ammunition was lost. They were civilians with no scientific training trying to piece together what they could from the wreckage of Fallon Corp’s experiments. Tom had worked there, before the fall. He understood the necessity of this. If this war was ever to be won they needed to understand the tools that had created the virus.
It could take years, but the research centre had been designed to withstand meteor impact, nuclear strike, global warming…end of the world scenarios. It was powered by a nuclear reactor, giving it independent power that might last centuries. It boasted extensive medical facilities, biological engineering, a weapons development lab, advanced computing capacity, self-defensive capabilities, and comfortable living quarters for up to six hundred full-time staff. There were gardens with artificial light and storerooms as long as warehouses. The complex had enough freeze packed foods to feed the survivors for generations. It had water filters that ensured the underground water was safe to drink even though the city’s water was poisoned by blood and ash and radiation.
The scientists that had lived and worked there had prepared for everything except the speed at which it all happened. The majority of them hadn’t even realised the world was ending until it was too late.
Some, like Tom, had seen it coming. Among the survivors currently living in the base, more than thirty had originally worked for Fallon Corp. in some capacity.
In total, three hund red and twenty-seven survivors, one time denizens of Fallon Corp., had been lost over the years.
Billions dead above ground. Three hundred and twenty-seven below.
All things considered, Fallon Corp. was probably the safest place left on Earth.
*
Chapter Nine
Fallon Corp.
Level 13
Tom was dragged through the entrance, past the staring faces of the men and women he shared his life with. Their faces were like stone. Not one smiled at him. No one spoke to him.
He didn’t speak to them, either. If their places had been reversed, he would be the same as them.
There had been infections before. It was hard enough to kill someone you lived with. It was easier if you accepted their death before you pulled the trigger.
Tom bore the bumps of the staircase from level 1A to 1B without a sound. Eventually the two guards, handling him with extreme care and thick gloves and face masks, placed him in the elevator.
They did not look at him. He did not look at them.
They entered behind him and pushed the button that led to the thirteenth floor and isolation.
Tom watched the muzzles of their guns the whole way.
The door to the isolation chamber sealed shut with a small hiss for such a heavy door. The air filters kicked in with a low whir.
There was absolutely nothing Tom could do for twenty-four hours. He tried to hold his urine in for the first few hours but then he couldn’t hold it anymore so he had to wet his trousers. His hip and his knee ached and burned. He didn’t think it would have been so bloody painful after just a short run, but there it was: he was old.
He rolled on the floor and tried to wriggle over against the wall so that he could sit up straight. Sometimes it eased the pain if he could get into sitting position, but every time he managed to get up against the wall he slid down again, the fine mesh slipping against the smooth floor and steel wall.
With a sigh he gave up and submitted to the indignity of being treated like one of the cured. Nothing more than an animal to be culled from the face of the earth. In another room, bound and subdued, the vampire they had captured would be suffering much worse.
He knew the tests they would be running on the beast. They would be taking its blood for observation. Hair and skin cells would be studied. Brain matter and bone samples would be taken and pored over with perhaps the finest instruments remaining on the planet. The facilities at their disposal were all state
It could take years, but the research centre had been designed to withstand meteor impact, nuclear strike, global warming…end of the world scenarios. It was powered by a nuclear reactor, giving it independent power that might last centuries. It boasted extensive medical facilities, biological engineering, a weapons development lab, advanced computing capacity, self-defensive capabilities, and comfortable living quarters for up to six hundred full-time staff. There were gardens with artificial light and storerooms as long as warehouses. The complex had enough freeze packed foods to feed the survivors for generations. It had water filters that ensured the underground water was safe to drink even though the city’s water was poisoned by blood and ash and radiation.
The scientists that had lived and worked there had prepared for everything except the speed at which it all happened. The majority of them hadn’t even realised the world was ending until it was too late.
Some, like Tom, had seen it coming. Among the survivors currently living in the base, more than thirty had originally worked for Fallon Corp. in some capacity.
In total, three hund red and twenty-seven survivors, one time denizens of Fallon Corp., had been lost over the years.
Billions dead above ground. Three hundred and twenty-seven below.
All things considered, Fallon Corp. was probably the safest place left on Earth.
*
Chapter Nine
Fallon Corp.
Level 13
Tom was dragged through the entrance, past the staring faces of the men and women he shared his life with. Their faces were like stone. Not one smiled at him. No one spoke to him.
He didn’t speak to them, either. If their places had been reversed, he would be the same as them.
There had been infections before. It was hard enough to kill someone you lived with. It was easier if you accepted their death before you pulled the trigger.
Tom bore the bumps of the staircase from level 1A to 1B without a sound. Eventually the two guards, handling him with extreme care and thick gloves and face masks, placed him in the elevator.
They did not look at him. He did not look at them.
They entered behind him and pushed the button that led to the thirteenth floor and isolation.
Tom watched the muzzles of their guns the whole way.
The door to the isolation chamber sealed shut with a small hiss for such a heavy door. The air filters kicked in with a low whir.
There was absolutely nothing Tom could do for twenty-four hours. He tried to hold his urine in for the first few hours but then he couldn’t hold it anymore so he had to wet his trousers. His hip and his knee ached and burned. He didn’t think it would have been so bloody painful after just a short run, but there it was: he was old.
He rolled on the floor and tried to wriggle over against the wall so that he could sit up straight. Sometimes it eased the pain if he could get into sitting position, but every time he managed to get up against the wall he slid down again, the fine mesh slipping against the smooth floor and steel wall.
With a sigh he gave up and submitted to the indignity of being treated like one of the cured. Nothing more than an animal to be culled from the face of the earth. In another room, bound and subdued, the vampire they had captured would be suffering much worse.
He knew the tests they would be running on the beast. They would be taking its blood for observation. Hair and skin cells would be studied. Brain matter and bone samples would be taken and pored over with perhaps the finest instruments remaining on the planet. The facilities at their disposal were all state
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