Forsaken

by Michael McBride

  She glanced back over her shoulder.

  Avila brought up the rear with the other flashlight, silhouetting the men and women in front of her. She was only now entering the corridor between buildings. The survivors in between shied away from the nest as strips of the casing fell away. A dark shape slithered from one of the gaps, ascended the side, and disappeared through the gap by the man’s face. A crunching sound, followed by ripping. The creature scurried back out and dropped to the floor. It was already a good two feet long. Roche stomped on its head before it could test its legs.

  The second nest passed to Kelly’s right, even more active than the last. She could hear them in there. Hear them moving, chewing. They made crackling sounds, like maggots inside roadkill. A drowsy reptilian head, its eyes still closed and its feathers slicked back, protruded from the nest beneath a man’s chin. It opened its bloody snout wide and made a screeching noise.

  Barnett stepped over the fallen monitor and paused long enough to stare at the remaining screens. He cast a sideways glance at Roche, who raised his rifle and turned toward the tunnel to his right. Both men started firing before Kelly even saw the hideous beast scurry out from the roof of the corridor and climb up the arched wall.

  A spray of blood patterned the ceiling and the creature dropped to the ground. It landed on the other side of the table and scrabbled for cover.

  “Go!” Barnett shouted.

  He whirled to his left and fired into the other dark passageway.

  Roche ran toward the front door, which revealed little more than a swatch of the deck. He shouldered it wide open and dragged Kelly out under the ice dome. She suddenly felt exposed and vulnerable. Tess bumped into her from behind. Roche turned back toward the building and sighted down the roofline before making a break for the boardwalk to the left.

  Barnett’s footsteps echoed all around them as he ran to catch up.

  “Where are they?” he shouted.

  Screams erupted from inside the building, followed by the prattle of gunfire.

  Kelly looked back. Detected movement from the corner of her eye.

  The creature emerged from beneath the walkway and scampered over the railing. Opened its jaws wide and struck—

  Roche stepped between it and her. Jammed his rifle into its open mouth. Pulled the trigger. The back of its head dissolved into a red cloud and its body flopped backward over the rail.

  More screaming from behind them.

  They weren’t going to make it.

  “Close ranks!” Barnett shouted.

  He ran toward the middle of the pack as a shadow appeared above the roofline. He stopped and aimed. By the time his bullets ricocheted from the building, it was already airborne. It hit the paleoarcheologist, Karlsson, squarely on the shoulders. He cried out and tumbled to the ground. The creature’s momentum carried them over the edge. The moment they clattered to the rocks, it dragged him underneath the boardwalk and his screams suddenly ceased.

  Barnett stood over them and shouted as he fired straight down through the wooden planks. Ejected the spent magazine. Slammed another into the breech.

  He looked directly at Kelly.

  “Run!”

  Another creature appeared from the ruins to their right and jumped up onto the boardwalk in front of them. Roche shot at it. The bullets chewed up the wood, but merely served to chase it off the other side.

  Roche grabbed her by the hand and together they ran around the side of the pyramid. The darkened ruins stretched out beside them, toward the dry lake bed and a ring of stones reminiscent of Stonehenge. She could feel the creatures out there, moving through the shadows. Closing in on them.

  They rounded the front of the pyramid and hurdled the switchbacking stairs two at a time. The entryway loomed over them, dark and forbidding. Roche pulled up short and aimed his rifle into the main corridor.

  With power diverted to emergency functions, the inside of the pyramid was completely dark. They couldn’t see a thing.

  He fired three times to clear their path. The resultant strobe of discharge limned the walls of the empty passageway as the bullets ricocheted deeper into the darkness. He advanced all the way to the end of the main branch and released a triple burst down into the descending corridor. Again, the momentary flashes illuminated the vacant tunnel.

  Barnett caught up with them and shined his light up toward the statuary and into the ascending corridor—

  Eyeshine.

  He instinctively retreated and knocked Kelly into the wall. The creature streaked past her face, so close she could feel the wind of its passage and smell the carrion on its breath. Tess ducked and it struck the woman behind her in the face. Bounced her from the wall and pinned her to the ground. Opened her throat before she could even scream.

  Barnett shoved past Kelly, planted his foot on the creature’s back, and fired down at its head until there was nothing left of it, leaving those still funneling into the pyramid to step over its mangled remains.

  He assumed the lead again and guided them down the descending corridor in a crouch. He paused when he reached the bottom. Shined his light across the cavernous chamber and the ancient machinery. Ran for the well in the center, from which the top rungs of the ladder stood.

  “Do you remember your way?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Roche said.

  Another light materialized from the tunnel behind them. It brightened by the second until Avila appeared, holding her flashlight beneath the stock of her rifle.

  There were far fewer of them than when they set out from the vault.

  “Avila and I will cover you,” Barnett said. “Just get everyone to the end of the hall. And pray that Zeta isn’t still down there.”

  Roche nodded.

  The terror struck Kelly so hard that she couldn’t breathe. It was down there. The monster that had once been Dale Rubley. In the darkness beneath their feet. The demon that stalked her nightmares. And it was no longer contained by the cage.

  They were all going to die.

  “We should just stay here,” Kelly said. “We can hold them off—”

  “For how long?” Roche asked.

  “For as long as we have to!”

  “We don’t have a choice.” He took her by the hand and led her toward the ladder. Barnett shined his light down into the hole. Avila slipped past him and clattered down the ladder. “You can do this, Kelly. I’ll be right here with you the whole time.”

  “You know what’s down there, don’t you?”

  “I also know what’s up here. If we can reach the cage, you’ll be safe inside.”

  “Until it opens the door. You saw how it got out of there. How long before it comes for us?”

  “You’ll be safe. I promise.”

  Avila jumped as soon as she was close enough to the ground. Dropped to one knee. Swung her light and her rifle first to the left, then to the right.

  “All clear!” she shouted.

  “You can’t know that,” Kelly said.

  Roche placed his hand on her cheek and turned her face to meet his.

  “Do you trust me?”

  Her eyes searched his in the dim light.

  “Hurry!” Barnett shouted.

  Tess stepped around them and started down the ladder.

  “Yes,” Kelly whispered.

  “Then go,” he said, and urged her toward the hole.

  She grabbed the ladder and looked down. Tess descended ahead of her, toward where Avila had taken post, her light shining—

  A dark shape appeared from nowhere and knocked Avila onto her back. She shouted and pulled the trigger. Bullets sparked as they ricocheted from the ceiling.

  Tess screamed and started climbing back up.

  Avila got her forearm under the creature’s neck. Pushed its snapping jaws away from her face. Worked the barrel of the rifle under its chin.

  It shrieked like a hawk.

  Skree—!

  A burst of red exploded from its feathered head.

  Tess
tumbled over the edge of the well and crawled away from the hole.

  Avila tossed the creature off her and stood. She staggered to the base of the ladder and looked up at them, her face a mask of blood.

  “Hurry! Before more—”

  Shadows struck her simultaneously from both sides.

  “The elevator!” Roche shouted.

  He dragged Kelly away from the ladder, through the people in his way, and straight into the descending corridor.

  Avila’s screams echoed from behind them.

  Roche fired as he ran to at least make whatever might be up there think twice about stepping into their path. They blew through the main corridor and out of the pyramid. Nearly fell down the stairs before catching their balance and jumping to the landing.

  Kelly heard the others hit the stairs behind her, but couldn’t bring herself to look back. The boardwalk ahead of them led straight across the rocks and toward the distant escarpments. She couldn’t remember exactly where the elevator was, only that it was near the face of the mountains, where they rose up into the ice.

  Stone dwellings passed to either side, discolored by the accumulation of sediment and algae through the millenia. The overrun base appeared through a gap to her right and vanished every bit as quickly.

  The elevator shaft materialized from the darkness ahead of them. The emergency light on the roof of the car glowed red. As did the lights leading upward into the shaft.

  They ran to the platform and ascended the stairs. Roche guided her through the open door and into the car. Took up post beside it and covered the others as they ran toward them.

  “Get inside!” Roche shouted.

  Kelly stumbled backward as Tess entered, followed by more and more people who shoved her deeper inside. She met resistance behind her and had to fight for what little space she had. In the process, she lost sight of Roche.

  “Martin!” she shouted.

  The elevator door closed with a loud clang.

  She couldn’t see anything over the heads of the others packed inside with her.

  “Martin!”

  “Kelly!”

  She turned to her left. He stood on the opposite side of the cage, his fingers curled into the wire mesh.

  “What are you doing?” she screamed.

  “Barricade yourselves inside the power station until help arrives.”

  “Don’t leave me!”

  “Someone has to end this.”

  She thrust her fingers through the mesh on top of his.

  The elevator shuddered and the motor hummed.

  “I’ll catch up,” he said. “I promise.”

  He kissed her knuckles and pried his fingers out from beneath hers.

  Kelly screamed and beat her fists against the siding of the elevator as it rose from the platform.

  He watched her ascend until she was nearly to the ice dome, then turned and followed Barnett and a handful of others back toward the ruins.

  Tess placed her hand on Kelly’s shoulder.

  She brushed it off and turned to face the others.

  There were only nine survivors in the elevator. The creatures had slaughtered more than half of those who’d sought shelter in the vault during their desperate attempt to escape.

  The elevator entered the narrow ice shaft. The walls closed in upon them in the suffocating darkness, metered by the occasional red emergency light that flashed past on the rails.

  Kelly buried her face in her hands and slid down the wall to her rear end. Her shoulders shook as she cried.

  44

  ANYA

  Teotihuacan

  Anya dragged herself up onto the lowered wall as the last of her energy fled her. Exhaustion overwhelmed her and she nearly collapsed forward into the dark room. It was all she could do to hang on as the emotions she’d held at bay assailed her. She sobbed. For herself. For Villarreal. For all of them. Her body wanted nothing more than to just shut down, but she understood the consequences of allowing that to happen and willed herself to stop crying. There would be time for that later.

  If she survived.

  “Go,” one of the men said and shoved Evans from on top of the wall.

  He landed on his injured leg, which crumpled underneath him. He pushed himself up onto all fours as the water rose around him. It fired from the hole in the wall and struck the spear-like lever, splitting into two streams, both of which bored into the granite plinth and filled the air with spray. Already several inches had accumulated around the outermost ring of the tiered platform. Jade jumped down on her own before either man could push her. Anya followed her lead, although far less gracefully. Her trembling legs deposited her onto her rear end the moment her feet hit the ground. She crawled to the base of the plinth and up onto the bottom level.

  The men climbed down at the same time and shined their lights around the chamber. Walls adorned with elaborate murals whipped past. The gears and counterweights that raised and lowered the door were mounted to either side. The flashlight beams produced rainbow reflections from deep inside the obsidian columns in the four corners of the tomb before settling upon the sarcophagus. The men ascended the massive platform to the top and ran their palms over the smooth lid.

  Anya searched the room for another way out. The walls appeared seamless, at least as far as she could tell through the deep shadows. The area surrounding the plinth functioned as a trough and was already filled nearly to the first step. Animal carcasses stood from the rising water, partially articulated and held together by desiccated skin and fur. There were pumas and jaguars, monkeys and wolves, all mummified where they lay. Sacrifices to whoever was buried inside.

  She heard what sounded like voices in the distance. She looked back in the direction from which they’d come, but all she could see was darkness.

  Movement from the corner of her eye.

  The remains of a jaguar, its pelt faded to a dirty brown, moved ever so slightly. The water must have broken up the adipocere that adhered it to the floor.

  “Drive with your legs,” Black Skull said.

  Anya glanced over her shoulder and watched the two men shove the lid several inches. If she was going to die, she at least wanted to know the reason why.

  She climbed to the top and pulled herself up at the foot of the coffin, which had to weigh several tons by itself. How any number of men could have lifted it all the way up there was beyond her.

  The masked men groaned and pushed again, creating a slim gap from which the intermingling scents of dust and decay gusted. Silver Alien shined his light inside and revealed the tattered pelts covering the body.

  A faint aura of light blossomed at the far end of the flooded corridor.

  Anya knew exactly what that meant.

  Reinforcements.

  She and the others had to get out of there before they arrived. There had to be another way out. She spun in a circle, but couldn’t see anything resembling a means of escape. There were no doors, no holes in the ceiling, no missing bricks like there were in the outer door.

  The water was rising too fast. It was nearly to the top of the first step and getting deeper by the second. The body of a black howler monkey floated to the top and appeared to roll before vanishing back into the water. For a second, it almost looked like it moved on its own.

  The lid of the coffin screeched as the men pushed again, widening the view enough to see the shape of the body underneath the pelts. Its arms were crossed over its narrow chest. They shined their lights onto its head and Anya stumbled backward. It had the face of a crocodile and a headdress made of parrot feathers.

  “This is it,” Silver Alien said. “We found it.”

  The excitement in his voice only served to rob Anya of the last vestiges of hope. If these men had what they had come for, they no longer had any use for her or her friends.

  She turned away and slumped to the ground. The light at the end of the flooded corridor brightened and took the form of a flashlight, behind which several shadows swam.


  Again, something moved in her peripheral vision.

  By the time she turned, all she could see was the arched back of a dead puma breaching the surface. She was already looking away when something tore through its brittle skin and fur from the inside.

  Anya glanced at Evans, who drew Jade behind him as the reinforcements approached. He could barely put any weight on his right leg, and yet appeared ready to make his stand.

  She looked into the flooding tomb and saw a dark shape cut through the water, its long tail flagellating behind it.

  More movement, from the far side of the plinth.

  A jaguar’s stiff leg rose from the depths. Its flank bulged, then deflated. Something erupted from the carcass and cut a V across the choppy surface.

  The light couldn’t have been more than ten feet away now, close enough to partially illuminate the blurry shapes beneath the water rising toward the second tier of the plinth.

  Whatever these creatures were, they’d been hiding inside the bodies of the dead animals, although how anything could have survived entombed in here for thousands of years—

  Anya thought of the human remains walled inside the Sacrificial Well. The linear scratches on their bones. The undersides of their bones. As though inflicted from the inside. Men willingly sacrificed at the mouth of the tunnel that led to the maze, at the center of which was a door with holes near the ceiling, and living animals entombed with the sarcophagus.

  A shadow slithered up the wall in her peripheral vision and vanished into the darkness clinging to the ceiling.

  “We have to get out of here,” she whispered.

  “Don’t make any sudden moves,” Evans whispered.

  “Listen to me. There’s something in here with us. We have to get out of here right now!”

  The men in the outer corridor reached the sunken wall and shined their lights inside.

  Anya raised her hands over her head and prayed they didn’t shoot.

  Something grazed her ankle. She stepped up out of the water, which had risen over the top of the second step.