Highway to Hell

6-Answers

They rode through the tunnels in silence for a time, turning into adjacent tunnels and merging with other tunnels occasionally. Jaina could see light up ahead, growing brighter as they approached. The tunnel opened up into a large area, like an underground parking garage. It was well lit, and they couldn’t go far without coming to a barricade. It was a wall that reached from the ceiling, to the floor, with a solid gate that was currently closed.
The driver pulled up to the gate and slowed to ap. p. They remained there only seconds before the gate began slowly opening, splitting down the middle and sliding to its sides behind the wall. Through the gate there was another small area, walls rising up on all sides with another gate just ahead of them. These walls didn’t go all the way up, leaving about two feet of space between the ceiling and the tops of them.
Looking up, Jaina could count at least five men on each side, heavily armed and looking down at them. One of them looked to Connor, then got the attention of the man beside him and pointed down at them. Jaina could see a black line running along his cheek, and could assume it was a radio as he said something into it.
The man who had been driving nodded before speaking, obviously responding on radio to the man on the wall. He said, “Yes, our priority was to get them out of the city, we didn’t have time to check.” He grew silent for a moment, the man on the wall looking slightly agitated as he said something else. “I’ll take care of it,” drivdriver said before standing from the vehicle.
He turned in place, speaking again to Jaina, Felix, Sera, and Connor. “Which of you has been injured by the mutant?”
Connor was looking weak, but he managed to lean forward slightly and speak in a quiet tone. “I am.”
“Come with me,” the man ordered, walking back towards the still open gate that they’d already passed through.
Connor slowly stood from the vehicle, giving the others a confused glance as he followed the man out of the gate area.
Jaina turned, watching him walk around the corner of the wall. She couldn’t see him anymore, but she could hear their footsteps easily with as silent as the large room was.
Without warning, the man turned back towards Connor brandishing a long, bladed weapon resembling a machete. Connor didn’t have time to see what it was before the man swung, cutting through the air and slamming it into his chest.
Connor fell, screaming in shock and pain. The man didn’t hesitate; he was over Connor in a second and swinging down on him again and again. Connor threw his hands up to protect himself, but only succeeded in having a portion of his left hand cleaved off by the blade as it soared down to strike the left portion of his chest. His screaming was getting more frantic as he continued to try and struggle, his blood splattering the wall and ground around him. His screams were broken as he took in gasping breaths, each of the man’s swings cutting deeper and deeper into him.
The others all jumped at hearing him cry out. Jaina was about to run to his aid, but the man beside her held her in place. She screamed and began to struggle, “Connor!” but she couldn’t break free from the man’s grasp.
Sera sat there trembling, staring straight ahead with a hand clasped over her mouth. Felix was on the verge of leaping from his seat to run to Connor’s aid, but sat back when the man who was in the front now stood beside him, a gun pointed down at him. There was nothing they could do.
Connor’s screams were growing weaker; gurgling could be heard in them as his lungs began to fill with blood. One swing planted between his eyes immediately silenced him, the killing blow. The man hesitated, then with the final swing sliced through Connor’s neck, allowing his head to roll about a foot away, free from the body.
He re-entered the gate area as he was wiping the blood from the blade with a cloth. The gate began to close behind him; he tossed the cloth outside it before it completely shut. He sheathed his weapon, and took his seat back at the front, again speaking to the man up on the wall with the radio. “It’s been taken care of, get someone out here to dispose of the body.”
“How could you do that … why? What do you want with us?” Jaina’s voice was low, weak, and full of despair.
“He’d been injured by the mutant, he was already dead. In less than an hour he would become a hazard to you, me, and everyone at the compound. Don’t worry, everything will be explained to you soon. But don’t be upset over the loss of your friend, he was gone the second he’d been bitten.”
“Don’t be upset over the loss… I’ve had to deal with too much loss already.”
The other two were silent, Sera sobbing on Felix’s shoulder.
Once the gate behind them closed, the other opened, and they moved forward. The other guy who had been sitting in the front with the driver remained in the gateway, joined by a few men who walked past the vehicle as they drove out.
The parking garage type area continued for a while on the other side of the wall. It was full of all sorts of vehicles, most like the one they were in now, and a great deal more of bulldozers like the one that was used to rescue them.
“What’s your name?” Jaina asked the driver, she was expressionless, and didn’t appear that she really cared.
“Sidney,” he responded after a few moments.
Sidney drove them through the maze of parked vehicles until their vehicle, too, joined the many rows of parked ones. Sidney turned off the ignition and stood, as did the other man in the vehicle.
“Come with us, we’ll take you to where you’ll be sleeping, then get you something to eat while we answer your questions.”
Questions, Jaina could think of so many. But food on the other hand, was the last thing on her mind. She couldn’t possibly think of eating at the moment. She, along with Felix and Sera, stood from the vehicle. They followed Sidney and the other until they reached two elevator doors along a wall, being guarded by two men with numerous weapons.
While they waiting for the elevator to drop down to their level, Lou approached them from the side. She was still carrying her firearm, even though they were behind the protective wall.
“Sir, before I signed Bertha back in I noticed something,” she opened up what looked like a miniature lab-top in Sidney’s direction. On the screen was a blue map of a city block, Jaina and the others didn’t recognize it, but that’s where they were when they were rescued. In one of the areas of a building, there was a red dot, surrounded by a few gray ones. “This was on one of the monitors, the heat signature of that other boy is still showing. He’s not dead.”
“Aden’s alive! We have to go get him!” Jaina shouted, excited.
“Who’s Bertha?” Sera asked with a confused look. Lou gave a lopsided smile and pointed with her thumb over her shoulder, back to the area with mostly bulldozers parked in it.
“Bertha’s the one who saved you back there.”
Jaina blinked, Aden was alive and out in the city with those things, and Sera was asking about the name of a bulldozer?
“No can do,” Sidney said. “It’s past nightfall, no one enters the city after dark. If he still has a heat signal in the morning, we’ll go at first light.”
“What! We have to go, it’s your fault we didn’t go back for him in the first place!”
“We wont get approval for another search and rescue for another twelve hours, and besides, he most likely wont live more than a few minutes out there!” Sidney pointed to the screen, at the gray dots surrounding Aden’s red one. “Look, Moving bodies with no heat signature’s. They’re vampires, and I don’t know why they haven’t killed him yet, but it wont be much longer before they do.”
Jaina also noticed a few dozen other red dots on the screen, moving around the buildings. They were larger, most likely the mutants. “Wait … vampires?”
“You honestly don’t have a clue what’s been going on around here, do you?”
Felix leapt forward, interrupting their conversation. He snatched the pistol that was holstered at Sidney’s hip. Pulling bthe the hammer, he aimed it at the man. “Give me the keys!”
Sera and Jaina stepped back; shocked expressions on their faces.
“Felix, what are you doing?” Sera asked.
He spoke without turning away from Sidney. “I can’t leave Aden out there, he’s still alive, there’s a chance we can get to him before something happens to him.”
“Do you think we want to leave him out there? Put the gun down, you heard Sidney, if you leave you’ll be dead too. If anyone wants to save Aden, I do. But right now there’s nothing we can do…”
Sidney reached out towards Felix, dangling the keys in front of him, and said nothing as Felix snatched the keys and ran.
“Felix no!” Sera shouted at him.
Sidney spoke again, without seeming to direct it at anyone. “You’ve got one of them heading your way, go ahead and let him pass.” He was talking on the radio to the guys at the gate.
“What? You can’t let him leave!” Jaina shouted.
“If we hold him here he might do more harm. It was his choice to leave, he knows the consequences.” Just then the elevator doors opened. “Lets go.”
Sidney and Lou stepped inside, reluctantly Sera and Jaina followed. They were all alone now, watching through the doors as they began to close, just in time to see Felix pull out and begin to drive away.
As the elevator took them up Sidney continued to talk. “The only way in and out of the compound is through the underground tunnels that we just came through. All of the ground level entrances have been barricaded, and a constant perimeter of defense is activated to keep any of the mutants from entering through the roof. We picked this building as our base for two reasons, all of the windows are made of shatterproof glass, and it used to be a weapons storage facility for the military; a large stockpile of weapons is below the parking deck that we entered in. Unfortunately, during the earthquake a large portion of it collapsed, being buried under a ton of rock and rubble. We’ve been excavating it as much as possible—“
Jaina cut him off. “Wait, since when do we get earthquakes here?”
Sidney stared at her for a moment. “I suppose I should just start from the beginning… About eight or so years ago, the entire nation was struck with a powerful earthquake. It was unlike any the world’s ever seen, by far the worst in history. A new fault line opened up through the heart of America, creating thousands of new volcanoes that erupted constantly for many months. This caused the blanket of ash that blocked out the sun, allowing the vampires to have free reign over night and day.”
So the clouds weren’t clouds, they were ash up in the sky, Jaina thought. Sidney continued, “As if the damage done by the earthquake wasn’t enough, that’s when the sickness showed up. No one knows what started it; it just popped up and began spreading like wildfire. It made the Ebola virus look like a runny nose. Within an hour of catching it the infected person would begin bleeding from every orifice of their body. After three hours, nothing would be left of them but bones, and blood. The infection was a type of flesh eating bacteria, slowly devouring the entire body from the inside out. It was transmitted by the blood, instead of devouring the blood it would use it for transportation, infecting all those who came in contact with it.”
He became silent when the elevator came to a stop, its doors opening. Following Sidney and Lou out of the elevator, they were led into a corridor. Doors lined either side of it, leading to unknown rooms. They went around a bend at the end of the corridor, still following until Sidney and Lou came to a stop outside one of the doors.
“This is one of the floors we use as sleeping quarters for the other survivors. You can stay in here,” he opened the door for them.
Jaina entered, followed by Sera. It was dark in the room, but they could still manage. When Sera flicked the light switch, nothing happened. She turned to Sidney who had entered the room behind them.
“No lights in any of the rooms with windows. The mutants can see them.”
The room was pretty plain, two beds and a desk. One of the walls was lined completely with windows, but it was too dark now to see out of them.
Jaina and Sera sat on one of the beds; Sidney sat on the other facing them.
“Is it all right with you if I go off duty, sir?” Lou asked Sidney, still standing in the doorway.
“Yes, you’re dismissed.” Lou nodded and disappeared back down the hall. Sidney turned back to Jaina and Sera, continuing. “The sickness wiped out more than two thirds of the population before it just, disappeared. Soon after the sickness began the mutants started showing up. In small numbers at first, they were pretty easy for the military to take care of. But their numbers rapidly grew. If a human were attacked by a mutant, any of the mutant’s saliva or blood getting into the human’s blood stream, the human would become one of them. Each mutant is completely individual; whatever it is that creates them reacts differently to each genetic code. They’re as diverse as humans. If a human gets the blood of another human who’s been infected by the mutant’s blood into their system, they become one as well. The rate of change deals greatly with the severity of the wound that they are infected through. Infected through a scratch could take a few days to mutate, infected through a severed limb could take minutes to mutate.
“If a mutant kills a human, the body will come back to life, so to speak. Like the ones you encountered when you first entered the city. They don’t carry any form of infection; being bitten by one of them does nothing besides break the skin. They only pose a threat because they attack in massive groups. Get ten or twenty of them together and they can rip a human to pieces. They’re also pretty stupid, and easy to evade.
“Then there are the vampires. The infection reacts differently to each genetic code, so there’s no telling how many other things there are out there, but the zombies, vampires, and mutants are the most predominant. When the infection was just beginning to spread, someone must have gotten attacked by a mutant and escaped. The infection reacted to them by making them into the first vampire. Not like the old fictional story vampires. Yes, they do feed on blood, and they may have no body heat, but they’re still living. They can be killed just as easily as a human, as well as by the sunlight. This one vampire that was created, duplicated its form of infection, allowing it to create another just like it, and another and another until they had a large population. They have an advantage over humans though; since they exist by a form of the infection, they have a natural immunity to it.
“In the beginning of it all there was mass panic, everyone trying to flee from the major cities, then later trying to flee back to them. One of the last efforts to protect the city from being lost was the wall; the military was going to set up a defensive perimeter to keep everything out. They managed to get up the gate that you passed through, and about thirty feet of wall to either side of it before they were overrun. A massive wave of mutants surged into the city. We resisted as best we could, fighting for a few days before retreating here. There were still a lot of people left in the city, but we had no choice but to run. We hid in the lower level for a few days, a radio as our only connection to the outside world.
“One by one, all of the major cities began to fall. The mutants were killing everything in sight, humans and vampires alike. It was a war, humans, against this form of DNA. It was changing so rapidly, biological warfare was impossible. A method that wiped out thousands of mutants one day; would strengthen and multiply them by millions the next.
“The DNA infecting began here in the states. As soon as they heard what was happening, Canada and Mexico closed their borders. All nations stood back and watched, as America fell, none willing to help. In fact, a few of the countries joined in forming blockades, preventing anything from leaving U.S. soil by sea, including humans.
“America had fallen. The mutants had spread from coast to coast. One of the last reports aired on the radio were that there was going to be a nuclear strike on the mutants. We all listened as America planned to attack itself, in attempt to rid itself of this infestation. The missile was targeted at Seattle, and then launched. The city was annihilated in a few short seconds. Days later, massive hordes of immensely lethal mutants stampeded from the ruins of the city. The radiation from the bomb made them stronger, and they wiped out any remaining opposition left.
“With only the hope of surviving, we made this building easily defendable. Eventually we began venturing back into the city, finding numerous groups of survivors hiding out. Soon, the hopes of taking the city back began to rise. We armed ourselves heavily, and protected ourselves as much as possible, not making the same mistakes twice. We began tunneling under the city, making it a lot easier to travel from place to place without incident. We believe now we would be able to take back the city, purge it of mutants and undead, finish the wall started all those years ago, and keep anything from getting back inside. The only thing stopping us is, is the vampires. A large clan of them lives in the opposite side of the city, in an estate. It’s minimally guarded, but an all out attack would be suicide. They have numerous groups hiding out all over the city, most of them hidden even from us. If we attacked, they’d wipe out for forces, then retaliate. With no one to defend the compound, we’d all be lost.
“We’ve spent the last few years trying to retrieve as many new weapons as possible, digging them from the collapsed level below. In the meantime we established surveillance over the entire city just about. That’s how we knew when you’d shown up, and were able to rescue you.
“I’m sure most of this you already knew, even if you aren’t from the city you still had to have had some clue as to what was going on.”
Jaina and Sera hung onto his every word. It was a very elaborate story, but; his elevator obviously didn’t go to the top floor. Jaina wondered if he even had an elevator. Just yesterday her and her friends all left school here in the city, which was still in perfect condition, and played a soccer game at a neighboring city, which also, was fine. All of this couldn’t have happened over night, and, according to Sidney, it happened over a span of close to eight years.
“You’re joking, right? I don’t know how this all could have happened over night, but we just left here yesterday afternoon, and everything was fine then. I don’t know what’s going on, but this place certainly hasn’t been like this for eight years.”
Had Sidney not been wearing the protective mask, J wou would have seen the confused, startled look on his face. He was wondering if Jaina’s elevator went to the top floor. Maybe she was just in a little shock; they’d had quite aeninening.
“Well, that’s pretty much the whole story. I understand you’ll probably want some time alone, so I’ll be retiring for the evening. The cafeteria is on the third floor, same as the showers if you want to clean up. Can’t miss either of them. The rooms are all on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth floors. Yours is on the sixteenth, and if you need me, mine is on the fourteenth, room number one-twenty four. Lou’s room is right beside mine. For now it’ll be best of you remain on those floors, no one is allowed below the third unless they are leaving the compound. You wont be leaving the compound without an escort. The cafeteria closes at nine, so if you’re hungry you’d better hurry. Don’t expect much, though. Non-perishable food supply is running low in the city, so they don’t serve you a whole lot. I’ll come by in the morning to get you, if your friends are still alive out there, we’ll go get them.”
With that, Sidney stood and left, closing the door behind him. Neither one of the girls really paid attention that he’d worn his mask the entire time; their minds were busy working on other things. There was no reason for it really; he’d just wait until he got back to his room before he dealt away with all of his field gear.
Sera and Jaina both sat there, in the dark, dumbstruck. “Do you believe this?” Jaina asked Sera.
“Well, do we have a choice?” she responded. “I mean, how else could have all this happened. And I don’t think he’d lie about something like this. Maybe something happened to us, remember when Aden started freaking out? Maybe he did see something.”
Jaina sighed, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. “I don’t feel like thinking about this right now. I’m not that hungry, but I’m dying for a shower. How ‘bout you?”
Sera nodded in agreeing. “Me too.”
Maybe a shower would help Jaina relax. She’d lost a great deal of her friends, and found out that the world had pretty much gone to hell in a span of two days. She seemed to be handling it pretty well. She didn’t think Sera was okay though. She didn’t seem too upset now, but she was looking more and more worn out.
The two of them stood and went back to the elevator the way they had came, from there going down to the third floor. The elevator opened up into a small hallway, doors at either end of it. One had “Cafeteria” written above it in big letters, the other had “Showers.”
After going through the door marked for the showers, they were in a locker room type area. They couldn’t wear those same clothes, so Jaina started looking around to find them something. There were two double doors leading into a room that was like a giant shower-stall. It had numerous showerheads lining the walls, and two rows of them running down the middle of the room. Apparently they all showered together. Next to the shower area was another door, leading into another small room with a series of stalls in it, most likely the toilets.
Off to the side there was a closet Jaina found with a lot of extra toiletries in it. Bars of soap and shampoo, towels, as well as many different sizes of boots lined up from smallest to largest. Above them on a shelf were folded up gatherings of clothes, presumably in the same, largest to smallest order. They had everything they’d need.
They tried to shower as quickly as possible, the water spraying down from the showerheads barely able to be called warm. Sera was washing Connor’s blood from her hands when she noticed the crimson streak across her palm that wouldn’t rinse away. Scrubbing it harder sent a shock of pain through her arm, and she remembered the bus accident. She’d cut her hand when trying to pull free, she’d forgotten all about it. She nearly gasped; if what Sidney was saying was true, then she could be infected.
“Something wrong?” Jaina asked her. She blinked and shook her head, forcing a smile as she resumed washing herself.
“No,” she responded to her. Maybe she didn’t get infected, she felt fine.
Afterwards they found the suitable sizes of clothing articles from the closet. Plain black pants made of a cottony material, many pockets sewn into them, as well as black, short sleeved shirts.
They still weren’t hungry, so the girls went back up to their room, trying to get some sleep.

Sidney got back to his room shortly after leaving Sera and Jaina’s. Closing the door behind him, he flicked the light switch. His room was an interior one, giving him the privilege of lights. It was smaller than the one given to Sera and Jaina, only a single bed, closet, and desk inside it.
Sitting on the foot of the bed, he reached around to the back of his head. Hitting the release for his helmet, it popped open down the side slightly, enabling him to lift it over his head. His hair was a little long, dark brown, and most of it tied back in a loose bun except for a clump that hung down at his left temple, reaching to just above his jaw line. He had bright green eyes and fair skin, looking to be no older than his late twenties. After dropping his helmet to the ground he reached back and pulled at the tie restraining his hair, removing it. His hair fell down to its natural position, and with a heavy sigh he laid back on his bed. He’d fall asleep there, not even turning off his light.