by P. T. Hylton
The rover whined as it sped up, plowing through the snow a bit faster, and it started up the ridge. Alex and the team walked in the trail of displaced snow it left in its wake.
As the rover crested the ridge, Alex saw something sticking out of the snow at the top of the hill. She squinted toward it. Was that…an arm?
But that was impossible. The sun was still shining on them. A vampire wouldn’t risk an attack now with the sun shining, blood or no. Unless it wasn’t waiting to attack. Maybe it was already dead.
“Owl, wait!” Alex called.
But it was too late.
The rover went over the top, and the thunderous sound of fifty-caliber guns roared through the air.
Owl dove from the rover as bullets tore through the vehicle. She rolled toward the back.
Alex and the rest of the team sprinted for the rover. They were still blocked from the guns by the ridge.
Owl crouched behind the rover and reached up, grabbing Wesley and pulling him backward off the vehicle. He cried out in pain as he hit the ground. Owl dragged him back over the crest of the hill, out of the line of fire.
The rover tumbled down the other side of the hill, and the gunfire stopped.
Alex reached Owl and Wesley and dropped to the ground alongside them. “You okay?”
Wesley groaned. “Not really. But not worse than before.”
“I’m fine,” Owl said. “We got lucky.”
Alex silently cursed herself. Why’d she let them go on ahead? It was only dumb luck that they weren’t both dead.
“Stay here.” She rose up into a crouch and carefully made her way up the top of the hill. Peering over, she saw a line of fifty-caliber guns along the fence. They’d been blocked by the ridge before, so she hadn’t been able to see them.
These must have been the same guns that shot down the away ship.
How were they going to get past those guns? And who was firing them?
She let her eyes wander, taking in the scene, hoping some advantage would reveal itself.
The other side of the hill was blocked from the wind at Alex’s back, and the snow was much more shallow. She could even see the shape of the ground beneath. It was oddly formed. Strangely lumpy.
Something about that ground wasn’t right.
She spotted another arm protruding from the snow. And, ten feet away, a leg. And another, fifteen feet beyond that.
With horror, Alex realized what she was standing on. This wasn’t a hill. It was a pile of bodies.
***
“I think the guns are on auto sensors,” Alex told the team.
The team was still coping with the news that they were standing on a pile of bodies. Firefly, in particular, seemed uncomfortable. He shifted nervously from foot to foot, his eyes on the ground beneath his feet.
“The way I figure it,” she continued, “vampires wander up toward the fence from time to time. The guns take them out. Over the years, the bodies have piled up.”
“Damn,” Owl said. “So no one was shooting at the ship?”
“Not purposely.”
Alex glanced at the horizon. The door that had seemed so close only ten minutes before seemed further now that they knew there were fifty-caliber guns set to destroy anything that moved between them and it.
“We’ve gotta find a way past the guns,” Alex said.
“Firefly,” Wesley said, his voice a weak groan.
Firefly leaned down toward him. “What is it, bud? You need something?”
“Yeah, I need you to take out those guns. You’ve got those exploding rounds, right, moron?”
Firefly’s eyes lit up. “Yeah. I do!” He looked at Alex questioningly.
“Do it,” she said.
Firefly and Alex crept to the crest of the ridge while Jessica and Owl stayed down with Wesley.
Firefly loaded the exploding rounds into his rifle. They laid on their stomachs and peered down at the guns.
“You think this will work?” Alex asked.
“One way to find out.” He took aim and fired. The base of the turret exploded, and the gun leaned sickly to the right.
“That one’s out of commission,” Alex said.
Firefly took out the other four weapons in five shots. The one he missed hit the fence and blasted a massive hole in it. “Whoops,” he said.
Alex gazed down at the guns. They certainly looked like they wouldn’t function, but there was only one way to know for sure. She started to stand, but Firefly put a hand on her shoulder.
“Let me go.” He nodded back at the rover. “They need you a hell of a lot more than they need me.”
She started to object, but she knew he was right. They needed a leader. “Okay.”
Firefly stood tall and walked down the hill, striding over the mountain of bodies like he was on a Sunday-afternoon stroll through the Hub. He reached the bottom of the hill without a gun so much as twitching. Grinning up at Alex, he said, “I guess it worked.”
Alex headed back down to Owl, Wesley, and Jessica.
“How we gonna get him there?” Owl asked, nodding at Wesley.
Alex stripped off her jacket and set it on the ground. Then she grabbed Wesley under the arms and put him on top of it. Wrapping the jacket sleeves under his arms, she took one and handed the other to Owl.
Jessica glanced at the horizon where the sun was now touching the land. “It’s gonna be close.”
“Then we’d better get started.”
They dragged Wesley up the hill, Alex pulling one jacket arm and Owl pulling the other. By the time they crested the ridge and started down the other side, the sun was half sunk beyond the horizon.
“Jessica, run ahead,” Alex said. “See about getting that door open.”
Jessica nodded, then dashed through the shallower snow on the other side of the hill.
Alex, Owl, and Wesley quickly followed. Going downhill was much faster than going up, and they were soon at the bottom.
Hope sprang in Alex’s chest as they crossed the last twenty yards to the concrete door. It was close, but they were going to make it.
“Alex,” Jessica said. “Something’s wrong.”
The Director of Engineering was crouched in front of the door. She had her tablet out and was looking at it.
Alex noticed something else odd. The keypad on the concrete door was lit up. “It still has power?”
“Not just that,” Jessica said. “The records we have from the NSA have codes for this entrance. None of them are working.”
Alex went cold, and it wasn’t just from the chill of the wind. “What does that mean?”
“Means someone changed them at some point. Could have been years ago. Maybe during the infection when the NSA stopped updating their—”
“Does it mean we can’t open the door?” Alex said.
“Yes,” Jessica said. “I can’t open it.”
Alex’s knees suddenly went weak. They’d been so close. The parts they needed were right on the other side of that door. It seemed cruel after everything they’d been through to be stopped now when they were so close.
The sun dipped below the horizon. Night had fallen.
Almost immediately, the howling began.
“Why?” Firefly asked in a husky voice. “Why did this happen when we were almost there?”
“Ours is not to question why,” Alex muttered.
“Just to be prepared to die,” Owl and Firefly finished, their voices hollow.
Alex drew her sword. “Weapons at the ready. Backs to the wall. They’ll be able to smell us. It won’t be long until they arrive.”
Owl and Firefly wordlessly drew their weapons. Jessica stayed where she was, frantically punching numbers into the keypad.
The howls were louder now, coming from every direction.
Alex squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath through her nose to steady herself. If she had to die, this was the way she wanted to do it. She wanted to go out like her heroes. Like Drew. Like Simmons.
The howls were so loud they made the ground shake. Any moment now, the vampires would crest that ridge and fall on them like rain.
She turned and looked her comrades in the eyes one at a time. Owl. Firefly. Wesley. Jessica.
“It was an honor to have served with you,” she said.
She gripped her sword with both hands and waited, eyes on the ridge top. This was how it should end. It was how she was always meant to end.
A loud grating sound came from behind her. She spun and then gasped at what she saw.
The concrete door was opening.
“My God, Jessica,” Alex whispered. “You did it.”
Jessica looked up at her, eyes wide. “That wasn’t me.”
The door swung open three feet. A man’s face appeared in the gap. He was quickly joined by two others.
“Get in here,” the man said. “Quickly!”
Chapter 43
“Get inside,” Alex said to her team, echoing the tall man in the doorway.
The nearby howling shook the ground as Alex and Owl dragged Wesley through the open door. Firefly and Jessica quickly followed.
As soon as they were past the threshold, the tall man in the center said, “Shut the door.”
The other two men did as he said. As the door swung closed, Alex saw it had a one-foot steel core inside the concrete on either side of it.
The door shut with a boom. They were safely inside.
For a few long moments, no one spoke. The two groups regarded each other in stunned silence. Alex wasn’t sure who was more shocked, her and her team, or these soldiers. A rapid-fire pounding on the door woke them from their introspection. It sounded like a succession of cannonballs was hitting it.
“I can’t believe you took out our artillery,” the man on the left said. He was the shortest of the three, with close-cropped black hair and glasses. “You led them right to us.”
“That’s enough, Griffin,” the tall one said. He had black hair, too, but his was longer, falling nearly to his shoulders. Not only was he the tallest person in the room, but he was also the broadest. His muscular frame stretched his army-green tee shirt. He pointed to Wesley. “Help me. Let’s get them inside.”
Alex had thought they were inside, but looking down the tunnel, she saw another massive door, this one made completely of steel.
Two of the men, Griffin and the one with the beard, picked up Wesley in a fireman’s carry and carefully walked him down the hall. Wesley looked at Alex, wide-eyed. Clearly, he didn’t like being carried by these strangers. Alex didn’t blame him.
The tall man beckoned them onward. As they walked, he said, “I’m sorry for our confusion. We didn’t think there was anybody left out there. Where on Earth did you come from?”
Alex considered how to answer the question. They didn’t know anything about these people other than they were heavily armed. If they learned about New Haven, they might decide living in the clouds was preferable to living under a mountain and try to take it for their own. She decided to deflect. “We didn’t know anyone else was here either. How many of you are there?”
“Quite a good many,” the man said. He stopped and held out his hand. “I’m Jaden.”
She shook it. “Alex.” She introduced the rest of her team, and Jaden introduced Griffin and Daniel, the bearded man.
They reached the door at the end of the hallway, and Jaden pulled it open. It swung so easily Alex was surprised to see it was four feet thick and solid steel, perfectly balanced on its hinges.
Jaden paused at the open entrance. “Sorry, but we need to know a little more about you before we go inside. We’re in charge of defending the city, and it would be irresponsible to take you in there without a little more information.”
The city? How many people lived under this mountain?
“I understand,” Alex said. “We’d do the same.”
“You didn’t answer my question before. Where’d you come from?”
Alex’s mind raced, trying to compose a hybrid of truth and lies that would be enough to get them through that door.
But Jessica spoke before Alex could. “We’re from another city. The last city, we thought.”
Jaden chuckled. “Same here.”
“We don’t know anything about you,” she continued, “so you’ll have to forgive our reluctance to reveal too much about our location until we get to know you better.”
Jaden nodded thoughtfully. “I can understand that. I hope we can earn your trust at the same time you’re earning ours.”
Alex was impressed. Apparently, Jessica had recovered from what she’d seen outside and was back to being the no-nonsense director from New Haven. The more Alex got to know the woman, the more she respected her.
“Perhaps you can,” Jessica said. “We need your help.”
Daniel scoffed. “You don’t want to tell us where you’re from, but you want our help?”
Jaden held up a hand. “Let’s hear them out.”
This time Alex spoke. “We came here because our nuclear reactor is damaged. We figured this place would be abandoned and we could get the parts we need from the reactor’s control panel here.”
Jaden stroked his stubbly chin. “Hmm. We may be able to help you there.”
“Jaden, we don’t know anything about them,” Daniel said in a gruff whisper.
“We know they’re human. And they’re in trouble. A city without power won’t last long. If there’s something we can do to help, we’re going to do it. Let’s go inside.”
Alex had the sudden urge to throw her arms around the man’s neck and hug him, but she didn’t think that would be very professional.
They stepped through the door and entered the city.
It was a wide, brightly lit hallway, not all that different from something they might find in the interior of New Haven. A woman walked by and waved at Jaden as she passed. She looked oddly at Alex and the team, but she didn’t stop to ask any questions.
“Welcome to Agartha,” Jaden said.
Owl laughed.
“What?” Alex said.
“Agartha is a mythological city at the center of the Earth,” Owl said.
“The impossible city,” Jaden said with a nod. “Let it never be said that we don’t have a sense of humor.”
Wesley groaned softly. His eyes were unfocused as he stared into the distance. Alex realized he hadn’t spoken since before the concrete door opened.
“Jaden, we gotta get this guy to medical,” Griffin said.
“Yes. Take him there, and I’ll show his friends the reactor control panel.”
Firefly looked at Alex. “If they take him to medical, I’m going with them.”
Alex didn’t like the idea of splitting up, but she wasn’t going to send Wesley off with these people by himself. She nodded.
Firefly followed Griffin and Daniel down the hallway. Jaden headed the opposite direction, Jessica, Owl, and Alex by his side.
They walked through the corridors in silence, Alex not wanting to give up any more information than she needed to. She knew she’d probably have to reveal more about New Haven at some point. Would they really give up priceless reactor control panel components without knowing exactly where they were going?
Jaden stayed silent too as they walked. Maybe he didn’t want to give up too much information either.
They passed a handful of people. Most of them nodded a greeting to Jaden and looked warily at the visitors without speaking. Alex realized Jaden was probably taking them around the perimeter of the city where they wouldn’t see too much or come into contact with too many residents.
They reached an unmarked door in an unmarked hallway, and Jaden led them inside and to the reactor control panel. A round man with glasses sat in front of it. He looked up in surprise as they entered.
“Give us a
minute, Hank?” Jaden said.
The man nodded and scurried out of the room, his eyes never leaving the strange women.
The control panel was smaller than the one they’d dismantled in Texas. In fact, it looked about the same size as the one on New Haven.
Jessica hurried through the room, stopping here and there to inspect parts of the control panel. “This is it,” she said in hushed excitement. “These are exactly the parts we need.”
“Excellent,” Jaden said.
“You’ll let us take them?” Alex asked.
“If it means saving lives. Our system is completely redundant, so we can live without the parts.”
Jessica looked up sharply. “This is the backup system?”
Jaden nodded.
Alex stepped forward and gently rested her hand on the control panel. Everything they’d been through had been to get to this moment. Simmons and Drew had given their lives to make this happen. Now, finally, their deaths were not in vain. She turned to Jessica. “You’re sure these parts will work?”
Jessica didn’t take her eyes off the control panel. “It’s the same era as ours. Same make, even. Yes, the parts will work.”
Alex’s eyes filled with tears. She couldn’t wait to tell CB. They’d done it. Though it had come at a terrible price, they’d accomplished their mission. New Haven was saved.
Epilogue
CB sat in the interrogation room, the arm not in a cast cuffed to the D-hook on the table.
Despite Brian’s speculation to the contrary, they’d only waited in the cell for a little over an hour before five guards, each holding a baton at the ready, came for CB. They refused to answer any questions, just telling him that he was needed elsewhere. Then they’d stuck him in the interrogation room where he’d been waiting for the past fifteen minutes.
In the intervening time, CB had calmed down slightly. In the unlikely event that Alex, Drew, Firefly, Owl, Wesley, and Jessica were alive, he was their only chance of rescue. They needed him to be smart, to be cold and logical. The fury still burned in his chest with a fiery heat, but he’d managed to contain it. He promised himself he’d unleash it on those responsible for this madness eventually, but he knew that opportunity was probably a long way off.