The Containment Team (19 page)

PETE AND I caught up to Madelyn and Ron just before they made it to the exit of the building. It was strange to know that the building was burning several hallways back because it was quiet as a church on this side.

As the door shut behind us, I expected to see Claire chasing after us but everything was still. A stark contrast to the burning inferno we’d left behind. Madelyn was pale but didn’t have any trouble keeping up. Even Ron looked like he was doing a little better now we were leaving the lab.

Pete’s face was smudged with soot and sweat, but I doubted I Iooked much better. I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting Ricky had regrown his legs or Claire had healed and was rushing up behind us. I had stopped to get a look at Ricky and was glad to see his legs weren’t growing back nearly as quick as I expected. If I wouldn’t have already emptied out my shotgun into Claire, I would have stopped to put a couple more into him.

Perhaps the reason why the healing process had been faster with Pratt’s hand was because the material had already been in place, it just needed to be stitched back together. My shot had largely removed the flesh from his fingers.

Perhaps what looked like the body healing was really just the blutom changing form?

If that was the case, how had he been able to walk away from the lab just a few minutes later?

I pushed the questions away. They would have to wait.

When we got to my car and piled in, there was an audible sigh of relief from everybody. Madelyn slumped down in her seat and held my shotgun in front of her. Pete checked back the way we’d just come, and Ron was fiddling with something on his shotgun, still as pale as he had been most the night.

“Where to now?” Madelyn asked as she pulled out her phone.

“We go after Pratt,” I said. “There was a reason why he didn’t chase after us. He’s up to something. If we can stop him—”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Madelyn said. “We can’t stop them!”

“It’s difficult,” I said, “but isn’t impossible.”

“We haven’t managed to kill any of the blutom today.”

“That’s not true,” Pete said. “Buckshot burned some of the blutom to death.” He held up his hands defensively when Madelyn whipped around on him.

“Are you forgetting all the blutom we flushed down the drain?” She asked. “We didn’t destroy any of those infernal dogs. All of them are still alive—if that’s even the right term for it—even Claire’s dog is going to heal if we give him long enough. If anything, we should get something that burns and go back and finish them—”

I shook my head. “Pratt’s up to something. The monsters he unleashed earlier on the city are just the beginning, he’s got something more planned for tonight.”

“Where’s your evidence?” Madelyn demanded.

I was beginning to remember why things had sometimes been so difficult for us when we’d been dating. Madelyn could be like a dog with a bone, once she got a hold of something she rarely ever let go. While I had missed her after the breakup, I’d be lying if I were to say I hadn’t been relieved.

“Why didn’t he come after us?” I asked. “He didn’t even try to find us. To him, we’re delaying his harvest of our bodies just a little longer.”

“He didn’t follow because you shot him in the hips,” Madelyn said.

“Right. But he could have sent his dogs after us as well and he didn’t. If he healed fast, all he had to do was open the door. No. They were following his orders. When he left he didn’t even look to either side to see if we were waiting to ambush him. He went somewhere important. We have to stop him from whatever he’s doing.”

“And just how are we going to do that?” Madelyn’s tone softened. I think she’d realized I had a point, but wasn’t willing to let go quite yet.

“We should start at the Hotel Karrow. That was the source of a lot of these attacks in town tonight. After that, I don’t know. We’ll have to see.”

We drove in silence punctuated by additional news updates from Madelyn, which were getting grimmer by the moment. We didn’t know if the government had formulated a response to the attack in New York City, but Madelyn had discovered some disconcerting information when she checked a blog that she followed.

The blogger claimed they’d been watching a live feed of Times Square when armed choppers had appeared overhead. Just after that, the video feed had died. All other live video feeds from the other stations had died at the same time. The blogger was claiming that an EMP device had been used to keep the nation from seeing what was going to happen next. His theory was the government was bombing Times Square to destroy all the monsters.

“That can’t be right,” I said. “No way would they do that. There're too many people.”

“This did start out as a government project,” Madelyn said. “They know what we know. Perhaps they’re hoping that by bombing the place they can eradicate the blutom before it spreads too quickly. It’s either lose New York City or lose the United States.”

“There’s too many places of outbreak already.” I wasn’t sure that the word ‘outbreak’ applied to this situation because the blutom didn’t appear to be a disease, but I didn’t have a better word for it.

Despite my defense of the government, my arms felt cold and I thought I was going to be sick. Her words made some sense. If they were desperate to stop it, how far were they willing to go? Maybe New York City was just the first place to be set upon by our government. “Is there still news coming out of the other major cities?”

“Way ahead of you.” It was several minutes before she went on. “It looks like all the stations in San Antonio, Chicago, and Los Angeles have gone dark as well.” She made a clucking sound. “This doesn’t bode well.”

“Slammer,” I said. “You’ve been awfully quiet.”

He was looking out the window and he didn’t respond right away. When he did, his voice was quiet and had a haunted sound to it. “Extreme temperature is the only way we know of destroying these things. All the information we’ve collected is available to the government if they figure out the connection.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure if this crazy blogger is right. It will take them time to assess the issue and isolate the cause. Once they do they have everything they need to know. At that point somebody—probably the President, if he hasn’t shifted as well—will have to weigh the option of trying to cut off the heads of the snakes. You’ve seen tonight how easily it can spread. When they learn that—” He cut himself off. “Ron, buddy, you feeling okay?”

I looked in the mirror and slammed on the brakes. Ron was covered in the blood film. I grabbed my shotgun from Madelyn but realized that I had no room to maneuver. Twisting the door handle, I popped out and opened Ron’s door.

Ron was on top of Pete, mouth open as if he was going to bite Pete in the neck. His shotgun had been dropped to the floor as if it was of no use to him any longer. With one hand I grabbed Ron by the collar and drug him out of the car. Pete followed after and shoved Ron to the ground. In the light of a nearby streetlamp, there was no doubt. Blood film covered every inch of his skin that I could see.

“When?” Pete asked. “When did this happen?”

In response Ron lunged forward, snapping his teeth but getting nothing but air. I had brought up my shotgun by that point but even though I had him dead in my sight, I couldn’t pull the trigger. I’d become a bit fond of the kid in the intervening hours. When I’d kissed Madelyn, he’d been unhappy about it and more than a little embarrassed. I felt bad for the guy. I’d been in his place before, who hadn’t?

Pete slammed Ron’s head against the ground. “What are you waiting for? Do it!”

Wincing, I shook my head and ducked back into the car. I opened the trunk and pulled out my pack. “No, we’ll keep him in there for now.”

“What?” Madelyn and Pete said, almost in unison.

“You’re not thinking straight,” Pete said. “Shoot him in the head, let’s put him down.”

“And then what? Even if we shoot him into pieces with all the shotgun ammo I have left, there is nothing that we can do to keep him from healing or having his blutom shift into some other poor unsuspecting creature.

“We need what I have to defend ourselves at the Karrow Hotel. If we just blow off his head, he can still rampage.” I shook my head. “No. We put him in the trunk until we find a proper way to dispose of him.”

“We’re not going to be able to do this for all of them.”

“We’ll do it for him and any others that we possibly can.” I finally spoke the thought that I’d been thinking all night since I’d first discovered that Pratt had shifted. “Containment has been taken apart. All your superiors too. Pratt sent the others after you because you’d slipped through his net. Or maybe he was just finally getting to you.

“The point is. We’re the Containment Team now. This town isn’t lost. Not yet. We’re the only ones that have an idea of what these creatures are and more importantly we know how to stop them. This is what we have to do.”

“How long have you been working on that speech?” Madelyn asked. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Hey, I’m not saying you’re not making sense.” She smiled grimly. It seemed genuine, like it was the real her peeking through again. “Pete, throw him in the back. Morty is right.”

Pete knocked Ron’s head against the ground one more time, flung him in the trunk, and slammed the door. “I know he is. I just don’t want to admit it yet.”

“So, genius,” Madelyn smiled. “What’s your plan to contain the problem?”

WE WERE ONLY able to fit nine propane tanks into the backseat of my car and still have room for Pete. He and Madelyn both held another on their laps. Ron—or rather the creature that had taken over Ron’s body—was banging on the trunk. As we sped away from the gas station, I wondered if putting him there was the wrong decision.

The town was already infested with blutom monsters, what was one more going to add to the mix? Perhaps it had been foolish to think that keeping him off the streets would make a difference. In the end, I might wish we had more propane tanks and it would have been better to have filled the trunk with as many as it would hold. Neither Pete nor Madelyn had cars or knew somebody they could contact.

We had briefly entertained the possibility of stealing a truck, but I’d put a stop to that. It was already bad enough that we’d stolen the propane tanks, we didn’t need to add Grand Theft Auto to the list of charges that could be brought against us if we were ever charged with anything we had done tonight.

Or were about to do.

On the one hand, it was almost a comforting thought to think that if we were charged that meant the judicial system had survived. I wasn’t willing to bet on it, but there was also a limit to the lawlessness I was comfortable with until we knew which way things were going to go.

Pete had argued in favor of stealing a truck but Madelyn had come down on my side. She hadn’t even wanted to steal the propane tanks, but in the end, we convinced her we needed something to fight the creatures, otherwise there was no point in finding them. 

“The Karrow Hotel is the next right.” Madelyn was pale, but there wasn’t a tremor in her voice. I had thought about offering to take her home first, but in the end, I didn’t know what would be safer. Staying with us or taking the chance to try and wait things out. She probably wouldn’t have appreciated my chivalrous attempt to shelter her from what was going to come. “The media blackout continues. Some of the websites I’ve been checking aren’t even coming up any longer.”

I shook my head, things weren’t looking good. Maybe we should have stolen a truck and hedged our bets. “Anybody reply back?” Pete had sent text and email messages to everybody he had contact information for when he hadn’t been able to get through to any of them on the phone. 

At first, I had been against him doing that, not wanting to call attention to ourselves if anybody else at his work had shifted as well, but then Pete had pointed out that Claire and Pratt both knew about us already and had likely informed any other shifted individuals. 

An annoyed look crossed Pete’s face and he looked like he was about to deliver a sarcastic reply. He paused.

“Nothing yet,” he said in a neutral voice. I could tell it took an effort. 

“I’m not holding my breath,” Madelyn said. “Morty’s right. It’s just us. That’s all this town has to save it.”

We drove in silence until I pulled up to the Karrow Hotel. There was a burning building down the block. Cars were stopped in the street with the doors opened. 

Nothing moved as I rolled to a stop and put the car in park. Everything about the situation made me want to turn right around and find a safe place to go underground. I hesitated before turning off the car. Perhaps running was the smartest thing to do. What were we really hoping to accomplish with a few propane tanks and a shotgun full of slugs?

A bad feeling swept over me as I thought of leaving. It was probably just my desire to carry through with my earlier statement that we were now the Containment Team, but it made me pause and think.

The town would be overrun, there was nobody else to fight for us. The federal government would have its hand full dealing with the national crises. We were a small town that was out of the way, nobody else was likely to think of us, let alone come to look into what was going on here.

We were on our own.

It was still several hours before dawn. I thought of all the families in town, some that might be sleeping through all the craziness going on around them. What would happen to them? Who would take care of all those little families that were about to wake up and turn on their televisions while they prepared for the day only to have their shows hijacked with news reporters and pundits telling the world what had happened while they slept?

Or worse yet, nothing but no signal messages.

No. We might be on our own, but I was going to make sure we did what we could to fight this. I flipped off the ignition.

As the engine died, silence crept over the car. Madelyn clasped her hands, as if in prayer. Pete couldn’t stop checking out the window behind him clearly expecting the blutom monsters to appear out of nowhere.

The engine of the car closest to us was still running, exhaust came out its tailpipe. It was the only sign of life in either direction on the street. One of the car doors was down at an angle and the other had been ripped off. I wondered what had happened to the occupants. Had any of them escaped? I shuddered when I saw the shredded baby carrier in the back. I approached the car until I was certain it was empty. Relief rolled through me that there wasn’t the body of a baby lying on the ground.

Hoping that whoever had been with the baby had gotten it away safely, I turned my attention to the rest of the street. I spun around when a breeze disturbed an old newspaper on the ground behind me. Its yellowed edges scraped against the road as it was tossed around.

“So what’s our plan here?” Pete asked.

“We each take two of the propane tanks and a gun. Madelyn, you’ll take my pistol. Pete will take Ron’s shotgun. I have shells with slugs I can give you. I don’t know what the explosion is going to be like when we shoot these things, so make sure you have something between you and it when you fire.”

“You sure that it will work?” Madelyn asked.

I wasn’t. “You bet.” If she picked up on my lack of confidence, it didn’t show on her face. If anything she appeared to take some measure of comfort from my false bravado. It had been a long time since I’d ever offered up a prayer, but I found myself silently wishing to whoever might be listening up there that Madelyn would make it through this, even if I didn’t.

At the last stop, I’d made sure to load my shotgun with slugs, I’d also replaced half of the shells in my bandolier with slugs as well. The rest I’d left with buckshot. I didn’t know how effective a slug would be at slowing down a blutom monster. I did know, however, what to expect from shooting a monster with buckshot.

I racked a shell home before slinging my shotgun over my shoulder, it was best to make sure that I could fire at a moment’s notice, should—when—the situation arose. It was awkward walking with a propane tank in each hand. I kept imagining there were eyes watching us from the other side of the windows in the Karrow. It was all I could do to keep putting one foot in front of another. Each step required more effort than the last.

The Karrow was quiet and all the lights were out, a sure sign we were in the right place. Somewhere in the darkness, a dog barked, sending the hair on the back of my neck up on edge. Metal scraped on the cement and I flipped around.

“Sorry,” Madelyn said when she noted the curious look from me. She flexed her hands and shrugged defensively. “I stopped going to the gym after we... Anyway, I’m not in as good of shape as I used to be. Don’t worry I can manage.”

She picked them up again as I debated about what to say. I wanted to tell her she could leave one behind, but we needed all the propane tanks we could carry. I had no idea what we would find inside, but we’d proven many times bullets didn’t stop these things for long. Fire had proved to be our best and only option.

On the other hand, I was still feeling bad for not doing more to protect her. When I saw the determination on her face, though, I decided against saying anything and continued to trudge forward.

Glass crunched underfoot as I crossed under the entryway area. The glass doors had shattered and ragged glass hung off the edges. The rug before the door had been kicked up and was wrapped around itself.

The darkness inside gave me pause. I’d hadn’t thought to bring a light. I hadn’t seen my flashlight since the lab.

“Don’t worry,” Madelyn said, setting down a tank as she fished out her phone. “Got it covered.”

I moved ahead of her through the broken doors, even though she had the light, so that if there was anything lurking in there it would attack me first.

The glass crunching underfoot was now dampened by the carpeted floor. Loosening my hold on the tanks so that I could drop them if I needed to go for my gun, I realized what I was doing and had to bite off a dark chuckle. Old habits die hard. It would be better for me to throw the canister first so that I had something that could do actual harm to the blutom.

The lobby was silent as Madelyn shone her light around the room. The sofa closest to the door was covered in blood but there wasn’t a body anywhere nearby. I approached and closely examined it to make sure that it was in fact blood and not blutom. It felt strange to see the blood.

Another sofa had been overturned, as well as a table and chairs.

Pete set down his tanks. “Well, what do we do now? This place it a ghost town.”

“I don’t know.” Based on the news that Madelyn had reported on throughout the night, this had been the epicenter of all that was happening here in our town. Pratt had to have gone somewhere nearby. There had to be a reason as to why he had let us go and then shortly after taken his pack of dogs towards downtown. Something more was going on tonight and the Karrow was at the heart of it. I was certain.

“Let’s look around,” I said.

Madelyn was pale and her hand holding the phone was beginning to shake. I could relate. My grip on the propane canisters was becoming more tenuous by the second. Sweat slicked my hand and I was afraid that I too would be trembling a little bit as well if I didn’t have the weight of the canisters keeping me steady.

As I moved forward I stepped in a pool of blood. I didn’t know what to make of the fact that I felt relief that it was blood and not blutom. I’d been so used to seeing blutom tonight, that the blood was almost a welcome sight. I tried not to let my imagination run wild with what had happened here as we pushed in.

As Madelyn continued to shine the light, she found more blood on the overturned furniture, the carpet, and even in several places on the ceiling. I thought of the pack of dogs and wondered if this had been their work.

Approaching the furniture, I looked for claw or teeth marks but found nothing. I examined the floor, but only found prints that came from humans. Both with shoes or boots and bare feet.

It was beginning to look like Pratt had gone somewhere else. I was surprised at the lack of bodies or monsters. In some places, it even looked like the blood had been cleaned up. I wondered if the blutom had absorbed what it could before shifting into a host. Maybe the blutom monsters had been more interested in feeding than in trying to shift others to join them in their descent into madness.

As we entered the hallway, I caught a whiff of smoke in the air. I tried sniffing again but it was gone. Looking up at the sprinklers on the ceiling, I noticed that they looked to be about as old as the one back in our dorm room. Were these too rusted to work as well?

Pete touched my shoulder. “I’ll go the other way. Meet back here in five?”

“We can’t risk it,” I said. “Ron was with us the whole time and he still shifted. If we stay together we don’t have to go through the effort of ensuring that we’re still the same.”

“The blood film will give it away.”

In my haste and anxiety, I hadn’t communicated exactly what I meant. I painfully knew that a creature going through the shifting process wasn’t going to be able to hide among us.

I shook my head, my mouth firm. “If one of us took a wound, the others need to be there to see it and guard against it. Ron didn’t start to show signs until well after we’d left the lab behind.”

Madelyn opened her mouth, but the smirk died on her lips. Whatever she’d been about to say was lost to the moment. “Something’s coming this way.” The tone of her voice chilled my skin. Madelyn slipped into a connecting hall that looked as though it headed to the swimming pool and fitness center. Pete and I were one step behind her. Madelyn and Pete both tried a door to the rooms, but they didn’t open.

There were alcoves by the doors but they only went back a couple of feet. We would need to be further down the hall to have adequate protection from the tank if I ended up shooting it.

I placed one of my propane canisters at the entryway of the hall and backed off, waving for the others to get behind me. I continued to walk backward, urging the others to move. Every step we took put us that much closer to safety from the exploding tank. Several moments passed before I could hear whatever it was shuffling along on the carpeted floor.

It was too close for us to escape in time. I went back faster and bumped into Madelyn. In the dark, I was able to tell it was her by the feel of her sweater against my arm.

I could just make out a glint of light off the propane canister I’d left. Shadows seemed to move to either side of it, but I could tell that it was just my imagination.

I felt Madelyn’s lips brush against my ear. “Stop! I thought I heard sound coming from down by the pool.” Her voice was so quiet that I had to guess at some of what she said, but I got the gist of it.