Rowan became animated as he stomped toward Mia. Asher took a few steps forward, and she thought she might have to keep them apart.
“Spare me the standard response,” Rowan said. “I’ve heard it too many times. The needs of the many, blah, blah, blah.”
Mia threw her arms straight out on either side in time to place a palm on each of their chests.
“Of course you don’t care,” Asher said. “You don’t care about anybody but yourself.”
The hallway went silent and Mia realized all of the conversation in the conference room had died away. She felt pressure against both hands as Rowan and Asher tried to take another step toward each other. Rowan had a hand on the hilt of his knife. Mia considered throwing her arms around him to keep him from pulling the blade free.
“You think you’re better than me?”
Mia was shocked by Rowan’s question.
“You think because I know nothing of the old world that it somehow makes me less than you,” he said. Asher didn’t respond. “Let’s see what happens when all of this is gone and the infected are hunting you.”
Mia had heard as much as she could take.
“That’s enough,” she said and then gave them both a shove for good measure. “This isn’t helping anything.” She focused on Rowan. “I don’t like the idea of you going down there, but I don’t know what else to do,” she admitted. Her heart hurt and her emotions overwhelmed her commonsense. “Just bring them back.”
♦
Clouds covered the moon, blocking out the familiar pale light. The cold wind blew across the snow-covered valley with little to hold it back. Mia’s boots sank in the snow with every step. She had her eyes on the two young men standing near the edge of the massive gorge that led down through the center of hive six. The lights hanging around their necks made them glow in the darkness. Rowan’s youthful face still held onto the boy Mia grew up with, but Asher’s features spoke more to the man he’d become.
Mia listened for confrontation as she approached but didn’t find any. She was content that for the moment the two young men had stopped arguing with one another. It was apparent they agreed on what they needed to do. Mia had a brewing suspicion that the relative truce wouldn’t last long once they were off on their own.
A number of other tribesmen and women were working on a set of riggings connected to a long climbing net. The support system would have to hold the climbers’ weight as they attempted to navigate the damaged walls of the gorge. It was also the one thing they’d have available to get Jonah and the others back to the surface if they found them. The entire plan felt rushed at best and doomed at worst. Mia was doing her best not to consider the odds of success, but it was proving to be a futile gesture.
“You’re sure that you have everything you need?” she asked when she was close enough. “There’s nothing else?”
Rowan tore his stare away from the descent ahead of them. “I don’t think I could carry anything else even if I wanted to,” he said.
Mia had forced him to take food and water along with his requirement of weapons. “You’ll thank me for it,” she said.
Asher forced himself into the conversation. “We’ll be in and out.”
“Don’t say that,” Rowan countered. “You don’t know that and neither do I.”
Mia’s hopeful idea of them getting along was evaporating by the moment.
“This doesn’t change anything,” Asher said, refusing to acknowledge him. “You and the rest of the council need to prepare for what’s to come. I gathered a good crew of engineers, and they can be ready to start working on the generators as soon as the way is clear.” He eyed Rowan. “And it won’t make any difference if we’re back or not.”
Mia didn’t like the sound of that. She knew what Rowan was going to say before he got it out.
“We’ll back that plan up,” she said, “in case they can’t get the generators back online.”
Rowan nodded.
They stood huddled in a tight circle without much to say. The riggings were checked and double checked and there was nothing to keep them from beginning their descent. Mia stared down at the edge of the gorge, unable to look at either of them. An awkward cough from Rowan forced her to look up at him.
“I’m going to find him,” he said.
Mia nodded. “Come back safe,” she said. “Find the kids and get back as quickly as you can.”
Asher refused to give up his place even as Rowan leaned in toward her. He pressed his lips against her cheek, and Mia’s eyes instinctively closed. She had to tell herself that it wasn’t going to be the last time she felt his touch in order to keep her emotions in check. Rowan pulled back. He wasn’t more than a foot away when Asher put his arms around her and squeezed. Mia tried not to smile at the sound of Rowan’s groan in the background.
“I’ll keep him safe,” Asher mocked as he let her go and turned to face the riggings.
Mia stepped away, trying to shake off the awkwardness. She smiled at them as they went to work. They took their time tying themselves off to a safety line before throwing the ends of the ropes over the side. Rowan and Asher were dangling over the edge a moment later. Mia approached the rim and looked down. The darkness hid the dizzying drop and she was happy for it. Mia was satisfied with being able to watch the climbers’ safely reach their target several stories down.
The climb took longer than she expected and the tension built with every placement of their hands. Rowan and Asher reached the remains of the highest landing, and they tested their weight before pulling themselves free from the safety lines. It wasn’t until they drew their guns that the reality of the situation hit Mia square in the heart. There was nothing she could do to help them. Asher disappeared through the opening in the wall, but Rowan took a step and then looked up at her. It was impossible for her to see his face, but in Mia’s mind, he was grinning at her the way he always did and that was the last image she had before he vanished into the darkness.
8
The darkness was all-consuming. The glow emanating from the devices around the necks of Rowan and Asher did little to fight back the blackness. They stood close to one another, each with a handgun drawn and pointed directly ahead of them. Their steps were light and their movements slow and purposeful. In Rowan’s mind it wasn’t a question of if they ran into the dead, it was when.
The chamber they entered was collapsed on one side. The far wall was in ruin, exposing a main hallway. A guess said they were a few levels above the dynamite’s detonation point, but there was no way to be certain. They would need to find a way down in order to get close enough to explore the area where Mia heard the cries for help. She’d given Rowan her access key in the hope it might allow them some measure of safe passage.
Rowan stepped over a large section of the wall and out into the hallway. The dark hid the view farther down in both directions, but the stillness told him they were safe for the moment. Asher followed him out. They stood in silence for a time, listening for anything that might call out trouble. Rowan’s voice felt loud when he spoke.
“Did you ever work in this hive?”
Asher shook his head. “Most of the crews that worked on the generators never strayed too far from hive five,” he explained. “I’ve been here a few of times, but I don’t remember enough to be of any use.”
Rowan had never gotten used to the former residents of Canaan or the tribal council’s acceptance of them once the soldiers loyal to the commission were removed. In his mind, the surviving members of all the tribes should have set out on their own, leaving the remains of Canaan to die a slow death. It was difficult for him to view Asher and his kind as anything else other than an enemy in waiting.
“I was here,” Rowan said. “Not that I could show you where.”
Asher chuckled. “Wonderful, so both of us are lost.”
“We know we have to go down, right?” Rowan asked.
Asher nodded.
“What’s the one sure way to do that?”<
br />
Asher considered the question. “The elevators,” he said. “But we know those won’t work without power.”
Rowan shook the wound up rope tied off to his waist. “We just need to reach them.”
Asher nodded and they were off.
The plan appeared much simpler than it really was. There was no guarantee they could reach one of the elevators. The detonation of Canaan’s defense system destroyed much more than the first few levels of each of the hives. The explosion reached the entire compound all the way down to its core. A number of the levels within each of the hives were lost, with countless lives trapped somewhere inside.
Rowan took up the lead. He put his gun away in favor of a long knife. The dead weren’t hunters, but noise drew them in. Rowan knew their survival could depend solely on their ability to go unnoticed. Any thought of finding the kids and getting out unseen quickly stalled.
“Do you hear—”
Rowan waved off the question. The sound was low but obvious. The moans of the dead had a way of working their way into your heart. Rowan’s chest tightened as the horrid groans rose and then fell away.
The central hall ended dead ahead, splitting off in opposite directions. An archway stood open against the far wall between the split. Rowan gave in to his fear and motioned for Asher to light the lantern. His nerves wouldn’t allow him to continue shuffling through the dark knowing the dead were near.
Asher’s mask of strength quickly faded. His anxiety revealed itself as he struggled to light the wick. He was at the task far longer than he should have been before a spark produced a flame. He got to his feet and held the light out in front, allowing the focused beam to reveal what awaited them.
The light swept from one side of the hall to the other. Rowan motioned for Asher to focus on the panel beside the door and then to stay where he was. Rowan approached the end of the hall with his eyes struggling to see beyond the opening. He reached out and touched the wall before the moans returned.
Rowan stopped mid-step and stared into the room beyond the doorway. The guttural utterances shifted as he tried to use all of his senses at once. The outlines came first, a shoulder here, an arm there. The count came quickly and Rowan realized there was a large mass on the opposite side of a wide storeroom.
He made a frantic gesture and Asher cut off the beam from the lantern. Rowan put his hand over the small light around his neck and pressed his back against the wall. His heart nearly seized up in his chest when Asher slid in next to him. He held the lantern up against the side of his leg, hiding the beam.
“We can’t go through there,” Rowan whispered.
“The elevators are at the center of each of the hives,” Asher said, pointing. “That hall will take us away from the gorge, so it’s our best option.”
The sound of slow, unsteady footsteps kept Rowan from acknowledging the direction. The shuffling walk grew louder, and the fear rising in his heart forced him to move. Rowan stepped across the opening in two quick strides. He was already moving down the hall when a yelp from Asher spun him around.
“It’s got me.”
The announcement was followed by several shots. Each pull of the trigger lit up the dark hallway with a sudden intense burst. The response from the storeroom quickly overshadowed the power of the gunshot. The beam of the lantern swept erratically from one wall to the other as Asher pulled himself free and ran. It took Rowan a moment to grasp that Asher was sprinting in the opposite direction. Rowan started after him and then slid to a stop as several figures pushed out from the storeroom into the hall.
“Damn it, Asher.”
The cursing did little to help the situation, but it felt good to get it off his chest. He’d known bringing the engineer down with him was a mistake, and his first reaction to trouble proved the thought correct. Rowan was determined to get around the dead. He didn’t want to waste his time searching for Asher when he should be searching for the kids.
Running toward a growing mass of zombies was a terrifying thing, doing it in the dark, even worse. Rowan’s brain begged him to turn around, but he forced himself to speed up. He reached the gathering of the dead in a few long strides. He wasn’t able to see a way around them until he was right on top of them.
Rowan was airborne, leaping over a pair of bodies that tumbled over during the group’s fight to get a hand on Asher. He buried a shoulder into one of the zombies in the middle of the hall, and the impact sent it back several feet, sprawled out on the floor. Rowan heard the vile thing’s head smack the dirty surface as he flew over it. The strike cost him his momentum and left him flying awkwardly past the dead. Rowan hit the ground on the other side of the hall and slid through a layer of debris.
He was up and pressing himself to pick up speed before he considered any damage. One of his knees ached and the sudden warmth around his leg told him he was bleeding. The volume of guttural growls rose to a new height, leaving Rowan with no time to check himself. He caught sight of the lantern’s beam far down the hall ahead of him a split second before it turned off.
“Hold on.”
Rowan silently cursed Asher a hundred times before he reached the end of the passage. A sudden burst of light brought him to a stop. Asher stood in the center of the hall, bent over at the waist. He held his hand up to talk but couldn’t get the words out. Rowan felt like punching him in the gut, but he figured it would only slow them down.
“We’re going in the wrong direction.”
Asher managed to stand up straight. “Sorry, I panicked.”
“Yes,” Rowan said between clenched teeth. “I noticed that. Now the whole damn group is after us.”
Asher nodded but didn’t bother continuing his apology. He turned his back on Rowan and aimed the light away from them. The way looked oddly clear of debris. Rowan shoved him in the back, and they trotted forward with the sound of the dead echoing around the turn in the hall behind them. The volume grew louder as the mass neared the turn, and Rowan felt panic creep into his mind.
“Come on.” Rowan pushed past Asher. “Keep that light straight and your feet moving.”
They were in a full sprint when the first of the dead came around the turn. The volume increased by tenfold and the nefarious roar was enough to push the living to their peak. The beam of light danced across the hallway, awkwardly revealing what lay ahead. Several open doorways lined the passage, but Rowan didn’t have time to consider what might pop out before they were rushing past them.
The shadows played havoc on his nerves. He dodged side to side from outstretched hands that he wasn’t sure were really there. The noise followed them in waves, haunting every step. Asher reached another turn in the hall and chose their direction before Rowan could get a word out. They turned back in toward the center of the hive and continued straight. The move quieted the trailing moans long enough for Rowan to gather his thoughts.
“Slow down.”
Asher came to a sudden stop, and Rowan nearly bowled him over. They huddled around the lamp, both taking in gulps of air. Asher swung the lamp’s beam from one side of the hall to the other. The hallway was eerily still, but the distant wails told them they were far from safe. Asher held the light up above his head and swept the beam across the wall near the ceiling. He continued the sweep until he found the location marker.
“I thought you didn’t know anything about this hive?” Rowan said.
“I didn’t say that,” Asher countered. “I don’t know specifics, but the hall markers run in a similar fashion throughout all of the hives. Even numbers are for central passages running north and south.” He pointed at the faded marker. “This is a main hall and the letters tell me it will run into the elevator.”
“Why didn’t you say something before we were being chased?”
Asher shrugged the question off. “Come on, it shouldn’t be much farther.”
Rowan held his tongue. Something struck him and he couldn’t explain it. He didn’t trust Asher and the thought that he was hiding informati
on didn’t seem too farfetched. Rowan wondered if Asher’s need to volunteer had ulterior motives beyond his obvious attempt to gain favor in Mia’s eyes.
Asher kept them on the main hall and his direction proved correct. The elevator door was cracked open, revealing the dark shaft on the other side. Asher held the beam up close to the gap and Rowan peered through the crack. The shaft was clear, the bottom of the elevator stuck mid-way between their floor and the one above. The darkness swallowed the way below.
“Look around,” Rowan said, unrolling the rope from his hip. “We need something to tie this on to.”
They forced the elevator door open wide enough for them to fit through. A quick sweep of the area left them with few reliable options for a tie off point. Rowan settled for tying one end of the rope to the underside of the elevator. He double-checked the knot before dropping the remainder of the line down the center of the shaft. Asher extinguished the lantern and placed it by the elevator door, leaving the glow around their necks as the sole source of light.
“This should get us down to the floor where you set off the dynamite,” Rowan said, intentionally reminding Asher of what got them into the situation. “If we can’t get the elevator door open on that floor, we’re going to have to figure out another way.”
Asher’s eyes focused on the dark hall behind them.
“There’s no guarantee the dead won’t find their way down here.” He settled his sights on the elevator shaft. “We’ll be trapped in there.” A low growl rose up from the shaft as if on cue.
“Not sure we can do much about that now,” Rowan said.
Rowan knew it didn’t make any sense for both of them to climb down unless they were sure they wouldn’t have to climb right back up. He figured Asher wouldn’t volunteer to go down first. His paranoia reminded him that dangling out on the rope would leave him at Asher’s mercy if something went wrong. Rowan swallowed his concern.
“Wait here and put out your light,” he said. “I’ll go down and see if we can get through.”
Rowan tried not to think about the consequences as he slipped through the opening and reached out for the rope. He grabbed hold and hesitated for a brief moment before allowing his feet to sweep out. He climbed down quickly, hand over hand. The personal light worked well in the tight space, clearing away the darkness.
The Decaying World Saga Box Set [Prequel #1-#2 & Books #1-#2] Page 75
