Family Reunion "J" (33 page)

The radio transmission from the Alpha team was now being broadcast over the loudspeaker in the command center. When Brian heard that message, he went ballistic.

“You fucking imbecile!” Dr. Pearson yelled at Phil. “If those three escape I will shoot you! Do you understand?”

Phil paled a bit and responded to Alpha One. “Base to Alpha One, pursue immediately, over.”

“Alpha One to base, negative, the egress is a pipe and it’s too narrow for any of the team to pursue, over.”

Brian grabbed the microphone off the desk and screamed, “Then blow the damn wall down!”

“Alpha One to base, roger sir, we will have to RTB for explosives, sending a runner now, over.”

Brian grabbed Phil by the shirt and dragged him out of his chair. “Get them some damn explosives, and you better hope to god they don’t get away.”

Phil called the armorer and told him to hightail it to level two with some C4 and detonators.

With only one light between them, Susan tried to keep the pace reasonable. Julian carried Simon piggyback and was happy just to be free of the pipe. Susan had explored this far before, but they would soon be as far as she had ever gone. “I know there is a treatment facility to the west of the CDC. If I’m right, we need to find some active flow and follow it.”

“By active flow, do you mean sewage?” Julian asked.

“I’m afraid so. It’s a sewer, you know.”

“Yes, and as dark as it is we will be lucky to avoid a pack of the turned.”

The thought had never occurred to Susan and she stopped dead in her tracks. She had been cloistered in the complex since this all began and had never had to deal with the possibility of encountering one of those who had turned from the vaccine, let alone a pack of them. Julian regretted that he had said it now that he saw how it frightened her.

“We’re probably fine. With all the empty buildings aboveground, I don’t see why they would be down here,” he said lamely.

The Alpha team set the explosives and retreated all the way back past the access point. Alpha Eleven, the demo expert, shouted loudly, “Fire in the hole,” and punched the detonator.

Julian heard and felt the explosion. He knew immediately what it meant. “We have to move faster, they will be coming.” Susan’s headlamp bounced up and down as she nodded. She began to trot. Julian grunted, readjusted Simon on his back, and followed suit.

Brian stood with his arms crossed, waiting for a new report from the Alpha team. “Phil, get me Dawson on the line from the cages.”

Phil picked up the phone and called down to the lowest level where they kept the turned. They’d been using them for research, and that’s all they were really good for now that a cure was openly not an option.
Until now,
Brian thought, a little smile curling the edges of his mouth.

“Dawson, stand by for Dr. Pearson,” Phil said, handing the phone to Brian.

“Dawson, I want you transfer sixty of the turned to level two and let me know when you have them there.” He paused while Dawson replied. “I don’t care how, dammit, just get it done.” Brian threw the handset onto the table in front of Phil.

“Sir?” Phil said with his eyebrows raised. “I have my team down there. Do you want me to recall them?”

“No Phil, I don’t want you to recall them. They are to pursue the prisoners.”

“But sir, if you’re going to release sixty turned into the tunnels, my men will be attacked.”

Brian eyed him coolly. “Do you want to join them, Phil?”

“Ah… no sir.”

“Then shut the hell up and do as you’re told. I don’t plan on releasing them until I have your men back out of the tunnels. Quit being such a little bitch.”

Phil turned his chair back around and wondered if Dr. Pearson had lost his mind completely.

Dawson opened the door to the emergency stairwell on level X, then got on the elevator and rode it to level two. Level X didn’t stand for level ten, nor were there only eight levels between the two. Level X was close to two thousand feet below the surface. As he rode the elevator up, he considered his options.

I could keep going up and just leave the complex. Nah, that’s not what I signed on for. I’ll have to let them know the good doctor is not following their prescribed protocol.

The elevator dinged and he got off on level two. He went to the stairwell and opened the door. Securing it to the wall with the built-in hook, he went in and looked down the now-lit stairwell. It made him a bit dizzy.
That’s taller than the damn Empire State Building.
He went back into the hallway and picked up a wall-mounted phone.

“Command center,” Phil answered.

“Let me talk to the doc, Phil,” Dawson said.

Phil held the receiver out to Brian. “It’s Dawson, sir.”

Brian took the phone. “Dawson, go to room 1B and prop that door open as well, then go back to level X. I’ll call you when I want you to release the turned.” He handed the phone back to Phil.

“Eric and… what’s your name?” he asked, pointing at another security officer sitting at a computer monitor.

“Mike, sir, my name is Mike Oster.”

“Mike, Eric, come with me,” he said and turned to Phil. “Give me ten minutes, then recall your team.”

“Yes sir,” Phil said, relieved.

Brian led the two officers with him to the elevator, then pushed the button. They stood there in an awkward silence waiting for it to arrive. “Where you from, Mike?” Brian asked the younger of the two men.

“Maine sir, born and bred,” he said. “Don’t suppose there’s much left there now.” He returned his eyes to his shoes.

“Don’t be silly, Maine is still there son. Now, your parents on the other hand are most likely not, but we’ll rebuild, you’ll see.”

Mike looked even more stricken as Eric snickered.

The elevator arrived and they went to level two, then down the hall to room 1B. They went in the room and found the ladder that led to the tunnel access. As they approached the door to the tunnel, Brian stopped and held up his hand like he heard something. He whispered to Mike, “Give me your gun.” Mike handed Dr. Pearson his gun and peered at the tunnel opening. Brian shot him in the head. Mike’s brains coated the wall next to Eric, who stood frozen in shock.

“What the fuck sir?” Eric stammered.

“Shut up and drag him over to the door,” Brian said, waving off Eric’s concern. Eric did as he was told and dragged his former co-worker the ten feet to the door.

“You have a knife?” Dr. Pearson asked him.

“Yes sir,” Eric answered, still looking at Brian as if he had two heads.

“Well, quit gawking at me and slit his throat. Make sure you get the arteries.”

“What?”

Brian raised the pistol and pointed it at Eric’s chest.

“You heard me. Now get it done so we can get out of here.”

Eric pulled a folding Buck knife from his pocket and opened it. He bent over Mike, then turned and threw up.

“Oh for chrissake, give that to me. I swear to god, I have to do everything around here.” He rolled Mike over onto his stomach, grabbed him by what little hair he had left on his demolished head, and pulled it off the floor until his neck was exposed.

“You have to go deep when you do this or you won’t hit the jugular,” he said, driving the knife into Mike’s neck and drawing it around to the other side. Blood spurted out onto the floor and Eric puked again.

“Come on, you pussy. You were a big help,” Brian said, rubbing his bloody hands on Mike’s back.

Eric looked at Mike and wiped his mouth with his shirtsleeve. He followed Dr. Pearson to the ladder.

Dr. Pearson pointed. “Up you go, and if you puke on me I will shoot you too.” He laughed. Eric didn’t.

When they reached level two, Brian casually shot Eric in the back of the head. He fell like a bag of potatoes to the floor. “I have got to find me some more intelligent help. Fuck, you couldn’t see that coming?” he said aloud to the dead officer.

He cut his throat, let him bleed for a minute, then grabbed him by the heels and hauled him away from the ladder, out of the room, and to the emergency stairs. He looked at his watch. Ten minutes had passed and he was sure that Phil, the dumbass, had recalled his men.

He picked up the wall phone and dialed up level X.

“Dawson here.”

“Dawson, release the turned.”

“Yes sir.”

Brian hung up the phone and walked to the elevator, pushed the button, and calmly waited for it to open.

Phil watched in horror when Dr. Pearson shot Mike. He rewound the video several times, trying to see what it was that Mike had done to warrant being shot. He was so wrapped up in watching and rewatching it that he missed the initial shooting of Eric. He had finally come to the conclusion that Mike must have broken protocol somehow and Dr. Pearson had to shoot him to keep the mission secure. He went back to the monitors and found Dr. Pearson waiting for the elevator. Where was Eric? He scrolled through the cameras until he came to the one outside the emergency stairway on the fourth level. From the camera’s angle of view down the hall, he could see a blood trail. It led from the door of 1B to the stairwell door, where the door blocked his view. When he zoomed in, he could see a pair of boots just visible beyond the door.

“Base to Alpha One, abort and return to base, repeat, abort and return to base, over,” Phil called frantically.

After an excruciating thirty-plus seconds, Alpha team responded. “Alpha One to base, confirm RTB order, over.”

Phil lost all pretense of professionalism. “Get the hell out of there, Gary. Dr. Pearson is going to flood the tunnel with the turned. Move it, get going!”

Alpha team had split up again; following the maze of sewer tunnels and chasing down this group of runaways was proving to be more challenging than ex-SEAL Gary Wismiller had thought it would be.

When he received the frantic call from command, he questioned its validity. Then senior shift supervisor Phil Ruschman had made it abundantly clear: abort and RTB.

“This is Alpha One to Alpha team. Abort, rally to last marked location, copy?”

The paired-up team members checked in and repeated the order. They would not have heard Phil’s last transmission as it was on a channel that only Alpha One monitored.

Susan remained crouched down, hidden in an alcove by three large pipes that ran parallel to the sewer’s main tunnel. She motioned for Julian and Simon to remain still. The glow from the soldier’s red-lens helmet lights cast elongated shadows across the tunnel from where they stood. Susan had pulled them into the alcove a moment before two of the Alpha team members had finally caught up to them.

She listened, waiting to hear the pair call in their location and tell their leader they had the targets trapped. Seconds ticked by and it was all she could do not to bolt and run, but she could not. She had promised Julian she would get them out.

“Roger Alpha One, returning to last marked position, out.”

The two soldiers turned as one and double-timed it back east up the tunnel.

Susan remained motionless, afraid it was a trick. She waited an additional two minutes, which seemed an eternity to Julian.

“Okay, it appears they’ve given up the chase,” she said. “We still need to hurry though. I’m sure they’re only devising an alternate plan. I know these men, and they don’t give up.”

Julian crawled under the pipe, then reached back to help Simon through the small gap. Susan followed quickly. The short rest gave them the needed energy to continue.