They waited, but there was no response of any kind. The structure didn’t move. The camera didn’t blink. The only sounds were birds chirping from the trees around them and insects chattering in the air.
Kate looked around at the faces of the people standing next to her. There had been two more faces yesterday, but they were down to six now. Their little bit of hope was slipping away with each second that no one responded to Will.
She couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for them. They still thought things could get better. She wasn’t so sure about that anymore.
What’s the point?
Will said to the camera, “All right, don’t say I didn’t give you a chance. Trust me, this isn’t how I wanted to do this. But you’ve left us no choice.” He stood back. “Danny.”
Danny was holding a familiar looking backpack. He opened it and pulled out slabs of C4 explosives.
Oh. So it’s Plan Z all over again?
That’s such an awful name, Will.
Danny held one stick of C4 up for the camera to see. Then he lifted the entire backpack and showed its contents to the camera.
Will was talking to the camera again: “My friends and I have come a long way, and we’re not turning back now. Open the door, or we’re going to make our own. You don’t want that. This door is the only thing between you and what’s waiting out here in the dark. You and I both know that. So you’re going to open up and let us in, or we’re going to see how long the facility lasts without this structure on top of it. What do you think? Fifty-fifty? Less? Let’s find out together.”
Will took a step back. Instinctively, she and the others did the same. All except Danny, who began pressing slabs of C4 to the structure, then attaching what looked like bronze tubes to each one. Danny put two on one side before moving on to another side, where he slapped two more against the smooth surface.
Will turned back to the camera: “Remember, you’re forcing our hand. What happens in the next few minutes is all on you. But it’s still not too late. You can still open the door.”
Danny reappeared on the other side of the structure, his empty backpack in one hand, a remote detonator in the other. “Everyone back. You don’t want to be anywhere close to this sucker when it goes.”
“Let’s move the cars first,” Will said, and they started walking back toward their vehicles.
She had one hand on the Tacoma’s door and one foot poised to climb up when something very loud and unnatural broke the quiet air behind her and the ground underneath her began to vibrate noticeably.
She looked back.
The rectangle structure was moving. It was sliding to the right, letting out a loud grinding noise, as if giant blocks of granite were in motion. She could hear what sounded like heavy machinery and giant gears turning underneath the dirt.
Will and Danny unslung their M4A1s and walked back toward the structure. It occurred to her very suddenly that she didn’t have her rifle and hadn’t even bothered looking for it when she had woken up this morning. What did that say about the “new” Kate, who had been gung-ho about learning how to shoot ghouls between the eyes?
The structure slid all the way open to reveal another rectangle — this one a hole in the floor. It was an entrance with concrete steps leading downward, and a thick shaft of artificial light flooded out and upward into the air, visible even in the daytime.
Danny said, “So does this mean I don’t get to put the rest of the C4 to use?”
“’Fraid not,” Will said.
“Damn.”
Carly patted him on the back. “Maybe next time, babe.”
“Promises, promises…”
The top structure finally stopped moving.
They leaned forward and looked down. The steps only went down for about ten feet before they met a concrete floor inside a long, brightly lit hallway. Halogen lights lined the walls below, but they didn’t see anyone.
“A brightly lit hallway with no signs of people,” Lara said. “That’s not ominous at all.”
Danny glanced over and grinned at Will. “You’re the one who brought us here, Kemosabe. This is your party invitation, so after you.”
Will smirked back at him.
Then facing front, he took a tentative step forward…then down…
BOOK THREE
‡
SAFE
CHAPTER 29
WILL
The Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifle was a German weapon capable of unleashing its thirty-round magazine in less than five seconds flat. It had a modern, even futuristic, look.
Will was staring down the barrel of a G36 now, except instead of the usual thirty-round magazine, this one was loaded with a C-mag drum that held 100 bullets. So in theory, if things went to shit, he — and Danny, to his right — would have to only avoid getting perforated by 100 bullets for the fifteen seconds it would take the shooter to empty his weapon on full-auto.
Bad odds. Really bad odds.
They were at the foot of the concrete steps facing three men holding G36s, but thankfully only one had the drum attached. Two of the men looked nervous, one of whom couldn’t have been older than seventeen. The other one looked to be in his early forties, with a scraggly beard and almost no hair on top. The beard had an orange tint to it. The kid had on a plaid shirt and khaki shorts; he looked absurd behind the big G36 assault rifle.
The third man, the one with the drum, was tall and wore combat boots, and of the three his hands were the only ones not shaking. The man was in his late thirties, and had calm, dark blue eyes. Will instantly recognized the look of a soldier.
He and Danny had reached the bottom of the steps when the men arrived, turning the corner with weapons raised. This part of the facility was one big concrete block, bright halogen lamps along the walls breaking the monotony of gray scenery. The turn in the hallway was twenty meters ahead, ten behind where the three men now stood.
“Here’s how it’s going to go down,” the third man said. “You drop your weapons and we don’t kill you. Do anything other than drop your weapons, and we kill you. Any part of that you don’t get?”
“Sounds pretty clear to me,” Danny said. “What about you? You get it?”
“Yup.” Will nodded. “I got it.”
“So it’s settled then. We both get it. So what now?”
“Drop your weapons,” the third man said.
“That’s not going to happen,” Danny said.
“No one has to get hurt,” Will said.
He could hear Kate and the others above them, back up on the surface, through the square opening. The Door. As soon as the men appeared around the corner, he shouted at them to retreat back up, which they did, thankfully, without arguing.
That left just the two of them down here. Two against three. And that C-mag.
100 bullets. Shit. Bad odds…
“You’re outmanned and outgunned,” the third man said. “The only way you make it out of this in one piece is with your weapons down on the floor. You get that part, too?”
“That’s not going to happen, either,” Danny said.
The other two men hadn’t said a word. Had either one ever fired the G36s they were holding? It had a hell of a kick, and by the way the kid was holding it the answer was pretty obvious. The older man had probably shot rifles before, but he, too, looked new to the G36.
So that left the third man. The soldier.
Will figured he would shoot him first and take their chances on the other two not being able to hit anything from this distance. Thirty rounds per second or not, it still took some skill to hit a moving target, and he planned to be moving a lot when the shooting started.