FLOOR 21: Judgement (The Tower Legacy Book 3)

by Jason Luthor

  So, I get it. I’m not stupid. I know people think I’m just the jock, or whatever, back on the top floors, but Jackie didn’t leave the team to me because I’m an idiot. I can’t deal with computers like Dodger or biology like Jackie, but I know how to handle a situation. I know how to plan out an attack in my head. I’m not ignorant. That’s why I’m not lying to myself about Jackie’s chances. Just, going by statistics alone, she probably hit the deck so hard that she died on impact. Then . . .then the Creep did its thing. I’m not blind. It’s just that, I keep reminding myself that if anyone could pull through, then she’s the one.

  I’ve got to get something off my chest though. There’s this thing that happened, and I’m just not sure what to think about it. It actually made me want to go after Jackie even more. Dodger knows Mike’s been talking crazy. I know Mike’s been talking crazy. The thing is, he says something once in a while that makes sense. Most of the time, the guy’s playing with a short deck. What really caught me is that he’s been talking about this one, I don’t know, I guess it’s a Creeper. He keeps calling him Judge. Mike’s been describing him like a fairytale, the kind you tell to make sure the kids get to bed in time. The way he talks about it, this Judge guy has a hood, bony fingers, that sort of thing. Don’t get me wrong, I know where we are. We see monsters all the time down here. Creepers don’t talk though. They’re not smart, they’re just infected. What Mike keeps saying is this Judge guy is trying to talk to him through the Creep, which is scary to think about. Not that I really believed him at first. It’s hard to buy into that when Mike keeps saying this Judge is walking around with a scythe in his hand. That’s a bit too much. This isn’t a comic book or anything.

  Anyway, the other night, we’d all bedded down. I was up late just thinking about things. The end of the day’s when I get some alone time. Don’t get me wrong, I love talking things out with Dodger, and I have to talk to Mike to keep him off the ledge, but everyone needs some time alone to just sort out what they’re thinking. It actually makes me sympathize even more with Jackie, now that I’m in her position. Anyway, I’m lying there in the dark. The room we’d cleared out was in pretty bad shape, and we were basically sprawled out on the floor. It’s not like there’s anything comfortable to sleep on down here, where everything’s been eaten up by the Creep. Still, I mean, we’re trained to deal with it, so we deal with it. So, I’m just lying there, blind from the dark, when I think I hear something. At first, it’s really hard to put a finger on it, so I just keep listening, but the strange part is that the room keeps feeling like it’s getting colder and colder. The whole time, I’m hearing this metal screeching, like a knife’s being dragged on concrete or steel. It just keeps getting louder, until my eyes go to the door, and then I’m lying there in the freezing cold with no way to see, and that metal sound just stops right outside our room.

  Honestly? I completely stop breathing. You could have paid someone and they couldn’t have gone as quiet as I did. I did have my hand on my gun, so it’s not like I wasn’t ready to move. The funny part was that it wasn’t the cold, or even the noise that really bugged me. I couldn’t tell you what it was. It was just a feeling. It was like . . . there was just this sense of dread, like something was really, really wrong. It didn’t help that, right after, I started hearing that metal screeching again. At least, the second time, it sounded like it was moving away because it started to fade. After that though? Well, I was sold on the idea of some scythe wielding maniac being down here.

  So, maybe I don’t know what Mike is seeing, but I’m starting to believe that there really is something out there in the darkness. Even if half of what he says sounds crazy, I know I heard that sound. I heard it, and now all I can keep picturing in my head is that scythe Mike told me about. Still, if he’s right about there being some monster out there, then I’m just praying that he’s right about Jackie being alive, too.

  Mike’s Recording 08

  I’m trying to play it cool, you know? Been putting up with some things that I’m not sure I can hold back on anymore. Just, it’s hard to keep calm when, every time you turn around, there’s someone staring at you who thinks you’re insane. I already feel bad enough, so why does Dodger have to look at me that way? Have to stare at me? I know she thinks she’s being cool about it, but I see her out of the corner of my eye. See her staring at me. I know what she’s thinking.

  When she starts doing it today, I finally can’t keep biting my tongue. I look over at her, and she acts like she wasn’t even staring my direction, but I know the truth. “Is something wrong?” I ask her. She smiles. It’s one of those uncomfortable smiles you give when you’re trying to act like you don’t know what’s going on. Doesn’t matter, ‘cause I keep pushing. “Am I doing something over here? Just want to know so that I can stop.”

  We’re all trudging along, and she won’t even look my way when she says, “No, Mike. How could anything be wrong? I mean, what could possibly be bothering me about being down here? I just love being in a pitch-black hallway and up to my ankles in saliva.”

  “Just going to do Jackie like that, huh?”

  I see Tommy turn just a little. He’s out in front of us, but he twists around when he hears us. “Guys . . .”

  Dodger just shrugs him off. “Mike, I didn’t say anything about Jackie, okay? You’re the one who brought her up. I want to find her as much as you do.”

  “That right? ‘Cause I could’ve sworn I’m the one who’s known her for years. Thought maybe that counted for something, you know? Like, maybe it might mean I want to find her just a little more than you do.”

  “And, what? Are you trying to accuse me of something?”

  “Hey, I’m not accusing you of anything. Just making observations.”

  “Really? Because, from my perspective, it sounds like you’re saying I don’t want to find her.”

  “Did I say that? ‘Cause, I don’t remember saying that.”

  “Fine. Then why don’t you just tell me what it is you’re saying?”

  Tommy finally comes to a stop and turns around. “I couldn’t help but overhear you two arguing back here. Which makes sense, since I’m right in front of you. Come on. What’s going on, guys?”

  Dodger crosses her arms and stares away. “I don’t think I’m the one who started making accusations, so maybe you should ask Mike over there.”

  He looks my way. “Mike?”

  “Hey, I never accused her of anything. I’m all about finding Jackie, you know? That’s all this is about.”

  “Yeah, well, I can agree with that sentiment.” When he says it, I see Dodger’s shoulders lock up. Tommy notices it too, and he walks over to her. “Hey. That doesn’t mean I’m not concerned about keeping us safe, okay? You know that, right? I’ve got to find some way to balance this. We have to go after Jackie, but I swear I’m making sure we do it without dying.”

  I can hear her sigh from over here. “I know. I know. It’s just, I can’t be the only person here who’s worried about where we’re going, right? Nobody’s been this far down before, and it’s becoming impossible to map out where we are.”

  “Yeah, I know that.” He looks my way. “Please tell me you understand, Mike.”

  He wants me to agree. Guess I do. “Yeah, man. Obviously. We don’t know where we are. It’s impossible to see. Everyone’s freaked. I get it.”

  “Good. I need you to.” He turns his flashlight up to the walls, and we follow the beam. “Look at that. I’m not asking everyone to act like this isn’t stressful, but you’ve got to keep a wrap on it. You see those walls?” Me and Dodger both nod. Even from far away, you can see them pulsing and pushing out with that wheezing breath. The veins pumping along the skin are swelling and getting larger. Mike flicks his light between all of us. “We’re all doing that. Understand? The Creep wasn’t acting like that an hour ago. I get that we’re under a lot of pressure, believe me, but we’ve got to hold it together for a little longer. You both know what will happen if we don’t.�
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  Dodger shakes her head as she stares over at me. “Creep meat.”

  I nod back at her. It’s at least something we can agree on. “Yeah. Lunch time.”

  Tommy flicks his light back up the hall. “Exactly. We’re tired, we’re hungry, and let’s not forget that the Creep takes what you’re feeling and makes it even worse. We’ve got to work together here, guys. If we don’t check our emotions, we’re going to keep bothering the Creep, and then we’re all done for. So, Mike?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You know we’re going for Jackie. There shouldn’t be any question about that. Dodger volunteered to follow her in the first place. Remember? She’s down here to rescue her.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I don’t know, just . . . you know how much I want to get her back.”

  “So do I. And Dodger?”

  She sucks in a deep breath and shakes her head. “I know. We’re going to play it safe.”

  “Right. We do the same thing we’ve always done to stay alive. Nothing’s changed about that. Understood?”

  Everyone seems to agree, and for a little while after, nobody really says anything. Maybe we’re all just cooling down. I don’t know. In the back of my head, I can’t shake the feeling that Dodger resents me at best, or thinks I’m out to sabotage the group at worst. Then again, maybe what scares me is that, sometimes, I wonder whether I really even know where I’m taking us. Maybe what’s really bothering me is the thought she might be right.

  “Family. The, ah, the word itself conveys so many things to so many people. For some of us, it means flesh and blood, but for others, it means anyone we may be close to. Anyone that could be called upon in a time of need. Family has served an interesting purpose in the history of the human race. Like all other animals, parents are needed to raise their young. Lessons are themselves passed from generation to generation.

  Now, in animals, there is rarely the ability to integrate outsiders, to take in those that do not share the same scent or appearance. Hormonal interactions, scent markers, visual cues, those are the things animals look to when judging family. At their worst, humans are no better. At their best, humans become capable of conceiving of family as more than flesh and blood. Family becomes those connected by laughter and shared experiences. At one time, humanity was even capable of thinking of family in a global sense. The family of the human race. An extraordinary conception, if one stops to compare it against what constitutes a family in the animal world. Perhaps the only shame is that mankind was not able to live up to its potential. Occasionally, it makes me wonder if a global community even remains anymore from which to conceive of a worldwide family. I have my doubts.”

  - An Unknown Recording

  TRIAL

  Anna’s Diary

  7th of July

  The riots in the city have grown larger as people living in the countryside have lost their homes from hunger and natural disasters. The flooding along the coastline was already pushing people further inland, but the dark rains that started last month didn’t help. They poisoned most of the remaining farmlands. Most people in the cities blame Carthage, but the poor and those living in the country blame Apeiron. The toxic rainwater hurt so many in the smaller towns that we were hit with waves of refugees. They swarmed into the city, where we were already struggling with our own problems. It was almost as if Carthage was waiting for this rush of people to move in. The weapons shipments that had been coming through the ports suddenly made sense, and it was as if every unhappy person coming from the country was suddenly armed. With that sort of situation, it was impossible for the local police force to deal with the violence. Even the state and National Guard struggled to maintain control. It’s no wonder. In a city this large, with millions upon millions of people living here, it’s an impossible task to deal with a city-wide riot. The arrival of tens of thousands of unhappy refugees, all suddenly armed, threw the situation into chaos. The fact that similar events happened across the country, all at once, shows just how long Carthage had been planning this.

  It’s hard to believe that the riots aren’t the worst thing to happen in the last few days. It’s hard to understand, but the telly has been reporting a disease spreading throughout the city. They haven’t been clear about it, and honestly, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s being exaggerated. Still, it’s hard not to recognize the description. They say the disease is some sort of living tissue, like tentacles snapping at people and carrying them off. It started happening after the connection between the Towers went down, and the disease sounds terribly like at thing Johnny described seeing when he was in the lab: the experiment with the squid like animal, except these are no normal animals. They’re something else entirely, though no one really knows what. All we know is the disease has been spreading throughout the city, and that’s made people even more desperate. They can’t go to the country, where there’s no food. There’s barely enough to live on here. So, if people are desperate, where can they go? There’s only a few places designed to hold people and keep them safe for long. The Towers have always seemed safe, but I’m not even sure that’s the case anymore, not with all the attacks that have been launched. Some people want to break in, but more want to simply destroy the place. They just want everyone inside to suffer as much as they’re suffering.

  It breaks my heart, but I don’t know what to do. I’ve got too much to worry about at home. Johnny’s not just spending lots of time at the lab anymore. He’s spending his nights there. I don’t know, maybe he’s just stopped wanting to be here, in the middle of this mess. Still, he’s been gone too long, and that’s got daddy worried to the point that he’s already said he’ll be looking into it in the morning. He should. With everything going on, I just think it’s important for the family to be together. I already can’t go back to that part of the Tower without having everyone from Security thinking I’m up to something. Thanks to Director Kelly, they’re all on alert about me, acting as if I’ve been working with Carthage. I guess they really think I was involved with sabotaging the Tower’s engine. I hadn’t realized things were so serious in the labs, or I would have been more careful about going down there unannounced. I only wanted to find out more about those experiments Johnny talked about. Some detective I turned out to be.

  Jackie’s New Recording: Five

  I’d be lying if I said I knew what was up with the Stranger. I mean, the guy’s weird, which you’d probably expect since he’s not human. Nobody else I personally know has ever even seen him, the same way that nobody’s ever seen Sally. At least, not since I killed her. Now, the Stranger’s different I’ve read diaries from people who saw him, and I’ve got audio records from David Marshall saying he heard the guy. That doesn’t mean I’m any closer to understanding what he is. The weird part is, based on what he’s said, I’m not even sure if he knows what he is. At least, if he’s being honest. It’s kind of hard to tell with that guy.

  So, the fact that other people have seen him is weirdly comforting. At least I know I’m not just going nutters. I mean, someone had to have helped me figure out how to use that fabricator. Not to mention that someone needed to have turned it on. The last thing he did was tell me how to use it, then zapped it with some of his power before vanishing. That got the thing running.

  Now, as it turns out, whoever used to live in this Tower had some pretty mind-blowing technology. The fabricator was able to push out some meds to help me deal with the distractingly intense pain I’d been feeling in my ribs, although I have to say that it’s a little scary not knowing what was actually in those things. They make me feel better though, and right now, that’s all that counts. I might not know what those injections did, but there’s no way to doubt that I have to keep moving.

  If I understood the way the fabricator works, it opens up a gate you can’t see, grabs a bunch of raw materials, then makes what you need. Like the injections I took, but that wasn’t the best part. What was really amazing was what it did to my bat. There were some pretty d
eep cracks running through it after what I went through with Kelly. So, I followed the Stranger’s instructions. I put it inside the machine, told it to make some repairs and maybe make it stronger, and when it popped out, it was coated in some kind of metal. It wasn’t heavy though. Actually, it felt like it might be a little bit lighter. It was super strong though. I mean, I could slam the side of a metal pole for hours, and this new bat wouldn’t take a dent.

  That’s a good thing because I need all the weapons I can get. The fabricator was even able to spit out some bullets for me, so you know, that’s a thing. It couldn’t make me a new rifle, but it could make me bullets? I don’t know. I don’t get the rules for how it works. But, I do know that I need to turn the lights out sooner than later. I’ve got a lot of energy right now, probably because of those meds I took, but if I keep pushing myself every day, I’m going to end up burning out. When I’m walking around in the dark for hours, it gets easy to lose track of time. If it weren’t for my tablet, I’d probably completely forget whether it was daytime or nighttime. I need some rest though. I have to be ready, because even if there’s no real way to tell, I think I’m getting close to the ground floor. Maybe that’s why Judge wants to take me down so bad. Well, that and the voice of David Marshall, who is apparently hunting me from beyond the grave. That’s a comforting thought.

  Mike’s Recording 09

  You know, I’ve always had hunches about where to go to make my way around the Tower. It’s how me and my original team found Polar North in the first place. Commander Vick used to lean on me to get us around. Turned out I had these hunches because I’m a psychic or whatever. Point is, it’s been days since I brought Tommy and Dodger down here. Not sure that I can make this any clearer, but the Deep Creep’s not a great place to be. No place to sleep right. No place to get comfortable, and some halls are completely blocked off. We keep finding stuff though. Stuff I’ve been seeing in my head.