The New Haven Incident - Part Twenty-Two

Gaining entry to the facility had been a simple thing. Sebastian and Oliver entered via the library, where one of the access doors stood half open, throwing blue electric sparks as it attempted to close. An arm bone with half the wrist still attached lay across the threshold, picked clean.

“Charming,” Mendez muttered as he stepped gingerly over the remains, following Sebastian into the gloom of the secret Cedarwood research facility. Sebastian turned and pressed his fingers to his lips. Mendez nodded. Silence from here on out.

The halls of the facility were empty, but evidence of the biosecurity breach was everywhere. A spray of thick blood marked the wall of one hall almost the entire way down, ending right where a skeleton sat. Like Greg in the Department office in the precinct, this skeleton had been stripped of all flesh, leaving nothing but bones. The skull grinned down at the ground. Sebastian knelt by the skeleton for a brief examination. Gouge marks of small, sharp teeth decorated the bones in precise hatch marks. Shaking his head, Sebastian searched the ground briefly before finding what he was looking for. He moved a scrap of fabric that used to be a lab coat revealing a key card. He slipped it into his pocket and rose.

Mendez felt his skin break out into a rash of goose pimples. The dead air of the facility felt heavy, the silence oppressive. Something in the silence gave him a profound sense of dread; the sound of gnawing.

Sebastian heard it, too. He moved quietly to the mouth of another hall that branched off this one and peeked around the corner. He pulled back and leant his back against the wall. Saying nothing of how soothing he felt the cool of the white steel wall, he indicated that the hall was occupied. Taking a deep breath, Mendez dashed across the opening to take the other side. He held up three fingers. Dropping them down as he counted.

Three, he mouthed. Two…

He never got to one. Sebastian rounded the corner.

“Fuck,” Mendez grunted swinging around to offer the agent support. He needn’t have bothered. Sebastian danced between the infected in the hall; a mix of Dark Ones and the infected that had yet to undergo the physical transformation the survivors had dubbed Changelings, his pistol and knife used in perfect synchronicity. In a matter of moments, the cluster of roughly twelve infected were dead, sprawled on the floor of the hall.

“Really?” Mendez demanded. “You couldn’t have saved any for me?”

Sebastian offered him a cheeky grin and a shrug. Behind him, a Dark One rounded the corner, wearing a torn lab coat. Mendez reacted before he could think. He lifted his rifle and fired, hitting the infected right between the eyes.

“There you go,” Sebastian said. “You got one.”

With a groan, the Dark One rose to its feet and Sebastian neatly dispatched it with a quick flick of his blade. He turned back to Mendez. “Sort of.”

“You know what? Fuck you, Agent Connors.” Mendez couldn’t help himself. He grinned at his companion.

Sebastian grinned back. “Any idea where your team might be?”

“Under the assumption that they made it here, they’d be headed to the lower floors to access the servers.”

“You have a schematic?”

“Not really. Harding had the brief.”

Sebastian raised his eyebrows.

“I never really paid attention. Harding had it all down.”

Shaking his head, Sebastian pressed the comms unit at his ear. “Mel, you there?”

He scowled. “Mel?”

Shaking his head, he turned back to Mendez. “Looks like we’ll have to figure it out ourselves.”

“The servers are on sublevel fourteen, if that helps.”

“Fourteen? Just how big is this facility?”

Mendez shrugged. “Big.”

Sighing, Sebastian turned. “There should be a map somewhere. We’ll just have to search.”

“After you, Super Cop.”

Rolling his eyes, Sebastian turned and led the way down the hall. A voice whispered, the sound echoing down the halls to Agent Connors’ ears.

That’s it.

Sebastian stopped suddenly, lifting his firearm. Mendez followed suit.

“What is it?” he whispered.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Scowling Sebastian shook his head. “Nothing,” he muttered. He didn’t move, however. Struck by another wave of vertigo, he rooted himself to the spot, forcing himself to remain upright until the attack passed.

“You okay?”

“Fine. Let’s move.”

They continued on.

Closer, now. Certain now that he was experiencing auditory hallucinations, Sebastian shook his head in an effort to clear them away. Closer to your fate.

Another wave of vertigo hit and Sebastian stumbled.

“Whoa,” Mendez said, lunging forward to catch Sebastian. He felt the agent sway a moment before regaining balance.

“You’re burning up,” Mendez noted.

Sebastian grunted. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine.”

“I’m fine.” Sebastian pulled away from Mendez. He took several deep breaths in and out. He turned to look at Mendez. “Let’s get you back to your team, okay?”

For a moment, Mendez wanted to argue. There was no value in that, however. So, he simply nodded. “Okay.”

They continued together down dark corridors until they reached a map. Carved in relief, it sat on the wall at a crossroads of corridors, lit by a flickering spotlight.

“That just screams zombie apocalypse,” Mendez noted.

Sebastian grunted in agreement. He examined the map. “It’s for this floor only.” He reached up and traced a line. “Elevators this way.” He turned and began walking.

Soon.

Gritting his teeth, Sebastian tried to force the voice out of his mind, and was rewarded with a sinister chuckle only he could hear.

“Shut up,” he hissed.

“Hm?” Mendez said.

“Nothing,” Sebastian replied. He reached up and rubbed the butt of his palm on his sternum, trying to massage away a new pain that had settled in his chest. The throbbing at the base of his skull that had begun in the precinct strengthened. He continued on in silence until they found the elevators. They opened with a bizarrely cheerful ding, revealing a chrome and mirror interior. Sebastian stepped in and, after Mendez followed, pressed the button for sublevel fourteen.

As the elevator whirred into motion, Sebastian took a moment to close his eyes and turn inward, fighting to keep control of a body that seemed to be rapidly falling apart.

Mendez scowled as he observed Sebastian in the overhead lighting of the elevator. He looked paler than usual, his face gaining an unhealthy, sallow pallor. His brows were knitted together and his lips taut in a permanent grimace of pain, and the violent tremor in his left hand had returned.

There were a myriad of reasons for his current state. The most likely was withdrawal. Chemical dependence was hell to be rid of, Mendez had heard. Some people who tried going cold turkey ended up dying in the attempt. From what Mendez had managed to gather, Sebastian was a regular user, at least when not on missions. It could be that the withdrawal was just hitting him now.

Mendez didn’t want to think of any other possibilities. Despite himself, he had grown attached to Sebastian. It wasn’t just that the agent reminded him so much of his late cousin. It was in Sebastian’s small acts of kindness with the survivors; Hannah especially. It was his determination to save as many people as he could from this hellscape. User or no, Sebastian was a good man. Mendez felt the world needed him yet.

The elevator’s descent was smooth and swift. Before long, the doors opened to a cheery ding and Mendez and Sebastian found themselves staring down a dark corridor. The only light available flooded in from the elevator. It showed a world of white steel walls, splashed now with blood and bile. There were, worryingly, no bodies.

Sebastian grunted and straightened, stepping from the elevator on full alert. Attuned now to the danger he and Mendez were in, he pushed the pain away and focussed. There were no sounds that might indicate any presence, hostile or otherwise. The amount of viscera indicated that there should be plenty of corpses. Their absence could mean only one thing. They were up and walking.

Not needing to be told, Mendez followed Sebastian in silence, his weapon at the ready.

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