Machines of the Dead (17 page)

Jack ran after Reynolds, but the room’s door was locked. He pounded on it to no avail, meeting Reynolds’ eyes. The mad scientist was grinning
as if
he was possessed. Two men in white lab coats stood behind him, patting him on the shoulders. The madman’s fellow goons must have sounded the alarm, hoping for a distraction so they could get their leader back. It had worked.

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Zaun said. He raised his weapon at the glass but Kevin stopped him, knocking the weapon aside.

“Don’t bother,” the kid said, rapping his knuckles on the glass. “It’s bullet proof; hell, bomb-proof for all I know. You’ll only waste ammo, maybe catch a ricochet.”

“We’ve got company,” Jack told the others. 

From the open room at the end of the hall came the undead, the bot-controlled corpses filing into the hall like escaping convicts too doped up to run for it. Now Jack understood why the alarm had gone off—someone had opened the “test-subject” room, which was now a “zombie” containment room. 

“Jack,” Kevin said, “Don’t bother. It’s a diversion. We need to get out of here before the guards show up outside C-wing and pin us
down
.”

Five undead were ambling down the hall, with more coming from the room. Jack wondered how many there were.

“I’ll take care of this,” Zaun said, pulling out his sword after shouldering his M4. “You guys get to the door and make sure we have a clear path to Reynolds’ office.”

Jack nodded and took off with the others. They quickly made it to the exit. Jack slid the card through the card reader. The red light flashed but remained on. He swiped it again, slower, thinking maybe he’d moved it to fast, but the red light remained on.

“It’s not working,” he said. 

“It has to be the alarm,” Kevin said, looking back down the hall. “We have to get that door shut.”

Turning around, Jack watched as Zaun moved like a seasoned-swordsman from some martial arts horror film, as limbs and heads flew from bodies. With the alarm blaring and Zaun busy
,
there was no way Zaun would hear him yell to shut the door.

“It’s too loud for him to hear us,” Kevin said, as if reading Jack’s thoughts. “I’ll be right back; you guys get that door open.”

Jack watched Kevin run down the hall as Zaun decapitated a tall male zombie, the last of the undead. He hoped with all he had that shutting the door would turn off the alarm and let them exit C-wing.

“Jack, be ready to start blasting,” Maria warned. “We might have company on the other side of this door.
”
He nodded, watching Kevin pass by the room Reynolds had ducked into when the man opened the door, poked his arm out, gun in hand, and fired at Kevin. 

“No!” Jack screamed. Kevin fell forward to the floor as if
an invisible force had shoved him
. Jack bolted down the hall, yelling for Maria to keep her gun pointed at the door Reynolds was behind. 

He ran passed the room, Maria telling him she had him covered.

Kevin wasn’t moving. Jack rolled him over and saw the blood
,
all the blood. The floor was slick with the stuff and Kevin’s jacket had a huge, ragged hole in it. Jack tore open the kid’s jacket and lifted his shirt, revealing a ghastly, gory
,
exit wound.

“Jack,” Kevin said, coughing up blood.

“Damn it.”

“Sorry.”

“There’s no need for that. We’re going to get you out of here.”

Kevin smiled, his teeth glistening red. “There’s no way I’m leaving here . . . at least not alive.”

Jack thought about the bots; if they could somehow save Kevin’s life, but there was no time.

“I can save him, Jack,” came Reynolds’ voice from the speaker next to the room’s door. “Give him to me and maybe, just maybe he’ll live.”

Jack felt a tug at his sleeve. He turned to look at Kevin, who was shaking his head. “No, Jack. No.”

“We can leave you with him; let him fix you up, then come back after we get help.” Jack felt like shit for even suggesting the idea, but Kevin was just a kid, beginning his life. He deserved to make it
,
to get out of the bunker and to a normal life.

Kevin tried speaking, but only coughed up more blood, dark, almost black in color.

“What’s it going to be, Jack?” Reynolds said. “He doesn’t have much time.”

“It’s okay,” Kevin said, grabbing Jack’s hand. “Just make sure . . . you . . . get everyone out.” Jack felt the kid’s grip loosen before his hand fell away. Looking into his eyes, he watched the light go out in them, his head lolling to the side. 

Jack closed his eyes. He took a deep breath before opening them again. Reaching up, he lowered Kevin’s eyelids.

He heard Maria tell Zaun to shut the door; that it was keeping them from leaving. 

“What’s going on, Jack?” Maria asked.

“He’s dead.” 

“What
? N
o.”

Jack stood, heard the alarm cut off, then walked over to the intercom. Pressing the button, he said, “I’m going to make sure you never leave this place.”

“Jack, this isn’t the time,” Maria said. “We need to leave.” She looked at Reynolds, then spit on the glass. “Puta tu’ madre, bendaho.”

Pressing the button again, Jack added, “I hope you rot in this tomb,” then backed away from the device. Needing some kind of satisfaction, he did the only thing he could think
of, pointed the Desert Eagle at the intercom,
and blew it to pieces.

“Come on, Jack,” Zaun said, putting a hand on Jack’s shoulder.

“Yeah, we need to leave,” Maria said, her voice cracking. 

Jack turned to face Kevin’s corpse. “Not sure how those little fuckers work on an already dead body, but—” he pulled out the Sig, not wanting to obliterate the kid’s head with the magnum, and fired twice, leaving two small black holes in Kevin’s head. “Now we can leave.”

At the exit, Jack asked if there was any way to know if someone was waiting on the other side of the door.

Maria shrugged. “Maybe from one of the offices. I’m sure they monitor the door at times, or at least have a camera there.” She left, entering the closest office, while Jack and Zaun kept an eye on the hallway.

Emerging a moment later, she said, “All clear, but that could change. Camera’s only good for right outside the door.”

Jack slid the card through the reader and watched the green LED come to life. The door clicked and soon the group found themselves standing outside of C-wing. Before closing the door, Jack blew apart the card reader on the inside, then did the same for the reader on the outside.

“That should hopefully prevent Reynolds from leaving, at least without help from the outside.”

They made it to his office. Jack, last in line, was about to enter when he saw a group of guards coming down the hall. They raised their weapons and opened fire, just missing him as he dove inside. Tiny explosions riddled the
doorframe
as a barrage of bullets bit into the wood, sending splinters everywhere.   

Maria ran to the door and returned fire. “Zaun, get over here. Get another gun ready and hand it to me when I tell you to.”

Jack got to his feet and surveyed the room. Not seeing an escape hatch, he hurried over to a bookcase and swung the thing open, knocking a row of books down. A door similar to C-wing’s stood before him, only this one had a keypad attached to it. He hoped it was to use in the event Reynolds’ keycard was lost or broken and not an added security feature. 

Gunfire
exploded from behind. Jack turned to see Maria firing down the hall, Zaun kneeling next to her, holding an M4.

Jack slid the keycard through the reader and heard a beep, the red LED remaining on. The keypad illuminated, indicating Jack was to punch in numbers. He closed his eyes. The fucking door needed a code.

“There’s a keypad lock on the door,” Jack yelled to the others, over the sound of gunfire.

“Well
,
you better figure it out,” Maria shouted back, firing off a three round burst. She exchanged weapons with Zaun, who speedily loaded a fresh magazine into the gun he was handed.

“I was hoping
you could help with that
,” Jack said.

“Me?
Y
ou forget who you’re talking to? I’m as low on the totem pole as it gets around here.”

“What’s Reynolds’ birthday?”

Another three round burst.

Maria shook her head. “No idea.”

“Are you nuts?” Zaun asked Jack. “You think that old trick will work?”

“Go check his desk; his computer,” Maria suggested, firing off another burst. “Maybe he wrote it down somewhere.”

Jack doubted it, but went around to Reynolds’ mahogany desk anyway. The computer was on, but Jack didn’t think the code would be on it. He started pulling out drawers, rifling through them, finding numerous papers, a letter opener, tacks, scissors, but no code. When he was done, papers lay everywhere and the drawers rested on the floor.

Frustrated, Jack kicked one of the drawers, sending it into the wall.

It was over. They were screwed. He picked up the
leather-backed
chair and tossed it over the desk.

“I take it you didn’t find the code?” Zaun said.

Jack was tired. He needed to sit. Taking a step back, he collided with the wall, then slid down it to the floor. His body felt heavy. So, so heavy. It was difficult holding his head up. He’d put all their lives at risk. It was his idea to go ahead and try to escape. He was the leader, whether they liked it or not. Kevin was dead, and soon they would be too, but not before the bots ate them up, draining their bodies of everything.

Reynolds had won.

Jack’s sadness turned to anger. Grinding his teeth, he said, “No,” then pounded on the floor with his hands. Standing up, he looked around. He didn’t know what to do. Without the code, it was only a matter of time before they were overtaken, captured, or killed.

“They’re getting closer, Jack,” Maria yelled.

The room went red.

He stood
, grabbed the desk and heaved it onto its front, grunting as he did so. Looking at the desk, he saw a small white rectangle attached to the underside of one of the drawer slots. He grabbed the object. It was a keycard. A backup master? Turning the card over, he almost shouted with glee. Four numbers, written in black magic marker stared back at him.

With card in hand, Jack bolted back to the escape hatch and using a shaky finger, punched in the numbers. After the last key was pressed, the red light went off, the green one
came
on, and the door clicked open. Grabbing the handle, Jack pulled and opened the door.

Damp, cool air, swept over him, supplying a welcomed chill. He turned around and yelled to Zaun and Maria. She fired a few more bursts before the two of them ran over to him. As they stepped inside the tunnel, Jack saw armed men enter the office. He shoved his friends out of the way and slammed the door closed.

“We made it,” Zaun said, looking relieved. He patted Jack on the back.

“How did you get the code?” Maria asked.

Jack showed them the card, explaining how he found it taped to the top of one of the drawer slots.

“Simply amazing,” Maria said.

Dim, overhead LED lights, spaced about ten feet apart, lighted the tunnel
. The walls were bedrock, jagged, and cool to touch. Steel support beams, like a ribcage, supported the tunnel. Jack felt like he was entering a coal mine.

Compared to where
they had
been, the silence was now deafening. Not a thing could be heard on the other side.

“Damn, I guess we’re a bunch of lucky bastards,” Zaun said.

Maria was on the floor, reloading the M4’s. “Well if we want to keep being lucky we better move.”

“I thought we were safe now?
” Zaun asked. “There’s no way they’re getting through that door.”

“That may be, but I don’t want to wait around and find out,” Maria said, standing and handing Zaun his weapon. “Reynolds isn’t dead, remember. He’ll know a way.”

“She’s right,” Jack agreed. “No telling if they have other keycards or another way of getting to us.”

They worked their way down the tunnel. Jack figured they had a few miles before they reached the exit. Where exactly did the tunnel lead? Would there be hostiles waiting for them? Maybe Reynolds had radioed ahead and now
a team of armed soldiers was
coming their way. He brought it up to Maria, who had no idea, but agreed anything was possible.

As far as where the tunnel ended, Jack figured it to be somewhere on the mainland, but then thinking about it, that meant the tunnel had to go on for some length. The tunnel must lead to somewhere closer, like Queens or Brooklyn, neither a part of Manhattan, but both a part of Long Island.
They would
need to cross a bridge to get to the mainland. As long as they didn’t end up in some military facility, or heavily armed building, they’d be fine.