The Scales

by Paul Sating

  Something exploded. Sand filled the area where the Screecher thrashed. She paused long enough to watch the brown cloud settle back to the earth. When it did, a chasm spanned thirty feet.

  “What was that?”

  “Don’t know,” the deputy said. “Grenade maybe.” He wasn’t waiting to find out. Standing, he shouted, “Let’s go.”

  Their cover blown, the war started, delaying further made no sense. Rodgers triggered a new smoke bomb and tossed it underhand down the shaft. His aim was perfect. Metallic tings rang under the sound of the battle behind her as the grenade bounced, fading as it fell. Before she recognized it, Deputy Rodgers was gone, racing toward the hole.

  Serenity scrambled to her feet and raced the short distance to the opening. Her mind protested and her heart pounded.

  She slid to her knees just before the shaft. Only the deputy’s head was above the opening now. “It’s clear,” he said. “Are you ready?”

  Now wasn’t the time for words. She scrambled down the ladder after him, but not before taking one last look at the people fighting the Screecher. She searched for Patch, scanning the heaps of metal near where she’d left him and hoping for one more point of connection with him.

  “Move, Serenity!” Deputy Rodgers whispered harshly from just below her feet.

  Climbing down the ladder was like crossing an invisible line between the desert and this new world. The air was cooler, even just a few feet below the surface, as if someone had turned off the sun. Serenity didn’t look down, not wanting to know how far the shaft dropped. Blackness sucked in the smoke from the grenade. They’d used it for cover, hoping to gain enough time to get their bearings, but the infinite shaft countered their tactic. Descending, back-lit by the bright sky above, they were easily detectable to any of the Black Suits who were watching.

  They couldn’t change that though. Sounds of war thudded through the earth and echoed off the steel surrounding her. Ten feet. Twenty. Thirty feet. Rung after rung, the pair ventured deeper, erasing the sounds of battle.

  They were in their own world now.

  Another twenty feet and the distinct sound of feet landed with a clang on the metal surface. The deputy grunted. She still refused to look down.

  “Come on,” he whispered, but even at such a low level, his voice echoed.

  Serenity risked a glance. A waist-high double-bar served as a barrier between the landing and falling to her death. She extended her leg and tapped the bar with her toe, clinging to the ladder. Her biceps shook. The black nothingness waited for her to lose her grip. One second of lost concentration, and it would get her.

  “It’s okay,” Deputy Rodgers said, his arms extended but not grabbing her. She was thankful for that. Convinced the bar wouldn’t crumble into the dark void, Serenity planted her foot more firmly on it. “Give me your hand,” the deputy said, more confidently than she felt.

  “Get out of the way,” she said with extra firmness. With a big breath, she jumped for the landing. He wore a stupid grin when she stood straight, her heart just now starting to beat again. “What are you smiling at?”

  “Nothing,” He laughed at something that was decidedly not a laughing matter.

  “Let’s go.” She headed down the narrow, dimly lit hallway. A blue hue illuminated their path constructed of corrugated sheet metal, painted dark blue, almost black. The hallway stretched empty before them. Serenity kept her back against the rippled metal, edging her way forward, Deputy Rodgers directly across from her. Fifty feet of hall teed off into another.

  “Which way?” Deputy Rodgers inched his head to the side, opening an angle to see down the hallway on her side without fully exposing himself. “Do you see anything down my way?”

  She mimicked his technique, leaning out slowly, waiting for one of the Black Suits to pop into her field of vision. Heroines in the movies made this look so easy; determination on their faces as they investigated foreign surrounding for helpless victims they were about to save. Real life wasn’t like that. It took everything she had to not race down the hallway, arms waving like a crazy woman, her voice vibrating off these metal walls in a high-pitched scream. Instead, she took a breath when she didn’t see anything or anyone. “Clear.” That’s what the movie heroines said.

  “Okay. Left, or right?” Rodgers said with a quick upward jerk of his head.

  “How would I know?”

  “This place is huge. We could search for weeks. Let’s decide and go with it. We pick a way and circle back if we don’t find something of interest soon. Who knows how long they can hold off that damn thing and, if it…if it wins, I’m not sure what that means for us.” Rodgers grimaced. “God, it's grotesque. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. She hadn’t thought about it until he said something, but what if they were down here for hours? Days? What if we don’t get back in time to help everyone? What if everyone…what if Patch…

  No, her mission underground was the reason everyone above ground was fighting. She had a duty to them, and she wasn’t fulfilling it by delaying at their first point of decision.

  “Left,” Serenity said and curled around the corner of the wall, side-stepping down the hallway.

  Click. Rodgers had pulled his sidearm out and was holding it in a tight, two-hand grip. He looked at her with a quick side glance and moved ahead. She picked up her pace, and he reciprocated. They needed to make up time.

  This new hallway stretched on, spotted by doors on both sides, each painted the same color of dark blue with the same small, black placard with a number etched on it. No windows. No hint to what each room held. Should they take the chance of trying to open a few, hoping they weren’t walking into an ambush? Even jiggling handles might draw attention. But even if they could get away with checking rooms, they still had a lengthy search. Those hundred doors could lead to another hundred.

  Then it dawned on her.

  “We’ve got to find the chamber where they experimented on the Screecher,” she said, excitedly. “Patch said it was huge so it should be a hell of a lot easier to find than searching through these rooms. If they’re anywhere, we’ll find them there.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I don’t, but they want the Screecher, right? They’re going to try to draw it out at some point, so why not start with the one place they’d want it?” she said, ignoring his raised eyebrow and pushing forward.

  Stretching for hundreds of feet, the hall reached into the bowels of the desert. Instead of discouraging her, the length propelled her forward. It was too long, too straight to be an ordinary section of this secret lair. There had to be a reason it reached so far, so deep, underneath the desert.

  “What?” the deputy asked, stepping faster to keep up with her. “Why did you stop?”

  “The floor,” she said. “Look at the slope.”

  “We’re heading deeper.”

  “This must lead to the chamber,” she said and sprinted away.

  Deputy Rodgers barked a raspy warning after her, but she didn’t stop. She wasn’t going to stop until she found her family.

  36

  “Serenity, wait.” Deputy Rodgers panted. The sprint down the descending hallway had winded him.

  The hallway finally opened to a massive room. Calling it massive wasn’t fair. Serenity wasn’t even sure it could be called a room. Nothing this big could be restricted by such a simple word.

  The ceiling rose at least a hundred feet above them, only discernible by pale strips of light across the expanse of darkness. It was a rounded tunnel view of the evening sky. The chamber dropped away below them too, but unlike when they descended into the desert down the shaft, here she could see the floor. The walkway they stood on wrapped all the way around, thirty feet above the floor. Below, the chamber was devoid of equipment, vehicles, or Black Suits. Its emptiness made its size even more impressive and questionable. The lack of activity, equipment, and personnel gave an air of abandonment. Serenity looked across
the expanse, wide enough to park an airplane, maybe two.

  Large, black boxes, taller than a grown man, lined the edge of the pale blue floor. Hundreds of blinking lights within each box meant they weren’t like the speakers she’d seen at a concert last summer. Computers or something. In the narrow slats between those boxes desks and long tables indicated work areas. Lamps lit a few.

  “We’re getting close,” Serenity whispered. Even at a low level her voice seemed to echo. Deputy Rodgers drew a wispy breath at her breaking the silence. Serenity scanned the expanse of concrete.

  There!

  Two people sat on the floor with their backs to each other. She squinted, trying to make out more detail in the poor light. What use was having lights on a ceiling if they couldn’t do more than light shadows on the floor? She gripped the handrail, rotating her hands in frustration, and then moved sideways, down the walkway. Staying as close to the wall as she could, Serenity moved to get a better view. It has to be them. It just has to be.

  “Careful,” Deputy Rodgers warned, slinking along beside her.

  “I am,” she whispered.

  If the Black Suits were watching, they had to be well hidden. The chamber provided plenty of hiding places, but it was too huge for them to be anywhere close. They wouldn’t be able to catch them unaware. Those tall black boxes were the only possible cover, but there were too many to inspect individually.

  A ramp capped off the end of the walkway, sloping to the floor. Serenity started down, but Deputy Rodgers ran ahead of her, his gun held straight out in front of him, sweeping it back and forth across the expanse. Then he made a beeline for the two people. Even down here, it was difficult to make out the pair’s identity. She imagined the Black Suits had reasons for the lousy lighting. Reasons that included the Screecher.

  Deputy Rodgers raced forward in a squatted sprint. Serenity copied him. The stance slowed their approach, but as they drew closer to the pair, their pace picked up. Rodgers halted, thrusting his left arm up, bent at a right angle, his hand open with its fingers extended like he was about to high-five an invisible person. Then he crouched even lower. Serenity didn’t need to be told to do the same.

  “What is it?” she whispered.

  He squatted so low his chest was almost between his knees. “That them?”

  Serenity squinted. Darkness clouded their faces, but it was definitely a female and a male. “I can’t be totally sure.”

  He stood into a crouch-run again. Seconds later, they were close enough to make out their pair’s identity.

  “Momma!” Serenity said, her voice growing a life of its own, echoing up through the chamber, round and round the circular walkways, up to the open chamber where it was lost in the dizzying heights.

  “Serenity!” Deputy Rodgers barked as Serenity stood and ran the short distance to her mother and brother. When she got to them, she hugged her mother first, around the neck, squeezing just a little too tight. Ida groaned.

  Serenity pulled back. Both were gagged and exhausted, but not much worse for the wear. Their hands were zip-tied behind their backs. Ankles were bound too. Serenity pulled her mother’s gag while Deputy Rodgers helped Jerrod. She heard him clipping the zip ties before he slid over and did the same for Ida.

  “You two okay?” he asked.

  Jerrod rubbed his wrists. “Yeah, thanks,” he said even as he moved around the deputy to get to Serenity. “Hey sis.” He hugged her tightly. She hugged him back, enjoying embracing this pain in her ass for the first time in far too long.

  “All right, knock it off and help me to my feet,” Ida ordered with the biggest smile Serenity had ever seen her wear. Serenity moved first, grabbing her mother’s free arm and leaning to counter balance Ida’s weight. Jerrod did the same with the other hand, helping her stand.

  “Hi, Momma,” Serenity said through fresh tears that burned the corner of her eyes.

  “Hi, baby.” Ida hugged her. Serenity wanted to melt into her mother’s embrace.

  “Folks,” Deputy Rodgers said, “We’ve got to go. Now.”

  The urgency in his voice demanded compliance. Serenity had no problem with that, getting her family out of the chamber, away from the Black Suits, was her mission. Then and only then could the group be dealt with. They made their way back across the chamber floor toward the ramp; the going was much slower this time. Ida couldn’t move as effortlessly as a fit law enforcement officer and a teenage girl could.

  At the ramp a low, grinding grew into a rumble.

  “What’s that?” Ida asked.

  “I’m not sure.” Deputy Rodgers’ eyes flittered back and forth. Serenity could almost hear the gears turning in his head. He looked worried, void of confidence. His eyes widened; his head moved more rapidly, chaotically. “But we’ve got to keep going.”

  “Then go.” Serenity’s encouraged him forward with a wave of her hand.

  Boom!

  A thick door crashed closed, blocking their escape. Still, they sprinted toward it, Jerrod and the deputy leaving the two of women behind. Serenity stayed by her mother as she watched the men feel the door, push against it. Comically, they even tried to lift it. By the time they’d given up, Serenity and her mother had joined them.

  Deputy Rodgers was sweating and looking helpless in defeat. “It’s not opening.”

  “What do we do?” she asked.

  “We need to find another way,” he said. “This one isn’t it.”

  Her stomach sank. “Where?”

  Rodgers answered as his gaze swept into the darkness around them. “I’m not sure. Look around.”

  None of them knew where they were. They could search until they collapsed from dehydration.

  “There’s a tunnel.” Jerrod pointed across the chamber. “Over there.”

  “Let’s go,” Deputy Rodgers said, and the group raced in the direction of hope.

  They passed the area where zip ties still lay discarded. Serenity wondered where the Black Suits were.

  “How did you know about this tunnel?” Deputy Rodgers asked.

  Jerrod whispered back. “That’s where they brought us from.” When he caught Ida looking at him, he said, “What? My blindfold slipped a little.”

  “Good!” the deputy said. “Lead the way.”

  “Man, I have no idea where it goes, except to where they kept us for questioning.” Jerrod sounded unsure.

  Serenity hoped the old Jerrod who avoided responsibility wasn’t resurfacing.

  She ran up next to him. “We need you,” she whispered. “We can’t get out of here without you.”

  Above, in the pale blue light, a loud, thick thud reverberated through the entire chamber. The metal walkways vibrated.

  “Okay, I’ll try, Porkchop.” Jerrod’s eyes turned down. She squeezed his hand.

  “Come on,” Deputy Rodgers urged.

  Serenity’s steps felt light, encouraged that the tunnel was open. No one knew where it led, but it would take them out of the chamber, at least. No longer in the open, they might have a better chance of avoiding capture. Even Ida kept up. When they made it to the mouth of the tunnel, Serenity looked into the eyes of Hilliard. Fifteen other men dressed in black suits surrounded him.

  “So nice to see you again, Serenity.” He sneered. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

  37

  “Now come.” Hilliard’s lips curled up as he gestured with both arms out. “You didn’t honestly think we were going to stand aside and allow you to leave. Did you?” No one answered. Hilliard didn’t appear surprised. “I don’t think so. There’s good news though. Now that we’re all together, we can finally get down to business.”

  “And what’s that?” Serenity growled. She had to buy time.

  Hilliard spread his hands as if it was the most ridiculous question he’d ever heard. “You haven’t figured this out yet?

  “Figured what out?” Her voice dripped toxins. If only she could inject it into Hilliard and his crew.

  Boom!!!

  A
nother powerful shock wave vibrated down the chamber, rattling even the computer cases. Earthquake? But they didn’t have earthquakes in the Tri-Counties. Clattering metal, remnants of the shock, mocked the seriousness of what was happening on the floor of this hidden chamber. The men behind Hilliard glanced around toward the roof. Whatever was causing the massive vibrations, it wasn’t of the Black Suits doing.

  “Your country needs you,” Hilliard continued, a slight shake in his voice. He didn’t have full control. Men like him didn’t enjoy anything less than having full control. Jerry Johnson always reacted poorly when he couldn’t influence a person or situation. In those moments, he looked a lot like what she saw in Hilliard’s eyes right now. “Your brother was critical to our research. Your mother? Well, she was honestly just extra cheese to lure you. It is you we’ve wanted all along. It’s you we needed.”

  “Why?” She winced with a new rumble. Her eardrums ached from the sound. She put her hands over her ears, but the pounding only grew in the face of resistance. Just as it had on the surface, the throbbing rumble caught her unprepared. Her teeth rattled, and she pressed her temples against the pain.

  “Don’t play dumb.” Hilliard wagged a finger at her. Serenity clenched her teeth. “We know your friend Patch already told you why you’re so important.”

  Boom!!!

  “And, as you can hear,” he continued, now pointing at the ceiling, “We don’t have the luxury of privacy for further…discussions. So, what we’re going to do now is evacuate the compound for our alternate command post, and when all this silliness is over, we’ll return. Because we can’t wait. There is so much work to be done. There’s always so much work. So.” He paused, eyes jerking toward the chamber ceiling. “Will you join us?”

  This time the rumble came before the earthquake from above.

  Boom!!!!

  Heat radiated up her neck to the base of her skull. She pinched her eyes closed, hoping her head wouldn’t split in two.

  “Come now,” Hilliard said in a sing-song voice. “We don’t have a lot of time.”