All The Beautiful People (A Dread Novel Book 1) (19 page)

CHAPTER 44

Taylor hadn’t been able to fall back to sleep. Fatigue pulled at her eyes as she sat in front of Wade and Dr. Spear, concerns for her own safety aside. The doctor had been shocked when Taylor arrived for her battery of exams earlier. She was surprised when Taylor asked for an audience with her and Wade.

Now it was time for Taylor to explain. She had to put her own wellbeing aside and try to make them understand things she was only starting to comprehend herself.

“Taylor?” Wade sat in a chair to her left. Though the examining room was spacious, Taylor felt confined in the quarters.

“Yes, sorry. I’m sure you both must be concerned with me calling this meeting. While I’m a bit confused with what exactly is going on myself, I need you to hear me out. The fate of this project, the lives inside the Ark, depend on it.”

If Taylor didn’t have their attentions earlier, she did now. Wade and Dr. Spear exchanged wary looks with one another then turned their gaze back to Taylor. Dr. Spear sat on the edge of her seat, her pristine lab coat wrinkling underneath her weight.

“Whatever you gave me in the serum, I think it not only healed me and amplified the light I carry inside, I think it also connected me with those infected by this disease.” Taylor stopped to take in the effect of her words thus far. Her audience was wide-eyed. “The serum changed me. Like Vanidrum found the darkest piece of a human’s soul and amplified it, I think the serum found a way to combat the darkness.”

Taylor was losing them. They looked confused now, struggling to search for meaning in the words Taylor didn’t even understand.

She sighed. “Maybe it will be better if I show you.”

Taylor searched the examining room, her eyes landing on a stethoscope placed on a steel tray full of equipment. With a mind-nudge, she lifted the stethoscope and willed it to float to the middle of the room. When she was sure her display had its desired affects, Taylor placed the tool back on the tray.

Silence pushed its awkward presence into every corner of the room. Wade was clearly shocked. He scratched the underside of his jaw looking uncomfortable. Dr. Spear’s eyes were enormous as she stared at Taylor as though she were some kind of alien.

“And that’s not all,” Taylor said. “I think the serum connected me to the infected, like two sides of a coin. I can hear their voices and see them in my dreams. The reason there has been such little activity against the Ark is because they are massing. As crazy as this may sound, they are preparing for an assault on the compound that will leave this place a tomb. I’ve seen it.”

There, she was done. She would live with anything that happened to her now. Despite the danger to her own wellbeing in which the information divulged placed her, Taylor knew she had done the right thing.

Now as she waited for a response, her body wanted nothing more than to squirm in her seat.

Finally, Wade spoke. “Taylor, you’ve been through more than any one of us.”

Taylor was confused. Wade’s inflection spoke of wonder, but also something else, something darker.

“The serum has obviously granted you a kind of telekinetic ability. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed it.” Wade paused to take a long breath. “For your safety and everyone else’s, I think it’s best we sedate you until we can figure out whether you are a danger to yourself.”

The walls of Taylor’s mouth went dry. Out of all the possible scenarios, this was the worst. “I’m still me, Wade. I’m Taylor Hart. You don’t need to imprison or drug me, we need to be focusing our attention on the defense of the Ark. They’re coming.”

“And you know this because a dream told you?” Dr. Spear’s voice reflected no sarcasm, yet her words were also empty of any reassurance.

“I know this all sounds crazy,” Taylor said. “We now live in a world where darkness has been awoken inside the deepest parts of a person’s heart through help of a drug. Who knows what else is in store for us now? Whatever you decide to do to me, please promise me you’ll take my warning seriously. They are coming.”

Wade nodded.

“You can move things with a thought?” the doctor asked.

“Yes,” Taylor responded. “It’s new to me. I’m not sure how far my powers extend or if they stop at telekinesis.”

“Taylor,” Wade said, his voice low, “I want you to understand I do trust you. I’ll take your warning seriously and relay the information to Jason and Captain Martin. However, even you don’t know what you are capable of. I have a responsibility to these people to do everything I can to keep them safe.” Wade rose from his chair and walked to the door. He stuck his head outside to the hall and exchanged a few words Taylor wasn’t able to make out with the guards.

The next moment two guards followed Wade into the room, their expressions firm. Although they didn’t lift their weapons toward her, Taylor knew that was within their orders if things took a turn for the worst.

Wade exchanged a stern glance with the doctor. “Dr. Spear, if you would sedate Miss Hart?”

Taylor’s pulse quickened. Adrenaline leaked into her system as the fight or flight response kicked in.

“We have to take every precaution, Taylor,” Wade said as Dr. Spear moved hesitantly to a tray with syringes. “Please don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”

Taylor stood from her chair as the guards advanced on her. She had a second to decide what she was going to do. There was no doubt in her mind she could escape. Even without her newfound power, she easily outmatched the four people in the room.

As the first guard grabbed her wrist with a vice-like grip, instinct made Taylor’s decision for her. She would not be taken. She couldn’t allow herself to be drugged and in a cell while the darkness attacked the Ark. Too many people depended on her.

With speed that surprised even her, Taylor struck out with her free palm. Her chop landed between the guard’s Kevlar vest and the chinstrap to his helmet. Her blow met his Adam’s apple with enough impact for him to gag and fall to the floor. The second guard received a kick to the groin that sent him falling to the floor after his partner.

Although neutralizing the guards had taken Taylor a total of three seconds, the time was enough for Doctor Spear to lunge forward with the needle in her hand. Taylor stopped her in midair. With no more than a thought, she tore the needle from the doctor’s hand and redirected the point at her.

With a large swallow, Dr. Spear backed up over the bodies of the fallen guards, her eyes never wavering from the syringe that hovered in the air tracking her movements.

The doctor retraced her steps back until she stood beside Wade once again. Taylor maneuvered the needle until it halted in a position in front of the two of them. “I didn’t want this,” she said. “I’m not your enemy.”

If Wade felt scared, he didn’t show it. Instead he waved a phone in his hand. Sirens blared throughout the building. “It’s over, Taylor,” Wade said, pocketing his phone. “That signal will send every available body to my position within seconds. You can’t win.”

“Win?” Taylor said as she walked to the room’s door. “This was never about winning or losing. It was about saving these people from the attack that’s coming.”

Taylor heard running boots down the hall. Any further conversation would have to wait if she was going to escape. Without another word, she allowed the needle to fall to the exam room floor and broke into a run.

She only made it a few yards down the hall before she heard the shout to halt. Taylor ignored the warning. A window waited for her at the end of the long hall corridor. In a few feet, she would be through the window and outside.

With her escape yards away, Taylor felt two electric currents course through her body. She willed her muscles to move forward but the stun gun was too strong. Taylor fell to the floor unconscious, mere feet from her freedom.

CHAPTER 45

No dreams came to her. Only feelings accompanied her unconscious state, the sensation of doom. Dread feasted on her psyche like a starved vulture gorging itself on a recently dead carcass.

Taylor’s eyes fluttered open. It was becoming a habit for her to wake up in secure white-walled rooms with bright lights set into the ceiling. She could hear voices, something or someone tugging at her wrists and ankles. Slowly, the voices took on identities and then muffled words.

“Taylor? Taylor, can you hear me?”

It was Frank. Taylor opened her eyes fully to see Frank and Cidney working on the restraints holding her to a hospital bed.

“What happened? Where am I?”

“You were stunned,” Frank explained as he released the last restraint holding her to the bed.

“And you were drugged,” Cidney said. “They drugged you really good.”

Recollections of the events leading up to her present state stirred within Taylor. Closely following the return of her memory came the fear for safety for her friends. “You two shouldn’t be here. If Wade finds out you’re helping me, it’s not going to go well for you.”

Cidney scrunched her brow with a forlorn look and said, “You don’t know the half of it.”

“It’s a little too late for that,” Frank said.

“What do you mean?”

Although Taylor asked the question, she had a sick feeling she already knew the answer.

Frank motioned her to sit up as he confirmed the worst. “About an hour ago, Jason and his team picked up a large mass coming toward the Ark. The surveillance drones caught sight of a…” Frank’s voice quivered, “…a gigantic mass of infected. Larger than we’ve seen here, larger than we thought possible in Alaska.”

Taylor put a hand to her head. The anesthesia was wearing off and a lingering headache pulsed behind her eyes.

“The mass of infected already moved past the automatic turrets. Captain Martin and his men retreated in time from the watchtowers. They’re setting up a defense around the compound wall as we speak. Every able-bodied man or woman is assisting with the protection of the base.”

Frank’s voice had gone from stressed to fearful during his short explanation.

Cidney tugged at her sleeve. The girl handed Taylor her boots with a wink. Mind muddled by the sedatives, Taylor realized that she wore the same clothes she had on when she was taken by Wade and his men. Taylor smiled at Cidney and accepted her boots. “How long have I been out?” she asked, tugging on her footwear.

“Only since this morning,” Frank said with the same hint of fear in his voice. “It’s night now.”

“And why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?” Frank asked.

Taylor secured her second boot with a quick jerk of her wrists around the shoelaces. She lifted her eyes to Frank’s and met him with a level stare. “Why are you helping me?”

Frank’s eyes roamed away from Taylor’s as he answered in a harsh croak. “I—don’t know how it’s all connected. I—I think there’s a reason you have your gift of telekinesis. I saw the report sent in by the drones. They are coming by the thousands, maybe more. These walls aren’t going to keep them out, something else has to.”

Frank lifted his eyes to take in Taylor. She knew every word he had said was true. His eyes were a mix of distress and hope. Taylor rose from the bed with an awkward wobble.

A distant popping sound could be heard from outside the facility. Taylor couldn’t help think the noise was similar to the sound of kernels popping in a microwave.

CHAPTER 46

“What is that?” Frank asked, turning to the open door of the lab room.

“It’s gunfire,” Taylor said, making her way to the door.

“Wait!” Cidney screamed. She ran to Taylor and wrapped her arms around Taylor’s legs in a huge hug. “Where are you going?”

It would be easy to continue to walk and ignore the small girl’s request. Maybe the Taylor a few days ago would have, but an unexplainable change was occurring inside her. Taylor knelt down and took Cidney’s cheeks in both her hands. With the background racket of gunfire behind her, she kissed Cidney on the brow.

“I’ll be back. I promise. Stay with Frank.”

Cidney’s eyes pooled with tears. She nodded. “Be safe.”

Taylor released the girl and stood.

“What are you going to do?” Frank asked.

Taylor shrugged. “I don’t know. I do think that the power I have was given to me for a reason. Maybe this is it.”

Taylor turned her back to her two friends and walked into the hall. Frank was right. Wade must have ordered everyone to the outside wall. Every room she passed was vacant, every hall she walked down bare. As she got closer to the front entrance, the sound of gunfire grew. To her trained ears, she started picking out certain weapons. Each firearm had its own voice in a conversation; M4-68s, FN P90s, even Kimber 1911s spoke of their fury in her ears.

Taylor reached the front door. So far she hadn’t seen a soul. She knew that would change once she left the safety of the building. To her right stood a long rack of jackets, all except a few already taken. Taylor reached for a thick charcoal gray coat with a warm lining.

A chill of fear poked at Taylor’s skin as she zipped up the coat. An almost tangible dread pushed against her resolve to leave the lab building and assist. A tiny voice in her mind listed reasons why she shouldn’t help.

You don’t owe them anything. They drugged you and were going to use you as a lab rat. You can still run. There has to be a back exit somewhere. You can take Cidney and Frank. Running is the smartest option. Even if you do somehow succeed in fighting off the attack, what then? Do you think Wade is going to forget what you can do? Do you think there can be any absolution for you in his eyes?

Taylor set her jaw and forced the voice from her mind. If she was going to have any chance at all, she needed to be focused. She could only control her own actions. If she made it to see the following morning, the rest would have to be sorted out then.

Taylor braced herself and pushed open the door leading to the mayhem outside. The scene took her breath away.