The Chamber

THE CHAMBER

Mark had been behind the driver’s seat for six hours straight. Suzy lay lazily on the passenger’s side with a foot hanging out the window and a cigarette in her mouth; inadvertently doing her best Ingrid Bergman. In the back, behind Mark, was Bryan, who was staring out the side of the jeep while trying his best to make a pencil turn to rubber. Beside him was Laura, who had her head on the roll-bar and was sleeping soundly. Their road trip had lasted eight weeks already and had taken them through almost twelve states. They had set out in June; it was now September. They were currently traveling through the ruggedness wilderness of Colorado, where in the middle of nowhere, Bryan’s mother lived. They all agreed to visit her while they toured the country, since Bryan had not seen her in ten years.
         The two lane road stretched almost endlessly across the desert floor.  Mountains dwelled in the distance, but other than that, there was no sign of dimension outside of their car other than the power lines following them. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was brutal on their young bodies. Their exhaustion of the endless travel ceased their complaints and kept them in a quiet and somewhat decent mood.  The first sign in a while came up fast.
         “Roland, 10 miles,” Mark said.  No one responded, not even with a movement.  The drive was almost peaceful compared to the haste and stress of the overcrowded highways and cities they had left in the dust. The point of the road trip, after all, was to get away from it all.
         “I want to become a playwright,” Suzi said, breaking the calm silence.  “You know,” she continued, “Maybe get to work with some big shot movie actors.”
         “If your meet Maggie Gyllenhaal, give me a ring,” said Mark.
         Suzi did not respond.
         “Actors are overrated,” Laura exhaled as the car slowly moved over the yellow line, causing the car to rumble over the reflectors, “they’re just being someone they’re not.”
         “Yes,” Bryan groaned, “here we go with our daily life lesson from Ms. Maddox.”
         “Tell me again why we didn’t leave you in Salt Lake City?” she responded.
         Mark shook his head and made a right turn onto a less-traveled road, which was met with a small, worn sign stating “Roland, 9 ½ miles”.

++++

         The company drifted across the face of the state like vagabonds. No rules and no sympathy. This thought amused Bryan. Truth be told, they were the most harmless outlaws he’d ever heard of. Always tipping and skipping the alcohol on several occasions. Bryan himself had the quickest temper and even he could shrug off a mouthful of profanities hurled at him. Mark was a dude, if a reasonable definition for the term existed. Sly comebacks and flirtatious gestures made up the majority of his qualities. Bryan was almost positive that he and Laura had slept together recently, perhaps at the campground in Oklahoma.
         Laura, herself, was the quiet and morally driven character of their brat-pack. She occasionally consumed the pleasures of all-nighters in the city, but was more often the wallflower, engaging in riveting conversation about the illogical consumption of oil or one of her many golden-age film favorites. Then there was Suzi, who rounded the edges with her brutally honest nature and ability to find enjoyment in any situation. She was a free spirit, but just as eco-nutty (that was Bryan’s word for the two, who bought into the 21st Century’s green craze before the media did) as Laura.
         They were not as polar opposite as many of literature or film’s great companies, but they did well with what they had. Frequent arguments sparked up around them, but because of their combined 40 years of acquaintance, such trifles never cut too deep.
After another long silence streak, Laura spoke up, “What are those?”
         The company responded by turning their attention straight ahead. In the great distance ahead, they could see a blinking yellow light.
         “I’m not sure,” Suzi said.
         “It’s probably another sign,” Mark said, “maybe there is an iguana crossing up ahead.”
         They closed the gap in the next minutes and could clearly see what the blinking light was. There was a roadblock in the middle of the road. The jeep came to a stop and everyone jumped out to get a better look. A large sign hanging from each of the concert slabs read in large letters:
         
WARNING…  NO CIVILIANS BEYOND THIS POINT…  DO NOT CROSS THE YELLOW BARRICADE… PER THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA…

         Assorted paragraphs broke up the larger headlines, but only Mark bothered to look over these. He stopped within several seconds, realizing that the paragraphs only defined the words above in other languages and then declared a variety of punishments for violators.
Bryan looked at Mark, who responded to the sign with, “What the hell...”
         Suzi looked in the boys’ direction, “What the hell is this?”
         Bryan felt himself answer, “I don’t know.  I talked to my mom around Christmas time and she didn’t mention anything like this.”
         “That was over eight months ago,” Mark said coldly.
         “I know that,” Bryan responded.
         “Look boys,” Suzi said, “Let’s just keep going. Bryan, call your mom and ask her what’s up.”
         Bryan pulled out his cell phone, “No service.”
         Laura finally spoke up, “I don’t think it would matter anyway.”
         They saw that she was looking at the power lines.  When they looked up, they saw it too.  The power lines had been cut right before the barricade and the phone poles were bare from there on.  They all looked at one another with confused and pathetic expressions.
         “I think we should keep going,” Suzi said. “If there are people in there, they’ll be safe. If they aren’t there, we’ll leave.”
         “I’m with Suzy,” Bryan said, “I’m worried.  My mother would have told me about something like this already.”
         Laura looked at Bryan, “I understand you need to make sure your mom is okay. I think we’ll be alright if we just take a look. Mark?”
         Mark’s expression confirmed that he did not agree with them, “Going into a restricted area doesn’t sound like somewhere we wanted to go on this road trip. I am not going to go through a bomb field to some abandoned city.”
         “Mark, please,” Bryan interjected. “If I don’t make sure that my mom is okay, I won’t be able to enjoy any of this vacation. We’ll be in and out, just want to go to Roland. You can practically see it from here. Please, just a couple of hours. They’ll never even know we were here.”
         Mark scoffed and surveyed the desert for a while.
“Fine, but I’m not driving Bryan’s car in there.”                    

++++

         Using a chain from the Jeep, they were able to pull the concrete barricade just enough to allow them access to the rural town. Roland, from what his mother had told him, was a very small, self-sufficient community of people from all across the nation.  Like others in Roland, Bryan’s mother moved there to ‘get away from it all’ after a bitter divorce. The city had little outside influence, which made Bryan believe it was somehow cult-related. Only a handful of companies, such as Coca-Cola and Exxon, delivered goods to the town. Everything else was grown or made there, in the middle of the desert. 
         Bryan did not speak to his mother often after she moved to Roland. Although the town did have basic phone service, he only heard from her on his birthday or Christmas. The divorce occurred when he was 12 years old, but he could not remember if his relationship with his mother was any better when she was around. His parents always preferred his older brother, who was more social and popular than Bryan. Bryan himself was usually a social outcast, especially due to his excessive mysophobia, fear of being contaminated by germs. That, ironically, subsided after junior high.
         Now, he and his friends were traveling into a government restricted area to meet his mother who he hasn’t seen in ten years. The feeling was unfamiliar, a mixture of nervousness and fear. There was a sliver of excitement, coated by his feelings of breaking federal law. But there was no turning back now; he needed to see his mother now or he may not get another chance for a long time. A cool breeze, passed by, bringing with it a fair amount of sand. The group stopped to attach the top of the Jeep and then continued to the town which was a growing oasis ahead. The sky began to darken.
The large water tower was the first thing they had seen from the barricade. The town was surrounded by the largest trees they had seen in the state since entering on the bumpy highway. The Jeep began passing mailboxes and wooden street signs; not the intentionally antique-looking signs seen sometimes in historical neighborhoods, but signs that were obviously made crudely by hand.
         At last, the town’s main street unfolded after rounding a blind corner. The town instantly reminded Bryan of Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show. It looked like a quaint, pleasant town. Each building supported several shops and there were also larger buildings such as one that read “Farm General Store” and another without a name, but resembled what could have been a police station. The Jeep crawled down the road as the four looked around. There were no traffic lights, but there appeared to be oil-fueled street lamps. Mark directed everyone’s attention further down the road to a large Methodist church and even further down to the building they had seen from the distance, which they could read as being Town Hall.
         The Jeep came to a stop at the large four-way intersection at the center of the town.  It seemed that each street lead to more driveways, then ending somewhere unknown. Suzi suddenly spoke up, breaking the long silence.
         “Is it just me or does this place feel really weird?”
         “What do you mean?” said Bryan, but then he began to feel it as well. There were only a few cars parked on the sidewalks, but there was no sign of any people. The sun had almost completely set, but there were no signs of light emitting from any of the buildings. Bryan shut the Jeep off and opened his door. The others did the same and exited the vehicle to investigate the scene.
         “There’s dirt all over these cars,” said Laura.  “They haven’t been moved in a while.”
         “Yeah… but there are fresh handprints on this one.”  Mark pointed to a red Honda parked outside of the Fresh Cuts Barber Shop.  The car had been plastered with weeks worth of dirt and sand, but there were clean handprints on the hood.
         “It’s someone’s left hand,” Bryan said.  “They were walking towards the barber shop.  We should go inside.”
         Suzi yelled from about ten feet away, “Are you crazy?  This is all wrong.  Something bad happened here.  We need to leave.”
         “No!” Bryan violently shouted.  Suzi stepped back, surprised by his sudden aggressive tone.  “We’re not going anywhere until we get an answer.”
         With that, he turned and moved towards the barber shop.  Suzi, Mark and Laura approached one another, whispering concerns over Bryan’s behavior.
         “He’s obviously scared and threatened,” Laura said.  “His mother is here somewhere and he can’t find her.  We’re here too.  You know how Bryan is about protecting everyone… being in control.”
         Suzi bit her lip, then slowly moved towards the barber shop to, where Bryan had disappeared into. 

++++

         Bryan had found the door unlocked and was cautiously walking through the small room.  There were two barber chairs to the left and hair all over the floor.  There were also magazines scattered around the waiting area at the front of the room and brushes and clippers left unorganized on the counter beneath the mirror.  At the end of the room, there was another chair and a sink used for washing hair.  Below the sink was a basin of water that was collecting the drip from the sink’s pipe.  The basin was full and the excess water was streaming to a drain about five feet away. 
Then Bryan spotted something near the second chair on the floor, amidst the dark hair.  It looked like spilled hair gel, but as Bryan bent down to get a better look, its color changed.  Red.  Bryan shot up and slipped on the hair, falling backwards onto the tile and banging his head hard on the floor, letting out a yelp.
         The others immediately rushed in. 
         “What happened?” Suzi asked as she lifted his head.
         “B-Blood.”
         “No, you’re not bleeding. Just a bump.”
         “No!  Blood on the floor!  There!”
         He pointed and Mark investigated the small puddle.  After a moment, he turned to the others, “He’s right.  Something is definitely…”
         Mark’s voice had trailed off to a slight murmur.  His eyesight had turned to the large windows behind the other three and his face had transformed into that of terror.  Bryan quickly turned and saw two people outside the windows, looking in.  It was a woman of about 40 years, wearing a nice Sunday dress and matching hat.  The other was an older man with white hair, who wore a white, collar shirt, khaki pants and black suspenders.  Their faces were devoid of emotion, just blankly staring into the barber shop.  Bryan slowly stood up, staring into the eyes of the two people.  The others slowly rose to their feet as well, stunned and silenced by the arrival of these guests.  The woman then opened the door of the barber shop and slowly began to hobble towards them.  Her walk was awkward, like she needed a walker but lost it.
         Suzi latched onto Bryan’s arm as the two moved into the shop, both hobbling and muttering incoherently under their breath.
         “What are they saying,” yelled Mark, who was terrified at this point.
         “She keeps repeating ‘the chamber’,” said Laura.  “Leave us alone!”
         Bryan grabbed a straight-edge razor from the counter and swung it before the two.  The attack caused the woman to stop, but the man to move forward more aggressively, shouting, “Who do you think I am?”
         “Get back old man or I’ll cut you!”
         When the man got with arm’s reach of Bryan, he swung the razor across the man’s face.  Blood shot out of the wound and the man collapsed, also pushing Bryan with his outstretched arms to the floor and into the basin of water below the sink.  The basin overturned and drenched Bryan with water.  He sputtered and clumsily tried to regain his footing, but was slipping on the water and hair. 
         The other three were yelling in terror at the sight, drawing further back in the room.  Then, the door behind them opened and a figure grabbed onto Laura.  Since Mark and Suzi were behind her, when the arm pulled her, the other fell through the doorway as well.  The door slammed shut as quickly as it opened, leaving no trace of the three.
Bryan finally got to his feet and noticed the others had disappeared.
“Mark! Suzi! Laura!”
He then heard screaming and scuffling from behind the door at the end of the room.
         “Suzi! Mark! Get out of there!” He began slamming into the door with all his weight, but the heavy, wooden door would not budge.  When he turned back towards the entrance of the barber shop, more hobbling, emotionless people had appeared.  Nearly ten older men and women, dressed up in fine clothes, entered the room, muttering or screaming gibberish at Bryan.  The word ‘chamber’ that Laura had heard was now filling the room.
         “You won’t take us to the chamber!” shouted a 30-something woman from behind her deadpan face.
         “What are you talking about? Leave us alone!” Bryan shouted.  His head pounded and his temper was flaring.  He was losing control and he knew that in a second, he was either going to kill or be killed.  But just as this thought crossed his mind, a blinding light came through the windows, followed by an ear-splitting crash and shattering of glass.  The room shook and Bryan fell to the floor, covering his head.  Then he saw the front end of a truck push through the people who had been yelling at him.  The truck stopped a few feet before Bryan and sat among the screaming, moaning injured people.
         Bryan jumped to his feet and was met with a cry, “Get in!”
         With no other options before him, he jumped over a mound of chairs and an obliterated water cooler and jumped through the passenger window of the truck.  Once inside, the truck pulled out of the store and jet down the road, with Bryan stuck upside down in the passenger’s seat.  When he finally lifted himself in a seated position, he saw that they were flying down a dark dirt road at well over 60 mph.
         The driver was an large, middle-aged man wearing a trucker’s hat and a flannel shirt.  Bryan wanted to ask questions, but he was exhausted and terrified, so he remained silent, allowing thoughts to race through his head.  Mark, Suzi and Laura had disappeared.  Those people with those blank stares.
         The chamber…

++++

         Mark fell backwards and hit the floor hard.  Mark had tried to fight off the man, but he could not overcome him.  The man, dressed from head to toe in thick clothing and a gas mask, reached into his pocked and retrieved a gun.  Suzi, who was ready to attack the man too, stopped at the sight of this.  They all sat blankly in fear, but Suzi was the first to speak up.
         “What’s going on?”
         “Don’t worry,” he said, “You are safe.  Safer than out there with them, that’s for sure.”
         “Suzi! Mark!” said Bryan from the other side of the door.  “Get out of there!”
         “Bryan!” screamed Suzi.
         Suddenly, they all heard a crashing sound from the other side of the door.  The building shook, but the man kept his gun pointed at the three.  They then heard a vehicle pull out the store and disappear into the night.  They all remained silent, not knowing if Bryan was alive or dead now, or worse.
         “What happened here?” muttered Mark, whose mouth was bleeding.
         “Some terrible things.  You are safe though, that’s all that matters.”
         “No it isn’t!” shouted Suzi.  “What about Bryan?”
         “Sounds like the survivors found him.”
         “Survivors?” said Mark, wiping his blood with his arm. “You better start explaining some things, pal.”
         The man cocked his head to the side, then placed the gun back in his pocket.  “Very well. But first, I need to make sure you are all clean.”
         They glanced at one another and then back at the man.
         “To make sure that you are not infected.  You,” he pointed to Suzi. “Come here.”
         She slowly approached, slowly and cautiously.  The man pulled a small flashlight from his pocket and shined it into Suzi’s eyes. 
         “Pupils not dilated.  Pulse… normal.  No sign of hives or rashes.  You’re alright.  Let’s get the fellow over here next.”

++++

         The truck came to a stop outside of an old, white house.  The man, who had introduced himself as Felix, and Bryan got out of the truck and headed towards the barn behind the house.  Inside, nearly twenty people were huddled around a fire, cooking a couple of chickens rotisserie style and not saying a word.  When Bryan entered, all heads turned towards him, followed by intense conversation. 
         “People, this is Bryan.  He came here looking for someone.  He is clean, alright?”
         The company nodded, but continued to stare.  Bryan noticed cots set up along the sides of the barn and in the loft.  Felix put his hand on Bryan’s shoulder.
         “So who is it that you are looking for?”
         “My mother, Ariel Mewborne.”
         Felix lowered his head and nodded, “I know Ariel.  She was a sweet woman.  But she isn’t with us anymore.”
         Bryan’s heart sank, “You mean she’s dead?”
         “We don’t know.  He took her.”
         “Who is-”
         “He is a menace; a murderer.  He’s probably responsible for this whole thing.”
         Bryan finally blurted out the question that had been stirring inside of him, “What happened here?”
         Felix scoffed and shook his head with anger, “About three weeks ago, it happened.  People began acting different.  It’s like their brains turned into mush within a matter of days.  It only affected those living on the North, East and South roads.  They just lost their minds.”
         “It is a disease,” said a woman by the fire.  “First they couldn’t remember their friends or where they lived.  Then they couldn’t remember themselves.  Then, they wouldn’t even talk to us.”
         “They all became brain dead.  Wandering the streets, mumbling about God-knows what.  The doc thought that he could treat them, but he turned into one of them after a week.”
         Bryan fell to the floor and sat Indian style, soaking it all in.
         “We are hiding out here until help comes.  We don’t know if the disease is air born or what.  We can’t take chances.”
         “Are they going to die?”
         Felix nodded, “Probably.  Most have been this way for two weeks.  I don’t think they recognize they need food anymore.  They’ll most likely starve to death unless we get help.  But we had our phone cables removed a month ago and no trucks come into town until the end of the month.  That’s still a week and a half away.”
         “Removed your telephone wires?  We saw that as we crossed over the barricade.”
         “Yes, we were told that wireless phone service was going to become available in the area and it would be a waste… wait, what barricade?”
         “T-There was a barricade about five miles outside the city on the highway.  Concrete blockade, flashing lights, signs saying ‘Restricted Area’.”
         Everyone began to speak again, raising their voices in anger and fear.  Some began crying while others cursed.  Felix walked away for a moment, then returned with red eyes.
         “We need to get out of this town.  We’ve been tricked.  We’re experiments, aren’t we?  Sons of bitches!  They must’ve put something in the drinking water!  That makes the most sense.  The North, East and South roads all use public water from the water tower, but our West road uses mostly wells.”
         Bryan looked among the people who had abandoned their dinner to hold someone or shout their anger.  Felix grabbed Bryan by the arm, “You didn’t drink any water while you were here, did you?”
         “No,” Bryan lied, remembering his fall into the water basin.  His heart sank and fear filled him from his toes to his eyeballs.  He could almost feel the fever coursing through his veins now.  At the same time, he could feel an old fear reenter his mind: disease and germs inside of me!  He hadn’t felt these impulses in years, but it only took the mention of possible infection to swarm his mind with terrified germophobic thoughts. He thought of an ant farm with all of those tunnels and then thought of his own veins streaming with ants – bacteria and disease.
         Something inside of me!
         Germs in my blood!
         Infection!
         Disease!!!
         But somehow, his exterior did not expose the calamity that had erupted inside.  Sweat ran down his red face and he noticed nervous twitches in his hands and eyes, but this seemed normal around the others.  The safe house had become pandemonium. 

++++

         After Laura and Mark had been declared ‘clean’ by the man, he led the three into a back alley and down the street to a hardware store, keeping an eye out for anyone.  The man, deciding to humanize himself since the others were not infected, revealed his name as Kevin.  As entered the hardware store and moved towards the back, Mark inquired further into their mysterious savior or captor.
         “I don’t know whether to thank you or curse you, Kevin.  You haven’t answered any of our questions yet.  Where are you leading us?”
         Kevin’s breathing, which had been heavy, making him sound like Darth Vader underneath the gas mask, suddenly slowed, “I am taking you somewhere safe.  There isn’t anywhere safe in this town, because we don’t know if the disease is airborne or not.  We know very little at this point.”
         “You still know more than us; and why are you saying ‘we’?” asked Suzi.
         They had reached the ‘Staff Only’ area of the hardware store when Kevin stopped and turned his attention to the others.
         “I’ll tell you everything you need to know, but you have to keep calm.”
         They agreed.
         “I work for a classified corporation that produces chemical goods for the United States military.”
         “Chemical warfare, you mean,” Suzi inserted, with vigor.
         Kevin paused, soaking this in, “Partly, but most importantly.  We had been testing a new chemical weapon with the military about 30 miles north of this city.  Our intention was to see how quickly the chemical moved across the landscape using various types of deployment methods.  I was stationed undercover in Roland to ensure the safety of the civilians, which I thought was a little unusual.
         “I was instructed to construct an underground shelter with a secure water supply and ventilation.  This was completed within a month, in the basement of this store which I came to own upon moving here.  What I didn’t know was that my true objective was not to insure the safety of the civilians, but rather, to record their progress.”
         It was silent for a moment.
         “You all intended for this to happen,” said Mark.
         Kevin turned his head to the adjacent wall, “The chemical was added to the water in the water tower, which gives water to most of the town, except a few houses which rely on well water.”
         Suddenly, Mark grabbed a shovel that was standing near his feet and swung it at Kevin.  He ducked just as the head of the shovel swung above him and stuck into the wooden wall.  In less than a second, a shot was fired from Kevin’s gun and the three fell backwards into the door.  Kevin had fired at the ceiling, but was now aiming at Mark.
         “I’m aware that you are angry,” he said with anger that none of them had heard from him before.  “But I don’t like any of this anymore than you do.”
         Mark scoffed.  “This is your fault!”
         “No!” Kevin screamed, “I didn’t know this would happen!  I didn’t know that this was the plan!”
         “You infected dozens of innocent people!” Suzi screamed.
         “My corporation did, not me!  I’m the one trying to do some good in the midst of this.”
         They all paused.  Suzi was breathing heavily with searing anger in her eyes.  Mark, visibly shaken by the failed attack, sat in a sloppy mix of fear and anger, unable to process a next move.  Laura, who was behind the others, stood in a mesmerized glaze.  Tears trailed down her cheeks and her eyes stared through Kevin into somewhere else, either somewhere safe or somewhere frightening.  No one was thinking about whatever good Kevin assumed he was doing, their minds raced with unanswerable questions: How could this happen?  Who would have the audacity to do this?  Where is Bryan?

++++
 
         “Okay folks,” shouted Felix.  “We cannot wait for anymore survivors.  We have to get out now.  No one is coming to help us.  Frank, come with me and we’ll pull our trucks to the barn.  Everyone else, pack up your stuff.  Bryan, you’re coming with us.”
         “Wait, I can’t!” Bryan protested.  “I need to find my friends.”
         “What?  You didn’t come alone?”
         “No!  I came with three others, but they disappeared behind a door in the barber shop.  I don’t know what happened to them.”
         Felix closed his eyes and sighed, “Son, he got them.”
         Dread filled Bryan once again.  “What does that mean?”
         “He’s probably killed them or incapacitated them.  Either way, if he does have them, they are in his chamber, along with your mother.”
         The chamber…
         “What is the chamber?  Tell me!”
         “We don’t know, entirely.  We think it is where he puts the healthy to infect them with the fever.”  Felix suddenly turned and threw a hard punch right through the side of the barn, leaving a small fist-sized hole in the wood.  The chatter of those around stopped and all eyes turned towards him.
         “I’m sorry.  I just realized something.  That son-of-a-bitch probably works for the government.  That’s what he’s doing… he’s stealing us healthy ones and infecting us for their experiments!”
         Bryan suddenly felt very uncomfortable with Felix.  Once nurturing and friendly, he had turned paranoid and violent, possibly endangering everyone else.  Bryan could not leave Suzi, Mark and Laura, or his mother, in this town.  He knew that he had to get them out, but he also knew that Felix would not take him back to the town to find them.  Manic thoughts continued to slice through his brain.
         Diseased.  Infected.
         The chamber is where they infect the well…
         Diseased!  Infected!
         “Bryan?” said Felix, across some distant space and time, “You don’t look well.”
         He felt a hand lay on his shoulder.  His instincts kicked in and grabbed it, thrusting it away.  The room was intense with heat, pushing every morsel of water from his body.  The air, so thick that breathing was nearly impossible.  Voices began screaming at him:
         “He’s infected!”
         “That’s how Patricia looked before she became one of them!”
         “Bryan!”
         The moments began dragging together and before he could realize what was happening, hands began pouring onto him.  He felt entangled, like he was caught in a large spider’s web.  Hands grabbing, groping, snatching.  Sweaty hands. 
Dirty hands. 
More disease
         More infection.
         More germs.

         Bryan snapped.

++++

         Suzi was the first to walk down the wooden staircase, into the basement of the hardware store.  Laura followed closely, still detached from the others, and behind her, Mark.  Behind him, at a comfortable distance, was Kevin, completely covered in protective gear, holding his pistol, leading them to whatever end awaited.  The basement was cement, from floor to ceiling, reminding Suzi of a bomb shelter.  Assorted weapons were scattered about tables along the walls, as were binders, books and papers.  Mark had already failed at two attacks on Kevin and knew that another could mean a bullet in the head for him and possibly the girls, so he did nothing.
         Across from the staircase on the wall was a large steel door with a massive latch.
         “Laura,” Suzi whispered, turning to her friend once they were all in the basement. “Snap of it. Please!”
         Laura slowly turned her head to Suzi, but did nothing else.
         “What is that,” stuttered Mark, motioning towards the door.
         Kevin moved to the door and grabbed the latch.  He then grabbed the back of his gas mask and lifted it off his head.  He was smiling.
         “The chamber.”

++++

         Bryan suddenly found himself behind the wheel of Felix’s truck.  It felt as if for the last ten minutes, he was on automatic pilot.  Then, the memories came back to him.
         Dirty, sweaty hands touching him.
         Grabbing a pitchfork.
         Stabbing.
         Stabbing.
         Stabbing.
         The memories were in red and seemed to belong to someone else.  It was like remembering a scene from a movie.  But this had really happened.  Something terrible had happened.  Bryan drove the thoughts back and continued down the road back towards the town.
         It took only a couple of minutes to reach the barber shop, which was abandoned.  No sign of anyone with the infection.  No sign of Laura, Suzi or Mark either.  The thought of Laura, in particular, sent a slicing pain through his chest.  They had to be nearby.  Hopefully, they had not been taken to the chamber.
         Bryan left the truck and passed through the trashed shop, navigating through lumber and bodies to reach the door.  This time, when he kicked, the door swung open, spraying splinters.  There were clues… a couple of drops of blood, numerous footprints in the dust.  The footprints let out the back door, but disappeared on the back alley.  He looked down the street on either side.  An out-of-business clothing store on one end and a hardware store on the other.
         But what is this?
         A small, fragile light secreting from the depths of the hardware store.  He headed in that direction, praying that the others had not found the chamber yet.

++++

         The chamber door swung open and the gush of air sent fear flashing across their faces.  Then, the fear stopped, as quickly as it came.  Inside the chamber were six or seven people, sitting on chairs or on beds.  The chamber was actually a bit larger than the basement room, comfortably fitting everyone inside.  On the left were beds that hung from the wall three high.  On the right, a small kitchen counter with a sink and stovetop, where something was cooking.  On the back wall were more beds, but were stored against the wall to make room for a table where most of the company was playing cards.  All eyes turned to the door as it opened and they were greeted with warm smiles.
         Kevin moved into the chamber and spoke, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Suzi, Laura and Mark.  They came here looking for someone, but were not aware of what had happened.  They’ll be staying here until help arrives, okay?”
         The company nodded with smiles.  A couple of them approached to meet and greet, but Kevin asked for a moment alone.  He then turned to Mark.  Kevin’s face did not match his hard exterior.  He looked a calm man with a blond mustache and receding blond hair.  He was around forty years old, but appeared in good shape by the way he handled Mark’s previous attacks.
“I am sorry it has to be this way, but we cannot take any chances.  I am keeping the survivors here, in my safe room, where everything is sterile until the corporation comes.  Their instructions were to not interfere in the spreading of the disease, but I couldn’t let these people become infected if I could help it.  They were expecting survivors, so I wanted to do what little I could to make sure that number stayed up.”
         Mark was speechless, but Suzi spoke up quickly, “What about the other survivors you mentioned?”
         “I have captured a few of them and brought them here.  It is not safe out there where the disease could be spreading airborne.  Those survivors do not trust me, so I have tried to save who I can.  If they avoid the disease, that’s great, but I don’t want to take chances.”
         “I can’t believe this…” Mark said.  “I thought you were killing us.”
         “No,” Kevin said, biting his lip, “I’m sorry.  This isn’t how any of us expected it to turn out.  But we’re doing all we can.  Now, let me check you again before I allow you into the chamber, just for extra security.”
         Kevin began to check Mark the same way he had at the barber shop.  Meanwhile, Suzi turned to Laura.
         “Look Laura, everything is okay… we’ll be okay.”
         Laura slowly shook her head, “I can’t.  I can’t.”
         Suzi slowly embraced her, pleading with her to snap out of it.  Kevin continued to check them after Mark.  Laura’s condition had not changed; Kevin believed her conscious had retreated into her subconscious as a form of defense against all of the chaos that had occurred.  He suggested that he go to the drug store before sleeping to get something to calm her down.
         As Kevin spoke to Suzi and Mark, Laura had moved to a woman sitting on her bed reading a book.  The woman looked at her and smiled calmly, “Hello there.”
         Slowly, a smile appeared on Laura’s face and soft words came from her, “Hi.”
         “My name is Ariel, what’s yours?”
         “Ariel…” Laura slowly repeated and pondered on, “Bryan’s mom.”
         Ariel paused stiff and the smile disappeared from her face, “Is Bryan here?”
         Laura’s smile also faded, “He’s somewhere.”

         “I’ll be back in a moment,” said Kevin.  He began swinging the chamber door closed.  It was nearly a quarter closed when he simultaneously heard a deafening blast and his leg collapse under him in excruciating pain.  His eyes turned as he fell to the ground and he saw a man with a pistol in one hand and a live grenade leaving his other hand.  The grenade sailed through the air towards the closing chamber door.  Every nerve of Kevin’s body screamed ‘NO!’, but he was helpless.  The grenade bounced off the frame of the large, metal door and disappeared inside, followed by the closing of the door and the latch snapping into place.
         Kevin’s eyes shot back to the man and he screamed from the depths of his soul.
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! 
“WHAT IN GOD’S NAME HAVE YOU DONE?!”

But Bryan could only hear the calamity in his mind as he gripped the pistol tightly and stared through the chamber doors:
Disease!
Infection!
Germs!
Destroy!
Destroy!
Stabbing

Stabbing…