I leave the doorway and enter into a staff area I see a map on the wall. I tear it off and start walking. I climb a set of stairs and enter another hallway.
"Hey you. Where do you think you're going?"
I turn and shoot without thought. The man in the lab coat drops. I know the guards will be coming soon. Normally they aren’t allowed in where the women are but dead doctors and nurses are going to alert someone.
I look down at the map again to see where the elevator is. I smash the glass it is in and pull the paper out. I fold the small map and put it in my pocket. I round the corners with stealth. I shoot one doctor who is on the phone. He drops it onto the desk and collapses. I scan my way onto the elevator. I push B. I assume it means basement.
When the door opens I am instantly afraid. It's dark and steamy down here. The place makes noises I've not heard in long time. Noises motors make.
Leo is afraid. I can see it in his stance and the hackles on his back.
I peer out into the dim lighting. No one is there but I am terrified. I step out with Leo next to me. We walk slowly looking all around us. My stomach is knotted tighter than when Will touches me.
A hissing noise blasts beside us. Leo and I jump as steam is released from a valve. I almost laugh when it happens but I feel nauseous for a moment. My injuries are clearly not gone.
A red light starts flashing and a loud alarm goes off. I see the red light on the wall. In the flashes of red light I see the far left corner where the detonation place is. I run to the corner. I look at the red flashes and wonder if the dead doctors and nurses have been found.
The panel is something I've never seen before. It's huge and covered in buttons and diagrams. The wall above it has steps.
1. Open the beige metal lid
2. Press the number of minutes you wish to allow for evacuation
3. When the red light flashes Re-Enter the number of minutes and press the green button to set the time
4. Lock out the doors you wish the seal
The lid is already opened. I look at it and press the one and the zero. The red light flashes and I press the one and the zero again. I press the green button and look at the labels. I push the black button next to the doctor's lounges, nurse's rooms and the guard's desks. The remainder of the doors I leave open I don’t touch the buttons.
I fire several shots at the number pad and ruin it. There is a slot for a key card. I shoot it too. The bullets ricochet off the walls and pipes that hang low. Steam starts to come out of several of the pipes above me. Water comes out of one.
I look at Leo, "We need to go now."
We run to the elevator but I have a bad feeling about it. I see an exit sign and run for it. The door has no scanner. I push it open and listen. There is no sound but I wait one more second. I hear men shouting. There is a stairwell above me. I climb a flight of the stairs and listen for the men. They are not in the stairwell. We climb the stairs. On the second floor I scan my way out. I poke my head and see the hallway I was in before. The broken glass from the map is on the floor. The dead doctor is also still on the floor.
Leo growls. I feel it too. I look around but see nothing. The alarms sounding have doubled. There is a red light and an orange light flashing opposite each other. My heart is in my throat.
There is something around the corner and through the doorway that is bad. I can feel it.
I raise my gun and glance quickly around the corner. Several men stand in a group.
"Rebels in the halls and on the grass" is all I can make out. I look at Leo and nod at the door next to us. I open it and we slip inside and wait. I know we have about eight minutes if we're lucky. The office is empty but it has a window. I look out and see the several gardens in the middle. There are four. Each wing has it's own garden. The building is a giant rectangle with the four gardens in the middle. Each has a glass roof over it. The kids and moms all get natural light from them, like greenhouses.
I stand at the door and listen. I hear footsteps and voices. When they pass I almost open the door but I wait ten more seconds. I hear someone run past the door. I open it and look out. No one is there. I slip back into the hallway where the stairs to the lower level are. The hall is empty. If they are trained like I was, they won't double back. This section is cleared. I reload my clip. Thank god for the seventeen shots. I get why Mary loves this gun.
We have minutes at most. I start making my way back to the office where the doctor/spy is tied up. Girls and women are running every which way. Nurses are telling them to go back to their rooms but they fight them. I raise my gun and shoot one nurse who is dragging a young girl to a room. The girl looks at me and smiles.
"Get to the pool. The building is about to blow up. The infection is here. We need to get away. The pool is the only safe spot." I shout but it only makes them scream and run more. I run through the building to where I locked the doctor in. I scan his door open to see him sitting looking terrified and annoyed.
"About fucking time. Jesus Christ. What kind of plan is this? We have three minutes until the building implodes for crying out loud."
I untie him and wince when I see how swollen his eye is.
"Sorry about that."
He shakes his head, "If they had opened my door it would have saved me."
We sneak out of his office and run down the hall to where the women's side is. I scan the door and we run into the main kitchen area.
"Get to the pool. Please run now or you will die. The building blows up in three minutes. Hurry please." He is herding them.
I am scanning the crowd for one face.
In the chaos I don’t see her. The doctor leads us to the pool. The room is huge. There are windows on one whole side of the pool.
"Get into the pool." He tries to talk normally.
He jumps into the pool and starts shouting, "COME AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS!"
There are far more women than I imagined there would be. I smile imagining there are three other pools that look like this one. Pools full of women and children about to escape.
"Emma."
I turn and see Muriel. Her face is beaten up a bit but she is running toward me. I run and hug her.
"I'm so sorry."
"No, the infected. What could we do?"
I shake my head, "No. I should have been prepared for them too. I never even gave them a thought."
She hugs me tight and talks over the loud women panicking in the water. "Is this you?"
I nod, "It's all I could think of. The building is going to be destroyed in a few seconds. The pool is supposed to be the best bet."
She grips my hand. I grab Leo, who is starting to freak out, by the scruff of his neck and drag him into the water. It's cold and not inviting. Leo starts his splashing as he enters, he loves the water but he is more nervous than normal.
People are looking at him and me and raising eyebrows.
"To the deep end ladies. If the ceiling collapses it's our best shot at surviving.
Those of us who can swim all swim in a chaotic hoard for the deep end. The others cry and scream at the shallow end. The noise is unbearable. Leo is panting and panicking. He wants out of the pool. I let him go. He knows best. His instincts are better than anyone's. He swims to the edge and climbs out. He slinks to the corner and sits there. A girl who doesn’t look much older than me follows him. She curls against him and cries.
The noise is too much. Suddenly another noise rises over everything and shakes the building around us. I blow my air out and let myself drop to the bottom of the pool. I look up at the feet above me. They seem calm and collected for a second. Then it looks like red ink has been spilled into the pool. The water starts to froth and churn. I can't see above me anymore. My chest is crying out for air but I stay down there and watch. A woman is shoved under. I grab her hand and pull her down to me. I swim, towing her to the shallow end. The frothing water is everywhere. It looks like the rapids of a river. When I pull her out of the water I am elbowed in the face. I see stars for a second but keep moving. I am shoving people out of the way. I drag the girl to the shallowest part and start patting her on the back hard. She chokes out the water and starts coughing. I am tripped and pushed under. Feet trample me. I grab the girl who was coughing and push her up out of the water. I am under water and drowning but holding her out of the water.
A hand grabs the scruff of my neck and lifts me from the water. I look up to the see the worried face of the doctor. He points to the broken windows that lead to the outside.
"Freedom."
Leo is already out the window. He is watching me from the other side.
I shout, "THE WINDOWS. BREAK THE WINDOWS MORE SO WE CAN ALL GET OUT!"
The women rush at the windows and start smashing the lounging chairs against the already damaged glass. One window is broken and a girl is pushed through. I see her skin scrape again the glass. She screams. They are panicking. I unscrew the silencer and fire a shot into the cracked and ruined ceiling. The women stop and look at me. I walk to the dark haired girl on the ground bleeding, "THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT? TO KILL EACH OTHER? SINGLE FILE FOR FUCKS SAKE!"
The doctor picks her up and climbs out of the jagged glass. The women leave, obviously calmer, but still in a hurry. I climb out and ready myself with my gun. There is no one on the brown grass.
The doctor shouts back, "RUN FOR THE WOODS!"
The doctor is running across the grass with the girl in his arms. I hear a shot and he drops. The girl screams.
I look up at the roof to see a sniper team. I aim and fire several times. The first four men drop off the roof making the women and girls scream more. The fifth man sees me and shoots. I feel a hot burning feeling in my left arm but ignore it. I aim and fire and knock him back. He's too far for me to kill but I know I winged him.
"RUN NOW!" I scream. They all scramble. I grab the girl under the dead doctor and help her. Leo is running ahead showing them the way. I look to the left and see a group of women with screaming babies fleeing for the woods. Some fall as gunshots ring out. Their babies fall with them.
I hear my father whisper to me. 'You can't save everyone Em.'
I shout at the women with me, "Run and break the branches. Stay together. I will follow the broken branches and find you. I will lead you to safety."
