ASYLUM: Chapter 5

Asylum

Chapter 5

   I had returned to my room and showered after work when Marvin Hanson, one of the men on my crew who had also joined the Auxiliary, knocked on my open door, “Hey, didn’t you get the call from EXSEC?”

   “What call, when?”

   “About ten minutes ago, they want all the Auxiliary guys at the Ready Room right away!”

   “Why?”

   “They didn’t say, but they did say it was a Red Alert; you better gear up man.”

   “I don’t think they want me, Marvin, I haven’t heard from EXSEC in over two months.”

   “Really? Is that why you don’t go to any of the drills anymore?”

   “Pretty much.”

   “Well, okay, I hope they don’t really have something happening, you know?”

   “It’s probably just some drill they’re running, maybe to test response times or something, be careful though.”

   “Right, yeah, it’s probably just a drill. I’ll see you later,” he said. I stepped through the door and watched him jog away with his gear bag over his shoulder. Marvin had spent a shit load of money on gear and the AR 15 he had. It was all name brand equipment he purchased that was really high priced. In fact, I heard Lieutenant Packer refer to him as a Gucci Guerilla once and Debra called him a Mall Ninja. I didn’t feel it was a fair appraisal of Marvin though; he just wanted good gear and had bought into the more expensive the better idea. I returned to my chair and tuned my TV to channel 150 to see if there were any announcements about the call up.

   There wasn’t, but there was a flashing red border around the periphery of the screen. I knew that meant trouble somewhere, but not what the trouble was. I leafed through the TVs menu and brought up the schematics for the complex. All the Phases contain two levels and all twelve levels were represented on the screen. Phase Six, Level Two, and Phase Five, Level Two, were both flashing red on the screen and the day care center that Debra filled in at was in Phase Five, Level Two. I wondered if she was working there when the trouble started.

   I looked over in the corner of my room and gazed at my gear stand; with no hesitation, I began gearing up. I put on my fighting load carrier and zipped up the front. On the front of my FLC I have two, three-magazine shingle pouches and mounted at a 45-degree angle is a flapped pistol holster that can also hold two additional mags when it’s not used for a pistol. From my magazine caddy, I took out eight loaded mags and put them in the pockets mounted to the front. Instead of the MOLLE belt, I placed the black duty belt around my waist. From the drawer beside my bed, I retrieved my hand gun and four spare magazines. Two of the pistol mags went into the pouches on the belt and the other two spare mags went into the pouches on the FLC. My Ruger, I slipped into the holster on the belt. I ran a quick check on my carbine’s weapon light, the light attached to my pants belt and the headlamp stuffed into a MOLLE grenade pouch on the FLC. I checked to make sure the canteen was full and then I jogged out of the room as I slid a magazine into my bullpup and then started to run.

   When I reached the Ready Room, it looked as though there was a lot of confusion. Approximately fifteen of the Auxiliary were clustered on one side of the room and on the other side, members of EXSEC were constantly going and coming. I could see Lieutenant Packer through the window of his office and he seemed to be shouting at someone on the phone. Danni Monroe, fully kitted up, was standing outside the office looking in, so I went to her first.

   “Danni, is Debra at the child care center?”

   She turned and looked up at me with no expression, finally she said, “What the fuck do you care?”

   “Danni, I don’t know what I did to piss everyone off, but now is not a good time for that discussion. Is Debra here, or is she at the child center?”

   Her expression turned to uncertainty, “The child care center; Packer is trying to figure out what the hell is going on, but…”

   I turned away and headed for the exit as Danni ran to catch up, “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to go get Debra and bring her here.” I stepped through the double doors of the Ready Room and turned towards the Facilities Office.

   “You’re going the wrong way, Daniel.”

   “Not if I want to drive instead of walk,” I answered. “I’m going to get one of the crew carts from Facilities.” I started jogging towards Facilities; it was only about seventy-five yards away.

   Danni shouted at me as she re-entered the double doors, “Don’t leave without me! I have to get some gear for Debbie!”

   I hurried to where we park the work carts and quickly scattered tools out of a crew cart before I disconnected the charging cable and then sat down behind the wheel. Slapping the shifter into reverse, I backed out of the parking space and drove to the entrance of the EXSEC Bunker. Stopping in front of the double doors, I looked down the hall for Danni, but she was nowhere in sight. What the hell, where was she? I started to drive away, but Danni ran around the corner from the Squad Bays and continued running to me.

  Once she was in the cart, I sped away as she said, “She has her Glock with her, but no spare mags; I grabbed these.” She held up the stock for Debra’s sidearm and a bandoleer of 33 round mags for the Glock. She placed them between us on the bench seat. “Did you think she wouldn’t find out about you and Gupta?”

   “What? What are you talking about?” I turned up the main tunnel and headed for Phase Five.

   “Aw, come on, Daniel. Don’t even try to deny what was going on. For shit’s sake, she has a picture of you macking it up with Sara Gupta.”

   I knew exactly what she was talking about, the kiss and the crotch grab. “Damn it! Is it a video, or just a picture?”

   “A picture, you asshole! A nice, high resolution, 8x10, full color glossy. There’s no denying that it was you and Sara.”

   I shook my head, “Yeah, it was us, but it wasn’t me kissing her, it was her kissing me and grabbing my crotch!”

   “Yeah, right.”

   That was when I realized, nothing I could say was going to change her mind, or Debra’s either. At least now I knew why though, “It wasn’t, what the picture probably made you think, but I know I won’t be able to convince you, or her, or anyone else, so fuck it. Let’s just go get her and make sure she’s safe.”

   “Are you going to try and convince her you didn’t do what you so obviously did? Because if you do, you’re even less a man than I think of you already. That girl loved you with her whole being and you shit on her for a piece of strange ass. You didn’t just carve a notch in your headboard, you carved out her heart!”  She must have been working on that spiel for a long time, hoping to be able to say it to me.

   Up ahead was the down ramp going to Phase Five, Level Two, but there was an INSEC vehicle parked in front of the steel entrance door. I slowed and came to a halt as three members of INSEC waved us down. Three others were slowly closing the huge door.

   “What are you doing?” I asked.

   “Sealing off Phase Five and Six until we can sweep both areas.”

   “Why?” Danni asked. “One of our people is in there!”

   “There is some sort of riot going on and the Administration wants it closed off, so turn around and drive away.”

   “Bull shit!” I said. “Like she said, one of our people is down there and…”

   The INSEC guy raised his carbine and pointed it at my face, “I said, drive away, now.”

   The son-of-a-bitch was serious, deadly serious. I shifted the cart into reverse and slowly backed up before turning around and driving away.

   Through gritted teeth, Danni said, “Why am I not surprised you gave up so quickly?”

   I accelerated back the way we came until we reached the entrance to Phase Three, then braked hard as I turned down the ramp to Level Two. Floorboarding the cart, I pushed it as fast as it would go until I reached the Level Two door to Phase Five. An INSEC vehicle was just coming to a halt and we squirted between their front bumper and the lip of the door seal. That’s when the lights went out.

   I immediately slammed on the brakes as I desperately tried to find the headlight switch on the dashboard. I kept fumbling around as I started cursing until Danni turned on a flashlight from her own gear; I was panicking and should have had the sense to use my own light. Luckily, Danni seemed more together than myself. I kept the cart stationary as I removed my headlamp from the grenade pouch and placed it over the crown of my head and switched it on. Now I could see where the cart headlights didn’t point. I accelerated again as I turned down the corridor where the child care center was located and, in the distance, I heard several gunshots. I slowed as I tried to make out what I was seeing in the illumination of the cart’s headlights.

   “What the…” There appeared to be a group of agitated people clustered around the windows and entrance to the child care center. Several were pounding on the closed door and more were beating against the wire reinforced windows.

   “Daniel!” Danni shouted, “Stop the cart, now!”

   I hit the brakes hard as Danni braced herself against the dash with her left hand and brought her handgun up with her right. Several of the people noticed us and began to move in our direction as she slid out of the cart and stepped into the illumination of the cart’s headlights, her weapon extended in front of her.

   “External Security! Stop where you are!”

   I slid out and joined her as I took my weapon off safe, pointed it at the people moving towards us while slipping my finger inside the trigger guard. I didn’t say anything; I simply waited for them to respond to her command. They didn’t.

   Debra had spent an inordinate amount of time explaining to me the importance of active observation. Everyone is always observing on an unconscious level; as a result, our conscious thoughts and memories are framed by our unconscious observations, sometimes in error. She told me a police officer, or a soldier, had to be observing on a conscious level whenever possible, so I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. There were seven people, four were still beating on the door or windows of the child care center, the other three were moving towards Danni and I. Two of the three moving towards us were wearing white lab coats; the third was wearing the uniform of a janitor, but had throwaway shoe covers over her boots, vinyl gloves that reached her forearms, a surgical mask askew on her face with clear plastic googles pulled down to her chin. All three were approaching us with a strange jerky movement to their walk and their arms kept flicking out to their sides, almost an exaggerated movement for balance. I could see the whites around all of their eyes and they weren’t blinking.

   “Danni?” I said, with a great deal of uncertainty, “What the fuck…”

   “I repeat! External Security! Stay where you are, or I will fire!” They kept coming, “I said, stop…where…you…are!”

   The janitor was first and the two lab coats, a man and a woman, were following, but it was the female lab coat that screwed everything up. She suddenly stretched her arms out towards Danni and began to run directly at her. As the lab coat passed the janitor, the janitor did exactly the same; she ran at Danni in the same manner. Danni fired a moment before my own shot, bullshit, her shot startled me and I involuntarily pulled my trigger. I had broken a cardinal gun safety rule; my finger was on the trigger before I was ready to fire. Both bullets hit the lab coat in the center of her chest and she kept coming. We both fired again, me to the chest and Danni to the head. My shot didn’t seem to do anything, but Danni’s shot to the head put the lab coat on the floor. Janitor was coming hard and fast as I shifted the aim of my carbine to her, but Danni had three rounds into her before I even squeezed off the first shot, two to the chest, one to the head. Lab coat two chose that moment to run at me, I put two into his chest and Danni put a third into his head. Shifting my aim, I put a round into the head of a big guy pounding on the window of the child care center; you could see the wire reinforced window literally bowing in with the force of his blows. I shifted my aim and fired another round, but the remaining three were already down, or going down from Danni’s fire. Remind me to never get into a gunfight with her. In a distant corner of my mind, I made the decision to make sure I had hearing protection next time I shot indoors; my ears weren’t just ringing, they hurt like a bitch.

   Together, we raced to the door of the center and tried to enter, but it was locked. Inside, I could hear children crying and a woman screaming, “Go away, go away!” Over and over. Shifting to the window I looked inside, there was a young woman standing in front of another interior doorway and holding a handgun aimed at the door we needed to get in. There were also three bodies on the floor, one was dressed similarly as the woman with the gun, and the other two were in lab coats.

   I knocked on the window, and said, “Hey! Hey! Unlock the door so we can help you!” She made a feeble attempt to point the pistol at me and I took a step back from the glass.

   Danni moved to stand next to me as she shined her flashlight at her own face while she holstered her sidearm and then waved her empty hand at the woman inside. “Hey, Marie, right?” She shouted. “That’s your name? We met a while back when I drove Debra down here to help out with the kids; I’m Danni Monroe, remember me?”

   The woman wiped her eyes on her forearms and squinted at us through the window as the gun drooped in front of her, “Yes, I remember, you’re not crazy, right? Please?”

   “No,” Danni answered. “The people that were trying to get in are all dead, where’s Debra?”

   The woman rushed to the door and pushed it open. “Thank God, you’re here!” Danni stepped through and I closely followed, but kept watch down the corridor. “Those…people…” She pointed at the two lab coats lying on the floor. “They came in the open door and attacked Shelly. She was screaming, begging them to stop, but they wouldn’t. One of them picked up a lamp and started hitting Shelly in the face with it. Debra came out from the playroom and saw what was happening, then she ran to get her gun from the locker she keeps it in. That one,” she pointed at a male lab coat. “Attacked me and the other one stopped hitting Shelly and went after Debra. She hit her in the face with the lamp and knocked her down, but then Debra shot her and then she shot that guy and made him stop hitting me with his fists. Then, Debra fell down again and couldn’t get up even though she was trying to. She told me to shut and lock the door, I did, and then she said to take her gun and protect the kids. Danni, she won’t wake up!”

   “Did you call the Clinic and report a medical emergency?” Danni asked as she moved past Marie and into the playroom. “Oh, God,” I heard Danni loudly say. I closed the door and made sure it was locked, but then I rushed into the next room and saw Debra. She was lying on her back and her head was in a puddle of blood, the size of which, scared the shit out of me. Danni opened a pouch on her chest rig and removed a bandage packaged in plastic. Unfolding it, she pressed it against a gash in Debra’s eyebrow.

   “I tried to call the Emergency Clinic, but the phone line is ripped out of the wall,” Marie answered.

    I kept staring at the blood on the floor; I couldn’t take my eyes from Debra’s dark curly hair, soaked with blood.

   “Daniel!”

  I pulled my eyes from Debra, “What?”

   “Did you hear me?” Danni, she was glaring at me, “Look at me! You need to pull it together! Go get the crew cart, turn it around, and back it up to the front door of the center, then we need to load up these kids and get Debra to the clinic next to the briefing room, okay?”

   I nodded, “Yeah.” I ran out of the room, got the cart turned around and backed it up next to the door for the Child Care Center. “Got it, how do you want to do this?”

   Danni rubbed her eyes with the index finger and thumb of her left hand, and then looked up from where she was still pressing the bandage to Debra’s eyebrow. “Daniel, Marie says we have eleven kids here and at best we have room in the crew cart for six. We have sixteen people and two are unconscious; check the girl that’s down in the other room, see if she is alive.”

   I knelt beside Shelly and pressed two of my fingers into her neck to check for a pulse, nothing. Her face was completely destroyed and beaten in; there were no bubbles from where her mouth or nose should have been, from her trying to breathe. Leaning over farther, I pressed my ear to her chest, again nothing. Walking back into the playroom I said, “She’s gone.”

   Marie began to sob as Danni asked, “Are you sure?”

   “Yes, no respiration, no pulse.” Marie completely broke down and began to wail.

   “Okay, Marie! Knock it off!”

   “How can you…” Marie started to complain.

   “The children, Marie, we’ll mourn for Shelly later. Now we need to move fast in case there are more people like the ones that attacked you and us, understand?” Marie looked startled and I felt the same as she, Danni was right, there might be more and we had no idea how many. “Marie, grab a bunch of those blankets and spread them in the bed of the crew cart. Daniel, go with her, I want you to stand watch, okay?”

   Marie grabbed the blankets as I opened the door and checked outside, while I watched with my bullpup held at the ready, she spread the blankets on the surface of the work bed. At best, she might get four, or five, of the infants or toddlers inside the box bed. That would leave seven more children and four adults in a vehicle designed for a cramped six. I’m pretty good at math, but I couldn’t add up the numbers in a way to get an acceptable answer to the problem. Someone, maybe a couple of someones, were going to get left behind.

   After a frantic ten minutes of shuffling children and tying them in place, Danni grabbed the sleeves of my shirt and said, “Daniel, there’s not enough room…”

   “I know, Debra wouldn’t want you to leave any kids behind, me either. Go now, while you’re clear.”

   She gave me a concerned look, but said, “Dan, as soon as I get the kids there…”

   “They probably won’t let you come back in; we know for a fact INSEC won’t, shit, they might not let you out. Go on, go while you can. I’ve got this.” Approaching Marie, I pulled my Ruger from its holster and handed it to her while I took Debra’s Glock from her, “I’m taking Debra’s sidearm in case she wakes up; you take mine.” She nodded as I handed her a spare mag. Debra’s stock and magazines were no longer on the seat where Danni left them, they were on the floorboard. I reached through and retrieved them.

   Danni immediately turned and slid behind the steering wheel, turned on the switch and sped away. I closed the door and went back to the playroom. I secured Debra’s magazine bandoleer and her stock to me and then slid Debra’s Glock into its holster and secured it. I started to open my IFAK so I could change the soaked bandage on Debra’s eyebrow, but in the distance, I could hear shouting and screams. Reaching down, I grabbed Debra and threw her over my shoulder as I stood, reaching up, I turned my headlamp to its lowest setting to light my way through the darkness and began to jog away from the Childcare Center. From some far away point I could make out an announcement was being projected over the public address system, but I couldn’t decipher what was said. Too far away and too many echoes in the concrete tunnels. I set out for the door to Phase Four as I heard a flurry of gunfire ahead.

 When I reached the door from Phase Five to Phase Four, there was no INSEC presence there, but there were several bodies and splashes of blood that didn’t match the bodies. There must have been too many people to stop and they bugged out. I shifted Debra’s form to a more comfortable fireman’s carry and continued on foot.

 

  Someone was screaming back the way I had come from. I turned around and pointed my carbine back down the long concrete tunnel as I sucked in air. How far I was from the screams was difficult to estimate; the concrete tunnels of The Facility carried sound a long way. I was drenched in sweat and my right leg was wet from the blood still dripping from Debra’s injury. No movement behind me, so I shifted Debra’s weight on my shoulders in an attempt to get a solid weld between the carbine and my shoulder; it wasn’t going to happen. We needed somewhere to stop, so I could check her vitals and maybe revive her. Hopefully, I could get her conscious. Hopefully, she wasn’t dead. Where though? It had to be somewhere I could safely secure the location, or at least somewhere out of the way, somewhere the…the…whatever they were, wouldn’t find us for a while. A working phone would be nice, then I could call External Security and maybe get us a ride back to Phase One. We might be safe there, at least for a little while until a plan could be developed. Where though?

     I turned and began walking as fast as I could. I had my left arm between Debra’s legs squeezing her left leg to my chest while I gripped her left arm draped over my right shoulder with my hand; a modified fireman’s carry. It left my right hand free to hold my bullpup. Where to? Where to? I had to get her safe. Wait, the utility access tunnels. Most people don’t even think of those; if I could get us inside one, we’d be home free, maybe. Okay, we’re in Phase Four Level Two, I was going to need to find an access door, I had my maintenance keys, so locked utility doors were not going to be a problem. I just need to remember where they are. If we were in Phase Six, I’d know where to go without any problem. I worked on Phase Six for seven months while it was under construction and knew every level and room it contained. I knew how to basically get around the rest of The Facility, but over three million square feet was a lot to remember.

    Another scream behind us, no, not a scream, a primal roar. Closer than before, much closer. I turned again and walked awkwardly backwards as I held the carbine out in front of me. My legs were trembling and the lightweight carbine I carried seemed heavier than it ever had before. Debra moaned and slightly shifted her position; at least she was still alive. She wasn’t going to be though if I didn’t find safety. Another backward step as I heard the slap of feet coming down one of the side tunnels. Then, there he was, one of the crazies that were murdering everyone they could find in The Facility. Shit, I fired a round one-handed and didn’t even see where it impacted. At the same moment Debra began to struggle to free herself. With my balance completely shot, I stumbled into the wall beside us and fell as ungracefully as a toddler learning to walk. Debra was still trying to break free of my control; she was panicking as she tried to fully regain her awareness. I released my hold and allowed her to fall away while I tried to get the carbine up with a proper grip, but too late, he was on me.

    I released my grip on the carbine, but my sling tied me to the weapon as the crazy tried to rip it away. He was strong, incredibly strong, and ended up spinning me around while I tried to get my feet under me. The muzzle break hit my eyebrow and I began to see fireflies in my vision. I reached to the left side of my chest and pulled out the dagger that was mounted there, then I stabbed the double edged blade into the man’s inner thigh; I was hoping for a slashed femoral artery, but he just screamed in my face, released the bullpup, and wrapped his hands around my throat. Within seconds, my vision began to dim as I repeatedly punched the blade into the side of his chest and abdomen, but all he did was tighten his stranglehold. As I was blacking out, he slumped forward and fell across my face. With my ears again ringing loudly, I lay there a moment gasping for air before I managed to push him off and scramble away from him. Pulling the bullpup back to my shoulder, I swung it up as I heard more screams of rage coming down the tunnel.

     Glancing at Debra, I saw she had sat up, but was now slowly sliding back down to the floor. Her Glock was held loosely in her right hand and when I looked at the maniac who had been successfully strangling me, I saw the neat round hole through the side of his head; Debra had shot him. Reaching out, I removed the gun from her hand and slipped it back into her holster where I secured it and then picked her back up in order to continue our hoped-for escape.

     Ahead, I saw the yellow metal sign that indicated a utility corridor, speeding up I jogged forward until I reached the metal door. I lowered Debra down as gently as I could, then reached to my beltline and grabbed my keyring. Flipping through them, I located the master key for the utility doors in Phase Four. Slipping the key in and twisting the lock, I pulled the door open and then I used the door stop to hold it as I grabbed Debra’s shirt collar and dragged her through. As soon as her feet were clear, I used the toe of my boot to flick up the doorstop and pulled the door quickly shut. Turning, I dropped to the floor and leaned against the concrete wall as my breathing began to catch up.

  “Where are we?”

   I looked at her and then slid to her side and helped her sit up. “Phase Four, Level Two, utility access corridor; we’re safe for the moment.”

   “Your eyebrow is bleeding.”

    I swiped my hand over it and then looked at it, “Yeah, but nowhere near as bad as yours.” I reached down and opened my IFAK, from inside I removed a roll of gauze, a tube of triple antibiotic cream, a gauze pad, and several alcohol wipes. I started wiping the blood out of her eye and then used a wipe to clean the large and nasty cut. Once cleaned, I squeezed a bead of ointment into the oozing wound and then folded the gauze pad and placed it over her eyebrow, “Here, hold this while I wrap it up.”

    “Ow.”

    “Sorry, okay, now hold here.” She held the end of the strip of gauze I had wrapped around her head while I cut a piece of surgical tape and pressed it into place. “There, I think it’s good to go. How are you feeling?” A great deal of blood had run down into her hair as I carried her and now it was a sticky, coagulating mass.

   “Like shit.” She pulled her pistol from the holster and did a chamber check to make sure it was loaded before she put the pistol back. Looking at me she asked, “Dan, why didn’t you use your sidearm instead of the knife?”

   “Uh…I gave it to Marie.” She stared at me blankly, the look she would get when she was disappointed in me. “I brought your Glock stock and your spare 33 round mags.” I hurriedly added. Reaching to my duty belt, I unclipped the stock and placed it in her hands, then I pulled the bandoleer for her mags off over my head and set them on her lap. She ejected the standard capacity magazine from her Glock, put it in her cargo pants front pocket and then slipped a thirty-three-round mag into her weapon. Picking up the stock, she inserted the mounting prong into the receptacle in the grip of the pistol and locked it in place with a sigh. She loved the stock and the long stick mags. With the stock on the Glock, the handgun was an extremely short and wieldy weapon and she could be sudden death with it. I have never seen her miss, even out to a hundred yards.

     She shook her head, then rested it on the palm of her hand as she raised her knee to support her elbow. “How the hell did we end up in this crap?”

   “Which crap are you talking about?”

   She raised her head long enough to give me a look of disapproval, “Don’t, Dan, I’m not in the mood for bull shit.”

   “Neither am I!” I angrily retorted before taking a calming breath. “So, let’s both suck it up and get you to a medic.” I was surprised by my own flash of irritation. In the past, I could guess Debra’s mood by how she addressed me, if she was being loving, she would call me Daniel, which is what she almost always did. If she was feeling funny, or boisterous, she would call me Danny, but if she was pissed, it was Dan.

   “I don’t need your fucking help.” That was a sharp dagger intended for my heart; it worked.

   Hurt and suddenly angry again, I said, “Says the previously limp, lump of meat, I’ve been carrying for the last half-hour.”

   She surged to her feet and promptly staggered face first into the opposing wall where she once again slid to the floor. Managing to turn her back to the wall, she drew up her legs, covered her face with her hands and leaned into her knees. It took me a few moments to realize she was crying. I crossed the corridor and kneeled next to her as I pulled my water bladder from the canteen pouch, held it out and said, “You need to hydrate; you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

   Muffled by her hands, she brokenly said, “I don’t… fucking… have any water… Dan.”

   “You’re being a martyr and you don’t do it very well!” I snapped back, but then calmly added, “Drink this, so we can move on.”

   She raised her face from her hands and stared at me, she was so dehydrated there were no tears; my anger dissipated and my heart ached to see her that way. Reaching out, she took the bladder, removed the cap and took several drinks before screwing the cap back on and trying to hand it back to me.

   “Take your time, but drink it all, then we’ll go.”

   She grabbed the bladder with both hands and literally tried to force the water down her throat to finish it. The end result? It looked as though it took everything she had, to keep from vomiting it back up.

    I waited a few minutes and then said, “Rest for a few minutes, let your body absorb the water and we’ll take off.”

   She struggled to her feet, leaned against the wall for a moment and then said, “I’m ready now, let’s go.”

   “No, you’re not!” I said, then I took another calming breath and said, “But I’m not going to argue with you about it.”

   We walked about fifty feet and a loudspeaker, somewhere, crackled to life. “This is Internal Security, all residents and workers within the Global Research Facility shall remain wherever they are and do not attempt to leave. The entire facility is on lockdown. If you are seen by the rescue teams working through the complex and you are not in a secured area, it is possible you will be mistaken as a hostile entity. Do not, under any circumstance, attempt to travel from any level to another; you will be endangering your safety and the safety of others.”

   I walked back to Debra who was a good twenty feet behind me and stopped, “What do you think? Stop here, or keep going.”

   “I don’t know, my instinct is to keep going until I reach friendlies, but I realize it could be the wrong thing to do. Can we stay in the utility tunnels all the way to Phase One?”

   “No, none of the utility tunnels connect with other phases; they are supposed to help isolate each level and phase from all others.”

   “Shit.”

   “But, if we can gain access to the air exhaust system, we could pass through to the exhaust plenum building outside. There’s a large room up there where all of the exhaust air is filtered in case any particulates get into the exhaust system. Unfortunately, that room can’t be opened from the inside, but if you had your radio with you…” I shrugged.

   “I don’t.”

   “It’s possible we might be able to get someone’s attention, but I don’t know if anyone will be around with a General lockdown in place.”

   “If there is an exhaust system, then there must be a, uh…” She didn’t want to seem ignorant or need my help.

   “Air intake for the fresh air system?”

   “Yeah.”

   “There is, but it’s on the other side of the complex and it’s more complicated in construction. There’s a whole bank of different filters to purify, humidify, or dehumidify the fresh air pumped into the complex. The exhaust plenum, or the structure that serves the purpose of a plenum, is really only concerned with matching the temperature of the exhaust with the ambient temperature outside. It was hoped that the system would help make the complex easier to hide from satellite detection.”

   She looked askance at me and then said, “A little more info than I was looking for, thanks for the mansplaining. I never noticed you doing that before; like they say, I guess love is blind.”

   I took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled, “Yeah, your welcome, hold on to that thought though,” I said as I started walking away. “It will make you feel better about things once you learn the truth about that picture you found so informative about my general nature.” I continued walking, but then I stopped and faced her again, “Just for the sake of satisfying my curiosity, how did you get your hands on that 8x10 full color glossy anyway?”

   “Wouldn’t you like to know, the only reason you’re interested is so you can cover your trail better when you pull the same shit with the next girl you cheat on.”

   I shook my head and said as I turned away, “It seems no matter what the topic of discussion, you want to butt heads, so let’s keep the dialog to minimum.”

    “Sounds like a fucking excellent idea,” she answered.

   That was the last thing I said for quite a while. Internally, I was racking my brain trying to figure out a way to get into the exhaust tunnels, I even tried to use my multi-tool to break loose the bolts that held the grates in place over the intakes from the utility corridor to the exhaust duct. Debra got a laugh out of that one. Wait a minute, there were sprinklers inside the exhaust ducts. I asked the General Superintendent if we could add access to the ducts, so we wouldn’t have to carry pipe and material for the installation so far, but we were told no, because they had so much trouble sealing the one installed in Phase Four, Level One. I had never seen it, but I knew it was there. It was located at the midway point of the utility corridor. We were at least two thirds of the way through the corridor of Level Two. We were going the wrong way to get out.

   I was ahead of Debra again, so I turned around and walked back to her, “We’re going the wrong way,” I said and then continued walking past her.

   “Wait, what?”

   I heard her steps stop and they didn’t restart, so I halted and turned. “I don’t know a briefer way to say it, so you’re stuck with an excess of verbiage, or blindly following me. You choose.”

   She shook her head and then put her left hand on her eyebrow, “Damn it, Dan,” she said.

   “Okay, when I get to where we need to be, I’ll check and see if you’re following, if so, I’ll wait, if not, you’re not my concern anymore.” I turned and started walking at a brisk pace, but I listened and when I heard mumbling and then steps following me, I slowed down so she could keep up. There are access hatches on each level of a Phase to allow workers to travel back and forth when tracing old equipment, or installing new. Normally there are three, one at the beginning, one at the end and one at the midway point. All they are, is a simple ladder between the levels with a hatch at the top. We had entered the utility corridor just past of where the middle one would be, so we would have to travel slightly farther than we had already, climb the ladder and then continue to the door into the exhaust duct. If I was by myself, I’d probably almost be there, but Debra was having difficulty.

   I passed the door I had pulled Debra through and continued, finally, I saw the ladder ahead and increased my pace. It was a simple affair, one-inch welded pipe bolted to the concrete and went straight up. Turning around, I could see Debra leaning against the wall about a hundred feet back and frankly, she wasn’t looking good. My guess? She probably had a concussion. I started back. She saw me coming and gamely straightened up and started following me again. I just shook my head and kept walking towards her.

   When I reached her, I started to pull out my canteen for her, but remembered she had already drank it all. Instead, I took her left arm and pulled it up to my left shoulder while I wrapped my right arm around her waist and pulled her tight to me.

   “Stop it.”

   “No, admit you need a little help, let me do it.”

   She struggled a little, but finally relaxed enough that we could proceed. When we reached the ladder, I asked her, “Are you up for a climb?”

   She looked up and immediately swayed in my grasp. “Maybe I better sit for a minute, okay?”

   “Sure, that blow to the head is doing a number on you. I’m going to go up and see if things are clear, then I’ll come back, sound like a plan?”

   She nodded, and then allowed her head to rest against the wall. I climbed the ladder and when I reached the top, I realized that I was going to be really lucky if Debra could make the climb. Twisting the handle, I pressed upwards and the hatch springs took over to open it fully. I raised up and saw the power was on in Level One. Good. I reached up and turned my headlamp off, then climbed the rest of the way out and stood on the floor. It was clear both ways, but there were still the access halls from the main floor area to the utility corridor. We would have to be careful each time we passed one. I re-entered the shaft and started back down.

   At the bottom, I found her slumped against the wall, her flashlight had rolled away from her limp grasp. “Debra? Hey, you still with me?”

   She struggled to sit upright and I helped her, “Yeah, I’m here, God I’m thirsty.” Her speech was slurred and slow.

   “I know, when we get to the top, I’ll see if I can find some water, okay?”

   She nodded and turned her head to look at the ladder, “I don’t know, Daniel, I feel really crappy.”

   “Of course, you do, but you can do this, I know you can. You’re the toughest Airman I’ve ever met.”

   She quietly snorted, “I’m the only Airman you’ve ever met.”

   I didn’t have a witty comeback, “Yeah, you’re right, you ready? You’re going to go first…”

   “No, if I fall…”

   “You won’t fall, I won’t let you, and I have a plan, so you can rest when you need to.”

   “Dan, how can I rest on a ladder that’s straight up and down?”

   “I’ll climb up behind you and stick my leg through the rungs. Once I’ve locked myself in, you can settle down on my thigh and I can hold you there so you don’t slip off. Okay? You won’t even have to hold on; you’ll be able to completely relax.”

   She cocked her head and looked up and me, “Why, why are you doing this?”

   For a moment I wondered if she was looking for a way we could reconnect and I wanted to tell her, because I loved her, but, “Because it’s the right thing to do, because you don’t leave anyone behind if you can help it.”

   I saw a brief moment of disappointment in her eyes and then she said, “I once told someone, if the only asshole in the wing was my responsibility, I would never leave them behind. It never occurred to me that it might be the asshole that could choose to leave me behind.”

   “Yeah, there’s an epiphany for you.” I stood up and reached down to grasp her hand, “Come on, we’re burning daylight.”

   She took her first break before we even entered the shaft and she took three more before I boosted her out the hatch. The hard thing was, in the close confines of the shaft I could smell her scent, it wasn’t a bad smell, in fact, it was wonderful and I realized how much I missed it. It made me physically ache for her.

   Once we were both out, I closed the hatch and propped her against the wall. “Debra, I’m going to see if I can find some water and then I’ll be back, okay?”

   She nodded without opening her eyes and I set out for the nearest access door. Once there, I slowly opened it and checked the vicinity. It was clear, so I stepped out and allowed the door to close and lock. I had considered leaving the door blocked open, but I didn’t want someone dangerous to have a free pass at Debra. I thought about where I might find a water fountain, a restroom, or anywhere there would be drinkable water, hell if I had to, I’d break a fresh water line and fill my canteen. I started checking every door I passed and finally, I came to one of the infrequent elevator lobbies. The glass doors on one end were broken out and there was the body of a woman stretched out between the passenger and freight elevators. At the far end, next to the opposite set of doors, was a water fountain. I went to it and pressed down on the valve; I was rewarded with an arch of cool water. Taking my folded canteen from its pouch, I rolled it out, unscrewed the cap and started filling it up. I had to shift the canteen several times before it was full, but I finally had water for Debra. I leaned over and sucked water from the fountain into my mouth as fast as I could while trying to look everywhere at once. I added the canteen to its pouch and then turned to leave, there was a man, in casual clothing, staring down at the dead woman. Where the hell did he come from?

   Raising my bullpup, I aimed at him while I pushed gently at the doors beside the water fountain, locked. Shit. I began to walk slowly towards him, but when I was about five feet from him, he looked up at me and we locked eyes. “Hi,” he said. “Are you new here?”

   “Uh, no, but I’m just passing through.”

   “Oh,” he pointed at the dead woman, “I know her, that’s Jenna. She’s not very nice, you know?”

   “She’s not?” I asked.

   “No,” then in a cheerful voice he added, “I was going to kill her, but someone beat me to it.” I slipped past him as he returned to looking at the dead woman, “This is so unfortunate, so unfortunate.” He kept repeating it with the exact same inflection every time. Outside the lobby, I headed back to the access tunnel while looking quickly back every few steps until the view was blocked. Then I picked up speed and practically ran the rest of the way. What the hell was going on? At the door, I again used my keys and I was quickly back inside. Moments later, I was kneeling next to Debra and trying to trickle water into her mouth; she was unconscious again.

   Ten to fifteen minutes later, she began to respond a little and I got her propped back up, “Are you up for moving for a while?” I asked.

   “I think so, maybe a little more water first.” I allowed her to drink two thirds of the canteen and then put it back in its pouch. A trickle of blood escaped the bandage over her eyebrow and began to drip from her eyelash before she wiped it away. I wondered if drinking the water was going to cause her to start the heavy bleeding again.

   “We need to prepare,” I said. “I’m going to put your Glock back in your holster, okay?” I unsnapped the stock from the pistol, but left the sling she had wrapped over one shoulder. Digging in her front pants pocket, I finally managed to get the seventeen round mag out and replaced the thirty-three rounder, which I put back in the bandoleer and slung over my head and shoulder. The pistol was returned to its holster and I helped her stand up.

   “I can walk,” she said.

   “I’m sure you can, for a while, but it’s going to be slow going. So, I’m going to carry you.” I bent down and slid my arm through her legs and then pulled her across my shoulders. I shrugged to get her settled, and then started deeper into the complex to reach the access door to the exhaust duct.

   When we reached the access, I laid Debra down and checked out the door. That’s what it was, an actual door. I could hear air leaking past it at some point I couldn’t detect. I removed my master keys and picked out the one for Phase Four again, slipped it into the lock and gave it a twist. With the door unlocked, I pressed down on the lever handle and pulled, it was stuck. I jerked harder and the sound of air leaking by, increased, but it pulled back tight again, what the hell? The air supply for the complex was based on a principal of positive pressure, that is, the fresh air was being pumped in so it became slightly over pressure within the complex. Even an over pressure of one pound per square inch could add up really fast and essentially make the door inopenable. No, there were return air grills all along the length of the utility corridor that were open so the air could be circulated, how could there be pressure holding the door closed? I realized I didn’t know as much about the intricacies of HVAC as I thought I did. I pulled my dagger from its sheath, slipped the point into the gap between the door and the frame and attempted to pry the door open as I pulled on the handle. The door gave a little and the sound of air escaping past started to increase. Then the fucking tip of the blade snapped off and the door returned to its original position. Damn it, I liked that little dagger! Not that it seemed to work very well with the guy trying to strangle me earlier. I wriggled the shortened blade back in and tried again. The leaking air sound increased again and then with a slight whooshing sound; the door pulled open.

   There was a hydraulic piston at the top the door that wanted to reclose it when I let go, but there was a door stop at the bottom. I pushed it down with the toe of my boot and blocked the door open. After dragging Debra into the tunnel, I made sure the interior handle worked in case we needed to return for some reason and then allowed the door to close. You could feel a fairly constant movement of air through the tunnel and it helped to dry out my clothes which were damp with sweat. I got Debra back up on my shoulders and started walking.

   The walk through the concrete tunnel was really nothing to talk about, it was long, tiring and boring. We finally reached the plenum building, and I discovered I was wrong about not being able to open the access door from the inside. When I carried Debra out into the open air there were several facilities workers loitering about and they ran off as fast as they could even after I shouted for help. I guess I couldn’t blame them though, Debra and I were bloody messes. It’s only about a hundred yards from the exhaust plenum building to the main supply tunnel for Phase One and EXSEC’s location. We were almost there when two armed members of External Security approached with weapons pointed at us. I identified myself and Debra and told them she needed emergency medical care. It had to be fairly obvious though because I could see one of the emergency medical carts headed our way. I stopped walking and lowered Debra onto a stretcher with the help of the medics. They loaded her up and drove away with her. After I handed her stock and magazine bandoleer to one of the EXSEC guys, I started the walk back to Phase Two; damn, I was tired.

   When I reached my room, I cleaned my bullpup and put it away. Looking over my FLC, and clothes, I could see they were a real mess and stained with blood, so I emptied all the pouches of the FLC and the pockets of my clothes, picked out some fresh clothing and went to the showers; there was no way I was going to shower in the small one in my room. I stepped into the shower with everything still on and proceeded to scrub everything down and then myself. I finished, went back to my room and crashed. I guess all of the physical and mental stress really did a number on me.