by Andrew Gates
“Good,” Trace said, walking over to Ophelia. He grabbed her hand as she stepped into the water.
“But one condition. We get my brother and his family out too,” Dan explained.
“Shit,” Trace added. “We don’t have time for that.”
This bickering was doing nothing but wasting time. Iris raised her hand to silence them, though they continued debating. She tried to find a quiet place as she thought about the situation. Realistically, it would be difficult to reach the escape pods in time and unlikely that they could even jettison them. But if there was even the smallest possibility of success, Iris knew that Dan would never go through with it without his family and Iris could not go through with it without Dan. As much as finding Greyson would delay them and turn an impossible mission into an even more impossible one, Iris knew that they had to give it their all.
Fuck, she thought, we have to find him.
“I agree with Dan,” she finally interrupted. Both bickering men stopped arguing and turned to her, equally surprised.
“Iris, I’ll do whatever you ask. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you. But are you sure about this?” Trace asked.
Iris nodded her head. Ophelia ran over and grabbed onto her father.
“Thank you, Iris. Unfortunately it won’t be so easy,” Dan said. Iris turned to him. “Last I heard, Grey is still at Harrison. He was staying late to tutor some students. His family is at home.”
“You mean we have to go to two separate places?” Trace asked.
Dan silently nodded his head.
“Fuck!” the agitated man shouted. “How long is that going to take us, huh?”
“To Grey’s place from here is a 35 minute walk. Running, I can get there in 10, assuming nothing slows me down,” Dan explained. “From here to Harrison is a bit further and in the other direction.”
“So we should split up,” Iris suggested, wasting no time. “Dan, you go home to your brother’s family. I’ll get to Harrison.” She turned to Trace and Ophelia. “You two, make sure it’s clear. Get us a space on one of those pods. We’ll meet you there in an hour.”
“An hour?” Dan replied in disbelief. “How are we supposed to get to the lower public level in-”
“I’m guessing most people will try to go up, not down. Lifts will be carrying people in that direction, but they’ll have to come down to get more passengers. It’ll be swarmed,” Iris said. “So we’ll have to get creative.” Her timetable started to sound worse as she said it aloud.
“Jump down the shaft if you have to, just make sure you’re under the lift,” Trace added. A normal person would have said this sarcastically, but Iris could tell he was serious.
“But Iris, an hour?” Dan seemed unconvinced.
“We might not have an hour!” Iris shouted, fed up. “Get it in your head, Dan! There is an army here now! And we’re wasting our time bickering like children!”
Trace smiled as Iris calmed down. She took a deep breath and looked at her group.
“You all know where to go. Trace, Ophelia, get to the pods. Level 1. Don’t go too far down or you’ll end up in one of the industrial levels. Make sure we have one pod waiting for us. Dan, you get your brother’s family. I’ll go to Harrison. I’ll see you in an hour.”
“And if we don’t?” Dan asked.
“Then I’m fucking leaving,” Trace added, wasting no more time.
“Fine,” Iris replied reluctantly. “In one hour, that pod is launched whether it carries one of us or all of us.” She tried to sound stern and in control. It felt odd taking control like this, but she liked it.
Where has this Iris been hiding all these years?
Iris checked the time on her pod as the water level crept up her pant legs. The screen’s artificial light lit up the dark room, illuminating her upper body in an earie shade. It was 19:12. The last time I’ll ever set foot in my home. She turned off the bright light and held the pod tight in her hand, looking up at the team before her. For the first time, Iris realized that they were just as frightened as she was.
They were all ready. They knew the plan. It was now or never.
“Ready to go?” she asked.
They nodded in unison. It was time to commit.
Without wasting any more time, she bolted for the door. Her sweaty hands slipped on the cold handle. Perhaps she was acting too quickly. She took a deep breath and opened it inward, sending a wave of cold water pulsating through the room.
The same dull light strips lit up the interior of the hallway, illuminating the surface like the colorless core of her eyes. If she did not already know where she was, she would never know the walls were white.
The hurried woman spotted a few other people at opposite ends of the hall, but it was far fewer than she expected, especially given the noise. The strangers ran off in a matter of seconds, abandoning Iris and her party to this isolated hall. Yet despite the apparent emptiness, what sounded like screams could be heard from all directions. Even gunshots could be heard in the distance.
She decided to put these thoughts aside and started left down the hall. The rest of her party immediately pulled off, running right. They had their destinations and Iris had hers. It was time to leave her friends behind.
Iris had never been the most athletic, but now she had discovered a hidden strength within her. With each pound in the water, she felt more and more energized. Her feet caused high ripples in the thick layer of salty water like it was nothing but air.
She rounded the corner and saw a group of four people in their mid-40s running ahead of her. One of them in the group, a sub-Saharan woman, signaled for her to join them. Iris ignored her request and moved on, sprinting past them like one of her students darting out of the room once class was over. All that mattered was continuing through the dimly lit halls, ignoring the cold, the noise, the wetness and anyone she saw. With each step, she felt herself grow stronger and stronger. She did not even notice that she was panting.
After exiting the residential sector, the hurried woman found herself in a wide colorless expanse, illuminated again by mere strips of light. There were more people here, but still far fewer than she expected. There was ample space to run in any direction. Iris assumed many civilians were already on their way to the upper levels by now. Before she had any time to take in where she was, the walls rattled, causing her to fall down on her left side. Her head hit the floor but she managed to dampen the fall with her left arm. The chilled sea water in her mouth tasted like it was mixed with blood. She pushed herself up and studied the massive room, suddenly realizing that this was the transition zone. Covered in shadows and no longer colored in the bright yellow she had come to know, it looked completely foreign to her.
Trying not to waste more time, she continued running down the massive hall. She could see dots of orange gunfire in the distance now and decided to run towards it. As long as she had a direct route, she would take it.
Suddenly, a light brighter than all the others lit up the dark hall. Smoke and darkness obscured the scene and prevented her from getting a clear view, but whatever it was, it glowed almost two meters off the floor. Instead of flashing for an instant, the light lingered. For a moment she heard the line of marines break off and scatter. Then a massive beam emitted from the glowing light and what sounded like a thousand screams lit up the air. Plasma cannon, she realized, just like the glowing orb.
Iris no longer felt safe running towards the line of troops. If the mantises were armed, their range of damage was considerably higher. She continued forward as much as she needed to before turning off into a side hallway. Inside, there were no longer lights of any kind. Not even the strips dotted the walls. She held her hands out, feeling her way around the halls before rounding a corner. Fortunately, there were lights on the other side. Though it was faint, now she could at least see again.
Not knowing what zone she was in at this point, Iris just continued in the same direction as before, running parallel to the transition zone. She
could hear the carnage grow louder as she ran closer to the Navy line. Only this time, Iris had a block of city halls to protect her from the action. When she finally came perpendicular to the battle, she turned her head, trying to catch a peak. What she saw was horrifying. Though faint and hard to see, a mantis in its dark power suit stood in the middle of a crowd, flinging young uniformed men and women around the station like they were toys in white suits. Another mantis stood behind it, charging up its cannon for another shot.
“Shit!” she instinctively said aloud, glad that she was too far away to be heard.
Beneath her, the metal floor began to rattle, churning the water. Iris continued running, hoping the rattling was nothing to be worried about. But as she continued running, the rattling only increased. A few steps further, she heard the sound of metal cutting metal and stopped dead in her tracks as a thick black spike shot up from the floor in front of her. The spike pulled back down again, sending a whirlpool of water down with it.
There’s a mantis under the floor, she realized, petrified. She gasped and held her hands to her mouth, hoping to shut herself up. I can’t just stand here like this, she thought. Water continued pouring down the newly formed hole. With any luck, the flowing water would provide some kind of distraction. Hoping that she was right, Iris decided to continue forward, bolting faster now than she ever had before. She dared not look down as she passed over it. Its power suit hummed like a loader and gave off more heat than an oven with the door wide open. Fuck, fuck, fuck, she thought as she ran with all her might.
The hole was behind her now and hopefully the mantis along with it. A light emitted from behind her, lighting up the path. Her shadow filled the floor of the hall before her. For a few seconds, the light just lingered, but an explosion erupted shortly thereafter, propelling her forward. She could feel the fire at her back, pushing her like she was hit by a loader a full speed. She landed on her chest, probably 10 meters from where she had been. Hurt but still able to move, the desperate teacher picked herself up and looked back. The mantis was still below and had fired its cannon up at the floor, creating what was now a massive crater billowing with smoke. In the center, the giant creature was clawing its way up, no doubt trying to reach Iris.
Repeating her steps from earlier, Iris ran forward as much as she needed to before turning down the next perpendicular hall she could find. For whatever reason, Iris turned towards the transition zone she had just come from. She could hear the mantis roar behind her as she darted forward, hoping that she was far enough past the battle she saw earlier.
As she ran nearer to the open hall, she saw white-suited men and women riding power scooters. In some cases, two or three Navy were barely clinging onto the same one. To Iris’s surprise, they were moving away from the battle she had seen earlier, not towards it. She wondered if these soldiers had won or if they were retreating.
When she finally entered the transition zone, her question was answered right away. The hall let out right at the edge of the battle. Next to her, three mantises formed a circle around a mover full of what seemed like 15 Navy. The men and women fired their weapons but the bullets simply bounced off their thick armor. The mantises raised their arms in unison and came down strong with their spike-like fingers, smashing the mover into a pile of rubble. Even in the darkness, Iris could see the color red splatter into the air like paint.
A woman in uniform riding a scooter shouted as a wave of blood from the nearby victims drenched her white suit. She fell off the scooter and onto the wet ground. The mantis nearest her turned and picked up her body. The woman began to flail as the monster held her head in one hand and her legs in another and slowly started ripping her apart. The woman’s screams were piercing. Iris looked away and ran towards the now unoccupied power scooter. Forget about it, she thought, forget about it. Get to the scooter. She stood atop it and drove it away, hoping to get out of this area as fast as she could.
She seemed to be past the battle now. Mantises roared behind her, sending a shiver down her spine as she drove away. She dared not turn back, but she could see her shadow again from light emanating behind her. Instead of just one, it seemed like several lights glowed at once, followed by multiple simultaneous explosions. The sound was deafening. For a moment, the teacher thought she had completely lost her hearing. But the next thing she heard was the sound of metal breaking apart. The walls seemed to move in her peripheral vision, sliding out of place. It was as if they were collapsing.
As she drove further away from the battle, there were more and more scooters driving along with her. Pretty soon, there were so many people that she had to slow down. She looked around. Almost everyone around her was part of the military. They were all so young. Most of them were wounded. Some had lost limbs. She assumed they were all abandoning their posts, not that she had anything against that. She would have probably done the same in their positions.
Now that she was relatively clear of the mantises and surrounded by armed accompaniment, she finally decided to turn and look behind her. There was nothing but smoke and darkness and an occasional flash of light emanating through it all. It was weird to consider that this area was once a high speed transit zone. Now it was nothing, just burnt metal and shadow.
Suddenly there was a bump and Iris’s scooter toppled over. She fell off immediately as another scooter collided into hers. Why do I keep getting thrown to the floor? She thought, pushing herself up from the coldness. That was the third time she had to pick herself up since she left her home. As she rose, Iris realized what had caused her scooter to topple over.
A human body.
No. Iris looked again. Not just one human body, a sea of bodies. All along this section of the transition zone, military men and women were stepping off their scooters and walking on foot as a pile of corpses blocked their path. She could feel herself almost throw up again but managed to hold it in. By this point, she probably had very little left in her stomach anyway.
“No, no, no!” she could hear a man shouting. She glanced over towards him and saw the man as he leaned down in the pile of bodies. The man was too far away for Iris to make out his features but like most people here, he wore a white uniform. He held a dead body in his arms. “Fuck, no!” he shouted. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a pistol. With all eyes on him, not a single person moved as the Navy man pulled the trigger, ending his life.
Is this how desensitized we’ve become? Iris wondered, realizing she did not move either. But her thoughts were cut short as the sound of loud booms erupted from the ceiling above them. Some of the Navy members carried flashlights and pointed their lights upwards. That’s when Iris realized that the ceiling was missing. Instead, a gaping hole was in its place.
All these bodies came from up there, she realized. The mantis army is just cutting its way through the station. A loud roar echoed through the hall from above. The men and women suddenly scattered. Shiny white orbs fell down the hole and onto the pile of bodies like snowfall on the old surface mountains. Iris quickly ran away from the bodies and darted into the nearest side hall she could find. In a matter of seconds, the glowing white orbs exploded. This time, Iris was not far enough away. She could feel more than just heat and pressure. Her sweater caught fire and she could no longer hear. She felt blood drip from her ears. Iris quickly removed her flaming sweater and tossed it into the water, which was now half way to her knees.
She fumbled in her pants for her pod and tapped it on. Her vision was blurry and the sudden light made it hard to see. She waited a few seconds, trying to read the screen. 19:30 she eventually read. It had been just under 20 minutes since she’d left home. Fortunately, the brief ride on the power scooter helped her save a few minutes. She was close to Harrison. If her mental map was correct, the grey zone was just a few halls over from where she was now.
Iris looked back towards the transition zone as several mantises jumped down from the hole in the ceiling. The surviving soldiers opened fire as the mantises landed on top of
them one by one. Iris turned away from the silent battle. She put the pod away and moved forward through this new zone, wherever it was.
The battered teacher found it harder to move. Her legs were like stiff beams, her heart pounded and she felt dizzy. She guessed the last explosion must have hurt her more than she thought.
Fighting through the pain, she moved on until she reached another hall without any lights. Now I’m both deaf and blind, she thought. She held both her arms out, using her sense of touch to help her navigate. The walls were cold, so cold. It was like touching tall sheets of ice. Her foot collided with something large and metal. Iris tried to step over it, but realized that whatever it was, it was too big to step over. Whatever it is also isn’t shooting me, so that’s a good thing. She used her hands to find the edges and slowly made her way around the obstacle. Once safely on the other side, she continued down the hall. Unlike last time, where she found a light fairly quickly, it was not until almost three blocks that Iris finally reached another lit hallway.
She moved towards it, hearing the splashes of water beneath her. I can hear again! For the first time in a while, she felt herself smile. She felt alone without her senses. She was glad to have them back. It amazed her how much difference the tiny LED strips could make.
Relieved to be back where she could see and hear, she leaned against a wall to catch her breath. Strangely, the wall felt thin and hollow, unlike the thick metal that normally lined the halls. She backed away and looked at the dimly illuminated wall more carefully. That’s when she realized these were not walls at all. These were lockers.
Harrison, she thought. I’ve made it.
She smiled again.
By the time she made it to Greyson’s classroom, she began to have doubts that he would even be there. She pushed the door open, wondering if this whole adventure was for naught. All the lights were off on the inside. Not even the emergency LEDs lit up the room. Iris knew she could not just rely on her sense of touch to search this time. She pulled out her pod again, powered it on and waved it in the air. The glowing screen did not manage to light up much. She could barely see beyond her own reach.
