by Tara Basi
Without warning the floor was coming up to meet her as she sank below the surface. They’d made it to the trapdoor. Still running, taking two stairs at a time, Jugger kept going, heading down. Looking back up the stairs Mina could see the door starting to close but not before two bugs squeezed through. They whined straight as darts for Jugger and Battery Boy. Mina fired. At such close range, in the confined space of the narrow stairway, the first mozzie exploded in a shower of brown gore, the noise deafeningly echoing back and forth between the walls. In one smooth movement Battery Boy dropped the unconscious Pinkie to the floor and delivered a vicious roundhouse kick to the second closing insect’s head. Decapitated, it crashed into the wall, limbs and wings thrashing dementedly for some seconds before it started to slow and eventually lie still.
With the door sealed they all collapsed at the bottom of the stairs in a sweating heap of gasping bodies, covered in blood and insect slime. Mina caught her breath and started to survey the damage. The top of her thigh had swollen up to twice its normal size but was thankfully not bleeding. There was a neat coin sized puncture, oozing a clear pus but no blood. Crawling over to Pinkie she found the little girl was completely out. Her neck was grotesquely swollen, tipping her head unnaturally to one side but she was breathing and her pulse was steady, but weak. Battery Boy made a pillow for Pinkie’s head from his knapsack. The boys all seemed unscathed, though Stuff looked in shock. His frail body shivered uncontrollably, his eyes staring into space. Mina dragged herself to his side and held him tight. After a while he calmed down a little and his eyes started to focus.
“Why?” Stuff asked, as tears welled up in his eyes.
For a long time they sat silently, eating and drinking a little from the supplies taken from Black, but otherwise just sitting, motionless, silent, staring at nothing, physically and emotionally shrivelled.
“Would you really have dropped me?” Mina quietly asked Jugger, suddenly wanting to know as her strength returned.
“Sure. I ain’t your friend lady, I don’t owe you, I don’t owe nobody, you all get that?” Jugger shouted, so everyone could hear.
Battery Boy looked up, he didn’t look surprised and he didn’t say anything.
“I’m your friend, and his,” Stuff said tearfully to Mina, nodding towards Battery Boy. “Might not be worth much, but I know lots about animals.”
“There’s one box of ammo left, I’m empty, what about you two?” Battery Boy asked, obviously wanting to turn the conversation back to practical matters.
“I’ve got flares and… nothing,” Mina answered with surprise after she checked her gun.
“It’s full, carrying her, I never got to fire a shot,” Jugger answered, back to his usual calm self.
“You fill up, you’re better with these things than we are,” Battery Boy said, passing Mina the box of ammo.
Mina reloaded her gun, emptying the box. Before Mina could suggest Jugger should share some of his ammo with Battery Boy he was already passing a handful over. Mina guessed Jugger just thought that was the practical thing to do.
“Don’t get comfortable,” Trinity suddenly announced.
“What now?” Mina said.
“Those lovely things are trying to get in and they will, soon. I can open another door, up ahead, it’ll take you back to the pits place Battery Boy mentioned. Get to the northern edge of the Block, I’m working on things,” Trinity answered.
“Oh shit, not back down there,” Battery Boy whispered.
“Must be somewhere else we can go? Please?” Stuff wailed.
“Trinity? Trinity?” Mina called out, but there was no answer.
“It must be using all its resources working on a plan, its shut off the interface,” Mina said, as she slowly shook her head.
“We got guns, right, torches and a compass. Worry won’t catch us this time,” Battery Boy said, trying to sound confident after the initial shock of Trinity’s announcement.
“We’re lucky she’s out cold, doubt you’d get her to go back,” Jugger said, looking down at the unconscious Pinkie.
“Let’s go find the door,” Mina said as she pulled herself to her feet, her swollen leg throbbing painfully, and started hobbling along the white corridor at the bottom of the stairs. Directly ahead was another short flight of stairs leading up to a ceiling panel just like the one that had closed behind them. Her first thought was the new door would take them back to floor of the Yard and the waiting monsters but she soon remembered Block doors didn’t work like that. A dim thumping coming from the door behind them reminded Mina the blood suckers were still after them.
“You want to tell me what to expect?” Mina said to Battery Boy.
“We’ll be outside, underneath the Block, its pitch black and the pits are arranged, like the roots, in a huge grid. Keep away from the pit edges, it’s easy to fall. Beyond the pits, it’s just dirt and about ten K to the edge of the Block, and the light,” Battery Boy explained.
“Doesn’t sound too bad, who’s this Worry character?” Mina asked.
“Let’s just say if we keep very quiet and we’re lucky, we won’t bump into him or his crazy gang,” Battery Boy answered.
Battery Boy put the unconscious Pinkie over his shoulder and switched on his torch. Jugger stepped up and to her surprise invited Mina to put her arm around his shoulder to support her weight. “Get your gun ready, I’ve got the torch,” was all he said.
“You go first, see what it’s like,” Battery Boy said to Stuff, the only one not overburdened.
Stuff, very reluctantly, took the lead and slowly shuffled up the stairs towards the panel in the ceiling. As he approached the panel lifted straight up into the air. Stuff nervously stuck his head over the lip of the exit. The light beaming up from the doorway and shining down from the panel formed a small pool of bright light around the opening. Stuff swung his torch in a circle cutting into the dark beyond the light from the door.
“Looks OK,” Stuff whispered, his voice trembling with fear.
“Get out quick, the light will attract attention,” Battery Boy hissed as he pushed Stuff from behind sending him sprawling onto the hard-packed, smooth dirt floor.
Battery Boy and Jugger followed with their human cargo and moved quickly out of the light. As soon as they had cleared the exit and the panel started to descend, Battery Boy and Jugger switched off their torches. Mina expected them to be plunged into darkness as soon as the door closed, but it was not entirely dark.
Two rows of light pillars spilled down into the pits from the Block above, cutting a clear path through the darkness that stretched as far ahead as they could see. It was heading directly north.
“Must be Trinity,” Mina whispered.
“That’ll keep the Wasted away as long as we stay between the columns of light, but they’ll know we’re here,” Battery Boy whispered back, sounding a bit happier.
“Why can’t we just stay in the light and wait for your friend Trinity?” Stuff almost beseeched Mina.
“You heard what Trinity told us, those monsters from the Yard might follow us down here, we have to get as far away as we can,” Mina said very quietly, hoping she was reassuring Stuff rather than frightening him even more.
“Let’s go, Worry’s bound to be headed this way, no point sneaking now,” Jugger said in a normal voice.
Each column of light looked the same size as the crystal tree roots in the Yard and unnervingly Mina could see sticky looking football sized grey-pink globules dripping down from the Block, to fall through the light and into the pit. Through the bright beams she could occasionally see flashes of other columns, far off in the distance, like lightning. Beyond the columns of lights illuminating their path was only the deepest shadow.
“We need to move quickly, climb on,” Jugger said to Mina, as he bent over allowing her to climb onto his back.
They jogged off at a steady pace keeping between the light towers; Jugger carrying Mina, with the still unconscious Pinkie slung over Battery Boy’s shou
lder and Stuff carrying Mina’s helmet. Mina checked her gun, she was ready but no targets presented themselves, she could hear nothing and there was nothing to see.
“Are you sure Worry’s out there?” Mina asked Jugger.
“They’re there, can’t you hear the clicking? Large groups are matching our speed to the right and left, just out of the light.”
Mina was tempted to fire a flare into the darkness to test what Jugger was saying but there were so few flares and a time might come when she wished she had just one more. She almost welcomed the throbbing pain in her thigh, it helped her keep alert. After the initial wonderment, the unchanging avenue of lights had become hypnotic and tedious. The boys ran for half-an-hour or so at a time, stopped to rest, take some water and head off again. On something like the third stop Battery Boy said what they were all thinking.
“These pit lights will end soon, then it’s at least ten K to the edge, in the dark.”
“We might outrun Worry, they won’t,” Jugger said, indicating Mina, Pinkie and Stuff.
“We’ll get to the end and wait in the light for Trinity,” Mina nervously suggested, frightened by Jugger’s statement.
“Great, we get to stay in the light,” Stuff exclaimed with some relief.
Mina climbed back up on Jugger and they set off again. It wasn’t long before they reached the last pair of illuminated pits at the northern edge of the grid. Beyond was pitch and silent. Jugger stopped a few metres from the blackness and let Mina slip to the ground. Pinkie was still out cold when Battery Boy gently laid her down.
“Try contacting Trinity,” Battery Boy said to Mina.
“I’ve been checking regularly, the interface is dead, it’s spinning its wheels really hard, we just have to wait.”
Mina noticed Battery Boy exchange glances with Jugger as they sat down to inventory the supplies. She guessed Jugger was working out how long he could wait before making a run for the Block edge on his own.
Without warning, a rasping voice called to them from out of the dark, “Said I’d be waiting, didn’t I? Your eyeballs are mine. Lights don’t last down here; they’ll go out, and then… Well guess you know. Listen, I’ll go easy on you, make it quick, if you give me Pinkie now. I know she’s there, I can smell her.”
The unexpected call from the dark made Mina and the others flinch.
“That’s the lovely Worry,” Jugger said to Mina.
What an evil sounding bastard, Mina thought. He’d terrified Pinkie, when not much else seemed to.
“You’ll never touch Pinkie again, not while I’m alive,” Mina roared into the dark, surprised at her own savagery.
Mina dialled up a flare and fired the phosphorus missile directly in the direction of the unseen source of the voice. There was an explosion, followed by a huge eruption of lacerating white light. Mina and the others could see the flare burning like a welder’s torch. It had imbedded itself in some horrible ghoul and was melting away the flesh. Hundreds of similar creatures were momentarily thrown into sharp relief against the blackness before they scattered in all directions. To Mina they looked like comic book zombies, hideous naked creatures. The only one left screamed in pain as the phosphor burned though its stomach. It tried to pull the flare from its gut only to set its hands alight. Staggering backwards, howling in agony the light was suddenly extinguished as the thing fell backwards into a pit and its shrieks tailed away into silence. Mina stared in shock at the space where the light had been. She’d killed someone. They might look like comic book horrors but they were still people.
“You’re OK, but you missed Worry,” Pinkie said sleepily.
Mina was wrenched out of her guilty thoughts by the unexpected comment. She turned to see Pinkie sitting up. The swelling in the little girl’s skinny neck was almost gone though it still looked very red and sore. She was obviously very weak and despite her cocky words Pinkie couldn’t hide how desperately frightened she was.
“Trouble,” was all Battery Boy said as he gestured for Mina to look back the way they had come.
Though still a long way off it looked as though a black shadow was flowing like a wave in their direction, flipping off the pillars of Block light as it passed. Trinity must be losing control. In moments the last light would be gone and they would be in the dark.
“Listen, we’ll fight as long as we can, but when it’s over my gun has a self-destruct mechanism, it will kill everything in a radius of a hundred metres,” Mina told the children.
“Including us?” Pinkie hopefully asked.
“Oh yes, Worry’s not getting you, no matter what,” Mina said gently as she knelt down to embrace the shivering little girl. Then, turning to the others, “You boys should get ready to run, you won’t stand a chance carrying us.”
Jugger turned away and began packing up a kit bag with supplies, while keeping a close eye on the blackness flowing rapidly towards them as the Block pit lights went out. All Mina could do was wait for the blackness to engulf her.
As the last two pillars of light, to their right and left, abruptly vanished Mina fired a volley of flares over the heads of the Worry gang to stick on the underside of the Block. Artificial suns burst into life all around scattering the ghouls. A giant circle of empty space rapidly cleared around Mina and the children.
“There’s Worry,” Pinkie screamed pointing at a tall gaunt figure lingering at the edge of the light.
Mina adjusted her gun and fired a salvo of ordinary bullets at the figure. Worry moved faster than seemed humanly possible. He grabbed a nearby ghoul and held the unfortunate in front of him while simultaneously retreating into the dark. One bullet took off the shield’s head and another smacked into the body before Worry and his dead protector slipped into the dark.
“Did you get him?” Pinkie hopefully asked.
“No idea. I’ve only got one flare left,” Mina replied as the artificial suns slowly set and were snuffed out.
Mina fired the last flare straight up to fasten itself on the Block directly over their heads. It burst into life, casting a small circle of white light all around them. As the light dimmed, the circle of brightness slowly evaporated. Mina set the gun to auto-destruct. Little red numbers flashed on the gun butt, counting down from sixty. She showed the butt to the boys and mouthed, “Run when the countdown hits twenty”.
All around them Worry’s followers were closing, keeping just beyond the shrinking circle of light. Mina stood upright, the children crouching at her feet and faced the darkness.
Chapter 10 – Friends and Enemies Reunited
The first thing Grain noticed was the smell as a hole in the ceiling opened. The Crawler started floating straight towards it carrying the three by a lassoed ankle. While Happy was passive, Sara was struggling hard, trying to twist her ankle free of the Crawler’s grip. The machine didn’t even seem to notice her efforts.
“Save your strength, you’ll never break its grip,” Grain called to Sara, knowing it was better to wait and see where the Crawler was taking them. Sara sagged in despair and let herself hang.
The journey was over a few seconds later. The Crawler floated up into a dimly lit corridor that reeked of fear, shit and blood. While Grain was still trying to understand where they were the Crawler smoothly hoisted him up towards the dark ceiling and locked both his ankles into waiting metal cuffs on a rail that ran along the roof of the passage. Hanging upside down Grain watched the Crawler do the same to Happy and Sara, then it retreated. The hole they’d passed through had gone, and the grimy floor looked solid but the Crawler sank into it as though it was a muddy stream, slowly submerging till the top of its shiny black, wok-like head started shrinking away, growing smaller and smaller, till it was only a tiny black spot, then nothing at all.
Immediately Grain pulled himself up, grabbed the rail and struggled with the ankle fastenings. The metal cuffs were solid. Short of cutting off his feet with a knife he didn’t have, there was no escape. Grain flopped back down in frustration.
“Any
luck?” Sara asked, her voice didn’t convey much hope of a positive answer.
Grain just shook his and started looking around. Sara was hanging to his right and Happy to his left, he could easily reach out and touch either of them. It was the same with the grubby walls of the alley they were in, it couldn’t have been more than a couple of metres wide. Even with outstretched fingers he couldn’t touch the floor. Grain wasn’t sure where the lighting was coming from but there wasn’t much of it. He was glad; he didn’t really want to see what was causing the sickening stench.
Looking past Sara to his right and Happy to his left Grain couldn’t see very far in the gloom. The rail in the roof sported open ankle cuffs, every metre or so, for as far as he could see in both directions. It was hard to be sure but a few hundred metres to his left it looked as though there were others suspended from the rail.
“You see that, down there, are those people?” Grain asked Happy, nodding his head in the direction he could see the vague swaying shapes.
“So what?” Happy answered, without any interest, not even bothering to look
“They might be able help, might know something,” Sara said with more enthusiasm.
Happy didn’t answer, she seemed to be reconciled to whatever was going to happen. Before Grain could call out to the distant figures a Crawler emerged from the floor, no more than twenty metres to his left, and silently suspended two screeching young boys by the ankles to the roof rail. Then, just as quickly and noiselessly the Crawler sank away. The strangers pulled at the ankle fastenings frantically for a few moments until, exhausted, they fell back, sobbing pitifully. Grain had been too stunned by the new arrivals and their struggles to react.
