I can feel that red bastard coming up the tunnel, and I have no idea what he’s about to do, but somehow, that has me less worried than the thought of what a swarm of hungry Zees will do to a world whose wounds haven’t completely healed.
-26-
I awaken in a dank chamber. The smell of mold and rotting flesh is overwhelming. No way of knowing how long I’ve been unconscious. An ugly red face is staring down at me from out of the gloom and all at once I’m certain I’ve died and been sent to the underworld those superstitious Keepers are always blabbing on about. But I can feel my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth and with it comes the dreadful realization that I’m not dead at all. No, it’s far worse. I’ve finally gone and turned into a mindless Zee. But the mere act of thinking says otherwise, doesn’t it? I think, therefore I am not a Zee. A Keeper is supposed to have coined that one. Probably the only one of that bunch with a decent head on his shoulders.
That face inches toward me and suddenly I know exactly where I am and who it belongs to. The Hive leader touches the patch of brown skin on the side of my face and I move at once to slap his grimy Zee hand away and all I hear is a clank. He’s got me chained to some kind of old dentist’s chair and so I do what any normal girl would under the circumstances. I swing my foot up between his legs. I can't wait to see those bulging red eyes of his start watering, but all I hear is another clank.
Leg restraints. Great!
The Hive leader smiles and I'm starting to think he isn't nearly as dumb as he looks. A series of thoughts trickle into my head, more of that coded gibberish and a second later the words bloom before my eyes.
“Save your energy, Azina. You belong to me now.”
Easy for him to say, but all I can think about is escaping. I scan the shadows and see a few scattered Zees standing in the dim light. No way to know how far down I am. More calming commands form inside my head. He's reading my thoughts, knows I'm itching to get out of here and leave him in a heap of red goo. But along with the code is another strand of information, one I'm sure he isn't even aware of. An image of that red bastard in real life, before he turned, before the world went to shit. He's dressed in a pair of blue overalls, mopping the floor in a gymnasium, just like the one in this very complex. In fact, the very same one. And in this image, a woman in a tight pink outfit traipses over his clean floor and suddenly his vision blurs with rage. He wants to strangle this woman. Wants to pull her into the closet where he keeps all his brooms and cleaning detergents and make her pay for what she's done.
There was something special about his – what did Oleg call them again? – his genetics. That's why he didn't become a drone like the others.
The Hive leader is over by a table with his back to me and I can see in the shredded rags he's wearing the vague outline of what was once his cleaning uniform. I haven't a clue what they used to call Grinders before the fall, but the end of the world has certainly been kind to him.
I see something that sends icy fingers dancing up my spine. That red prick's cutting open his own arm and wringing the blood into some kind of bowl. No, not a bowl, it's a drinking cup and something tells me it isn't for him. He's laughing now; the room's as quiet as a tomb, but he's in my head, laughing and telling me to be calm, that it'll all be over soon.
-27-
I know what's about to happen. He's going to make me drink the blood he’s wringing out of his arm and then who knows what the hell will happen. If there are worse things than becoming a Zee, I'm about to find out.
I can't help thinking of that lady in pink, the one he wanted to dominate. My eyes scan through the darkness and I see that my things have been kicked into a corner; my pack, repeater, and most important of all, my Katana. Why didn't he leave them? Maybe because that sick fuck is collecting trophies.
I try to wrench my wrists free from the metal cuffs. The noise is kicking up a racket, but at this stage I don't really care. That cup is nearly full and I'm not in the mood to find out what will happen when it is.
Movement from the corner of my eye. A shape in the darkness, slight and hunched over and the movement strikes me as odd. Zees don't hunch.
The Hive leader's turning around now, but I’m not looking at him anymore. My eyes are locked on that shape. It's moving to the corner of the room, the one where my things are stashed, and a split second later it disappears. When I look back I see that the red bastard's heading my way, cup in hand, blood sloshing over the sides. Behind him I see a flash of steel and hear a thump as a Zee's head rolls off its body, then a second and a third.
The Hive leader turns around. The bodies of three headless Zees lay on the ground, their jaws gnashing at empty air.
“Sneak, watch out!” I scream.
I can feel the Hive leader trying to keep me pinned to the chair. He's calling for help, but all the Zees in the room are dead and it'll take time for his reinforcements to arrive. A blade cuts through the darkness. The Hive leader spins around, holding his belly. Sneak's opened his stomach like a can of worms and now his guts are spilling out onto the floor. More slashes and a deep line appears across his throat, releasing a waterfall of blood. Then another slash and off comes the hand with the cup. It falls to the ground, painting the floor red.
“Finish him,” I shout.
Another blur of movement, but this time he's ready for her. She's in the top arc of her swing when he catches her by the throat. Sneak's legs are three feet off the ground, kicking at dead air. She's trying to swing at him, but he's shaking her like a ragdoll. The sword drops from her hand, clanking onto the floor. Even in the dim light I can see her eyes starting to roll up in their sockets. A sick gurgling sound is coming from her throat. In a few seconds she'll be dead.
-28-
Blood oozes from my wrists where the restraints are cutting into my skin. All I wanna do is pry his fingers off her throat. Tears well up in my eyes. I want it more than I've ever wanted anything in my whole life.
Then comes a snapping sound. The Hive leader's fingers are bending back on themselves at queer angles. And suddenly the room is lit up brighter than the full moon festival and I know right away what's doing it. My eyes are glowing.
Sneak falls to the ground, clutching her neck. The Hive leader turns to me, his guts dangling about him like a butcher's apron, his fingers bent back at odd angles. Blood streams from his throat and his severed hand, but it's his eyes that I see. They're wide and disbelieving. A flash of steel from behind and the Hive leader’s eyes go wide. The first of his frantic thought waves hit me just as his head rolls off his shoulders and hits the floor with a wet slapping sound. I wanna hug Sneak so bad, but there isn't any time. I can already feel a group of those things nearby and suddenly my body feels so weak, I'm not sure I'll be able to stand up.
Sneak uses a key from the table to undo the restraints and I immediately fall to the floor. She's over me now, her face caked in blood and dirt, but I'm just happy she's alive though I’m still not entirely sure how she has survived. She grabs my pack and repeater and helps me to my feet. I feel her eyes linger over the patch of rough brown skin on the side of my face. The light from my eyes is gone, and already I can feel my strength returning. We're at the door, about to leave, when I feel that red bastard still trying to mess around inside my head. That's all he is now, just a head and I'm tempted to walk over and stomp his brains out, but there isn't time. The Zees are almost here.
-29-
We come out into a concrete structure. Low ceiling, filled with abandoned vehicles. The smell of oil and old rubber is strong. They used to call them cars, I know that much, but right now they look more like dust-covered coffins to me. Sneak's got her arm around me and I’m thankful, ‘cause I know I won’t make it five feet without her. Strings of Zee code are buzzing around inside my head, telling me to stay, ordering me still, but I'm muscling on. He isn't as strong as he was before Sneak sent my Katana slashing through his neck.
Up ahead is a red metal door with a small busted out window. Behin
d us comes the hissing. Sneak's face is a mask of calmness and it gives me strength. She managed to evade a horde of them all on her own. Only difference was, at the time, she didn't have any dead weight to carry. I glance back and my heart freezes in my chest. Lesson number one, I remind myself. When a pack of killing machines is nipping at your heels, never look back.
There must be well over a hundred of them, lumbering between the hulks of rotting cars, some scrambling over obstacles, all the while their eyes locked on the two of us with eerie determination. They're less than ten yards away when we reach the door and my only hope is that it isn't locked. Locked means we're dead, or worse. For a split second, as my hand reaches for the handle and my thumb pushes the lever, I'm furious that Sneak came back for me. Furious, because she had a chance to escape and now her life is in the hands of a rusted antique door.
I feel the lever begin to give and then jam. Sneak looks up at me like she knows this is it but at least she tried. They're less than ten feet away now and the smell they give off suddenly makes the homeless of Sotercity seem like the perfumed upper classes.
I give a final push and the sound of grinding metal gives way to a click and I swing the door open and shove Sneak in first. I'm right behind her, pulling the door closed when it stops short. One of the Zee's has his arm wedged inside and now the bloody thing won't shut. Another Zee's hissing at me through the broken window. His breath makes my eyes water. Sneak takes the Katana and lops off the arm in the door. There's a squishing sound as I pull it shut. I snatch the blade from her and give the one in the window a quick lobotomy. I feel that pin prick again and a pang of momentary guilt, like I'm killing my own kind, but I know they'd just as soon tear us both apart as look at us.
-30-
Stairs. Lots of stairs and I'm clinging to the railing like some kind of makeshift crutch. Each flight gets easier and easier and I'm suddenly aware of a pain at the back of my skull. My fingers dance around until they find a wet knot of flesh. Must have been when the Hive leader knocked me out in the tunnel. I can't help thinking about that blood he wanted to pour down my throat. It's obvious he isn't just another mindless drone. On some level he can still think, so what the hell is he after? I glance over at Sneak. Her hair is slicked back with some kind of motor oil and her clothes are torn in places. Then I see her neck, it’s swollen where that headless sonofabitch was squeezing the life out of her. He didn't break the skin. I can see that even from here. Then I catch sight of the bandage on her right arm. Must have missed that in all the commotion.
“You’re hurt,” I say.
“I’m fine,” she signs back.
I stop her and try to examine the wound but she shrugs me off. She's angry, I can see it in her face and by the way she's signing so fast her fingers are practically tripping over one another. She found an elevator shaft and cut her arm climbing into the car. Says the Zees kept chasing her and dozens must have stepped off into midair, only to splatter their brains below.
I’m still chuckling at the thought when we reach the top level and step out into what looks like the living quarters, except I don't recognize any of skeletons strewn about. I reach down and pluck a diamond necklace off one of the corpses. Sneak does the same. The instinctual part of me is saying forget the loot and focus on finding a way out of this deathtrap, but another part of me is saying you never know when you're going to need a little cash.
It isn't long before I get my bearings. Soon we come to Glave's wife, still lying where Ret filled her head with buckshot. We pass through the theater and then the gymnasium.
We exit the gym and head down the escalators. There might be another way out of here. Hell, I'm sure we only scratched the surface of this complex, but right now I'm not interested in exploring.
It isn't long before we reach a mountain of dead Zees. Hundreds of them, maybe more. Their bodies clog the final escalator before the train station entrance and we don’t have a choice but to climb over them.
I realize quickly this isn't as easy as it looks. Even a severed head still has the power to bite and turn you, but more important than that, if one of them sees us, all of them see us. Sneak and I hunker down and weigh our options. As we sign back and forth I spot the pile moving in places. More bodies lie at the foot of the stairs, but beyond that is the doorway to the train yard and the tunnel to freedom.
Sneak signs her opinion. She thinks we should just make a break for it. The look in her eyes tells me she just wants to get the hell out of here. So do I.
On my count we spring up and clamber over the bodies clogging the escalator. I step on a darkened Zee face in the tangle of arms and legs and see its jaw clamp down around the toe of my boot. Thing’s trying to bite through, but his teeth can't penetrate the thick leather. Either way, they’ve seen us and the damage is already done. I send the tip of my Katana into his forehead and his lights go out for good, but not before I catch the mental warning he sends to all his Zee buddies. Almost in unison, the pile begins to ripple with movement.
“Run!” I scream to Sneak. The pile’s become a mountain of clawed hands. We get to the bottom in a series of giant steps, trying our best to avoid getting snagged. A writhing mass of butchered Zees is the last place you want to have a fall.
The landing is littered with body parts too, but most of these ones are long gone, thanks to Bron and his 20mm guns.
Only seconds later and we're through the shattered barricade and into the station. The train is still there, its nose pointing at the vault door. To my left is a trail of dead Zees leading up to where Bron and Ret held them back before making off in that rail car contraption. Beyond that I see Jinx, or at least what's left of him, face down and looking like a rag doll. That’s when I get another blast from Zee central. They're not far behind us and I'm about to tell Sneak that home is through that tunnel when I hear the voice.
-31-
“Halt!”
I spin around to find a Warden near the front of the train, his rifle drawn and pointing right at me. What the hell is he doing here? He's still a good hundred yards away, but for a trained marksman that's close enough. I raise my hands, as does Sneak. She's looking up at me now and in a calm whisper I tell her to stay cool. Another Warden appears by the first, with an armful of discs. They've come to clean the place out. That means Oleg, Ret and Bron must have made it home. I'm overcome with joy, until a shot sails over my head and into the concrete wall behind us.
“Hey, are you crazy!” I yell.
More shots, these ones even closer. Sneak and I hop off the platform and make a dash for the tunnel. The Wardens decide to give chase, but no sooner do they pull even with the complex entrance than a swarm of Zees bursts through. I turn only long enough to see the two Wardens disappear in a sea of dark flesh. More voices call out from the vault. Must be another group of Skuld's men and now the Zees begin charging in that direction. We're deep in the tunnel when the screams finally die away.
I'm still not sure why those Wardens were shooting at us. Zee's don't stop and put their hands up. Did they think we were scavengers from Sotercity? I pull to a stop and take a deep breath and listen. I don't have a sense that the Zees behind us are giving chase. My guess would be they're filling their bellies with Warden meat. Still, it's no reason to hang around.
Sneak and I reach the opening and when that first blast of sunlight hits my face, I'm blinded with pain. Feels like hot pokers are stabbing my eyes. Even Sneak's covering her face. We've been underground too long. Slowly, the pain subsides and I look around. I can just make out the edges of Sotercity in the distance. After that army of Zees got free, I was half expecting to find a pillar of black smoke rising up from the city. And the mental image reminds me of that story The Keepers used to tell about the old God and how he once destroyed a place called Gomorrah. Of course, I'm relieved it hasn’t been touched. But if not toward Sotercity, where did the Zees go?
Also by Griffin Hayes
Novels
Malice
Dark Passage
Primal Shift Vol. 1
Primal Shift Vol. 2
Novellas
Bird of Prey
The Neighbors
Hive
Hive II
Hive III
Short Stories
The Second Coming
The Grip
Fatherland
Collections
Night Terror
Nightfall
What’s Next?
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