Running With The Horde (Book 2): Delusions of Monsters (20 page)

“That’s better,” he sighed. “Now we can just be ourselves.”

He was using his high voice again. My mind started racing through the possibilities his last statement presented. What in the holy hell could that mean? The blade of the knife stung my neck. I knew any type of movement might get me killed but I had to try and get him talking.

“Excuse me, sir,” I whispered through clenched teeth. “But what exact-“

…

I opened my eyes to darkness. There was no confusion. I knew exactly where I was. In the cellar of the theater that long ago use to be the cellar of the bakery that was a front for the speakeasy Eva Goldstein worked in. My head was pounding where the Creep had bashed me with the flashlight. I was lying on my belly facedown with my arms splayed out above my head. The only sound was my own heavy breathing. With a groan I sat up and gingerly felt the lump on my head. I was alone. I could tell, the room had a solitary feeling to it. I panicked briefly as I inspected my wardrobe but I was fully clothed and not sore in any questionable places which was a relief as I fully expected a different outcome from the way the Creep had been talking before he hit me. Then I remembered Mandy. I didn’t think I could stomach another loss at this point.

“Mandy?” I called. I heard nothing. “Here, girl,” I sang out and made those little kissy noises that all dogs understand to mean come hither. Still no sound. I was starting to fear the worst. I began searching for her in the room. Poking around on my hands and knees, my head throbbing as I softly called her name. After floundering around in the dark and banging my head on a shelf I located the flashlight. Relief flooded through me when it still worked. The light confirmed that Mandy and the Creep were gone. My only solace was thinking maybe she wasn’t dead. The Creep seemed like the kind of fellow that would want me to find her corpse when I woke up so it was possible the dog had escaped. Sadly, that seemed unlikely unless she had a phenomenal vertical leap.

How he was able to enter and leave the room was a mystery to me. Try as I might, I couldn’t come anywhere close to reaching the door and nothing had been stacked near it to climb on aside from the pile of stairs and bodies which weren’t nearly tall enough. I tried to move one of the tall, free standing shelves but I couldn’t even budge it. It turned out they were cemented in place. I closed my eyes and scanned for the undead. There were plenty around the immediate area which shouldn’t have been surprising, they always showed up whenever I had an adrenaline spike. I called them to my current position and soon had several queued up near the door. I couldn’t think of a way for them to help me out of the cellar though upon hindsight there were many options I could have tried. I blame that failing on nerves and a possible concussion.

From a toolbox I found on one of the shelves, I pulled a large ball-peen hammer which would have been nice to have before the Creep showed up. I marched to the back of the room and faced the wall. Since I was stuck in the cellar I figured I would take a few swings at that goddamned brick wall that shouldn’t have been there. After lining up the flashlight to brighten up my workspace I stepped into a herculean swing that vibrated up my arms and made me feel as though my head was going to explode. I cussed a minute, wound up and struck it again and again and again, losing myself in a snarling, screaming rage of brick and mortar destruction.

When I was spent I dropped the hammer and fell to me knees sweating in a haze of dust and grit. After a few minutes everything settled down and I was left looking at the brick wall, now damaged and cracked at the point I’d struck it repeatedly. The cracks branched out in all directions. I got back to my feet and started in on it again. A few whacks later my hammer punched through the wall and I jammed my hand on the bricks very hard.

“Oh fuck me,” I said, my hand throbbing in rhythm to my aching head. I had to use my leg as leverage to remove the hammer and as I did a blast of cool, fishy air hit me in the face. Leaning closer I could hear what sounded like running water. I had found it! Somewhere along the timeline between Eva and the present, someone had removed the door and bricked over the entire wall to hide the tunnel.

Bolstered by my discovery, I forgot all about my head, my hand, the Creep and Mandy and started making the hole bigger with the hammer. Soon I had the space opened large enough for me to crawl through. I stuck the hammer in my belt and grabbed the flashlight. The beam showed a cavernous space filled with crates to the left and a long tunnel disappearing into the darkness straight ahead of me. I crawled through the hole.

The crates were nailed shut but I had a hammer so I made quick work of opening one. It was full of dusty ceramic jugs and a few spider webs. I pulled one of the jugs out. It was heavy with some type of liquid. A faded label was unreadable so I pulled out a crumbling cork and took a big whiff. Whatever it was burned my sinuses and cleared my head instantly. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose so I took a big pull from the bottle and felt napalm scream down my throat and throw a mighty tantrum in my belly.

I decorated the hard packed dirt floor with whatever I had swallowed.  After a few terrible heaves I took another pull from the bottle just to clean my pallet. This wasn’t the brightest move. I learned my lesson after the second time and put the bottle down, concluding that the liquor had been made during a time when men were a bit more rugged.

There was nothing other than old bootlegged liquor of various types in the other crates but I had to know if ‘he’ was still there. I moved to the back corner of the storage room which was really nothing more than a natural cave. There my light found the crumbling pile of burlap sacks. I kicked a few of them aside until my foot uncovered the stark white bone of Manny Tulio’s leg. The tuxedo he’d been wearing was mostly disintegrated leaving just the skeleton. It seemed bizarre he had never been found. He had to have been missed by his employers. Perhaps that was the reason the entrance to the tunnel had been bricked over. Maybe they’d panicked and thought Manny had been compromised by the feds so they closed off the room and shutdown the speakeasy. Maybe no one ever gave him a second thought. I would never know the end of that story but I knew one thing for sure. If Eva Goldstein had been in the cave with me I would have given her a great big kiss on her zombie lips. I had found my way into the city.

The Past

The helicopter flight from the clearing outside of Area 51 to a private airstrip in Henderson, Nevada was long and tense. Nobody spoke as they stared in frightened silence at Dick. He sat in his chair, head on a swivel, scanning the horizon as if he expected the helicopter to be shot out of the sky by a Syndicate drone at any moment.

When they finally touched down, Andrew’s body was vibrating like a giant tuning fork. He took his place in the assembly line as the group moved all of the stolen lab equipment from the helicopter to a small jet waiting on a runway so tiny it could have doubled as the driveway of the office Andrew could see several yards away.

“Fucking move, you dolts, we are on a very tight schedule,” Dick barked as he ran to and fro like a man possessed. He also hadn’t ceased his vigilant monitoring of the nighttime sky. He was afraid and his fear infected the group. Everybody picked up the pace.

Andrew didn’t think he could move any faster. He couldn’t remember ever being so tired. From what he could tell, everyone else was in the same condition or worse. Even Todd was hanging his head as he hauled an overstuffed bag to the plane.

The pilot was nervously wringing his hands and following Dick around whining about weight limits and his ability to get the plane off the ground with so many passengers and gear. Dick didn’t even look at the man let alone engage him in anyway so eventually the pilot gave up to sulk by the cockpit door.

Soon they were loaded and ushered into the plane. Dick disappeared for a few minutes while they waited in the stifling, cramped cabin. When he came back he had a small garbage sack full of snacks he had evidently plundered from a vending machine inside the office.

“Pass these out,” he said gruffly to Todd. “Better eat up, folks, I have no idea when our next meal is coming.” Todd dutifully went about his assigned task with all the enthusiasm of a zombie with no live prey in sight.

“Let’s get the show on the road!” Dick yelled at the pilot.

The pilot complied and began to taxi down the runway. Andrew closed his eyes in trepidation of the takeoff. It had been years since he’d been on a plane but he’d always hated this part. But the expected jolt that always made his stomach lurch never happened. Instead the plane began to slow down.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Dick yelled at the pilot.

“I told you, we are too heavy to take off! We have to drop weight or you can forget it. It’s not something I can control. Its goddamn science!” the pilot yelled back.

Andrew felt the plane turn and this time his stomach did lurch. He was grateful the Twinkie he had just gorged didn’t come back up.

“I’m taking us back around for another go at it. You have two minutes to decide what stays and what goes,” the pilot said.

Dick mumbled something obscene under his breath before asking, “How much do we need to drop?”

“Hell, we are way fucking over, at least a thousand pounds.”

Nobody but Andrew seemed to understand the importance of this little drama. He sat up straight and put on his most helpful smile. “Listen, Dick, there were lots of items I saw while we were moving everything that really aren’t all that important to Project Simon. You want me to start sorting?”

Dick swiveled on Andrew with a look of intense contempt on his face but said nothing.

“What the hell are you talking about, Andrew, all this stuff is important,” Sarah said. “You know, now that I think about it, you have all my research on a flash drive. You really don’t need me much at this point. You, John and Todd did most of the heavy lifting on this one. Dick, if you need someone to stay behind, I gladly volunteer.”

“I second that for myself,” Dharmesh said and then added with a chuckle, “I stopped being mission critical on Project Simon a few years back. I can stay behind as well.”

The plane lurched again as it swung back around to its original takeoff position and stopped. The pilot said, “Its time, Dick, did you decide what you are leaving behind?”

“Yes, we got it squared away,” Dick replied as he open the cabin door. “Andrew, tell me, are Dharmesh and Sarah the ones to stay behind?”

“No!” Andrew insisted. “They are both critical cogs in the process, they have to stay, just listen, let’s leave some of the gear-“

“Fuck you, Penrod!” Sarah screamed and burst into tears. “You are such a coward! You know you don’t need us anymore!”

“Calm down, Sarah, I’m just messing with Andrew. If you and Dharmesh say you aren’t mission critical anymore then I believe you. It makes the most sense to leave you behind.”

Sarah seemed visibly relieved as she and Dharmesh unbuckled their seatbelts and followed Dick to the cabin door. Andrew was horrified to see they were actually buying what Dick was selling. He opened his mouth to make one last attempt to save them both but was stifled by a nasty look from Dick.

He waited by the open door and gestured for Sarah and Dharmesh to precede him through. “Mr. Smith, I will need your help with the cargo doors please. Like it or not we are also going to have to leave some of the equipment behind.”

The soldier Andrew had knocked over on his way to the helicopter hopped out of the plane as well. Dick gave Andrew a wink before he stepped out. Andrew plugged his ears because he knew what was going to happen. Doing his best to ignore John who was whispering urgent inquiries in his direction, he studied the ceiling of the plane, glanced at Todd’s stupid head and waited. Sure enough, two minutes later a shot was fired, piercing Andrew’s self-imposed cone of silence with lucid clarity. He immediately started crying but his tears were interrupted with two more gunshots. John made a move toward the door to investigate but Andrew nearly tackled him.

“Sit down,” Andrew said, “Dick may not kill you but he will definitely hurt you.”

John looked at him like Andrew had betrayed them all. “How did you know he would do that?” he demanded.

Andrew shot him a disgusted look. “How could you not know? The man is not only crazy but a sadist!”

They moved back to their seats a second before Dick reentered the cabin. He looked from Andrew to John with a smug smile on his face as he took his seat and buckled in.

“We should be good to go now,” he called to the silent pilot. The plane taxied down the runway and took off without issue this time. John and Todd were silent while Andrew was busy trying to get his emotions under control.

“You should be happy, Andrew, it could have been you out there,” Dick said after they were in the air for a while.

“You know perfectly well you can’t kill me, Dick,” Andrew fired back.

This elicited a genuine chuckle from Dick, “That is very true. At least for now.”

“Hey, Dick,” Todd chimed in, “Andrew and John were whispering to each other while you were taking out the trash.”

“Shut the fuck up, Todd. Nobody likes a snitch,” Dick said. “Besides I feel pretty confident Andrew and John are gonna be good little soldiers from here on out. Isn’t that right, boys?” He didn’t wait for a response just leaned his chair back and shut his eyes. Evidently, murder was a tiresome chore.

…

They flew for a couple of hours to another private airstrip outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, they deplaned, loaded everything up in a battered white moving truck and drove across town to another tiny airport. By the time dawn’s light crested the morning skyline they were touching down in a small Minnesota city called Crystal. Andrew was exhausted from the whole experience but had been unable to manage anything more than a few short naps the entire plane ride.

He waited with John and Todd on the tarmac next to a black cargo van while Dick dealt with the pilot who had refused to exit the plane. Andrew could hear him arguing with the pilot and fully expected to hear another gunshot. He was surprised when Dick emerged a few minutes later and closed the door behind him. He must have killed the pilot silently.

              “Let’s get loaded boys. We’re almost home. Soon you’ll be sawing logs and dreaming of puppies,” Dick said.

              With a collective sigh John, Todd and Andrew began loading the supplies into the back of the van. Andrew was very surprised to see the small plane that had brought them to Minnesota turn around and take off as soon as they were out of the way. Dick hadn’t killed the pilot after all. This didn’t make any sense to Andrew. Why murder Sarah, Dharmesh and the guard and let this other man go free? He said nothing about this inconsistency as he climbed into the rear passenger seat next to John.

Dick drove and Todd rode shotgun. Andrew wondered how culpable Todd had been in whatever Dick had done back in Area 51. Yet another mystery in this evolving plot of Dick’s. The sun shined brightly from East, spotlighting their progress down Highway 81 towards Downtown, Minneapolis. Nerves were fried and no one could sleep.

              “Are you ever gonna tell us what’s going on, Dick?” John said from the back seat.

              “You are all smart guys, John. I am sure you have already figured out the general idea. With a little help from my friend Todd I changed the table stakes where the virus is concerned. I positioned myself to be holding all the cards when the virus starts to manifest in public. If it hadn’t been for Andy’s stunt with the blankets the Syndicate wouldn’t have known until it was too late.”

              Andrew and John exchanged looks at this revelation. “What do you mean you changed the table stakes with the virus?” Andrew demanded.

              “As it is,” Dick continued, ignoring Andrew’s question, “We are now on the run from the most powerful organization in the history of the world.” He glanced at John in the rear-view mirror. “You can thank Andrew if you end up getting killed.”

              “Goddamn it, Dick, what did you do to the virus?”

              “Me?” Dick said innocently, “I didn’t do anything. Todd did it for me.”

              Todd turned in his chair and flashed them his toothy smile. It made Andrew think of an old time black and white horror film monster he could see in his mind but couldn’t remember its name.

              Andrew sat forward as the van rolled on to their final destination, “Todd, I need you to explain, and be very specific, what you did to the virus.”

              “Just relax,” Todd answered, thick strings of saliva clinging to his teeth as he spoke, “I switched the prototype you guys made back to the original. No big deal.”

              Andrew and John looked at each other in horror.

              “It’s going to be fine,” Dick said, “that’s why I have you three to help me control things if it looks like it’s going to take a turn for the worse.”

              “Oh, you fucking idiot,” Andrew said, “Do you not remember when I told you about the extinction event? Do you not remember what that pilot looked like? We are all fucked! You realize you just sold all of humanity up the river, right? Why would you do this?”

              “I’m guessing things didn’t work out the way he thought they would with his betters. Did they skip over you for a promotion, Dickie-boy?” John said. “Don’t get to climb that next rung on the world domination ladder?”

“Is it true, Dick? Did you do this because your feelings were hurt?” Andrew said.

“If I wasn’t exhausted and driving, I would come back there and slap the shit out of both of you,” Dick snarled from the driver’s seat. “Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear your voices until the next time I ask you a question. If the situation is as dire as you are making it out to be then maybe I don’t need you two all that much. You ought to think about that before you go spouting your mouths off.”

The remainder of the drive was silent but for the sound of the road and the ringing in Andrew’s ears which occurred whenever he was stressed out. The weight of the world will do that to a person. From Highway 81 they took West Broadway all the way downtown. Dick drove them to a parking garage underneath Investor Tower. The road weary men loaded the stolen supplies into the cargo elevator and rode it to the 41
rst
floor.

The security doors opened to complete darkness. “Wait here,” Dick said. Disappearing into the gloom. Andrew could hear him fumbling around a few feet away. Florescent lights flickered on and the room lit up with harsh light. Andrew couldn’t see anything through the glare but soon his eyes adjusted. The entire floor had been retrofitted to meet their needs, essentially becoming a transported version of what they’d been living in the past several years at Area 51.

“As you can see the lab is here in front of you, to the left you will find the living quarters and facilities. This is where we ride this thing out,” Dick said.

“Aren’t we just a trifle overexposed? We are in the middle of a major metropolitan city. If all hell breaks loose we are gonna have nowhere to run.” John said.

“Hiding is most effective when done in plain sight,” Dick said. “I expect this city to be the safest place in the country before too much longer. In any case, nobody can see inside and a special key card is needed to get in here and I have it. The three of you have one very important mission left before your Project Simon work is finished. You won’t be leaving this floor until it is done.”

“What is the mission?” asked Andrew.