
specimen or one of the team needed medical treatment. Dr. Hough was already
inside the room talking to someone on his cell about some injection they
needed. He glared at her and flipped the phone shut when he saw her walk
in.
 
He
definitely
 
wasn't
the most friendly man. Since
their first meeting, the guy seemed like an anal-retentive asshole.

“What do you want?” He growled her
general direction as he turned his attention to drawing up a vile of some
strange blue-tinted fluid.

“I thought I’d go ahead and get this
room read in case it was needed,” Thorn informed him as she went to the cabinet
to double check the supply of bandages and gauze.

“Well I suppose that’s all right,” he
said after a moment.

Supposed it was all right? This jerk
was a real piece of work. Thorn had met this type of doctor before but never
expected one to make it to a place where he actually ran an entire military
lab. Usually his types were the wonder from hospital to hospital wearing out
their welcome type.

Thorn jumped when the sound of the
alert signal echoed through the room indicating the team was coming in hot and
everyone was to be on alert. Butterflies began to bounce around her stomach as
she watched the doctor begin to glove up and then nod in the direction of the
box indicating she should do the same.

****

John felt as though his entire body
was twisting from the inside out, extreme mind numbing pain leaving him a cold
sweat. He could hear the other team members talking to him as they loaded him
from the jeep onto a medical gurney, but their words were a gargled mess of
unrecognizable echoes. Things had really gone wrong this time.

They were simply checking out the
second attack scene looking for clues as to who or what could be behind this
whole mess. He’d been crouched overtop the male victim looking at the ragged
tearing injuries when the damn man opened his white glazed eyes and stabbed a
hypodermic needle straight into John's chest, missing his heart by a fraction
of an inch. Which he was certain was the creature’s intention. Damn zombies. He
hated those things far worse than all the other things they hunted. Zombies
were not only deadly and devious, but they fucking stank.

It turned out that this one also
wasn’t alone. When the creature let out its foul battle cry, three more burst
out from their hiding places beneath a stack of discarded boxes. So as John
snapped the neck of the bait, the rest of the team stayed occupied in a battle
of their own
. It was in that time whatever that bastard
injected into him began to seriously fuck with him. Whatever poison this was
something his body, even the beast side, could fight off. Thank God the thing
had missed his heart. Otherwise he was certain he would be dead before they
reached the Nest. As it was, he felt like he was dying anyhow, at least he’d
have a chance to see Thorn one last time. She was the most gorgeous thing he
had ever seen and he got confirmation when the medical gurney broke the doors
of the medical lab and she leaned over him.

****

Thorn took a damp washcloth and wiped
the sweat from John's face as Hark helped the doctor securely fasten him to the
table with thick metal restraints. He was undressed from the waist up and Thorn
could see a dark red mark on his chest that appeared to be growing by the
second. From what she gathered in overhearing the report, zombies attacked the
team and one had intentionally injected some foreign substance into John's
chest.

She watched as Hough grabbed the
syringe she’d seen him loading earlier and shoved it through John's chest
directly into his heart.
 
Instantly he
began to seize, his body stiffening and jerking about violently as his eyes
rolled back in his head. Shit, this was bad, very bad.