by Isaac Stone
“Door is right behind us,” Jack transmitted to him. “Why don’t we retreat down the stair and block them from the other end?” He could feel the excitement in Jack’s voice.
“We don’t know for sure what is down there,” Ash explained. “We’ll make a stand up here and retreat if we have to. Everyone loaded and ready?” Ash heard the team sign off one by one. It was a matter of seconds away.
Then he saw the first one. It was a small form in the distance illuminated by the faint light of the factory. At first, he thought they were mistaken, maybe one of the gamers from above had come down. It was hard to say why people did things at times, even if it might get them killed. However, no, it wasn’t a gamer. This was something else. Now he saw the face of it, it had the fangs of the hybrid creature they’d killed in the maze, but this one also had cheap armor hanging from it. It wasn’t the kind of armor which would stop one of his shells, but it would slow down regular bullets. Whoever designed this creature wanted a suicide squad that could be sent into action on the front ranks and act as attraction points for bullets.
It had a snout with the fangs, although the face was still human and hairless. The ears were floppy and the eyes wide. Then he saw more of them behind the first one as they filled up the lane between the vats. There wasn’t a lot of room, but the lane filled up with the same armored creatures that screamed and howled as they came forward.
“Wow,” Char transmitted from his box. “A pig and human hybrid. Quite an accomplishment in some ways.”
The aisle was filled with the beasts, but none of them carried weapons of any form. It didn’t matter, if they could find a way through the armor, every one of them would be torn apart by the sharp tusks. These hybrids were created just to kill people, as Barbara Ann pointed out earlier. Ash turned around to see where she was and found her by the door in silence, just as he expected.
He turned back to see the first of the monstrosities scream and run directly at them.
“Fire!” Ash ordered the crew. “Crack the armor and put em on the ground!”
Anyone who stood next to them would have been deafened by the sound of the impact guns as they fired at once. Each gun was a miniature cannon that fired armor-breaking shells, designed to take down armored combatants and do as much damage to their bodies as possible.
The lane filled with the smoke of Team Omega as they opened up on the advancing beasts and shot directly at them. Ash watched the first one fall to the ground as his shell burst into a joint between the thing’s neck and body. Entrails were sent all over the remainder. It spun into the air and slammed against the wall.
More of them fell as other shells from the rest of his crew found their target, but they kept coming. In most cases, human fighters would realize they were up against a force with better arms and try to make a tactical retreat. In this case, none of them carried arms whatsoever, just tusks and muscle and rage. Ash expected them to scatter and try to find a place to hide between the factory machines, but they continued to run at them. He fired repeatedly, each time taking down one of the creatures when he shot. Soon his clip was empty and he was forced to slap another one in place, noticing as he did that the oncoming wave of hostile flesh was coming ever closer as more and more troopers paused to reload. Just as with the zombie bankers back on Inferno, Ash knew that this was going to end badly for the team if they didn’t make a play to change the pace of the fighting.
The lane was full of hybrid bodies and the remains of the shells as they detonated on contact. Flashes from the explosions lit up the corridor and allowed him to see what was behind the first wave. Ash was horrified, because behind the dead yet more crawled over bodies or plowed through slippery gore to get at the troopers. Team Omega could hold out, but would use all their shells in the process. Was this the plan? Waste all these creatures on them to use up their ammunition? Then send in another squad to clean them up, like those mercs that took out the Thelema.
“Fall back to the door!” Ash ordered. He turned back to see Barbara Ann open it and rush down the stairs; at least she kept it open.
Ash ran back as the others took up a position around the door and continued to fire at the mob. There were less of them now, but they had to get down those stairs, no matter what else.
Then one of the beasts rushed them, managed to shrug off two hard shots to the chest, and grabbed Theo.
13
Theo, to his credit, shoved his gun under the creature’s throat and blew its head off even as the hybrid slammed him to the ground.
Costa dove for Theo and grabbed his comrade by the belt, but more of the monsters were already on top of the man. One of them was trying to use its tusks to pry open Theo’s armor. Costa stomp kicked another one and then fired his rifle at point blank range into yet another. At close range the Omega troopers, all thoughts of retreat gone the instant Theo went down, were able to kill more and more of them as they closed ranks around and concentrated their fire.
The troopers punched a hole in the ranks of the enemy as they decimated the hybrids who’d thrown themselves into the fight, and soon were able to bottleneck the charging beasts at the stairwell. The numbers were down to the point where Kris could randomly pick one of them out and shoot it down. In minutes, there were only a few of them still standing in the lane to the front and no more advanced from the rear. Ash saw one more spin at him and neatly blew its head off with one of his remaining shells.
Theo fought back against the three hundred pound monstrosity as it kept trying to tear away his armor. He couldn’t find his flame sword and Theo knew the body armor would only last so long against the tusks and claws of the thing on top of him. The flame sword on Costa’s belt filled his view, so he snatched that off of his comrade’s belt and activated it.
The flame sword sprung to life in its radiant glory the moment the teeth of the hybrid found an opening in the armor between his gauntlet and vambrace. Theo fought hard to suppress a scream, brought the flame sword up, and sliced through the beast on top of him. He felt the teeth release as both sections of the body fell in opposite directions. The flame sword burnt through the cheap armor used on the creature and sliced its body in two sections.
After Costa put a shell through the final hybrid that ran at him, he turned to look for Theo. He found his mate down on the floor under the muscled body of the hybrid that had sent him there.
“Theo’s down!” Costa transmitted to everyone. The next second came a blinding light of a flame sword. He watched the super-heated rod burn through the beast. It separated it into two sections.
Theo killed the power on his sword and worked himself up off the floor. He managed to shove the flame sword back in its scabbard. He found the gun that the hybrid knocked out of his hand and slung it over his shoulder.
With blood flowing from his wounded hand, he walked over to the remainder of Team Omega and grinned. “That thing was disgusting. Sorry I was out of the fight for a few seconds.”
The floor in front of them was covered by the bodies and remains of the pig-human hybrids. Blood soaked the floor and sections of bodies where the exploding shells struck were scattered everywhere. Ash kicked the head of one of them out of the way and turned to Theo.
“Let’s see the hand,” he told him. “Christ, you are having no luck at all. Kris, we need your help! Costa get re-loaded and guard that door in case those mercs come at us anytime soon.”
Kris managed to bandage Theo’s hand as they travelled down the stairs to the next level. “Pretty bad one this time,” she told him. “It’s your shooting hand, so you’ll need to compensate. You want anything for the pain?” Theo grunted in understanding.
He shook his head. “Anything you can give me for the pain will mess up my nerve,” Theo explained. “I can’t risk that while we’re down here. When we get back I’ll find someone to fix it good.” He already had two scars on his right arm from other missions.
“Your decision,” she told him and finished with the bandage. They continued d
own the stairs.
“Good call,” Ash told Barbara Ann when he reached the landing where she waited for them. “Did you have any idea how many they would send out?”
“No,” she told him, “but I knew there would be plenty.”
This time there was a small vestibule with a door that led to the next level. Ash preferred these kind of entrances as it allowed him a few minutes to prepare for the next challenge. It was not lost on him how crazy it was that he had acclimatized so much to the tactical reality of moving from level to level in these nightmare facilities. Walking down into the factory directly wasn’t dangerous the first time they entered, but it didn’t give him a chance to regroup everyone and see how they coped with the last level.
The crew behind him was covered in blood from the assault by the hybrids. He could hear the panting of lungs over the radio and see the body statistics from the display inside his helm. They were all in excellent shape, but exhausted. He had them take a few minutes to water down before attempting the current level.
“Visors up,” Ash told everyone after a quick check with Char. “Get some water and take a few minutes to compose. I don’t know what’s in front of us, but we can assume each level will try to kill us from now on.”
“Just no more pig monsters,” Jack wheezed. “Those things were the stuff of twelve nightmares.”
“Probably the intent,” Kris added.
“Okay,” Ash announced to the team, “I’m going in that door and see what is on the other side. Everyone hang loose until I get back.” He dropped his visor, opened the door and went inside.
Years ago, Ash visited a botanical garden on one of his many travels and admired all the exotic plants that were held inside the climate-controlled dome. There were few ways to preserve some of the plants that these domes held. Many of them were only reachable in orbit by licensed scientists. The one he visited was on Old Earth and had been in place for hundreds of years. It was there to preserve the way a particular part of the rainforest looked centuries ago. Ash was transfixed by the intense color displays and wondered what it was like in the distant past when much of the world was still in this state.
He remembered it because Ash was certain this is what lay before him. He stood in a mound of dirt and watched the humidity rise from countless tropical plants and trees, which lined the level from the interior. He couldn’t fathom the purpose of this place, but was able to see the exit door to the next level in the distance. This wasn’t the final level; they still had to cross it. He walked back through the door and returned to the vestibule where the others waited for him.
“Full of vegetation,” he told everyone. “I don’t understand the purpose, but there is little sense where EAC is concerned. Visors down until I have all of us in there and am sure the air is safe.” Everyone popped the front of the helms down and followed him back into the new level.
They stopped and admired the scenery. Ash wasn’t sold on the place, given what happened too many times during this trip. He took a few steps forward and looked at the prints under his boot. This couldn’t be VR, too much reality, even with the advanced VR systems the corporation had at its disposal.
“Char,” he asked the AI that dangled from Theo’s belt, “anything funny in here? Can we breathe it?” He needed to make sure the air wasn’t contaminated.
“Nothing in my data base,” Char transmitted. “Looks pretty healthy. High levels of pollen, which you would expect. Shouldn’t be a problem, as no one has allergies to them.”
“Leave em down folks, we’ve been good with oxy expenditure so let’s play it safe,” Ash turned to look at Barbara Ann, “What do you know about this place? Any more threats from hybrids?”
“Nothing like you’ve had to deal with before,” she told him. Ash didn’t like the response, but Barbara Ann could be very cryptic.
“Guns up. It looks like a short walk but let’s not get caught napping,” he told everyone. “How is your ammunition?”
“Low,” Costa told him. “After the last run, we’ll have to be careful.” He liked the atmosphere in this place; it reminded him of home in some ways.
“A garden of earthly delights,” Kris said as she looked at a field of flowers next to where they stood.
“Be careful,” Ash warned her. “I don’t trust anything down here. We may walk into another trap. Maybe not like the ones before, but I can guarantee you something will try to kill us. Everyone stay together. Barbara Ann, why don’t you go on out ahead?”
He watched the woman walk down the path in her latest outfit. How she managed to change garments so quick and where they came from was a mystery he didn’t want to probe. Probably she was naked and the clothes were some kind of VR display, he suddenly thought, considering the VR tech he’d seen today. Now she wore a long white dress that while flowy managed to accentuate her body perfectly. He watched Barbara Ann walk down the trail and stop. She turned around as if waiting for them.
“Looks safe to me,” Theo commented jokingly. He’d found a way to hold his impact gun with his wounded hand by tightening the strap around his chest. He might not be able to reload, but he was ready to rock for at least one full magazine’s worth of death dealing.
“Advance,” Ash called out. “On me. Single file, let everyone know if you see anything funny, but don’t over react.” If such a thing was possible at this phase.
What bothered Ash was the lack of any kind of animal noises. He expected the level to be populated by birds or something similar to keep the ecosystem maintained. There were no cries of water buffalo in the distance or howls of predators. None of the grass moved to indicate the presence of reptiles. For some unknown reason, the garden had no snakes in it, or any other kind of higher life forms. There had to be a reason.
Ash didn’t notice anything else strange until they were almost up to where Barbara Ann stood. They passed a grove of large shrubs, which had tendrils that descended from the main body of the plant and terminated in brilliant red flowers. Ash glanced at them and looked for the signs of large predators, but didn’t see any. He continued to walk past the shrubs and reached Barbara Ann when he noticed the shrubs began to shake.
“This is funny,” Jack pointed out to everyone else. He’d seen them move too. He stopped and pointed the shrubs out to everyone else.
The tendrils began to move and the flowers on the ends also shook. In a few minutes, all of the tendrils were parallel to the ground and pointed in the direction of Ash and his crew.
“I don’t like this,” Ash announced. “Something not right about these plants. Activate your flame swords; I think they’ll be the better option.” He heard the sound of guns being safetied and strapped down. It was followed by the hissing sound of flame swords taken from their scabbards and activated.
The tendrils began to stretch out in their direction, which is what he expected, as crazy as that was. Yes, he was certainly growing accustomed to the sideways logic of this divine comedy in which he’d found himself. Ash watched as each flower swept up toward them and faced the crew. There had to be twelve flowers in range and each had a mouth inside it. A mouth full of teeth.
“Keep moving,” he told everyone as all of them made for the exit. “Don’t walk in the grass. We don’t know what else it might set off.”
Ash walked along with Barbara Ann as they headed toward the exit door. The shrubs with their deadly flowers were left behind, but he noticed every other plant seemed a little odd and took an interest in them. The trees in the forest seemed to turn and follow them, but nothing advanced in their direction. There was a sinister sensation in the air and he worried the foliage in this place wasn’t the least bit normal.
“Do we have to worry about them following us?” he asked Barbara Ann. She was her usual non-concerned self and walked slow to keep pace with him.
“Most of them are not ambulatory,” she replied. “They evolve quickly on this level, so no one really knows the level of development. Just walk normal and don’t look too closely.
”
“Why not look closely?” he asked her. “Shouldn’t we try and be aware of these things before one of them attacks.”
“You might see something that would distract you,” she explained. “A lot of them feed by entrapment and illusion. Many plants lure insects into range by resembling something the bug finds attractive. These do the same, but with people.”
Ash decided to yield to her advice and walked without saying much. “Eyes ahead and don’t stop to look at a thing.”
Once again, the door to the next level was almost a short walk away when the trouble started.
Ash heard a murmuring sound around him and turned to see a number of half-starved people at the edge of the trail. Somewhere men, others women and a few carried young children. They were gathered just below a grove of trees and looked at them with eyes that pleaded for help. In spite of what Barbara Ann told them, Jack had stopped and looked at the site.
“Help us,” an elderly woman cried out to him. “We were thrown down here days ago and the plants have eaten almost all of us. Please, sir, you have guns. Do something!” Jack was speechless.
The small crowd of people reeled back in horror as one of the trees reached down with a branch and grabbed a young child. Jack pulled out his flame sword and was ready to power it up when Barbara Ann knocked him back on the trail. He was still surprised at the amount of force she could generate.
Before he could say anything, Barbara Ann walked into the middle of the crowd and punched one of the women directly. The woman doubled over as the tree continued to hoist the struggling child up into its top.
Before he could do a thing, Barnaba Ann smacked a man in the crowd who went down. He fell to the ground and struggled. She turned and struck a child with her outstretched palm, which was the last straw for Ash.