Chapter 25: Rage War

(A/N: This is a picture of the section of the facility that Britt and Smith find when they get out of the man hole. If it's not visible please let me know. Also, for those who've read my book Turned Rogue, please know that I'm working on book two's description and getting everything ready to write since this book is wrapping up. I'm naming it Rogues of War. And also, for anyone who read The Criminal's Mate, Soren's Legacy is also starting soon:D I have the description written and everything. Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble.) -*Bri

Britt's POV:

"Alright, this is as far as we go! Good luck, Soldiers!" The pilot announces.

'Yeah, I'm going to need it.' I think to myself. I take a deep breath and step off of the helicopter, falling twenty feet, then plunging into the water. The weight of the suit slowly pulls both Smith and I farther into the dark waters, until eventually, the feet of the suit hit the ground of the river.

"From here on, we're on our own." Smith says.

I nod and instructions flash on my right screen. Although we can't communicate with the outside, Robin had programmed a few instructions and maps into the suits. Thank God or else I'd have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to where we're going.

Before we had even formed a plan, Mom had Talon map out as much of the facility as he could remember. Of course, it was a long time ago that he had been here, so the map wasn't very detailed at all. All he could give us was where the basic facilities were located, like the medical ward, or the control center.

My original plan had been that Talon would eventually be found at the weapons locker, but once he was, he could try to guide us where to go, but since communications are blocked, I had to go in blind with nothing but a map that only had a few lines on the page.

Fortunately though, we did have a fluent map of the Thames River, so for now, we knew exactly where we were going.

"The sewer opening should be a few hundred feet ahead on the left, but that's the easy part," Smith sighs, "We have a three mile trek through the sewers. After we get about one klick into the walk, the water should lower so we can turn off the oxygen and save it."

I simply nod, not too concerned about the walk. It just gives me more time to think and plan. I know that at one point I will have to let Smith know who I am, but I want to get out of this suit first. I want to be too far into the mission to turn around and go back because I know he'll want to abort.

Sure enough, just like he said, there's this huge opening in the light brown brick wall that leads down a dark tunnel. The large lights on our suits are the only light source once we step into the tunnel.

After about thirty minutes of a jog-like walk, Smith announces, "Talon, I know you're probably not talking to me because you're still pissed at me with what happened, and I want to apologize. I mean, Britt and I did make up, if that makes you feel any better. You're right, it wasn't my place to do that, but we gotta look past it right now. I need to know you've got my back. We're about to just waltz right into an enemy facility."

I nod my head at him, not knowing what else to do.

"Jesus Christ." He growls and drops the subject. It's still too early.

After almost an hour, we make it to a huge opening. I keep walking, looking up at the old, barely functioning lights reflecting on the three inches of water on the ground. It wasn't too long ago that the water had let up and we were able to cut off our supplied oxygen. As for the old brick complex, it looks like it could come down at any second. The water had eroded the bottom of the crumbling pillars and it was unsettling. I almost tripped on the sudden set of concrete stairs because I was so distracted by my surroundings. I follow Smith up the stairs and he comes to a stop, removing his gloves, so I do so as well.

Okay, here we go.

I open my mech. suit and jump out, landing on the ground with a thud. The functioning of the suit is rather quiet, but it's the weight of the suit that gives it away. When you're walking in it, it sounds like a giant Savage is coming your way.

"There." Smith points to a ladder that leads to the ceiling, where there is a man hole we can crawl out of.

I grab Smith's shoulder before he can get a step closer to the ladder.

"What?" He asks.

I let out a sigh and pull my helmet off.

He backs away, shocked, with no words to express himself. It only takes a few seconds for him to recompose himself.

"Do you realize you just compromised this mission?! And where the hell is Talon?!" He yells at me, anger cloaked all over his features.

"He's locked in the weapons locker." I reply calmly.

"We have to abort this. We're going back." He growls, opening his mech. suit back up.

"Good luck with that." I reply and ready my automatic, heading for the ladder.

"Do you realize how stupid you are?!" He yells, walking back over to me.

"I know the mission inside and out, Smith. The only difference is that I'm not Talon." I reply, and start climbing the ladder.

"Nora told me she expected something out of you, but I don't think any of us expected this." He snaps.

"I don't know about you Smith, but I want this to end. I've got your back," I get off of the ladder and hold out my hand, as if it were a peace offering, "Do you have mine?"

He hesitates, but grips it in a firm shake, "I'm gonna beat the hell out of you when we get home, but for now, yeah."

I smile, then put my helmet back on before gripping the ladder, making my way up. Once at the top, I try to push the huge metal plate of the man hole up.

"It'll be a lot easier if you use the mod. on your suit." Smith reminds me.

"Right." I reply and click on the mod. on the touch screen display on my arm. It's a strength modification that's built into the suit to assist us. I try it again and it's much easier this time. It felt like it barely weighed ten pounds.

I peek out and gasp. A flashback hits me like a truck and I have to grip the ladder harder, "Smith, we came in on a very, very wrong side to the facility." I whisper down to him.

"What? What do you see?" He whispers back, not knowing if he can talk aloud or not.

"It's just like the science facility where Caleb kept my mother, Ashton, and I before he put us into the experiment. But it's... decrepit. No one is in here, all of the cells are open. It's abandoned. But there might still be patients." I slowly explain.

"So he was doing this sick s*** way before he did it to you?" He asks.

"Yes." I reply. I finally get the guts to climb up to the top and help Smith out. It's so quiet..

"I don't think there's anyone in here, we just have to find the main facility and we'll be okay. Don't forget, we look just like the enemy, so don't give it away." He whispers.

I stare at the concrete floors, stained in dry blood. None of it's fresh, but the smell is.. overbearing. Smith pushes a button on my screen on my arm. The suit then communicates with my helmet and the smell goes away.

"It circulates the air." He comments. I nod my head and he starts to walk down the long hall. At the very end of it is a door; the only exit.

It's dark, very dark. The only light is coming from the side of our helmets.

Do I dare to look into one of the open cells? I grip my gun tightly, but keep my finger off of the trigger, as I make my way over to the nearest cell on my left side.

Glancing inside, I see a woman sitting on the floor, dead and decomposing, a bullet wound in her forehead. I take a deep breath and go to the next cell. This time, it's a man, and he looks like he was beaten to death. Each inmate is wearing white clothes, both of them in straight jackets. They were defenseless..

"Britt, quit looking. It will only make it worse. Now come on." He says and opens the door at the end of the hallway.

I quickly follow him and we step into what looks like the waiting room.

There is no one in the waiting room, and there are only two doors, not counting the one we just came out of. There is one on the left side of the receptionist desk that says: Exit, and one on the right says: Medical Psychiatric Facility.

I head directly to the Medical facility, but before I can even take two steps, Smith grabs my arm, "Don't, Britt. You've seen enough."

I stare back at him.

Not knowing what was behind that door made my imagination run wild. And the more it ran, the more horrid things came to thought. Anger began to act the part of my bravery as I felt a sense of strength in my chest. How could someone do this to another defenseless person? For years at a time, watch as families tear apart, watch from the other end of the cell as a human being sits inside like a caged animal, bloodied and bruised mentally and physically? And sometimes, even turn them into these horrible-

'I can't think about this anymore, I'm going to wake up the virus.'

"Alright." I reply shakily, and reroute myself to the exit. Just as my hand is about to land on the handle, a strange sound coming from the psychiatric ward comes to my ears.

"Did you hear that?" Smith asks.

"Yeah.." I listen closer; it sounds like miserable chocked sobs.

I debate checking it out again, but my reasoning comes through. Anything or anyone that has been in here for so long can't possibly be alive. At least not mentally alive. This place looks as though it might have been the origin of the virus; where Caleb first started his testing.

I shake my head and pull the door open. It reveals a long hallway with an elevator shaft at the end. Smith shuts the door behind us and we make our way inside.

I hit the "door close" button and take a look at the options of buttons. Forty-three floors to choose from. Just to start and get an idea of what we're doing, I choose the ground floor.

The elevator doesn't move.

"Uh, here try this.." Smith moves me out of the way to do it himself.

He puts his thumb print onto a round, glassy surface beside the ground floor button. It beeps twice and we begin acceding.

"It took your thumb print?" I ask, confused for a second.

"Ah hah, you didn't learn everything, did you?" I glare at him through my masked face but he gets the hint and continues, "Look at your glove, there's a fingerprint on them. The people we got the suits from, their prints."

After observing the indents of the print on my glove, I let out a sigh and try to calm my nerves. I don't get a chance to even take a deep breath as the doors slide open to what looks like an average skyscraper office building. It's been a long time since I've seen something that looks like our old lives used to. Sure, Shield Complex is a nice place, but it's underground while this one is not. It just looks.. decent.

Normal.

We step out into what looks like a lobby. There's even a front desk with a woman sitting behind it, picking at her nails as if she could care less about the situation the world is in. No one pays us any attention, so we step towards the front doors.

Outside is a city. Just an average, everyday city. Cars, people, even dogs; a few owners walking their pets.

"This is not what I expected.." Smith whispers.

"What we're you expecting?" I ask.

"I don't know, something horrible, I guess.." He replies, unsure of himself.

"Alright, lets just get to the lab." I shake my head, heading back for the elevator.

Once inside, I refer back to Talon's map.

"Thirty-second floor. It's where Talon supposedly learned about the virus. Guess that's why he remembered the exact floor.." I mumble the last part to myself while Smith presses the correct button and scans his thumb again.

"Lets just hope they haven't moved anything around." He replies.

Once the elevator comes to a halt, we step off onto the white floors. The whole floor smells like disinfectant. I cringe as I look left and right.

It's just a long hallway with no doors except for the one set of double doors in front of us with two guards.

All they do is nod and let us pass inside with no problem.

Once inside the room, there's about twenty men and women in lab coats, running tests and doing things I've never seen before.

Smith elbows me out of my fascination and nods towards a vault door in the back right of the room.

"Excuse me Soldiers, can we help you?" An older man in a white lab coat steps in front of us. All of this white color is giving me a headache.

Smith is caught off guard, so I cover for him.

"We have direct orders from Mr. Slater to retrieve something for him." I say strictly. I know we were trying to avoid speaking, but sometimes we're not going to have a choice. And it's not like they'll recognize us immediately just by exchanging a few words.

"Oh! Of course," His gravely voice replies, "Could I assist you in finding it?"

"No, we'll be just fine, thank you, Doctor." I reply.

"Of course." He says cheerfully and walks away.

"They've ruined the world and here they are laughing." Smith growls when he hears a group of scientists burst out in laughter in the far corner.

"Lets just get out of here." I reply as we make our way to the vault.

After scanning our thumb prints, it asks for a code. I look at Smith and he quickly glances around, then calls the previous doctor back.

"Oh! Yes, just a second," The man completely shields us from the panel with his body and types in what sounds like an eight digit code, "There you go."

"Thank you." I reply and step into the vault without a second glance to the overly cheerful man.

It's freezing in the vault, cooling all of the medicines.

"Hurry up, before they get suspicious." Smith commands. I quickly scan the vials, looking for the one labeled just like the one I had in the experiment, it should say Antidotum and then just a bunch of roman numerals that spell out 7218.

After scanning everything, I can't find it, so I go over the vials a second time.

"What's taking so long? I thought you knew what to get!" Smith whisper yells, losing his patients.

"I do! It's not here!" I growl.

"What?!" He snaps.

"What do we do?" I ask.

He grabs at his helmet in frustration.

"I'll find the communications room and see if I can get through to Nora... I want you to try to find a second vault." He sighs, knowing he has no other choice.

"Okay, be careful." I tell him.

He nods and leaves the vault without another word. Just as I'm about to leave, something catches my eye.

What appears to be a shiny latch is hidden behind a rack of vials. I pull the vials out and stare at the small electronic safe. After scanning my fingerprint, it opens.

Inside, sits a single vial. Printed on the label is the name: Terminar.

This is the virus...

But if this is the virus, where is the antidote?

I mumble a curse word as I shove it into my pocket. I bet anything, that with my luck, it's somewhere near Caleb himself. Possibly even in his desk drawer.

"Did you find what you needed, ma'am?" The Doctor asks.

I jump at the sudden voice, shutting the safe, and replying, "Yes, yes I did. Thank you."

He watches me carefully as he nods his head, a fake smile plastering itself on his face.

I pass him up without a second glance and head for the elevator.

"Let's see if Talon is correct." I mumble to myself as I press the button for the very top floor, scanning my thumb.

"Don't let your emotions get in the way, don't, Britt, just relax.." I groan to myself as the elevator ascends.

I ready my automatic and grip it for reassurance.

The doors slide open and I step out. The front room is a waiting room with a secretary behind the desk at the front. It reminds me of a doctors office waiting room.

"Can I help you?" The redheaded woman asks, straightening herself in her chair.

I glance at the large double doors behind her desk, with two large guards on either side, conversing with each other quite loudly.

"Yes, I need to see Mr. Slater, please." I reply politely.

Her hand hovers over her desktop phone, ready to call Caleb, but first asks, "What for?"

I say the first thing that comes to mind, "It's a security issue."

"Oh, of course." She picks the phone up and punches in the number eleven.

"Yes, Mr. Slater, we have a Soldier here who wishes to speak to you about a security issue.. yes, yes of course.. sure thing.. thank you Mr. Slater I'll send her in." She finishes her conversation.

"Go on ahead." She smiles.

"Thank you." I reply, making my way around her desk.

The guard on the right politely opens the door, but doesn't glance at me or stop his conversation. Once the door shuts behind me, all noise is shut off, meaning it's soundproof and for once, in my favor.

Caleb sits at his desk, his head in a bunch of papers with a pen in his hand, and he doesn't speak, so I take this chance to look around.

About six feet behind his chair, is a large glass window in place of the back wall. To the right and left, bookshelves that are completely stocked with educational books. The dark brown, shiny wooden floors compliment his cherry red wooden desk with two white, comfortable looking chairs in front of it. On his desk, a plate that is the leftovers of his previous meal, and beside him, a half full glass of wine.

It all disgusts me; the fact that he's living a luxury.

He still doesn't speak, so I remove my helmet, waiting on him to look at me.

"What's the security problem? We haven't had one in ages." He replies as if he has better things to do.

It's my turn to stay silent.

He finally glances up, and to my surprise, just looks back down at his papers.

"I was wondering when I'd see you again." He sighs in boredom.

"Where's the antidote?" I ask, trying to mimic his tone.

"What are you talking about?" He asks.

"Screw you, you know what I'm talking about. Where is it?" I repeat.

His hand reaches for his desk phone but I pull my pistol, "Don't."

He finally takes things seriously and pulls his hand back, standing up, looking me in the eye. I take this chance to come closer and swipe his phone from the desk.

"There isn't one." He says, plain and simple.

"Bulls*** there isn't one. I've had one." I throw back at him.

"Yes, you have had one, a form of one, for your genetic infection. The virus that has been released, however, has no antidote. I mean come on, why would I create something that could be used against me?" He puts his hands out, trying to make his point.

"You're lying." I glare.

"Think about it, Brittany! Why would I make something that could stop me?" He yells.

"You made me," I growl, "Antidote or not, you made me. And I will put an end to this. You ruined my life! You ruined my mothers life!"

"It was for a worthy cause!" He screams at me, getting angry.

"You're crazy! Putting one man in power will never fix anything! You're trying to create a dictatorship!" I snap.

"I have created a dictatorship! When there is only one, there isn't two, and it takes two to rage war!" He defends himself.

"Since when do you care about war?!" I yell.

"This is for a worthy-"

"F*** your worthy cause!" I try to relax after that.

It makes sense now. Why I couldn't find an antidote.

"I may not be able to cure everyone," I strain my vocal cords and muscles, trying not to let my voice crack, "But maybe you're right, that doesn't have to be the answer. You took everything from me.. from Mom... so since you want a dictatorship, I'll make sure to take everything from you. I will pull your company to the ground, and I will burn it to hell! And I'll start with you, antidote or not."

I cross the room and he yells, "Brittany, no!" Pointing his finger at me.

I shoot him in the knee and he yells, falling to the ground.

I grab the vial from my pocket and break the glass top off. I grab him by the collar and hold it close to his face, "You will go through what I went through, and you won't be strong enough to make it out like I did. Because you have nothing to fight for. You'll burn with your company; and I will f***ing rage war."

A sudden loud alarm begins to blare through the building, the horrible noise coming through on Caleb's intercom in his room, and banging starts on the door, so I finish what I came to do.

I shove the entire two inch vial in his mouth and clamp my hand over it, grabbing him by the throat, and forcing him to swallow.

When blood begins to leak from his mouth, I pull my hand away, and he coughs up a clot of blood, beginning to cease on the floor.

I shoot the glass of his window and shatter it to pieces. I look out and see a building nearby, so I shoot a grapple to it. I can't help the yelp of fear that escapes me when I jump, zooming towards the roof of the building.

After grabbing a hold on the edge, I pull myself up and run across the top, when suddenly Smith's voice echos in my helmet.

"Brittany, listen up because I don't have much time. I'm cornered in the communications room, but I'm wiring Nora through to your signal, I'm not going to make it out, there's too many of them. Nora is going to launch an attack and send an air unit to get you out of here. Did you find an antidote?" Smith frantically rushes out.

I stop in my tracks and reply, "There isn't one, but Caleb is dead."

I can hear the yelling of Caleb's Soldiers on his end, he laughs bitterly, sighing, "Good. It's about time the bastard got what he deserved.. Do me a favor, yeah? Let my wife know, I love her."

After that, I can hear nothing but gunfire and screaming, so I cut the signal off. I start to take deep, frantic breaths.

I look back at the building, almost as if I thought Smith would be there looking back at me.

Okay, calm down... I just need to get out of here, then go from there.

"Brittany? Brittany can you hear me?" Nora shouts to me.

"Yes.. Yeah, I can."

(Does anyone else feel a bit victorious right now? XD Sorry for any errors, it's not edited.) -Bri*