It was my own fault. I must be clear on this point, again, for the record. I was disobeying orders by deviating from the path Captain Freedom had laid out for us. He is in no way to blame for any of this.
Freedom gave me the news himself. They’d counted over thirty different infections in my blood. Spread all through me because of this awesome, over-muscled heart I’ve got. If they treat all of them, the cures will kill me. If they pick and choose, there’s a good chance I’ll end up crippled or useless. Or dead anyway.
I’ve had tubes in me for nine days now. Got caught up on all my paperwork. Three days ago my hands started shaking too much to write with a pen. Sorensen’s man dug around and found me a laptop no one was using. Wanted to make sure he couldn’t get me anything else.
Yesterday, I had to start taking breaks while I used the laptop. I’ve been working on this last report since oh-six-hundred and it’s dinnertime now. I’m nauseous and tired all the time, even though they switched out my bags. And my nose is bleeding non-stop now. My ears, too. All this stuff they’ve done to us, but no one here can stop a nosebleed.
This is a siege now. I saw the fences when we drove in. Heck, they gave me a bed near a window. I can’t see out, but I can hear them. I can hear their teeth.
I know I’m never getting out of this bed. I’m going to lay here and use up resources until I croak. So the real question is, how long am I going to be the weak link? How long will I hold back the company and eat up supplies they’re going to need?
I’ve had a few visitors. Most of them are polite and formal. One of them was good enough to get what I need from my quarters. I haven’t checked, but I can tell by the weight it doesn’t have a full magazine.
That’s okay.
Chapter 17
NOW
The exes staggered forward. Cerberus swept aside the first wave and the air crackled around her fists as the stun fields ignited. She shouted over her shoulder, “Those of you with weapons, forward! Everyone else get back!”
One of the first exes, a young man with a gaping hole in his cheek, stumbled over the battlesuit’s toes and fell headfirst against the armored shin. Cerberus grabbed a dead man’s shoulder and threw the ex back through the mob. It knocked over a dozen other shambling forms before slamming into the back wall of the garage. Next to the titan, Stealth had already broken two skulls with her batons.
“Hold position,” shouted Freedom. His voice echoed between the buildings.
The exes stopped. A few of them were off-balance in mid-stride and fell over. They lay still on the ground.
A few seconds later they still weren’t moving.
“What the hell just happened?” growled Cerberus.
“They’re programmed to move out when the door to their Tomb opens,” said Shelly. “They just needed a counter-order.”
Stealth still had her batons up. “Programmed?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
The armored titan took a step back. “These are, what... domesticated exes?”
Freedom gave her a nod. “More or less, Doctor Morris.”
“Cerberus.”
“Sorry, ma’am.” The huge officer stepped forward, lifted a fallen ex by the scruff of it neck, and set it down on its feet. It made no attempt to grab him. It didn’t do anything.
“They are not moving their jaws,” said Stealth.
Smith nodded. “It’s one of the first behaviors Doctor Sorensen eliminated,” he said. “No more chattering teeth. Also helps us tell ours from the feral ones.”
The exes were dressed in Army uniforms. A few had tan t-shirts or tanks. On the ones with ACU jackets, the ranks were stripped off, leaving fuzzy patches of exposed velcro. Now that they weren’t moving, Cerberus could see they were standing in loose rows and columns. There were a hundred and fifty of them here, all standing immobile. They were shaved bald, no matter what their gender had been. A few had bristle across their scalps, and she remembered reading somewhere that hair and nails kept growing for a few days after death. She’d never considered if it applied to exes or not.
“You called this a Tomb,” she said.
Freedom nodded. “Where we keep all our unknown soldiers.”
Above the left ear, each of them had a green plastic housing the size of a box of cigarettes. There was dried blood where the screws went into the skull. A bundle of thin wires spread out from the housing to a handful of sockets across the bare scalp.
The crackling stun fields deactivated. The armored titan took a step forward and looked at the closest ex, the one Freedom had placed back on its feet. Stealth was already there. They could see its teeth through the gaping hole in its cheek.
The cloaked woman reached up and squeezed the edges of the green box. The front panel popped off in her hand, revealing an array of circuitry and LEDs.
“Careful,” said Shelly. “Damage that and you’ll have a killer on your hands.”