"Why did you do that?" Roark asked. "You had to know most of them had already been emptied out."
"With a majority of the survivors in hiding, the mechs are getting desperate. They're starting to go back to scour areas they've already been through. I figured if any of the facilities had been missed, those people were sitting ducks."
"What did you do about the virus?" Frankie asked. "Wasn't that the reason most of them had been put in stasis in the first place?"
"Oh, I found a large supply of the cure in the laboratory upstairs."
Roark's eyes narrowed. "How large?"
"I don't know. I never counted, but I'd say there is easily thousands of bottles of the stuff stored up there."
"Show me," Roark ordered.
Sawyer squinted at the commander. "Do you know something I don't?"
"I'm kind of curious how much of the cure is here and how long it's been here. In the beginning of this shit storm, right after they discovered a cure, a bunch of government officials and military brass swore up and down they only had a few doses, that they didn't have enough to give to everyone."
"Shit," Stefan whispered. "If there's a huge supply here, then they had plenty. They could have cured everyone."
"I didn't have to go into the freezer," Frankie snapped. "They could have gotten me the cure, and I never would have had to spend ten years as a popsicle."
"No, you still would have been put in stasis, just not for ten years. You were one of the first cases, Frankie. We didn't even have a cure then. We didn't get a cure for another five years after you went into stasis."
"Or did we?" Dahl asked. "The question is, when did they discover the cure and how much of it did they have?"
Stefan's stomach clenched. His faith in the ADF was dwindling fast. "I'm not sure I want to know."
"Grab that lamp, Stefan," Sawyer directed. "It can get pretty dark in the corridors."
Stefan reached over and grabbed the lamp Sawyer had set down. Roark already had one as did Sawyer. When Sawyer started out of the bunker, he followed. He kind of wished he had a diagram of this place so he knew where everything was located. There was probably one filed away somewhere, but he wouldn't know the first place to look for it.
He was impressed, and equally intimidated, by the large domed tunnel they were walking through. He was pretty he could drive a truck through it.
"So, not to throw gasoline on the fire," Frankie said, "but why wasn't this place closed up tight when the mechs attacked? I mean, if there was a virus out there that was killing people, it would make sense that our government would be holed up somewhere safe."
"I'm pretty sure everyone here was inoculated against the virus," Roark answered. "And if Sawyer is right and they had a cache of the cure stored here, then they probably weren't real worried about anyone catching it."
"Sounds stupid to me," Frankie replied. "You should always be cautious about that shit. Viruses aren't something to mess with."
Stefan had never had the virus, so he wouldn't know. He had been inoculated, though. Everyone in the ADF had been. Everyone who had survived had been inoculated. It was required to prevent the spread of the virus.
Stefan didn't know what he expected when they finally reached the infirmary, but what he found wasn't it. "Christ! You said they had totally gutted the infirmary, but this place looks like a bomb went off in it."
It looked as if someone had made an attempt at cleaning the place up, but there was no way he could miss the holes in the walls. They were huge.
"I think it probably did." Sawyer looked a little green as he glanced around, almost as if he was remembering something he didn't want to. "There were pieces of people all over the place."
Stefan stepped up to Sawyer and rubbed his hand down the man's back. "I hate that you had to go through all that alone."
Sawyer's hand was surprisingly gentle as it cupped the side of Stefan's face. "I'd rather go through it alone than leave you with those memories."
Stefan wondered if the man realized he'd used his mechanical hand. He certainly wasn't going to mention it if Sawyer didn't.
"Is this where they stored the cure?" Roark asked.
"No, this is just the infirmary," Sawyer said as he looked away from Stefan. "The laboratory is further down the corridor. It's behind another blast door."
"I'm a little disturbed that a complex that was supposed to be one of the most secure places on the planet is so easily breached," Frankie said. "It does not inspire confidence in our government."
