Seven Days To Brooklyn: A Sara Robinson Adventure (19 page)

The elevator slows to a stop, opening up at level eight. The operations room in front of them still displays an overhead view of Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a countdown timer superimposed over the left side of the screen. The countdown is on six hours, thirty-five minutes, and thirty seconds. Walking out of the elevator, the doctors are approached by General Edwards.
 

“Gentlemen, what time are you proceeding tomorrow?”
 

Dr. Bhakta is the first to reply in a heavy Indian accent. “Sir, we will start the dissection at zero six a.m., immediately removing the heart for retrieval of the capsule.”
 

The general rubs his hand through his hair. “Is it necessary to terminate the subject for retrieval?”
 

 
Dr. Graham interrupts the conversation abruptly. “Sir, our directive is the survival of the species. If we have to terminate the subject to gain knowledge and to retrieve the device, then that is what we will do.”
 

The general moves his hands back through his gray and white hair. “Okay, just make sure she is comfortable before the procedure. Then let me know when you are done.”
 

“Yes, sir, should only take us twenty minutes.”

 
The two doctors return to the lab on the elevator and start preparing the operating room for the procedure. On the stainless table next to the operating table, Dr. Bhakta sets up the scalpel, and the bone saw for cracking the chest open. Behind him, Dr. Graham hooks up the oxygen mask, switching the connection from pure oxygen over to another plug in the wall labeled KO (knock out), a gas commonly used before operations to induce unconsciousness in the patient before surgery.
 

Back on floor three, Mac has gone through the same process as Sara. Immediately after being escorted to his room, he checked the door, and it is locked from the outside. The room is set up identically to the room next door where Sara is sleeping. With thoughts of a hot shower on his mind and no knowledge of what will transpire in the coming hours, Mac steps into the shower to wash away the months of filth. An hour later, he finally turns off the hot water and steps out of the shower. As Mac puts his clothes back on, his stomach starts telling him it is overdue for a good meal. Walking out of the bathroom and over to the call button on the wall, Mac gives it a firm push, fully expecting the security officer to respond. Fifteen minutes later and still no security officer and no reply from his calls, his frustration mounting, he pushes it over and over with no result. With little choice but to sleep, Mac decides to lie back and catch some shuteye.
 

3:00 a.m.
 

The internal clock in Sara’s brain jolts her, telling her to get up immediately. With the flashback of her short conversation with Mac in the hangar coming back to her, Sara is convinced that the operation that saved them is not here to help them. Climbing out of bed, she walks back over to the door and gives the knob a firm twist, but it is still locked. Reviewing her memory of the elevator buttons and the lab level, she decides it is time to put some distance between her and the facility. Sara scans the room for a weapon and notices the legs to the bed are metal angle iron. Looking up under the bed, she can see the bolt holding the leg onto the frame. Her fingers wrap around the bolt and nut, but it is too tight to budge. A few swift kicks later, and the leg starts to loosen. Grabbing the leg, she pushes and pulls back and forth until the bolt is loose enough to remove by hand. With a two-foot chunk of steel in hand, Sara pushes the call button, switches off the light in the room, and waits. Ten minutes later, the familiar sound of the scan card beeping and lock opening puts her at the ready. Standing next to the door, she waits for the officer to open it before striking. The door slowly opens, and the security officer steps into the room.
 

“Sara, are you okay?”
 

They are the last words he will say. With a swift downward swing, she brings the flattened edge of the leg down squarely onto the top of the officer’s head. With a loud thwack, the officer goes to his knees. He staggers as Sara swings again with a fatal blow, splitting the officer’s head open, sending him the rest of the way to the floor. Grabbing his hands, she pulls the officer away from the door and into the bathroom. She removes the officer’s access badge, 9mm pistol, flashlight, and radio before shutting the door to the bathroom. With the card in hand, she scans Mac’s door, opening it. Mac looks up from underneath the bed cover and can tell the familiar silhouette is his pint-sized friend. He’s not sure how she got out but hastily gets out of bed and into his shoes as Sara walks over to him.
 

“Glad you stopped by.”
 

 
“Yes, I’ve been detained for a while. I’m pretty sure we don’t want to be here tomorrow.”
 

Mac shakes the fog off his head, thinking about her last statement and remembering the feeling he got when talking to the general.
 

“Agreed. Let’s find a way out of here.”
 

Sara remembers the buttons and knows that the way out is directly up to the hangar.
 

“Let’s go; I got the guard’s access card and pistol. We can take the elevator up to the hangar and be out of this place.”
 

Moving out to the hall, Sara and Mac walk over to the elevator, where Sara scans the access card, recalling the elevator. Not sure if the elevator will be empty, Sara stands ready with the 9mm pistol pointed at the door. Seconds later, the door opens and is empty. Stepping inside the elevator, Sara pushes the button marked
H
, but nothing happens.
 

“It must be locked out or something?” Mac says as he pushes it firmly, the elevator not budging.
 

“Try another button, Mac.” Sara grabs his hand before he touches it, yelling, “Not that one; that’s the lab. I saw the doctors in there, and I think it is a morgue or something worse.”
 

Mac looks at her as he withdraws his hand. “You choose.”
 

Reaching down, Sara pushes button number five. The doors close, and the elevator starts descending the two floors down to level five. As the elevator comes to a stop, Sara and Mac move over to the sides of the elevator to conceal their position as the door opens. Looking around the corner of the elevator, Sara looks into another room that appears similar to the lab on level four. Painted on the wall in front of the elevator is a large black 5, followed by the word Necropsy.

Sara and Mac step off the elevator and into the hallway. The hallway extends in both directions for fifty feet before making left and right turns. Down the hall to the left, they move past the darkened windows of the locked rooms. Further down the hallway, they come to a T intersection and decide to take the hallway to the right. Another set of doors equally spaced on both sides of the hallway stretch out for another fifty feet before the hallway dead ends. Trying the key on each door as they pass by, they are still unable to access the rooms, until they come to the last door. As Sara scans the card, the latch clicks, opening the door. She pushes the door open and looks into the darkened room. Feeling around the corner, she switches the lights on. The florescent lights flicker overhead as the room lights up, revealing the contents inside. The smell of the corpses inside tells them what they are already aware of underneath the rows and rows of hospital-white sheets covering up the stainless steel gurneys. Sara counts the gurneys and comes up with twenty-seven.
 

“What is this?” she asks.

“Not sure what it is, but rather, who are these people?” Mac pulls back the bed sheet, exposing the face of an infected flesh-eater. The once docile citizen is frozen in a horrifying, angry gaze that Mac has seen in person while battling his way through the wasteland. Sara walks up behind Mac and looks around him to see what the corpse looks like.
 

“Seen that before on the streets.”
 

Walking over to another gurney, she pulls back the sheet, exposing a teenage girl that does not appear to be infected. The girl’s expression is peaceful, with braids still in her blonde hair. Gurney after gurney, Mac and Sara pull the sheets back to reveal the same scene. Teenage girls are under every sheet except the first one they looked at, all of them the same age, height, weight, and stature. Most of them are blonde and look to be around the ages of twelve to thirteen.
 

“Why are they here?” Sara asks before turning around to leave the room.
 

“Test subjects, I think.”
 

“When I came back from the cafeteria, the elevator stopped at level four. I think it is the lab. We should go there. Maybe there is a reason why girls, girls that look like me, are here.” Mac looks down at his friend, wondering if it is too much for her considering the circumstances.
 

“We can take a look, but then I think we need to get the hell out of here.” He says.
 

Stark white hallways greet them again as they walk back to the elevator.

“There is something about this place, something that gives me a weird gut feeling . . . Like I have been here before?”
 

“Did your dad ever bring you here?”

“Not that I can remember.”

Sara presses button four. As the elevator opens back up, the examination room directly ahead is completely dark. Walking over to the door, Sara sees the white sign on the door with her name on it: Sara Robinson 0900 hrs. As she turns the knob, the door opens, and she walks in, turning on the light. The lab table is in the center of the room, with a side table holding the surgical instruments the doctors laid out earlier. Sara looks at the instruments and back at Mac, who is standing right behind her. “Those sons of bitches are going to carve me up, aren’t they?”
 

Mac is really concerned now and is convinced that Sara will meet the same fate as the corpses of the girls on level five.
 

“Whatever they are doing here, they are preparing to do it to you.”
 

Down the hallway, they see another row of doors equally spaced on both sides. Walking with the 9mm pistol at the ready, Sara slowly moves over to the first door. A sign on the door is labeled Juvenile Female Subject 25. Scanning the card, the door unlocks, and she steps inside. The lights are out, and a body is silhouetted under a sheet on top of a gurney a few feet away from them. Switching the light on reveals the familiar hair and features of another teenage girl. Sara moves over to the gurney and looks at the face of the girl. An IV is hooked up and dripping fluid down the tube and into the girl’s body. Sara pulls the IV out and starts shaking the girl to see whether she is alive. The startled teenager’s eyes pop open and stare directly into her eyes.
 

“Who are you?” Sara asks as the horrified girl looks at her.
 

“It’s okay; we aren’t going to hurt you. Why are you here?” Mac ask’s.

The girl starts to sit up, struggling to shake the fog of sleep and medication out of her system.
 

“I am Aren Two Five. Who are you?”
 

“What do you mean; you live here?” Mac says with confusion coming across his face.
 

“This is where I live.”
 

“Where did you live before here?” Sara presses her for more information. Aren 25 looks back at the ragtag, dirty clothing of Sara and Mac and does not understand what kind of test this is, but decides to play along to keep the facility happy.
 

“I’ve always lived here.”
 

“I’m Sara Robinson, and this is Mac; he’s my friend. We won’t hurt you. We just want to get out of here.”
 

Aren 25 sits up and dangles her feet over the end of the gurney. The hospital gown barely falls down just above her knees, and Mac can see multiple bruises on her legs.
 

“Out of here? Where are you going?”
 

Sara looks over at Mac. “This kid has been hit too many times on the head. She has no clue what is going on.” Mac nods his head in agreement. “What do you do here?” Sara presses her again for more information.
 

“We play games together—” Sara cuts her off before the girl can finish her statement.
 

“We, you mean you know the other girls here?”
 

“Oh, yes, my sisters, all twenty-four of them. We live here together. I have not got to play with them for a long time.”
 

Sara is stunned, realizing the girls they just saw on floor five were once healthy and lived with Aren 25.
 

“Come with us,” Sara says as she pulls on the girl’s arm, coaxing her to leave the room.
 

“Where are we going?” Aren 25 is still convinced this is a test or game that the facility is playing on her. Playing along, Aren 25 gets up and starts to leave the room with Mac and Sara.
 

“Don’t you have any clothes?” Sara says after seeing the backside of the nightgown open.
 

“Oh, yes, in my room.”
 

“Where’s your room?” Mac asks as he checks the hallway to see whether it is clear.
 

“On level seven; that’s where all the sisters live.” Walking down the hallway and back to the elevator, Sara pushes the button, opening the door immediately. The three of them step into the elevator, and Sara pushes the button for level five.
 

“I said level seven is where my clothes are.”
 

“Yeah, but we’re going to level five so you can see something.”
 

Sara stares into her eyes noticing her facial features look hauntingly familiar. Mac is thinking the same thing, that this girl could be a close relative of Sara’s. The elevator stops at level five, and they enter the hallway and walk back down around the end, to the room full of bodies. Opening the door again, Sara flicks the light on, revealing the nearly three-dozen bodies still uncovered. Aren 25 stands stunned, looking into the blank faces of her sisters that she played with and was made to fight with for her twelve years of life. No tears flow down her face. Walking up to the gurneys, Aren 25 puts a hand on the first one and shakes her to see if she will wake up. Body after body she does the same, then realizes they are all dead. Still confused by what she is seeing, Aren 25 turns and faces Mac and Sara.