The Survival Chronicles (Book 6): Dark Mercy

by Nally, Fergal F.

  Garage doors, two of them, half open, metal sliding doors—

  She stepped out into the underground garage and moved away from the door.

  Hell, I’m going to need the torch—

  She turned the torch on, covering the beam with her hand. Slowly, she opened her fingers allowing a thin sliver of light out. Four cars stood in their spaces, leaves and garbage littered the floor. She picked her way through the trash and stood beside the first car.

  Nothing. People must’ve left by those garage doors—

  She took her hand off the torch and swept the beam across the floor.

  Empty. Wait, what’s that—?

  She swung the torch back, towards the stair door and the lift. A concrete structure with a reinforced door stood in the corner. A small window occupied the top section of the door. Mercy frowned. A drop of liquid landed on her shoulder.

  What—?

  She looked up. A muscular, naked alpha lay concealed in the service ducts above her, its eyes closed. A thick cord of drool hung from the corner of its mouth. Mercy swept her torch around the car park ceiling.

  Christ, there’s at least twenty of them up there. Asleep—?

  A slight noise above. Another drop of liquid fell onto her shoulder. Mercy jerked the torch back to the trope above her. Its eyes were open, staring into hers. It hissed and let out a high pitched scream. Mercy raised her SIG and pulled the trigger.

  A noise. Metal grating on metal. A voice.

  “Dawes, over here, quick—”

  Barnes—?

  The door in the concrete structure was open, a light shone from within. Mercy ran towards the door. A figure hurled itself at her from the right, she fired point blank into the alpha’s face, dropping it. Barnes was shooting from the doorway, his silenced pistol making soft spitting noises. Mercy threw herself at the doorway, footsteps closed in behind her. An alpha landed on her back, pushing her through the door onto the concrete floor. Rose appeared, a fire axe in her hands. With a savage blow she cut half the alpha’s head off. The alpha flopped to the ground beside Mercy.

  “Fuck, one of them’s got its hand through the door, it won’t close,” Barnes shouted.

  “Mercy, your knife, hack it off,” Rose’s voice rang out, she had joined Barnes at the door.

  Mercy swung around. Barnes and Rose were pushing against the steel door, trying to shut it. Alphas slammed against the other side, trying to get in.

  “Now Mercy,” Barnes shouted.

  Mercy sprang to her feet, pulling out her combat knife. She rushed to the door and turned the knife around to use its serrated edge. She set to work on the hand trapped in the door. Its flesh parted easily, revealing bone underneath. She gritted her teeth and sawed up and down.

  Come on you ugly bastard, break, break—

  The banging on the door intensified, the shrieks reached a new crescendo. Mercy roared back, redoubling her efforts, the bone grated and splintered against her cold steel. With a final effort the wrist bones snapped and the alpha’s hand dropped to the floor. Barnes gave a decisive shove and slammed the door shut. Rose slid the bolts home and punched a code into a keypad on the right.

  Christ. What the fuck—?

  Mercy looked up through her sweat drenched hair. “You’re both alive. What the hell is this place?”

  Chapter 14

  Panic Room

  Barnes sank to the floor, exhausted. “It’s a panic room… a blast room, a load of them were built after 9/11. Concrete walls, steel door, ventilation, alarm linked to the police, supplies for a few days, back-up power. I found it a while ago—”

  Mercy looked out of the one-way window in the top half of the door. “You saw me from the street? The CCTV camera?”

  Barnes grunted, pointing to a small computer monitor and control panel. “Yeah, but we couldn’t communicate with you. We had to wait until you figured it out. I wasn’t sure you’d make it—”

  “Nearly didn’t,” Mercy replied, moving closer to the door.

  Without warning a skeletal face appeared at the window trying to see through the glass. Mercy jerked back.

  “Fuck, it’s her… that queen, the bitch from the naval academy. She’s here, outside—”

  The alpha queen pressed close to the one-way glass and licked it, revealing her blackened teeth. Mercy turned away.

  Rose frowned. “Hell… yeah, that’s her. Shit. I got the feeling she wanted me for something. It was like she took me under her wing. Maybe she wanted me to be like her? Plus, you killed her lieutenant, probably her sister or some shit like that.”

  Rose shuffled back into the main room. “Looks like it’s personal between you and her. She’s sending you a message, she can’t see through that glass but she knows you’re in here—”

  Rose left a trail of bloody footprints.

  “Hey Rose, sit down, let me take a look at your feet—” Mercy said.

  Barnes delved into a drawer and pulled out a large first aid kit, “Shit, should’ve done that when we made it here. My head’s full of all this other stuff,” he glanced at the door.

  “We are safe in here, aren’t we?” Mercy asked, examining Rose’s feet. She reached for the antiseptic wash and set to work. Thankfully she found no deep lacerations, only minor cuts and abrasions.

  “Yeah, safe enough,” Barnes replied. “Reckon we’re OK for forty eight hours, after that the water’s gonna get tight. We’ll need to conserve power, we need to keep that for essentials, like ventilation and lighting.”

  Mercy touched Rose’s hand, “So tell me. What happened back there, at the pool?”

  Rose’s feet were dirty and bloodstained. Rose winced as Mercy removed a small sliver of glass with a pair of tweezers.

  “I was on the beach, with Fay. She was unconscious, she’d hit her head on something. Some of those alphas appeared and surrounded her, they were tearing at her life jacket. It looked like one of them was biting her, she was face down in the sand. I was in the surf twenty feet away, unarmed. I shouted… to draw them away. They stopped attacking her and stared at me… they just stood there, it was really weird.”

  “They just stood there—?” Mercy repeated, her voice incredulous. “But they’re alphas, our biotech doesn’t protect us from them—”

  “I shouted at them to stop, and they did—” Rose said.

  Mercy looked at Barnes.

  Rose continued, “Then that high-up one, the bald female, appeared and saw them. She gave me a look and got the others to take me prisoner. They left Fay as she was. There was six of them. We met other tropes in the trees but they just gave the alphas a wide berth. I think I passed out for a while… they carried me. When I came to, we were in the city. They were still carrying me, the boss one was in the lead. They brought me to that swimming pool. Took me underground, it was dark—”

  Rose’s voice faltered. She paused and closed her eyes. The banging at the door had stopped. An eerie stillness filled the room.

  Give her time. She’s reliving it—

  Rose sniffed, “They cut my forehead, and one of them… it was her, it was dark, but I know it was her… she kept licking the blood off my face, my eyes, my forehead. She kept the others away. I was hers. I couldn’t fight back, they had me tied up. I could hear them talking, well not talking, more like hissing and grunting. But they were communicating. I recognised, or I think I recognised some of their words—”

  Rose stopped and closed her eyes. “They seemed to treat me as if I was… special—”

  “Special? How? Special in what way—?” Mercy asked.

  This is important—

  Rose looked at Mercy, “They saw me as… like her, like the queen. A leader somehow—”

  Silence.

  Mercy looked at Rose, “How can you have recognised their words? Is it the biotech maybe? And what about Flynn, Tawny, Pace and Billy-Ray?”

  Rose shook her head and stared at the floor, “I don’t know how I knew the words.” She looked up, “Sorry Mercy, I don’t
think the others made it. The boat, the collision, it’s a miracle any of us made it—”

  Mercy finished cleaning Rose’s feet and sat back, her mind blank.

  “What words did you recognise?” Barnes asked.

  “What?” Rose looked up, “Oh, the alphas. It was mostly about food, things like flesh, bone, sea, forest, buildings… they spoke of the metal ones?”

  “Watchers,” Barnes nodded.

  Rose pulled a face. “Watchers?”

  “NSA military robots, the city’s full of them, they’re the NSA’s eyes and ears. The bots can call in drones to drop ordnance on targets deemed a threat—” Barnes explained.

  Rose groaned, “This place is a fucking nightmare, how in hell are we gonna get out of this town?”

  Mercy stood up and put a hand on Rose’s shoulder, “There’s always a way. We’ve just got to find it. You’re gonna need a change of clothes and some new boots.”

  Barnes moved towards the computer monitor, “I checked this place out when I first found it. I think there’s some work boots and overalls in storage bins under the floor over there.”

  Mercy pulled up a loose floor panel. She lifted up a blue, oil-stained boiler suit and a pair of steel-capped work boots. “Not the best of looks Rose but it’s better than that gown you’re wearing—”

  Rose nodded, “Anything’s better than this piece of crap.” She took the boots and boiler suit from Mercy.

  Rose looks miserable, change the subject—

  “Jesus H., I stink, you stink, we all… stink,” Mercy complained, her nose wrinkling. “Is there a shower in this place Barnes?”

  Barnes shrugged, “No. It’s just your basic bug-out room. Only meant to protect you until the authorities arrive. And that’s not gonna happen—”

  Mercy returned to the window, “It’ll be fine, we’ll wait them out, they’ll lose interest—”

  A hollow scratching sound filled the room.

  “What the hell is that?” Rose said, alarm in her voice.

  Mercy pointed at the air vent in the wall above the table. “It’s coming from there—”

  More scratching came from a second vent in the wall beside Barnes.

  “Goddammit, the fuckers are trying to get in through the ventilation ducts—” Rose groaned.

  “Those vents won’t hold, we need to block them off—” Barnes leapt up from his chair.

  A loud bang came from the vent above the table, a screw landed on the floor. Mercy grabbed a thick cushion from the sofa and rammed it against the vent. She pushed against the grille feeling blows on the other side. Banging started at the second vent.

  Barnes shouted, “I need some help here—”

  Rose rushed over to Barnes. Mercy pressed her silenced SIG against the pillow and fired until it clicked on empty. The banging on the other side stopped. Black alpha blood trickled down from the vent.

  Smoke might work. It might affect their eyes—

  Mercy removed the cushion. The metal grille was hanging by one screw, she pulled it to one side and saw an alpha’s corpse. She removed the pin from one of her smoke grenades and threw it into the ventilation shaft then covered the opening with the cushion.

  More silenced gunshots came from Barnes’s side of the room. Mercy turned to see alpha blood trickling down the wall from the ventilation grille near the computer. Barnes was holding the grille in place.

  “Ram the sofa up against it, use a smoke grenade to put them off,” Mercy yelled.

  Barnes lifted the damaged grille and lobbed a smoke grenade into the shaft. Rose dragged the sofa over and upended it, jamming it against the grille.

  “That’ll only buy us a little time, they’ll try it again. We’ve gotta think of a way out of here—” Rose said.

  “There’s only one way out and that’s that door—” Barnes replied.

  Think, think—

  Mercy closed her eyes, her mind churning. “Wait… Barnes, that control panel. I saw a flashing LED on the street, over the front door. It was on an alarm box. Can you switch on an audible alarm at street level?”

  Barnes looked at the control panel and pulled a face. “But that’ll bring every—” he stopped, understanding registering on his face.

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping for. It’ll bring the watchers, who’ll bring the attack drones, maybe they’ll blast the hell out of these alphas—” Mercy said.

  “And this place is blast proof,” Rose said, slapping the concrete wall.

  Barnes opened the control panel and stared at a myriad of wiring. “It’s not my field but I might be able to figure something out. The computer’s fucked but I may be able to work out a manual override, I’m on it—”

  Rose brought a hand to her mouth and coughed. She pointed at the vents, “Most of the smoke is being extracted by the ventilation system but it’s still pretty smoky in here.”

  Mercy coughed, “Not much we can do; their corpses are partially blocking the ventilation shaft. It’ll take a while to clear. Keep low to the ground, there’ll be less smoke there.”

  Mercy repositioned the cushion on the vent, pressing against the weight of the corpse on the other side.

  Keep it together, breathe, breathe—

  She checked her watch a short time later.

  Come on Barnes, that’s ten minutes, surely—

  Barnes stood up and grunted, “Got it, I think. Here goes nothing—”

  He threw a switch. Outside, an alarm rang loud and clear at the front of the building.

  “Good job Barnes. If we can hear that down here that must be real loud out on the street—” hope surged through Mercy.

  Rose stood up, listening. They smiled at each other.

  “Come on you little metal fuckers, come and find us—” Mercy whispered.

  The control panel exploded in a flash of sparks and melted circuitry. The room was plunged into darkness.

  The alarm stopped.

  Chapter 15

  Hellfire

  “What time is it?” Rose asked.

  “3:36 pm,” Mercy responded. She was staring out of the one-way window at the car park entry ramp.

  The alphas are lying low, waiting for us to make the first move. There’s still a few hours of daylight left. Come on watchers, find us, find—

  She craned her neck forwards, a shadow materialised on the ramp, growing in size.

  “We’ve got something,” Mercy announced.

  The others came to the door and waited expectantly.

  “What is it? What can you see?” Rose whispered.

  “Movement on the ramp, something’s coming down, slowly. I can’t see properly, the gates are half-open. Wait—” Mercy squinted and shifted position. “Yeah, it’s one of the watchers, no… there’s two of them. They look bigger than the ones we saw at the bowling alley. They’re opening the gate, lifting it up—”

  “Can they detect our body heat through the glass?” Rose asked.

  “No,” Barnes said, “this building’s thermal insulation would read cold on their sensors. We should be OK behind here—”

  “They’ve got the gate open, here they come—” Mercy whispered. “They’re at the cars… they’ve stopped, the lead one’s using some kind of laser. There’s LED lights flickering on the other one—”

  “I hope they flush out those alphas—” Rose said, her voice rough. Rose clutched her throat and slumped to the floor.

  “Rose are you OK—?” Mercy knelt down beside her friend.

  Rose let out a suppressed cough. “Sorry, it’s the smoke residue,” she croaked.

  “Oh fuck,” Barnes said, at the window. “The lead one’s coming this way.”

  “Quiet everyone,” Mercy hissed.

  Rose tensed, a fresh cough rising in her throat.

  “Woah,” Barnes whispered. “Fuckers are torching the place, they’re using some kind of flame thrower—”

  Flames filled the window lighting up the opposite wall.

  Christ, door’s getting h
ot—

  Mercy took her hand off the door.

  What’s that—?

  High pitched screams came from outside.

  The alphas—

  “Burn fuckers,” Rose whispered in the darkened room.

  The lyrics of an old song tripped through Mercy’s mind. She smiled.

  Yeah, burn fuckers, burn—

  A minute later the flames died down. Mercy peered through the window.

  They’re just standing there, what’s next?

  The two watchers remained stationary for ten minutes. Then, the lead robot moved towards the panic room.

  Shit—

  Mercy reached down to her SIG. The watcher reached the door but passed by and moved to the other side of the car park. Mercy took a deep breath.

  It’s doing a sweep, making sure there’s no more alphas out there. Clever bastards—

  The lead watcher searched the opposite side of the garage and stopped at the exit ramp. The second watcher joined it a few seconds later. The two robots left the garage and disappeared up the ramp.

  “They’ve gone,” Mercy whispered.

  Rose coughed again, “Sorry, sorry, my throat—”

  “It’s OK Rose, I don’t think they heard anything—”

  “Still,” Rose said, “we’re not leaving yet.”

  “Negative, we’ll wait it out. They’ve dealt with the alphas for us but this A.I. is efficient, they’ll probably maintain a presence in the area for a while—” Barnes reasoned.

  “Let’s hope they think the alphas were hunting something like a deer and got caught out in daylight—” Rose said.

  “Yeah, so… they sheltered here and somehow triggered a latent alarm—” Barnes reasoned.

  “I’m sure it’s happened before, it’s plausible,” Mercy shrugged.

  “We’ll take it in turns to keep watch from the window. I think we should bale an hour or so this side of dusk—” Barnes said.

  “Agreed,” Mercy nodded. “Get some rest guys, we’re back on the road in…” she checked her watch, “three hours.”

  “Back on the road,” Barnes echoed. “Listen, there’s three of us now. We’ve got no comms. If ever we get separated go to the highest safe ground and wait, even if it’s for a couple of days—”