Davis arrived at the door to Briggs' quarters. He raised his hand to knock, but froze with it in mid-air as the raucous laughter from the other side gave him pause. It certainly didn't sound like a band of traitors was meeting to exchange their mutinous ideas. Swiftly he grasped the doorknob and stepped inside, hoping to catch them off-guard.
"Hey Davis," Masters called out around the cigar stub that hung from his mouth. The rest of the group was scattered around the floor actually playing poker, it seemed.
Masters continued, "Shut the door man, we wouldn't want to get busted for gambling." His comment was met with a chorus of laughter from the others assembled.
This was definitely not what Davis had expected to see. "Shouldn't we get down to business?" he asked.
Henry replied, "We are brother. 'Cause Steele, I see your five, and I'll raise you another." This time it was a chorus of groans that filled the room.
"Damn, that leaves me out," grumbled Cowboy.
"Me too," quipped Marshall.
"I see you, and I'll raise you ten," Briggs replied. Despite the gloom of being in an underground facility, she sat in a corner near her bed with a pair of silver Oakley sunglasses hiding her eyes.
"Shit! That's too rich for me, I'm just a lowly specialist," moaned Steele. Masters also declared he was out, leaving the game solidly between Henry and Briggs. Henry finally called, revealing a full house with kings high.
Briggs smiled a big Cheshire cat grin, laying her cards down with a flourish she said simply, "Straight flush."
The room exploded with trash talk. Davis still stood by the door, staring at everyone as though they had lost their minds. "Um, people, am I the only one here who remembers what we agreed to get together for?" he tried.
Briggs smiled again, "Well, if you're like the rest of these clowns you're here to lose your shirt tonight."
"I thought we were here to go over our intel. Make our plans. Get out of the fucking rat trap. You're the one who gave the code this morning Briggs!" He was no longer able to keep the frustration from his voice.
"Things change Davis."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean Henry?" Davis demanded.
"It means Dr. Steiner has asked me to join his team," Briggs replied.
"And it means we've had time to rethink about our reasons for wanting to leave," Cowboy added.
"We're safe here," Steele began, "and as long as the researchers keep working, maybe they'll find a cure and this nightmare will be over."
Davis scoffed, "A cure for being dead Steele? Get real."
"I meant a vaccine or something to protect us survivors if we get bit," she was quick to defend. "Do you know that Ft. Pastor, all the hospitals, none of them would have been overrun if we could have given people a vaccine to prevent them from turning into one of those things up there. This whole fucking mess might have been avoided!"
"I really don't believe what I'm hearing here," Davis scoffed.
"Believe it Davis," Cowboy finished.
"But Henry, your brother is one of the survivors here! The ones that the researchers are experimenting on," Davis tried a different tactic to reason with him.
"After we blew outta Ft. Pastor without seeing him ever be brought in I'd already accepted his death," Henry replied coolly.
"But he's not dead! And they could use him like a lab rat," Davis tried again.
Unknowingly echoing his own brother's words, Henry replied, "Better him than me."
"I don't believe what I'm hearing here." Davis nearly yelled as he reached for the door knob. "And I'm not going to sit here and be a part of this...this...this murder," he stammered. With that, he stormed from the room, slamming the door in his wake.
"That was pleasant," Masters pronounced.
"Shut the fuck up Zack, we need to get back to business," Briggs commanded, finally pulling the sunglasses from her face. "Steele, Cowboy, we need to know absolutely everything going on with command, if someone takes a shit, I want to know about it. Masters, Henry, we need three birds completely readied for us. Go down the escape tunnels to the alternate helipad, leave the birds we brought in outside, I've got plans for them. I want the new birds fully armed, geared up, fueled, the works."
"What about the rest of the birds down there?" Masters asked.
"I want them ready to make a big bang when we exit, they should have what you need in the arms room,'' she told him. "Marshall, you're our liaison with our little group of survivors. I want to know of their comings and goings, I want to know everyone who enters and leaves that room. If I need to make contact with one, you're going to play message boy."
"What about you Briggs?" Henry asked.
"I'm going to take up Frankenstein on his offer to visit the labs, see what kind of information I can get out of the researchers."
"Could be risky," commented Henry.
"Everything we're doing here involves a certain degree of risk.We should also consider feeling out Walker, Evans and Randall, see if we can bring them on board with us, we might need the extra man-power."
"Anything else?" Cowboy drawled.
"Yea, Marshall,you've got the baby-sitting detail tonight, I need you to set up a meeting with CJ for me. Everyone else, you have your orders. I want to be ready to move in two days, it's not much time, but I don't think we're going to be able to make it out of here if we stay any longer than that."