floors attest to the frequent use of this area. I check my six to verify that my rear is still clear. I’m worried about the time. I still have a ways to go and must get out of this area soon. In a few minutes, when the night runner comes to, it’s going to get a lot more crowded here.
I’m adjacent to a pair of swinging metal doors with small windows inset into them. I move to the side and gently push one of the doors open. Slipping quickly inside, I ease the door closed and slide the fiber camera under it. A night runner turns the corner into the hall just as I get the first picture. More follow behind until ten of them are in the corridor. They begin walking my direction. I silently withdraw the camera until it’s barely under the door and press close to the wall. I won’t be able to see out of the small windows to observe their passage but I’ll be able to see their feet.
I’m thankful for the hard floors. If this were a carpeted area, I’d never hear them approach. I’m struck by how silently they do move. There’s no chatter or loud outbursts. There’s nothing to tell they are even there except for the sound of their walking. I wonder if I would even hear that if it weren’t for my elevated hearing. Of course, anyone in the team can be quiet when they want but the night runners seem to do it naturally. I’m beginning to like them less and less — their abilities at least. Though it’s hard to dislike them more given the hate I already have for them.
As I wait for them to come level with me, I look around the room I’ve found myself in. It’s a larger exam or operating room. Equipment covers almost every inch of the room with a bed/table in the middle. A large light hangs from a swing arm from the ceiling directly over the bed. As with the initial hallway, the floor is clear of tracks. The night runners apparently don’t use rooms in this area, or this one at least. They surely must use some so I don’t automatically log all rooms as safe areas.
Looking back to the tiny screen, I see feet passing. I’m blocking any light escaping from the unit with my body but in such a manner that I can still see it. The night runners pass and I push the camera farther into the hall, first checking the way they came for any stragglers and then focusing on the pack that just passed. They don’t turn but continue across the intersection. I don’t have time to wait for them to exit the hall or return as I am now under a time crunch.
I withdraw the camera and ease the swinging door open. I poke my head out and verify that the group is still proceeding down the hall away from me. None of them are looking back in my direction. I guide the door closed and cover the remaining length of hall quickly but quietly. After checking around the corner in both directions, I glide around it to the right. I’m getting closer. The important thing is that I’m putting distance between myself and the unconscious night runner.
I pass several more patrols in the next few halls, ducking into rooms when the situation warrants. I sit in one such room waiting for a pack of seven to pass when I hear a faint shriek echo down the previously silent passageways.
Just outside of the door, other screams follow the first and I hear feet scrambling away as the pack respond to the sound of alarm. Faint screeches join in from farther away.
“Jack…sir. Are you okay? Horace reports hearing a few faint shrieks on the upper floors,” Gonzalez asks.
“Just peachy, thanks. I think a night runner I put down for a nap just woke up cranky and its friends are racing to it full of care and concern,” I reply.
More feet pound down the hallway just outside of my door heading in the same direction as the others. Their screams make the door I’m next to vibrate with their intensity. Several more groups follow. I have two choices. I can either wait out the storm until they calm down or proceed while they are busy at the other end of the building. I imagine they will be racing up and down the halls once they can’t find anything other than a groggy night runner barricaded behind a door. This also may be my chance to make some headway while this part of the building is more or less empty.
I wait a quick minute and slide the camera under the door. The passage is clear.
“I’m moving on,” I add.
“Copy that, sir.”
Sticking my head out of the door, I don’t hear running feet coming my way. I do hear faint ones farther away in the direction from which I came, but nothing ahead. The good news is that the ones behind me aren’t growing any louder. I’m close to where I sensed the one who sent Lynn’s image but I’m still not sure of the exact location; on the upper floor in the middle of the facility makes sense, though. I begin to wonder if I shouldn’t start checking rooms in this area. Time is of the essence. Those which raced by will return, either because they are searching the halls or because it’s where they initially were. Either way, they’ll be back…and sooner rather than later.
I stalk to the next juncture and take a look around the corner. Four night runners stand outside a set of double steel fire doors.
The answer is readily apparent. They stayed because something important is behind those doors. I up my estimate of their ability to think and their discipline. They are so unpredictable. In some ways, they are like a pack of feral animals without reasoning that only exist to attack– relentless and ferocious in nature. In other ways, they exhibit human tendencies and abilities in thought and action. Maybe it’s that each is diverse in their own way, individualistic. The genetic changes could have affected each of them differently. I previously just lumped them into a single category. I’ll have to change that way of thinking.
That thought is moot, however, as I intend to erase their very existence from the face of the earth. Now, how to lure or take out the four night runners at the doors without bringing the entire horde upon me? I pull back into one of the first rooms behind me.
“Gonzalez, Jack here,” I whisper into the radio.
“Gonzalez here. Go ahead, sir.”
“Have Horace shoot out some of the windows on the top floor of the north side,” I say.
“Will do, sir. Give her about two minutes to get into position.”
“That will be perfect, thanks. I’ll give three clicks when I’m ready.”
“Copy that. Three clicks,” Gonzalez replies.
I choose the north side because I don’t want the ones already on the east side to transit this area and I want the four in front of the doors to head away from me. It wouldn’t be in my best interest to have the entire contingent of night runners on the fourth floor to run through my position. That would kind of defeat the purpose of a distraction.
I check both directions to make sure it’s clear and ease back into the hall. Crouching at the corner once again, nothing has changed. I’m not very comfortable having night runners in the halls behind me but they are still making a racket some distance away. That doesn’t mean they won’t be spreading out or returning soon though.
“We’re in position,” Horace radios.
I press the mic three distinct times. Faint sounds of glass shattering and gunfire drift down the hall. Watching the night runners, I see them tense and turn abruptly toward the sound but they don’t move.
“Again if you please, Horace,” I whisper.
I hear more muffled sounds of shattering glass and firing. The shrieks behind me increase in volume as does the sound of running feet.
With a combined shriek, they take off running away from me. One set of the double doors slams open, startling me, and six additional night runners run out into the hall. They pause for a second, looking both directions, and then run after the four.
Screams and feet slapping on the hard floor continue to increase in volume. I glance behind me to see several night runners pass the hall an intersection away. They go by quickly, but I hear more following. Several more pass a few junctions down. It’s only a matter of time, and a short one at that, before they enter the hall I’m in. I stay in my position wanting to give them a chance to get some distance from the room. I have a gut feeling this is the one I’m looking for. If it’s not, then I’ll fold into one of the side rooms and wait for things to calm down
