Deadtown

Daniel searched the guy’s pockets, shaking his head. He pulled open the lab coat and said, “Bingo!” Handing me a plastic card with a photo on one side and a strip on the other, he said, “It was clipped to his shirt pocket.”



I swiped the card, holding my breath. The lock made a telltale click, the knob turned, and the door flew open. Maria rocketed out and flung her arms around me. She didn’t say a word, just pressed her face against me. I held her tight and showered her hair with kisses.



“Come on, kiddo,” I said. “We’re taking you home.”



“We?” Maria looked around. Daniel smiled and said hi; she stared at him, her eyes wary, like he was a stranger who’d offered her candy.



“This is Daniel,” I said. “He’s a police officer.”



Maria tensed. “A police officer already came. She said I had to stay here.”



“Not Daniel.” I gave him a half-smile. “He’s okay.”



The heap in the lab coat groaned. “Sounds like our cue to leave,” I said. Holding Maria’s hand, I started back down the hallway. Gray, furry faces with wide, rolling eyes peered out of some of the windows as we passed all those locked doors. As we neared the stairwell, shouts and hard-stomping footsteps erupted ahead of us. They were coming up the stairs.



We turned and ran the other way down the hall, toward a green-lit exit sign at the far end. A howl came from one of the cells we passed, giving me an idea. I stopped and swiped the ID card that had opened Maria’s door. The lock clicked, and I pushed the door open. I did that at every door we passed. Growls and yelps filled the air behind us. A moment later, a voice yelled, “Stop!” then “Holy shit!”



As we neared the exit door, I glanced back. Wolves, half-men, and a few unidentifiable creatures looking like something out of a nightmare, charged the other end of the hall. A rifle went off, taking a chunk out of the ceiling. A human screamed. I pushed Maria into the stairwell, ducking in behind her.



BEFORE WE MADE IT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRS, AN alarm went off with a skull-splitting clamor. Strobe lights flashed at each landing. Maria covered her ears as we ran down the last few steps. At the bottom were two doors: one leading to the first-floor hallway and the other, marked EXIT, opening to the outside. At the exit door, Daniel put a hand up, telling us to wait. As he eased the door open a crack, I hugged Maria to me. I could feel the bumps of her spine under my hand as I stroked her back. She seemed so small and vulnerable; I didn’t want to let go of her. The alarm kept up its racket.



Daniel opened the door a bit wider, then closed it and turned to us. The alarm was too loud for speech, so he signaled what we should do: out the door and immediately to the right. I nodded. I gave Maria a reassuring squeeze, then took her hand. Daniel opened the door, and the three of us slipped out.



To the right of the door were some overgrown yew bushes. We plunged into these for cover. The bushes grew close to the side of the building, but there was a little room to get through. We pushed our way through cobwebs and dusty branches. Maria sneezed, then sneezed again. Bless you, I thought, meaning it in so many ways.



When we made it to the corner of the building, we paused again. The next building, marked Five, was ten yards away. It was a rectangular brick building, three stories high, identical to the one we’d just left. But it was closer to the wall that surrounded the compound; the wall was only about five feet from the back of the building. If we could get inside, we could find something—a conference table or a ladder or a lab bench; something like that—to form a makeshift bridge between a second-story window and the wall.



The building wall that faced us, one of the short ends of the rectangle, had a metal door like the exit we’d just used. Next to it was a card reader. I still had Lab Coat’s ID card; that would get us in.



The alarm still blared, maybe a couple of decibels quieter out here, but still deafening. I put my mouth right up against Daniel’s ear; his curls brushed my lips as I spoke in a low voice, laying out my plan. He nodded. “I’ll go first and open the door,” I said. “You cover me.” He nodded again.



Maria still clutched my hand. I bent down, brushed her hair behind her ear, and said, “I’m going to run over to that building and open the door. From there, we’ll climb out of a window to get over the wall, okay?” She shook her head, looking panicked, and squeezed my hand.



“Don’t go,” she mouthed.



“Sweetie, you want to get out of here, right?” She bit her lip, then nodded. “This is how we have to do it. So I’ll open that door. Then, when Daniel says go, run as fast as you can, straight to the door.” A teardrop splashed on my hand. Another squeeze, and then she let go.



27



I STOOD AT THE EDGE OF THE BUSHES’ COVER, TENSING TO run, when the alarm suddenly cut off. For about two seconds, the silence rang louder than the alarm. Daniel and I looked at each other, and I could tell we were thinking the same thing: Why hadn’t anyone come running at the sound of the alarm? And who’d turned it off?



I didn’t like it. But the situation wasn’t waiting around for my approval. We couldn’t get out the way we’d come in. We’d never make it out the front gate. Building Five, ten yards away, offered our only chance for escape. I leaned forward enough to get a view of the courtyard. No one there. The coast was as clear as it was going to get. I still didn’t like it, but I ran.



I was halfway across the open space when Building Five’s door burst open and four big guys wearing camouflage piled out, carrying automatic rifles. I veered to the right. But behind me I heard yelling, then a scream. Maria was screaming. I spun around. Four more soldiers—they must have come from behind the building—were dragging Daniel and Maria from the bushes. Daniel had his hands up. One of the men had his arm around Maria’s waist, lifting her into the air. She kicked and flailed her arms, screaming my name over and over.



I started toward her, but both my arms were grabbed from behind. I started to yank away—it would take more than a couple of 250-pound norms to hold me back—then thought better of it. There were too many of them. If I didn’t reveal my full strength now, I might be able to surprise them with it later. Outnumbered eight to two, with a little girl to protect, we didn’t exactly have a lot going for us at the moment. Any advantage, no matter how small, was worth hanging on to.



A man stepped in front of me, acting like he was the one in charge. He had military-short hair, bug eyes, and a twisted, sneering mouth. He held a hypodermic needle in front of my face.



“Dr. Gravett wants to talk to you,” he said. “But if you give us any trouble at all, I’ll knock you out. Like I should’ve done the other day.”



“Were you the one I clawed up? Too bad I didn’t finish the job.”



His grip tightened on the needle, then he shifted it to his other hand and backhanded me across the face. Everything went black for a second, and I heard scuffling and Daniel yelling. As my vision cleared, I tasted blood.



I shook it off and checked the others. Ten feet away, Maria hung limp and hopeless from the thug’s arm, staring at the ground. Daniel stood tense, both hands on his head, while another thug pressed his own Glock into the base of Daniel’s skull. The norm who’d hit me, the leader, spoke into a walkie talkie: “Tell Dr. Gravett the situation is secure.”



They herded us into the central courtyard. The leader went first, then me, flanked by two guards, with Daniel and Maria behind us. No one said anything. The crunch of boots on concrete and Maria’s quiet sobbing were the only sounds. They lined us up in the middle of the courtyard, Daniel to my right and Maria to my left. The thug had put her down, and she stood, tiny and trembling, surrounded by two huge guards. I tried to catch her eye, but she wouldn’t look up.



Sheila Gravett came out of the building nearest the gate and ran across the courtyard, her heels clicking on the walkway, her white coat flying out behind her. She was beaming. She stopped in front of our little group and clapped her hands together, clutching them under her chin. “Oh, well done,” she said.



To my right, Daniel spoke. His steady voice rang out across the quiet courtyard. “Dr. Gravett, I’m a detective with the Boston police department. I came here to investigate a report of a kidnapping.” One of the thugs punched him in the stomach. He gasped in pain and started to double over, but the one who had the gun on him grabbed his hair and held him upright.



Daniel was struggling for breath, but he kept talking. “As saulting . . . a police officer”—he could barely get the words out—“is a serious . . . charge . . . I suggest—”



His captor pistol-whipped Daniel with the Glock. There was a sickening crack as the gun made contact with Daniel’s skull. His eyes rolled back and he went down. Blood trickled down his neck.



Maria collapsed, too, curling into the fetal position with her hands over her face.



Gravett smiled.



That’s when I lost it. Drawing on all my strength, I yanked my arms away from the two guys who held me, then grabbed them, one in each hand, and smashed them into each other like cymbals. They dropped. The one with the needle rushed me. I dodged, circled behind him, and got him around the waist. I lifted him over my head and threw him, hard, into the two guards who stood over Maria. All three hit the ground. That made five down.



I was turning to find the next one when I was hit from behind in a low tackle. I twisted as I fell, and we rolled in the grass, struggling. Hands closed around my neck.



“For God’s sake,” Gravett shouted, “don’t damage the adult female!”



That distracted the guy, and I broke his grip. I heaved him off me and jumped on him, my hands on his throat now, squeezing. He clawed at my hands. I squeezed harder. The demon mark was on fire; I felt strength like I’d never known. I could squeeze this asshole’s head right off.



“Hey, freak!” called a man’s voice. I’ll kill this one now, I thought, andthen I’ll pulverize his friend. “Hey! Your boyfriend’s in trouble.” Boyfriend? Did he mean—? Keeping the pressure on the fallen guard’s neck, I looked up.