He could hear every foot step as he walked across the floor, each step just seemed to echo in that big empty space. He looked around into the dark corners as he went, wondering how such a place could sit empty and un-used. While making his way across the big open room towards a side door, he stopped when he heard what sounded like an aluminum can being kicked across the concrete floor. He pulled the pistol from his pocket and raised it up, pointing it to the corners, and straining his ears to try and hear the slightest noise of what could have made the noise. But he could not hear anything else after the sound of the can. Carefully he walked to the side door in the big room. He pulled the bolt slide back and began opening the door. It let out a creaking sound that you would only hear in a horror flick, and the spring made its own twang sound as it stretched for the first time in who knows how many years.
Once the door was open enough that he could fit through, he stuck his head out and looked around in the empty lot to see if anyone was there. He did not see anyone, so he stepped out into the lot, slowly closed the door so that it would not slam shut, then he walked over to the other side of the lot to the fence line to the next building. He took a look around the lot of the next building, looking to the ends of the building, up near the roof line checking for cameras. He looked around towards the front end of the building to see if there were any signs of people. Not seeing anyone, he looked the outside of the building over good. It was the same as the building that he had just came out of, it also looked like it had been empty for years. He scanned the fence line, and just a ways down from him, he saw a place in the fence that looked like it had been pulled away from the post. Maybe it was a place where homeless people used to gain access to the lot. No matter, it was good enough for him.
He walked down the fence line to the place where he saw it pulled away from the pole. He reached down and pulled up on the fence. The fence lifted right up and provided him with enough room that he could easily get under it and get access to the next lot. He slipped under the fence and as he was about to cross the lot to get to the door of the next building, he thought that he heard something bang inside the building. He went to the door and put his ear to his while slowly turning the door handle to see if the door was locked or not. He could not hear anything else inside the building, and as he turned the door handle, he was surprised to find that the door was not locked. He then slowly turned the handle until he could slowly pull the door open. He opened the door, and stuck his head inside to see what was inside the building. It was dark inside, except for the light from some local street lights shining in through the windows. He could also see that it was a building just like the one that he had just gone through. It appeared to be another empty old manufacturing building. He slipped inside the door, and slowly closed it so that it would not bang and alert anyone that he was going inside. Again, he found himself inside a dust filled room with nothing inside. He crossed the big open room and made his way to the other side. Now he was just inside the building right next to the lot of the building where the truck convoy had entered. He looked along the wall for a door to access the outside to get over to the building where the men were, but there was no door along that wall. Frustrated, he finally found a ladder on the wall, that lead up to a catwalk that went along the length of the wall, it looked like it must have been a maintenance walk so that they could clean and replace broken windows when needed.
He walked over to the ladder, and to his relief, it was a steel ladder and not a wooden one. He began to climb up the ladder so that he could get to the catwalk. As he went up the ladder, he passed by a fan and vent that were in the wall. He hesitated, and pushed the flaps open to peek outside. He looked and but could only see a small portion of the lot and what he could see of the building, was large windows like the ones in the building that he was in, but those windows on that building had been blacked out so he could not see anything inside. But he could see, in small places where the black paint was peeling off, some light from the inside shining out.
He let the flap back down and continued his climb up the ladder to the catwalk. When he reached the walk, he was able to walk down to the other end of the building, close to the front. There he found one window that had been broken out, and it was just over the area where the guard shack was located in the other lot. He carefully looked out the window, and could see the shadow of the man in the shack going across the ground just outside the open window and door of the shack. He looked over to the large doors where he had seen the trucks enter the building, but he could not see anything other than the outside of the doors. He could not even see light coming out through a crack between the doors.
“Now, how the hell do I get inside?” He asked himself, as he let out a sigh and contemplated what to do next. Then he saw the man in the shack walk out and walk towards the front gate. He looked to the gate and saw another truck pull up to the gate. The man got out of the truck and walked up to the front of the gate to meet the guard. When the two met at the gate, the driver of the truck showed some kind of papers to the guard. The guard looked at the papers, then unlocked the gate and opened it to let the truck inside. Once the truck was inside the lot, another guard came out of a small door that lead into the building. He walked over to the truck and spoke with the driver. Then after a short conversation, the driver got out of the truck and was lead back to the guard shack. Both of the guards spoke, then they walked the driver back out through the front gates.
Jacob sat there and watched the driver walk off down the sidewalk, and then he watched as the guard that had came out of the building, returned to the truck, and when the large doors were opened, he drove the truck into the building. While the doors were open, he was able to see inside the building and he could see the front end of several vehicles that were lined up inside along the walls. He knew from just looking at the front of the vehicles that they were all Stryker armored personnel carriers.
“What do they need those Stryker’s for?” He asked himself as they began to shut the large doors. Quickly after seeing what was inside the building, he realized that once they spread the rabies virus, they will need a way to move around while being protected from the infected people that will be running all around outside in the world. He thinks for a moment, then he runs down to the other end of the catwalk, and opens the small window to look out towards the other end of the building. He looks out to the rear of the building, and he can see a couple guards standing at the back side of the building. “No way inside from that end.” He thinks to himself as he scratches his head. Just as he is asking himself what to do next, he hears the big doors begin to open again. He runs back down the catwalk, back to the small window at the front of the building. He looks out to see a car and one of the black suburbans pulling out of the building and heading for the front gate. They stop at the gate, the guard walks over to the driver’s door of the leading car. He speaks with the man in the driver’s seat, then he walks over and opens the front gate. The two vehicles then pull out of the lot and turn and disappear out of sight down the road. The guard shuts and locks the gate back up, then, instead of returning to the guard shack, he walks over and goes inside the building.
For the moment, the front gate has been left unattended, so taking advantage of the moment, Jacob pushes on the entire window. Slowly opening it enough that he sticks his head out and looks down to see how far it is to the ground. He looks over the edge and looks around below him. He sees that there is a pile of old tires along the side of the building, so he looks to the back to make sure that the guards standing in the back are not coming nor looking to the front. When he sees that they have not come around the corner, he sits down, puts his legs out the window. Holding tightly to the wall, he lowers his body down and hangs by his hands. He looks down, and gets his aim so that he can drop right down onto the pile of tires. He picks his spot, and then he takes a deep breath and lets go. He falls right down into the pile of tires right where he was aiming for. He hits the tires, and quickly rolls to help absorb the impact. He rolls off of the pile and runs to the side of the pile and hides between the tires and the wall. He looks around to see if he has been seen or heard. All is still quiet, but before he goes to make a run for the guard shack, he looks up the wall of the building, towards the roof line, and there he can see what looks like a camera. He seems to be out of the view of the camera right now along the wall, but he can see that the camera is pointing at the front gate.
He looks up at the sky, and he can see that the sun will soon be up as there is some light beginning to hit the horizon. Before he can move away from the building and get away from the tire pile, he hears two people talking, and when he looks down to the other end of the building where the two guards had been standing at the rear, he can see the two guards now walking down the lot and heading for the front. Knowing that he can’t go any place now or else he will be seen, he wiggles down between the wall and tire pile, burying himself amongst the tires trying to cover himself up enough that he can not be seen.
He buried himself in the back of the pile, and just as he went as far down as he could, the two guards walked up to the shack and went inside. From his vantage point, Jacob could see the two men sit down in some chairs that were against the wall of the shack. He watched them as they sat down and just kept on talking. Poking his head up through one of the tires, he takes a peek around to see what else is going on around the building. He does not see any other people around other than the two guards in the shack. Not wanting to press his luck, he ducks back down into the tires and sits as still as he can so they will not discover that he is there.
He sits there long enough that the sun has now come up, and the two guards are still sitting in the shack and talking. His legs are starting to cramp, and his back could use a good stretching, but he knows that he will not be standing up to stretch any time soon. He sits there wondering how long he is going to have to be hiding in the tires, and how long those two guards are going to be able to go before they have to leave even just to go to the bathroom. As he sits there, getting more and more cramped, his attention is drawn to the building when he hears the big doors beginning to open. Slowly he sits up the best that he can, trying oh so hard not to make any noise as he is hit with the pains running through his legs and the cramps gripping his calves. He works his way up far enough that he can stick his head through one of the tires and look out over the top of the tire pile. He looks to the building to see the big doors crack open, then his attention is pulled away to the guard shack. He looks to see the two guards walking out of the shack, and one of them walks to the front gate and begins to unlock the lock. The other guard walks over to the big doors of the building and stands just outside of them.
He looks back to the gate, and there he sees a boxed delivery truck pull up to the gate. The guards opens the gate and walks out to meet the driver. He speaks with the driver for a moment, then walks back over to the gate and opens it wide for the truck to drive inside the compound. The truck pulls into the lot, then the big building doors open and the truck drives into the building. The guard shuts and locks the front gate, and the other guard shuts and secures the big doors. The two guards then rejoin one another in the guards shack, and they sit back down in their chairs and get back to talking. Thinking that he is in for a long day, Jacob sits back down in his little spot in the pile of tires. He begins to think about what he is going to have to do later when he has the cover of darkness once again. Then as he is beginning to toss all of these thoughts around in his head, he is startled by the sound of gunfire coming from within the building. He hears a number of shots fired, then the two guards inside the guard shack come running out and run over to the building. They unlock the smaller door, go inside, then soon after they walked into the building, again he hears gunfire erupt. Quickly he looks to the rear of the building to see if there are any guards that he can see. He looks and listens, but all he can hear is the gunfire inside the building, but he can not see anyone on the outside of the building.
He gets to his feet as fast as he can, fighting against the numb feeling in his legs, and he runs over to the guard shack to see if there is anything that he can use, weapons, or keys to locks, anything. But as he rifles through the drawers, he can’t find anything. Then he freezes, when he hears the gunfire stop, and he looks to the door to see if the guards are going to come walking out the door. But nobody comes walking outside, so he goes over to the door, checks the handle to see if it is locked. He turns the handle, and the door begins to open. He cracks the door just enough so he can peek inside. He looks inside, and can see the rows of Stryker’s, then he sees the black truck parked just inside the door. Next to the truck he can see a black suburban, and between the two vehicles he can see and man lying on the ground. He looks to be one of the guards, and just behind him is a blood trail. It appears from his view point, to be leading to the back of the building.
He does not hear any more gunfire, but he does hear something that sounds like a faint moaning. He opens the door further and steps inside the building. He quickly looks around and sees a stair case just in front of him. He runs to the steps and quickly climbs them to the storage room above the open area of the building. He finds himself in an area like a loft above the offices below. Looking out, down into the open area of the building he can see all of the vehicles parked and several bodies lying around. Then, again, he hears what sounds like moaning coming from down below in the offices. He looks around, slowly looking over the bannister then down below to see if there is anyone, but all he sees are the bodies with no movement. So he slowly makes his way down the stairs, and cautiously walks over to the body nearest to him. He checks the man’s neck for a pulse, but can not find any pulse. He reaches over, takes the man’s weapon, takes extra magazines from his vest, then he walks over to the door way that leads to the back where the offices are located.
Stopping just to the side of the doorway, he leans forward and looks around the corner of the door frame down through the hallway. He can hardly see down the hall, it is dark, and the lights that are on, are just the old fluorescent tubes and they are flickering so seeing anything is difficult. He strains his eyes looking for any movement, but then he hears some movement in an office towards the end of the hall. He looks back behind himself out into the bay area, then looks back down the hall. He takes a deep breath, then he holds the rifle out in front of him just in case he is surprised, then he walks into the hallway and starts to slowly walk down the hall towards the room where he thought that he had heard some movement. He looks into each room as he passes them making sure that they are empty.
When he approaches the last room on the left, at the end of the hallway, he points the rifle at the door, then takes a step towards the door. He slowly puts his foot down, trying not to make the floor boards creak or make any noise at tall. He sets his foot down, switches his body weight to that foot once he knows that it will not make any noise, then he leans forward again to look around the edge of the door. As he is leaning forward, he freezes when he hears a noise come from behind him. He can’t tell if it is in the hallway or out in the bay area of the building but he is certain that it came from behind him.
He leans back upright, then he slowly turns his head to look over his shoulder so that he can see down the hall behind him. He turns ever so slowly, until he can see behind him, he looks down the hallway, and he can see the door that leads out to the bay area. There is nobody behind him, and the hallway is clear. He begins to turn his attention back to the room he is now standing next too, but as he begins to turn his head back around to the door, he hears another noise come from down the hall behind him. He slowly, turns his head back around towards the other end of the hall. When he looks down the hall, he thinks that he saw something quickly move past the open door leading out into the bay area. But in the dim light of the hall, he was not quite sure what he may have seen. Getting anxious now, he slowly rotates his feet and turns his body so that he is now looking down the hallway towards the door to the bay. He swings his rifle around and points it down the hall towards the door. He takes a couple of steps towards the door, then he hears something bang out in the bay. He freezes in his steps, trying to figure out what it was that he had just heard. Then he hears it again, and now he knows that what he heard was the sound of a rifle bolt, the same sound that a rifle makes when you load a magazine into the rifle and chamber a round causing the bolt to go forward and chamber the round into the barrel.
He quickly looks around, then he steps off into one of the empty offices about in the middle of the hallway. He hides around the corner of the door, but he keeps close so that he can peek around the door and see down the hall. He waits there for a moment, and he can hear the footsteps of what sounds like two people, now walking around out in the bay real close to the door. He listens as he hears two men talking to one another. They are talking like they have no idea that he is there in the hall. He sits still, trying not to move, and listens as the two men walk into the hallway. He could hear them step into the hall, then the footsteps fell silent.
He leans forward, then peeks around the corner of the door. He adjusts his eyes, and there at the end of the hall are two men. One is turned and looking out of the door back out into the bay area, and the other man is next to him leaning over a counter and messing around with the phone. He can hear the man on the phone speaking to someone, and he could not make out what the man was saying, then the man hangs the phone up and turns to the other man and said,
“He said that we are to kill everyone, don’t leave anyone alive.”
“Then what are we suppose to do?”
“Then we are to go back to the island, they are going to load more up and send them off to different cities.”
“Oh shit!” Jacob said to himself as he leans back into the room. He looks down at his rifle, makes sure that the magazine is locked into the magazine well. He leans forward again, looking down the hall, he makes sure that the men are not looking down the hall in his direction. Then he leans forward, puts the rifle out of the door and peeks out just enough to look down the sights. He points the rifle at the man that is standing closest to the door leading out into the bay of the building. He takes a breath, then he squeezes the trigger. The rifle reports, and the man that was at the door, jerks his head forward then he falls to the floor is an small cloud of red mist. The other man that was at the counter, seeing the other man fall to the floor, and hearing the shot, jumps over the counter, and crashes to the floor knocking things off of the counter down onto the floor.
“Put your weapon down and step out where I can see you.” Jacob yells down the hall.
“Hell no!” The man replies.
Jacob then fires several rounds off down the hall, hitting the front of the counter and the wall next to the counter. The man did not say anything in response to the gunfire, but he stuck his rifle over the top of the counter, and pointing it down the hall, he fires off a couple of un-aimed shots. Jacob flinched as the rounds hit the walls, then he raised his rifle and took a couple more shots down the hall, again hitting the front of the counter.
“Who are you?” The man behind the counter yelled out.
“I am here to stop you.” Jacob yelled back to him.
“Stop me from what?” The man asked.
“Stop Peter from carrying out his plan.” Jacob yelled backed as he fired several more shots down the hall towards the counter.
“You can’t stop anything, it is already too late.” The man yelled back as he raised his rifle once again and fired several shots down the hall, hitting the walls no place near Jacob.
“Just lay down your weapon and step out from behind the counter, I will not kill you, but if you keep refusing to give up I will kill you.” Jacob yelled to the man.
“I guess you are going to have to kill me then.” The man yelled back as he fired more shots off down the hallway.
“I gave you a chance.” Jacob said as he fired another shot at the counter front.
The man leaned up again, pointed his rifle down the hall, then fired another few rounds off, this time as he fired his rifle down the hall, he jumped out from behind the counter and made a run for the door to try and get back into the bay area. As he fired the rifle, and ran for the door, he fell to the floor as he felt a sharp pain in his legs. He hit the floor and looked down at his legs, there he saw his pant legs covered with blood, and when he looked up into the hallway, he could see Jacob standing there in the middle of the hall. He could barely see in the flickering light, Jacob standing there, holding a rifle up, and taking aim directly at his face.
“Go ahead, shoot me you son of a bitch, you can’t stop anything anyways.” The man defiantly said as he looked Jacob right in the eyes.
“Your main artery has been hit, you are going to bleed out in a matter of minutes.” Jacob replied as he slowly walked towards the man while keeping his sights on him.
“Maybe, but you are going with me!” The man yelled as he reached out to grab his gun.
Without saying a word, Jacob pulled the trigger and shot the man right in the forehead. He watched the bullet hit the man, and then the man’s head fall backwards to the floor. As he lowered his rifle, he looked down at the man and said,
“I told you I would kill you if you didn’t give up.”
No sooner did he speak those words, when he heard another noise from the back room. He spun around in his steps and pointed the rifle to the back of the hallway. He slowly walked back down the hall towards the back room. As the walked up to the door, he could see something moving in the room. The sunlight that was entering the windows cast a shadow on the floor right at the door. He stepped around the corner of the door, and in the room he finds an man lying on the floor, perched up against the desk.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Jacob asked the man as he pointed his gun at him.
“I am Toby, I work here.” He replied as he put his hand to a wound on his chest.
“Alright Toby, where is the infected man that was in here?” He asked as he walked up to the man.
“He is dead.” The man replied as he gasped from the pain of his wounds.
“Where is the body if he is dead?” Jacob asked as he stepped next to the man and pointed his rifle right at the man’s face.
“They took the body back to the island.”
“Why would they do that?”
“In the event that the police were to come to the building because of the gunfire. They don’t want anyone to find the body.”
“Alright, where is Peter?”
“He went back to the island. Now shoot me!”
“Why do you want me to shoot you?” Jacob asked, puzzled that the man was asking him to shoot him.
“I have been bitten, now I have the infection and I don’t want to become one of those things.” The man pleaded with him.
“Why don’t you just take the cure?” Jacob asked wondering why one of Peter’s scientists would not be able to protect himself from the virus.
“Yeah right, Peter does not give us the cure, he will only sell it and only the very wealthy can afford to buy it.” He said as he began to have labored breathing.
“How many more of those things are there?”
“I don’t know, as far as I know there are at the least fifty. Will you shoot me now!”
“One more question, where are all of the infected people, is this the only one off of the island?”
“Yes, there are no more on the mainland, at least not yet. But Peter has gone back to the island to get the others and take them to different cities to be released and spread the virus.”
“Thank you for the information.” Jacob said as he stepped back towards the door.
“Now will you please shoot me!” The man begged.
Jacob, stopped at the door, looked out into the hall, then he turned back to the man sitting beside the desk. He just looked at the man for a moment, then very quickly he raised his rifle, fired a round off, striking the man in the chest. He watched for a moment as the man slumped over, and did not move. He watched the man’s chest, but he could see that there was no movement. He knew that the shot had hit its mark and that the man was dead. He turned away from the room, and cautiously walked down the hall back towards the bay area. He got to the door, looked down at the man lying there on the floor, then looked out into the bay area. “How the hell do I get back to the island?” He asked himself as he looked around the bay and the row of vehicles.
Knowing what he was going to do, he walked over to the counter, and there he found a steel box, and inside the box was several key rings with keys on them and on each key ring there was a tag with a number marked on it with permanent marker. He grabbed one of the key rings and walked out to the Stryker that had the same number on the key ring. He jumped up onto the top of the Stryker, opened the top hatch over the driver’s seat. Looking down inside the vehicle to make sure that there would be no surprises inside for him, he then climbs down into the drivers seat and fires up the vehicle. He pulls through the bay and heads for the front doors. On the way to the front doors he runs over two of the bodies of the guards that were inside the building. He pulls out of the doors, plows through the front gate and drives off down the road heading for the docks.
As he is driving down the road, he sees a police car approaching from the opposite direction and heading down the road right at him. He watches the police car drive past him, and he noticed the officer driving the cruiser staring right over at him. He looks into the rear view mirror mounted just outside the driver’s hatch, and he sees the cruiser smoke his tires as he locks up the brakes and spins the car around in the middle of the road. The officer then turns his over head lights on, flicks on the siren and gives pursuit of the Stryker. “Great, just what I need right now,” Jacob said to himself as he watched the cruiser give pursuit.
It only took a minute for the cruiser to catch up to him in the Stryker, and the officer tried to stay behind him, but since he would not pull over, the officer decided to try and pull up next to him and get him to stop. The officer pulled up right next to him, and got on his P.A. system and ordered him to stop. Jacob looked over at the officer, and with a big smile on his face, jerked the wheels and hit the cruiser, almost causing the officer to lose complete control of the car. Once the officer gained control of the car, he pulled up along side of the Stryker again, and this time he pulled his shotgun from its carrier and he pointed it right at the driver’s viewing copula. He yelled something, but Jacob could not hear what the officer was yelling, then the officer fired the shotgun. The pellets from the shot shell, hit the side of the Stryker, and they bounced right off of it like they were just rubber balls hitting a brick wall. Laughing, Jacob jerked the wheel again, and hit the side of the cruiser again. The cruiser swerved over across the lanes of the road, and once again the officer was able to regain control of his cruiser. He pulled up along side of Jacob again, but instead of firing another shot at him, he sped ahead of the Stryker and pulled over into the lane of traffic right in front of it. Trying to get Jacob to slow down and stop, but Jacob would not slow down, he grinned and said, “You just will not learn will you.”
Jacob then pushed harder on the gas pedal, and struck the back bumper of the cruiser. This time the officer could not hold the car straight, and the rear of the car swerved to the side, then back to the other side. The officer was not able to control it, and the car went off of the roadway and over the sidewalk, coming to rest in the side of a building.
Laughing, Jacob continued on down the road until he could see the entrance to the parking lot at the docks. Glancing up into the rear view mirror, he could see a number of red and blue lights quickly advancing to him from behind. Looking around quickly, he slowed down and drove the Stryker off of the road and down into the woods that lined the sides of the road. He drove through the lines of trees and out into the thick grass and underbrush. He looked back, but when the cruisers arrived where he left the road, they stopped and none of them followed him off into the brush. He plowed through the brush until he came to a clearing, and there he could see that he was at the bank by the water. Knowing that his Stryker could not go into the water, he jumped out of the vehicle and began to run along the bank and headed for the dock, hoping that he would be able to find a boat and get out onto the water before the police are able to track him down.
Pushing himself through the weeds and briars, he stumbles across an aluminum john boat that is beached on a small sand bar that ran out from the shore. Hiding in the weeds, he looks around for the person that may have docked the boat there. Sure enough, just a little distance from the beached boat, he sees a man and a woman sitting in some lawn chairs enjoying some fishing from the bank. He hesitates for a moment, wondering if it is the right thing for him to do, then deciding that it really is his best option, he bolts from the weeds and runs straight for the boat. As he is running up to the boat, he hears the man yell from the bank,
“Hey, that is my boat!”
Jacob throws his weapon and pack into the boat, and looks back over his shoulder to the couple on the bank and he yells back to them,
“I only need it for a little bit, trust me you will be glad that I do this!”
He takes up the anchor, throws it into the boat, runs to the back of the boat and starts up the engine. He backs up from the sand bar and turns the boat to head out into the open water of the bay. He looks back to the bank and sees the man running down the bank yelling and waving his hands in the air trying to get him to bring the boat back. “I’m really sorry for this!” Jacob yells back to the man as he drives the boat out of their sight behind the trees lining the shore.