by Elin Wyn
“We’re going to have to resort to lethal measures,” I said.
“I know,” Tyehn nodded. “I don’t like it but it’s them or us at this point.”
“Everyone, stay back!” Axtin ordered as if they weren’t already cowering against the far wall. Alessa stood beside Maki at the front of the group, her stormy eyes wildly darting about.
I pulled a blaster from my belt. The others did the same. We took positions in the center of the room and waited for more of the infected to come through.
When they did, we put them down quickly.
It was hard to determine whether we shot through all of them or if remaining infected understood the danger and decided against attacking us.
I almost hoped it was the former. I didn’t want the fleeing infected to circle back around and attack us later on.
“What’s it doing?” Alessa cried out. I followed her gaze to an infected that was frantically tearing at the supports of the archway we just came through.
“Take him down!” I ordered.
Axtin and Tyehn fired at the infected. He crumpled to the ground but not after seriously damaging the structural integrity of the archway.
The infected stopped attacking after that, retreating back down the tunnel.
After a beat of silence, I lowered my weapon.
“Is everyone all right?” I asked everyone but I found my gaze drawn to Alessa in particular. She gave me a curt nod.
“I don’t think we’re going out the way we came in.” Maki walked over to the damaged archway. She took one step too close and it started crumbling even more.
“What’s the plan?” Axtin asked no one in particular.
“Get out,” Alessa replied.
“Sounds good. Which way?”
All of us stopped and looked around. It quickly became abundantly clear that no one had any clue where we were within the structure that Fen had scanned.
All of the archways leading from the chamber were blocked with rubbled.
We were lost.
Alessa
It was hell.
We had no idea where we were, there was a murderous horde of alien hybrids looking for us, and a lot of the survivors were injured.
What was supposed to be nothing but a simple engineering operation, had now turned into a complete disaster.
The rest of my team that had been on the surface...Tameron.
They were gone.
They had to be.
I couldn’t think about them. I’d mourn them later.
If there was a later.
Still breathing hard, I looked down at my hands to find them covered with blood. It wasn’t my own, that much I knew, but that didn’t relieve me.
If anything, it just made me feel more concerned. I thought that by enlisting my human crew I was doing the guys a favor, but as it turned out I had just dragged them all here to be slaughtered.
“Oh, God, it hurts,” a man sobbed beside me, and I pursed my lips as I looked down at him. He was crouched against the wall, clutching an arm that seemed to be angled in a way that wasn’t natural. Going down on one knee, I whispered a few words of comfort as I tried to assess the damage.
“Your arm’s broken,” I muttered, not knowing what else to say. “Try not to move it too much.” My words were useless—he was in pain, of course he wasn’t going to be waving his arm around—but it helped to say something.
Looking around me, though, I quickly realized that I’d take more than just words to get out of this situation.
Most of the men were sporting wounds—thankfully most of them were just bruises, scratches and cuts—and the morale was as low as I had ever seen it.
“How are you?” Navat asked me.
I went up to my feet and looked at him, having no idea on how to reply. His shirt was ragged and covered in blood, and his knuckles were bruised. He no longer looked like a construction man, but like a soldier. I hated that, all the killing and violence, but I couldn’t blame him for it. Navat and his men hadn’t wanted to kill, but they had had no choice. If they hadn’t done what they did, there’d be no survivors right now.
“I don’t know,” I said as I shook my head. “I really don’t know.” My voice sounded weak and frail, like brittle glass. “What are we going to do now?”
“We’ll figure something out,” he replied, and he sounded so certain of it that I almost believed him.
The sobs of the wounded men all around me, though, kept me grounded in reality. I looked down at my mud-caked boots for a second, but Navat reached for me and placed two fingers under my chin.
Forcing me to look up and into his eyes, he offered me a smile. “We’ll figure something out, Alessa,” he repeated, and this time I found myself nodding at his words.
“But what exactly?”
“Do you still have your wrist unit?” He asked, and I raised my arm almost immediately. Although the screen was cracked and covered with dirt, the tiny computer on my wrist seemed to be fully operational. It lit up as I tapped it with one finger, and I quickly wiped the dirt covering its screen.
“Good thinking,” I whispered, moving my fingers across the screen while I looked for the schematics of the place. We’d only have sonar scans and satellite imagery to go by, which weren’t exactly a map, but it was better than nothing. “Oh, crap.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Either the unit’s damaged, or somehow the files have become corrupted,” I pushed past gritted teeth, not even looking away from the screen. “See? I can open the schematics, but only for seconds at a time. It’s useless.”
“Let me see,” he said in a comforting tone, and I quickly unstrapped the unit from my wrist and handed it to him. “Well, it’s not much, but it’s something. I think we can use it for navigation. It’s the only shot we have right now, anyway.”
Carefully, he took one step toward me and strapped the unit back on my wrist, his fingers gently brushing against the skin on my forearm. I held my breath as he did it, his touch making me feel things I couldn’t quite process.
At least not right now, lost and trapped in some ancient maze.
“What are you guys doing?” Walking up to us, Maki ran one hand through her disheveled hair and sighed heavily.
She seemed slightly disoriented, pieces of dirt covering her shoulders and arms, but was otherwise okay. “Is your unit working? If it is, maybe we can use the schematics and—”
“We’re on it already,” I said, offering her a quick smile. “They don’t work as well as I’d like them to, but we’ll figure something out.”
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Navat smiling. Even if unconsciously and just to reassure Maki, I had used his words. I just hoped he was right and that, in the end, we’d truly figure something out.
“If you guys say so,” Maki whispered. She blew a lock of hair away from her face, and then shook her head. “You know, I thought I’d be happy to get inside this place, but now I can’t wait to get out.”
“Yeah, no one imagined we’d get in like this,” I said.
“It’s not just that,” Maki continued. “This place just...I don’t know how else to put it, but it seems all wrong. Can’t you guys smell it? There’s this weird mustiness in the air. A place this ancient wouldn’t smell like this. It’s just—”
She trailed off the moment a few men raised their voices behind us. We all turned around to see what the commotion was, but it was hard to see anything in the dark tunnel we were in. The only lights we had came from the lanterns attached to the workers’ helmets, and they struggled to keep the shadows at bay.
“What’s going on back there?” I asked, pushing my way past a group of men. I narrowed my eyes as I saw a couple of men pinning another one against the wall, and I immediately rushed toward them. We couldn’t afford to start fighting among each other if we wanted to make it out of his place alive. “Stop it, the three of you! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“We can’t,” one of the men
hissed, and only when I drew close did I realize why he wouldn’t let go. The man they had pinned against the wall seemed to be having some sort of low-key seizure, his eyes rolling in their sockets, and there was a bit of foam dripping down his chin.
It was a morbid scene, but it was about to get even worse.
Without any sudden warning, the man’s body relaxed and he stood straight. His eyes rolled once more, except this time they returned to their natural position. Except they weren’t the eyes of a sane man. Hell, they weren’t even the eyes of a man. There was an alien madness living there, one that made my stomach lurch.
Taken by surprise, the two men that had been grabbing him jumped back, and a sadistic grin immediately took over his lips.
Before anyone could stop him, he pushed his way past the two men and launched himself down the dark tunnel, the shadows welcoming him almost too eagerly.
“The hosts,” I heard him snarl in the distance, his voice bouncing off the ancient walls like a threat. “Have to find the hosts.” He continued to speak, but by then he was already too far for me to make out the exact words.
“What the hell just happened?” Maki asked me, her words just a frail little whisper. She had gone pale too, and her hands were trembling. “Did he…?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “He just turned.”
“Should we go after him or do anything?”
“I’ll send an alert to look out for him to all teams, but there’s nothing we can do right now.”
None of us said a word, the realization that we were no longer safe inside this structure dawning on us. Suddenly, this place didn’t seem like shelter. It seemed like a very dark, very cold tomb.
I turned around to find Navat standing behind the two of us. There was a seriousness etched deep in his face, and his fists were clenched.
Once more, he was ready to spill blood to keep us safe. And thank God for that. With him around, there was still hope..
“What do we do?” I asked him, fully knowing we’d have to rely on his skills to escape this place.
But this time, not the ones I’d seen in the last six days.
Now I needed his skills as a soldier.
“We do as we planned,” he said, “and we get the hell out of here.”
Navat
“Can you walk?” I asked my annoying scientist friend whose name I still didn’t know.
“Yeah,” he gave a shaky nod. “What’s going to happen to that guy? The one that started talking about hosts?”
“I don’t know yet,” I replied. “We don’t have the manpower to protect the group and track him down. If he doesn’t bother us, we won’t bother him.”
“That doesn’t seem like a smart plan,” he said.
“Got a better one?” Alessa piped up. I looked over my shoulder to find her standing a few yards behind me.
She looked a little lost and unsure of herself. The blood on her hands dried and had started crumbling away, leaving behind a stain.
My first instinct was to find a way for her to wash her hands but I knew we didn’t have that option. Any water we had on hand needed to be conserved in case we couldn’t find a way out right away.
“No,” the scientist replied, looking away.
“Then let us worry about it.” Alessa’s voice took on a gentler tone. The scientist offered a faint smile but didn’t look our way again.
“Do you have a plan?” Alessa asked me as we walked away from the huddled survivors.
“Several,” I said. “However, none of them are full plans and they require a fair amount of good luck to make them happen.”
“So, basically, all of your plans are half baked fantasies,” she said.
“Exactly. Just don’t tell anyone.” I winked at her.
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. At least she wasn’t in a catatonic state like some of the others. If I kept her talking and moving, she’d probably be okay.
“We should move on,” Axtin said. “The Gorgos know we’re here. There’s nothing stopping them from coming back and tearing into us all over again.”
“Maybe avoid phrases like ‘tearing into us’ around the traumatized survivors, yeah?” Maki admonished.
“Sorry,” Axtin shrugged. “But I’m right.”
“I’m hoping that precarious archway will keep them at bay while we figure this out,” Alessa said. “We have to clear the rubble from the other archways but there’s no telling where they’ll lead.”
“Open your map, if you can.” I urged.
She lifted her wrist and pulled up the map. It shone brightly before flickering out just as it had been doing before.
“Did you see anything?” I asked her.
She gave me a blank look.
“You’re kidding right?”
“It’s all we have. Look at it and try to figure out if one archway is better than the others.”
A few minutes and several frustrated sighs later, Alessa lowered her wrist.
“There are no guarantees here, so if I’m wrong, don’t get mad at me,” she started. “But if we clear out the west arch, I think we’ll have a decent chance of getting somewhere other than here.”
“Like outside?” Axtin asked.
“If we’re lucky.” She looked at me from the corner of her eye. I smirked.
Alessa, Axtin, Tyehn, Maki and I approached the western arch.
“How do you propose we do this?” I asked.
“Don’t lift from the bottom and don’t lift with your back,” Alessa said.
“That’s all the words of wisdom we get?” Axtin asked.
“That, and give me a boost?” Alessa looked over her shoulder and grinned. She was trying to seem unbothered by the injured survivors. I knew how badly she was shaken, but I wasn’t about to call her on it. She was learning how to cope with this sort of thing. That was good. She needed it.
“Navat, give her a boost,” Axtin said to me.
“Pretty sure she asked you,” I replied.
“Right but I can lift more than you,” he countered.
“That’s pure skrell,” I snorted. “But, to prove I’m the better individual, I’ll give you a boost, Alessa.”
“Men,” Maki rolled her eyes.
“I made a mistake in thinking alien and human males were so different,” Alessa sighed. She looked somewhat less tense than she had a moment ago.
Good.
Making her laugh would’ve been nice, but giving her a chance to mock me would take her mind off of what we’d just endured.
I wasn’t sure why her state of mind mattered so much to me. I tried to tell myself that I needed her to be sharp for the sake of the team and nothing more.
Couldn’t lie to myself, though. Something about Alessa intrigued me, even if every time we spoke we ended up arguing.
Or I wanted to tear her clothing off...
That kiss confused the srell out of me.
The idea of her being in distress over what she witnessed gave me a bad feeling.
I knelt down, gesturing to Alessa to step on my interlocked fingers.
“Tyehn, give me a boost as well?” Maki asked.
“You got it.”
Tyehn knelt down as I had done.
“I’ll take the rubble,” Axtin said.
Alessa and Maki began pulling out chunks of ruin and debris with as much care as they could manage. They passed pieces to Axtin so he could pile them up someplace out of the way. He helped dislodge larger pieces as well, the ones that were too big for both Alessa and Maki to lift.
“The archway looks structurally sound,” Alessa said after a moment of consideration. She was standing on her own two feet now. We’d cleared away most of the rubble. There was enough room for someone to step through.
A chilling laugh caught my attention. It was faint. I didn’t think the others heard it but it was certainly there.
“Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“Listen,” I urge.
We fel
l silent. I stared into the darkness, straining against the soft moans and murmurs.
The laugh came again, a slow cackling.
“That sounds like the Gorgo,” Maki whispered.
“But he ran through the other arch,” Axtin said.
“Then that means there’s a way out,” Alessa murmured. “If the Gorgo came around this way, that means there’s another structurally sound set of corridors somewhere in here.”
“That’s swell and all, but that also means the Gorgo can hunt us down here,” Axtin pointed out.
“I’d rather be moving target than sitting bait,” Tyehn said.
“Agreed,” I nodded.
“We’ll have to do something about the Gorgo eventually,” Maki said.
“We should let him live for as long as we can,” I suggested.
“What?” Alessa snapped. “Why? You saw him! He’s rabid.”
“Because we’ve never gotten to see a transformation, for lack of a better word,” I said. “We can see the stages of it, the early signs, the progression. We might witness something that could eventually lead us to a cure.”
“That’s so sentimental of you,” Maki beamed.
“It’s not sentiment, it’s practicality,” I corrected.
“It’s a little bit of both,” Tyehn said.
“Fine,” I grumbled.
“What’s wrong with being sentimental?” Alessa asked me.
The question caught me off guard.
“I,” I stammered.
“That wasn’t meant to be a brain teaser,” Alessa smiled.
“I suppose it’s because so few things in life are permanent,” I said. “Getting too attached detracts focus from the necessary things. The permanent things.”
“That’s fair, I suppose,” Alessa nodded.
“A little bleak,” Maki added.
“Is now really the time to cross-examine my personal philosophies?” I barked.
“If it stops me from thinking about what a shit situation, we’re in, yes,” Alessa said.
I clicked my tongue.