Iggy fumbled to stand. He hunched forward with his wrists crossing over his chest and he bowed his head. "Just… make it quick, then."
Robert's fingers wrapped around the grimy bars and he held them tight. He stood straight and tense, leaning in so much that his nose came through the gap. "You deserve better than this…" he said. "If you are who you say you are, you are not at any fault for what's happening here. Your father was the one who started this epidemic."
Iggy lifted his chin.
A sudden silence overcame the hallway, capturing both of their attentions. The gurgling was gone. The agonal gasps had stopped. And the prisoner's heart no longer beat. Robert walked away from Iggy's cell and went to the man's cell. He returned with the gurney and the dead man. Then, he opened the lock on Iggy's cell door and pushed the gurney inside. He entered, slid the door shut behind himself, but didn't lock it, and traced Iggy's gaze back to the small opening between the metal and frame.
"You won't be able to run out of here," Robert warned. "There are two security barriers that only I can get you through. So, lie down. Lie as limp as possible, because that's how'd you be if I decapitated you."
"You're…?"
"Don't say it aloud. Just get on top."
Seeing the seriousness in Robert's eyes and hearing it in his voice, Iggy scurried up on top and lied with his back to the dead man's stomach. Robert pulled the gurney out of the cell and into the hallway. Going into the next cell, he grabbed the dead woman and laid her on top of Iggy, and then the other dead man on top of her. Right before he wheeled them through the main doorway, he said, "now, listen. When I tap your foot like this-" his hand swatted Iggy's left heel "-that's your sign that I am leaving you. Wait thirty seconds, and then run like hell toward any exit sign. I really hope that everything works out, but I can't be optimistic that it will. It's most likely daylight out there." A shot of adrenaline spiked through Iggy and he wriggled his arms. "Whoa, no moving, I said!"
"Aren't you the night guard, though?"
"We're supposed to think that."
"But…"
"We're supposed to think that in order to prevent these sorts of hijinks. Look, by all means, do absolutely anything you need to get out. Then, just keep running. Don't stop until you are sure that you've made it out. That, or you'll die in the sun, which is still better than dying here."
"And you?"
"Forget about me. Forget my name. Forget this place. Die in peace."
Robert wrapped a thick plastic drape over them all. The stench was as thick as water and Iggy's instincts told him that if he didn't want to drown, then he couldn't breathe. So he didn't.
As Robert pushed them out of the chamber, the wheels squealed with each turn around and the board waved flimsily beneath them as if it were ready to break at any moment, but even so, Iggy kept his calm. He concentrated all of his energy into not using any of it, to lie lifelessly. He heard an elevator door shut, and even though he was certain that it was only him and Robert, he still did not move.
Robert's radio sparked static. "Base to labs, Robert reporting."
"Shhh… Shhh… Labs to base, what's the news?"
"Confirming the transportation of specimens 12, 17, 22, and 62 to the cremation room. Arriving shortly."
The elevator halted and a soft ding noise confirmed that they had made it to the floor. The elevator doors slid apart in a loud whoosh. Even through the barricades, Iggy could hear Robert's heart rate speed up and his breathing rate increase. Listening harder, Iggy could hear a faint chatter between two other conversing people. They skipped over the threshold and into a hallway. As the wheels slowed, the quiet conversation became louder. They were not only crossing paths with others, but they were stopping somewhere near them. In this situation, it would've been completely comprehensible for Robert to be afraid.
But, Robert?
His heart was fast, yet not alarmingly so. He was nervous, however his breath was still steady. He was a true diamond in the rough. He pulled out his keys to the cremation room without a single uncontrolled jitter.
The radio replied. "Oh, goody. We've been waiting on specimen 17's autopsy."
A rough voice that was inherently more feminine than masculine called out to Robert. "Hey Bobby." Footsteps tapped closer and then stopped within arm's length of the gurney.
Robert passively looked up at the two uniformed officers waiting near the cremation room door. The first was a female, with light blond hair and a boxy shaped face, who was much larger than her partner, a short man of less than one hundred and twenty pounds.
Robert answered deeply, trying to make them believe that he was tired, as usual. "Hey, Jen. Ed. What brings you here?"
Jen cocked her head and gazed at his mouth. "The doc told us to take this load apart and pick out specimen 17. Gotta admit, it's not the highlight of my day."
Robert's heart began to race and Iggy could hear the difference between his and the other two calm ones. He was most likely blushing, too. Someone's hand leant into the gurney edge. Iggy thought, I might need to kill them, if they don't kill me first. Against his own control, his arms began to subtly tremble. After breathing in a smidge of the horrifically distasteful air, he reminded himself that this sort of undesirable death was the only thing left for him there. He needed to stay calm to get out.
Robert leaned away from the gurney. "Really? There's not much left of 17." He turned the key in the lock and opened the cremation room door. "I had decapitation orders."
The two officers laughed and then Jen said, "wow, the doc really had it out for him, eh?! Well, let's get this show on the road." She continued to chuckle even after her partner had silenced. How she could have still laughed was beyond Iggy's understanding. Yet, there she was, eagerly peeling the corner of the tarp out from under the first body as if she were unwrapping a present.
"I don't think you want any part in this…" Robert attempted to warn them.
A small voice came from Ed. "Well, the doc wants what he wants."
The crinkled tarp flew upwards, and light flooded through Iggy's eyelids, and he could see the three shadows standing around him. Two by his feet and one by his head. The stench cloud lifted and a fit of coughing and gagging erupted from the two people near his feet.
Robert spoke tightly, wasting as little air as possible. "You guys don't mind wheeling this in when you get what you're looking for? I'm hit with carrying out orders, and I've been dealing with this smell for days. My head is killing me."
The woman waved the air away from her nose. "Oh, Bobby. You know that ain't our job, and you know how much we hate extra work. Hang around, and when we get what we're here for, you can finish up and go back into the hole that you crawled out of."