The Deep Beneath

by Natalie Wright

  Ian stood beside Jack, his hand shakily filling a syringe with more Diprivan. Tex stood behind them both, his face as stoic as ever. Why doesn’t he help me?

  “This ain’t playtime. Those alarms mean I’m needed elsewhere. Time to finish the job I was sent down here for. I’m done playing along with your little game.” Freeman stood and pulled Erika up with him. He twisted her arm behind her back.

  Erika feared that he would break her arm or shoulder. Her finger throbbed and sent sharp needles of pain up into her hand. She didn’t want to imagine what a broken shoulder would feel like.

  “Tex, do something,” Ian said. “He’s going to break her into pieces.”

  “I have tried, but I am still too weak. I cannot put him down,” Tex said.

  “Put the gun down,” Freeman said. He pulled Erika’s arm up hard behind her back and twisted. She screamed out in agony again as a bone in her shoulder cracked. Pain shot through her shoulder and arm like a lightning bolt of heat. Bile rose in her throat and she swallowed to keep it down. She knew she needed to breathe, but she felt as though her lungs had forgotten how. If he can break my shoulder that easily, maybe he can break my neck. Panic collided with the pain and formed a dark halo around her peripheral vision.

  “Shoot him, Jack. He’s going to kill her,” said Ian.

  “I might hit Erika,” Jack said. “I can’t –”

  “You can,” said Tex. “You must. Aim at his forehead. That is it. You see the red light there. Now pull the trigger.”

  “Please,” said Erika. Her voice came out a hoarse whisper.

  It was too dark to see Jack’s face or to see if his hand was on the trigger or not. First came the sound of the gun blast then the pain as she fell to the floor. The ache in her broken shoulder radiated to her chest. Am I shot?

  Erika wanted to cry out for help but found she could not speak. The world faded around her as all went black.

  24

  IMPROVISE

  Ian held his gun upright, still pointed to the place where he’d shot Freeman between the eyes.

  Jack rushed to Erika’s body, lifeless on the floor. He felt for her pulse. “She’s still with us,” he said. “Just passed out.” He turned his head to look at Ian. “I didn’t know you had that in you.”

  “Neither did I,” Ian said.

  “Well, it’s a good thing at least one of us did,” Jack said.

  Tex knelt by Erika across from Jack and hovered his hand over her chest and abdomen. “She is likely in shock from the pain,” he said. He wished he could heal her wounds, but he needed to get to a lower humidity environment before he’d have the strength. He got up and went to the drawers built into the wall and searched them, rifling through cotton gauze packages and syringes. He finally found what he was looking for.

  He walked over to Freeman’s still-warm body. Tex laid Freeman’s hand out flat and used the handsaw he’d taken from Dr. Dolan’s drawer to sever Freeman’s finger from his hand.

  “God almighty, what are you doing?” asked Jack. He was bending near Erika’s face, close enough to hear the sound of the metal saw grinding through Freeman’s bone.

  “We must have his card and his thumbprint if we are to enter Aphthartos.” Unlike his human companions, Tex did not feel squeamish about the task. The man was already dead. He was not likely to miss the appendage.

  “Dang, that sound of grinding bone makes me want to barf,” said Jack. He turned his head away from Tex.

  Out of his peripheral vision, Tex could see Ian turn his back to them. Once Tex had worked his way through the bone, it took only seconds to work the thumb from Freeman’s hand. He tucked the bloody finger into the small pocket in his pants and unsnapped the card from Freeman’s belt. “Can you carry her?” he asked Jack.

  “I think so, but can’t you heal her like you did me?” said Jack.

  “I do not have the strength yet. I am sorry.”

  “Maybe there’s at least pain medication – something in here to help her,” said Ian.

  “Pain medication will not heal the wound, but it will sedate her further. Please trust me. When we get to Aphthartos, the humidity will be much lower and I will regain my strength. I will be able to heal her then.”

  Jack stared into Tex’s eyes for a few seconds then turned to look at Ian. Ian shrugged his shoulders, but they did not exchange words.

  Jack pulled Erika from under Freeman’s dead weight and scooped her into his arms. “She’s heavier than she looks.”

  “Let’s go before I talk myself out of this,” Ian said.

  Tex took the lead and stepped out into the hallway. He looked to his left then his right. The corridor was empty and bathed in the flashing red lights. He motioned with his hand for the other two to follow.

  They turned right and walked as quickly as they could. Jack lagged behind, the weight of carrying Erika slowing him down.

  “If she gets too heavy, I can carry her a while,” Ian said.

  “I’ve got her.”

  Tex led them through the maze of corridors that they had walked down to get to the labs. They saw no one.

  “Isn’t it strange that we haven’t seen anyone?” asked Ian.

  “The facility is in lockdown,” Tex said.

  “Yeah, I know, but still, not even a single guard?”

  Tex did not offer another answer. In truth he had no explanation for the lack of guards in the halls. He wasted no mental energy trying to figure it out. It took all of his focus to concentrate on the buzzing that filled his head and decipher the message that his mind was receiving. They were telling him to go to Aphthartos.

  It took them nearly twenty minutes to reach the metal doors that led to the strange town. Tex swiped Freeman’s card through the reader and it blinked green. He pulled the severed thumb from his pocket, but the light turned red, not green. Tex examined Freeman’s thumb. It was smeared with blood. He wiped it on his shirt and once again held it against the scanner. The doors clicked as they unlocked and slid open.

  “It worked,” Ian said.

  Tex did not respond to Ian’s statement of the obvious. He walked quickly through the doors, his senses coming more and more alive as they left the ultrahigh humidity of the H.A.L.F. wing behind. He sensed movement around him by the shift in the molecules. He heard Jack’s labored breathing as though it had been amplified. The relatively dry air of Aphthartos refreshed him almost as much as the dry desert air up top had.

  Tex led them through the wide corridor that led to the center of Aphthartos. Ian followed behind, his AK-47 still cradled in his arms. Jack took up the rear, his rifle slung across his back, Erika still in his arms. They were stopped in their tracks by the sound of heavy gunfire coming from ahead of them in the creepy throwback town.

  “What’s going on in there?” Jack asked from the rear.

  “Don’t know yet,” said Ian. “But the gunfire may explain where all the guards went.”

  Tex was at the entrance to the town square, facing the fountain. The bright lights in the high ceiling were turned off. Only the lamps that dotted the streets of the underground city were on. But flashes of orangey-red bursts brightened the near complete dark as soldiers planted around the center of the town fired their weapons in a nonstop barrage.

  “What are they shooting at?” asked Ian.

  Tex’s large alien eyes could see the target clearly despite the dark. He knew exactly what they shot at. “An alien ship,” he said.

  25

  THEY’RE HERE

  “Come,” Tex commanded. He was drawn to the ship like a bee to a flower.

  “In there? We’ll get shot to bloody bits,” said Ian.

  “We must get closer. There.” Tex pointed to a clump of bushes less than ten feet from them and at least twenty feet behind the nearest soldier. “We can wait there and watch for an opportunity. I must get nearer to the ship.”

  Ian looked behind him to Jack. Jack hunched his shoulders in response.

  Tex hunkered himself do
wn and walked slowly toward the area he had indicated. The other two followed closely behind him. Once he reached the bushes, he knelt down. Ian stopped close to his right while Jack gently laid Erika on the ground and huddled on Tex’s left. Erika did not rouse when Jack laid her down.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Ian asked.

  Tex nodded. “They have come for me.”

  A large craft hovered in the middle of the Aphthartos town square. It was a perfect sphere and nearly as tall as the two-story-high buildings that ringed the center of the town. The orb was shiny, silver, and metallic. There were no seams or rivets. It was a mystery to him how it was held together. Perhaps it was molded.

  In the drier air of Aphthartos, Tex’s senses were at near full capacity. He could hear the low hum of the orb despite the gunfire. Tex, Ian and Jack watched as at least two-dozen A.H.D.N.A. soldiers fired on the silvery sphere only to have their bullets deflected off of its shiny skin. The yellowy-orange spark of gunfire broke the darkness. Bullets ricocheted off of the silver craft and left no dents or marks on the metal exterior.

  Seeing the ship, Tex was certain that he would finally escape his confinement. He assumed that the planet the greys lived on was arid as was the desert above him. He looked forward to again feeling the vitality of a nervous system free from sedation.

  While Tex was confident about going with the greys, his human companions wore their fear like a perfume. Their hearts pounded wildly in their chests, and the stink of profuse sweat emanated from their bodies. Ian had previously voiced his apprehension of going with the greys. His face was etched with fear. Tex reached out to Ian’s mind. It was filled with images of lying on an operating table and looking up into a blindingly bright light. In his imagination, Ian looked into the large, dark reflective eyes of small, thin aliens that surrounded him as an instrument was thrust into his abdomen. Ian’s heart raced faster. He has allowed the imagery from human stories to cloud his perspective.

  The soldier nearest to them spoke into his handheld radio. “Yes, ma’am. We’re firing at it with all we’ve got, but it’s not making a dent. No, ma’am, they’re not firing back. Not yet anyway. It’s just sitting there. Yes, ma’am.”

  “What’d she say, Captain?” asked one of the soldiers.

  “She said to keep firing and she’ll be down here soon with a real weapon.”

  Alecto. Tex was at once both nervous and flushed with excited expectation at the thought of seeing his sister again. He hoped that if he saw her face-to-face that he could, perhaps, convince her to come with him and leave their underground prison behind.

  “Real weapon. What does she think these are?” The soldier raised his gun in the air.

  “I don’t know. Just keep shootin’.”

  The soldiers resumed firing at the alien craft. There was a constant plink, plink, plink as their shell casings fell to the ground. But their shots had no effect.

  Tex reached out with his mind to the aliens, asking them to help him get to the ship. In an instant he almost wished he had not instigated the communication. His brain buzzed and dizziness overtook him. He was nauseous from the pain. He was inundated with images and words layered over each other. The communication the greys sent him was a garbled, undecipherable mess.

  “Too much,” he said out loud though he had meant to only think the words.

  “What is it?” Ian asked.

  Tex could not answer. He drew his knees to his chest and rested his head on them, his hands at his temples.

  “Are they speaking to you again?” asked Jack.

  Tex forced a slow nod. Slow it down. One at a time. Eventually the images slowed and the cacophony of voices settled down to a chorus. Finally he was able to understand their words. “Retrieve another,” they said.

  Another? He assumed they meant Alecto. But they were showing him images of a street in Aphthartos. Why would Alecto be down here? And if she is, why is she not fighting them?

  He had to get from their current position to the other side of Aphthartos. They could not carry Erika in the hunkered-down position that they needed to be in to remain hidden. He needed to heal Erika or leave her behind. His training mandated that he abandon her. She was of no further use to him.

  But he was no longer a slave to A.H.D.N.A. and he wasn’t about to leave Erika stranded. He did not want her to die. In fact, he was compelled to help her. Maybe it was a sense of obligation. She did risk her life to come for me. But maybe it was something more.

  Tex pushed the alien voices aside and used his own thoughts to close them off as if behind a heavy door. The dizziness diminished and his mind cleared. With the buzzing gone, clarity returned to him. He knew what he needed to do and who the greys wanted him to retrieve. “We must move to the other side of the town. But first I will heal Erika.”

  “Do you have the strength?” asked Ian.

  “I am stronger now. I must try. Please – give me some room.”

  Tex moved beside Erika and hovered his hands over her. He sensed her pulse. It was slow but steady. He moved his hands up and down her right arm and hand then placed his hands on her right ring finger. He could see her fractured bone like an X-ray picture in his mind. Just as he was able to use his imagination to press a person’s airway closed, he was able to mend the bone. Good enough.

  He moved his hands up, noting the damage along the way. Freeman had broken her arm and shoulder. Tex’s hands warmed as he focused his energy. Though the effects of the high humidity had largely worn off, he found that he was still weaker than he’d been when he first escaped into the desert. The time in the pool room had taken its toll on him. It was difficult to maintain his focus, but he was able to mend the bones at least partially. Time will heal the remainder.

  Erika stirred beneath him, and he removed his hands and fell backward. The energy he had expended to heal Erika robbed him of the ability to close the door to the constant hum of the alien chatter that filled his head, and the dizziness returned.

  “What’s … what’s going on? Am I alive?”

  Jack quickly came to Erika’s side. He knelt beside her and stroked her hair. “Yes, you’re with us.”

  “Welcome back,” Ian said. He rubbed her back. “Did you have a nice nap?”

  Jack put out his arm to steady Erika as she sat up.

  Her hand flew to her head then to her stomach as if she were checking for bullet holes. “What happened?”

  “Ian shot Freeman but not before he busted up your shoulder,” said Jack. “You passed out from the pain. Maybe went into shock. We’re in Aphthartos, and Tex just did his healing thingy on you. Oh, and Sturgis’ men are shooting at an alien ship.”

  Erika looked around and blinked her eyes. She rotated her shoulder but winced in pain.

  “Still hurts?” asked Jack.

  “Yeah, like a son of a –”

  “I did not have the energy to heal you completely. It will take time, but you will recover eventually.”

  “Thanks. Again,” Erika said.

  “For what?” Tex asked. He found it difficult to speak. The pain of the buzzing in his head made him want to close his eyes and withdraw from the world around him.

  “For helping us. For helping me.”

  “I merely repaid you. If you had not come with Dr. Dolan to my quarters, I likely would have been unable to reach Aphthartos. The aliens may have come for me, but I am not certain of it.”

  “Well, let’s call it even,” said Erika. She smiled a small, weak smile that did not reach her eyes.

  Tex forced himself to smile back but was unsure if she could see it in the dark.

  Erika sat up on her knees and peered over the green hedge. Her face changed from pain to surprise. Tex, too, peered over the bushes. The soldiers were launching grenades at the silver orb, but they appeared to have no more effect than the bullets.

  “They came,” Erika whispered.

  “Yep, just like Tex said they would,” said Jack.

  Erika hunkered back down behin
d the bushes. “How are we going to get out there and into that ship without being made into Swiss cheese?”

  “I have not yet formulated a plan of action to achieve that goal. But at this time I must move to the most northerly quadrant of this town. There is someone that I must see,” Tex said.

  He stayed crouched down low and moved swiftly behind the bushes toward the eastern edge of the town. Tex did not look back to see if his human companions followed. He had to do as his alien cousins requested whether his friends came with him or not.

  After he had walked about thirty feet, there was a break in the bushes and a ten-foot gap until the next clump of greenery. He paused and peered around the hedge. There were two soldiers less than five feet in front of the bushes. They were preoccupied with the ship, but Tex feared that they would see him out of their peripheral vision as soon as he moved into the open.

  Ian came up beside him. “If you can catch a football, you’d be one hell of a running back.” Ian was breathing hard. “How do you move so fast?”

  Tex shrugged his shoulders.

  “Do you think they’ll see us?” Ian whispered.

  Tex nodded. “I will go first. They likely have orders not to shoot me. If they see me, I will distract them. The three of you stay low and move as quickly as you can to the next hedge.”

  Ian turned to Jack, who was hunched beside him. Ian whispered the plan into Jack’s ear, and Jack turned and passed the details on to Erika. She nodded to Tex.

  He stayed low and moved into the open space between the two rows of hedges. As he feared, the sudden movement caught the attention of the soldiers.

  “You there. Stop!”

  Tex considered refusing the request and continuing on as though he had not heard it. But he feared that in the dim light, the soldier could not see him clearly and would shoot first and find out who it was later. Tex froze as requested.

  The soldiers took a few steps toward him. “What the …?”

  “Is he –”

  “I am H.A.L.F. 9, Commander Sturgis’ creation. Do not fire on me.”

  The soldiers exchanged glances but kept their rifles trained on Tex. “We have orders to take you in if we see you,” one of them said.