I waited. It took to the count of eight for the splash. There was still a long way down to the water.
I had to find the door. I crawled along the open edge until I hit the wall again. I stood and felt for a crack that signaled a break in the concrete. I made it to where I thought the ladder I climbed down was and reached up. Sure enough, I was under the ladder. Where was it? Mindful of the drop-off, I searched the left side again. Nothing. I went back to the right. Nothing. What the hell? I had searched the entire semicircle of wall, and the other side of the floor disappeared into nothingness. Besides there not being a door, there was only one other option.
I dropped down to my stomach and eased forward ever so slowly, my hands and clothes sucking up more blood. At the edge, I shifted so my armpits rested on the end. I shifted my hands back and forth, then touched metal. Another rung. How far did it go down? What would the purpose of this landing be if there wasn’t an escape?
Before taking the plunge and going farther down, I did another search of the wall. Still no door. My throat tightened while a spot in the center of my chest burned. I could do this. I could go down more. I swallowed. Tried to push down the anxiety. I thought I’d beaten my fear of the underground. But the basement of my house flashed in my mind. I turned, wiped my palms on my pants, eased my boot over the edge, then continued to climb down.
I counted the rungs to keep my mind busy. Thirty. Then I hit another concrete floor. The light coming from somewhere seemed a little brighter here, or it might be that I was seeing better because my eyes adjusted to the dark. Either way, I wasn’t blind and spotted a door to the right of the ladder.
Luck had to be on my side because the doorknob was an old-fashioned one. No electric panel to be found. I twisted the cold metal knob and pushed the door open. The room had electricity, but nothing else. It was empty except for a bare bulb hanging from a rusted chain. I turned in a circle searching for a way out. There was nothing. What the hell? There had to be a way out. What was I missing?
The little hairs on the back of my neck tingled. I raised my hand to rub it when I noticed the dried black blood all over my hands. Ugh. Rasper blood. It had to be all over my clothes too. I had to get out of this room. I had to wash it off. Panic crept up my throat.
I went back to the door and searched for any button I’d missed. There was a lock button on the doorknob. Okay. What did I have to lose except being locked in a small room where nobody knew where I was? Sounded like fun. I didn’t have another choice. I closed the door and pushed the button with more determination than confidence.
A groan filled the room. I looked over and stared at the wall. An opening about half the size of a door appeared. Okay. I turned the doorknob to unlock it, and the opening closed. I had to go forward. The ladder had broken apart. I had to go through the opening that went into the unknown. Rollins said just climb down and go through the door. Of course it wasn’t that simple. Why wasn’t it? Had he lied to me?
I locked the door again, and the opening reappeared. I drew my gun and inched closer to the small door to see if there was light or anyone inside. The space opened up to a corridor I would be able to stand up in. A faint light glowed from somewhere past what I could see. With a deep breath, I ducked into the corridor. I waited for the opening to close, but it didn’t. The corridor went on for about eight feet until it turned right and opened to a space that had to be two stories high.
And the walls were covered with… with…
What I was seeing couldn’t be real. I blinked twice to make sure my eyes weren’t messing with me. But the scenery stayed the same.
Black ooze covered the floor and walls like a living membrane similar to what we had found in the monastery, but instead of a pulsing blob that people pushed out of, this place had visible bodies behind the ooze. The walls had to have over one hundred Raspers breathing as one, so the membrane resembled a large black heart.
It didn’t seem possible it actually existed. However, there was no denying it was here. Did Adam’s uncle know this was under his facility?
I took a step back. The door slammed shut, blocking off the corridor. I was trapped.
If the Raspers burst through the ooze membrane, I didn’t have enough bullets. I had to find a way out.
The room pulsed like it was alive. The ooze spilled onto the concrete floor. There was only a small path between the sides. I could make out facial features of the Raspers inside the membrane. If I touched the substance, I knew they would all break free.
“Help us.” The words seemed to come from the walls.
Then it hit me. I was hearing these people—Raspers—speaking to me. “How can I help?”
I didn’t expect them to answer, and they didn’t. But as I started to walk between the sides, my skin began to tingle to the point it almost burned. Nausea swirled in my stomach. I wanted to lie down. My skin went ice cold. Then, like something out of a horror movie, all the Rasper blood that was on my skin and clothes seeped into the floor. I stepped back. The black blood split and joined both sides of the ooze. When it mingled together, the membrane pulsed an extra fast beat like a flutter of the human heart, while it felt like mine stopped.
My head pounded, and the scene of the trapped humans turned Rasper tattooed itself on my brain. A shiver coursed across my skin. I carefully walked between the black ooze. It rose up with a unified collective breath. The ooze came so close to touching me, I only had about the width of a shoe on each side to spare. It seemed like the membrane went on forever. After a few minutes, I finally found an end.
A door, resembling a bedroom door versus an industrial one like the rest in the facility, dared me to open it. The black ooze stretched so it covered the wooden trim of the white-colored door.
The whiteness seemed to shimmer and move. A headache grabbed me by the back of my skull and thrusted forward like I had been poked in the face with multiple ice picks. I needed to lie down and close my eyes for a minute.
I laid my right palm against the wood. I didn’t know what I was checking for, it just seemed like a logical thing to do. I wrapped my right hand around the knob while I tightened the grip on my gun. Then I turned it.
“Oh my God.”
I stepped forward into a natural cavern that had to be at least three stories high and two football fields wide. A blue light made the rock face sparkle like it was covered with diamonds. A lake of water filled the middle, and a concrete slab went from where I stood to the water’s edge. Tables with gadgets and computers covered half of the concrete slab. While I was technically under the lake already, having water come inside the facility wasn’t a surprise, but what knocked the air from my lungs was what sat in the water.
A sleek black, utterly massive, submarine. Or it used to be a submarine. It was cracked, split into three parts, and missing its dorsal fin.
I shoved the gun in my pants pocket and darted to the edge to check out the water. It flowed out to what should be the lake, but by the way it moved it seemed to be pulled by more of a river or ocean current. Kneeling down, I scooped some water into my hand and sniffed it. Definitely salt water. No chlorine.
The irony didn’t escape me. This was a potential way out. And also a potential way in. I had seen the Bugs swarm through water. Salt water didn’t deter them.
I let the water fall between my fingers until my hand was empty, then stood and quickly searched the tables for any useful information. Of course, there was no paper and the computers weren’t working. I shoved aside a machine that resembled my grandfather’s old fishing depth finder and spotted a sign on the machine next to it. It read: Property of the Walker Lake Naval Underwater Warfare Facility.
Underwater warfare facility? An underwater warfare facility in land-locked Nevada? Besides those obvious questions, I couldn’t figure out how the submarine got in here. But… this was so unbelievable. Just like the Worm train. No one would ever believe it. I hardly believed it and I was staring at the sub. If the Worm train existed, why couldn’t this exist?
Based on that, it wasn’t too hard to conclude the salt water here might run underground all the way to the Pacific. Everything I once thought was crazy now seemed normal.
There was no way this was the escape route Rollins had wanted me to take. I had to find my way back to Adam and the others. Megan was waiting.
“Val.” My name swept through me like a windstorm.
Then I noticed my headache had disappeared and I was no longer cold. Did the Raspers behind the rock wall to my left know my name? Or was it someone/something different? “Megan?”
Was she calling me? It sort of sounded like her. “I’m here. I will get you out.”
No one answered.
I scanned the cavern for a way out beside the water. I didn’t see anything.
Vibrations zipped up my legs. It almost felt like an earthquake. The vibrations turned into a rumble. A rumbling noise I had heard before.
No. No. No.
I spun around. The water leading away from the busted sub became a blanket of small metal balls. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Bugs swarmed through the water and started crawling out onto the cement floor. All coming toward me. Shit. I needed to get out. The one Bug hadn’t hurt me back at Site R, but I couldn’t trust a horde of them.
Once out of the water, they released a squeal so loud I had to cover my ears. With each Bug that cleared the water, the sound got louder and louder. Then they rubbed their metal legs together and a new noise filled the air. A buzzing competed with the Bug squeal, making my ears ache, my jaw clench, and my head feel on the edge of exploding. I knew this noise too. It was the noise the ooze had made in the seminary before the Raspers poured out.
I only had about eight shots left.
I glanced back at the door. It seemed to swell like a balloon about to burst. With a deafening roar, the door slammed open, releasing the Raspers who had climbed from the ooze. There were about twenty, but more had to be coming.
There were too many of them. I had to stop them from getting into the main part of the facility. No one was here but me. If they got past me, it would be my fault.
What I needed was a grenade or some type of bomb. Then I spotted some old gas tanks about the size of fire extinguishers lying forgotten in the rocks.
I grabbed one and positioned myself where it would cause the most damage. The Bugs and Raspers weren’t getting past me. I couldn’t let anyone else die. I twisted the ancient valve to release the gas.
Everything stood still as if time stopped.
Bright white light flashed.
Then the world restarted.
A loud bang rang through my ears, rendering me temporarily deaf. Some force slammed into my chest.
I stumbled back. Lost my footing. Hit something solid with the back of my head.
I fought to grab something. Anything. But failed.
I twisted. And smashed into what was left of the rock wall.
23
I opened my eyes to a screaming pain ripping through my head. “Aghh.” I closed my eyes and fought back a wave of nausea.
“Shush,” a male voice said from somewhere. “Can you get up?”
Fighting the urge to get sick, I managed sit up. Dirk stood above me, rifle aimed at the masses of Bugs crawling out of the water. Bodies of Raspers piled on top of one another. Black blood stained them and the rocks like a bad tribal tattoo.
“Where did you come from?”
“The door up there, but we might be trapped. I don’t have enough ammo for them all, and I used the only flash bang I had.” He whispered the words from the side of his mouth.
“The gas?” My voice sounded like I had been a twenty-year pack-a-day smoker.
Dirk jabbed his chin at the green can. “Did you try to open it?”
“I opened the valve.”
“Lucky for you, it’s empty. Otherwise you might have blown us all to bits.”
I ignored his comment, stood, wobbled, then got myself together. “Let me try something else.”
I turned and faced the wave of Bugs bearing down on us. “I command you to leave this place. To go back into the water. To go back to the Colony,” I said the words with a firm, confident voice, but my insides were soft, scared.
The Bugs stopped moving all at once.
“What the?” Dirk said under his breath, but not quiet enough that I couldn’t hear him.
They stayed still for about five seconds, then they continued their climb out of the water. “Damn.” They’d heard me. However, I wasn’t strong enough to alter their command.
“I heard you got the Raspers to leave before. I didn’t believe it.” Dirk crept closer. “What do we do now?”
I watched the Bugs’ movement. “They’re all scuttling up the right side of the ramp. Where does it go?”
“Up to the main level. I came down to make sure the Raspers hadn’t breached this entrance like the others.” His breath was hot on my neck.
I wanted to tell him I could hear him without him breathing in my ear, but didn’t. “Breached? Did the ones outside attack?”
He nodded.
“Okay. We’re going to go up the ramp. We have to be fast. I’ll stay on the Bug side.”
“You could be stung.”
“I already have been. Trust me.” Ignoring the look of surprise on his face, I pulled him into a hug and rubbed my arms up and down his back.
He pulled away. “Uh…”
“Just trying to make you smell like me and not like you. They won’t attack me.”
A look I couldn’t read flashed across his face.
We crept away. When the Bugs seemed to ignore us, we stepped up the pace. When we got past the Bugs, we ran.
The ramp came to an end at a black door. Dirk traced a pattern on the smooth surface, and it slid open. We went through, and it shut behind us.
“They shouldn’t be able to get past the door. But just in case.” Dirk fired at the control pad, shattering it to smithereens.
I hoped he hadn’t just sentenced us to death by destroying one of the exits out of here.
Dirk tapped behind his ear. “I have Val. Sector three sealed.”
We walked through a corridor and came to a standard door.
I aimed my gun. Dirk held up three fingers.
The wheezy breath of a Rasper cut through the silence.
I stood on his right side and took aim.
The door burst open, revealing a guy.
I checked if he was a Rasper, then fired. I dropped the first one, but two more appeared. Dirk took them out with two rapid shots.
“Come on, we need to get back to the others.” He walked to the door and peeked around the side. “Clear.”
“How many have entered?”
“Too many. They are coming by boat and through the entrance we used. And then there’s the ones the Bugs turned.”
“Has anyone been hurt?” I tried to keep the worry for Adam and Taylor out of my voice. If the Raspers were attacking from all sides of the facility, how was I going to get Megan out of the tube?
“A few scientists and workers have been turned. I don’t think anyone you would know. Except of course for Dr. Collins. Others have, well, died.”
“I was cut off from Adam. And Rollins. Did they make it back to the director’s office?”
“Yes.”
I allowed myself a second of thanks for my friends. My family. Tried not to see the image of Megan seared in my brain. With a deep breath, I centered myself and prepared for battle. “Do you have an extra magazine?”
Dirk reached down with his left hand and pulled two magazines out of his combat vest. “Here. These are my last two of that caliber.”
I loaded one into the Glock and tucked the other in my cargo pants pocket.
We went in tandem down the hall, Dirk covering the left, me the right.
I heard them before I saw them.
We waited, guns ready for the Raspers to turn the corner. When they did, Dirk froze at the sight of the woman Rasper. She had once been
beautiful, but now the yellow tinge to her skin made her appear sickly. Two males aimed their pointed nails at Dirk. I shot one in the chest, then hit the other one in the neck. I directed my aim at the woman. She stared at Dirk and he at her.
“Sarah? It’s me. Dirk.” He used a soothing tone while keeping his finger away from his gun’s trigger. “Don’t you recognize me?”
She didn’t answer him. She raised her hand with the pointy nail and aimed it at Dirk.
“Move,” I yelled.
She shot a spark from her nail.
Dirk dove to the left. He wasn’t fast enough, and the spark grazed his shoulder.
A pain-filled call of, “Sarah,” told me he was in agnoy.
He reached for his shoulder with his left hand while steadying his gun with his right.
Even though he had known her, I had to kill her. The person she had once been was gone.
She aimed her nail at his heart. I squeezed the trigger in rapid succession, hitting her dead center. Black blood burst from her chest as she crumpled to the ground at Dirk’s feet.
“I’m sorry. We need to go. You need to get your shoulder looked at.” I had to tug him on his uninjured arm before he stopped staring at the woman he had known as Sarah.
“She… she…” Dirk muttered.
“I know. But she was gone. I didn’t kill Sarah. The Bug venom did.”
“How do you know for sure? I knew all three of them. They were scientists.” His voice wobbled.
“I questioned one before I killed him.”
He stopped walking and turned to me. His shoulder flamed an angry red and black where his shirt had been scorched. “I thought the Colony absorbed all the knowledge of its victims.”
The Hive (Rasper Book 2) Page 15