Designated (Book 1): Designated Infected (8 page)

Slipping left Kingsley's torch flickered across the
corner, the warm amber glow of his torch flowing sedately from the
mouth of the tunnel as he patiently waited for the others to catch
up.

Bolton slid past him and quietly sunk to his knee, rifle
pulled tightly to his shoulder as he tracked his torch back and forth
slowly across the tunnel, eyes boring into the darkened passage
searching for anything, everything, and nothing all at once.

Rawlings trickled in behind Kingsley falling to a knee
as he faced back out the tunnel; Bolton motioned over his shoulder
with his left hand as he braced his rifle against his shoulder.

Turning quickly Kingsley rapped his knuckles on
Rawlings' helmet as he stood; scurrying forth in a semi-crouched run
he made it to a safe spot just ahead of the others. His eyes widened
as his gazing dark eyes registered what they saw. Slowly his hand
crept to his throat, fingers brushing over the rubberised pad of his
throat mike.

'Cherry, you there mate? You ain't going to believe what
we found.'

Reaching into a pouch on his vest, Fadei produced a
small black cylinder and with some semblance of reverence handed the
object to Baker. Glancing down at the proffered canister, Baker for
a second seemed puzzled for a second as he gazed at the seamless
black object.

'I, like you, care for my fellow soldiers Baker. I know
for a fact it would haunt you for the rest of your days if you left
him here like this. Take it and give him an honourable end. Do not
let him end up like my men.'

Baker's eyes snapped back to Fadei's as the Russian
finished his sentence, the unspoken question spinning between them
like a top at the sudden blossoming mutual respect. Nodding his
thanks, Baker took the grenade and pulled the pin. He set the rapidly
heating metal cylinder on his commander's chest as he pulled
Pottergate's dog tags free and stood back. The bright, heat soaked,
flash of the grenade illuminated the two men casting seven foot long
shadows across the concrete walls of the hall. A dull hiss issued
forth as the phosphorus ignited and spilled out over Pottergate's
bloodied corpse.

The thickening glow of white phosphorus spread out from
the grenade like a mist, Pottergate's sallow blue tinged skin began
to blister and bubble as the superheated mixture began to slowly
consume all it touched. Within the first few seconds deep rents had
begun to form in the rapidly charring corpse, the skin shrinking back
even as the white phosphorus ate away at it, revealing the still pink
flesh beneath. The old soldier's uniform began smoking, bursting into
flame as it reached its flashpoint lending a sense of Nordic honour
to an untimely end.

Baker stood and stared, the flash resistant lenses of
his gas mask shielding his eyes from the vicious glow of the
phosphorus.

It was for Baker, the longest ninety seconds of his life
as he gazed upon the impromptu funeral pyre of the man who had for
the past nine years been the closest thing to a father Baker had ever
known. Turning Baker walked deeper into the cavernous hall, his
booted feet echoing off the flat surface of the walls. 'What did they
do here?'

Fadei was silent for several seconds as he pondered the
answer. The soldier in him looking for any way to bridge the slowly
deepening gap between him and a man he was indebted to, while the
Russian in him was deeply suspicious of the seemingly innocent
question. 'Why do you wish to know?'

Baker shrugged, pushing aside the barbed and heavily
cautious remark. 'Just curious, I have yet to see anything other than
bodies in hazmat suits and razor edged cutting disks. No offices or
machinery, and this place is too big to fit any civilian purpose.'
Fadei's eyes darted left and right behind the clear reinforced lenses
of his respirator as he furiously thought of a plausible answer to
give Baker.

Baker's stance said it all, as he watched the pale
watery green eyes in front of him. Nodding he sighed and slowly let
Fadei off his self made hook. 'This was a testing facility wasn't
it?'

Fadei nodded, his booted feet shuffling as he childishly
shifted from foot to foot; his pussy footing dance completely at odds
with his hulking persona.

He desperately wanted to let loose and spill all he
knew. He wanted to scream out that the plague ravaging the cargo
ship, Stalin's Wrath was Russia's fault. He wanted to bellow out that
his team had been tasked with the security and at the very last
second told to move out and stand down.

That “The Facility” as it was known, had
been set up to test pathogens and virus variants and one they had
been testing was this unknown strain of goodness-knows-what.

It had somehow gotten loose and was the reason that, as
far as Fadei knew, all his men now lay dead in the hallways of the
cavernous buildings.

His men who had been ripped limb from limb by the
carnivorous twisted psychotic beings now inhabiting the halls of the
once bustling facility. The further they delved into the stagnant and
dying building, the worse the nightmare became. A soft rippling drip
echoed through the corridor drawing Fadei and Baker through the
cavernous room and down another descent into an all consuming
madness.

Baker's boots squeaked and slid as he fought for a
footing amongst the blood and viscous goo that coated the slowly
descending ramp way. Baker went rigid as he felt his feet aqua
planning on the slick mire beneath him, then the world inverted as he
left the horizontal plane and slammed down on his shoulders, his
momentum lent a charge to his landing as the ceiling hurtled by.

The lights in the ceiling reflected the amber glow of
his barrel mounted torch, the light arcing and flashing off the
casements like a star bursting in the inky blackness of night, the
lenses of his mask dulling the repetitive strobe like flash only
slightly as he sped by.

A deep echoing thump began to take hold as his vision
pin-holed slightly. The rhythmic thump driving his senses into
overload as he hurtled towards the bottom, the flashing reflection of
his torch beam slowly slipped into sync with the thumping in his
head. His only escape from the mental torture was the sickening soup
like sensation of the clotted blood and bodily excrement as it slid
across his uniform. The cold wet sensation smeared itself along his
bare skin, as the wet slime plastered his clothing to him. The
thickening goo smeared over his skin as he slid through the viscous
soup that was the only remnants of the last few uninfected
inhabitants.

He tried in vain to quell the revulsion as the bile
began to rise through his gullet, stinging his throat and nasal
passages as it sought desperately for a way to be free of its
oesophagus prison.

Bile and vomit filled the inside of Bakers mask as he
lost the battle against his own body. With a bone jarring jolt, he
crashed into the thick, clinging gravy of blood and excrement as it
flowed from the passage above. Ripping the mask from his head, he
heaved, spilling forth a rancid bile green mixture, as his body
forced itself to evacuate his stomach's mediocre contents.

Tearing off his glove, his gas mask tossed carelessly
aside Baker clawed at his face, peeling the lumps of stale food and
mucus from across his eyes. The acid stung his tear ducts as his eyes
streamed trying in vain to rid themselves of the acidic slime that
had adhered to them.

The cloying vapour rose slowly up through his nostrils
as he tried to clear his throat only causing his gagging to resume
tenfold as he involuntarily wretched again spilling more of the
mixture to the waiting floor below.

Fadei's hand slowly appeared in Baker's vision as the
behemoth stoically suppressed the smirk that wanted to twist its way
across his features. Baker looked up at the proffered hand and the
heavy aluminium bottle it contained. 'It is a mixture of water and
anti-contaminants that was issued to my unit. It should help to
cleanse your skin of any residual infection, although judging by the
bodies we passed at the top you will not find any amongst this mess.'

Baker took the one litre-bottle and emptied the contents
over his head and back using his free hand to wipe away the collected
muck as best as he could. 'Thanks.' Baker grunted as he pulled the
freshly cleansed mask over his head, his words half muffled by the
sudden invasion of the heavy rubberised lining of the S-10 mask. The
echoing clang of the aluminium bottle made them both start slightly
as Baker glanced down at his feet. The lattice worked walkway beneath
his feet puzzled him. Shining the torch beam around him his eyes
widened in utter surprise as he took in what was before him.

'Fuck me,' the two men said in complete unison as they
both gazed out at the area before them. Chrome steel and glass tubes
hung for as far as the two soldiers could see, a seemingly haphazard
spaghetti like array of clear plastic and steel shod tubing snaking
its way to and fro, lacing the containers together.

'Don't tell me these all contain virus strains.'

Fadei took a tentative step forwards, his feet shifting
with uncertainty as he tested the lattice works strength. They both
tensed and latched onto the railing in front of them as the walkway
shifted, a heavy hissing issuing from beneath them. A white shroud of
compressed air issued up from under them as they began to slowly
descend deeper into the area below.

'Why would they have this down here?'

Baker looked at Fadei quizzically, the Russian's
question mimicking his own unspoken words.'You mean you had no idea;
no idea at all that this place was down here?'

Fadei shook his head, confirming Baker's sardonically
voiced query. 'None at all, me and my men were never stationed
further than the upper corridors, whenever we tried to enter the
lower level as we are now our micro id tags shut and sealed the
containment doors before we could get through.'

Baker's eyes widened slightly as something tickled his
senses. 'Fadei?'

The man mountain looked at Baker questions dancing
behind his eyes.

'Why didn't it do it this time then?'

Fadei glanced behind him at the two foot thick titanium
blast door slowly fading to nothing behind them.

'Because I shut off the security system.' Fadei and
Baker spun, weapons snapping up to their shoulders as they zeroed in
on the lone voice before them.

Baker's finger tightened around the trigger slowly
edging closer to the five pounds of pressure needed to send a five
point five six millimetre projectile into the cranium of what stood
before them. Baker's weapon was suddenly jerked down by its muzzle as
Fadei stepped rapidly forward, sweeping the silhouette before them
into a bone crushing display of happiness.

'I thought you were dead like the others.'

The silhouette clapped Fadei on the shoulder, a flash of
yellow catching Baker's attention.

'Who are you?' Baker called to the figure before him
drawing a curious gaze from Fadei also at the sudden intrusion.

'Forgive me Baker, this Svoloch of a Chyort's my
second-in-command and friend since,' Fadei paused, searching out the
correct translation falling back on his Americanised English when he
failed to find it. 'Boot camp is Andrey Gervasii. Andrey, this is
Derek Baker, team leader of SAU Broadhead.' The man nodded curtly,
his rake thin form lending him a serpentine appearance. This gave
Baker an instant distrust of the man; something about him did not sit
right, although at that moment he was damned if he could figure out
what it was that set him against the man so readily. All Baker knew
right then was that he would not be letting Andrey Gervasii out of
his sight any time soon.

'Pleasure to meet you,' Baker said dryly. The cold stare
of Gervasii's eyes set the hair on Derek's neck on end as he gazed
into the dead black orbs in front of him.

'Likewise.'

Baker lifted his rifle up across his chest as he stepped
off the wall mounted elevator. The decking beneath him clanked as he
stepped down heavily forcing his weight forward, posturing like a
preening peacock in search of a mate. He scanned the room around him;
it stood in stark comparison to what lay above them. The chrome and
steel of the pipe work reflected even the small light source, leaving
the place in a ghostly sheen of almost perpetual light. Lifting his
hand to his throat Baker pressed down on the receiver, and began
speaking rapidly.

'Don't bother.'

Derek's eyes swivelled on to Gervasii almost instantly.

'Why?'

The snake-like man motioned about him, the loose and ill
fitting hazard suit flapping about him like loose skin. 'This whole
area is sealed, no signals in or out of here. Even the Tannoy systems
are on a separate feed to the rest of the facility, it's a total
black hole. Once workers came in, they left only once finished, and
God only knew when that would have been.'

Fadei cast a surprised gaze at his boot camp buddy, his
mind virtually stumbling over itself to find a plausible reason for
his second-in-command to know as much as he did. 'Calm down my
friend, I know what you're thinking.'

Baker smirked behind his gas mask, a single solitary
thought dancing through his head.