tribunal and had hoped one day Jack would take command of the hospital by force. He never thought it would happen though; it would start a civil war, and Jack wanted the group to survive more than anything. It was the driving purpose, perhaps the only purpose, in his life.
“Jack, are you sure about this?”
Jack grabbed Mitchell and flung him against the wall of the corridor. “Get the damn weapons! Get the others too. Laura has gone too far this time. I can’t sit by and watch her take us all to hell.”
Mitchell forgot about Alyson. He could get off later after things were put right. He darted down the passageway back the way he’d come.
Jack smiled after him. Maybe today, he thought. Maybe today is going to be a good day after all.
As Jack set his plan for a coup in motion, Vince called a meeting in the hospital’s cafeteria. His voice echoed over the intercom throughout the building, urging everyone to attend and meet their new guest. Vince wasn’t worried about low attendance. Even the dejected like Alyson and Chris were curious about Martin and the new sense of hope his presence had bought. In fact, Alyson was the first to arrive in the cafeteria where Martin and Vince waited.
Out of habit, Martin stood at attention beside Vince, who’d plopped into one of the chairs. Alyson approached them and smiled at Martin. “Hello, stranger,” she purred, flicking her long red hair out of her face with a slight shake of her head.
“Hello,” Martin answered. A good number of the base’s staff had been female, but none of them had ever acted in such a fashion toward him. He realized her movements were designed to initiate mating, but he could neither explain nor understand the feeling inside of him as she drew closer to kiss him on the cheek.
“Back off, Alyson,” Vince said. “Martin isn’t human.” He saw the hurt in Martin’s eyes and immediately cursed himself for being so tactless.
“What?” Alyson squeaked, retreating a few steps.
Vince hated his poor choice of words even more. “That’s not what I meant,” he said, trying to explain himself to both of them at once. “Martin’s a person just like us. I just meant give him some space, okay?”
“A person like us?” Alyson asked. “What in the hell is that supposed to mean? Why would you say shit like that?”
“I am a bio-genetically engineered weapon capable of evolution and independent thought,” Martin explained.
“Oh,” Alyson gasped. Neither Vince nor Martin could tell if she believed him, but she did seem calmer and she continued to look Martin over. “I’d let you be one for me.”
More people started pouring into the room, and Martin locked onto Chris and his newborn daughter as they entered. “I came here to help,” he announced to the crowd.
Vince grabbed his arm. “Wait. Wait until everyone’s settled and then explain. That way you only have to do it once. It’s easier, trust me.” Vince stood up, putting a hand on Martin’s back, and Martin deferred to his wisdom.
After Laura had left the conference room, she’d returned to her quarters. She had faith that Vince could introduce Martin and convince the group that he wasn’t a threat. Jack’s reaction had upset her, but there was nothing she could do except give him time to calm down. In his current state, she knew reasoning with him would be out of the question, it would only make matters worse. Anyway, she had more important matters to deal with. She could feel another attack coming on, and she wanted to make sure she was alone when it hit.
She took off her lab coat, slumped onto the edge of her mattress and rolled up her sleeve. When she finished, she opened the drawer of the small desk beside the bed. Inside was her private mini-pharmacy from the hospital’s stores. Unlike Alyson, about whom she’d heard rumors, none of her stash was narcotic in nature. It was composed entirely of treatments for her cancer and its symptoms.
She measured out a dose into a syringe and shot up, praying the treatment would stem off the attack. Exhausted both physically and emotionally, she reclined on the bed and closed her eyes, wishing she could bring herself to dream of a better tomorrow.
Vince waited as long as he felt comfortable for the group to gather in the cafeteria. Almost everyone was there and settled in by now. Only Laura, Jack, and a few of the man’s cronies were absent.
When the room finally grew quiet, Vince spoke. “As you all know, the man beside me is Martin Kier. He’s the person we made radio contact with recently. And yes, his story is real. He arrived this morning by helicopter and brought us a delivery of supplies from the military installation he’s been surviving in since the plague started.”
Murmurs of excitement rippled through the crowd.
“There are a few things you need to know. The base may not be a viable spot for us to relocate to. We are making plans to send a small task force to ensure it will be safe for all of us.” Vince could see the hope dying in the crowd. “Please, don’t be discouraged. It’s just a precautionary measure, nothing more. We have every reason to believe the base will be suitable for our needs.”
Voices erupted from the crowd. Who goes first? How will we know the base is safe? How soon does the task force leave?
Vince struggled to regain control. “Four people including the doctor will go with Martin on his way home. They’ll stay in complete and constant radio contact with us, and we should know if the base is all right in a matter of days. As to when they will be leaving, that hasn’t been established yet. We need a bit more time to prepare.”
“What is it we should know about Martin?” Chris asked, his tone so hostile and unforgiving it cut clearly through the others. If he was supposed to trust this stranger with his daughter’s life, he damned sure wanted to know everything about him. Especially with the way the man had stared at her when they’d first met.
Vince didn’t want to answer Chris’s question, considering the way the informal meeting was headed. Disclosing the problems with Martin’s installation had changed the mood of the crowd from hope to something approaching heartbreak and anger. But Vince knew he had little choice now. Chris had put him on the spot, and there was no way to back out.
He shot Martin a troubled glance, but the man—or whatever he was—was too new to such subtle human warnings to catch it.
Martin stepped forward boldly, looking out into the sea of faces. “My name is Martin Kier. I have come to help you in any way that I can. However, you should know I am not human in the normal use of the word.”
A new wave of murmurs ran through the gathering, and everyone looked to Vince to see his reaction. He nodded, and shouts filled the room, ranging in tone from anger to utter confusion.
“Wait!” Vince yelled. “Wait! Just hear him out, okay? He’s not crazy.”
“No,” Martin said as the room fell quiet. “I am a biogenetically-created weapon, created by your own government in secret. I am the prototype for what was to be a new breed of soldier, which would end the need for this country’s men and women to die in battle. I have survived the undead nightmare we live in just as you have, though I was left alone. Everyone from my creators to my guards perished. Until your Daniel contacted me, I believed the human race to be extinct. I was made to serve you, and now I can do my duty. I will see you all safely from this place, this I swear.”
At that precise moment, the doorway to the cafeteria crashed open, and Jack, Mitchell and their small band of cronies entered. All of them were armed. “Cut the shit, Mr. Kier,” Jack said. “Don’t believe a word he says. He’s either insane, or worse, the first of a military assault on this building.”
“Jack…” Vince held up a hand and tried to reason with him, but Jack hit him in the face with a loaded revolver. The blow knocked Vince to the floor.
“That’ll be quite enough from you today, Vince. You and Laura may buy into his crap, but not me. I’m not going to stand by and let him destroy everything we’ve worked for.”
Martin seemed to vanish. One second he was standing beside Vince, the next he was twisting Jack’s arm behind his back. The gun clattered from Jack’s grasp and his arm snapped as Martin turned him like a shield toward Mitchell and the others. Jack cried out until Martin slapped a palm over his mouth.
“Stop this madness!” Martin shouted. “I have no wish to harm any of you, but I will if you force my hand.”
Mitchell blinked, trying to process what had just happened. He motioned to the rest of the men to hold their
