The Last of the Firsts

by G J Ogden

  “Ethan!”

  He tried to answer, but was unable to speak.

  Summer slid to her knees at his side and practically fell on top of him. “Ethan! Say something!”

  “I’m okay…” said Ethan, weakly grasping Summer’s wrist to offer some encouragement. His shoulders burned and the adrenalin was wearing off, leaving him with a weak, sickly feeling in his stomach.

  Summer’s eye narrowed and her lips pursed tightly together, and then she thumped Ethan on the arm.

  “Hey, what the hell!?” he protested.

  “I thought you were dead!” growled Summer.

  “Well, I’m not, so can you stop trying to kill me?”

  Summer stood, and pulled Ethan upright, just as Gaia and the hermit appeared. Ethan peered behind to see Yuna standing watch in the corridor.

  “What the hell happened?” croaked Ethan, rubbing his head, which was throbbing along with his neck and shoulders.

  “The rest of those things attacked after you were pulled through the lab wall,” explained Gaia. “Yuna and Summer managed to kill them, thankfully without getting hurt.”

  Ethan saw black-red blood dripping from the sheath where Summer had stowed his knife.

  “You could at least have cleaned it,” said Ethan, pointing to his former favorite weapon.

  “I have a feeling it won’t be the last time its needed,” said Summer, keeping a watchful eye on Yuna.

  “We must get into the laboratory, while we have the opportunity,” said Gaia. “Each lab should have a redundant backup power source; if it can be activated then the room can be made somewhat more secure.”

  Ethan raised a hand up to Summer, who obliged and helped to pull him to his feet. He winced and tried to peer down at the wounds to his neck and shoulders, but the simple action of twisting his neck caused more pain to shoot through his body.

  “I will tend to those once we are safely inside,” Gaia added, patting her bulky-looking backpack.

  She led them out of the room, stepping carefully over the fragments of fractured glass and back out into the main corridor to where Yuna was waiting.

  “Considering that one of those things was able to pull me through a glass wall, I don’t see how we’ll be any safer in the laboratory,” Ethan commented as they walked.

  Yuna had joined at the rear, walking backwards and aiming her bolt-thrower down the corridor. Ethan noticed his smashed bolt-thrower still lying on the floor where he’d dropped it, and felt somehow naked without it.

  “Once we activate the backup generator, we should be able to seal the lab space, and possibly also lower a barrier across the end of the corridor,” explained Gaia. “It is all part of a quarantine safeguard, but Yuna can trigger it manually.”

  They reached the laboratory, which was a large rectangular space with roughly the same floor area as the council chamber back at Forest Gate. Ethan noticed another narrow metal stairwell at the end of the corridor adjacent to it, which rose to a closed silver door.

  “I thought there were only two levels?” said Ethan, as Gaia, the hermit and Summer entered the laboratory.

  Yuna, who was still covering the corridor, glanced back and then up at the silver door. “It likely leads to the roof. There may have been a pad for an air transport up there, or perhaps it’s just an access door for maintenance personnel.”

  Ethan entered the room and slumped down into the nearest chair, which was not nearly as comfortable as it looked. Yuna followed, closing and deadlocking the door, and then immediately ran to a cabinet at the far side of the lab near the outer glass window, yanking the doors open and staring inside with a look of intense concentration.

  The hermit dragged a chair opposite Ethan and then daintily planted himself into it. He looked at Ethan’s wounds, and then leant in, eyebrows raised.

  “You know, lad, I’ve seen more of those things than I care to remember, but I’ve rarely seen anyone fight one and live to tell the tale.”

  “I got lucky,” said Ethan.

  “I don’t mean you, lad, I mean that whirling tempest over there,” said the hermit, his eyes twinkling. “I know that you just got lucky.”

  Ethan laughed. “In a contest between Summer and one of the maddened, I almost feel sorry for the maddened.”

  The hermit laughed back, which drew curious looks from Summer, who had moved to the outer window and had been peering out across the smooth, shimmering lake. She was about to shout over to them when lights flickered on in the ceiling and the multitude of dust-coated machines bleeped and whirred and hummed back into life. Seconds later the smoky glass wall that was the only thing separating them from the corridor outside seemed to shimmer and then solidify into an opaque barrier.

  “Okay, backup power is online,” said Yuna, stepping back from the cabinet and dusting off her hands. “But I don’t know how long it will hold. Nothing in this place has been used in over a century.”

  “It will be sufficient,” said Gaia, “well done.” Then she removed her backpack, placed it on a bench and removed a black satchel. “Ethan, allow me to tend to your wounds while Yuna helps to set up the equipment I need.”

  Ethan pushed himself out of the chair, which required significantly more effort than he had expected it to, and hobbled over to the bench beside Gaia.

  “You will need to remove your tunic and shirt,” said Gaia, plainly. Ethan recoiled slightly and then looked at the others, who were all staring back at him.

  Yuna laughed. “Honestly, Ethan, I don’t remember you being so shy when standing buck naked alongside Maria in our decontamination room.”

  Gaia shot her daughter a reproving look, and Yuna realized her slip. They all looked to Summer, and it was clear that this statement had gotten her attention.

  “Stood buck naked with Maria?” repeated Summer; her eyes had widened and her body seemed to tense up like water suddenly freezing.

  “It’s a long story, and it’s not how it sounds!” blurted Ethan, only serving to make himself sound guilty of the imagined crime that they all believed he had committed.

  “Summer, could you perhaps please assist?” said Gaia in an attempt to move the conversation away from the awkward subject of a naked Maria. She then folded open the satchel and began to prepare the items she needed.

  Summer scowled at Ethan and then marched slowly towards him, eyes fixed on his. With each thud of her boots on the glossy laboratory floor, Ethan could feel his pulse getting faster and faster.

  “If you could help remove his tunic and shirt, please,” said Gaia as she worked.

  Summer stepped behind Ethan, resting her hands on his shoulders for a moment, before yanking the tunic away from Ethan’s body with such urgency that anyone would have thought it was on fire. Ethan yelped, and the hermit, who had sidled around to get a better view, winced as the garment was stripped from him.

  “Gently, Summ…” Ethan began, but could not finish before Summer had whipped his shirt up and over his head. Ethan’s yelps were muffled by the fabric covering his mouth, and once the shirt had been removed fully, Summer bundled it up, marched away from Ethan without looking back at him, and threw it in his face. The hermit winced again, but then stifled a snigger as Summer paced back to the window with a face like thunder.

  “I’m glad she’s on our side,” the hermit whispered to Ethan, careful to ensure that the fiery ranger did not hear.

  “Are you ready?” said Gaia, who was also trying to disguise a slight smirk.

  Ethan looked down at the folded-out satchel to see an assortment of instruments, including two injector devices.

  “I think I’ve been pierced enough for one day.”

  “Ah, don’t be a baby!” said the hermit, chuckling, and then he slapped him encouragingly on the shoulder, causing Ethan to grit his teeth and wince again.

  Gaia cocked an eyebrow in the direction of the old man. “I do not know why you are laughing; one of them is for you.” The fiendish smirk on the hermit’s face vanished.

&nb
sp; Gaia worked on Ethan’s wounds with her usual skill, covering the claw-like puncture wounds with the curious, skin-like bandage that she’d applied to him previously, before injecting a mixture of pain relievers and healing accelerants. Normally, it would have taken Ethan at least a week to recover from wounds like these, and longer for them to fully heal, if they ever did, and he was amazed again at how instantly the relief came once Gaia had finished. He flexed his arms and shoulders, and then reached for his shirt, which was still in a rough bundle at his feet from when Summer had thrown it in his face.

  “Thank you again, Gaia,” Ethan said, slipping on the shirt, and glancing over to Summer, who was patrolling the room, looking either cross or focused. He wasn’t sure which, but hoped it was the latter.

  Gaia smiled at Ethan and then picked up the second device, which Ethan now recognized as a variation of the injector that actually drew blood, rather than inject substances into it. Gaia approached the hermit, who shrunk away.

  “Come on, do not be a baby…” said Gaia, mimicking the tone the hermit had taken. The old man pouted and stared at the device with suspicious eyes.

  “I’ve lasted all these years without contraptions like these,” he said, sticking out his arm and looking away. “I don’t know what you hope to learn, but go on, bleed me if you must!” The hermit shut his eyes tightly and clasped his free hand over his leathery face. “Go on! Make it quick!”

  “I have already finished,” said Gaia, who was walking away to join Yuna at an elaborate-looking workstation.

  The hermit parted his fingers and peered out through one open eye. His arm, which was still outstretched, had a small yellow blob over the area where Gaia had extracted the blood. He raised the blob closer to his face in order to get a better look, scrunching his nose up in disgust as he did so.

  Ethan smiled and left the hermit to his own thoughts, fastening the final buttons of his tunic as he strolled up behind Gaia and Yuna, who were operating the complex workstation, which whirred and bleeped softly.

  “Do you know how all this stuff works?” asked Ethan, but then realized it was a stupid question to ask, and tried again. “I mean, do you know how long it will take to figure out what you need to know?”

  “I have all of my prior research with me, so with this equipment, we should hopefully know very swiftly,” said Gaia, remaining focused on her work.

  Yuna removed a device from Gaia’s backpack and connected it to the console. Ethan could see that Gaia had already taken a small sample of the hermit’s blood from the vial, and then stored the remainder in a small silver canister. Gaia glanced back at Ethan, who was standing uncomfortably close and peering over her shoulder.

  “Perhaps you could reconnoiter the rest of the laboratory?” said Gaia, though it was phrased more as a request than a question. “There appear to be a number of rooms adjoining this space, which may perhaps contain useful supplies.”

  Ethan laughed. “Okay, I know when I’m not wanted.”

  “Not needed, to be more precise, Ethan,” Gaia corrected, smiling warmly. “I will let you know when I have something.”

  Ethan turned to rejoin the hermit, but noticed that he had moved from his chair and was sitting against the wall with his eyes closed and head bowed forward. Ethan took a few steps further towards him and noticed that his chest was slowly rising and falling, and with each long breath there was an accompanying sonorous rumble.

  “Unbelievable…” Ethan said out loud, shaking his head.

  He looked for Summer, hoping that she had forgotten about Yuna’s earlier revelation; she was at the far side of the lab, inspecting what looked like a partition door, possibly leading into one of the adjoining spaces that Gaia had mentioned. She was still wearing a frown, but Ethan took a deep breath and decided to head over.

  “Help me with this will you?” said Summer, spotting Ethan as he approached. She was wrestling with a handle, but the partition would not budge.

  “Gaia said there were some adjoining sections, so this must be how to get through,” said Ethan, grasping the edge of the partition and adding pressure. “It has probably just seized up over time.”

  “Okay, after three; are you ready?” Summer counted down from three and then they both heaved at the door, eventually forcing it to scrape along the edge of the wall, dislodging a century of dust and grime. They stopped when the opening was just large enough to pass through and then stepped back to peer inside. The adjoining space was dark and smelt musty.

  Summer drew Ethan’s knife from the scabbard on her belt. “Better safe than sorry.”

  Ethan nodded and jogged back into the lab to retrieve his short-staff. But, before he reached it, he stopped, feeling a strange sensation under his feet, as if the floor was vibrating, almost imperceptibly at first, but growing stronger with each passing second. He glanced over to Gaia and Yuna, who both seemed to have noticed it too.

  “Tell me you know what that is?”

  “I am afraid not, Ethan,” said Gaia, scowling at the gently vibrating walls.

  Dust-covered consoles, instruments and tools began to rattle on the desks and work surfaces all around the laboratory, and then the vibrations grew stronger, turning into heavy shudders that were accompanied by a dull roar, just audible through the dense glass wall of the laboratory.

  “We will accelerate our work,” said Gaia, but the excitement at furthering her research overrode her anxiety over the unknown origin of the vibrations. “The progress is already astounding, and exciting beyond measure!”

  Ethan’s short-staff rolled off the table and clattered onto the floor, and this seemed to finally wake the hermit from his nap. He snuffled and started, grabbing his stick and wielding it menacingly, as if he were about to be attacked, then leapt to his feet and jogged up to Ethan.

  “What’s all this, lad?”

  “We don’t know, but be ready, just in case we have to make a sharp exit.”

  The hermit nodded. “Aye, lad. This is not a good place to be after dark. I’ll help you all I can, but soon we must go, or I must leave you. I will only become a burden to you.”

  Ethan nodded, but was still honed in on the vibrations, which were easing as rapidly as they had begun. And then, as if they had never existed in the first place, they stopped.

  Ethan reached down and picked up his short-staff, turning it in his hands; the comforting feel of the dense, hard wood was like a soothing tonic that helped to quiet his nerves. He glanced back towards the newly-opened partition and saw that Summer had already gone through the dark opening.

  “Wait here…” he said to the hermit, and hurried over to the partition, squeezing through into the colder and mustier air on the other side.

  “Summer…” he called out, but in a hushed tone; the chill and darkness gave the space a sinister feel.

  “Over here, Ethan.”

  The room was divided by floor-to-ceiling racks, which were split into sections, with a zig-zag path filtering through them. He followed the voice and moved swiftly, but cautiously around the series of bends, until he saw Summer, knife held ready, stooped as if preparing to attack. He tightened his grip on the staff and made his way to her side. Summer didn’t look at him, and instead pointed the dagger to a bright patch in the ceiling, about ten meters ahead. Ethan’s eyes had not yet fully adjusted to the darkness, but as his focused on the area he was able to make out another stairwell leading to the roof, similar the one in the corridor outside the laboratory, except that the door at the top was wide open to the darkening evening sky outside.

  “We should back out, slowly,” suggested Ethan, but Summer shook her head.

  “You saw how easily the maddened smashed through the glass wall; if there’s anything in here, that thin partition back there won’t stop them.”

  “But Yuna’s bolt-thrower will.”

  Summer gripped the handle of the blade more tightly, but grudgingly accepted that Ethan was right. “Okay, you go and I’ll follow.”

  Ethan steppe
d backwards, retracing his steps, and when he was sure that Summer was actually following, he turned the first of the zig-zag corners back towards the lab. Suddenly, there was a dull thud above him, perhaps coming from outside. He froze, and turned to see a silhouetted shape flashing past the open door to the roof.

  “Summer, we need to move…” he urged, but just as he finished speaking the words, a creature crept out of the darkness and locked its obsidian eyes onto him. “Run!”

  Summer and Ethan turned and sprinted down the narrow corridors between the racks, colliding with the metal shelves at the end of each short passageway. The crash and clatter of objects drowned out any other noises, but they knew the enemy would be close on their heels. Ethan reached the partition and scraped through it.