by Jeff Olah
“What, they’ll catch us before we—”
“Just go,” Rath said, “It’s the only chance we have…they’ve spotted us from the south as well.”
He was right; another group had moved out of the southern end of the city. Their numbers not quite keeping pace with the rising horde thirty seconds behind, although if his instincts were correct, he feared that may have just awoken the Arkuss.
In the hierarchy of the Andros subset, the Arkuss were at the top of the food chain and often slaughtered the more vulnerable to assure the rank and file remembered their proper place. Their actions were often so deplorable that many of their own kind avoided this area like the menacing plague this group had become.
Increasing his pace as did the others, Rath reached the door to the former Department of Water and Power only seconds before the two groups of Andros closed in. Rushing everyone inside, he shouted. “I need one man to stay behind with me and bring a few of the larger, timed explosives. The rest of you, follow him.” Motioning for Symon, he said, “Take them down the service stairwell. The last landing leads into the sewer system. You’ll follow it south for a mile or so to where it ends on the beach.”
Rath took what he needed and handed Symon two of the remaining handheld explosives. “One for the cage leading into the sewer and the other one…well just in case.”
Symon started for the stairs, although he stopped immediately and turned back. “Wait, how on earth do you know this city so well?”
“My mother used to work in this building.”
12
Thirty-one men followed Symon through the doors and down the four flights of stairs. The immense iron gate leading into the city’s sewer system had long since been opened and pushed aside. Even though he was able to spare having to use one of the handheld explosives, he didn’t like what this represented, Andros coming and going through the area meant they’d likely encounter more than a few of the hungry animals on their trek to the ocean.
Motioning for two of the men with makeshift torches to lead the way, Symon fell back into the middle of the pack. He located the three men who’d taken from the drone at least a dozen handguns and enough ammunition to level a small village. “I’m not too sure these tunnels are the safest way out of the city. Pass out the weapons and make sure we’re covered, front and rear. I want status reports every five minutes, now go.”
Thirty seconds into the city’s underground highway, the first explosion came, its shockwave so great it nearly toppled many in the group. The six-inch river of sludge running underfoot held the remnants of the thirty plus years without proper attention and as the temperature rose, a few of the men even removed layers of clothes, wrapping them around their mouths and noses in an attempt to stave off the ridiculously offensive odor. As they marched on, a few were overcome and ended up losing what little nourishment remained in their system.
. . .
Giant slabs of granite, shards of glass, and a thick cloud of obliterated concrete fell down around them. The fireball was much less ferocious than he’d expected for the number of Andros they’d blown out of the building and back into the street. Rath stepped into the stairwell and led the way as his younger and more agile comrade stayed within two steps. Reaching the last landing and moving into the fourteen-foot tunnel, Rath paused. “Wait,” he said. “Roll forward the timer to fifteen seconds and go find the others. I’ll set it and catch up to you.”
“Are you planning on waiting for those things to start down the stairs before you set it?”
“What’s your name son?”
The timer set, he handed the explosive to Rath and turned to look in the direction the others had gone. “My name is Ryan, but what are you—”
“Ryan, thanks for your assistance, I’ve got it from here. Get going and don’t stop until you reach the group, and be sure to stay in the main tunnel. We’re not too far behind the others, maybe a minute or two. I’m gonna see if I can’t close this place off for good. A fifteen second head start should be plenty, now go.” Rath shook the younger man’s hand and turned to watch him jog into the darkness.
As the sound of rapid footfalls against the wet pavement faded into the distance, Rath calmed his breathing, slowly closed the massive iron gate, and set the explosive along the rusted out hinge. Finding a place to sit, he readied himself. First his right and then his left, he cinched down the laces of his black leather, steel-reinforced boots and flinched as the stairwell above shook.
They were here, less than thirty seconds away. Hundreds of the ravenous beasts that called this city home had already begun to close the gap. Moving forward as a tidal wave of brutality, they clawed their way over and around their fallen brothers and sisters, all with the intention of getting their first fresh kill in weeks. He stood, moved to the gate and closed his eyes. His only thoughts were of Sarah and what it would take to see her standing near the ocean at the end of this tunnel.
Although a longshot, he hoped that the device he was about to trigger would give him and the others even the most brief of advantages. The thunder from the stairwell moving toward him at a breakneck pace, Rath keyed the execute button on the explosive, only to have the readout go dark. Under his breath he muttered, “Are you kidding me?”
With a closed fist he bashed the unit and then again and then for a third time… nothing. He removed it from the gate and threw it across the landing, onto the bottom stair ten feet away. The unit rolled onto its side and the readout facing toward him flickered to life. It read eight seconds to detonation.
As the first Andro rounded the railing between the final two floors, Rath was already in a dead sprint, moving in the opposite direction. He forced himself to avoid the mental countdown, knowing it was wasted energy and instead focused on pushing his body as far from the impact zone as possible. One foot in front of the other and attempting to stay upright, he managed to avoid the rancid sewage and arbitrary debris, believing for a moment that he’d outrun the danger.
As if time stopped and started again in fast-forward, he felt the heat on his neck and hands before his mind registered the sound. Bright orange and yellow streaks moved into his field of vision shortly before he was lifted off his feet and thrown twenty yards deeper into the tunnel. Sliding face first through the ankle-high sewer water, Rath came to rest near a smaller angled tunnel that turned and moved off to the left.
All external sounds now muted, a faint hum rose in his ears as he pushed himself out of the filth. Standing, he winced and instinctively pulled back his left arm. Removing his scorched jacket and a long sleeved t-shirt, the injury was evident.
The third degree burns along the back of his neck and hands took a back seat to the pain radiating from his left wrist up into the elbow. The skin remained intact, although the broken bones in his forearm were pushing upward and sitting just below the surface. He thought, “Well… this is about to get interesting.”
Quickly tying his jacket into a sling, he grabbed his pack and as the dust began to settle, he peered backward into the tunnel. Pulling his pipe from his pack, he held it out in front of him and started forward once again. With no signs of life in either direction, and not liking his chances to defend himself with only one functioning arm, he quickened his pace.
The further into the tunnel he moved, the less debris he ran across, although the stench appeared to be magnified with each step he took. His gag reflex kicked in just as he spotted something illuminated in the distance. He attempted to speak, although before his body would allow it, he was bent forward and releasing the contents of his stomach. He couldn’t remember the last time he vomited and between the ceasing of his abdominal muscles, he said to himself, “I guess that shower wouldn’t have done much good.”
Pulling himself together, Rath squinted through the flickering light ahead. Within a hundred feet he could hear voices and recognized them as the men from his team. At fifty feet, he could hear shouts and within twenty, the screams of agony.
Symon rushed out o
f the group of men and motioned for Rath to come forward. The screams coming from thirty feet ahead grew and then quickly silenced. “Hurry up; they aren’t giving us another minute.”
“Whadda ya mean, who won’t—”
“There’s no time,” Symon said. “They’re torturing them.”
Anxious and confused, the men shuffled backward as they made a path through the crowd and reaching the last man, Symon pointed into the distance. The scene was unlike anything he’d yet laid his eyes on. Six Andros, four males and two females were the largest he’d ever come across. All standing nearly eight feet tall and the women covered head to toe in blood, the Andros had exterminated four of Rath’s men in full view of the others. Their limbs torn off one at a time, they all suffered an excruciating death.
Turning to Symon, Rath said, “What the hell happened, why aren’t you running?”
The larger of the two female Andros moved forward. She was obviously one of the members of the Arkuss and from the way she stepped out of line and in front of the others, most likely The Master. She stepped over the dismembered bodies toward Rath and from ten feet away, locked eyes. Turning to Symon she asked, “Is this him?”
“What is this,” Rath said.
Symon stepped to the side and turned to Rath. “They’re asking for you.”
13
As the drone ripped through the early morning sky, Archer continued to question his new co-pilot, having Tonya move through the rear cabin checking on the forty plus passengers, while Samuel occupied her chair. “Sam, we’ll be within visual range of Emerson’s beach within minutes and with the sun ready to come up, what are the chances we land without any problems?”
“Hey,” Samuel said. “I’m already in shock that we’ve made it this far. I’m almost ready to declare the new guy a good luck charm; you know, the guy you wanted to kill twelve hours ago.”
Archer shook his head and pointed through the glare coming out of the east. “That’s our spot, just a few hundred yards from the jetty, maybe five minutes. Let Vera and the others know to hold tight until we put down. I’d make the announcement, although I’m trying to stay off the radio until we get on the ground.”
Smiling he turned to Archer and said, “Will do.”
“What’s so funny?” Archer asked.
“Nothing’s funny, I’m still just amused that Boothe hasn’t been able to figure out what we did last night. The look on his face is going to be priceless. Can’t wait.”
“Proud of yourself, huh?”
“Yeah, maybe a little.” Samuel moved through the crowded cockpit and out into the rear cabin.
Reaching for the control panel, Archer flipped the toggle switch for the outgoing audio and lowered the mic to his chin. He turned to assure he was alone and then spoke quickly and calmly, while descending into the airspace above the beach. “Touch down in five minutes, forty-two residents incoming and no sign of the others.”
As Tonya returned, she looked confused. “Who were you talking to?”
Returning the switch to its off position, Archer turned to her. “No one…I mean, I was just talking to myself. I think being up here behind the controls for so long; I’m starting to go a little stir crazy. I’ll be better once we get out of this cockpit.”
Sliding back into the co-pilot’s seat Tonya said, “Aren’t you at all worried about what Boothe and his men have waiting for us once we do land?”
“If Samuel did his job, we’ll be the ones surprising him. Once Symon, Rath, and the others hit the beach, we shouldn’t have any problems with Boothe or his men.”
“Okay, I’ll just follow your lead.”
. . .
Not eating more than few bites of the previous night’s so-called dinner, Sarah’s head pounded as she lifted off the mattress and her stomach pulled in toward her spine. The thought of what awaited them and the prospect of having to spend another minute in the presence of that man left her with little hope that she’d ever see her husband again. She sat forward, turned to Lauren, and noticed her roommate had already awoken.
Lauren, now seated along the bed she’d already straightened, with her back against the wall and her head hung between her legs, quietly cried. The past twelve hours had inched by without the pair speaking and with the last conversation once again ending with Sarah scolding the young mother; neither knew where to begin the new day.
Although the room she’d been locked away in was void of windows, her internal clock told her it was morning. With that realization, Sarah watched the door like it held life, waiting for her captor to return and calming the voices in her head that spoke of the terror that awaited her. The dream she’d continually told herself to hold on to was slowly fading, as were her hopes that her husband would somehow find her. Sarah knew what she needed to do; she just no longer believed that she could.
Standing, the polished concrete floors were cool to the touch. As she began to cross the floor to Lauren, the key entered the lock and the door swung open. Emerson Boothe entered the room just ahead of his three guards. “Ladies, it’s time, please follow me.”
Into the stairwell and up to the ground floor, they followed the madman. Reaching the same door Sarah had gone through with Jonah at nearly the same time a day before, she stopped. Lauren also stopped.
Boothe, already out into the dissipating morning fog, turned and motioned to his guards. They moved toward the women and pulled them, barefoot, out into the sand. They were dragged to the top of the dune and turned back toward the facility they’d been prisoners in for the last several days.
The air thick and warm on her face, Sarah slid in next to Lauren and hugged her. Lauren neither responded nor acknowledged the gesture. She simply remained standing and stared at the sand below her feet.
Boothe shouted from his perch high above the beach, now only a few feet from the women. “Bring them out.”
Two additional guards forced four men out onto the beach, each chained to the one before and bloodied from head to toe. Void of any clothing, they were marched to a spot twenty feet from the foot of the dune and forced to their knees.
Out of the cloudless sky over her left shoulder, drifted another of Boothe’s jet-black transport drones. Sarah turned from Lauren and watched as the aircraft slowed overhead and began its vertical descent less than a hundred yards from where she stood, unable to move her focus from the tortured men in the sand.
Boothe turned to the women and said, “Right on time, that Archer is punctual if nothing else.” And as the drone finished touching down near the shore break, he made his way to the four men lying in the sand. Back to Sarah he said. “Your husband is out there, somewhere close, waiting for his chance to take you from me. I don’t know where, but I’m sure of it. Call to him.”
Sarah stood motionless, staring back at him.
“Your choice.” He held out his right hand and after being handed a pistol, fired one round into the forehead of the bloodied man to his right. Before his victim’s body hit the ground he again made his demand. “Sarah, this is the last time I ask.” He turned the weapon on the next man in line and pushed the barrel into his ear. “Call to him.”
The three men lying before her we’re already dead. Boothe would execute them either way, although she knew her husband, and how this situation would have played out had he been anywhere within earshot. Shouting his name wouldn’t change the events about to unfold either way.
Sarah closed her eyes and melted as the words left her lips. “Benjamin, please do not show yourself. If you love me, I want you to get as far from—”
As Boothe discharged the three remaining men from this world, Sarah flinched and dropped to her knees. She wept as the drone opened its rear cargo doors and as the dust settled around the massive airship, she noticed those exiting were not Boothe’s people.
14
The turquoise ocean sat fifty feet to the left, framed by the morning fog and fading trails of sand. Archer stepped from the cockpit and lowered the rear doors as the
warm coastal breeze filtered in. This was the first actual sunrise he’d seen in months; if he didn’t already known better, he’d have guessed that this part of the planet was about to experience its first summer day in over a year. Although with the colossal winter storm just miles to the east, it reminded him of why he was here today, fighting for his life. “Everyone out!” Archer moved into the rear cabin and began herding the residents out onto the beach. “There isn’t time, leave your things; we’ll come back for anything you may need.”
Many did what they were told without question and marched out into the sand. Others, including Vera stayed behind, looking for answers. “What’s happening, where are the others? The beach looks deserted.”
“I’m sure Rath, Symon, and the others will be coming up over that ridge any moment now. That is if they haven’t already moved on Boothe’s compound. Let’s get the others out onto the beach so we can get a head count.”
