Hollis felt the landing gear make contact with the grass and felt the air from the open door before he even spun around. He waved his men out, barking at the last three to set a perimeter guard, then he stepped out. Dr. LaRue waited by the door of the chopper for a helping hand down.
She didn’t get one.
She huffed, her eyes boring a hole into the back of Hollis’ head, then she hopped from the craft. She began marching toward the main building, a non-descript brick structure surrounded by security fences and empty guard shacks.
She glanced back over her shoulder and saw that the pilot had landed them inside the fences, with only feet to spare from the tail end of the craft. She cringed when the thought of being stranded here struck her. She turned back to the task at hand and pushed the thought from her mind.
“We’re looking for a BSL-3 lab.”
Hollis looked at her questioningly. “Basement level? Great. No lights.”
She paused and rolled her eyes. “No. It’s a Biosafety Level Three. You’d know that if you had ever done any real work in one.” She threw her nose into the air and continued marching, taking a certain degree of pride in knocking the man down a few notches.
Hollis shook his head. “You’re right, doc. The only trained monkeys allowed in your labs are the test subjects.” He motioned forward and two of his men entered the foyer through the open security doors. “Secure the area.” He watched as they cleared every corner, then stacked up on the stairwell.
“Stay behind us, doctor. Let us do our job so you can do yours.” Hollis nodded to the lead breacher. The man blew the security lock with his shotgun and the team flowed into the darkened stairwell, torches flipping on as they cleared the stairs leading up and down.
Hollis turned to Dr. LaRue. “What floor?”
“Sublevel two.”
“So, I was right. A fuckin’ basement.” He squeezed the shoulder of the man ahead of him and the message was relayed forward. The lead operator began moving wordlessly and the entire team worked their way to the second lower level.
As they entered the floor, the team stacked up into two groups of three, each taking a different direction. Hollis held Dr. LaRue back while the team swept the floor.
When both teams returned, they reported all clear in the open areas. Some of the labs were still locked and couldn’t be cleared.
“Looks like you’re on, doc. Point out the lab and we’ll blow the security lock.” She referred to her notes and glanced to the wall placard. “That way.” She pointed to her right and the teams worked their way down the hallway. “Lab 5-2S.”
They stacked on either side of the security door and Hollis motioned to his breacher. The man removed the deadbolt with one blast and the second man kicked the door open. They entered the space and a smell that was nothing short of concentrated death struck them.
Hollis heard one of the men choke as he tried not to vomit. Most pulled their shemagh scarfs up, covering their mouths and noses.
“I need a sweep!” Hollis’ voice sounded off as he tried to breathe through his mouth. He swore he could taste the stench every time he took a breath.
Dr. LaRue was already sweeping through the file cabinet closest to the desk as the men worked through the lab. One man approached and whispered to the captain.
Hollis perked and followed him inside the lab. He saw the source of the smell. A person was restrained on an exam table, a bite-guard strapped their mouth. He approached slowly and tried to lift an eyelid. Although the eyes were deteriorating, he could tell they had been full of blood prior to death.
“Looks like your researcher had a test subject in here, doc.” His tone was accusatory.
She stiffened, but chose to ignore his barb. “Look for any files he may have had out.”
“You didn’t hear me? Your boy had an infected person in here.” He stepped out of the lab and approached the desk. “Let me guess, he nabbed one of the first to get infected and was using them, right?”
She paused and blew her breath out, trying hard not to smell the sickly-sweet stench as she breathed. “I’m not going to try to justify his actions.” She pulled the power cord from the laptop on the table and wrapped it loosely around the case. “But if any of this crap will help us find a cure, then I don’t care if he was clubbing baby seals, you understand me? It’s not our job to second guess what anybody was doing prior to the release, it’s our job to find a damned CURE!”
Hollis looked down his nose at her then motioned to his men. “Gather up anything that looks like research notes. We’re bugging out in five.”
He stepped to the doorway and she continued rifling through the desk. “I’ll need more than five minutes, captain.”
“And yet, you’ll be done in that time or you’ll be left behind.” He scanned the hallways then checked his watch. “My orders didn’t include camping out here with the motor running, doc. Our ride will leave us behind if we don’t double-time it.”
She huffed again then turned for the next file cabinet. She rifled through the top drawer when their radios crackled to life.
“Captain, we have contact out here!”
Stella eyed him cautiously. “What do you mean, settle down?”
Savage shrugged. “I’m saying, what if we found a place where we could just…stop. Settle down. Maybe grow our own food. You know…live.”
She sat down gingerly and wrung her hands together. “Without the others?”
Savage shrugged again. “Maybe. Maybe some of them.” He looked up at her and smiled. It seemed foreign to her. “Maybe all of them.”
She sipped at the instant coffee and averted her eyes. “What about the ragers?”
Savage reached out tentatively and took her hand. “We’d be safe from them. Safety in numbers, you know that, right?”
She nodded
