Again? Hanna shook her head. She was ready to crack under the anxiety.
“We need to get out of here right now. Someone is coming,” she said desperately.
Dimitri looked back at the panel. Giving up was painful, but he had been beat.
Russell stepped up behind Hanna. He steadied his light beam, focusing on an open doorway at the end of the hallway. “Fuck it. Let’s regroup and think of another option,” said Russell with a sigh.
Hanna moved away from the men and started to back toward the doorway they had traveled through a few minutes earlier. Russell followed.
Dimitri caught their departure from his peripheral vision. He snatched the screwdriver from the floor and hustled to catch up.
CHAPTER 12
The trio raced back through the dark space toward another long hallway. It seemed to get longer as they moved through the thick black air. Two more interconnected spaces drew into view. Hanna motioned forward. She recognized the area. It was where she had almost gotten lost. They quickly dashed across the concrete room, zigzagging through a maze of workbenches and tool cabinets. Outside of the crap these caves contained, the facility was nearly indistinguishable — concrete, dark, and large. The only points of spatial orientation were the hallways. Some were well lit; others were completely dark.
Hanna, Russell, and Dimitri spun a corner and found themselves dashing across another pump room. The stairwell that led to the upper office levels slowly drew into view through a layer of pipework. The sight was relieving to Hanna. Despite the trek, they managed to find the way they had come in.
Russell stopped abruptly. Hanna rammed into his back like a small car rear-ending a semi. She could feel her insides shift as the impact of girth and sweat smacked her in the face. Dimitri skidded to a halt, nearly falling to his ass.
Hanna wanted to yell at Russell, but she knew better. Their footsteps were already alarming enough.
Russell’s unwavering attention was locked on something. He shone his flashlight forward, scanning around the darkness like a lighthouse during a storm.
Hanna tracked Russell’s gaze along with him. What the hell is he looking at?
Dimitri looked around in a frenzy. “What are we doing?” said Dimitri in a gruff whisper.
Russell remained silent for a beat, and then he rolled out a long, heavy breath as he stepped forward.
“What are you doing?” sighed Hanna.
Russell kept walking. Hanna and Dimitri slowly followed behind. Russell’s long, winded breath was almost an arrow pointing toward something. Dimitri shoved past Hanna and moved up next to Russell. His eyes grew wide as he took notice of what the older man was fixed on. Hanna shone her light forward, joining Russell’s beam. They slowly revealed what appeared to be a large chamber spread out across a vast open area near the end of the hallway. Several metal drum-shaped containers occupied the dark space like some type of fish hatchery.
Russell slowly approached the area, taking in the magnitude of the strange equipment. What the hell are these things? There must have been fifty tanks or so. He slowly approached one of the units and looked down over the top. Inside, the tanks were filled like bathtubs with a dark liquid substance.
“What the hell is this?” he muttered.
Hanna quickly approached from behind Russell to get a better look for herself. There was something troubling about the setup. Sophisticated machines were hooked to the tanks, which appeared to be extracting the liquid through various pumps and tubes.
“What is inside there?” Hanna muttered from the side of her face.
She stepped up onto a small metal platform to give herself more leverage. She bent past Russell, who was still trying to figure out what he was looking at. Hanna shone her flashlight into the tank. This allowed a glimpse of what was under the surface. Her face slowly morphed to trepidation as the image of a human body revealed itself through the pool of murky liquid. The body was a young woman. She resembled SP Martinez. Her naked and still body floated in the liquid as if in a hibernated state.
Hanna and Russell stepped back in shock, and they quickly backed toward Dimitri. However, Dimitri’s attention was captivated elsewhere. Off in the distance, the clamor of an approaching hostile had him razor focused down the long corridor.
The commotion sounded like an animal. It was bearlike. More aggressive. It bawled out from a long distance. It was clearly agitated — wherever it was. All they knew was that it was closing in on them like a speeding car.
Dimitri grabbed Hanna’s arm and pulled her into another hallway. Russell was a few feet behind, and he was trying to keep up. His knees were threatening to snap from their sockets. He couldn’t help but think he should have taken better care of himself throughout the years. Perhaps it would have paid off someday — like when monsters were chasing him.
The trio ping-ponged through a narrow hallway corridor. Hanna was sandwiched between the men. She fought to keep her balance as the group wrestled through a double doorway. Russell glanced back at the hallway behind him. He drifted into Hanna’s lane, running her into the cinder-block wall. She ricocheted off his shoulder and plummeted to the floor. Her flashlight kicked out from underneath her body and rolled in front of her. She fell to her stomach and looked up. All she could see were Dimitri’s and Russell’s asses racing away in the opposite direction. She quickly jumped to her feet, scooping the flashlight from the floor and racing off. The lingering outlines of the men started to vanish into the darkness. Those fuckers! She gritted her teeth. She flashed a quick look back down the hallway behind her. She couldn’t see anything, but she felt something approaching from behind.
Dimitri raced up a short set of steps and into the large warehouse area Gail had crossed moments before. Russell was within an arm’s length of the Russian. The brightness of the room spilled out into the darkness, offering hope of escape.
Through the windows of the laboratory, Pierce noticed their arrival. He dashed toward the hallway outside the lab and faced off with the men as they arrived on the outside. Dimitri and Russell crashed into the door like football players making a tackle. They hadn’t expected it to be locked.
The door didn’t budge against the impact, and neither did Pierce. He stared back at them with an emotionless gaze.
Dimitri shook the handle again. He was shocked by the man’s audacity. “Open the door!” he shouted.
Pierce stood in silence.
This motherfucker! Outrage overtook Dimitri. “Open the fucking door!” he continued with a punch into the glass.
Pierce stepped back. This only inflamed their anger further. Russell used his shoulder as a battering ram and impacted the door again. “Open the goddamned door, Sergeant! Now!” he demanded.
Pierce remained planted where he stood.
Dimitri was out of options. He aimed the gun toward Pierce through the glass. The message was clear. Dimitri would sacrifice them all over Pierce’s insolence.
He wouldn’t, Pierce thought.
Dimitri’s face said otherwise. He lifted the gun to Pierce’s face. His eyes beamed with a murderous glare. It was enough to convince Pierce. He surrendered and slowly opened the door. Dimitri shoved the door forward, knocking Pierce back several feet. Russell barraged inward after Dimitri.