Phantom removed the panel of the door lock of the storage room and connected the computer to the security device via a USB cable. They needed food and didn’t need to faint in their attempt to escape the Capital Tech facilities. While the hacker was working, Roger decided to have a talk with the soldier.
“Why do you keep us alive?” Roger asked, looking straight into the eyes of the military man.
“I need you to escape from here.”
“Brian maybe, but I’m not useful.”
“Well, I have the strange feeling that you are more important,” Gary said, convinced of Roger’s importance in this strange event. “My intuition tells me that without you none of this would make sense.”
Gary’s words momentarily confused Roger, but the throbbing pain in his head made his attention waver. The soldier realized this and searched in his pockets for a bottle of pills with the label Acetaminophen.
“Take a couple of tablets. It will alleviate some of the pain.”
“Why are we not infected?” Roger asked, drinking a sip of water to swallow the pills.
“No idea. I have to take one of these tablets every three hours,” said the soldier, showing him a transparent box containing capsules with a strange blue powder inside. Our paramedics say that it is an inhibitor that prevents the body from metabolizing pathogens contained in the air and likely to cause infection.
“And us? What about Brian and me? We should be infected,” Roger said.
“It’s possible that you may be immune. Maybe you were part of the experiment,” Gary explained.
“Experiment? Those are rumors,” Roger said, sharply.
“No, you’re wrong. We found this note in Dr. Bracco’s office. Check it out,” Gary said, handing Roger a handwritten note by Dr. Bracco.
From my office I can see the smoking chimney of the prison. Its smoke is increasingly dense, dark, and unpleasant. That smell is the smell of death. A few months ago, it was strange to see the active fire, but as of a few days ago it has hardly stopped spitting smoke for a moment.
As time passes I am now more convinced than ever that the rumors are true. Beyond those walls they are experimenting with humans.
Dr. Ridgway will not let me go beyond the door of the Private Module. He always seems very cautious with his work and only Dr. Harrison seems to enjoy his confidence. I wonder what’s down there. Maybe someday I can get close enough to find out what they are working on. The medical curiosity gnaws at me, but at the same time I am afraid to imagine how far such a brilliant, twisted, and macabre mind will go. What are Dr. Ridgway’s limits?
Roger’s face changed completely. He had no recollection of having been used for any type of experiment, at least not consciously. However, he thought of the hours he had spent sedated while being treated at the CMA. Inside those seemingly harmless scanners. So many weeks in the hands of Dr. Ridgway gave them a chance for comprehensive study, but also for them to experiment on his body.
“Fuck!” Roger shouted angrily.
“Relax,” The soldier reassured him. “At least you’re alive and have options to get out of here. Judging by the note, others have not been so lucky.”
“Who is behind all of this?” Roger asked, still irritated.
“Paramilitary groups, terrorists, or who knows, maybe our own government,” commented Gary. “If I’m honest, I have no idea. Anyone willing to pay an exorbitant amount of money.”
The sound of air escaping from the compressor indicated that Phantom had managed to hack the lock of the storage room. They took some food off the shelves and immediately went to the first floor. Where the security gate that led to the Mandatory Module was located. Soon they would leave behind a quiet, safe area to enter fully into the danger from then on, their lives would hang in the balance.
Roger and Gary found several corpses that were piled in the hallway over an enormous pool of blood and guts. They were near the double steel doors that separated them from the Mandatory Module. Before Brian could dismount the safety lock to connect it to the laptop they decided to check if all the bodies were dead. Pointing to their heads, they beat the bodies looking for minimal movement to blow out their brains. It was orderlies, guards and patients. Roger turned his attention to a nurse. By the set of her face taut with terror, he deduced she had experienced moments of anguish, fear and uncertainty until the accurate shots took the lives of these unfortunate people.
The silence there was frightening, but in turn was reassuring. With the area secured. They could look for the simplest way to reach the tunnel.
“This door should never have been opened,” said the soldier, “someone opened it.”
From his pocket, Gary pulled out the blueprints for the CMA and spread it on the ground. Roger knelt beside him to see the blueprints. Initially, and on paper, it was quite simple. After crossing the armored door, they should go down the stairs located at the end of the main hallway. Two floors below, leaving the storage area, they would find the next armored door leading to the tunnel.
“It doesn’t seem very complicated,” Roger said.
“It is, believe me,” said the soldier. “We don’t know what we will find in the Mandatory Module or how many enemies we will face.”
“Do you think we’ll find the doctors Ridgway and Harrison?” Roger asked.
Gary smiled wryly and shook his head in denial. “I don’t think so. The big shots always have a quick evacuation plan. If they have not been able to escape, they will be dead.”
The soldier turned his head toward the bodies, examining the scene more closely. The walls were spattered with blood and you could see in them multiple gunshot wounds.
“What are you thinking about?” Roger asked.
“None of these bodies have symptomatic signs of having contracted the infection. They were fleeing,” Gary said.
“Brian told me that the door opened for a moment. This caused chaos among the patients and staff of the CMA. Security must have had to shoot indiscriminately,” Roger explained.
“It looks that way, but why did they open the door?” Gary asked. “It would be logical for them to contain the outbreak of the infection and not let it cross to the next module. There is something that isn’t right.”
At that moment, Brian’s computer began to make some strange sounds. The cheerful face of the hacker actually hid the fear that ran through his body. Brian had managed to create a new coding for the lock, creating a binary code sequence to confuse his fingerprint with one of the doctors. In a few moments, and just by placing his finger on the biometric scanner, the door would open letting then step into the Mandatory Module.
“Good work, Phantom!” The soldier said.
Silently, Roger inhaled his breath and expelled it while staring at the floor. He was terrified of facing the infected, that perhaps, were waiting bloodthirsty beyond the damn door. Gary gave him a small nudge with his elbow and motioned with his head. The soldier needed Roger to be focused and prepared to open fire.