by J. N. Chaney
I exchanged looks with Stacy.
“Any more lies, or half-truths, or waiting for us to ask the right question, and we’re done here,” Stacy said, jamming the helmet on her head. “If we don’t have trust, we have nothing to talk about and cannot possibly work as a team.”
“Understood,” Dama said, making her way to the front. “I will lead.”
As Dama moved to the front, the tension of the moment dissipated a bit. I hadn’t noticed it until now, but the Rung warriors had surrounded us, ready to make a move if their commander ordered. Now that Dama was making her way to the narrow hall, they fell back and lowered their weapons.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said, joining Dama in front of the line.
“The Rung staying behind with the children will lock the grate behind us,” Dama said. “There’s no going back.” She eyed us to gauge our reactions to this news.
“I don’t have plans for tomorrow,” John said, hefting a heavy Rung blaster to his chest. “Let’s go.”
13
Dama and I were the first into the narrow hall. There was barely enough room for the two of us to move side by side. Pipes, wires, and vents lined the walls and ceilings of the hall. We had to dodge and duck in order to avoid the obstructions.
An eerie stillness fell over me as I searched the darkness in front of us with the aid of my helmet’s HUD.
The hall in front of us was visible for the next few feet, then all turned black.
“The lights to the rest of the bunker were shut off,” Dama whispered as we moved forward. “Your Dragon’s Breath has a light at the end of the barrel just here.”
I looked down to see where she pointed. She clicked a button, and true to her word, a narrow beam of light shot out to bring much too little light to the hall. It was a little better than nothing in penetrating the inky blackness.
“Lights on,” Sulk said from behind me, where he and Stacy came next.
Rung, humans, and the Remboshi in our party all obeyed. Soon, twenty-six lights shot forward, illuminating the darkness.
We moved forward slowly, quietly. We all understood that if a single infected saw us coming, it was over. The shared consciousness Legion controlled them with would know exactly where we were.
The sounds of the vent being screwed in place behind us made me cringe. It wasn’t loud, but any noise at the moment made me jump. The halls were so narrow, if we were found out now, it would be a massacre. The darkness wouldn’t help matters either, particularly if there was a panic to get away from the infected.
Dama used a screen on the back of her right vambrace to navigate our path. My breath inside my helmet felt hot and too rapid. I told myself it was the anticipation of this ordeal finally being over, not fear, that was making me hyperventilate a little. Okay, maybe a little fear. I needed a pep talk for myself.
Easy, Dean, I told myself. Control your breathing.
To say I was out of my element would be an understatement. On the edge of the universe in a nightmare situation against an intelligent virus, all I could do was put one foot in front of another.
The narrow hall came to a T intersection in front of us.
I glanced down at the map on Dama’s right hand. It showed a hall going to the right, then a larger room to the left.
“Lights,” Dama breathed.
Everyone turned off their lights together. The sudden darkness was overwhelming and didn’t help my anticipation level much.
“Sulk?” Dama asked.
I had to put my back against the wall as Dama did the same on her side to make enough room for Sulk to squeeze through. Three more hardened Rung came behind him. I noticed they sheathed their blasters and drew bladed weapons, ranging from knives to swords.
Sulk took the left, followed by one of the Rung. The other two warriors went right.
We waited in silence and darkness.
I looked over to Stacy. She shook her head, and I knew she hated this as much as I did. It was in neither of our natures to stand by and wait for others to do the work we knew had to be done.
Minutes stretched by endlessly as I felt my body become restless from staying in the same spot for so long.
After what felt like half an hour but in reality couldn’t have been more than five to ten minutes, Sulk popped his helmeted head around the corner, startling me, and I think Dama jumped a hair as well.
“Clear,” he said.
We turned on our lights again. It was only then that I noticed Sulk’s blade dripping with dark blood, which appeared to be consistent with infected black blood.
We moved out of the hall to the room on the right. It was some kind of cafeteria. Sulk and his counterpart had removed a vent, allowing us access.
My light played around the room, picking up a series of four bodies on the ground in pools of their own blood.
“We sliced their throats from behind,” Sulk said. I couldn’t see his face due to his helmet, but I could imagine the grin he wore.
“Won’t Legion know something is wrong, even if he can’t see us?” Stacy asked as the others piled in through the vent shaft behind us. “I mean, he’ll know he’s losing infected and which ones, since he controls all of them, plus they will be dropping in numbers.”
“He might.” Dama nodded in agreement. “We should press on and move quickly.”
“No argument there,” John said, sidling up next to us. “Lead the way.”
Dama did just that, ducking into a much larger hall at a light jog. We had a few kilometers of halls and levels to make our way through. Right now, speed and stealth were keys to our success.
Sulk took point with his three Rung assassins. The rest of us made up the middle of the pack with a pair of larger Rung that guarded our rear.
We ran without lights. At every corner and in every dark hallway, I half expected to see Legion. He was smarter than we gave him credit for. He would understand exactly what we wanted, and as such, he would be waiting for us.
Just over halfway to our target, Sulk and the Rung in the lead came up short. We nearly ran into the back of them as they stopped abruptly around a sharp corner.
“Don’t shoot,” a familiar and unwelcome voice said. “I’m not infected.”
I turned the corner, already knowing who the voice belonged to. Maksim stood there blinking in the bright lights our weapons gave off. His time on Genesis had not been kind to him. The burn on his face was rigid and cracked, with webs of scars stretching across his cheek. He held his right hand to his side, where a tide of blood oozed through his hands.
Despite his injuries, he gave me a bright smile when he saw me. “Brother, you came.”
My weapon was aimed directly at his chest. My trigger finger twitched. It would be so easy to end him now, and at that moment, I really wanted to. He was the man who was responsible at least in part for bringing us crashing down to Genesis, as well as the man who ambushed me and bashed the back of my head with a rock. I wouldn’t be wrong in squeezing the trigger. It would be so simple. One big problem taken care of and a little vengeance in one act.
“Dean,” Stacy warned out of the side of her mouth. “Dean, I want to as much as you do, trust me, but maybe he knows something useful.” And with that, I came back to reality. I knew Stacy was right.
“What are you doing here?” I growled.
“Well, I guess we’re going to skip the pleasantries and get right down to business,” Maksim said with a heavy sigh. He seemed disappointed that I wasn’t greeting him with wide open arms and a smile. What a weirdo.
Behind him was a set of closed double doors. A faint scratching could be heard on the opposite side.
Maksim placed his back to the door then sank down to a seated position. He gestured with a thumb at the closed doors behind him.
“The stairwell to the level below where the power armor is being kept,” he said with a sadistic grin. “Filled with infected. Any of the ways down are. I thought this would be my best bet to try breaking through the
ir lines. I was debating about going when you came. Now we can all go together, like it should be. Like it always should have been. Brother with brother, allies in arms.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying but failing to keep the anger out of my voice. I stalked over to Maksim, towering over him in what I hoped was a menacing way. “If you had it your way, we’d all be dead by now. What are you doing here? What kind of game are you playing now?”
“No more games,” Maksim said, shaking his head in vehement denial. “No more agendas or room for hate. This is about survival. This is about justice.”
“Survival?” I asked incredulously. A wave of heat hit my face, which I was sure was turning a fiery shade of red. Anger erupted inside of me and I had to take deep breaths. I pressed my weapon to his forehead. “Justice? You want justice? This is justice. Your brain spattered against the doors behind you is justice.”
“We fought Legion together in the forest and we survived,” Maksim said, looking up at me despite the barrel of my weapon on his forehead. It was as if it wasn’t there or maybe he didn’t believe I would actually kill him. “If we want to live, it’ll take us doing the same one more time.”
“Please remove the barrel of your weapon from his head,” Dama directed me. I felt a nudge on my shoulder as she pointed her own blaster at me.
A second later, weapons were pointed in every direction. John held his rifle pointed at a Rung, who aimed at him right back. Tong had Sulk dead to rights. Stacy held two weapons, one in each hand. One was aimed at Dama and the other at one of Sulk’s assassins. In turn the Rung pointed their weapons at us. If it all wasn’t so potentially deadly, it would have been somewhat comical.
“No one has to die here,” Dama continued. “Whatever hate you hold for this man, it is nothing compared to that which we have for Legion. We need as many infection free fighters as we can get. One more on our side means one less for him. Please lower your weapon.”
“Do it,” Maksim said, closing his eyes. He pressed his head harder into the barrel of the Dragon’s Breath in my hands. Apparently, he didn’t mean for me to remove the weapon as Dama did. “Do it. Free me, brother.”
My hands shook as I weighed what I knew I should do against what I knew Maksim deserved.
“Dean,” Stacy said from behind me. “Maksim will pay, just not right now. We have a mission to finish. It doesn’t mean we have to like it. We just have to do what’s best for everyone right now.”
I swallowed hard, reluctantly lowering the weapon from Maksim’s forehead. Stacy had become my frequent voice of reason, saving me from making bad decisions in the moment.
“We’re not done with this conversation,” I told Maksim. “Not by a long shot.”
“Our time will come in this life or the next,” Maksim said with a heavy sigh as if he were almost disappointed I hadn’t killed him.
Better luck next time, I thought.
“Lower your weapons,” Dama ordered her Rung.
They complied, allowing Stacy, John, and Tong to do the same.
“What’s with the change of heart?” John asked Maksim. “One second you hate us, and now you’re trying to help the Rung?”
“I was forced to trade one abomination for the other,” Maksim said with a noticeable wince of pain as he pressed his bloody hand deeper into his side to stop the bleeding. “I know what Legion wants. Legion is going to consume this planet then head off-world in search of ours. I can’t allow that to happen. If there is even the slightest chance he can find Earth, I have to prevent it.”
“It’s so disturbing to hear you speak like you care about anything besides murdering people,” Stacy said in disgust.
Maksim looked at her, seeming genuinely puzzled by her inflammatory words. “People change,” he started to inform her until Tong interrupted.
“Wait, how do you know Legion wants to head off-world?” Tong asked, worried. “How would you know that?”
“It’s what I would do,” Maksim said. “The way Legion secured the hangar bay is another point of proof. I went down there. He—it is doing system checks and working on ways to improve the design to take it off-world.”
My heart sank in my chest as I was forced to consider that Maksim might be telling the truth. The odds were stacked astronomically high against Legion ever being able to find Earth. Still, what if he were to find another inhabited planet? His reign of terror would continue, spreading from one innocent world to the next. We really had to stop this poisonous leech.
“He’s right about one thing. We can’t let Legion get off-world,” Stacy said to us before directing her next words at Maksim. “Although, granted, it’s a leap of faith that what you’re saying is the truth.”
“I have no reason to lie,” Maksim said, shaking his head in denial. “Not now, not anymore.”
“We’ll get you patched up,” Dama said, nodding to a Rung who came over with some kind of medical pack. “You said you scouted the other ways down to the lower level?”
“That’s right.” Maksim winced as his wound was treated. “Like I said, Legion knows what we want. He’s blocked every way down. The best chance we have is this stairwell. There can’t be more than a dozen infected he has assigned to guard the entry point. As far as he knows, it’s just me down here. Together, we can fight our way through.”
I looked over at Stacy, each of us cocking an eyebrow at the other. We were both thinking the same thing. What were the odds that our maniac friend here was lying out of his freaking teeth? Fifty-fifty at best.
“A dozen? Only a dozen?” Sulk said with a tone of glee in his voice. “Dama, we can take that many without sustaining any casualties. We can.”
Dama stood quiet. Her head moved from the door to her warriors, trying to assess the situation to make the best decision possible without losing her army and her people. She couldn’t afford any more loss.
“He could be lying,” Stacy countered. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Maksim was about to say something but was cut off by a deep inhale of pain as the Rung medic closed his wound.
I had to say I didn’t hate the idea that Maksim was feeling some of the same pain he had caused so many before.
“We will breach the door,” Dama finally decided.
“Great choice,” Maksim said as he struggled to his feet. An angry burn on his right side showed where his wound had been cauterized. “I’ll need a weapon.”
“You will get a blade and you’ll be going through the door first,” Dama advised him.
14
The sly grin on his face disappeared at once.
“A blade? I’ll need a blaster at the very least. Didn’t you hear me? There are at least a dozen of them on the other side of those doors.” Maksim looked at me like I was going to give him some help. I fought down the smirk that was threatening to bubble up. Now was not the time to be so petty. “At least arm me.”
“You’re more than enough to handle with a blade. I’m not about to give you anything else to use against us,” I told him. “If everything you say is true and you’re on our side in this, then prove it.”
The look Maksim gave me could have melted steel. He opened his right hand and extended it toward Dama, who put a long, thick blade in it.
“I’m on the side of the non-infected,” Maksim said, taking in a large breath. “So be it. I’ll lead the way down to the next level. Stay close. There are only a dozen in the stairwell, but there are more in the lower levels.” He swung the blade a bit to test it out. Satisfied, he was prepared to bring us to our first hurdle in getting past the infected.
Maksim turned back to the closed door jamming his knife in the wedge where the doors came together. He grunted, slowly prying the doors apart.
The sounds of scratching from the other side stopped altogether.
“Firing lines,” Dama told her warriors.
As one, the twenty Rung soldiers formed two lines, one in front of the other. The first line knelt at the ready, ai
ming their blasters at the door. The second line stood behind the first, also lifting their weapons to fire.
Maksim stood alone, slowly forcing the doors forward. Sweat dampened his brow as his already weakened body tried to force the doors open. He didn’t make much progress.
“Oh, for crying out loud,” I said, going over to him and placing my finger in the opening space between the door. “I can’t believe I’m helping you.”
“Broth—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I said, shaking my head and rolling my eyes. “Brother, two swords facing away from each other and all that. “Come on, let’s get these doors open and get the heck out of the way before we’re turned into Swiss cheese by those Rung blasters.”
Maksim nodded, forcing his fingers into the tiny opening.
“One,” I said, bracing my feet on the ground.
“Two,” Maksim said above the returning sounds of the infected scratching at the opposite sides of the door.
“Three!” I yelled as I threw my weight into the doors.
My muscles burned from my shoulders to my back. The steel doors opened slowly but steadily. Almost instantly, macabre thoughts of clammy infected hands reaching around the door and pulling me inside played through my mind, but I ignored them.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Stacy, John, and Tong take up a position to the left of Dama’s firing line. This gave them an angle view into the stairwell so they’d be able to cover me as I retreated. If the infected came at me, they couldn’t see my team, who would then be able to counterattack.
The door finally gave way and swung open with a resounding boom that echoed through the quiet hall. Maksim and I ran back to our lines, expecting a rush of infected. What we got was a dark, ominous room we couldn’t see more than a few feet into.
“Lights,” Dama said, motioning with her own weapon.
Dozens of lights pierced the darkness, and with them came a nightmare, the likes of which I hoped never to encounter again.
There was more than a dozen infected in the stairwell. Ten times more.