A shoal of fish darted out from underneath the hull, whirled in unison, and vanished into the dark of the water beyond. Mouth dry, I squinted, trying to see past the path of light, terrified that I might see something that would send me stumbling back into the chamber. The constant hiss of the air dried my eyes and made my throat raw.
Ashton’s voice next to my ear startled me. “Are you OK?”
“What happened?” I gasped, elated to hear him.
“A slight disagreement,” he answered. “Are you sure you can do this, Charlie? It is not too late to turn back.”
Jack. Riley. Lilah. All of them flashed in my mind. There was too much at stake to lose my nerve. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.
“I am my father’s daughter,” I whispered taking another step. “Adventure runs in my veins.”
26
The chance of making it back should something go awry with my air dwindled with each step. Nonetheless, I pushed onward, fighting panic as I ventured further and further from the facility. Movement of the ice floes overhead on the surface caught my eye, and I craned my neck to peer up. “What is that?” I hoped they heard me. “There’s something coming down. Hello, Ash? H-Hunley?”
Strands of white, filament-like threads descended from underneath the chunks of ice. They thickened as they lowered, twirling like sheets of spider webs in the current.
“One moment,” Ashton answered. Muffled conversation sounded and then the rustling of papers. “They are thread icicles, we believe. Formed from the briny water left after the surface freezes. Hunley thinks the storm above is causing them.”
“Thinks?” I gasped, moving away from a tangle of the drifting ice strands.
Hunley’s voice was rushed in the background, and the urgency set my nerves off.
“Yes, we’ve seen them before during these ice storms. Do not let any part of it touch you,” she said. “They are deadly. They freeze anything they touch. You are not in the metal suit. The gum rubber diving skin will not protect you.”
“They are descending everywhere,” I cried, trying to move faster. The curtain of ice filaments whirled, like tornado clouds, touching down in front of me. The wispy funnel floated to the floor of the sea, and spread out, flowing along the bottom like a snowy-white river. Fish swimming by froze instantly and sank, the stream of frigid death encasing them as it moved. “I cannot avoid it.”
“Move, Charlie,” Ashton shouted. “Get out from under them!”
The flood light slashed through the water, glistening off the filaments. They refracted like fine crystal, growing ever thicker, denser as the Atlantic froze on top of me.
“You do not understand.” I dropped onto a knee. Struggling upright, I tried to dodge the threads drifting down in every direction. Craggy lava upcroppings jutting up from the sea floor, their molten innards long gone cold in the frigid Atlantic, obstructed my steps, blocking my escape. A fragment of the ice filaments brushed against my helmet “They’re everywhere!”
Frost crackled along the outer edges of my face window. I rubbed at it through the protective screen with my gloved hands, visibility ebbing as the temperature dropped drastically. Terror seized me, squeezing the breath from me. Too cold. It was too cold. Grappling to get around the jagged rocks at my boots, I pushed myself, counting out the beats of my slowing heart. The frost formed again, blocking out everything. Frantic to see, I scraped at the face window again, the air too stifling in the helmet. The distance closed so achingly slow. “Almost there,” I told myself, keeping my gaze on the vessel. “Just get to the ship.”
My limbs turned sluggish, the mechanica firing frantically to keep my muscles from freezing. My teeth chattered so loud, I could hear nothing else. I reached for the hatch of the Chasm Walker.
“Charlie, watch out!” Ashton’s desperate voice cut through my chattering.
A long, sinewy limb materialized on the handle. The suckers, as large as saucers, swung at me through the cloudy sea. The blow, swift and tremendous, launched me away from the vessel. I landed on my back, felt the movement of water overhead, and tried to shield my face. The giant squid’s appendage swung back, connected with my helmet in a bone jarring crash. I screamed as my body soared through the water. A hose disconnected, whipping out into the sea. I gasped, flailing for it, my mind firing with panic. The constant air still on my face told me it was the communication tether.
I crawled, using my buoyancy to right myself. I had to get inside, but the creature blocked my path, its arms scourging back and forth, slamming against the vessel with muffled booms. Its large, roving eye followed me, and I took a chance, lunging to the right. The squid propelled toward me with arms flared. It swam directly underneath a whirl of filaments, tangling with the curtain of ice. The netting wrapped around the beast as it lashed about, thrashing for a moment before going white itself, deathly still.
“I am all right,” I said, before realizing I was alone in the abyss, my connection to Ashton gone. “I will make it—”
A sound in my helmet made me freeze. I blinked, horrified, as a crack started at the edge of the face window, skittering along the surface. I moved, striving with every fiber of my being against the cold water. I reached for the hatch, pawing at it ineffectively with hands I scarcely felt.
“Please!” I screamed, finally grabbing hold of the water lock. It opened slowly, as I lunged inside. The crack extended, deepening through all the layers of the glass and I panted. Terror snaked through me as I forced the door to the lock closed. Feeling along the walls in complete darkness, I found the controls, hit the air pressure button, and waited. Nothing. “No, no, no,” I slammed it again. “Work!”
The apparatus chugged to life. Air forced its way into the chamber, the water level lowered, inches at a time. The face plate gave and glass blew inward. Sea water rushed into the helmet, down the neck of the diving skin, freezing my body with deep pain. I clung to the wall and held my breath, eyes clenched against the icy sea. Counting, praying, hoping the air would come before I passed out. Whole body quaking with the cold, I nearly broke. Nearly took in a gulp of water, unable to resist the burning in my lungs. The helmet and body armor weight returned. My head free of the water, I gasped, a wrenching coughing breath that exploded bursts of light behind my eyes.
I leaned against the side of the chamber, shaking and sobbing. When I moved, glass dug into my cheeks. Feeling for the bolts at my neck, I wrenched them loose, turning them with trembling fingers. They clanked onto the floor, and I twisted the helmet free and let it drop. The metal clanged, echoing loudly throughout the small chamber. Gingerly, trying to keep from cutting myself more, I pulled the shards from my skin, wincing with the dull pain.
Overhead, tinkling and tapping on the hull pulsed dread through me. The ice fell onto the vessel, and I wondered if it would be completely encased.
“Move, Blackburn,” I scolded myself. “No time for sniveling.”
The water-lock had another door leading into the ship, much like the dive room’s configuration. Trying the wheel in the doorway, relief flooded me when it turned easily. It released its seal with a hiss of air. I paused, my stomach crawling. It smelled of decaying flesh and rotten food inside. Hesitating, I glanced back at the chamber. I could not stay here. I could not go back with a ruined helmet.
“Must go forward,” I heard my father’s voice in my memories.
Pushing through the hatch, I let my eyes adjust to the light streaming in through the large front window of the helm. A bank of controls lined the view port and through it, the beams of flood lights from the facility lit up the interior of the ship. I took a step inside, listening, hating the sound my weighted boots made on metal floor.
“Hello?” I called, hoping against hope for silence. Nothing.
Where was everyone? What of the crew who died here? A corridor off the helm lead off into darkness. At the far end of the room, an open chute housed a ladder that went up to a ceiling hatch. Turning to the controls, I squinted, trying to fi
nd what I was looking for. Much like the panel in the Stygian, the bank of levers and dials looked somewhat familiar. I found the power switch.
Closing my eyes, I held my breath, whispering a prayer. Please, Lord, let me get back to them. Do not let me die out here in this metal crypt.
Taking a deep breath, I tried the ignition. A low vibration churned beneath my feet, rising to a rumble as the lights on the panels and along the ceiling of the cabin winked on, flickered, and then grew in strength. I laughed hysterically, bending to untie the weighted boots. They slipped off and I faced the controls, absolutely shocked that the Chasm Walker still had life in her. An errant thought flitted through my mind…if the vessel worked, then why—
A flurry of anguish flew through my mind. Need and grasping rage tumbled through my thoughts and then a low, garbled moan tore from my throat. “No,” I gasped, peering down at the empty corridor. Movement in the dark, lurching and wrong, caught my eye. “Not here!”
27
The first of the Tremblers lunged into light, the torn face out of place attached to the body in a captain’s uniform. He flailed his blue arms, jaw snapping. More followed, four of them, their moans coalescing into a horrid shriek that knifed through me. Hands to my ears, I fought the answering screech bubbling in my throat. Ragged men, their arms at odd angles, dragging broken legs as they crawled and staggered toward me. Stumbling back against the control panel, I gasped for breath, panicked.
Blue spider veins snaked up their necks and down their arms. They were infected with the new strain, and I flashed on the women on the frigate. Bowing in unison, they rocked as the others had, their screams full of rage. They closed in, their need for heat spiking in my mind, twisting my heart until I felt the cold fury build. “Stop,” I panted. “Stop this.”
Shaking my head, trying to clear my thoughts, I side stepped, looking for a way out. No weapon. No armor. Not even boots. Heart ramping up, pulse in my ears, the device at my spine flared. Power moved through me in a wave of glacial pain. My mind clicked into focus, muscles coiled. The captain shrieked, flew at me with his arms out, teeth gnashing.
I leapt away, arms going up as I landed. Silvery flashes flew out of the devices on my hands. The energy lashed to the Trembler, and he tumbled back, wailing with his palms at his head. The others advanced, running at incredible speed in the small area, their slick skin sliding against my face, tangling in my hair. I ran for the water-lock, yanking the heavy door open and tumbling inside. I crawled backward, horrified as they followed, falling onto each other, dragging their ruined limbs to get to me.
I screamed, letting out another burst of power as the mechanica at my temples pulsed white-hot. A shrill tone filled the chamber, echoing off the metal, building to a deafening throb. They writhed away, convulsing on the floor next to me.
I staggered to my feet, bursts from the mechanica flashing bright in the darkened vessel like lightning. Scrambling over them, I climbed the mass of bodies, broken bones giving under me as I lunged for the chamber door.
Move, Blackburn. Quickly, girl! No time for fear! My father’s voice in my head spurred me faster.
Grabbing onto the side of the door, I pulled myself back into the helm and rammed my shoulder into the metal door, trying to close it on the Tremblers. Fingers reached in the doorway caught between the door and the frame as I pushed. The captain’s scream pulled a desperate sob from me as I threw myself against the door again, feeling its pain sear across my thoughts. The hand disappeared back into the water-lock, and I slammed it shut. I fell against the wheel, turning it frantically, locking them inside. A bloody hand smeared across the window in the door, and I roiled backward my heart ramming.
Residual power set off the mechanica on my limbs, and I struggled to reel in the fury, the need to fight. They flew against the door, pummeling their own bodies to get to me, their screams reverberating in the chamber. I took in a shaking breath, my gaze going to the control panel for the water-lock. I slid my palm over the button, fighting to still the tremors wracking my body.
“I am so sorry,” I breathed. Then I opened the flood gates. Through the door’s window, I watched Tremblers flail in the rising water. Knocked down by the torrent of sea filling the chamber, their gurgling screams tore at my soul. A tattered face floated past the glass as the sound of the Atlantic filling the room turned my stomach. “Please forgive me.”
I crumpled to my knees, my hands over my face. I had to do it. I had to. Was I to transport them back to the facility to infect and attack the others? Stomach roiling, I knelt on the floor of the helm, the cold of the sea seeping into my bones.
You have to move, Charlotte. You cannot stay here and freeze to death. Shivering with the sea water leaching what little warmth my body possessed, I held up my arms, watching the drips fall to the floor. I had to get out of the wet diving skin.
Eyeing the dark hallway, I stood and headed toward the rest of the ship. Hunley had mentioned six people aboard. Only five had attacked. That meant there was one left. I could feel him. Keep vigilant. Moving cautiously, I searched the vessel. I activated a dial on the wall and incandescents flickered alight, bathing the corridor in a warm glow. The first few spaces held equipment for diving, brass pieces much like the chest armor I wore. Another type of garment lined the far wall. A uniform with webbing connecting the arms to the torso like fish fins. Unusually designed weapons, brass and copper, hung next to the fish suit—similar to the crossbows the Reapers used, however this was longer, with elongated metal wings along the shaft as if it meant to slice through more than air. Water, perhaps?
Backing out, I ventured further and opened a third door. I stopped, staring. An open capsule the shape of a revolver bullet, yet large enough to encase a man, stood in the center of the storage compartment. A hose hung from the inside and snaked along the molded padding contoured to cradle a human form. Reaching out, I swung the hinged front of the capsule down. Lined with gum rubber, it appeared to be waterproof. I scratched my head, nose wrinkling as I took a turn around the strange contraption. Spurred to move by a spate of shivers, I left the room and continued to explore the vessel.
I found the galley by smell alone. The deeper into the submersible, the worse the smell. Hand over my mouth and nose, I pushed through the barracks, looked under the beds and inside storage closets.
Erratic thumping behind a door sent my insides crawling and I steeled myself, ready to fight as I approached it. The growing connection pulled at my mind, addling it with fear and rage. I shook my head, panting. Daring to peek through the door’s window, I let out a relieved breath.
The last crewmember was locked in a maintenance compartment. I stared at his broken body through the window in the door. He was lashed to pipes like a prisoner in a dungeon, and I realized he must have been the first one to show symptoms. Restrained as he was, his head lolled to the side, teeth snapping violently. I tapped on the glass window in the door, and his black eyes locked onto mine. He shook violently, moaning with pain. My stomach knotted, the need to join him rising, until shocks from the devices quelled my tremors.
A final room held uniforms and smocks. Pants and other clothing hung on hooks in the walls. I wiggled out of the remaining suit armor and shrugged off the diving skin. My shivering stilled with the Solenium shocks. I moved slowly and with difficulty in the cold. My arms and fingers looked blue in the dim lighting of the small room. I checked my face in the mirror and saw the ring of black around my pale blue iris. Whereas the Solenium from Arecibo seemed to turn back the progress of the Trembling Sickness symptoms, Hunley’s did not do the same. I wondered what else would be different. Still, I felt no dissipation of strength as I had before and was grateful or that.
There were several knives and some arm guards, which I grabbed. Searching through the clothing, I found a pair of smaller outlander pants with a leather belt that hung low on the hip. It had an attached utility pouch that I used to store the things I had found. A tunic of a curious stretching material appeared t
o be for a child, but I realized as I pulled it over my head, that it fit the wearer. Black, with a satin finish, it provided immediate warmth. Donning the leather arm guards, I padded on bare feet back to the helm. An indicator light flashed red, and I tapped it. Not remembering it from before, I searched the controls and my heart sank.
Low oxygen alarm.
Out of the helm’s window, in the distance, the floodlight flashed on and off in a pattern. It was Ashton or Hunley, signaling me from the facility. Finding the outside light dials, I lowered and brightened them in response. A flurry of flashes came back, and I clung to the hope that I was not alone. They knew I was alive and they were trying to help.
I sent back a message.
“Help me. Need air.”
Dark stillness from the facility’s porthole made my heart stop until the Morse code blinked back.
“Do this…”
28
Ashton
Ashton shouted into the communication tether’s speaker, desperate to warn Charlotte, but it was too late. The enormous squid lashed out, tossing her across the ocean floor like a ragdoll. He banged his hands on the window, screaming for her. She tumbled, and one of the hoses whipped off. His heart stuttered, eyes searching frantically for the telltale bubbles of a disengaged air hose. He only took a breath when he saw there were none.
Chasm Walkers Page 23