A World Reborn: The First Outbreak (17 page)

Melissa tried to put her full weight on her
bitten leg, but pain flared and she stumbled, knocking into the wall on her
right, before hobbling off as hastily as the injury would allow. When she had
travelled some distance down the corridor she risked a glance behind her and
saw the two infected hotel staff gaining on her, their speed motivated by the
blood trail Melissa was leaving behind her. Focusing ahead, Melissa, desperate
to increase the gap between them, quickened her pace and prayed her awkward
gait would not cause her to falter and fall. A second peek over her shoulder
told her that even though she was bleeding and in pain, she was now thankfully
faster than the pursuing infected. At least, she was so far. How long that
would last, Melissa thought pessimistically, she couldn’t be sure. She limped
on, fighting through the pain while searching for an avenue of escape. She
looked ahead and saw a door at the end of the corridor. From her brief
examination of the casino floor, Melissa was certain it would lead to a
separate section of the utility corridors that eventually ran behind the
cashier’s desk. It also seemed likely that somewhere along this corridor was
the elevator leading to the vault and the security room where Roy and Donna
were hiding. There was a split off the corridor to Melissa’s right, which she
looked cautiously down, not sure what she’d find there. There were no infected
and she saw through an open door some kind of lounge, perhaps a staff room. She
had a split second to decide which way to go. For all she knew there were more
of the infected beyond the door in the corridor ahead, but if she entered the
lounge she might be trapped. She saw furniture that might serve as a kind of
barricade, and then the door to the next section of utility corridors burst
open and a pair of Reborn soldiers entered. They raised their weapons and
Melissa instinctively dived into the offshoot, where she scrambled hastily to
her feet.  She limped as fast as she could into the staff room, hearing as she
did so an eruption of gunfire behind her. She saw no impacts around her and
didn’t feel as if she’d been shot, so, once within the room, she slammed the
door shut and quickly scanned it for something to wedge it with.

On her right, was a kitchenette area with a
round white table that had a number of cheap looking, wooden chairs arranged
around it. She hobbled to one of the chairs, grabbed it and returned to wedge
it up under the door handle. It wouldn’t hold forever, but it would work for
now. She looked around the rest of the room. There was a leather sofa on one
side, opposite a television set, and a few soft leather chairs scattered about.
However, there was no other way out, not a window, a convenient air vent or another
door leading to salvation. She was trapped and the only way out was back the
way she had come. Melissa decided to make the best of the situation, and going
over to one of the leather chairs, began dragging it towards the door. It was
heavy and difficult, but she managed to get it closer. She removed the wooden
chair and slid the heavier, leather bound chair into position. It would provide
a better barricade, but it didn’t really help her situation. Melissa was
trapped. She had failed Roy, Donna and the other hostages. Added to which she
had been bitten, and for all she knew was about to turn into one of the
infected. Dejectedly, Melissa moved over to the sofa and slumped down onto it.
She put the gun beside her and reached for the radio. If this was the end, she
at least wanted Roy to know what had gone wrong, so that if he somehow made it
out alive, he could tell the world that she’d tried to do the right thing.

Roy watched silently as Donna worked on the
computer. She was using command prompts, back doors and other things that Roy
didn’t completely comprehend as she slowly and methodically dug a way into the
system through the malware. How close she was to getting control of the doors
Roy couldn’t tell, but he hoped it was closer than the desperate expression on
her face suggested.

“Roy?” He heard Melissa’s voice over the
radio he clutched in his hand, ready for whenever Melissa contacted him. He
quickly raised it to his mouth and began to warn her.

“Melissa! They’ve got a radio, they can
hear everything we’re saying, don’t tell me where you are or what you’re
doing!” He barked, making Donna jump.

“It doesn’t matter, Roy. I screwed up.” She
responded, the sound of defeat heavy in her voice.

“What’s wrong, Melissa?” Roy solicited,
fear rising in his gut.

“I tried to help you and the hostages. I
really did.”

“What happened?”

“One of them bit me.” Melissa informed him.
Roy held the radio silently in his hand and swallowed hard.

“How long ago?”

“A few minutes at most. It’s hard to tell
really, quite a lot’s happened in a short space of time. I’m trapped in—”
Melissa started but Roy interrupted her.

“Don’t say, they’ll overhear and come for
you.”

“They already know. I’m in... I guess you’d
call it a staff lounge; off the utility corridor near the private gambling
rooms. I had to use my gun and I think that attracted the attention of some
Reborn on their way to you.”

“I’m sorry, Melissa.”

“Yeah, me too. The ones you saw get bitten,
did it take them long to turn?”

“No. Even a bite on the arm from an
infected turned someone immediately.”

“Well, I guess the good news is I’m immune
to the infection. Lucky me! Now, if I get cornered by them, I’ll get eaten
alive instead.” Melissa commented dryly. Roy couldn’t help but smile.

“As you said, lucky you.” Roy responded,
hoping that maybe contributing to her dry humour would help bolster her morale,
but her voice sounded just as dejected as it had moments earlier when she spoke
again.

“I’ve not heard any gunshots in a little
while, so I guess that means they’ve gotten the infected under control. There’s
no way they didn’t see me though, so I guess I’m next. I’m sorry, Roy. I really
wanted to do something good, to help you and the others. This is just like what
happened in Africa.” She concluded cryptically.

“You saved people over there. We all heard
about it.”

“There’s more to it than what they reported.”

“You’ll have to tell me about it sometime.”
Roy declared.

“I doubt there’ll be a sometime, Roy.”
Melissa refuted.

“Don’t you go giving up on me, Melissa.
Don’t you dare! You’ve still got that gun, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you take that and you put a bullet in
the first asshole that comes through the door. And a bullet in the second...and
the third if need be. Then you take his or her gun and you keep on fighting
until there’s no one left to fight. I need you to be strong, I need you to
focus and I need you to help me!”

“Is that an order, Chief of Security Snipes?”
Melissa asked him mockingly.

“Damn straight.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can do.” Melissa
returned. “If I don’t make it, and you do, Roy—” Melissa started, but a loud
sound like an explosion silenced her. She was still holding the talk button and
Roy heard gunfire before the radio went dead.

“Melissa?” Roy demanded desperately.

Silence answered him.

“Melissa?” Roy roared into the radio, but a
ghostly silence was his only response. Roy held the radio expectant and
hopeful. He remained like that for a few moments longer, unable to comprehend
that he’d just heard the woman who was risking her life to try and save them
all, die.

Chapter Seven

Roy allowed the hand holding the radio to
slowly fall to his side, while staring blankly at the barricade in front of the
door. He knew she’d made her own choice and knew he’d told her to go and hide
somewhere until the police breached the casino. He also knew, in a clinical
sense, it wasn’t his fault, but guilt over Melissa’s death ate at his heart and
soul, and a buried but not forgotten memory of why he’d retired returned to the
forefront of his mind. He hadn’t just retired because his wife had nagged him
into it, as he told everyone. And now, prompted by Melissa’s death, he thought
of his old partner and the night he had gone around the back of a convenience
store that was being robbed. It wasn’t exactly standard procedure, but the plan
was tactically sound. Roy would push the armed assailant into retreating out of
the back door and Martin, Roy’s partner, would take him down. They’d done it
before, they knew it worked. But something went wrong and Martin caught a
sawn-off shotgun blast to the face. They found the thief about a week later,
dead from an overdose of heroin he’d probably bought with the cash he’d stolen.
Roy had been cleared of any misconduct and they’d told him to take some time
off to get his head back in the game, but the truth was Roy couldn’t shake off
a feeling of responsibility for Martin’s death. They’d decided who was going
around the back with rock, paper, scissors and Roy had won, electing to go in
the front. Roy had made the choice. Roy had caused his death. He couldn’t
escape that thought. A couple of years had passed since he’d retired and he was
beginning to learn to forgive himself. But now, not only were almost all of his
security team dead, he’d involved a young woman, and now she too was dead.

Roy thought about this, staring at the
barricade, trying to picture Melissa’s last, horrific moments, when he realized
that Donna was talking to him.

“What?” Roy asked, turning his head to look
in her direction.

“It wasn’t your fault.” Donna tried to
reassure him, but Roy had heard it all before.

“Have you gotten into the door lock system
yet, Donna?” He demanded curtly, dismissing her sympathetic gesture, as he
badly needed to concentrate on the job in hand. There would be time for
self-recrimination later, in private.

“A few more minutes and I think I’ll be
able to add your access card back on the accepted list before I get shut out of
the system.”

“Will you be able to get back into the
system after getting shut out?”

“Maybe, maybe not. Either way, even if I could,
it’ll take just as long if not longer to get back to this point. But the good
news is that your card should work anywhere an access card is required.”

“Finish it, so I can get this door open.”

“What are we going to do then, Roy?”

Roy shot her a look and then shook his
head.

“We’re not doing anything. I’m going out
there and I’m going to finish what Melissa started.”

“Roy!” Donna started a horrified expression
on her face.

“Damn it, Donna, just do what I’ve told you
to do!” He barked. Donna fell silent and stared at him for a moment. She
considered defying his order, but there was a strange intensity in his dark eyes
that scared her a little. Donna returned to typing on the keyboard. Roy put the
radio down on the desk, just as the phone rang. Roy picked it up immediately.

“Yes?” Roy questioned.

“Snipes, it’s Esperico. We’ve verified who
you are and I want to inform you what’s going on.”

“Well, before you lay out too many plans,
remember they’re listening in.”

“I understand that, and I’m directing this
to them too. We’ve got the building surrounded. There’s no way out. We have a
team from the Centre for Disease Control en route, so your biological agent
will not be allowed to spread outside this building. You have fifteen minutes
to surrender yourselves or we’ll be forced to take action.” Esperico declared.
It sounded practiced and rehearsed and Roy felt certain they had had a
negotiator of some kind writing the speech. Roy doubted it would be effective,
but before he could offer any rebuttal, an English woman’s voice came on the
line. For a half a second Roy thought it was Melissa. The realisation that it
wasn’t hurt him like a shot to the gut.

“Mister Esperico, I am the Ancillary and I
represent the Teacher of the Reborn in this matter. We have infected several
thousand people with a biological agent, as you call it, which will render them
uncooperative to your demands. If you breach, you will be forced to fight your
way through them, and you’ll be forced to kill them. Do you really want the
morning news reporting that the Las Vegas police were involved in a massacre at
the Seraphim Hotel and Casino? I think not. Furthermore, we have dozens of
uninfected hostages. Any attempt to breach and we will execute them, one every
second until we hear you are retreating. No matter what way you try it, Mister
Esperico, there will be blood on your hands. Are you ready for that?”

“The blood won’t be on my hands, ma’am,
it’ll join the blood already on yours.” Esperico shot back.

“That’s a matter of perspective, Mister
Esperico. We’re building a new world, and to do that we are first required to
tear down the old one. But, semantics aside, the fact remains that your
superiors will never authorise an action against a building with this many
hostages or with people infected with an unknown pathogen without even an
attempt at a dialogue with us.”

“We don’t negotiate.”

“Of course you don’t. And you won’t need
to. Stay where you are for a little while longer and the situation will resolve
itself.” The Ancillary assured him.

“Yeah, and how will that happen?” Esperico
asked.

The phone went silent for a few moments and
Roy wondered whether either of them was still on the line.

“I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you,
Mister Esperico. We’ll be in touch.” The Ancillary answered, and then clicked
the line off. The phone was dead and Roy wondered exactly what would happen
next.

 “What’s happening, Roy?” Donna wanted to
know.

“Nothing good. Can I get that door open
now?”

Roy began un-barricading the door, undoing
all the work they’d done earlier. He managed to move enough of it so that he’d
be able to slip out once Donna had added his access card to the approved list,
and he could use it to open the door again. Once he’d finished, he stood to one
side, ready to move as soon as Donna gave the go ahead. When she looked at him,
he knew she was ready because there was a deep sadness in her eyes. He guessed
she feared when he went out of the door she’d never see him again.

“Do it, Donna.” Roy growled, and then
softened a little upon seeing the wounded look on her face. “I’ll be back,
don’t worry.”

“I don’t believe that.” Donna responded
with a catch in her voice.

“I can’t help that. But, I’m your superior
and I’m ordering you to help me to open the door.”

Donna nodded and tapped at the keys for a
few silent minutes. When she looked at Roy she nodded again, prompting Roy to
swipe his card through the protruding panel beside the door. He was relieved
when he heard an audible beep, followed by the light on the side turning green.
The door made a mechanical sound as the mechanism unlocked itself and Roy
seized the handle and opened it quickly just in case it locked again. With one
final, appreciative look towards Donna, Roy stepped out into the corridor which
would lead him to the elevator that would take him up to the ground floor...
and was shocked by who he saw.

“Jim? I thought you were dead!” Roy
exclaimed.

Melissa saw nothing, but felt quite a lot
of pain in her head, specifically behind her eyes, and there was still a
ringing sound in her ears. She opened her eyes slowly, and saw a light
distortion at the edge of her vision. She was still in the lounge, and it
appeared she was sitting on one of the wooden chairs from the kitchenette area.
Melissa’s memory was a little fuzzy, but she remembered them blowing open the
door with some kind of explosive, and recalled firing blindly through the
doorway. They must have used some kind of stun grenade, because she remembered
a loud bang, a blinding flash and then there was nothing. Perhaps they’d rushed
her, knocking her off her feet and out cold. She wasn’t entirely sure how long
she’d been unconscious but now that she was more alert she was aware of the
pain in her leg, but strangely, it wasn’t quite as bad as she remembered.
Melissa carefully raised it and stretched it out, and saw that someone had cut
the leg off her jeans and bandaged the wound. She gently lowered it and tried
to focus more on the room, looking around the distortion in her vision. There
was a soldier with an assault rifle staring impassively at her. His weapon
wasn’t held at the ready; instead he just seemed to be regarding her with a
strange kind of reverence. There was another Reborn soldier by the doorway.
This one had a tablet computer and Melissa wondered if this was the same one
from earlier, the one called Sebastian, or if there was more than one tech
operator in their ranks.

She tried to move her hands and found they
were bound together. She jiggled them a little, felt hard plastic digging into
her wrists, and rightly assumed she was secured by some kind of tie tag.
Melissa tried to stand, but heard a menacing voice order her to stop. She did
so, but her experiment had worked as she had only wanted to know if she was
fastened to the chair in any way. It seemed she wasn’t. It had been a rushed
method of restraining her and Melissa knew she was flexible enough to get her
hands under her body and legs and get them back in front of her; at least she
could if she had the opportunity. Melissa blinked hard, trying to get the
distortion to leave her vision. A few minutes passed and then, in the
fragmented ruins of the doorway, the Ancillary appeared.

“My, my, Melissa Jones, you’ve been quite
busy. I must say, I’m impressed you made it through the infected quite so
easily, with a damaged collar no less. A shame about your bite, but I expect
with the drinking causing a downward spiral, your keen warrior’s edge has
dulled a little since your time in Africa. Overall, however, you were able to
follow the route we hoped you would take quite well, even if you did have a
little help finding it.”

Melissa narrowed her eyes, partially to try
to see the other woman better and partly to express her distaste at the way
this person spoke to her.

“You’re speaking to me as if you know me,
but I’ve never met you before.” Melissa commented.

“Well, I feel as though I know you. The
Teacher and I followed your story very closely. He felt, as did I, that you
were the perfect person to tell the story of this world’s transformation;
especially as you’ve been through quite a transformation yourself. A meek,
polite journalist known for light-hearted stories thrust into Africa and
embroiled in a massive gunfight. It must’ve felt like your big break.”

“Must have.” Melissa replied. This woman
knew a lot about her, but Melissa didn’t want to confirm or deny what she said,
hoping she might learn more by being noncommittal. At the time though, Melissa
privately recalled, she really had felt as though it was her chance to become
known as a serious reporter. Afterwards, she had felt as if it was her undoing.
The Ancillary pulled up a chair and sat opposite Melissa, smiling. The beauty
of the Ancillary was completely beguiling; how someone as perfect as her could
be responsible for so much death Melissa couldn’t fathom.

“May I ask you a question?”

“I’m your captive audience.” Melissa
replied dryly. The Ancillary chuckled politely.

“Did you ever get over the loss of Sanaa?”
The Ancillary asked, her face becoming solemn and concerned. She leaned forward,
as though totally fascinated, as she waited for Melissa’s response. Melissa
hurt deep inside at the mention of Sanaa’s name, but resolutely refused to let
it show. However, she had been unable to disguise the involuntary flicker of
surprise in her eyes upon hearing Sanaa’s name.

“She is... was, someone very special to
me.”

“That’s not an answer, darling.”

“It’s the only one you’re getting.” Melissa
returned sharply.

“Fair enough, I suppose. But if I may pry, why
did you never try to find out if she was involved or not?”

“I did.” Melissa lied defensively, her mind
reeling at the probing questions the Ancillary was asking her.

“Come now, we both know that isn’t true.
The Teacher has a great many contacts throughout the world, and one of them was
in Africa, one town over from where the mine was in operation. We know you
didn’t, and might I add, we also know the extent of her involvement. Wouldn’t
you like to know for certain? I could tell you right now.”

Melissa felt a coldness creeping over her.
She looked at the clear, bright eyes of the Ancillary and looked for malice,
contempt or the evil required to feed the people in the Money Pit to the
infected, but she saw none of these. The Ancillary was looking at her as if she
was a life-long friend and Melissa felt more unsettled than she would have had
she been about to be tortured. She swallowed hard before answering.