FLOOR 21: Judgement (The Tower Legacy Book 3)

by Jason Luthor

  “You’re a monster.”

  “No more than you, Jackie Coleman.” His scythe screams along the ground as he takes a step toward me. “Do you have it in you? To survive? The most basic fear of any living being is the fear of death. Fight or flight, as they say. So, what will it be? Fight . . . or flight?”

  “What?”

  “Simply because I’d like to play with you a bit more doesn’t mean I also don’t want to kill you. It’s hard to ignore this particular voice,” he says as he touches his chest. “It’s so loud. So tortured. All it wants is you dead. I can’t get to my other work until I’ve quenched this thirst. That is why this is the last time I’m going to ask you. Fight or flight?”

  I start to back away. I don’t know how fast I can move, but I know I can’t fight with the way I’m feeling. Still, even with my ribs screaming and my legs dragging, the power of adrenaline’s amazing. It gives you this rush when you need it, like all the pain in the world isn’t going to hold you back. When I hear his footsteps coming at me, that adrenaline starts to flow. I can literally feel it pumping through my heart as I’m running away. The problem is, no matter how fast I think I can run, I know I can’t outrun Judge. It almost feels pointless to try. I see the silhouette of his cape above flying over me in this gigantic hall we’re in, and even if I’m sprinting for the door, he’s there faster than I can dream of being. He lands, and that big scythe of his is turning at me almost too quick to avoid.

  Almost. I can’t get underneath it, but I’m able to jump just high enough to clear the blade. My body goes rolling along the ground for a second before I’m tumbling back up to my feet, but I feel my back get slammed as Judge is suddenly driving into me. The door never gets opened. It’s more like I get slammed face first through it and into the hall. I can feel my cheeks shredding up as chunks of plastic dig into my face, and I just go rolling to the ground and into a hall that’s almost too dark to see in. For a second, I’m sucking wind and struggling through blurred vision, and all I can really make out is Judge. He’s standing there in the doorway, this dark, looming silhouette that’s walking at me through the shadows.

  “Down, down, to London Town.”

  His voice snaps me back to reality, and whatever’s left of my adrenaline helps me force myself off the ground. Then I’m alone, sprinting into the dark. It’s just one corner after another, and everywhere around me, I hear his scythe dragging along the floor. The metal is screaming at me from all directions, like it’s filling my ears until they’re ringing, and at some point I stop holding back. Somehow, I just switch off the pain. My body pushes along at top speed as I round corner after corner, lost in dark halls that I can barely see in. It’s just one big maze of darkness, and everywhere around me, I can hear him screaming, “Run. Run. Run!”

  And that’s all I can do. I run. I run blind, with that terrible scythe of his mixing with his voice and filling the air in all directions. It’s disorienting and panicking, and when something suddenly grabs my arm, my eyes shoot open because I know what this feels like. Creep. It catches me so fast that I don’t even have a chance to scream before I’m being thrown into a dark room, turning circles as I come sliding to a stop. The door behind me closes as I tumble over debris, my hands planting themselves against jagged corners as I try and get up, and there’s this pressure rising up from my stomach to my neck. I can feel myself about to lose it when a hand wraps around my mouth and whispers, “Quiet, or he’ll hear you.”

  As soon as I swallow down my scream, the fingers let go, but I can still feel someone behind me. The only reason I don’t start having a panic attack is because I recognize the voice, and it’s not Judge’s. It’s the Stranger. The thing is, I’m still sitting there in the dark, and I can hear the scythe outside. It sounds far away at first, but it starts getting louder and louder, until I feel like it’s right outside the door. My heart feels like it’s about to punch through my chest when Judge starts screaming, “Where did you go, Jackie Coleman? How are you hiding from me?”

  Everything feels like it just stops. My breathing, my heart pumping, it all freezes. Then I’m sitting there in the dark, listening as the scream echoes through my ears. His voice sounds like fire, and I can feel him slamming the walls. Even the room around me is shaking as he keeps tearing into the hallway. He’s smaller than Kelly, but I can tell he’s just as strong. Probably stronger. The only good part is that I finally start hearing his scythe dragging away. Still, I don’t say anything. Neither does the Stranger, not that I really expect him to. He stays quiet while that crimson light that follows him everywhere starts burning into the room. It lights up the floor and starts spreading over me.

  For the first time, I can see my arms.

  Maybe . . . maybe I’m not cut out to deal with it. Maybe I made a mistake thinking I could get everyone out of here. Maybe I underestimated the Creep. All I really know is I’m suddenly very aware that I’m covered in someone else’s blood. I can feel my heart beating so fast it feels like it’s going to rush out of my chest, and my breathing’s so shallow that I can see the corners of my eyes starting to go black. I’m pawing at my skin, scrubbing at it while I’m borderline hyperventilating and desperately pretending that I can clean myself. That’s when he finally talks.

  “Stop. I didn’t save your life just to watch you die here from panic.”

  I almost can’t pay attention. I’m wiping down my arms, as if I can get the blood off, and staggering to my feet. The second I put any weight down though, I collapse back onto the ground. My leg feels like it’s finally given up, and everything in me is starting to burn. “I can’t . . .”

  “Can’t what?”

  “I can’t beat him. I can’t get out of here.”

  “It is an impossible challenge, but you must find ways of accomplishing the impossible.”

  “Why?”

  “I can’t give you your reason to keep fighting, Jackie. That’s something you must find for yourself. Or don’t, but my preference is that you stay alive. At least, for now.”

  “And you suddenly care about whether I get out of here or not?”

  “I care about truth. Nobody in centuries has been as near to it as you are now.”

  I’m still pawing at my clothes like it’ll make a difference. The blood’s already drying on my skin. “That’s it, huh? I’m just some free ride to the exit.”

  “We are not friends, and I would warn you against the very human mistake of applying human characteristics to that which is not. In this place and in this time though, we have a mutual concern. That is why I helped you.”

  I’m on my knees. It’s still hard to breathe. “Obviously, I’m grateful that you, you know, saved my life.”

  “I couldn’t let you die just yet. You still have to find the answers to my questions.” Normally, he seems a little amused, but today he’s dead serious. It’s the first time I’ve ever listened to him sound so intense. “You cannot keep putting yourself into situations like this, Jackie Coleman.”

  “Yeah, well, you get sent running through a maze of endless halls and having massive hallucinations about . . .” I lose my words because I don’t even really know what I just saw. The lab wasn’t a hallucination. It was there, it was just different between the time I got there and the time I left. It’s unnecessarily baffling, and I just sit there with my head buried in my hands while I try and digest everything. “Can you please tell me what’s going on? What am I seeing? You want me to help you answer your questions, right? Can’t you give me just one freaking answer here? Just something. Am I going crazy? Why do I keep seeing these places? It’s like I’m time traveling sometimes.”

  “If there’s one thing I can assure you of, it’s that you are not time traveling. You’re simply living out moments of the past. You should know why.”

  My fingers dig into my forehead. “Judge said something about everyone’s memories being caught in the Creep.”

  “Were you not taught that the Creep makes you see the impossible? Didn�
��t you learn that those things you see only become worse the further down you go? You are nearly a hundred stories down the Tower. The worst is yet to come.”

  “That’s the thing though. They’re not hallucinations. They’re real, kind of. The lab was real. There were Creepers there, but they were scientists before. It’s like I saw them at two different stages.”

  “Almost as if two people wanted you to see two different things.”

  “Yeah. Maybe. Is that what’s going on?”

  “I’ve told you before, Jackie. I see and know many things, but my knowledge is not infinite. I only know that Judge is enjoying his hunt and is taking you to the places he wants you to go. You also know there are many minds in the Creep. Which one is showing you these visions of the past? Believe me or don’t, but there is no way I can answer that.”

  It’s so frustrating to talk to him because, one second he’s saving my life, and the next second he’s acting like there’s nothing he can do to help. “So, is there anything you can actually tell me?”

  “I can only tell you about the people that have lived in the Tower since I first opened my eyes.”

  “Then you haven’t been here since this all started? You’re not the cause of it or anything?”

  This time the Stranger can’t hold back a laugh. “It took a greater effort than you will ever know just to move the Creep to grab you. It then took a painful amount of effort to conceal Judge’s eyes from seeing you. I could never have been the source of all this, but I am somehow connected to it.”

  “You don’t even know then. I mean, about how any of this started. You don’t even know where you came from?”

  “I arrived almost at the same time as the Creep, but whether first or second, I cannot say. The why is what we must find out together. Still, you should be warned that I can only appear to you this way for a brief time. My power in this world is limited, and I must rest.”

  “Dammit.” My eyes fall to my baseball bat. It’s literally got a crack as wide as my finger running down the center of it. “Fine. Yeah, I’ll just . . . I’ll have to find some way to make this work. I always find a way to make it work.”

  “That’s your solution?”

  “Well, I mean, you told me you can’t really help. That’s fine. I’ve gone it alone half my life. I’ll just have to be more careful about Judge and try to stay alive a little longer. At least, until I find my way out of here. I’ll have to be sneakier or something, because I don’t think I can keep taking these beatings.”

  “No, you can’t, yet you’re so admirably determined. Perhaps that’s why I chose you as my representative. Still, I would not have brought you to this room if I hadn’t meant to help you in at least one more way.” He turns around and drifts to the back of the room, with that red aura following him as he goes. I limp along behind him. I mean, I’m actually dragging my leg at one point while this stabbing pain cuts into my thigh. Still, I keep going. There’s some impressive looking machines that I’m immediately curious about, and the Stranger stops at one in particular. “They used these on the upper floors well through the centuries, until the great powers of the Tower began to fade and your Tower Authority had these removed from the halls.”

  “What is it?”

  “A fabricator. It draws on material stored within Pocket Space to create and enhance other materials. That bat of yours, for instance.”

  “What about it?”

  “Your enemies from here on out won’t respond much to a broken stick of wood. I believe it’s time for you to make some . . . improvements.”

  Dodger’s Recording 27

  So, Tommy’s been trying to fill me in on all the deets about what he’s got planned. If we’re really going to do this, I think he just wants to keep me from having an emotional burn out. Which, I’m completely okay with that. Really. I can do this. I came all this way because Jackie was such a hero, and I think she deserves people looking out for her. Now, was it hard to see her toss herself down a hole into the middle of nowhere? Sure. Of course it was. But now, see, the thing is, everyone should have someone that’s going to come after them. Tommy’s right about that, especially when that person’s had your back since day one.

  But, I mean, if I’m being completely honest? Look, we just dropped down here yesterday. Whatever happened to Jackie, if she fell all the way to the bottom of that hole, then she must’ve fallen almost thirty stories. You tell me how anyone in the whole Tower could survive something like that. My mind is just, like, boggled when I try and think about it. The worst part is, I’m good with math. I know the numbers. I know nobody could have fallen all the way down here and lived without some sort of miracle. We might not have found a body, but that really means there can be only two remotely logical conclusions. Best case scenario, she could’ve landed somewhere above us. I dunno, maybe she got caught on a broken beam or something and then climbed her way onto one of those floors. The second option’s worse. If she did fall all the way down, she would’ve hit so hard that most of the bones in her body would’ve just turned to dust. We know the Creep absorbs bodies after a while, so, that could be a thing.

  Tommy’s treating this like she survived though. When we finally struck ground and unclipped our climbing gear, we were in some dingy apartment that’d been completely overrun with Creep. I mean, that just make sense. We’d dropped deeper into the Tower than ever, so of course everything looked infested. After that, we all did a sweep of the room before we started patrolling, but the whole time my head’s just exploding because I know Mike’s got to know what I’m thinking. He’s got to understand that there’s no way Jackie landed down here and got through it. She would’ve hit terminal velocity and just . . .

  Well, never mind. It wouldn’t have been pretty, is what I’m saying. Still, Tommy’s pretending like it’s not a possibility. Maybe he’s doing it because if we don’t, Mike’s going to go completely nutters or whatever. Or, maybe Tommy’s lying to himself. Again, I really don’t know. I don’t want to be that girl, but I feel like somebody’s got to say the obvious here. I mean, right? We’re chasing a ghost down. When I try and talk to Tommy though . . . it’s really hard to say anything about this because we both really like Jackie. Tommy doesn’t just like her though. He absolutely loves her. I know he’d never say that, especially because he doesn’t want me freaking out. Which is stupid, because it’s always been pretty clear that they’re close. They’re like, big bro and little sis, or maybe the other way around. My point is, he’s closer to her than most of the friends he ever had back home. At least, that’s what I get from how he talks about her.

  So, what am I supposed to say to him? Am I supposed to tell him that we need to give up looking down here? “Hey, Tommy, I know you and Jackie have been friends forever, but looking for her is a really terrible idea because she’s . . . she’s . . . dead.”

  If I’m being totally honest, it makes me sick thinking about telling him that. He’s already been a heck of a lot more intense since we got down here. I mean, he is laser focused on finding her. I don’t want to be the person that breaks his heart.

  Please, please, please don’t let me be the person that breaks his heart.

  I mean, I’m already not dealing with any of this very well. Even when we we’re walking around, I feel like everything’s just all piled up on my chest. When we go to sleep at night, it’s almost like I can’t breathe because the stress is just sitting on top of me. And I’m not freaking out just because I know I’m going to have to be the one who tells Tommy the truth. Of course not. Jackie was a really important person to me too. She was the only other girl tech head I could ever really connect with. We were both smart in different ways, but she was sharp as shrapnel. It’s not like I met a lot of people like that living back up top. So, what am I supposed to do now? Just say my friend’s gone? My heart doesn’t want to believe it even if my brain knows what’s happening. And just, when I tell Tommy, how’s he going to react? What’s going to happen to him when I’m the one that
has to get him to stop this? What’s going to happen to us after that?

  Tommy’s Recording 21

  It’s been at least three days since we got down here. If Jackie’s alive, well, I don’t know how the hell she’s pulling it off. I’m sold on the idea that she is though. I know that’s still bugging Dodger. She doesn’t have to tell me, but I can tell. I guess it doesn’t matter. As far as I’m concerned, until Jackie’s back in the team, this is a mission, and I’m the commander. Maybe I’m not comfortable with that, but there’s nobody else here that’s going to take this team forward, let alone find Jackie. Mike’s just got too many things going on in his head to really push the team, and Dodger . . . Again, I know she doesn’t think we’re going to find anything. I get it. None of us really understood how big that drop was until we were actually down here. There wasn’t a body, and I get what that probably means, so why stick around?

  Because it’s Jackie, damn it. Do I really have to explain that? It’s Jackie. I’ve seen her bat a Creeper’s elbow into splinters and fight off a dozen Cultists practically all by herself. Well, I mean, with the help of a few grenades, but still, I have a point. I’m really trying to keep things settled with Dodger, but I see that look she gives me when I order the team to keep going. Half of it’s that she still doesn’t trust Mike’s information on this. Believe me, I get that too. He’s in and out of consciousness most of the time. The guy keeps saying he’s seeing these visions of Jackie, but the stuff he’s talking about is crazy. The other day, he was telling us about a working lab on the lower floors. I mean, he was practically trying to tell us there were still scientists working down here. Other times, when I get him to pay attention to where we’re actually standing, you can see that he understands that he’s talking nonsense. We keep moving though, following his lead. It’s just hard. The Creep’s so thick in some halls that we can’t even squeeze between it. You couldn’t slide a hand through if you wanted. Half the time, it feels like we’re standing in somebody’s clogged artery or something.