by Dan O'Brien
Book of Seth: Entombed
Dan O’Brien
©2015 Dan O’Brien
“The seas had changed. The creatures roaming the waters evolved into something terrifying. When it came time for men to cross the frigid waters that covered Terra, they found many things that they had not expected.”
-Musings of the Shaman
The burst from my sidearm lit the hall in an eerie way. The luminance caught just glimpses of our pursuers. Their long, elongated snouts and blood-red eyes reminded me of the wolves I had fought upon the mountain. They towered within the narrow halls that had seemed so large before. The blasts rebounded off the walls; scarring them a coal black as the ricochet caught both the beasts and the steel.
Fredrick ambled ahead of me, his steps erratic and frightened.
As we emerged at the entrance once more, Fredrick slid to a stop, falling to his knees and screaming at the top of lungs. I nearly tripped over him; instead, I leapt forward over his knelt body. I held my body flat and kept head up as I continued to fire until I heard the deafening click of the expended rounds. I rolled to a stop beside Fredrick and grasped his shoulders tightly. It was hard enough to draw a wince from him.
“Get a hold of yourself,” I roared at him.
The steely tips of our pursuer’s unworldly pikes stood nearly as tall as the room.
“They’re here, the Umordoc. This is my penance, my prison. They’re the wardens of death, Seth,” he sobbed.
I smacked him hard. The sound echoed in the chambers and caused his eyes to water.
He brought his hand to his face where I had struck him. I had his attention.
“We have to move, Fredrick. We will not survive if we linger. We have to find a way out.” I tried to speak to him rationally, but his constant moving and head-shaking made it almost impossible to explain anything to him. So, I smacked him again, returning his attention to its rightful place. “You have to listen to me. I will not let you die here if you trust me and do as I say.”
Fredrick looked as if he had regained his sanity once more, his glazed eyes focusing on me. “Do you mean that, Seth? Will you take me back to the Fallen?”
I paused.
I knew that it was impossible, but I knew that I had to do what was right.
“I will try to find you a place, Fredrick, somewhere.”
“Anywhere is better than here,” he replied.
Tears streamed down his face as he grinned like a madman. He stood and as he did so, I slammed a new chamber of rounds into the sidearm and handed to him. He grabbed in gingerly and opened fire, the burst meeting their targets with a sickening thud. The horrendous primal scream of the Umordoc filled the air.
“We have to find shelter.”
“What about the way we came in?” suggested Fredrick as he slammed round after round into the hall.
The bursts scorched the floors, walls, everything that was near the beasts.
I turned back and grimaced. The door had shut behind us and there had been no panel on the inside.
This truly was a tomb.
“No exit panel. Looks like this was meant to be a one-way trip after all, even for me,” I replied sadly. I did not fear death; however, the betrayal stung. They had meant for me to remain here.
“I’m truly sorry, Seth,” called Fredrick with remorse. Then, he turned back to me. “Out.”
I nodded grimly and threw him another cartridge. “Never mind that now. I will not die here today. We have to try another hall. We have no choice.” I moved forward. I drew my other sidearm and opened fire into the smoking hall as well and then darted into the next adjoining hall, both Fredrick and the Umordoc at my heels. I tried to regulate my breathing, but I knew that I couldn’t run forever.
No man could.
We would have to make a stand.
Dashing through the winding corners, I watched doors pass on each side. Until, of course, it ended abruptly into an elevator shaft. The clear, iridescent tube was visible even in the darkness of the monolith. I could hear the ragged breathing of the beasts pursuing us and I knew that we had little time. I fired at the clear tube. The material spider-webbed from the impact and I turned back to Fredrick and screamed. “Fredrick, with me.”
I crashed into the clear tube, the weight and force of my body collapsing the already-shattered tube. I plummeted into the darkness. I could feel the rush of air; the pressure pushed on my body like invisible hands. Stretching my arms and legs out, I tried to slow my fall. The friction scorched through my gloves, the rubbing sensation creating a sick smell of burning fabric. My fall slowed and then stopped, for a moment at least.
That was when I felt Fredrick collide with my neck and shoulders and the freefall began again.
And ended just as abruptly as we slammed into the top of what I could only hope would be the elevator car itself. I turned, groaning. My entire body hurt from impact with whatever we had landed upon. I pushed Fredrick off my back. Looking back up the darkened shaft, the blood-red eyes of our pursuers peered over the edge. Their feral breathing and snarls of rage echoed in the shadowed cylinder in which we were confined.
“We have to move,” I said to Fredrick as I pulled him to his feet.
He had obviously been stunned by the fall. His feet were wobbly beneath him as he stood up. I ran my hands along the wall blindly. In the darkness, I couldn’t see the activator switch for the door panel and I fumbled like an invalid along the cold steel walls. Anguish and frustration built in me, a fear that drove me to move my hands faster, groping urgently.
Fredrick was pushing on my back. I could hear his panicked breathing as he paced in the shallow confines of the cylinder.
“Seth, come on. I can see them. The eyes are getting closer,” he yelled, his voice cracking and wavering.
I felt the ridges to the right of the door and felt a button. I depressed it immediately. A door opened behind me with a slick sound. I pushed through. Pulling Fredrick’s panicked body behind me, we emerged into another hall. I closed the panel with the activator just beside the yawning darkness of the cylinder. I sighed and leaned against the door. Fredrick was breathing hard and holding his chest.
“We have to keep moving. We can’t stop here,” I said, continuing to lean against the door.
The lights on the floor were not nearly as bright as the ones upstairs. They cast eerie shadows over the entire chamber, especially on the haggard face of Fredrick. His eyes were drooping and sullen. His face was drawn from too many meals missed; and his body hunched as if crippled somehow. “We just evaded them. There’s no way they will make the jump down. The tube is too narrow,” he implored.
The Umordoc were large, the tube really wasn’t that narrow; his logic was sound to a fault.
I leaned back, thinking on what he had said for a moment. Perhaps they would not pursue us and just leave us here to rot.
Thud.
The sound was massive. The reverberations bounced me off of the door panel and sent me sliding along the floor. I watched the door as I slid to a stop. Each accompanying thunderous sound made another dent in the door.
Each time, it drew a panicked yelp from Fredrick and made him twitch.
“Shoot the panel, Fredrick,” I screamed as I scrambled to my feet and holstered my additional sidearm.
He turned his head away and fired into the panel. Fredrick turned back as the hammering continued, this time with renewed vigor. “They’re going to tear through that door, Seth. What in the name of the Believer are we going do?” he queried with a whine. Fear infected him again, replacing the courage he had mustered when we had first encountered the beasts.
I
looked around the hall, searching for an answer, a way to buy us more time.
Doors lined the white-washed walls and stretched farther than I could see in the half-light of the dwindling luminance. I cursed myself for taking the path that I had. Fredrick was doomed no matter what, but I had thought if we escaped our pursuers that I could make a difference. Somewhere deep within me, I knew that I could not.
The Umordoc slammed against the door, the sound shaking my very soul.
I knew that the wrong turn I had condemned us both.
We were entombed.
I RAMMED MY SHOULDER into the door repeatedly. The sound of my body impacting against the door was miniscule compared to the sound of the Umordoc breaching behind the door to the entrance shaft. The final push opened the door enough so that I could slip through after Fredrick crawled into the darkness. Once on the other side, I manipulated the door panel and shot it with my sidearm. A similar shower of sparks assaulted me this time. I walked the perimeter of the room, the four walls feeling like safety despite the persistent mumbling that emanated from Fredrick’s cowering figure.
I screamed despite myself, the anger welling up inside me. Slamming my fist against the panels situated adjacent to the entrance, a large screen flickered to life. The cornucopia of colors was strange to my eyes. As the images focused and took form, I realized that I was looking at a computer screen. Such a device had been lost to our people for centuries. The board below the screen lit up, the various dials and keys coming to life. The whirring noises from within the machine caught Fredrick’s attention and he turned toward the computer board with a look of pure fascination.
“What….” His words trailed off.
I felt the same wonderment that he no doubt did.
Such devices no longer existed on Terra. They had been obliterated in the wars with the Umordoc.
I flexed my hands, holding them just above the glowing panels and stared wide-eyed, truly unaware of what to do.
I could read the words on the screen.
It was the same language that we still used; although, the print seemed artificial, surreal.
“I do not know why this is here. How can this be?” I queried half to myself and half to Fredrick.
He moved forward drunkenly, his feet slapping against the steel floor as if his feet were made of lead. His arms hung dazedly at his sides. I touched the panel, the screen flickering in response and the text shifting from one set of words to another. The message was foreign to me even though I could read the words.
“Maybe we can use it to trap them somehow.” Fredrick’s words were sound in theory.
I watched the screen; the images flickered from one to another. I turned in frustration and glowered at the door that stood as the barrier between us and the Umordoc. The gate was to our prison as well. “This is pointless. I can’t understand this damned computer.” I struggled with the word because I had never used it.
My father had spoken of them and the role they had played before the downfall of our kind.
The computer whirred for a moment, the flickering images speeding and then slowing.
“Voice recognition complete. Automated voice directory implemented, awaiting command.”
The terminal had spoken to me.
Minutes passed before I approached it again.
“Computer.” I uttered the word slowly.
No response.
“Computer, activate.” I used the same words it had, hoping it would respond.
“Awaiting command.” The response was curt and emotionless.
“Show us the hallway,” I commanded.
The screen flickered and resituated itself. The images of the Umordoc appeared on screen, their presence causing Fredrick to jump back against the wall and moan. The pictures even drew a whistle through my teeth, surprised at their size on the screen in comparison to things around them.
“Kill them,” screamed Fredrick, lunging forward toward the screen with my sidearm in hand. He pointed it recklessly at the screen. The images remained and the Umordoc froze. Their devilish heads lifted into the air, sniffing. “What the hell are they doing, Seth?”
“They can smell us and hear us as well after screaming at the screen like that,” I returned.
“Kill them, computer,” repeated Fredrick, this time without the volume.
“Insufficient command, the phrase KILL is not in command list. Please repeat in proper command phrasing,” rattled off the computer mechanically once again.
Fredrick spun fell to the ground in a heap. His breaths were ragged and his mumbling indistinguishable.
I stared at the screen as the Umordoc brandished their pikes and jabbed the walls with them. Sparks flooded the screen.
“Do something,” screamed Fredrick as he rolled onto his side. The gun slipped from his hands as tears streamed down his cheeks. I could not believe the complete transformation the man had taken from his seemingly-courageous return to sanity and to the wretch up sat before me.
The Umordoc sniffed the air cautiously again. They neared the room in which we hid. Their pikes at their sides, they placed their hands over the panels.
“Computer, list commands.”
The computer whirred and churned. A massive list continued to generate, phrases disappearing and then appearing as more were aggregated.
“Computer, Stop.”
I read over the phrases. Some of them were familiar and some so foreign that I struggled to properly enunciate them. The list read down the line: History, Primary Power, Safety Systems, Perimeter Proximity Warnings, and Weapons Systems, Nano-drive, Floor and Duct Mapping.
I could hear the Umordoc outside our door now, their breathing loud and labored. Their claws dug at the steel and their grunts echoed even in the steely prison we had erected around ourselves.
“Seth….” Fredrick’s voice was barely audible. He was beyond words now, his mind having reverted to a childlike state.
The Umordoc threw their bodies against the door.
“Computer, engage safety systems,” I ordered, not knowing what it would entail.
“Safety Systems engaged.” A charge of electricity ran the length of the steel walls and converged upon the door. The Umordoc leapt back in surprise, their angered roars and howls allowed me a moment of satisfaction. I reminded myself that they would find another way. I thought for a moment, trying to wrap my mind around the parameters and boundaries of the computer interface that had been laid before us.
“Are they gone?”
I ignored him. His questions would not help us escape from this place.
“Computer, engage Floor and Duct Mapping.”
“Generating floor-by-floor analysis and duct systems schematics,” retorted the computer on command.
The screen faded from a dull blue to an iridescent green. The hollow contrast of the black lines of the schematics and green backdrop made my eyes hurt. I watched as it flickered from screen to screen, the barrage of information far too much for me to understand. Seconds turned into minutes and I had enough. The schematics were indistinguishable from one another.
“Computer, cease generation of Floor and Ducts Mapping. Chart course from present location to surface entry via the duct system.”
“Command acknowledged, generating routes to exit from present location via duct channels.”
The computer screens flickered once again.
Fredrick had long since given up on conversation and crawled into the corner, his legs drawn up in the fetal position. I found a certain power in my understanding of the computer terminology. Though it was foreign to me, I seemed capable of manipulating it using simple logical progression that had been the backbone of Fallen ideals for as long as our history had existed.
Thud.
The door reverberated as something heavy slammed against it. The shock waves of the safety netting flowed from the center of the room once again and electrified the panels. The force of the ground lightning drew panicked howls from the beasts once ag
ain. They pounded the walls in frustration.
“They are going to get through,” stammered Fredrick, not moving from his curled position in the corner.
“Fredrick, be silent. I will find a way out,” I replied. I tried my best to sound calm for his sake.
I turned back to the computer, not wanting to focus on the panic that had taken over Fredrick. I had to concentrate on finding a way out.
“Generation complete, one route identified through duct networking.”
I watched as the screen brought up the information. The navigation markings showed the route in real time. It led back to the surface. The grade climbed quite a bit as it rounded back toward the elevator shaft and would then drop us into the original chamber near the entry doors. I moved away from the terminal and examined the room with a critical eye for the first time. The duct junction in the top right corner adjacent to the computer screen was the entry point the computer had simulated; thus, it would have to be the starting point for Frederick and me.
Looking back at the computer, I gave it my final command. “Computer, open all exterior doors.”
The computer complied.
I jumped up and slammed my hand into the grate of the duct. The force of the blow caused it to fall to the ground with a miserable sound, no doubt startling the Umordoc from their scheming. I reached into the empty duct and pulled myself up, examining the darkness. I broke another glow rod over my leg, illuminating the narrow corridor in soft emerald light. The structure seemed to be intact as I tested my weight on it, though there was barely enough crawl space. It would be cramped, but there was no other choice.
“Fredrick. I found us a way out,” I called over my shoulder, peeking my head out into the room when I no longer heard a response. “Fredrick?”
“I’m right here,” he whispered as he appeared just below the duct. His sudden presence startled me. I fell back against the ducting with a groan. I cursed myself and pulled him into the duct, leaving the grating on the floor. “Where are we going?”
“Home,” I responded emptily.
We crawled into the darkness, unaware that the place we were trying to reach was under attack.
