Dead World

by Lucas Pederson

  “Oorah!”

  Row nods. “Now get outta here and let’s find our missing brothers and sisters.”

  The Marines wander off in different directions. Fern nudges Alyx. She nods toward the mountains. At first Alyx doesn’t know what the tall woman means, then it dawns on her. Fern is offering to be her escort during the search.

  Alyx smiles and nods. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Fern smiles and starts off in the direction of the mountains. It’s not where Alyx wants to begin her search, but it’ll work. Shit, for all she knows there will be a major clue out in that direction. No matter how much of a waste it appears to be.

  The air here chills her sweaty skin a bit. The eighty degrees is now somewhere in the upper sixties. A guess, but she figures it’s a close one judging by the chilly breeze. She zips her jacket up and follows Fern.

  The rocks crunch and roll under her boots like living things. She catches the whiff of oranges in the air, even though there’s not an orange tree in sight. Alyx keeps her sight panning, trying to take in everything, picking out inconsistencies. So far all she sees are stones of various shapes and sizes. Here and there huge boulders dot the landscape.

  “So,” Row says sidling up beside her.

  Alyx nearly punches the dude. “Shit. Really?”

  Row smiles. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “I about shot you, damn it.”

  He chuckles. “I bet.”

  “What’s up, Captain Row?”

  “Oh, I was wondering what you make of this.”

  “This? Gotta be more specific than that, Captain.”

  “Call me James.”

  “Well, shit, you gotta be more specific than that, James.”

  “Sarcasm noted.”

  “Good.” Alyx grins.

  Row sighs. “I mean, this place. It’s all flat and rocky. Where would a platoon of Marines go around here?”

  “You think Hunt’s scans are off?”

  “Maybe a little. Yeah. It just doesn’t make sense that this is their last known location.”

  Alyx glances at him. She eyes all the scars on his face. “Why is that?”

  He shrugs. “Because what they were looking for is underground.”

  Alyx skids to a stop, eyes widening.

  Row frowns at her. “What?”

  “That’s it,” she says, gaze lowering to the rocks.

  “Dr. Wick?”

  She faces him. “Underground. We’re not going to find anything up here. They were under us.”

  Row blinks, then, slowly, his own eyes widen. “Oh. Oh, shit.”

  “Why didn’t I think of that before?” She glances around. “There has to be a tunnel entrance around here somewhere. Tell them to look for that.”

  The Captain nods and relays the message to the others. When he’s finished, he says, “You don’t trust Vilas, do you?”

  “Nope. He’s an asshole.”

  “I take it you don’t believe people can change?”

  “Some can, not him, though.” She drifts away from him, not wanting to answer any more questions. For one, she’s not entirely sure she can trust Row either. For two, she wants to find Sully. Which means she must find a tunnel entrance. And chatting with Row is distracting her.

  And yet, the man matches her pace. “Why? I mean, he’s helping us out quite a bit here.”

  “For his own gain, I’m sure. Now, Captain Row, if you’ll excuse…”

  She pauses, staring at one of the nearby boulders.

  “What? What is it?”

  “Shh,” she says, walking to the boulder.

  For a wonder, the man shuts up as she inspects the boulder.

  Something caught her attention, but this close up, she can’t find it. She can’t…

  Alyx turns to her right, eyeing the boulder sideways. A smile spreads over her face. “There you are.”

  In his throat mic, Row says, “Marines, to me.”

  Alyx, still smiling, turns to the boulder and places a hand on its rough surface. “Where are you? Where…ah…” Her hand disappears into the boulder. She grasps a lever and pulls.

  The ground under her trembles. A crevasse around the boulder opens up. The smaller rocks fall, caving in the ground. She backs away as the crevasse widens. Rocks click and clatter as they tumble into the crevasse.

  Gerty claps Alyx on the shoulder. “Good one, girl.”

  “Lucky is all this is,” Vilas says behind her.

  This is what the man does. He plucks nerves. Well, she’s not going to let him. Not right now, anyway. She needs all of herself as the crevasse widens farther and steps appear.

  “You found a goddamn stairway,” Rip says. “Holy shit.”

  “Language,” Gerty says, laughing.

  “You’re one to talk, little one.”

  “Shush”

  They both laugh as the crevasse stops widening.

  “Alright, people,” Row shouts. “Get the gear. We’re going underground.”

  “Yippee,” Vilas mutters.

  Alyx turns around to face him. “Have any gadgets for tunnels?”

  And for the first time since she’s known him, Vilas’s smug grin falls away. She savors this for a moment, then makes her way to the top of the stone steps.

  “We’ll need lamps,” she tells Row. He gives the command to equip the lamps and high-density lights. He also hands her a lamp.

  Drawing in a deep breath, Alyx begins the cautious descent underground. Her heart thrums and she can’t stop smiling. Finally, she’s on the way to finding not only her mentor, but good friend, Sully White.

  Finally.

  NINE

  The stairway downward takes longer than she initially thought. These steps, they appear to spiral down into forever. A dark abyss floats below her. And behind her, the rest follows. She’s not sure where Vilas is back there, nor does she much care. Absently she hopes he falls off the steps into that forever abyss below. For him to simply disappear into the darkness and be lost forever.

  That’s what she wishes, but knows damn well that old man is an accidental survivalist. Somehow, he just keeps ticking. Old age can’t touch him and accidents seem to veer away. It’s ridiculous.

  The sound of her boots on the stone steps echo all around them. Topside is but a silver, glowing ring. Underground on this planet meant business. She’s going deep. And the darkness swallows her with every downward step.

  And just when she thinks the steps will never end, her right boot thumps onto soft, black dirt.

  Reaching the bottom, Alyx steps aside as the others join her.

  “Whoa,” Gerty says brushing by Alyx. “This is kinda awesome.” The younger woman sets up a runner. Which is pretty much a motion detector light on wheels. It will light the way until something moves up ahead, giving everyone enough time to ready themselves for whatever might come.

  Alyx has never seen one in action before, but the gadget might prove useful.

  The tunnel, so far, isn’t narrow. Alyx guesses it’s somewhere in the region of seven feet wide and about ten feet from floor to ceiling. Down here, it smells like cinnamon. A dry, spicy smell. The air isn’t cooler, as she suspected, but warmer than above.

  Everyone straps on the shoulder lamps doled out by Lance.

  Row gathers his Marines. Fern and Rip flank Alyx like giant sentinels. She’s not sure where Vilas is, nor does she care. Maybe he’s claustrophobic. One can hope.

  “Turn your locators on, people. Including you Alyx. Lance, I want you at point monitoring for movement and lifeforms at any body temperature. We’re in the beast’s intestines now, boys and girls. And—”

  “There are boot prints all over here,” a voice Alyx hoped she wouldn’t hear. “This was where they really were when the distress call sent. I know it in my bones.” Vilas, once more, trying to take credit for a find.

  He’s somewhere behind the group, but Alyx wants to punch him for being a pompous ass.

  Row blinks, gaze drifting
to Alyx. He smiles, just a bit, perhaps letting her know he knows who really found this location. Then the Captain says, “The runner will travel forty feet ahead of us. Pay attention to it. If the light goes out, prepare yourselves. Switch from lamps to night vision. You all know the drill.”

  Softly, the Marines say, “Oorah.”

  “Alyx, I want you on point with Lance. Your skills are required now.” Row nods to all of them and steps aside as Alyx follows Lance to the front of everyone.

  A cultured chuckle floats on the dry air. “You’re letting her up there? We’ll be lost in minutes.”

  “Vilas,” Row says in a don’t-fuck-with-me tone, “I want you with me following. Just in case Alyx misses something.”

  “Lovely.”

  Alyx fights back a laugh. She loves hearing the old man squirm a little. Vilas isn’t used to being ordered around and absolutely not used to being second fiddle to anyone. It’s about time he’s put in his true place and Alyx almost wants to hug Row for doing so.

  “I’ll walk a couple feet ahead,” Lance tells her. “You do your thing, Dr. Wick.”

  “Thanks,” Alyx says.

  Lance nods and walks away. She draws in a breath, lets it out slowly and follows, keeping her shoulder lamps on full and sweeping herself back and forth. Her sight scans everything. The dirt floor. The hewn, stone ceiling and walls. Every crack in the walls, no matter how thin, she carefully notes. Her explorer mind switches on, taking the lead of all else. Driving her.

  This is what she lives for. The finding of lost things. She doesn’t care about the artifact Hunt wants. She cares about Sully. This too, drives her onward. Her senses heighten a bit, as they always do in such cases. Instead of finding a thing, she’s looking for a person, which makes her overly sensitive to her surroundings. A person can die. An object won’t.

  And she fears Sully’s time might be running out.

  This is if it hasn’t already.

  Latching onto the possibility Sully is still kicking, she forges on through the gloom of the tunnel, noting so soon how the passage is narrowing. Tapering, for want of a better word. Even if the others haven’t noticed yet, she already feels the world closing in around her. Claustrophobia doesn’t concern her, though. She’s never felt it. No matter what tight situations she’s been stuck in, there’s never the urge to panic. Never the sickness of being crushed. Even if there’s a possibility that she might be buried under mountains of dirt and rock, it never worries her too much.

  The dirt floor is soft, like powder. It puffs around her boots with every step. She wonders if maybe the dirt should be tested for toxins, but soon tosses the thought aside. If Row thought it to be hazardous in any way, he would’ve ordered everyone to put masks on. Or at least she hopes he would. Hard to tell for sure with Row. Hard man to read, she’s finding. Nonetheless, she respects him and he might even respect her. An ally like that will be useful if the time comes.

  The deeper they go into the tunnel, the warmer it gets. Sweat beads on her forehead and she absently wipes it away. Ahead of her, about four feet, Lance is hunched over his monitor. It makes a sardonic whump-whump sound. Behind her she hears the others breathing. She listens to the creaking of their gear and the swish of clothing.

  “So, what are you thinking?”

  Heart skipping a beat, Alyx glances to her right to find Gerty there, smiling. Jesus, why do they keep doing that? Stealthy bastards.

  Calming herself down a bit, Alyx replies, “About what?”

  “About this tunnel. You think they’re down here, or what?”

  “I don’t know. But it makes sense.”

  Gerty nods. “If you say so.”

  Sneaking another look at the girl, Alyx notes how pale she is, even in the gloom. There’s sweat trickling down the sides of her oval face. Her breathing is a bit erratic.

  “Hey,” Alyx says. “Slow, deep breaths.”

  The girl shoots her a glare. “Huh?”

  “You don’t like tight spaces, do you?”

  Gerty shrugs. “Had some bad experiences when I was younger, that’s all. I’m fine. I mean, I survived the hyper sleep tube.”

  Alyx focuses on the tunnel ahead. “Think about the sky.”

  “Huh?”

  Alyx smiles. “The sky. Think about how free you are up there. How nothing can stop you. How the air is clear and fresh and open.”

  “The hell you talking about?” Gerty glances over her shoulder and half whispers, “Row, she’s gone nuttybars on us. Can we trade her in for a new one?”

  Alyx chuckles. “What I mean is, think about anything that’s out in the open. Think about your favorite spot to relax or get away. I had an assistant once. She was terrified of tight spaces like this. But once she taught herself to think about the sky, she did just fine.”

  “What? She pretend she was a bird or something?”

  “Exactly. She imagined herself as a bird. Soaring through the clear blue sky. The point is, separate your fear from what scares you. Detach and soar. It’s all in your head.”

  She waits for Gerty to spout another joke, but instead the girl stares at her for a moment. Alyx refrains from looking at her, but feels the curious gaze.

  After the moment passes, Gerty whispers, “Thank you, Alyx.” Then she falls back a few steps.

  Sometimes all people need are the words spoken to them. Once it all clicks, courage prevails. Usually.

  In Gerty’s case, the younger woman already has courage, just not the kind she needs in the constricting nature of the tunnels. Hopefully the small talk helps her.

  “How far does this thing go?” Vilas being Vilas.

  “There’s no telling,” Alyx says before anyone can respond. “This might be a single shaft leading to a cavern, or a system.”

  “In non-tunnel dweller terms, please.” That’s Gerty.

  “This tunnel might lead to a big cave or branch off into many other tunnels, like tributaries.”

  “Rock on.”

  “If I had known about the tunnels I would’ve come more equipped,” Vilas says.

  “I found out less than an hour ago, jackass.” Alyx is kind of enjoying this dumber version of Vilas.

  “You two done bickering now?” Row sounds more than a little aggravated. “Clear the radio. Both of you.”

  Alyx adjusts the night vision screen, readying it just in case, and falls silent. With Vilas here, it’s like fighting a schoolyard bully. Only instead of meaty fists, he tosses meaty words dripping with condescendence and—

  It happens so fast.

  A small, white thing latches onto Lance’s face. Its long, pale tentacles wrap around him.

  “Holy shit,” someone shouts. Either Rip or Row.

  Lance, his screaming muffled, drops to his knees trying desperately to peel the small creature off his face. Using every ounce of muscle she has, Alyx grips onto the pale tentacles and pulls. But every time she stretches a tentacle free, it slips out of her hands and reattaches. Rip and Gerty joins her, both trying and failing to pry the creature off Lance.

  “Shit, what the hell?” Rip shouts. “Can’t get a good grip on it.”

  “Look out.”

  Before Alyx has time to notice, Vilas slips in, stabs the creature with a round, metallic object and shoves her aside. “Everyone move!”

  Rip and Gerty leap out of the way a second before the round object explodes. Alyx can’t tell from the tunnel floor where she lies what shoots out of the thing, but the creature squeals and falls off Lance’s face. It crawls about a foot away before its tentacles curl and twitch. Another second…and the thing stops moving.

  “The fuck,” Gerty spouts, breathing in nothing but gasps. “What the hell was that?”

  Vilas helps Alyx to her feet, his face is streaked with concern. Something so alien on his gaunt, wrinkly face.

  Lance jitters on the tunnel’s floor. The black dirt plumes clouding around him.

  Alyx holds him down. “Anyone have medical experience?”

 
Fern, the tall woman, she brushes Alyx aside and begins CPR on Lance.

  “Stay alert, Marines,” Row says. “We’re not alone down here.”

  Rip and Gerty step around Lance and focus on the tunnel ahead. The runner has not stopped yet. Somehow the creature that attacked Lance slipped by its sensors. Or…

  Alyx’s gaze drifts to the ceiling. The stone appears solid. No holes. Same with the walls. The only other way for a creature to sneak by the runner is the floor.

  Her eyes widen.

  The dirt floor.

  She grabs Lance, heaving him over her shoulder.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Row goes to take Lance from her but she spins away.

  “The dirt,” she says. “It came from the dirt.”

  Gerty turns a bit to look at Alyx, eyes wide. “What do you mean?”

  Even though Lance isn’t a big man, his weight is making her legs tremble. “The thing that attacked him, it came out of the floor. Everyone keep your wits about you.”

  Row takes Lance from Alyx and this time she lets him. Once the man is positioned comfortably, the Captain says, “I need to get him out of here.”

  Vilas snaps his fingers and two of his men hurry to his sides. “I’ll take care of him. The Tracker is up there, so he’ll be safe.”

  Alyx watches Row’s expression droop a little. The man’s eyes don’t shift away from Vilas for at least a full minute. Then he says, “Okay. Also, I want you to report this to Hunt. It’s our check-in time.”

  Vilas’s men take Lance from Row.

  “Of course, Captain Row. I’ll take good care of your man and check-in with General Hunt as soon as I’m topside.”

  Row nods. “I want the full recoding of your conversation with Hunt, as well.”

  Vilas, without pause, smiles and nods back. He snaps his fingers again, turns away and two of his other men replace him. Big, oaf-like dudes with stony expressions Row doesn’t appear to know what to do with.

  Alyx watches Vilas and his men take Lance away. Watches until they disappear into the darkness. Something tugs on her brain. Something slightly off, but—

  “Got movement in the dirt,” Rip shouts.

  “Guess this planet isn’t as dead as I thought,” Row says, moving around Alyx, gun aimed at the dirt floor.