Free Carlie Simmons (Book 1): Until Morning Comes by JT Sawyer Page B

light.
    Feeling the door locked, he shrugged and
then held his right hand up so one end of the handcuff chain dangled over the
deadbolt, and then placed the muzzle of the Glock on the chain. Jared noticed
his hands trembling, which caused him to scrunch his eyebrows together in
wonderment. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger as the .40 caliber bullet
shattered the silver chain and liberated the door lock. He opened one eye and
tried to hold back a smile of self-admiration, then yanked the door open and
ran inside, entering a stairwell.
    Emergency lights shone throughout the
levels above. He was about to sprint up the stairs to the fourth floor, where
he had seen the lights, but heard the sound of screaming. His eyes raced along
the walls as he tried to shut out the noise and think of where to run. He
spotted an acrylic sign on the wall to his right which read “Mortuary Sciences
Below.” Great — more dead bodies. Sounds like the shindig I just left.
    He jogged down the cement stairs for two
levels to the last floor and slowly opened the heavy door, his Glock trained on
the hallway. He could hear faint voices–coming from a room ten feet away.
    Hey, alright, some other survivors. Now
if they can only be the U of A cheerleading squad, I can die a happy man, he thought as
he entered the chilly air of the hallway.
    He stood outside the stainless-steel
door and strained to make out the voices inside. It sounded like five or six
people were discussing their plan for fleeing the campus. He tapped the pistol
on the door and moved alongside the cement wall, hearing the voices inside grow
silent.
    “Hey, open up in there. I’m all alone
and need a place to hide out.” He could hear the voice of a young woman arguing
with others inside.
    “You wanna survive the night, you should
consider letting me in,” Jared said. “I’ve just come from downtown and there
are a whole lot of creatures out there who are gonna be looking for fresh meat
soon.”
    The arguing continued inside until the
woman finally told the others to be quiet. Then the door opened slightly and Jared
saw the face of a lovely brunette appear with a golf club in her hand. She was
dressed in navy blue pants and a light blue shirt, and wore a bronze badge
above her shirt pocket which read, Amy, Paramedic .  She moved into the
hallway, looking over Jared and the pistols in his possession and then scanning
both directions of the hallway. “Quick, get inside,” she said, tugging on his
shirt, the sleeve of which he made sure concealed the single handcuff.

Chapter 18
     
    Carlie extended the folding antenna on
the top of the Iridium sat phone and dialed in the code for central command in
Washington. She stood by a slightly ajar window for better reception, feeling
the cold air trickle out past her tired fingers.
    Four attempts and ten minutes later, she
tried calling Washington as well as Secret Service offices in the Four Corners
region, but to no avail. Carlie closed the window and powered off the device,
then returned to the group, giving a grimace to Phillip as she approached.
    “Was there any luck with contacting your
colleagues?” said the professor, who stood with his hands buried in his
pockets.
    “No, but standard protocol is to try at
the top of each hour over a ten-minute interval,” she said, stowing the phone
back in her pack.
    “What’d you see out there?” said the
professor.
    “A few dozen creatures milling about.
They seem to have piss-poor eyesight at night, which was mighty helpful. I also
saw one that exhibited near alpha-dog behavior over the others. Not sure what
that’s about.”
    “What now, if central command is
off-grid or disabled?” said Phillip.
    “I’ll try a few more times throughout
the night. The juice in the sat phone is half gone, the way those things work,
so I have to be picky with our attempts until tomorrow, when I can pull out the
solar charger. Cent-com is hopefully only down for a short time until POTUS