“I’d planned on Jeff getting us a ship. How do we move this many?” I asked, hoping someone had a better idea than I did.
“First we see how many we’re talking about,” Magnus whispered, getting a dirty look from Leslie. He ignored it. “A place of this importance might very well have a ship parked out back.”
The entry was dim; even the backup emergency lights had expended their battery charges. There was an old bulletin board on the wall, half empty, and a depressing dirt-covered entry mat.
“Where the hell are the guards?” Magnus asked.
“If they’re still here, they aren’t doing a very good job of keeping anyone out. Hopefully, they did a better one of keeping them in.” I got a glare from Leslie. “I didn’t mean it like that. We’re going to find anyone left and get them out of here.”
The door closed behind us, clicking ominously. There was finality to the sound in the otherwise silent entryway. Mary jumped, smiling nervously in my direction.
The mud room, as I thought of it, had two more doors leading into a hallway we could see through the metal-lined glass. Leslie moved ahead, impatient to find her people. I expected the push lever to stop firm, keeping us from entering, but it moved, the door opening easily.
Leslie started forward, but Terrance reached an arm out to slow her. “It’s not going to do us any good to run in with guns blazing and get ourselves killed. We need to scope it out first.” She pulled away from him but heeded his advice, falling back and letting Magnus take the lead.
Magnus looked like he’d done this a thousand times, so we followed him, moving as a unit down the hall, keeping close to the wall as we did so. We passed a vacant reception desk; an old boxy computer monitor sat there, a reminder of the past. If I didn’t know better, I would have said Jeff had been pulling our chain the whole time. He’d sent us to the wrong prison.
Our LEDs illuminated the way, beams jostling up and down on the walls as we moved, shadow figures dancing in our wake.
“I hear something,” Mary said, and Magnus stopped, then held a finger in the air. We all stopped, and my heart thumped in my eardrums.
There was a faint noise coming from down the hall. It wasn’t much, and I couldn’t place what the sound was, but someone was inside the prison. We moved along, the tension thickening with each step. The clinking noise grew louder every ten seconds, and in a minute, we were past all of the offices at the front of the building. Doctor’s office, warden’s office, staff change room, lunchroom – all showing signs of recent use.
“They’ve abandoned it,” I said.
“Someone’s still here,” Mary replied. The next set of doors led us to a guard station, and a large metal door stood between us and the wing of prison cells.
“Give it a try, Leslie. You have the magic touch.” Magnus moved out of the way, making room for the smaller hybrid woman. She tugged at it, but it didn’t budge.
“Locked,” she said.
“The keys have to be around here somewhere.” Magnus started to rifle through drawers.
We all set to different parts of the room, sifting through paperwork and desks. I found an assortment of poker chips, half-full flasks that sloshed as I slid them out of the way, and a couple of erotic Russian magazines that looked like they were from the eighties. No keys anywhere to be found.
Jingling metal rang from the other side of the room, and Terrance looked pleased with himself, like he’d just won a prize on a game show.
“What’s behind door number one?” I whispered in a low voice.
“What?” Mary asked.
I just shook my head, waiting while Terrance inserted the metal key and turned it. With a click, it unlocked, and he pulled on the bars. They slid open, and Terrance walked through the opening.
“Stop where you are!” a panicked voice called from behind us.
I spun, pulse rifle ready to fire. Slate’s training took over again, and my finger settled on the trigger ever-so-lightly as I gauged my target.
A haggard man approached us, his face red with exertion. He was holding a revolver, and an old one by the looks of it. A white beard covered most of his face and neck. I almost fired, but there was something in his eyes that made me lift my finger off the trigger.
“Don’t let them out!” he yelled, panting as he came in the room.
“What happened here?” I asked, looking around the disheveled guard’s room.
“They all left. When those damned aliens started arriving, everyone left. Said it wasn’t their job to babysit and get killed in the process,” the man said.
“So the Bhlat came, you all found out, and assumed they would come for the hybrids, killing you in their wake?” Mary asked, her voice taking on a calming tone.
He nodded. “Something like that.”
“How long ago was this?” she asked.
“About three months now.”
“Then why are you still here?” I asked.
“Someone had to keep the animals penned up after what they did to us. We heard the stories of them being the masterminds behind the Event and all. Then killing those people, Dean and Mary and whatnot. Way I figured it, if the aliens came for them, I’d be spared for keeping them safe and in one place.” He shuffled on his feet. From his perspective, he was doing something honorable, and it was self-preservation at the same time.
“Just put down your gun. We’ll explain everything,” Mary said.
He flinched, his gaze darting from face to face, and for the first time, he saw Leslie and Terrance.
“You. How did you get out?” He raised his revolver, shakily pointing at Terrance, who had stepped in front of Leslie.
“They’re with us,” I said. I glanced over at Mary. “You thought Dean and Mary were killed by the hybrids? I have news for you: you’re looking at us.”
He looked from my face to hers, and back again. “That’s impossible. You’re too young to be. You don’t look a day over thirty-five.”
“It’s the truth. That big man…” I pointed to Magnus. “…is Magnus.” I lifted my chest, putting on a bravado this man might buy in to. “You’re looking at three of the Heroes of Earth. What vessel were you on?” I asked, using my old trick.
“That doesn’t matter anymore. We’re all doomed anyway.” His shoulders slumped, and his gaze lowered to the floor for a moment. Mary went for him, racing to him with her shoulder ready to plow into his, but he spun with far more agility than I would have guessed. Mary went past him, her momentum too much to slow, and he turned with his gun pointed at her.
A red beam lashed out from behind me, striking him in the back just as his gun went off. He went down in a heap and stumbled onto Mary.
I rushed forward, rolling the man off of my fiancée, careless of his condition. She was all that mattered. My throat went dry, and I said her name in a croak, seeing blood on her uniform. Her eyes opened and she grimaced.
“Fast for a skinny old guy,” she said, feeling her abdomen and chest. “It’s his blood. Lucky for me, he’s a poor shot.”
“We didn’t have to kill him,” I said, helping Mary up.
“You want to let that raving lunatic walk around with a gun?” Leslie asked. She was already going for the opening in the bars. “We don’t have time for this.”
The hybrids took the lead, Magnus close behind them. He took a quick look back at the body on the floor and shook his head. “What a waste,” he muttered, and kept moving.
Another body. But given the choice, it was going to be a stranger on the ground instead of my beautiful Mary. I didn’t even ask which one shot him. It wasn’t important.
I grabbed his gun and tucked it away into one of the half-full desk drawers and looked to his belt for a keyring. A guy like this would always keep the keys to the cells close at hand, and from the looks of this place, automation wasn’t in the budget. I found the ring in his pocket but tied to his belt on a leather strap. Pulling out a knife from my boot, I cut the hide and took the keys.