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it. Harris was the first to speak, “I am with you. I don’t want to die here without even trying to get out.”
    “Thanks Harris,” Jordan replied, “Anyone else have thoughts?”
    “What if the door has sealed in some way?” Rio asked.
    “Due to accidental shut down, the doors of the facility are made to open from the inside and only seal to the outside. Most people don’t know that because they didn’t want anyone to try. However, it would help to have something to bust the door down just in case.”
    The doctor finally spoke. “There is an axe in the fire extinguisher area in this room. That could help. If we hurry, we should be able to get up there and out the door just holding our breath, it really isn’t that far. But, if we have to bust down the door, with no air? It won’t be good.”
    Jordan considered the doctor’s words. “I am willing to take those odds.”
    “Me too,” said Harris.
    “Okay,” the doctor replied, “It sounds like our best option.”
    There was a long pause. The doctor then asked, “Jose?”
    Rio sniffled, “I am not going.”
    Dr. Pare pleaded with him, but in the end, he would not change his mind. He said he would seal the room up, but be inside to let them back in if they could make it back. The three of them gathered their items near the door, crawling and reaching out in the pitch black. Jordan took the axe. In the dark, they had traced in each person’s hand the route they would take and had tied a string to each person’s belt to keep them together.
    Jordan did a last check and they were all ready. “Rio, there is no way to come back for you. This is the last chance. Are you certain this is what you want?”
    Jose Rio patted him on the shoulder and just said, “Go.”
    They opened the door and quickly walked to the right, opening the first door into the stairwell with the simple push bar. They headed up the stairs in pitch black and Jordan tripped over a body that he tried unsuccessfully to steer those following him away from and Harris gasped. This little intake of a bad air mixture made her short on breath, and Kane had to pull her up the last flight as he kicked open the door with an axe in his left hand and his right arm around Donna Harris.
    As they collapsed onto the ground, gulping in the fresh outdoor air, they would have been in relative darkness. But the few hours (it had really only been close to two by this point) in the pitch black of the facility had made the darkness of the outdoor lab in the afternoon seem downright bright in comparison. Though it could not have been more than four in the afternoon, it was pretty dark, because this section of the facility was right up against a cliff. Its small openings were not enough to compensate. Jordan was surprised that enough light came in to keep the garden alive. The stress, the lack of oxygen, and the run for life from the lab had exhausted all three of them and they decided to wait until morning to plan out their next move. They were each able to lie down in the dirt, close to one another. They barely knew each other, but they were together now and had a bind that would last.
     

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    Kyle heard the rattling and knocking at the store door, but with all that had just happened, he was not very interested in opening the door at this point. It seemed that he and Jessica were better off with that particular barrier between them and the outside world. He looked back to where his boss, Jeff, was tied and gagged in the corner. Jeff had tried to attack them, maybe even kill them, when the power had gone out. Kyle just didn’t understand it; he had always got along with Jeff. Then the power goes out, and after a short period, Jeff just went nuts. He had gone to the gun section of the store and opened the cases, loading a shotgun and a pistol with ammo and ordering Kyle and Jessica out.
    He heard a muffled call, “Kyle!” It was his dad. A huge relief washed over Kyle as he ran forward, yelling out to