Page 12 of Alpha Infected
“Let’s try for the emergency stairwell,” Hazard suggested when they crept onto the thirtieth floor. “It’d be a direct shot up instead of these staircases on the opposite end of every fucking floor.”
They all crouched down and waited as he pulled out a search pole camera and used it to peer around the corner where the emergency exit was located. Breathing a curse, he quickly pulled the camera back and shook his head.
“That way is out. There’s a bunch of infected congregated in front of the door. Maybe the emergency stairs on the next floor will be clear.”
“Best not to bother,” Ice said. “Too much risk of being trapped in a bottleneck of infected in an enclosed stairwell.”
Ortiz agreed. “Ice is right. We stay out in the open where we have room to maneuver and retreat if necessary.”
Jax nodded. “Copy that.”
With the emergency stairwell plan nixed, they jogged in a quiet crouch to get to the next staircase. On the way, they passed by what looked to be a large conference room. The doors were flung open wide as if inviting them to look inside. Several treadmills and weight benches were set up in the back. Most of the chairs surrounding a big, black table lay overturned on the floor, a black curtain was partially torn down from the ceiling, and broken champagne bottles and glasses littered the floor. A dead body wearing a nice suit lay near the door, its rotting stench making its way through Ice’s mask to assault his nose.
“This must be where the outbreak started,” Ice said as he looked at the destruction.
“Yep,” Hazard said in agreement. “You can see they were celebrating their little test with champagne before things went to shit.”
“I doubt this company will celebrate anything ever again once this is all over with.” Ice didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for the higher ups in this company. Injecting rabies into people for profit was cruel, selfish, and stupid.
They continued on and were almost to the stairs when they heard that now tell-tale raspy snarl.
“Infected up ahead, Major,” Jax quietly advised.
“I hear ‘em.”
Ice paused with his team as they took stock of the situation. He could hear the infected, but couldn’t see where they were. They crept forward until they neared an open doorway where the snarls seemed to be coming from. Again Hazard used his pole cam to look around the corner.
“We’ve got one, two... seven infected in a break room. Door is open so we’re not getting past them without being noticed.”
“Let’s close the door,” Jax suggested. “They might not be smart enough to figure out how to open it.”
Ortiz nodded. “Worth a shot. Jax, since it was your suggestion. Go for it.”
The three of them waited while Jax moved ahead with his back sliding against the wall until he reached the doorway. He paused to take a deep breath. Then, he slowly reached up and around to grab the door handle.
Ice hoped to hell that the maintenance staff in this building kept the door hinges oiled so that they wouldn’t squeak.
His jaw clenched tight, Jax pulled the door toward him, closing it with a quietclick.
“Let’s move,” Ortiz whispered to Ice and Hazard.
Jax waited for them to catch up and then kept moving with them to pass the now closed doorway and continue down the hall.
They’d just reached the stairs when Ice chanced a look back. One of the infected had stepped out of the breakroom.
“Looks like they are,” Ice said.
Hazard looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
“Are what?”
“Smart enough to open the door.”
As he spoke, the rest of the infected tumbled out of the breakroom and into the hall. When they spied Ice and his team, they went still in that creepy, predatory freeze. As one they sprang forward, a rabid pack coming straight for them.
“Fucking hell,” Ice cursed. The infected ran so fast they were already close enough for him to see the black veins under their waxy, grayish skin and the bubbling drool frothing at the corners of their mouths.
“Take ‘em down!” Ortiz ordered. “We don’t want them chasing us up to the lab.”
