by Eve Langlais
“A new game that I can school you in,” Lila announced.
“Ha. You wish. Unlike some people around here, I’m not afraid to hit you.”
“Now if only you managed to connect,” Lila teased with a grin.
Despite himself, Cam enjoyed their banter. “My sister likes to hit, too,” he admitted to Gorri. “Little fists. They’re the worst.”
“They get stuck in your ribs, then you gotta pry them out,” Gorri drawled.
Lila offered a sweet smile as she said, “Wait ’til you see where you’re going to be pulling my foot from in a minute.”
That brought a chuckle to his lips, a loud guffaw that had him lifting his head and catching Kayda’s gaze across the room. No longer at a table, she leaned against a wall and watched him.
Was she still mad? He could have lied to her. Told her how great the Necropolis was and what a great job she was doing. And really, both those things would have been true. But only to a certain extent. The Necropolis would fall. Maybe not tomorrow, or the next day, but it would happen. As they dwindled in number, their enemies flourished. It was only a matter of time before they were hit by a wave of something they couldn’t repel.
Kayda seemed to have done well in keeping them organized and functioning. No small feat. The food, while not his first choice, filled the belly, the broth rich with fat and bobbing with spongy mushrooms that absorbed the flavor and hunks of meat. To drink, they had water, which, to him, still seemed a luxury. The water in Emerald had never been so cool and clear. He guzzled glasses of it quite happily.
“…Hale, Pelo, and Bea haven’t returned.”
Cam tuned in to Lila’s announcement and caught Gorri’s immediate frown. “They should have been back before dinner.”
“They’re not that late,” Lila replied with a slight shrug. Left unsaid was the fact this must be unusual, or they wouldn’t even discuss it.
“Weren’t they going to the lower levels to see if the shrooms had bloomed yet?” Gorri drummed his fingers on the table. “Only takes thirty minutes at most to get down there.”
“It’s going back up that fast that sucks,” Lila grumbled, but with no real heat.
“I hate stairs after supper.” Gorri might complain, but he was already standing to go.
Cam eyed them. “If you’re going to the lower levels, I want to come.”
“Why?” Lila asked bluntly.
“Because.” No more. No less. His gut told him this was the thing to do.
“We better tell Kayda we’re going and taking her Marshman.”
“I am not hers,” exclaimed a startled Cam.
“Don’t be so sure of that. All food gathered goes to the group. Anything else we come across is finders, keepers. So weapons, clothing, weird shit.”
“I take it I fall under weird shit,” was his dry reply.
Lila grinned, a dimple in one cheek. “Usually you would have fallen under clothing because we would have stripped you. But that’s usually from dead bodies. You’re the first live one we’ve run into while patrolling the tunnels.”
“I thought the passages were safe.”
“Better than outside. Nowhere is safe.”
He almost said Eden was, but that would just taunt them with the fact they had no way of reaching it. The despair in this place smothered him. They needed help, but he really shouldn’t let himself get distracted from his reason for being here.
His gaze strayed over to Kayda again. Her gaze was elsewhere, but as if sensing his sudden regard, she turned and met his glance. Something sizzled between them. He couldn’t explain the feeling. Only that he should probably ignore it. He broke the connection and stood.
“Let’s go find this hunting party.”
It was the handsome fellow who’d been talking to Kayda earlier who intercepted them as they left. “Where are you going?”
“Who are you, and why do you care?” was Cam’s automatic reply.
“That’s Milo. He helped us carry your fat ass back,” Lila remarked.
“It’s muscle, not fat,” Cam snapped. He was big boned. Which made him the complete opposite of his petite sister.
Milo shook his head. “Whatever it is, don’t even think of it. I know that look.”
“What look?” was Gorri’s dumb reply.
Cam answered for him. “The one that says we’re going to do something grim, and possibly violent.”
“The hunting party sent to the basement didn’t return yet,” Lila explained.
“And they were due before dinner.” Milo rubbed his eyes. “Does Kayda know?”
“Not yet but we really should go,” Lila exclaimed. “No time to waste. Be a dear and let her know we’ve gone to fetch them.”
“Why me?” Milo muttered.
They moved past a few houses, Gorri snaring the staves and handing Cam one. Lila jogged away to another house and emerged with a new holster across her chest filled with small daggers.
The staircase going down was inside a locked room. A heavy bar sat to the side.
Gorri saw Cam staring at it. “When there are no hunting teams below, we have it across the door.”
“It should always be across the door. And a guard with it.” Cam wanted to bang his head on something.
“Who would we use to stand watch?” Lila murmured. “We’ve already got those aged twelve and up working. We don’t have the numbers.”
“The basement is clean,” Gorri added.
“Then why are you worried about your gatherers?”
Both of them flattened their lips.
Cam said more softly, “Because nothing is ever safe forever. Always be vigilant.”
On those words, they slowly descended the stairs. They went down in a slow circle that meant he couldn’t see far ahead. There were no torches, yet he could see. A phenomenon he’d noticed in the Necropolis, too, but not questioned until now.
“What makes the light?”
“Lichen,” Lila said. “They thrive on the air we breathe out and do some chemical process with it to give us back the fresher version we need. They also glow when they’re doing it.”
Fascinating. But worrisome, too. It meant they signaled their movement with every breath. But they also couldn’t trust to use it as a warning device because he was sure there existed somewhere in the world a predator that didn’t need to exhale.
They arrived at the first landing, and Lila paused. “The basement is where Milo’s been attempting to grow crops from some old seeds he found.”
“Doesn’t sound as if it’s going too well,” Cam remarked.
“Because it’s failing miserably,” Gorri grumbled. “We’re missing some key ingredient that will let them thrive.”
“You mean like sunlight?”
Both Lila and Gorri blinked at him. He wanted to groan. “Seeds need a few things to grow—soil, water, and, most of all, sun.”
“The mushrooms don’t.”
“You aren’t trying to grow mushrooms,” he reminded.
“Well, that sucks,” Gorri grumbled. “We really needed the food. The stashes we relied on are drying up, as the caves are getting warmer. Used to be the lowest levels were covered in frost. Now they’re steaming.”
“What do you think it means?” Cam asked.
Lila had a ready answer. “That our days are numbered.”
“I don’t know if Kayda would agree.” She seemed to think they would be safe locked in their stone city of the dead.
Gorri defended her. “Kayda just wants to protect us.”
“Her method of doing it is going to kill you.”
Lila shrugged. “Probably, but what else can we do?”
They made it to the second level, and Cam thought to ask, “How many more floors?”
“There are thirteen of them. And there was a time in the beginning of the exodus underground when they had people living in them,” Lila remarked as they kept going. “But they’re all dead now, and we inhabit the most defensible level.”
&
nbsp; “Because of the fountain.” Even underground water was life.
It took a good half-hour to make it to the last level, and he immediately noticed the lack of light.
Huffing hotly, Gorri exclaimed, “This ain’t right. It shouldn’t be dark. What happened to the moss?”
Only by the faint glow behind could Cam see Lila rubbing her fingers over the wall. “It’s been scratched off.”
Intentionally removed. Cam shifted the stave in his hand and murmured, “Be ready.”
There was a smell in the air. Musty, yet rancid. A bit of decay in there, too. He hoped it wasn’t what he thought.
Because it would be bad. So very, very bad.
“Anyone got a light?” Cam asked. None of them had carried lanterns down. He wasn’t even sure the kids had lanterns in their dead city.
“I can give you light,” Gorri declared.
Turned out the staves were more than just to whack things with. Gorri pressed a round ridge on the metal-capped end, and a wick popped up. He lit it with a scrape of flint on the metal, sparking the fuel. Flames immediately ignited, blue and mauve with hints of white. The hottest kind of fire. Bright, too.
“Nice,” Cam remarked. The boy had improvised fuel canisters for the tips.
Gorri grinned. “Better than carrying a torch or a lamp. The tunnel rats don’t like it. Want me to light yours?”
Cam eyed his stave. “We’ll save mine for later.” No point in wasting fuel in case they needed it. Again, just a feeling he had.
With stave held high, Gorri moved slowly ahead, illuminating the long, somewhat narrow hall. The nice thing about hanging with people who had to survive every day? They knew how to move. Silently, not asking dumb questions or rushing in.
As they penetrated deeper into the oldest part of the Necropolis, carved from the very stone, Cam noted the worrying details. The doorways just gaping holes with sagging and missing doors. “How long has it looked like this?”
Gorri turned with his torch. “This damage is recent.”
“I was worried you’d say that,” Cam muttered as he neared a door and the rank smell of shit hit him.
He knew of a predator that liked to keep its fecal matter in one place to keep discovery to a minimum. A cunning adversary that seemed to be adapting.
Cam retreated. “We need to leave. Right now.”
“We haven’t found Hale, Pelo, and Bea yet.” Gorri peered ahead, holding his torch like a beacon.
“And you won’t.”
“Meaning what?”
“You might want to keep your voice down,” Cam suggested as he grabbed a flint from his belt and lit the end of his stave. The increased flame brightened the hall even more but did little to illuminate the rooms.
“What is it? What caused the damage?” Lila asked. “There’s a funky smell, but I don’t recognize it.”
Cam did. “Ghouls.”
The very word hung in the air ominously. Gorri’s face blanched.
He went to extinguish his torch, and Cam barked, “Don’t.” Then more softly, “They can’t stand the light.”
He moved back to the stairs then ensured Gorri and Lila went first. He’d yet to hear anything. That meant nothing.
Only once they’d gone up three floors did Gorri finally huff, “How did they get in? The only entrance is the stairs above.”
“They must have tunneled their way in.”
“They can do that?” Gorri squeaked.
“I’m sure they can do lots of stuff. Problem is the people who discover it don’t usually tend to live,” he muttered.
Ghouls were nasty critters, and they could be wily, too. Blame their once human heritage.
“If they managed to tunnel inside, then that means they’re going to move up, aren’t they?” Lila stated more than asked.
“Eventually.” Which meant the Necropolis’s days were numbered.
It was a few paces from the seventh floor that Cam called a halt. The flames on their torches flickered.
Lila whispered, “What’s wrong?”
He pointed to the fire. It drifted again. The current of air made it dance. And if he concentrated, he could smell them. Ghouls.
Moving ahead of his companions, he entered the main area around the stairwell. It still had the luminescent lichen, meaning he could see. See the doors to the crypts suddenly open and the shadowy bodies as they emerged from the doorways. Got to comprehend the horror of their situation as he noticed the ghouls all had gaping eye sockets. They didn’t cringe from the light. But who needed sight when they lifted their faces and sniffed? Scent pinpointed the prey, and the ghouls turned toward them.
“Uh-oh,” muttered Lila, the slight sound causing the beasts—with their all-too-human characteristics—to pause.
Their skin was almost scaly with its leathery appearance, in various shades of gray. The pointed teeth were yellow like the claws on their fingers.
“When I give the word,” Cam said softly, keeping his eyes on the one moving the boldest toward him, “run for the stairs and don’t stop until you get to the top. Then no matter what, lock that fucking door.”
“You sound as if you won’t be with us,” Gorri said with a frown.
“I’m going to buy you time.”
Because they couldn’t outrun the ghouls. But they didn’t all need to die.
Was this the prophecy, the time and place he gave his life to save Ozz? Were Lila and Gorri essential to the future?
Apparently not, because the dumb fucks weren’t taking the chance he was giving them.
“Leave no person behind. It’s the one thing I remember my dad saying to me,” Gorri stated, taking a stance by his side.
“As if I’m going to run,” snorted Lila at his back.
“You fucking morons. I’m trying to save your asses,” he snapped as the first ghoul lunged with spittle hanging from its slack chin.
Whirl, whack, he knocked it back and then jabbed the flaming tip at the rest. They might not see the light, but they did recoil from the burning heat.
“Let’s go, you stubborn shits.” Cam moved toward the next section of stairs, and they kept pace, obviously meaning it when they said they wouldn’t let him go alone. He walked backwards, swinging his stave when the ghouls started to get brave.
“How many are there?” Gorri huffed as he jabbed his stave toward the ones trying to flank them.
“Let’s leave it at a lot.” And more worrisome was the fact they’d plucked out their own eyes and destroyed the light on the bottom level. It indicated deviousness and an ability to plot. “Lila, take lead and keep an eye open for an attack from above.”
Her eyes widened, and then she skipped off.
“You sent her off alone!” Gorri exclaimed.
“We’re going to follow in a second. First, let’s give them something to worry about.”
He flipped his stave to the unlit end, the metal canister with a simple wick and a plug. He pulled the wick from the hole and began flicking the fuel. Gorri’s eyes widened as he understood and did the same. When the droplets stopped flying, the ghouls attacked en masse.
Cam only had to light one of them.
Whoosh. The dry creatures, sprinkled in fuel, ignited and burned. Their mouths opened on wailing screeches that had Gorri gaping. Now wasn’t the time to stop and stare.
Cam grabbed him by the arm. “Let’s go.”
They went up the next level to find Lila standing guard.
“Way to piss them off,” she muttered as they emerged, trailed by dying screams and strident cries of rage.
“Move!” Cam hustled them up to the next level, clear.
It wasn’t until the second-to-last floor that instinct had him suddenly flattening to the wall just in time as a ghoul hurtled from below at him! Its expression was crazed, parts of its body singed.
He caught it on the stave and shoved it back. Lila was quick with a dagger. But that was only the first one.
Emerging onto the floor under the main ha
bitat, he turned to see ghouls racing up the stairs.
“Fuck me, they’re coming.”
Back to back, they fought the sometimes partially scorched and blinded bodies. The advantage they had being they could see and dodge. The disadvantage was the ghouls were plentiful and vicious. Gorri and Lila both bled from several places. Cam sported his own wounds, but they prevailed against the wave.
Cam held off the last one and angled his head. “I’ve got this. Get up to the main level and get ready to lock it down.” He hoped it wasn’t too late and that there wasn’t a group already gone ahead of them.
He blocked the stairway and swung the stave, his arms tired but his resolve firm. He’d rather die fighting than do nothing.
The last ghoul went down, and he almost sighed in relief. A movement from the side caught his eye. He’d missed one!
He didn’t raise the stave in time, and the monster hit him, taking him down hard to the floor, its dirty fingers scrabbling at him, its mouth open for a bite. Its eyes were a pale gray and alight with hunger.
And Cam might just be feeding it, given a second joined to help just as he managed to pull out his knife and gut the first. The slavering jaws of ghoul number two had drawn close when it suddenly sprouted a quarrel between the eyes.
Then Kayda was standing over him, looking fierce with her crossbow and barking, “Move if you want to live!”
Chapter 8
This is the end.
Kayda had not expected it to happen this way or this quickly. When Milo told her where Gorri and Lila had taken Cam, she immediately went to stand inside the stairwell chamber, pacing. Milo stood watch with her.
“I’m sure they’re fine.”
Then why did her instincts scream otherwise? “When was the last time someone checked the lowest chambers?”
“Given the rotation, it would have been six months or so.” He shrugged. “I’d have to look at the etchings to be certain.” The etchings being how Milo kept track of their harvesting. Too soon and food supplies might not replenish.
Six months. A long time, where anything could have happened. Walls were only as secure as their weakest point. Nasty critters had ways of getting in.
She wanted to go down and check on them, but responsibility kept her pacing instead. With five of the oldest ones already down below, she couldn’t leave. If the worst happened, there wouldn’t be anyone left who was born before their world ended.