V - Humanity's Last Hope
Sweat poured down Lisa's face as she looked through the tiny hole in the drawer. Her foggy glasses slipped down her nose, though she quickly moved them up. She then quickly flinched her head upwards as she heard growling outside the door. Kimi looked at Lisa with a tilted head as she licked the sweat drops. Lisa shuddered softly.
Next thing she knew, the sound of the door crashing against the wall was heard. Kimi raised her head and stood up as she looked towards the source of the noise. Lisa heard growls and rapid footsteps jogging across the room, followed by the sound of glass breaking. She then heard her lab rats squeaking as the hungry growls got louder, and suddenly, she was hearing the sound of metal cages being tossed around the room.
"No…" whispered Lisa.
Kimi turned her head away from the tiny wooden wall, then away from Lisa's face, then towards the hole. Suddenly, a roamer clawed against the desk that Lisa was hiding in. Kimi turned towards the wooden wall again. The roamer hissed as Lisa kept her hands over her mouth, though it had no idea what it was looking for. Kimi then growled softly.
"Shush," whispered Lisa, her voice quivering.
The roamer continued to look around and growl before it noticed the hole in the drawer. It walked towards the drawer and dropped to its knees as it looked around it.
Lisa and Kimi looked out the hole. The girl was squirming as she could see flesh hanging out the roamer's shoulder, which had a bullet inside it. Then, she saw a golden eye peering into the hole. Kimi growled loudly and barked, provoking the roamer as it growled back, slamming its hand against the drawers, causing Lisa to shriek loudly. She covered her eyes and ears as the roamer continued to bang against the desk, convincing other roamers to slam themselves against it. Kimi kept barking as loud as she could as Lisa kept shrieking, dropping her pistol.
"Hyah!" yelled a voice outside. "Ah! Haugh! Hyuh!"
A spit of blood went through the hole and into Lisa's loafers as she continued to yell, albeit softer.
"Scaring my lil' sister? Oh, you guys are so dead!" said another voice. "Get it? Ugh. Of course, you guys don't— you lamebrains can't think of nothin' but eatin' people alive."
"L-Luan?" whimpered Lisa.
"Hey, where are you?" she responded.
The drawer opened, causing Luan to turn around— blood and pieces of decayed flesh stuck on the polycarbonate visor of her riot helmet. Kimi leaped out, growling at the dead corpses on the floor.
"Hey, girl. You're safe with now," said Benny as Kimi jogged towards him.
Lisa dragged herself out of the drawer with the pistol in her hand as she removed her glasses, wiping it against her sweater.
"Your glasses are sweaty?" asked Luan. "That sweater is only gonna make it sweatier. Hehe. Heh."
"Not now, Luan. Are the mice okay?"
Lisa grabbed a stool and stood on top of it as Luan looked around the laboratory. She saw a shattered glass tank with ripped-open mice carcasses next to them.
"Aw, rats. They're dead."
"Except this one," said Benny. "This one seems fine."
Lisa turned around and saw Benny picking up a cage on the floor. It was the white mouse with the bandage across its neck.
"Great. Where's the NIRT solution?"
"The cure prototype?" asked Luan. "Blue glowy thing? Yeah, it's not a solution anymore. Look."
Benny handed Lisa the rat cage as she stepped down from the stool, walking past the desk she was hiding in. She looked at the floor and gasped as the solution in the floor was covered in lye.
"You got the recipe, right?" asked Luan.
"The step-by-step process in manufacturing the solution isn't the issue. The chemicals and substances needed to manufacture said solution is the issue here!"
Luan and Benny were puzzled. Kimi walked up to Luan, licking her brown boots.
"The ingredients! We need more!"
"Sorry to drop this bomb on you," said Luan, "but that's the least of our problems. Come!"
Luan grabbed Lisa's hand and dragged her out of the room as Kimi followed the girls and Benny.
"What happened?" asked Lisa.
"There are bombs in here," said Benny. "Maybe under the White House. Maybe all around us. But there are bombs. I think Calvin said fuel-air explosives."
Lisa looked around the hallway, finding corpses outside the laboratory. Her hands clammed up as Luan continued leading her to the Residence Building.
"Thermobaric explosives to take down this entire building?" wondered Lisa. "Could be a GBU-43/B. Mother of all bombs. What we're dealing with is not just urgent. It's pretty freakin' urgent. I assume I'm going to partake in the task of diffusion?"
"Yeah, ya got it, Lis," said Luan.
Their footsteps echoed across the hallway as Luan, Benny, Lisa, and Kimi reached the Palm Room, all while the cage with the mouse with the bandage was held by Benny. The laboratory was empty. But the hallways were not.
Lincoln walked downstairs into the West Wing Ground Floor lobby, with Calvin's assault rifle behind him. Some of the cannibals moved their flashlights around, while others held a lighter up.
"You don't have to do this," said Lincoln. "The world can go back to the way it was."
"It was a shit world," said Calvin. "Perhaps you were taking the liberty this world gave you for granted."
"There will always be people like you guys. People that kill others for their own selfish reasons— how can you have that on your conscience? No one is ever safe with you people around!"
"Good to know."
"You all have to leave and never come back. Please, I'm begging you. You all have a second chance."
"We got our golden opportunity here, Lincoln. Why squash it and throw it away?"
"You'll suffer a fate worse than death."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a warning."
Calvin snickered. Lincoln's sweaty face remained unconvincing to him, as well as his shaky hands and stiff legs. He turned around and looked at Raphael.
"Hold the kid. Gun behind his head."
Raphael placed his hand on Lincoln's left shoulder and placed the barrel of his CZ 97B pistol against the back of his head. Calvin pressed against his ear as he walked up to the door of the Situation Room.
"Open this door, Ronnie Anne."
"Puto, you expect me to—!"
"I'm not asking. We're running on a clock right now and Lincoln is running out of time in his own personal clock— unless you open the door!"
"You're gonna kill me and him either way. Why should I listen to you?"
"Raphael. Show her."
Raphael lifted his pistol and slammed it down on Lincoln's left shoulder, causing him to groan in pain. Calvin smiled.
"You know how easy it is to break a collarbone? A shoulder bone is harder. The ribs— not quite. The leg bones are some real valuable ones."
"Okay, okay, I get it! You're so aggravating!"
"Try something and I'll shoot your boyfriend."
"Fuck you."
Lincoln panted.
"She's not my girlfriend."
Calvin raised his eyebrows.
"You heard that, Ronnie Anne? Your last minutes together and you two never played Seven Minutes in Heaven?"
The magnetic door slid open as Ronnie Anne glared at Calvin, blushing with embarrassment. Lincoln looked at her and sighed as Raphael shoved him into the room. Calvin stepped inside and looked around, his eyes gleaming with joy at the sight of monitors.
"This is beautiful," he said. "Moose— it's your lucky day. I know how much you've missed being behind cameras."
Moose smiled as he cracked his knuckles, chuckling while he eyed the monitors. He looked at the one in the middle, which now counted twenty-six minutes and thirty-five seconds.
"Nora, take over the mic," said Calvin. "Let Lori and her gang hear your peppy voice."
"Sure thing!" gasped Nora. "Ronnie, will you please give me the earpiece?"
Ronnie Anne groaned and rolled her eyes as she removed the earpiece from her ear before placing it in Nora's open hand.
"Raphael, watch their backs," said Calvin. "When we're done with the others, take the kids to the steel truck."
"Got it," replied Raphael.
Calvin turned towards the other cannibals. He looked around them and squinted his eyes.
"Hey, where the hell is Timothy?"
"He left a while ago," said Beatrice.
"Want me to get his dumb ass?" asked Guillermo.
"Nah, it's fine. One less mouth to feed."
Calvin left the Situation Room, leading his cannibals through the lobby as Raphael closed the magnetic door.
Lisa walked into the lower sub-basement and looked at the detonator wrapped around the bomb charges. There were twenty-five minutes left and fifty-seconds left on the timer.
"You can diffuse this, right?" asked Lori.
Lisa inspected the ticking bomb charges and the wires connected to them that ran below them. She tapped her foot on the floor, which reflected a hollow thump back to her, before she knelt down and placed her ears against the floor.
"So, what is it?" asked Benny. "We are dealing with F.A.E.s, right? Not nukes?"
"I doubt we're dealing with any nuclear warheads," replied Lisa. "I assume that the wires on the charges of this lone detonator are connected to three thermobaric explosives."
"Three?" gasped Bobby.
Lisa nodded. Luan and Benny looked at each other, holding each other's hands as they slowly walked away from the detonator. Lori removed her helmet and wiped away the sweat dripping from her face.
"One in the East Wing…"
A crow flew atop the roof of the East Wing building and looked down at Luna and Sam hiding behind bushes and shrubs as the roamers passed, the torches in the faraway distance attracting them. The girls held each other's hands as their eyes nervously watched the roamers walk by them.
"...one in the West Wing…"
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne each sat on one of the swivel chairs by the wooden table as Moose looked at the monitors, Nora drank a canteen of water, and Raphael stood by the door holding his pistol. The kids removed their hands from the wooden table, revealing sweaty handprints.
"...and one below us— here in the Residence Building."
Lori dropped her helmet and raised her rifle as she heard thumping noises above, coming from the upper sub-basement level. A bucket clashed against the walls while Luan and Benny raised their lightweight swords, the young woman holding the sword directly in front of her and the young man holding the sword like a baseball player ready to swing his bat.
"How much time do you need?" asked Lori.
"I honestly can not calculate such measurements. With a number of variable factors that need to be dealt with, a logical estimation is bound to change with every action I make, whether observable or not. In other words, I don't know."
"But you can diffuse it, right? You know what— I believe in you, Lisa. I'll be here with you until the very end."
"I appreciate that."
Lisa stood up.
"I need wire cutters."
"I have some," said Bobby, removing his backpack.
"You just happened to be in random possession of wire cutters?"
Bobby placed his backpack on the floor and unzipped it.
"Well, yeah. I never go on a supply-run without them."
"Of course. I forgot you went on one today to get medical and chemical supplies. It has been a long day, right?"
"Tell me about it…" said Lori, aiming her rifle out into the halls of the sub-basement, "...oh, what I would do to take a nap right now."
Bobby handed Lisa a wire cutter before zipping his backpack and placing it over his shoulder, lifting his sidearm while walking out into the halls. Lisa looked at the timer, displaying twenty-two minutes and fifty-six seconds. She lifted her wire cutter and reached into one of the wires, nicking it quickly.
Lynn shot an arrow at the windows of the China Room, though it quickly bounced off and landed on the floor. Preston looked back at the wooden door, finding the hinges rattling quickly as the roamers slammed against it.
"We could've gone out through the other room!" yelled Lynn.
"There were roamers coming in from the other room!" exclaimed Preston.
Lynn grabbed a chair from the corner of the room and lifted it before lunging it towards the window, though it did no damage. She yelled as she tossed another chair at the window, causing it to break down.
"Lynn!" shouted Preston. "Calm down!"
"We've gotta get out of here!"
"I know, but—!"
Lynn pulled out her pistol and shot at the window multiple times, though it only created circular cracks where the bullets landed. Yelling, she continued to dump the magazine on the window before her pistol ran out of ammo, which prompted her to reload.
"Damn these bulletproof windows!"
The door continued to shake as one of the hinges popped loose, the roamers' growls getting louder.
"No!" yelled Lynn as she ran up to the window, slamming her fists against it. "I'm not dying here alone with a fuckin' Boy Scout!"
"Lynn!"
"Sorry, dude, I mean you kinda were one."
"No! Look!"
Preston ran up to the windows and reached for the locks. After unlocking them, he opened up the window and climbed out of it. Lynn gasped as she saw the roamers break the door open. She quickly grabbed the window sill and hopped out of the building and into the bushes as the roamers quickly filled up the room, shoving each other against the cabinets, breaking all the china plates and vases.
"Think more with your head, hothead!" panted Preston.
"Watch it, church boy," said Lynn aiming her pistol at the roamers hopping out of the window.
She fired her pistol at the roamers, dropping them into the bushes or stiffening their bodies by the sill. Preston then grabbed her arm and ran towards the East Wing, away from the roamers by the West Wing.
"I see Luna and Sam!" yelled Preston.
"Luna!" shouted Lynn. "Sam! Over here!"
Luna tapped Sam on the arm.
"Dude, look at Lynn and Preston."
"They're getting chased by roamers!" gasped Sam.
Luna and Sam raised their rifles and shot at the roamers behind Lynn and Preston, both continuing to run towards the girls as they crouched. Then, a flaming arrow landed in between the two pairs. Both pairs looked out into the South Lawn, where they saw more X-Tribe cannibals approaching.
"Oh fuck," muttered Luna.
As the pairs prepared to run to cover, the sound of a car engine roared from behind the East Wing. The Cadillac One appeared from the east side of the South Lawn and drove towards the X-Tribe cannibals. Carol rolled down the windows as she held the steering wheel with her right hand and held an UZI with an extended magazine with her left hand, which she fired out the window.
"Run, run, run!" shouted one of the X-Tribe cannibals.
However, he was quickly gunned down, as well as the rest of his group. Some of the bullets tore through their backs, their arms, their legs. They tore through veins, arteries, bones, muscles. One of the cannibals fell to her knees before landing on the ground face-forward with blood squirting out of her arteries from above her elbow.
Jeffrey opened his eyes as Carol stopped the car. She opened the door and walked out while holding her snub-nosed revolver. Jeffrey did not see anything out of the tinted passenger windows, though he saw Carol through the windshield, walking in front of the car where she looked down at the ground. She then stopped as her right leg shook a little and her left eye closed. A shot was then heard through the open door, causing Jeffrey to wince softly.
"Everyone, get in!" shouted Carol as she removed her boot from the cannibal's neck.
Luna, Sam, Lynn, and Preston faced away from the approaching roamers and ran to the Cadillac One, opening the doors while Carol sat herself in the driver's seat. Preston entered inside as Lynn refused to move out of the doorway.
"Actually... you guys can go," said Lynn. "I'm not leaving Lori and Bobby down there all alone. They need my help— whether they want it or not."
"Our help," said Luna. "I'm coming with you."
"You're going?" gasped Sam. "You are? Okay. I guess I'm coming too."
"Carol… don't come back until we tell you to," said Lynn. "There's like a big bomb that's gonna blow up the White House. Lisa is prob gon' defuse it. But just in case— don't come back."
"Alright," said Carol. "Go. Your big sister needs your help."
Lynn nodded as she closed the door. Carol watched her run back inside the White House along with Luna and Sam, climbing through the window of the China Room.
"Hey, Uncle Jeff," said Preston. "White people are crazy."
Jeffrey took a deep sigh as he looked away from Preston, only being able to pat him on the shoulder. Carol drove the car away from the roamers pouring into the South Lawn and past the corpses in the ground. As the car drove towards the Potomac River, the roamers dropped to their knees and began to rip apart the flesh of the bodies in the ground, stuffing the pieces into their rotten mouths.
"Is this thing on?" asked Nora.
"I can hear you loud and clear," said Calvin.
"Oh! That's so cool! You're like another voice in my head!"
Lincoln and Ronnie Anne looked at each other with puzzled expressions. They shrugged and continued to tap their feet against each other, throwing glances and making soft expressions with their faces while motioning their hands slowly. Their pistols and the crossbow lay on the edge of the wooden table, far away from them and the middle monitor that Nora stood in front of.
"I'd like to hear the news, Nora."
"Of course. According to my sources, we have audio evidence that Lori and her small group are still in the lower basement! Based on previous footage, we can infer that we have the girl genius down there— a queen— no? Fine. A pawn. Then, we got the handsome boy with the katana— a knight for sure— and the geeky girl with the katana— a pawn. Definitely a pawn."
Lincoln exhaled a breath of air from his nose as Ronnie Anne tilted her head left and right, though she tilted a bit longer in the direction of Moose. Lincoln shook his head softly before taking a glance at Raphael. Ronnie Anne let out a large sigh of frustration as Nora continued talking.
"Ronnie Anne's older brother and Lori's significant other—"
Ronnie Anne looked at Nora and ignored Lincoln's signals.
"—the king. And of course, there's Lori. The queen herself."
"And there's no one else in the building?"
"There's also Jace Taylor, on the first floor of the West Wing near the other children. Hey, look, there's Vonda, the redhead that George talked about. Then, there's Lola's living twin sister, the little toddler who we almost never see, and the black kid with glasses."
"His name is Clyde," said Lincoln sternly.
"Okay," whispered Nora. "Heard that, Calvin? Lincoln says the kid's name is Clyde."
"Where can I get to Clyde and the others?"
"Uh, you won't be able to. The roamers are filling up the building like a creampie."
Jace sighed as he reached for his earpiece.
"How do you freakin' turn off this thing?" he whispered to himself.
He took it out and placed it in his pocket as he continued to sneak around the corridor near the Oval Office. As he peeked from the corner of the hallway, he found two cannibals walking around with flashlights pointed at the opposite direction. Then, he quickly revealed himself to the cannibals, aiming his pistol at them. He fired off a shot, taking out the cannibal in front of him before an arrow struck the second cannibal. Both cannibals dropped to the ground at the same time before Vonda came out of a room. Her almond-shaped eyes stared at Jace before they turned towards the room.
"It's safe now!" she whispered loudly.
After a few seconds, Clyde, Lana, and Lily walked out of the room, Lily holding her sister's hand. Clyde's flashlight shined on Jace's face as he tried to cover it with his hand.
"Dude," said Jace, "watch the light."
"Sorry," said Clyde.
"You're back," smiled Lana.
"Lana, your face!" gasped Jace.
"Yeah, just… don't worry about it."
"Is Lincoln waiting for us?" asked Clyde.
"No. Calvin has him. We have to—"
"—save him?" interrupted Lana. "Yes, we do!"
"There's no time. We have to leave this building now."
"What? We're not going to save Lincoln?"
"There's absolutely no time, we have to leave in the next fifteen minutes or so."
"Why? You're telling me to leave my brother?"
"And my best friend?" added Clyde.
"Jace, we have to take these cannibals on," said Vonda. "If Calvin has him, then we have to kill the monster and save Lincoln. We might not have another chance at him."
"Well, there's a bomb that's gonna blow up the entire building…"
"What?" exclaimed Clyde. "A bomb?"
"Yes. This building is going to blow up soon. That's why I'm telling you guys to follow me so we can leave!"
"But, what about Calvin?" asked Vonda.
"Vonda, we only have like fifteen minutes! Look, the thought of knowing we're above a ticking time-bomb makes me anxious as hell— I hate thinking about it! I just want you guys to follow me so we can get outta here! Can we please do that?"
Vonda stomped her foot on the ground as tears swelled up in her eyes.
"Fuck! Why? How? How does he keep getting away with it? HOW!"
Vonda's voice cracked.
"I just want Calvin dead. That's all I want. I'm so close to getting him. And you're telling me we have to get out because our home— OUR HOME— is going to blow up? Because of that fucking prick?"
"Vonda…"
"Let's just go. I killed so many cannibals by myself. And Lori had an entire group. I can't believe she let Calvin get away with setting a bomb. Fuck it! I'm gonna follow you, Jace. But seriously fuck you, Jace."
Vonda stormed away from the staircase, which would have led to the basement floor of the West Wing. Lana looked up at Jace.
"What happened with her?" she asked.
"I'll tell you later," said Jace before Vonda. "Stay mad at everyone, Vonda. But keep a clear head while we leave. We're not safe yet."
Jace walked in the opposite direction of the staircase, walking further down the corridor and closer to the Oval Office as the group followed him.
"There are more cannibals on this floor?" asked Clyde.
"Maybe. But the real threat are the roamers."
"Where are we getting out from?"
"West Wing Entrance."
"Can't we go back?" asked Vonda.
A growl echoed from across the corridor. Jace, Vonda, Clyde, Lana, and Lily hid behind the curved wall of the corridor, in front of the burning Oval Office as the roamers began to enter the corridor. Clyde looked at the orange light and smoke pouring out of the open slits from the closed door.
The growls got louder as Jace looked at the desks and cabinets standing outside the Oval Office. He immediately grabbed one of them and pulled them away from where they stood, moving it towards the center of the corridor.
"What the hell are you doing?" asked Vonda.
"They spotted us already!" yelled Jace. "Just help me block off the hallway!"
Clyde and Lana sprang upwards and each grabbed a wooden chair and placed them next to the desk. Vonda groaned in frustration and pushed a cabinet behind the wooden desks as Lana tossed flowers pots on top of them. The roamers hissed loudly as they ran across the corridor, slamming themselves against the makeshift barricade. Some of the roamers slammed against the desks as some struggled to crawl underneath the wooden chairs blocking off the edges. Clyde used the butt of the Vepr-12 shotgun he carried on the crawling roamers, killing them on the spot, their corpses adding on to the barricade.
"This isn't gonna hold forever," said Jace.
"No shit. We gotta haul ass," urged Vonda.
Jace hopped away from the barricade and jogged towards the lower end of the corridor moving away from the Oval Office. Vonda ran away as well, with Clyde and Lana following both of them. Lily remained frozen where she stood, watching the roamers reach their arms through the open spots of the cluttered furniture blocking the upper end of the corridor. Her blue eyes looked directly at their golden eyes, blinking and lowering in pity.
"Lily, come!" exclaimed Lana.
Lana grabbed Lily's hand and moved her out of her trance, leading her through the corridor. Jace paused as he noticed a beam of light pointed out an open door to the corridor, little specks of dust floating in the light. He peeked inside the room where it came from, the Roosevelt Room. His eyes widened as he quickly ducked his head away from the open door before a line of bullets flew past him, striking the wall that the flashlight was aimed at.
"Come on out, Jace!" yelled Timothy. "Let's have a talk!"
Vonda placed a knee and her palms on the floor, looking across the corridor.
"Think I can make it?" she whispered.
Timothy looked into the iron sights of his MG 710-3, which was mounted on top of a wooden desk. The door behind him was closed and the roamers continued to pour into the corridor, slamming against the barricade. Timothy fired another burst of bullets, shredding the plaster and paint off the wall.
There was only one way out of the corridor, which involved passing by the open door of the Roosevelt Room. The other rooms were torched by the cannibals, and the roamers continued on breaking apart the barricade.
"Come on, Jace! Come on out!"
"W-Why the hell would I do that?" yelled Jace.
"Your friends will be spared. But you… not so much."
Jace grabbed his knife and placed the blade against the wall. He moved it closer and closer to the open doorway, before the tip of the blade was sticking out from the wall. A spit of MG 710-3 bullets knocked the knife out of Jace's hand and sent it flying across the doorway, flinging it to the cracked wall. The tip was missing.
"You're asking me to commit suicide," said Jace.
"If you want to talk— prolong your death— then drop your guns where I can see them and we'll talk!"
Jace looked back at the wooden barricade. He began hyperventilating as the roamer's arms stuck out and wooden pieces lay on the floor, more falling out from the furniture every second.