บท 69: THE SURVIVOR
'SOMETHING'S WRONG.'
Logan looked at Purna in surprise. 'You got spidey senses or something? Looks quiet enough to me.'
'That's what I mean,' said Purna. 'Where are the guards?'
From the far side of the clearing, they all stared across at the high-security fence and the blocky grey buildings beyond it.
'Maybe they're on a break?' suggested Xian Mei unconvincingly.
Purna shot her a withering look. 'All at the same time?'
'OK, people,' Logan said almost wearily, 'lock and load.'
Guns at the ready, the six of them moved across the clearing, scanning the surrounding jungle for anything unusual.
Purna's verdict was not based purely on the lack of guards. She had tried calling West that morning, without success. It had been decided before they had set out for Mowen's village yesterday that if West's overnight attempts to develop a vaccine proved unsuccessful, Mowen would take Purna, Sam, and the rest straight over to the prison island without them first making a pointless detour back to the research facility.
However, West's unavailability had meant they had to come here first, after all; if it was even possible that a vaccine had been developed, then they couldn't afford not to. Purna knew she would be angry if it turned out they had had a wasted journey, but it probably wasn't West's fault. The communications network had not exactly been reliable these past couple of days, and although the phone at the research facility had seemed just to ring out over and over again without reply, that didn't necessarily mean nobody could be bothered to pick up.
They were about five meters away from the security fence when Sam said, 'Aw, shit.'
'What is it, big guy?' asked Logan.
'Purna's right. We got trouble.'
Moving up to the fence, he pointed through the vertical metal slats to a patch of grass several meters away. Lying in the grass, among several pools of blood, was an AK 47.
'Must've been a prison breakout,' said Logan.
'Where do you think they are now?'
'Inside, I guess.'
'Maybe they wandered off into the jungle,' said Xian Mei, looking around nervously.
Purna shook her head. 'The infected don't climb, and there's no other way out.'
'So what's our next move?' asked Sam. 'We go in there after them?'
'Don't see that we've got much choice,' Purna replied. 'But we're not going in there after them. We're going in there looking for the vaccine.'
'If there is one,' Xian Mei whispered, as if to herself.
Purna pulled a face, as if that was a possibility she didn't want to consider.
'We also need to look for survivors,' said Logan. 'Could be they've locked themselves in somewhere the infected can't get to them.'
Purna nodded.
'So how we gonna do this?' asked Sam. 'Who's going in?'
After some discussion, it was decided that Purna, Sam, Logan, and Xian Mei would check out the facility while Mowen and Jin would wait outside the perimeter fence with the backpacks of provisions they had all brought along with them.
'Keep your rifle ready, just in case,' Purna advised Mowen.
He looked at her as if she had insulted him. 'I always ready.'
'And look after Jin,' added Sam, glancing at the girl.
Mowen nodded.
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