Chapter 11
"All stations, this is NEST Team Ninja-33. We are on-site. Police forces have withdrawn to minimum safe distance. Eyes on the facility. Making infil."
"Copy, 33. Watch your radiation levels. Document everything you see in there. Disarm anything potentially live if you can."
The camera feeds showed multiple armed figures in HAZMAT suits approaching the entrance to the hideout. And that really was the word for it. 'Facility' had been a more protocol-standard choice, yet far too generous. And the term 'shit pit' was too polite for it. It was literally a massive shelter built of scrap metal and cinder blocks under the bridge with a wire mesh fence full of holes and held up with cable ties. Scrap metal and trash bags were piled up out the front with seemingly no intent to dispose of them.
"Got two KIA out front." The leader walked over to the two bodies with his rifle raised, checking the high points and corners. "Definitely shot. Looks like radiation burns on one of them. Portman?" Another HAZMAT walked over with a Geiger counter and started waving the little wand over the body. The needle didn't jump astronomically high, but still much higher than it should when near a human.
"Elevated radiation. Fatal prolonged dosage." Portman reported. "His ability to produce white blood cells would be completely destroyed." He carried on walked forward, his counter climbing with each step. As they neared the doorway, a glance to the side caught the attention of one of the men.
"Sir. Looks like a body over there."
"Check it out, Williams." The Leader kept his rifle levelled at the door. "Tiller, go with him." The two men headed to the trash bags, bending down to examine what Williams had spotted.
"Confirmed presence of more bodies. They've been dumping them out front in trash bags. My personal counter is spiking. All the shit out here's at a minimum of six-hundred rads. We're forming back up before we start growing a third head." With that, Williams gestured to Tiller who nodded and joined him as they made their way back to the group. Those who were armed raised their weapons, keeping the two technicians of the team covered.
"Control, be advised: we have confirmed radioactive contaminants on-site. Presence of nuclear devices not yet confirmed. Going interior." They headed in, activating their weapon-mounted flashlights and proceeding into the main room. From the inside, the building they were in actually appeared to be just that. It looked a building that had then had tons of crap heaped on top of it to disguise it as a junk pile that no one would bother to clean up. The ramshackle front was exactly what it looked like: a ramshackle front. Nothing more than an outward mask to disguise what was lurking underneath. The body mounted Geiger counters the team wore were already maxing out, so they were very limited on their exposure times. Portman's main unit would be able to give them a more precise reading. If there was time, the leader would have him take some readings before they left for the record.
The room down the corridor put pay to that. As soon as they entered, every man on the team had to take a second to work out what they were seeing. When they managed to process it, the sick feeling that hit them all was immediate. And it wasn't entirely to do with the radiation. Racks of grenades lined the walls. Hundreds, if not thousands of grenades sat there just waiting for use with many more in pieces on work benches. Without even waiting for command, Portman moved in and started waving the wand of the Geiger counter over everything he could reach. The reading said it all. That did it. The amount of radioactive content in this room would require at least a ten year operation to safely dispose of. And what was more, it was under a main bridge used for civilian traffic! How had this managed to get past the cops or the health authorities? Either way, it was too much for them to deal with upfront. Their suits would protect them for a limited time. Time the leader planned to use for checking the viability of the devices. Every single one of the grenades was stuffed with irradiated shrapnel. They were compact dirty bombs! If anyone took a non-fatal hit from one, the resulting exposure time until they could get proper medical treatment stood a good chance of sealing their fate. Well not on their watch.
"I want every device in here checked and cleared." The leader would have scratched his head in wonder if not for his suit. "That should see us through our allotted exposure time. Then we pull out. We'll have to get them to send a separate retrieval team to take this stuff to a more secure location. We'd best get started."
The people of The Hive watched the whole operation through the big screen. Outside in the crisp night air, Ana and House sat in two chairs dragged out from one of the shelters while hooked up to bags of fluid. Just as Ana had promised, Melody had been able to produce two bags of KI solution. Potassium Iodide, as Chloe knew it. A treatment used in a few things, one of them being radiation sickness. She'd got them on a fractional dose as a preventative measure. Those were also their last two bags of the stuff, so Ana promised her she'd put in for some more in the morning. As the screen went black, Percy terminated the feed.
"And that is what Chloe just saved all of you from." Melody announced as she moved to double-check Ana's IV line. Chloe found it impressive how she'd learned how to do all the stuff she had. She'd managed to hook the pair of them up quickly, efficiently and precisely. If she ever went to work as a medic of some description, she'd breeze through the training. Which was why it was slightly unnerving when she turned her gaze to Chloe so readily. "And by the way, how did you work it out? I mean, who the hell would have realised it was radiation of all things?"
"Uh..." Chloe started scratching at the back of her head sheepishly. "I was kind of a science nerd in school. There were only a couple of things I knew of that might interfere with a signal like that. Then I started wondering if that guy's skin condition might not be eczema and everything fell into place from there."
"Well you just saved Ana's life." Melody said. "Again. And you threw in House as a bonus." At that, House looked over and gave her a nod in thanks. Chloe felt all eyes on her and couldn't help the embarrassment flaming in her cheeks. She'd gone from being treated with hostility to being almost worshipped among them. They'd clearly found a whole new degree of respect for her in the short time she'd been here and it was only cementing her decision to stay. Back in Arcadia, she was seen as a broken girl from a broken home. In Seattle, her skillset was actually helping people.
"So what do we do now?" Chloe asked. "Obviously we can't sit still while they attempt things like that. What's the play from here?"
"Well, you're free to do whatever the hell you want." Melody shrugged. "So are Inchy and Percy. I'm keeping Melody and House under observation tonight. I want to be sure they're combat ready tomorrow and won't start losing hair further down the road."
"Take the bed tonight, Chloe." Ana told her. "You've earned it."
"Thanks." Chloe nodded, resolving that she was absolutely not taking that bed. It had been one thing when she hadn't had her own roll of bedding. Now that she had, she was determined to put it to some use. Besides, she'd usurped Ana's bed from her too many times now. "In that case, I'm kinda beat. I'll see you guys tomorrow?" Her words were met with a course of eager agreement.
Excusing herself, she got up and headed for the shelter she and Ana shared. She got in and took her time to finish smoothing out her bedding roll before all but collapsing on it. The day had been one fraught with dangers, but she couldn't help herself in thinking she'd handled it all rather well. There was a sense at the back of her mind that Max would have been proud of her. She didn't know where it had come from, but it had been there for a while and was refusing to shift. And that was okay. She kind of liked it. Max hadn't been on contact for over three years now. Since being in Seattle, Chloe hadn't had chance to put in much effort to find her. Her dad had once taught her when they were camping that if she was patient enough, good things might come to her instead of her having to go to find them. Turns out that only worked with fireflies. In the absence of the real Max, this feeling would be a good enough surrogate to keep her moving forward for now.
She didn't know how long she lay there with her eyes closed. All she knew was that when she opened them again, it was to the cracking of fire and the sulphurous roaring of things that weren't meant to be burned going up in flames. Instantly alert, she flung her feet off the bedding roll and jumped up, desperately trying to ignore the explosion of lights in her eyes as she suffered a massive head rush from getting up too quick. Just then, an explosion rocked the ground under her feet hard enough to throw her to the ground again.
"Ah, fuck!" she screamed as she felt the panic creeping up her spine. She knew something had gone seriously wrong. Just how wrong still remained a mystery, though. Her shelter wasn't on fire as far as she knew, assuming the roof wasn't an absolute inferno and it just hadn't burned through yet. Although if it had, that would explain the smell.
The answer to just how bad this was came seconds later. The door and its surrounding wall were torn apart as a heavy-set body was thrown through it in a cacophony of noise, landing heavily right next to her. Her hand was instantly on her back pocket, going for her knife. On the other side of the wall, she could see Ana panting with furious exertion. She was about to call out when someone else attacked from behind. Before Chloe could warn her, Ana whirled to face him and let out a furious scream. The sound was so strong it was almost visible and the effect was immediate. His face crumpled in pain as he collapsed, blood leaking from his eardrums, eyes and mouth as it opened in a silent scream.
"They're Tunnel Snakes!" Ana called to her. "They found us!" Chloe had already guessed. She'd seen the tattoos of both men. Flicking open her knife, she charged into the fray, going back-to-back with Ana.
"If I can take them down a peg or two, you finish them off. Okay?" Ana nodded in response as they looked over and saw Melody in some trouble. She'd been backed up against the edge of her own medical tent and three of them were aiming pistols at her.
"Don't fire! I'm a medic!" Something told the girls that the Tunnel Snakes weren't about to care. In seconds, Chloe's knife was arcing through the air. It was a clean hit and embedded into the eye of the one nearest to her. She charged in, grabbing the handle and dragging downwards. He let out a scream of agony as the other two turned to aim at her. Fortunately for Chloe, she was tall for a girl but still shorter than most of the Tunnel Snakes. She was easily able to duck behind her first victim. Unfortunately, she hadn't counted on one man built like a gorilla turfing the injured one aside and punching her in the head so hard she saw stars. He followed it up with a kick to the ribs that hit with a resounding crack and send her sprawling. She could taste blood instantly as she hit the gravel hard. Fortunately, Ana was right behind her. She had her pistol drawn, the muzzle flashing three times with each punctuated by the sharp crack of gunfire as three bodies hit the floor. They crashed to the ground like dominoes as one of their guns discharged wildly.
"Are you okay?" Ana called over to Melody who was going visibly pale and shaky.
"Just winded." The reply sounded more meek than usual as she rested a hand on her chest. "Also not used to having a gun aimed at me, I guess." With that, she reached out and picked up a fallen Glock that had landed near her, holding it close as though hugging it for warmth. "I'll protect the medical tent. Go help the others."
"Got it!" Ana nodded as she and Chloe ran off again, Chloe doing her best to ignore the blazing pain in her chest. Around them, they could see House duck under one man's swing before delivering a mean headbutt and following it up with several vicious blows to the head with an adjustable wrench. Percy had managed to snipe one guy holding a shotgun and had now grabbed the fallen weapon for himself and chasing a group of four men off. Inchy had grabbed the fire hose from the repair bay- judged the place most likely for a fire to start- and was working to put as much of the blaze out as he could, blasting anyone that came too close to him with icy water too.
The Tunnel Snakes were falling back, but The Hive wasn't out of the woods yet. A glance at the entryway told the story of how they'd got in: by ramming a truck through the gates hard enough to take them down. Chloe was amazed she hadn't been woken by it. The battle must have started immediately before she woke up. Whatever the case, one thing was certain: they had to clear the entrance and re-secure it. If they didn't, any reinforcements the Tunnel Snakes had would just keep pouring in.
"Anna! We have to close the gate!" Chloe called to her. Anna looked over and instantly noticed what she was pointing to. Together, they ran over to the truck. There was still a Tunnel Snake in there behind the wheel, probably ready to get them all out again before the cops and fire department showed up. Ana nailed him with a shot from her pistol as he spotted them heading over.
Unfortunately, that was also the last shot that one was good for. Even with printers as advanced as the ones The Hive had, a 3D printed barrel wasn't going to last forever. It blew out in spectacular fashion as gas began to vent rapidly from the ruined pistol. Ana discarded it without thinking as she and Chloe reached the truck. Chloe hauled herself up to the cab and reached over the body in the driver's seat, trying not to think about what she was doing in that moment, to let the parking brake off. With that done, she and Ana put a concerted effort into pushing it out of the gate. Even with the brake off, it took a stupid amount of effort. But eventually they got it clear. Without wasting a second, Ana ran over to what was left of the gate.
"They didn't totally break it!" she called to Chloe. "They just buckled it! It'll do!"
"Got it!" Chloe nodded as she helped the older woman to get the gate back into position and pull the latch across. Somehow, there was enough left to hold it in place. Temporary it may be, but as Ana said, it would do. Now they just had to hope that no one had seen or heard the carnage and called the cops.
Turning back, they found out that it was nearly over. Inchy had done an amazing job of damping down the fires in the showers, toilets, repair bay and food prep area. It appeared that most of the flames had been caused by whatever incendiary devices had been used rather than them having caught onto anything. Although that was nothing short of a miracle considering how much fuel there was in the repair bay. Percy and House had pretty much finished off the rest of the Tunnel Snakes and Melody... Chloe had to do a double-take. Melody had sat down and slid sideways to lie on her side while their backs were turned. A great smear of blood was visible on the tent wall. It took a second for Chloe to process what she was seeing, but when the penny dropped it did so with a horrible clang.
"Melody!" Chloe barely recognised her own voice as she took off at a sprint. Ana spotted it too and joined her in the mad dash to reach their fallen friend. When they did, they realised the damage was worse than they'd first feared. Melody hadn't been resting her hand on her chest at all. She'd been clutching at it in what must have been a state of agony. A quick glance at where the Tunnel Snake bodies had fallen earlier told Chloe all she needed to. One of the pistols had discharged when its owner died. Her paleness hadn't been fear at all! She'd been hit!
"Get her shirt up!" Ana ordered, realising the same thing. Chloe did so, hiking the edge of the fabric up to see what they were dealing with. One look told her all she needed to know.
"That's a gunshot wound!" Chloe screamed as she clutched Melody closer to her. "Melody, you stupid, stupid kid! You should have told us you were hurt!" There was no response. That was when Chloe realised that her chest had stopped rising and falling. Blood flow from the bullet hole had slowed to a stale trickle and Melody's skin was going cold to the touch. "Melody?" Chloe knew she wasn't going to get an answer, but her mind refused to accept it. "Don't do this to us, Melody. Don't fucking do it! Say something!"
"Chloe..." Ana rested a hand on Chloe's shoulder gently and placed the other on the hand that was still gripping Melody's shirt. "Chloe, she's gone."
"No..." Chloe turned to protest, but one look at Ana's face took any argument away from her in that instant. She rocked back into a sitting position and hugged her knees to her face, burying it deep so that no one would see her breaking down. Even if they knew perfectly well what was going on. Inchy, House and Percy had also noticed and were making their way over. House was dragging a Tunnel Snake that he'd beaten half to death behind him. The man was still making threats, but it didn't carry much weight with two shattered kneecaps and several teeth missing. No one was paying attention to him. He wasn't going anywhere and their attention was still firmly fixed on Chloe, Ana and the ashen, lifeless figure of Melody lying in front of them.
In that moment, Chloe felt another hand on her shoulder. House, unable to speak, was trying to offer support. She felt Inchy's hand on her other shoulder and Percy joining soon after. In that moment, nothing else mattered. None of them were ready to look up and face the world, but that was okay. Until they were, the important thing was that they were there for each other.