PART TWO: TO HELL AND BACK

Chapter Five: A Witches' Brew

I made my way through the labyrinth of corridors, descending down into the depths of the base, wondering if I'd ever see the real world again, expecting at any moment to meet a violent death here underground, in this unnatural soul-less world. Passing down to the second basement level was easy, but moving on from there would prove a little more difficult.

The entrance to the lower floors was guarded by a huge black steel door and two guards, both heavily armed. A camera kept a clinical electronic eye on the guards and any others heading for the door.

No point playing it quiet any more. I was running out of time.

I reached for my gun and leapt out from behind the wall. Time seemed to slow down to nothing. For a moment, for the briefest second, I seemed to live a lifetime. Bullets swept past me, closely followed by a symphony of shots, a rain of fire. I raised my arm and fired. Three perfect shots. The goon's black gas mask shattered, raining black glass into his eye and sending a clot of blood up in the air. The other two punched neat holes in his vest. His head was flung back against the wall and his body rolled to the floor.

I leapt to the side, bullets flying past me, sending chips of concrete and steel out in a flurry in the air. I threw a volley of bullets at the remaining guard. One shattered his arm. The gun flew up into the air. He slumped to his knees, raised the MP5, pulled the trigger… and his head slumped as the dry click ran out in the corridor.

"Oh god…" he muttered.

I fired five shots at him. His body swung around like a rag doll and splattered hard against the door, leaving a stain like someone had thrown a tomato at it. As I walked to the door, alone now with nothing but the gentle hum of the camera, it slid down the door and lay in a heap at the bottom.

I slid O'Connor's pass card into the keypad by the door. There were a few electronic clicks, then a cursor flashed up on the red screen. I typed the code into the numeric keypad and the door slid open slowly, accompanied by an electronic voice that said "Welcome, Dr O'Connor."

It opened on a yawning chasm of darkness like the mouth of hell. This was a bad place, this floor. A place of death.

I grabbed the card and walked through the door, into the darkness beyond.

The dark corridor soon emerged in a large foyer with a tiled AvaMed mural on the floor and a host of control panels around it. Three corridors led off into the depths of the base, the two side passages labelled TESTING, the one straight ahead called MANUFACTURE.

So this was it, I thought. The underground cavern where they made the witches' brew. Where it all began.

I wandered up to a glowing control panel. Touch-screen. Pressing a button caused the glass door to MANUFACTURING to slide open slowly, spilling a horrible medicinal smell out into the foyer.

This is it. All the secrets. And maybe the vaccine. My way out of this hell-hole.

I walked up the steps to the corridor, my legs like jelly, but my mind telling me to keep on going, to head deeper into the base. I was thinking about the last time I'd found myself in a place like this. All those years ago. Valkyr. Everything seemed too familiar to that base, to that other place that had spilt its poison out into the city. And I didn't believe in coincidences.

Stop it, I told myself. Calm down. It's your mind playing tricks on you. Deep Six was blown to hell. It's nothing but a ruin now. And it wasn't here in Wallabout. Focus on getting the vaccine and getting the hell out of here.

I stepped through the glass door. And my heart sunk.

The entrance to the manufacturing floor was sealed by another door with another keypad. I slid my keycard in and typed in the same code, only to be greeted by a refusal and for the card to slide back out. I snatched it out and cried out in utter frustration.

Only one other option left. I returned to the monitors in the centre and opened up the right testing corridor. Then I headed for the corridor beyond.

The door led to a long corridor of small cells, sealed by numbered steel doors with small observation windows. I absently peered into one window into the cold white room beyond. One bed, one toilet. A big Biohazard sign. This must have been where they kept the human test subjects. The rooms were locked by small electronic keypads.

I made my way down the shadowy corridor, glancing through windows. In some a few bodies lay slumped on beds, bloodstains splattered around their hospital johns. They all looked like pale, gaunt skeletons, like bloody horsemen of the Apocalypse. And, I thought grimly, I suppose that was what they were. The wrathful dead, a symbol of what was to come.

As I reached the end I heard a loud bang and shouts. Reaching for my gun, I ran to the source of the noise and saw the horrified, pale face of a researcher staring back at me from a cell.

"Get me out!" he screamed, hopelessly. "Please, god, we're going to die in here! Please!"

I walked up to the door, keeping the door closed, and reached for the keypad. The researcher yelled the code at me. I typed it in. The door unlocked with a slam and began to slide open.

Four researchers tumbled out into the corridor, hitching for fresh air.

"Oh, thank god," the guy at the window said. "Thanks, buddy. Jeez, Luther had his armed goons round us all up and lock us in here. He's going to blow up the base."

"So I've heard," I replied. "Listen, I need to get a hold of the vaccine prototype. Where is it?"

"The Manufacture floor. You'll need a separate card for access."

"Do you have it?"

The researcher nodded. "But if I were you, I'd get the hell out while you still can. Luther's down there now setting up the blast. Once he's triggered that there'll be no getting out."

I frowned. "Hand it over."

He shrugged, reached around his neck and handed me a card attached to a chain. "Good luck, man," he said, and he and the rest fled down the corridor.

So here goes nothing, I thought. The final stand, the crusade almost reaching its end. Guess if I had any sense I'd leave now with the rest of them. But why? I'd come too far to get out now. Mona was all that meant a damn to me anymore. If I wasn't escaping with that vaccine, it'd all be for nothing.

I walked determinedly back to the foyer, stepped through the door… and stopped.

They'd finally caught up with me. Maybe they'd been following me all this time, on those electronic eyes, watching my every move. Waiting.

There were about twelve guards in the foyer, all heavily armed, all fully kitted out. Every gun in the room was pointing directly at me. The bodies of the four researchers lay on the tiles in puddles of their blood, smoke rising off their bullet-ridden bodies. They'd all almost made it, I thought bitterly. Seemed like Luther had succeeded in silencing them after all.

"Put the gun down, Payne," the leader called out, through his black gas mask.

Outgunned. No escape. Only one choice.

I rolled backwards, into the corridor, a volley of bullet fire reducing the concrete wall behind me to shattered dust. I whipped out my gun, pinned myself against the wall, and leapt backwards into action, slamming a new clip home.

I opened fire on the guards, leaping sideways for the shelter of a monitor. Huge balls of fire rolled past me, the roar of gunfire filling my head. A bullet ripped a fire slash along my arm. Two guards fell backwards, clutching at their chests, one landing on another near him.

As I hit the floor the monitor exploded, causing all the doors to eerily slide open. I hardly noticed it as gunfire reduced the monitor to shattered metal and glass.

Come on, Max. Only one way out of this.

I leapt up, swinging around, my gun held high in the air. I blasted the nearest guard three times in the chest. He crumpled to his knees in a bloody mess. I leapt for the fallen guard's MP5, whipping it off his chest, and fell backwards.

I socked the gun against my shoulder, then slammed back on the trigger. Four guards spun around wildly under the force of the first clip, blood spraying in the air. The final five guards were retreating now. One paused to reload. I stood up and blasted open his chest. Another fell under a volley in the back.

The final three fled through the exit, back up to daylight.

I sighed and choked back a painkiller. Keep the pain on my arm back for long enough to get me to that vaccine. Come on, Max. Not much further now.

I threw the MP5 round my neck and made my way to the Manufacturing floor.

To be continued…