A World Reborn: The First Outbreak (12 page)

She hung back in the hallway and waited
until she saw the first group approach the Grand Staircase, and then began
mentally preparing herself to move as soon as the soldiers had herded both
groups of the infected down the stairs out of sight. When she happened to
glance across to the north side however, Melissa’s eyes widened in alarm and
she swiftly pulled back a half step and dropped to a crouch, hoping she hadn’t
been seen. A pair of soldiers she had failed abysmally to notice were sweeping
the stores there and currently, one of them had halted and was peering intently
into one of the shop windows; a children’s clothing store from what Melissa
could see of its wares. He had pressed his head up to the glass and had one arm
raised to block out any light reflection.

 “What’s wrong?” His partner called out,
jarring the soldier at the window.

“I thought I saw someone.” He answered
back.

“Check it out.” He instructed, moving
towards the bridge joining the north and south tower. “I’ll help our brothers
move the infected deviants down the stairs.”

As he entered the store Melissa, staying
low, furtively crept back to the corner to peer round it at the soldiers. Two
other soldiers had ascended the Grand Staircase from the ground floor, and were
trying to help their comrades control the infected, as they were having great difficulty
getting them to move down the stairs in an orderly manner. Melissa wondered if
some of their number were attracted to or perhaps disturbed by the flashing
lights and music from the game machines in the courtyard. Some were attempting
to stray in that direction, to be hastily shoved back in line; they snapped in
the direction of their handlers, but became more docile as they moved down the
stairs. Scanning to the left a few moments later, she glimpsed the soldier
passing in front of the clothing store window; his assault rifle was now raised
with the butt braced against his shoulder. Melissa watched him until he
disappeared from view, and then looked once more at the herding soldiers. They
seemed to have found a way to steer the infected in a less precarious fashion,
as the larger group looked decidedly smaller than it had a few seconds ago,
enabling those in front of the smaller group she had travelled down the
elevator with to tag onto the end when they reached them.

Suddenly a scream cut through the air. The
infected became agitated, uttering a chorus of moans and grunts, some trying to
get away from the soldiers shepherding them. Melissa saw the soldier in the
store window opposite, backing up towards the door, dragging a woman who was
kicking, screaming and struggling wildly as she tried to resist him. She was
covered in blood which didn’t appear to be hers as she seemed relatively
uninjured. Unfortunately, for the woman, his grip was too strong for her to
escape. He held her around the waist and was practically carrying her as she
desperately wriggled to get free. He exited the store and quickly began moving
the woman across the bridge towards his comrades ushering the infected down the
Grand Staircase. The closer she came to the infected, screeching and fighting
for freedom, the more disturbed and rowdy they became. They were no longer
docile around the soldiers either. In fact, they were snapping their jaws in their
direction as they attempted to restrain them; as though the victims screams of
terror was disrupting whatever calming effect the soldiers had on them.

“Found her hiding in a closet.” The soldier
carrying her yelled out over her shrieks of fear and defiance. “Whoever checked
that store should have his collar removed.”

“That’s not your decision to make.” His
partner retorted. “Wait, don’t bring her any closer!” He yelled out as he
forcibly pushed two infected back who were eagerly trying to get to the woman.

“What does it matter? She’s going to be converted
anyway. Let them do it here.”

“The Ancillary would want her brought down
and placed with the other uninfected deviants in the Money Pit.”

The terrified woman somehow managed to
twist free and hurriedly started to move back along the bridge, but her captor
coldly grabbed her flowing hair and yanked her back, following it up with a
powerful, disorienting punch to her face, knocking her to the ground. Her
screams silenced for the moment, the soldiers returned to discussing what to do
with her. The nearest infected still seemed to be extremely agitated –
ravenous, just like the other infected Melissa had encountered.

“Bitch!” The soldier who had hit her called
out.

“Deal with her!” A woman demanded from
below. Melissa had no idea who it was, but noticed the accent, and thought it
might be the woman from the radio earlier.

 “Let them loose.” A cold, sadistic, male voice
declared from the floor below.

 “Fine.” The soldier restraining the two
nearest infected said. With the woman silenced the rest started to calm down
and the other soldiers successfully resumed steering them down the staircase
once more. The soldier who had been holding back the two infected grappled them
and flung them in the direction of the injured woman, and then retreated out of
the way. Melissa’s heart froze. She considered what was about to happen: this
innocent woman who only minutes ago had thought her hiding place was safe, was
about to be brutally savaged. They were going to bite into her and, if she
didn’t become one of them, they’d tear her apart. Melissa’s instinct to protect
the woman kicked in; an instinct to protect that had been fostered during her
time in Africa. She gripped the gun tightly in her hand and readied herself to
shoot around the corner... and then what? She asked herself this question
several times. There were heavily armed and armoured men nearby; more would
probably come when she started firing off shots, and God knows how many of the
infected. She had one gun, with one spare clip.

Melissa’s mind raced as she watched
everything unfolding in slow motion. She wanted to save the woman. She needed
to save her, just as she’d needed to save people in Africa. But unlike then,
she was currently powerless to do anything. If she did something now then she’d
be dead too. And if she was dead, then she couldn’t help anyone. Her rational
mind pleaded at her to stay hidden, but her heart demanded she save the woman.
Her paralyzing indecision meant that the time to do anything had passed, and
now it was too late. The two infected, now separated from their handler, seemed
to be confused at first, but when the soldier who had taken the woman prisoner also
retreated, it seemed the calming influence over them dissipated, and as they
returned to their ravenous state, they noticed the woman. They hurriedly
scrambled over to her, and descended upon her quickly. One clambered on top of
her back and the other stayed near her legs. The one on her back lunged at her
neck and bit into it, ushering forth a torrent of blood that sprayed across its
face. The other bit into her calf, tearing a chunk of flesh out with its teeth.
However, within seconds of doing so, they seemed to lose interest and stood up.
The soldiers approached them, and after a few more moments, they became docile
again, with one staring blankly in the direction of the other infected and the
other looking at the woman who was convulsing below him. Melissa watched,
horrified and fascinated as the woman who had been so alive seconds earlier now
looked pale and sick, just like the two who had attacked her. The woman stopped
convulsing after a few final twitches, and then slowly pushed herself up onto
her hands. She tried to stand and then fell back down. She repeated the motion
a few times, as though she was caught in a loop of trying to stand and falling.

 “Put it down. We can’t afford to waste any
more time on her.” The soldier who had thrown the pair of infected at her
ordered, and the woman’s captor responded by raising his weapon and pointing it
at her head.

“Don’t shoot her! We’ve only just got them
back under control! Do it quietly, we don’t need any unnecessary noise.” He
insisted, scolding his companion. The soldier lowered his weapon and pulled out
a knife, plunging it into the back of her skull.

“Happy now?” He asked as he guided the two
infected back to the group.

Melissa lowered her head in shame,
retreating fully back around the corner and feeling the unmistakable burning of
tears in her eyes. She felt dreadful and so ashamed that she had done nothing
to help her, and Melissa felt even worse that the survivor within her was
completely fine with how things had turned out.

“There was nothing I could do.” She said
softly to herself, needing to hear the words aloud as she attempted to absolve
herself for her sin of inaction. As she tried to reassure herself she couldn’t
have done more, the survivor part of her brain made a connection to something
they’d said, and it momentarily blocked out the horror she’d just witnessed.
They had mentioned something about a collar, also, the need to be quiet.
Perhaps, she considered, sound was something that broke the infected out of
whatever docile state they were in around the soldiers, perhaps a state caused
by the collar’s they mentioned? The collars, whatever they were, seemingly
suppressed the infected in some manner. It seemed crazy, but no more than the
situation she was currently in. Melissa hung back for several minutes, letting
the soldiers and the infected get down the stairs and away from the gold railed
bridge leading across from the south to the north of the complex, so that when
she approached she wouldn’t be observed. After a final peek around the corner
to make sure they were gone, Melissa broke cover, crunching as quietly as she
could over the glass and followed the edge of the buildings as closely and stealthily
as possible. Once she reached the bridge near the south Grand Staircase, she
couldn’t help but look at the body of the young woman she’d failed to save. Her
blood was leaking out from the knife wound in the back of her head, the hole in
her neck and the wound on her leg. But it was the cold, dead eyes which held Melissa’s
gaze; they seemed to stare accusingly at her. The image reminded her of Sanaa,
and how Melissa hadn’t been able to save her either. Melissa pushed the
thoughts aside, back to the dark place in her heart where she repressed the
memories of her time in Africa.

Looking away, Melissa went completely prone
and approached the railing to look down at the Money Pit. The railing had bars
wide enough for her to put her arm through but not her head. They were
assumedly there to stop a child from taking a tumble or sliding themselves
through. When she was able to look down at the Money Pit, she saw immediately
that it didn’t look the same it had the last time she saw it. There were a
number of flood lights around it and through the acrylic glass, Melissa could
see about a fifty or more people had been crammed inside. There was room for
them to move around somewhat, but not a lot. Some were wearing bath robes with
the hotel logo embroidered on it; others were in their underwear, while a few
were fully dressed. Melissa surmised these were the people who had been in
their rooms and had previously been unaware of the carnage unfolding downstairs
or who had been holed up somewhere safe on the bottom two floors. Although it
was softened by the sound of the cage, she could hear more than a few
panicking, fearful sobs.

Melissa was now also able to take in what
the soldiers had done elsewhere; they had been hard at work securing the area
around the casino by erecting barricades at all the entrances, using more of
those police style cordons, gaming tables, furniture and whatever was to hand,
and Melissa could immediately see why. Pressed up against the barricades were
thousands of the infected. Mostly, they were standing in a passive way, but
those at the front were clearly agitated, glowering at the soldiers and banging
up against the ramshackle barricades. There were soldiers standing guard at the
barricades too, roughly equidistant from each other, perhaps, Melissa thought,
to distribute whatever nullifying agent kept the infected under control, which
definitely was having some kind of effect as Melissa was certain if it wasn’t
they’d be working a lot harder to batter down the barricades.

Melissa suddenly realized what was going to
happen during the conversion the soldiers had discussed, and could only
conclude that the whole point of the broadcast was their way of striking terror
into the hearts and minds of the unsuspecting audience. As she watched they
began moving the infected they had brought down from the floors above towards
the people trapped in the Money Pit, which made Melissa itch once again to
intervene, but this time she recognized immediately the futility of getting
involved in a no win situation. Looking down and moving her head to a different
angle, Melissa was able to see a woman, who wasn’t wearing black like the
others but wasn’t being corralled by the soldiers either, leading Melissa to
believe she was with them, but in a different capacity. She wore a robe, white
and flowing, with a hood that hung heavily on her shoulders. Melissa noted she
had beautiful platinum blonde hair, but that was all Melissa could see of her
appearance at that moment. She was side on to Melissa, directing the soldiers
who were setting up cameras.

“Are you connected to the satellite
system?” The woman demanded in a voice filled with authority - and with a
definite English accent. Melissa was certain she was the one who had ordered
the soldiers to deal with the woman now lying dead on the bridge nearby, as
well as being the same woman Melissa had spoken to on the radio.