Awakened

by C. Steven Manley

  He grasped the curtain in a tight fist, gave Erin a quick nod, and pulled it fully open. His eyes took in the scene almost instantly and he took a weak step back as the breath caught in his throat. Behind him he heard Erin stifle something between a scream and a sob.

  They stood at the top of a ramp that led down into a large, circular chamber of rough-hewn stone and sand. At the bottom of the ramp in the bowl of the room there were ten stretchers with ten bodies, each of them naked and with their torsos opened from navel to neck. They were arranged in a broken circle around a center table of stone that seemed to be carved directly from the bedrock. Black but slightly luminous mist trailed from the bodies to the figure that was strapped spread-eagled on the center table.

  The strange mist swirled around the table and rolled up from the stone to settle into the gaping wound that split the man down the center. From this wound protruded black, oily tentacles that stretched and slapped at the air, trailing mist like something frozen brought into a humid room. There were dozens of them - thin and thick, long and short - and they writhed at the air before suddenly growing still and straight like soldiers snapping to attention.

  Opalescent light flooded from the base of the tentacles at the victim’s chest line and popped through the room like a camera flash going off. Israel felt the light hit him, his mind only dimly noting that you weren’t supposed to feel light, and he staggered back, dazed. A second later, he gathered his wits and looked again.

  The light was gone and the black tentacles were once again slapping about the room. For the first time, he noticed the figures at the back of the room, hunched down and greedily clawing at something bulky on the floor in front of them. Their heads moved and he realized they were looking his way. They rose slowly, moving into the dim light and Israel finally saw them clearly.

  They looked much like the black gelled bodies they had seen in the hall- normally dressed people of average height and weight with black armbands. That, however, is where the resemblance to anything human ended. Tentacles, three-foot twins to the ones at the center of the room, protruded and writhed from their heads. The black substance that comprised them covered their heads and faces in thick lines that ran into their mouths, nostrils, and eyes. The eyes themselves were fully black with only the slightest hint of a violet glow. Slick, wet gore covered their lips, chins, and cheeks. Israel realized that the shapes they had been crouched over were corpses.

  The three monsters started moving toward them slowly. Israel wanted to move- tried to move- but felt crippled and weak. The impossibility of what he saw had frozen his mind and rooted him in place. Still, the monsters kept moving toward him at a slow, deliberate pace.

  A rough hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him backwards. A man stepped past him and Israel heard rapid explosions as the newcomer fired two shots that were answered by a scream very much like the one Israel had heard upon waking.

  The man whirled on Israel and Erin.

  “Run! Now!”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Israel rushed into the main corridor and stopped short, nearly falling. Erin was in front of him and had stopped at the intersection. She looked left and right. Before she could ask which way to go, the man with the shotgun shoved past Israel and turned left. “This way!” he said. “Keep up or die! Your choice!”

  Israel and Erin spared each other a fast glance and sprinted after him. The screams were growing behind them now, echoing not only from the room they were fleeing, but down the corridors as well. Erin pulled ahead of Israel and he cast a backwards glance as he moved. The three tentacle things that had originally come after them had been joined by two others that were trailing slightly behind. They ran awkwardly but quickly, their arms raised and outstretched, stumbling slightly as though off-balance. Israel ran faster.

  He saw Erin skid around a corner to the left and then the newcomer leaned out and rolled a bright red canister down the hall just as Israel neared the intersection. He heard a muffled pop from behind him as the new guy grabbed him roughly and jerked him around the corner. There was a huge gust of scorching hot air that brushed against Israel’s bare feet. The hallway was bathed in a flash of firelight. Israel stumbled, fell, and rolled to his back just in time to see the ball of thin fire receding into the corridor he had come from. The monsters screams changed from menacing to panicked and started to recede as they retreated.

  The man who had pulled him down was standing over him. He was wearing a tactical vest over black clothing that looked military, though it bore no insignia that Israel could see. His head was shaved to little more than stubble on his scalp. Eyes the color of cigarette ash looked down at Israel from a rugged and tired face. “They don’t like fire,” he said, offering a hand to help him up.

  Israel didn’t get a chance to accept. He hadn’t noticed the adjoining hallway the monster came out of when it leapt onto the man’s back and started clawing and biting at him. To his credit, the man reacted automatically, snapping the palm of one hand hard into the thing’s chin while using his other hand to try to pry a black veined arm from around his neck. His shotgun clattered to the floor. Erin screamed.

  Israel raised the hand that had carried the Glock but realized it was gone. The man with the gray eyes slammed his back against the wall and pinned the monster there, tentacles waving madly and slapping at the struggling man. As they moved, Israel saw the Glock on the floor a few feet beyond the combatants. Israel scrambled across the floor for the weapon. He rose and heard his rescuer scream as black tentacles sunk into the base of his neck. The gun trembled in Israel’s hand, but he pressed it into the monster’s eye and pulled the trigger.

  He’d anticipated the sound the weapon would make. What he hadn’t counted on was the weapon kicking back and hitting him in the forehead. He staggered back from the blow, his eyes watering and his ears ringing. A creeping nausea was working its way through his guts. He heard a woman call his name in muffled tones and felt soft hands on his arm. After a few seconds, his vision cleared enough to see. The monster was slumped against a gore stained wall. A few feet away, Gray Eyes was on his knees and packing some kind of gauze against his neck. His hands and the side of his face were slick with blood.

  “Oh, no,” Israel said. “Oh, no. Did I…?”

  “No,” Gray Eyes said with a much thicker voice than before. “Damn squidhead got me. I’d be dead if you hadn’t stepped up. I owe you one.”

  Israel and Erin helped the man to his feet. He let them, keeping one hand pressed hard against the bandage at the base of his neck. “Get us out of here,” Erin said, “and I think we can probably call that shit even.”

  He nodded. “Call me Matt.” He gestured toward the shotgun where he had dropped it. “Think you can hang on to that for a few minutes? I need to keep pressure on this.”

  Israel nodded reluctantly and handed Erin the Glock. He lifted the shotgun from the floor. It was heavier than he expected.

  “Just hold it tight against your shoulder if you have to fire it, okay? That will save you another bump on the head. What are your names?”

  “I’m Erin, this is Israel, and we would really like to know what the fuck is going on.”

  “Yeah, I bet you would,” Matt said. “We gotta get gone first, though. This way.”

  They continued down the corridor, Matt leading the way. He was silent and paused every few minutes to catch his breath. The wound in his neck continued to bleed. After what seemed like hours, they rounded a corner and found the scene of what must have been a horrible battle. There were dozens of bodies, most of them what Matt had called squidheads, and spent bullet casings littered the stone floor. They lay before the scorched remains of an open elevator shaft.

  “This is where I got separated from my team,” Matt said. “Elevator’s a no-go but there are some stairs at the end of this hall. That’s where I was headed when I heard you two banging around.” He took a moment to catch his breath again. It was labored and came in heavy gasps. “Let’s go,” he said, for
cing a smile. “I need a drink and a nurse with loose standards.”

  Israel returned the smile but knew he couldn’t keep the concern from his face. “Thanks for coming for us, Matt. Waking up on a stretcher was weird enough, but the rest of it…”

  “What’s happening here?” Erin snapped. “I’m sorry, I know you’re hurt, but there are fucking monsters chasing us and guns and weird rainbow lights and about-”

  Despite his injury, Matt turned quickly toward Erin. “What did you say?”

  She gestured toward the carnage in the hallway. “Sweet mother of fuck, man! Look around! Do I need to repeat it?”

  “No, not that. What did you say about lights?”

  Erin said, “The lights. The weird ones that came from the body in that… room. Right before we met you.”

  Matt looked at Israel. The question was plain on his face.

  Israel nodded. “Yeah. I know it sounds nuts, but it was like I could feel the light on my skin. Not heat, like sunlight, but… I don’t know. Pressure, maybe. Made me nauseous.”

  Matt’s gaze dropped for a moment and he closed his eyes. “Okay. We really need to go.”

  “Why?” Israel said. “What was that light?”

  A familiar scream drifted through the halls. Matt locked eyes with Israel. “I swear, you will get your answers, but we need to get topside first.”

  They heard another scream. It seemed closer.

  The stairwell was unlit, but Matt had a small, powerful light that he clipped to the front of his vest. It cast blue-tinted light along the stairs and railings. Black shadows shifted and morphed as he walked. The scents from the corridors were gone, replaced by a still mustiness. Their footsteps echoed on the metal stairs.

  “Well,” Israel said, “at least this isn’t creepy or anything.”

  Matt grunted a small laugh. “Hold up a sec,” he said. He produced a small roll of duct tape from his pocket and gestured Erin over. “Tape this bandage down, okay? Tight as you can.”

  Erin hesitated and then did as he asked.

  “How far down are we?” Israel asked.

  “This is the sub-basement,” Matt said as Erin pressed the last bit of tape into place. “Next level up is an underground level for storage and parking. Ground level is above that. I’m hoping my comms will work once we get out of this stairwell.” He gestured at the shotgun. “I’ll take that back now.”

  Israel handed it over.

  “You sure you’re up for that? No offense, Matt, but you look like shit,” Erin said.

  Matt looked back at her. “Ever been trained? Been in combat?”

  “No.”

  “I have. A lot. Trust me when I say that even hurt I’m better off holding this than either one of you.”

  “So, you’re what? Army? Law Enforcement?”

  Matt shrugged. “That’s complicated and one of the things that’s going to have to wait until we’re out of here.” He coughed wetly and spat something dark onto the floor. “Okay,” he said. “We take this slow. When we get to the top I’ll exit first and then you guys stay put until I wave you out. Once we’re moving again, stay behind me. If I have to shoot something, that’s where you’ll want to be. Understood?”

  Erin and Israel nodded.

  They moved up the darkened stairwell quicker than Israel had expected. When they reached the top, Matt held a finger to his lips and motioned for them to stay put. He quietly pushed the door open and slipped into the darkness.

  The second he was gone Erin said, “This is bullshit.”

  “That’s an understatement,” Israel replied.

  “No,” she said, “I mean this Matt guy. Something stinks.”

  “How so?”

  “He said he had a team. So why the fuck was he wandering around down there all by himself?”

  “He said he got separated.”

  “And they didn’t come looking for him? No, something about this guy is setting off all my ‘fuck, no’ alarms.”

  Despite the dark, Israel turned toward her. “You really like the F-bombs, don’t you?”

  “Oh, sorry, am I offending you? Forgive me for being completely freaked out. Look, I’m not fuc- I’m not wrong.”

  Israel considered it. “He obviously knows more than us and he’s the only source of information we’ve got. I don’t know about you, but I really want to know what’s happened here. Besides that, until we’re clear of this place, I like the idea of that shotgun between us and… whatever.”

  “Squidheads.”

  Israel nodded. “Yeah, those.”

  “Have you ever seen anything like that before?”

  “No. It’s like something Lovecraft or Clive Barker would come up with.”

  After a moment, she said, “Who?”

  Just then, the door opened and Matt waved them out. “Stay low and on my six,” he said. “I made contact with my team and they’re having some trouble topside. We’re going to help them out.”

  “We’re going to what now?” Israel said. “You’re the only one armed.”

  “Not totally,” Erin said. She held up the Glock so that it was in the beam of Matt’s light.

  Matt studied her for a moment. “Either of you know how to handle a handgun?”

  Erin and Israel looked at each other for a second as a silent agreement passed between them. “She’s probably better off with it than me,” Israel said.

  “But not by much,” Erin added.

  Matt nodded. “All right, then. Follow me, do as I say, and only fire that weapon if you have to. If you do, aim for the torso- anywhere on the chest and belly.”

  “I’ve only got five rounds.”

  Matt gestured for the weapon. Erin handed it over and he pulled the slide back slightly. He handed it back and said, “You’ve got six,” he said. “Always check the pipe. If you have to shoot, use them all.” Erin nodded and Matt said, “Let’s move. Erin you’re in the rear. Watch our backs.”

  They filed out the door with Matt in the lead and his blue light bobbing as he moved. He kept the wall to their right and stayed close to it, avoiding the more open center of the space. A few dozen cars were parked sporadically in diagonal spaces along the walls. Matt seemed to be using these for cover, though Israel couldn’t tell from what. They had gone maybe a hundred feet like this when Matt held up a hand to stop them. He was breathing hard and when he dropped his hand it was as though it were heavier than it looked. He took a moment to compose himself then pinched at his collar. “Stonecaller, this is Sentry One,” he said. “In approach position on the down-ramp. Request sitrep.”

  Israel’s eyes had adjusted to the dimness and he realized they were actually near the ramp leading down into the parking garage. From the angle he was at he could see a thin line of moonlit sky. He felt the urge to go running forward, but resisted it.

  “Copy that,” Matt said. He looked back at Israel. Even in the heavy shadows, he could see the dark, thin lines of blood that were starting to seep out around the duct tape bandage. Matt’s words were heavy with weariness when he spoke. “You two sit tight and wait for me or one of my team. They’ll use the word ‘purgatory’ as an identifier.”

  “What?” Erin said.

  “If they use that word it means they’re with Matt and not the bad guys,” Israel replied. “You sure about this, man? You look… rough.”

  Matt took a slow, shaky breath and said, “This what I do. This is what Darkwalkers do.” Before Israel could ask what that meant, Matt had switched off his light and was moving through the shadows. A second later, the rapid pops and booms of a gunfight echoed down the parking ramp.

  “Israel,” Erin said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

  “Just a second,” Israel said.

  The hand gripped him a little tighter. “Israel,” she repeated in a hoarse whisper. “Look.”

  He turned and looked back toward the door to the lower levels. At first he didn’t know what he was looking at. It seemed as though there were dark, violet lights floating
in mid-air. As they drew closer, though, he saw that they were coming in pairs. Six pairs, he counted. Six pairs of glowing violet eyes looking out from skulls that were writhing with black tentacles that stood out even in the nearly lightless garage. As he realized what they were, the squidheads all turned their eyes toward the two people hiding behind the parked cars.

  “They must have followed us,” Israel said. “Run.”

  The monsters screamed and surged forward as one.

  Erin and Israel broke from behind the car and started sprinting toward the ramp. Any pretense at stealth was gone. Erin raised the Glock and emptied the clip just as Matt had instructed her; Israel didn’t bother looking back to check her success. Even if she stopped one, there were five more to deal with and that was five more than he wanted.

  The sounds of gunfire grew louder as they approached the ramp and Israel looked frantically for Matt. He heard Erin’s footfalls and breathing close behind him. The squidheads’ screams changed pitch slightly as they rounded the corner behind Erin. Something loud buzzed past Israel’s ear and he flinched, momentarily breaking his stride and allowing Erin to pass him.

  He heard the monsters coming closer and he sprinted ahead. Erin was a few feet ahead of him and past her he spotted Matt crouched behind some kind of guard shack at the top of the ramp. It looked as though he was sliding shells into the shotgun. Israel realized that he couldn’t hear the gunfire sounds anymore, but thought that was just because the screaming was so loud. Erin was close to Matt when Israel saw the man turn and point his weapon at her. She skidded to a halt in surprise. Matt snapped the weapon’s barrel up and away from Erin. Israel had just met Matt’s eyes when he felt hands latch onto his shirt and a man’s weight drive him to the ground.

  He hit hard, felt his cheekbone drive into the concrete as hands clawed at him from behind. A chill seeped into him at the touch as he kicked and fought, but the weight just seemed to grow. Something ice cold and smooth slid like a striking snake around his throat and tried to hook a tip into his mouth. He clamped his mouth shut and turned his head. The tentacle squeezed and he felt teeth gnaw at him just behind his ear, but they slipped on his sweat-streaked skin. Israel’s own screams had joined the squidheads’. He reached back, pushed hard at the head that was snapping at him. Pressure seemed to be building in his ears as the black tentacle tightened its’ grip on his throat.