Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1) (29 page)

Alex let out a breath he felt as if he’d been holding the entire time. 

There were no eaters on this road, although they could still be seen from the street behind them.  Alex was about to whisper to Micah that they should keep up the shambling gait until they could no longer be seen, when an eater lurched from behind a tall van and collided with him.  It raised its head, opening its mouth.  Alex whipped his skull-spiker from his jacket pocket and plunged it into its temple and it dropped to the ground without uttering a sound.

Then he noticed the odour.  Not as strong as the combined smell of the thousands of eaters, but it was unmistakable, emanating from the eater’s body, dancing in the breeze.

Travelling towards the horde of eaters downwind of them.

And then he knew what it was.

“Run,” he said, taking off along the road without waiting to see if Micah would follow.

“Why are we running?” Micah puffed as he caught up with him.  “You got it before it made any...”

Pandemonium erupted somewhere behind them.  A tumult of moans filled the air.

They both picked up speed. 

Alex glanced back to see eaters pouring into the mouth of the road.  Hearing moans ahead, he looked forward to see more eaters appear at a junction ahead and turn in their direction. 

They stumbled to a halt, hemmed in in front and behind. 

“This way,” Alex said, vaulting a wall and running down the side of a house.

The gate leading into the back yard was locked and Alex had to haul himself over the six foot high metal obstacle. 

“I think you’re right,” Micah said, staring back at the eaters who were already appearing at the wall in front of the house, “they’re definitely getting faster.”

He backed up and ran at the gate as Alex dropped to the path on the other side, catching hold of the top and pulling himself over in one smooth movement.  Moments later, arms thrust between the bars of the gate, snagging his sleeve.  Micah stumbled backwards and the eater caught hold of his backpack, yanking him towards it.  He struggled to pull his arms free of the straps, heels scrabbling on the damp flagstones as he was dragged backwards.

Alex pushed past him and grasped the eater’s arm, jerking it forward against the gate.  As the pressure on the backpack eased, Micah pulled his arms from the straps.  Alex let go as a second eater joined the first and tried to reach him.

Left with just a backpack in its hand, the first eater dropped it and reached forward again.  Alex ducked under its arms, scooped the pack up and handed it to Micah.

“Thanks,” he said, shouldering the pack as they continued to the back of the house.

The gate rattled against the lock as more eaters reached it. 

“I hope that holds,” Micah muttered.

The concrete yard behind the house backed onto an alley which, when they cautiously pushed open the back gate, was empty.  Although Alex knew it was unlikely to remain that way for long.

“How did you know?” Micah whispered as they crept along the alley.

“Know what?”

“When you killed that eater, how did you know we had to run?”

“As I stabbed it, it produced this odour, just like I’ve been smelling from the horde.  I think that’s how they communicate, through some kind of scent.  Maybe it’s like ants, with pheromones.  It was giving off a kind of distress signal.  I heard wasps can do that even after they’re dead.”

“So eaters are giving off pheromones now?” Micah sounded unconvinced.

“Makes as much sense as a hive mind.”

“If that’s the case, then how are we going to get out of this?” Micah said.  “Can I make it through them again with your scent, if we find anywhere they’re far enough apart?”

Alex shook his head.  “I can smell you now.  Must have been the running.  You’re sweating too much.”

“Oh.  Well, maybe we can...”

He stopped as an eater rounded the end of the alley.  Another followed.  At the sound of a moan behind them, they turned to see several eaters lurch into the opposite end of the alley.

“This isn’t good,” Alex muttered.  He looked around for another way out.

“There aren’t that many,” Micah said.  “We could fight our way through...”

He trailed off as more eaters came into sight.  At least thirty were now approaching from each end of the alley, with more appearing every second.  Alex could smell the strange odour again.  Were they calling in reinforcements? 

Micah was trying the gates to the backyards of the surrounding houses, but they were all locked. 

“Oh, hell,” he said, backing up to the other side of the alley, taking a few steps run up and leaping at the top of the six foot high wall.  He pulled himself over and disappeared on the other side.  “You coming?” he called.  “Because if you’re not, can you throw me the guns before you die?  I’ll have the sword too.”

The eaters were only fifteen feet away now, the sight of them filling Alex with dread.  He tried to shrug the feeling off as he pulled himself over the wall. He couldn’t afford to be afraid all the time.  What had happened at the insurance building was not going to happen again.

Eaters thudded against the wooden gate, their hands reaching over the top.

“I knew you were jealous of the sword,” he said to Micah.

They were in a concrete yard about fifteen feet square, a brick shed in the back corner, surrounded on all three sides not attached to the house by a six foot brick wall.  From what Alex had seen, all the yards along the row were the same.

He peered into the window at the back of the house.  “Maybe we could break in and wait for them to leave.  It worked when we were with Cal and the others.  More or less.”

“But that that took three hours,” Micah replied.  “It’s already...” he glanced at his watch, “...after one.  We’re trying to travel four miles.  At this rate we’ll maybe get there in a couple of weeks.”

“What, you have somewhere pressing you need to be?”

“I just get the feeling we’re on borrowed time here.”  Micah jumped up at the side wall to look into the next yard along.

Alex watched him.  “What do you mean, borrowed time?”

Micah turned around and leaned back against the wall, folding his arms across his chest.  “What Sergeant Traynor said... I don’t know.  It made me nervous.  How long do you think the army is going to stay out there doing nothing before they do something drastic that will get us all killed?  And even if they don’t, how long are those barriers going to hold?  I just think if we can get to that lab and find out what’s really going on, maybe we can help.” 

“So we’re doing this?”  Alex moved his hand in a vague, encompassing gesture.

Micah sighed.  “When I got off that helicopter, I made a decision to not let the fear stop me.  I’m scared out of my mind, but I can’t just sit back and do nothing.  You know?”

Alex pushed his hands into his pockets and closed his eyes.  The best chance they had at survival would be to find somewhere safe, stay there, and wait for things to play out.   And with every fibre of his being, that’s what he wanted to do.  But if he did, would he be able to live with himself afterwards? 

“Yeah, I know.”  He lifted his head and opened his eyes.  “Okay then, let’s get back to our bikes and get going.”

Micah smiled and nodded, then looked around.  “How are we going to do that, though?”

Without answering, Alex ran a couple of steps and launched himself up onto the roof of the seven foot high, brick built shed in the corner of the yard.  The eaters in the alley went berserk, moaning and reaching towards him, their bodies pressing against the wall.  He ignored them and looked around from his elevated position, trying to find a way out of their predicament.

After getting the lay of the land, he jumped back down into the yard. 

“There’s no way out along the alley,” he said, “but since it leads on both ends back onto the road where we were, it would be pointless anyway.  If we are very, very lucky, this road,” he pointed towards the back of the house, “is clear.”

Micah studied the house.  “So we break in and go through?”

“We could do that.  Or we could climb over a couple of walls and just stroll down the side of the house at the end of this terrace.”  He knew he sounded smug.  He couldn’t help it.

Micah shook his head.  “Oh, shut up.”  Taking a run at the six foot wall, he vaulted effortlessly over it.  “You coming?” he called from the other side.

Alex knew that, without the added benefit of his extra strength, he would have just been embarrassing himself now.  He really did need to get in better shape.  Stepping to the base of the wall, he leaped, caught the top and propelled himself over into the next yard.  After scaling another wall, they made their way along the narrow path at the side of the last house in the row and peered over the top of the gate halfway down. 

They were very, very lucky. 

The road was clear.

“This is the place.” 

Micah hung his helmet on the handlebar of his motorcycle and looked around.

Having made their way back to the bikes with relatively little difficulty, meaning they only had to hide from large groups of eaters twice, they had for once made good time to the supposed location of the supposed secret government lab.  They were now in a near empty car park surrounded by three warehouses. 

The buildings were grey, blocky structures, from the outside looking like any other storage warehouses.  A logo above the door of one of them said, “Sirrus Organic Electronics” in a purple, angular font.  The others had no identifying signs.  The whole area was surrounded by an eight foot metal fence with warnings of electrocution at regular intervals along its length.  Alex and Micah had entered the car park past a barrier next to an empty guardhouse. 

Alex had to admit, it did kind of scream secret
something
.  Which made him deeply suspicious.  What was the point of a secret laboratory that looked like whoever had built it was trying to hide something?

“Let’s take a look around,” he said.

They began in the building with the logo.  To Alex’s surprise, when they tried the door, it wasn’t even locked.  The windowless edifice lit up when Micah found a panel of light switches, revealing an interior a hundred feet square and roughly thirty feet high, with a floor of smooth concrete and exposed metal joists holding up the span of the roof, attached to metal supporting columns spaced at intervals throughout the space. 

And the whole structure was completely empty.

“Sirrus Organic Electronics don’t seem to have much stock,” Micah commented.

“What’s an organic electronic anyway?” Alex said.

“Got me.”

Alex studied the nearby walls.  “Maybe there’s a hidden door or something.”

They walked the entire perimeter of the building, stopping to investigate every nook, cranny and seam they came across in the fabric of the walls.  They found nothing.  They then criss-crossed the centre of the floor, checking every column.  The result was the same.  The building was no more than an empty shell.

The doors leading into the remaining two warehouses were both locked, but they weren’t overly sturdy and a couple of hard kicks from Alex opened them easily.  A similarly thorough investigation revealed both buildings to be as devoid of any secret laboratories as the first was.

Returning to the centre of the car park, they looked around.

“Maybe Bates got the address wrong,” Micah said.  “Or maybe there just is no lab.”

“If that’s the case,” Alex said, “why have so much security for three empty warehouses?  There are cameras everywhere.” 

He’d noticed them as soon as they approached the first warehouse they tried.  Set high on the external walls, they had a view over the entire area outside.  Strangely, though, there were no cameras inside the buildings. 

None inside... 

“Come on,” he said, taking off at a jog across the car park.

“Where are we going?” Micah said, following him towards the nearest warehouse.

“There are no cameras inside, but they cover everywhere outside.”

“So?”

“So, if there is anything here, it must be somewhere out here.”

They ran on for a few more paces.

“You know, you’re not always completely useless,” Micah said.

“Please, stop, you’re making me blush.”

They reached the corner of the huge building and Alex slowed, walking around the side.  Neatly mowed, remarkably green grass and trimmed hedges surrounded the buildings and the car park and he led the way onto the lawn.

“Look for anything that could lead to somewhere,” Alex said.  “Manhole, door, anything that a person could get through.”

They searched the well manicured, but unimaginative, grounds for almost ten minutes before they both saw it at the same time.  A brick shed was tastefully concealed behind a tall hedge.  It would have been easily overlooked as just somewhere for the gardeners to keep their lawn fertiliser and hedge trimmers and ride on lawnmower.  As they walked up to the small building, a camera set above the door watched them.  Alex had an urge to flip it off.

The door was locked.  Micah peered into the small window next to it.

“See anything?”

“A lawnmower and some garden tools,” he replied. “Maybe it really is just a shed.”

“Then why is there a camera and a door that looks like it’s designed to withstand a nuclear blast?”

“It’s a very
nice
lawn mower.” 

Alex stared at the door.  It looked extremely well made.  It looked like trying to kick it down would result in serious damage, all of it to him and none to the door.

“How are we going to get in there?” he said.

Micah bent down and moved a terra cotta flower pot planted with a red begonia.  “We could try this.”

Alex watched him pick up the key he’d revealed.  “How on earth did you know that was there?”

“It kind of looked out of place here.  I thought it was worth a try.”  He pushed the key into the lock and turned it with a click.

“No, wait!” Alex said, grabbing Micah’s hand to stop him from pushing down the handle.  “What if it’s booby trapped?”

“That only happens on TV.”  Micah looked at the door.  “Doesn’t it?”

“You could say the same about secret laboratories.”

Micah slowly removed his hand from the handle.  “So now what?”

A minute later, they were crouching on the lawn with the hedge between them and the door, Alex holding onto a long branch which they had duct taped to the handle.

“I’m not sure this hedge is going to provide us with much protection, in the event that the shed blows up,” Micah said.

“Then let’s hope it doesn’t,” Alex replied. 

He tugged on the branch.  The handle pulled down.  The door swung open.  Both men instinctively flinched.

Nothing happened.

“I feel really stupid now,” Micah said, standing and walking to the door. 

He untaped the branch and they walked inside.

Metal shelving holding various gardening implements and chemicals lined the walls.  A huge ride on mower that had probably cost more than Alex’s car sat in the centre of the shed.  It was a typical, if extremely solid, garden storage building. 

With one exception.

Alex returned to the door, stepped out and stared at the shed for a few seconds.  Then he walked back inside. 

“It’s bigger on the outside,” he said.

Micah did the same.  “You’re right.”  He walked up to the far end.  “There must be a hidden door or something.  Hey, what’s this?”

He was peering into the gloom in the corner at a small, faint circle in the dust on the ground.

“Try stepping on it,” Alex said.

There was a click and a section of the wall slid aside with a soft hum.  Beyond was a room around four feet deep and ten feet across.  There was an advanced looking security device with a keypad on the wall opposite which appeared to require a code, a keycard, a retinal scan and possibly DNA and urine samples to let someone past. 

So it was just as well the trapdoor in the floor to their right was already open.  The top of a staircase was visible, leading down into complete darkness.

“Well, that doesn’t look creepy or dangerous
at all
,” Micah said.

Alex placed a foot down onto the first step as he tried to see what hid in the gloom.  Tiny lights blinked on, delineating the edge of each step and illuminating the grey walls.  The staircase descended to a corridor.  Where the corridor led was out of sight.

“We’ve come this far,” he said, unholstering his pistol and starting down the stairs.  “Besides, there are thousands of people out there who want to tear the flesh from our bones with their teeth.  How much more creepy and dangerous could
this
be?”

“I’m not going to answer that,” Micah said, following him.

Twenty feet from the foot of the stairs the corridor ended at a door.  There was no handle.  Instead, a touchpad was set into the wall on the right.  Alex touched it.  There was a whining sound and the door slid to the left an inch and then stopped.  He tried it again.  The door whined again, shuddered, but didn’t move any further.

“The wonders of technology,” he muttered, holstering his gun and inserting his fingers through the narrow gap.  “If anything leaps at me when I open this, shoot it.”

Wrapping his fingertips around edge of the door, he pulled.  At first, the mechanism fought back, then there was a clunk and the door slid open.  A body sitting against the other side dropped through the doorway, hitting Alex’s legs.  He yelped and jumped backwards, almost colliding with Micah.

There were a couple of seconds of silence.

“Would you like me to shoot him?” Micah said.

“I was just startled.” 

There was a large wound in the corpse’s head.  Whether or not he’d been an eater before he died was impossible to tell with his eyes closed, and Alex wasn’t about to try opening them. 

“At least it hasn’t been eaten,” Micah said as he stepped over the body.  “That’s a good sign.”

“
Throw down your weapons and raise your hands!
”

At the sound of the shouting behind them, Alex threw himself around the side of the doorway, Micah doing the same.  Whoever it was, was back along the corridor.

“This is Carla Heaton, MI5,” a woman’s voice yelled.  “I’m armed.  Throw down your weapons and come out with your hands raised.”

Micah glanced at him and mouthed, “MI5?”

“This is DC Alex MacCallum,” Alex called.  “Not going to happen.”

There were a few seconds of silence.

“Show me your badge,” the voice yelled again.

Alex took his badge from his belt and, using his thumb and forefinger, held it around the doorjamb, trying to expose as little of his hand as possible.

“Okay,” the voice yelled.

Alex pulled back his badge, relieved to still have his fingers intact.  “I’ve shown you mine,” he shouted, “now you show me yours.”

There was a soft thud.

Alex darted his head around the corner and back again.  An ID lay on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.  He hadn’t been shot at  so he risked another, slower, look.  The ID looked genuine, but whoever it belonged to was up the stairs, out of sight.  He pulled his head back to safety again.

“Thanks,” he shouted.  “Can we agree not to shoot each other now?”

“Alright,” the voice shouted back.

“She doesn’t sound very happy about it,” Micah said.

Alex heard movement from the corridor and peered out.  A woman was creeping down the stairs, a pistol in her hand.  She saw him and froze.  Keeping his own gun raised, he stepped out and walked towards her.  They stopped a few feet apart. 

“Let me see your ID,” she said. 

Alex pulled a leather wallet from his inside pocket and handed it to her. She studied his identification for a moment and handed it back to him. 

“Can we put these down now?” he said, waggling his pistol slightly.

“Where’s your friend?” she said, still looking mistrustful.

Alex heard movement behind him and he turned to see Micah walking out from behind the wall, gun in hand.

“Who are you?” she demanded, moving her pistol to point at him.

“Micah Clarke, Pizza Hut.  I’d show you my name tag, but I left it at home.”

She raised her eyebrows.  “Pizza Hut arm their employees now?”

“You think an eater outbreak is bad, try a Saturday evening shift.”  He smiled and stuffed his gun back into its holster.

Apparently mollified by the gesture, she did the same.  Carla Heaton, MI5, was a woman of around forty, with short blonde hair and an athletic build.  She was wearing jeans and a long sleeved top beneath a stab proof vest. 

“What are you doing here?” she said.

“We heard rumours about a secret facility that might have something to do with the outbreak,” Alex said.

She frowned.  “Rumours?  From where?”

“What are
you
doing here?” he said, ignoring her question.

“I came in from outside the city to check on this place,” she said. 

“Wait, so there
is
a secret lab here?” Micah said.

“Well, I’d hardly call it secret.  Its existence isn’t publicised, but it’s a matter of public record that a facility exists here for research into Meir’s.”  She nodded at the corpse.  “Did you kill him?”

“No,” Alex replied, “he was already like that when we got here.  So does that mean the government are going to do something now?  Are there more coming?”

“No.  At least, I don’t know.”  She looked awkward.  “I’m not exactly here in an officially sanctioned capacity.”