What Happened To Lori - The Complete Epic (The Konrath Dark Thriller Collective Book 9)
Page 69
“I’m staying with Presley.”
He expected one, or both, of them to protest.
Neither did.
“You don’t want to talk me out of it?”
Fabler took his wife’s hand. “You need to be with the one you love.”
“Go to her, Bro.”
“And make sure one of you presses the escape key.”
Grim handed Fabler Brooklyn’s heart, and told him the address Presley made him memorize.
“We’ll get it to her, Grim. Good luck.”
Grim reached into his pocket and hunted around until he found the smushed penny. He pressed it into his best friend’s hand.
“It never brought me any luck, but maybe it’ll work better for you.”
“You want to trade it for something from my prison purse?”
“Hard pass.”
The men shared a grin, and then embraced.
Grim knew he couldn’t say anything to his sister without bawling again, so he settled for a quick peck on the cheek, then turned to go.
“Pilgrim.”
Grim met Lori’s eyes. “Yeah?”
“That’s what we’re naming our son. Pilgrim.”
Grim looked to Fabler. “You okay with that?”
“Yeah. That way we’ll always have a Grim in the family.”
Grim began to run.
JAKE ○ 3:51+pm
The blood trail led to some sort of massacre site. Jake took several blood and tissues samples, remembered he was supposed to be searching for Sinatra, and continued on his quest until the overhead lighting became a dark green.
He found an open door, and peeked inside.
He picked everything up, and noticed a few drops of fluid left in the laser scalpel vial.
Jake attached everything to his plastiform armor, and heard a noise behind him. Heavy footfalls, accompanied by animal panting.
He checked.
PRESLEY ○ 3:54+pm
Presley’s belly had distended to the size of a basketball. She clenched her teeth and screamed, blood spurting from between her lips.
She looked at the Espada for the hundredth time. Thinking about cutting her wrists. Thinking about plunging it into her heart.
Then she checked her watch.
A splitting pain folded her in half, and she screamed louder than she ever screamed in her life.
The arm around her was strong, but warm and familiar.
She held it with both hands.
“Grim…”
“I couldn’t leave the most wonderful woman in the world.”
“I can’t do it. It hurts so much. I can’t…”
“I know. It’s okay. I got this.”
Another cramp, unbearable, and Grim hugged her, hugged Presley so tight that for a moment all the pain went away, and instead of the horror of the moment Presley saw Brooklyn reaching for her, calling her Mommy, and Grim stood behind her and smiled and nodded and Presley felt loved and safe and knew everything was going to work out okay.
That’s when Grim snapped her neck.
GRIM ○ 3:55+pm
Sobbing, unable to even see, Grim felt for a pulse he knew wasn’t there.
Then he pried the knife from Presley’s hands and took a quick look at her undulating belly.
Eyes closed, he stabbed and stabbed and kept stabbing until he had to turn away and throw up.
Without viewing what he’d done, Grim felt around, found Presley’s watch, and removed the strap.
Grim got up, and wandered over to Mu’s destroyed body.
He considered pissing on it, had a ridiculous thought that the piss might somehow bring Mu back to life, like in a bad horror novel, and instead kicked Mu’s parts in different directions.
Grim remembered a conversation with Fabler, when they were young and green and on their way to the recruitment office to enlist.
“Remind me again why we’re doing this, Fabler.”
“I can’t speak for you. I want to stop bad guys and save lives.”
“Right. Me too.”
But that had been a lie. Grim enlisted because he wanted to prove something to Fabler, and something to himself.
“That’s not the point, stupid.”
Fabler appeared in Grim’s head.
“So what is the point?”
“Bravery isn’t the absence of fear. Bravery is being able to act, even when you’re afraid. And you did that. Many, many times. In the service. And over the last few days. You came back to be with Presley, because you didn’t want her to die alone. You spared her from pain. And now you’re sacrificing yourself to save others. That’s the definition of bravery, jackass. Give yourself a break.”
“Thanks, figment-of-my-imagination-Fabler.”
Grim checked his watch.
That’s when the dragon’s head popped up out of the underground tunnel.
“Grimmmmmmm!”
It pulled itself through the small opening, scraping off its scales and spurting blood in order to fit.
“You killed my baaaaaaaaaaaby!”
FABLER ○ 3:56+pm
“Jake just got up and walked off. I don’t know where he went.”
“We have to leave without him, Holly.”
“No! I won’t leave without my brother! Help me look for him!”
“I like your brother. But there are fifteen other people here. I need to get them to the void within the next two minutes.”
“You asshole! Jake helped you get here! Now you’re going to abandon him!”
“I’ll help you, Holly.”
Fabler stared at his wife. “No way, Lori. Absolutely not.”
“You get everyone to the void room. We’ll be there on time.”
Fabler opened his mouth to argue, but saw the resolve on Lori’s face. Debate would just waste precious seconds.
“Don’t make me have to come back for you again, Lori.”
“I won’t. Got an extra watch?”
Fabler handed one over, syncing it to his.
“C’mon, Holly. Let’s move. Catch you later, babe.” Lori winked at him.
Fabler watched his wife run off, taking his heart with her.
Then he began to gather up the pr
isoners to lead them out of this damn place.
GRIM ○ 3:56+pm
Grim sprinted away from the demon dragon, ran to the nearest wall, and opened it up, running into the jungle. He flicked on his flashlight and scanned the woods around him.
Grim tried to spot the safest-looking spot, and his flashlight rested on something recognizable.
He sprinted to it.
LORI ○ 3:56+pm
“Jake! Jake McKendrick!”
Lori and Holly jogged through the halls, Holly lagging behind.
Lori stopped to check—
—and Holly punched her square in the face.
Lori fell backward, onto her ass, blood leaking from her nose.
“The only reason I don’t stomp the shit out of you, bitch, is because you’re pregnant.”
“Holly? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“You know what you did. You ratted me out to the guards to get Elixir.”
Lori put her finger on the exocrine gland—
—and paused.
Holly advanced, fists clenched, and Lori wrapped organoplastic around her feet, trapping her. Then she stood up, and talked calmly and with authority.
“Holly, I’ve been here as long as you. And I’ve spent three quarters of my time here being punished for disobedience. I never ratted you out. I never ratted anyone out. We have ninety seconds to find your brother and join the others. Once we’re home, if you’d like to revisit this conversation, we can do so. Do you understand me?”
Rather than calm down, Holly threw a tantrum. “How can you control the walls? You’re vichy! You’re with the greys!”
“Fine. You’re in time out.”
“What? Time out?”
“I’ll be back for you when I find Jake.”
Lori advanced down the hallway.
“Lori! You can’t leave me here! I could get eaten by something!”
“I’m coming back with your brother, or I’m not coming back. You have my word, Holly.”
Then Lori ran.
GRIM ○ 3:57+pm
Something nudged Grim from the side.
Another nudge. Harder this time.
“Ah, hell.”
JAKE ○ 3:57+pm
The Ophiacodon walking up to Jake had a length of over three meters and a weight he estimated at about five hundred pounds.
“I don’t want any trouble.”
The lizard flicked out its tongue, licking the air.
“Have you seen a giant sloth? Says yeeeeeeah all the time?”
The codon didn’t answer.
“Sit.”
The codon didn’t sit.
But it didn’t attack, either.
“Jake McKendrick!”
“Someone is calling me. I have to go. But this has been fun. Would you mind if I just took a small sample of your DNA? For research purposes?”
The codon flicked out its tongue.
Jake gave it the tiniest poke ever with his spear, getting a few drops of blood to study later.
The Ophiacodon opened its huge jaws and leapt at Jake.
GRIM ○ 3:58+pm
Grim fell backward and tripped, landing on his ass, realizing his entire life had been leading up to this one very bad punchline.
“YEEEEAAAAAAAAAH!”
“Sinatra!”
The giant sloth slashed out with a mighty claw, cutting the killer banana in half. Mushy banana insides slopped onto Grim, coating his face and mouth.
Forty seconds left, Grim ran back to the battery building, saw the dragon stick its head out the hole he made in the wall and spray a stream of fire, and then he changed directions, sprinting twenty meters further, opening up another door with his gland and dashing through, Sinatra right behind him.
“Keyboard. Where’s that keyboard.”
He went left, noted the dragon, and went right, running alongside the battery, hoping this was the right direction, looking for the hallway, looking for the hallway, looking for the—
“There!”
He led Sinatra down the hall, coming to the panel with the keyboard, checking his watch
LORI ○ 3:58+pm
Something was approaching fast, and Lori barely raised her hands to defend herself as Jake flew past talking to himself.
“I’m-sorry-I’m-sorry-I’m-sorry-I’m-sorry…”
Lori didn’t wait to see what he was running from. She formed a quick organoplastic wall and then followed Jake, reaching him as he freed his sister.
“What happened, Holly? Are you okay?”
Holly stared at Lori. “I made a mistake. It’s all good.”
Lori checked the time.
“Ten seconds. Follow me.”
She opened up the wall—
—and saw some giant, smoky, tentacled thing slithering down the hallway.
FABLER ○ 3:58+pm
He waited in the gate room, waiting for the threshold to glow so he could enter the void.
The threshold remained dull. Solid.
Fabler had no idea what to do next.
He heard a howl.
Its call prompted more howls from the hallways behind them.
But Fabler knew it wasn’t Grim’s fault. Or Lori’s fault.
GRIM ○ 3:59+pm
“How could I mess this up? It was a key. One key. What the hell was the ke
y?”
His timer stopped, Grim gaped at the QWERTY keyboard, hoping something came to mind.
He pressed the tab key.
Nothing happened.
“Grimmmmmmmmmmmm! You killed my baaaaaaaaaaaaaaby!”
Sinatra turned to face the dragon.
LORI ○ 3:59+pm
Immediately sealing the hole she made to avoid that Cthulhu thing, Lori palmed the opposite wall, opening a door, leading Jake and Holly toward the portal.
“I’m pretty sure the portal is the other way.”
Lori listened to Jake, switching directions, leading him and his sister the other way, toward the portal.
She opened another wall—
—running into a dire wolf.
Much larger than a grey wolf. Bigger head. Bigger teeth.
Mean as hell. She once saw a pack of these take down a T-Rex.
Lori pressed the wall, putting bars between her and the canine as it snapped at her, opening yet another wall and seeing…
“Fabler!”
Her husband, and the prisoners.
“Lori!”
Lori began to weep with relief, and then stopped herself, mid-sob.
GRIM ○ 4:00+pm
“Sinatra. You need to run.”
Sinatra didn’t move. He continued to face the dragon.
“Sinatra! Listen to me!” He whacked the sloth on its hindquarters. “You have to get out of here! You have to escape!”