by Ben Wolf
Dirk matched it with one of his own. “Back atcha, you little bitch.”
“Could you please stop bickering like twelve-year-olds?” Shannon snapped. She eyed Dirk. “How did you get into my room? And why are you here in the first place?”
“What’s all the noise?” called a male voice from another room.
Shannon’s eyes narrowed at Dirk this time. “There are more of you?”
Dirk grinned. “Eight, including me and the two dykes.”
Connie shot him a glare, and Candy appeared in the same doorway Connie had come from. She frowned and squinted in the light just like Connie had done.
“Speak of the dyke, and she shall appear.” Dirk laughed, and a few male chuckles sounded behind Candy.
“Get everyone into the living room now.” Shannon blazed into the adjacent room and activated the lights.
Dirk yawned, but he complied.
Five minutes later, Dirk reclined on Shannon’s couch next to two of his friends while Pig-Nose and Reggie stood nearby. Now they all reminded Justin of his uncle Vince—all clad in white “wife-beater” undershirts and blue jeans and generally being dicks. No wonder Dirk had always rubbed him the wrong way.
Bryce “Pinch” Pincher, the drug dealer, was the seventh man, and he leaned against the wall near Connie and Candy, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder.
Justin, Garth, Etya, Harry, Noby, and Stecker stood against the wall opposite of them while Carl stood in the center of the room. They all exchanged terse introductions, and the newcomers seemed genuinely surprised and shocked that the owner of the entire company had gotten trapped in this debacle with them.
Shannon came out of what appeared to be her bedroom, glaring at Dirk. “Where are they?”
Dirk pursed his lips, clearly trying to fight off a smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sweetheart.”
She closed in on him. “Don’t play games with me. I want them back.”
Dirk just shrugged, but when Stecker started toward him, he sighed and dug into his back pocket. He produced a piece of lacy fabric and spread it out between his fingers.
It was a purple thong.
She snatched it from him, and he blew her a kiss.
“You’re disgusting.” She left the room before he had a chance to respond, and Stecker returned to his position by Justin.
“Let’s get to the matter at-hand,” Carl said. “We’re more or less stuck in here. The cafeteria is flooded with that black gas—”
“Phichaloride,” Etya said.
Carl glanced at her. “Yes. That. And last we checked, everyone in there had turned into one of those monsters because of it.”
Pinch stared at the floor, wide-eyed, either scared out of his mind or blitzed by whatever substance he was on. Maybe both.
“The parking garage exit appears to be blocked, and we came from the admin residences and offices which are also blocked,” Carl continued. “Are there any other ways out?”
“We could try to leave via one of the external doors.” Stecker looked to Etya. “But doing that presents a whole host of other problems.”
“It would require oxygen tanks and, ideally, safety suits due to the planet’s harsh environment,” Etya said. “The planet’s atmosphere is not conducive to organic life. Even if we found enough suits and put them on, we would be hard-pressed to reach another settlement or to find a form of transportation not tethered to the mine.”
“If we can get outside, I can order my pilot to meet us out there,” Carl said. “That’s easy.”
“But with hundreds of those mutated people between us and the external exits, we don’t stand much of a chance,” Stecker said. “Especially not with the limited firepower we have.”
“And if the ghost keeps trying to trap us and kill us along the way, we’re totally doomed,” Garth said. “I don’t know how he’s doing it, but even I can’t keep up with him.”
“Ghost? What ghost?” Dirk asked.
“I knew it,” Connie said.
“He isn’t a ghost, so please stop calling him that,” Carl snapped.
Garth kept his mouth shut and didn’t make eye contact with him.
“If he’s not a ghost, what is he?” Justin asked.
Carl glowered at him. “Let’s stay on topic. I know we’d all like to leave this mine alive. Is that okay with you, Mr. Barclay?”
“Seems like you’re avoiding the question.”
“I don’t care what it seems like,” Carl fired back. “I don’t care about a single thing you think, so you can shut your cavernous mouth.”
Dirk chuckled. “Hear, hear!”
Justin shot them both a glare.
Carl straightened his back. He pressed his palms together in front of his face as if he were praying, but his eyes remained open. “Look, if we stay here, we die. We need to find a way to get to the surface without those mutations or the mine itself killing us in the process.”
Justin’s eyes widened. “The mine.”
They all looked at him. Again, Carl glowered at him.
“What about it?” Shannon asked.
Justin scowled back at Carl. “You know what? Never mind. Mr. Eight-Percent-of-the-Galaxy’s-Wealth doesn’t want me talking, so forget it.”
Carl pointed at him, but Shannon spoke first. “Come on, Justin. He’s a jerkoff, and we all know it—”
Dirk guffawed again, and his friends “ooed” at her remark.
“—but he’s not the only one you’d be saving if your idea’s good.”
Justin shook his head and stared at Carl. “If this works out, maybe you’ll thank me later instead of continually being a prick.”
It didn’t faze Carl. He just folded his arms and said, “Start talking, and we’ll find out.”
Justin clenched his teeth, then he loosened his jaw. “The big grav lift in the mine goes up to the surface level, to the mine’s loading docks. Could we get out that way?”
He’d never been up there, so he didn’t actually know.
Harry nodded. “That could work. It’s large enough to fit all of us comfortably. There will be protective suits up there since the loading dock employees need to wear them while loading and unloading, and there’s plenty of room for your pilot to land just outside.”
“Then that’s where we’re going,” Carl said.
Everyone nodded along with him, except for Garth.
“Wait a minute.” Garth held up his hand. “I think we’re all forgetting that the mine is where the ghost—sorry, the unnamed, ethereal entity—originated. If we go into the mine, in theory, he’s going to have total control over everything down there.”
“But there are no mutated people down there to come after us,” Carl said.
“That may not be true,” Etya said. “None of the workers’ bodies were recovered from the original Sector 6 incident. I was the only survivor.”
Carl’s jaw tightened, and he glanced around as if looking for someone to blame, but his last scapegoat had died twenty minutes ago in the cafeteria with Marilyn and Gerhardt. So he shifted his glare to Etya instead.
“I read the files and the reports regarding the incident,” she continued. “They were never found, despite extensive searching.”
“That was three years ago,” Carl countered. “They couldn’t possibly still be alive.”
“Do those things chasing us look alive to you?” Shannon countered.
Carl shook his head. “I don’t know what they are.”
“I hate to throw shit on your fire, but we had a security guard go missing in the mine awhile back,” Stecker said. “His name was Kriff Morrison. We found traces of his blood plus other organic material that probably wasn’t his. Something in there got him before any of this started.”
“But what I’m hearing is there’s no other way out of here unless you want to wait and hope the Inter-Planetary Marines somehow find us amid all of the carnage,” Carl said.
“Wait.” Dirk leaned forward. “The Marines are com
ing? How’d you get through to them?”
Carl nodded toward Noby. “He sent a message to my ship, who contacted the Marines.”
“Why can’t he just do that again and just tell the Marines where we’ll be?” Dirk asked. “Then they can come get us.”
“No signal now.” Noby held his chrome comms device up. “It hasn’t worked since I sent that first message, but I received confirmation that it went through.”
“Let me see it.” Garth held up his hands, and Noby tossed it to him. Garth fumbled with Noby’s comms and it tumbled to the carpeted floor.
“Yeah. I’m sure dropping it will help.” Dirk rolled his eyes.
Noby and Carl frowned at Garth too.
“It’s—it’s fine. It’s fine,” Garth said. “I’ll see if I can get it working.”
“Back to the issue at hand,” Carl said. “The Marines won’t find us in here. We don’t have the manpower or the weapons to get through all of those things. But if we can make it to the grav lift in the mine, we can escape via the loading docks.”
“I still think we should stay put. We’re safe here, and we’re not exposed,” Shannon said.
Connie shivered and rubbed her arms. “Anyone else feeling cold?”
Candy nodded, but she remained still.
Justin thought about it. Now that Connie mentioned it, the air felt crisp and cool. He looked at Garth. “You don’t think…”
Garth nodded. “I think the ghost may have shut off the life support systems in here, too.”
“I didn’t hear an alarm,” Shannon said.
“Maybe there wasn’t one this time.” Garth shrugged. “Or maybe the ghost shut it off.”
“All the more reason why we should go,” Carl said. “If we stay here, we’ll freeze to death or suffocate.”
“Carl’s right. We’ve got to get out of here,” Stecker said. “If it’s already cold then it won’t be long until the air runs out. If those things find us, they can damn well break through this measly door. The mine may be the unknown in this scenario, but we know we can’t get out through the cafeteria or through Admin. We know they’re overrun.”
“That’s all true, but let’s not forget that the mine is plenty dangerous even if those things aren’t down there,” Justin added.
Carl huffed and folded his arms. “You would know.”
Justin raised his robotic arm and extended a shiny, metal middle finger to him. “Damn right I would.”
“You would know, too.” Etya stared at Carl with ice in her blue eyes.
Carl matched her stare. “Enough, Etya.”
“No,” she snapped, and her voice modulated with electronic tones. “How dare you presume to tell me what is enough after everything that has happened?”
Justin glanced between them. What was this about?
“I am tired of your posturing, your positioning,” Etya continued.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Etya scoffed. “So says the king of lies himself.”
Carl pointed his index finger at her. “I’m warning you, Etya.”
“What will you do? See that I am killed? Is that what you did to Mark?”
Carl gawked at her. “I’m appalled you would even harbor such a thought.”
“Nevertheless, my fiancé perished in your mine,” Etya hissed. “But he didn’t have to. I have researched the truth of the matter. Both my commands and Mark’s should have overridden the safety protocols, but they did not. How do you explain that?”
“I’ve spent the last three years trying to figure that out.”
“Another lie. You have spent the last three years preparing this mine to reopen.”
“They go hand-in-hand, Etya.” Carl held his arms out. “Can’t you see that?”
“You only care about yourself and your money. You do not care even for your own—” She stopped and swallowed the rest of her words.
Carl shook his head and stared at her.
“Will you tell them, or will I?” Etya asked quietly.
Everyone stared at them. Justin’s robotic fingers twitched.
A hint of desperation edged Carl’s voice. He glanced at Noby, and Noby glanced back at him. “Etya, please—”
“Very well. I will do it,” Etya said.
Noby yanked his sidearm from his jacket and pointed it at Etya’s face.
“Whoa, whoa! Wait!” Justin said.
“What is this?” Shannon nearly shouted.
“Easy.” Stecker’s hand slowly touched his own sidearm, but he didn’t draw it.
“Ah-ah!” Noby pointed his repeater at Stecker. “Don’t even think about it, little man.”
Stecker raised his hands just as slowly. “It’s fine. Take it easy.”
Noby glanced between Shannon, Justin, Harry, and Stecker. “Don’t get any ideas.”
They kept quiet and kept their hands up.
“This shit’s better than cable.” Dirk reclined on the couch and folded his arms, and one of his buddies huffed.
“You may threaten me all you want, Carl,” Etya said. “But if you kill me, there will be no accessing of the mine. Rodney is dead, and now only I have the master code to unlock the doors in this complex. Without me, you will not escape.”
Carl’s jaw tensed, and his eyes narrowed. “I would find another way.”
“In time, perhaps. But for all your vast resources, time is one thing you lack down here.”
Carl chuckled and shook his head. “I never understood why Mark loved you. I mean, you’re beautiful—well, you were—and you’re intelligent, but you were always such a bitch.”
Dirk and his friends ooed again.
“Being an intelligent, direct woman does not make me a bitch,” Etya said. “It makes me capable of standing up to vile men like you.”
Carl frowned.
“And so we return to the question: will you tell them, or will I?”
The question typhooned through Justin’s head. He and everyone else stared at Carl.
Carl sighed. “Mark Brown, the entity you continue referring to as the ‘ghost,’ is my brother.”
29
Silence gripped the room.
Then Dirk ruined it. “So?”
Justin wanted to bash Dirk’s head with his own pipe, but he couldn’t totally fault Dirk for not grasping the gravity of Carl’s admission.
Mark—the ghost—was Carl’s brother. The ghost had threatened Carl’s life specifically in Bartholomew’s office, and Carl had addressed him by name. The ghost was after Carl—perhaps only after Carl.
After all, it had already spared Justin at least twice when it could’ve killed him or just let him die. Maybe it had even orchestrated all of the accidents to get Carl to ACM-1134.
If Justin was willing to believe Mark was actually a ghost—a ghost he’d seen with his own eyes multiple times—and that he somehow had control over the complex’s networks and technology, then the idea made sense. Yes, the ghost had killed hundreds of other workers, but theoretically, it was all to get to Carl.
The ghost had tried to trap Carl in Bartholomew’s office to gas him, then it had gassed dozens of admin employees to turn them into those mutations, perhaps hoping they’d finish Carl off. Then it broke through the shield into the common area’s sub-network and gassed the remaining majority of the workers in the cafeteria to keep Carl from escaping that way.
Perhaps this wasn’t Justin’s fault after all. The ghost wanted Carl, and everything else that had happened was just collateral damage.
Either way, it meant there was only one tenable way out: through the mine, where the ghost already controlled everything. They were trapped, and it was Carl’s fault.
“You bastard.” Justin started toward Carl.
Noby pointed his repeater at Justin’s chest, and Justin stopped.
“I really don’t get why everyone’s so pissed off about the ghost being this dude’s brother, even if he does own the mine,” Dirk said.
“He’s
the reason the ghost is messing with everything in the first place,” Stecker replied.
“The ghost just wants him,” Justin said. “Not anyone else. Everything the ghost has done so far has happened solely to get Carl.”
Dirk sighed. “Okay, but why?”
“Because he killed Mark,” Etya said. “I do not have definitive proof, but I have no other explanation for why my friends and I were trapped in Sector 6 for so long, why our administrative override commands inexplicably failed, or why the filtration turbines shut down on their own. I have researched every angle and come to the conclusion that someone must have ordered them shut off.”
“That is a lie. It simply isn’t true,” Carl said. “I would never wish, much less intentionally bring harm upon my brother or anyone else.”
Etya stared at him and folded her arms. “There is no other explanation.”
“What matters now is that the ghost thinks it’s true.” Justin eyed Dirk.
Dirk’s eyes narrowed for a moment, then they opened wider. “So if we throw his ass to the mutated wolves, so to speak, the ghost might let us go free?”
“I can’t speak for the rest of you—” Justin grinned. “—but I think it’s worth a shot.”
Noby leveled his repeater at Justin’s head. “Try it, and see what happens.”
Justin glanced past Noby at Dirk, who stood up and started toward Carl.
Noby whirled around, grabbed Dirk’s right wrist with his free hand, and drove his repeater under Dirk’s chin. “Anyone moves against Mr. Andridge, and this one dies.”
Justin, Shannon, and Stecker exchanged glances.
Justin scratched his head. “You know, that’s not much of a deterrent.”
“Wouldn’t break my heart.” Shannon brushed something off of her shoulder.
Stecker shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me, either.”
Dirk cast a scathing glare at each of them.
“Look.” Harry stepped forward. “Killing Mr. Andridge isn’t the answer. Neither is killing Dirk in the process. Our first plan is a good one. If we can get out of here, all of this ends. It doesn’t matter who’s at fault now. We’re all in this together.”