Cryonic (7 page)

Dr. Feng ordered two of the men in white coats to take Elliott's victim away for treatment. Janet and Barry lay there just as they had before, silent and unresponsive. Dr. Feng observed Barry closely. He searched for a pulse and pried his eyelids open to check his pupils with a flashlight.

“They're dead, genius,” I jeered. “You and your machines took great care of them. Way to go.”

Dr. Feng didn't even look in my direction. He studied every inch of Barry. The instant Barry opened his erubescent eyes, Dr. Feng restrained him. A moment later, Barry was moaning and snapping his teeth at Dr. Feng.

Feng pointed and yelled to his colleagues at Janet's bedside, imploring them to restrain her before she reanimated. As he held his arm out above Barry, the sagging sleeve of his loose lab coat dangled just within Barry's reach. He craned his neck and bit down tight on Feng's sleeve. Once he got a hold of the sleeve, Barry snapped his neck back so hard it pinned Feng's shoulder to the mattress.
Feng propped a foot up against the bed and used it along with his free hand to push against Barry's grasp. Their tug of war swayed back and forth until the sleeve tore free from the lab coat, flinging Feng backwards into the metal frame on the side of Elliott's bed. He slumped to the floor in a heap, his derriere landing right on the pedal that controlled the restraint system. The restraints retracted, and Elliott sprang into action. He chomped down hard on Feng's shoulder. Feng shrieked and pulled away. A jagged chunk of flesh tore free from Feng's shoulder and hung limply from Elliott's mouth.

Dr. Feng scrambled to his feet and backed away from Elliott in a panic. When he turned and ran out the door, Elliott lumbered off after him. The remaining men in white coats left Janet's bedside and gave chase down the hall and out of sight, save one who was caught by Janet's arm and dragged to the ground. The men in white coats had been too distracted to restrain Janet. She was still during Feng's episode, but came to life just in time to grab the doctor's leg as he bumped into her on his way out. Janet hung on tight to the man in the white coat. He kept on running, pulling her out of the bed and onto the floor. She got a hold of his foot with her other hand and pulled him down. She flipped him onto his back, held his arms down with her legs, and proceeded to devour his face and neck. His desperate cries were choked with blood. It wasn't long before they stopped. Janet kept on eating, pulling and tearing at the flesh with her mouth and hands.

Alex stood petrified in the corner of the room. I heard bones crunching while Janet tore into the man in the white coat. I didn't know why the other cryonics became homicidal cannibals, but I knew if I stayed strapped in that bed I'd be on the menu.

“Al,” I said just loud enough for him to hear. I was trying not to draw Janet's attention, since she was positioned between Alex and me. I motioned with my head for Alex to come over. He shook his head.

“Get over here!” I yelled through gritted teeth. Janet didn't even look up. Neither did Alex. He stared at his feet like a child.

“Are you just going to let her eat us?” I struggled against the straps.

Alex looked like he might cry.

“Well, are you?”

He didn't even look up.

“Come on, now . . . grow a pair!” My volume made Alex nervous. He placed an index finger across his lips, pleading with me to keep quiet. “Oh, oh, I see! You want to watch her eat me, don't you?” I screamed.

Alex trembled and shook. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he clasped his hands together, pleading with me to stop.

“Jaanet, ooooh Jaaanet . . . come and get me, Janet!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Big Al wants to watch you rip me apart!”

Alex started shuffling anxiously along the perimeter of the room like his shoelaces were tied together. He fixed his gaze on the floor, save an occasional peek in Janet's direction. She paid him no mind. When Alex reached the middle of the room and was nearest to Janet, he was forced to maneuver around a large machine. This pushed his path even further in Janet's direction. When Alex came near, she stopped eating for a moment to glare—a lioness guarding a fresh kill. Alex closed his eyes and kept on shuffling, opening them only when the restraint release pedal was within reach.

As soon as the straps were off, I ran toward the door. Alex opened it, and we shot through the door into the hallway. The hallway was empty and quiet, just as every other time I'd been in it. But this time there were bloody footprints stamped along the corridor floor.

“What now?” I asked.

“Um, we need to get out of here before they quarantine the building. They'll seal it off, and we don't want to be inside.”

“Won't they come looking for us?”

“Probably. Depends on how long it takes to clean up this mess.”

“Hold this open for me.” I cracked the door to the room and peeked inside. Janet was still on the floor, gorging on the man in the white coat.

Alex hugged my waist and tried to yank me back into the hallway. “What are you doing?” he grunted.

“Just keep the door open. I'll be right back.”

I wriggled free from Alex and tiptoed into the room, making my way toward Barry's bed. He was still a rabid dog, growling and biting at the air, spittle flinging from his mouth. I surveyed my surroundings for something long and settled on an IV stand. I loosened the knob on the side of the stand and extended the pole as far as it would slide. I tightened the knob and held the stand out above the release pedal for Barry's restraints. I paused to judge the distance. I figured I had roughly a seven-foot head start on a horse that was going to be quick out the gates. I took a deep breath and let go of the stand, turning for the door before it hit the ground. As I dashed for the door I could hear the whine of the retreating straps and could feel Barry's clumsy feet stomping on the linoleum. Alex held the door as requested
and I slipped through the crack, turned, and slammed it shut. I could hear pounding on the other side of the door that sounded like more than one person. I must have riled them both up. When I peered through the observation window, I saw Barry and Janet pounding on the door and running into it like a couple of mental patients.

“What was that for?” Alex was furious.

“Just making a bigger mess,” I said with a smile.

“All right, let's go. I know a way out.”

We ducked through a door just down the hallway from my room. On the other side was a concrete stairwell. It was cool and a bit damp in there. I heard screaming and banging on the floor above us, haunting sounds that seeped through the walls and echoed within the concrete passageway. We ran down three flights of stairs before we reached the ground floor. Alex cracked the door, and we peered outside. It was a marble-floored lobby, and daylight shone through the glass doors of the building's entrance just ten paces to our left. Two macabre figures in orange hazmat suits waddled through the front door. We pulled the door tight as they made their way past us.

Alex cracked the door again and peeked out.

“You see anybody?”

“No, it's clear.”

“Let's run for it.”

Alex swung the door open, and we ran for the entrance. We opened the building's glass entrance doors and stepped outside where we were greeted by the hissing of air brakes. I grabbed Alex and pulled him over a short cement wall that ran perpendicular to the edge of the building's façade. A large black personnel carrier climbed the curb and parked against the building's steps. A dozen soldiers leapt from the
back of the truck and sprinted toward the entrance, forming a human blockade in front of the doors.

We hid and sat with our backs against the wall.

“We need to get out of here, now,” Alex whispered.

“Shouldn't we wait until those soldiers leave?”

“They won't. As soon as reinforcements arrive, they'll set up a perimeter around the entire building while the hazmat crews work inside. No one gets in or out.”

“And if they catch us?”

“We're the exception. They'll put us back in there until the quarantine is lifted.”

Images of bloody teeth and fiery eyes flooded my mind. There was no way the soldiers were getting me back inside that building alive. “Well, what the hell are we gonna do? We can't just run for it. They'll see us.”

With nowhere to go, we exchanged nervous glances between looks over the wall's edge. I could hear the roar of truck engines approaching from down the block. We were sitting ducks. My newfound freedom was looking like it was going to be short-lived.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no.” He put his hands over his ears to drown out the sound.

I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and peered over the wall. Two of the building's doors popped open into the backs of the troops guarding them. Three female orderlies burst out the openings and over the fallen troops only to be tackled by the other soldiers. Groups of soldiers held each woman down. The soldiers picked the women up and carried them kicking and screaming back into the building. The women pleaded with the soldiers, pointing at the building and making biting and clawing gestures.

“Now's our chance.”

I grabbed Alex by the collar and dragged him away from the building.

“What's going on?”

“People tried to escape. Just stay low.”

We stayed low to the ground, struggling to move quickly without drawing the soldiers' attention. Trucks pulled up as we reached the side of the building. We stood and broke into a sprint. It was still early enough that there were few people out on the street. Still, we cut down an alley a few blocks from the building and didn't stop running until we were a good mile away. Alex put his hands on his knees and wheezed in and out with each breath.

“Here, here, put your hands behind your head. There you go, now look up at the sky—it'll help you breathe.”

I propped Alex up behind a dumpster and looked up and down the alley. The alley was quiet and still and there were no signs of anyone pursuing us. Even though the reeking trash was overpowering, freedom smelled sweet.

As we moved through damp alleyways and crisscrossed city blocks, I was surprised by the familiar surroundings interrupted occasionally by tall, undulating towers plated in translucent solar panels.

“Are we in Harlem?”

“Yes, we are,” Alex answered while looking nervously behind us.

“I can still recognize the place. I used to come here a lot on business. Where are we going?”

“My apartment.”

“You think it's safe?”

“Better than staying out on the street dressed like this. We need to get you in some normal clothes. Plus, it'll take them a while to piece together that we aren't in the building. I know some other places we can go later on.”

“Where is your place?”

“Couple more blocks. It's over on a Hundred and Twenty-seventh.”

The streets were bustling with late-morning traffic. As we waited to cross One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, I watched the morning commuters making their way to their destinations and began to feel as if I was in China. Everyone behind the wheel of a car was Asian.

Alex led me to the third floor of an ancient brownstone with cracked walls and a weathered, dilapidated front door. Alex's apartment was a reflection of himself. It was uncomplicated, carefully organized, and sparsely decorated.

I leaned against the back of a sagging maroon couch.

“How'd you know they were going to seal off the building like that?”

“Oh. I've seen that happen a thousand times.”

I gulped. I read too many comic books as a kid, and my mind flooded with horrific images of futuristic societies where all hell has broken loose.

“Really? A thousand times before? People attacking each other and all that?”

“For heaven's sake, no. I've never seen
anything like that
. I meant the quarantine. The government is always putting up quarantines—buildings, city blocks, even entire cities at times. A lot of the warfare these days is biological. You have two sides that want each other's territory and, by and large, they want it intact. Especially here. The Chinese government has weaved their operations into the city. They keep us Americans living here working for them, which keeps the US military from destroying the city. I don't know if they'd be willing to take out New York anyway, but at some point I'd bet they would do it if it would help them to get the country back. With a couple million civilians still living here it takes wiping the city out off the table.”

“So they'll kill us with germs instead?”

“Some of us, I suppose. They're constantly making biological attacks against the Chinese military and government institutions. Problem is, the Chinese are really good at isolating the outbreak and treating the infected. Their medicine is so advanced that the casualties tend to be very low. Bombing has killed more civilians on this side than bio warfare.”

“That thing, you know, the,” I hissed and made claws and fangs at Alex, “that Barry, Elliott, and Janet got, was that from a biological attack?”