The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans (23 page)

             
"At least these things don't have guns or mortars! Quit screwing around and open that door! Let's get out of here!"

             
Parker pushed on the door and nothing happened. He looked at it, thinking maybe he had not pushed the bar correctly. It didn't budge. He stared at the seams of it. It was an electronic door, and signs advised there were magnets in use on this door, and people with pacemakers please refrain from using this door for long periods of time.

             
Wayne turned around and saw Parker messing with the door. "Good Lord, boy! Do you need to go back to school!? Can't you open a damn door!?"

             
Parker pointed to the sign and looked back at Wayne. "Locked! What do you want me to do?"

             
"This can't be the only way out!" He looked at the wall by the entrance which was guaranteed to have what he was looking for. He slid a knife behind a panel and pried until it popped off the wall. He did a quick search for the you-are-here sign and located their position. "There's a tunnel beneath us! Let's get the hell out of here!"

             
They reversed their path back down the hallway to a stairwell leading down to the tunnel which could get them out of the facility to safety. As they passed the stairwell they heard footsteps coming down. They looked at each other, both thinking the same thing, that the man they shot in the head was back again.

             
It was worse. It was unexplainable to someone who hadn't been around to see the last day and the happenings behind closed doors. Only the medical doctors like Michaels, Christophers, and Major Stevenson really knew.

             
The soldiers stood back to back watching the hallway, making sure no one came from their front or back. They waited an extra moment because knowledge was good to have in times of distress. They needed to know if these things were going to come back from the dead--or whatever the hell they were coming back from--no matter what force was used against them.

             
What they saw was worse. A foot appeared first from around the corner of the steps. It was a black military combat boot leaving a bloody footprint. The rest of the figure came into view, dragging it's other leg behind.

             
"Hey, Jacobson! Holy hell! You made it! What the hell, man!?" He went to head up the stairs to his comrade, but Wayne grabbed him by the shoulder pulling him back.

             
"Look at him, will you!? He's missing chunks out of his arms! Chunks that the other guy hadn't ripped off of him! He's ... chewing! Oh, God, this thing spreads!"

             
"If one of those things gets me, do me a favor--put a bullet in my damn head!"

             
Wayne looked at him already raising his gun. "I already made that decision, Private. Just don't let anything touch you!"

             
Wayne, not hesitating, pulled the trigger twice consecutively into what had once been a young man he had trained himself. The figure dropped to the ground unmoving. Wayne nodded after the confirmation. "Don't waste your bullets on anything but the brain. It's the only thing that stops them."

             
"Why do you think the damn door was locked, Sarge?"

             
Wayne wasted no time running up the steps to Jacobson's lifeless body, stripping his knife, extra magazines and his pistol. "They either screwed up something, or maybe they already know and figured that anyone on the inside is already infected or it's just easier to write us off for dead."

             
"Would they do that?"

             
"You see anything to prove otherwise?"

             
They found the stairwell leading to the basement entry for the tunnel. They looked before they entered and saw a string of men and women all soaked with blood--soldiers, patients and nurses. Once they noticed the two men the look of hunger in their eyes intensified. They sprinted for them, snarling and growling, pushing and trying to shove past one another to be first.

             
"Move! Move! Move! We got to get down there! Let's go, go, Parker,
go
!"

             
The two soldiers stormed down the steps taking them as quickly as they could. They knew if everyone they had seen so far was either a meal or a monster, then soon the victims would become whatever these things were as well. They didn't have enough bullets to go around, and neither man wanted to become one of these ... things.

             
They could hear their pursuers following down the stairs, gaining with every flight. They were five flights down and could see the door to the tunnel entrance. Wayne was breathing heavily now and gasped to the younger, faster soldier, "You run for everything you're worth, do you understand? You don't wait for me once we get into that stretch ... and that's an order!"

             
Parker could see them gaining and could see the Sergeant was slowing down. He was running the best he could, but he was used to transport in a hummer and not having to run at all--one of the benefits and apparently a pitfall of being senior in the Army.

             
There wasn't anything they could do about their limitations right now--they had to work with whatever was available. They made it into the hallway that led to the security entrance where the two unsuspecting soldiers were guarding. There was only an eighth of a mile between them and the two soldiers, but with a mob of flesh hungry monsters behind them in hot pursuit. They pushed through the double doors and Wayne knew in his heart and gut he wasn't going to make it. He pulled out his pistol and the extra he'd stripped off of Jacobson's he screamed at Parker, "You make it, God damn it! Run, damn you!
Run
!"

             
Parker jogged sideways for a second, watching as Wayne bent over to catch a large breath. Watching for only a moment as he saw the bastards entering the hallway, spilling out, falling over each other. An explosion of gun fire blew up from behind him. He looked back at Wayne screaming at the top of his lungs, and meticulously picking off as many as he could, trying his hardest to give the young Private the biggest head start he could.

             
He fired, blowing through the skulls of one--two--three--five--nine ... and then there were too many to engage. One leapt into the air and landed on his side, grabbing his arm, breaking it in half and ripping it off. Others landed next to him jumping in bounds and pulling at his limbs, his neck, anywhere--each grabbing and taking a tear of skin and meat, pulling and leaping as they attacked.

             
Parker heard only the screaming and growling of what was following him.

             
He no longer heard the war cry of his sergeant.

****

              Private Gibson thought he'd heard the echo of the door opening, but from so far away it was easy for his ears to play tricks on him down in the tunnel where silence is really all he can hear. Sometimes it can be loud enough to drive him crazy. He thought about it for a second, and, after the warning from Phillips a moment ago, was wondering whether it really was a test. He hit his security cameras checking the furthest away.

             
Chills shot up his spine. One lone soldier with two pistols was firing one after another at an array of men and women running towards him. He saw the people running for him with their heads snapping backwards and they fell to the ground. He hammered on the door and frantically picked up the phone. "Phillips! Are yuh seeing this shit!? Do yuh see this!? There's a mad man on the loose!" He stopped talking when he watched something jump unnaturally into the air landing next to the shooter. It ripped his arm from the socket, but the soldier was still firing with his only good arm.

             
"Somethin's comin' down the tunnel--comin' quick! Get ready!"

             
He hopped to his feet and tightly gripped his machine gun. He was going to cut whatever was coming at him in half if it threatened him for one second.

             
The soldier on the monitor screamed as he came into view, "We got to get out of here! Open the door! Come on! Open the
God damn door
!" The man was alternating between firing his pistol into the darkness behind him, and running toward the final door clutching the gaping hole where his other arm used to be.

             
Gibson, still with the phone, started screaming, "Hey, Phillips! Somethin's goin' on an' those things're comin' quick! Open this freakin' door!"

             
Phillips punched in the code, but the door remained bolted shut. "I can't! It's orders from up top! I can't open this door for anyone or anything!"

             
"Are you kiddin' me!? Open the damn door or these things are gunnuh rip us in half!"

             
Parker made it to the heavy steel door. "Get the door open!" he screamed. "You don't understand what's coming!"

             
Gibson was pounding on it as well. "Get the door open you son of a bitch! Open it,
now
!"

             
Phillips dropped the line. He radioed Sergeant Smith. "Sarge," he shouted, panic in his voice, "they're in the tunnel but the door won't open! I can't get 'em through, Sarge! What should I do!?"

             
There was a pause before Smith hit his radio. "Keep it locked down, son. You're saving lives right now."

             
Phillips turned back to the door and the soldiers staring at him through the window. He shrugged. Gibson pointed to the phone in his hand, and Phillips picked his back up.

             
"You're not going to let me in!?" Gibson started. "I know how these damn things work! I'll let myself in!" He aimed his rifle at the keypad that electronically kept the door shut. He flicked the safety on the gun and unleashed a half dozen shots.

             
Parker was watching down the dark tunnel, not seeing anything. He was watching the stack of monitor screens and he could see the pursuers getting closer and closer.

             
The light on the door turned green and Phillips held up his arms as a plea not to shoot.

             
"Don't worry, asshole! I'm not going to shoot you!"

             
Phillips watched in shock as the two men ran through the opening and sprinted out of sight. He jumped to push the door shut and try to manually lock it down. He was within a foot of the opening. As he reached to try and block the door with a pipe it slammed open, crushing his skull between the heavy metal door and the concrete wall. His brain was oozing out.

             
The creatures continued in pursuit. Only a few stayed around for the easy feast before them.

****

              On ground level, all the soldiers had been delegated out to the men from Eagle Company. After twenty minutes, everyone was staring around and asking each other why in the hell somebody gave them a gun and all the other battlefield ready gear they could use.

             
Smith was walking around barking orders and telling the men to stay focused. He yelled at the light operators. He made sure they knew, unless they wanted to be running one of those things in Alaska or whatever the worst other place he could think of to work was, that they'd train those damn lights on the building and keep it lit up from all angles.

             
He felt they were ready and were just waiting at this point. No one knew what they were waiting for.

             
A young private--a mechanic who was only in the Army because he had to move out of his home at eighteen, and an Army school recruiter had gone over the finer points of how he could get eight hundred dollars a month, a sign on bonus if he enlisted for four years instead of two, and get his own place with a shared kitchen--still hadn't fallen into ranks. Earl had thought this sounded absolutely amazing, but he just never got real good about taking orders. His commanding officers let him get by with being a little insubordinate because he showed up on time and worked as hard as any two men in his crew.

             
Earl walked around looking at the group, seeing everyone vigilant and ready. He laughed wondering how can they be ready when they don't know why in the hell they're here. He started walking little by little towards Echo building, keeping in the cover of the shadows. The only reason anyone would know he was there would be from the embers glowing from a cigarette he wasn't permitted to smoke while on duty. From his point of view, he figured his shift had ended four hours ago and he deserved it.

             
He checked behind himself at the chaos coming to order, making sure no one was watching him, and walked up to the window. He started looking in through the wire mesh that was implanted inside of it. He thought he could see a group of men, covered with something like blood, chasing two doctors who were running for everything they had. The men chasing seemed to be running with superhuman speed--like track stars or something. One jumped in the air, bouncing off the side of the wall, and launched himself vertically, sailing through the air with arms outstretched and mouth wide open. He came to rest within a foot of the large doctor whose face looked beet red. His jaw locked onto his neck, and tore out a chunk of it chewing happily. The man screamed at the top of his lungs dropping to a knee, and the thing who had attacked was chewing.