Hell Divers

by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  “Fuck it, we’re out of time,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.” He waved the divers toward the exit, but Magnolia hung back. X could hear her rifling through the file cabinet.

  “Wait,” she said. “Maybe I got something.” She pulled a laminated paper from a drawer and held it under her beam. He brushed off the surface.

  “Looks like a map,” she said, handing it to X.

  X snatched it from her hands and gave it a quick glance. She was right. It was a map of someplace called Chicago, Illinois—and it showed the location of the ITC headquarters. “Chicago” must have been the original name of Hades.

  Magnolia reached back inside and pulled a second map. This one gave the location for the factories around the HQ. There were dozens of the domed buildings, and each was labeled. They would tell Samson exactly which structure they were looking for.

  “Jackpot,” X said. “Any more?”

  Magnolia peered into the open drawer and shook her head.

  X stuffed one of the maps into his vest pocket and handed the other to Sam. “Just in case one of us doesn’t make it back.”

  Sam took it reluctantly.

  “Let’s get back to ship,” X said. He led the team back toward the building at double time, twice nearly stumbling down the stairs.

  The speaker in his helmet crackled to life when he got back to the hallway. The faint sound of an emergency alarm filled the channel, and he could hardly hear the message over the noise.

  “Commander X, do you copy? Over.”

  X halted and said, “Roger that.”

  A flurry of white noise crackled in his ear. He clenched his jaw, waiting anxiously for it to pass.

  “Commander, we’ve been trying to reach you for thirty minutes!”

  It was Jordan, and his normally calm voice held an edge of panic.

  “You need to get back to the ship ASAP! The storm above Hades is heading your way. You have fifteen minutes to get home. I repeat, fifteen minutes!”

  “On our way,” X said. Flicking off his headlamp, he switched on his night vision and peered out the window they had entered through. He could see in green the surging clouds and the lightning that webbed across the horizon. There was something else, too—something in the air that looked like bats, moving away from the storm. It wouldn’t be the first time his eyes played tricks on him.

  “Got to move!” X shouted, waving his team forward. The static in his earpiece had faded, but the electronic whine of the emergency siren aboard the Hive continued as he raced toward the window. When he got there, he slid to a stop. The noise wasn’t coming from his comm channel. It was coming from the tiny dots flapping across the skyline.

  X stared at the formations of winged creatures sailing toward him. There was no doubt in his mind they were the same creatures that had torn Aaron’s body to pieces, but somehow, these had evolved to fly.

  “What the hell are those things?” Magnolia shouted, pushing past him and staring at the sky. Then, speechless, she slowly backed away until she hit the wall.

  “Sirens,” X said, barely comprehending what he was saying. He watched the beasts and the storm beyond in terrible slow motion. For the past few days, he had promised himself he would be strong if he encountered the monsters again, but he never imagined seeing them in the air. Even the sky wasn’t safe from the monsters.

  The shouts of the team sounded faint in the background. Magnolia had cowered away from the window and was sitting on the floor with her knees to her chest. Murph had crouched right behind her, his visor roving from side to side as he scanned the horizon.

  The Sirens worked their way into a solid V formation, turning slightly as the lead creature fixated on Raptor’s location. There were a dozen of the pale creatures, flapping their leathery, frayed wings like demons in some fevered nightmare.

  X felt a hand on his shoulder and heard Sam’s robust voice.

  “Commander!” he shouted. “Commander, we have to move!”

  “We’re too far away from the ship,” Murph shouted back.

  Sam shook X again, harder this time.

  “We have to get into the sky,” X finally said. “It’s our only chance. Captain Ash will pick up our beacons and maneuver the Hive accordingly.” He faced his team. “Everyone get outside and deploy boosters. Now!”

  “No,” Magnolia said, her entire body shaking. She stood and turned to run. “We have to hide!”

  “There’s no time” X yelled. “We have to get back to the ship!” He grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her back to the window, then climbed out onto the mound of snow and pulled her with him. Before she could react, he spun her around, punched her booster, and yelled, “Shoot ’em if they get close!”

  Magnolia launched into the sky, screaming her lungs out. X went next. Reaching over his shoulder, he punched his booster. He gripped his rifle tightly as the balloon exploded out of the pack, inflated with helium, and hauled him up into the sky.

  The moment he was off his feet, he shouldered his rifle and took aim at the Sirens. Several of them had broken off from the right side of their formation and were already swooping toward Magnolia. Behind them stretched a wall of clouds as far as he could see. Lightning streaked across the swollen edges of the storm.

  He lined up the sights and fired a volley of shots at the creatures. The bullets found targets, tearing through wings and torsos and sending the Sirens spiraling or tumbling back down to the surface. But the kick from the gun also jolted him backward in his harness, so that his feet rocked up in front of him.

  Swinging back upright, he aimed again, this time squeezing off single shots. The rounds ripped through the torso of one of the creatures, and it flapped spastically away, losing altitude with every wing beat.

  Gunfire cracked below, and three more of the Sirens fell from the sky. But others were quickly closing in, and bullets didn’t seem to deter them much.

  X looked to his HUD. Five minutes had already passed since the message from command, and they were only seven thousand feet in the air. Even if they could hold back the Sirens, he wasn’t sure they would make it back to the ship in time. He twisted his body around for a better view of the storm expanding to the west. The clouds churned, the electrical flashes providing a snapshot inside the belly of the storm.

  A voice broke over the flurry of static. “X! This is Captain Ash, do you copy?”

  “We’re on our way back!” X quickly replied.

  “Do you have the cells and valves?”

  X hesitated, knowing his response could lead Ash to abandon them. “Negative. But we have something else: a map that shows where the cells and valves are.”

  There was a terrible pause.

  “You’ve got ten minutes to get up top before we have to get the hell out of here,” Ash said. “Make it work.”

  “Understood.”

  The distant sound of thunder boomed over the whine of the Sirens. Two were sailing toward Magnolia, and three swooped down on Murph and Sam. X twisted in his harness to focus on the two making a run at Magnolia. Aiming at the leader’s wings, he fired off a short burst. A gust of wind threw off his aim in the last second, and the rounds went wide, narrowly missing Magnolia.

  Cursing, X grabbed a toggle to steer his balloon with his right hand. He raised the rifle with his left and, leading the Sirens with the muzzle, squeezed off another volley. This time, one of the monsters’ skulls exploded.

  There was no time to celebrate. A scream erupted over the comm channel, and X glanced down just as a Siren crashed into Sam. The creature wrapped its wings and legs around him, then began slashing at his helmet with the talons on its hands.

  “Sam!” X shouted. He trained his gun on the blur of armor and flesh but knew he couldn’t risk firing. Helpless, he watched predator and prey tumble away through the clouds.

  Another Siren came whistling
through the sky as Sam vanished from sight. X raised his rifle and fired two shots. The first took off the creature’s jaw, and it spun out of control, its wings narrowly missing the suspension lines to X’s balloon.

  Magnolia, firing wildly, held off the other Siren above. Then, at fifteen thousand feet, the last few of them wheeled away, returning to a surface that X could no longer see.

  “Sam,” X said over the comm. “Sam, do you copy!” He searched the clouds for any sign. Sam’s beacon was still active on X’s HUD, but he wasn’t responding.

  “Where’s Sam?” Magnolia said, the trepidation in her voice weakened by static.

  “They got him,” X replied. “The bastards fucking got him.” He continued to scan below his feet. Murph looked up at him, his mirrored visor hiding his eyes.

  The team continued their ascent in silence. Hope for Sam faded as the beetle shape of the Hive came into focus. The edge of the storm was closing in.

  Above, the oval doors in the belly of the ship separated, revealing the small recovery room. Magnolia tugged on her toggles and steered her balloon inside. Her feet disappeared as her balloon pulled her to safety. X used his toggles to adjust his own ascent. With one eye on his HUD and the other on the recovery bay, he followed Magnolia.

  A blip on X’s HUD pulled his attention to his visor. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Sam’s beacon rising a few thousand feet below. X glanced down as he was pulled into the ship. Magnolia dangled a few feet away, where her balloon rested against the translucent domed ceiling. As soon as Murph joined them, the ship began moving.

  X bumped his chin pad. “Captain, Sam is still down there!”

  The metal walls of the recovery space groaned as the ship’s turbofans flared to life. He blinked, realizing that Captain Ash wasn’t abandoning Sam; she was maneuvering into position to pick him up.

  “Where is he?” Magnolia said.

  “We’re picking him up,” X replied.

  The three divers probed the clouds below. As the ship moved, a tiny blue dot rose into the sky.

  “Sam, you’re almost here. Just hang on!” X shouted.

  The diver didn’t reply, and as he got closer, X saw that his head was bowed to his chest. His balloon pulled him into the reentry bay right in front of X. Blood flowed from Sam’s cracked visor, spreading over his vest and armor. Steam rose off it. There was too much blood—an impossible amount that left no question: Sam was dead. The doors clamped shut, and X reached forward to pull Sam’s right hand outside his vest. Even in death, he was protecting the map, clutching it so tight, X had to pry it from his bloody fingers.

  SIXTEEN

  “All clear,” Ensign Ryan shouted. “The storm is below us.”

  But not a soul on the bridge was listening. Everyone, including Captain Ash, was huddled at the porthole windows before the bridge. Where they had known only darkness, they saw light.

  With no time to outrun the storm, Ash had used the turbofans to rise above it. Silence washed over the room as the ship ascended higher into the sky. Ash squinted and shielded her face from the dazzling glow. They were looking at a sight that none of them had seen in years: the sun.

  The ball of fire hung suspended in an ocean of blue. The clearest, most beautiful blue that Ash had ever seen in her life. High above the dark morass below, thin yellow clouds drifted, their translucent outlines fired with golden light.

  But overshadowing the beauty was the failure of Raptor’s mission. Still without the cells and parts, she would be forced to send all three teams down to Hades.

  Jordan cupped his headset and pivoted away from the view. “Captain, I just got a message from Ty …” He paused and caught her gaze. “We have a casualty.”

  “I thought all four divers made it back,” Ash said, keeping her voice low. Ryan and Hunt looked in their direction but didn’t speak.

  Jordan shook his head. “I’m afraid Sam Baker was killed, but we did manage to recover his body.”

  Ash allowed herself one final look at the sun before turning away. “I’m going down to the HD facility.”

  “Wait, Captain,” Jordan said. “Samson also sent a message. His team managed to get one of the reactors up and running. It buys us a bit more time.”

  “How much time?”

  “Not much, but enough to give Raptor a breather.”

  Ash looked at her watch. It was almost noon. Raptor had been gone only a few hours. She considered sending Apollo and Angel to Hades now but didn’t want to risk maneuvering into the storm twice. “Send out the message. All three teams dive at four o’clock p.m.”

  Ash was already moving up the stairs before Jordan could reply. Her escorts waited outside the bridge, though she wasn’t sure she needed them, considering how empty the corridors were on the way to the HD facility.

  The other teams were already at the launch bay when Ash arrived. Word of Sam’s death had traveled fast. The divers had crowded around the plastic dome of the recovery room, eager for any tidbit of news.

  A heavy cloud filled the dome as the surviving members of Team Raptor held out their arms and turned slowly under the cleansing misters. Below them, a body lay on the floor, as inert as the deflated balloons around it.

  Ash moved past Cruise and his team and stood on the redline border surrounding the dome.

  A remotely operated chain with a grappling hook dropped from the ceiling and latched on to the top of the dome. Sharp clicks rang out as the locking mechanisms unlatched.

  “Back up!” Ty shouted, waving the crowd of divers and technicians away.

  Ash followed them back to a safe distance. For a moment, she didn’t feel much like a ship’s captain, because there wasn’t much she could do right now to help.

  A subtle shift in the Hive’s course rumbled through the launch bay. Ty waited for the turbulence to pass before giving the all clear. The grappling hook lifted the dome into the air, spilling mist from beneath it, which the floor vents sucked away.

  X was first to stumble out. His dented black armor, spotless from the rigorous reentry cleanse, sparkled under the bright LEDs. He took a moment to scan the room, found Ash. He pulled off his helmet, set it gently on the floor, and came over to her.

  “We didn’t find any fuel cells or valves,” X said. “But we did find this.” From his vest, he pulled out two laminated pieces of paper—maps, by the look of them. One was covered in drying blood. He handed her both of them. “At least we’ll know where we’re heading when you send us to Hades.”

  “Thank you,” Ash said. “I’ll get these to Samson immediately for review.” X ran a hand through his sweaty salt-and-pepper hair. He muttered something under his breath, then said, “When do we dive again?”

  “Samson was able to get one of the reactors back online,” Ash said. “Bought us some time, but not much.” She turned to face the divers who had huddled around. “Go and rest; spend some time with your families. Meet back here at three o’clock. You all dive at four.”

  Teams Apollo and Angel left the launch bay in relative silence, but Ash could hear their silent protests in her mind. She was about to send them to an almost certain death. Cruise stopped in the doorway to stare at Sam’s body, glared at Ash, and stalked out of the launch bay.

  “Promise me something, Captain,” X said.

  Ash turned back to X and the remaining members of Raptor. Heartsick already at having lost a diver, now she was about to lose many more. Under the glow of the LEDs, X looked twenty years older. He had wrinkles she never noticed before, and a streak of gray that the light seemed to accentuate.

  “Sure, Commander,” she said. “What is it?”

  “Promise me someone will look after Tin when I’m gone.”

  “I promise. I’ll send someone to your room as soon as you dive.”

  X shook his head. “No, Captain. I mean when I’m gone for good. Promise me Tin will be t
aken care of if anything happens to me.”

  She put her hand on his shoulder. He seemed to sink under the weight of her touch. “I promise you, Tin will be taken care of.”

  X turned to look at Sam’s broken body. Magnolia was sobbing, and Murph put an arm around her. No others words needed to be spoken. Like Cruise, everyone on Team Raptor knew they were likely to join their comrade soon enough.

  * * * * *

  X wandered the halls on his way back to his apartment. The ship was on lockdown and eerily quiet. He walked with his flashlight shining down the dark, empty corridors. An odd feeling that he couldn’t place came over him. He breathed in the cold air and studied the paintings on the next bulkhead. The longer he looked at them, the stronger the feeling grew. Sam was dead, but X had never felt more alive.

  And he hadn’t even had a drink.

  Seeing the newfound strength in Tin had inspired something inside him that he hadn’t even known still existed. For the longest time, the guilt over not being able to save those he loved most had haunted him, leaving a scar that only he could see. So he had poisoned his body with ’shine, wishing deep down that his luck would finally run out on a dive. Now he had a chance to redeem himself. If he could save the Hive, he could save Tin and fulfill his promise to Aaron.

  When X arrived at his apartment, he knocked hard and twisted the knob. The door creaked open to the flickering of a candle near the end of its wick. His eyes gravitated to the curled-up silhouette of Tin on the living room floor.

  “Hey,” Tin whispered. He rubbed his face and took a seat on the couch. A mess of mechanical parts from some new project littered the floor.

  “Are you okay?” Tin asked, looking him up and down.

  “Yeah,” X lied as cheerfully as he knew how. “You hungry?”

  “Kinda.”

  “Should still be leftovers,” X said, grabbing a bowl of apples and a bottle of water from the kitchen and returning to the living room. He set the bowl on the table in front of Tin. The boy’s eyes searched the fruit, but instead of grabbing an apple, he stood and wrapped his arms around X.