Day One (Book 2): Choices (19 page)

“I don’t know what to say to that,” he said. “I’m sorry to hear that, but we –

I cut him off instantly. “Oh, spare me your bullshit!

“Professor Smith, are you alright?” Morris asked.

“This guy is dangerous,” Smith replied. “It’s best to just let him leave with the other two.” There was a brief pause after his words and although I could not see his face, I’m pretty sure that he had mouthed something to the Morris, because he had definitely made a point to include Johnny and my Daughter in his little rant. I smacked him in the back of the head.

“Open your mouth once more and it’ll be the last words you ever speak,” I said to Smith.

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and ask where your friend and Daughter might be,” Morris asked me.

“They’re leaving, as we speak,” I responded.

“And they’re just going to leave you behind?”

“Yes. I instructed them too,” I added.

Morris took a moment to deliberate what I had just divulged to him and he smiled while shaking his head and looked at me. “I seriously doubt that. In fact, I think you are doing nothing more than bluffing your way through all of this, hoping we will just let you walk out of here. I really hope that’s not the case though.”

“And why is that, Officer Morris?”

“Because that’s not going to happen,” Morris told me. “And when we have all of you back in custody, which I assure you we will very shortly. What you thought was hell before will be, will be a picnic compared to what we’re going to do to
all
of you. Including that pretty little daughter of yours.”

The time to act was now.

The safety on the SBR was off. All I had to do was squeeze the trigger and hope that they wouldn’t initiate a gunfight with Smith in front of me, as he was the only shield I had at the moment. I can’t quite place why I had this feeling they would not harm him in anyway, it was still well enough valid in my mind that knew I could use him to get what I wanted.

“Do you know why I told them to leave without me?” I asked Morris, who didn’t wear a look of wonder, let alone concern upon his face for my question.

“And why’s that?” He asked.

“Because I’m going to kill each and every one of you!”

“Is that so?” Morris asked.

“Come and find out,” I threw back at him.

“Last chance to let the professor go and give up,” Morris told me.

“No!” I answered.

Morris put a hand on his hip before speaking. “Then we have a problem. If you’re not going to release him, then there’s nothing further to talk about.”

With the SBR already in Smith’s back and the serum coursing through his veins, I was more than ready to start killing them. I actually longed for it and couldn’t wait for them to try and proceed. “Fine, then there’s no need to keep this sick asshole alive any longer.”

Morris shook his head. “You’re not going to do anything to him. You know that as well as I do, because the moment you do you no longer have a bargaining chip in your favor or a shield to hide behind,” Morris told me. “Just make it easier on yourself and let him go. I’m getting really tired of this back and forth bullshit, to be honest with you.”

Another Guard replied. “You shoot him and you die three seconds later.”

“This thing will punch right through your body armor like it’s not even there, creating a massive wound channel as it passes through your body,” I explained, hoping to knock this trigger happy rent-a-cop down a few notches. “But go ahead, make your move if you don’t believe me!”

“Shut up, Burke! I don’t need your assistance, nor did I ask for it. You just stand there and keep your mouth shut!” Morris told him and looked back toward me. “Don’t pay any attention to this idiot’s, they’re just running their mouths.”

“Sounds like you got a little dissension in your ranks there, buddy. You might want to keep an eye on that one,” I stated, trying my best to drive a wedge in between the leader and those under him. If I could get one or more of them to doubt their leader’s success they might prove to be the miracle I needed to get me through the next ten minutes.

“Idiots?” Burke questioned. “And just who in the hell are you referring to?”

Morris turned to Burke. “Can we not do this right now; I’m sort of in the middle of something here.”

“Yeah, making yourself look like the only idiot here,” Burke added. “Don’t forget how you got where you are now, Steve. We can just as easily take you down from that pedestal you’re on, as easily as we put you upon it in the first place.”

As the mounting confrontation began to escalate, I was too wrapped up wondering what to do next to notice that Smith was trembling. Not trembling like someone that was cold would do, but someone that had been injected with something that was slowly beginning to take effect, because if I had, I would have used that small lull to escape through either side door.

It didn’t take long for me to notice the trembling and in a whisper I spoke to him. “Are you alright?” Not that I was truly concerned with his health, I think it was more of a simple question to put my mind at ease. The trembling turned to spasms he couldn’t control, which caught the attention of a few of the Guards, and then Morris.

“What’s going on with Professor Smith?” Morris asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I injected him with his test serum to see if it really worked.”

The spasms turned violent and he fell to the floor and when into full blown convulsions. I could see him dying right there on the floor and my human shield was now gone. Whatever I was planning in the back of my mind, I needed to initiate immediately as time was quickly beginning to close in on me.

“Whatever it is, it doesn’t look good for him. He may need a doctor,” I said sarcastically. He could die for all I cared, and he could do it in great pain, which would make me all the more happier.

“Professor, Smith. Are you alright?” Morris asked him, yet he didn’t answer.

There was no hiding from the truth anymore. The Guards would not simply stand aside and let me walk past, let alone leave the school complex alive. They would kill me now, and then track Johnny and my Daughter down… their fate would be the same as mine unless I could dwindle their numbers down drastically, or possibly wipe them all out. However this was going to go, I wanted to ensure that every one of them died and horrible death. I would see to that personally.

The talking was about to grind to a halt. Shooting would follow and I would get to find out first-hand which of the Guards could shoot and which ones could not. The only thing I could hope for is that a majority of them were bad shots.

“Professor!” Morris yelled.

I ran my hand over my chest rig and could feel the six full mags easily accessible. I took a deep breath of air and let it slowly exit through my mouth, preparing myself for what would come next.

Smith thrashed about on the floor, obviously in a great deal of pain. In my mind though, whatever pain he was going through wasn’t enough after all that he had done in the past week. I honestly didn’t think hell would be enough pain for him, as I wanted him to suffer more than any one person ever had. I could feel the logic of the Young Woman coming out of me and I wasn’t against any of it. It felt just and right; as though this was meant to happen and I had been the one destine to supply that punishment. Those strangers that day that wanted to take what we had and kill us all crept back into my mind. At the time I had fought against the Young Woman, my worldly morals still drifting about like debris floating just above the outstretched fingers of flames in a fire, but now the debris had settled. The fire had consumed all that remained. I was the product of those flames… I am what was left.

I was no longer naive to the world and what it had become.

I was no longer trying to make sense out of that, which no longer made sense.

I wondered if what I was going through was really my own thoughts, or those of the infection that somehow lay dormant within me somewhere? Once again though, it really didn’t matter what the answer was, as within the next few seconds all that would be changed forever.

“Put your guns at your feet and kick them away… that’s the only way any of you are walking out of here alive,” I stated with the SBR pointed at Morris.

He looked at me, unable to believe what he was hearing. “Are you kidding me?” He asked. “We have you outnumbered and trapped. It is you that needs to put your weapon down, if you want to live.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s put your idle threats to the test.”

Smith abruptly stopped thrashing about. He lay still on the floor and blood began to come out of his nose and open mouth. From where I stood I could see it better than they could. I knew he was dead…
no going back now!

I had only ever been in one real gunfight, although the bullets were not actually targeted directly at me, more of just a general direction type thing, however, that was quickly about to change and every bullet fired in anger
would
be directed at me this time.

“He’s dead,” One of the other Guards stated. “He killed the Professor.”

Morris shook his head and smiled. “You really do believe you’re a madman, don’t you?”

Could I do this? Could I really kill these people that were just trying to survive like me? Of course I could, and I
wanted
very much too.

“This sorry son of a bitch killed Professor Smith!” Morris announced to his fellow guards, several of which began to make noise in order to psych themselves up and took up covered firing positions as I stood there in the middle of the hallway.

“Get her out of here,” I whispered to myself seconds before shouldering the SBR.

Gunfire, loud and directed gunfire, filled the hallway as I slipped back behind the wall to my left, releasing a flurry of bullets toward my foes in full auto. The screams of utter pain cycled through the momentary pauses of bullets whizzing by, although I was uncertain as to how many I had hit, it still put a smile upon my face to know that at least one gunman had been taken out of the fight. One less problem to worry about, I thought.

Standing there against the wall, as a sea of bullets washed passed me, I realized soberly that my life could very well end at any moment and I thought about my Daughter and what she’d do without me. How would she deal with growing up alone and by some near chance that whatever this was ended as quickly as it had begun, how would she get along on her wedding day or the birth of her first child without me there? I know I was thinking extremely too far ahead and using far too many ‘what if’s’ to make sense of anything, but things like that meant something to me and it made me mad. And the anger I could use as a weapon to defeat those that were trying to kill me. It was the only true power I possessed.

Morals and ethics mean absolutely nothing if you aren’t even alive.
My brain told me and from the surface of my half assed plan a motivation I have never experienced before arose, rejuvenating me.

“You’re not taking my life today, assholes!” I shouted, leaned out into the midst of the gunfire and began shooting back. The massive amounts of fire from my SBR sent several of the Guards behind cover, fearing any orders of advancement upon me, while two more went to the ground and were no longer threats.

I hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone at first, it had never been my plan, but I would be damned before I let these low- lives take what wasn’t there’s to begin with. They had already taken my Son from me, so they would take nothing else. I fired several more controlled shots aimed down the hallway. Another scream pierced through the barrage of fire and another one went down as I leaned back behind cover, hoping to get a few of them to rush me. It wasn’t long before they answered my wish. Halfway to me, with cover fire from their own people, I stepped out, only this time I was lower to the floor, and gunned them down and retreated back behind the wall.

The rush of doing something so stupid filled me like the best narcotic and I welcomed it. I didn’t look at them as survivors, which made it easier for me to simply pull the trigger and watch them fall to the floor. I didn’t linger away from the wall long enough to see their blood fill and stain the tiled floor or watch their lives leave their bodies. I was focused on surviving and taking as many of them out as I could. If I was overrun eventually, I needed the numbers to be smaller that way I could stand up for one last fight. I’d die to save Johnny and my Daughter; there was no doubt in my mind about that now.

“I thought you were going to kill me, Officer Morris!” I shouted. “This must really be embarrassing for you in front of your men that you can’t kill one guy, huh?”

The gunfire continued, as did the screams of those that had been hit mixed with the orders that Morris was trying to give to his fellow rent-a-cops, although they were all hesitant to advance upon my location. That was pure suicide, as I had tactical advantage over them, if only for the moment, it was still better than being in their shoes and having numbers.

“Keep running your mouth, asshole. It won’t be for much longer!” He replied.

I had no idea if Johnny had made it to the chopper or if the Female Guard had found and stopped him, but I had to believe, until I knew otherwise, that he was still on course and things would quickly shift further in my direction.