Acidalia XIII
By Amanda D.

Pacific Heights San Francisco yesterday:

Mia Blue had been pacing for what felt like days in front of the old theater building. The steel gray sky above had been threatening rain since sunrise but so far had declined to follow through. That was about the only thing that had gone right for her in the last twenty four hours. What was even worse was that the next twenty four didn’t look like they were going to be any better.

She had been walking back and forth for so long a deep rut was beginning to form under her feet. She was filled to the bursting point with nervous energy. It was impossible for her to even consider standing still, never mind sitting, for any length of time. It had been that way since her arrival here early this morning.

So she paced and paced and paced some more the whole time wishing she elsewhere was doing something … anything other than waiting. What that something was she wasn’t certain, but there was a list of possibilities.

Getting out of town before either the military or something worse, like a certain 6ft tall redhead, caught up with her was one of her top options but she had promised to wait for Ellie, so that wasn’t going to happen. After what had happened last night, after all the pain she had caused, there was no way she could leave, even if it meant staying here forever.

She had also briefly considered, and just as quickly discarded, the idea of going back to Grayson and demanding that Jordon live up to his end of their bargain by releasing Sam and Sara, but that would be futile and quite possibly akin to suicide. Being dead or imprisoned in a quarantine somewhere wouldn’t be of any help to her “daughter”, so that idea was scratched too.

Time ticked slowly by. More slowly than seemed possible.

God! She was so sick and tired of waiting!

Mia looked at her watch again, frowned and shook her wrist to make sure the timepiece was still working. The dial read about ten til two, a mere four minutes since the last time she’d looked, though it felt like at least an hour had passed.

The raid at the warehouse had gone off a little bit before one in the morning, so it had been almost 13 hours since her last contact with Ellie or any of the others and nearly 16 since her meeting with Tyler.

‘Grrr!!! Fuckin Tyler, that lying bastard!’ she growled inwardly.

He’d told her the assault on the warehouse was going on at the time as their meeting, but Ellie’s phone call three hours later showed that to be just another in a long line of bull shit he’d been feeding her since the beginning. It was right up there with his promise to reunite her with Sam and Sara when her assignment, also known as her exile from Grayson, was finished. Dr. Blue wondered how he could sleep at night with just trying to keep track of all the bull he spewed. You might think that it would bother his conscience a little, but then again, that would require him to have one first.

Mia’s anger boiled over at the way she had desperately clung to his vows, allowing herself to be led around like a little puppy dog doing as her cruel master ordered, in the hope of receiving a treat, even though all the evidence showed a slap on the nose was far more likely.

And now? Now everything had turned into a big ol’ pile of shit, and there was no one to blame but herself.

‘Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone will kill me before I screw up anything else,’ she thought darkly. She glanced at her watch again. ‘One more hour. I’ll wait until 3, and then I’m out.’

A police car cruised by slowly, despite the light traffic. It was amazing how few cars and for that matter how little foot traffic there was on the city streets and sidewalks now. It felt as if society was slowly grinding to a halt.

Mia turned her head and put up a hand to shield her face from the officers view. She didn’t know if the authorities were even looking for her, but figured there was no need to take a chance.

Moments after the cop car passed, the driver of a large truck honked its ear splitting horn in irritation with something. The sound made Mia jump so high she felt like she nearly achieved orbit, yet somehow she managed to hold back the panicked screech that strained to be released. With her heart beating 1000 miles per hour the dark haired doctor turned back to the street and flipped the driver the bird. The fearsome look he shot back left her wondering for a moment if he was going to jump out of the rig and come after her.

Thankfully he didn’t. He simply hollered something unintelligible back at her and moved on.

Letting out a loud sigh of relief and placing her right hand over her still racing heart, Mia stepped over and finally took a seat on the abandoned theater’s gray granite steps.

The entire episode, from police to truck driver, convinced her once again that she was NOT cut out for all this spying crap and adventure. If the world ever got back to anything resembling normal she now knew that she would be forever content to stay in her lab, happily going through the enticingly dull routines of research and experimentation.

Another half an hour came and passed uneventfully. The itch to get going was becoming all but impossible not to scratch. Mia found herself locked in a continual internal argument over the likelihood of anyone actually making it out of the warehouse other than in chains. She understood the odds were exceedingly long to be sure, and with Ellie as one of their main targets, even longer for the diminutive leader, but hope, coupled with a large dose of guilt, wouldn’t let her leave.

Mia’s self imposed 3pm deadline came and went and still no Ellie. Getting up from the steps she took one last long lingering look up and down the street hoping to see Ellie or anyone really walking in her direction but there wasn’t.

Another loud sigh, this one of resignation escaped her lips. Mia went back to the staircase, bent over was beginning to gather her meager belongings when suddenly she felt a tap on her left shoulder.

“Mia?” a young and very familiar voice asked.

“CAROL!!” she screamed as she turned and grabbed the prepubescent looking new woman in a joy filled bear hug.

Carol let out a yelp and struggled to free herself from the doctor’s grip. “A … are you alone? Where’s Ellie? How did you get here? Are you ok?” Mia asked her in rapid fire succession.

“Put me down!” the young girl demanded. “Everything’s about as okay as it can be, no thanks to you.”

“Carol, I’m … I’m so sorry… sorry for every …”

“Save it! Save your bull shit for someone that might be stupid enough to believe you, cause I don’t! Ellie’s waiting for you up the block. She didn’t want to show herself in case you were setting her up again.”

“Setting her up? I ... I wouldn’t do that to her!” Mia argued.

“You mean again, right?”

Mia looked at the young girl glumly, realizing there was nothing she could say.

“Come on, get your stuff and let’s go. Ellie’s waiting for us.” Carol let Mia off the hook, for the moment at least.

The two of them walked down the block in uneasy silence. Mia could feel the young girl’s anger rolling off her body like blasts of hot air constantly blowing in her face. She desperately wanted to explain why she had told the army about them. She wanted to make Carol understand, but she knew there would be no sympathy coming from her.

After a few minutes they came up to a small alleyway that ducked between two tall decrepit looking apartment buildings. Carol tugged on Mia’s sleeve and the pair of new women turned down it.

The thin alley opened up into a large open cul-de-sac about 25ft in circumference.

Standing in the shadows of the building farthest from the street was an agonizingly small group of two women. As they approached Mia could see the steel hard anger in the eyes of women, who only the day before she had considered, if not friends, at least comrades in arms. The one she was looking for however wasn’t anywhere to be found as they approached.

“Ellie? Thank God you’re safe! I was so worried that they would get you.” Mia said as she embraced the short new woman.

“Yes. I was fortunate to escape, unlike so many others. We … “

“Traitor!” Vera yelled.

“Traitor? I’m a traitor? Ever hear the one about people in glass houses Vera? Maybe we should discuss …”

“Both of you shut up!” Ellie demanded. “Vera, you’re not helping the situation! We don’t have time to play the blame game. Mia knows what she’s done and we will deal with that later. Right now we need her to help get our people out of wherever the Army took them.”

“Ellie, I …”

“Save it, Doctor! I’m not interested in your excuses. Right now I need your help! Are you willing to give it, or not?”

“What do you need?”

“I need you to take me to see your superiors. I have something they might be interested in trading their prisoners for.”

“You want me to take you to Grayson? I’m sorry Ellie, but are you crazy? They’d arrest you and throw you in quarantine as soon as you showed your face.”

“Let me worry about that.”

“I can’t just take you there. It’s too dangerous! Ellie gave Mia a look that said she knew what the dangers were, but she still wasn’t worried. Mia shrugged. “At least tell me what do you have for them?”

“All in good time, Doctor. Right now I need to know that you’re willing to help me get in.”

Mia sighed in frustration. This is exactly how every single conversation between the two of them had gone. They would dance around opposite sides of an issue and then Ellie would get her way anyhow. The doctor silently wondered why she even bothered to argue with her.

“Fine.” She said throwing her hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I’m not exactly welcome there anymore, but I’ll do what I can. If we succeed though, there’s something I’m going to ask in return.”

“You can’t be serious! You’ve destroyed everything Ellie has worked for, and now you expect her to do favors for you? You’ve got some nerve, Doctor!” Vera said tersely, wagging a finger in Mia’s face.

Before Mia could reply Carol shouted “Vera! Ellie already told you to knock it off! Now shut the fuck up! This is Ellie’s play, not yours!”

“Don’t speak to me like that, child!”

“I AM NOT A FUCKEN CHILD!” Carol screamed as she pushed Vera in the chest. “I’m 35 fucking years old! Now shut your damn mouth, you fat bitch!”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Ellie allowed a small grin to escape over Carol’s tirade. She had been wondering how long it would take for her to totally lose patience with Vera’s condescending attitude towards her, and was glad to see the young looking girl finally stand up to her.

“Ellie, if we could perhaps speak in private for a minute?” Mia asked.

“Yes Doctor, I think that would be a good idea. Can you two behave yourselves for a few minutes?”

“Ellie you can’t go with her! What if she’s leading you into a trap or something?” Vera asked, her heart in her throat. The short fat new woman was scared shitless that Mia was going to reveal her part in helping the military.

“Vera, we’re only going over there.” Ellie said pointing to a nearby set of stairs. “You’ll be able to see us the whole time.”

Once El and Mia were out of ear shot, Carol asked “So what are you so nervous about?”

“Nervous? Child, I am not the least bit nervous. I’m just concerned about what other lies Dr. Blue might tell Ellie, and what the consequences might be for us if she believes them.”

“Ellie’s smart. She won’t fall for any of Dr. Blue’s crap anymore.”

Ellie and Mia walked to the far side of the cul-de-sac. They stopped behind a three story tenement house with peeling grey paint. Climbing the short stairway that led to a small porch, they moved to one corner and leaned against the peeling black painted wrought iron railings.

“So” Ellie said without preamble. “What’s your price, Doctor? What else do I have to do to get you to help us?”

“I’ll get to that in a minute. Tell me, how much do you know about the origin of the Acidalia virus?”

“Excuse me?”

“How much do you know about the beginning of the virus?”

“Only what I’ve read in the papers. It was created by that Dr. Ryson, and released when she tried to cure her nephew or whatever he was. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing. Everything. The Acidalia virus was created by a pair of scientists named Sam Grayson and Laura Wayne. They were working on a cure for Sam’s condition. He was crippled by a virus that attacked his central nervous system some years back. Their theory was to create a retro- virus that would rewrite Sam’s genetic code and heal the damage done to his nervous system, which it did. Unfortunately it also had some unforeseen side effects. The two of them claim that it mutated inside a rat they used to test the serum before Sam took a dose. “

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because it’s important to me that you understand why I did what I did, and that you make sure my favor is granted. Laura, Dr. Wayne, was guilt ridden over her part in creating the bug once it got out. She even wound up being the first recorded female victim of the virus. At the time we thought it was because she had been exposed to the original virus in the lab. She was the one that discovered Sam after his transformation began. Now we know it simply mutated again into a form that can infect born females too.”

“I assume you’re going to tell me that they shipped her off to a quarantine after they discovered her infection. Is she still in one now?”

Mia grimaced as her mind conjured up the image of Laura lying dead on the side off the road. “No, she was killed, executed by a terrorist group on the side of a dirt road some months ago. She was being transported to Dillon when they attacked her bus. If you ask Vera, I’m sure she can tell you more about it, since she was on the transport with Dr. Wayne.”

“How do you know that?”

“The people that sent me to you did their homework. They know almost everything there is to know about you and your people. Anyway, after Laura’s death, Sam, who’s been trapped in the bio-containment lab over at Grayson since I arrived there, and I, began to grow very close. You see, Laura had been doing her best to teach Sam how to live like a woman, and once she was gone I kind of took over. I came to think of her as a surrogate daughter, and once they brought the baby in to stay with her, I had a granddaughter, too. They became the first family I’ve had in a very long time.”

“Baby?”

“It’s a long story for another day.”

“This is all truly fascinating Doctor, but time is running out very quickly, so why don’t you skip ahead to the part that explains why you betrayed us?”

“Not long before I came to stay with you, the powers that be decided that it would be acceptable to use live virus victims to test cures on. As I told you before, I wanted no part of it, so they replaced me with someone that had no such reservations. After that they wanted me out of there, so offered to send me with your group to spy for them. I didn’t want to do it. I had no experience spying on anyone. All I wanted was to be left at Grayson with my daughter, and continue looking for a cure, but they felt my presence was a distraction or something. So Colonel Jordon pulled me into his office and gave me a choice, either do as he wanted or he’d have Sam and Sara sent to quarantine, or worse.”

“He threatened a child with quarantine? What kind of monster is he?”

“A really sick one, but not even close to the worst one they have in their employ, believe me. But he wasn’t kidding about sending them away, so I did what they wanted. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter. When Warren showed up, and then didn’t come down with Acidalia I was told to make sure that I informed my superiors about him by one of your own people that they had set up to keep an eye on me.”

“One of my own people? Mia, I can see now that you’ve been under a lot of pressure from your masters. They have made you do many things, that given a choice you would have declined, but this goes beyond any of that. To accuse one of my people of betraying us … I just find it very hard to believe anyone inside was working with you … that God would allow a proverbial Judas to live among us without my knowledge. ”

“Ellie, I know you think that you’re doing God’s work, and maybe you really are … Christ, everything else is so weird now so why not have God personally appoint you to do his bidding? Maybe he even wanted all this … but the truth is still the truth. Lt Colonel Tyler had me meet with one of your people in Oakland before I joined up with you. If God didn’t tell you that, you might want to ask yourself why.”

Ellie shot Mia a hurt and angry glare. “Who? Tell me. Who is it? ”

“Come on El you can’t be that naíve. It was the person that introduced the two of us.”

“Vera? Surely not.”

“Believe what you want, but I’ve no more reason to lie to you.”

Ellie shook her head in denial. She didn’t want to believe what she had just heard, but it certainly explained Vera’s strange behavior of late. Could it be true? On the surface, it appeared plausible. Vera had been acting odd lately, but she didn’t want it to be true. Not now, not here. If it were true, then this would be a second thing that God hadn’t told her about, and she didn’t want to contemplate what that meant right now. She had too many other things to deal with first.

The curly haired new woman rubbed her temples in an attempt to fight off her growing headache. “I have another question for you, Doctor. You knew the army was going to raid the warehouse. You claim to have been against the idea, yet you didn’t call and warn me while there was still time for us to escape. Why is that?”

“Tyler told me that the raid was happening while we were meeting. He claimed the reason he wanted to meet me at that time was so that I wouldn’t be put in harm’s way during the assault. When you called me, however long it was later, I was shocked. I thought you had all been captured.”

“You mean you hoped we had been captured.”

“No! I mean I thought you had been captured. You may not believe this, but during my time with you, despite our differences, I came to admire and respect you, Ellie. When he told me the raid was on I was sick, not because I wanted all this spy stuff to be over, but because I didn’t want to see all the good that was happening in that warehouse destroyed.”

Again Ellie rubbed her temples. This was all getting to be too much. All the stress, the running and the lack of sleep was making her head fit to split. With a loud sigh of frustration she asked “So, the favor?”

“When I bring you to see Jordon, I need you to include freeing Sam and Sara in the deal.”

“So they can go off with you somewhere I suppose?”

“No, so they can go with you. So they can be safe with a new version of the Sisters. If you do that, then I don’t care what happens to me. In a way, I guess I never did. But I need you to promise me that you will do everything you can get them out of there.”

Ellie stared at Mia for a moment trying to ferret out any hint of deception in her eyes. She found none. Instead Mia’s eyes showed a genuine sorrow, with a small twinkle of hope.

Ellie looked away. She turned her head upward and silently prayed to God for guidance.

Mia waited in patient silence for the new woman’s decision. After several more ticks of the clock Ellie spoke, “I can’t put them above freeing my own people but, I promise to make every effort to get them included in any deal I may be able to strike with your Colonel Jordon.”

“That is all I can ask.”

**********

True to her word, Mia took them, by way of several stops along the way, to Grayson Labs.

The entire time they traveled, Ellie kept a watchful eye on Vera. The portly woman was trying to act normally, but she was a horrible actress. Even a blind man would be able to see how nervous she was, constantly eyeing Mia, then quickly turning away whenever someone would look at her.

On top of that, she was quickly becoming a complete pain in the ass. Every few minutes she would try to dig out information about what Ellie and Mia had discussed. The short sandy blonde’s refusal to answer left her looking hurt and agitated.

When that tactic failed she’d switched gears and started badgering Ellie to leave Mia behind. She claimed the doctor wasn’t trustworthy any longer. As if that was news. She told Ellie she was being foolish for allowing Mia to be with them, that the doctor was just lying in wait for another opportunity to betray them.

Ellie simply took it all in and said nothing. Mia simmered angrily, but ignored the fat woman, comforted by the knowledge that Ellie knew the truth and would eventually deal with it in her own way.

Finally Carol had heard enough and said “Vera, will you please, SHUT THE FUCK UP? My God!”

Vera turned red with furious embarrassment but did as she was told.

Ellie touched Carol’s shoulder, winked at her and gave a quick smile.

********

Today (Monday August 26 8:40 am PDT):

Even though more than half a day had passed, Jordon was still furious with himself over the way things had gone in the containment lab. It wasn’t often that a situation like that blew up on him that badly. He had totally misjudged the way the two women would react to the news that Sam was responsible for what had happened to them. You could have picked his jaw up off the floor when the tall read headed one hugged Grayson and thanked her.

Thanked her! Even though he had seen it with his own eyes, he still couldn’t quite believe it had happened.

When he returned to his office, Jordon had slammed the new women’s folders on the desk and plunked down in his chair filled with impotent rage. He wanted to lash out. He wanted to hit something, to make someone pay for what had happened but there was no one else to blame but himself. So he’d sat and fumed until the sun had come back up this morning.

Finally his brooding was interrupted by the ding of his computers email alert. Jordon stared at the blank screen for several minutes, trying to fight off the urge to smash it with his fist. The last thing he wanted right now was to deal with any of the myriad of issues that his command placed at his feet but the alert only sounded when the mail had been sent with the proper priority code attached to it. Reluctantly he put his glasses on and reached for the monitor, pressing the power button.

There were actually two coded emails waiting for him, the first was from the Secretary of Defense and the second from Dr. Ryan.

Jordon knew he should read the Secretary’s first but it was a daily occurrence for him to receive useless emails from the politician. There were many days he regretted sharing the alert code with the man.

Instead he clicked on Dr. Ryan’s note and immediately wished he hadn’t. The news it contained was as bad as it could be. Jordon shook his head after reading it once and made himself reread it to be sure there wasn’t some kind of mistake. As he reread it, he prayed that he had somehow misunderstood the letter’s meaning. Despite his wishes otherwise, the information it contained was still the same as it was during his first reading.

Jordon pulled his glasses off and leaned back in his chair as he massaged the bridge of his nose. A small tear escaped his eye and trickled down his cheek. He put his hands over his eyes and shook his head in an attempt to deny the truth of the situation.

Sitting back up straight he stared at the open email, filled with a mixture of sorrow and impotent rage. There was no doubt. Even a third read through couldn’t change the conclusions. His second and command and closest advisor, not to mention personal friend, was virus positive. Tyler had been infected with Acidalia.

Jordon had suspected as much when they spoke the day before, causing him to order Tyler to be tested, but that suspicion had done little to help lessen the blow that came with confirmation.

Before he could begin to consider what to do next, the intercom on his desk chirped. It was all he could do to keep from picking it up and throwing the thing against the wall. Instead he jammed his finger onto the respond key and growled “This isn’t a good time right now, Gloria!”

“I’m sorry to interrupt you sir, but Dr. Blue is here to see you.”

Jordon felt an intense feeling of unreality wash over him. ‘Blue is here? Who the hell let her onto the property?’ he wondered as he fought to keep his composure. As of late the Colonel had found himself taking any bad news Gloria delivered out on the messenger, and was desperately trying to stop it.

“Gloria, I’m very busy right now. Have security escort her to one of the holding areas and I’ll deal with her when I have some time!” he told her through gritted teeth.

“I’m afraid I can’t sir, the doctor has … company with her. She’s very insistent on seeing you, right now!” the secretary told him forcefully.

The shrill tone of her voice immediately raised a red flag. Gloria had been in the service for years, including a stint on the ground during the Gulf War in the early 90’s. She wasn’t the type to be easily shaken. There must be more going on with his unexpected “guests” that she able to let on.

This was a problem he didn’t need to be dealing with right now, but these situations were part of the burden of command.

One thing was certain; once this was taken care of someone head at the guard stations was going to roll. He couldn’t fathom who would be stupid enough to allow the doctor access to the campus alone, never mind accompanied by God knows who. Regardless of who was to blame, something was definitely not right.

“Colonel?” Gloria’s voice probed impatiently.

Jordon sighed in resignation. Obviously she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. As usual he was going to have to put aside his personal issues and deal with this first. “Fine, send them in. And alert Ty … err, I mean Lt. Ramsey about our guests and have him send some men up here!”

“Yes sir, Colonel!”

A few moments after they hung up Dr. Blue and her companion stepped through the door.

Jordon stood up as soon as he recognized her companion’s identity from photo’s he had seen. “What the hell is she doing here?” he demanded with great alarm. “Don’t you know the risk you’ve just put everyone in this facility in?”

Jordon pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and covered his mouth and nose. He grabbed the phone off his desk.

“That’s not going to do you any good you know.” Mia informed him with a small smirk on her face. “The virus is so small it would pass through that like it wasn’t even there, so you might as well put it away. Besides, you look like an idiot.”

“What the hell is going on in your head, doctor? Why would you bring her here? She could infect the entire facility, then where would we be?” Jordon shouted as he put the hankie back in his pocket.

“I don’t give a shit about the risk of infection to you or anyone else here. Why should I? She can infect the whole place for all I care. Maybe catching the damn bug would teach you a much needed lesson on what it’s like to be on the receiving side of your quarantine policy.”

Jordon glared at her.

Mia gave him something of a satisfied smile and continued, “Besides, if you were paying attention you’d remember all the times I told you about how the virus goes through periods of dormancy, like Sam, when I begged you to let Sam out of containment. I bet you don’t even remember those conversations, do you?”

The Colonel shook his head.

“I didn’t think so. Anyhow, this is your lucky day. Ellie is in a dormant phase right now. You can relax.”

“I’m just supposed to take your word on that?”

“I don’t see what other choice you have.”

“I’ve had security alerted to your presence. They’ll be here any minute.”

“Then we’d better get down to business.” Ellie replied, interrupting the exchange between Jordon and Dr. Blue. She stepped forward, enjoying the fear filled look on Jordon’s face and placed a video cassette on his desk. “I assume from your reaction that you already know who I am, so we can skip the formal introductions.”

“Yes I know who you are Mr. Wolf.”

“Good. You have my people and I want them back.”

Jordon shuddered involuntarily as the tape landed on his desk and cursed himself for the show of weakness. He stared at it for a long moment, fighting for control of his emotions.

Like any reasonable person, the thought of catching the virus terrified him, but he needed to find a way to put that fear aside for now and take control of the situation. Realizing there was a good chance he had already been infected just in the short time they were in his office, he drew in a deep fear cleansing breath and looked back up at his visitors.

He lifted the tape and inspected the plastic cassette. “And I take it this is what’s going to convince me let them go?” He hoped the illusion of confidence would allow him to take control until the security team arrived.

“Care to know what’s on it?” Ellie asked.

“I think I can make a reasonable guess. I’d say, your people have been taping the military doing some things that would be better left secret? Corralling virus victims, maybe a little bit of excessive crowd control … that sort of thing.”

“You’ll want to keep what’s on it a secret, I’m sure, but it’s none of that stuff. Shall I enlighten you?”

“I’m all ears.” Jordon replied as he glanced at his watch and wondered where his security guards were.

“There’s no need to check your watch. General …” Ellie told him.

“I’m a Colonel not a General.”

“Whatever. Anyway your secretary didn’t call your security people. We have someone outside babysitting her. We wanted to keep this little meeting just between the three of us.”

“I see. So the tape …?” Jordon said trying to sound nonplused by the news.

“You are aware that Warren Quinlan was with us for a short time.”

“I am?”

“Yes Colonel you’re quite aware he was there.” Mia interrupted. “I mean, you had your people raid the place based on the information I supplied you after all.”

“That’s where you’re wrong doctor. We already knew about him long before you confirmed the information. But that’s neither here nor there as you were saying, Mr. Wolf.”

Ellie raised an eyebrow at him for the Mister thing but said nothing. “As I was saying, Mr. Quinlan supplied us this particular piece of video. You see, he was in the control booth at KLTR when that reporter was shot.”

“Yes I am aware of your association with Mr. Quinlan. He and that other one, Mathers I believe his name was, were the ones responsible for the death of that poor woman. Terrorism is such a horrible and unpredictable thing. You never know who has a grudge, or is willing to kill to make their point.”

“Lovely speech, Colonel. The tape shows things from a little bit different view.”

“It does, does it?”

“Most assuredly. Did you know that each camera in a television studio is on during a live broadcast? You see, the director has multiple views of the studio and uses a control box to switch from angle to angle. That recording came from the director’s tape machine. They keep copies of all the angles for training purposes, I’m told. Anyhow, it clearly shows a United States Army soldier shooting the reporter.”

“You should really take a look for yourself, the clarity is very impressive,” Mia added.

Jordon dropped the tape onto his desk. It landed with a loud thump. Being blackmailed by these two was the last thing he needed right now. Sighing quietly he asked, “Am I correct in assuming this isn’t the only copy you have in your possession?”

“You are.”

“And if I don’t do as you ask you’ll, what … send them out to all the TV stations and newspapers in the area?”

“In the nation, actually. The major networks, anyhow.” Ellie glanced down at her watch now. “As a matter of fact, you have about an hour left before they go in the mail.”

Jordon nodded. “You realize I could have the story squashed before it ever gets off the ground with just a phone call, don’t you?”

“If killing it was that easy, I don’t think we’d still be still having this conversation, Colonel. Now can we please stop playing games? I only want my people, Dr. Grayson, and anyone else you’re holding here against their will, released. It’s not like I’m asking you to open the doors to every quarantine in the country.”

Jordon sighed again as he considered his options. If the security detail had been alerted this conversation would have been over before it even began, but then, the tapes would have gone out and he wouldn’t have even known about them until they showed up on every newscast in the country. As much as he was at loath to admit it, he had been out flanked.

He didn’t want to give into their demands. The very thought made him shudder but there was also the question of was this little battle was really worth all the aggravation fighting it would bring.

In reality, keeping Dr. Grayson on the premises had been more trouble than it was worth, especially in the weeks since Dr. Blue’s departure. There were still many people working at Grayson who were loyal to her, and that loyalty had caused major complications on several occasions. Her removal might not be all that bad an idea.

Then there was the simple fact that there were only two of Wolf’s “people”, as she had put it, on the premises, and they too, were quite handful to keep. The two of them had been so much trouble that he’d had to assign an entire squad to guard each of one. That was a drain on manpower he really couldn’t afford, considering how shorthanded they were at the moment.

For what seemed like the hundredth time he massaged his temples. Somewhere along the line he had developed a headache that just wouldn’t go away no matter what he did. Opening his eyes he stared at his guests, weighing their determination.

Finally he stated, “This is how it will be. I have two of your people here. They are yours, along with Dr. Grayson, and you can have Dr. Blue, too, if you want her. Take them both and good riddance. As far as the rest of your associates go, they’ve been sent to quarantines all over the state. I have no way of tracking them all down for you. If you want them, then you’re going to have find them on your own.”

Mia’s face broke into a small grin as he spoke.

“Don’t look so happy yet, doctor, there’s more. Once you’re gone I’m going to have to account for your friend’s and Dr. Grayson’s disappearances.” His face became deadly serious. “I’m going to give you five hours head start, then I’m going to report to my superiors that your group has gone terrorist and attacked this facility, escaping with the two downstairs and killing poor Dr. Grayson and the baby in the process. The heat will be on you after that. Everyone in the country will be looking for you. So you need to ask yourself if those two are really worth all the trouble I’m going to bring down on your heads. That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”

Ellie frowned at him. ‘Only two here, and the rest in quarantines?’ That was not the kind of answer she had been hoping for. Though, when she had seen the size of Grayson, she should have known there was no way all the Sisters could be held here. There were just too many of them.

As for his question about whether they were worth everything he had just spelled out, her answer was yes. These were her followers and her friends. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to ensure their freedom. They would just need to find a place to hole up for a while until they could rebuild their numbers. Then they would see who brought trouble down on who.

Ellie stood up and extended her hand “You have yourself a deal, Colonel, though there is one additional thing I need from you first.”

Jordon sighed. “What would that be?”

Looking over at Mia, Ellie said “I’d prefer to discuss it with you in private.”

Mia was a bit put out by Ellie’s request and shot her a disapproving look.

“Dr. Blue, if you could excuse us?” Jordon asked smugly.

Mia glared at him, got up and walked out without another word. In the outer office she saw Gloria was sitting at her desk working on something on her computer. The forty year old curly brown haired woman looked up as Mia entered the room. She smiled at the doctor.

Mia smiled back at her and said “Thank you, Gloria. You saved us a lot of problems.”

“You have nothing to thank me for, Doctor. They were wrong in replacing you the way they did. Think of this as my way of repaying you for that little injustice.”

The two women chitchatted a bit for a short time before Ellie walked out of Jordon’s office.

“All set?”

“Yes. The Colonel is taking care of getting your friend and the others. He said he’d be out in a few minutes.”

“You trust him?”

“No, but we still have the tapes. Speaking of which, may I use your phone for a minute?” Ellie asked Gloria.

The secretary pushed the phone across the desk. Ellie picked up the receiver and dialed.

The sound of the ringing phone startled Carol . The waiting had been driving her almost as crazy as Vera’s constant prattling. It felt like forever since Ellie and Mia had left them to go see the Army guy, and she had been beginning to think something had gone wrong.

She answered on the third ring . “Hello?”

“Carol, you know who this is?” the familiar voice on the other end asked.

“Yep.”

“Good. Things are going well here, so hold off on the delivery for another hour. Once we’re all set I’ll call you back on the other phone.”

“You got it boss. Talk to you in an hour.” Carol hung up, shut the phone off and flung it into the ocean.

Vera watched the phone crash into the waves and asked, “Everything’s all set?”

“Looks good for now,” Carol replied sharply.

“Is she bringing Dr. Blue back with her?”

“She didn’t say. But she did tell me she was going to get the doc’s friend out of there too, if she could, so I’d have to guess that Mia’ll probably be coming back.”

“I don’t know how she can stand to be around that awful woman after what she did to us.”

“She must have her reasons, and she’s the boss, so I’ll go along with whatever she decides.”

“When she calls next, I want to speak to her.”

“She told me to hold onto the phones. You can talk to her all you want when she gets back with the others.”

“Don’t talk to me like that, child … ”

Carol grabbed the fat new woman by the collar of her shirt and shoved her against the railing behind them, screaming, “I AM NOT A GOD DAMN CHILD! STOP CALLING ME ONE!”

Vera was so shocked by the girl’s outburst she didn’t know how to react. After a moment she recovered, “Ok. I’m sorry, it’s just … you just look so young … “

“Fuck you, Vera!” Carol let Vera go and walked away toward the end of the pier, taking a seat on the bench at the end.

Vera, smartly, gave the girl her space.

*******

Grayson:

Mia and Ellie waited patiently for Jordon to finish his business and come out to get them.

“Did he tell you who they had here?”

“Nicole and Wendy. He also confirmed what you told me, that Vera was working for him too. “

“I’m sorry, El.”

“I know you are, doctor.”

“What are you going to do about her?”

“I … I’m not sure yet, but I have an idea how to handle it.” Ellie said sadly. “I do have a question for you, though.”

“Shoot.”

“When we’re done here, what are your plans for you and your daughter?”

Mia thought for a minute before answering. “I don’t really have one. I guess we’ll go find someplace quiet to hole up until this whole shitty mess runs its course.”

“I’d like it if the three of you would stay with us, wherever we wind up.”

“You would? Not that I’m in any position to refuse, but I have to ask, why?”

“Two reasons, mostly. First, we’re going to be on the run, and having a pair of doctors around is probably going to come in handy, I’m afraid.”

“I see your point.”

“The second reason is a bit less practical I’m afraid.”

“Go on.”

“Despite our differences in the past, and even your betrayal, I respect you. You came clean about why you turned us in, without me having to drag it out of you. Believe it or not, I understand why you did it. You always have told me what you perceive to be the truth, whether I wanted to hear it or not. I’m convinced more than ever now, that you can never have too many honest opinions around you when you’re a leader.”

Mia was speechless. She was grateful for a place to go, of course, but Ellie’s offer, and her reasons for it left the doctor floored. She had great respect for Ellie and felt honored to hear that the respect was reciprocated.

“I … I have to discuss it with Sam once we’re done. It’s a decision that she needs to be in on too, since it’s her life, and her daughter that will be effected as well as my own.”

“Of course. Talk it over with her and let me know what you decide.”

Before Mia could say another word, Gloria’s intercom chirped and Jordon’s voice could be heard. “Gloria, tell your guests that their friends are in the process of being moved out to the west gate. They can meet them out there.”

“Will do, Colonel” she replied. To Mia and Ellie she said, “You heard?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Do you remember how to get to the west gate, Doctor?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Mia and Ellie got up from their seats. Mia stepped over to Gloria’s desk and gave her a hug. “Thank you again for all your help. Are you sure everything is going to be all set? I don’t want you to get into too much trouble over all this.”

“You’re sweet to be so concerned, but it’s a bit too late to worry about that now.”

“He’s going to be pissed when he finds out you authorized our access.”

Gloria looked over her shoulder and flipped the door to Jordon’s office off. “He was wrong to let you go, and now he’s been repaid for that mistake. Now, don’t you worry about me, I’ll be fine. He may be pissed at me but I’ll live. Besides I know all his little secrets. Now go see your friends.”

*************

Nicole was starting to get very upset with their security detail. She had asked them several times where they were going, but not a single one of them had given any kind of answer. Mostly she had just been told to shut up and keep moving, and that attitude was really pissing her off.

The door at the end of the hallway they were walking down opened and bright sun light flooded through, blinding them temporarily.

Once their vision cleared the pair of new women could see a bulky looking armored van waiting just beyond the doorway.

“That must be our ride to Nebraska,” Nicole said to Wendy.

The hulking new woman looked back at the redhead and shrugged.

The soldiers gave the two women a push in the back and ordered them into the van. Nicole considered disobeying them for a moment, but the assault rifle the nearest guard pointed towards her caused her reconsider. Without protest, the two of them clambered aboard. They took seats across from each other and watched in silence as the soldiers closed the stout looking rear doors.

The van began to roll. Nicole was somewhat surprised to see that she and Wendy were the only passengers aboard. She had assumed there were more prisoners at Grayson.

Figuring they were in for a very long ride, the pair of new women did their best to get comfortable on the lightly padded steel benches. It wasn’t going to be easy. The benches were hard, cold, and transferred every bump in the road directly into their butts.

The van rolled to a stop almost immediately, and Nicole looked over at Wendy, confused. The other new woman had no answers to give even if she could have spoken, so once again she simply shrugged.

“All right, you two,” a bio-suited soldier shouted. “End of the line. Let’s go! You’re outta here! ”

The two of them got up and walked to the back doors filled with trepidation. The overly short duration of the trip left them wondering just what was going on. While neither one had been exactly psyched over the idea of being forced to serve in the military, they certainly preferred that life to an execution in the backwoods of the facility.

Holding hands they stepped out into the late morning sunlight determined that if this was the end to meet it on their feet.

A pair of soldiers stepped away from the rest who were pointing their M16 rifles at them while another pair came up behind the women and grabbed hold of the wristlets that each wore. Nicole closed her eyes and said a silent prayer, expecting to be led off into the dense woods and shot. However, much to her surprise, the soldiers unlocked the shackles and stepped back into formation with the others.

Nicole was speechless. She had no clue what to make of the situation. From off to her left she heard a familiar voice call out “Nicole!”

The tall red head and the silent hulk turned to see Ellie and Mia walking towards them as the soldiers backed away and got back into the transport. “El?” Nicole asked, too stunned to know whether to be happy to see her friend or not.

The short curly blonde woman ran to her old friend and hugged her fiercely as Mia stayed off to the side and watched, wondering where Sam and Sara were.

“You’re safe and unharmed?” Ellie asked as she released her grip on Nicole.

“Yeah we … we’re fine.” Nicole replied. “El, what’s going on here?”

“Mia and I went to see the commander and convinced him to set the two of you free.”

“Mia?” Nicole said quietly. She looked up from her friend and saw Dr. Blue standing a few feet away for the first time.

Without a word Nicole broke away from Ellie and bolted over to where Mia stood. In one swift motion she lifted the doctor off her feet by the front of her shirt with one hand and slammed her onto the ground. The furious new woman pounced on top of the doctor before she even realized she was on the ground and wrapped her hands around Mia’s throat.

A wave of fear tried to push its way through the impact induced haze as the impossibly strong new woman clamped down on the doctor’s exposed throat. Dr. Blue’s eyes popped wide open but she was still too stunned from the impact with the pavement to fight back. Not that it mattered, Nicole was much too strong for her to deal with.

“Nicole!” Ellie shouted “Let her go!”

Nicole ignored Ellie and continued to choke Dr. Blue.

Mia could feel everything starting to go black and listlessly kicked at her attackers back.

“Wendy, pull her off!” Ellie ordered the hulking new woman urgently.

Wendy looked at Ellie and then over at Nicole, unsure of what to do. After a second’s contemplation she decided following Ellie’s orders was the better idea. Without further hesitation she ran over and began to pull the redhead off the doctor.

Nicole was determined to make the doctor pay for what she had done, and did her best to resist while she finished choking the life from her. Wendy grasped at her friend but came up with nothing but air as Nicole ducked under her flailing arms. She was the stronger of the two, having been a power lifting champion before catching Acidalia, but Nicole was much faster, and far more agile, making it hard for the giant woman to get a good hold of the redhead.

“Nicole!” Ellie screamed at the top of her lungs finally getting her friends attention. “Let her go!”

“After what she’s done? No way! She deserves this, El!”

“If it wasn’t for her you’d still be in there! Now let her go!”

Nicole stared at her long time friend. It didn’t take long to see how serious Ellie was. Reluctantly she relinquished her hold on the doctor’s throat, but not before bouncing the back of her head off the pavement before she got off of her.

Ellie frowned at Nicole. “That was unnecessary,” she told her in a disapproving tone as she got down and checked Mia’s condition.

“Doctor, are you okay? Can you understand me?”

Mia gasped for breath and coughed.

“Doctor Blue?”

Mia looked up at her with groggy, semi focused eyes and replied hoarsely “Y … yeah … I’m fine … jus … just peachy. Any chance you can get someone to stop the world from spinning so fast?”

Ellie smiled at the small joke. Keeping one hand on the recovering doctor she looked up at Nicole. “What the hell were you thinking?” she demanded.

Nicole looked down at her friend miserably, filled with confusion. “She turned us in. Because of her, most of our friends are stuck in Reynolds now! How the hell was I supposed to react when I saw her?”

“Be that as it may, she’s back with us now! I never would have been able to get inside there and negotiate your release without her help! So back off!” Ellie shouted, getting up and poking Nicole in the chest as she did.

Nicole opened her mouth to reply, but was too flabbergasted by Ellie’s tirade to come up with a coherent reply.

Behind them another transport vehicle pulled up.

“Now what?” Nicole asked thinking the worst.

“That must be Dr. Grayson.”

“Dr. Grayson? You mean Sam? You know about her?” Nicole asked, dumbfounded.

“Yes. The Colonel has been holding her hostage, using her and the young one as leverage, in order to force Dr. Blue to do his bidding. At Mia’s insistence she was included in the negotiations for your freedom.”

When Ellie saw the doctor struggling to get to her feet, she reached down to help her up. The injured woman took the offer and clambered to her feet still holding her throat. She glared as Nicole but said nothing.

Nicole looked back at her reproachfully.

The transport ground to a stop. In a repeat of what they had just seen with the release of Nicole and Wendy, Ellie and Mia watch as the soldiers emptied out of the front and ran to the back. A moment later a thin blonde haired woman carrying a very young child emerged from the back.

Mia, forgetting her injuries, ran over to Sam. Careful not to hurt Sara, she hugged her daughter tightly. The others stood back and watched the tear-filled reunion, not wanting to insert themselves into it until the moment was right.

“M … Mia? H … how?” Sam stuttered. “How is this possible?”

“Don’t worry about that right now hun. Just be glad you’re free and know that you never have to go back in there again.”

“Free?”

“Yes. You’re free.” Mia said hugging Sam again. She looked down at baby Sara. “Wow, she gotten big since the last time I saw her. Hello little one. Have you been being good for your mommy” she asked, taking the baby from Sam. “Come over here there’s some people I want you to meet.”

Sam followed Mia over to where the others waited and surprised her mother by saying “Hello, Nicole, Hi, Wendy. I’m glad to see they got the two of you out as well.”

“You’ve met?” Mia asked.

“They spent a few hours in the containment lab with me before Jordon got pissed off and dragged them out of there.” Sam explained as she gave both new women a hug. “And who is this?” she asked, looking at Ellie.

“My name is Ellie Wolf.” The short long curly haired woman told her as she stepped in and gave Sam a hug. “I’ve heard a great deal about you in the last few hours, doctor. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“And yours,” Sam replied.

“Well, think we should get out of here before the army decides to renege on our agreement or what?” Ellie asked.

“Good idea, El. Sam, do you need any help with the baby?” Nicole asked.

Sam, unsure what the plan was, looked questioningly over at Mia.

“We’ve been invited to go with them, if that’s what you want to do.”

“Oh, okay. Sounds like a plan to me. No thanks, Nicole. I think my mother has got her taken care of for now.” Sam replied.

“OK! Then let’s get going. I’m sure Carol and Vera must be worried sick by now.”

************

Tuesday August 27 10:12am PDT Reynolds:

Paula Stanley looked over the sizable stack papers sitting on the desk in front of her and sighed. Since their arrival it seemed that she had done nothing more than do assessment interviews of the Sisters of Acidalia, a task that had normally been left to the small admissions staff, but with the tremendous number of new arrivals, there was no way they would be finished in any kind of timely manner. As director, she insisted that all new arrivals be interviewed within a day of arriving so that any possible enhanced individuals could be weeded out before Colonel Jordon caught wind of them.

In this case, his people at Grayson had already done the incredibly time consuming job of ferreting out the true identities of the members before their arrival. Additionally, they had been unusually good about providing copies of those histories to the directors of the quarantines the Sisters were being sent to. Reynolds had received the majority of them but there were a few that had been sent to other facilities.

The downside of all those files was that it took a tremendous amount of valuable man power to go through them all. Dr. Stanley had made it known that all members, of the scientific and medical staffs were expected to lend a hand in the process, herself included.

The advantage of being the director was that it allowed her to cherry pick the interviews she did. With a lot of help from her administrative assistant, Paula had picked out everyone with the potential to help with research, give medical care or that just piqued her interest.

There weren’t that many qualified to help with direct research, though there were a couple that might work out as lab assistants. However she saw quite a few as potential experimental subjects for various reasons. Those she had been extra thorough in interviewing, and found most to be willing to do anything that kept them out of general population.

Her latest interview was going to be one of the more interesting in her opinion. Dr. Robert Goings was the lone newcomer who had the potential to actually help the medical staff at the facility.

As with all her interviewees, Paula had made it a point to find out how well they had been dealing with life at Reynolds. Dr. Goings, according to what Dr. Stanley had been told, wasn’t having the best time of it. She had been involved in several altercations in her cell, none of which had ended well for the doctor. Paula was sure she’d jump at the chance to get out of there and into the medical wing.

“Dr. Goings?” she asked through the intercom as Roberta took a seat on the other side of the bio-safe glass.

“Yes,” her fear filled voice answered.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Doctor. My name is Paula Stanley. I’m the director of operations here. I’d like to start off by welcoming you here to Reynolds. I trust your stay with has been as pleasant as the circumstances can allow. I’ve been reading over the file the military compiled for me, and I have a couple questions about your medical experience I’d like to get out of the way right off the bat, if that’s okay with you.”

“S … sure, I guess that would be fine.” Goings replied cautiously, trying to take measure of Dr. Stanley.
“Great! First off is your specialty in research or general practice?” Paula got a kick, seeing how intimidated the doctor looked and sounded. She decided to play good cop for now, hoping that later on it would allow her to toy with Goings a bit.

“I’m an MD. I split my time before all this, between a general pediatric practice in San Francisco and a residency at City Hospital. After the outbreak I spent most of my time working at City, as did most residents in those days. That’s where I got infected. After I escaped there I went to live with the Sisters.”

“Yes, you were the only doctor with your group weren’t you?”

“There was another but she was more of a researcher. She helped me take care of those going through their transformations, and I helped her with some basic research. Together we came up with our own version of the Acidalia test.”

“I’m impressed. Since your background is in the realm of a general practitioner, and you’ve already had some experience working with plague victims, I think that you’d be a tremendous asset in our infirmary. We are grossly understaffed down there compared to the amount of medical attention some of our patients need. I spend a bit of time there myself, but for the most part I’m better suited as a researcher. That is, when I’m not tied up with the responsibilities of running this facility.” Paula’s voice was dripping with condescension and self importance.

It was all Roberta could do to keep from rolling her eyes. She found it hard to believe that this over-bearing, egomaniacal, puffed up wind bag of a woman would be allowed to run a convenience store cash register, never mind a facility like this. Then again, her attitude made it easy to understand how the conditions here would be allowed to get as bad as they were. Reynolds reputation, she had decided, didn’t even come close to the reality of how awful the place was really was.

“It says here your first name is Robert. Am I correct in assuming that you don’t use that name any longer?”

“I go by Roberta now.”

“That makes a certain amount of sense, I’d say. It looks to me like you’d be a perfect fit in our infirmary, so I’m going to assign you to work down there for now. As you can well imagine, we have quite a few patients with a huge amount of medical issues and an absurdly small staff to deal with them. According to my superiors, we have plenty of staff but you know how that goes, so we’ve taken to using any of our patients here that have medical experience to help fill in the gaps for the regular doctors here.”

Roberta nodded, but said nothing.

“Your assignment will, however, include new quarters, with some of the other infected physicians we have on staff. That should work out well for you. I’ve heard that you’ve had some issues with your roommates,” Paula said in faux sympathy.

Roberta shrugged noncommittally. She inwardly wondered if this woman’s obviously false charms actually fooled anyone.

“No problems with the assignment then? Great! I’m going to have you escorted down there and set up a tour with one of the medical staff to get familiarized with the place. We’ll get your things sent to your new room, and tomorrow you can start helping take care of our patients.”

“Yes ma’am.” Roberta said putting every bit of condescension and sarcasm she could into her voice.

‘Ma’am? Did she really call me ma’am?’ Paula, obviously completely misunderstanding Roberta’s intent, could hardly contain herself. This one was going to a lot of fun to toy with when she had the time.

“Rene? Can you take the doctor down stairs?” she asked one of the guards inside the containment room with Roberta.

“Certainly.”

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Roberta,” Paula told her as Dr. Goings got up. “I look forward to working with you more in the future.”

Robert raised an eyebrow, nodded at Paula with a slight scowl and stepped over to where her escort was waiting.

The short trip to the infirmary with her silent guard was the only chance to see the facility Roberta had received since her arrival days before. She could hardly believe the state of the place. Every cell they passed was crowded well beyond planned capacity. Every inmate they passed wore the same down trodden expression on their faces. Some were obviously bruised, and appeared beaten up. Others simply looked like they’d seen the face of the devil himself and lived to tell about it. Their faces, and the thought of what could have caused them to look like that so horrified her it was almost more than she could bear.

The medical center was on the lowest level of the building. It was in an area she had seen before. On the day of her arrival, the Sisters had been paraded past it, without knowing what it was, on the way to what they euphemistically called the processing center.

It was situated between several containment cells on one side, a door marked “Isolation” on another and finally, a large heavy duty rollup door that led to the inmate unloading area.

Each of the containment cells had the same transparent wall facing the corridor that hers had, allowing anyone that passed by to see inside. They were all just as packed with virus victims as the ones on the other floors she had passed through.

There was one big difference between these inmates and the ones she had seen on the upper floors. Here, they all looked sick. Every one of these new women was very pale and thin. Their eyes all looked sunken, with thick dark circles.

Worse than the sight of these poor new women was the smell that came from the cells. It was everywhere, so bad it almost made Roberta gag. She knew the stench well from her time working at City Hospital during the initial break out. It was the smell of human sweat and filth with an underlying stink of sickness added in for good measure. The mere presence of the made the doctor wonder just how well the containment systems really worked.

Unable to look at the suffering women any longer Roberta turned her attention to the door marked “Isolation” and asked “What’s that all about?”

“You want to stay outta there doctor.” The guard replied. “Nothing but a buncha bad apples in there.”

“Bad apples?”

“Yeah. You know. Inmates that just can’t behave in the regular cells. Troublemakers, self mutilators, sexual deviants, that kinda thing.”

“How many are there in there?”

“Lots. More than you’d believe. I heard a couple of the doc’s talkin’ one time and they said that they thought that the bug might have bad effects on some of the victims minds, make em loco, ya know?”

“Hmm,” was all she said in response.

Roberta had, obviously, spent a lot of time around victims of Acidalia. Not once had she ever heard of any kind of mental disorders associated with the virus nor had she seen any evidence of severe mental problems with her own eyes either. There had been several cases of severe depression, which was completely understandable, and treatable if it got bad enough, but nothing like what the guard was describing.

It made her wonder if the disorders were truly virus related or, more likely, had to do with being forced to live in this facility.

“Well here we are,” her escort said, breaking Roberta’s train of thought. “Just hang on a sec while I put in my code here.”

A second later the Medical Center door hissed open. The two of them stepped inside and Roberta was immediately assaulted by an even more overwhelming stench of urine, feces, sickness and the copper-like smell of blood than she had been exposed to in the hallway. It was all she could to keep from vomiting on the spot.

“Are you alright, doctor?” her guard asked. She put a hand on Roberta’s elbow to help support her.

“I … I’ll be fine,” she replied, forcing down her gorge. “I … just wasn’t prepared for the … smell.”

“Yeah it can get pretty nasty in here sometimes. The cleaning crews do what they can to keep the place cleaned up, but it’s usually so full and everyone’s so busy that they can’t get in long enough to do a proper job of it.” Rene looked around the crowded room and spotted Dr. Benetar, the head of patient care. “Dr. Benetar!”

A smallish, fair skinned, gray haired, 50ish, extremely tired looking woman turned and looked around at the sound of the name. After a moment she spotted the newcomer, and a brief scowl crossed her face as she stepped over to where they stood. “What do you have for me this time, Rene? Another sick one? Or is this one of the sows “special” project volunteers?”

“Neither. Doctor Lisa Benetar, this is Dr. Robert … oops, I mean Roberta Goings. Dr. Stanley has assigned her to work down here with you and the others.”

Sticking out a long fingered hand, the reed thin doctor said “Nice to make your acquaintance Dr. Goings.” To Rene she said, “How many time have I told you not to refer to that fat little witch as a doctor?”

“Sorry Doc. It’s a habit. She’d have my ass if I didn’t.”

“A tyrant in a tea cup.”

“Maybe so, Doc, but she’s our tyrant and we’ve got to live under her rule.”

“Too true.”

“Speaking of which, I need to get back up there.”

Lisa waved her hand dismissively. “I think we’re going to be all set here. She doesn’t look like a trouble maker. You can head back upstairs whenever you’re ready. Though I’m a bit surprised the cow doesn’t want you to hang out and make sure I don’t corrupt the newbie.”

“Nope. She’s all yours. I’ll have someone set up a bed in the doctor’s quarters for you, Dr. Goings.”

After Rene left, Dr. Benetar said “So you must be one of those Sisters of Acidalia girls we’ve been hearing about?”

“You’ve heard of us?”

“Well, not before they started bring you people down here for exams, but yes, I know a bit about your group, and I’ve heard a few things about you and a Dr. Blue. All to the good, I might add.”

“That’s good to know. Are the others that you’ve seen … are they all alright? None of them are in one of those cells on this floor are they?”

“No. The cow hasn’t had the time to get any of them into any of her little projects. They haven’t been here long enough. As far as I know they’re all in good health.”

“That’s a relief.”

“I’m sure it is. When we have some time, not that we ever get any in here, but if we do one of these day’s you’ll have to tell me more about your group. Until then however, would you like the nickel tour?”

“I suppose.”

Dr. Benetar Roberta’s arm and led her into the clinic. Pointing to different areas as they walked, the older woman explained “Over there is the admissions desk, and right behind it is our triage center. Over there on the back wall is where we put the minor cases.”

“Minor cases?”

“Routine things like cuts, bruises, colds, that kind of thing. Now through that door is the trauma center. In there we have the major injuries. Mainly they consist of the poor souls that have gone through interrogation.”’ Benetar shuddered. “Horrible, horrible stuff.”

Roberta’s eyes went wide with disgust. “Interrogation? What in the world would they need to interrogate any of these poor women about?”

“I have no idea, hun. I don’t interview them, I just patch them up the best I can. Now, through there is our maternity area …”

“Maternity? There are pregnant women imprisoned here too? I didn’t know having a baby was a threat to public health, too.”

“Sadly, yes. There are over twenty of them in there. They didn’t come in here pregnant, they’re part of one of the cow’s little pet projects. She had some of the physically enhanced girls artificially inseminated for some kind of screwed up, so called ‘research’, she’s doing!”

“Artificially inseminated?” Roberta asked not wanting to understand the implications what she was being told. “They volunteered for that?”

“Honey, no one in here volunteers for anything, but we’re all on the list. She just takes whoever she wants for whatever she wants, and we try to put them back together the best we can when she’s done. That’s the best we can do.”

“Have you tried to complain?”

“Complain? To who?”

“ To her superior? There must be someone she has to answer to.”

“There probably is, but who might that be? More to the point, would they even care if we could get a hold of them?”

“I … I can’t believe … How can a place like this be allowed to exist?”

“Because no one on the outside gives a shit about what happens to any of us in here. We’ve been put away in the back of the closet and forgotten about. The quicker you get used to that fact, the easier it will be for you to help her victims.”

************

KLTR 6pm News:

“Good evening, San Francisco. Our top story this evening surrounds the continuing rumors of the upcoming resignation of Secretary of State, Joanne Constantine from the Fuller administration.

“Sources in the White House are saying that sometime in the next two days the embattled Secretary will present her resignation to President Fuller. She has come under heavy fire from several high ranking officials inside the administration for her handling of the peace talks with Canadian Prime Minister Montclair.

“Those same sources have also confirmed that Chief of Staff Davis Carlyle had to be sent up to Ottawa to kick start the talks after Constantine balked at several key demands by the Canadians. Demands, that if not agreed upon, threatened to derail the entire peace accord, our source said.

“If these rumors prove to be true it will mark the fifth member of President Fuller’s cabinet to either resign or be released in the months since the Acidalia outbreak.

“On the peace accord, Press Secretary Kerry Enrich’s office released a statement today saying that President Fuller is now reviewing the treaty and is expected to sign it sometime before the midnight Monday deadline Canada has imposed. The Senate and the House of Representatives have already voted to allow the President full authority to either endorse or reject the treaty, in an effort to streamline the ratification process.”

“On another front, though the defense department continues to deny them, rumors continue to circulate throughout the international press alleging the USS Nimitz has been seriously damaged, and has been adrift for the last few days off the California coast.

“According to the London times, the Nimitz and its support fleet engaged the French carrier Charles De Gaulle late Saturday night. The carrier was allegedly being supported by a pair of Chinese destroyers and a submarine of unknown origin according to the report. The story goes on to say that Nimitz was escorting a series of oil tankers into American waters when the De Gaulle group intercepted the ships.

“The Nimitz was apparently ordered to stand down and allow the tankers to be escorted back to international waters, an order which its captain reportedly refused.

“The report gets a little sketchy on who fired first, but a prolonged battle ensued, allegedly resulting in the disabling of the carrier and most of its support ships. The tankers that weren’t damaged in the skirmish were then boarded and returned to their ports of origin.

“When contacted for questioning about the report both Defense Secretary Blake’s office and the Department of the Navy vehemently denied the report, saying the Nimitz was currently on patrol and was expected back in port sometime next month.

“U.N Secretary General Mosbard’s office, when contacted, declined to comment on the report.”

“In local news: San Francisco police commissioner Rene Dupree has confirmed that city police in conjunction with several federal agencies and the military have raided several supposedly abandoned buildings in the warehouse district.

“Acting on reports or suspicious activity from several sources authorities stormed the warehouses early Sunday morning. As a result of the raid the terrorist group known as the Sisters of Acidalia has now been dismantled. According to the Commissioner’s office, more than three hundred arrests were made during the incursion.

“The Sisters are suspected of being involved with several area clinic bombings and the murder of a San Francisco police officer at a women’s shelter last month. Authorities also believe they may be associated with wanted felon Reverend Manning, though no clear evidence of a link has been produced as of this time.

“A source within the department, on the condition of anonymity, did confirm that the authorities were still looking for the group’s leader, a new woman that goes by the alias Ellie Wolf.” A grainy picture of Ellie appeared behind the new women as she continued. “If you have seen this woman, or have any information of her whereabouts, please contact the San Francisco police department or the California office of the FBI.”

“In Washington, the U.S Marshall’s office said today during its daily press briefing, that it has no further information on the escape of Dr. Carla Ryson or her whereabouts at this time. Spokes woman Marcie Sheppard said that the agency was following up on several leads, but had nothing concrete to report at this time.

“ She was also quoted as saying that since there have been no demands for ransom of any kind or any kind of declaration of responsibility, her agency was still treating the situation as a well planned willful liberation on Dr. Ryson’s part, and not a kidnapping.

“As many of you may remember it was a week ago that several of the doctor’s accomplices attacked her transport convoy, resulting in the death of three federal agents and the wounding several others.”

**************

Wednesday August 28 10:50am EDT White House Washington DC:

“Magda?”

“Yes Mr. President” his secretary answered.

“Can you get in touch Mr. Carlyle’s office and have him come down here? I need to see him right away.”

“Yes sir. I’ll call over there right now.”

“Thank you.” Fuller said as he clicked off the intercom.

As he waited, he turned his attention back to the peace agreement the Secretary of State, in conjunction with Carlyle and his staff had worked so hard on with the Canadian Prime Minister. It wasn’t an ideal treaty by any means. Fuller felt that they had given up more than he would have wanted, control of the St. Lawrence sea way and the turning over of General Alexander, chief among them.

Despite that opinion, the President found he had little choice but to sign off on it at this point. The sad truth was, that the military simply didn’t have the personnel available to defend the country anymore.

Acidalia was wiping out the country’s soldiers, and its defense capabilities along with them. The latest estimate that had crossed his desk a few days ago put all branches of the military at about 40% of normal domestic manpower. Those numbers now included all of the personnel that had been brought back from bases abroad, as well as those that had been stationed here at the beginning of the outbreak.

As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, the report had estimated that more than 1000 soldiers were being infected every day, despite the military’s best efforts to protect their people.

“Sir?” the intercom said.

“Yes?”

“Mr. Carlyle’s office says he’s out of town today on personal business.”

“Personal business?”

“That’s what they said, sir.”

“Call his cell phone. I need to speak to him right away.”

“I already tried it sir. It’s either off, or he’s somewhere that doesn’t have signal, because it just rolls over to his voice mail.”

“What the hell do you mean, no signal? Those are satellite phones! They never lose signal! God damn it …” Fuller stopped himself in mid-sentence realizing Magda was only the messenger, not the responsible party. He had no right to be yelling at her for Carlyle’s absence. Taking a moment to calm himself, the President took deep cleansing breath and let it out in a loud, annoyed sigh. More calmly he asked “Did you leave him a message?”

“Yes sir. I told him you were looking for him.”

“Well that’s something at least.” Fuller rolled his eyes. “Can you get a call into Ryan Baker over at Secret Service and have him get ahold of the agent in charge of Mr. Carlyle’s security detail? Maybe his phone’s working.”

“I’ll call him right now, sir.”

“Thank you, Magda.”

As Fuller waited impatiently for her to report back, he went back to reading the details in the peace agreement, becoming more and more annoyed with the treaty as he went.

He had already spoken with Joanne Constantine about the negotiation and she had thrown Davis under the proverbial bus, saying that it was he that agreed to hand Alexander over to the Canadians for trial ,not her.

Before he decided who was to blame for the mess they now found themselves in, he wanted to hear Carlyle’s side of the story. He also wanted to discuss who it was that was telling the press that he was expecting Joanne’s resignation. He didn’t have any direct proof, but something told him that the rumor, along with several others ,had been started in the Chief of Staff’s office, and Fuller was sick and tired of it.

“I’m sorry, sir. Mr. Baker says that Mr. Carlyle never requested a security detail for today. As far as they knew, he was still in the building.”

“He what? What do you mean he didn’t request security? How could they not know if he left?” Fuller yelled into the phone. For an instant he tried to remind himself to not take it out on her, but … Fuck it! He was pissed off and didn’t care who knew it at that moment!

Ignoring her boss’ outburst Magda replied calmly “That’s what Mr. Baker said, sir. If you want to talk to him directly I’ll get him back on the line for you.”

“Yes I want to speak to him!” Fuller growled.

He fumed for several seconds until the secretary’s voice returned saying “Mr. Baker is on the line for you sir.”

Without even acknowledging her, Fuller grabbed the phone and shouted “Baker! What do mean Carlyle doesn’t have a security detail with him?”

“He … His office never called informed us he was leaving the premises, sir.” Baker replied evenly. This wasn’t the first time he fallen victim of Fuller’s wrath, and he had learned from experience the best way to handle it was to just remain calm until the storm blew over.

“God damn it! I need him found. Now!”

“Yes Mr. President. I’ll get everyone available on finding him right now sir.”

“Make sure you do!” Fuller shouted, slamming the phone down in irritation with the whole situation. Between the unrealistic demands of the treaty, and the Nimitz floundering somewhere out at sea, he’d had just about had enough of bad news. Carlyle missing was just another problem in what was becoming a never-ending line of them.

Looking up, he eyed the half full bottle of scotch that sat calling his name, on the coffee table across the room. After a moment’s indecision he got up and grabbed the bottle. As he took a long deep swig he silently wondered if it was too late to just walk away and never look back.

*************

Virginia, the farm house 11:25am EDT:

The click of the lock being released was as loud as a gunshot to her ears, pulling her out of the semi-sleep that filled the time since they had last let her out. By her reckoning, several days had passed since Philip pulled out of her dark hole and told her about Dr. Ryson’s capture, but her sense of time was skewed by the lack of light and the irregular feeding schedule they kept her on, so it might have been a year for all she knew for sure.

The click was quickly followed by a blinding light that flooded the room. Gail put her hand up to shield her eyes as they struggled to adjust to the sudden brightness. Her stomach began to tighten into a knot in anticipation of what was about to come.

It had been a very long time since the door had opened for anything. They hadn’t even been in to empty the bucket she used as a toilet, never mind feed her. The stink and the hunger had threatened to drive her mad more than once but she had managed to hold on by thinking of all the ways she could kill Philip when the time finally came.

For the last few hours she had been vaguely aware of heightened activity above her. At times there seemed to be more than the usual amount of feet pounding the floor upstairs, but until now, she hadn’t paid it much attention. She just lay on her bed and plotted Philips demise.

A pair of hands grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and a familiar voice said “C’mon bitch! Time for you to work.”

Gail tried to push Carlos away, but the Brazilian was much too strong for her. The weeks of inactivity and infrequent meals had left her feeling weak as a kitten. Still, she slapped him in the chest with her hand as hard as she could muster. The sharp smacking sound brought a momentary smile to her face. An instant later it disappeared as the strong Brazilian slapped her across the face with ear-ringing force in response.

“I not putting up with your bullshit today, bitch. You fuck with me and I’m gonna beat the hell outta you. Philip says when you done, you all mine, an I can do whatever I want with ya,” Carlos bragged. His mouth was right up in her face and Gail couldn’t help but smell the stink of onions and tobacco on his breath. “Gonna make you beg me to kill you later.”

Gail spat at him. Again he slapped her, even harder this time.

“What the fuck is taking you so long?” Gail could barely hear Jen’s voice over the loud ringing in her head.

Jen saw the large red welt that was just beginning to form on Gail’s left cheek. “Jesus Christ, Carlos! What the fuck did you do to her?”

“She spit on me!” he growled.

“So you beat the shit out of her? Phil’s going to be pissed when he sees what you did.”

“Fuck him! I don’t give a shit what he says. This bitch is mine when she’s done! So what’s the difference if I start a lil bit early?”

“What’s the difference? Jesus Christ! How about, SHE’S NOT FUCKEN DONE YET? God you’re such a fucken retard!” Jen pushed her way past the muscular Brazilian and took a close look at Gail’s injuries.

The would be assassin’s left eye was swelling up like she’d gone three rounds with Tyson, and her cheek was already moving from red to a deep purple.

“Fuck!” she spat “look at her! You know, you could fuck up a wet dream, you know that?”

Jen got to her feet and pulled Gail up with her. “Get the fuck out of my way!” she demanded.

Carlos stood his ground, smiling menacingly as he challenged her authority for a moment, then stepped aside. As they stepped passed him, Carlos whispered “You better watch your step. You boy friend ain’t gonna be in charge of us forever. One day you gonna find that you need a friend like me.”

Jen stopped in her tracks. She leaned Gail against the door frame and turned to look at Carlos. She stepped forward and poked him in the chest. “You’re the one that needs to watch their step!”

Carlos puffed out his chest and grinned at her. “Oh yeah? What you gonna do to me if I don’t?”

“This!” Jen replied as she reached down, grabbed his crotch and squeezed as hard as she could.

Carlos howled in pain as he crumpled into a ball on the floor. Despite the dire circumstances, Gail couldn’t help but smile at the sight of him.

Jen turned back to her just as the grin faded. “Now are you going to behave?”

Gail nodded. In spite of everything, this woman had won her grudging respect. She had more balls than any of the men she hung out with. In a lot of ways she was just like Hillary Marko.

Hillary. Just the thought of her dead friend sent a quick bolt of sorrow though her. Just as quickly as it came up, Gail pushed it back down. Now was not the time for grief. If things went according to Philip’s plan she’d be back with Hil very soon, anyhow.

“Good. Let’s go.”

At the top of the stairway Philip was waiting for them. As usual, he had a look of impatience about him, as if he was the busiest person in the world and it was a personal affront to make him wait even an instant for what he wanted.

“What the hell took so long?” he complained.

Gail hated the sound of his voice, especially when he whined.

“Ask Carlos.” Jen replied offering no other explanation.

Philip shot her annoyed look. He took a close look at Gail’s newly beaten face and asked “Jesus Christ! What the fuck happened to her?”

Jen rolled her eyes and repeated. “Ask Carlos.”

Philip punched the wall “That God damned mother fucken moron asshole dip shit dumb ass mother fucker! I told him … “

“Is there a problem?” a deep, quite proper sounding man’s voice asked.

Gail looked over Philip’s shoulder at the new arrival. He was somewhere in the area of 6 ft tall, with a full head of thick graying hair and wearing a expensive looking gray light gray suit. There was something very familiar about his face. She knew she’d seen him somewhere before, but just couldn’t put her finger on where.

“No sir … no problem. N … nothing I can’t take care of anyhow.” Philip blabbered.

Behind Philip’s back’ Gail rolled her eyes. Bastion was obviously nervous’ but was doing his best to try to make it look like he had everything under control’ even though his voice led the listener to believe he was anything but.

“Then can we get things going? I need to get back soon.”

“Yes sir. We’ll be all set in just a few minutes. If you want to wait outside we’ll bring the doctor up.”

“Just get moving, Bastion. I’m a busy man, and this tape needs to be in the hands of the news people in time for the six o-clock news!” gray suit said as he turned and walked towards the door leading to the backyard.

“Yes, sir.” Philip replied. To Gail he said, “You better not fuck this up for me or I’m going to make you hurt like you never thought possible. Just do what you’re told and it’ll all be over soon.”

“Fuck you, Philip!”

Philip grabbed Gail by the throat and slammed her up against the wall so hard it pushed the air from her lungs. “Listen here, you cunt” he growled. “You’re going to die in the next hour one way or the other. You have the opportunity to take out Ryson first if you do as you’re told. If you don’t, I’m just going to have to give you Carlos right now. Your choice, bitch. Make it!”

“F … fine” she gasped as he let go “I … I’ll do it. Tell me what you want, and I’ll do it.”

It took all of Philip’s strength of will to keep from smiling at her suddenly cowed attitude. He raised his hand like he was going to slap her and watched contentedly as she ducked away defensively.

“Jennifer, could you please go back downstairs and get our guest of honor? Have Carlos help you with her if you need it. I’ll escort Gail here out to the backyard myself.”

*********

Gail allowed herself to be pulled along behind Philip. She couldn’t believe how stupid and overconfident he could be. His never-ending arrogance and feeling of superiority allowed him buy her little act without question. Little did he realize that Dr. Ryson wasn’t the only one she intended to kill. He was going to be getting a bullet too. All she wanted was a second bullet, and an extra second after Ryson went down to do the deed. Once he was dead, she didn’t give a shit what they did to her.

Philip held the top of her arm so tightly the tips of his fingers were red as he pulled her through the kitchen and out the back door. He spoke in a hushed growl, apparently thinking it made him sound all the more intimidating. ”This is how it’s going to go. Jen is going to give the camera a little speech we prepared, then you get to do your part. I don’t want to see anything other than that happen. You got me?”

Gail, for her part, played him like a fiddle. She made sure to avert her eyes as she replied “Yeah, I … I got it.”

Philip led her down the steps and out across the large well manicured back lawn to where it bordered the thick woods behind the house. She saw gray suit sitting in a comfortable looking lawn chair. Standing next to him was Randy. He was showing the new guy something, but Gail couldn’t tell what it was from her angle.

She looked around the rest of the yard as best she could but couldn’t spot any of the others that had been staying in the house. She wondered where they were, but then decided it didn’t really matter. The fewer people there were to get in the way of her plans for Phil, the better.

Bastion stood next to her, still gripping the top of her arm painfully. Together, they watched as Jen led Ryson was led out of the house. The doctor was wearing a black hood of thick looking material over her head. Her hands were tied behind her back, and her pant legs had little silver colored half cuffs of duct tape down near her ankles.

Gail was impressed with the doctor’s courage as she was led out across the yard. She walked on steady legs, even though she couldn’t see where she was going. There was no pleading, crying or whimpering coming from under the hood either. She simply allowed herself to be led to a spot, then stood there silently.

Jen walked over to where Randy held a small silver colored digital video camera. She put on a dark blue ski mask and stuffed her brown hair up under it, making sure to hide every strand. After going over her spiel a couple times, she stood in front of the recording device and blathered on for a minute or so.

Gail didn’t pay what she was saying any real attention, since it didn’t really matter what excuse they were using to justify what was about to happen. The simple truth was, they had taken the doctor because they wanted to, and killing her was going to make the people that ran the government look like a bunch of ineffectual fools. That’s all the reason they needed, and all the result they were looking for, no matter what they pretence they put up for the camera.

After a minute Gail got bored with watching the taping and turned her attention back to the newcomer in his light grey suit and expensive looking tie. His identity kept tickling the edge of her conscious mind, but she couldn’t quite grab it and drag it into the light. She was still convinced she had seen him before, but still couldn’t put her finger on where.

He had gotten up when the camera began to roll and stood behind Randy. Gray suit watched them tape the speech with his arms crossed and an air of self importance about him that reminded her of a politician or …

Her eyes suddenly lit up. That was it! He was a politician! He was one of the President’s advisors or something like that. She had seen him on TV not long before Philip kidnapped her, standing off to the side of President Fuller as he gave some sort of speech.

Now the question was, what the hell was someone like him doing here? Was the President involved with Philip and his stupid little schemes somehow?

She found that idea a little hard to swallow. In Gail’s opinion, Philip couldn’t tie his shoes without someone there to tell him how, so it was hard to believe that he was some way connected to the nation’s highest ranking politician.

Philip tugged on her arm, pulling her back to what was going on before she could pursue the question any further.

The mystery of the gray suit was going to have to wait for forever, probably. It was time to get down to business. If she somehow survived the next few minutes she would worry about him then. Now she needed to focus and concentrate on taking Philip out. She knew there would be an opportunity, a millisecond when he would let his guard down, and she had to be ready to take advantage when it happened.

Philip handed her the mask Jen had been wearing. “Put this on” he commanded.

Gail did as he instructed. Once her face was covered, he handed her a 9mm pistol. She accepted the gun and smiled behind the mask at the reassuring weight of the weapon. It felt fully loaded.

Philip grabbed her by the shoulders and stuck his face right up to hers. “You stand here until I’m out of the shot. When I tell you to, you’re going to step over to the doctor over there, pull off her mask and put a bullet into her head. Got it?”

Gail lowered her eyes and nodded.

“Good. Don’t fuck this up!” Philip turned and began to walk away.

Gail was so stunned to see him turn his back on her she almost missed her opportunity. After a split second of hesitation, she lifted the gun and took aim.

Time slowed down to a snail’s pace. Beyond Philip, she could see Randy’s eyes pop wide open. The doctor opened his mouth to warn him. Gail pulled the trigger before the first letter escaped. The front of Bastion’s head exploded like an over ripe melon, spraying blood, chunks of bone and brain matter all over Randy , Jen and the lush green lawn. Philip’s legs took two more steps, he teetered for a moment then fell over, landing on the soft grass with a pronounced thud.

Time resumed its normal pace just as a bolt of adrenaline shot through Gail’s body. She didn’t have a second to waste on gloating over how easy it had been to take him out. Instead she used her new found energy to try and finish the job.

She dove for the ground in kind of a rolling summersault. Coming up into a shooter’s stance, she took aim at Randy who had dropped the camera and was pulling out a gun of his own. For half a second she marveled at how slow time seemed to be going by, and then she pulled the trigger.

CLICK

“Shit!” she thought as she started to dive to the right. “Figures, only fucken one bullet!”

A shot rang out. It pinged off a tree just to the left of where her head had just been, sending a spray of splinters in all directions.

Another bullet zipped by her face so close she could feel the breeze it generated as she clambered to her feet.

Right in front of her was Dr. Ryson, still standing where they left her, but no longer silent. The petrified woman was screaming. Gail tackled her to the ground as more bullets took chunks out of the trees.

There was no cover to hide behind and they couldn’t depend on Randy and Jen’s bad aim to last forever. Gail quickly scanned the area for something, anything that could be used as a weapon and found what she was looking for still in the palm of her hand.
The gun was empty, alright but it was heavy enough to do some damage.

Jen was the closest target. Gail leaped to her feet and threw the gun at her. The short brown haired terrorist turned to avoid the object as it flew towards her. At the same instant Gail lunged at her.

The tackle would have made Lawrence Taylor proud. The two women slammed into the ground just as Gail felt a bullet bite her in the left thigh.

Ignoring the burning pain, she grabbed her stunned adversary by the hair and slammed the back of her head on the ground as hard as she could manage. The earth was soft but the impact was still enough to cause the brown haired girl’s eyes to glaze over. Gail, overcome with a sudden fury slammed her head on the ground again.

She was about to do it a third time but a second bullet found a home in her torso just above the waist. Gail yelped in pain as she was pushed off of Jen by the impact.

Reaching over, she pulled Jen’s gun from her limp hand. The injured woman rolled onto her back just as a third bullet thudded into the soft grass-covered ground next to her head. Gail took a glance in Randy’s direction. She aimed the best the pain in her leg and side would allow, and pulled the trigger.

Randy was tugged sideways as the bullet hit him in the right shoulder. His gun went flying out of his hand, striking Mr. Gray Suit, who for some unknowable reason was just stand there watching the entire scene unfold. It hit him in the head and sent him sprawling to the ground.

When she had first stepped out into the yard, Gail had been surprised to see there were only the five of them there, but now she couldn’t have been happier. Her surprise attack had work better than she could have ever hopped. She had been hit twice, but she was still breathing, so everything was gravy from here on in. It was time to finish things.

To her left Jen was moaning. Without mercy or hesitation, Gail pointed the gun at her and shot her in the face.

As she lay, twenty feet from the bottom of her feet was Randy. The skinny, brown haired, bearded doctor was holding his shattered shoulder and howling in pain. Blood poured from the wound.

Gail rolled over and tried to get to her feet, but her twice shot body wouldn’t hear of it. Her leg and side hurt so badly that for a moment she thought she was going to pass out.

That of course, would be a death sentence. Carlos was still somewhere inside the house. If he found her lying there unconscious and defenseless, it would be all over for her. The thought of what he would do was enough to make Gail force herself to stay awake.

It kind of baffled her why he hadn’t come running out already. He must have heard all the gunfire. It was a mystery, but she was in no position to question her good fortune.

Once the pain let up Gail wiggled herself into position so that she was facing where Randy was lying. He had stopped whimpering. It looked like he might have passed out.

‘Like shooting fish in a barrel,’ she thought as the short blonde propped herself up on her elbows and aimed as best as she could.

Randy’s body jumped a moment later as both of her bullets found home, one hitting him in the side of the chest, the other in the neck.

From off to Gail’s right, she could hear the muffled sound of Dr. Ryson whimpering. Using her good leg to push with, she slithered over to where the hooded doctor lay. Placing the gun down next to her, the injured blonde pulled the hood off of Carla’s head.

“Are you OK?” Gail asked.

“OK? OK? Are you serious? They were going to shoot me, for crying out loud!” Carla shouted. “And you ask if I’m OK?”

“Well, they still might if you don’t keep your voice down. There’s still one of them unaccounted for, and he’s a big mean son of a bitch. So how about we keep the panic in check and our voices down, nice and low for now?”

Carla didn’t trust herself to be quiet, so she just nodded her agreement.

“Good. N … now I’m going to untie your hands. I need you to roll over so I can get to them.”

Carla did as instructed and in a few moments was free. Sitting up she got her first look at Gail’s bleeding leg. “You’ve been shot!”

“Y … yeah I no … noticed. I got one up here too” she replied showing the doctor her second wound.

“Here, let me look at that.”

Carla began to examine the wounds. They were bleeding very badly. “These are pretty bad. You’re losing a lot of blood. We need to get you inside so I can try to fix you up. If I help, do you think you can get to your feet?”

“Maybe.”

Dr. Ryson got up. Gail gritted her teeth and tried to prepare herself for the pain that was about to come.

It took several tries and a whole lot of cursing but eventually Gail made it to her feet. She swooned from the pain and loss of blood. Carla held on tightly until the bout of dizziness passed.

Once she was all set Gail looked around at the carnage. “H … hey, where’s gray suit?”

“Who?”

“There was … another guy … here. He was wearing a gray business s … suit.”

Carla looked around as much as she could without letting go of Gail. “I don’t see him. Are there any bullets left in that gun of yours?”

Gail looked down at the gun that hung limply in her ever weakening hand. “Mi … might be a couple sh … shots left bu … t I don’t know if I can hold my hand steady enough to hit anything. You ever shoot a gun before?”

“No.”

“Well I guess we better hope he’s not inside waiting for us then, huh?” Gail was trying to force a smile. Her head was beginning to buzz loudly, and the feeling frightened her. Still she did her best not to let on.

“I guess ...” Carla replied dubiously.

The three back stairs that led up to the porch were tougher than either of them had anticipated. Carla wasn’t strong enough to carry her savior, and Gail lacked the strength to get herself up them. They tried several different things but none worked. Finally, out of desperation to get the bleeding woman in the house, Dr. Ryson wrapped her hands around Gail’s chest and dragged her savior up them.

The white hot pain was unbelievable but somehow Gail persevered. Once inside the kitchen, Carla carefully helped Gail onto one of the chairs. Once she was seated, the doctor propped the injured leg up on another one.

She really didn’t like the color, or rather, the lack thereof, in Gail’s face. “Sit tight for a minute while I go see what I can find to slow that bleeding down.”

“T … take this with you.” Gail said holding the gun up unsteadily.

“I told you I don’t know how to use it.”

“Po … point that end at the other guy and pull the trigger. Not exactly rocket … science d … doc. Sides we don’t know who’s in here with us. Remember the big guy I told you about?”

“Yes.”

“If he’s lurkin … round somewhere you’re gonna need it.”

Carla opened her mouth to protest but noticed the small but growing puddle of blood that was forming under the chair where Gail sat. The woman was growing so weak she could barely hold herself up, and as a result was half slumped against the table.

Not wanting to waste and more precious time arguing, Carla grabbed the gun and hurried out of the room.

The house was eerily quiet, almost as if it was waiting for the next outburst of violence. It gave Carla the creeps.

Entering the living room she immediately spotted the bathroom off to her right. Quickly but cautiously, she walked over to it. A lose board on the floor creaked loudly, the sound made all the louder by the complete lack of background noise, making the doctor jump so high she almost smashed her head off the ceiling above.

She backed up against the nearest wall, held her breath and listened for any sign that whoever else was in the house with them had heard her. All the while she strained to keep her bladder from emptying itself right then and there.

After a few soundless seconds passed she put a hand to her chest to slow her impossibly fast beating heart and gazed around the corner into the small bathroom. It looked empty.

Stepping as lightly as was possible, she entered the room and immediately began to search for bandages. In the vanity under the sink she found a large roll of ace bandages, along with a handful of large gauze pads. Dr. Ryson scooped up as many of them as she could hold.

Her mission accomplished Dr. Ryson cautiously scurried back to the kitchen.

Upon entering the room, she was disheartened to see how big the puddle on the floor had grown in just the few minutes that she was gone. Carla began to wonder if it wasn’t already too late to save Gail.

Pushing those thoughts aside she grabbed the scissors she saw on the counter earlier and began to cut the leg of Gail’s pants off. Gail’s eyes had a faraway cast to them that Carla didn’t like at all. It looked to her like Gail was fading away.

“So, you know who I am, but I never caught your name.” Carla said trying to keep Gail with her.

“Name’s Gail. G … Gail W … Warner.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Gail, and thank you.”

“Th … thank you? For what?”

“For saving me out there. I assume it was you that tackled me out of harm’s way. That’s quite a impact we made out there. When you’re feeling better you should try out for the NFL. You might have a real future in knocking people over.”

Gail smiled slightly.

“Did they have you prisoner here too? Where they planning on shooting you as well”

Gail let out a small humorless laugh. “S … sorry to burst yer bubble doc, but s … saving you w … wsn’t ma p … plan. I wa … was a prisoner here … an they were gonna to kill me … but I was su … p … pposed ta kill you first.”

“Why would they force you to do that?”

“I wanted to d … do it.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t get me wrong doc. I’m glad I din’t, specially now. B … but if I wasn’t this h … hurt’ I’d be lo … looking ta pt a bullet in ya. Oww! Jesus! Be careful will you?”

“Sorry.”

I … I jus want ya ta know … h… helpin me doesn’t change any … anythin. You s … still have a lot to answer for.”

“ If you still want me dead, then why did you save me out there? You could have just left me to wander around. I’m sure someone would have shot me before too long. Besides, what have I ever done to you?”

“Done ta me? Because of you, my father’zz in a quantine! M … my best friendzz dead! Jus bout eryone that m … mattered to me is dead! T…Thazz what you did ta m … me!”

“I killed them? I don’t seem to remember killing anyone.” Carla replied sarcastically. She hadn’t been planning on getting into this type of conversation, and to be honest, wasn’t too happy with the direction it was moving, but at least it was keeping her patient’s mind working and her focus on something other than the fact that she was bleeding to death.

“Ya invented the bug. You l … let it out. You an all ya cronies over there at G … Grayson … you all zerve ta die fa w… what you did!”

“I need a needle and some thread. Do you know if there’s any here? Where it would be?”

“Npe. Spen all m t … time down s … stairs jus like you.”

“Will you be okay here for a minute while I go look for some?”

“N … not l … like I cn go nywhere. Fore you go I … I have a q … question.”

“Ask.”

“I just told you … that I’d ki … kill you if I had the c … chance, w… why you still helpin’ me?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Carla replied, then walked out before Gail could say another word.

The woman’s bleeding wasn’t letting up despite the bandages and the pressure she was applying to them. The leg wound was pretty bad, but the one on her torso was the real problem. The thick dark color of the blood left only two options, she had been hit in either the liver or the kidney. Either way it was tremendously bad.

Carla knew if she didn’t do something very soon there would be nothing left to could do. Gail was already exhibiting the classic signs of severe blood loss. She was shivering, unable to generate any internal body heat. Her speech was really starting to go downhill, and her eyes had a very faraway look to them. She considered calling an ambulance but she didn’t know where the phone was, and Gail didn’t have the time for her to go looking for it right now. She needed to be stabilized first.

Carla hoped she could find some thread strong enough to use for makeshift stitches. If she couldn’t, she didn’t know what she was going to be able to do for her. A tourniquet might work on the leg but it wouldn’t do anything for her internal injuries.

In a second floor bedroom she found what she wanted stuffed under one of the beds. There was an entire basket filled with sewing materials. Surely some of the thread would be strong enough to hold.

Carla snatched up the basket and bolted down stairs. She made a quick detour into the bathroom for more gauze, then headed back into the kitchen no longer worried about alerting anyone that might still be in there with them.

“I think this will wor … aww shit!”

Carla rushed over to where Gail sat. The injured woman was limp. Her head hung back and to the side at an awkward looking angle.

The doctor put her fingers to the side of Gail’s throat, pleading, begging God for there to be a pulse. There wasn’t. She grabbed Gail’s wrist and tried there but again found nothing.

The basket in her hand fell to the floor with a soft thud. Carla left it where it landed and stepped over to the sink. Her breath came in ragged heaves as she fought to keep control of her emotions. She hadn’t really known Gail, who had wanted to kill her, yet seeing her dead in the chair was enough to bring Dr. Ryson to the brink of tears.

Carla grabbed a glass and filled it with water. Her hand shook so much that the glass clinked against her top teeth as she sucked the cool liquid down greedily. She tried to set the empty glass on the counter but missed, send it crashing to the floor.

Unwanted tears rolled down her cheeks as she turned to look back at Gail’s lifeless body. Using her sleeve she wiped them away and walked unsteadily out of the kitchen.

In the living room she looked around absently, trying to decide what to do next. It occurred to her for the first time, that she didn’t even know where she was, never mind where to go now. She spotted a phone sitting on a small table next to a heavy looking door.

For a moment she thought of calling someone, but then realized there was no one to call. Everyone considered her a criminal, an escaped one at that, so anyone she contacted would most likely sick the police on her as soon as she hung up.

She looked around the large room again, still unable to come up any kind of plan.

Outside in the dirt driveway she spotted two cars. She mulled over the idea of just taking one of them and getting the hell out of there. She could always worry about where to go after she was on the road.

Lost in indecision, she paced.

A loud crashing noise from the basement caught her attention. The sound was quickly followed by a man’s voice yelling what she assumed were curses, in a language she didn’t understand. Stupidly, Carla stood and listened to him as he thudded around down there. It wasn’t until she heard him begin to stomp his way up the stairs that it occurred to her that it might be bad for her if he found her alive, and everyone else in the place dead.

Without another thought Carla bolted out the door as if every demon in hell was after her, and upon hitting the ground ran twice that fast towards the waiting cars.

The first was an older blue colored sedan of some unknown foreign make. Putting her hands to either the side of her head, Carla gazed into the driver’s side window and spotted the keys hanging from the ignition. From inside the house, she could clearly hear a bellow of rage.

Spurred on by the sound, Dr. Ryson pulled on the door handle, but it didn’t open. Her eyes grew wide with panic as she stared at the reluctant door. She grabbed at the handle again, this time with a tighter grip and it popped open like an obedient pet. Without delay she jumped into the driver’s seat. Carla whispered a silent prayer as she turned the key and let a quick smile out as the car roared to life. She dropped the gear shift into reverse just as a huge Latino man came running out of the house.

‘Oh my God! He’s a monster!’ she thought as she slammed her foot onto the gas pedal. The sedan shot backwards, sending a thick cloud of dust up in front of the windshield and a ton of stone shooting at her pursuer.

For a moment she allowed herself to hope that she was finally going to get away from this awful place, but the feeling was quickly replaced by one of frustration as she slammed into the other car with a bone jarring crunch of metal on metal. She had been so intent on getting away from the giant that was running head long down the driveway after her, that she hadn’t bother to look behind her as she backed up.

Slightly stunned from the unexpected impact, Ryson hesitated for just a moment before throwing the car into drive.

Those few seconds were all the time Carlos needed to reach the car.

He lunged at it and landed squarely on the hood. As soon as the monster of a man landed, he pulled back his right arm and punched the windshield with enough force to crack it.

Inside, Carla yelped in surprise.

Again Carlos punched the safety glass sending out a web of cracks from the point of impact and bending the epicenter inward.

The doctor could see that one more punch was all it was going to take for him to completely break the glass barrier. She slammed her foot on the gas pedal again. From the rear a ton of dust was thrown into the air as the tires spun wildly, trying to find enough traction to dislodge her car from the other. A split second later they found purchase and the car shot forward like a bullet from a gun.

Carlos grabbed at the top of the hood, but before he got any kind of grip Carla slammed on the brakes, sending him flying off the front of the car. He landed feet first on the hard packed soil, fell backwards and skidded several feet before coming to a stop.

The back of his head burned from running over a thousand tiny pebbles and a small trickle of blood ran down the back of his massive shoulder. Still, the injured Brazilian forced himself back up to his feet. He stood unsteadily and wiped some dirt from his eye.

Carla watched, gape-mouthed as he clamored back up. She had hoped that the impact would have left him stunned long enough for her to escape but that wasn’t the case at all. The sight of him standing there sent a gigantic tidal wave of panic washing over her.

Before she even knew she had done it, the car lunged forward. It took less time than seemed possible, yet longer than eternity, for the car to move the twenty or so feet that separated the two of them.

Carla watched, with an odd sense of detachment, as the front end slammed into her attacker, and his body did a rather graceful pirouette over the top of the roof. She slammed on the brakes just as he slammed into the ground behind her, his shoes left where he had been standing at impact.

How long she sat there staring at his crumpled, blood soaked body through the rear view mirror, she didn’t know but after a while she threw open the door and vomited for what felt like forever.

Carla found it odd, how the throwing up seemed to settle her nerves enough to start having coherent thoughts again.

Her stomach voided she got out of the car and looked back at Carlos’ unmoving form again. It was obvious from the way he was laying that he was dead.

Her whole body began to shake, as the realization that she was responsible for his death began to settle over her.

Clinging desperately to what little self control she had left, Dr. Ryson slapped herself across the face. The sudden pain pulled her from her guilt ridden daze. She quickly turned and dropped back into the driver’s seat, slammed the door shut and hit the gas.

She eased the injured vehicle around the cul-de-sac in front of the house and did her best to avoid looking at Carlos’ body as she drove out the driveway and into whatever lay ahead.

*********

Davis Carlyle trudged along the seemingly never ending road into town. About ten minutes earlier he had seen his Mazda 6 speed by at about 100mph. he’d cringed at the sight of the large dent in the rear end as it had faded from view over the next hill. Though he hadn’t gotten a good look at the driver, he was pretty sure it hadn’t been Philip or Randy, since either one of them would have stopped and picked him up.

For what felt like the hundredth time he flipped open his cell phone, delighted to see he finally had a signal. Stopping right there, he quickly scrolled through the list of numbers and dialed when he found the right one. The line rang four times before it was picked up.

“Harkin?”

“Yes Sir, Mr. Carlyle. What can I do for you?”

“Where are you?”

“I’m just outside Jefferson City, Mo. The meeting with Everett’s people went well. He’s agreed to sign on.”

“I don’t care about that right now. How soon can you make it to the house in Virginia?”

“Umm. If I can get a flight right away, I can be there tomorrow morning. Why, what’s up?”

“There’s a huge mess you need to take care of over there. The Ryson situation didn’t go as Bastion promised.”

“How bad is it?”

“Total loss. Make sure there are no loose ends when you’re done. Not all of them were home, but I don’t need the situation coming back and biting me in the ass later on.”

“Understood. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, just a bump on the head. I’m walking into town now. I’m going to need transport back to Washington. My car just drove by me.”

“I take it that’s part of the loose ends?”

“Most definitely.”

“If you can make it the rest of the way into town I can make a couple calls and have a car ready for you. Does the Mazda have Lo-jack?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I can have it tracked, then. So long as whoever took it, keeps it, we should be able to find them without much problem.”

“Good, make it your priority once the farm’s cleaned up.”

“Will do, sir. I’m on the way to the airport now.”

***********
Confirmed Cases: 10,437,221
Actual Cases: 27,613,509

End part XIII

Authors Note:
I'm very sorry it's taken so long to post this part. My usual policy has been to not post any part until the next one was complete, however personal issues have left with very little time to write these last few months. Things are beginning to turn around for me and I've finally begun work on part 14. As of now I don't have any time frame for completion so please bear with me. Thank you to everyone that has taken time to read this and my other stories. I truly hope you enjoyed this episode and will continue to enjoy those to come.
Hugs and Kiss
Amanda