by Ben Wolf
“Sounds like a bunch of hippie bullshit to me,” Connie muttered.
Candy nodded, and Pinch came out of his stupor long enough to chuckle.
“Think whatever you want, but the only thing that matters is getting out of here alive. We have a better chance of succeeding with all of us working toward that end,” Harry continued.
“It is not the only thing that matters to me,” Etya said.
“You two can sort out your differences later.” Harry held up his hands as if to separate them. “But for now, can we please work together to get the hell out of here?”
“And hopefully find some Marines along the way?” Reggie, one of Dirk’s friends, interjected.
Harry nodded. “That, too.”
Justin hesitated. If the ghost had in fact planned all of this, he’d done a good job of directing them straight into the mine, where he had all the power.
And if the ghost truly was vindictive, then what better way to exact revenge by killing Carl in the very mine where Mark had perished three years prior?
“Guys…” Garth said. “It’s… I’m feeling short of breath.”
“He’s right. We’re running out of air. We need to do something,” Stecker said.
“Then we head to the loading docks.” Harry looked at Justin and then at Stecker. “What do you say?”
Stecker poked his head and his repeater out of Shannon’s door and checked the hallway before he let anyone leave. Once Stecker confirmed it was clear, Justin and Etya slipped past him, and Etya unlocked Justin’s room for him.
Inside, Justin swapped out his shirt for a clean one, but he left everything else behind. None of it mattered enough to justify the extra risk.
Back in the hallway, he found Dirk staring at him with his arms folded. “Ready, princess?”
Shannon emerged from her room, also clad in fresh clothing, before Justin could respond to Dirk. She glanced between them both. “Everything’s good between you two, right?”
“Peachy.” Dirk beamed at her. He called back into the room, “Reggie, bring me my pipe.”
Shannon looked at Justin, and he just nodded.
“Good,” Shannon said. “I don’t want anything getting in the way of our escape.”
“I can see my breath. What’s the holdup?” Carl called from farther down the hall.
“Nothing, boss,” Dirk answered. He turned to Justin, held up his hand, limp-wristed, and waggled his fingertips.
Reggie handed him his pipe, then Dirk headed toward Carl, Stecker, and everyone else.
Shannon looked at Justin. “What’s that about?”
“He’s just being his usual self.”
She nodded. “Say no more.”
With Stecker, Justin, and Candy, who now carried Etya’s repeater, in the lead, the group advanced toward the corridor door. Though bent and twisted, it had somehow remained intact. Garth tried to open it again with the access terminal, but the motor began groaning and grinding.
“Turn it off!” Stecker hissed. “They’ll hear it!”
“I’m trying!” Garth worked the control panel. “It’s too bent. And the motor won’t stop!”
Dirk pushed past Stecker and Garth, jammed his pipe between the door and the frame, and wrenched hard. Metal screeched, and then the door popped loose. It started to slide open on its own, but one of the dents kept it from opening more than halfway. The motor in the door stopped grinding.
“Back up!” With his left hand, Stecker grabbed Dirk’s wrist and yanked him away from the door. Then he pointed the repeater at the new opening. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Justin shifted his position so he had a clear shot at the door as well. He saw no movement beyond the frame. Maybe the mutations had left for the time being.
“I think I’m getting the damned door open.” Dirk jerked free of Stecker’s grip. “Don’t touch me again, old man, or I’ll put you in your place.”
Stecker didn’t lower his repeater, but he matched Dirk’s hardened gaze with one of his own. “Just like last time, right?”
Dirk rested his pipe on his right shoulder. “Things are different this time around.”
Justin blinked. Was Dirk seriously suggesting that his pipe trumped Stecker’s repeater? Did his stupidity have any limit?
Stecker cleared his throat and refocused on the door. “They appear to have gone. Maybe we should detour back to the cafeteria and see if we can get out.”
“Why don’t you scout it out and let us know if it’s safe?” Carl suggested.
From Carl’s tone, Justin could tell he’d be fine if Stecker didn’t make it back.
Stecker just shrugged. “Okay. Follow me into the hallway. I want everyone ready to move, either toward the mine or toward the cafeteria, whichever one I call out. If those things come back, we won’t have much time. They’re fast.”
Justin glanced at Shannon, but she wasn’t looking at him.
They followed Stecker out of the dorm corridor and congregated just outside the crumpled door. Stecker crept ahead, peered around the corner in both directions with his repeater at the ready, and then he disappeared toward the cafeteria.
No one said a word. Justin caught Connie and Candy staring at him, and he gave them each a half-smile. Connie returned it, and Candy looked away. No surprise there.
Pinch and Garth stood side-by-side, both staring at the floor with vacant eyes.
“Run!” A shout ripped Justin back into reality.
Stecker.
Justin wasted no time. He rounded the corner toward the cafeteria and saw a dozen snarling, drooling mutations chasing Stecker.
“To the mine!” Stecker yelled as he ran.
As Stecker closed in, Justin raised his repeater, lined up a shot—
Stecker batted Justin’s repeater to the side. “Just run.”
The action confused Justin at first, but he complied. When he turned toward the direction of the mine, he understood. Everyone else had already started running ahead of them. If the mutations caught up, Stecker and Justin would die first.
They followed the rest of the group down the passageway and into the buffer zones. Garth managed to get the door shut in plenty of time, but everyone knew it wouldn’t hold. The first slam started them running again.
“Shouldn’t we put on safety gear?” Harry asked between heaving breaths as they approached the decontamination showers.
“No time.” Stecker huffed and wheezed. “If all goes well, we’ll make it to the lift without coming into contact with anything radioactive or dangerous.”
“If all goes well,” Shannon said.
“Safety gear will slow us down. It’s not worth it,” Stecker said.
Justin stopped running when the group bottlenecked at the showers’ exit.
Metal shrieked and crashed behind him, and Justin whirled around.
They’d already broken into the first buffer zone.
But the group squeezed through the door, and it sealed behind them, again thanks to Garth. Then the mutations banged and slammed into the door.
They’d entered the passageway separating the showers from the mine.
“Etya?” Stecker called ahead.
The group parted, and Etya materialized from among them.
Stecker pointed his repeater at the massive mine door. “Open it. Quickly, please.”
She complied. She pressed her robotic hand against the control panel, and it chirped in approval. The mine door opened with a heavy clank. Dirk and Reggie pulled it open, and Stecker, Harry, and Justin pointed their repeaters into the total darkness beyond.
The slams and groaning of metal behind them crescendoed to a death knell.
“Everyone inside, now,” Stecker said.
“It’s pitch black in there!” Pig Nose whined.
Dirk smacked Pig Nose’s head. “Get your ass in there, or we’ll leave you behind.”
They all filtered into the mine except for Garth, who stood there, staring at the void.
&nbs
p; “Garth!” Justin hurried back for him.
“Wait!” Stecker reached for him but missed.
Something crashed from the other end of the passageway.
As Justin’s human hand latched onto Garth’s thick wrist, the first of the mutations lumbered into the passageway. Justin’s eyes widened, and he fired two quick plasma blasts at it. One missed, but the other struck one of its legs. It staggered, and its momentum carried it into one of the tunnel walls with a wet smack.
Justin jerked on Garth’s wrist and hauled him across the threshold into the dark mine.
All the while, Garth begged him to stop. “Please—I—I can’t go in there!”
“Close the door!” Stecker shouted.
Together with Pig Nose and Reggie, Dirk pulled on the heavy mine door. They got it more than halfway closed when the first sets of limbs coiled around its outer edges. Then more mutations grabbed the door. Then more.
The mutations began pulling back.
And for all their combined strength, Dirk, Reggie, and Pig Nose couldn’t pull it shut.
“Help!” Pig Nose wailed.
Justin and almost everyone else rushed forward to help while Carl and Noby stayed safely behind. Together, they pulled on the door and shot off mutated limbs, and inch by inch, they forced it shut.
“Garth, can you latch it again?” Stecker shouted, his back still pressed against the massive door.
Garth just stood there, staring at them, his face faintly illuminated by the glow of the repeaters held by others.
“Garth!” Stecker shouted, then he swore.
Etya left the door, headed over to the access terminal, and pressed her robotic hand against it. The terminal chirped like the one on the other side of the door had, and a familiar clank sounded from the door.
“It’s locked,” she called over the fracas.
One-by-one, everyone stepped away from the mine door. It held. The faint thumps of the mutations slamming against the other side still sounded, but they were locked out of the mine. It was too big of a door to break through.
Everyone leaned against the walls or sat on the floor, sucking in gulps of air, now in abundance. The mine’s life support systems were still on, even though the lights weren’t.
“Why aren’t the lights on?” one of Dirk’s friends asked.
Justin’s repeater barely cast enough light for him to see who’d said it.
No one gave an answer, but Stecker activated the flashlight function on his repeater. Justin and Harry did likewise, as did the others holding repeaters.
“Better than nothing,” Stecker said. “Those things can’t get through that mine door. We’ll rest for another few minutes, and then we’re heading toward the grav lift.”
“I’m ready now,” Carl said from the darkness beyond Noby. “We should keep moving in case more of those things show up.”
Stecker shook his head. “We just got the chance to get some air. We need rest. I don’t want any stragglers. It’s just five minutes.”
“I really think—”
“No one cares what you think anymore, Carl,” Dirk snapped. “So shut your damned mouth and do what we tell you to.”
Everyone stared at Carl, but he gave no reply. He just stood there, little more than a silhouette behind Noby, facing them.
A few minutes later, Stecker stood up. “Alright. Let’s get the hell out of here. I’ve got a daughter to get home to.”
Guided by the lights on their repeaters, they headed toward the grav lift. To Justin’s relief, the door to Sector 6 was sealed shut. None of the mining hazards—or anything else—inside could get to them. At least for now.
When they reached the grav lift, Etya tried to access it with her override code. As before, she pressed her hand against the terminal, but nothing happened. She tried again, but still nothing happened.
She looked back at Garth. “I do not understand.”
Garth stood there, staring at it, and he adjusted his backpack on his shoulders. “I don’t think there’s any power coming to it. The terminals to the mine door must be connected to a different channel than everything here in the mine itself. With no power, we can’t get the door open. Even if we could get the door open, with no power, we have no grav lift.”
“Is there a place for maintenance access?” Justin asked no one in particular. “Or stairs? Like an emergency exit or anything?”
“There’s an access door about ten yards from here.” Harry shined his light toward it. Sure enough, a sliding door embedded in the metal wall gleamed in the darkness. “I’m not sure where all that could get us, but perhaps it’s a start.”
“I’m sure it’s connected to the same power channels as everything else in here,” Garth said. “It’ll be a nightmare—probably a loud one—to get it open.”
“We have to do something,” Stecker said. “If we can get inside, that access shaft has a ladder we can climb to the top. It won’t be fun, and it’ll take awhile, but if it’s our only way out, it’s what we’ll have to do.”
Justin didn’t love the idea of climbing up a ladder multiple stories to the planet’s surface, but he didn’t want to die, either. He’d rather have to fight off his vertigo than a bunch of mutated coworkers trying to kill him.
As they approached the maintenance shaft door, something touched Justin’s rear-end, and he jumped. He whirled around, but the nearest person stood five feet behind him, and it was Harry—not who Justin would’ve expected to grab at his ass.
He met Harry’s eyes in the darkness, then he found Shannon’s. They both squinted at him.
“You alright?” Harry asked.
“Fine, I think. I just thought—”
It happened again, and he whirled around again. Ahead of him, Stecker continued forward, flanked by Connie and Candy. It couldn’t have been either of them.
Justin touched the spot where he’d felt the sensation and felt a lump in his back denim pocket. He pulled it out.
The Nebrandt plant. It was blooming again, down here in the darkness where no one could appreciate its vibrant colors.
Clank.
The sound, heavy and metallic, yet distant, came from the direction they’d come.
It came from the mine door. Someone or something had opened it.
Stecker stopped and turned back toward Justin, and everyone looked toward the direction of the door, now out of sight thanks to the mine corridor’s curve and the profound darkness beyond the reach of their lights.
Justin whispered a curse under his breath.
Up and down the corridor, red lights along the floor’s perimeter ignited, casting crimson onto the mine’s blue outer wall and onto the metal inner wall.
A few of the group gasped, and everyone looked around. It looked like the inside of an oven.
The Nebrandt bud in Justin’s hand blossomed wide, and he squinted at it. Painted scarlet by the red lights, it sat in his hand, sprawled out in all of its splendor, perfect except for a crinkled petal or two.
It had bloomed, and then the red lights had turned on. Earlier, it had bloomed when the ghost first appeared in Bartholomew’s office, and then it closed back up once the ghost left.
“What the hell’s going on?” a male voice asked.
“I don’t know,” Stecker replied. “Nothing good.”
Was the Nebrandt plant responding to the ghost somehow? Justin had suggested that Keontae use an impulse accelerator to grow the Nebrandt plants faster. They used electrical stimuli to encourage faster growth, just like the ones the nearby greenhouse used for their plants.
“We should move,” Harry said.
“Move where?” Stecker asked. “If that door’s open, we can’t go that way.”
“Back to Admin,” Harry replied. “We’ll use the smaller grav lift.”
“There’s no air in Admin by now,” Shannon said.
“We have to,” Harry countered. “We can’t shoot down all of those things in here. Not with light this low and with as few repeaters as
we have. We need a more fortified position.”
Electrical stimuli. Justin’s eyes widened. The ghost could somehow control the mine’s technology. And the last two times the mine’s technology had acted seemingly on its own, the Nebrandt plant had blossomed—the same as if it were exposed to an impulse accelerator.
The Nebrandt plant was inadvertently warning Justin when the ghost was nearby.
“Fine. I’ll take the lead with Carl, Noby, and Candy. You take the rear with Justin and Shannon,” Stecker directed.
“Got it,” Harry replied. “Justin, you’re with me.”
Justin ignored him. “Garth, do you have tape or some wire in your backpack?”
Garth blinked at him. “I think so. Why?”
“Can I have some?”
Garth shrugged. “Sure. What do you need it for?”
“Justin, we need to get moving,” Harry said. “We’re heading toward Admin. Didn’t you hear what we were saying?”
“Hold on.” Justin looked back at Garth. “I just need to connect something to my repeater.”
Garth pulled out a coil of thin copper wire. “What about this?”
“Perfect.”
Garth tossed it to him, and Justin began to secure the Nebrandt plant to the top of his repeater.
“We’re in the shit, and you’re playing botanist?” Dirk shook his head. “Such a queer.”
“You know, ‘Dirk’ is just one letter away from being ‘Dick,’” Justin fired back. “We can walk while I do this.”
“Let’s hurry. I don’t want to be stuck in here when those things realize they can come through the mine door again,” Stecker said.
About forty steps later, Stecker stopped and held out his arms. Everyone stopped behind him. He exchanged some words with Noby that Justin couldn’t hear from the back of the group, all the while fixated on something ahead of them.
Justin finished securing the Nebrandt plant to his repeater with the wire. The combination resembled an alien creature—two-thirds machine, and one-third plant.
He handed the wire back to Garth. “Thanks.”
“Sure.” Garth eyed his repeater. “Why’d you do that?”