"Sky's getting light," Bart said, looking up as they followed their trail. "Real glad Linda insisted we wear blacks now. Could have at least worn my lucky jacket. Not like it would've hurt or..."
"Get down!" Lois hissed.
Bart crouched on his side and she on hers. He turned back to her. "What?"
"People," she whispered, excited. It was one thing to see lights, hear a distant scream. It was a whole other thing to see people there.
"What?" It was Linda, also whispering. "People? Where? Are you in any danger because the bell has a rope ladder and I can..."
"They're far off, Linda." She pulled the small binoculars from her back pocket. Now that it was getting lighter, they might actually come in handy.
"What do you see?" Bart hissed. "Can I see those for a sec?"
"Can't risk passing them over, Bart. The fence." Or maybe she was just a little happier with her choice of gear after he crowed about calling dibs on the tranc gun. She focused in the distance. "Three people. Two men, one woman. One of the men is... pretty gigantic. He's got the other two by the arms. They're moving down a kind of path. I can only see trees behind them. But there are two buildings. One's huge and one's slightly smaller. He's hustling them to that one and... they don't look too happy, especially the woman." Lois gasped. "I know her. I think I know her face. She's... Oh, crap!" She'd thought of bringing her notes, but she'd really wanted to travel light, especially with Bart's whining about travelling with a load. "She's one of them. I just... I just forget which one. And I'm guessing that's her husband." She watched the man hustle the two of them toward the smaller building. "We found them!" She wished Clark was here to see... "We found Clark!" She'd only realized it now. They were there! So definitely there!
"We found something else, too," Bart said. Lois lowered the binoculars. Bart was still crouched down, but not looking at the buildings. He was staring at the ground ahead of him. "We got about three feet without a dead beastie in sight."
Lois looked through the binoculars again. There was no one there anymore. They must have gone into the building.
"What do you mean, you found Clark?" Martha was whispering.
"Do you see him?" Linda prodded. "Is he the big guy?"
"No, no." Lois took a deep breath. "I saw a man hustling two people to a building. One of them is a woman from Met Vista. I recognized her face from the medical files. I just... I know Clark is here. I feel it. Just... give me a second. I need to concentrate, here." She found herself scratching her left wrist. It had been mildly irritated for a few minutes now. When she got Clark out of this, she'd go to a jeweler. Have the thing removed without ruining it. Despite what Clark said, the thing was obviously old and valuable... and itchy and tight. She stood and stared at the gap. "How can we be sure this is the break? Maybe nothing crawled or flew across this patch of fence."
Bart stood as well, gesturing to the buildings. "And miss all the tasty human garbage?" He pointed to his right. "Besides, the dead line begins again just a few feet away. My guess is all these creatures are either after knocking over the camp's garbage or after the things that died trying to get across the line, then whammo! But the ones who came through this patch got lucky."
"Yes, but if this gap is just a fluke and I try to get across it, then I get... whammoed." She shuddered.
Bart sighed. "Okay. You're right. Gotta test it." He took a deep breath.
"Bart, don't you dare..." He was gone. But he wasn't next to her. There was silence all around. Even Linda wasn't babbling away. She looked around. It was getting even lighter, but she couldn't see him anywhere. She looked behind her, afraid he'd gone through the fence again and was lying somewhere, too weak to move... or worse. "Bart..."
"Yeah, right here."
She jumped and turned around, a hand on her heart. He was still on his side. "Don't do that! I thought you went through again. I nearly... Why are you holding a rabbit?"
"I did a little speed-through and grabbed us a test subject."
"Huh?"
He pet the rabbit. "Usually, I'd be all against animal testing and AC and Ollie would have my head for this, but I am that confident. See, we toss the rabbit through the gap, he hops off happily, and then you can stop worrying."
Her jaw dropped. "You are not killing that bunny!"
"It won't kill him. I'm telling you. This is the gap."
"Um... Lo? I know I'm supposed to be letting you concentrate, but... what's this about bunny killing?"
"Nobody is killing a bunny," she said pointedly, her eyes on Bart.
He rolled his eyes. "Then I'll go through."
"No! We can find another way without endangering..."
"Time's wasting, Lane." He tossed the rabbit lightly and she cringed, waiting for a thud as it fell to the ground. But it didn't. She turned and watched it hop away into the forest.
"See?" Bart was right behind her now. "Even I'm on the other side now, so... Ow!"
"Bart?" It was Linda. "I can hear him now! Bart, did I hear that you were endangering a defenseless bunny?
"Don't worry, Linda. He's been punished."
Bart rubbed his side. "You have some sharp elbows."
"Oh, suck it up. You've been begging for that all night." She stared past him at the gap. "No more funny business. If we're going in, you're checking that impulsive streak at this gap. we're going to be completely careful." She poked him in the shoulder. "And cautious."
"Okay. Got it. Enough with the poking."
"Lois, are you sure you need to go in?" Martha asked.
"Yes. Because we know now," Linda added. "We can call Ollie and the gang and they can..."
"They can help us get these people out, get Clark out. But this is more than a rescue mission." She stared ahead of her. "This is a story." Their story. And she would get it. She only hoped Clark was getting it, too, instead of another dose of debilitating spores. Except Clark hadn't busted out of here carrying armfuls of squirming people. It was another reason she needed to get in there now. "Bart and I are going to get in there and check out the situation."
"But you won't be able to talk to us from in there. We'll be completely..."
"That's why I need you to listen now. You call Ollie." She pulled at the zipper on Bart's backpack. She pulled at something red. "Knew you'd have this after all your whining."
"Hey! That's my..."
"I'm dropping Bart's jacket at the gap. If they need to come in, this is where."
"Oh, fine." Bart moved to the other side of the fence. "Let's kick some evil scientist ass!"
"But Lois," Linda was pleading, "can't we wait for..."
"We don't know how much time we have." She saw the way the man was hustling the two to the building. With the screams and the flashing lights... She suspected this wasn't just another night at Camp Creepy. And it was surely no coincidence that Clark, on this very night, was missing... No. Here. He was here. She knew it. It was all the more reason to get in there now. She stared across at Bart. "Linda, if we can contact you, we will."
"Martha's calling him. You... You just be careful."
Martha's voice came over the line. "Yes. Please take care of yourself, Chloe."
Lois squeezed her eyes shut. "What?"
She felt Bart pulling at her arm. "Come on, Kid. Time is money."
She moved through the gap behind him. Chloe...
*******************************
Clark leaned heavily against the wall, trying to walk while doing it. The way out seemed so far, down such a long hallway. But he could make it... though slowly. If he could get outside, he could use the phone, call... No. No police. He remembered what Helen had said. Even if they get to the evidence, there was volatile materials there. His blood, his infected blood, the spores... Even locked in an evidence lab, someone might get it. The wrong someone. He knew burning worked, but there were people here. And even so, this was the middle of a forest. He didn't have the power to stop it if it got out of control. Torching acres of trees and wildlife would be bad enough, but then it could spread to homes, families...
"Ollie," he groaned, still inching his way down the hall. If he could get Ollie here, he could get everything out, take it somewhere safe, burn it all. To do that, he just needed to get outside. He just had no strength to... he could hear something. He looked up and down the hall, leaning back on the wall. It wasn't close. His strength was gone, but he could still hear. In fact, he heard too much. He was losing control with all the clicks... sharp footsteps.
He turned to the nearest door. Locked. This was the only door in a long stretch. He fumbled with the keys. If he didn't have the strength to make it to the next door, he couldn't do much about Albright. Not only did he not relish the idea of fighting an old woman, he wasn't sure he was up to it. He glanced at the door. L1. He didn't even remember an L1 unless it was... "Lab," he breathed, fumbling through the keys, the jingling ringing in his ears with the clicking. Around the corner, closer...
He jammed the key in the locked and turned. Clark fell into the doorway and stopped short of tumbling all the way to the floor, holding fast to the knob to stop the door from banging into the wall. He scrambled to the other side of it, pulling the keys out before pushing it closed on his knees. He didn't even close it all the way before he had to stop.
The clicks were closer. He tried not to breathe, held the door just short of closing. He stopped breathing altogether as the clicks stopped and he saw feet in low-heeled shoes through the crack. They were stopped. He wasn't sure what he was more afraid of, that she would turn to him or that she would move down the hall to the room he'd come from, discover him gone and then come looking. She did neither. She stood before a door with no marking, thumbing through a set of keys when a loud beep sounded. They both jumped.
"Doc, got em in," a tinny voice said.
There was a metallic chirp, then he heard her speak. He risked a breath out. "Just stay outside until I tell you I'm done. We need them docile and in their quarters so I can sort out Helen's mess."
"Is, uh... Is she gonna be okay?"
"She just better be." He heard a certain sadness as her feet moved away, closed behind a door. He closed his own door and slumped against it.
It bothered him. He almost preferred going up against Brainiac, Zod... anything that could be positively labeled as pure evil. These were intelligent women. They could have used their intellects for something better than this. But here they were. And they'd formed a connection, bonded, even under something so unethical as this. He closed his eyes, wondering why Helen, why Lizzie, why Lex... They had power that he didn't, whether it was means or a specific kind of genius. They could cure cancer, aids, any number of diseases and they chose to create disease and not destroy it.
And he had to stop them... through any means possible. And he nearly longed for the days when he didn't want to, when his greatest desire was to be a normal man, a farmer... He was past it now. But life was simpler when the goal was just... living. Now every day was fraught with God knew how many troubles and a world that constantly needed saving.
We didn't ask for a world that needs heroes, but the truth is we do...now more than ever, Clark. Chloe had said it. It must have been years ago. But the words warmed him somehow. He'd long ago accepted who he was, who he had to be. But every day, he had to wake up to it, accept it again. It would be so much easier if she was always there to say those words. If she knew who she was, what she was to him...
Still, the warmth moved over him and... He opened his eyes. Sunlight. It was scant, but creeping through the window ahead of him.
He rose, drawn towards it, waiting for the strength it could give him. The windows were barred, but he clutched at the metal, straining toward the glass and the light as it grew brighter.
The sweat dried from his face as his limbs grew lighter. He pulled at the bars, letting out a frustrated groan when they didn't give. He might not be able to bend steel, but he could walk out, get help. He turned around, looking toward the door in the growing light. He started to move to it when he was stopped. L1. Lab. He'd only seen it as a place to hide, but this was more than that. He looked at the darkened counter tops, littered with paper and empty apparatus. It wouldn't all be out here. No. They'd want to keep the substances cool. His eyes were drawn to a shiny, metal door in the corner. As he moved toward it, he felt the cold. His blood, the infected blood, the spores. If he knew where the were, then it would be that much easier to destroy them. He pulled at a lever and the metal door opened, bringing cold air... and a vision that might haunt him until his dying day.
"Oh, my God..."
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