Madness Rules - 04 (30 page)

“I’m sure we can deal with whatever’s down here. Right now, let’s focus on getting to the next exit.”

“One fight at a time, right?”

Tanner smiled. Some fathers hoped their kids would hit the game-winning home run. He would settle for one who understood what it took to stay alive.

The hike to the next landing was another quarter of a mile up the tunnel. What would normally have taken five minutes took three times that due to constantly searching the darkness to ensure they hadn’t missed a secret alcove that might lead them out. In front of the second landing, they found a dead army soldier. His head had been torn completely off, or perhaps chewed from his body. His rifle was smashed, and what was left of his body looked like a mound of mashed meat byproducts.

“They sure got him good,” Samantha said, unable to look away.

Before he could reply, a glowing light appeared from further up the tunnel. At first it was indirect, lights reflecting against the shiny black walls. But as it drew closer, they made out two bright headlights piercing the darkness. Tanner hoisted Samantha up onto the landing and quickly followed behind her. If they had to fight, doing so from the bottom of an open tunnel was about the worst possible choice.

The landing was much like the previous one, bodies lying everywhere. Most of them were of the infected, but there were also soldiers in the mix. The sign on the wall read “N.E.O.B.,” which meant absolutely nothing to either of them. They hustled to the stairway but found that it too had been sealed off with an explosion.

The headlights were starting to light the edge of the landing.

He turned to Samantha. “Lie down on the floor.”

“But there’s blood everywhere.”

“Good. The more you look like a corpse, the better.”

She looked around for a clean spot. When she didn’t find one, she flopped down next to an infected man who had been shot several times in the face.

Tanner hurried over to stand at the edge of the landing. He set his shotgun down by his feet and kept his hands where they could easily be seen. Whoever was coming was almost certainly better armed than he was. Better to try to talk things out.

A military vehicle that looked like an armored golf cart wheeled up. Two men wearing uniforms rode in the front, and an injured soldier lay draped across the back. As soon as they saw Tanner, they stopped and dismounted with assault rifles in hand.

“Get your hands up!” one of them shouted.

Tanner raised his hands.

The two men split up, one hurrying toward him from the bottom of the landing and the other staying with the vehicle. When the approaching soldier saw the man who had been decapitated, his face twisted in agony.

“Did you do that?” he said, looking up at Tanner.

“I found him that way. But you knew that already.”

The man lowered his rifle. “I’m Captain Hastings. That’s Corporal Dix.”

“Tanner Raines.”

“How the hell did you get down here?”

“I came through the Oval Office.”

He shook his head. “That entrance was locked up tight.”

“Not anymore it isn’t.”

“Shit.” He scanned the landing. “You alone?”

After a quick debate, Tanner turned and hollered over his shoulder.

“Sam, you can come out.”

Samantha stood up and brushed herself off before walking over to them.

“You’ve got a kid with you? Jeezus, man!”

“My daughter.”

“Are you crazy bringing her down here?”

“We were being chased by a gang up top. It was either come down here or die in the White House.”

“You’d have been better to stay up there and take your chances. You’re dead for sure down here. And not in a good way,” he added, looking down at the dead soldier.

“You and Dix look to be doing okay.”

“Hardly. We’re trying to escape this hell hole before we’re completely overrun.”

“Where do the tunnels go?”

“Damn near everywhere, the bunker under the Blair House, the US Capitol, the Pentagon, the State Department, and a half dozen other federal buildings. Hell, one line even runs from under Union Station all the way out to Mount Weather.”

Samantha instinctively perked up when she heard the last part. Before she could say anything, a faint buzzing noise sounded from down the tunnel.

“What’s that?”

“That, my friend, is hell coming for us all.”

Corporal Dix shouted from the vehicle as he climbed back in.

“Captain, we gotta move!”

Hastings turned his head and shouted, “Thirty seconds!” He turned back to Tanner. “Your only chance is to go back the way you came.”

The military vehicle wheeled up closer to them. Tanner saw that the man riding across the back was badly injured, blood soaking through the front of his uniform.

“Go back the way you came,” Hastings repeated, turning back to the cart. “And hurry.”

“Take us with you,” blurted Tanner.

“Not enough room.”

The noises grew louder. It sounded as if a million locusts were coming their way.

“Dump him,” he said, pointing to the dying man. “He’s not going to make it anyway.”

“I’d rather leave my own mother.”

“At least take her,” he said, putting his hand on Samantha’s shoulder and pushing her forward.

“No!” she cried.

“Take her,” he repeated. “She’s important.”

“What does that mean?”

“No,” she insisted, staring up at Tanner.

“She’s President Glass’s daughter.” The words came out even before he fully weighed their significance.

“What did you just say?”

The cacophony of noises grew louder, individual voices coming into focus.

“This is Samantha Glass. As a representative of the US Government, you are obligated to save her.”

Captain Hastings studied her.

“What’s your name, girl?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she reached up and grabbed the sleeve of Tanner’s shirt.

“Please,” she said softly, “don’t do this.”

“Captain, we gotta go now! We’ve got sixty seconds until they’re on us.”

Hastings reached his hand out toward Samantha.

“Come on. Give me your hand.”

“No,” she said flatly.

Tanner turned to her. “Sam, you’re dead if you stay here.”

She swallowed hard but said nothing.

“I can’t let that happen to you,” he said. “I can’t.”

Tears welled in her eyes, and she seemed unable to speak.

“Go, Sam. Please.”

“It’s now or never,” Hastings said, his hand still outstretched.

She started to take a small step forward and then stopped.

“No. I’m staying.”

“Sam, if you don’t go, you’ll die.”

“Then I’ll die.”

“I can’t watch—”

“You always told me to fight. That’s what you said. No matter what, we fight!” Her voice was breaking, and tears trickled down her cheeks. “Now you want me to give up.” She shook her head and then leaned over and punched him in the arm. “I’m not going to do that.”

The voices were growing steadily louder. The infected were coming, and by the sound of it, it was an army unlike any they had ever seen.

“Just come on, already,” Hastings said, reaching for her.

Samantha stepped back and brought her rifle up between them.

“Don’t,” she warned.

Hastings hopped up onto the landing and came for her.

“You’re my ticket out of this hole, and by God—”

Tanner stepped forward and hit him with a solid cross. Hastings stumbled sideways, but before he fell, Tanner snatched the M4 from his hands and turned it toward Corporal Dix.

“Don’t move!”

“What the hell are you doing?” Dix said, climbing out of the cart.

Tanner turned to Samantha. “Grab my shotgun and get in.”

She slung her rifle over her shoulder, grabbed his shotgun, and hopped down. As she slid into the passenger seat, the man lying across the back moaned.

Tanner hopped down behind her and stepped around to the driver’s side. He was about to give Dix the choice of dumping the injured man and coming along, when the corporal lunged at him with a knife. He parried it away, caught the man’s wrist, and twisted. Dix struggled to get free, but Tanner stretched his arm out and dropped a forearm onto his elbow. He screamed as the joint separated and his arm bent in the wrong direction. Tanner brought a knee up into the man’s face, and he fell back onto the tracks unconscious.

Tanner tossed his pack next to the dying man, hopped into the cart, and pressed a large silver button where a gas pedal would normally be. The vehicle took off with a jolt, and he had to jerk the wheel to keep from scrubbing against the tracks.

“What’s going to happen to them?” Samantha asked, looking back over her shoulder.

“If they’re lucky, nothing. The infected might run right past them.”

“And if they’re not?”

“They’ll die.”

She bit her lip, saying nothing. Events of the past few seconds couldn’t be undone. Instead, she latched onto what really bothered her.

“You were going to give me up back there.”

“Samantha, I was trying to save—”

“I know what you were trying to do. But you and I are a team. We protect each other.”

“I know that.”

“We agreed to stay together. No matter what—that’s what you said.”

He nodded, knowing that she was right.

“Don’t you get it?” she said. “You’re all I have.”

Tanner felt his eyes fill with tears, and he turned his head away.

She leaned over and placed her hand on his arm.

“You’re my family now. My mom and dad all rolled into one giant… criminal.”

“Giant criminal?” he said, choking on the words.

“You know what I’m saying. And just like you want to keep me safe, I want to keep you safe, too.”

“I know.”

“From the very first day you pulled me off that burning building, I chose to stay with you. Remember that the next time you try to give me away.”

He nodded.

After a moment, he said, “Do you remember asking why I didn’t go see my ex-wife up in Salamanca?”

“Of course.”

“I didn’t go see her because I knew that she’d tell me I needed to let you go. She’d have given me a thousand reasons why you shouldn’t be with me. And she’d have been right.”

“No,” said Samantha. “She’d have been wrong.”

“Why?”

“Because she wouldn’t understand our… connection.”

“Our connection?”

“Our love. There, I said it. Happy?”

He glanced over at her and smiled.

She squeezed his arm. “I’m sorry about hitting you.”

“It’s all right. I deserved it.”

“Yes, you did,” she said, leaning back against the seat. “But I’m worried that your violent ways are rubbing off on me.”

Men screamed from the tunnel behind them. Hastings and Dix, from the sound of it. Neither Tanner nor Samantha looked back. The cart was remarkably fast for an electric vehicle, and they quickly pulled away from the horrible sounds.

“Are we going back to the Oval Office?”

“No,” he said. “We’d be trading one fight for another.”

“Where then?”

“We’ll find another way out. If Captain Hastings had an escape hatch, then we have one too.”

It took them nearly twenty minutes and four stops to find a stairway that wasn’t sealed. The plaque on the wall read “Naval Observatory.” A narrow stairwell led up to a door, very similar to the one that had allowed them into the tunnel system from the DUCC. This door was propped open with a military backpack. A small embroidered patch with two stripes was sewn on the front pocket.

Tanner pulled the door open enough for them to pass and kicked the backpack out of the way. The door slowly closed behind them, driven by what remained of the residual air pressure in the pneumatic system. A set of stairs led up into the darkness.

With his shotgun in hand and Captain Hastings’ M4 assault rifle slung across his back, Tanner led them up the stairs. At the top was a small landing and a heavy fiberglass door. It was closed but had a conventional doorknob. He gave it a try and was surprised to find the door unlocked.

Tanner pushed it in a few inches and peeked around the door. A small hallway lay beyond. The beam from his headlamp was fading, and he could barely see the other end about twenty feet away. He looked over at Samantha and held his finger to his mouth, indicating they should be quiet as they moved ahead.

When they got to the other end of the hallway, they found only a flat panel of wood in place of where a door should be. It stretched from floor to ceiling and had only a small gap around the edges.

He gave the wall a push.

It didn’t budge.

“Try sliding it,” she whispered.