It was only a ten foot drop to the surface of the glass, which seemed to Sam to be more than just glass, reinforced with some other material and likely close to unbreakable.
“Where am I going, SNTNL?” he said, marveling with each gaze.
“I believe you are on the right track, Sam. Continue forward and you’ll come to a slope which will taper off to a rocky dip, and then another building just beyond that. Somewhere beyond that building is where you’ll find Terri and Rosalyn.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Rosalyn? I think you mean Terri and Randy.”
“Yes, that is correct. My apologies.”
Sam chuckled a bit as he kept walking across the bridge. “Who programmed you, SNTNL? Some wide-eyed temp?”
There was a wrinkle of knowing humor in SNTNL’s response. “Just a wide-eyed temp named John Traynor.”
“Did he really? I bet he programmed in all sorts of secret notes for Rosalyn. Do you have anything like that stored in you?”
“Yes, I do, actually. It goes like this: ‘Dear Rosalyn, my love, I am leaving FAER to work for NASA. Please take good care of the Foundation for me and make sure that Japanese guy doesn’t drive it to bankruptcy.’”
Sam laughed heartily. “Hijo ni omoshiroi. Is now really the time for these kinds of jokes, SNTNL? Now I wonder if FAER reprogrammed you after John left to make jokes about him.”
“I’m not sure about that. But you’re right, I’ll refrain from now on.”
He entered the opposite structure and found it was decayed far beyond anything else he had seen in this place, near to the point of every section being cracked, like it was just a stack of pieces of rubble. He didn’t feel at all safe stepping across it. Near to the wall of one part of the wide hallway, he saw a strewn-about pile of bones. Probably at least two full skeletons’ worth, judging by the number of them. From the relatively brief glance he spared for it he thought it was one of the humanoid aliens’ remains. He would have stopped for a better look, but the enclosed space and the need to reach Terri and Randy felt far more pressing to him. He kept to the right, ignoring side rooms in horrible shape, and eventually the structure opened up with a downward-slanting ramp that led outside to the true bottom section of the great cavern, underneath what he had initially, mistakenly regarded as the bottom. Through the darkness he could see many things he’d previously spotted through the glass from above. There was an entire sub-world here, one Sam did not at all wish to get lost in.
“I believe there is an elevator in that structure up ahead. Coincidentally, that is the likely direction that Terri and Randy have been heading in. This is working out quite well.”
Sam felt his spirits brightening. “Are you serious? After the luck we’ve had today, that’s hard to believe.”
He felt a wave of exhaustion passing through him, and he stopped to sit for a moment on the ramp, breathing in deeply and shutting his eyes to pretend he was somewhere else. Somewhere on Earth where he could feel a warm breeze and sunshine on his face.
“It’s best if we keep moving.”
“I know, SNTNL,” he said before taking a big breath. “It’s just been a long day. You wouldn’t understand.”
“You’re correct, at that. I am very different from you humans.”
♦♦♦
Terri was shivering in convulsions.
Her skin was still wet from the puddle of water she had slipped into nearly twenty minutes ago, and her heart was straining with terror. Her braided hair was drying slightly, but still an unkempt mess. She squatted down with Randy in a small dip in the land where they hoped to be hidden from sight.
The large monster had followed their general direction, and although they couldn’t see it, they heard the thundering of its huge limbs across the barren expanse as it searched around. Terri had also spotted others: smaller creatures hidden by shadows, leaping and scrambling down hills and out of crevasses.
Randy somehow maintained that he hadn’t seen the large monster or the smaller ones, and that had only made her feel more anxious. For now she could hold onto her hope that none of the creatures had spotted her, but how much longer would it stay that way?
Once again she shook her head and ruminated on how they never should have gone any further into these ruins.
She sat back on the uneven stone floor, her knees up, her hands crossed and rubbing her chest in a desperate struggle to warm herself. No towel to dry her freezing flesh and damp clothes. Her only consolation was knowing that what she had fallen in was merely water and not that black liquid.
Randy wasn’t doing much better than she. He’d lost a contact lens and his ankle had gotten slightly twisted when he’d stumbled just prior to when Terri had fallen in the puddle. Darkness was sucking all the life out of him, he was dying of thirst, and for once in his professional life, he had no desire whatsoever to speak.
Now they heard echoes in the darkness of things moving about: roars and scratches and hisses. They couldn’t see well at all—there were only glimmers of reflected light—but there was something out there. Something they had not yet dreamt of.
The last hour or so passed out of Randy’s memory; his head felt increasingly hazy. The deep cold of this place was slowly strangling them even if the atmosphere was technically breathable. He and Terri clung to each other as if they were lovers.
It was hard to go on now, though. They were in pain and afraid. Randy didn’t want to believe that Terri really had seen what she’d seen. He didn’t want to believe that they were stuck in here alone, possibly the last survivors of the Novara disaster, soon to be only bones to be discovered here in six months or so when explorers found them. Those venomous thoughts had all but paralyzed him.
But Randy didn’t want to die in a mental pit of his own making. He edged closer to Terri, looked at her with concerned, side-glancing eyes, and put an arm around her. She sputtered out as she cried, grateful. After a minute he started to stand, bringing Terri with him.
After several minutes they seemed to be nearing the edge of the huge room. The wind picked up, and their bones were chilled.
Something rumbled behind them, and they turned and screamed when they watched a huge, armored creature with many limbs like a spider, a long and powerful body, and a terrible fanged maw coming their way, leaping and raging across the ground. The huge monster Terri had spoken of had found them!
Other creatures—smaller ones with odd, translucent bodies—rushed out from the shadows and began leaping onto the armored, spider-like monster’s limbs and back and biting into it. It halted and trembled, with its terrible scream rocking the very earth. It fought the creatures, smashing them on the ground, but more of them appeared and swarmed it, bringing it down and feasting upon it.
Randy and Terri’s minds and identities seemed to vanish. The next thing they knew they were both dashing with incredible speed and throbbing hearts up the hill and away from the carnage, unable to think about anything but escaping.
♦♦♦
Before long Sam opened his eyes and was standing again. Distantly he heard reverberating sounds of loud cries and roars, making him shudder. He started jogging down the rocky slope ahead. It gradually curved back up till it was generally flat for a while before rising up in a hilly incline. There weren’t many loose stones; all the ground of the cavern as far as he could see was one big, pock-marked, black rock, probably shaped through ancient volcanic activity. Parts of it rose and fell at random, forming odd rock formations here and there nearby and in the distance. It had a significant slant to Sam’s left, extending far downwards until it reached the general low elevation level of the cavern. He had to step somewhat carefully to avoid tumbling down.
Atop the crest of the hill was that stone structure SNTNL had mentioned. It had one cylindrical tower at its top that rose up and all the way through that reinforced glass ceiling high above. That must have been the elevator. Half of the building looked like it was built right out of the slope it stood upon; a smooth, slightly-damage
d wall extending further downward than the other sides of the building connected perfectly with the slope as if there were no separation. There were small and empty windows and an entrance wide enough for two and a half SUVs to pass through at a time. Sam approached it eagerly, scrambling and half-climbing up the hill. He attempted to ignore the throbbing and stinging of his hands as he did.
The wide entrance was flanked by two rippled columns on either side. Within the structure he saw high ceilings throughout, a multitude of stacked crates, and a closed-off room at his three o’ clock that led to the elevator. On his left were a number of rooms and a stairway to a second floor. Straight through the structure at the other end he saw another wide, open entrance of equal size. He made his way through, eyes searching eagerly.
Well, what are you waiting for? he thought to himself.
“TERRI! RANDY!” he shouted through cupped hands.
He heard only his echo, and what an echo it was. It seemed to travel through the entire cavern. He swore softly and thought he heard even that echo just a bit too.
“I might be careful shouting in here if I were you,” cautioned SNTNL.
He walked and sighed. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“Well, neither are they.”
He frowned for a moment at what SNTNL said, but kept moving. He was at the opposite entrance when he heard what SNTNL had heard.
“Sam? Sam, is that you?” someone called out.
It was an echoing, familiar voice that he had said goodbye to only that morning, but it brought tears to his eyes and made his jaw hang open. He ran forward and saw Terri and Randy climbing up a slight hill to reach the building. Terri, whose voice had echoed into Sam’s ears, looked up at him through wide, brown eyes and a wearied half-smile in the middle of her climbing. Her braids hung down freely, untied. Behind her was Randy, who looked half-dead.
Sam moved a little closer to them, but didn’t want to venture too far from the elevator. When Terri reached him she threw her arms around him and held him tightly. He embraced her in turn, not caring that her clothes felt damp and weathered.
“Oh, God!” she said, sobbing hoarsely. “We thought you were dead…”
“So did I.”
“Quick, we need to get out of here!” she said with terror, breaking away from him. “There are aliens following us!”
He nodded and wasted no time. “Well, I have good news: there’s an elevator in this building behind me. I’ll explain as we go, but just know that we’re getting the hell out of here!”
The relief on both their faces was immeasurable. The three of them jogged into the building to check out the elevator. Through the door, which glided aside as if filled with helium, there was a circular, flat space about twenty-five feet in diameter. With help from SNTNL they called the elevator down and heard rumbling from far above echoing through the chamber.
“The elevator’s damaged and slow, but it works. It should arrive in four minutes and thirty seconds,” SNTNL said. “Don’t stand past the lines or it’ll crush you as it comes down.”
With time to rest now, they turned to one another. “How did you make it here?” sputtered Terri. “H-how did you know where to find us?”
“It was SNTNL. Turns out it’s got an emergency function. It’s all downloaded on my smart device.” He said it in a tone of I’m just as surprised as you are. “It downloaded some kind of map of the ruins and has been pointing me towards you.”
The two of them were very surprised and grateful to hear that, but said nothing of it. Terri put her hands on her hips, breathing deeply.
Randy looked equally weathered. He gave a smile that quickly faded. “Wait, wh-where’s Rosalyn?” he asked with a weak voice.
Sam’s eyes were downcast as he responded, “She’s alive. We killed the alien, but she was badly wounded. I stuck her in the cryo-cell. I didn’t send the pod off, though. She’s just frozen in the cell until you can operate on her, Terri. If you can.”
They were relieved to hear that the alien was dead, but Rosalyn—their second captain in one trip—being out of commission left them somewhat worried. They didn’t have any comments.
Each of them rested against the wall by the doors separate from where the elevator would land. Sam turned to them with some pressing questions of his own, rubbing his arms to stay warm.
“What happened to you guys? Why did you go so far back into these ruins?”
Randy answered with some sharpness to his voice. “We came running in after you! Or so we thought.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “You’re joking, right? When I got here you guys were already long gone. I followed your tracks and had to hunt you down!”
Terri looked at Randy, who wore an expression of worry. She took a deep breath before answering. “We saw someone… We were just setting up a little space for us to get something to eat in the space tent when we heard footsteps from outside. First we thought it could be the alien. We tried to contact you and heard nothing, so we hid. Then somebody ran past us. We barely got a glance at them before they were gone, but whoever it was wore a spacesuit with a cloak. They kept running without noticing us, and we chased after them calling both your names in our comm sets, assuming they must have been you or Rosalyn. I don’t know what they—or it—was, but we were calling out to you. How did you not hear our signal from on the Novara? We weren’t that far away.”
Sam tried to piece a time-line together in his head. “Rosalyn and I fell into a room below the mainframe room with tons of electrical wires all around. We were in there for a while trying to kill the alien. Maybe that scrambled the signal?”
Not fully satisfied, she continued, “Whatever we were chasing was super fast and we lost it before too long. We ended up in a room with those acidic snails crawling along the floor. They brought the whole damn floor down and we fell and ended up losing our spacesuits.”
Sam stopped and contemplated for a moment. “Holy cow… From what you guys are saying, I guess… I guess we must have another alien roaming this place. Something shaped like a human.”
There was another stunned, silent, uncomfortable moment until Randy looked at Sam and asked, “Have you seen them?”
He shook his head. “I assumed all the humanoid creatures here were dead or gone. It seems that most of them are. Actually, SNTNL found out a ton about them from its data-mining. SNTNL?”
“Yes, most pressing is what I have learned about this black liquid substance that Shauna was covered in. From scanning many texts in the computer I’ve discovered it is referred to as ‘Seclurm’.”
SNTNL went on to inform them almost verbatim what it had earlier told Sam. By the time it finished, a wide, flat, circular, glass elevator had come down and settled onto the circular space prepared for it in the room. Sam beckoned them forward and they stepped onto the elevator.
“This should bring us right to the reparation room.”
“That’s great news,” Sam said with a thankful grin as the elevator started rumbling upwards at a pace that was stuck somewhere uncomfortably in the middle of quick and slow.
Terri and Randy hardly heard what SNTNL or Sam just said, still ruminating on what they learned about Seclurm. They felt an odd sensation within them, as if they were both itchy all over.
“Hold on. Wait. SNTNL, w-we came in contact with some of that stuff when we dropped through the floor and fell earlier. We fell into the—the Seclurm,” Terri stammered. “We went through a moving tube that was full of it. That was while we were still wearing our spacesuits, though. The suits got completely covered. We were worried it would seep through and infect us, so we ditched them.”
Sam swallowed and looked at them both. Terri looked like she wanted to vomit, and Randy shook his head slowly and was nervously fidgeting with his hands.
“SNTNL?” said Sam.
“How much did you get on your skin?” it asked them.
Terri spoke quickly. “Not much, and we wiped off what little we did. Right, Randy?”
Ra
ndy hesitated, but he nodded.
“Good…good. If that is true, you should not have anything to fear. It seems to only take effect when a large quantity either covers the user’s (or victim’s) entire body, or if they imbibe some of it.”
Randy felt himself sweating. “So…are you saying that…that…” More sweat. He cursed, and his eyes grew wide as dishes. “You’re saying that Shauna was the…” Too many thoughts began to race through his mind, and he too felt as if he would vomit. Terri understood what he was saying without it being said, and her expression became one of horrible realization. Tears came to her eyes, and she covered her face. Randy looked like he was going to collapse.
Sam went to him and grabbed his arm and side. “Calm down, Randy. You’re gonna be okay. Right, SNTNL?”
“I believe the both of you are. If you start to sweat profusely and fall unconscious, that would be a red-alert signal that something very bad is happening. But as I said, if you are indeed correct that you didn’t imbibe any Seclurm and your skin wasn’t immersed in it, it shouldn’t have any effect on you. When we enter the reparation room, it will be able to scan your body and discover for certain if you have been infiltrated by Seclurm.”
Randy gave Sam a weakly hopeful glance, and though he didn’t say he felt better, Sam left him content that he’d be alright.
Even lightly contemplating the transformation that could occur if any one of them was contaminated nearly made them wet themselves. Out of sheer exhaustion, all of them sank to the floor sitting or lying on their side, though each kept their eyes open and watchful.
Sam sat by Terri and put his arm around her, letting her cry at the knowledge of Shauna’s fate. With time now to think on it more, Sam shed a few tears as well.
Soon, he met her gaze. “Terri. You need to remember that we’re gonna survive. Okay? I promise you that we will survive.”
She wailed, but quieted herself then enough to say, “You can’t promise that.”
Tears glistened in his eyes. He smirked. “I can and I will. And I don’t care how stubborn you are: you’re going to believe it.”
Seclurm: Devolution Page 23
