16. 16 #2
My hand found Elias’s magnum, stored snugly on my hip, and held it up, inches from Dr. Fassi’s vulnerable eyes.
Before I could pull the trigger, he clutched my wrists, forcing them above my head.
This move brought him further over me, into a position that I was more comfortable with. How unfortunate for Dr. Fassi.
My grip on the gun tightened, and despite how hard he held my wrists, I couldn’t let go. If we stayed here much longer, I knew he could shatter my hand. Even now, I felt him nearly crushing the delicate bones there, his grip only getting tighter with time.
I drove my knee into him, bringing him closer, and bucked my hips, lifting myself off the ground underneath him. He let go of my right hand, the hand with the magnum, as he stopped himself from face planting.
My opportunity. I swung my right arm around, remembering my time with Elias, and how much force I needed to generate to roll him. Dr. Fassi was much stronger, heavier, but he had less grace, and I hoped that he would topple more easily.
My arm reached around him, and I grunted as I pushed, harder and further, until I was able to touch the ground on the other side of Dr. Fassi.
I was on top of him.
Our training session that morning had ended with a cigarette break. We should have grappled longer, but the lack of time we had together hung over both of our heads. Even with the distractions, Elias had taught me how to defend myself. He taught me the move that was about to save my life.
With no hesitation, no fear of regret, I placed the barrel of the gun into my coworker’s eye and pulled the trigger. His head was already against the ground, and the force of the impact made it bounce against the cool floor. I kept the gun there, waiting for him to move again, but he didn’t.
It was over this time.
Leaving Dr. Fassi beneath me, I fell to the side. Short of breath, panting, and weak, I winced when I hit the ground, my injuries making themselves known. A curse fell through my lips.
“Are you okay?” Elias asked from his spot on the ground.
I surveyed myself. No cuts, no bites, just a sore arm. “Yeah, I’m okay. Are you?”
I pushed myself up, careful not to use my left arm. Stumbling now, pain radiating through every inch of my body, I had to see Elias to make sure he was okay.
He stared up at me, the whites of his eyes visible again. “I think so.”
I thought so, too. His eyes had changed back to normal, red no longer muddying up the brown. Even his voice had gained strength.
“Taylor is gone,” he said. “I couldn’t go after him.”
“Where?” I asked, the hand on my gun twitching. I jumped up, my body screaming at me to slow down.
Elias shook his head, fighting to at least get to his knees. “Forget about him. We need to leave.”
“We can’t let him get away,” I said, attempting to walk further into the room. He had an arsenal of personal creations and viruses we had no defenses against, and this was our chance to stop him while he was unprotected. Elias reached up as I passed.
“Cassie,” he said, grabbing my thigh. His voice was strained. “We need to get out of here.”
We. The words drew the breath out of me. I’d done it. Not much time had passed since he asked me to kill him, and here he was, demanding that we leave together. The vaccine was here, and it had kept Elias alive, but we weren’t in the clear just yet. I’d have to hold on just a little while longer.
“Can you stand?” I asked, holding out a free hand.
He didn’t answer, choosing to pull himself up instead, his weight nearly throwing me off balance.
“You should give yourself the vaccine, too,” he urged, pointing to the cooler on the floor.
I shook my head. “I only gave it to you so you wouldn’t die,” I hesitated. “I don’t know if it’s actually safe.”
“What do you mean? I feel great.” He smiled, but he threw an arm around my shoulder and leaned heavily against me.
The soreness in my arm didn’t feel so severe now, seeing him in this state.
He had difficulty putting weight on his left leg, and he took a test step.
His limp was horrific. If we needed to run, we would shoot instead.
Luckily, we were going straight to the ground floor, and that had been mostly empty when we arrived.
“You look like shit, Elias. I can’t imagine how you feel,” I muttered, moving us to grab the cooler.
“I’m just happy my head didn’t split open. I hit that wall pretty hard. Some of my ribs are definitely fucked up,” he admitted. “But I don’t think my ankle is broken, it just needs to be taped. Oh, and I need to stitch up my shoulder. I can do it, but I’d prefer if you did,” he added.
“You need to go to a hospital, what are you talking about?” I asked. We weren’t going to ignore broken bones and a gaping wound.
“Absolutely not. I’ll be fine, but you’re still vulnerable. That's the first place someone who gets bitten by their neighbor would go.”
I hadn’t thought of that, but he was probably right. Hospitals within a few hours could be filled with infectious people, seeking emergency care before they turned around and ate their nurse. We had no idea how far this had spread.
“I’m not much of a seamstress. Or surgeon,” I said.
He sighed. “That’s alright. It won’t be the first time I’ve sewn myself up.”
We’d hobbled to the cooler, and I holstered my gun to pick it up. Elias was a better shot than I was, even if he suffered brain damage from Dr. Fassi. As a team, we staggered out of the room, taking the long walk back to the elevator.
The lobby was as disconcerting as it had been the first time, and I remembered the first room I’d walked into. The scans, the bodies suspended in pink liquid, filled me with questions.
“I walked into a different room when I first got here. Do you know what went on down here?” I asked.
“Not everything, clearly. I didn’t know that Taylor could put together someone I had killed and make them even stronger. What did you see?” He asked. He tried to put more weight on his leg in an effort to move a little faster, but it backfired. He hissed at the attempt. It hurt.
“There’s a huge room over there. It’s got these giant tanks filled with a pink liquid.
Bodies were in the tanks, hooked up to all sorts of tubes.
Children, too,” I said, flinching at the memory.
“There were brain scans and all sorts of imaging, reports, things like that. I obviously didn’t have time to read through them. ”
Elias huffed. “I don’t care what my next assignment is, I’m hunting him down.”
“You’re going back to work after all this?” I asked, my arm tight around his waist.
“You say that like either of us have a choice in what happens after today.” His voice was tight, controlled. “Besides, I don’t have enough money in my 401k to retire at 30. Early withdrawal penalties and all that.”
The hallway to the elevator was as empty and quiet as it had been. Our mismatched footsteps, heavy breathing, and the hum of the electricity were the only noises, and each echoed around the empty space.
As we reached the elevator, I set the cooler down to free up a hand.
I had to find the key card that would operate the thing.
Elias pulled away from me, choosing to lean on the wall in front of him.
I smiled when I pulled out Singh’s key card, tapping it on the reader.
The elevator doors opened to reveal the mess I’d left behind.
“What the hell happened in there?” Elias asked, hopping into the elevator. He settled against the wall, his good arm holding him upright.
“I tried every key card I grabbed until I found the right one,” I said a bit sheepishly.