Protect All Monsters (34 page)

“Where does it lead?” Addey ignored Dr. Kasum’s admission. “Does it lead away from here?”

“It leads to the shipping port. I think Richard’s hope is that if we keep moving, the monsters will grow restless. They’ve consumed hundreds of bodies. Maybe after an afternoon or even a night, they’ll get tired of hunting for a handful of people and shove on.”

Cynthia crossed her fingers. “I’ll pray for that.”

“Hey, it’s something good,” Herman encouraged them all.

Grace tapped on the steel-reinforced door. “But what about what’s waiting for us behind the door?”

Addey pointed at the rifle in her hands. “We excuse them of their brains, what do you think? If you can’t do it, then allow me.”

“Or allow me,” Herman said. “Give me the gun.”

Grace sneered at them. “I’m not giving you shit.”

“We have three guns,” Addey said. “How many monsters are back there?”

“Three zombies and two vampires,” Dr. Kasum provided off the top of his head. “We still have to be cautious. They could harbor abilities we don’t know about.”

“Like shape-shifting,” Addey suggested. “Taking on the features and thoughts of people we know. Turning to liquid. Dying three times as different monsters before they perish. Sucking blood from your body without touching you. Are you telling me there could be other things we have to combat as well?”

“I don’t know.” Dr. Kasum sighed. “I didn’t know about their changes. They kept them at bay. James Sorelli orchestrated a well-plotted overthrow of the complex. They’re smarter than we anticipated. Much smarter.”

“We have to keep hiding,” Addey decided. “In order to do that, we have to march through that door and kill them. Then we can climb down into the tunnel and keep moving. It’s that simple.”

“Yeah, that easy too.” Grace was snide. “As long as we’re not attacked or confronted by anything, we’re A-okay, team.”

“Fuck off,” Addey fired. “You were a bitch before, and you still are a bitch.”

Grace laughed. “Some things don’t change.”

“Why were you so nervous when we were talking to Richard?” Cynthia asked Grace. “You weren’t the least bit interested in what he had to say. You walked away when Dr. Kasum’s walkie went off. Why?”

Grace huffed. “On this island, we all have a job, correct? Dr. Kasum sent innocent people to be ravaged alive,” she tapped the steel door with her knuckle, “behind this door. You shoveled dead people’s remains on the sublevel, Addey. Cynthia, you delivered platters of human organs and limbs to vampires and zombies. Brenner committed the worst atrocities, but I had to obey him. I would’ve been the arms and legs popping out of those vending machines otherwise.”

“Spit it out,” Addey demanded. “What’s the deal with you and Richard?”

Cynthia and Dr. Kasum closed in on her. Sweat beaded off Grace’s neck and forehead. She was growing nervous. “Brenner instructed me to dump Richard’s body into the wolf arena. That bastard should be digested material in one of those beasts’ stomachs by now.”

Addey stiffened. “He was alive when you dumped him with the wolves. Jesus Christ! And you’re afraid he’s going to want to pay you back the favor when he comes to us. Our backs are against the wall. I’m sure he’s pissed, but circumstances granted, we’re all watching our asses.”

“I don’t trust anybody with a right to a grudge. I can’t trust Richard with my life.”

“I’m not exactly a fan of yours either, but it’s the way today transpired. I’m dealing with it.”

Dr. Kasum clutched his .28 revolver. “Richard will be lucky to make it here. I’m not waiting for a high sign or smoke signal of his arrival. I think Richard had a good idea. The tunnel’s a great place to hide. We barricade this steel door behind us and we move on and keep moving. They’ll leave eventually. There are only four of us. The monsters won’t waste too much time on four people.”

“They wasted fifty years,” Addey argued. “Why
not
a few more days?”

Dr. Kasum turned the circular valve, deciding to enter the chamber on his own. Herman joined in, the valve stuck by rust. After the two added enough elbow grease, the door unlocked with a hermetic hiss. An offal stench crept free. The smell had every characteristic of Addey’s past jobs on the island. She feared what was beyond the threshold.

It can’t be worse than what is outside. Nothing can top that.

Grace and Dr. Kasum chose the front flank, Cynthia and Addey the rear, and Herman stood in the middle. Addey used a stool as a weapon since she was unarmed.

The door closed behind them, Dr. Kasum spinning the valve wheel tight to close it off. They were locked in. He unlocked the red box on the wall nearby and retrieved a fire ax and wedged it through the door handle. “That should hold it.”

“And that would’ve been a kick-ass weapon as opposed to my stool,” Addey complained. “Fuck it. I’m cranky. I start my period today. Seriously.”

Herman smiled. “I believe you.”

“I had mine last week,” Cynthia said. “Thank God too. I get serious cramps. Wicked hot flashes.”

The floor was concrete and slick with condensation. Overhead, it dripped. The room was so humid—humid as a Kansas summer. Addey caught a thermostat beside her, and it read ninety-two degrees. “Christ, it’s hot in here.”

“It keeps them weaker,” Dr. Kasum explained, “when the temperature is a tad unbearable.”

“Why are we talking?” Grace demanded. “They’ll hear us.”

“Good.” Dr. Kasum spoke sharply. “Bring them on. I didn’t want this to be a scavenger hunt.”

“Well, they’re still dangerous.”

Addey talked over them both. “It’s too late. They know we’re here anyway.”

Herman whispered, “Everybody just shut up
now
.”

There was no equipment or tables or cages. The deeper they traversed, the more pieces of human anatomy popped up in the form of picked clean bones and torsos ready to be excavated of their contents. Blood had long since dried up or leaked out the tubes positioned throughout the room’s ceiling.

She turned to the doctor when he suddenly gave a puzzled look. They’d walked every inch of the room. There was no puddle of water that could turn into monsters or anything attached to the ceiling about to drop down on them. Dr. Kasum fixated on the hatch on the wall. The keyhole was a simple circle, no handle or lock mechanism. Dr. Kasum lifted a long-stemmed iron key from his pocket.

Dr. Kasum said to them, “It looks like they might’ve entered this other room.”

Grace pointed up to a vent. The grate had been torn off. “No, they went up.”

Dr. Kasum paced back and forth, thinking. “It’s astounding. I never saw that grate. It must’ve been hidden—or created. All this time, and they could escape. I entered this place and took blood and skin samples. I’ve evaluated them for years. I shuffled old and new monsters out every other week. Many monsters died keeping their plans secret. It’s…it’s amazing what they’ve perpetrated.”

The doctor turned pale. Then he sobbed, covering his face with his hands in shame. Cynthia placed her hand on his shoulder, but the doctor shrugged her off. “I just need a minute. Please, just a moment to myself.”

Cynthia walked up to Addey. “You think he’s losing it?”

“We’re all losing it. This has been his life for decades; what do you expect? His life has been unraveled, and everything he’s worked for was essentially a lie or a failure. He couldn’t cure the monsters of their mutation.”

Grace’s eyes were fierce. “Who gives a shit? Let’s get into that tunnel and stay safe.”

Dr. Kasum unlocked the hatch, acting on her suggestion. “Yeah, I agree. It’s a shame is all. We could’ve saved the world. And instead we made it easier for the monsters to overtake us.”

“They haven’t overtaken us yet,” Addey insisted. “The world is still safe. I’d love it if Mother Nature corrected her mistakes. The ocean could wipe them out. They’d drown at the bottom of the ocean and turn into shark food.”

“And watch the sharks turn into rabid beasts,” Cynthia speculated. “What are next, rabid weasels?”

Everybody burst out laughing. It lasted for minutes and the cacophony bordered on lunacy. Addey wiped tears from her face, so amused.

Moving on, the moment of letting go finished, Dr. Kasum turned the key. The hatch came open with a wild creak of a dry hinge. The echo of rushing water channeled below them.

“What’s that noise?” Addey asked everyone.

Dr. Kasum said, “The island has a sump pump of sorts. It spits out water that sneaks into the island and cycles it back into the ocean. The bottom hatch is designed for this purpose.”

Cynthia wore a worried scowl. “Is there really a way out of here?”

“There’s a walkway that leads to the boarding docks above us. We’re not trapped. I wouldn’t go down unless we had a Plan B.”

Herman muttered, “And a Plan C, and a Plan D…”

Addey descended the ladder first. The drop was onto a rusted-out platform decorated in green and black barnacles and heaps of trapped seaweed. The platform had a control room with mechanical towers the size of computers made in the 1980s. A filter system captured the water and spit it back into the ocean with a snowblower’s churn. Suction tubes and steel blades collected the water, the blades like the spinning of a tiller to chop up any thick debris.

“What do we do now?” Cynthia threw her hands up. “We’re here.”

Dr. Kasum and Herman were the last to come down. The doctor locked the hatch on the way down and said, “We wait for Richard to arrive…or for the monsters to leave.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

Richard crouched in front of Brenner’s third-story window. He had an eagle’s-eye view of the courtyard and the feasting monsters.

They don’t know what’s about to hit them.

He aimed the tear gun canister, and performing a gut check, pulled the trigger.

“Fire one!”

Phooop!

The canister detonated upon ground impact, shedding blinding smoke.

“Fire two!”

“Fire three!”

“Fire four!

“Fire five!”

Phoop! Phoop! Phoop! Phoop!

The courtyard was obscured in billowing clouds of thick white.

Now the serious firepower.

He hurled three incendiary grenades, chucking them like baseballs. The ground below was animated with flying sparks, wildfire breaking out as bursts of explosions rocked the courtyard. Chunks of concrete and rock spit forth so high they smacked near his window, pelting the building.

Richard couldn’t lug the M-60, so he raised it up to the window and fired at will.

Thup-thack-thup-thack-thup-thack-thup-thack-thup-thack-thup-thack.

The belt ammunition expelled ninety rounds a minute. Behind the veil of white, random pockets of blood burst. Limbs dislocated from bodies, literally blasted off. The fog masked the majority of the damage, though the cacophony of shrieks and bodies dropping encouraged him to keep pulling back the trigger.

Going dry, he changed belts and continued the sniper rampage. He didn’t have much time to run. Hordes of them were already charging into the building hell bent to snuff the shooter.

The new belt went dry after minutes of firing. He charged out of the room carrying the backpack and an M-16 in each hand. He was armed with two incendiary grenades and three more shots of tear gas. He strapped on the gas mask, knowing what he had to do.

First he shot a can of tear gas down the hall.

Phoop!

The elevator was ticking up to the third floor. At the fire exit, he could hear numerous feet pounding to reach him. In seconds, they’d arrive.

The stairs are a trap. But so is the elevator.

I don’t have a choice here!

He raced through the haze of smoke. He crouched beside the elevator, waiting for it to open.

Ding
.

The monsters filtered out, a pack of wolves spewing forth. They charged into the smoke, mewling, barking, bashing and stomping in search of him.

Through the smoke, he easily dodged the wolves and sprinted to the elevator. He struck the button for the ground floor. The almond slits turned to him, shining the amber orange of a hoot owl’s. They charged back at him. He opened fire. The M-16 blasted off muzzles, destroying limbs and legs, and turned their bodies into red mush. Before the elevator could close, a face stuck into the elevator. Warm froth flew at Richard as the beast gnashed its teeth and tried to reach deeper into the elevator. It was about to pull the doors open when Richard stuck the gun muzzle into its mouth and unleashed a rip-roaring tide of ammunition. The eyes lit up a caustic yellow, the back of the head erupting into soft pieces.

He kicked the corpse out and shouted, “
Stay the fuck out
!”

The door closed. He sagged against the backmost wall, out of breath. Wolf blood dripped down the muzzle of the M-16.

He removed another grenade from his backpack and reloaded a fresh clip into the M-16. He was a sitting duck, he thought. If they breached the elevator’s threshold, he was as good as dead.

That’s why he gasped when the elevator stopped on level two.