She emerged from the fog with the rifle in hand. Gant regarded her with a look of outright shock.
"Doctor … what the hell?"
"Here, you'll need this. You're in danger here."
"I … I am in danger? What about you?"
The public address system clicked on and announced in an automated voice, "SPECIMEN CONTAINMENT LOCKDOWN IN THIRTY SECONDS. ALL PERSONNEL EVACUATE SECTOR A AND SECTOR B. SECURITY ALERT LEVEL ONE. CONTAINMENT TEAMS TO SECTORS A AND B."
She could guess what that meant and apparently so did the major. He grabbed her shoulder and led them out the rear door into a wide hall. Instead of running off he stopped, handed the rifle back to her, and said, "Wait a second."
To her surprise he returned inside the cloud-filled room, sized up a big metal cabinet, then put his shoulder into it and pushed, inching it slowly out of the room and toward the hall … but then stopping right in the doorway.
"There, that might do the trick."
"Do what?" she asked.
"Come on, we still have a lot of work to do."
Five seconds later the bulkhead descended so as to contain the emergency inside the specimen room. That bulkhead smashed into the metal cabinet, nearly crushing it. But not completely. The bulkhead jammed, leaving four feet of open space between the floor and containment.
The maintenance room door opened and the Englishwoman known on base as Pearl stepped out, adjusting the top buttons on her blouse as she exited. Behind her came a man of Indian descent who hopped on one foot as he struggled to put on his second shoe.
"That's the main alarm," Pearl said. "Christ that had better not be that stupid girl. Come with me. Let's make sure those idiots took her over to S.C. like I told them."
Her lover followed a pace behind as Pearl emerged from the side hall and returned to the chamber where she had successfully tested the blocking agent on that stupid little American girl. Of course she should have stayed with her lab rat but it had been two days since her last rendezvous in the maintenance room. Besides, the thrill of such a monumental success was rather exciting and she did not get excited all that often.
She sensed commotion up ahead, which only gave her more incentive to make sure those bozos were not fucking up her work.
I swear, if I catch them in there still running a train on this chick like they did that Japanese girl a few weeks ago, I'll feed them to the specimens.
Two soldiers struggling to don hazmat gear jogged by, heading in the opposite direction. The announcement system had broadcast a message of some kind, but she had been in the closet with her mind — and mouth — occupied, so she had not clearly heard. Pearl began to fear that something might be seriously wrong.
Nonetheless, she concerned herself first with her area of responsibility. She had built in a half hour between the end of the test and the transfer to Specimen Containment, just enough time for a quickie in the closet. Monroe was off-site and Waters was busy with his own tests. If that bozo assistant had listened carefully, everyone would have been happy: she would have enjoyed her rendezvous, the three men could have played around with the girl, and they would all have gotten credit for a successful test.
Now, if Waters had come looking for the lab rat early or if the men had taken far too much time, then things could have gone south. Still, the successful results would probably be enough to placate the doctor.
As she entered the outer room of the test chamber she became more convinced that her assistant and the soldiers were enjoying their captive a little too much. It would not be the first time for such a thing.
Pearl walked directly to the isolation chamber door in a fit of growing anger and swung it open, ready to surprise and scare the hell out of the perverts. Instead she was the one surprised and scared.
The thee three men were in the chamber, along with the units that should have been subdued by the PX canisters. Instead, it had been the guards and the technician who had been subdued. They now saw the world through pasty white eyes.
A mob of arms reached out. She screamed and ran. The mass of undead followed at a brisk pace.
24
Video feeds coming from Specimen Containment showed a thick fog obscuring the entire area. The two guards in the security control booth tried to understand what was going on.
They had witnessed the female intruder open the cell doors, resulting in the automatic flood of PX, certainly stopping any mass breakout of infected units. Nonetheless, protocol had required an immediate isolation of the room. The guards had pulled two big levers, one for each of the specimen room's access points, sealing the place tight.
Unfortunately, the heavy concentration of PX gas had created a thick smoke, filling the room to the point of smothering the cameras. That meant there was no way to confirm the situation was under control, although both men found it a little unnerving that there had been no communication from the security detail or Dr. Waters.
The Asian guard spoke to the European in choppy English: "I think we should activate full containment protocols, at least until we hear from Waters."
The European security officer nibbled on the tip of his thumb. His eyes were glued so tight to the foggy Specimen Containment video feed that he did not bother with the other monitors. If he squinted he thought he could catch a hint of movement underneath that white veil, but perhaps it was only his imagination.
"No … not yet. Monroe is due back soon and Waters will have our asses if we overreact and make it look like the place has gone to shit. The neutralizing agent deployed and the containment doors are down. We're good."
He then squinted a little more. He thought for sure he had seen a shadow stumbling around inside the white cloud, but perhaps it was just his imagination.
Major Gant led Dr. Stacy along one of the main hallways. He again noted that the place was divided into sections with big bulkheads waiting to drop. Their function was something akin to the compartment doors on a submarine designed to contain flooding. In this case, flooding meant a tide of walking corpses infected with a parasitic fungus.
The corridor curved to the right. As they followed that curve they came upon a technician wheeling a cart of computer and medical equipment. The middle-aged man threw his arms into the air and shouted, "Don't shoot me!" at the sight of the armed intruders.
Gant raised his weapon and took aim but Stacy put her hand his arm and asked, "Where is the exit?"
Before he could answer Gant said, "I don't give a damn about the exit."
Several sharp reports marked the start of a firefight. A soldier wearing a black military tunic appeared thirty feet ahead, firing around the startled technician in an effort to kill the intruders.
Major Gant held the AKM with one hand and shot wildly while using his other hand to shove Annabelle toward the outer wall, where the worker had abandoned his cart of equipment. It provided the only cover in the wide hall.
She slid to the ground with her back against the wall. Gant dropped to a knee beside her and took better aim, forcing the soldier to retreat a step around the curve of the corridor.
Meanwhile the technician ran in a serpentine fashion past Gant, back the way he and Stacy had just come.
"What do you mean you don't care about the exit?" She asked during a two-second lull in the gunfire. "I want to get the hell out of here."
"Getting out of here won't make a difference," he snarled as he raised the rifle and fired again. "Where are we? Can you fly a plane? There is no way for us to escape. But even if I could—" an enemy bullet hit the cart just above his head, shattering a computer of some kind. "But even if I could, I am not walking away from here. I intend to burn this place down."