Virulent

Chapter 15(b): Clearance

December 21st, 2099, 9:55 PM

Ezra was spraying disinfectant on her workbench when the lights went out, plunging the lab into darkness. She could barely make out faint lights from the exit signs when she heard a flutter of sounds, like popcorn bursting.

When it stopped, the eerie silence of the lab perpetuated, just the way she preferred. Left alone. Everyone had gone to bed. Even Tehreem. Weird. Power must have gone out.

A second round of bursts rang closer this time. Ezra put the disinfectant down and moved towards the soldier on duty. "What's happening?"

But the man, one of Gracery's, was gone. The guard room was empty. She proceeded to the corridor through the anteroom.

Someone ran by the door, screaming. Ezra nearly screamed herself. Further screams sounded as she got closer to the door. What the hell's happening out there?

Then the door swung open. Someone ran into her, sending her tumbling. "Shit! Thank God you're here. I looked everywhere..."

"Tehreem?" Ezra eyed the dark corridors as she got to her feet. "What's going on? Why are the lights out? Why are you out of breath? And why are people running around screaming?"

Tehreem caught her breath, slamming Ezra against the wall when another figure ran down the corridor. "Don't know. They just came out of nowhere and started shooting people."

"Shooting people? Who and why?" Ezra didn't need an answer. "Watergate!" Only last week, she'd told him they were close with Item 349 and 350. She tugged Tehreem's arm. "We gotta get everything to the pickup point!"

Tehreem nodded. "I thought so too as soon as I heard screams and gunshots. They're shooting everyone. Not just us..."

"And Krish?"

"I don't know. I tried calling you here and his office." Tehreem shook her head. "But lines are dead. Power's out on the entire base. Remember what Krish said? If the base loses power, the firewall goes down and you can send out encrypted files and messages."

Ezra remembered. "Do you think it was Krish? The power outage?"

"I hope so..." Tehreem eyed the empty guard room. "Where's your guard?"

Ezra shrugged. "Go secure the samples. I'll send the files."

Tehreem hesitated for a moment. "Ezzie. We might die tonight..."

Ezra took Tehreem's shaking hands. "Can't think about that. Just be careful, okay? And get to the manhole Krish showed you for extraction. Don't wait for me."

"Ez."

"Don't wait for me." She gave Tehreem a desperate hug and pushed her away. "Go, while the corridor is still empty."

"I love you." Tehreem slipped into the corridor.

"I love you too!" Ezra watched her sprint for the specimen storage, towards a particular canister marked 'Damaged' but wasn't. Towards specimens that were marked as failures but weren't.

While Tehreem rushed to secure them in the travel canister and take them with her to the safety point, Ezra ran back to her office. Once there, she tilted the screen down, kneeled and turned the computer on.

Ignoring the terrifying noise outside, she checked the firewall. It was down, just like Krish had said it would be. She quickly opened the cloud as he'd instructed and started uploading the encrypted files from the small USB the size of a chip hanging from her necklace. Krish had smuggled it in, and she wore it on her body all the time. The file was huge and needed ten minutes to upload.