"Ugh," Jess slowly came to, sat up and looked to her partners. They were still out but they were breathing. She got up and looked around.
They had been locked up in a white jail room. Their packs were just out of reach on a small table across from them. She turned from the table and looked at the two beds in the cell. She managed to get Sarah and Brad up on them and then set about looking for a way to get to the key.
She looked around but saw nothing that she could reach that would help them to get out. She looked up above the bed that Brad was lying on and saw that the ventilation shaft was open. There was another one on the other side of the room and all though it was closed she figured that she could get it open. It was a large enough crawlspace for her to enter, the question was, was it safe?
"Oh well," she said. "Either I go up there and meet something or wait for whatever could be up there to come meet us," she said getting up. "Sorry Brad," she said as she tried to step around him to get into the shaft.
Inside it was cold, musty and dark. She could only see where she was going because of the holes in the shaft opening. She slowly crawled forward, going carefully so she wouldn't get stuck. When she reached the other shaft opening, she pried it open and then dropped through. She shook her head clear, then walked over to the table. She put on her pack, making sure everything was all accounted for, then grabbed her lock pick and unlocked the door. Sarah and Brad were both still out so Jess sat down on the floor and waited. She checked her watch. 10:00. "Man we're way behind schedule now, that jerk, I swear, I'll get him." She paced around for a while then sat back down. It wasn't long before Sarah and Brad began to stir.
"What's going on?" asked Sarah sitting up.
"Yeah, really," said Brad.
"Packard, remember? He knocked us all out and I guess he put us in here and took the samples. If we don't catch up with him, the mission will be a failure," Jess said. "As soon as you guys are ready we'll go after him."
"Let's go then," they replied coming out of the cell and grabbing their things.
"We need to go back to the control room. I think Packard is still here because he hasn't destroyed this place. I don't think he would have left us alive if he wasn't going to do that. We can search for him on the computer," Sarah said walking out of the room.
"You can do that? How?" Brad asked.
"There's a heat sensing device on it. It won't show anything that is already dead but it will show those who are alive," Sarah answered.
"That means it won't show zombies then will it?" asked Brad.
"Nope, now let's go," Jess said pushing ahead.
When they got to the control room, Sarah put her things down, typed for a few minutes and suddenly a map of the lab came on the screen. There were three red dots in the control room, another in a hall not far away and another in one of the labs.
"Hey wait a minute, I thought it wasn't possible for anyone to have survived the outbreak down here. Who is the extra dot?" asked Brad.
"I don't know, maybe it's the sniper that wouldn't let people onto the property when the fire broke out. Is there any way you can find out?" asked Jess.
"I can run a personnel check. That will put the names of any workers or anyone else who is listed in the file here on the screen with their dot," said Sarah hitting a few more buttons. "All the dots that it can't find a name for it will just list as Unknown."
A minute later Packard's picture came up and his name went next to the dot that was now leaving the hall it had previously been in. He entered a lab to the right of him and stayed motionless. He was listed as an undercover employee for Byol Co. and worked directly for Rowley. The other four dots came up as Unknowns.
"Well, this explains why he did what he did," Jess said feeling her anger well up inside her. "It might also explain why we can't seem to reach the Boss."
"We know who we are but who's the other guy? Should we go check him out?" asked Brad.
"No. Let's get out of here. I'm worried about what may be happening in the town," said Jess. "By now something has to h-"
"THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACCTIVATED. THIS SEQUENCE MAY NOT BE ABORTED. ALL PERSONS EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. REPEAT.
THE SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACCTIVATED. THIS SEQUENCE MAY NOT BE ABORTED. ALL PERSONS EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."
"Oh man, looks like we really need to go," said Sarah picking up her stuff as the alarm continued.
Jess noticed that a timer had come up on the screen. It was counting down; it said 14:46. The three of them looked at the dots one last time and then bolted out the door. They ran up the stairs and made it back into the lodge running into seven zombies each killed with one bullet.
Jess ran to the first window in the hall that had been broken. She could see the street. "Through here guys. Jump out and run towards the road," she said to them.
She watched the other two jump out and quickly followed. When she got to the road she looked towards the town and began to jog back to the hotel. No use wasting too much energy, they had about ten minutes to get out of range. It had taken them about that long to get to the lodge before when they were walking, so they had time.
They stopped when they were finally at the hotel and turned to look at the lodge. Within two minutes, it exploded into a huge fireball that rose high above the surrounding trees. They turned and walked back to their room and plopped onto their beds. They heard the sirens as they put their things away and sat down again. It was 10:27.
"How was the self-destruct sequence initiated?" asked Brad. "I thought that the only room you could do that in was the control room and we were in there the whole time."
"Well, a person can also turn it on from one of the central labs. That other guy was in that same lab. I'm willing to bet he did it," Sarah said.
"That's okay, we were going to do the same thing and we have most of what we need. I guarantee he made it out alive. We'll just have to track him down and find out who he is. Though we need to get to Packard first," said Jess getting up. She walked over to the window and looked out at the town. "You can definitely tell that the virus is out. The town seems as though it's dying."
No one said a thing for a moment as the rain began to fall again. The wind started up and Jess could see lightning in the distance. She walked away from the window, changed into jeans and her orange t-shirt and sat down on her bed. Her thoughts went back to that fifth dot on the computer screen. Who had it been?
"We're going to have to be careful now. We'll have to watch the news tonight and tomorrow to see what has been going on," said Brad.
"Yeah, let's turn the radio on. They only get like, one news station here so whatever news they are going to put on the air will be on it. I think today's paper has come. I think they have them at the desk downstairs. I'll go get the paper, be right back," said Jess getting up.
"Alright," said Sarah.
Jess walked down the hall slowly. She thought about everything that had happened, everything that was happening now and everything that would (or could) happen as a result. It was a lot to think about at one time.
She got downstairs and quickly found the papers. She grabbed one and looked through it for some story that might catch her eye as she walked back. On the front page there was a story about all the "mysterious" disappearances that had been occurring and a story about three bodies that had been found in the woods; half eaten.
She picked up the pace and then suddenly stopped at the elevator. She felt for her wallet and found it in the back pocket of her jeans. She grinned, turned around and walked to the front desk, taking out her wallet.
"Excuse me," she said to the lady sitting there.
"Yes, may I help you?" the lady asked.
"Yes, I had a friend check in yesterday. I was wondering if, since he was with my group, I could cancel his room and pay for last night myself. He left and I don't think he'll be returning," said Jess.
"Well, I wouldn't normally but since he was with you we can do that. One moment please," the lady answered, typing on her computer. "Okay, that will be $45.00 please."
"Here," said Jess handing her two twenties and a five from her wallet.
"Thank you," said the lady, taking the money. "Have a nice day."
"Your welcome, you too," answered Jess walking away. Back at the room, she showed them the paper. As they read through it they found ten more stories that had something to do with their mission and what was going on. When they were done reading, they threw it away and Jess told them about Packard's room.
"Well, that takes care of Packard for now. Is his door open?" asked Sarah. "We should search his room before the maids go to clean it. We might be able to find out what he is or was planning to do."
"Well, it might not be open but I've got a lock pick. These are just simple doors. No number keypad locks or whatever," said Jess. "So it doesn't really matter whether or not it's locked."
"Okay, let's go then," said Brad.
They walked into the hall and unlocked the door to Packard's former room. They went inside after making sure that there was no one around, and locked the door behind them. Jess placed the "Don't Disturb" sign on the doorknob.
Packard's room looked just like theirs did except it had been left in shambles. All three beds were a mess with the sheets strewn all over the floor. The water was on in the bathroom sink. The chairs in the kitchen were lying on the floor.
"Whoa, this place is a mess, I didn't think he needed three beds to sleep," said Brad.
"All the drawers in this whole place are empty," said Sarah.
"So are all the closets and everything else. We might be overlooking something, let's double check," said Jess.
They went through everything again but didn't find anything. "You guys can go back to the room, I'm going to stay a minute longer and make it easier on the maids," said Jess.
"I'll help you," said Sarah turning around.
"Well, I'm going back to the room to take a nap. If I sleep longer than two hours, wake me," Brad said walking out of the room. Sarah nodded at him and shut the door behind him. She began stripping the beds and folding the sheets while Jess picked up the trash.
"We need to figure out how to get out of here. The only road out is blocked by a large fire that doesn't seem like it's going to die out anytime soon. We don't have a car here as it is," said Jess tying up the first of the bags in the trashcan and moving on. "I don't think we'll be able to save many people here either. Not anymore."
Sensing that Jess was thinking about something, she asked, "Is there something that you haven't told us yet?"
"Yeah, last night when I couldn't sleep, I looked out the window. There was a suspicious person stumbling around about two blocks away. It was too far for me to be able to do something quickly so I just kept watching it, hoping that it was nothing. Then from one of the buildings near it, someone shot it through a window or something. Everyone woke up and I got dressed and grabbed my coat and badge. I ran all the way there and looked at the body. It was a zombie," she continued after putting away her second bag of trash. "I convinced one of the officers that I was a doctor and needed to take the body for testing. I had the body put in an unlocked van and drove to the outskirts of town, where I burned it. Then I came back and went to bed," she finished.
"Wow. I wonder if the person who shot the zombie is the same person we saw on the screen during the mission," said Sarah.
"I don't know, I guess it's a good possibility," said Jess as they moved into the kitchen and began cleaning up the dishes and counters.