Aftermath (After the Fall Dystopian Series Book 1)

by Tom Lewis

  And then they entered it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The Belly of the Beast

  Nothing could have prepared Paige for the overwhelming sense of dread and terror she felt as she passed through those massive metal doors at the entrance. And that’s because nothing built by man had the instilled sense of presence this temple had. The building sensed her, and watched her. It knew she was there. And it hungered and thirsted for her. She felt it, the way you feel an intruder in your room in the dark of night. Or the way a dog stares into a corner, sensing something beyond human sight. And what terrified her all the more was that she couldn’t pinpoint the source of this presence. It just was the temple.

  The tunnel through which she and the throng were passing was dim, stretching out far into the distance before fading into darkness. What little illumination there was came from those phosphorescent rocks placed at irregular intervals along the ceiling.

  The walls were dark, and moist, and felt to Paige like the organs of some enormous beast. But of course they were of stone, as was the rest of the structure. At least that’s what she assumed. And hoped.

  Periodically, she caught the faint echoes of moans reverberating in the distance. Like the haunting whispers of phantoms, or tortured souls doomed to an eternity of suffering.

  Then a loud gong clanged, and the massive metal doors at the entrance crashed shut. That was it, she thought. There was no going back. She was trapped in this place. In this thing.

  She and Drew kept with the throng, as it flowed down the corridor. They were somewhere in the middle of the Shamblers, she guessed, and it looked like about a hundred had entered when the doors closed.

  As they proceeded down the corridor, Paige noticed other passageways splitting off from the one they were on, and veering off into the darkness. Her instincts told her that if they were ever going to find Chad, they needed to take one of these side passageways. The Shamblers were expected to stay on this main corridor, so she could only guess that it ended in their doom.

  She gently brushed her hand against Drew’s to get his attention. They were approaching one of the side passageways, and she nodded her head in that direction. He nodded back.

  As they passed the passageway, the two of them slipped out of the throng, and disappeared off down it.

  ***

  The passage they were now in was much narrower than the main corridor. It was also darker, and Paige couldn’t shake the feeling it was much more hostile to their presence in it.

  There were a few of those phosphorescent stones, but they were more spread out, barely giving enough light for them to see by. But what Paige could see made her skin crawl. The walls seemed to be made of a translucent material, with what appeared to be veins running just beneath the surface. At least that was the best way she could describe them.

  As they crept further down it, she also sensed the walls were moving. Ever so slightly. The “skin” covering the walls, as she was now thinking of it, had a sheen that reflected light when seen at the right angle. And it was that sheen that seemed to give away the movement.

  What the hell was this place?

  They reached a fork, where the passage, or artery as she was now thinking of it, split off in two directions. Drew nodded towards the passage veering to the right. There seemed to be a light coming from the distance.

  It was at the moment Paige realized they’d been in silence this entire time. Drew’s presence had been the only thing keeping her sane as they had descended into the bowels of this monstrosity, and it meant everything in the world to her that he had come.

  They headed off down the passage to the right, following it around several turns, and finally seeing the source of the light. The passage opened into an enormous chamber.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  The Pods

  Paige and Drew crept from the passage, and into a cavernous chamber. It appeared to be the size of a school auditorium, and was well lit with thousands of those phosphorescent stones embedded all over the walls.

  The center of the chamber was lined with rows of what looked like pods. Each pod had a vein-like tube attached to it, that ran up to the ceiling high above.

  As she and Drew approached the pods, she noticed they were made of a semi-transparent material. Almost like a membrane. They seemed to be some kind of incubators. Or wombs.

  Paige raced over to one of the pods, staring through the membrane. Suddenly she sprang back! Terrified, and sickened. Inside the pod was a monstrosity, floating in an amniotic fluid. If she were to describe it, the thing vaguely resembled a giant hairless dog, blended with human features. And it was massive, with thick muscles covering its body. She had no doubt it would stand over seven feet tall if standing on its hind legs.

  Whatever it was, it was a complete abomination against nature.

  She startled at Drew’s touch. She had been so frozen in shock, she hadn’t heard him approach.

  “Holy shit,” he muttered. “These are the hybrids your friend was talking about?”

  All Paige could manage was a nod. She was that sickened. And shocked.

  Drew glanced back at all the pods, in all the rows. “I’m gonna take a look around. Are you gonna be okay?”

  She nodded.

  He gave her shoulder a light squeeze, then headed down the rows. “What’s your friend look like?” he asked, keeping his voice just above a whisper.

  She finally pulled herself away from the thing in the pod, and turned to Drew. “He’s kind of a surfer looking guy, about your size. Blond hair. He was wearing a letter jacket.”

  “Ken,” Drew grinned.

  “Basically. Yeah.” She caught herself grinning at that, despite herself.

  “Hey, come over here and check this out,” he whispered.

  She hurried over, to where he was staring at a pod. “What is it?”

  “Check it out,” Drew said, nodding to the pod. “This guy still looks human.”

  And he did, Paige noted.

  “It seems like there’s a progression,” Drew continued, “with the ones at this side either being human, or in the early stages transformation.”

  “And the fully transformed ones are at that end,” Paige added, filling in the rest.

  “Exactly.” Then, turning to her, he added, “which means there could still be hope.”

  Paige’s eyes were wide. It did mean hope. “Can you help me look,” she said, scooting down the row to the next pod.

  “That’s what you’re paying me for,” he smiled.

  She turned, smiling back at him. This guy was absolutely adorable, she thought. Even here, in the bowels of hell, he could still make her smile.

  The two of them split up, each taking a separate row. They started at the end of the chamber, where the occupants inside the pods were still human. This was Paige’s idea. She still wasn’t sure she wanted to find Chad if he was at the other end of the chamber.

  Altogether there were over a hundred pods in the chamber, and they had searched through maybe a third of them when she heard Drew call her.

  “Varsity letter ‘P’?” he asked.

  Paige sprinted over, pressing her face against the pod. It was him!

  “Chad!” she exclaimed. She spun around, and threw her arms around Drew’s neck in a tight hug. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  She released him, and turned back to the pod. She tapped on the side of it. The casing was some sort of organic material, that felt a little like a thick, rough shower curtain.

  “We need to find something to cut this,” she said, scanning the area.

  “Like this,” he said, pulling a chisel from his belt.

  “Where’d you get that?” she asked.

  “I snuck it out of the quarry today. This place is sadly lacking in weapons.”

  “Genius,” she grinned.

  Drew shoved the chisel into the side of the pod, puncturing its thick skin. Amniotic fluid dripped through the opening.

  He punc
tured it again, and again, then grabbed the chisel with both arms, and ripped a long opening in the side.

  Amniotic fluid poured out, splashing across the floor.

  “Here, hold the pod steady,” he said, as he reached inside, and wrapped his arms around Chad. Paige held it steady, as Drew tugged, finally hauling Chad out of the opening, and setting him on the floor.

  “Chad,” Paige whispered, kneeling down beside him. She felt his neck for a pulse, then leaned her ear against his. “He’s not breathing,” she said frantically.

  She spun herself around, so she could lean over this chest. She then placed her palm on his chest, and pressed down. She then waited several seconds, and pressed again. “Come on, Chad,” she muttered to herself. This CPR was something her dad had taught her and Brad back during his Army days. It’d seemed like a big waste of time, but he was adamant that his kids learned survival skills. And now that wisdom was paying off.

  She pressed again, then waited, repeating this process several more times.

  Then he jerked!

  Paige scooted back, as Chad coughed up lung fulls of amniotic fluid.

  “Help me turn him on his side,” she said to Drew, and together they rolled Chad onto his side.

  Chad choked, coughing and puking up buckets of that amniotic fluid. It went on for almost a minute, before he finally rolled back on his elbows.

  “Hey, Chad, can you hear me,” she whispered, scooting around in front of him.

  He nodded, coughing several more times. No more fluid was coming up, but his lungs were still drying themselves out. He sat there for several more seconds, catching his breath.

  Then he looked up, scanning his eyes around the alien chamber, apparently seeing it for the first time. Then he focused on Paige, watching him with a concerned look on her face. “Paige?”

  “Yeah,” she nodded, her face breaking into a smile.

  “Where are we?” he asked.

  “We’re inside… I guess it’s like a laboratory those things in the ships built.”

  “Do you feel okay, man,” Drew asked, kneeling down beside Paige.

  Chad nodded, turning back to Paige with a puzzled look on his face.

  “This is my friend, Drew,” Paige explained. “I met him and several of his friends after they took you.”

  “Yeah. It was the soldiers. I remember they came into the hotel while you were gone.”

  “You don’t remember anything else?” Paige asked.

  Chad shook his head. “Just waking up now.”

  “Boy are you in for a surprise,” Drew grinned.

  Paige couldn’t help herself. She had to grin at that. Chad looked at them both with that puzzled look.

  “What he’s saying, is LA’s gone,” Paige explained. “Those aliens built this whole new city where it used to be.”

  “We should probably explain it later,” Drew remarked, casting a worried glance back towards the chamber’s entrance. “I’m not sure how long our luck’s gonna hold out.”

  “Yeah,” Paige nodded, “can you give me a hand.”

  Drew and Paige each grabbed one of Chad’s arms, and helped him to his feet. He stood there for a moment, as his legs adjusted to his weight.

  “Can you walk?” Paige asked.

  Chad took a small step, wobbling a bit, while Drew and Paige stood ready to catch him. Then another step, and by his fourth step his legs seemed to be functioning.

  “So now we get the fun of finding a way out,” Drew remarked.

  Paige seemed to be realizing that flaw in their rescue plan for the first time. With the massive entrance to the temple closed, and guards stationed outside, they would need to find some kind of a back exit to this place. That is, if there even was one. Otherwise, she figured their only chance was to wait until the next summons, and try to sneak out when the doors opened to allow the Shamblers in. And that meant facing all of the armed guards outside.

  This little rescue plan of hers’ was sucking, to say the least.

  “Let’s check around the chamber,” Paige suggested.

  They headed off down the row to the wall, then followed it around the chamber. They found the chamber to be more oval shaped than square, but even then there were irregularities in its shape. Apparently these aliens had something against symmetry, Paige surmised.

  Chad still had the confused look of someone who had just awakened from a dream.

  They also noticed something else. There seemed to be a gentle slope to the floor, with the outer areas along the wall a bit more elevated than the center. Paige thought about it for a second. This was how they built parking lots to flow water into a drain. So maybe there this chamber had been constructed the same way to allow any spilled amniotic fluid to drain.

  She wandered down the rows to the middle of the chamber, and there she found a drain, about three feet in diameter, with a grill covering it.

  “Hey guys, come check this out,” Paige said. “I found a drain.”

  The guys hurried over, taking, a look. “I wonder where it leads,” Drew said.

  “Probably the same place every drain leads,” Paige offered. “Some sort of channel to wash everything away.”

  “You found us a sewage entrance,” Drew grinned.

  Paige hadn’t really wanted to call it that, but yeah. That’s what she was hoping this was.

  That’s when a piercing siren went off, seeming to echo through the entire temple. Those phosphorescent stones began flashing, making the chamber feel like an alien discotheque.

  “You think that’s us?” Drew asked.

  Paige just stared around, her eyes wide with fear. She finally nodded. “I think so.”

  Suddenly three guards stormed into the chamber. Fully armed, with rifles aimed at Paige and her friends.

  “You three, on the ground!” a guard hollered. Paige noted that he seemed to be the taller of the three.

  Paige and friends exchanged a look with each other. It wasn’t so much of a “we’re screwed” look, as it was a “we’d better do it” look.

  The three of them kneeled down on the floor, while the guards kept their rifles aimed at them.

  “Hands behind your heads, and lace your fingers together,” the tall guard hollered, as they rushed over to Paige and her friends.

  Each of the guards raced over behind one of Paige and her friends. Paige noted that the one behind Chad sounded Hispanic, although it was difficult to tell through what looked like ski masks they were wearing.

  “This one’s all wet with something,” said the Hispanic guard, gripping Chad’s wrist.

  The guards turned, looking around the chamber, and then spotted the ruptured pod.

  Paige saw her chance. She leaned back, reaching behind her, then grabbed the guards legs and lunged backwards, coming down on top of the guard.

  As the other guards turned, Drew spun around, swinging his leg around, and catching the tall guard behind his ankle. The tall guard’s legs swept out from beneath him. He came down hard, cracking his head on the floor.

  At the same time, Chad had used the same maneuver as Paige, and was now on top of the Hispanic guard, wrestling his rifle away.

  Paige’s guard, still beneath her, wrapped his arm around her throat. Paige grabbed his arm, leaned her head forward, and bit into it as hard as she could. He released her just long enough for her to lean forward, and slam her elbow back into his face. His head cracked down on the floor.

  Paige spun around, and grabbed his rifle, firing a shot into him, then into the other guards.

  “Come on, you guys. Help me get this open,” she hollered, scooting over to the grill covering the drain.

  She dug her fingers into the grill, and tugged as hard as she could. But this thing wasn’t budging.

  “Let’s try this,” Chad said, shoving the barrel of the Hispanic guard’s rifle into the grill. He leaned down on it, till he finally heard a pop. The seal around the grill had broken.

  “Give me a hand,” he hollered to Drew.
/>   The two boys dug their fingers into the grill, and pried it off the drain.

  “Oh, boy,” Paige remarked, staring down the drain. “This is gonna suck.” She turned back to the dead guards. “Grab the rest of their ammo,” she said, removing a guard’s utility belt, and buckling it around her waist. The boys did the same. That gave them each three more magazines of ammo.

  They slung the rifles over their shoulders, and turned back to the drain. “You want me to go first?” offered Drew.

  “No, I got this,” replied Paige, as she squeezed through the hole.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  The Invaders

  As she had expected, the inside of the drain chute basically sucked. It had been carved into a slick stone, and the walls were coated with something slimy.

  It was wide enough for her petite frame to fit through easily, but Chad and Drew were going to be a tighter fit.

  She scrambled down it, pressing her back against one side, and slowing her descent with her knees pressed against the other.

  She’d descended about fifteen feet so far, and it was already taking a toll on her knees. The slimy goo made it slick, but the rock surface beneath it was pretty jagged.

  Above her, she could hear Chad and Drew struggling to keep up.

  Several more feet, and then her knee missed the wall. She slipped away, and found herself plunging down the chute. It was like a water slide, and she was in free fall. She straightened her legs, and tucked her arms in, bracing for the inevitable impact with the bottom she knew would be coming soon.

  And it did. But not like she expected. Paige plunged out the bottom of the chute, dropping about ten feet into an underground river.

  She splashed down into the water, quickly pulled along with the current. She paddled as hard as she could for the surface, finally pulling head above it. She was being whisked along, and struggled to keep from going under again.

  As far as she could tell, the river seemed to be about fifteen feet wide. But it was difficult to get a look, as the tunnel she was being carried through was dark, and her head kept bobbing beneath the surface.