Anvil (25 page)

It seemed
like it took forever, but I finally made it across the large lobby and into the
cover of the new hallway.  The females had reacted when I’d stepped out,
several of them screaming as they pressed in tighter against the glass to peer
at me.  Thumps sounded from all across the front, but I forced myself to
ignore them and continue on my weaving, wobbling, shambling path. 

The infected
settled down quickly when I didn’t react.  They were buying it. 
Playing my role to the hilt, I deliberately walked into the wall on the far
side of the lobby.  I wasn’t thinking and my damaged shoulder protested
loudly with a bolt of lightning when I bumped it against the hard
surface. 

I stumbled
back a step, not entirely faking it.  Biting my lip, I adjusted directions
and disappeared around the corner.  As soon as I was out of the view of
the infected at the front doors, I raised my rifle and made a thorough scan of
the hall I had just entered.

Rather than
plush carpet it was shiny tile, and I felt a little glimmer of hope that we
were getting closer.  This looked like an area where work was actually
performed.  Several corridors branched off and there were a lot of
doors. 

Some of them
were closed tightly, but many were open.  I glanced over my shoulder when
more thumps sounded, seeing Chico stumbling along like a drunk as he made his
way across the lobby.

Forcing
myself to ignore him and trust he would make it without exciting the females, I
moved several feet deeper into the hall before dropping to a knee with my rifle
covering the unknown territory.  Chico finally finished crossing the open
space and as soon as he was behind cover, joined me in providing security for
the rest of the team.

Edwards came
next, and soon after he stepped into view there were the loudest thumps and
screams so far. 

“Slow down!”

Drago’s hiss
over the radio made me cringe.  If Edwards lost his nerve, I had no doubt
the females would see through our ruse.  We were already on borrowed time,
but that would drastically speed up the clock.  With Chico next to me, I
took the opportunity to turn and check on the Lieutenant’s progress. 

He was
walking slow, but moving normally, about half way across.  He had
definitely caught the attention of the infected, the pounding increasing in
volume. 

“If you
don’t walk like an infected I’m going to shoot you in the leg.  Sir.”

This was
from TJ over the radio and caused Edwards to come to a stop.  Even from a
distance I could see the fear on his face.  The sweat soaking through his
shirt and beaded on his forehead.  The wide eyes.  He was close to
breaking.

“Edwards,” I
said softly into the radio.  “You’re doing fine.  Just take a slow
step.  Walk like you’re drunk.  That’s all you’ve got to do. 
Just walk.  Nice and slow.”

He looked at
me from across the room and I didn’t like what I saw in his eyes.  Fear
was turning to panic as the infected continued to bang on the glass.  The
volume was increasing as they began to realize things weren’t exactly what they
seemed.  More and more screams were sounding, muted by the heavy doors,
but still clearly audible.  I was afraid Edwards was about to lose it.

“Hang in
there, LT.  I’m coming to get you.”

Drago
stepped into sight and the pounding on the doors re-doubled.  He was
moving slow with one shoulder dipped below the other, arms swinging loosely
just like an infected male.  I checked on Edwards, not happy to see him
trembling as he stood frozen in the bright lights of the lobby. 

“It’s OK,
Edwards,” I said.  “Drago’s on his way to you.  He’ll help you get
under cover.  Just close your eyes and take some deep breaths.”

I was glad
to see the young man take my advice.  Maybe it would help, maybe not, but
I had to try something before he bolted in panic.  Not that I could blame
him.  I might have done the same thing if I hadn’t been fighting the
infected for as long as I had.  It still didn’t sound like they were
seriously trying to get through the doors, but that could change in an instant.

Drago
finally reached him after what seemed like hours.  I had no doubt it
seemed even longer to Edwards.  Coming up behind him, Drago bumped into
his back, pausing as he turned his head away from the glass.  I could see
his lips moving, but he wasn’t speaking loud enough to activate his radio so I
couldn’t hear what he was saying.

With another
jerking motion, he bumped Edwards again, and the two of them began moving
forward.  One excruciatingly slow step at a time.  The females were
calming.  Not much, but there was a slight reduction in the noise coming
from the entrance.  Maybe we were going to make it. 

Edwards and
Drago were less than ten feet from rounding the corner into the hall when there
was a scream from the far side of the lobby.  The scream of an attacking
female.  I stood to see TJ roll into full view of the doors with a small,
blonde woman dressed in a business skirt tearing at him.

The reaction
from the infected outside was immediate.  As one, they screamed.  The
sound was nearly deafening, then fists were drumming on the glass so hard it
sounded like thunder on a hot summer evening.  Drago shoved Edwards
towards me before sprinting to TJ’s aide.  I grabbed the Lieutenant’s arm
and yanked him past into the hall, stepping forward far enough to peek around
the corner.

The assault
on the doors and surrounding wall, which was made of the same heavy glass, was
so violent I could see the surface flexing.  Drago made it to TJ in time
to haul a corpse off of him.  TJ had killed her with his knife and blood
dripped off the tip as Drago grabbed a fistful of his vest and lifted him to
his feet.

“Run,” I
shouted, checking on the integrity of the glass again.

It was still
vibrating as the females threw themselves against it and pounded with fists and
forearms.  We didn’t have long.  Sooner, rather than later, stress
fractures would appear.  Then the glass would fail altogether.  When
that happened…

The Rangers
pounded around the corner as Chico fired several shots.  I spun, seeing a
female and two males drop dead to the floor.  The males had stumbled out
of an open door, the female charging in from one of the halls that opened off
the one we were in.

“Edwards,
what are we looking for?”

He had sunk
to the floor and I grabbed his collar, jerking him to his feet.  Without
thinking, I’d used my injured arm and the pain reminded me to pay attention to
what I was doing.

“It will be
a secure door.  Look for an IT area.  It will probably be somewhere
near there.”

“You heard
the man,” I said.  “Let’s move!”

We set out
in a box formation.  The hall wasn’t wide, so we settled for two of us in
front of Edwards and two behind.  Chico and I took point, moving shoulder
to shoulder.  We ignored closed doors and gave the rooms with open ones a
quick scan before pulling them shut.  Despite the increasing intelligence
of the females I still hadn’t seen one operate a door knob.

When we
reached the first intersection, I called a halt with a raised fist.  The
hall continued on ahead of us, looking the same.  Just more doors. 
To our right it ran for forty yards, ending at what appeared to be a heavy
steel door.  A security keypad was set in the wall to the right of the
handle.

“What do you
think?”  I mumbled to Edwards.

“Maybe,” he
said.  “Right kind of set up, but no way to know.”

Behind us
the booming sounds of the females trying to smash their way in still
sounded.  Frankly, I was surprised they hadn’t already gotten in. 
But then, from what I’d seen so far, this company hadn’t skimped on security
and building materials.  The glass was tougher than it looked.

Moving us to
the right, I motioned for Chico and Drago to trade places.  By the time we
covered the distance to the end of the corridor, Drago had the pry bar in hand
and was ready to force our way through.  He tried the handle first, but it
was secure.  Repeating the process he had followed on the roof, it was
only a matter of seconds before the door popped free.

He was
stepping away, partially off balance from leaning his weight onto the iron bar
when the door was violently slammed open.  The big Ranger was knocked
back, losing his footing and falling.  The heavy tool slipped out of his
hand and rang loudly when it bounced on the hard floor.

Several
females rushed us, screaming as they attacked.  I was too close to use my
rifle for anything other than a club.  Pounding one of them to the floor,
I was hit and sent spinning backwards by a flying tackle.  Landing on my
bad shoulder, I nearly passed out from the pain as the female lunged for my
throat. 

I got my
good hand around her neck at the last moment, spittle from her scream spraying
across my face.  Pressing her away from my body, I managed to open enough
space to get a knee between us and kick her clear.  She turned in the air,
landed on her feet and without pausing launched herself like a missile, aiming
for my head. 

Ducking and
slipping to the side, I captured her head in the bend of my good arm as she
flew in.  Tightening my muscles, I savagely jerked to the side and snapped
her neck as another female took my legs out from under me.  I came down on
top of her, hands grabbing my vest as she tried to pull her snapping jaws to my
throat.

All around I
could hear the sounds of the other men fighting with the females.  Screams
from the infected.  Grunts of pain and exertion from the Rangers.  I
had no time to check, but hoped we were holding our own.  The female
beneath me wasn’t screaming as she struggled to reach my flesh.  And she
was strong, especially when I couldn’t bring my damaged arm into the fight.

I battled
for a few moments, shifting to keep my body weight on top of her, pinning her
to the floor.  Throwing two, hard and fast punches, I hoped to either stun
the bitch or maybe even knock her out.  She absorbed the blows without any
apparent ill effects.

Flailing to
keep her mouth away from my body, my hand slipped to the top of her head and
into a thick mane of hair.  Grasping a fistful, I started slamming the
back of her head onto the hard floor.  On the fourth impact she stopped
struggling and her eyes rolled up in their sockets.  I’d felt the back of
her skull crack open and figured she was done, but lifted then bashed her head
a final time.  Bright red blood began spreading out beneath her limp form
and I rolled to my feet and pulled my Kukri.

The battle
was over.  Drago and Chico were both bleeding from bites to their hands
and arms, but were on their feet, rifles up and scanning for more
threats.  A total of seven females were lying dead in the hall, and so was
Edwards.  TJ was kneeling over him, hand extended towards his ravaged
throat as if he wanted to check his pulse.

“What the
fuck do we do now?”  TJ asked as he stood up and looked at me.

“We find the
server room and call someone who can tell us what to do.”

It was the
right answer.  The only answer I could give.  We hadn’t come this far
and lost two men to give up now.  TJ nodded, bending and retrieving
Edwards’ pack.  Now all we had to do was find the server room.

From the
lobby there was a loud crash, the sound of screaming females suddenly
increasing dramatically.  They’d broken through the glass.  We were
out of time.  I gestured at the open door and Chico stepped through, Drago
tight on his back.  TJ and I followed, pulling the door closed behind us.

The door let
into a massive space that was used for manufacturing.  Lining the far wall
were a series of clean rooms where sensitive electronics could be assembled
without worry of contaminating particles.  Closer, suspended from chains attached
to large steel girders, were two large somethings.  Scaffolding surrounded
them, providing access for the workers.  I had no clue what they were.

Each was
round and over forty feet long and at least half that wide.  On the
tapered ends facing us were thirty-six holes, each about a foot in diameter, making
the device look like a massive Gatling gun.  I only had a minute to look
around before the door behind me shook as females slammed against it and began
trying to batter their way through.

This one
didn’t concern me.  Much.  It was steel, set into a steel
frame.  And it opened out, towards them.  I didn’t see how they could
get through.  Still, I wasn’t happy to have them this close.

“There,”
Chico said, pointing at the far wall.

I followed
his finger, seeing another door that looked identical to the one we’d just come
in.  Scanning the perimeter of the cavernous space I didn’t see any other
exits with the exception of a huge roll up door that was large enough to
accommodate the equipment dangling over our heads.

“Let’s go,”
I said, heading for the door at a trot.

The Rangers
fell in behind me, all of us running with our rifles up and ready.  I
didn’t really expect to encounter any more females in this area.  If there
were any that could attack, they would have shown themselves. 

“Maybe,” I
thought, reminding myself of the smart ones that would lay in wait and spring
an ambush.

Keeping the
thought in mind, I didn’t slow as we made our way through a labyrinth of
equipment.  Behind, the pounding on the door continued and I was worried
we wouldn’t be able to find the server room before the infected completely
flooded the interior of the building.  And if we did, I didn’t see how we
weren’t going to be trapped.

We reached
the far door, quickly stacking up and preparing to go through.  We’d made
a couple of critical errors so far.  First we hadn’t thoroughly cleared
the executive area, and the female’s attack on TJ had alerted the infected at
the entrance to our presence.  Second, we hadn’t been ready for an attack
when Drago forced the last door open.  That sloppiness had cost Edwards
his life, and might very well doom our mission to failure.

A quick
check to make sure everyone was ready and I tapped Chico.  He turned the
handle and pushed the door open, the rest of us with our rifles up and pointing
into the new hall.  It was empty, for the moment.  We rushed into it
and TJ gently closed the door behind us.

More
offices, and a large area filled with a whole bunch of cubicles.  I paused
when Drago pointed at a discreet nameplate affixed to a door.

Tim
Shamburg – IT Manager

Well, at
least we were in the right area.  I took a moment to look around, spying a
set of double doors protected by an electronic keypad on the far side of the
cubicles.  Just like what Edwards had described.

We moved
through the open space, rifles ready as it was a rabbit warren of waist high
walls that could conceal any number of infected.  Many of the desks held
pieces of computer equipment in various states of assembly.  Several of
them had small libraries of well worn paperback books with titles like
The
Linux Bible
and
The Existential Coder
.

What the
hell was existential about coding?  Guess that was for bigger minds than
mine.  At least it confirmed we were in the IT area.  Maybe if I
survived this I’d write a book about fighting the infected and call it The
Existential Shitstorm. 

These doors
were solid wood, not steel like the others we’d encountered.  I had no
idea if that meant anything, but it presented a problem.  The steel doors
Drago had pried open had enough flexibility in them to partially spring back
into place and allow the lock to reengage once we passed through.  Where
steel flexed, wood would break.

And, these
were hinged on the sides and locked in the middle where they met.  If we
forced them, we wouldn’t be able to secure them behind us.  With a whole
tide of females rushing into the building, that was problem. 

We were very
lucky we hadn’t been found already, and eventually there wouldn’t be an inch of
floor space that wasn’t occupied by infected.  Unless it was behind a
locked door too stout for them to break through.

I quickly
explained the dilemma to the team after stopping Drago from using the pry
bar.  Glances were exchanged, but no one had any good ideas. 
Turning, I winced when I heard screams from another area of the building. 
The females were coming, and they were way too close.  Ignoring the
swiftly approaching danger, I stepped to the doors and looked them over.

They were
smooth and featureless with only handles set on the inside edges for pulling
them open once the keypad released the lock.  The lock would most likely
be a powerful electromagnet that held tight to a metal plate attached to the
top of each door.  Punch in the proper code on the keypad and the magnet
would be turned off long enough for the door to be pulled open.  By the
time the door swung shut it would be back on. 

Grasping the
handle on the right hand door, I pulled.  Hard.  The door flexed
slightly, the bottom edge moving an inch, but the top didn’t budge.  This
didn’t really do anything other than confirm my theory.  Which didn’t
help.  We were still locked out, weren’t positive this was the server
room, and the screams were getting closer.

“Anyone know
how to defeat a keypad?”

I didn’t
bother to turn around.  If one of them had that particular skill, I would
have been surprised. 

“Electromagnetic
lock.  Right?”

I turned to
see TJ staring at a spot above the doors.

“Yeah. 
You got an idea?”

“Magnet
needs power.  Power needs wires.  This isn’t an outside door. 
Wires should just be routed behind the drywall.”

He pointed
with his knife at the spot he’d been looking at.  Realization of the
simplicity of his suggestion to open the door hit me and I grabbed a rolling
office chair and wheeled it into place.  With Drago and I holding it
steady, TJ climbed up to stand on the seat as Chico kept an eye on the area to
our rear.

First,
powdery white dust, then chunks of drywall fell as he broke through.  It
didn’t take him long to find the wires, sticking his knife through the opening.

“Don’t cut
them,” I said quickly, TJ’s blade freezing an instant before he began
slicing.  “Try to disconnect them so we can reconnect from inside and keep
the infected out.”

He grunted,
sheathed his knife and stuck his arm into the wall, feeling around.  While
he worked, Chico began firing as the first females appeared at the far edge of
the cubicles.  Telling Drago to stay put, I moved next to Chico and added
my fire to support him.  It was a trickle of females at first, quickly
becoming a flood.  In only a few seconds we went from targeting lone
runners to shooting into a seething mass of infected.

“Out of
time!”  I shouted to TJ as the infected flowed through the cubicles like
water around rocks. 

Chico and I
had already switched to leg and pelvis shots, hoping to slow the advance. 
It worked to a degree, but the push was unstoppable with just rifles. 

“TJ!” 
I screamed to be heard over the infected.

“Got it,” he
shouted back.

Chico and I
began moving backwards as the throng of females surged.  With only feet of
open space remaining between us and them, Drago grabbed the backs of our vests
and yanked us through the open door.  TJ was ready, pulling it shut the
instant we were clear. 

Drago
released us and leapt forward, jamming the iron pry bar through the interior
handles and gripping it tightly in both hands as he leaned his body weight back
to hold the door shut.  Chico jumped in, adding his hands and weight as
both doors shook under the assault of the females.

TJ had
shoved the office chair through ahead of him and I held it steady as he climbed
up and broke open the wall above the door.  Once he was through it only
took him seconds to reach in, find the wires and reconnect them.  When the
second one went into place there was a loud click from the top of the door as
the electromagnetic lock reengaged.

With a sigh,
Drago and Chico carefully released the pry bar which went back into the sheath
on Drago’s back.  The doors shook, bouncing in their frame, but were held
tight by the big magnet.

“How long
until they get through?”  Chico asked, fingering his rifle.

“They’ll last
until the generators run out of fuel.”

I was
remembering the locks failing in Los Alamos when the power went out.  I
didn’t bother telling them the story.  It was a long one, and if the same
thing happened here there wouldn’t be a happy ending.

Remembering
why we were here in the first place, I turned to see if we’d gotten
lucky.  I was happy to see row after row of ceiling high metal racks,
stuffed full of servers.  Then I realized I didn’t have a clue what the
hell to do with them.