“Hold on.” Mick lifted his radio. “Briggs, found the hostages. Give me three minutes.”
“Roger that,” Briggs responded. “Let me know when you have it.”
“Roger. Out.” Mick clipped his radio. “Lars, listen to me. Take my mom out the back. Make a left, follow that street for a block then take a right. It’ll bring you to the Left Hypochondria.”
“I know exactly where that is.”
“I know you do. You did great giving us intel. We own that now. Our men are there, Take my mother.”
Rose asked, “What about you?”
Mick moistened his lips. “I don’t have time to go with you. There something in this town I need to find. Find it, take it and destroy it.”
Lars asked. “Are you talking about the MHS?”
Mick nodded.
“I know exactly where it is. It’s at the Diary Queen a block and half down the road. In the basement, inside a stand up freezer. Be careful.”
Mick’s head tossed back with a grateful nod. “Thank you. Okay, get my mom out of here. We’re running out of time and an attack is gonna happen any minute. It will no longer be safe for you.”
“Then you’ll meet us. Right?” Rose asked.
Mick took his mother’s hands. “Mom, that’s not gonna happen. You need to know how much I love you and how much you have been a great mother. Please watch the boys.”
“Michael?”
“Mick?” Lars asked. “What’s going on?”
“Lars, go,” Mick said firmly. He struggled to pull his hands from Rose.
“No. No,” Rose shook her head. “You are my son. What are you doing?”
“Yes, Mick, what are you doing?” Lars asked.
“Lars, go,”
“No!” Lars yelled. “Not until you tell me what is up.”
“I have the virus!” Mick snapped. “My suit ripped. The room was hot. I have it. Confirmed. In less than 8 hours I’ll probably be highly contagious. I can’t let the boys know, I can’t let them see me die like that. I won’t be able to touch them, hold them. So…this is my last stand.” He looked at Rose. “I’m sorry.”
“No,” she wept. “You’re my son. My son. I’m going to stay with you. I don’t care about the virus. I don’t.”
“I do,” Mick said passionately. “I care about you and I care about those boys. They need you.”
“What are you going to do, Mick?” Lars asked in irritation. “Take care of the heroics and when that is done, go off to the woods and die like a sick dog?”
“If I have to, yes. Or…” Mick touched the grenades strapped to his belt, “go out in a blaze of glory.”
“You can’t do that,” Lars argued.
“What choice do I have!” Mick blasted.
“You can’t be serious?” Lars said. “You stand before me and ask that. Let me help.”
“You are the great Lars Rayburn, but not even you can beat this.”
“How do you know!” Lars yelled. “How? Give me a chance at this, Mick. This is what I do. Get the antidote. It’s with the virus.”
“It needs to be taken within two hours you know that.”
“But it’s something for me to work with,” Lars said. “It’s a base to start with. The virus is heat resistant and I’ll stick you in a sauna if I have to slow it and buy us time, but for God’s sake don’t do this. Don’t give up. Let me try. For those boys, your mother. For all of us,” he pleaded, “Please, Mick, let me try.”
Before Mick could reply, gunfire rang out in the distance. “Fuck. We’re too late. Battle started. Go. Go! Get her out.”
Lars took hold of Rose. “What are you going to do?”
Mick closed his mouth tightly, leaned to his mother, kissed her and stepped back. “First thing’s first. I get the MHS.” He pointed outward and shouted. “Go!” and she flew through the door and out to the street.
He emerged unnoticed onto the street. Men and women with weapons rushed toward the other end of the street. Mick could only guess they were headed to the front lines. He blended in so much no one noticed he was the opposing force.
“Wrong way!” someone yelled at Mick. “The fighting is that way.”
“Gonna check the other barricade!” Mick replied as he ran.
The Dairy Queen. He saw it. Picking up the pace, Mick charged to the former ice cream store and inside. The door clanked as he slammed though it and it echoed in the hollow empty store. The basement door wouldn’t be in the main dining area, so Mick hurried to the back hall. It wasn’t there, then he turned to the kitchen.
He spotted the door and saw it was open. He ran down the stairs and the single metal freezer door was directly in the scope of his vision. That too was open.
He pulled his revolver and quietly made his way to the door. Back against the unit, he peeked in. A man was in the standalone cooler. After a long blink and knowing that it had to be Ace, Mick rolled shoulder first with a step into the freezer and shut the door. “Hold it.”
The gray haired man peered over his shoulder with the snidest of looks. “Son, I don’t think you have a clue what I’m holding.”
“Oh, I know what you’re holding,” Mick said, eyeing the pouch.
Ace shut the lid to the cooler. “Step aside.”
“I don’t think you realize I’m holding the gun. Hand me the pouch.” Mick held a steady aim.
Ace held out the pouch, but with a grin, retracted it and showed a vial. “Step aside, big man.” He inched around Mick toward the main freezer door.
“Or what?” Mick laughed. “You’re gonna pop that cap? I have news for you. You broke a vial at Fort Detrick. I got the virus, so expose me, go on, I’m already a dead man. But you aren’t getting away with that. On my life I promise you, you will not leave this room with the virus.”
Ace made his way to the door. “Go on, shoot me. This vial drops and you won’t get it in time before it breaks. That means, you open this door for more than three seconds, you stand a chance of exposing everyone around this building. The second they step in they’re dead. Just like you.”
“You drop that vial, you expose your men and yourself.”
“I got the antidote, I’m not an asshole. And listen to it up there.” Ace raised his head to the gunfire. “I’m pretty sure that’s not my men doing all the shooting. They’ll be more men out there.” He put the strap of the pouch over his shoulder.
“You honestly think I’m letting you walk out the door?”
“Actually, I think you are. I’m holding the weapon. My men, your men. You don’t want them exposed. Do you?” He reached behind him for the door. “Three seconds. I’m using them now.” His exposed hand opened and the vial dropped, smashing to the floor.
There was zero hesitation and the split second that the vial broke, Mick fired a single shot, directly to his head and Ace flew back against the door, dropping before it and right by the virus.
Quickly, Mick stepped to Ace, grabbed the pouch, used his foot and rolled Ace’s body over the vial. He opened the pouch and looked inside. Four metal tubes and five bottles which Mick could only figure were the antidote doses.
Even though he had what he came for, the walk in freezer was quickly becoming a viral bomb.
Mick looked at the door, then looked at the incendiary grenades on his belt.
Lars and Rose had made it almost to the destination, though they had to move slowly. Rose could barely walk. Lola had run to them, but Lars urged her to keep going, to leave. They’d get there.
He crossed the street with Rose, and before he could register a man pointing a gun at them, a bullet sailed into the man and he dropped. Lars looked for the shooter, and a soldier flew around the corner. He aimed, lowered his weapon and used it to point in a direction. “Almost free, keep going. Watch your backs,” he told them.