Ibenus (Valducan series)

by Seth Skorkowsky

  Damn it. She'd forgotten to reload. "I'm out!"

  The screamer staggered to its feet, inky blood running from a gash in it side.

  "Down!" Orlovski shouted behind her.

  Victoria dropped to a crouch and Orlovski's gun fired above her. The screamer tumbled backward in a mist of black slime and Victoria was up, Ibenus before her as she charged the last few feet before turning into the egg chamber.

  Screamers raced from the shadows, closing in. Victoria swiped, blinked, and lopped one off the wall. Spinning, she blinked again and appeared behind another. The bug halted, looking around for its now missing prey. It started to turn but Victoria's boot crunched down on top of it, squirting an arc of foul guts across the floor.

  Orlovski rushed in beside her, his pistol popping. Within three seconds of entering the room, the cursed screams had silenced.

  Victoria stole a moment to load her last magazine as Malcolm checked the door. She'd have given anything for those shots she'd wasted earlier.

  Luiza's team was chattering in Victoria's ear as they fought their own wave of monsters.

  "Come on." Malcolm surged into the lead. They hurried back to the last intersection and started down the path.

  A loud boom came through the radio, followed by an echo up the hall.

  "That Dämoren I hear?" Malcolm asked.

  "You know it," Matt replied, a second shot punctuating the sentence.

  "We have to be close," Malcolm said. "Everyone keep an eye out for lights so we don't shoot each other."

  They hurried down the tunnel, crouching as the ceiling shrank lower and lower. Infant wails and the muted pops of suppressed gunfire sounded ahead. They passed the back of another trapdoor and emerged in a tall, narrow tunnel. Human bones, dry and yellow with age, accented the stones along the walls and floor, arranged in wavy lines like some impressionist seascape. Red and blue lights moved in the darkness ahead.

  “Luiza, that you?” Malcolm called.

  “We see you,” Luiza replied in the radio.

  The corridor widened to over ten feet. A side passage broke off to the left before the hall ended at a narrow, floor to ceiling fissure in the far wall. Lined with tiny finger and toe bones, the crack opened to no more than nine inches at its widest, tapering at the top but continuing down, as if forever. Pale blue light flickered on the far side, showing the wall to be over six feet thick. A figure stepped into view, silhouetted by the ghostly demon fire, a red light atop its head shone through the fissure cutting a crimson path across the passage.

  “Mal?” Luiza called.

  “Yeah,” Malcolm replied. “Everyone all right?”

  “We’re fine. We can’t find any way through.”

  Mal glanced back at the side passage. “They have to meet somewhere.”

  “Listen, we found a hidden door that goes deeper into the nest. Do they have it all tiled on that side?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They’re hiding doors behind it. The demons have been holding back there and sending all their drones out. We were just lucky enough to see them using one, otherwise we wouldn’t have found it.”

  Victoria scanned the paved patterns in the walls and floor, suddenly hyper-aware of how easily a door might be hidden. How many had they passed? How many demons and screamers waited on the other side, readying to swarm out once their backs were turned?

  “We almost caught TommyD,” Mal said.

  “Where?” Chaya asked.

  “Just before we found the nest. Dumb bastard was trying to catch one in a trap.”

  “Did they get him?” a hopeful edge to her voice.

  “Got away. Dropped his gun and Gerhard’s pistol.”

  A distant giggle pulled Victoria away from the conversation. Orlovski must have heard it as well, his pistol light coming up, scanning the floors and entrances.

  “No Umatri?” Chaya was asking.

  “No. But he stuck a demon with it so we know he still has it.”

  Another giggle. Listening, Victoria stepped away from the crack. What is that? Scratching? She pulled the bud from right ear and cocked her head. A faint scurrying, like a hundred tiny rat claws within the walls. But she knew they weren’t rats. “Mal.” Fear tinged her voice more than she'd intended.

  Malcolm turned. A coo drifted from some indeterminate direction.

  “They’re coming,” Matt said. Wails sounded in the distance on their side of the wall.

  “Mal.” Urgency sharpened Luiza’s words. “Listen, intel was wrong. They can make more than six screamers. A lot more.”

  “We found nurseries,” Malcolm said. “Like bullets in a gun. Kill one, another hatches.”

  “Three beads,” Matt yelled. A tidal wave of baby screams surged up through the crevice.

  “Don’t waste your time on the drones,” Luiza shouted. “Follow the compass to the demons. Kill the masters.”

  Chaya tossed a glow stick down the crag. It tumbled between the narrow walls, briefly lighting a mass of black-eyed doll faces before being swallowed up beneath the spidery mass.

  “Contact!” Chaya shouted.

  More wails sounded from the halls. Malcolm glanced at the compass and stabbed Hounacier toward the side passage. “Two that way.”

  Ibenus in hand, Victoria hurried after Malcolm as screaming bugs boiled out from the gap and far tunnel. Shots sounded behind her, and voices squawked through the rubber bud dangling beside her ear.

  The passage curved around. More infant wails came from ahead. The tunnel split Screamers poured up from the right-side passage. The left appeared clear.

  “Down here,” Malcolm shouted bringing his palm up at the closing bugs. “They’re trying to herd us the other way.”

  The screamers recoiled from the warding tattoo and Victoria lunged forward, cleaving through the ranks.

  “Keep moving.” Orlovski’s gun popped, blasting one as it peeked out from a crevice in the wall. “They’re right behind us.”

  Victoria chopped a screamer and front kicked another scurrying across the wall, crushing it into a row of vertebrae. Hot steam filled the passage like a sauna. Tears welling at the stink of rotten meat, she moved onward, deeper into the tunnel as they fought their way through the swirling horde.

  Orlovski's shots continued behind them, but Victoria didn't look. They rounded the hall, entering a circular chamber, its walls tiled with the faces of human skulls. Jagged clusters of teeth jutted from the eye sockets, glistening like ivory crystals.

  Victoria scanned her light across the room. “No exit.” She eyed the ceiling but the morbid tile-work didn't cover the entire dome.

  "Son of a bitch," Malcolm yelled. The twin beads of his blood compass pointed straight down. "They're under us."

  Following the compass' direction, Victoria searched the floor for a seam, but only for an instant before Orlovski charged in, running backwards, his gun trained on the flood of screaming bugs.

  "I'd give anything for your old sawed-off," Orlovski panted. Black blood speckled his cheek and glasses.

  "Close up." Malcolm stepped toward the doorway, dropping the bottle and drawing Hounacier. "Don't let them get inside."

  Nearly two dozen screamers closed in, a dizzying mass of legs and cherub faces. Victoria's chest tightened. Too many. Her arms and legs ached. She couldn't keep this up. No! I'm not dying here.

  Victoria looked again at the blood compass, following the line from the beads to the bone-tiled floor, and fired. The round shattered a domed skull cap by Orlovski's foot, opening a black hole.

  "What the hell are you doing" he shouted, flinching away.

  Rapid clicking sounded from the floor. A jagged-edged trapdoor flew open as a gold-striped mantismere lunged out toward the Russian. Orlovski stumbled back, yanking his boot away before a bony scythe arm speared the floor.

  Victoria lunged for the demon, but Malcolm beat her to it. He spun, cleaving his machete blade through the top of the mant
ismere's emerging head and brought his palm up to halt the closing horde.

  The scalped demon spasmed, arms flailing. A plume of blue fire erupted from its open skull, cascading down its body as it slid back down into the open hole. Several of the closing screamers withered and fell from the tunnel walls and ceiling, plopping to the floor.

  A second demon clambered over its fallen brethren. Black eyes locked on Malcolm, still fighting the surviving screamers. It raised its forelimbs to strike.

  Victoria swung, appearing beside it. She chopped Ibenus into its back, splitting the chitinous plates with a meaty crack. Squealing, the monster fell to the side as Victoria wrenched the bronze blade free.

  The demon raised its four arms to shield it from the next blow but Ibenus cleaved through two of them, sending the severed ends flying and burying the blade into the demon's chest. The mantismere arched, legs kicking, and then ghostly fire burst from its mouth and wounds.

  Dead screamers thudded to the floor, steam spewing from their blackened shells. Malcolm chopped the last survivor as it tried to scuttle away. He spun on his heel, his eyes blazing with rage. He scanned the room, the red beam of his headlamp panning across the ceiling and walls, before his gaze fell on the dead demon. He looked at Victoria, her sword sheathed in bloody demon fire. "Good work."

  "Thank you." She panted, not really sure what else to say.

  Orlovski stood above the half-open trap door. Pale demon fire flickered up from the pit, lighting his face. Victoria cautiously peered down into it. The demon copse lay sprawled eight feet below beside a pair of melting screamers. Crouching for a better view, she saw a sloped passage leading deeper, its curved and carved walls reminiscent of an intestine.

  A clatter sounded behind her. Victoria wheeled to see a sagging section of tiled wall, peel from the rock face. Streamers of milky goo trailed from the falling bones like melted glue.

  "Nest is dissolving." Keeping one eye on the pit, Orlovski checked his pistol and slid it into his holster. "More we kill the more it'll crumble."

  "Luiza," Malcolm said, "We found an entrance."

  Remembering she'd removed her ear bud, Victoria pushed it back in to place to hear Luiza say, "…to the party."

  "All right. You heard her." Malcolm picked the blood compass off the floor. He nodded to Victoria. "You found it. You want to go first?"

  "Damn right." Ibenus in hand, Victoria carefully lowered herself into the tunnel. The freshly cut channels in the wall offered plenty of purchase. She dropped the last two feet and landed beside the dead mantismere. Burning brains oozed out from the demon's open skull. Matt was shouting something in her ear bud, his words lost beneath a machinegun's roar.

  The oval passage coursed gradually down like a lava tube or subterranean river, though Victoria knew there were no natural caves here. The chaotic uniformity of the spiral-cut grooves and diamond-patterned tiling made it difficult to gauge the tunnel's length. Keeping her gaze down the tunnel, Victoria drew a glow stick from her vest, cracked it one handed, and hurled it as far as she could. The spinning orange light bounced off the ceiling and followed the wall, skating along the curve like a funhouse slide. In the final moment before slipping out of view, it silhouetted a screamer hugged along a far wall.

  "Got one bug," she called up, spotlighting it in her pistol's white beam. The screamer hopped to its feet, cooed, and scuttled away.

  Malcolm climbed down and stepped over the demon corpse. He held the blood compass out. A cluster of red beads formed at the bottom like caviar. "Looks to be the place."

  "About damn time." Orlovski swung down, boot clomping on the floor. His lip curled as he eyed a tiled section of floor. "Watch out for trap doors. Just warn me before you start shooting them."

  Malcolm drew Hounacier and started down. "No promises."

  They'd made it only a few yards when the mewling cries started ahead. A mantismere scuttled around the far wall and dropped to the floor. A second moved in the shadows behind it. Screamers surged past them, their quivering jaws wide.

  "I'll make a hole," Malcolm shouted, running toward them.

  Victoria ran after him, her foot nearly slipping on the smooth, uneven stone.

  The screamers were almost on them. Malcolm threw out a hand, palm wide. The closing bugs recoiled. One lost its grip and fell from the ceiling. Victoria charged past, Orlovski at her heels. She leaped and swung Ibenus, blinking forward. The sloped tunnel matched the arc of her jump.

  The mantismere raised its twin spears, ready to impale her. Victoria swung just before they met. A whoosh and she was now behind the demon, her sword cleaving into the side of the second mantismere behind it.

  The wounded demon hissed and lurched to the left. It swung its arm, clubbing Victoria's hip as it tried to pulled away. Fighting to keep hold of the sword, Victoria wrenched Ibenus free with a wet crunch.

  The demon behind her turned, mandibles clicking like a rattle. Victoria swung Ibenus, blinking away as the saber arms came down. Hissing, the demon took a step toward her, but then Orlovski slammed into it from behind, his kukri chopping into the back of its head as it fell.

  Blue firelight filled the tunnel, little comets slinging from the Russian's still hacking blade. The demon Victoria had wounded tried to rise, feebly pushing itself up by the forelimbs, blood pouring from the open chest wound. It crumpled and began to burn, the last of the screamers withering at its death.

  Malcolm didn't even slow as he jogged past. "Come on." The passage continued down. Pieces of silk-mortared rock and bone slid free, their builders now dead. "This way," Malcolm said as he reached a split in the hall. Cries echoed ahead but there was no sign of more screamers as they moved deeper, the passage so steep they had to make small steps to keep from falling.

  The tunnel leveled out below. Victoria jumped, falling ten feet and swung Ibenus. She blinked and landed with no more impact than from a slight hop.

  A wide round chamber opened up before her, its walls completely covered in honeycombed nest. Victoria coughed. The vinegary reek burned her throat. Most of the chambers were empty, a few still dripping slime from recent hatchings. Sealed cells twitched and stirred as Victoria's light passed over them.

  Not waiting for the others, Victoria sprang into the room. She chopped and hacked at the birthing monsters, slinging goo and bits of shattered nest as she worked.

  Feeble cries came from around her as more screamers struggled to free themselves. Blinking around the chamber, Victoria killed as many as she could.

  "Christ," Malcolm growled as he dropped the last few feet into the room. He immediately started on the neighboring wall, cutting his way the opposite direction as Victoria. "Taras, get your ass down here."

  Orlovski slid down, cursing as he landed. He drew his pistol and began clearing the bugs racing across the ceiling. The gun's slide locked back. "I'm out."

  Victoria chopped the last of the hatching bugs and drew her pistol. "Here," she said, ejecting the magazine. "Full mag."

  Orlovski winced as he stepped toward her, favoring his right leg. "You need that."

  "You're a better shot." She patted her mag pouch. "I have a half one left," she lied. It only had two. Of course there was also TommyD's two-tone pistol in her pack, the gun that had crippled Allan and killed Gerhard, but she knew she'd never fire it, not even if the devil himself came for her.

  The Russian's brows knitted as if about to protest but he simply nodded. He reached out, accepting the mag. Red clumps of caking blood ran from the back of his hand and soaked his shirt sleeve to his elbow pad.

  "You're hurt."

  He nodded. "It's nothing." Orlovski popped the magazine in and thumbed the slide shut. "Thanks."

  They followed a curving tunnel down toward the sounds of wails. Gunshots echoed in the distance. They were getting close.

  A few screamers emerged from an intersecting passage, but the hunters quickly overtook them with now practiced efficiency. The tunnel opened into
a great vaulted chamber, far larger than anything they’d encountered; easily a hundred feet across and just as wide. Their lights played off the murky water that hid the floor, casting rippled reflections along the forest of support pillars.

  “Fucking hell.” A terrible mixture of awe and hopelessness swirled in Victoria’s guts as she halted at the edge. A narrow, stone ledge ran along the right wall, leading to a broad landing, a dark passage beyond.

  A slender bridge extended before her, its surface pitted and glinting like a crystal sponge. It arched gracefully above the water's surface where it joined other bridges at a low island near the far side. A thick pearly column dominated the little mound, twisting upward like a giant unicorn’s horn riddled with wormholes.

  Several mantismeres scuttled along its surface, weaving in and out of the large burrows. Demons and screamers swarmed across a single bridge linking the island to a balcony on the upper left corner, twenty feet above the water. Red lights and the pops of silenced pistols came from the tunnel just visible beyond the ledge’s rim.

  A hulking mantismere with a brilliant red and purple shell clambered over the balcony’s edge. A gunshot boomed and the demon pitched backwards, body igniting before it splashed into the water. The burning corpse bobbled up to the surface, its blue light filling one half of the great flooded hall.

  “Luiza,” Malcolm shouted into his radio. “We’re ahead of you.

  “Thank Christ,” she grunted. “Chaya’s hurt and they’re overrunning us.”

  Malcolm raised his pistol, the white beam spotlighting the monsters from behind. “Can you see that?”

  “Yes. Hold it steady.”

  Bracing his arm, Malcolm held the light in place. Several of the beasts turned, noticing the trio for the first time. A few broke ranks and started toward them, moving along the walls and slender bridges.

  Amballwa in hand, Orlovski stepped out onto the brown water and fired his pistol at the closing screamers. Victoria eased up beside Malcolm, Ibenus ready.

  Blood sprayed across the upper landing. Demons split in half as if some invisible scythe had just ripped through the mob. Burning corpses and severed limbs tumbled from the circle of Malcolm’s light. Across the room withering screamers fell from bridges and walls, splashing into the water like hailstones.