The Deep Beneath

by Natalie Wright

  “Nope, it’s not working,” said Frank. “Darndest thing. I’ve never seen that happen before. Not unless someone is no longer …” Frank turned around and looked at Dr. Dolan then swiveled his head to look at Erika. His eyes widened and fear swept over his face.

  Dr. Dolan had prepared a syringe full of the medicine he’d brought with him while they walked to Tex’s room. He pulled the prepared syringe from his coat pocket, thrust it into Frank’s arm and pushed down on the plunger before Frank had a chance to fling him away.

  Erika let out a sigh of relief that she hadn’t needed to use the rifle on Frank.

  “What the …?” Frank’s eyes blinked slowly as he turned his head, looking at each of them, trying to understand what had just happened to him. His motions were sluggish and he stumbled backward. “What did you do to me?”

  “It’s merely a sedative. You’ll sleep a few hours, that’s all. Quickly, grab his card.”

  Erika reached up and grabbed Frank’s keycard strung around his neck with a lanyard. Frank stumbled again, and Erika reached an arm around him, as did Dr. Dolan. They helped him gently to the ground.

  “Hurry now. Swipe it.”

  Erika did as Dr. Dolan requested. The keypad lit up green, ready for a thumbprint. Dr. Dolan reached down, grabbed Frank’s hand and placed his thumb on the print scanner. Within seconds, the door to Tex’s room slid open.

  “Grab his legs. Come – help me. That’s it. We’ll drag him in,” Dr. Dolan said.

  Erika grabbed one leg while Dr. Dolan took the other. They scooted backwards into Tex’s room, pulling Frank’s dead weight with them.

  Tex’s room was more dimly lit than the hallway. Erika straightened up and allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness while Dr. Dolan pressed a button on the wall to close the door behind them. Erika blinked her eyes and peered around. To her right was a small table and two chairs. Another doorway to her left. Probably a bathroom. And just ahead was a single-sized metal-frame bed. On the bed was a lump curled into a ball. The lump didn’t move.

  “Tex?”

  No answer. Erika’s stomach lurched. Are we too late?

  “We must hurry,” Dr. Dolan said. He walked to the bed, bent down, and scooped Tex up. He grunted with the weight and looked like he might topple over. But he took a deep breath, straightened his knees and moved toward the door.

  “Is he all right?”

  “I think so. He’s likely just passed out like Frank here. But we have to get him to a lower humidity environment before he’ll wake up.” Dr. Dolan scurried through the halls the way they’d come as quickly as he could while bearing the weight of Tex.

  Erika walked ahead of Dr. Dolan, scouting around corners. Dolan huffed and puffed behind her. Hang in there, old man.

  Erika looked backward every so often to see if anyone was behind them, but they were alone. They were about fifty yards from the set of metal doors that would lead them back to where Jack and Ian waited when an alarm sounded. Red lights, embedded in the concrete ceiling, flashed as the high-pitched alarm whooped. Erika’s heart, already pumping hard from the exertion and danger, nearly leapt into her throat.

  She stopped and turned to Dr. Dolan. He had fallen back and was about twenty feet behind her. She could see the struggle on his face. Tex was still limp and lifeless in his arms. “Did we trip an alarm?”

  Dr. Dolan breathed hard. “No,” he huffed. “That alarm … it’s not for the labs. It’s for … A.H.D.N.A.” He finally caught up to her and looked glad to stop for a moment. “It means that security has been breached.”

  “You mean for the whole place?”

  Dolan nodded. “It means that someone has penetrated the facility. From the outside.”

  “But that’s not possible, is it?”

  Dr. Dolan began walking again. “Must keep moving.”

  As they walked, Erika considered what Dr. Dolan had said. No matter how she turned it, she kept coming back to what Tex had said in the pool room. “My alien cousins are coming for me.”

  Is it possible? Are they here? Who else could penetrate the formidable armor of A.H.D.N.A.?

  Erika once again pulled ahead of Dr. Dolan. She tried to will his feet to move faster. As she looked back, it was like he was moving in slow motion. He nearly stumbled and fell, but he somehow found a way to keep going. The doors to the labs were ahead of her. She turned back to Dr. Dolan to encourage him on. But behind him were two armed guards dressed in black, running and closing the gap between Dr. Dolan and themselves.

  She stopped and shouted, “Hurry! Guards are coming up behind you.” As she turned back toward the doors, now only ten feet from her, the sound of grinding metal erupted ahead of her. A huge, corridor-wide metal door was coming down from the ceiling. “What’s that?”

  “They’re going into complete lockdown. Hurry, before the security seal closes us off. Swipe the card.” Dolan was still at least twenty yards away and bent over with the weight of Tex in his arms.

  Erika ran ahead and swiped Frank’s card. The double metal doors slid open. She stepped through them and into the corridor that led back to the lab while the heavy metal gate continued to slowly lower. “Hurry!”

  Erika could see Tex’s head bounce up and down in Dr. Dolan’s arms as he ran toward her.

  “Stop right there, Dr. Dolan,” a black-clad guard yelled.

  But Dr. Dolan didn’t stop. He was less than ten feet from the gate, but the gate was only five feet from the floor.

  “Stop, Dolan, or we’ll shoot.”

  Dr. Dolan continued to run toward the door. His face was as red as a tomato and covered in slick sweat. His glasses had slid down his nose and bounced on his head as he ran. Or at least he was trying to run. But he was so tired. All he could manage was a fast shuffle. Dolan was less than two feet from the gate, but the door was less than three feet from the ground.

  Erika crouched on her haunches. “Come on. You’re almost there. Lay him on the ground then crouch and –”

  Gunfire echoed loudly off of the concrete walls and ceiling. It may have been only one shot, but it sounded like a hundred. Dr. Dolan suddenly lurched. He fell with his face only a foot from the gate, his eyes wide with surprise. A trickle of blood fell from the side of his mouth. He did not move or speak. He’s dead.

  Erika didn’t have time to freak out about the dead body mere inches from her own. Tex was pinned under Dr. Dolan and the gate was coming down. She didn’t know if Tex was dead or alive, but his arm was outstretched. Something to grab onto.

  The gate was now only two feet from the ground. If she didn’t get him through, her efforts and the sacrifice by Dr. Dolan were all in vain. Erika got on her stomach and shimmied under the gate, leaving the gun behind. She stretched out her arm as far as it would go and grabbed Tex’s long, thin hand.

  The guards were less than ten feet from her. “Drop it or we’ll shoot your hand off.”

  Erika closed her eyes to keep the red, blinking lights from psyching her out. She tried to close the sound of the sirens out too as she focused on the sensation of Tex’s cold hand in hers. With all the strength she had left, she pulled as hard and as quickly as she could as she shimmied backward under the closing gate.

  Tex’s body was through the gate, but his foot dragged behind him. She tugged again. His big toe was just inside the gate as it came within inches of the ground.

  The sound of gunfire rang out again, and bullets pinged against the metal door. The guards cursed as their bullets ricocheted around the hallway. “Stop! You may hit the hybrid.”

  “Who cares about that mutant freak?”

  “Sturgis does, and she’ll make sure we’re toast if anything happens to it.”

  The gate came down with a loud thud and sealed her and Tex off from them. There was now only one direction to go. Back toward Dolan’s operating room, where she had nearly met her death. Back to Ian and Jack. But it was still at least a five-minute walk. Erika’s legs were wobbly and her arms like noodles. She’d never be
able to carry Tex, and she didn’t want to leave him alone and vulnerable while she went to get the guys to help her.

  The flashing lights and wailing siren made it impossible to think. The rush of blood pumping through her veins created a roar in her ears. She panted hard to catch her breath. She was exhausted. But she knew she couldn’t stop. We’ve got to keep moving.

  Tex lay flat on his stomach. She reached out a hand and gingerly tapped his shoulder. He didn’t move.

  “Come on, Tex. We’ve got to keep moving, and I can’t carry you.”

  He did not respond.

  Erika remembered how he had been wrapped in a blanket when he was in the pool room. Perhaps warmth helped to ward off the effects of the humidity. She didn’t have a blanket handy, but she had something else.

  She pulled him up and tried to fold herself around him, his back to her chest. Erika rubbed her hands up and down his arms. His pale skin almost glowed in the dim light of the darkened corridor. The overhead lights were off, and in between the flashes of the red lights it was completely dark. His skin was soft beneath her fingers, not hairy like Jack’s.

  After a couple of minutes, he moved.

  “Tex?”

  “Erika?” He turned in her arms and moved away from her. “What happened?”

  “It’s a long story. But the short version is that as you expected, Sturgis lied to us. We were scheduled for termination. Dr. Dolan helped me get you out of there, and now he’s dead on the other side of that gate.”

  Tex looked at the gate but said nothing. His movements were still slow as if he was groggy. “Lockdown. They must be here.”

  “Who?”

  He looked at her. Even in the dark, Erika could see his large, obsidian eyes like two mirrors reflecting back to her what little light there was.

  “My alien cousins.” He said it matter-of-factly.

  “But how? We’re a mile underground.”

  “I do not know how. But I am sure they are here. I am seeing images … fuzzy.” Tex closed his eyes and held his hands to his head. “I must get to a lower humidity environment. It is a buzz in my mind. Must focus.”

  Erika stood. “Back this way. We have to find Jack and Ian. Can you stand?”

  Tex pushed himself up. He was wobbly, but he stood. He shook his head as if it would clear the cobwebs from his mind.

  “Come on,” Erika said.

  She walked quickly back the way she’d come. Back toward Jack and Ian and three sleeping soldiers. Back toward the room where she’d nearly died.

  And Tex followed.

  23

  COWBOY UP

  The two ran as fast as Tex’s still-wobbly legs would allow. The dark halls were filled with the eerie sound of the whooping alarm echoing off of the bare walls. There was a voice that sounded like Sewell on a loudspeaker. “Civilian personnel to the trains immediately. Security protocol A-1. Repeat, protocol A-1. Proceed immediately and with caution.” Other than the flashing red alarm lights, it remained dark. Erika relied on Tex to guide her. At the junction with an adjoining hall, Tex put out his arm to hold her back. There were footsteps and hushed voices in the corridor ahead. As soon as the sound receded, Tex turned back to her and said, “We may proceed.”

  Erika followed closely behind him, afraid she’d lose him in the near complete darkness. Within five minutes they were back to the room where Erika had left Jack and Ian. She used Frank’s key card to open the door then quickly pivoted so her back was against the wall to the side of the door. She poked her head around the doorframe.

  As in the hallways, Dr. Dolan’s operating room had gone dark except for baseboard lights that cast an eerie, bluish-white light into the room. Even with the low lights, it was difficult to see inside clearly. No sound came from the room. Erika’s breath caught in her chest as she considered the possibilities.

  Please don’t let me find them dead. Erika held the gun she’d been carrying in both hands, took a deep breath and walked through the door, with Tex following behind her. A gun greeted her.

  “Put down your weapon,” Ian said.

  “Ian, it’s me.” Erika let out the air that had been caged inside her, relieved that the gun was in the hands of her friend and not Freeman.

  Ian lowered his gun. “Sorry. I couldn’t see who it was in the dark.”

  “It’s okay. How are the sleeping beauties doing?”

  “One of ’em moved and freaked us out, so Jack poked him again. Where’s Dr. Dolan?”

  Erika had a lump in her throat. She had to cough to get the words out. “He didn’t make it.”

  Jack walked toward them. “What do you mean didn’t make it?”

  “He got shot as he tried to get through the gate. When we got to Tex, he was passed out from the humidity down there. Dr. Dolan was carrying him, and he couldn’t go fast enough.”

  “So they shot him?” asked Ian.

  “You’re not surprised, are you? After all we’ve seen?”

  The thick door to the operating room dampened the sound of the siren, but they could still hear it and see the flashing red lights through the small window in the door. It felt to Erika as though she was on a sinking ship and the alarms were telling her to get out. But she couldn’t jump overboard. They were a mile underground. Erika felt trapped in a deep grave.

  “It feels like maybe I’m in a stupid dream and I’ll wake up and –” said Ian.

  “Be back in Kansas?” asked Erika.

  “Something like that.”

  Erika put her hand on Ian’s arm. “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” She smiled at him and hoped he could see it in the dark. “This place has gone into lockdown. I don’t know how we’re going to get out of here now.”

  Tex moved a few steps closer. It was hard to tell in the dim, blue light, but Erika thought he looked less wobbly. “Aphthartos,” he said. “That is what they are telling me. I can see it in my mind. We must hurry.” Tex turned toward the door and took a few steps before Ian halted him.

  “Hold up there. I know you want to go with your alien cousins or whatever they are, but I just want to go home. So could you maybe point the way for us to get the hell out of this place before you run off?”

  Tex stopped as Ian had asked and turned back to them. “The tunnel I used to escape is behind the metal gate. We’re sealed off from it. The trains have likely been sealed off too, and even if they aren’t, guards will stop you long before you’ve had a chance to find out. I am afraid, Ian, that there is now only one way out for any of us. If you ever want to leave this place, I suggest you follow me.”

  Erika wasn’t a fan of plans with no backup option. She would have preferred to take her chances of finding their way to the tunnel Tex had used than leave her fate to aliens that she had never even seen. Though Tex had handed them a potential escape route, the walls still felt like they were closing in on her. But the clock was ticking. She had to choose. Stay and hope that Sturgis had a change of heart or take her chances with being she’d never met. When she put it that way to herself, the choice was clear. “I’ll go with you,” she said at last.

  Jack sighed. “Looks like it’s our only shot.”

  Ian shook his head but threw up his hands in an “I give” gesture. In the dark, Erika couldn’t read his face. While their ordeal since they’d met Tex seemed to have drawn her and Jack closer together, it seemed to have created a gulf between her and Ian. She felt herself at odds with her best friend like she had never been before. She imagined his face had a look of disapproval on it.

  None of them made a move to begin their journey to Aphthartos. Erika was tired of taking the lead. Her legs were still shaky from the incident at the gate. Her mind reeled from the image of Dr. Dolan falling to the ground, a bullet in his back. Since her dad died, she’d been the one taking care. Erika wanted to lean on someone else for a change.

  As if reading her mind, Jack slipped an arm around her waist. The warmth of his hand on her side and the feel of his strong guitar-strumming arm behind her
back instantly comforted her.

  “Don’t fade on me yet,” he said. His voice was a low whisper in her ear. “You can do this.”

  It was what she needed. How did he know? Erika sucked in a deep breath, straightened her back and pushed the fear of what lay beyond the doors from her mind.

  “Time to cowboy up,” she said.

  “That’s right. And time for a plan. Tex, you know this facility better than we do. You take the lead and show us the way to Aphthartos,” Jack said.

  Erika was relieved that Jack stepped up to the plate to take the lead for a while.

  Tex nodded. “We will require a magnetic card.”

  “I’ve still got the one I pinched from Frank,” Erika said.

  “It will not work. The attendants would not be authorized to enter Aphthartos.”

  “Are the men in black there authorized?” Ian asked. He inclined his head toward the soldiers still littering the floor.

  “Yes.”

  Erika left Jack’s arm and walked to where Freeman lay. She knelt down and tried to search for his card in the near total darkness. She had to pat him down to find it. Her fingers found the rectangular card attached to a metal cord that retracted into a holder on his belt. Erika’s fingers shook as she tried to remove the holder. A meaty hand gripped her own, and she gasped.

  “If you want to keep your hand, I suggest you let go,” Freeman said. His voice was low and slightly slurred.

  “Get the needle,” Jack said to Ian.

  The refrigerator door opened. There was the clanging of glass bottles against each other.

  “I need to get into Aphthartos. I’m taking the card and nothing else.”

  Freeman sat upright. “I said let go.” He squeezed Erika’s small hand beneath his large one. The pain gripped her, and soon she had to let go of the card or risk Freeman crushing her bones. Even though she’d let go, Freeman continued to crush her hand.

  Erika screamed out in pain as a bone in her finger snapped. “He just broke my finger,” she yelled.

  “Let her go,” Jack yelled. He raised Freeman’s own AK-47 and aimed it at the black ops Sergeant.