by Jo Schneider
“Unknown, we’re trying to avoid being cooked,” Jeff said.
An outcropping of larger rocks stood nearby. So far the shots hadn’t melted the ground, just burned it. “Those rocks,” Wendy said.
They turned, and another blast warmed the soles of Wendy’s boots.
“Not in a straight line,” Jeff said. He shoved her to the side. “Split up, jink back and forth, like we did up on the plateau.”
“Got it,” Wendy said. She kept running, letting her legs carry her as fast as they could. The trees around her became obstacles not for her, but between her and the smoking gun behind them. Her lungs screamed for more oxygen. The pack on her back felt like it weighed as much as Jeff.
The attacks became less frequent. Wendy risked a glance behind her, and saw that when it wasn’t shooting at her, it was shooting at Jeff.
Wendy knew better than to take her eyes off the path in front of her, and she paid the price for it. A tree root reached out and snagged her foot. Wendy tried to wiggle free and dive into a roll, but it didn’t work. Instead of a graceful roll, she fell flat on her face. A blast sizzled the air beside her feet.
“Wendy!” Jeff yelled.
“Keep going.” Wendy waved him on as she disentangled her foot and rolled to the side. This time she saw the beam as it hit the ground right where her head had been. A bright blue flash lit up the entire inside of her head. Clods of dirt lashed out and ripped at her cheek and arm. A blaze of heat burned the air that entered her lungs, and she started to cough. Tears from losing her breath and the acrid scent kept Wendy from seeing clearly.
“Roll!” Jeff said.
Wendy curled up and rolled back the way she had come, hoping the person behind the weapon would expect her to shy away.
“Hey!” Jeff yelled from not far away. “Over here.”
The blast Wendy expected didn’t happen. Instead, she heard it firing at Jeff.
Breathing sent waves of fire into her lungs, and she could barely see, but Wendy scrambled to her feet and ran straight toward the rocks.
“Come on!” she yelled at Jeff.
He glanced her way, saw the she was almost safe, and came after her.
Wendy dove behind the rocks, glad that she’d found a spot big enough for the two of them.
Jeff joined her a moment later. His left arm was smoking, his helmet was missing, and a chunk of his hair was burned down to his scalp.
“Hi,” he said with a grin.
“You okay?” she asked between coughs.
Another shot lit up the air. The stone behind them warmed noticeably.
“Riggs, we’re pinned,” Jeff said. “This thing is trying to melt us.”
“We’re in. We think it’s an automatic security grid. Hold on, Hound and Cal are trying to disarm it.”
“A machine?” Wendy said. She peered around the edge of the rock. Some sort of gun had risen from the ground on this side of the shield. The barrel focused on her face. She pulled her head back just before it fired.
Jeff looked out the other side. “Looks like it. I guess there could be someone controlling it somewhere.”
Wendy clicked on the radio. “Are there any more?”
“They popped up everywhere,” Riggs said. “If you’re safe, stay put.”
Another blast. The rock grew warmer.
“Define safe,” Jeff said to Wendy.
Wendy turned her attention away from the shield. “I wonder how far the range is.”
Jeff picked up a clod of dirt and launched it into the woods beyond them. The beam came over them and incinerated the clod as it landed.
“Farther than we are,” Jeff said.
“There are more rocks back there,” Wendy said, pointing. She took a breath to say more but started to cough.
“And you think you’re up for another run like that?” Jeff asked.
“I’m fine,” Wendy said. “At least my head isn’t in fire.”
“Just a new haircut.” Jeff patted his burned scalp. “Don’t you like it?”
The beam went back to hammering the rock in front of them. After two more hits, a deep, mournful crack rumbled through the stone.
“Uh-oh,” Jeff said.
Wendy snatched up a stone in each hand. “I don’t think there’s a person controlling it. If so, why hit the clod you tossed?”
“Reflex?”
The stone moaned again.
“Look, we need to move. We’ll go for those rocks. Take some dirt, try to distract it.”
“You think this is a plan?”
“Do you have any ideas?”
Jeff sighed. “No.”
Suddenly the large stones started to glow.
“Oh no,” Jeff said.
“Go!” Wendy pushed him the other way. Into her radio she said, “What’s the status on the security grid?” She ran, jerking back and forth and throwing stones as she went.
“What she means to say is hurry the hell up!” Jeff yelled as he did the same.
Their former hiding place crackled one last time before exploding. Projectiles followed the ear-splitting noise. It felt like a big hand hit Wendy in the back. She went tumbling forward. Hot coals potted the back of her legs. A ringing started in her ears. This time she managed a roll, but a second wave of heat hit her and kept her from getting to her feet.
“Almost there,” Riggs said.
“Almost isn’t exactly good enough,” Jeff said as he crawled to his feet.
Wendy followed suit. She heard the gun warming up. With nothing else to do, she ran. So did Jeff.
Time slowed down in her mind. Wendy’s shorter legs did in fact carry her less quickly than Jeff’s did—it didn’t help that her knee was getting more sore by the minute—but he was farther away from the second set of rocks. They both ran toward salvation. As they got closer, Wendy realized that the space was significantly smaller than their last solace. They were barely going to fit.
A blast lit up the ground right behind her.
Almost there. She put a tree between her and the gun. Another blast, this one at Jeff, who just barely dodged.
The rocks were within range. Wendy and Jeff’s eyes met. They were going to have to dive. At the same time.
“Come on!” Jeff said.
Wendy sprang forward just as he did. They collided in mid-air, a few feet above the ground. Jeff wrapped his arms around Wendy. She wrapped her legs around him. They fell hard, landing behind the little shelter. Jeff rolled to put himself on top of her and covered her head.
Wendy cringed and held on. She expected to feel the heat of the gun. The ragged sound of her own breathing filled her ears, along with Jeff’s heartbeat.
They waited. Nothing happened.
“We got it!” Hound said on the radio. “Security grid is off line.”
Wendy opened her eyes.
“Guys?” Cal asked. “Are you okay?”
Jeff looked down at Wendy while she looked up at him, their noses inches apart. “Are we alive?”
“I think so.” Wendy started to cough. It was then that she realized just how intertwined the two of them were. She pushed Jeff away so she could breathe. She curled in on herself as he got to his hands and knees.
“Way to take your time,” Jeff said.
“Are you both okay?” Cal asked again.
Jeff patted Wendy on the shoulder. “Besides Wendy trying to learn to breathe fire, we’re fine.”
“Make your way to the northeast side of the complex. Sven will meet you.”
Wendy focused on taking shorter breaths. “I’m good,” she reported.
“Liar,” Jeff said to her.
She waved him away. Into the radio she said, “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Jeff rose and offered Wendy a hand. “And try not to trigger any more alarms or whatever. My hair can’t take another one.”
“Roger that.”
Wendy used Jeff’s hand to get to her feet.
“Come on, time for the real fun to start.”
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Wendy coughed again. “Oh, I seriously can’t wait.”
Chapter 16
By the time they got around to the opening in the shield, Wendy’s lungs had relaxed enough that she could go more than a few steps without coughing. Jeff’s arm and head had stopped smoking. No other weapons popped out of the ground. They came around a corner and found Sven standing between a couple of large trees.
“Over here,” Sven said. He raised his eyebrows at Jeff’s now cropped hair.
“I’ll tell you all about it later,” he said.
“Oh boy.” Sven started to walk. “Stay between these two trees.”
Wendy let Jeff go ahead of her. She looked around, making note of the nearby clump of red-leafed bushes and a large depression in the ground farther into the forest.
“Any other problems getting inside?” Jeff asked.
“Only a few dozen guns mounted to an automated security grid.”
“Anyone get shot?”
“Just you.” Sven led them through a clump of dense trees and into a clearing.
Unlike Shelter, this complex wasn’t hidden in a plateau. It stood in all of its concrete and safety glass glory. Without the shield, this place would have been picked apart in the first years of the Starvation. Wendy tried to take in the scope of it. She’d only seen Shelter from the outside once. In the dark. So it was hard to compare, but Shelter seemed bigger. This looked taller, but she couldn’t be sure. Wild grass surrounded the complex, rising to Wendy’s waist and smelling of fall and dirt and, underneath that, rot. The rays of the sunset reflected off of the windows that were still intact.
Why hadn’t anyone noticed this place?
A set of roll-up doors wide enough for a large transport sat twenty feet above, coming out from the second floor. Two smaller doors, perhaps the size of a truck, hugged the ground, one on each side of the hanger door.
Next to one of those, a regular walk-through man door stood open. When they got close, Wendy saw that someone had blown the lock and mangled the frame.
“They’re here,” Sven said into the radio.
“Good,” Riggs said. “Come on in.”
Jeff went first, his hand on the butt of his gun. Sven gestured for Wendy to follow.
The edges of the steps up to the door had crumbled away. Rust covered the railing. Jeff’s boots crunched as he gingerly stepped over the edge and through the door.
Darkness swallowed him.
Wendy’s body stopped. Her mind froze.
Dark. Tunnels. Death.
The air from inside washed over her as she stood on the precipice; it was hot and dry, but smelled like an old pile of leaves. The space felt cavernous, and yet smaller than the crate.
“Wendy?” Jeff’s voice cut through.
Wendy blinked, and shook her head. “Sorry.” She heaved her foot off the ground, up over the lip and through the door. Reflex caused her other foot to follow. One moment she was outside. Safe. The next the darkness had swallowed her.
“This way,” Jeff said.
Wendy could just make out his silhouette in the dark. She jumped as Jeff flipped his flashlight on.
The narrow beam cut through the gloom, piercing into the black. Jeff shone it on the ground until Wendy and Sven got to him. Then he turned it into the room.
Now that Wendy’s eyes had adjusted, she saw the remains of a flare burning in one corner.
Jeff moved forward as he swept his light back and forth. Wendy followed the beam with her eyes, catching everything.
This wasn’t the hangar; it looked like a mechanical bay beneath it. Parts and pieces of half assembled vehicles lay strewn like fallen leaves. Huge beams of steel in X patterns came from the floor and connected to the ceiling in three places. A set of partially collapsed stairs to her left led up.
Muffled voices came from ahead—hopefully Kev and the others. Wendy’s eyes and head swiveled back and forth. She shivered, and her mind tried to go back to the tunnels. To the Skinnies. To the crate.
Had this place never seen the Starvation? Had it been abandoned earlier even than that?
Jeff answered that question a moment later. “Over there.” He focused the beam on a clothed skeleton that lay face down on the floor. He illuminated another just a few feet away.
“What did they die from?” Sven asked.
Wendy swallowed down a rising cry of fear.
“Let’s find out.” Jeff stepped away from the wall and started into the room.
They reached the first skeleton and Sven squatted down. He pulled out his own light and clicked it on. The beam shone through a hole in the side of the skull and out the eye sockets, which weren’t quite empty. The guy was dry as a bone, but not entirely rotted away.
“Someone bashed his head in,” Sven said.
“Could be a gunshot,” Jeff said.
“No exit wound.”
“Right.” Jeff moved to the next body. The same hole adorned the side of his skull. “Looks like execution style.”
Wendy stepped back. A warm, stale breeze came from somewhere ahead. The dark leered at her.
A deep clang sounded just before the overhead lights going on.
Wendy jumped, and drew one of her knives. Her heart sped up, and her palms started to sweat.
Sven looked up.
Jeff’s jaw dropped.
Wendy followed Jeff’s gaze, and found a pile of corpses as big as a truck.
Sven rose from his squat and stepped back. “Maybe we don’t want to know what happened here.”
Jeff pointed at one of the X patterns. “Looks like they jammed the lifts. Trapped them down here.”
Wendy could just make out a piece of steel shoved through the bottom of one of the Xs.
“Guys!”
Kev’s voice caused Wendy to jump. She turned and found Kev coming toward them. “Come on, guys, we need to take Matt to get the meds.” Wendy didn’t miss the nervous glance he gave the pile of the dead.
Wendy ripped her gaze away and moved to Kev. The other two followed.
Kev led them along the wall and into a hallway on their left.
Janice, Dennis and Matt stood outside the door Kev took them through. The room beyond housed more computer and electrical equipment than Wendy had ever seen.
Hound and Cal sat at keyboards in front of a wall of screens—most of which were on—typing like mad.
Riggs hovered over Hound’s shoulder. He glanced up when Wendy came in. He took a second look at Jeff’s head. “Glad to see you ducked in time.”
“Glad you guys got the grid off,” he said. He slapped Cal on the shoulder. “Took you long enough.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re working as fast as we can.”
Riggs pointed to the door. “Jeff, take Wendy, Kev, Sven and Matt. You’re job is to go find the meds we need. Cal has a map for you.”
One of Cal’s hands rose from typing and gestured to the far left, middle screen. “We’re here. Follow this corridor for thirty meters and you should find a heavy door. It should be unlocked. If not, type the code 5697 into the keypad then hit the green button.”
While Cal narrated, the screen turned into a first-person view. It moved down the hall and through the door that Cal was talking about. Everything was a grayish shade of blue. Once the door opened, stairs appeared.
“Go down the stairs all the way to the bottom. Four flights. At the bottom, you’ll see one door.”
Riggs cleared his throat. “As far as we can tell, that door leads into the medical testing labs. We don’t have the code for it. You might need to blow the door. Did you bring charges?”
Sven nodded. “No problem.”
“What about the security grid?” Wendy asked, still wheezing.
“It should be off,” Riggs said. “Even down there.”
“And if it isn’t?” Kev asked.
Riggs gave him a flat stare. “Improvise.” His eyes flickered to Hound. “The rest of us are going to look for the parts to repair the shield. The radios may no
t work that deep, but keep it on anyway.”
“Got it.” Jeff adjusted the straps of his pack. “Let’s go.”
Kev gave Cal one last slap on the shoulder and said, “Don’t have too much fun up here.”
Cal didn’t answer. That drew a frown from Kev, but he followed Sven.
Wendy brought up the rear and found Matt waiting for her in the hallway.
“Hey,” he said. He gave her the once over. “You injured?”
“Just inhaled some burning air. A few bruises. Nothing that won’t heal. You should see Jeff’s head.”
“I see it now.” Matt almost smiled.
Jeff scowled. “Kev, you’re first. I’m next, then Matt. Our job is to keep Matt safe. Wendy, you’re next, and Sven is in the back.”
No one had any complaints.
“Good luck,” Janice said as she and Dennis went into the computer room.
“Just find us that shield part,” Kev said.
Jeff waved and said, “Kev, you’re up.”
Kev started walking, and the rest fell in behind him. They quickly traversed the hallway to the door. The virtual tour had been spot on. Kev got there and jiggled the handle.
“Locked,” he said.
“Try the code,” Jeff said.
Kev nodded, and punched the numbers in, followed by the green button.
A soft buzz preceded a click and a flashing, green light that came from the keypad.
Kev reached out and pushed. The door swung away from him. A soft but eerie creak sounded. The door clanged as it reached its apex, hit the wall and started to bounce back.
No light came from the stairwell.
Kev reached into his pack and pulled his flashlight out. He moved to the edge of the doorway and shone it down the stairs.
“Looks clear,” he said.
Jeff grabbed a bundle from his own pack. He started handing out small objects.
It was a piece of plastic with a few straps coming out of it. “What is it?” Wendy asked.
“Head lamp,” Jeff said. He stretched the straps apart and shoved it on his head, wincing as it went over his burned scalp. The plastic faced the same direction his nose did. He clicked a button on the top and a blinding beam of light shot out of it.
“Aim them low,” Jeff said, “so we don’t blind one another.”
