by J. N. Chaney
“Don’t turn this around to make yourself some kind of hero.” Jennifer fisted her hands on her hips and stared daggers at him.
Recognizing that the argument could draw attention, I waved my hands at them. “We can talk about this later. For now, let’s focus on finding the others.”
“I’m not finding anyone,” Don asserted. “Between the wolves, the Boneclaws, Mario, and radiation, they’re probably all dead by now. No, we should go home and send a hunting party to find them.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Fine,” I said, handing the light stick back. “If you want to be a coward, I’m not going to try and convince you otherwise.”
When he took it, I turned on my heel and stalked out of the room, taking off in the direction I’d originally been headed. I couldn’t understand how someone could be so devoid of concern for his people. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so surprising after all, considering the uprising that Mario had facilitated.
Not everyone had been forced into it, I reminded myself. Some, whatever their reasons, had joined him willingly.
The idea made me question everything I thought I knew about my fellow colonists. Sure, most everyone was selfish, at least a little. You saw it every day in the compound. People arguing over whether some item belonged to them or cheating at a game. Even Nero’s romantic antics garnered him extra favors.
But this behavior went beyond getting an extra ration or being crowned this year’s tag ball champion. It spoke of an unrest that had to have been festering for a while.
Janus taught us about Earth history in detail—wars that had been fought, entire civilizations erased, and collapsed empires. Each one began with failures of leadership.
What mistake had my father made?
“Slow down,” Jennifer said, breaking into my reverie and coming to my side. “I never said I wouldn’t come with you.”
“Sorry,” I told her.
“It’s okay. He was being an ass,” the scavenger declared in a low voice. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he’ll come back.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked, doubtful at her words.
“He’s not going to stay here alone with the wolves on the hunt,” she said smugly.
We’d almost rounded the next corner of the long hallway when the sound of jogging feet came from behind us.
Just as Jennifer had predicted, Don had joined us.
I raised an eyebrow at her, and she grinned.
Don didn’t say anything. As I was about to make a crack about him changing his mind, something or someone squealed.
“Do you think that was one of the others?” Don squeaked.
“I doubt any one of us would be stupid enough to make that loud of a noise with wolves on the hunt,” I pointed out.
“That definitely wasn’t human,” Jennifer whispered urgently, no longer smiling. “I’ve heard that before in the caves. It’s a wolf, no doubt about that. I still don’t understand how they even got in here though.”
Don just looked terrified.
“Time to go,” I ordered, walking again.
“We came this way,” Jennifer said. “Didn’t find anything.
I told her about my theory regarding the trail of mess leading to an emergency exit.
“That’s pretty smart,” she said, giving me a nod of approval.
We followed the path a little longer, and sure enough it led us straight to a bank of elevators. To the left of them was a stairwell, and I felt a swell of relief when it came into view.
The door opened smoothly and the three of us trudged our way down to the next level. We would have kept going if not for the demolished steps leading away from the landing.
“Guess we’re going out this door. Hopefully there’s another way down,” I whispered, opening it a crack to check for danger.
The way looked clear, so I motioned the others forward.
This level held more of the same disorder as upstairs, but a quick search showed that it lacked another set of stairs. I was ready to go back the way we came when the elevators caught my eye. The doors were open, but the cars themselves were missing.
I stuck my head inside one and swept the staff’s light around. It looked sound, or at least I didn’t see any obvious concerns. The elevator car sat two levels up and the bottom wasn’t quite visible in the staff’s light. When I turned around, Don jerked his head back and forth.
“There is no chance you’re going to get me down there,” he said.
“If you know of another way, I’m all ears.” I waited for him to say something.
“That settles it then,” Jennifer said, trying to conceal a smirk at Don’s discomfort and failing hard.
“What if the car gives way?” Don asked nervously. “Or we fall?”
“Then it will be over so quick you won’t even feel it,” Jennifer replied.
“Those cars have been sitting up there for almost two thousand years,” I reminded him. “I think they’ll keep a little longer.”
“What about your staff? You can’t climb down with one hand,” he pointed out in a last-ditch attempt to stall the inevitable.
He did have a point there.
Nothing on this level suggested the wolves’ presence, so I felt comfortable leaving them for a few moments. I’d seen an oversized bag with a long shoulder strap attached to it among the fallen items and went back to find it.
When I returned, I had the staff tied securely to my back. It wasn’t pretty, but it would work.
“Don’t drop the light, Don. With the staff on my back I can’t activate mine,” I warned him.
“Maybe you should hold it,” he told Jennifer, trying to thrust it at her.
“Oh no, Don, I couldn’t,” she said sweetly, pushing it back. “You earned it since you got it past the rebels.”
Though her little jabs were funny, they only served to rile up Don more. I gave her a warning look.
She rolled her eyes and nodded, saying she understood. “I’ll take the light and go first,” she offered. “That way you can follow me down, Don.”
“Yeah? That’s probably a good idea. You being the experienced scavenger and all. I bet you deal with this sort of thing all the time,” he rambled anxiously.
Jennifer held the light in her teeth and eased down into the elevator shaft. She gave me a brief nod, then began her descent in slow, careful movements.
Don and I stood at the edge and waited until she was on the next level. “Okay, you’re up,” I said, patting him on the back.
He swallowed hard, already sweating profusely, but did as I instructed. By the time it was my turn to go, the light had almost receded completely and I could barely see Jennifer.
I felt around for hand holds and lowered myself down, hoping I’d told Don the truth about the car not moving.
When I caught up to the other two, Jennifer had stopped. “How far down should we go?” she asked. “This could go down to sublevels we don’t even know about.”
“Did Mark say anything about that?” I asked, wracking my brain for the information.
“I don’t remember,” she admitted. “I kind of tuned him out after a while.”
“Three,” answered Don, surprising me. “He said when we got into the building, we would have to go down three levels to get out.”
Now that he said it, it did sound familiar. “Okay, so the floor I met you on, was that the level you came in on?”
“No, we came up one level,” Jennifer said from below. “We’ve come down two already, so two more to go.”
A squeal echoed somewhere above, and I peered into the darkness looking for the source. It was nearly impossible to see much of anything so far above us.
But even in the meager light, I could see the car suspended above our heads shudder with a metallic clang as something heavy landed inside. A scratching noise came from it, followed by another squeal.
I kept an eye on Don so I didn’t accidentally step on his head, but he was already shimmying down the shaft quick
ly, spurred on by a healthy dose of fear. Jennifer must have been on the move, too. I couldn’t see her light anymore.
The noises continued in the elevator above, but the brakes held, much to my relief. I thought we’d gone too far and was about to say as much when something reached out of the inky darkness and grabbed my arm.
“It’s me,” whispered Jennifer from outside the shaft.
“What the hell?!” I hissed. “I almost—”
“I know, sorry. My light died and I was keeping an eye out for you. I think there are definitely more wolves here.”
Once my heartbeat was more or less back to normal, I retrieved the staff from my back. I brought the light back gradually until our eyes were used to it again and did a silent check of our new surroundings.
“Looks—”
Before I could finish, shouting voices came from somewhere nearby, then they were mixed with baying and growling. Gunfire erupted next, in a series of loud, reverberating pops.
“Either of you have a weapon?” I asked sharply.
Don shook his head then held up his hand at my pointed stare. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I haven’t even touched a gun in years. Don’t like ‘em.”
Somehow that information failed to surprise me. I was beginning to wonder how the man had even stood up to Mario in the first place.
“Me either,” said Jennifer, worriedly. “I didn’t think anyone did.”
“Okay,” I said, blowing out a breath. “You two should hang back. No sense going into a gunfight with no weapon.”
“Your staff isn’t exactly up to snuff at the moment,” she pointed out.
“It’ll have to do,” I told her.
“We’ll stay with you,” she said firmly. Then she nudged Don, who nodded.
“Sure. Run toward the guns and wolves, no problem,” he said sarcastically.
I didn’t bother to respond, just turned and did exactly what he’d said.
A few minutes later, the three of us stopped in a large room that looked like a receiving area. Our compound had something similar, but it was used for storage.
The fighting had stopped before we got there, but the slap of boots on the metallic flooring signaled someone’s approach. I disabled the light after motioning Jennifer and Don to hide behind a large pillar.
I looked out from behind my own and watched as a trio of bobbing lights came toward us. As they got closer, I could see that they were mounted flashlights on rifles.
My nerves jangled at the view because, as Jennifer had said, none of our people had weapons when we separated. If these were Mario's men, we were virtually at their mercy. That thought hadn’t occurred to me when I’d decided to run headfirst at the danger. Maybe there was something to Don’s cowardice after all. It made him more cautious, that was for sure.
“We need to find Jennifer and Don,” someone said as the group passed by my pillar.
“What about Lucia?” asked a familiar voice. It was Nell.
“There’s no way she survived that,” came the weary reply, who I recognized as Mark.
“About that,” I said, stepping out.
The three of them whirled around, bringing the rifles up.
“Gods, Lucia, what is wrong with you?!” yelped Mark. “We almost shot you.”
“I’m not sure if there was any way to show myself without causing some kind of reaction,” I said. “That’s why I waited until you passed. I’ve got Jennifer and Don.”
The pair came out from behind their pillar and gave a little wave.
“Is there another separated group?” I asked, noting that it was only Nell, Prime Lambert, and Mark who remained.
“No,” said Prime Lambert sadly. “The wolves took them when we got separated.
“How did you get out?” wondered Nell, staring at me in awe.
“Long story,” I replied. “There is something I have to tell you though. But first, Mark, I need to get the staff working again. Can I have the pad?”
He winced, then kicked at something on the ground and my heart sank. “It kind of broke when we got into that last fight. I had it in my hand looking for the way out and dropped it. Sorry,” he said.
I tried not to let my disappointment show and smiled at him. “Don’t worry about it. I can fix it when we get home. Though I don’t suppose you have any more of those rifles?” I asked hopefully.
“Nope, fresh out. We found them in a security room with the door wide open. The wolves were right behind us, so we only grabbed a few things then took off again.”
“You can have mine,” Nell said, moving to unclip the strap.
“No, you keep it,” I said, waving a hand at her. “My staff is still pretty deadly, even without the firepower. So, Mark, how about a way out of here?”
“That I can help with,” he said with a grin.
19
“We’re nearly there. This used to be the main entrance to the laboratories. The emergency exit should be right over there.” Mark pointed with his flashlight.
The beam landed on a pile of broken pillar. To the right of it, the auto doors were shut, but I didn’t see any sign of the emergency exit he was talking about.
“If we can get to it,” muttered Jennifer.
A sudden scratching came from down the hall and we all turned to stare in that direction. The baying of more approaching wolves finally snapped us out of our stupor and had us running where Mark directed.
We came around another pillar and skidded to a stop. There in front of us stood the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on. The exit. A few beams of light tearing through the cracks told me this was the way out. I felt a swell of joy in my chest at the sight of it.
“Let’s get out of here!” I yelled. “Come on!”
I grasped the handle and pulled. The door didn’t budge.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Nell.
“Dammit,” I cursed, then kicked the door in anger. It nosed open an inch and I froze, then cleared my throat.
“Push, don’t pull,” commented Nell.
“Let’s just go,” I said, throwing my weight against the door. This time, it opened easily, beset by the outside light.
We exited into a kind of courtyard, squinting at the bright sky above us.
“If we just go straight, we’ll find the ingress to the main cave system,” Mark said, stepping forward. “Then we’re almost home.”
“Everybody ready?” I asked.
They all nodded back. Even Don had relaxed, the perpetual look of fear plastered on his face these last few hours gone, replaced by an expression that could even be called a smile.
The courtyard itself didn’t look too bad, though there was still the occasional dropped item. A piece of twisted metal rose out of the ground in the middle with a short wall around the bottom, creating a kind of basin. It didn’t look like any of the other wreckage. Its smooth construction was too perfect, and I wondered at its purpose. When we walked by, I saw that water had collected inside the base.
“It’s called a fountain,” Jennifer told me, noticing my puzzled expression. “Water would have come out from it, landed in the pool, then been recycled in a constant loop. I’ve seen similar designs in the fauna facility.”
“Seems kind of useless to me,” I said.
Yet another example of the Eternals’ opulence. Shaking my head, I moved on. We were through the rest of the courtyard in under a minute and facing more glass doors that led to the outer cave system. I didn’t hesitate this time, though I did give the handle a little jiggle to check which way it opened.
Then we were out of the fusion core facility and back inside the main cave system. A wave a fresh air hit me, and I breathed deeply. It wasn’t the same as being out on a hunt, but after being in a radioactive compound for the last few hours it felt pretty damn close.
“Grrr.”
“What?” I looked back at the others, but they looked confused as to who had made the noise.
The grrr came again and w
as soon joined by more. A lot more. At least a dozen wolves lay on the ground. I hadn’t seen them because in the dark they’d just looked like large rocks or more piles of debris.
One by one they began to stir, rising from sleeping positions and giving a little stretch before standing on all six legs and eyeing us hungrily.
“Back up, slowly,” I said out of the side of my mouth. “Let’s go back in.”
I kept my eyes on the creatures. Now that they were fully awake, they turned their attention to us. A few had already begun to stalk forward, mouths open and venomous tongues lolling.
One of them whined, eliciting a few excited squeals from the others. A tiny yip sounded from behind her, and a pup teetered into view on uncooperative legs. It was almost cute, except for the sucker sticking out of its mouth.
Prime Lambert opened the courtyard door but quickly shut it again. “No good,” he said, a slight tremor in his voice. “There are more out there.”
Right about then I really wished I hadn’t put the power cap on my staff.
“How much ammo do you guys have?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the now advancing wolves.
“Not enough,” Mark replied. “I’m an idiot. This was one of the spots Janus warned us about.”
“Anyone got a bright idea? Because now’s the time,” I said.
The corridor beyond the wolves spanned left and right, but if we tried to make a break for it the wolves would no doubt be on us in seconds.
The wolves suddenly stopped moving and pricked their ears, all turning to face the same direction. A deep rumble sounded, louder than the wolves’ growls and squeals, and I flicked my gaze back and forth, trying to find the source.
The ground shifted beneath our feet, smaller pieces of stone and debris bouncing slightly as the thumping came closer.
THOM.
THOM.
THOM.
If I hadn’t been so petrified, I might have laughed. The whole situation had either just gotten a lot worse or some kind of miracle was in the works.
“Is that what I think it is?” hissed Jennifer, glancing at the rest of us.
“I‘m pretty sure it is,” I answered.