Instinct (2010)

by Kay, Ben

  ‘If you have their interests at heart, remember they are in grave danger, scared, hungry and with no means of escape. Let’s get it over with, people.’

  All eyes turned to Jacobs. Realizing that a decision had to be made, she leaned in to the phone mike.

  ‘Mr Paine?’

  ‘Yes, Miss Jacobs?’

  ‘Go fuck yourself.’

  67

  The landing had been hard. It smashed Laura’s ribcage like a truck, knocking the wind from her. Wheezing to her feet, her only thought was Andrew. His voice had come from the left, so she tore through the plants in that direction.

  Pushing and yanking the leaves away, she called for him as she moved, praying for some kind of response.

  ‘Aaaaandrew!’ She walked more slowly, trying to quieten down the sound of the swishing noises around her and make it easier to hear him.

  ‘Aaaandreeeeeeewwwww!’

  She heard something. It sounded like Mum, but faint as a wisp of smoke. Was it off to her right?

  No more sound. A moment’s wait then: ‘Aaaandrewww!’

  Silence. Or was that a rustle? Andrew or Webster?

  More shouts. More movement. Where was she? She turned around. Light squeezed its way from the ceiling through the plants to bathe her in a green glow.

  ‘Aaaaannndreeew!’

  This time she didn’t move. She could hear nothing but her own thumping heart. Her mouth was dry and it hurt to swallow.

  ‘Oh God Jesus Christ where are you?’ she whispered, looking frantically around her. ‘Jesus where the hell are you Andrew where are you how am I going to find you where are you? Aaaandreeeeeeewwwww!’

  Louder this time. ‘Aaaandrewwwww! Aaaandreww!’

  Her thoughts raced ahead of her. Where was he? He couldn’t be gone? He must be safe. Please let him be safe. He can’t be dead. Stop saying that. Not dead. Somewhere down here. Where? Where is he? Where am I? Jesus Christ!

  She broke into another run. Although she was fast and determined, she soon reached a twisted knot of trunks and vines she could not pass. She kicked and shoved them, beating them with her fists.

  ‘Oh no! Oh God! Oh no! Oh God! Oh shit! Somebody! Help me! Where’s Andrew! Help me find my child, my little boy! I love him! Help me, somebody, please!’

  The tears were coming now, garbling the words through a web of saliva. She sank to her knees.

  ‘Please. Somebody! Help me! Help! Help! Oh God, please don’t let him be gone, dead, gone, dead …’

  Then a rustle to her left.

  She whipped her head round. ‘Andrew?’

  Getting to her feet, she moved through the undergrowth.

  ‘Andrew?’

  There was no reply, but another rustle came clear through the leaves.

  ‘Andrew? Is that you?’

  With each leaf she moved aside or bent back, the rustle became louder and firmer.

  ‘Oh, Andrew!’ Laura sighed, relief flowing through her. She didn’t know how she knew, but she was absolutely certain that it was him; he’d have a few bumps and bruises but it would be him for sure.

  Peeling back the leaves and stepping forwards, she smiled through her tears. It was all going to be fine. The panic was over. Just one more …

  The screech was deafening and was joined instantly by a scream of utter terror from Laura.

  She tried to move away by stepping backwards but stumbled over her feet and fell face-first on to a thick stalk.

  And it was upon her. The Jerusalem cricket, as big as a Labrador, flexed its powerful legs to pounce upon her back.

  She continued to scream as the mandibles dug into her shoulder and pressed slowly together, scraping and dragging through the flesh on the back of her ribs.

  68

  Mills stood with his arms folded. ‘OK, Jacobs, you’ve pissed off the man with the nuclear button – what do we do now?’

  ‘Let’s start with you shooting out the satellite.’ Mills shrugged and left.

  Jacobs continued: ‘Taj, I want to take another look at those blueprints. We’re going to screw that sonofabitch.’

  ‘Say what?’ asked Taj.

  Jacobs rolled the blueprints out across the reception desk.

  ‘I don’t know about you guys but for some reason killing the others just doesn’t sit right with me. If we’re going to get them out of there then we’ve got to break the remote connection between the Pentagon and here …’

  She was interrupted by a burst of gunfire and the sound of the satellite shattering above them.

  ‘… So now he can’t remote-detonate, which means he’s going to have to send someone to do the job instead. Madison, you’ve had to refuel around here, what are the closest bases?’

  ‘Uh … Seven Islands in Bermuda, Garra del Aguila in Colombia … and Santa Cruz, North-east Brazil. They might have others, but those are the nearest three I know.’

  ‘OK, which is closest, and how long would it take to get a nuclear strike over here?’

  ‘They’re about the same, but I’d go for Santa Cruz. It’s definitely strapped for nuclear. My man Nathan runs fuel into there, and he’s seen the F-35s. Maybe two, two and a half hours when you factor in a few calls from the Pentagon and an emergency scramble.’

  Jacobs set the countdown on her watch and waited for Mills, who strode back into the reception area looking pleased with himself.

  ‘And what we gonna do with those two hours?’ asked Taj.

  ‘We’re going to get them out. Something that asshole said made me realize there’s another way in: ‘With no means of escape’. He’s saying that the only way into the new area is through Bishop’s office. That’s the only entrance and exit they ever had for thousands of square feet of lab space? No way. Let’s not forget they only moved everything to our area after the old one went wrong, so there’s not only another way out, there’s got to be another way to the surface.’

  ‘Great,’ said Mills. ‘And where the hell is that?’

  ‘Let’s all take another look at the blueprints, we might just find something we’ve missed.’

  ‘There’s only the stairs at the back of the Abdomen part,’ said Mills.

  ‘Yeah? Then maybe there’s a clue in this number: 503. Could that mean anything good for us?’ asked Jacobs.

  Madison looked as if he was back in school, and in a class he was failing. Mills shook his head just to make sure everyone knew he was thinking really hard. Taj considered Jacobs’ words for a moment before surprising them all.

  ‘If that’s feet, that’s near as dammit five hundred, and we all know that’s how far the elevator goes down, because we all took the long ride and asked the question. So we just look for where this’d be on the map and I’d say there’s gonna be some kind of door, hatch, whatever, in the jungle.’

  He folded his arms and stood back waiting for the others to appreciate his genius.

  Mills and Madison were even more confused now. How did Taj beat them to it?

  Jacobs smiled. ‘Sounds like we might just have ourselves a plan.’

  69

  Webster was lying on his back in a crumpled pile of large green fronds. He had twisted his ankle on landing and the pain was enough to blanch his face and leave him groaning through his teeth.

  He sat up on a tree root and pulled his sock down. The ankle was already inflating and had turned an angry shade of scarlet, but Webster had broken bones and taken bullets before; this might slow him down but it wasn’t going to stop him. He grasped the broad stalk in front of him and dragged himself up, taking care to keep his weight on his good foot.

  He ran through his choices: the most sensible would be to call for help and get Garrett down to winch him up. But that would mean losing Laura for sure, and he wondered how the sight of him hobbling around upstairs without her or Andrew would affect the others.

  The other option would be to search for Andrew
and Laura on his twisted ankle. Would he really be able to help them that much? He could barely walk, so even if he did find them, defending them from the insects and helping them get back to Level One would not be easy. He might even make things harder by needing their help more than they needed him.

  But then, he was armed, and that had to be a big plus. He decided he would at least look for them.

  ‘Lauuuuraaaaaa! Aaaaannnddrreewwww! Laauuurraaa!’

  He could feel the foliage deadening his call. With no response, the only thing he could do to improve his odds of finding them was to get moving.

  As he took his first careful steps, he could hear Garrett calling for him, but there was no way he was going to drag her down here. Their best chance of survival was to stay on Level One, so he resolved to wait until he had moved further away before calling out again.

  70

  Laura was screaming in long, hoarse bellows of pain.

  The metal shoulder-strap that hung off the back of her jacket was angering the Jerusalem cricket, which could not bring its jaws together to complete its bite.

  The mandibles had drawn plenty of blood but had not yet reached the scapula or the ribs. To Laura it felt as if two blunt carving knives were pulling through her flesh, digging at the skin and causing mounting agony.

  She was pinned across a hard, curving root as thick as her thigh, but just beyond that was a wide pool of water that made up part of the hydroponics system.

  If she were forced any further forward there was a good chance she could drown, so she was doing her best to resist the pressure of the beast on her back.

  She grabbed hold of the roots again but she was weakened by the blood loss, and now the creature was pressing her forwards with its strong back legs.

  She looked up as far as she could to see the water just ahead. It appeared to be rising to meet her, getting closer to her nostrils and mouth.

  Further the mandibles dug, sliding her onward with irresistible force.

  The tip of her nose was touching the water now. She could feel the tepid moisture as her hard breaths rippled the surface.

  This is how I die, she thought.

  Then she saw something else flop into her line of sight. Thin and brown, it bent in front of her, and she knew she had to grab hold of it.

  Reaching forward, she just managed to get her right hand around it. What now? she thought.

  Gripping harder, she was surprised to feel the pain in her back ease a little. In fact, the harder she gripped, the looser the cricket’s hold became.

  With one more massive effort, she yanked on what was in her hand.

  The shriek in her ear felt like a long flow of sharp gravel. She had one of its incredibly sensitive antennae, and was inflicting hard waves of pain on the creature.

  It snapped forward, aiming for the hand, but Laura moved out of range at the last moment and it bit hard into its own antenna.

  Another God-awful screech came and elongated into a howl. Laura seized her opportunity and bent the other antenna back on to itself.

  The cricket thrashed its head from side to side, squealing and screaming. This movement sent it off balance and it tipped on to its back, bent antennae in the air.

  Laura slid painfully out from under it and coughed, feeling the barking agony of her back as her ribs shook.

  She looked across at the cricket, seeing for the first time how hideous and powerful it appeared. But there was no time for fear. She had to finish it off, and fast, before its helpless noises attracted anything else.

  Slumping over towards its head, she found its eyes and dug her thumbs deep inside them. She had to hold on tight, as the whipping and bucking continued with even greater vigour. She knew this wouldn’t kill it, but she was harming it enough to make sure she could get away without it following her.

  She slid her thumbs out of the black mush, staggered to her feet and stumbled away. Within a few paces she was out of sight, hidden by leaves and stalks. Taking a moment to lean against a deep green trunk, she tried to calm down.

  The pause left no distractions from the pain. Along with the blood loss, it overwhelmed her and she felt something deep within ebbing away. Despite everything, it felt quite pleasant.

  Torn, broken and bloody, she dropped to her knees, leaned forward against the tree and passed out.

  71

  ‘Fuck me, eh? Fuck me?’ muttered Tobias Paine as he dialled the four-digit Pentagon extension.

  ‘Good morning, Mr Paine, you are speaking to Sheila Berenson, General Facilities Secretary, Special Ops. How can I help you today?’

  ‘Good morning, Ms Berenson, you can help me today by giving me the authorization codes for a twenty-two fourteen on MEROS.’

  ‘A twenty-two fourteen?’ She had been trained to respond in a calmly efficient manner to all requests but she had yet to receive one of this gravity.

  ‘Yes, Sheila, a twenty-two fourteen. Would you like me to explain what that is?’

  ‘Uh, no, sir. That won’t be necessary.’ In the face of Paine’s patronizing tone, she immediately reverted to correct protocol. ‘Could I have your password, please?’

  ‘Certainly, it’s cherry pie.’

  She typed it in.

  ‘That has been confirmed, sir. Now all I have to do is input my corresponding code and we should be …’ Those words hung in the air long enough for Paine to think he had been cut off.

  ‘Hello? Hello? Ms Beren–’

  ‘I’m here, sir.’

  ‘Well?’

  ‘I don’t understand. The codes have been sent, but I have no confirmation that MEROS has received them.’

  ‘Are you saying that you don’t know if the operation has been successful?’

  ‘Negative, sir. The operation has not been successful. We have a reading here which tells us if there has been a deployment of nuclear weaponry. There has been no such deployment.’

  ‘And what’s the problem? This is a Code Red emergency, Ms Berenson.’

  ‘Of course, sir. The problem is one of communication. We have lost contact with MEROS.’

  ‘But I was just on the phone with them ten minutes ago. Does everything go through the same system?’

  ‘Yes, sir; a satellite link.’

  ‘So’ – Paine rubbed his forehead and sighed – ‘if this link had been disabled in some way, then a twenty-two fourteen would be impossible?’

  ‘I guess so. But wouldn’t a malfunction be more likely?’

  ‘Perhaps. Perhaps not.’

  72

  ‘I’m going down there,’ said Garrett, removing the heavier weapons from her shoulders.

  ‘Are you sure that’s such a good idea?’ asked Bishop as carefully as he could. He knew that Garrett’s default reaction was to do the opposite of whatever he suggested or wanted, but he also knew that her going down to Level Two would condemn her to the same fate as Andrew, Laura and Webster.

  As far as Bishop was concerned – and he was not the only one – the three of them were not going to return. If a man as robust and experienced as Webster could not find his way back, then the others could forget it, and that included Garrett.

  ‘Yes, shitcake, I am very sure it’s such a good idea. I’ve lost one too many friends today and I’m running out. I know your motto is Fuck ’em, especially if they’re grunts, but I happen to have a feeling or two rattling around in here.’

  ‘Garrett, he’s right.’ The last person she was expecting to say that was Carter, but there he was, stepping in on Bishop’s side.

  ‘You must have a good reason for taking the side of this asshole, Carter,’ she said. ‘Let’s hear it.’

  ‘We can’t just keep sending people down there without knowing what we’re up against. As far as folks I care about go, after my mom, it’s Webster, so I want him back up here bad, but there’s a reason he’s still down there.’ He pointed to what they could see of the
foliage through the hole Garrett had blasted in the floor. ‘That’s the greenhouse from hell. We already know that whatever ate Lisa is down there, and now three more of us have gone and no one’s come back. Don’t you see? If we’re going to get out of here, we’ve got to play the odds, and they’re saying stay the hell out of there.’

  Garrett considered this. ‘I don’t know, Carter. I can’t let someone else die if I can do something about it.’

  ‘Excuse me.’ It was Takeshi. ‘Perhaps there is a way you can help them without venturing to Level Two.’

  73

  Laura was finally coming round. Lying face down across a mesh of gnarled roots, her back was a throbbing wave of constant biting pain. When she tried to lift her head off the ground her shoulder joined in, sending that pain harder and deeper through her back like an axe blade.

  Uppermost in her mind were thoughts of Andrew. They helped to repress the physical pain but presented an emotional agony that was far harder to manage. There was no way a boy as small and unprepared as her son could possibly have survived more than five minutes down here.

  She wept. The tears came in dense sobs that shook through her and covered her face and hands in a slick of moisture. Her thoughts were swift black clouds, colliding in confusion as they shot around her head.

  But the possibility of being found by another creature was also ever-present. She knew that she could give up and wait here to die, or she could cling to the tiny possibility that she might still find her son and that they could somehow get out of here and return to a home that now seemed impossibly distant.

  Rolling over on to her good shoulder, she winced. She no longer felt as if she had a back; it was now just a fiery blast of excruciating misery. Her mouth was dry and claggy from the overpowering heat and loss of blood and her head pounded with the ache of dehydration.