The Deep Beneath

by Natalie Wright

  “That’s it. Close your lids and rest. Let the heat lamp draw the excess moisture out. I’ve got you wrapped up in blankets made from wicking material too. You’ll feel better soon. Not that it’ll last. She’s going to amp up the humidity in your quarters, I guarantee it. It’ll be like a damned sauna in there.” Dr. Dolan’s voice was usually cheery regardless of time of day or circumstance. Tex had considered the possibility that the doctor was mentally unstable. But Dolan’s voice was not upbeat.

  Tex did as Dr. Dolan told him and kept his eyes closed, though he did not do it because Dr. Dolan asked it of him. He simply did not want to face his reality anymore. I was so close.

  Dr. Dolan continued to speak to him. He asked questions about what he’d seen outside the walls of A.H.D.N.A. and had he met any humans. Dolan’s questions reminded Tex of Erika and the others. He wondered if they had, in fact, been brought to A.H.D.N.A. as promised. Or perhaps they had already been terminated. The thoughts about the fate of his friends made him feel helpless. He turned his mind further inward, away from Dr. Dolan’s prattling. He remained motionless and mute as he sought emptiness.

  “Look, I know it’s a disappointment,” Dr. Dolan whispered in his ear. The doctor’s face was so close to his that Tex could smell the doctor’s gum disease. “But you can’t give up. We’ll find a way.”

  Tex pondered Dr. Dolan’s use of the word ‘we’. To who did his ‘we’ refer? As far as Tex knew, Dr. Dolan had simply acted as a courier delivering Dr. Randall’s directions on how to escape. Dr. Randall had been the mastermind of the escape plan, and Dr. Randall was dead.

  When Tex offered no response, whispered or otherwise, Dr. Dolan quit his chattering. Tex was glad for the quiet. He withdrew into himself as he had done in the copter. He took his attention off of the beating of Dr. Dolan’s heart. He has a faulty valve. Tex closed out the sound of the ticking clock and the heat of the lamp. He ignored the pleasant silky feel of the synthetic fabric in which he was wrapped and the sensation of electricity that coursed through the cable wrapped in conduit over his head.

  Tex forced his attention on the realm beyond the conscious one, to the place where thoughts travel on waves. He opened his mind like a lid flipped off of a jar to allow other beings who traveled in the realm of the mind to read his thoughts. He turned on his mind like an antenna in the quantum realm, searching like a radar for a hint of the buzzing voices that came from his alien cousins.

  But the realm of thought was silent save for his own consciousness. There was no humming in his head, no voices other than his own. He had never felt more alone.

  The metal doors to Dr. Dolan’s medical wing slid open, forcing Tex’s mind back to the mundane realm in which the humans dwelled. He kept his eyes closed, but his ears were wide open.

  “What the – who’s this?” Dr. Dolan asked.

  “One of the kids Commander Sturgis had us bring down,” a man said.

  A kid? Could it be Erika? Tex took a whiff of the air and knew immediately that it was not Erika. Erika’s scent was light and slightly sweet like a mix of the sugar that Ian had introduced him to the night before and the oranges that he ate for breakfast. Her odor was wholly pleasant to him. But the ‘kid’ in the room smelled of salt and soap and testosterone. It was a scent that Tex did not enjoy. Jack.

  “What in the world? Down here? Why in God’s name would she –?” Dr. Dolan asked.

  “We got orders, Doc. He was shot, and Commander Sturgis says you need to fix him up.”

  “Of course she did,” Dr. Dolan said. “She makes the mess and I’m supposed to clean it up.” Dr. Dolan’s voice was no longer melancholy. Despite his words, Dolan’s tone was nearly gleeful.

  “You gonna take care of it or not?” asked one of the two soldiers.

  “Of course I’ll treat him. Put him over there on the other exam table. I’ll take a look.”

  There were footsteps; then Jack’s body landed heavily on the metal table. Tex opened his eyes. Dr. Dolan began to go to Jack, but Tex reached out his hand and caught Dr. Dolan’s white lab coat with his finger.

  “Dr. Dolan,” Tex said. His voice had not been used for quite some time, and it came out crackly and much smaller than he’d intended.

  Dr. Dolan stopped and leaned down so he could hear.

  Tex whispered, “Get the soldiers to leave us alone. I must speak with Jack privately.”

  Dr. Dolan nodded and walked toward Jack. “Take your shirt off, young man. Let me take a look at you.”

  Fabric rustled as Jack removed his shirt. But the guards did not leave.

  “I’m going to have to remove that bullet or it’ll fester.”

  “Will it hurt? When you remove it, I mean,” asked Jack.

  “Only a lot,” Dr. Dolan said. There was no hint of a joke in his voice.

  Tex could not help a surge of gladness at the thought that Jack would feel pain. He wished Dr. Randall was there. Tex very much wanted to understand why he wanted Jack to suffer when the guy had never done anything hurtful to him.

  Tex could feel Jack’s sharp intake of air and he could hear his heart rate increase. Get rid of the soldiers.

  “You two can take a hike,” Dr. Dolan said.

  “Nah, we’ll wait while you take care of it,” one of the soldiers said.

  “Look, I have to perform a minor operation here and need to concentrate so I don’t accidentally sever this young man’s carotid artery. I am assuming that if Commander Sturgis asked you to bring him here for medical treatment that she wants him alive. And I don’t need you two hovering over me like pesky mosquitos. I’m asking you to go wait in the hall.”

  Still the guards did not move.

  “Let me put it to you another way. I’m not cutting into this kid with the two of you here. So either disobey your commander’s order and take him without treatment or wait in the damned hall.”

  Their boots clopped on the linoleum floor as they left the room. As soon as the door locked closed behind them, Tex unwound himself from his wraps and hopped off of the table.

  He stood for a moment without moving, checking the steadiness of his legs. The heat lamps and wicking material had done wonders. His legs were sturdy and strong beneath him.

  Jack sat upright on a table less than ten feet from him, his chest and stomach bare. Tex was once again standing naked, but this time he felt more exposed than he had on Bell Rock or in the pool. As he stood in such close proximity to Jack, he could not help but compare himself. For the first time in his life, Tex felt that his body might be inferior to a human one.

  Jack’s chest was not tight with muscles like Ian’s, but it wasn’t small and thin like Tex’s. Jack’s torso was covered in a light-colored downy fuzz that made him seem manly in a way that Tex’s hairless body would never be. Jack’s eyes were full of color and reflected the emotion that lay behind them.

  But it was not the mere sight of Jack’s human form that made Tex feel suddenly inadequate. It was the knowledge that Erika appeared to care for Jack, perhaps even want him for a mate. If she found Jack’s form pleasing, then by contrast, she surely found Tex’s body displeasing to look upon.

  Tex stood planted where he was and considered his options for how to work around the bugs. Dr. Dolan opened his mouth but stopped himself at the last minute. He put up a finger then walked to the wall filled with drawers and cabinets. Dr. Dolan rifled through them as though looking for something then slammed doors closed when he did not find what he searched for. Finally he pulled a device from one of the drawers that looked like a small plastic gun but with a cord coming out of the end.

  “I want to dry that hair of yours, 9. Get all the extra moisture out. The heat lamp isn’t quite doing the job.” Dr. Dolan plugged the hairdryer into a plug on Tex’s examination table and turned it on.

  The sound was loud and unpleasant to Tex’s sensitive ears. But the loud whir of its motor would likely mask their conversation.

  Dr. Dolan laid the dryer down on the blankets on the tabl
e and walked back to Jack. As he passed Tex, he whispered in his ear, “Go ahead and talk to him.”

  Tex approached Jack slowly. Each step toward Jack was a choice to help the humans he’d met in the desert. And with each step he weighed whether he should bother with them. After all, they were not his responsibility.

  But as he pondered his choice, his mind rested on the image of Erika’s lifeless body that he had plucked from Sturgis’ mind. The image made him agitated and his body tense with anger. He disliked the feeling.

  He would help Jack, if he could, because helping Jack meant helping Erika. And if Erika escaped the underground abomination that was A.H.D.N.A., Tex’s mind would be free of the agitation he experienced when he pictured her dead.

  Tex approached Jack and whispered in his ear. “Commander Sturgis does not intend to free you.”

  Jack’s eyes got wide. He looked up into Tex’s eyes and appeared to search for something there. Tex did not know if Jack found what he was looking for, but he slowly nodded. “I was afraid of that,” he whispered. “But how do you know for sure?”

  Tex moved his mouth closer to Jack’s ear. “I read her thoughts while we were en route to A.H.D.N.A. She does not intend to allow the three of you to return to your homes. She will, eventually, order all three of you to be terminated.”

  Dr. Dolan banged around in his drawers and cabinets. He had the water running, presumably washing instruments. The clatter and running water further masked their conversation.

  Jack motioned with his hand for Tex to bring his ear to Jack’s lips. “Why’d she bring me here to get fixed up if she’s just going to turn around and have one of her gorilla squad pop me?”

  “I do not know,” he said quietly. He leaned in toward Jack again. “But I do know what her true intentions are. And you must get yourself, Ian and Erika out of this facility or the three of you will die.”

  Dr. Dolan pushed a tray table on wheels toward them. The metal instruments clanged together as he pushed it, and one of the wheels squeaked.

  “But how do we do that?” Jack whispered. “They’ve got Erika and Ian in prison cells, locked up tight. And that’s where I’m headed once the doc here is finished with me.”

  Dolan wiped Jack’s arm with an alcohol swab and, without forewarning, plunged a needle into his shoulder. Jack winced and pulled in a sharp breath. “Numbing,” Dr. Dolan said after the fact.

  Dr. Dolan waited a few minutes before he sliced into Jack’s flesh. “Hold this here.” He handed a roll of cotton gauze to Tex and indicated that he should hold it under the incision to catch the blood. Dr. Dolan picked up a pair of forceps and dug into Jack’s muscle. He wrestled the bullet out, held the bloody casing in the air and nodded at it as though pleased with his work. “Got it,” he said.

  Tex ignored the bullet and the look of anguish on Jack’s face. He leaned in very close, his lips mere centimeters from Jack’s ear. “The greys will come for me. They will retrieve me from this facility. If you want to live, then you must come with me when I leave with the greys. And if you want Erika to live, you will convince her to do the same.”

  Tex pulled away from Jack so he could see his expression.

  Jack’s grimace of pain gave way to a look of surprise. He said nothing and again searched Tex’s face. He motioned for Tex to bring his ear back to Jack’s mouth. “Here? The aliens?”

  Tex nodded.

  “And you want me and Erika –”

  “And Ian,” Tex said.

  “You want us to come with you in an alien spaceship and fly off into the galaxy to some unknown planet?”

  Tex nodded again. The plan had bubbled up and out of him before he had given it any thought. Jack’s voice sounded doubtful, and it caused Tex to also question its potential success. If the aliens were, as Sturgis said, planning to declare war on humans, then would they not kill his human friends rather than welcome them? But if they stayed at A.H.D.N.A., they would certainly be killed. In the calculation of risk, Tex determined that the humans should choose possible death over certain death.

  Jack looked as if he was processing what Tex had said. He chuckled softly and shook his head while a small smile spread across his lips. Tex waited for Jack to speak the words that would fill in the blanks of Jack’s body language.

  Finally Jack whispered, “Sorry, Tex, but no way is anyone getting into this place. Not even your aliens. We’re how many stories underground? What’re they going to do – fly a spaceship underground? And if they could create a portal here, they would have already done it, like you said.”

  “I do not know how they will achieve this, but I know what they told me. I am to be retrieved. And when they come for me, I will speak to them on your behalf. I will ask them to retrieve the three of you as well.”

  Jack’s smile disappeared. He winced again as Dr. Dolan stuck a needle into his shoulder and stitched the incision back together. “Sounds like you’re saying we may not have a choice.”

  Tex nodded.

  “I don’t know if I’ll even see Ian or Erika again,” Jack said. A tear came to his eye and he wiped it with the hand of the arm not being stitched up. “But if I do see them, I’ll tell them what you said. I’ll do everything I can to get her out of here.” Jack put his hand on Tex’s shoulder. “Thanks, man.”

  Tex’s initial instinct was to flinch away from Jack’s touch. But the warmth of Jack’s hand felt good on his naked shoulder. He decided not to move away from the touch. “What are you thanking me for?”

  “For letting me know. It’s a long shot, but it may be our only hope of getting out of this alive. And you didn’t have to tell me. You could have just let us get killed.”

  Tex did not know what to say in response, so he nodded. “Do not let on to Commander Sturgis that you know any of this. You must maintain my secrecy and the element of surprise.”

  Jack nodded.

  Dr. Dolan cut the thread he had used to stitch up the hole he’d made in Jack’s shoulder. Dolan was not a skilled seamster. The stitches in Jack’s shoulder were pulled tightly enough and would allow the incision to heal, but they were uneven and would leave an ugly scar. Tex chided himself for his petty feeling of happiness that Jack’s body would be marred and perhaps less attractive to Erika.

  “You’ll be okay.” Dr. Dolan put a large square of gauze over the stitch job and taped it down with clear plastic tape. “You can put your shirt back on.”

  A card swiped in the card reader on the other side of the metal doors. For a split second, Tex considered killing whoever entered that door and anyone else that stood between himself and Erika. But beyond Dr. Dolan’s heat lamps and wicking blankets lay hallways filled with moist air and rooms that were like backwater swamps. Even if he was able to terminate the guards that came through the door, as soon as he left Dr. Dolan’s medical facilities he would quickly lose strength. He’d never make it.

  Tex used his preternatural speed to return to his examination table. He picked up the dryer and pretended to dry his already waterless hair.

  “Commander Sturgis says to tell you that 9 is more than dry enough.”

  Tex turned off the dryer without being asked. He had no further need of the annoying whirr of the small machine.

  The two soldiers stomped over to where Jack was finishing putting his shirt on. “This one ready to go, Doc?” one of them asked.

  “Um, yes. All sewed up. Be careful with that suture, young man. It will be tender for a week or so.”

  I doubt he will be alive that long unless the greys arrive soon.

  “Got it. Thanks, Doc,” Jack said. His voice was jovial and without a hint of the sadness, anger and regret that Tex thought he should have if he believed he was going to die.

  Jack stood and began walking with the guards. He turned back to Tex. “Nice to see you again, Tex. Hope I’ll see you again. Soon.” Jack winked one eye as he spoke.

  Tex wished he understood what Jack had intended to convey to him by blinking one eye. “Nice to see you aga
in too, Jack Wilson.”

  Jack left the room with the guards. The doors closed tightly behind Jack, and Tex found himself once more sealed off from contact with the only friends he had ever known. If they were to be saved from the fate Commander Sturgis had planned for them, Tex would need to be the one to do the saving.

  But first he needed to save himself. And that would prove to be a difficult task to accomplish once they took him back to the mire he called home.

  19

  DEALING WITH THE DEVIL

  Erika occasionally yelled for Jack and Ian, but the only answer was her own echo. The single overhead light turned off automatically, her only indication that it must be night. Alone, in a dark more complete than she’d ever known, she had no choice but to sleep.

  There had been two cycles of light then dark. So much for home by dinner. A guard had brought a change of clothes the first day along with a tray of what appeared to be the food that Tex had told them about. She was glad to get out of the mud-caked, bloodstained clothes. Erika slipped on the hospital-blue elastic-waisted pants and white T-shirt. Just like Tex wears. She forced herself to eat the apple and nutrition bar she’d been given. It was like eating gritty cardboard, but she forced herself to choke it down. A guard had brought the same meal twice a day since. It filled her up but did nothing to stop her cravings for pizza and a milkshake.

  Erika killed the time by running in place, doing jumping jacks and what few calisthenics she remembered from PE class. She sweat herself silly until her body finally gave in to exhaustion. She’d been resting fitfully on her cot when the metal door clanged open. She jumped up from the bed, her heart racing.

  Just outside the door was one of the nameless soldiers clad from head to toe in the ubiquitous black and carrying an AK-47. Why do they carry guns? What do they think, that I made a homemade rifle from pieces of my cot?

  He glared at her. “Let’s go.” He motioned with his gun for her to come out of the cell.