Dead Days

Chapter 29

      The alarm wailed. The room was washed in red as the main power supply was cut, most likely to lock all exits. Smart move.

     I stood their, waiting for someone to pry open that door. Hoping for it. Praying for it.

     The warrior roared and beat his chest, saliva spewing from his lips, his primal instinct driving him mad.

     The alarm stopped. The facility fell silent, my slow breathing the only thing audible.

     Then the footsteps came. Lots of them. A smile began to flicker onto my lips. Like sheep being led to the slaughter, I thought to myself.

     The footsteps stopped short of the door. I heard guns clicking and rounds being chambered.

     I heard the numbers being entered into the keypad. I heard the hydraulics of the door hiss. I heard the pin being pulled on a grenade. No. Not just any grenade, a flash bang.

     I seen the small cylindrical grenade slide through the crack of the door. Nice try, boys, I thought to myself. I kicked the grenade back through the crack covered my ears. I heard the muffled bang and then the screams of agony.

I spun and sighted the pistol just as the door finished sliding open. I fired the gun empty. 12 of them dropped. Each bullet implanting itself in a cranial cavity.

Upon firing the last two shots I began sprinting into the crowd of remaining guards.

I kicked the closest one in the knee hard enough for him to drop. He screamed louder and pulled his hands from his eyes. I shoved my thumb through his eye socket, stripped him of his pistol and opened fire on the rest.

They all dropped. 22 in all, not including the one I had my thumb in.

He groaned in agony, I pulled my thumb out and it made a wet popping sound. He dropped to the ground.

He put his hands up, I put the gun to his forehead and he winced as the hot barrel sizzled his skin.

     "Please!" He screamed out, tears coming from his eyes. His right eye, the one I had my thumb in was horribly swollen, but it was still there.

     Cassie came up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder, "show mercy, Jack. He's just a kid."

    She was right, he was just a kid. He had brown hair and brown eyes, his skin was the same color as mine. His name tag read Michael. "You have a choice here, Michael." I said, lowering the gun. "Join us and help us get out of here, or you can die right here, right now."

     His lips quivered.

     "If you betray me, I will kill you slowly, and horribly." I said.

      His face turned to stone and he nodded his head.

      "Okay." I said, holding out my hand.

     He accepted it and stood up. I handed him back the gun and pulled two more magazines from the dead guards and gave them to him.

       I picked up an assault rifle from one of the guards along with all the ammo I could find.

      "Do you know where her parents are?" I nodded towards Cassie.

     He nodded, "Mr. and Mrs. Goodman were sent to lockup. Vladim is planning on executing them, he thinks they are working with her to bring you back."

     I could hear Cassie's heart drop. She touched my forearm, the look in her eyes was draining.

     "We're not letting that happen, Cass. I promised you we'd get them out, and that's what we're going to do." She dropped her hand and looked to the ground, undoubtedly thinking the worst.

     "Where?" I asked.

     "Follow me." Is all he said and walked us down the hallway.

                                  ***

      "We have to be careful. Guards are roaming this entire facility in search of you and her and now me." Said Micheal, his eyes dead set in front of him.

      "Why you?" I asked, curious enough.

     "We're all implanted with an RFID chip. It tracks us, shows our vitals, and can be used to terminate us." He replied. "I was with baker team and now they're all dead except me."

     "Think we can use that against them?" I asked.

      "The guards maybe, but not on Vladim. That man is the embodiment of the anti-Christ. He wants this and he'll do anything to get it."

     "Well, I'm here to extinguish his flame. I've got vengeance to reap."

     "A vengeful soul is no better." He replied.

      "Why don't you just focus on taking us where we need to go." I said, ending the conversation.

     "You think that fuckface is really alive again?" Came from the distance, followed by footsteps.

"I don't know, Arthur, just shut the fuck up and do your job."

Both of them had a Russian accent, not as heavily as Vladim, though.

I listened more closely, there were four separate footfalls. I spun the corner and fired four rounds. Four guns raised, four guns dropped, four bodies hit the ground.

I lowered the assault rifle and picked up a couple more magazines from the guards.

"That's the fastest kill time I've ever seen," said Micheal, mouth agape.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, stripping one of the guards of their bullet proof vest.

"I've never seen anyone jump from cover raise their gun and fire four fatal shots in that short of a time."

"Yeah, well, I've had a lot of practice, kid."

"No, Jack, he's right," interjects Cassie, "that was non-human speed. That's the fastest I've ever seen you move. It was split seconds."

"So?" I ask, ready to get a move on.

Neither of them can produce an answer so I tell Michael to lead the way.

He leads us to a door and inputs a code, the door slides open, revealing Cassie's parents, gagged and tied down to chairs bolted into the ground.

They both see us and begin to struggle, trying to break free of their restraints. Probably at the sight of me, they act like they've never seen a dead guy before.

I dropped the gun on a counter and walked over to her father, I removed his gag and as soon as the cloth slipped from his mouth he screamed, "IT'S A TRAP!"

As the words escaped his lips the hydraulics of the door squealed as it slammed shut. A group of vents opened in the ceiling and a low hiss became present. "It's gas!" I yelled, "find something to filter it!"

Cassie, Michael and I searched frantically for something to cover our airways with.

Michael dropped first. Then Cassie's parents. Then Cassie.

My eyes became so heavy. The room was spinning and stars were bursting in my peripherals. I slid open a drawer to find a gas mask. As I reached in I lost my balance. I fell to the ground and had no strength to get up.

Cassie laid a few feet away from me. I reached out a hand, trying to grab hers but blackness converged over my vision and unconsciousness welcomed me.