"If you say so."
They rounded another corner and Mathias stopped.
"Here," Mathias said, approaching a wall with a crack running down its surface to a place which appeared to be shrouded in darkness.
Ira couldn't tell if he was reaching for a doorway, or simply part of the wall that was covered in shadow.
"Are you sure?" Ira asked.
The green light snaked its tendrils through the darkness, gripping like ancient fingers.
Is it toying with us? she thought.
Mathias's gnarled hands found the dark; he exhaled in complete ecstasy.
The sickly green light seemed to transform from mere light into actual tendrils, of the same consistency as the Harvester's skin. They glowed with the dim light of dying stars, and they reached, clutching for Mathias.
"Grab onto me!" Mathias yelled.
Ira hesitated only half a second before the tendrils stabbed out for Mathias; she grabbed onto his back as he pulled them through the darkness.
It was like waking up from a nightmare.
There they were. Their breath steaming in the air. Sitting in the darkness. Their flashlights flickering against what looked like salt deposits. It seemed like such a long time ago, days, even, since they had been outside that door, trying to find a way in.
How had they ended up here?
"That will not stop him for long," Mathias said, shining his flashlight around the room. "Just as I imagined, salt deposits. We should be able to start the reactor with this."
"Did...did that really all just happen?" Ira shook her head, hugging her knees tight against her body. "Why does it feel like it's so far away? Like it's fading?"
"None of that matters right now." Mathias was standing up, offering his hand to her. "We don't have much time."
She nodded, taking his hand.
They gathered as much of the salt as they could, stuffing it in their pockets.
"This should do," Mathias said. "Now we need to find our way out of here."
"How do we do that without power?" Ira asked.
"Each of these rooms has an emergency failsafe, just in case someone gets trapped inside." Mathias shined his light up and down the walls, scanning them with crazed eyes. "Yes. Here."
Ira watched him pry open a small compartment in the wall; there was a lever and a series of instructions. He pulled the lever and the door seal popped, sliding open just enough so Mathias could pry it the rest of the way.
Ira followed him into the corridor, where they found Hugo waiting.
"Yo, what happened?" he asked.
Both of them recoiled at Hugo. Ira had almost screamed.
"You don't remember?" Ira asked, forgetting that he was deaf. "You..."
But, had it really been him? Was this even him now?
"I got lost back there," Hugo said, talking like someone who isn't aware of their own volume while listening to headphones, "you two were talking to someone, and when I got here, you were gone."
"How long did you wait?" Mathias asked.
"What?" Hugo shrugged.
"He's deaf," Ira said.
"Oh, well, that doesn't help us," Mathias said.
"I was stuck out here for a few minutes, B, thought I was gonna lose it..."
"It felt like a lot longer than a few fucking minutes," Ira said, shivering. She was thankful that the memory of that awful place was fading. Maybe she wouldn't go completely mad after all?
Wishful thinking.
Mathias was starting to back away down the corridor. "We must find the core chamber."
Ira was set to agree with him when she remembered Lena. "No...we've got to find Lena."
"There may not be time," Mathias said.
"Then you two go ahead," Ira said. "But I have to find her."
"As you wish," Mathias said.
"I'll meet you in the core chamber," Ira said, turning around.
"I'm sure you will," Mathias said.
Ira stopped, clenching her fists tight. "Don't think this makes us friends, Mathias. I still haven't forgiven either of you. If you cross me, you will regret it."
"I'm sure I will," Mathias said. "More than even the abyss."
Ira ignored his last comment and left them behind. She heard Hugo shouting, asking where she was going, but soon their voices faded into the abyss.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Mathias watched Ira disappear in the dark.
"Come boy," Mathias said. "We have no time to waste."
Hugo stuck his finger in his right earhole, made a face, and shook his head. "Man, I think I heard that...maybe my hearing is coming back?"
"How fortunate for me," Mathias said, turning away from Hugo and heading down the pitch black corridor.
They walked in silence. Mathias couldn't tell how much of Hugo's hearing had returned, and he didn't much care. Hopefully the words would find a way into his feeble little mind.
"Now, let's see, how do we get to the core from here?" Mathias shined his flashlight along the wall.
Hugo stopped. "Man, I ain't forgetting what you did to me."
"As I recall, I was simply a messenger. What you did with that information is your cross to bear, as it were."
"You knew damn well what you was doing."
"Maybe. But we've got larger problems here in the dark than all the terrible things you all think I've done."
Hugo went quiet; Mathias could hear him quietly shuddering.
"The creature you thought was Eddy," Mathias said, "the music you heard it singing. I think it was a chant meant to lure something to our solar system."
"What?"
"And I'm afraid that that's my fault as well."
"What the fuck are you talking about, B? I can barely hear you. Talk louder."
"I read something in one of Weber's journals after the fact. It said that Weber had made an awful discovery inside the tank. He blamed himself for not having taken precautions, thought that he should not have sought to question the other entities to commune with, to reach beyond. They warned him as they warned me, that there are other, far more ancient and malevolent forces out in the depths of the cosmos—and he found such an entity. The black comet.
"I remember how he described it, terrible and beautiful simultaneously, he said he'd 'found it resting beyond the veil of a large nebula, its body like a spiral galaxy, but completely devoid of light.' He went on to describe how it moved 'like a poisonous cloud,' spreading its insidious tentacles to every star that it could and consuming them whole. He watched it for a great deal of time, too horrified to move his essence away. I wonder if watching entire civilizations get destroyed in the wake of this being was what finally broke his mind."
"You're freakin' me out, B," Hugo said.
"Do you know what Messages from the Abyss calls it?"
"I don't wanna know...stop."
"Yog'Elios."
Hugo stopped walking in the dark. Mathias turned to him. The sounds of their footsteps echoed into the dark and faded. "I said stop it."
"Yog'Elios, Hugo. That's its name."
Hugo placed his hand over what Mathias believed was his remaining functioning ear. But, if he was correct, Hugo would not be able to unlearn that name.
"Just take us to the core, like Ira told you..."
Mathias shrugged and kept walking. "Suit yourself."
They walked in silence for a time. The only sounds to accompany them were the echoes of their footsteps and Hugo's pathetic whimpering.
Mathias tried to focus on the core. To guide them through the shadows toward the image he held in his mind's eye, just as he'd done when escaping the Astral Lands.
This place is like a maze now, he thought. Normal traversal of these corridors will be impossible. If Ira doesn't figure that out for herself, then perhaps there's still a chance to perform the ritual?
He glanced back at Hugo. His eyes looked crazed.
Mathias did not believe in fate, or miracles, but it was quite fortunate that Hugo had survived
his encounter with Eddy.
It was hard to tell if he was ready in the dark. How gray was his skin? His eyes? Would the Harvester even care about his physical state, as long as his mind was broken?
This is my chance, Mathias said, his heart rate increasing with every step they took.
"What is it?" Hugo asked, his words cut to bits and pieces by his fear.
"Just an observation," Mathias said, pausing in the middle of the darkness that permeated around them.
"What's that?" Hugo's eyes vibrated, his lips quivering. He looked absolutely terrified.
"Weber didn't consider the black comet to be an entity at first," Mathias said, smiling, inching closer to Hugo. "Had he not felt such undeniable malice and indifference coming from it, he would have categorized it as a cosmic force of nature, like an asteroid, comet, or a black hole.
"He didn't think it took notice of his presence at the time. But, considering the creatures Eddy unleashed after his...transformation...I wonder. But, one thing is clear—Weber knew that if it were to find its way back to our solar system, it would be the end for what was left of humanity, for the Earth itself. He claimed he wasn't mad enough to consort with such an entity."
"What's your damn point?"
"Simple, really. Science is all about deductive reasoning. About observation of our natural world. Isn't it?"
Hugo looked nervous. "You're doing it again, man, stop!"
"The universe is far more complicated than we could have ever imagined. Think about all we've seen in our brief existence, the horrors of war, the Amarath, even the Harvester, and all the infinite scope of the Astral Lands...it all leads one to one simple truth..."
"What the hell, man," Hugo said, playing with his right ear. "I said stop it!"
"Do you know what that truth is?"
"No! I don't wanna know!"
"It's that this is the truth of reality. The universe is a cold and unfeeling thing, dreamed up by a sleeping blind idiot God, and filled with horrors that would just as soon step on us as take notice of our pathetic existence. Why should we be any different from those who are not our intellectual equals?"
"What? Like me?"
"Weber didn't want to consort with the black comet, but I did. What does that say about me, then?"
"That you're fucking crazy, B!"
"Call it whatever you like, Hugo." Mathias took a step forward, feeling his tattered lab coat for the book.
"Yeah? And what happened to finding the damn core? Ira gonna kill your ass if you pull shit!"
"We're already here," Mathias said, gesturing to Hugo.
"What the hell?" Hugo looked around, glancing wherever Mathias's flashlight happened to be shining. He looked worried. He was right to be.
The chamber had manifested itself around them as they'd been walking. At first, Mathias hadn't realized it. Not until his flashlight shined across the cylinder of the dead fusion core at the center of the chamber.
"It's you, you know. I thought it was Eddy before, but I was wrong. He was meant for so much more. You're the one that must take my place. You alone know this is no mere fever dream. You know, because you faced down madness firsthand, and you still bear the scars it left on your soul. He'll like that."
"Man, do you even hear yourself?"
Mathias smiled. "We've some preparations to make. Will you help me, Hugo?"
Hugo looked at him suspiciously, backing away. "You think I don't know what your game is? You say you sorry for what you done to Eddy, but I know that's a load a shit. You smell desperate."
"Oh, you're right, I am desperate." Mathias withdrew his copy of Messages from the Abyss. "I don't have the tools, or a deprivation tank, but hopefully the words will suffice."
Hugo put his hands up. His eyes were wide, knowing. "Get the fuck away from me!"
"I hope you know, this isn't personal," Mathias said, opening the book to the appropriate page.
Hugo did something he should have seen coming, tackling him to the floor. Mathias's head smacked against the smooth paneling, the book and flashlight flying from his hands.
Mathias felt Hugo wrap his hands around his throat. "You think I'm just gonna let you do it? Just like that? After everything you did to us? How you got in my fucking head?"
Mathias felt pinpricks dance on his cheeks. "Without me...they all die..."
Hugo's strangling grip seemed to intensify in response.
"I told you what would happen when I found you, bitch!"
There was a deafening roar, one that instantly drew Hugo's attention, causing him to loosen his grip.
Mathias scrambled to get out from under him, clawing in the dark to find his flashlight, to find the book and complete the ritual.
If I can just say the words, he thought. I have to try. I have to try!
Then, his hands brushed against plastic. He cradled the flashlight.
The roar erupted through the chamber again.
He switched it on and started sweeping the floor for the book.
"Just let it go, man! There's something here!"
There were loud thudding sounds coming from deeper within the chamber, but he didn't have the mental fortitude to process them.
This was his last chance to complete the bargain!
Finally, he found it, lying open on the floor; he scooped it up in his free hand, quietly rejoicing.
There was a dripping sound coming from directly in front of him. That's when he saw the crimson eyes light up in the dark atop a tumorous mass of flesh. Something which, at one point, may have been a man.
There was something in its arms—someone.
Mathias screamed.
2
Ira had been wandering in the dark for what seemed like forever. She found the elevator shaft, but it was sealed. The emergency stairway was nearby. The door had been opened somehow, the seal breached. There was a slimy, black substance dripping down the surface of the door.
She stood staring at it, remembering what Mathias had said about the creature that was stalking them. Was that substance from the Amarath?
With her heartbeat thundering in her temples, her breath steaming in the ever-cooling air, Ira climbed the stairwell. There were great, oozing footprints of that strange black substance on each of the steps; she was careful to step around them.
Don't look back, she thought. Don't look back!
She searched several other floors, and still no sign of Lena.
Then...
The smell of salt and sweat and urine filled the air next to an open doorway. It was the food storage room...but hadn't she just been going up? This room was supposed to be near the basement level. Nothing made sense anymore. It was like this place had become some kind of sick maze.
Just like that place in the Astral Lands, Ira thought.
She entered the room.
Her boots crunched beneath empty protein bar wrappers and MRE containers. She scanned her flashlight through the room; it looked like a hoarder's mess. Tears welled in her eyes and carved a path through the dirt and grime on her face.
That bastard, she thought. How is it someone so small could have eaten so much?
Mathias had managed to make a significant dent in their ration and food supply. There had been plenty of food to sustain them...if they got through this madness. Now? She couldn’t be sure.
Jesus. She could hardly rationalize what she was trying to do. Find the core and start the final experiment? Would it even work?
Maybe once the reactor was restarted, they'd be able to survive down here still?
How long would the rations last?
Maybe a year? There was no way to be certain with Lena's baby on the way.
It wasn't that he'd eaten so much that hurt her, but the fact that he'd let them starve for days at a time while he tripped on LSD or ketamine inside that damned tank. She had half a mind to go back and put him out of his misery. And maybe she would.
No, she thought. I have to find Lena.
She slammed the gat
e to the storage room shut and found herself seething out in the darkness of the corridor.
Her anger faded quickly; her hair stood on end. She had a feeling that there had been eyes lurking, staring at her in the dark.
Maybe it was that seven-eyed thing they'd all been seeing? The Amarath. Maybe it was the thing Mathias called the Harvester? At this point, she was so tired, she hardly cared which monster reared its ugly head.
Then, she thought she saw movement in the dark ahead. It seemed to slither around the beam cast by her flashlight.
Ira stopped, her heart pounding through her chest.
Seven pulsing eyes.
And sure enough, there they were, glowing in the dark. Its multi-segmented pupils seemed to dilate at the sight of her. Its mouth was open, revealing blackened teeth against the small amount of light her flashlight gave.
Was it avoiding the light?
"I'm not afraid of you," she lied, shaking her head and backing away.
There was a kind of half-growl, half-laughter emitting from its terrible head as it took several slow steps toward her. It seemed to swell and fill the cylindrical corridor, dwarfing her in size. Its claws raked at the cement floor. Its great spines spiked back and rattled as it closed the distance. It had to be nearly twenty feet long.
"What the hell do you want?" she asked, her shouts cut to stutters by her own terror. But she knew what it wanted. Mathias had told her that much.
I'm dead! she thought. It's going to snap me up in its jaw and carry me off to hell!
It pawed closer, the growls rumbling deep in its throat. Its seven pulsing eyes were almost hypnotic, pacifying.
Then she remembered what Mathias had said, in that strange place that still seemed like a faraway dream. If the creature was using the shadows as doorways, then maybe she could escape through one?
Ira turned and bolted down the corridor. She heard the thing give chase, heard it panting, chuckling, as if it were toying with her. And maybe it was?
She didn't dare check behind her. Pointing her flashlight ahead of her, she tried desperately to find a path leading to the core.
I'm sorry, Lena, she thought.
Sign after blurry sign came and went. She had no idea if she was making any headway. There was no telling in the dark. She tried desperately to focus on the core chamber: its pristine metallic floors, the consoles, the way the central reactor pulsed crimson—like a heartbeat.
Mind's Horizon Page 29