Salby Damned (21 page)

The helicopters approached the estate upon which Evelyn’s house had been built. Hers was the central house in a block of seven that had been erected in a semi-circle around an open courtyard enclosed by a high fence-topped wall.

There were surveillance cameras erected at intervals around the perimeter with direct feeds to the facility below. Unseen tunnels, accessible to the residents of each home only, linked all the houses.

The houses looked like any other middle-class dwelling: spacious driveways with perfectly cut and shaped lawns, sandstone-coloured brickwork, and flowerbeds with garden ornaments, even children’s bicycles left leaning against pristine white, up-and-over garage doors.

Armed units surrounded the estate now and had arrived during the early hours, meeting little resistance. After both Army pilots executed near perfect touchdowns, the passengers disembarked. The helicopters would not stay on the ground for long, as their services were needed for the day supply teams; there was a constant need for supplies.

The sheer magnitude of people now resident at the base placed a huge demand upon resources. Clear of the aircraft, the teams assembled in front of Evelyn’s home, to be greeted by the ground forces commander. He strode towards them and offered a formal salute to the commanding officer. Charles recognised the newcomer from the wellhead site a couple of days ago.

He was Captain Shaun Tate; he was in his early thirties and had an athletic build and short-cropped sandy brown hair.

“Good morning, Sir.” The captain said, addressing the C.O.

“Captain,” the colonel acknowledged, without undue preamble, “what’s the situation here. Any sign of the infection? Have there been any comms from the facility below yet?” Richard asked, eagerly.

“No comms as yet, Sir. Bleeps … sorry, Sir, the signals, are working on it. We took air samples prior to entering the enclosed estate and all is clear. I have fire teams posted on each wall, Sir. The perimeter is secure and we have erected jenny-powered UV light stands as a precaution,” replied the captain, delivering his status report clearly.

“Excellent, Captain. Have you got a couple of spare bodies to bring up for the rear of our party?”

“Yes, Sir. Hobbs and Lewis are at your command,” he said.

He turned with a nod, indicating two uniformed and heavily armed squaddies standing just behind him, the maroon berets indicating that they served in the parachute regiment.

“They’re good lads, Sir, two of my best.”

“Thank you, Captain,” said the colonel as he saluted the officer, before turning to his team.

“Evelyn, are you ready?”

“, Sir. Ready as I’ll ever be. It’s that house there, Sir. I have the key for the front door.”

“Permit me, Sir?” Chris interjected, seeing the colonel nod an approval.

“Lieutenant, please remain behind me. Sergeant Cross and Sergeant Wilkes will be behind you. I’ll signal clearance at each stage. If we come under attack, you are to hit the floor, Ma’am. It could get feisty in there.”

“Understood, Staff Sergeant,” she said.

Flanked by armed personnel and in single file, they walked slowly up the driveway of the property to the front door. Chris raised a hand for them to stop a little way from it, while he checked to see if any forced entry had taken place prior to their arrival.

With no apparent damage to the door or frame, he stepped aside, keeping his rifle aimed at the door as Evie approached and inserted the key. The tumblers on the lock dropped with a final solid clunk as the deadbolt released. She twisted the key against the spring lock mechanism and pushed the white UPVC door inwards, remaining in place until it would open no further.

Chris took lead, sweeping the hallway, with Nathan and Susan close behind. They pushed into rooms on either side with weapons raised. Having cleared the downstairs area, Nathan signalled to Chris that they would do the upstairs, receiving an affirmative “okay” hand signal in response.

They took the stairs slowly and quietly; sometimes, the element of surprise was the deciding factor between life and death. One of the team went left and the other right to clear the bedrooms. Confident that the house had been searched for any intruders, Chris gave the all clear; Nathan and Susan concurred.

The house had been tastefully decorated in light pastel shades; feminine touches here and there betrayed the gender of the owner. Purples and light pinks added warmth, while art deco pieces adorned shelves and mantles, and an African skyline print, depicting elephants in a line at a watering hole in a sunset scene, invoked a feeling of calmness and serenity.

“It’s this way,” Evie said, indicating a back room study on the ground floor.

“We’re right behind you, Lieutenant,” the C.O. replied.

Chris took point, following Evie’s directions to a small, wood-panelled study office with book-lined walls and the biggest walk-in wardrobe Chris had ever seen. Nathan and Susan entered next, maintaining the protective triangle around Evie. The C.O. entered next, then the lab technicians and finally Hobbs and Lewis covering the rear.

Evie took a good look around; everything was where it should be, and it didn’t seem that anyone had gained entry since she had left.

Her eyes met Nathan’s for an instant, and seeing her nervous half-smile, he winked at her in silent reassurance. Evie stood in front of the huge sliding doors; they were wood panelled to match the other walls in the study. The opposite wall sported a wide window, which bathed a huge carved oak wooden desk and a tall leather chair in light from outside.

With her hands gripping the middle of the each door, she pulled them apart. With only the barest of noise from the runners, the doors disappeared into the side walls and revealed a solid wall of steel and an electronic panel at shoulder height to its right.

Evie approached the panel, running her hand over it to activate the sensor. A red hue coloured her hand briefly, confirming that it was ready to scan. First, she placed her right hand on the scanner, palm down and touching the surface. Nathan watched as the red beam of light scanned her prints top to bottom, before illuminating a green square to signal that it had verified the images.

First stage completed; now for the retinal scan. Evie pushed her hair behind her ears, bent forward, placed her right eye in line with an imprinted guideline on the face of the scanner, opened her eye, and stared. The machine scanned from top to bottom. Briefly, the light flashed green once more and an electric relay began to hum. The solid metal wall rose up through the ceiling and retracted to reveal a set of mirrored lift doors. After pushing the call button, it was just possible to hear the lift machinery spark into life as the electro-magnetic rail motors took the strain, hauling the lift car upwards.

“The lift shaft is almost a mile deep. The rest point for each car is about halfway down. It’ll take a few minutes for it to get here. When we get down there, please stick together. It’s a big facility and we’ll be entering the lift foyer first. There could be infected still alive down there and the virus may still be active. We need to suit up,” Evie said.

The message was relayed to the whole party and soon everyone had taken precautions. The three armed non-commissioned officers took position in front of the lift doors, fanning out to cover all angles when they opened.

With a final clunk, the lift reached the surface and the doors slid open to reveal the interior of an empty car. The low-level fluorescent lighting was still operational, indicating the lift, at least, had not sustained any damage.

Chris signalled that all was clear and turned to direct the others inside. With a maximum capacity of six people, two journeys up and down would be necessary to transport the group to the facility. They split up with Nathan and Chris taking the first group down. This included Evie, the C.O., one of the engineers, and one of the medical staff. The second group would be Hobbs, Lewis, Sergeant Wilkes, two further medical staff, and a second engineer.

The first team would wait for the second group at the facility foyer’s entrance area. With full protective kit, it was a tight squeeze inside the lift, and Chris entered last, as he would be the first out when the doors opened at the bottom, followed by Nathan and the second rifle.

There were just two buttons on the panel inside the lift, marked ML and SA. Evie pressed the ML button, choosing the Main Lab level as opposed to the Storage Area. The pressed button illuminated red, the doors closed, and the lift began to descend. It picked up speed as the motors applied more power; the low whine became much higher pitched as they descended.

***

It took around three minutes to descend to the Main Lab level. With only the slightest of sensations as the lift slowed to a stop, the mirrored doors parted. Chris and Nathan stepped out cautiously. The emergency purple fluorescent UV lights had been activated, making their bio-suits glow. Chris instructed the others to remain where they were; the lift area would provide cover should anything happen.

With weapons raised, they split left and right, staying close to the walls of the lift foyer. They advanced towards a desk set towards the back of the room, behind a row of metal detector machines. Unable to see behind the desk they each passed through the machines, causing alarms to sound, but no one was there to respond.

Behind the desk, the security guard lay dead, but it wasn’t possible to tell if he had died from injuries sustained in an attack by an infected deadhead or had simply died from the side effects of the virus. Nathan turned away, moving back towards the lift, scanning the other doors, and keeping a close eye on the buttons of the panels. He looked back at Chris, gave the thumbs-up signal, and then waited for the same response to indicate that it was safe for the others to move.

Chris looked at the huge round blast door directly behind the security desk. The red light flashing above it indicated that the emergency lockdown procedure had been activated. To the left, a panel also flashed up a brightly lit red warning, but Chris wasn't aware of its significance. He signalled the all clear to Nathan and the others left the lift.

The group stood fast awaiting the arrival of the second lift journey, which swiftly followed. With the whole group now assembled, Nathan moved towards Evie.

“Evelyn, there’s one body, a security guard behind the desk. Looks like he’s been dead a couple of days at least. You might want to take a look. It’s hard to tell what killed him. Other than that, it’s clear. That’s a mighty tough-looking door there. I hope you’ve got a key,” Nathan said.

He walked her to the body of the man. As Evie checked over the corpse, Nathan took the opportunity to get a closer examination of the massive blast door.

“The blast door is three-feet thick, Nate, solid, hardened steel, and weighs several tons. It is hinged at the top and can only be operated from this side once the emergency lockdown protocol is activated. It basically makes the facility the world’s largest tomb. Only three people in the world can open it without destroying it, and they are the facility chief scientific officer, the facility commanding officer, and the secretary of state. Fortunately, I fall into the first category,” she said.

“Impressive,” Nathan said, turning to face the team of now luminescent specialists.

“Stand well back from the door. We’re about to try to gain access to the main lab facility now,” Nathan instructed.

The group took a few steps backwards, staying behind Hobbs and Lewis who shouldered their weapons ready. The C.O. had drawn his standard issue Colt .45 auto, holding it rigidly out in front of him between the two paratroopers.

Evie stepped towards the flashing panel. Knowing that the UV lights would have killed any viral infection on this side of the door, she removed her glove and placed her hand upon the surface of the reader. The red light scanner whizzed top to bottom, and the light changed from red to green. The panel then asked for her unique ID number. Replacing her glove, she entered the code and stood back, waiting—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and then ten seconds—for one horrifying moment, she thought that nothing would happen.

She turned in despair, looking at Nathan with a mixture of fear and bewilderment before there was a loud hiss. Evie jumped backwards, and Nathan rushed for her, pulling her away further. With five weapons trained on it, the enormous blast door began to lift, slowly tilting on its edge, pushed up by massive gas rams and held by an enormous cylindrical hinge.

Partially mesmerised by the operation, the whole team stood, unable to break their gaze as the size and thickness of the blast door became evident. After what seemed like minutes, the final hiss came as the gas rams sealed once more, holding the immense weight in a horizontal position. Behind was a circular corridor that stretched as far as the eye could see in the dimmed UV light. It must have been a hundred feet wide and carved through the bedrock of the Earth itself, Nathan surmised.

Nobody and nothing moved within, despite the noise of the door being opened. The UV lights in the facility seemed to be working; potentially it was safe to remove the bio-suits but nobody did. Nathan, Chris, and Susan formed a line in front of the group as they edged slowly over the threshold of the blast door, seeing flashing red lights spaced out down the ceiling of the tunnel.