Protocol

7. 7

MULTIPLE AGENTS KIA

SAFEHOUSE LOCATIONS COMPROMISED

INTERNAL brEACH - SOURCE UNKNOWN

C. HAYES - LOCATION UNKNOWN

E. CORREA - LOCATION UNKNOWN

TARGET: HAYES RESEARCH

TARGET: BAKER/PRYOR WITNESSES

FIDE NEMINI

“We need to move, now,” Elias ordered after he finished reading the decoded message.

“What?” I asked, taking the thumb drive, throwing it in the backpack before putting it back on.

He checked his weapon, like a nervous habit, ensuring it was still loaded. “They’re going to come here to kill us. Outside of this office, cameras are everywhere, they definitely saw us coming in the front door, and we’ve spent too long in this room. It’s time to go.”

Ding.

The elevator sounded from the hallway, indicating that we were already too late.

I stared at Elias, unable to move. He was talking, giving me instructions, but I didn’t hear the words. I heard the screams of the horde, the sound of a gun putting Dr. Fassi out of his misery.

He grabbed my arm and pulled it hard, shaking me right back to the present. I stumbled, but caught my footing and was able to keep his pace as I ran, arm still held hostage by his. The elevator door opened, and I could hear the scuffling of boots as our adversaries exited, cornering us.

I was thrown into the nearest room, and my head hit the ground, blurring my vision.

I stared up at the ceiling. The wind had been knocked out of me from the impact, and I had to force my arms and legs to listen, to push myself up.

Gunfire echoed against the walls, and I watched, a little dazed, as Elias found cover behind a filing cabinet on the floor.

I drew my own gun, ready to shoot if someone walked in my sights.

While Elias was focused ahead, a man had snuck around to his side, opposite me.

He was dressed in tactical gear, all black, like he was on the SWAT team.

If I was going to do this, I needed to be precise.

He had a helmet and a bulletproof vest, so there was no margin for error.

I aimed, fired two shots in quick succession, downing him, and distracted Elias from his other target.

He ducked down, looking between me and the man I just killed, before refocusing and firing one last time, taking care of the final man sent to kill us.

He ran to me, falling to his knees.

“Are you okay?” He asked, his fingers roaming my body for injury.

“I hit my head, but I’ll be okay,” I assured him, even if I wasn’t sure that was the truth.

His fingers probed my scalp and stopped when I winced, pulling them back to check for blood. “I’m sorry about that. I had to get you out of the way.”

“I’m not bleeding am I?” I asked.

“No.” He helped me to my feet, and I took a moment as the blood rushed back to my head, but it passed without incident. At this point, I was surprised my body hadn’t run out of resources to make adrenaline.

He led me to a large book shelf, and he flipped a switch on the side. The book shelf slid to the right, revealing a large round metal door.

“This is why we parked near that sewer grate?” I asked.

“You had to know there was a secret tunnel out of the super secret office,” he answered.

He entered a lengthy code on the pin pad before it beeped in agreement, and the door popped open.

“You first,” he said, ushering me into the hole in the wall.

I stepped in, and the smell disoriented me. It was dank, and dark, and it was clear that we really were going to be escaping through a sewer.

Elias stepped in behind me, closing the door. He pulled a pocket knife from his belt, and he wedged it in the rungs of the door, effectively locking it behind us.

I stood on the small platform, looking at the ladder we’d have to take. Elias shined his flashlight on me, looking me over head to toe to make sure that I was okay to keep going.

“Elias, I’m fine,” I said, pushing his flashlight out of my face.

“You don’t understand,” he said, guiding me back until I was flush with the wall.

“My people are gone. They’re dead.” His hand reached out to brace himself against the wall behind me, and I stared up at him.

The dark circles under his eyes were visible, even in the low light.

“Dead because I couldn't stop this in time. I can’t fail you, too.”

My heart ached, and I leaned forward to wrap my arms around him, regardless of the danger we were in.

He was broken, unbelievably so, and I didn’t know how else to help him.

Time for him to grieve didn’t fit into our agenda when our only goal was to survive.

Grief had to be packaged away to the part of his mind he didn’t allow himself to access, lest he make a mistake and suffer the consequences.

I let him use me to put himself back together. I didn’t mind. He didn’t have to do it on his own this time.

He held me, leaning down to rest his head on my shoulder, breathing uneven. One of my hands moved to stroke his hair slowly, giving him the time to ground himself. It only took a minute.

Leaning away, he stood up completely, and put a hand on my cheek. “You wanna get out of here? Maybe go back to my place?” He asked, a sad smile on his face.

“You know I do,” I said. “Best to get to it, huh?”

Using humor to deflect might not be the healthiest coping mechanism, but it was understandable, and he didn’t need to explain himself. A part of me was sad for him when he did that, watching that real emotion be pushed away.

He made me use the ladder first, so he could cover for me. Unnecessary, as we were the only two in the nasty tunnel.

While I used the ladder like anyone else, Elias, of course, had to slide down it like there was a fire somewhere that needed putting out. He hopped off right before he hit the ground, and jogged the few paces between us.

A ledge separated us from dark, ankle deep water.

“I really don’t want to do this,” I said.

“You’re telling me,” he muttered. “My car is going to be disgusting.”

Elias hopped down first, before turning around and offering me a hand.

“You know, you don’t always have to be such a gentleman. I can do things by myself.” I didn’t mind him helping me stand or opening my doors, but I could manage on my own, too.

“I’m pretty sure I just gave you a concussion and you still shot a guy in the face. Twice.” He held up two fingers. “I know you’re capable. So, be good and humor me. Take my hand.”

He made me very much want to not be a good girl. “Fine,” I pouted, and took his hand. I hopped down and let go of him. “It’s probably just one of your schemes to touch me.”

He snickered. “It is.”

Side by side, we trudged through the murky water for a while before either one of us spoke again.

“My last mission with Delta was in Cote d’Ivoire,” Elias said nonchalantly.

“Delta is like. . . the best in the Army?” I asked. “My dad was in the Coast Guard before I was born, so I don’t know much about the military. He doesn’t talk about it much, except when his buddies are around.”

“Maybe I can thank your dad for teaching you how to shoot a gun someday. He’d be proud to know his daughter saved my life.” He paused, reaching out to touch my shoulder. “I’m not here to brag, but yes, it is considered to be rather elite.”

“What happened in Cote d’Ivoire?”

“It was simple on paper, just rescuing an American scientist being held in a research facility. We didn’t ask questions, that wasn’t our job.

We were told to get the guy, so that’s what we went to do.

Things just went to shit so fast. He wasn’t being held hostage, really.

He was trapped in a facility with a bunch of infected freaks.

Half of us died by the time we found his body and reported back, and the mission changed.

We were supposed to kill everything there, and destroy the lab.

Well, we did it. And we all died off, one by one, and I boarded that helicopter alone.

I killed everything in that fucking lab, and yet they keep coming back. ”

“Is that why you saved me?” I asked. I didn’t need to hear his answer, but I asked anyway.

“Probably.”

“I’m sorry that you had to go through that,” I said, and I meant it. I wouldn’t be myself if I’d experienced what he had. Hell, I didn’t think I’d be myself after this.

“I’m sorry that I missed one.”

A splash of water ahead refocused us, and Elias and I had our guns drawn immediately. We’d been walking in the near dark, faint lights on the walls guiding us, but Elias quickly pulled a flashlight from his belt, illuminating the area ahead.

The light gained the attention of the infected man, who charged toward us, though he was slowed down by the water. He was running, arms flailing, but Elias didn’t shoot.

“What are you doing? Shoot him!” I urged, my finger getting closer and closer to pulling the trigger.

“I’m conserving ammunition.” When the creature was no more than an arms length away, he shot him, and he fell to the ground at his feet. Elias equipped the knife he had and stabbed the man through his eye for good measure.

“Gruesome.”

“Yeah,” he said, taking a breath. “This isn’t good. Obviously the note from Michael was a warning, but I didn’t expect to see the virus down here.”

“I don’t even want to know what it’s going to look like on the surface.”

He pointed to a nearby ladder. “Well, I hope you’re ready to find out.”

Elias went first this time, but I stayed close on his heels. He groaned and grunted moving the sewer grate, then poked his head out to survey the area.

“Let’s go. Get right in the car.” He hoisted himself up, and stood above the entrance with his gun raised. He didn’t help me out this time, he was busy shooting.

I ran around him, directly to the passenger side of the car, and he mirrored me, scrambling to his own seat.

One of the infected almost grabbed him as he reloaded, but he kicked the creature in the chest, sending it tumbling backward.

With some distance between them, he was able to jump in and start the car, spinning the wheels as he took off.

He drove wildly around the parking lot, dodging both the undead and the plethora of parked cars.

They were fast, jumping over each other in an attempt to reach us, the sound of the car having drawn their attention.

We’d narrowly missed being infected ourselves if there were this many in the parking lot.

I couldn’t imagine the disorder inside the building.

“There’s like a hundred bases around here, where the fuck is the military?” I shouted. It was chaos, rivaling the type of horror I’d only seen in fiction.

“I don’t know, Cassie. I don’t know.”

I didn’t want him to say he didn’t know. I needed him to have answers. I needed him to tell me that this was all going to go away tomorrow, and I could go home and call my parents.

My parents.

How far could this possibly spread and how quickly? One infected person boards a plane and destroys the entire country. Michigan was far, but I didn’t know if it was far enough.

“I need to call my parents,” I said. “I need to warn them.”

“Give me a few hours, okay? You can make a call when we’re safe.” His voice was gentle, reassuring, the calm in the storm.

But the panic was bubbling up again. “You saw the same map I did, there are no safe houses. There’s no where to go!” My breathing changed, now quick and shallow, like I couldn’t force my lungs to take in air.

“Cassie,” Elias called. “You need to slow your breathing before you pass out.”

“I can’t,” I gasped. My heart was beating so fast that I thought it might explode. “Oh, Jesus.” I puffed and wheezed and choked, bile rising into my throat as I tried to stay conscious.

Elias gripped my hand hard, squeezing it. “Just focus on the feeling of my hand, okay.” He bounced our hands rhythmically on the center console. “Breathe in a few beats, breathe out a few beats.”

Following his instructions as well as I could, my chest heaving, within a few minutes I was able to breathe in for a few seconds without rejecting the air.

I didn’t dare open my eyes, opting to lean my head down, holding his hand hostage against my face.

His gloves were rough against my skin, and I concentrated on the new sensation.

“Better?” He asked, his thumb escaping my grip to grab my chin, forcing me to look at him. I knew my eyes were glossy and red, and I could only imagine how pathetic I looked.

“I’ll get there,” I answered, meeting his eyes. He could only look at me for a moment, as we had escaped the CIA facility and were on the road. He must’ve chosen back roads because I couldn’t see any traffic. “This fucking sucks,” I said, my voice a little stronger.

“Yeah it does. Let it out. Get mad. I’m mad, too.”

I didn’t let go of his hand. “I just got this job, and I thought my work would be meaningful. I thought I’d study the world’s viruses and cure kids in third world countries from fucking West Nile or something.

Instead, I’m running for my goddamn life from fucking freaks with the guy who’s been stalking me for months.

Do I have Stockholm Syndrome? Is that what this is? ”

“Your work has been meaningful, and it will save lives,” he offered.

“Don't comfort me! You said I could be angry. Where is the fucking government? Shouldn’t they be here guns blazing? Honestly, Elias, you could’ve saved me a bunch of trouble if you would’ve just let me die like I was supposed to.”

“Don’t say that to me,” he said softly.

The anger dissipated immediately, replaced by guilt. From his point of view, he’d just let his entire team die. I stared at the floor of the car. “I don’t know why I did.”

“I won’t hold it against you. You’re feeling a lot right now. Not a lot of things you could say would bother me, but that one hurt.” He took a deep breath. “I can sit here and say it was my mission to save you and your vaccine work, but I’m selfish, too. I had to get you out.”

“I’m grateful that you did. You’re handsome and a good kisser and life is too short to take those things for granted.”

“Okay,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I thought I was bad when it came to using inappropriate defense mechanisms, but you really take the cake. Our sweet moment is over.” He shook his hand free from mine.

“Hey, I wasn’t done,” I whined.

“Drink your water and leave my hand alone.”

“Dude, you and this fucking water,” I said, taking a drink of water anyway.

“Sorry, dude, drink your water please, dude,” he mocked, drawing out the word “dude.”

“But you are a dude.”

He shook his head. “No, I am a man.”

“Whatever, dude.” I spared a look at him and the corner of his mouth was twitching, trying not to smile, so I knew I’d won.

“I have a cabin that I go to on weekends sometimes. We’ll be safe there,” he said, changing the subject.

“And I can call my parents?”

“You can call your parents.”