FLOOR 21: Descent (The Tower Legacy)

by Jason Luthor

  “I don’t think we have any other choice but to try and move as quickly as possible.” He turns around and flags everyone down. “Attention, everyone. Lieutenant Pena will be taking Jamila back up to Floor 30. Shields will stay on with us in case we need a medic. As for the rest of you, good work out there. For your first live firefights, you’re doing precisely what’s been asked of you. It’s not going to get easier, though. We’re moving into territory none of us, neither I nor any of the lieutenants, have ever been close to. Normally, we avoid the Cultists if we can, but that’s not a valid option today. So, stay alert and remember that accuracy saves lives. We don’t need any friendly fire. You all have fifteen before we move out.”

  That puts everyone in a rush, like the world’s moving at double speed around me. I’ve just got eyes for Jamila though, and it feels like I’m sloshing through water to get over to her. She’s wearing half a smile and breathing hard, but she looks . . . okay, if that’s what you can call it. I mean, she doesn’t look like she’s dying or anything, but she barely looks like she can keep her eyes open. Still, my ability to talk is in worse condition than her leg, apparently. “Are you, uh, alright?”

  It takes her a second to realize I’m saying anything, and when she finally looks at me, her eyes look like they can barely focus. “Well, they stuck me with something, so I kind of feel like I’m flying,” she says as she pants. “It hurt like hell at first though, you know? I didn’t know what happened.”

  “Yeah, you pretty much got stabbed.”

  “I think I can figure that out,” she says as her smile tightens into a grimace. “You’re going to keep going?”

  “Right, right, but I mean, it kinda sucks leaving you behind.”

  “Girl, I’m not the one that’s going to be in the Deep Creep.”

  Just the fact that she can keep making jokes makes me feel better. “I really have no clue how you keep smiling when you’ve got a hole in your leg.”

  “I’m talented,” she quips. “Serious though. You’ve got to believe in yourself if you want to win at anything, right?”

  “Yeah. Of course. I mean, why even try if you don’t really believe?”

  “See, that right there. That’s why I’m going to survive this.” Her hand drifts up and her fingers just softly wrap around mine. My arm twitches at the touch, but I fight off the very strong impulse to jerk away. “I’m not joking though. For real. Believe in yourself, Jackie. You’re pretty cool.”

  It makes my cheeks burns just to hear that. “Yeah, that’s what some people keep trying to tell me.” My breath runs up my face and throws strands of hair away. “I’ll try to.”

  “You’ve got to promise.”

  “Fine, fine, weirdo. I promise. Now, would you go home? I want to see you whenever I get back.”

  Jamila winks at me. “Go kick butt, Jackie.”

  “Oh, believe me, I’m gonna try,” I say with a wink back. I kind of just give her one final squeeze on the shoulder before I walk away. For a second, I’m almost glowing as I feel this warmth in my stomach, but the feeling goes sour when I get near the door. Sunnny’s there. I don’t know what happened between him and Abbott, and I don’t know what’s been going on with him, but when I see him, I feel like I have to say something. I mean, what if he’s depressed? So, I just tell him, “Hey, captain.”

  Then he looks over at me like he’s surprised I’m talking to him. “Hey, Coleman.”

  “So, is, uh . . . is everything all right?”

  “You know, Abbott never got it. He was born on Floor 2, was supposed to be a Morale officer by birth. He just happened to be a lot better with a gun than with making people feel good about themselves. You should understand that, right?”

  “Well, yeah, I could see that. Nobody’s going to argue that the commander‘s exactly what you’d call a ray of sunshine, but he’s not as bad as I used to think he was.”

  “That’s not saying much,” Sunny grumbles. “Man was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and expects everyone else to suck it up and just be happy. Thing is, he doesn’t have to live where I live. He didn’t have to go days without food sometimes, waiting for deliveries from Tower Authority or eating what passes for the vegetables we grow on the lower floors. Your friend Jamila knows what I’m talking about. She grew up on Floor 19.”

  I’ve never heard Sunny say anything this bad about anyone. Then again, maybe he always thought it. I mean, who can laugh off killing people like he does? “So, like, is something going on between you two? Something feels a little off. Is that just me?”

  “No, it’s not just you. This isn’t the first time me and Abbott have had our disagreements. Thing is, I get why life is what it’s like down here. I get what these guys are up to, even if I’m not a fan of them. Do I think they’re crazy? Sure I do. Still, you can’t hate them for trying to find ways to improve their lives, even if what they’re doing comes off insane. Not like it’ll stop me from killing them.”

  “Wait, wait, wait. What is it you’re saying exactly?” This point really needs clarification. “You’re cool with just whatever it is they’re doing around here?”

  “That’s putting it too strongly. I’m just saying these Cultists think they’re going to some paradise if they ever get this bond to work. It’s nuts. But you know what will really drive you nuts? Not having food or water. Not getting paid attention to by Tower Authority. Watching your family die because of hunger or the Creep. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them were like me: average Joes growing up on the floors that Authority doesn’t really give a damn about. Obviously, we made different choices. They decided to come down into the Deep to get away from Authority and now they’re mixed up in all this. I decided to be a Scavenger because maybe, one day, I’ll have done my full seven years and I can get off of Floor 19. Because I don’t want to have a kid some day and have to tell him he can’t have food because Authority doesn’t care enough to send any.”

  He stops talking for a second as he holsters his pistol, then looks up at me. “To be honest with you? I think about it all the time. I think about that one day when I’ve done all my service and I can get off my floor. I want it more than anything else, but that’s hard to understand for people who’ve lived their whole lives on the upper floors.”

  Sunny finishes getting ready and walks off. I know he was talking mostly about Abbott, but I’m mixed up in that too. Jamila and I are friends, but as much as life could suck living on Floor 4, at least Tower Authority got us food just in time every week. From what I’ve been hearing, it doesn’t sound like the same applies to anyone living too far down. So, like, I can’t say I get everything Sunny’s saying. I don’t think anything could ever make me want to live down here in the Deep. But, then again, I’ve never had to go without food for a week. And that last thing he said? About losing family?

  Thank God I still have my parents.

  Love you guys.

  Researcher’s Log

  Experiment results discussion

  David Marshall recording

  Increasingly, I find myself drawn to the Creep’s ability to pick up on human emotion as the key to understanding how it selects a host for bonding. It continues to be such a shame that our only living example of this bond, Creepy Sally, remains quarantined in an isolated wing of Floor 16. Then we have the problem of not being able to use Sally Cells in our experiments, which is a state of affairs that I am increasingly obsessed with. Still, considering that our records indicate she went through dozens of Security when the Tower fought her a century ago, it is probably wise that the quarantine continues and the restriction on her cells remain in place. Morale might drop quickly if we were to lose a dozen researchers overnight. Still, there is no doubt that lack of a bonded test subject has hurt our investigation.

  The stories told about Sally are consistent with what we know about how the Creep reacts to people in general. Living on Floor 16 has a number of disadvantageous, not the least of which is the lack of food and cons
istently clean water. If the mix of official records and local folklore are correct, then Sally, at some point, lost her family to an incident in which they were killed. Given her already poor living conditions, I’m not surprised this turn of events sent her spiraling into depression and then attracted the Creep.

  Although, something about the story does bother me. Everything about Sally indicates she was moved to Floor 16, but we have no idea as to where she originated from. The records from her era are thin, but all indications seem to imply she may have been one of the earliest inhabitants of the Tower, and may actually have been evacuated from floors far lower than our current boundary, Floor 21. We’re talking about a person that lived centuries ago who was confined to a distant part of her floor. Sally Cells, as I’ve previously noted, are incredibly virulent. They will seek to consume even competing Creep cells. Shortly after her evacuation and resettlement, she began to demonstrate her incredible power over the Creep and went on the attack. The only reason the entire floor wasn’t taken outright is that she tends to sleep for incredibly long times in between waking periods, yet there are at least three separate incidents documenting times Sally awoke. Each incident resulted in the deaths of dozens of Security, and all efforts to contain her were highly lethal affairs.

  Still, what I’m most interested in is why the Creep chose her for such a strong bond. Beyond the unique properties of the cells infecting her, I’m still quite sure she possessed unique mental attributes. I’ve been relentless in my demand to test this theory, and despite the reservations of Tower Authority, my allotment of precog test subjects has been increased. This has given me greater flexibility in the range of experiments I’ve been able to conduct. Of course, the basics normally remain the same, with a few exceptions. The first thing that is typically done is to induce a state of fear and panic into the test subject. This isn’t difficult, since most of those we bring in are already fairly anxious. Anyone would be, considering the circumstances. They’re essentially imprisoned here for days, until we’re ready to conduct a new round of experiments.

  Precautions must be taken to guard against the Creep, after all.

  When our subjects are introduced into the test chamber, it doesn’t take much to create an environment conducive to bonding. Pain is the easiest way, and the chamber floors are capable of generating electrical currents that deliver nonlethal but agonizingly painful shocks to anyone inside. There are those who occasionally demonstrate resistance to these currents due to higher pain thresholds. The workaround is crude but, I must admit, effective. The simple breaking of a bone is usually capable of inducing enough fear and anxiety to provoke a Creep reaction. I’m particularly fond of using the wrist, which requires a minimum level of effort to fracture and leaves the person alive for use as a future test subject. At any rate, whatever it takes, we do what we must until a subject’s heart rate and blood pressure is elevated. Those are, after all, fairly obvious signs of anxiety. Then, we actually begin to introduce the Creep through the various ducts installed along the walls of the chamber. From there, we simply observe the subject’s reaction to the Creep and vice versa. It can be quite fascinating.

  Those we’ve identified as precognitive seem not only capable of receiving emotions but also projecting them, and there are significant differences in how the Creep reacts to their presence. Think of it this way. Those with telepathic abilities are capable of detecting the electric and chemical changes that occur before others’ actions. However, precogs also project their own emotions into those around them. A precog can subconsciously influence the mood of others if he or she doesn’t take care to rein in their abilities. Now, think about the Creep, a biological mass that feeds on the emotions projected by humans. Precogs must seem like a buffet of sorts, just platters of thoughts and feelings for the Creep to dine upon. The difference is that the Creep seems to savor these telepaths. It lets them live, perhaps to continue some sort of long term emotional sustenance. A bizarre proposal, of course, but one I’m willing to live with. Under actual observation, we watch the Creep avoid consuming these subjects. It’s definitely active, which we can tell from the generation of tendrils that is common in aggressive infestations. However, no actual attacks occur. What we do observe from our sensors are states of emotional interaction between the subject and Creep. We’ve yet to witness a full bond, but there have been moments where our subjects have been restrained by the Creep and yet not eaten, and we later detect samples of infected cells in their bloodstream, as if the Creep was trying to possess them. What’s confusing is that this occasionally happens in non-precogs as well, and I’ve yet to identify why.

  Which is why even this line of experimentation has its dead ends and why my theories are in a state of change. It is known that, rarely, Creep Beasts are found throughout the Deep. These are people that have bonded and remained alive, albeit in a highly disfigured form, but that don’t have the mastery over the infestation that Sally demonstrates. These people fit the definition of victim far more than she does. They are mindless creatures with no restraint and no control over the Creep around them. Given the rarity of precognitives in the human population, I assume this must be why Creep Beasts are so rarely found as well. Perhaps the difference between Sally and these others is that she was simply more powerful, and more powerful precognitives have greater control over the bond.

  Unfortunately, I must again file a complaint with Tower Authority. At this juncture in my research, more aggressive steps must be taken toward understanding this link. We need even more precogs under research and we must be willing to take painful, and borderline lethal, steps in our experiments. No more assurances to our test subjects that they’ll live through our tests, even if we will try to keep them alive. We need them in the highest state of fear we can possibly create in order to simulate circumstances in the Tower. We will never achieve a bond if we’re not willing to provoke the most terrible of human emotions in our subjects, since that is what the Creep feeds on. Authority’s hesitation on this issue continues to hinder our evolution as a species. I know what they’re saying. I know what they think of me from the safety of Floor 1, in their debates over the necessity of my science. They think I’m a heretic for doubting the truth of the Builders, or a madman for wanting so badly to test our stock of Sally Cells. They think I’m a sadist because I am willing to make a few people suffer if it means our knowledge of Creep biology and human psychic powers is expanded. Well, they make think me insane, but what is the difference between madness and genius?

  Recording Twenty-Nine

  It feels like I haven’t had a chance to breathe in a few days.

  I guess I shouldn't act surprised. We’ve just been moving and moving, trying to chase down the last team that came down here. Then we had those shootouts with those Cultists, and the Creep, so it’s been this string of super tense situations. That’s what makes it weird to be sitting here, doing absolutely nothing. Just . . . waiting, you know? For Utada to come back and let us know what’s in the hallways ahead.

  The room’s nothing special, I mean, like everywhere else we’ve been recently, it’s soaking in Creep. But you know what? When we first came in, there was nothing better than being able to just sit down and stop moving. My feet were screaming from all the ground we’d covered the last few days. Sucks for Utada, who was given maybe five minutes before she was on the go. Anyway, it’d been a while since we’d been able to just camp out, and for a minute, things felt like they had when we’d first started training together. I think . . . I know I needed it. I’ve always been able to brush stuff off. When you go years without anyone telling you they love you, or without any friends, you have to find some way to deal. Back then, if I wasn't talking with Allison then I wasn’t talking to anyone. The only way I knew to cope was with sarcasm and just laughing stuff off. I got pretty good at it, too. Must be why I handle being around the Creep so well. It couldn't last forever though, I mean, mom must've seen that. That's why she gave me my first recorder. It was the only wa
y she could really help me at the time, without dropping her act and getting us all in trouble.

  But now I just feel like it's getting harder to keep it together, and that's scary because I can't afford to go nutters down here. Not with the Creep everywhere, ready to respond. It’s just I keep seeing that kid I shot. I close my eyes, and I see him staring back at me, like he's burned into my eyelids. By now, the Creep’s probably just gobbling him up. Like I’ve said, I get that I needed to do my job, it’s just when we were training to come down here, I didn’t seriously think we’d have to fight other people. You can shoot at the Creep, and you know it’s not human so there’s no reason to feel bad about it. But, I mean, that kid had a family, right? I don’t know, it feels like I have a bad case of indigestion, and then when I think about the dream I had, I just . . . I’m hoping that it’s just me tripping out because of the Creep, but seeing Tommy and Dodger snatched away like that makes me feel sick. How does a person even dream up something like that? Do I secretly want something bad to happen to them, or is it just, like, the Creep poking at my mind? Then after seeing Jamila laid out on the table with that hole through her leg and all the blood . . . like I said, it’s just getting harder to let stuff go. I feel like every time I see something new it adds to this pile of garbage that’s building up in my brain. So, yeah, I’m happy to have a second to chill and not feel like we’re fighting for our lives down here.

  So we’re sitting there, and it’s the first minute of calm we’ve had in forever. Of course, Dodger has to ruin it. “Jackie, listen, I know you’re so not into feels types of stuff . . .”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “What I mean is that you’re not exactly the sort of person that goes deep talking about what they’re feeling, you know? I get that, I mean, I’m not the most emotionally well-adjusted person in the Tower. I think I’ve spent more of my life ripping open computers than talking to people. I just, I don’t know, felt like I had to tell you something.”