by J. N. Chaney
“You don’t think we can cross?” I asked.
The old woman motioned for a small stone, sitting nearby. “Hand me that, would you?”
Abigail retrieved the rock and gave it to her. Lucia tossed it in the direction of the pit, letting it stop less than a meter from the edge. “What was that for?” asked Abby.
“Wait,” she said, simply.
I heard something move, but couldn’t see anything. “Do you hear that?” I finally asked. It sounded like water pouring through a pipe.
Lucia raised her finger, pointing to where the stone had landed. “Look.”
Before I could respond, I saw it. A vine, moving on its own, reaching out of the pit and moving toward the rock. It curved and slithered, almost like a beast, making for the stone. Finally, as it reached the rock, the vine wrapped itself around it, and dragged the object back into the hole, disappearing into the darkness.
I’d seen plants that moved on their own before, but only in holo vids. There were planets with jungles that moved, trees and plants that attacked unsuspecting travelers, should they come too close. They were rare, sure, but not impossible.
“Are you saying if we get too close, that pit will attack us?” I asked.
“It will do more than that,” said Lucia.
I reached for another rock, deciding to test the boundary of this creature—or was it creatures? How many different organisms was I looking at right now? Were all these plants interconnected?
I shrugged, tossing the rock two meters from the edge of the hole.
Again, a vine came out from inside the pit and took the stone, pulling it back inside.
That was one hell of a reach. “Shit,” I muttered.
“I know,” said Lucia.
I found another stone and tossed it, but this time closer than the other two. It landed, rolling half a meter before stopping.
We waited for the vines to emerge, but they never did. Now we were getting somewhere.
I tried again, tossing a fourth rock, letting it fall the same distance from the pit as the last one. It landed, rolled a short way, and stopped. Again, no vines. Good. I liked consistency.
“Now what? How are we supposed to get across?” asked Abigail.
“Usually, we’d avoid this section of the tunnels,” explained Lucia.
I shook my head. “Well, that’s out of the question. Do you know how to get through this?”
She nodded. “I’ve only come through here once before, back when I was far younger than either of you two. Several of my friends and I were attempting to cross the pit. Most of us were fast enough to make it, all except for one. A boy named Chalter. The vines grabbed his ankle and pulled him down.”
“Chalter died?” asked Abigail.
“He was taken by the pit. I had already crossed, the plants nearly grabbing my feet, but when he tried to follow...” She took a slow breath. “The plants took him. The rest of us could only watch.”
I could sense the old woman’s pain at the memory. She didn’t want to be here. Hell, this might actually be the first time she’d been back here since the accident. But that was in the past, and we couldn’t just turn around.
“Is there another way?” asked Abigail.
“We can travel to the third facility,” said Lucia. “There is another road, similar to the first. There are no plants there.”
“And how long would that take?” I asked.
“Another day,” she answered. “And there are Boneclaws between us. Another nest.”
I considered the option. After all, it might have been better to wait and play it safe, maybe scout ahead for the animals. We had weapons, too, so we’d stand a decent chance, but it might get messy. The old woman had already come so close to dying in the cave-in.
No, I wasn’t going to trade one dangerous situation for another. I had no idea what I’d find in that tunnel. No idea how many Boneclaws had taken up residence there. But I knew this situation. I could see the danger right in front of me.
“We’re crossing,” I said, no hint of doubt in my voice.
“How?” asked Lucia. “Do you plan on throwing me across the hole?”
I paused, taking the staff from my backside and turning it in my hands. “Think you can handle this again?”
“What do you mean, Jace?” asked Abigail.
The old woman reached out and took the rod. “I know my weapon,” she returned.
“That’s good,” I said. “Because I need both of you to do exactly as I say.”
* * *
We strapped Lucia to my back, tying her legs around my waist. Once she was secure, I tried walking a few paces to make sure I was flexible enough to move.
The pad was in the middle of the floor, set to maximum brightness. The light was strong enough to reveal most of the room, but only the highest section of the pit. I could see vines and plants shifting and dancing against the walls of the chasm.
“Are you sure about this, Jace?” asked Abigail. I could tell she was more concerned with me and Lucia than herself. After all, the two of us would have to rely on only a single set of feet to carry us across the divide.
“I’ll be fine,” I said. “Don’t worry.”
“I’ll protect him,” said Lucia, winking at her.
I walked to the right side of the pit, standing slightly beside the third rock that I’d tossed, which still hadn’t been taken by the vines. “Ready?” I asked, looking at Abigail.
She nodded, waiting for me to give the signal as she stood near the edge of the room. The cliff was right ahead of her. “Ready,” she answered.
Lucia held the staff in her hands, using my shoulder to steady her aim.
I pulled out my pistol. Holding a rifle was too difficult with the old woman on my back and the staff on my shoulder, but managing a smaller gun allowed for more flexibility. In any case, I’d have to make it work.
I bent my head to see Lucia. “That thing better not hit me when you fire.” I paused. “Or cause a cave in.”
“Not to worry,” she assured me. “I’ve turned it down to only half-capacity.”
“Is that enough to do the job?” I asked.
“These aren’t Boneclaws. Half the power should be more than enough to handle things,” she said.
I nodded. “Okay, Abigail,” I said, raising my voice so she could hear me on the other side of the room. “Wait for the first shot and then move.”
“Understood,” she said.
Lucia squirmed a little on my back, taking aim at the pit. “Ready,” she said.
I took a quick breath. “Do it!”
A blast exploded from the end of the staff, sending a blue burst of energy across the pit and hitting the other side. A large cluster of plants fell from the wall, leaving a gap between the rest.
At the same time, Abigail was moving, heading quickly across the thin walkway adjacent to the wall.
The vines and plants moved inside the pit, reacting to the blast, some of them heading to the newly formed gap. As I’d expected, they were drawn to movement, even when it was dangerous. Pure instinct.
“Again,” I said to Lucia.
She gripped the staff and fired a second time, striking the plants, consuming them in a bright blue light.
More of the vines began to move, this time to the second location. Half the pit was reacting to the explosions, all to my relief.
I glanced at Abigail to see her near at the end of the pit, slowing down because of the increasingly narrow path. She was only a few steps from the other side.
Suddenly, a vine stretched out from the pit, heading for her foot. She jerked away, quickly avoiding its grasp.
“Move, Abby!” I snapped, raising my pistol and trying to aim.
The vine continued after her, bending and curving its way along the chasm. At one point, it stopped, pulling back, replaced by another, and then another. In seconds, there were several of them, each one coming from a different direction beneath the base of the path.
�
��Shoot it again!” I told the old woman.
She steadied her aim and fired again, hitting far below the pit, but not too close to Abigail. We didn’t want the vibration to offset her balance and accidentally send her falling.
The plants reacted immediately, pulling away from her and back toward the section of the wall where the shot had hit.
Abigail reached the other side and I felt a relief wash over me.
“It’s about time,” said Lucia. “I can feel your shoulders relaxing. You were worried.”
“Shut up,” I said, walking over to where Abigail had started from. “Just get ready to use that stick of yours.”
“I’m always ready,” she said.
I bent my knees, prepared to run across. With a slow and steady breath, I paused and said, “Okay…now!”
Lucia fired over my shoulder and I took off running. The shot struck below the edge of the pit, close to where she’d hit the last few times. Like before, the plants began moving toward the impact point, instinctually reacting to the vibrations.
I made it to the thin walkway, staying steady as I moved along to the other side. I couldn’t put my back to the wall, because of the old woman, so I had to keep facing forward. The balancing was more difficult than I anticipated.
Taking another step, I could hear the rustling movements of the plants beneath my feet. The pit had come alive with activity, the vines slithering in unison.
The old woman squeezed my shoulder. “Look out!” she snapped. “Your feet!”
A vine had come above the floor, edging closer to my ankle. I jerked away, bringing my pistol around and firing on the plant.
The bullet tore through the yellow vine, splitting it in half. The plant paused, retracting momentarily before continuing on again. Despite the damage, it seemed largely undeterred.
At the same time, two other vines appeared, each one following the first, making their way to me. “Use the staff!” I barked. “Shoot something!”
Lucia twisted around and steadied the rod. I took the opportunity to fire into the nearby plants, jumping out of their grasp. A blast exploded from the old woman’s stick, hitting the far side of the pit. This time, however, the plants beneath me didn’t react. They just kept coming.
“Shit!” I yelled, unloading my pistol. The magazine was almost empty now. I couldn’t keep this up, but I still had a dozen steps to go before I reached the other side.
“Shoot them, Lucia!” called Abigail. “Shoot the walkway!”
A vine came at me, grabbing my ankle. It tugged hard enough to make me stop, then it squeezed. I felt the pressure build to the point where it hurt.
It pulled my foot out from under me, causing me to lose my place. I fell on my knee, the plant still holding my other ankle. “Shoot it!!” I shouted. “Godsdammit!”
Abigail ran closer to the pit, ready with the rifle. Before she could do anything, I slipped further down the wall until most of my body was below the edge.
Lucia swiveled on my back, ready with the staff. “Hold on!” she yelled.
I reached with both my hands and gripped the edge. “Do it!” I told her.
She pulled the trigger and fired. The blast struck the cluster of vines, a meter away from my leg, ripping them apart instantly. The force of the explosion hit us, pushing me against the wall.
I lost my grip and fell, vines all around me, and the glowing light beneath us growing brighter by the second. I reached out and snagged a vine with my hand, but couldn’t hold it. Instead, I slipped again and fell, hitting the ground and falling forward.
“Jace!” I heard Abigail cry.
“We’re okay!” returned Lucia, who had managed to stay on my back through all the chaos.
I groaned, pushing myself up. The light was brighter now, filling the area in front of me. I got to my feet, noticing I was standing on a ledge inside the pit. Ahead of me, there was a tunnel, massive roots along the walls, interwoven with the dirt. At the end, the source of the light—a machine, still powered on and active, with roots encasing it almost entirely.
I edged forward, away from the ledge. There were no vines in here, and none seemed to follow, once I was a few meters inside.
The light was bright and gentle, coming from the center of the device. As I neared, I noticed a familiar design. This was a Tritium Core, having the same architecture as the one I’d stolen from the Union and replaced on Titan. “Holy shit,” I muttered.
“What is it?” asked Lucia, unable to see.
I turned around, giving her a better look. She stared at it for a few seconds before finally asking, “What is this?”
“A core,” I answered, taking a step closer to it. “A really powerful one.”
I imagined the possibilities of having another core, especially considering how difficult the last one was to obtain. When Titan found us, we might need a backup power source. Considering one had just fallen into my lap, I couldn’t simply walk away, even if I was sitting in the belly of a giant man-eating vegetable.
I stepped closer to the device, examining it closely. The roots had somehow burrowed inside the machine, almost surrounding the core. I took the container by its lid and tried to twist, but it was far too snug in-between the roots. Using my knife, I began to cut around it, chipping away the plant—enough to wiggle the core out from its holding place.
It budged, finally, and I managed to wedge it free.
The device dimmed as it came out, the glow of the tunnel dimming, nearly completely, as the machine lost most of its power. Only a few lights remained active, shining in the new darkness.
The roots suddenly trembled, shaking the walls around me. “What was that?” I asked, tucking the Tritium Core in my bag.
“Nothing good,” answered Lucia, readying her rod. “Whatever you did seems to have—”
Before she could finish, the ground shook, nearly knocking me over. The roots moved in place, pulling dirt from the walls. “Time to go!” I said, stepping away from the machine.
Vines were already coming up from around the tunnel opening. I took my knife and swiped at them, splitting the plants as they continued to come at me.
“Turn me around!” ordered Lucia.
I didn’t argue, sweeping my feet to give her a better view. She fired the rod, releasing a wide blast that evaporated the vines around the tunnel.
I ran to the ledge, looking down at the pit, which was covered in moving things, each one reacting to our movement.
Abigail peered over the edge at us, a horrified look on her face. I motioned at her, waving my knife. “Is there anything up there you can use to help us?” I asked.
“Hold on!” she answered, disappearing from my view.
I could sense Lucia doing something with her staff. “Is everything okay back there?” I asked.
“I’m altering the settings,” she answered.
I slit two stems at the base, severing them. “To do what?”
“To cleanse the wall without causing a cave in,” she said, right as she finished. I heard the weapon prime itself, cycling power. “Ready. Now aim me so I can clear a section for us to climb!”
“On it!” I said.
I retrieved my rifle and planted my feet, turning to give Lucia the best shot possible, towards Abigail.
She squeezed the trigger and shot a steady line of blue energy at the wall, slowly moving it down from top-to-bottom. “This is going to take a few moments!” she said, her voice just above the sound of the weapon.
I waited for any vines to attack, but they seemed more concerned with the chaos Lucia’s staff was causing. The plants moved closer to the blast zone, consumed by the energy as it laid waste to the wall.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Abigail popping her head out from above the cliff. She waved at me, showing something in her hand. It looked like a piece of cloth or rope, tied together.
As Lucia finished clearing the wall, I signaled to Abby, letting her know to drop the line. As she did, I felt the floor rumble. “W
hat is it now?!” I snapped.
A whaling cry rang through the cave, hitting my ears like a high-pitched screech, making me flinch. “Down there!” yelled Lucia, pointing to the middle of the pit.
I looked and saw the vines dispersing from the center of the base, moving away and revealing a plant of some kind.
“Move, Jace!” yelled Abigail, throwing the rope.
I caught it, then leaped across the divide and planted my feet on the newly cleaned wall. “Fire that stick, Lucia! Don’t let those things come after us!” I barked.
She did, and I heard several blasts hit the distant walls of the pit. The vines around us moved away, concerned with the other impacts. This was actually going to work.
With all my strength, I pulled forward, climbing with Lucia on my back. Abigail held the other end, using her own strength to help get us there faster. We moved, quickly, one step after the next, nearly there at last.
I gripped the side of the cliff, throwing my elbow over the edge, followed by a leg. Abigail gripped my arm and yanked me up, but not before something took my leg again. Another set of vines.
Each plant slid around me, pulling me back. One on each ankle; another on my thigh.
“Jace!” shouted Abby. She fired her rifle into the vines, barely able to make a different as more and more arrived.
I felt myself sliding back, unable to move forward. “Lucia!” I yelled. “Use the fucking stick!”
The old woman swiveled the staff around, nearly hitting me in the head, but finally managed to get a single shot off. It struck two of the vines, right as several more appeared, along with the section of the ridge we had just climbed up from.
I nearly fell again, but caught Abigail’s hand instead. The sudden stop caused the staff to fling free of Lucia’s grip, tumbling into the pit and into the chasm below. “No!” cried Lucia, reaching out for it, but unable to do anything.
Abigail pulled me up, and I scurried forward and away from the edge.
The three of us bolted for the stairs, and I felt a rumbling sound from behind us. The blast had caused the ground to break, and now it was coming down around the pit. I stopped a few steps away from the stairs, looking back to watch the madness.
It continued around the pit, cracking the floor in several directions, sending the vines into a wild frenzy.