Winter Cove

by Skye Knizley

  “They don’t know. Another place, another time or dimension, they weren’t sure. Typical of scientists, they plowed ahead with their research,” Scales continued. “A team of scientists was sent through the doorway. They recorded seventeen minutes of footage before we lost contact.”

  “Did Sentynil send a recovery team?” River asked.

  Scales nodded. “Yes. All they found at the base camp was blood and supplies, no sign of the advance team.”

  “Let me guess, you lost contact with them, too,” Rylee said.

  Scales looked away. “Yes. They lasted twenty-two minutes before contact was lost. Management decided to pull the plug, no more human exploration, not until we understood what we were doing.”

  “But you couldn’t close the door, and it swings both ways,” River said.

  “The Overlord Parasites, they came through?” Rylee asked.

  “Worse. Something worse,” Scales said.

  “What could be worse than a twelve foot tall monster with metal teeth?” Rylee asked.

  “Its Momma,” Hartwell intoned.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The Pave Hawk cruised low over the trees, so close River knew she could reach out and touch them if she stretched. Helicopter pilots were the craziest bastards on the planet. She pulled open the door, clipped a safety line to her harness and leaned out, watching the ground beneath them and the growing shape of Malachite Station. Rylee had been right, the Crater Lake was merely a ruse. Yes, there was a lake at the top of Forq Mountain, but it was far smaller than it looked on the map. Instead, the plateau was occupied by a squat pyramid that looked like a cross between something the Mayans would have built and a bad science-fiction prop. A series of antennae stuck out at odd angles near the peak, which was flat rather than coming to a point, and there was a large square opening in the middle of the side facing them. It looked big enough for the Helicopter, but only barely.

  More modern-looking structures that looked like military prefabs surrounded the lake and pyramid, along with three Typhoons that looked like they’d been hit by a tornado and perhaps two dozen pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and Humvees. Tracks in the snow indicated that there were people down there. Or infected.

  River keyed her headset and looked at Scales. “What the hell is that thing?”

  “Station Malachite. It was hidden beneath the top of the mountain. The same storm that cut the island off from the mainland exposed the underground lake and pyramid. It took a decade to uncover all of it and clear the passages inside,” Scales replied.

  “Why did you add all the antennas and things?”

  Scales’ smile was grim. “We didn’t. The thing is ten-thousand years old, maybe older, and has what are clearly antennas on the outside.”

  “Wait until you see the inside,” Hartwell added.

  “That’s impossible,” River said.

  Rylee looked over her shoulder. “Really, babe? Everything you’ve seen the last few days, a creepy empty town, crashed planes, zombies wandering the street and some super-hero armor and a little thing like ancient tech is impossible?”

  “You’ve got a point,” River said.

  “Alright pilgrims, I’m going to circle the compound. If it looks clear I’ll drop you right outside the main doors,” the pilot said.

  The Pave Hawk banked and River could see more of the compound. Snow covered walkways wound between the buildings and the main structure and then out to the parking lot. The buildings themselves had letters painted on the doors, with the first being C. The letters A and B had been reserved for two areas inside the pyramid itself.

  Everything was strangely, eerily quiet. No people, no infected, not a soul moved along the paths, yet River had the feeling she was being watched. It was a sensation that made her skin crawl all the way to the base of her neck. They might not have been visible, but they were there.

  “It looks good, I am preparing to land. Dustoff in fifteen seconds.”

  River stood and braced herself on the door frame. “Grab your gear, we hit the deck in ten. I want a clean dispersal from the chopper, Morse you have point. Hartwell, you’re next with a Carver chaser. Scales, you’re on me, Darling bring up the rear.”

  She looked back out the door and felt eyes on her.

  “Is there something you want to tell me?” Rylee asked.

  “What do you mean?” River asked.

  Rylee moved closer. “You’re supposed to be a vehicle specialist, as you put it a ‘glorified truck driver.’ When did you learn to run a combat unit?”

  River couldn’t meet her eyes. “I am a vehicle specialist, Rye. I drove vehicles for a living.”

  “Trouble in paradise?” Morse asked as he moved to the door.

  “Stow it, Morse!”

  He saluted and dropped three feet to the snow outside. The rest of the team followed in a rough two by two skirmish line leaving River and Rylee staring at each other inside the helicopter.

  “It’s now or never, Hunter,” Blake’s voice intoned in River’s ear. “Hit the deck or your friends die and I send Morse back to finish the job.”

  “Did you lie to me, River?” Rylee asked.

  “No. I told you what I could, what mattered. The rest isn’t important, okay?”

  Rylee shook her head. “You’re my wife, but suddenly I’m not sure I know who you are.”

  She sat on the floor then dropped to the ground, where she joined Scales and Darling. River sighed and followed her out into the snow. She bent forward against the blast of the Pave Hawk returning to the relative safety of the sky then hurried to catch up with the rest of the team. There wasn’t any other option.

  ***

  Station Malachite was even bigger than it appeared from the sky. The buildings were each the size of a Quonset hut and were spread around a quadrangle the size of two football fields with a lake in the middle. River could hardly believe that the whole area had once been underground.

  The helicopter had dropped them only a few meters from the still-closed front doors of the main structure, but the snow made the walk slow and laborious. River was sweating when she stopped beside Morse, who was working on the locking mechanism.

  “What’s the problem?” River asked.

  “The door is locked, when the place was shut down a random key code was generated. Only one person had the key, so Morse is running a bypass,” Scales said.

  River frowned. “Wait…would the key have been saved on a keycard?”

  Morse shrugged. “Maybe. Or a USB-key. Why?”

  River reached into the top of her boot and pulled out the key Richard had found on the plane. “Try this.”

  “Where did you find that?” Scales asked.

  “On a crashed Sentynil plane.”

  Hartwell lit a cigarette and blew a plume of smoke into the wind. “The evacuees. I’d heard they crashed, but wasn’t on the detail. Any survivors?”

  “Lindquist,” Darling rumbled. “He was onboard, one of the first to get his panties in a twist when the parasites got out.”

  “Damn, too bad that bastard didn’t croak with the rest of them,” Carver added.

  “I think he’s the one who caused the crash,” River said. “Someone blew the plane in half from the inside after they killed everyone on board. If Lindquist was the survivor, he’s the one who killed them all. Try the key, Morse.”

  Morse’s face displayed his annoyance at taking an order from River, but he pressed the key to the pad anyway. At first there was nothing and Morse’s face spread into a self-satisfied grin. Before he could say something that River knew would make her want to hit him, the door started to move. It slid into the ceiling and stopped, three tons of steel just hanging there.

  Morse made to put the key into his pocket and River snapped her fingers at him. “I’ll hold onto that, thanks.”

  Morse
looked at Scales. “What if something happens to her?”

  Scales shrugged. “I think she’s more likely to kill you before something happens to her.”

  “The key, Morse!” River snapped.

  Morse looked disgusted, but slapped the key into her palm. “Just don’t get dead, we might need to get through more locked doors.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Beyond the doors was an outsized chamber big enough for three large helicopters with maybe a tank or two for company. Heavy equipment used to maintain vehicles sat abandoned along with more than a dozen frozen corpses. On the far side was a man-made catwalk that climbed upward at a slight angle. It was made from steel grating and ran through a sort of conduit surrounded by wiring, safety lights, and equipment River didn’t recognize.

  “Morse, go. Stay within ten meters,” River said.

  “Roger that.”

  He started off and River began counting under her breath. When she reached twenty she followed, with the others close behind.

  “Leave it to men to take something beautiful and ugly it up with steel,” Rylee muttered.

  “No choice,” Carver said, walking just behind. “The original corridor was falling apart, the tunnel is the only way up.”

  “Where does this go?”

  Carver shrugged. “Into the pyramid. Most of it is off limits to everyone but the research team. I have never been further than the first floor.”

  “How many floors are there?” Rylee asked.

  “Twenty that have been mapped. You might want to cut the chatter, boss, there are at least thirty infected in here somewhere,” Scales said.

  “Now you tell us. So much for the pleasant walk to hell’s gate,” River said.

  The corridor ended some forty feet above the entry chamber. It rose through the floor into another corridor, this one as ancient as the pyramid itself. The walls were of polished black stone, apparently undamaged by the passage of years. Runes decorated the edges of a dozen alcoves that stretched the length of the corridor, some marked with red tape as if scientists were making headway in deciphering the language.

  Behind them was a steel platform bolted into the walls of the pyramid with hardware the size of River’s head. The platform looked out on the entrance, but otherwise seemed to have no purpose.

  River squatted and touched the floor, which was scarred and pitted. She could feel the damage beneath her bare fingers.

  “Something was here,” she said.

  “Good eye, Hunter. This was the primary lab before the doorway was found. The equipment was all moved to the lower levels a few weeks ago,” Scales said.

  “We got company!” Morse said from behind them.

  River spun to see a small group of infected stumbling toward them. Unlike the townspeople, these were beginning to show signs of decay. Their skin was emaciated and their eyes rolled in dry sockets with a sound like dice on plastic.

  “Take them down,” River ordered. “Weapons free.”

  It was over almost before it began. Whatever they may be, the Sentynil team knew their business. They called their targets and took them down in a hail of bullets and shot that echoed throughout the chamber long after the last infected stopped moving.

  “Let’s go,” River said when her ears stopped ringing.

  The tunnel continued through the heart of the pyramid, lit only by safety lights and a feint luminescence from within the stone. River stopped and pressed a hand to the wall, which was like ice beneath her palm. When she pulled her hand away, the area beneath shimmered with green light.

  “Wow!” Rylee said. “Gives new meaning to the phrase ‘green thumb’, huh? Yo Scaley, have you ever seen it do this before?”

  “It’s never done any of this before,” Scales said.

  River touched the wall again. Everywhere she touched, tiny wisps of light appeared. “Were you here when it happened? When they opened the doorway?”

  “Nope. My beat was the hospital. When the shit hit the fan, we evacuated as many patients as possible to Ravenstein to keep it contained.”

  “So you’re the one responsible for the fake evacuation notices?” Rylee asked.

  “Nothing fake about it,” Scales said. There was a hint of edge to his voice. “Everyone was taken to Ravenstein.”

  “Where hundreds were killed,” Rylee snapped.

  “I was following orders.”

  “That’s a bullshit answer,” Rylee said.

  She walked away without a backward glance.

  “She’s right, you know,” River said. “It’s a bullshit excuse.”

  Scales couldn’t meet her eyes. “If I’d known they were going to kill everyone, I would have acted differently. It’s too late, now.”

  He shifted his weapon and turned away. “Let’s get this done, Hunter.”

  The corridor ended in a deep shaft that vanished into the depths below. Spiral staircases of the same black stone flanked it on either side. The staircases looked well worn, but the control panel mounted on a more modern looking plinth along with the cables swinging lightly in the breeze meant there was an easier way to descend into the depths.

  The control box had a slot for a keycard. She slid the Sentynil card inside and pressed the green button set in the middle of the box. It lit and the cables began to move. Several minutes later a maintenance elevator rose into view. It wasn’t much more than a metal platform, control box and pulleys suspended over certain death.

  Rylee tugged on River’s sleeve. “We’re riding on that thing?”

  “Looks like. Are you okay, love?”

  Rylee looked a little green under the eyes. “Yeah, sure, I love riding elevators to hell.”

  River took her hand. “I’ve got you, baby.”

  Rylee raised her eyes. “I know.”

  There was a look in her eyes that River couldn’t interpret. Her question was interrupted by Morse, who was already on the elevator.

  “Don’t tell me the fearless leader is afraid of a little elevator ride.”

  River glowered at him. “Keep pushing, dickhead.”

  “I intend to. All aboard! Next stop, hell.”

  ***

  The descent was agonizing in its slowness. The elevator shaft wasn’t lit, making their only source of light the torches on their weapons. The beams weren’t intended to brighten a stygian shaft in the middle of an ancient pyramid, but the dull glow was better than nothing. River was counting off meters in her head when the pendant at her throat suddenly shot out a beam of light bright enough to illuminate the entire elevator.

  “What the hell is that?” Carver asked.

  “The reason she’s here. Heads up, people, we have guests,” Scales barked.

  River unslung her M4. “Rylee, get in the middle. Hartwell, watch your aim with that cannon, these pulleys won’t take much damage. Everyone else, make sure you have a clean line of sight, don’t kill each other.”

  She moved to the edge of the lift and looked down. At first, she couldn’t see anything but blackness, bottomless, endless dark that made her feel a wave of vertigo. Then, rising along the walls she saw them. Parasites, dozens of them, no bigger than a raccoon. Their silver eyes and chrome teeth glittered in the light.

  The fight was furious, the gunfire deafening in the shaft. The Overlords were nimble and avoided all but the most accurate shots or spray of bullets. Chips flew from the walls as River led the team against them, but it was useless. Before long the creatures swarmed onto the elevator and attacked. Carver swung his axe to greater effect than the firearms, but his bulk was an easy target for the creatures. Within seconds he was engulfed by them. He stumbled under their weight and pitched over the railing into the darkness. Later, River would remember that he never even had a chance to scream.

  With the death of Carver, River ordered the team to close ra
nks. “Switch to bursts, constant fire. Get them off the elevator!”

  The team moved closer together, back to back around Rylee, who fired from a kneeling position between River’s legs, adding the boom of her shotgun to the chatter of autofire.

  It ended as abruptly as it began. When the last of the parasites had been blasted into oblivion, they stood in a circle of deafening, angry silence. Even the elevator had stopped.

  “Is that it?” Morse asked. “That wasn’t so bad.”

  He had a cut over his eyebrow and a nasty bruise on his hand.

  “There are probably a thousand more of them down there by now,” River said. “That was just a taste.”

  Hartwell was reloading his weapon. “How do you know?”

  River wiped sweat off her forehead with a shaking hand. “Because I can do basic math.”

  She helped Rylee stand. “You okay, lover?”

  Rylee’s lips were pale, but she forced a smile. “Yeah. Sure, babe. I just need a breather.”

  “So what next, babe?” Morse said sarcastically.

  Anger flared behind River’s eyes. She crossed the distance between them and grabbed his shirt with a hand now coated with the eldritch armor. She lifted him off the deck and carried him to the edge, where only his toes touched the elevator plate.

  “That’s far enough. I’m going to snap your neck like a twig and feed you to the parasites!”

  Morse gripped her arm in surprise, but was unable to even scratch the armor. “D…don’t, I’m sorry!”

  “River! Put him down!” Scales roared.

  River ignored him. All of her anger was focused on the little rat of a man in her grip. She knew, somehow, that she could squeeze his neck more or less until his head popped off.

  Gentle fingers caressed her bare right arm. “Baby? Put him down. This isn’t you, lover, it’s that thing. You’ve never hurt anyone in anger, you’re not going to start today, are you?”

  River glanced at Rylee, whose eyes were filled with worry and fear. Reality snapped back and she set Morse on the deck before the armor faded from her skin. He rubbed his neck and spat on the floor, trying to clear blood and phlegm so he could breathe.