FLOOR 21: Descent (The Tower Legacy)

by Jason Luthor

  Kidding. Mostly.

  We hit another juncture and Abbott extends his arm out as he takes a knee. We all do the same and squeeze against the wall, keeping just a little distance from our skin to the Creep. We’re just waiting around for a second before Abbott’s light goes out, and we all follow his lead so that we’re sitting in pitch blackness. I’m not sure whether to pocket my flashlight or not, but the one thing I do know is that my fingers are digging pretty hard into my gun because I have no idea what the hell is going on. So, we just sit there, listening, but it’s so quiet my blood sounds like a bomb in my ear.

  Then I hear it. It’s not loud, but it’s there. Voices. My ears are straining as I try to listen but whoever’s talking sounds far away. At least, that’s what I think until a light cuts into the juncture ahead of us. From his silhouette, I can see Abbott raise his rifle. It’s like, damn, he’s not even bothering with the sword, but then again, the Cultists do carry guns. Can’t cut through bullets. Can he? Anyway, the commander holds a hand up, and we all flip the safeties on our weapons. I guess from this point on we’re going in hot. In between the light flickering in front of us and the voices, I’m starting to hear footsteps, and whoever’s out there has some heavy feet because you can hear the thud of their boots getting closer. Every new step echoes louder and louder until they’re near the corner, and that forces Abbott back onto his feet.

  Not just him. We’re all back on our feet. Listening.

  “Any word on the prisoner?” a muffled voice asks. Didn’t Sunny say they wore gas masks?

  “Nothing. He’s been uncooperative, at best,” a second voice says.

  “Pity. He’s not our true target, but he’ll have to do.”

  “Agreed,” the second voice replies. “I wonder if the bonding will be a success.”

  “They rarely are, which is why we needed the target. But we shall see.”

  “If we acquire our target, then surely we’ll be able to finally complete our mission down here.”

  The first man chuckles. “Have faith in David. He’ll lead us to our promised land.”

  After those last words, there’s a pause, and all of us are waiting with our fingers on our triggers in case anyone crosses through the hall. My heartbeat’s counting the time as we stand there with our guns up, and it feels like everyone’s holding their breath. I can literally feel my chest burning like someone’s put a match to it. It’s starting to sear into my muscles when I see Abbott’s shoulder twitching, like he’s about to make a move. He never does, and instead we just wait as we start to hear footsteps moving around again. Whoever these guys are, their lights dart around the juncture for a few seconds before their footsteps start to get softer. The relief I’m feeling slams into me so hard that I’m barely able to stop from exhaling so loud that it’ll catch attention. Still, the small breaths I do take are okay with me once the footsteps are completely gone. My breath is still coming in spurts, like I can’t remember how to use my own lungs, when Tommy leans into my ear. “That was close.”

  “No crap, dude. We almost had to go first blood on those guys.”

  It might just be a few words, but that’s enough to calm my nerves as we trail behind Abbott again. He takes us around so many corners, I’m not even paying attention to the direction we’re going anymore. I just keep up with the crowd until finally the commander pauses at a door. For a second he just waits there with an ear to it, before grabbing the handle and pushing it open. I can see him motion at Utada, who comes to a stop by his side. His fingers sit in the air for a second before they start to count down.

  Three . . . two . . . one . . .

  The two of them turn into the room with their flashlights blazing and their rifles ready to fire, but after a few seconds, Utada pokes her head back out and motions us all inside. We’re all uber quiet as we vanish into the room, and I’m pretty grateful that we’re looking at an apartment instead of some weird lab. There are actual shelves and couches, plus barely any signs of the Creep, which, I mean, that’s always an obvious bonus. We follow the commander as he leads us into the back bedroom so we can all hunker down.

  “Long day, people,” he says as we all tuck onto the ground. “We’re calling it a night here. This will be our staging point. I’m sure you can all tell that our targets are the Cultists.”

  Huge revelation, I think, but instead I ask, “So, what’s the deal? You think they have our team?”

  “They did mention a prisoner, and they also mentioned that they’re looking for someone else,” he says. “We know for a fact nobody else but those psychopaths live this this far down, so either they’re turning on their own, or they got hold of Scavenger Team One. I’m not leaving this area until I’ve ensured it’s not that second case. Everyone must be on top of their game, though. This isn’t the Creep. These men aren’t as well trained as us and they can be terrible shots, but that’s not going to make a lot of difference if they catch you by surprise. Bullets kill equally in the darkness.”

  He points to Sunny. “Tommy and Jackie, with you.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Valerie?” he asks, looking over at Lieutenant Pena. “Dodger’s with you.”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Utada, you’re point with me,” he says, gesturing to himself, but she only bows her head. Finally, he looks over at Michael. “Jamila’s with you. That makes us four teams. Sunny, and Valerie, your teams cover each other. Michael, you’ll be trailing me. When we move out, Utada will scout the area ahead and bring us our intel. As for the rest of you, you know the drill. Suppressing fire to cover your teammates. No wasted shots. And don’t bring attention to yourself unless you absolutely have to. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” we whisper into the darkness, with only Abbott’s flashlight lighting up our faces.

  “Good. I’ll secure the exterior room with a motion sensor to let us know if anyone gets close. When we wake up tomorrow, we get down to business.”

  Immediately, he’s out of the door, and if you want me to be honest, him being gone makes it feel like the pressure’s being let out of the room. Something about Abbott’s just so, I dunno, intense. Anyway, I settle back against the wall and take a moment to breathe. I’m seconds away from saying something to Tommy, but when I look over at him, he’s already buried his face into his arms. Typical. My head bowls over the other way and . . . ugh. There she is. Grinning. She’s not an idiot, and I know my issues are my issues, it’s just super hard to get on my good side and win my trust. Even Tommy’s still trying to do that.

  “Hey, Dodger,” I say, almost like I’m giving up. “You, uh, seem happy.”

  “Are you kidding me? How can you not be? This place is amazing!”

  “I’m not so sure we’re in the same room,” I mumble as I look around. “I’m pretty sure there are about a hundred better places to be than stuck on some hall with a bunch of nutter Cultists.”

  “Yeah, but remember those bodies we found? And we have a chance to see more? You know that’s what those guards had to be talking about when they were talking about the bonding.”

  “Did they though?” I rest my head on the wall while my teeth cut into my lip. It’s like I told Pygmalion, I’ve got my suspicions, but I hope I’m not right. “Yeah, I guess, but, I dunno. That’s intense. And why’re you so interested?”

  “Are you kidding me? Science is so my thing. Maybe not biology as much as computers, but anything I can geek out over gets me puuuumped. Do you know how awesome it would be if I could get a look at some of their research?”

  My face rolls to the left, and I just stare at her. “You’re a weird chick, you know that, Dodger? I kinda like it, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I’m not weird, too.”

  “Oh, I know, that’s why it’s so crazy that we never met before training.”

  “Well, if you want to be technical about it, I did see you a few times. We were in different grades though, so you didn’t really have any reason to talk to me.” My eyes toss up to t
he ceiling. “Plus, the fact that I’ve never been what you call a people person. Weirdo, sure. I’ll take that. People person, not so much.”

  “Could’ve fooled me. You’ve been pretty chill to hang around with.”

  “What’s that now?” This girl is so not a good judge of character. “Maybe, but I like to think of myself more as the cool, anti-social loner type who plays by nobody’s rules but her own, you know? Living on the edge with a devil-may-care attitude? Nice isn’t the first word I’d want to describe myself with. Although, to be fair, I didn’t exactly get treated like a superstar when I was a kid.”

  “That’s just how it is with smart people,” she says with a shrug. “Well, let me run that back a little. Everyone has a niche, you know? So, you’ve got all these people that are completely fine with just fitting into their niche and not asking questions about the Tower. But then you’ve got people like us that get left out more than others, so we’re more likely to be the ones that have time to think about this stuff.”

  “People like us?”

  “Yeah. Smarties, you know? I mean, your dad’s Doctor Coleman, right? How incredible was it being the daughter of the man who researches the Creep?”

  The question’s a bad one because it just drags up a lot of memories. I mean, do I really need to explain to this girl that my dad had to pretend like he didn’t remember me for half a decade and that it almost drove me to isolated sociopathy? No, probably not. I mean, who is Dodger anyway? This is like, way too personal for the length of time we’ve known each other. So, I just shake my head. “Yeah. It was . . . awesome. Just Creep, Creep, Creep, every day.”

  “I knew it! That’s so cool. I knew with a dad like that you had to have picked up some of his genes. I mean, I can tell you’re really smart.”

  “Okay, okay, stop,” I tell her as my cheeks start to burn. “Too much ego boosting. God. You’re going to make me feel like Tommy over here, and we really don’t need two cocky jerks walking around.”

  “That’s why I like you, Jackie. You’re smart and you’re funny. Makes sense why you’re the popular one,” she says as she pulls her tablet from her satchel. I stare at her for a second, like this conversation can’t be over. But it is, and I’m left thinking to myself, who is this other Jackie that Dodger’s been talking to?

  Recording Twenty-Six

  Even as far down as we are, with the hunt for Scavenger Team One really starting to roll, there are some things that never change.

  Like being hungry.

  I don’t know how long we’ve been walking in these black halls looking for food. I know it’s been long enough that my stomach’s twisting up into knots that won’t stop tightening. The commander’s determined to get as much food back to the upper floors as possible, so he’s ordered us to go out and scavenge, but I don’t get why he doesn’t just let us eat what we’ve collected already. The mission’s not the same anymore, not this far down and with these nutter Cultists running around. Abbott’s just acting like an idiot and the more I think about it, being here with no food and no light, the more I start to hyperventilate. My breath starts coming in shallow strikes that feel like they’re hitting with the force of a punch. At first, I’m managing, but it’s getting really hard to breath and the humidity feels like it’s clogging up my nose, choking up my throat until I’m seconds from vomiting. Tommy leans over to me and grabs my arm just as I’m about to fall over, and his hand is the only thing that keeps me from pitching face first into the ground.

  “Jackie,” he says, but his voice sounds like it’s echoing from miles away. “Jackie, are you alright?” He looks away for a second, and Dodger fills my eyes as she leans in toward me. I can feel her fingers crawling up my skin, and I tear away from her, slamming against the wall and feeling ooze and gunk slapping against me as it rolls down my neck. When I hit, I feel my flashlight flipping out of my hand. It throws halos of light around the hall and casts black shadows that stare at me for half seconds before disappearing. When it finally slides to a stop, its burns through a dark hall filled with more and more clusters of growth, like the muscles are contracting until the entire hallway’s getting smaller. The slimy walls pulse while gusts of air breathe out from deep inside the stomach of the Tower.

  My eyes snap back to Dodger as she stretches her hand out to me. “Jackie? Are you spazzing? Please don’t be spazzing. What are you seeing?”

  “Would you shut the hell up for once, Dodger?” I literally scream back as I slap her hand away. Her eyes blow wide open as I stand there, shaking and struggling to breath. “You think we’re friends? We’re not friends. You can’t just show up, talking like we’re the same when we’re not, got it? I’m the one who put down Creepy Sally. I’m the one who figured out how to get onto Floor 1. So, you might be computer smart, but you’re pretty stupid about everything else.”

  She stands there for a second before taking a step back, and I see Tommy’s arm wrap around her. He stands there with his flashlight blazing into the ceiling and lighting up his face. His eyes have already judged me. “Dude, what is going on with you, Coleman?”

  “Get the hell off my back, Tommy.” My fingers press into my temples as I’m fighting against my words, but I can’t hold anything in. “I know you’ve been pretending to be my friend for a while now just to get into Allison’s pants. Well, back off, okay? I know who you are. You’re still the same jerk that made fun of me every day at baseball practice. You’re the toolshed that always had to act like he was the greatest thing on the upper floors because you had an inferiority complex, which I guess is understandable since your dad couldn’t stop drinking and felt like you were better off locked inside a closet. That whole time you were acting tough, you were just trying to get people to ignore how terrible your family was.”

  “Jackie−”

  “Please, just shut the hell up!”

  It feels like I’ve taken a drink of acid, and my whole chest is on fire as I glare at them through the darkness. I can feel my fingers tightening up and sinking into the fleshy wall behind me. I can’t control the rush of air into my lungs, and I feel myself getting lightheaded while I watch the light in Tommy’s face starting to flicker before it explodes with a red haze. He glances away, and suddenly we all stumble as this gut wrenching crack groans out of the ceiling, Tommy’s light flying along the walls and catching sight of a huge split cracking open over my head.

  “Jackie!” he screams, but I barely hear him. I just stand there in a daze as clouds of concrete and dust explode around my face, carrying my hair in a rush of wind as slimy tendrils whip by me. I watch as the opposite wall is pummeled with bits of concrete and pieces of muscle that splatter along the ground, covering it in thick trails of mucus. Finally, the force of the explosion throws me forward, and I barely dodge a squirming tendril that punches through the fracture in the wall and sails over my head. It misses me, and I’m relieved, but only for the seconds before I hear Dodger scream. Her voice snatches my eyes and my face shoots over to her, only to watch as her body soars over my head. In a panic, my fingers twitch frantically for hers before she’s sucked away into the wall. She just . . . vanishes, pulled into the dark gap in the ceiling as her voice is suddenly cut off by Creep that collapse over the gap. Everything happens so fast that I just sit there panting, watching the wall like somehow she’s going to fight her way out. I completely forget that I need to get out of there until I feel something tightening on my shoulder. My eyes fly into Tommy’s face, and he’s just . . . he’s standing there with his arm grabbing at me, but his cheeks are streaming tears as he demands, “Get up!”

  I nod, and then we’re just running as the ceiling overhead starts breaking away. Thick trunks of Creep pummel into the floor, sending long cracks splintering along the ground and tossing me ahead. I go flying along in cartwheels but try to propel myself back upward. For a second, I manage to roll back onto my feet, but as my heel strikes the ground, I feel it burst open beneath me. There’s no way I can hold back a scream as sharp ed
ges of metal cut through the fabric of my uniform, digging into my skin and sending blood flying when my leg sinks knee-deep through the floor. I’m desperate to get back up, and I start scanning for Tommy, who’s already jumping to grab my arm. His eyes are burning, and his fingers are shaky, but he’s there, palm open as he reaches to yank me free. I swing my arm for his, but the last time I see him is when a long tendril appears in the halo of his flashlight.

  And then he’s gone, his light streaking the walls as it vanishes into the distant end of the hall. For a second, I can hear the sounds of his rifle spitting bullets with a quick rat-tat-tat that just goes silent.

  “Tommy,” I cry as my hands plant onto the floor underneath me. The muscles in my arms are on fire as I’m straining to lift my body back onto the ground. For a few seconds I wrestle against the floor, screaming into the almost pitch dark hall as my body starts to drag upward. Still, every time I pull up a few more inches, I can fee long daggers cutting deeper into my calf. My leg’s starting to feel warm as blood soaks through my pants, and I just keep screaming as I use every muscle in my body to pull myself up. I can feel myself just seconds away from freedom when the floor cracks again and my arms launch forward, grabbing at the edges of the Creep as my body starts to fall. My fingers claw into thick muscle fibers growing along the ground while the rest of me dangles over emptiness. At this point I feel like I’ve been trying to get free for forever. My legs are burning, my chest feels tight to the point it wants to explode, and my heart’s drumming as I choke on thick, humid air. I’m wrestling against my own desire to just give up while my muscles fight to save me from the darkness. Even if I can’t see anything in front of me, I can feel the motion of Creep tendrils slithering along the ground and probing at my arms. I know if I can’t get myself out of that hole in the next few seconds that I’ll either fall to my death or get eaten alive.