“Hey, at least it’s not white.”
“Okay.” Alison looked at them. “Ready?”
The other two nodded. Suddenly back down the hall they heard the gunfire stop. That was all the incentive they needed. “Stay low!” Alison whispered over her shoulder and ran toward the hedge. All three stayed close and reaching the hedge they dropped to the ground behind it. They slowly peered up over it and could see more of the parking lot and the road to the main lot. Still no sign of movement.
“C’mon!” she said and ran, bending down as far as she could to stay below the top of the hedge. Chris and Lee followed behind.
Less than ten seconds later, they were ducking behind one of the larger trees in the aquarium’s outdoor area. Still seeing no one behind them they ran for the dark structure near the edge of the property. The large shed, hidden behind the trees, was used by the gardeners and various grounds people who maintained the exterior of the property. They quickly tried the main door which was locked. They spread out and circled it. Both windows on each side were also locked. Alison looked around for another place to run when she heard the smashing of one of the windows. She turned around to see Lee holding a large rock. He held a finger over his lips and then proceeded to clear the rest of the glass by running the rock around the inside edge of the frame. Alison looked around and ran a few feet to a small banana tree. She pulled off two of its giant thick leaves and draped them over the window edge. Using them for protection, Chris and Lee lifted her up and in through the window. Moments later, Lee followed her in and Chris tumbled in last. As an afterthought, Alison kicked the broken glass out of view and leaned a few long handled tools up against the open window.
A few minutes later, two of the soldiers burst out through the maintenance corridor looking for them. They slowly scanned the grounds and spread out with their guns up and pressed into their shoulders. One headed past the outside tank and toward the other end of the building. The other silently trotted across the small parking lot to a long hedge. He jumped over and panned his rifle across the picnic area. He followed the hedge looking left and right until he came to the end. To his right, a small road led back to the main entrance and split in two after passing a small walkway running up to the same double doors and hallway that his other team members had charged through earlier. He turned back and looked at a group of large trees. Behind it, he could see the edge of a low hanging roof.
He moved quietly through the trees and found the large shed which the roof was attached to. He very carefully stepped around each corner, ready to fire at any moment. When he found no one hiding around the outside, he tried the door. He then peered back around the left corner and noticed a broken window on the west side. Unable to see anything inside, he flipped on the LED light at the end of this barrel and bathed the entire inside of the shed with the bright beam.
He scanned back and forth, seeing a wall of tools, dozens of sacks of fertilizers and compost on the back wall, and a giant lawnmower on the opposite side. Behind the lawnmower were a couple small rusted gasoline tanks and in the middle were countless buckets and hoses all stacked neatly in place. Suddenly a voice sounded over the headset wrapped tightly around his ear. “No, no sign of them yet,” he said, stepping back from the window to listen. “I think they made a run for it. They can’t be more than a half mile away. We can still get ‘em.” He listened again and nodded. “Okay heading back.” The soldier took one last look at the window and, not seeing any glass on the floor and the tools leaning against it, decided it had been broken for a while. He turned and quickly ran back toward the building. When he got close, the rest of the team emerged and all ran smoothly toward the beach. After two trips to retrieve the bodies of their team members, they pulled three black zodiac boats out of the bushes and dragged them back down the sand and into the water. Within seconds they had the engines started, their gear aboard, and had disappeared into the darkness.
It was over thirty minutes before Alison peeked out from under one of the heavy compost sacks. With her face smeared with dirt, she looked slowly out and toward the window. A small amount of light shone through from the tiny gibbous moon overhead creating a silhouette around the trees and bushes rustling outside in the wind. She half slid and half pulled herself out from the small gap left between the bags and the wall, and looked around quietly. They had not heard anything since what sounded like boats speeding off in the ocean, but they were afraid that one or two might have stayed back in hopes of flushing them out.
Alison peered out the window and then walked to the other side and looked through the dirty glass. “I think they’re gone,” she whispered to Chris and Lee. A few seconds later, they both wiggled out, covered in dirt themselves.
They looked through the windows to double check. Alison was shaking. “Oh my god they killed them! They killed them all!”
Lee tried to calm her. “We don’t know that for sure, Alison.”
“No?” she said yelling under her breath. “What the hell do you call it when everyone goes in but only one side comes back out?! My god they killed them — Clay, Caesare, and their friend.” She suddenly gasped. “They killed Frank!”
Chris was looking out the window and then ran back to the other side. “We’ve got to do something!”
Alison grew quiet. Her eye welled up as she absorbed the full weight of what had happened. “They died for us.” she said, looking at Chris then Lee. Her voice began to tremble. “Clay and the others died, so we could get out.”
All three of them sat in the shed thinking about what she had just said.
Chris sighed and slumped back into the seat of the lawnmower. “I think we’d better call the police.”
“I don’t know,” Alison said, suddenly shaking her head. “Is it just me or did those guys look like government?”
Lee nodded. “Looked like it to me.”
“Then can the police even protect us?” she asked them. “What if we call the police, and they’ve been told ‘shoot to kill’ or something? I mean we saw the whole thing in there!”
“Are you kidding?” exclaimed Chris. “The cops are the only chance we have.”
Alison and Lee looked at each but remained silent.
“What the hell is wrong with you guys? Everyone in there is dead, including Frank! We could be in there lying right next to him!”
Alison raised her voice slowly. “Well, that doesn’t mean we want to give them a reason to come back either.”
“Oh okay great,” whined Chris, “let’s just hide out here then! You know, put in a change of address-”
“Knock it off!” Alison snapped, cutting him off.
“I don’t think they’re going to let us live.” Lee said quietly. He looked at both of them. “Alison’s right, we did see everything. We also know why they took Dirk and Sally. We know about the city or ring or whatever it is, and now we’re witnesses. We know too much and they have to cover it up. That’s how they do it.”
Alison nodded. “And for whatever reason, they had to leave quickly, but it doesn’t mean they won’t be back. Maybe they let things die down and wait for us to come home.” She sat quietly. “Unless,” she said suddenly looking up.
“Unless what?”
“Unless we stop Dirk and Sally,” she said.
“Stop them?” asked Chris.
“Stop them from delivering the bomb.” Alison said standing up. “That’s why John said they had come here. They were trying to stop it.”
“Yeah,” Lee said in agreement. “I say we stop it and then call the press and tell them everything.”