Broken (Book 3 of The Guardian Interviews)

by Michael Clary

  I immediately did as he ordered and down we went. The zombies were all around us so Jaxon took us all the way down to the bottom of the cellar. We began swimming rapidly over the cement floor. The zombies could neither see nor smell us through the water. Still, it was unnerving to swim around them in a sort of undead obstacle course. It was also an effort to avoid bumping into their legs so as not to alert them to our location.

  It wasn’t long before I was running out of air. Jaxon had me by the arm. He was guiding me somewhere but I wasn’t going to make it. I tapped his hand and motioned that I needed air. I could barely see his face in the darkness but I’m pretty sure he shook his head.

  I’m not sure how he thought I could continue with convulsing lungs, but a breath of air wasn’t something that I wanted; it was something that I needed. I shook my arm out of his grasp and stood straight up in the water. Unfortunately, I was standing right in the middle of a loose group of shamblers.

  They were pretty happy to see me.

  You could almost see the enjoyment on their rotten faces. One of them grabbed me by the collar and pulled my entire body towards its jaws. Jaxon erupted behind me and brought his tomahawk straight down on the zombies head.

  The relief I experienced when I felt its fingers release my collar was immense. Still, before I even managed to collect my thoughts and grab another breath Jaxon was in action. There were too many of them around us. We couldn’t make our escape without first getting some distance.

  Jaxon was punching with his fist and slashing with his tomahawk. He was a whirlwind of destruction, Hell-bent on clearing a space around us. But the dead just kept coming. That’s what they do, ya know? They just keep coming. Nothing scares them. They just keep coming and coming and coming.

  I fired off two shots with Jaxon’s rifle and then the gun was empty. I dropped it on its sling. I grabbed the handle of my machete. As soon as I pulled the blade free my uncle suddenly turned on me, launched himself into the air, tackled me by the shoulders and dragged me under the water once more.

  This time I never even had a chance to take a breath. I began to fight against him as he dragged me along the bottom of the cellar. He swam towards the island. I could see the muddy mound through the cloudy water by the beam of his flashlight.

  However, the island wasn’t our destination. We ended up going around it entirely. I was becoming frantic for a breath of air. I knew it would be bad if I put my head out of the water but try telling that to my gasping lungs.

  I thrashed and thrashed but Jaxon only tightened his grip. Spots began to appear in my vision. My slaps at Jaxon’s hand became weaker and weaker. I vaguely saw the flashlight shining on a dark hole in the concrete but I no longer cared. At that point, I released the expired air I had been holding in my lungs, and went completely limp.

  Before I could draw that inevitable breath of watery death, I felt myself being pushed to the surface, and when that unstoppable intake finally came, it filled my lungs with air instead of water. I came to my senses immediately. I heard the rage-filled screams coming from all around us. I cleared my vision, saw the basement was filled with the dead, and they were all headed right for us.

  Jaxon was breathing heavily in my ear.

  “You ready?” He asked. “Get a good breath. I don’t know how long this tunnel is, but it’s better than staying here.”

  In other words, drowning was better than being eaten. Well, I wasn’t too sure either of the two options made for a nice evening, to be honest with you. Still, I took a deep breath of air just as my uncle’s hand closed around my arm.

  Under the water we went. The hole in the concrete was at our feet. I barely felt a current as we headed towards it. Maybe the water was too cold and my body had become too numb to really feel much of anything, but there must have been one. Jaxon swam and swam and swam. It was hard to see even with the flashlight. The dirt walls and floor of the tunnel were clouding up the water.

  After just a bit, I began to get nervous. It was hard to see, and my air was once again running out. I could already feel the tightening in my chest. It was more than a mere suggestion to breathe, but I was ignoring it. I hated this. I really did. I felt completely useless. I’m not sure how Jax even managed to make any progress. I’m guessing he felt his way through the tunnel instead of relying on his flashlight too much.

  Suddenly we began to rise.

  It didn’t take us long to reach the surface, and when we did both of us were laughing. We crawled out of the water onto a dirt floor. I wanted to just lay there for a bit, and once again learn how to breathe. I’m sure Jax felt the same way I did, but he made sure to scan our surroundings with the flashlight before he even contemplated resting.

  Both of us were still laughing. I’m not sure why. Maybe we were just happy to get out of that basement in one piece. All I know is that Jaxon started cracking up the second we reached the surface, and I joined in along with him.

  “Well, that sucked,” I said.

  “It looked like you were having some problems there, tough guy,” Jaxon laughed.

  “I thought you were going to drown me.”

  “I can’t believe you popped your head up right in the middle of a group of zombies,” Jaxon said.

  “It wasn’t like I wanted to,” I grumbled. “I just needed some air.”

  “You want some free advice?” Jaxon asked.

  “I do not,” I answered.

  “Why not?” Jaxon asked. “It’s free.”

  “No thanks,” I told him. “I’m okay.”

  “How about some friendly advice?”

  “How about fuck off?” I replied.

  Now, I can see that you’re looking at me kind of funny. That’s probably because you believe Jaxon actually wanted to offer me a bit of advice that may in fact benefit me in the future. I can assure you that he had zero intentions of giving me anything beneficial. Instead, what he was trying to do was open me up so he could harass me. If I had asked him what advice he had to give me, he would have probably made fun of my lung capacity. Or perhaps he would have made fun of the faces I made after I ran out of air, and suggested that I quit the Regulators and possibly find employment as a trumpet player since my cheeks can puff out so far.

  I really don’t know what form the harassment would have taken. I only knew that it would last for hours, possibly even days. It wouldn’t matter if I thought it was funny or not, because Jaxon found it funny, and when he finds something funny, look out.

  “I’m thinking that maybe later you’ll probably be interested in hearing my advice,” Jaxon said unperturbed.

  “I can see how you would think that,” I answered. “I’ve been giving you nothing but encouragement to continue.”

  “I can sense your anger, Luke,” Jaxon whispered. “Anger leads to the Dark Side.”

  “Fear leads to anger,” I added.

  Jaxon was no longer paying attention. That quickly, he had lost interest in joking around. Instead, he was shining his light on the floor. I finally pulled out my own flashlight and started investigating our surroundings. We were inside a tunnel of some sorts. The walls, the floor, and the ceilings didn’t look safe at all.

  “What are you looking at?” I asked Jax who was staring at something on the floor.

  “I found a footprint,” Jaxon answered.

  “Is it the creature?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, it looks like we’re on the right track, I guess.”

  “I’d say so,” Jaxon said. “I just don’t think the thing is normally a water creature.”

  “Huh?”

  “None of the footprints I’ve seen are webbed. Its hands weren’t webbed either. Did you see any gills?”

  “I wasn’t exactly looking for gills, man. I just wanted to get the hell away from it.”

  “Look at the walls of the tunnel,” Jaxon said. “They’re covered in claw marks. Whatever that thing is, I think it dug this tunnel out. I bet when it went too deep it busted a wa
ter line and that’s what flooded the basement.”

  “How could one creature dig out this huge ass tunnel? I asked.

  In just our immediate area, the walls were about ten feet apart, and the ceiling was about eight feet high.

  “Look farther down the tunnel,” Jaxon said. “The walls get narrower.”

  He was correct. I didn’t notice it on my first scan but farther down the tunnel the walls got pretty narrow. The two of us wouldn’t be able to walk side by side.

  That’s when I noticed the dirt walls and ceiling were kind of shiny.

  “Did you notice the shiny walls?” I asked.

  Jaxon went over to the far wall, pulled out his knife, and poked the dirt. The wall stayed together. Not even a bit of dust fell from where he was picking at the wall.

  “I bet it’s some sort of secretion from that creature,” Jaxon said.

  “You don’t think that it’s maybe some type of chemical that someone could have coated the walls with in order to keep the tunnel from collapsing?”

  “If people dug this out,” Jaxon said, “They would have added support beams and things like that to make sure it wouldn’t collapse.”

  “Do you even need support beams when you pour a hardening chemical all over the walls?”

  “I’m no miner,” Jaxon said with a smile, “but I’m not sure this chemical that you continue to speak of even exists, and if it does exist I’m not sure it would be potent enough to keep this freaking tunnel from caving in on top of us.”

  “Perhaps you’re right,” I answered. “Yet, I’m sure I’ve read about soil coagulants in the past.”

  “Well, did these soil coagulants have the ability to hold back tons of dirt?”

  “I really can’t remember,” I shrugged.

  “I see,” Jaxon snickered, and tapped his earpiece.

  “Hardin,” Jaxon asked. “You with me?”

  “Right here,” Hardin answered.

  “What do you think we’re dealing with?”

  “I’m still not positive,” Hardin answered. “I still haven’t gotten a very clear image yet. Also, Miriam is indisposed right now and not answering her phone.”

  Miriam always takes off and goes on what she refers to as ‘solo adventures’. It pisses Jaxon off, but she doesn’t seem to care. A few months before this little adventure, she had also begun taking Ivana on her little adventures as well. I’m not going to even repeat what Jax said when he found that out.

  “Jaxon seems to be rather protective of Ivana?”

  She’s not a fighter, and because she’s not a fighter he doesn’t want her anywhere near any kind of danger. He’s the same way with his wife: probably even more so. Miriam normally handles exorcisms and spirit-type problems; things the Regulators would be useless at. I personally don’t think it’s a big deal. I bet the two of them spend most of their time drinking tea and learning to knit.

  “Well,” Jaxon grumbled. “That’s just great isn’t it?”

  “Sorry, Jax,” Hardin replied. “She said things were getting hairy the last time I talked to her. I’m sure she’ll get back to us soon.”

  “By the time she does,” Jaxon snarled, “I won’t need her.”

  Without another word, Jaxon reclaimed his mp7, threw it over his shoulder, and tossed me a couple of mags for my own rifle.

  “How many mags are you carrying?” I asked.

  “That’s the last of them,” he answered.

  “Won’t you be needing them?”

  He didn’t answer. He just smiled at me and set off down the tunnel. I followed behind him. Together we followed the footprints into the darkness.

  The tunnel was pretty freaky. At least, it was making me a bit nervous. The walls didn’t look stable, and once we had gone a ways, I was too worried about their stability to try a stab test like Jax tried earlier.

  It was a long walk underground. Eventually, the path we were following broke off into different directions.

  “We’re going to get lost down here,” I said.

  “Not likely,” Jaxon said. “I’ve been tracking our direction.”

  “How have you been doing that?”

  “My watch has a compass.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked. “Let me see.”

  We took a few minutes to geek out over all the features on his Pathfinder. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but aside from the money, one of the best things about being on the Regulators is all the cool toys we get to play with.

  After I vowed to pick up one of those watches, we once again set off. Both of us were keeping an eye on the creature’s tracks. I mean, there were tracks all over the floor but we were only following the freshest of the bunch.

  Every now and then we heard growls and shrieks in the distance. They weren’t zombie growls and shrieks, though. They were something else. They made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It felt like we were being watched, possibly even followed.

  I shined my light down one of the side tunnels as we passed by; and for a brief second I saw the reflective shine of red eyes staring back at me. It was gone before I could show it to Jaxon.

  “I’m not liking this,” I said.

  “I agree,” he answered. “I can’t believe these tunnels are running underneath the city, and nobody knew about them.”

  “I wish they did know about them,” I said. “Then maybe somebody could tell us where to find the freakin’ exit.”

  A loud growl echoed from somewhere behind us. It was followed by a series of clicks.

  “Well, that’s a problem,” Jaxon announced.

  “What is?”

  “Those clicks,” Jaxon answered. “They sound like radar pings. If that’s the case, these things won’t need to use eyesight to find us, and that puts us at a big disadvantage because we are seriously out of our element down here.”

  “I think we can both agree that there’s more than one of these creatures,” I said. “How many do you think we’re dealing with?”

  “Impossible to say,” Jaxon answered. “Let’s just hope we don’t find out.”

  We went deeper and deeper into the tunnels. We had no choice. We could have found our way back to where we came in with the compass, but there wasn’t much point in that. Back tracking only meant we would eventually wind up in a building overrun by zombies.

  It was pretty crazy. The tunnel we followed went up and down. It angled a little to the left and sometimes a little to the right. At one point we hit a T-intersection and had to study the footprints for a bit to figure out which direction we needed to take.

  As Jaxon stood there studying the ground, the noises behind us became louder and louder. The creatures were coming for us. I aimed my light and I aimed my rifle towards the rear so we wouldn’t get attacked from behind.

  “I think you better pick a direction soon,” I said.

  “It may not matter which direction we choose,” Jaxon answered.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, we started following the tracks because we were hoping that the creature would lead us to the surface. Now we know that there is more than just one creature. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a community of these underground things. The one we’re following might just be leading us to an ambush.”

  “That’s comforting,” I said. “What do you think we should do?”

  “I say we keep on following the footprints and hope for the best.”

  We moved as fast as we could possibly go through the tunnels. The passage got narrower and narrower, but we didn’t let that slow us down. We could tell we were being followed, and it wouldn’t be long before they were upon us.

  Finally, Jaxon stopped in a tunnel so narrow he could barely turn around.

  “They’re getting too close,” Jaxon announced. “We need to set up some traps.”

  He began to struggle with taking off his backpack when I noticed dust drifting lazily down from the ceiling of a passage to our left. I also noticed that the footprints we
had been following led down the same passage. I gave Jax a tap on the shoulder and pointed.

  Jaxon moved to where I was pointing. The ground sloped upwards, and he followed it without any hesitation. The growls and clicks were coming from just beyond the range of my flashlight as I shined it behind us.

  “Bingo,” Jaxon said. “I found a way out.”

  At the top of the slope, he pushed against a lone cement block over his head. More dust drifted downwards, and the block made an extremely loud scraping sound as he moved it to the side.

  Shapes were gathering at the limits of my flashlight beam a second before I gave up my vigil and climbed through the newly made hole in the ceiling. Jaxon was right behind me. I went to help him up but instead he snapped at me to check my surroundings.

  We were inside a dark room with no windows.

  I could sense Jaxon moving next to me. I heard the scrape and crunch when he pushed the cement block back into place.

  “Where are we?” I asked when his light joined mine, and the room showed its secrets.

  “I bet I know,” Jaxon answered without really answering anything.

  Then I saw what he was looking at. Behind me and off to my right were two very old, very dusty caskets.

  “Are you kidding me?” I asked.

  “Welcome to Concordia Cemetery,” Jaxon announced.

  We had ended up inside a crypt. While I’m not extremely knowledgeable about cemeteries, Concordia is pretty famous if you happen to live in or around El Paso. It’s an old burial ground from the days of the Wild West. It even has the final resting place of a gunfighter named John Wesley Hardin.

  “Any relation to Mr. Hardin?”

  I doubt it, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

  Jaxon went to the front door. By rights, it should have been sealed shut. It wasn’t. With just a bit of force, the door opened onto the nighttime sky. It was good to breathe fresh air again. Then I had a thought that made me nervous.

  “How dangerous do you think it is to be in the middle of a cemetery during a zombie invasion?”

  Jaxon blew out a lung full of air before answering.

  “If you would have asked me a few hours ago, I would have told you that I’m not crazy enough to find out. Looking around now though, I think we’re the only two people in here.”