Day 25: Deadly Darkness

Group 1: Veronica, Elise, Natalie, David, Amélia, Eddie
Location: Warehouse

Eddie rushed forward, tackling one of the men to the floor. His gun flew, landing near the door and misfired another round. Amélia fell to the ground, covering her head with her hands as chaos erupted. Elise fired at the second gunman as he rushed towards the other injured shooter, hitting him in the leg. He turned to fire at her and David moved to wrestle away his gun.

Finally grabbing hold of the glock 19, David quickly aimed and fired. The bullet drilled through the man’s chest and he fell on top of David. “No!” the injured shooter screamed, watching the life drain from his brother and pool around him. “You son of a bitch!’ The man struggled to retrieve a knife from his boot. Natalie stood to help. The throb in her knee crescendoed and she tumbled to the ground.

“David!” she yelled, directing his attention to the other man. He turned in time to see the large blade as the man lifted it above his head, preparing to strike. Elise shot at him, this time her aim was true. A large hole blew through the man’s temple and he landed beside his brother, his eyes staring blankly at Elise.

Eddie had the third gunman pinned on the ground. The man wiggled beneath him like a fish on dry land, trying to break free. The squirming quickly stopped when he heard Elise’s weapon click above him.

“Guys?” Natalie’s panicked voice made them all turn. She had managed to hobble her way over to Veronica who lay beneath the window. She was bleeding form a chest wound, blood covered her face and even more bubbled like a fountain from her mouth when she coughed. “We need a medical kit! Gauze, bandages, a scalpel, anything!” she placed her hands over Veronica’s wound, trying to stop the bleeding.

But the blood continued flowing through her fingers. “I…I don’t…wanna…die,” Veronica stuttered through gasps. She shook. Her entire body trembled violently as a series of seizures overtook her.

“HELP US!” Natalie yelled, holding her tighter as she convulsed. No one moved. All frozen in shock, they watched Veronica’s last moments. Her head bounced on the floor and Natalie circled behind her, placing her head in her lap to minimize the damage, but it was too late.

Veronica lay still. Her eyes rolled and her last breath escaped in a silent sigh. “Roni?” Natalie cried, shaking the woman, trying to revive her. “Roni?”

“I guess option B didn’t work out so well for her,” the man laughed. Eddie slammed his face into the floor, breaking his nose.

“Keep it up and you’ll be joining her soon enough.”

David rolled the corpse to the floor and slowly started over to Natalie. Kneeling beside her, he tenderly placed a hand on her trembling shoulder and she turned and fell against him. Her body shuddered as tears flowed from her eyes. He soothed her, trying to calm her as her friend’s dead body rested just inches away.

“Wait a second,” Amélia said, stepping away from the window, “Weren’t there four of them?”

As if on cue, the door leading to the back stairwell burst open and the fourth gunman rushed in firing.  Everyone ducked for cover as bullets sprayed the room. Eddie dove for the weapon near the exit, turned, aimed and fired. The man hit the ground; a large hole in his forehead. “Is everyone alright?” he asked, pulling himself to his feet.

After receiving confirmation from the others, Eddie kicked a chair into the center of the room. “I think it’s about time we got some answers. Amélia grab some rope. Let’s find out what our new friend here was after.”

“I can answer that,” David said, standing. “But I still think we should get him restrained.”

After tying the man to the chair, David grabbed a sheet from the cot near the window and placed it over Veronica’s body. Natalie hadn’t moved. She sat staring at the bloodied cover, mourning the loss of her friend.

Removing his coat, David allowed everyone a better view of the broken handcuffs still wrapped around his wrists. With a sigh, he began explaining himself and the reason he was being hunted. “I worked for BioCore. I know what you’re all thinking but I’m not a scientist nor did I have anything to do with what’s happening today…at least not knowingly. My employment with BioCore was based on a mutual understanding; I would take care of the things no one else could and in return I wouldn’t be thrown in prison. That included finding participants for studies and delivering them to BioCore laboratories across the country. Some were willing, others…”

“So basically you kidnapped innocent people and subjected them to torture by medical research,” Amélia surmised.

“Look, I know it sounds bad, but it was either that or spend the rest of my life behind bars. I chose the former. I chose survival.” He noticed the vacant look on Natalie’s face. He was afraid she’d see him differently and the thought of that made his stomach churn, but he pushed forward. “Anyway, fast-forward to present day, my conscience got the better of me and I started compiling data from the research. Names of people taken against their will, the scientists involved, locations of where the experiments took place. To make a long story short, I made enemies with BioCore. When the outbreak happened I was being transported to one of their ‘safe zones’ where they had made plans to use me in their research. That’s why we were being held, Natalie. But, we escaped and…you kinda know the rest.”

“Do you have the list with you?” Eddie asked. David scooped up his jacket from the floor and pulled out documents from his inner coat pocket.

“What about the safe zones? Elise asked, “Where can we find those?”

“Are you sure you want to?” David asked, “I’m sure whatever’s there, it ain’t pretty.”

“Because hiding from monsters and running from the living has worked out so well for us.” Amélia replied, leaning over Eddie’s shoulder. Her breath hitched as her eyes scanned the page, stopping on a familiar name.

“We can try to infiltrate, but we’re gonna need more weapons than this, David said.

“I have a plan,” Natalie calmly stated, wiping the tears from her eyes as she turned to face the group. “And it will involve getting our hands dirty.”

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