Warden 1

by Isaac Hooke

  “No, you should have,” Rhea said. “I have no regrets. You gave me one last chance at life. I would have rather lived for as long as I have, than never existed again. Even if it meant never knowing who I once was.”

  Rhea sprinted on, feeling defeated.

  No. I refuse to accept this.

  There had to be something she could do, even if it meant she had to die in the end.

  And then she knew.

  I will die for them.

  “I’m going to climb,” she said.

  She leaped up and latched onto the cliff face.

  “Dude, it’s useless,” Will transmitted.

  “You keep running.” She reached up, finding a handhold, and pulled herself higher. “I’ll distract them.”

  “The bioweapons will simply split up,” Horatio sent.

  “Let her climb,” Will transmitted. He continued running below. “Let her feel like she’s at least doing something to help us.”

  Rhea continued to climb as the others fled. “You know, what if we caused a collapse? Get the bioweapons to start climbing after us, and then send this wall crumbling down upon them.”

  “There’s too many of them,” Will transmitted. “It might work at first, but the bioweapons will keep coming. Eventually, they’d get us. Look at them, they cover the land from horizon to horizon!”

  “Why are you all so eager to accept defeat!” Rhea sent. “I’m going to collapse this rock face on the bioweapons. You want to stay down there, that’s fine. But I have a potential escape plan here. If you’re too proud to accept that, because I came up with the idea and not you, then maybe you deserve to die.”

  “She’s right,” Sebastian broadcast. “We have to try it. Who knows, maybe we’ll frustrate these creatures enough that they’ll leave us alone.”

  She glanced toward him and saw the cyborg leap upward; Sebastian latched onto the rock five meters from the ground and started rapidly crawling toward her.

  She looked down and saw Will also on the cliff face. Horatio had apparently given him a boost, because he was about six meters high already, with the robot at his side.

  Free climbing was something that came relatively easily to a cyborg. With her enhanced strength, Rhea could readily hold herself up via the different crevices and rocky protrusions that presented themselves. But it couldn’t have been easy for Will. Humans weren’t designed for free climbing. She had watched a documentary on the subject one night after training. Apparently, free climbers practiced a route with full gear for months before attempting it without a lifeline. Will didn’t have that luxury: he had to get it right the first time.

  But he did have a drone. Hopefully, it was helping Will pick out the safest route.

  She turned her attention to the south: that cloud of dust was growing ever nearer. It began to curl inward, as if all the bioweapons composing it planned to congregate on the party’s position. Some of the creatures had emerged from the forefront, leaving behind the protective cover of the dust cloud to expose their true forms.

  From afar, the revealed creatures looked like some amalgamation of claws, tentacles, and snakes. She zoomed in on the closest pair to have a better look.

  The scaled bodies were reptilian, though of a size to match dinosaurs. They ran on four muscular legs, the toes festooned with deadly talons. At the front of the body were an additional two forelimbs ending in long, scythe-like claws. Broad tails were tipped by long, forbidding, whip-like tentacles: they reminded her of the stinging tendrils the aquatic creatures known as medusae bore. She had observed the latter in an interactive documentary only a week or so before—it seemed a lifetime ago.

  Her gaze focused on the forefronts. Several long necks protruded there, tipped by lion-like heads complete with long, hairy manes. She counted five heads per creature.

  “Hydras,” Rhea said. Greek Mythology was something else she’d stumbled upon during her random Net browsing. She’d watched a video about a mythical figure named Hercules who had killed one of these Hydras—a multi-headed creature whose heads grew back again when cut off.

  She retrieved the pistol from her holster, targeted a head on one of the “Hydras,” and fired. The energy bolt had no apparent effect. She didn’t see any eyes or other obvious features to target on the head, at least at this range, so she tried shooting at the body next, and then the legs and tail. The energy bolts seemed to be absorbed by every body part she chose, causing no harm. The second Hydra proved just as impervious to her shots.

  “Well, that’s not good,” Rhea sent.

  “What’s not good?” Will asked over the comm.

  “My energy bolts caused no damage,” Rhea replied. “No matter which body part I targeted. None.”

  “Maybe it’s the range,” Will sent. “If you were closer, I bet you’d cause some real hurt. Even so, I’m not sure it’s the greatest idea to get close. Take down one head, you got four more to deal with.”

  She watched the exposed creatures in the forefront a moment longer. The fact they were uncovered told her the cloud was something the bioweapons could utilize only when together. As if by staying close, they generated some sort of field, magnetic or otherwise, that trapped the dust particles created by their advance into a long tunnel that enveloped their line; when an individual bioweapon left formation, it lost the benefits of that field.

  She holstered the pistol and continued to climb; at the same time, she brainstormed different ways to cause the planned avalanche. Starting one had seemed like such a great idea when she first thought of it, but now she wasn’t so sure: the rocks looked like they could take quite a pounding. The party would probably have to use their energy pistols to weaken different sections first, along with the areas below them, so that when the upper rocks separated, there was a better chance of starting an avalanche. And it would always be only a chance and nothing more: the likeliest outcome was that the stones would simply break off without causing a chain reaction. Sure, the tumbling rocks would knock away whatever bioweapons were clinging to the cliff face directly below them, but the other creatures would prevail, clinging unharmed to the rocks that failed to dislodge.

  Yes, it wasn’t going to be easy.

  She continued climbing and eventually surmounted an overhanging section. Glancing higher, she spotted a cave entrance, one that wasn’t visible from the ground, thanks to the overhang. Gizmo wouldn’t have detected it, either, because of the way more rock folded over the top. Taken altogether, the top and bottom sections were almost like the pieces of some massive jaw, and the cave the gullet, its darkness eager to swallow her and the party whole.

  “Got a cave!” Rhea sent. “Forty meters from the ground.”

  “How deep is it?” Will replied over the comm.

  “I don’t know!” she said. “But it’s shelter! Get your asses up here!”

  If anything, they’d be able to use the cave as a choke point to hold off the incoming creatures, a strategic “inflection point,” as Bardain would call it.

  “Sending in Giz,” Will transmitted.

  Rhea made her way toward the opening. Meanwhile the drone darted past overhead and vanished into the cave.

  “Looks to be fairly extensive,” Will sent a moment later. “I was able to send Giz right up to the limits of comm range, fifty meters in, and still the tunnel continued deeper. No signs of bioweapons or other occupants. Seems to be naturally formed.”

  “It’s a good place to make a last stand,” Rhea said.

  “Maybe we won’t have to,” Will sent. “Forget about trying to start an avalanche. What we gotta do is collapse the entrance, seal ourselves inside…”

  “Sure, but if we do that, we’re going to have to dig ourselves out eventually.” Rhea reached the entrance and pulled herself onto the lip.

  “Or find another exit,” Will sent.

  “Assuming the tunnel doesn’t lead to a dead end.” Rhea gazed into the darkness and saw the vague outline of Gizmo hovering within, awaiting its master.

&n
bsp; She thought the tunnel was spacious enough to fit the smaller bioweapons she’d seen out there: after all, there was room for three people to stand abreast with arms extended, while another three could perch on their shoulders with arms upraised. If the smaller bioweapons squeezed their multiple heads together, and pulled their legs tight to their bodies, it would be cramped, but they’d fit, single file.

  She turned about to observe the plains. The creatures in the forefront were fast approaching the base of the cliff. While they varied in size, with some obviously too large, others would definitely fit the tunnel.

  She glanced at her companions on the rock face. Sebastian was the closest.

  “Collapsing the cave entrance might prove tricky,” Horatio transmitted. “It will require specific placement of energy bolts.”

  “Maybe,” Will sent. “But brute force might do the trick quite nicely as well. Our Monkey Tailed friend might finally be able to make himself useful.”

  “And if we’re successful, what about oxygen?” Horatio pressed.

  “We start running out, we drill a hole,” Will said. “Besides, it’s not like you have to worry.”

  “Yes, but I fear for you and the cyborgs,” Horatio transmitted.

  “The smaller Hydras will only fit in single file,” Rhea said. “We kill the lead creature, let it block the tunnel. Done.”

  “That might prove difficult, considering how little damage your energy bolts did from afar,” Will transmitted. “And even if we do manage it, the next bioweapon in line will simply pull it out or rip the carcass apart to get past.”

  “Then we keep killing them,” Rhea said.

  “We still don’t know what kind of stopping power we’re going to need,” Will insisted. “Our pistols will probably do more damage when they’re closer, but as to how much more, that’s anyone’s guess. These creatures are unknowns, never encountered before. Best course of action at this point is to just cave the entrance and be done with it.”

  “I agree,” Sebastian sent.

  “There you go,” Will broadcast. “Even monkey boy agrees with me on this. Horatio, what’s your vote?”

  “Collapse it,” the robot transmitted.

  Rhea wasn’t convinced that caving the entrance was the best course of action. Her mind returned to the avalanche idea, and she studied the exterior rocks below, trying to figure out the best way to go about initiating a deadly cascade. There were no obvious sections that seemed ready to fall. She fired an experimental shot below Will and Horatio, striking the stone. She caused a small-bore hole to appear, but little else.

  That’s not going to work.

  Sebastian arrived.

  She stepped back, making room for the big cyborg. He clambered onto the lip, the front part of his body in shadow, thanks to the backlighting. The silhouette formed by his towering, muscular physique and that long, curving tail with the deadly blades, was forbidding to say the least. The cave was high enough to fit his tall form with ample room to spare.

  Sebastian stepped toward her menacingly, and Rhea recoiled, instinctively drawing her pistol. The cyborg spun about, and that tail whipped around—

  Rhea leaped to the hard floor of the cave, rolling into the wall. Then she clambered to one knee, raising the pistol.

  But the tail had not struck. Rhea had mistaken his intent: Sebastian had simply been turning around. Apparently, he had stepped toward her simply to place himself further from the entrance, perhaps to make room for Will and Horatio.

  Rhea lowered her pistol.

  But then Sebastian turned around once more and started ramming his tail violently into the roof. The robotic appendage was long enough to reach, though any taller and he would have had difficulties. Again and again Sebastian impacted the bare stone. The blades spun slightly with each impact, further agitating the rock. Small fragments broke away, clinking to the tunnel floor. It was obvious Sebastian intended to collapse the roof: the cyborg evidently didn’t care whether Will and Horatio reached the cave and was going to strand the pair out there with the bioweapons.

  “Stop!” Rhea shouted. Sebastian ignored her. “I’m going to shoot!”

  The cyborg halted; he had angled himself sideways slightly and glanced over his shoulder at her. The light caught on the edge of his face, illuminating a lip upturned in rage. “If they don’t make it to this cave before I collapse the ceiling, they’re dead anyway. I’ve done the calculation. Already bioweapons have reached the base of the cliff. We have to begin the process now. We can’t wait, not if we want the entrance sealed by the time the bioweapons arrive.”

  Sebastian started striking the rock with that powerful tail once again.

  “You will wait for them!” Rhea insisted.

  “Shoot me then, little girl.” Sebastian continued bashing the ceiling.

  Rhea shook her head in disbelief. “Will, get up here ASAP. Sebastian refuses to wait for you. He’s already started ramming his tail into the ceiling.”

  “Probably a good idea,” Will replied. “The closest creatures are right behind us.”

  She glanced at her overhead map, and saw the blue dots of her friends, along with the red dots of the bioweapons in the forefront, very close underneath them.

  “Hurry!” she said.

  “Getting there as fast as I can,” Will transmitted. “I’m having a bit of trouble with this overhang section. I think I’m going to need a piggyback ride. Horatio?”

  “One piggyback ride coming up,” the robot sent.

  Sebastian hadn’t let up the whole time. He’d drawn his rifle in order to add energy bolts to the mix, which struck the ceiling in between tail impacts. Large sections of rock began to dislodge from the ceiling. Wouldn’t be long now…

  Rhea glanced at her overhead map. The blue dots of her two friends had combined, but they were advancing far too slowly for her patience. She decided she was going to go out there and help them.

  But first, she had to get past Sebastian.

  “Step aside!” Rhea ordered.

  The cyborg ignored her.

  Rhea stepped forward. Sebastian still had his torso turned away from her in order to fire at the ceiling between tail strikes. She holstered her pistol, grabbed him by the hips, and yanked to one side.

  She’d half expected the towering cyborg to remain fixed in place. That she’d be too weak to cause any upset to his position. But Sebastian promptly lost his balance and stepped aside.

  He recovered and spun his torso around to look at her. Though most of his face was in darkness, the light from outside caught at his eyes, and from the malevolent way they glinted, she had the distinct impression he was going to shoot her down where she stood. She was really regretting holstering her pistol.

  But then a clanging sound diverted both of their eyes to the entrance. A robotic hand had latched onto the lip. Another appeared, and Horatio clambered into view, with Will hanging on behind him: Will gripped the two straps of the robot’s backpack, and kept his legs firmly wrapped around the sack’s lower portion.

  Sebastian knocked her arms aside and jerked his torso around. He beckoned at Horatio. “Quickly!”

  Will slid down and followed Horatio into the cave. The pair squeezed by the stones Sebastian had dislodged; when they were past, the cyborg promptly began slamming his tail into the rock ceiling once more. And as usual, Sebastian fired his rifle in between each impact to further weaken the ceiling. Smaller pieces were falling away than earlier. Not a good sign…

  “We have to help him.” Rhea aimed past Sebastian and unleashed an energy bolt at the ceiling.

  “Calculating optimal firing solution,” Horatio said. He paused. Then: “Target the designated spots.”

  Rhea received a share request and accepted. On her HUD, specific areas on the roof became highlighted past Sebastian, indicating where she should fire the pistol. She raised the weapon and engaged.

  Will also joined in, targeting a different set of coordinates, judging from the bore holes he created in the cei
ling. Horatio also unleashed his forearm weapons.

  The combined fire from the pistols and Sebastian’s rifle, along with the impacts from that strong tail, caused the roof to begin yielding like before. Large pieces tumbled down sporadically between strikes, crashing to the cave floor in front of Sebastian, some of them hitting his tail along the way. He was quickly forced to retreat as the sporadic fall of fragments became a cascade.

  The whole party stepped back, in fact, and let gravity finish the job. Behind them, Gizmo also maneuvered deeper into the tunnel, and vanished into the dark.

  The repeated crack of stone on stone battered her ears, and as the cave filled up with falling rock in front of her, Rhea caught a glimpse of a giant reptilian head. It darted in from the entrance but was lost from view as dust from the collapse filled the tunnel. She heard a roar, barely louder than the cacophonous din produced by the falling stones, but it was promptly cut off.

  Darkness shrouded her as the dust consumed her vision, while at the same time the collapse sealed the opening, cutting off all sunlight from the inner portions of the cave. Only her companions remained in the murk, silhouetted in blue on her HUD, courtesy of the positional sharing she had active.

  The rampant stone on stone din faded, replaced by only the occasional crack as the fallen rocks settled. Then even those latter sounds ceased, so that she heard only her own nervous breathing, along with the respirations of Will and the other cyborg, and the soft susurrations of Gizmo’s rotors—something only audible at relatively close ranges, though the acoustics of the cramped chamber no doubt enhanced the sound.

  “Well then, careful what you wish for…” Will said into the darkness.

  If the bioweapons were out there, the collapse muted their sounds quite well.

  Oh, they’re out there, she told herself.

  As if to prove that point, a loud thud filled the air. She started, nearly leaping in place. The rocks composing the nearby collapse rattled, shifting. No doubt a giant head had struck the blockage from outside.