Super: Underground: Book 2 in the Super: Series (6 page)

Riss looked over at Lex. “I agree with you that no one should get left behind. As for the rest, I’m already considered a criminal without having done a thing to deserve it, so I might as well do something to earn the title. Let’s work together to figure out what to do and then go get him.”

Casey looked over at Riss. Her eyes were shinier than usual, and she had to clear her throat before she was able to speak. “Thanks, Riss. You’ll never know how much this means to me.”

Riss just smiled a tiny grin in response and nodded.

Chapter 23: Flight

“Come on, get on,” Casey said, kneeling down and gesturing to her back.

Lex sighed as she climbed up and fastened the straps around herself, to bind her to her friend like a backpack. “I just don’t feel right doing this. Plus, I feel completely stupid.”

Lex could hear as well as feel Casey laugh as the taller woman stepped out of the back of the van, carefully maneuvering so that she didn’t hit the passenger on her back on the door frame. “Relax. I can’t even feel you back there since you’re so skinny these days. I know you want to be running around like you usually do, but be patient. You’ll be ready again soon; just don’t push yourself.”

Sighing as she rested her chin on Casey’s broad shoulder, Lex bit back her annoyance at feeling so helpless. “You’re right, but I just want to be doing more.”

“You’ve done enough. We wouldn’t have been here at all if it weren’t for you. Come on, let’s go in.”

Lex looked glumly at the unobtrusive MSI sign nearby, wondering if that was a good thing. As they neared the building, Lex said in a quiet voice, “Casey, we might see some awful things in there.”

After a long moment of silence, she heard Casey’s reply. “I know.”

“Worse than that,” Lex continued, knowing she needed to, “we won’t be able to help anyone, not if we want to make it through this.”

The long sigh Casey let out was the only answer Lex thought she’d get until she heard her friend say, “I’ll try not to stop; just remind me if I forget.”

“OK,” Lex agreed, poking her head up over the top of Casey’s shoulder so she could see where they were going.

Almost to the door leading into the facility from the loading dock, she could see that a few haggard-looking people had gathered. Most wore hospital gowns and blinked as if it had been awhile since they’d seen sunlight.

“Don’t wait here,” Casey told them, and pointed northwest. “There’s a break in the fence back there, and a few garbage bags full of clothes. Take what you need and keep going, but get out of here as quickly as you can.”

The few people who’d been milling around had different reactions, some glancing at Casey suspiciously, some with confusion. A few just took off running in the direction Casey had indicated, and the rest seemed to gradually follow. Casey and Lex went the opposite way, into the building.

“Looks like the electricity shutoff caused the chaos we planned,” Lex murmured into Casey’s ear as they entered.

Casey shrugged. “That’s what they get for using all those electronic locks.”

Inside, emergency lighting provided some dim illumination, and Lex could see people moving through the half-darkness in all directions. Casey stood taller, more visible than most, and called to the people standing in confused groups in hospital gowns.

“The exit is this way. Go to the northwest corner of the property and get out through the break in the fence.”

Some started filing for the door, and others farther away began to follow them. Lex watched as people filed past them, and felt sad to note that a good number of them would likely have lots more trouble fitting in than she’d had. She took the smart phone Riss had set up out of her front pocket and called up the map of the building that her friend had loaded onto it.

“We should find a door to the stairs on the left after we go another few yards. Then we go down three flights. When we get to that floor, we need to go left and Lou’s door should be the fifth on the right.”

Casey nodded in response and started off down the hallway at a trot. “Just repeat that back to me if I start going off track.”

They made their way downstairs, stopping every now and again to give directions to people who looked lost. The bags of clothes had been Riss’ idea, and Lex had quickly realized what a good one it was. She’d wished they could give more help to everyone fleeing, but maybe just being free again would be enough. Lex ducked automatically as they reached the floor they’d been searching for, but Casey had to stoop in order to make it through the door.

When they arrived they saw a long hallway stretching to the left and a shorter one to the right. A number of people in hospital gowns stood pressed against the walls with more shoved into the far left corner. Lex’s eyes flew wide to see one person on the floor, screaming in pain due to what looked like two broken arms. Two combatants took up the majority of the space in the hall. One a tall, broad man, thick and strong-looking like Casey, the other more difficult to see in the emergency lighting. Lex blinked a few times, her eyes finally adjusting to realize that the other figure seemed to be covered in dense, dark fur. The dark shape growled to show a mouth full of sharp teeth and brandished a broken metal bar in a hand that ended in claws.

Lex thought the fighting man looked as if he had some martial arts knowledge, but the dark figure moved so quickly that he was on the worse end of the fight. He looked panicked and seconds away from his defeat.

“Hey!” Casey called, and suddenly, the dark creature’s attention turned towards them.

“Oh, crap,” Lex said, squeezing down in the straps holding her to Casey’s back until only her eyeballs showed over the blonde’s shoulder.

Casey charged the figure as the other man stepped out of the way. She managed to catch both of its wrists and took in a deep breath as it started to struggle.

“All the rest of you, get out of here!” Casey yelled in a strained voice. “Go to the northwest corner and you’ll be able to escape.”

Everyone standing in the hallway fled for the stairs, shooting terrified glances at Casey and the dark shape struggling. Finally, the hallway stood empty, and Lex started to worry as she felt Casey slip underneath her, breathing hard and trying to keep hold of the furry creature but losing ground. Lex looked into its eyes at that moment, and although she knew that this had once been a person just like her, she couldn’t see any remnant of that left. An incredible amount of anger and a desire to kill seemed to be all that remained; Lex had to look away in shame, even though she’d played no part in what had happened.

At that moment, she felt a terrible shift, and Lex clutched Casey’s back as her friend lost her hold of her opponent and fell to one knee with a muffled curse. The blonde recovered quickly and moved to put her hands over her to reconnect with her attacker, but Lex could already see that the effort would be too slow. The dark, furry creature moved so quickly that the metal bar was almost on top of Casey’s head before Lex automatically yelled, “Stop!”

Her voice felt as if it contracted within her and then released to boom out oddly in the hallway, seeming to momentarily cover the growling and thumping of the conflict and the injured person still moaning on the floor. Lex had squeezed her eyes shut, unable to do anything about the terrible event that was about to occur since she’d been so securely strapped to Casey’s back, but after a moment, Lex reopened her eyes because she registered the silence that had taken over.

Casey’s muscles seemed to vibrate underneath her as if straining to act, but Lex noted that the only movement she made was to breathe. When Lex looked up at the dark, furry figure in front of them, she could see it frozen into a statue of angry intent and snarling teeth, the bar of metal still inches from Casey’s head and below her outstretched arms. If she craned her neck, Lex could also see the injured person farther down the hall, now lying still and breathing quietly.

“What the fuck?” she mumbled to herself. Lex tried pushing on Casey’s back to get her to move, but even though she eventually worked up to a punch, the blonde remained motionless. Feeling panic rise up in her as she looked across at the furry creature that once had been a person, Lex finally whispered in Casey’s ear, begging her friend to wake up. Finally, as Lex felt she would go out of her mind with fear, she felt the odd sensation she’d had before as she mumbled into Casey’s ear, “Wake up, Casey!”

The other woman stood up then, sliding to the side to avoid the metal bar just over her head. Casey looked at the furry creature in front of them, and then farther down the hall at the injured person. She glanced back at Lex a moment later, her expression incredulous.

“What did you do?” the blonde asked in a wondering tone of voice.

“I don’t know,” Lex said in a low tone, still looking nervously at the other two figures in the hallway. “Let’s get Lou and get the hell out of here.”

Casey nodded and went to Lou’s door, turning sideways to move past the immobilized furry figure in front of them. Like all the other doors in the facility, Lou’s had an electronic lock, now disabled, and so it sat slightly open. Once they saw inside, it became clear why Lou hadn’t been out in the hallway. Someone had put him in restraints so that he was held tightly to the bed by metal shackles. Fortunately, they had a latch but no locks, so Casey removed them quickly. Lou didn’t move once released however, and Lex sighed.

“I guess it carried all the way in here,” she said, feeling confused and now afraid.

It took her a few tries in order to make her voice work again the way it had earlier, but once Lou moved again, he smiled.

“Somehow, I knew you’d be coming,” he said, sitting up and rubbing at his limbs to try to get his circulation going again.

Casey kissed him fiercely then. Lex looked away in embarrassment as the kiss lingered, but she had a big smile on her face.

“I wasn’t going to leave you behind,” Casey replied once she and Lou broke their kiss as she helped him up off the bed. They stopped for a moment once they got out into the hall and Lex winced as she saw both Lou and Casey surveying the two still figures there. The furry creature remained motionless, but the person with the broken arms had begun to stir, moaning quietly. Lex sighed.

“Lou, Casey, can you both hold your ears and hum for a moment? I want to try something,” Lex said.

“All right,” Casey agreed, “but hurry. Weren’t you the one who told me we couldn’t help people out here?”

Lex shook her head as they both did as requested, and then said “sleep” several times before she felt the odd contraction and expansion that she had before. When she looked down next, Lex noted that the injured person now appeared to be resting. She heard a noise behind her as she nudged Casey to let her know everything was OK, and when they all turned around to leave, Lex saw that the dark-furred figure had slid to the floor, snoring slightly.

When they made it into the stairwell, Lou looked over at Casey and Lex and asked, “How did you arrange all this?”

The two of them looked at each other before Lex started to speak. “Riss took care of most of it. We figured some chaos would be good in order to be able to get you out of here, and we felt bad just leaving everyone else trapped, so Riss figured out a way to make the main power go out, and then she took out all of the computers in the facility as that happened. So when the emergency generators went on, none of the computers came back up, and Riss had sprung all the electronic locks. After that, all we really had to do was come in here and get you.”

Lou nodded, and they all fell silent as they turned the corner on the stairs to reach another landing. Lou trailed Casey, still moving slowly but now on his own. He looked across at Lex to meet her eyes.

“So what was that thing that you did with your voice?” he asked. “Casey never mentioned you could do anything like that.”

Lex turned her face into Casey’s shoulder in embarrassment, trying to look down.

“I was curious about that, too,” Casey added, craning her head to look sideways at her friend.

“Well,” Lex said, clearing her throat, “that’s a good question. It’s never happened before.”

Lou and Casey both seemed surprised, and then Lex felt a rumble underneath her as Casey laughed.

“Too bad we’re not going to see Lily again,” Casey said. “You could definitely write this down in your symptom journal.”

Lex sighed. “At least it came in handy,” she replied.

Casey laughed again. “Oh, you’re right about that,” she agreed, opening the door back onto the floor they’d started out on.

She pulled back a moment later and closed the door again as Lex heard a whining, whizzing sound and something hit the door frame.

“Crap. They’re shooting now. Lily did say something about security guards. Lou, do you know if you’re bulletproof?” Casey asked.

Lou shrugged. “Not sure, really. Fortunately, whenever someone’s pointed a gun at me, I’ve been able to talk my way out of it.”

“Well, since your body seems to be as tough as mine, you probably are. I’m going to edge out of the door first, and you come behind me. I’ll slide down the wall to the door that’s maybe 20 yards down the hall, the one that leads out onto the loading dock. You stay behind me and shield Lex. Lex, keep your head down under my shoulder.”

“OK,” Lex said, suddenly feeling very small as she ducked down behind Casey’s shoulder and looked back to see Lou hovering nearby.

By the dim emergency lighting in the hallway, Lex could occasionally see a shadowy figure run by at an intersection ahead of where they needed to go, usually dressed in uniforms much like she’d seen the people in the sewer wearing. The distinctive sounds of a pitched battle reached her ears as they emerged onto the loading dock, but she gauged it to be some distance away, so none of the small group got hit. Lex chanced a glance, darting her forehead over Casey’s shoulder for a moment. She gasped involuntarily as Casey stepped carefully over two mangled bodies, dark helmets still intact on their heads even though one of them now sat about a foot away from its body.

“Don’t look down,” Casey muttered as Lex ducked so that she could barely see over Casey’s shoulder but not so far that she didn’t spot the figure in the hospital gown. At first glance, she simply seemed to be sitting on the ground, but the second look clearly revealed the gush of blood all down her chest.