All American Rejects (Users #3) (7 page)

"Good, now do you remember what exit you escaped from?" Carter asked.

"Y-yes," she stammered, but Carter could barely hear her over the hum of the monorail as it passed overhead on its way from the Seattle Center to the Westlake Mall.

"Show me." Carter grabbed her by the upper arm, but she immediately jerked it away.

"I said I'd show you the building and I have done so," she said. "I'm not going any closer."

"Damn it, Carol," Carter snapped at her a bit harsher than he had intended. "We need to know how you got out of the building, so we can get the others out the same way. Without you we're going in blind."

Carter knew he was pushing his luck. He knew that he had told her one thing and was now doing another, but he wasn't going to allow the cowardice of one person outweigh the needs of the many. Their friends were in that building, and he needed her to show him the way to get them out.

Carter snatched her up by the arm again, only this time he had a firm grip on her.

"Now show me what door you came out of," he said in a threatening tone and he squeezed on her arm to let her know that he wasn't about to let her go again.

That didn't stop her from thrashing about and using her free hand to try and pry his fingers from her arm. His lack of medication was beginning to wear on him, and his behavior was showing it, but he didn't care at that moment. At least, he tried to convince himself he didn't.

"Look man, she obviously doesn't want to go anywhere near the buil-"

"Shut up!" Carter shouted at Barber. "We're all going together. No one is backing out. They've got our friends in there, and we are not leaving a single User held against their will behind. Do you understand me? Do you all understand me?" Carter shot his companions an angry glare one by one. "Now get going." He pushed Carol toward the building.

She took a few steps, slowly at first, but Carter was right behind her, prodding her on. They crossed the street and made their way down an alley on the side of the building.

"That's the door right there." Carol pointed to a metal door that was painted red to match the building's brick. The door was closed. Carter eyed the side of the building searching for any sign of cameras, but saw nothing and went right for the door's handle. He pulled, but the door was locked tight.

"It's locked from the inside," Carter said.

"Do you want me to pull it off?" Evan asked, raising a hand toward the door, and Carter knew without a doubt that Evan meant to rip it right off its hinges with his Mover abilities.

"Don't," Carter said. "You'll alert the whole damn building to our presence."

"Then how do you plan on getting in?" Evan asked.

"The front door." Carter turned and walked from the alley, out onto the main street, heading straight for the building's entrance.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Barber asked coming up next to him while the others hung back a few steps behind.

Carol seemed to like the idea least of all. Her eyes darted all over as if she meant to bolt at her first chance.

"I don't see any alternative," Carter said. "I'm not leaving until I find out if our friends are okay." With that he pulled open the front door and entered the building.

Inside everything looked normal enough. The walls of the lobby were plain white. There were doors to either side, and an elevator at the far end of the building. Most importantly there was a security gate halfway across the lobby between them and the elevator. Carter walked right up to it as if nothing were amiss.

"Hello," Carter said nonchalantly to the guard at the gate. "We're here to find the creepy lab where you're holding our friends captive."

"W-what?" the guard stammered.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Ryker said, but Carter repeated himself word for word, and then waited.

"I think you're lost," the guard said this time and rose from his seat. "You best get out of-"

Carter grabbed the guard by the black tie hanging around his neck in one hand, jerked him forward, and punched him in the face with the other hand. The guard crumbled back into his chair, unconscious, but in a sitting position.

"Let's go," Carter said.

He waved the others through the metal detector, then grabbed the gun from the holster on the security guards waist, before he passed through the metal detector himself. It lit up and blared loud beeps as he went through, but besides his friends and the unconscious security guard, the lobby was abandoned. They quickly arrived at the elevator door.

"Going down?" Barber asked eying the two arrows beside the door.

"Might as well. Where else would you keep a secret lab besides the basement?" Carter asked and Barber pressed the button with the down arrow on it. It immediately dinged and the doors opened.

"Get in," Carter said to them all, but he was looking directly at Carol.

They piled into the elevator together, but as the doors began to close, Carol burst forth, squeezing between the closing doors, and was gone.

"Come back here!" Carter yelled and reached out for her, but it was too late. The doors were closed.

"Guess she didn't want to come along," Ryker said.

Carter shook his head and went to press the button that would open the doors, but Barber snatched him by the wrist.

"Let her go," Barber said. "She's done all she can to help us now anyway."

Carter sighed. Maybe he had pushed her too far already, but he didn't understand how Carol was able to just stand by while her friends were being held against their will. It was an atrocity that he wouldn't, no he couldn't, stand for. He wasn't about to abandon the only real family he had ever known, no matter how dysfunctional it might be. It was his job, as the head of the Compound to keep them safe, and he had failed miserably. He couldn't help but wonder what Walt would have done given the same situation. He doubted Walt would have ever run away from the fight at the Compound. He would have gone down with the ship like a good captain should.

"Fine, let's just go."

"Going down," Barber announced as he hit the button marked with a B for basement.

They waited anxiously, and it seemed to take forever for the elevator to make it down the one floor to reach the basement level of the building. The elevator slowed, the bell dinged again, and the doors opened.

Sitting casually with his feet kicked up on a table was a single guard. Startled, the guard jolted upright in his chair.

"Who are you?" the guard asked going for his gun.

"Ah ah ah, I don't think so," Carter said. He lifted the gun he had stolen to the guard's face. "Don't even think about it." Carter pulled the guard's gun from its holster and handed it to Ryker.

"Who are you? What do you want?" the guard asked in rapid succession.

The room outside the elevator was tiny, but there were a series of hallways spreading out in different directions.

"Which one leads to the lab?" Carter asked.

"Lab? I-I don't know. I don't go any further than this room," the guard said.

"Then you're of no use to us," Carter said and he pistol whipped the man in the head, knocking him unconscious and placing him, rather gently, back in his chair.

"Would you quit doing that?" Barber asked.

"Doing what?" Carter fained innocence, but he knew exactly what Barber was talking about.

"Knocking out all the guards."

"Well, what do you want me to do with them? I could kill them if you'd rather." Carter said, but he continued before Barber could respond. "Here, let's try this way."

Carter lead the way down the hall to the left. They were surrounded by concrete, no windows, no doors, just concrete on the floor, walls, and ceiling.

"This place is built like a bomb shelter," Carter said.

"Something's wrong," Ryker said running up behind Carter. "This all seems a little too easy."

"What seems easy?" Carter asked.

"I mean come on, two guards?" Ryker asked as they reached the end of the hall.

"They probably figure no one is crazy enough to try and break into the place," Carter reasoned.

They came upon a single door and Carter wasted no time in opening it.

He froze in the doorway, unable to believe his own eyes.

"You're probably right, but wouldn't they need more than two guards to keep all those Users they're holding hostage from escaping?" Ryker asked.

"No," Carter said. "Because they are not holding them."

"What do you mean they're not holding them?" Ryker asked, but Carter didn't respond.

He was frozen in place, he didn't flinch, he didn't so much as move a muscle.

"What's going on in there?" Ryker asked. "Move!"

Carter was forcibly shoved aside and once out of the way, the others could see what he saw. Evan screamed, Barber cried, and Ryker stood motionless, mouth agape, as stunned as Carter was.

"They're not holding them...because they're dead," Carter said. "They're all dead!"

Beyond the door was a small room with no windows and no other doors, just like the hallway it was made of four plain gray concrete walls. But the intruders weren't interested in the look of the room. Their eyes were focused on the mound of bodies piled up in front of them. There were many faces Carter recognized, some he didn't. It didn't matter. They were all dead. His greatest fear, a fear he didn't even know he'd had until this very moment, had been realized. They weren't just removing the Users powers. They were killing them in the process.

Ryker grabbed onto Carter's arm as he lurched forward, vomit shooting forth from his mouth.

Evan was mumbling something undecipherable.

They were too late. Their friends had all been murdered, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Chapter 9

"We need to leave this place...now," Ryker said, but Carter barely heard him.

He was too enraged by the pile of dead corpses lying entangled with each other in front of him. There were gray lifeless arms and legs sprouting from the pile like some kind of sick patchwork of death. It was something straight out of a horror movie. The kind of thing that only happened in your worst nightmares, but Carter couldn't stop looking at it. It was hard to tell where one body ended and the next began.

He saw many faces, but the look on Lucy's face, the pure terror that was spread across it, that was hardest to stomach. She had always been the closest, even had a thing for Evan, and he hoped at that moment his friend would be unable to pick her out of the mangled mess that lay before them.

"Come on," Ryker said already heading back down the hall. "Let's get out of here while we still can."

"Where are you going?" Carter asked.

"The same place as you, out of here and far away."

"I'm not going anywhere," Carter said. "Not until I find who is responsible for this and kill them with my bare hands."

Carter was so enraged that fires burst from his hands uncontrollably. The flames flickered past his sleeve and singed the fabric on his sweatshirt. He closed his eyes tight and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself before his entire body burst into flames.

"Let's go find the bastards that did this." Carter finally opened his eyes to find Ryker staring him down just inches from his face.

"There is nothing left for us here," Ryker said. "Only death."

"You got that right, because I'm about to kill somebody, possibly a great number of somebodies."

"We're on their turf, on their terms, we need to run, and we need to do it now before we end up as dead as our friends."

"And you two?" Carter looked over his shoulder to Evan and Barber. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm with Ryker on this one," Evan said as he wiped vomit from the side of his mouth, prompting a slow nod from Barber.

"Fine," Carter said turning back to Ryker. "We'll do it your way again. But mark my words, before this is over, someone is going to pay dearly for this."

"I wouldn't even think of denying you the satisfaction," Ryker said. "Do not mistake my hesitancy to pursue these bastards half-cocked, as cowardice. I want revenge as bad as you do, but I want to be sure it's dished out in full and we have the upper hand, which we most certainly do not have now."

While Carter didn't agree with Ryker's method, he couldn't deny that what he wanted was cold hearted revenge.

He took one last look at the pile of bodies, searing the horrible image into his mind as punishment for being too late to save them. It was an image he wouldn't allow himself forget, ever. He would use it to fuel his rage and plot his revenge. Then slowly, he closed the door, sealing the room sized coffin.

*****

They encountered no resistance in escaping the building and were well on their way back to the abandoned house before anyone said another word. Surprisingly enough, it was Barber.

"Why did they kill all those Users?" Barber asked, bewildered. "Why would they kill our friends."

"I don't know," Carter answered. "But I'm going to find out."

"They must want to keep this thing quiet," Evan said.

"Something doesn't make sense," Carter said, but he struggled to find the answer. Something was severely amiss, but he just couldn't put his finger on what it was.

The streets were bustling with activity now, as drivers whipped past on their way home from work. Carter's pheromones must have smelt like danger, because those on foot gave Carter and his companions a wide birth as they passed by. Rage and hatred were oozing out of Carter's pores.

Carter didn't even bother checking his surroundings to see if anyone was watching as they entered the abandoned house. He didn't care if they were. What more could they do to him?

Only a sliver of light entered the living room from beneath a crack in the boarded up window, leaving the room the color of pitch. Carter lifted his pointer finger and ignited a flame from his finger nail. He bent over to a candle on the floor and lit the wick. Slowly, the candle illuminated the room, revealing a massive figure leaning in the corner where two walls met.

"What the fuck?" a startled Barber, standing closest to the figure, jumped back about five feet.