Void

by D Haltinner

  “Think the men know it works?”

  “I have no idea, but I’d rather not help them find out.”

  “We can travel in the dark for awhile,” Darren said. “I’m kind of getting used to it now.”

  “Yeah,” Audrey said. “I am too.”

  “I suppose that means we should get going.”

  “We are low on time.”

  “Think we’ll be able to stop it?”

  “Now that we can see, I think we’ll have a much better chance. We can see what we’re up against.”

  “Do we want to see it?”

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think we have much of a choice if we’re going to stop it.”

  “I suppose not.”

  Audrey’s hand found Darren’s. Her fingers weaved into his, giving his flesh a squeeze. “I suppose we should get going.”

  “I guess,” Darren said. “Before the men find us. They probably aren’t far behind.”

  “Are you afraid?”

  “Yes. Are you?”

  “Yes.”

  Darren kissed her on the lips. “I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe.”

  “I know,” Audrey said.

  Darren just hoped his best would be enough.

  Chapter 65

  Darren and Audrey knelt down in the middle of the tunnel. They had found their way back through the darkness, and stopped once they reached the hatch below the Jefferson Arts Center-the same hatch they had escaped through when they first heard the thing inside the void.

  Now, it was quiet.

  Darren rummaged through the backpack until he found the pair of candles that he had picked up from the first room they came upon in case the last flashlight died on them. “Here” he said, handing them to Audrey in the dark.

  Audrey took them, and with a flick of the lighter, ignited the wicks on both candles. Darren used the light to look into his backpack for the bottle of soda he never finished the day before.

  Audrey screamed and jumped to her feet, dropping one of the candles onto the floor.

  “What?” Darren said, looking into Audrey’s worn eyes.

  Audrey pointed at the ground by the spilled candle.

  Darren saw what scared her and lept to his own feet.

  Black beetles crawled over every inch of the ground. They left circles of bare cement a couple of inches around the candle and Audrey and Darren’s own feet, but their slender black bodies occupied every other millimeter of space.

  “Where did they come from?” Audrey said.

  Darren looked over the walls around them. The beetles covered every available space there too, pulsing and throbbing in unison as if the wall was a living creature of its own. The length of a quarter, their glossy shells reflected the candlelight back toward Darren and Audrey like a wave passing over the surface of the wall.

  “I think they’ve been down here the whole time,” Darren said, watching the way they moved around his feet, but did not come within a finger’s reach.

  “What?”

  “I brushed one off the wall earlier, but I didn’t think anything of it.”

  “But they’re everywhere, how could we not have noticed.”

  Darren took his wallet out of his pocket.

  “What are you-”

  He tossed his wallet a few feet away into the swarm of beetles. Just before the trifled hit the backs of the bugs, they darted out of its path, forming a circle around it.

  “How did you know they’d do that?” Audrey asked.

  “Just a hunch,” Darren said. He looked up at Audrey. “A gut instinct.”

  “There’s so many.”

  Darren stepped into the midst of the bugs. They moved out of his foot’s way like oil being dropped into water. He bent down and picked up the wallet and the beetles swarmed back over the concrete.

  “It just looks so unreal,” Audrey said. “You think they only live here in the void?”

  “I haven’t seen a single insect down here until now,” Darren said with a shrug.

  “Either have I.”

  “It’s so-”

  “Unnatural.“

  “Yeah, wasn’t the word I was going to use, but yeah.”

  Audrey stepped toward the candle, being careful and slow so that the beetles were well out of her way before she put her foot down. She lifted the candle back up and watched the beetles swarm back over the place where it laid.

  Darren bent back down to the backpack, digging through it, angling the opening toward the two candles so he could see.

  “What are you doing?” Audrey said.

  “I thought I’d unload some of the weight.” He pulled the sawzall out and set it beside the wall. “Things I don’t think we’re going to need.”

  “There’s only one thing there we really need anymore.”

  “What’s that?”

  Audrey bent down as the bugs scattered out of her way. She set down one of the candles, reached into the backpack, and pulled out the liquor bottle.

  “Last night wasn’t enough?” Darren asked

  “Actually it helped calm my nerves last night,” Audrey said. “Enough for me to sleep at least. I thought a little right now might help again.”

  “Not too much though. It might keep you from thinking clear.”

  “Just a couple of sips,” she said. She cracked open the lid and tipped the bottle back. Her eyes squinted tight and her throat constricted before she lowered the bottle and coughed. “God. How can people stand this stuff straight?”

  “They get used to it,” Darren said.

  Audrey offered the bottle to Darren, but he shook his head. “Not for me.”

  Audrey took a second drink without gagging and put the cover back on the bottle. “My stomach burns.”

  “I’m not surprised.”

  She handed the bottle back to Darren and he put it back in the backpack. He never should have even brought it with them. The last thing he wanted was for Audrey to turn out like Rachel, and just seeing her with the bottle pressed against her lips was enough to make his stomach tighten.

  Audrey’s eyes floated back down to the beetles between them while Darren took out the rest of the tools and zipped the bag back up. The bag was tons lighter without all that metal in there-just the guns.

  “That’s so weird,” Audrey said. She was reaching out her finger toward the beetles watching them dart out of the way.

  “Don’t have too much fun,” Darren said.

  “Fun is the last thing on my mind.” She stood back up after picking up the other candle. Darren stood up and swung the backpack over his shoulders.

  “Don’t you think we should take at least one of the guns out?” Audrey said. “Just in case?”

  Darren shrugged. “You’re welcome to carry one if you want.”

  “I’d feel more comfortable.”

  Darren let the bag fall back off his shoulders and wrestled a gun out of it. He put the backpack back on and traded Audrey a candle for the gun.

  Audrey checked to be sure the chambers of the gun were full, then tucked it into the back of her pants so the handle was hidden below her jacket. “I’m ready to keep moving if you are.”

  Darren turned and looked back down the tunnel they had come from.

  “I haven’t heard anyone if that’s what you’re wondering,” Audrey said.

  “I haven’t hear anything either,” Darren said. “But I suppose they are the least of our worries right now.”

  “We have something more important to worry about,” Audrey said, looking ahead of them.

  “And not much time.”

  “Then we better get moving.”

  Darren nodded and walked up to Audrey’s side. The beetles around them darted away from their feet without a sound.

  Darren’s gut told him something was wrong, but the whole situation was wrong. It was weird, and it was unnatural. By all physical means the void shouldn’t even exist, and yet here they stood inside of it, surrounded by black beetles that seemed t
o almost be able to predict their movements.

  But there was more than that eating away at Darren. If only he could place the feeling, it might make more sense.

  Audrey and Darren walked slow at first, trying to give the beetles a moment to get out of their way before completing each step. After they realized that the small black insects could react faster than they could even step, they increased their pace to a normal-but cautious-walk.

  The walls rippled and shimmered with reflecting light all around them, and now that they were moving, Darren was able to notice that the ceiling above them was covered just as dense as the floor was.

  Where they came from, what they ate down here, or why they only lived in the void were questions that Darren had no clue as to where to start to try and answer. But then again, nothing about this place even made sense, and Darren didn’t think there was going to be anything that could surprise him left down here.

  “We should be passed the building by now,” Audrey said after a minute.

  “Below the parking lot,” Darren said.

  Audrey nodded. “Does it continue under the road?”

  “Jack and I didn’t get much further then this before.”

  “I wonder how far away we are?”

  “I wonder what it is we’re walking to.”

  “Was there-”

  “Shh,” Darren said, “It may have been noise that I let the thing know we were nearby, so it would probably be best if we stayed as quiet as possible.”

  “Sorry,” Audrey said, almost whispering. “But aren’t we trying to find it?”

  “I’d rather sneak up on it if possible, wouldn’t you?”

  “I guess, but how will we find it if we don’t know where it is?”

  Darren looked into the blackness ahead of them. “It’s somewhere ahead of us.”

  The flame of Audrey’s candle flickered, but stayed lit. She tipped the candle, creating a pool of wax from the center onto the floor as the beetles scattered. “Maybe we could set up some sort of trap for it?”

  “A trap?” Darren asked. “How could we make a trap if we don’t know what it is?”

  “I don’t know. I wish we had some dynamite or something.”

  Darren laughed. “We could stick a rag in the bottle of rum and use it as a Molotov cocktail.”

  “I don’t think that works with liquor,” Audrey said. “I think they usually fill the bottle with gasoline.”

  “We don’t have time to make a side trip to the gas station, do we?”

  “No. We don’t have time for any side trips.”

  “What time is it?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t have a watch.”

  “We might have time.”

  “No. We don’t.”

  Darren sighed. “Are we sure we should be doing this?”

  “Who else is going to do it?” Audrey asked.

  “I don’t know, but after what happened to Jack, it feels more and more like a suicide mission.”

  “We’ll figure out what to do.”

  “Maybe, but-”

  Clunk. Hiss.

  “Was that-” Audrey said, stopping in her tracks.

  Darren stopped beside her. “It knows we’re here.”

  Clunk, hiss. Clunk, hiss.

  The sound echoed up from further down the tunnel. It was still faint, but the speed of the sounds was increasing, the gaps of silence between them diminishing.

  “What do we do?” Audrey asked.

  “You’re the one who thought it would be easier if it came to us.”

  “Yeah, well...”

  Clunk, hiss.

  “At least it’s not coming closer,” Darren said.

  “We should have brought ear plugs anyways.”

  “You can stick a wad of fabric in your ears if you want.”

  “Not exactly as effective.”

  “Probably not.”

  The two stood still a moment, neither one seeming to take the next step. Darren had seen-heard-what the thing can do, but Audrey could only imagine what had happened to Jack. At least with the little bit of light they would be able to see it coming, but how would they stop it?

  “I guess we should keep moving,” Audrey said.

  “Meet it half way?”

  “Something like that.” She reached behind her and pulled the revolver out, cocking the hammer back.

  Darren wasn’t sure if the gun was going to do any good against whatever it was, but if nothing else, at least it would provide Audrey with some extra confidence.

  Audrey started to walk again, hand tight around the handle of the revolver. Darren stayed at her side.

  Moving slower than before, Darren and Audrey gained another twenty feet before the sounds stopped.

  “Why did it stop?” Audrey asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Darren said.

  “Did it-”

  Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Ca chunk.

  Darren’s’ heart dropped. “Run!” he yelled.

  Audrey’s eyes shot open as her face went pale. “What?”

  Darren grabbed Audrey’s shoulder and turned her around. “It’s coming, run!”

  Chapter 66

  The sound echoed down the hall like a burglar alarm, piercing into Darren’s skull like a doper’s needle.

  Audrey fought her arm free from Darren’s grip. “We need to stop it!”

  “You don’t understand!”

  “I will soon enough!”

  Something moved down the hall. The dim candle light reflected off of something snaking across the floor, but Darren couldn’t tell what it was.

  “Oh God,” Darren said. “Just run Audrey!”

  “No!”

  It moved closer, weaving back and forth with a mix of strength and caution. As it came into more of the candle light, it’s shape came into view. Long and made out of the same material covering the beetles’ shells, it was a segmented tendril that stretched off into the depths of the void ahead of them. At the end moving toward Darren and Audrey was a pair of pinchers the size of human hands, pulled back into an open prayer.

  It felt its way across the floor, the beetles swarming out of its way, giving it a wider berth-the light color of the cement below them that now surrounded the tendril made it easier to see its position.

  “Oh my God,” Audrey said, standing still and staring at the segmented tentacle slide its way across the floor toward them. “What the hell is that?”

  “Please Audrey!” Darren yelled. “Give me the gun and run, save yourself and get out of here!”

  “We’re in this together.”

  “Yeah, but you don’t need-”

  The tendril stopped a dozen feet away. There didn’t appear to be anything that looked like an eye on it, but Darren had the unnerving feeling of being watched.

  “What is it doing?” Audrey said.

  “I don’t know. Waiting?”

  “For what?”

  Like a cat hiding behind a line of tall weeds, the tendril pounced forward toward Darren. Audrey screamed. A gunshot went off, sending a spark down the tunnel by the stray bullet ricocheting off the cement.

  Darren turned to run, but the tendril caught the backpack he wore and yanked him backwards. He landed on his butt hard, and the creature pulled him down the tunnel as his limbs flailed and he fought to find something to grip onto to stop himself.

  Audrey ran after him as he was pulled away, screaming, but not loud enough for Darren to hear over the ringing in his ears from the gun shot.

  Darren slid lower in the straps of the back pack and tried to wrestle his arms free of them. The light was growing dim as the candle rolled away out of his grip and went out. Audrey still chased after him with her candle in hand, but she wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the tendril pulling him away.

  Darren’s body went numb as the creature dragged him. He didn’t want to end up like Jack did. He didn’t want to leave Audrey alone to be the next victim. He didn’t want to die.

  A bump in the floor
sent Darren flat on his back, his arms still caught in the backpack’s straps. Glass shattered below him, and wetness began to soak into his jacket as the rum poured out of the broken bottle.

  “Darren!” Audrey yelled as she was being left behind.

  The cement was starting to burn through the legs of his pants, scraping his skin on the side of his thigh. He twisted his body to try and get one of his arms free, tearing the strap out of the bag as he did so. He rolled over onto his side, seeing the handle of the last revolver sticking out of the tear as the ammunition began to tumble out and roll away across the floor, sending beetles scampering.

  Darren took the gun in his hand. His other arm slipped free of the strap, but he grabbed a hold of it with his hand to hold on. We wanted to at least get one shot in to see if it would stop the creature.

  Daren could no longer see the black tendril pulling him deeper into the void. Audrey and the sole source of light were too far behind now. So Darren lined the gun up against the backpack, trying to point it straight toward where the tendril would be, and fired.

  The tendril didn’t even slow.

  The liquor that had soaked through the bag caught fire from the explosion, and a blue, almost clear flame spread across its surface, moving toward Darren’s arm, and toward the tendril on the other side. It was weak and on the verge of dying from the air moving by as fast as it came to life, but it continued to spread.

  Darren let go before it reached him. He skidded across the floor another six feet, holding his head up so as not to subject it to road rash.

  The flame reached the tendril, and it dropped the bag. A low blue flame covered the end of the pinchers where the liquor had spilled on it as it continued to pull away. It snapped back and forth in the air as it’s siren died off into a stuttering whoo-whoo-whoop until the flame went out, leaving the creature shrouded in darkness.

  Darren climbed to his feet, trying his best to ignore the pain running through the side of his hip and thigh. The backpack continued to burn, growing into a deep blue as the liquor burned off and the fabric caught fire, but then it went out.

  “Darren!” Audrey yelled from down the tunnel.

  Darren limped back toward her, unable to feel his left knee anymore. He felt like shit, but at least Audrey was unscathed.

  “Oh God,” Audrey said when she reached Darren. She flung herself at him, throwing her arms around him, throwing him off balance, almost dropping the candle in her hand.