Tower of Zhaal

by Phipps, C. T.

  “How long ago was that?” I asked.

  “Two weeks.”

  I took a deep breath. “Who are these Faceless Ones? Are they friendly?”

  “Does the name ‘Faceless One’ scream friendly?” Mercury asked.

  “No, it implies they don’t have mouths,” I said.

  Mercury snorted despite herself.

  Bobbie’s expression was grave. “The Faceless Ones are a new race, or to be precise, a very old race that has been in hiding for a long time.” Bobbie looked uncomfortable even talking about them. “They have begun building their strange machines and terrible devices across the world. No one knows to which gods, if any, they pray, but they wield knowledge as to make the University look like a tribe of cavemen.”

  “Great,” Mercury grunted. “Because we didn’t have enough crazy-ass shit on this trip.”

  I didn’t bother mentioning this wasn’t even in the top ten strangest things we’d seen in the Wasteland. Picking up my radio, I contacted the other Hummer. “We need to get out of here now. We can’t risk any conflicts we don’t know how to deal with.”

  “Where? Toward the volcanoes and the giant hydra monsters or to the left and the place where they impale people?” Thom asked.

  “Where they impale people,” I said, without hesitating. I didn’t know to what he was referring, but I’d take it over Tunnelers and volcanoes. I’d never been this far north. “We’ll take the long way around.”

  “OK, you’re the leader,” Thom said in the most sarcastic manner possible.

  Thom’s vehicle turned left, as did mine, only for the sky to start raining down bolts of alien energy upon our heads.

  Chapter Twelve

  Bolts rained down from the sky, less lightning than terrifying bolts of supernatural energy. They were akin to those that had eradicated the caravan Mercury and I’d been traveling with, only much, much bigger. The rocky earth around us exploded where they struck, sending up showers of dirt burned into glass and pebbles.

  “Fuck!” I shouted, doing my best to estimate where the glowing bolts of energy would strike next so I could avoid them. It was like driving through a hail of shells. There was a randomness to the pattern that made it unclear if whoever was behind the bolts was even aiming at us.

  Looking in the rear-view mirror, I saw the storm of lightning had spread for miles behind us and there was nowhere to flee from its relentless assault. Left with a choice of evils, I slammed my foot on the gas and drove forward.

  “Do you know anything about evasive driving?” Bobbie said, bouncing around in the back before she managed to put on her seatbelt.

  “No,” I said, looking back at her in the mirror. “How about you?”

  Bobbie grimaced.

  Much to my surprise, I managed to avoid six or seven bolts with relative ease. The electricity from the sky was not predictable, but it was not moving at the speed of light either. Instead, the bolts were slow enough that death was not guaranteed. Surviving this conflict was a matter of skill rather than the favor of Lady Luck. Turning my head, I saw Thom’s vehicle was still moving forward beside me.

  “We might just make our way out of this intact,” I muttered, avoiding yet another bolt.

  Then I saw the bolts start to descend from the sky twice as fast.

  “Crap,” Mercury muttered, holding firmly onto the sides of the car.

  “You said it,” I said, watching the windshield crack as an explosion of dirt and rock struck too close to our vehicle. I turned on the barely-functioning windshield wipers, but visibility remained almost nonexistent.

  A part of me was tempted to stop the Hummer dead in its tracks, relying on the old adage “Lightning never strikes the same place twice,” but watching the immense storm of light outside through the windshield’s dirt-smeared glass, I knew that was wishful thinking.

  “You’ve survived these before?” I asked Bobbie, hoping for some sort of insight.

  “I’ve seen these before,” Bobbie answered. “The Faceless Ones have other factories across the Wasteland.”

  “How long do they last?” I asked, praying for a miracle.

  “The storm of fire I survived went on for seventeen hours,” Bobbie responded.

  It seemed the gods were not with me today. Or they were with Marcus Whateley.

  The Hummer’s radio crackled to life, and I heard Thom’s voice through an immense amount of static. “There’s some sort of cave near my position. I’m going inside!”

  Staring out the side window, I saw Thom’s vehicle drive to an outcropping of rocks before disappearing. Seeing the storm’s bolts falling even faster, I did a hard right and felt the wheel jerk and twist.

  It was a long shot, one depending on the cave being large enough for both our vehicles and providing any sort of protection from the Faceless Ones’ dread machinery’s by-product. A small hope was better than none, though, and passing through two more explosions of dirt and rock, I pulled the Hummer into the cavern entrance and crashed into the far wall.

  “Oomph!” Mercury exclaimed, her seatbelt keeping her from slamming her head against the dashboard. “Nice job, Booth.”

  “No need to be sarcastic,” I muttered, putting the car into Park and shutting it off. Looking out the back window, I saw we were a few dozen feet into the cavern’s entrance and outside a rainstorm of light was still visible. Hundreds of thousands of bolts struck the ground, burning and destroying everything in their wake.

  Above our heads, I heard the blasts slamming into the cavern’s roof. I did not know if it would hold or collapse against the alien energy striking it. I did, however, know there was nothing we could do to guard ourselves against it. We had to wait this storm out, the urgency of our quest be damned.

  “I wasn’t being sarcastic,” Mercury said, unbuckling her seatbelt. “Any crash you can walk away from is one you should be happy about.”

  “Unless it puts you in an unstable unexplored cavern near Tunneler territory,” Bobbie said, looking out her window.

  “You’re just a bundle of optimism, aren’t you?” Mercury said, opening the door and sliding out.

  “Optimism is one of the few forms of insanity the Deep Ones do not revere,” Bobbie said, also exiting.

  My door was jammed against the rock and I had to exit out Mercury’s door before falling into the cavern beyond. A quick look around told me we weren’t so much in a cave as a gigantic wormhole. I wasn’t speaking figuratively, as the entire place was a smooth tunnel pressing down into the earth. This tunnel wasn’t a product of erosion or other natural processes. A Tunneler had created it, and there was no telling how far it went down. There were some rumors that the strange race was capable of journeying through the Earth’s molten core.

  This cavern was at a very slight incline, so it seemed to go on for miles and miles without us falling. Looking down into the deep abyss, I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of horrors might come up from below. There was also the question of whether the creature that had dug this tunnel might return from whatever errand it had left on. Then we’d not be at the end of its path, but the beginning.

  Just down the tunnel, not twenty feet away, was Thom Braddock’s Hummer. He’d already stepped out of the vehicle and was unloading it with Jessica and August. They were setting up a campsite, which seemed to be a premature decision even if we were caught between a rock and a hard place.

  “I didn’t say to set up camp,” I said, looking among them. “We don’t know if this tunnel is safe.”

  Thom looked at me as he pitched a tent. “I’m sure this tunnel is not safe. However, the entire world is not safe, and it’s less safe out there. If you have any better ideas, Black Soldier, I’d love to hear them.”

  “Stop calling me that,” I snarled.

  “Aren’t you consecrated to Nyarlathotep, destined to become an embodiment of some awful thing the Lord of One Thousand Forms thought up?” Thom asked, sounding like he was asking me what color my hair was. “Because if you aren’t,
I’ll stop talking.”

  I stared at him. “How the hell do you—”

  Thom gestured with his head to Jessica. “She told me.”

  “You bitch,” Mercury said, glaring.

  “It wasn’t like that,” Jessica said, frowning. “You had no right to share that, Thom.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have told me,” Thom said, shrugging. “Anyway, we all knew you were a mutant freak anyway, Captain. It’s just now we know what kind you are.”

  “I find it fascinating,” August said, smiling. “If you want I could examine you and see what I could do to arrest the process—or speed it along.”

  “I already have an agreement with the Yithians to provide a cure,” I said, looking at August. “I’m also quite sure I couldn’t trust you not to put a spell of binding in whatever cure you offered. There’s rumors you once raised someone from the dead by summoning a demon to inhabit his corpse and imitate him.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” August said. “It was a Gug’s consciousness from the Dreamlands. Demons don’t exist.”

  “Don’t Gugs eat people?” Mercury blinked.

  “Eh.” August shrugged. “My client was more than happy to feed her re-animated husband any number of unwanted individuals. Pleasing your customers is really what it’s all about.”

  Thom said, “So, August, you’re getting your magic wand back. John is getting cured. Mercury’s little half-human abomination is getting an education—”

  “Screw you,” Mercury growled.

  “Maybe after a few shots, but only if you’re buying.” Thom pointed to himself. “As for me, my brother Snell is coming back if I help this circus reach its goal. Old Matt’s dead, so his wish doesn’t matter. What do you two ladies want?” He pointed at Bobbie, then Jessica.

  “That’s none of your business,” Jessica snapped. “And see if I tell you anything again. Friend or not.”

  “I want the Yithians to find my people a place on this Earth or some other world where we’ll be safe from the rest of our kind,” Bobbie replied, not hesitating to answer. “This planet is a hellhole and they deserve better.”

  “Everyone deserves better,” Thom said, shrugging. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to get it.”

  “Do you practice at being an asshole or does it come naturally?” I asked Thom.

  “I think it’s a little of both. I have a natural talent for offending people, but it’s taken years of dedication to my craft to master it.” Thom placed his hand over his heart. “So are we pitching camp now or not?”

  I looked out to the cavern entrance, which was still being illuminated by regular bolts of energy crashing outside. “It seems so. I didn’t get much sleep last night, so it’ll be in my best interests to get some now. I suspect everyone else was recruited under similar circumstances.”

  “You’re right,” Thom said, “However, before we hit the sack I’d like to settle something up between us.”

  I hoped it involved me shooting him. “And what’s that?”

  “Gimme a minute to set up the range and we’ll be able to talk about it,” Thom said, pulling out a box of empty glass bottles from the back of the Hummer. They caused me to blink, as I wouldn’t have thought he’d waste space on them. “In the meantime, I suggest we have dinner before we all head on to the Dreamlands. You ladies know anything about cooking?”

  Mercury said, “You know I can send you to hell with a thought, right?”

  Thom smirked. “Good thing I’m an atheist.”

  I literally wasn’t sure how that was possible. “I’ll cook.”

  “I don’t want monster chow,” Thom said, risking getting shot by me then and there.

  August sighed and started setting up a fire pit. “I will prepare our group’s meals. I would not trust any of you to make proper use of the rather significant amount of fresh produce and meats the University has provided us. A good meal is to be cherished, and it requires, if you’ll forgive the expression, a magician to prepare.”

  “Yeah, you do that,” Thom said, giving a mock salute and going back to setting up his targeting range.

  “I’m going to kill that guy before this mission is through,” Mercury muttered.

  “He’s testing you,” Bobbie said, placing a reassuring hand on Mercury’s shoulder. “Don’t let him throw him off your game. I’ve seen him shoot and he does so without emotion. This is all a method of putting others off balance.”

  “Or he’s just an asshole,” Mercury said, crossing her arms.

  “That too,” Bobbie said. “Nevertheless, I would not challenge him lightly. I’ve seen him gun down men and monsters with those enchanted pistols of his.”

  “You’ve worked with him before?” I asked.

  “We have an intimate association,” Bobbie said, smiling.

  “No accounting for taste then,” Mercury said.

  “I did not sleep with him for his mind or personality,” Bobbie said. “Simply his body.”

  I shook my head and went to work. About half an hour later, the camp was set up with the vehicles prepped at the tunnel’s entrance and wires attached to an air horn some distance from the camp, so we’d have a warning if we fell under attack. While there’d be no chance we could outrun a Tunneler if it came upon us, any other enemy would find us ready for fight or flight. I just hoped the shower of fire outside was over if flight was a necessity.

  Thom had set up a mid-sized shooting gallery, making use of all the empty bottles he’d brought as well as several other rock-based targets. It was also set up far enough away from the camp to not be within listening distance. Approaching the man after he finished, I wondered what he wanted. Did he just want to have a shooting contest? Now?

  “You wanted to talk?” I asked, staring at him. I had my pistol at my side, just in case.

  “Yes,” Thom said, lifting his revolver. “I wanted to avail myself of your oh-so-inhuman wisdom.”

  “I’m as human as the next man,” I said, staring at him.

  Thom didn’t take the bait. “Probably. Our father, that is Snell and me, worshiped the Old Ones. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had something unpleasant in his family tree.”

  “That’s a dangerous admission in the Wasteland.”

  “Which is why I’m saying it here where everyone and their brother is part-monster.” Thom shrugged, firing underneath his shoulder. It hit a bottle anyway. “I just figured I needed an outside pair of eyes and you’re the closest thing to a rational actor here other than Jessica.”

  He seemed to know her, which bothered me. “Trick shots don’t impress me, Thom.”

  “I’m much better when there’s actual stakes,” Thom said, twirling his gun before holstering it. “Are you willing to help or not?”

  I shrugged. “Talk is cheap. First tell me your story.”

  “Why?” Thom asked.

  “I like to know who is working with me.”

  “Suit yourself,” Thom said, shrugging. “I grew up in a compound, a cult really, with my brother Snell and sister Marie. Bandits who worshiped Nyarlathotep as Saint Death. My father was the leader and claimed he had received all manner of great insights from a black magic artifact of some kind. I only saw it once and the damned thing looked like an ordinary trapezoid but they offered it human sacrifices on a regular basis.”

  “Sounds like a lovely bunch of people.”

  Thom got a sour expression on his face as he looked down at his pistols. “Fun thing was that it worked. Dad gained real magic and it gave him a god complex. Then he ended up dying on a chicken bone of all things. His replacement wanted me and Snell cast out into the Wasteland and Marie brought to him along with the other girls of the compound.”

  “What happened?”

  Thom lowered his voice. “We were just teenagers back then and I didn’t make it back until years later. When I did, I found out he’d killed Marie and their child during one of his tantrums. I was a man then and so was my brother. Murdered him and all of his followers before burn
ing the cult to the ground.”

  I could practically picture it. “I guess their magic didn’t serve them that day.”

  Thom paused. “No, it ended serving me. All those murders seemed to make me strong and I woke up with these guns. I could have founded my own cult but I wanted to be free instead. Still, I had nightmares for a few decades thereafter.”

  “A few decades?” I asked, surprised. Thom didn’t look to be over thirty-five.

  “I’m older than I look,” Thom said, frowning. “I didn’t exactly set out to reach the East Coast, it just sort of happened. I walked from town to town, oasis to oasis, eventually ending up here.”

  “What’s the rest of the United States look like?” I asked, genuinely interested.

  Thom frowned. “Mostly like this. There’s whole parts of it that are depopulated of anything human now and it was getting worse last time I did a long walk. I considered having a family once or twice, but in the end, I was never really the marrying kind. I was born to kill or, at least, made to and there’s never been a shortage of locations which need a man who can slay monsters or men.”

  “I see.” That answered my questions about him, at least. “Go ahead and ask your questions.”

  Thom stared down at the ground. “Can the Yithians be trusted to live up their end of the bargain? I don’t care if this Whateley character is going to destroy the world or not. I want to know if they’re going to pay up or cheat us.”

  I raised an eyebrow, opened my mouth, then closed it. “I don’t know. I’m sure they’d tell us anything to get us to cooperate. My guess is they’re going to try to screw us. After all, if we accomplish what they want, then they don’t have any incentive to pay. That’s assuming we all aren’t killed on this insane mission of theirs.”

  “Yeah, that’s what my gut was telling me. Goddammit.” Thom proceeded to shoot three bottles in a row.

  “How long has your brother been dead?” I asked. “I don’t recall meeting him when we had our last … altercation.”

  “A while,” Thom said, looking back up. “Do you have any siblings?”

  “No.”