“I'm not talking about that,” Oleg spits through a shudder of pain. “The discs we retrieved. I couldn’t see the full extent of it at the time, what Skuld was up to.”
Now Bron, Ret and Krantz are standing over the old man. The other two hold their distance, still not sure about me.
“What was on those discs?” I ask.
“Blueprints.”
“What do you mean?”
“The design schematics to a machine. A powerful piece of old world technology. I remembered what you said in the complex about using the discs as bargaining chips. I knew it was our only hope and I hid them away without ever realizing that I should have just destroyed them when I had the chance. Within hours of entering Sotercity, I was picked up by a group of city guards and dumped into a cell next to Bron and Ret.”
“Those discs,” I say. “What was on them?”
“A genetic accelerator.”
More of Oleg's techno babble. “Great, but what does it do?”
“Exactly what it says. It accelerates genetic mutations by hundreds and thousands of generations. In minutes it can accomplish what it took mother nature millions of years to do.”
All our faces are masks of confusion and Oleg sits bolt upright. He's pissed that we're not getting it, looking at us like we’re a bunch of buffoons; a part of me is glad to see he's inching back to his old, crotchety self.
“Don’t you get it? The chemical that made the Zees in the first place caused a severe genetic mutation. If Skuld builds that machine, he intends to use it on himself.”
“To do what?” Bron asks. “Grow himself a bigger pair of balls?”
“I wish you were right. No, Skuld is going to inject himself with the Zee chemical and use the machine to become a God. After that, he'll awaken every hive within a thousand miles.
-12-
“But what on Earth for? Ret asks. “Is he mad?”
Oleg sneers. “You don't need me to tell you that Sotercity's a political backwater. Any Prior with dreams of advancement wouldn't be caught dead here. Unless, that is, they'd fallen out of favor with the Patriarch.”
Bron's shaking his head. “So you're telling us, we don't just live in a dump, we also happen to be the scum of the known world.”
“Skuld hopes to use the Zees to remove the Patriarch from power and have himself crowned Emperor of The Ten Territories.”
The Ten Territories. Shorthand for what remains of the civilized world. They were formed after the fall, each with varying amounts of wealth and power. And at the head of it all is the Patriarch, who runs the show from behind the walls of Attica, a former prison turned palace and capital city. How fitting.
On the far edge of that mess is Sotercity, the capital of the tenth territory. Officially called Noma Landis, but popularly known as No Man’s Land.
Krantz’ whole body seems to be sagging. I can only imagine the way Skuld’s plan must be eating him up inside. First the man murders his family, now he wants to kill everyone else too.
Beside him, Ret is shaking his head. “And how is it you know all of this? You lied to us before, about the true purpose of our mission. How do we know you're telling the truth now?”
“I was instructed to locate and remove specific discs, but I wasn’t told what they were for. Surely now that you see Skuld’s plan, you can understand that all of us are expendable.”
I try not to sound like an interrogator, for fear that Oleg will clam up. “You still haven’t told us how it is you discovered Skuld’s intentions.”
“How about from the man’s own lips? When I refused to speak, he came down to question me himself. You'd be amazed what people will tell you when they don't expect you to be around much longer.”
I can still see that smug look on Skuld's face when he hired us. “I knew The Keepers were a bunch of crooked–”
“No, Azina, not all Keepers, just Skuld and his inner circle.”
Bron snatches the pewter mug out of Gunnar’s hand and squashes it. “And I'm sure he's promised them a piece of this new Zee-infested kingdom he intends to build. I'd sooner die.”
Gunnar stands and Krantz puts a hand on his shoulder to ease him down.
There’s a grave look on Oleg’s face. “You may get your wish, Bron. We estimate there may well be over a hundred thousand hives, spread throughout the ten territories and beyond. If Skuld manages to wake and bind even a fraction of them to his will...” Oleg's voice trails off, but we get the point, loud and clear.
Sneak's fingers start to dance in midair. She's asking a question. I translate.
“Why are they sleeping in the first place?”
Oleg leans back on his elbows. “I wasn't lying when I told you that long ago The Keepers fought and defeated the Zees. I never said we exterminated every last one of them. Frankly, I wonder if that's even possible; but our ancestors did what they thought was the next best thing. They lured the Queen out into the open and killed her. Destroy the brain and you stop the Zee. After her death, the hordes retreated back into their hives and became dormant.”
Oleg looks right at me. “Azina, have you not wondered why you haven't succumbed entirely to the chemical?”
His eyes are scanning up and down the rough patch of skin on my face and now everyone's looking and I can't help feeling somehow shameful. “I have, but what can it be, besides dumb luck?”
“Her body is fighting it,” Ret says. “Like an infection.”
A bolt of inspiration smacks me square in the face. “Oleg, this machine you describe, the accelerator. If we made the right kinds of changes, do you think it could be used to reverse my... the condition?”
He falls silent and I feel a knot of anxiety growing in the pit of my belly.
“It might,” he replies cautiously, “but you'd need to find an engineer with an unbelievable level of expertise.”
Bron lifts one of his shiny arms high into the air. “I know just the person.”
-13-
Of course, Bron is talking about the genius who made his arms, but I also know he hasn’t seen him in years. But if this works, it may be the key to ending the Zee menace for good, as long as we stop Skuld in time.
At Krantz’ feet is a wooden chest with the word 'requisitioned' stenciled across the top in big bold letters. He pops the lid, reaches inside and tosses Ret his automatic shotgun. Ret catches it and cradles the gun in his arms.
“Oh baby, I thought I'd never see you again.” He showers it with kisses and I almost scream. Hell, even I didn’t get a greeting like that and just as suddenly I wanna slap myself across the face for feeling jealous of a shotgun.
“Got anything in there for me?” Bron asks.
Krantz picks up a 20mm five inch shell and drops it back inside the chest. He reaches into an ammo case at his feet and produces a red-tipped 20mm round. “What do you give a person who has everything?”
Bron’s face lights up like a child during Winter Solstice.
“These are next generation explosive rounds,” Krantz says. “If you ever wanted to know what a Zee looks like in a million pieces, this’ll tell you.”
Bron's discolored and newly gap-toothed smile stretches clear across his face.
Then Krantz hands me my repeater. “Not the best weapon around, but it's gotten me out of more than one jam in my life.”
No sooner do I grab the stalk than a string of Zee code fills my head. It quickly forms into an image. Thousands of figures staggering through a dark tunnel.
“They've found a way inside the city,” I cry.
Krantz isn't sure what to make of my comment, but the others know by now not to waste time with silly questions.
“Grab what you can,” I say. I try my best to sound calm, but on the inside, a million different scenarios are racing through my head.
Krantz unlocks and pulls open the thick metal door. Even from back here I can see them, clogging the sewers, a literal wave of darkened flesh. Gunnar and Vasser are by Krantz’ side and together they try to slam
the door shut before any can get inside, but the Zees are too fast. It's almost like they were waiting there, waiting for that door to open so they could get inside. Another painful jolt and now I know that somehow the Hive leader is in the tunnel with them. He's come for me and has brought every Zee he could muster with him.
-14-
Leathery Zee hands snatch at Krantz’ Keeper robe. Sneak and Ret rush forward to help slam that door shut, but already I know there isn’t any hope. There are too many of them and in a few seconds they'll be inside and all over us.
“Get down,” Bron shouts, as Oleg scrambles to his feet and out of the way. The door swings open and Bron opens up with a deafening hail of shells. I watch in slow motion as the concussive force pulls back on his arms after every shot. The first shell enters a Zee's open, hissing mouth and detonates, sending blackened gore and splinters of lethal bone into the faces of the others around him. Shattered torsos fall to the floor in heaps of quivering flesh. The Zees in the sewer behind them get a taste and I can feel tiny pricks of pain as Bron's exploding shells tear them to pieces. The carnage is unbelievable. With so many corpses clogging the open doorway, there's absolutely no chance of closing it now. Krantz, Sneak and Ret crawl back toward us as tracers from Bron's heavy guns cut through the air mere feet above their heads. The Zees are still rushing forward, scrambling over the wall of death. Then Bron's guns jam. He scrambles to my side, working each bolt, trying to free the jammed shells, but I know it isn't any use. He's got them overheated.
I swing my repeater around. Half a dozen Zees are clawing over the pile and I hold down the trigger, sweeping from left to right, riddling their skulls with holes that ooze a dark, foul-smelling liquid.
The entire room erupts with gunfire. “We can't stay here,” I shout over the roar.
Oleg's got that terrified look in his eyes again, probably wishing old Skuldy had let him die when he had the chance.
Krantz is right there beside me, eyes wild and glaring, blazing away with twin .50 caliber pistols. He's wearing a maniacal grin, as though he hasn’t felt the blood pump through his veins for a very long time.
Behind the growing mound, we can hear the Zees pulling at the bodies, trying to clear the doorway. That isn't the act of mindless drones, and right on cue the Hive leader's back in my head. He must be right outside. I can feel him tinkering around inside my brain. I saw his head roll off his body so I’m not sure how this is even possible. He's knows we're trying to escape, wants to find out where we're going. I try to block him out, try to keep him from seeing our plan, but there's so much going on.
“Follow me,” Krantz hollers.
We storm down the rows of bunks. Bron's at the back, toppling beds, trying to put some obstacles between us and the shambling horde. To buy us time.
This part of the room is bathed in darkness. I see the others groping with their hands, but while they are blind, I can see a ladder up ahead, leading to a manhole. Then the Zees burst through the door behind us.
Bron turns. “We're gonna be dead in another minute unless you find a way outa here.”
I scramble up the ladder and pop the manhole out with surprising ease. A thick shaft of light bleeds down from above. I slide back down to help the others up.
Sneak, then Oleg and Ret.
The Zees reach the barricade of beds and Bron's running backward. Beside him are Gunnar and Vasser.
“Krantz, you're next,” I say and up he goes.
It doesn't take the Zees long to scale the barricade. Then, in the distance, I see the Hive leader enter the room. Even from here it's obvious his head isn't on the floor where Sneak left it. He's stuck it back on and the bloody thing’s healed in place. He’s even managed to stuff his entrails back into the hole in his belly. I can’t help but curse, knowing I should have stomped his brains into mush when I had the chance. I scale the ladder into bright sunlight, Bron and then Gunnar right behind me. Once at the top, I reach down and take Vasser's hand, but no sooner do I feel his fingers then he’s wrenched violently from my grasp and is dragged into a sea of shrieking Zees. When I try to dive in after him, Bron’s hand closes around my belt and jerks me out. Vasser is still screaming when Bron slams the manhole back in place. There’s a scolding look on his face and he’s right, I should have known better. The minute those Zees yanked him off that ladder he was a dead man.
-15-
Bron drags a heavy trash container over the manhole cover to keep them from crawling up after us. We move away quickly and I can feel the Hive leader trying to pull me down. He would pull me through the slab of concrete that separates us, if he could. With force of will I return my focus to the alley and the intersecting street up ahead, where people are running and screaming. Close behind them are a group of Zees in dresses and bow ties, some in tunics and rough woolen pants. The streets of Sotercity have always bustled with life, but now they’ve become a slaughterhouse.
“Where's this engineer of yours?” I ask Bron.
“He's in the industrial sector.”
“That's two sector's over,” I say in disbelief. Sotercity's made up of four sectors. Commercial, entertainment, and industrial are packed in neat blobs in the center. Surrounding them is the residential sector, where most of the Grinders and small business owners live. The entertainment sector’s a different beast altogether and this kind of fun's got nothing to do with Oleg's movie theaters and work-out rooms. No, entertainment in Sotercity means gambling, alcohol, bare-knuckle fights and ladies of the night, or as Bron likes to call them, ‘horizontal refreshments’.
“All right,” I say. “We need to move low and fast.” I look at Ret. “We're not here to save every poor sap we come across, not when Skuld's making ready to finish off the rest of us.”
We duck into the shadows as another group of Zees shamble past the alleyway’s entrance.
“Blades only,” I say and pull out my Katana. “Last thing we need is to draw any more of these things.”
I'm the first one out. Behind me are Ret, Krantz, and Sneak, who’s helping Oleg along. Pulling up the rear are Gunnar and Bron. They’re comparing battle wounds, trying to find out who’s tougher. Gunnar’s drawing an index finger along the scar on his face, probably making up some wild story even though I’m sure he got it falling down in a bout of drunkenness. It didn’t take long working with muscle bound Mercs to discover that they aren’t men, but little boys trapped in men’s bodies.
We're in the commercial district and the street is brimming with little stalls selling everyday items. From noodles to tunics, from religious statuettes of Newton and Copernicus to pewter mugs of warm beer. Except nearly every single one of them are closed and shuttered and most of these poor saps haven’t a clue that in a few hours, all their earthly possessions won’t be worth a damn.
We come to one shop that isn't closed up and I see a bunch of Zees inside, bent over, tearing at something or someone. No matter where you go there's always one stubborn asshole who refuses to run when things turn to shit. Those are the damn fools who either die crying for help, or get labeled heroes for dying valiantly. Hell, I'd rather be alive and smart than dumb and dead.
A second later we run head first into a frightened crowd of women and children.
They must think we're Keepers who can lead them to safety, ‘cause right away they start to follow us. I catch sight of Gunnar, Krantz and Oleg, all in their Keeper robes, and wish I hadn’t been right. I turn and shout. “You people better find some place safe. You don't wanna follow us, not where we're going.”
An older woman with pale skin and a pair of fine silk coveralls looks like she’s about to lose it. “Where can we go? We just came from the keep and it’s been overrun by those things.”
She looks like she used to be rich enough to afford servants, but no amount of money in the world can protect you when a pack of Zees are running through the streets.
I signal to Bron and he rips open the metal shutter to a grocer's shop.
“Hide in here,”
Bron says, ushering them inside. “There's enough food and water for all of you. And when you've cleaned the place out, leave a big fat I.O.U. in the money box.” He erupts in a bout of thunderous laughter and I wanna smack him.
Gradually, the stalls give way to a row of brothels. Rising above the rickety sheet metal roofs I see the top of the keep and trails of thick black smoke pouring from the upper levels.
We haven't seen a single Zee since we hit the streets and I'm starting to wonder if that’s where they’ve gathered. Then a terrible thought occurs to me. Maybe the Hive leader knows we’ll be heading there as soon as we get our hands on this engineer. I only hope he’ll be able to make Skuld's machine reverse my condition and whatever Skuld manages to do to himself.
I spot ladies in skimpy clothing. They've climbed up onto the brothel's rooftop and are waving for help, but there's nothing we can do. Above them is a billboard with a picture of Prior Skuld and a cheesy caption underneath. Join The Keepers and make your world a better place.
Now I wanna kill Skuld more than ever.
Streets whiz by. I grab hold of Oleg and help him along. All around us, bodies are stacked like cord wood. Some of them moving, twitching, others, newly turned and feeding on the human flesh beside them. I wait until I can tell for sure before using the Katana to cleave their heads in two. It's a horrible business, but the number one rule of watching your back is making sure nothing can sneak up behind you. It isn't long before we reach the industrial sector and spot our first smoke stack. It's still belching out the same dark clouds that have slowly turned Sotercity into a smog-filled cesspool. I also know those furnaces are running on their own and the feeling is an eerie one. Soon the fires will peter out and grow cold. The city’s becoming a tomb before our eyes, and it reminds me of the cavernous underground complex we so narrowly escaped.
Hive II Page 3