Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Sixty-Four - Ira

"Motherfucker." I gritted my teeth as Doctor Connor moved at the last minute to tackle Yulian, my perfectly aimed shot grazing the doctor's shoulder instead of going through the side of his head. We expected that the medical personnel would be dangerous, but I didn't expect everyone, including the middle-aged Doctor Connor, to be ruthless like Doctor Nita. "Linkin, can you turn off their mains? We could use some peace and quiet for a few minutes."

"Robin, what's your location?" Of course Four had to talk loudly over me. "And Linkin, what the fuck is Code Orange?"

"We're in the cafeteria," Stuart started to answer as I shot another nurse who fell to the ground. Four had switched up the teams at the last minute, exchanging Yulian and me with Stuart's two teammates. It made sense to have a doctor and two fellow mutants to see that the Alaskan recruits made it out.

"Code Orange."

"Shut the fuck up!" I yelled, taking out my anger on the nurse as I turned her head into an unrecognizable pulp. Yulian had Doctor Connor pinned down and was reaching for a knife strapped to his vest. I ducked behind a couch as another doctor took aim at me. "L-"

"There's something wrong with Linkin." It was Nate, his usually casual voice raised in panic. My heart sped up and almost stopped, a chill anchoring me to the spot. All I could think about was the tracker in Linkin. Who knew what other things the criminals put in her to control her. I saw Stuart leave the Native twins where they stood, stunned, raising his formidable machine gun just as Yulian cried out the worst insult I'd heard in Russian.

Gunshots that sounded like exploding fireworks snapped me out of my panic. Peeking from behind my cover, I saw that Connor had rolled over and was now trying to push Yulian's knife into his eye. Gravity was giving the doctor strength and when he saw me aiming at him, he quickly twisted the knife sideways down Yulian's arm, rolled over, and picked up a gun from a fallen security guard.

"Root," the monotonous female over the PA said before she went quiet. I heard two dull thuds behind me, which I couldn't afford to check out. Doctor Connor and I were glaring at each other down the barrels of our guns, but Stuart yelled for Yulian to stay down and swept bullets across Connor's chest. Bullet shells clattered to the pristine ground, and then there was silence in the compound. The fluorescent lights switched off, but the orange alarm lights continued to flash like the place was haunted by the recent casualties.

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"Linkin?" Stuart was yelling as he helped bind the long gash on Yulian's arm with a towel. Sounds of another struggle rang down the hallway, and I could imagine the bullets passing through Four's body while she fired back with that vengeful expression she always had.

"Linkin's unconscious." There was finally a response from the base, but it was Nate. "We've got Mel on the code now, but I don't know what happened to Linkin..."

I reached down to Mato's neck and felt his pulse. It was slow but not weak. I waited for Four to make ask an impatient question, but the exchange of gunfire continued to echo and it was Stuart who asked questions instead, walking Nate through the steps to check Linkin's vitals while tying a tourniquet around Yulian's upper arm. I looked for the same signs from Mato and Anaba, and according to Stuart, they were not in bad shape. It wasn't much of a relief.

"How many did you find, B Team?" an unfamiliar voice cut through - Mel. It was strange that she was asking even though she would have been following the action all along.

"Two of them, the twins," I reported back. "They're in the same state as Linkin."

"Then they'll probably all be like this," Stuart said. "Four? You've been quiet? Everyone alright?" He was getting ready to go again.

"Four," Thierry spoke up through the comms, out of breath.

There was a tense moment before Four answered. "Sorry. Been trying to get answers out of this idiot who almost put a bullet in me." There was a muffled cry on the other end before Four continued, "What was that? You're sorry? No, then tell me what the fuck just happened." She clearly wasn't speaking to us anymore.

"You need help, Four?" Yulian asked, readying a pistol in his good hand. Doctor Connor's blood was all over his hair and drying on half of his face, but he didn't seem bothered by it.

"I think we are finished here. This moron is too stubborn and a good dog." There was a loud bang before I felt how dead quiet the compound had become. "Team C, which way to the infirmary? We need some medical supplies."

"So do we," Stuart said before both Yulian and Thierry chimed in with the fact that they were fine.

The new computer woman cleared her throat before she spoke. "Oasis went completely offline after their orange alarm. We lost all of the surveillance."

"I think the mains are off," I said. Lost electricity a little too late.

"If you look around with your head cams or tell me where you are, I can give you directions," Nate said.

"We're listening," Four said. Like everything was already over, she added, "Robin, get me some food? You know how it gets. Don't look at me like that, Thierry. This is also serious."

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Four let her teammates from Canada watch over the unconscious Anaba and Mato as the rest of us made our way to the infirmary, the orange light being the only way to see in the dark hallways for most of us. All of us held out weapons tightly except Four, who let her gun hang in front of her as she devoured a large turkey sandwich. Her face, though, showed that she was just as alert as the rest of us, maybe more.

"Not far now," Nate said as I stopped a limping Thierry from tripping over another body in between the orange flashes. "Should be your second left."

"Wait..." I let go of Thierry and looked closer at the body that he had just stepped over. The dead man was hunched in a heap, having rolled forward with his hands over the centre of his chest. His t-shirt was soaked in blood. I let the others walk ahead without me and pried the cooling, muscular body apart so I could see his face. "Shit."

"What's wrong?" everyone asked at more or less the same time, but Thierry's voice was the loudest. He'd been silent up until now, trying to keep his concern for Linkin at bay while he focused on getting patched up and getting out of here.

I'd seen the faces of the dead before, but this one sent a chill down my spine. His eyes were wide open, his face contorted in a mixture of shock, horror, and sadness. I recognized him from the photos from the database that Four had hacked into. There was not a drop of blood on his face, and the knuckle-duster tattoo on the side of his neck was clearly visible.

"Ira?" Stuart asked, worried. A door creaked open; they must have found the infirmary.

"I-I found Bryce," I stuttered, pulling away the dead man's hands to examine what had killed him. There were no other bodies in this hallway; it was clean and untouched, away from where the two teams battled. "Number Six. He's dead. I think he was shot by one of the doctors on purpose."