by Kir Lukovkin
A loud noise came from the tunnel and a powerful torrent of water suddenly burst out of the tunnel on the right. The water struck the people, washing them away as if they were pieces of trash and carried them through the passageways between the housing blocks. The sound of the torrent drowned out the screams for help.
Suddenly, the noise intensified and a new torrent came from the other tunnel. A few moments later, water was pouring in from different sides of the arena and quickly rose, flooding the residential blocks and coming closer to the roof of the building where Rick was standing. The foaming streams of water were full of struggling people and lifeless bodies.
Rick rushed to the ladder, descended one floor down and tried to grab a man from the water streaming by. He grabbed him by the hair, pulled him in, but then let him go — the eyes of the man were full of madness. A light-haired youth swimming after him shouted for help and stretched out his hand, so Rick dragged him onto the platform.
“What's happening?” he exclaimed.
“Water!” the youth pleaded, coughing and spitting.
“Where from?”
“The... The underground sea!” the youth swallowed, coughed again and continued, “The valves had always been closed! And now they are open!”
“Do you know how to get out of here?”
The boy just stood there, blinking aimlessly. Then he shouted and pointed at a long walkway that stretched out above the tunnels of the collector which was still lit up by searchlights. Sealed black pipeline hatches could be seen in some places above the walkway. Rick guessed at the distance to it — it was at least fifty paces and there was a current there, which had become weaker as the torrents burst in from the other side but they were still dangerous. The water whirled, drowning everything around it.
He turned to the boy again.
“Do you know how to swim?”
“No!”
“Then hold on to me. We are about to jump.”
“Wait!” the boy sniffled. “I'm scared!”
“Me too. But I want to live. Jump!”
He bounded over the railings into the cold water, which was covered in filthy foam. There was a splash nearby. Rick turned and grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck, ordering him to stay still and swam with his free hand and legs.
The boy did not listen to his words, he spat and screamed, hammering at the water with his hands which made their swim slower than Rick expected, so he quickly started to tire. All of a sudden, the boy fell silent and then turned around forcefully, his eyes shining with exactly the same madness that Rick saw in the eyes of the man that Rick wanted to save a couple of minutes beforehand. The boy pushed down on Rick's shoulder, pushing down at him and forcing him under the water. At the last moment, Rick took a gulp of air, twisted around and pushed the youth away with his legs. Once he broke the surface, the boy was gone.
He did not waste time on thinking about what happened and swam towards the walkway with wide strokes. The current was weaning noticeably, but his strength was running out too. Rick still managed to grab at the edge of the walkway, but did not manage to climb higher as his cold fingers did not obey him and his muscles were completely stiff. Suddenly, the searchlights on the railing started to blink furiously, the generators sparked and there were popping and crackling noises. Rick suddenly felt cramps throughout his body and he started to shake uncontrollable as he realised that he had been electrocuted, which helped him, unexpectedly. Feeling unusually invigorated, he pulled himself up after two attempts and found himself on the walkway, where he leaned on the railing, trying to catch his breath.
The Cluster was now full of water which covered the residential blocks. The shouting had almost quietened down, as only the few survivors sat on the roofs of buildings called out to those who struggled in the water nearby to swim towards them.
Rick quickly undressed down to his waist and started to rub himself all over with his hands so that the blood would flow faster in his veins. Too many experiences in one day. He really wanted to lie down right there and then and try to fall asleep after getting warm first. But all of this could wait, because the water kept coming and would soon flood the walkway.
He looked up — the massive hatches had reliable locking mechanisms based on wheels and levers. Rick pulled on one of the wheels and tried to turn, but it would not budge. He reluctantly put his wet clothes back on and considered what to do. He had seen similar hatches before, but they did not have wheels. Then he pulled on the levers, which easily gave way. Right, this was better. He tried to turn the wheel again but to no avail.
There was some sort of trick to it. Rick narrowed his eyes, noticing the faded pictures above the levers — bright, semicircular arrows. He grabbed the levers, pressed down on them and they both went downwards. Now for the wheel. One turn and another. It worked!
Rick pulled the heavy hatch towards himself and it opened with a drawn out grating sound. It seemed that the fords did not pay particular attention to the collector and never opened the hatches. He was in luck. He was very fortunate that the hatch had not fused with its frame.
He pulled himself up inside the pipeline, closed the hatch behind him and crawled forwards on all fours.
Rick crawled on in complete darkness, losing all sense of time and distance. He warmed up and even his clothes became a lot drier. He had no time to celebrate though, as he heard a noise behind him. He was overcome by a premonition of danger. Rick sped up as the noise intensified. A few moments later, he was caught in a cold stream and spun around inside the pipe. It was pointless to resist, the main thing was to try to avoid suffocating or hitting his head so he would not lose consciousness.
The stream carried him, twisting and turning through the pipe and keeping up the pressure, sometimes carrying him into uncovered channels where Rick once tried to grab at the edges, but could not hold on as he cut his hand, so he did not make any more attempts. Once, when he was carried through a channel that led through a spacious hall that was lit by purple light, he noticed squat human-like creatures with contorted facial features. They had pale, gleaming bodies and their eyes were pure black, without whites.
The soon changed back into a pipe which bent downwards steeply. Rick spent a pair of seconds falling down head first and then the pipe ended, as he inadvertently threw his arms upwards, somersaulted through the air and fell into a pool, splashing a myriad droplets all around him.
It seemed that his journey had come to its end.
He had hit his back hard as he fell. When he broke the surface and looked around, he saw that he was in a hall with a faraway light under the ceiling with another visible to the side. The pool was huge, but he was lucky, as the pipe that threw him out was almost by the edge. Rick swam over to the wide edge of the pool and climbed out of the water.
He had no strength to undress left. The hall was warm and the light of the lamps weakly reflected off the rippling water to dance upon the walls. Rick moved away from the edge, lying prone by the wall.
He was alive!
The lids of his eyes were glued together from fatigue, as his consciousness became clouded and he barely heard a distant splash that interrupted the monotonous sound of the water falling from the pipeline. But Rick did not give it any further notice. A moment later, he was fast asleep.
I
RICK WOKE UP from the pain in his back. He tried to get up and gasped. His muscles had gone numb and his waist hurt from him hitting the water. Rick somehow brought himself up onto his knees and looked around. He was in a great stone enclosure. Judging by the water level, the pool was almost full. He looked upwards and saw that the water was barely flowing out of the pipe under the ceiling. At least that was good, one less thing to worry about.
His clothes had completely dried while he slept, as he must have been lying here for a long time. He got a handful of water and washed his face. Then, Rick stood up, checked how he felt and carefully bent down twice to warm up his stiff muscles.
Everything seemed fine.
His back hurt, but bruises were nothing new. It would sort itself out.
His stomach growled plaintively. Yes, of course, he always wanted to eat. Hunger was nothing new either, but it was very bad that his gear had been lost forever. He needed to arm himself with something, as he remembered the strange pale creatures and their black eyes. He shrugged and walked along the wall towards a wide platform where he could see the entrance to a maintenance corridor.
The corridor led him in to an oblong hall, full of pipes and noisy machines. Rick was examining the entwined different colored wires and the panels with levers and buttons until he came across a sizable operations console and the words “Pumping Station 32-54” written on the wall. He cleared his throat and looked over the pumps — the machines were purring along evenly in automatic mode. Rick looked at the manometer readings, trembling indicator arrows and flashing lights. Amazingly, it all still worked!
He kept going, slowly looking for an exit or a ventilation shaft and soon stopped in front of another control console, where the monitor displayed a diagram of two circles, with one inside the other and the space between them divided into many sectors of different sizes that fanned out all around them. One of the sectors was lit up in red, with a message full of incomprehensible numbers and abbreviations blinking by its side. A rectangle underneath said “Information.”
Rick tapped the rectangle and the diagram on the monitor changed to become three dimensional, the red sector growing in size to be displayed as a complex diagram. More labels began to appear, some of which were entirely understandable. “Main Highway”, “Generators” and “Pumps”, for instance. Rick thoughtfully looked at the picture, trying to guess at its purpose. He finally realized that it was a plan of the water connections in the sector! He touched the rectangle labeled “Back” on the monitor and the picture became flat again, showing two circles with the space between them divided into segments. It turned out that all of these sectors were separate autonomous regions equipped with ancient machines that were built around the citadel. The sectors were labeled with letters from the Latin alphabet. Rick counted twenty-five sectors in total. The circular structure in the middle was marked with the letter “A”.
Well then, everything was clear and simple with the letters and he just needed to remember this rule so that it would be easier to orient himself.
He set off. A spacious corridor served as the exit to the pumping station, with one of the walls replaced by a panoramic window with an icy blue-lit cave beyond. Rick walked along the corridor, glancing through the glass at the cage occasionally. Doors were positioned on the wall on the opposite side to the window and he looked inside those which were unlocked, but saw nothing apart from empty shelves inside. Sometimes, he saw entrances to side corridors, but they all looked the same and it would have been easy to get lost, so Rick decided to keep going in the direction he had chosen as he had a feeling inside that it was the right one. The way the sector was arranged actually reminded of his native Thermopolis quite a lot — although Rick believed that this was no wonder, considering that similar designs and technologies were used when it was being built. He just wanted to understand the intentions of the builder. That shift, as the fords called it. Especially because it happened every eight years before.
He sighed, as he understood that one of the life support programs was active here just like in Thermopolis. If only he could get to the city control center...
The cave behind the glass came to its end and he found himself at an intersection where the corridor met another wider passage that had landings and stairways on its side. There were also direction signs hanging here: Branch F-01001, Highway T-331 and Radial No. 42001.
He decided to turn and walk along the highway. There was not as much light here as the illumination from the cage barely reached beyond the turn and emergency lamps blinked red ahead. Rick walked along the wall, tensely watching the gloom and regretting the loss of his blaster. He also glanced upwards as he went, in case he came across a ladder or the grille of a ventilation shaft so he could try to get out onto the surface.
Rails ran along the floor of the highway and the tunnel was shaped like a rectangle with ribbed walls made out of an unfamiliar bright colored material. It was similar to metal, but the surface was too rough, with no sign of rust.
A droning sound came from the depths of the tunnel far ahead. Rick stopped. The droning sound continued at the same frequency, as the floor started to vibrate slightly. It looked like some part of the city started to move again. Rick started walking again when the drone quietened down. It soon disappeared completely.
Around a quarter of an hour had passed when Rick reached the blinking red emergency lamps and found a sign on the wall with the label 13-500. It was probably the distance that he had walked from a point unknown to him, or maybe it was the other way round and it was the distance left until he reached an unknown destination.
The highway soon made a gentle turn and Rick entered a large hall, bisected into two parts by the rail. Mold fluoresced on the walls and ceiling and a rail carriage stood on the rails up ahead.
Rick climbed onto the ramp and walked along the carriage, which was attached to a locomotive that featured a wide metallic blade vertically fixed to its front. An open platform could barely be seen ten paces in front of the locomotive and rick walked past it to discover another locomotive which was equipped with a huge drill.
He looked around, searching through his memories — it seemed that this was a small depot. The unusual word was simple and understandable. Suddenly, he was twisted with pain. His whole body cramped and his legs went out from under him. Rick cried out, grabbing his head in his hands and fell to the floor.
His consciousness came back slowly and circles swam in front of his eyes for a long time, until Rick managed to make out the fluorescent green mold on the walls and carefully stood up.
Rick's head spun a little and he did not know how long he had spent unconscious. Mother Darkness! He felt his forehead, where a sizable lump had grown. He probably hit his head when he had the fit. Good that there wasn't some beast that came upon him and ate him.
He noticed a crowbar lying on the platform and armed himself.
Now he was calmer, even though he was reassuring himself. It was not a great weapon, but it would be all right for close combat.
Listening to his feelings, Rick continued on his way. After an hour had passed, the tunnel came to its end and highway stretched out as a bridge spanning a huge open space. The ceiling with its air vents letting in the weak ray of the sun was far away, the walls even further and the floor furthest of all, as deep as ten levels. This was just like Thermopolis!
Rick confidently strode onwards. The familiar architecture of this space cheered him up. It was incredible that this was only a small part of the city around the citadel. How many people could have lived here once? This world was probably vibrant and full of light, warmth and color once upon a time. But now it was just a huge and artificial dead space.
He crossed the bridge and entered a tunnel again. He heard a rustle somewhere over his head. Rick stopped, listening. It was probably his ears playing tricks on him. He started to walk on, but then he stopped again. He slowly turned around, carefully examining the mold-covered ceiling and suddenly felt very small and helpless.
He had to get out of here! He sped up his pace, feeling someone's intent gaze on his back. Goosebumps run down his neck and the hair on his head twitched as Rick walked even faster, afraid to look behind him and start running. At the same time, he heard the sound of his own steps which was soon intertwined with an echo as if Rick was not walking alone. He stopped, even though he understood that he should not do it and listened again.
“Go forward!” and inner voice insisted. “Why are you standing there? The longer you stand there the less chance you have to survive! It is coming...”
Rick heard a series of rapid taps behind his back and looked over his shoulder. A multi-legged fat monster with a stri
ped tail which pulsated yellow was running along the wall towards him. Its head featured several pairs of glowing red eyes and mandibles covered with long moving whiskers. The creature was as long as a human.
The terror that engulfed him immobilized his body. Rick watched the insect run towards him, squat down towards the floor and raise its tail, preparing to strike. It was only then that Rick came to his senses and quickly backed away, slipping on the damp floor and falling down. The tail snapped and its sting rang out as it hit the place where its victim's foot had been but a second ago.
Rick jumped up and started to run. The insect chittered piercingly behind his back and tapped its feet along the floor, chasing him. Rick ran as fast as he could just so that he could put a distance between himself and the monster. His lungs were burning, his face was flushed with blood and it was getting more and more difficult to move and breathe. However, he held on as he had to escape the beast and put some distance between them so that he could quickly hide in a niche or room...
When his breath finally run out and he whirled around, swinging the crowbar in his hand, there was nothing in the tunnel. Rick fell onto the floor, unable to suck in enough breath — he had spent too much strength on his sprint and his heart beat too fast. Multicolored circles swam before his eyes as his body convulsed in spasms from the overload.
However, the feeling of danger still did not go away but rose to the maximum instead. He did not understand why. The empty walls radiated danger. It was as if they shouted at him, “Run!”
Rick slowly raised his head and looked at the ceiling. The sting of the insect that hung above him was about to pierce his forehead. But a shadow bolted nearby, there was the whistling sound of something cutting through the air and one of the mandibles on the head of the creature suddenly fell to the floor. Cloudy liquid poured out of the stump and Rick automatically drew back, covering his face with his arm. The creature chittered, hit the wall hard with its tail and disappeared in an opening on the ceiling, swaying from side to side.