by Richard Dusk
"Damn it, not now! Everyone back. It's another earthquake!" yelled Kaiden and pulled himself out from the water with Pace's help.
Overhanging icicles tore off the ceiling and fell in the water splashing everywhere. Dust of crumbling rock dome fell from the top and sprinkled the catwalk with a tinkling sound. Garrett and others immediately grabbed CHED and dragged it back into the corridor.
"Lex, Jill- Take cover- There!" said Vince discontinuously because he could barely stand on his feet, but his voice got lost in frightful cracking of rock walls and ground beneath the pool.
Massive ice waterfall cascade by their side tore off and fell into the water. It splashed them with a wave that knocked Garrett and Vince of their feet. When they got up and pulled wet-through CHED again, a sudden loud scream sounded in their ears and echoed in the rumbling.
"Lex, what happened!?" said Vince in haste.
When he received no answer, he dashed towards the end of the metal platform and jumped in the water.
"What the hell are you doing?" yelled Kaiden at his back, and his words immediately followed another scream and order, "Jump!"
Vince struggled to run and swim in the water to search for them when suddenly a massive boulder ripped off the ceiling and fell right on the place where girls stood. The wave hit him hard, and he couldn't hold the balance on slippery bottom and dove under the surface. The current pulled him away, but he scratched his gloves on the gravel to stay in the place, fighting against it. A pair of hands grabbed him by the vest and pulled him up above the surface.
"Lex, come in!" said red-faced Vince hastily and coughed the water out. "Lex!"
"We're good," she said out of breath. "We're good. Behind the rock. Jill, come. It's ceasing. We're going back to-"
"What? Where are you going!?" Vince stood in the cold water, holding on the platform.
"Watch o-" yelled Lex, but her words turned into screaming.
"We're almost- There," he finished shocked when he saw a steam cloud coming from the other side where girls hid. "Come on! Now we really got to hurry!" yelled Vince at others and kicked the water out of his way.
The level began rapidly decreasing as if somebody removed the plug from a drainpipe. When they passed around the boulder and through dispersing steam, they found Jillian kneeling over Lex lying in the shallow water. Jillian quickly searched through the bag while Lex cried and whined. Her hands moved to her face, and every time the fingers touched it, she gasped and moaned even louder.
"Lex!" shouted Vince and sprinted to them.
Her whole face turned red and swollen on the left side. The skin was peeling off, and torn open wound on her jaw got filled with boiled blood covering the skull bones. Many scratches running along her face came from the grit shot out with the steam. She trembled all over her body in fear and pain, but no tear ran down her face. Jillian took some salve from medkit and leaned over to smear her scalds.
"Give it to me," Vince roughly pushed Jillian aside, taking the kit from his bag.
The ground mildly shook, but he held his hands steady like skilled surgeon's ones. He took a syringe filled with a clear liquid painkiller and dug it into her neck. She held his forearms firmly, scared to death. For the first time, Jillian saw her petrified through and through. Vince grabbed a yellow tube and squeezed the thick green gel on his fingers. The moment he touched Lex's face, her eyes and mouth wide opened, and she screamed from the top of her lungs. They could only watch her suffering. Her fingers in spasm buried into Vince's arms. Despite the analgesic flowing through her veins and weakening her senses, she felt the pain of sharp and rugged, melting needles piercing her face.
"Jill, hand me that red spray bottle," he said in haste, because he couldn't and didn't want to release his arms from Lex's grip. Jillian quickly grabbed and shook it.
"It's almost over. Trust me," he stared straight into wet Lex's eyes. He opened it, covered her eyes, and began spraying skin-colored liquid on her face.
Another scream gushed out from her throat, same as woman's whose every single nerve was being pulled out of her body and her bones crushed with a heavy hammer at the same time. She kicked with her feet and punched with fists from the indescribable pain.
"Give her something. It'll kill her," said Jillian frightened.
"It's just a few more seconds till it kicks in. I didn't have time to wait," he held Lex's head from below to protect it.
Garrett saw in Vince's eyes the torture he had to endure at that moment. It took another seven never-ending seconds of Lex's screaming until the medication kicked in, and she finally felt the relief. Her eyes shut, and the silence spread around. They gathered around her and watched Vince giving her another injection with emerald-colored liquid. He threw the empty syringe away and quietly counted seconds.
"What happened? Why didn't you hide!?" glared Kaiden.
"We stood at the end of the platform when it began," said Jillian with a wavering voice, watching dark corridor ahead. "When she heard Vince said to take cover, she grabbed and pulled me into the tunnel, but rocks inside cracked above our heads, and we had to jump into the water. It seemed to collapse, and she didn't want to risk. Short after that, the giant one fell too close but missed us. We could barely stand, but quakes began ceasing when it came. We felt the water got warm too quickly and saw bubbles on the surface. She recognized it at once and swiftly pushed me aside. I didn't even touch the ground when it hit her - a steam jet coming from a rift over there," she pointed to bubbles still coming to the surface and gently releasing hot vapors into the air.
"It shot right into her face and-"
Lex violently jerked and opened her eyes.
"What the hell? Where am I? Who are you?" she sputtered and looked all around at walls, her team and Vince kneeling over her. She fought a little with him trying to release her arms.
"It's okay. Everything's all right," Vince calmed her.
"Why am I all wet? And- And-" she moved her hand to wipe the face, but he grabbed her.
"Don't," he put her hair aside and checked the injury. "Steam scalded your face."
Lex raised her eyebrows and slightly opened her mouth to ask but said nothing. She lay there, studying Vince's face as if she never saw him before. When the initial shock weakened, she looked around at others, and her eyes fell on Jillian.
"Yeah, I recall already."
"Lex, I'm so sorry. It should be me lying here, not you," Jillian took her by hand.
"Nah. That's my job, isn't it?" she painfully smiled.
"You're crazy. Amazingly crazy," Vince smiled at her with a troubled face. "How do you feel?"
"My face is numb and stiff," she sat up and sniffed. "But otherwise I'm okay. I feel nothing," she tried to grimace, but half of her face stayed in place with no movement. She grabbed the railing and with Vince's help, stood up.
"Can you walk?" said Kaiden, and she nodded.
"Yeah, give me a second, and we can move on, I hope," she picked up her rifle from the water and hung it on the shoulder. "Go get CHED. Let's not waste time."
Vince packed his bag and went with others to the other side while Lex left there with Jillian.
"How does it look?" Lex lightly touched the injured spot, feeling a smooth, plastic-like material.
"Like mannequin's cheek," Jillian touched it too. "It's odd to feel such texture on human's face. What is it anyway?"
Lex smiled with one corner of her mouth that moved up.
"It's a method applied to scalds, burns, corrosive injuries, and so on. It immediately stops all damages from progressing, fixes the state, and reverses it. In the end, the skin is supposed to look like a newly grown one. And this crust should protect the vulnerable layers beneath. I don't want to think about getting an infection into that."
"How long does it take to heal?"
"Just two weeks during which I'll be going crazy because of all that itching and tingling below this plastic."
Lex climbed up to the entrance of the opening filled with darkn
ess. She turned on the flashlight and illuminated the place.
"I thought it would bury us if we hid here," she shone on the deep fissures in the ceiling. "This one looks fine, but lights are off - cable is cut into halves," she examined the structure while the rest of the team came back with both parts of CHED. "This one looks fine, we'll go first," she walked with Jillian into the dark.
They entered the low, narrow tunnel that looked untouched by human hand and turned flashlights on. No catwalk led them forward anymore, and only cable and shattered lights lying on the ground provided the evidence that someone walked here before. They trod on the gray rocks lying all around, and a gently gurgling stream flowed around their feet. The light coming from behind glistened on wet rocky walls that looked like made of black smooth metal sheet struck numerous times with one big and one small wrecking ball. Pale blue ice over their heads reminded puffy clouds pressed against each other. The light spread through it and made them feel like being in the tube immersed fifteen feet below the surface of the crystal blue ocean.
Lex carefully led the whole team through strange surroundings and checked with a flashlight for every unevenness. The deeper they walked, the weaker the stream became, and the ice covering walls from top to bottom gradually grew in size. When the water faded away, they walked on wet grit and stepped over ice chunks along the uneven frozen wall's surface until they finally reached the end of the tunnel.
They lighted circular doors two times higher than a grown man. Those who made the entrance didn't use the rock to embed the door into it but built a black, robust, titanium alloy wall. Five dark blue thick bars, welded to it like rays of the sun and running into the cave's rock, strengthened the resilience of the wall. Lex moved the light across the thirteen curved lines that met in the middle where her flashlight reflected on the round hardened glass. They built the whole door to look like a giant black aperture.
"So this is it, guys. We'll go there unarmed. Leave everything sharp or with the slightest piece of metal here," Kaiden took the rifle strap down. "That means guns, oxygen bottles, and everything else. It'll be dangerous enough even without taking these. I'm not a fan of dodging the flying knives."
"Kaiden, if we get stuck in there, I would rather have everything we can carry to get out of there," said Vince.
"Vince, I understand and don't like it as well. But it'll be dangerous, and we don't need to risk anymore. It's one of the main points we received on the briefing. You've seen what it does with metal, so why do you want to bring more inside? We don't know what forces will be present inside."
"We've got everything in these bags, Kaiden," objected Lex. "If someone gets injured-" she said but didn't finish when she saw Kaiden's look.
"Look at your face, Lex," he involved sympathy in his voice. "You're hurt, Hodge is dead, and Pace got crazy."
"I'm not mad," Pace said through his teeth.
"Yeah, we've seen it, soldier," Kaiden said parenthetically. "I'm just asking to minimize the number of threats that may happen so we can all go through this and go finally back," he propped his rifle against the wall and began unbuckling vest.
The team stood there for a while, looking at him and judging the action.
"So what are we waiting for?" he said when no one moved. "I won't open it and risk until we're as one."
"I agree with him," Pace put down his guns. "Let's be over with it already."
The rest of the team eventually followed, but no one fancied to go inside exposed like this.
"Jill, you don't need to put down your vest. We gave you a lighter version, so there are no metal parts in it nor the bag. Take medkits and flashlights. We may need them," said Vince when unbuckled his one. "Kaiden, your holster is still buckled."
"Sorry, my bad. I'm looking for the opening code," he continued scrolling through PCA. "There is a minute long walk in front of us; we'll blow it up and go home. Okay, I've got it. Are we ready?" he looked around at his team and the pile of bags and guns lying at the door.
"Just open it," said Vince, and Kaiden tapped the access button displayed on his PCA.
Their eyes got immediately hit by intense beams of white light with hints of delicate blue shades.
"Ouch," groaned Jillian as pain traveled through nerves to her brain.
They shaded eyes while they heard the wheels of the locking mechanism quickly rotate and move the heavy bolts squeaky sliding in large rings. Squinting, they tried to distinguish the dazzling source of light and saw eleven lights embedded in a circle around the door. When the moving bolts thudded and went silent, the lights weakened a little, and they could finally walk closer to the door.
Below the hardened glass circle flashed twice the Diamond logo on the hidden display. It flickered and distorted as if something damaged it as the colors variably changed. Suddenly the thirteen blades of doors began to retract and disappeared in the wall. Cold air gushed out and tousled their hair. The display got pulled up above their heads, and they heard a familiar sound of short-circuiting. The Diamond symbol disappeared, and they stood at the edge of a vast ice hall with bright blue light coming from the other end.
"This is what you've been waiting for," Kaiden laid the holster on the ground and walked back to CHED. "Whatever happens in there, we do it for the greater good."
Chapter 27 - The Truth
They entered the largest ice cave dome of all they went through since they descended to the underground. Path of uneven rock layers led straight from the door to the rock-made platform in a center on which stood the reason for which they've come here wrapped in bright blue glare spreading from the ground to the vault and filling the space with light. The platform was enclosed with a thick dark emptiness of chasm and nature-made bridge where only holes after railings remained. Four sharp rock pillars towered by the sides of the platform and supported the ceiling. Unarmed, carrying heavy CHED, they made steps further below the massive icicles of all shapes and sizes hanging above their heads. The trickling of uncountable water droplets falling on their heads reminded morning drizzling in a snowless winter.
The vast space opened more and more as they walked further, and it all looked as if they entered a decaying kingdom of ice giant who mercifully let them roam around. Platform and path got covered with fragments of ice that fell recently from a height and shattered on the solid ground. The glare reflected on frozen water puddles all across the ice-covered bridge from which hanged massive ice curtains falling apart.
"Careful," said Lex when Jillian's foot slipped at the edge of the bridge. "I'll go first. Better me than you."
They followed Lex in one row. Every one of them had the urge to look down from the bridge. They couldn't suppress the curiosity and fear of cold deafening silence below, but dense dark hid everything from them. Even light coming from Lex's flashlight couldn't reach the bottom. One by one, they entered the platform.
"Holy..." Jillian felt like a dwarf when she stood at X-RON's base. She looked at the flashing above her, hearing sparks and energy flowing there.
"Yes and significantly more terrifying than on the picture," Garrett nodded.
Just by looking at it, Garrett knew that this inanimate object is far more dangerous than anything he ever encountered. Its core, sealed under a thick layer of rugged ice, looked like a tornado made of seven continuously joined giant metal hourglasses standing on each other. The lowest bulb was the smallest, and with each one placed higher, they grew in size. A massive silver-colored toroid encircled the top one barely visible at first sight, surrounded by mist interweaving with blue and violet discharges striking the rocky ceiling above. Three rapidly rotating semi-circular field enhancers around every bulb supplied the energy to the core, held in the air by corona discharges. The inside and content of the core stirred. They saw it through thin transparent lines inbuilt to core's wall running up the whole structure. The bright blue substance of liquid Ocrosir inside followed the direction in which enhancers spun.
The dazzling white glare traveled every minute
from lower to the higher placed bulbs. The highest one was brightest of them all with the discharges steadily growing in intensity. A steel framework protected the core with twelve reinforced bars holding the whole setup, computers, and instruments providing the energy to the enhancers. Bars at the top bulb got thinner and parted, resembling shark's upper lobes holding it firmly in its place. Many thick cables and pipes ran from the ground up to the ceiling, where they spread across it like a crown of a tree. A steel tower embedded in the terrain beside the X-RON carried stairs to all levels.
Garrett walked towards it with an outstretched arm to touch the ice-covered core with a bare hand, but force field stopped him at arm's length distance.
"It's not possible. There can't be any," Garrett stared amazed when he pressed against the invisible force and felt vibrations spreading through his hand to the neck.
"Garrett, come here and plug it. This is not a tour," said Kaiden when another glare illuminated his face.
"Yeah, I'll be right there," he stared absent-minded, and his eyes traveled to the flashing mist on the top.
He desired to touch the structure of the core inside, but the thick layer of ice and diffusing light coming from the glare minimized his chances to at least see it clearly. He wanted to recollect every single memory that included even if only a minor trait of building it in Nest's laboratories. X-RON looked exactly as pictured on the papers, but it was unquestionably different to see it with his own eyes. He couldn't believe that he is the one capable of helping to build an immense device with power like this one. He walked by its right side and headed backward.
"Garrett, where are you going? We've got work to do," said Kaiden, but Garrett ignored him, unable to take his eyes off it. The light and blue ice mesmerized him.
"What's with these glares?" Jillian rubbed her eyes, and Garrett stopped. "It's becoming pretty annoying."