by Jason Luthor
Then something grabs my attention from the doorway, and for some reason I’m able to look away. When I do, I’m not sure I want to see what I’m seeing. That dark outline again. The long hair. Sally. She’s standing there, and it looks like she’s breathing hard. Her body’s lifting up and down as she stares at me, and all the terror I’m feeling bunches up inside my chest until I think it’s going to burst out through my throat. She doesn’t move, though. Sally raises her hand, points at me, and says, “We are not alone. Move.”
I don’t know why, but when she says that? When she says ‘move?’ Suddenly, my legs are able to pry from the floor just as one of the shadow men lunges at me. I duck away under his hand, and it takes half a second before I’m bursting to the door. Wherever Sally was, she’s gone, and I’m just flying headfirst into the hall. The crimson light’s surging around me until it’s blinding, and I can barely see anything as I hit the wall so hard that, for a second, I’m seeing stars. Then, when I look toward the door, all I see is a black cloud swirling inside the room. My heart is running laps, and even my lungs start to feel like they’re squeezing as my breath chokes up in my throat. I swear, it’s like the darkness is filling up the room and flooding toward me. “This is it,” I think. “The Creep’s going to bust out and get me.”
And that’s when I hear it.
“Jackie?”
The voice sings down the hall, and suddenly the air is rushing back into my lungs. I look off to the side to see Tommy and Dodger running down my way. Dodger gets to me first, and I don’t pull away when she grabs my shoulder. “Jackie, what’s up? You look really freaked out.”
I nod a couple of times as the thumping in my chest settles down, and my breath finally stuffs itself back down my throat. When I look back at the room, there’s nothing. No dark cloud. No shadow men. It’s just a room. “Yeah, sorry gang. I don’t know what happened. I just . . .” I don’t want to tell them about the Demons, and I really can’t tell them about Pygmalion, but I don’t want to just keep repeating myself. “I just had a moment and had to get out of there.”
Tommy shakes his head. “Hey, we can’t all be the courageous type, right?” He’s grinning for half a second before he notices my scowl. “I mean, hey, sorry Jackie. That was a bad joke. I hope you’re feeling okay.”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I say as I wave him off. “Can we just get out of here?”
They nod and Dodger squeezes my shoulder again. I mean, I guess I can deal with that. At least, it does help me calm down a little. Still, as we’re walking away, I can’t make any sense of these hallucinations I’m having. The shadow men? I get those. Everyone sees those. But Sally? Why am I seeing Sally? Am I really so messed up over killing her that I can’t get her out of my head? I mean, it’s almost as if . . . it’s almost as if she wanted to help me. I was only able to move when she told me to, so I don’t get it. Is this the way my subconscious is punishing me? By making me feel guilty for killing her? Am I some terrible person that was okay with killing her, and now she’s making me feel bad by helping me instead?
And what the hell? None of this is even real.
Still, there’s just one thing. Everyone sees the shadow men. Sally? Okay, if I want to play pop psychologist, then she’s like a manifestation of my guilt. Also? I want to know about that diary I read, the one that talked about that voice in the darkness. I’ve never heard anyone else mention it, but somehow I feel like I know what that book was talking about.
I mean, it’s still so clear that I can hear it in my head.
The voice from the Red Room.
Recording Twenty-Four
Just for context? We found something. It’s . . . big. I’m really hoping that in a few days we’ll know what it is, but for now, I’m just lost. It was just another day, you know? More wandering, more digging up food, more trying to keep my stomach together while staring at walls covered in slime and mucus. Then we turn a door and . . . I mean, we all just freeze. I look over at Dodger, and her eyes are almost coming out of her skull as she whispers, “I can’t believe what I’m seeing.”
I’m half smiling, but, I mean, seriously, she’s right. Whatever it is, it’s so big you could shove a hundred apartments inside of it. Probably more, now that I think about it. So, we’re on a walkway, or what’s left of one, staring at some ginormous machine. It’s like some sort of pillar with wires and tubes all over it that stretch toward the walls. The thing’s too far away to reach and if there was ever a way to get across to it, it’s been gone for a while. Also, even though I’m not what you’d call a Creep expert, I can tell there used to be a lot of it here. The walls are covered in ashy grey goop that looks like it’s become hard. I’ve seen that happen before, when you burn Creep, but here it’s covering everything.
Abbott says what I’m thinking. “There must have been an explosion here.” He points into the distance. “Take note. The walls are not only covered in dead Creep, but they’ve got blast marks as well.” Then his finger drifts to the machine in the center. “If you look at the right side of that device, you’ll see there are chunks missing from it, as if an explosion occurred there. But, if you look over the edge of this walkway,” he says, waving into the blackness under our feet, “You’ll also find there are still lights active on lower portions of the device. Whoever built this ensured that it would have the incredible strength to resist an explosion. It looks as if only the upper portions were damaged heavily.”
Sunny walks up beside him. “I’m going to guess you think that’s why the lights are going on and off in the halls up here?”
“There’s no doubt in my mind,” Abbott replies. “Once the upper sections were damaged, the power to these floors was interrupted. Now we’re left with whatever remains. That said, there’s apparently plenty of energy left.” He turns to Lieutenant Pena. “What do you make of it?”
Valerie’s ice cold, just like she’s pretty much been since we got down here. Like always, she doesn’t say much, but she does step up to take a look around. We all stare at her as she looks at the walls and the dead Creep and after like, five minutes, she finally turns to us again. “The explosion was probably caused by a grenade. We know that the last Scavenger team came this way, so I’d assume they caused the detonation.”
Abbott rests his finger on his lips and nods. “Any idea why?”
“It’s obvious the Creep feeds off of energy sources. From the looks of this machine, I’d guess it’s supplying power to every floor under us. I’ll bet it’s likely that Commander McGill ordered the detonation and used the stickiness of the Creep to ‘glue’ the explosive to the machine. At least, if I were trying to cut the Creep off from its power supply? That’s what I would do.”
“I see.” The commander looks over the railing, at the glittering lights sparkling in the sea of black below us. “The halls outside are almost completely ruined in every direction. If I had to guess, I’d say the force of the explosion erupted outside and took out the floor. Your opinion?”
“It makes the most sense,” she agrees with a sharp nod. It almost makes me laugh how awkwardly robotic she is, but I figure that even a chuckle would probably get me thrown over the side of the rail. Now’s not what you’d call a laughing moment. Anyway, she walks over to the commander’s side and looks over with him. “Strategy?”
“Not much of one, is there, lieutenant?”
“If we’re going to find Scavenger Team One, we’ll have to drop into the lower floors.”
“A grim prospect, considering we know the Cultists have been active so high up the Tower. Not an unexpected one, though.” He rears back and faces us. “Here’s the plan. Most of the ground outside has collapsed from the explosion, but some of it can likely still bear weight. We’ll descend using our grappling gear and enter the lower floors directly using a straight descent. Any questions?”
Nobody argues as we filter back outside, but you’ve got to agree that I’ve got my reasons for feeling just a little concerned. The halls he’s talking
about have all been chewed into pieces, some of the walls have giant holes blown through them, and there are huge cracks splitting up the floor. You can tell that when the explosion happened, it basically ate up everything in the halls outside. So why risk it? If I’m guessing right, I think Abbott’s trying to pick up the pace. We wasted way too much time getting used to being in the Creep and finding our way through Polar North, and this is the first time we’ve even been close to finding the old team. You’d have to be stupid to wonder why he’s ordering a straight drop through the ground. Still, I have this goofy smile as I look at Tommy, and he stares back at me like I’m a weirdo. “What’s with you, Jackie?”
“Oh, nothing. Just wondering if you’ve got a fear of heights too. I mean, I can go first and catch you if you fall.”
“Shut up,” he says with a flex of his bicep. “Just remember, you’re going to need me if things get tough down there.”
“Hey now, don’t get your panties twisted. I’m just looking out for my homey.”
He gives me a smile to punish me for my poor choice of words. “So, we’re buds now?”
“Yeah, well, don’t take it to heart or anything.”
Tommy stays quiet when he looks away, but he’s still wearing that smug smile of his. Whatever. The guy’s alright, I guess. Anyway, we gather around the edge of the floor and shine our lights down. It’s pretty obvious that the hole is deep. There are steel rods sticking out of the breaks in the ground, and you can see the shattered concrete faces of the floor. I can make out the level beneath us, but the hole keeps going down another level, then another and another until I’m straining my eyes. It’s impossible to see where this drop ends, but it’s obvious that the blast ripped a pretty deep hole straight down into the Tower.
It forces a sick feeling into my stomach, like a lump wedging its way through my guts and up my throat. “Could anyone survive that?”
Abbott glances over at me. “Don’t give up on a Scavenger so easily.”
“Oh, uh, sorry sir. It’s just, you know, kind of a big drop.”
“So it is, but Scavengers are a hearty breed.” He turns to Lieutenant Start. “I hate to ask this of you John, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving lines hooked up here without someone to secure them, especially with Cultists running around. I need someone up here to keep our exit safe and to maintain this as an extraction point in case of an emergency.”
“Of course, sir. Understood.”
“I’ll leave you support, of course.” He glances around and gestures to Joanne and Shreya. “Joanne, given your particular knack for telling where danger is, it may be best if you remain behind. You might even end up saving the lieutenant’s neck a few times.
“Right, sir.”
“Not that you’ll be alone. I want one more person here,” he says as his eyes find Shreya, sending her to attention. “Shreya, you will remain with Lieutenant Start as well. Although I trust Joanne, this position is critical for us to hold, and a third gun might be what’s needed in case any Cultists put our descent point at risk. I think you two are up to it.”
“Yes, sir,” the girls agree. I can’t really tell if they’re happy or disappointed but, seriously, thank God. Shreya’s kind of a shrew. An angry, irritated shrew that never stops chewing my head off. Anyway, they fall back from the group while Abbott opens up a Pocket Space window and starts pulling out our climbing gear. Just looking at it makes my stomach clutch up. I mean, we’ve practiced with it, but I have this recurring daydream where we’re climbing down a gap like this, and my line just breaks. Now, this is probably something I shouldn’t be thinking about, because I suddenly feel like I’m about to pitch forward into the blackness, and it gets so bad that I barely pull away before I start to keel over.
Abbott sees me and laughs as he kneels to the ground. “Don’t get ill on me, Coleman,” he says as he places a piston down. It auto injects into the floor, securing the line. “We’re just getting started.”
Yeah, toolshed. That’s what I’m afraid of.
Begin Transmission
4, 0, pause, 4, 7, 4, 2
7, 3, pause, 5, 7, 1, 8
7, 3, pause, 5, 6, 4, 2
End Transmission
DESCENT
Researcher’s Log
Private note
David Marshall recording
It’s not well known, even among the researchers, that we have a line of cells informally known as Sally Cells. Why mention these, in light of the bonding experiments we’ve been conducting? Just a hunch, I suppose. Sally Cells are different from both human cells and traditional Creep cells and have unique properties that are really quite marvelous. You’d think they were perfectly created for symbiotic adaption with humans.
I suppose I should be a bit more precise. Human cells die off after splitting between 50 and 70 times. It’s a genetic end game, a preprogrammed biological shut off. If you’re the religious sort, as so many in the Tower are, you’d think this was purposely programmed into us. Can’t let mankind run amok and all that. Still, the average human, provided he or she has good health, will live between 70 and 100 years. That may seem impressive, but compared to Creep cells, it’s simply poor. Creep cells, when isolated from the natural nutrition provided by the larger mass infesting the Tower, can replicate hundreds of times and live for several centuries. We’ve induced cell division and watched Creep cells divide over and over. It explains how they can proliferate throughout the Tower and live so long.
But Sally Cells? How to explain them. To be blunt, they are . . . immortal, really. Sally cells are the most aggressive and prolific cells ever taken from any organism in the Tower, human or Creep. They will not only live indefinitely in a natural setting, they will virulently overwhelm other forms of Creep cells. There’s something unique in the Sally Cells, something that makes them extraordinary. Here’s the interesting part though. When placed alongside human cells, they are initially aggressive, then enter into some sort of balance with those cells.
It makes me think that part of the reason Sally was such a perfect specimen in the first place was that she was exposed to a line of Creep cells that experienced a divergent course of evolution. It was a perfect storm of unique Creep cells and Sally’s own mental state that allowed her to be recreated as the monster the Tower knows her as. We know from documents surviving from her most well documented attack, the lockdown from a century ago, that Sally had a near perfect control over the Creep. That level of control indicates a unique relationship between her and the infected cells coursing through her body.
If you’re guessing that I want to use those cells in experimentation, well, of course you’re right. However, I’m told Tower Authority wouldn’t look kindly on the deed. I suppose it’s understandable. If the cells are so perfect for bonding and we created another Sally, we’d end up with a potential outbreak here in the labs that would be almost impossible to control. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to try, but my hands are tied. It’s a blow to my research, but it should be possible to create bonded subjects regardless. The other infested humans we’ve found came from different strains of Creep cells, so it’s possible.
Possible. Just not as ideal as if we made the attempt with Sally Cells.
Recording Twenty-Five
You know, as it turns out, dropping ten stories through a building really isn’t too bad. We have machines that basically lower us instead of actually having to climb down, so the worst part is just holding on to the handles as you get zipped along, not to mention the fact that we’re basically dropped into pitch darkness. From the second I start to plunge into that hole, it feels like some carnival ride gone wrong, or at least what I imagine one would feel like. The light above starts to vanish and before I can blink, the only thing I can see is an ocean of nothing underneath me. Think of any nightmare you’ve ever had where you’re falling to your death . . . yeah, that’s basically what I have to live through. My ears are filled with the zipping sound of the rope and the rush of air whipping by me, a
nd I keep grinding my teeth into my lip while I ponder the effect the ground would have on my body if I let go. It’s a dumb thing to be thinking about that gets worse when the line jerks hard to the left. My fingers start sliding off the handles and I gasp when my legs swing away from the line, dangling over open air. This is it, I think as my legs fly wildly for a second. I’m going to die as a pancake.
But then? Then my legs drag against hard ground and instead of dropping to my death, I jam hard to a stop. Turns out the line only jerked because there was no more rope left. I’d hit bottom, and realizing that sends a pounding slam of air up my nostrils as I almost laugh in relief. Thing is, there’s no time to laugh because I’m desperate to see something. Anything, actually. I’m literally stumbling around, grabbing at the darkness until I remember to pull my flashlight. Suddenly, the room’s blazing up as the team starts flashing the walls, but there’s nothing to see except endless hallways emptying into this huge crater we’re in. There’s not even any sign of the Creep. For a second we wait around as the rest of the team hits the floor, but I’m already feeling relieved. I mean, no nasty growths or pools of goop everywhere? No breathing in Creep fumes? “That explosion must’ve really kicked ass,” I whisper as we look around.
Abbott fires me a look. “Quiet, Coleman!” he orders as he takes the lead, his flashlight held out and his gun balanced over it. We all follow along, hugging the walls as we sprint into the darkness. The commander’s going fast and Sunny’s got the back of the line for once. I’m guessing Abbott really wants this. Anyway, we hit a juncture and see those round symbols with the infinity sign painted everywhere, like it’s some fashion trend. “These are guide signs for the Cultists,” Abbott explains with a whisper, but we’re moving so fast I barely hear him. I don’t even understand how he interprets what symbols to follow, but it’s not exactly like we have any other leads. All I know is the only thing I can really get a good look at are the outlines of my teammates forming in the beams of our flashlights. Tommy’s got my back and Dodger’s right in front of me, so at least they’ll shield me in case a shootout starts.