I traced the outline of the building, recognizing the building above me. It showed the tower, and even the bunker below. What really caught my attention was the fact that the tower had a dish on the roof, complete with a label.
‘Satellite Comm Array’. Nearby were two large lines extending out from the building. Each was labeled ‘MF Collection Array’.
My curiosity increased as I realized the ‘MF’ here had to be the same that was used by the generator. What could they have been collecting to cause such an enormous and destructive explosion?
Magic.
Two hundred feet underground and the voice spoke inside my head again. Fantastic, I swore at myself. I really must be losing my mind.
“Magic my ass!” I shouted to the room. There was no reply.
“Motherfucker. Just drops in to be cryptic and leave me feeling insane.” I wasn’t sure if I wanted the voice to be real or a figment of my overtaxed and fatigued mind.
I removed both posters from the wall, and folded them carefully. Then I grabbed a manila folder from the desk. I emptied the folder onto the desk, since I had already looked through it.
After I placed the posters in the folder, I hunted around and found the two sheets I had read earlier. Once they were slipped into the folder, I tucked it into the back of my pants to keep my hands free.
I headed back to the main hall. Nothing had changed during my search. I could hear someone shouting through the gap above. I headed back to the blast doors and looked at the crack. One of the masked faces was in the gap.
“You done yet? Did you find anything?” I recognized Castillo’s thick New Yorker accent.
I grabbed the folder from my waistband and held it up to the gap in the doors.
“Not a lot. There’s really nothing here but some technical stuff about that thing—” I said as I hooked a thumb at the tower behind me. Then I felt dumb, because they couldn't see me.
“What thing? Grab any paperwork you can. Is there anybody alive?”
“No... nobody survived the explosion. I’ll go back and grab all the paperwork I can. There isn’t much.”
“Yeah, alright, hurry up. We need to be getting back. It’s been a half hour already,” he said with a hint of impatience.
It hadn’t felt that long, but I nodded.
“I’ll grab the paperwork then figure out how to get out of here. There might be some intact chairs I can use.”
“Great, do that.”
I turned and jogged back to the office I had been in moments before. I found another folder and stuffed all of the rest of the paperwork into it. The folder bulged, but it was still less than an inch thick.
I looked into the filing cabinets, but only found supplies and unopened stacks of printer paper. They had been set for the long haul down here. Now, nobody would use the supplies.
I poked my head into each office as I walked back down the hallway. They were all neat, without any papers to be seen. It was the first time I had ever seen a government operation without mountains of paperwork for everything.
Perhaps it was all digital. Still didn’t help me. All of the chairs were pointless to use as a step stool, because they all had wheels. I stopped by the blast doors to drop the piles of papers, then walked over to the mess hall. The chairs were all bolted to the floor.
As I was about to give up, I spied a small door nestled into the back corner. It was labeled ‘Supplies’. I walked over and opened the door, finding a ladder right at the front. I wrestled it out of the narrow room and carried it to the gap.
Once it was set up, I climbed the ladder and handed the folders through the gap. After they were grabbed, I hauled myself up and into the gap. Once more my shirt snagged on the jagged metal.
Larry could just reach me as I pulled myself free. With his help I was able to wiggle through and gracefully fall to the floor. Once I stood and dusted myself off, Castillo started questioning me.
“Is this all you found,” he asked as he waved the two folders to punctuate his point.
“No, but that’s the only possibly useful thing I found. There’s about twenty corpses in there. When the reactor blew, it killed everybody in the bunker at once. Just shit luck. Looks like when that ship thing crashed into the building earlier, it overloaded the reactor.”
“Oh yeah, and you figured that out how?” snarked Castillo.
“The last note that was legible was from the apparent boss of the bunker. She wrote the time down, and I remember that being right about the same time the ship crashed. It was a few hours ago. The note is in there. They’ve been dead a while now.” I pointed at the thinner folder with the posters.
“Fuck. Alright. I guess we’re done here. Let’s get back topside.”
I nodded and began to dress for the cold again. Castillo led the way over to the outer doors. They didn’t move. He tried to open them by hand, but they refused to budge.
“Fuck! Are we trapped?”
“Relax, Sarge,” said Velasquez. He pulled a multitool out of a pocket.
“Is there anything you don’t have in there?” I asked.
“Yeah, no beer, no weed, no women. I got everything else, including the kitchen sink.” He said with a short laugh. Then he opened a panel I hadn’t noticed. Behind the panel was a hand lever. He pulled it from the upward position to straight down.
There was a hiss, and the doors started to open on their own.
“Hydraulic release. In case of emergencies. That’s why it says ‘In Case of Emergencies’ on the cover.”
“Shut it Velasquez, you learned English like last week, fucker,” said Thompson.
I cracked up. I could even see Larry chuckling. It had been a horrible day for all of us. I would take any bit of levity we could get.
The walk back up the ramp took no time at all. Unfortunately, the crushed elevator car was still there. There was no other shaft that we knew of. Even if there was, we wouldn’t be able to scale it.
I crawled onto the car first. My belay device was still attached to my climbing belt. I figured it was best to get moving.
I clipped onto the line, then helped Larry through the gap. Once he was standing, I started slowly walking up the wall.
I had my rifle hanging over my back. It was a drag, but Chen’s body was a fresh reminder of what could happen when we grew too lax.
The climb took significantly longer than the descent had. Coming down had taken maybe five minutes. Climbing took more like twenty. By the time I put my arms over the lip of the door to the warehouse, I was exhausted.
I dragged myself across the threshold and unclipped from the line. I took a few faltering steps, then sat heavily. It had been a seriously draining day. My legs hurt. Worst of all, I was starting to feel a dehydration headache coming on.
Then something clicked in my head. I instantly stood, rifle at the ready. My tac-light switched on. I surveyed the warehouse all around, then backed to the elevator shaft.
“Possible contact! Hurry the fuck up!”
25
June 28, 2033
Seattle, Washington, USA
First floor, Illeni Building
-61°F
0003 Hours
I kept my head on a swivel as I heard the other four cuss and start rushing up the lines. Larry was out of the elevator shaft maybe thirty seconds after me. He was unclipped and at the ready ten seconds later.
Castillo and Velasquez were next out, within seconds of each other. They were unclipped and scanning the room even faster than Larry. Thompson was slower, though I figured out why as soon as he crested the lip.
He had the manila folders tucked into his vest, and was moving to keep from crumpling the papers. He took the longest to be ready, but it was still only forty-five seconds.
“What contact?” asked Castillo.
“I started getting a headache—“
“A headache? That's why you called contact?”
“Let me finish, Sarge. Every time anyone gets a headache like that, weird
shit happens. Conversations are forgotten, distractions occur. Weird shit.”
Castillo gave me the side eye for a moment, but remained at the ready.
“Fine. Move forward, into the main store. Stay close,” ordered Castillo.
None of us responded, we began to move in a Delta formation, like a flight of geese. Castillo was lead and shoved the doors open. Silence greeted us.
We advanced ten feet, then fifteen. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to track it, and it was still in the corner of my eye.
By the time I had turned a 180, I was looking at the ceiling. My voice cracked as I uttered one word.
“Contact—”
A roar was loosed from the creature, and I was frozen with terror. The one in the stairwell outside the office had been huge, almost twenty feet long. This creature looked to be twice that size. It locked eyes with me, and something inside me changed. I was terrified, but I found a rage growing deep down.
A ponderous arm, the size of a mature tree, started to swing at me. I managed to regain my senses and leaped out of the way as the team scattered. The creature’s claws were easily twelve inches long; they dug furrows through the concrete. I pointed my rifle and pulled the trigger. It clicked impotently.
“Safety, DeWisr! Fire at will,” bellowed Castillo.
I cursed myself under my breath as I thumbed the safety off. Gunfire erupted all around me. The rifle kicked into my shoulder as I started to fire into the torso of the creature.
It hissed, a note so loud it rumbled in my chest even as it threatened to burst my eardrums. I heard Castillo shout something, but he was drowned out. He waited until the hiss was over, and shouted again.
“Retreat to the front of the store!”
We all started edging away from the creature as it slithered down the wall, using some unknown means to defy gravity. It started approaching us rapidly up the main aisle, arms ready to swipe.
I jumped out of the way as it swiped at me again. The massive clawed hand swept through a set of shelves like they hardly existed. Metal and debris sprayed into the air. I landed hard on my shoulder. I scrambled back to my feet and changed my aim to it's head. The creature hissed as my bullets impacted the massive skull, leaving little furrows in the scaled flesh. I kept firing at the creature. Then my gun clicked on empty.
“I’m out!”
“Front doors, now!”
I saw him drop his rifle and say something into the handset on his shoulder. I turned from the creature and began to wind through aisles, keeping low to prevent it from seeing me.
A moment later, a horrid thumping issued from the front of the store. Castillo shouted one more time.
“DOWN!”
I hit the deck as soon as he said it. I heard glass shatter, and the thumping turned into thunder.
I crawled to the end of the aisle to witness what the noise was. The creature was screaming now, a noise that was only matched by the sound from outside.
As I reached the end of the aisle, I peeked over the shelving unit I was behind. Twin points of light blazed outside the store, and tracers could be seen arcing inside, slamming into the massive creature.
The gunfire continued for a few seconds more, then stopped as abruptly as it had begun. The barrels of the cannons on top of the two vehicles outside were glowing a dull red. I surveyed the store, noting bullet holes all over.
The creature was still mostly upright, but it had been nearly obliterated by the storm of gunfire. The tattered torso slumped forward, then settled on the tile of the main aisle. It oozed ichor.
I stepped closer. One massive arm was out of sight behind a display. I walked the long way round and found Thompson.
The sight was horrible. He was purpled from the intense grip the creature had on his body. Bullets had ripped through his chest and the hand holding him. I leaned in and carefully shut his eyes. I wiggled the manila envelopes out of his vest. There was nothing else I could do for him.
The envelope had one bullet hole clean through the middle. Blood had begun to stain the hole. The papers inside were likely useless now.
I turned and found Castillo. He was staring at Thompson in shock. I shook my head and gently turned him away. We walked through the debris that was the front of the store.
People suddenly piled out of the lead vehicle. Jessie was there, and I saw Linda and Eddie peeking around the frame.
“Linda, get Eddie back in there! He doesn’t need to see this!” I shouted at her. The anger and vehemence behind my words shocked them as badly as it shocked me.
Jessie ran up to Larry, trying to crush him in a hug. I was glad to see her safe. I turned and trudged wearily to the lead vehicle. I looked over myself, careful to not bring any blood or ichor in with me.
Somehow, in all the chaos of the previous few hours, I was free of contaminants. Even so, I held a hand up to Linda.
“Don’t touch me right now. I’m not sure it’s safe.”
Warm air billowed out from the hold of the light armored vehicle. It would fit all of the people left behind. I stepped in, careful to stay away from Linda and Eddie.
Castillo and Velasquez showed up with Larry and Jessie in tow. I had already shrugged out of my coat and vest, piling them in a secure corner. They all clambered in, Larry struggling with the low ceiling.
Everybody began shedding gear. The door whined shut behind them, and I heard the engine change in pitch. A moment later, a lurch told me we were on our way.
The LAV could hold far more than our paltry seven. We had room to stretch out a bit, though not enough for anybody to lay down.
The ride was bumpy, I figured due to all the debris on the roads. The occasional shudder made me guess that any cars that were in the way were being battered by the vehicle. Even so, we never stopped moving, only changed directions. There were no windows inside the vehicle. It didn’t matter, we wouldn’t be able to see much in the darkness outside the warm shell of the vehicle.
After my gear was off, I stepped over and sat with Linda. Eddie was on her other side. I put an arm around Linda.
My breathing was ragged, and I felt nausea as everything that happened over the course of the day caught up to me. I held my stomach, but it was a hard-fought battle. Nobody said anything for the first fifteen minutes of the trip.
Castillo was the first. Without his gear, he looked much smaller. He sat across from Velasquez. I could tell they were both mourning the loss of their squad mates.
“What the fuck was in those papers?”
I countered with my own question. “Where was that thing hiding? It was massive!”
“I don’t know, man. But it killed Thompson.”
I looked at the pile of papers I held in my free hand. The bullet hole was all I could see. That, and the blood that was beginning to dry.
I stood, then handed the envelopes over to Castillo. I sat once more, slumping with fatigue.
I glanced forward, and saw Larry and Jessie. Two of the toughest people I had ever known. Larry had his eyes closed, his head in her lap. Even laying on his side he was massive compared to her slight frame.
Castillo went through the papers, saying nothing. Larry and Jessie kept whispering to each other. I simply sat, staring into the void. Colors darted around in the corners of my vision, but I paid that no mind. The force deep inside me that had awakened when I met eyes with the creature kept my attention.
Anger warred within me. It fought the grief, the fatigue. I was exhausted in every conceivable way. Still, my mind whirred on. Questions fought for answers. I tried to drown it out by humming. The thoughts wouldn’t stop.
The next thing I knew, I was laying on the bench, my head in Linda’s lap. She was stroking my hair. She didn’t say anything, but I didn’t need her to. I closed my eyes, and tried to relax.
I must have dozed off, because the next thing I remembered, we lurched to a stop. My watch told me it had taken just over an hour to get to wherever we were.
I sat up. Cast
illo hit a button near him and the ramp hissed open at the back of the vehicle. It slowly lowered, though my view was restricted. All I could see beyond the opening was concrete.
Castillo and Velazquez squared up and walked out of the vehicle. I followed a moment later with Linda holding my hand. She guided Eddie behind her. I could hear Larry’s massive footsteps, and a hollow thunk as his skull hit the bulkhead.
A few choice words escaped him, which surprised me. He normally didn’t react to small pains. Then again, it had been a very long and stressful day.
I looked around as we exited the vehicle. The concrete wall I was facing rose thirty or more feet straight up, then transitioned to raw rock. Lights dotted the wall, bright LED strips built into the concrete itself.
The rock wall continued upward, curving into a high dome. At the center it had to be more than a hundred feet up.
Far to my right I could see another wall. It looked roughly the same, though halfway down its length stood a set of doors. They had to be truly massive, because the concrete sloped up to cover them.
Though difficult to tell at this distance, the doors looked to be at least fifty feet tall. They were also very wide. Hazarding a guess would put them at a hundred feet wide. It certainly looked like you could have ten trucks drive through with room to spare.
The doors were closing. It looked like it would take several minutes to accomplish. The air inside the cavern was chilly, but nothing like it had to be outside. I guessed it to be much closer to just below freezing, instead of somewhere near sixty below.
I tried to gauge the distance to the wall. It was difficult without a better point of reference. Many vehicles of various sizes were in the way, but I was not familiar with any of them. Some looked massive, and could have been thirty or forty feet long. Still, the wall seemed to be five hundred feet away.
Turning to my left revealed more of the wall curving away. It ended in a tunnel that was maybe half the size of the blast doors. That still put the tunnel at twenty to thirty feet tall and possibly as much as forty feet wide.
The far side of the cavern had to be a quarter mile away. The space inside was truly on a scale that boggled the mind. What looked to be a hundred different vehicles were parked throughout the cavern, with stacks of crates everywhere. People were constantly moving. Forklifts beeped. A strange sort of order could be seen in the chaos.
Darkness Trilogy (Book 1): Winds of Darkness Page 15