Nathan touched her arm, but she pushed him away. "Listen to yourself, Shane," Nathan said gently. "Don't you go on me. We can't all get weirded out here."
In the distance, someone was screaming. The faint, haunting cry echoed off the rocks and rose into the night.
"We've got to hold it together, Shane," Nathan pleaded. His voice trembled. "Just a little longer. At least until we get the uplink prom back to the ship."
The cry was louder now. It seemed closer, as if it would soon surround them.
"You hear that?" Nathan whispered.
"Hear what?" Shane asked.
"The cry. Can't you hear that cry?"
"Of course I hear the cry. That's all I hear. Cries and moans. They're coming from everywhere. Darkness. Darkness. Bodies dying in the darkness. Unable to find their way. Dying. Always dying."
Nathan peered into the shadows, searching for the source. "Can't you hear that girl cry? Listen. She's in pain. She needs me."
"There must be a hundred Marines out there in dark," Shane said. "They all need you. They're all crying."
Nathan took several steps away from the group and listened to the night. "She's close," he whispered. "She's real close to me. Can't you hear her calling me? Can't you hear that she needs me?"
He began moving away into the thick gray mist, away from the corpse, and the minefield, and the ship. Behind him, Shane was calling his name. "West? West? Where are you, West?"
But he didn't answer. Suddenly, all he knew was that he had to find the girl and lead her out of her pain.
"Kylen?" he whispered. "Are you there, Kylen?" It was coming back to Nathan now. They had joined the Marines together so that they would never be apart. They were going to get married, but she had been sent away. They had sent her to a new colony, and he had not been allowed to go.
Kylen. The colonists had been attacked, and she had never been found.
But she was alive. He was sure of that. And now she was calling him.
"Kylen?"
They were all calling him now. Shane, and Cooper, and Wang.
Nathan switched on his flashlight and shone it on a rock wall. Then slowly, carefully, he moved the beam along the stone. Back and forth, from crevice to crevice, until it settled on a deep, black opening.
Something was in there. Kylen? He moved closer and knelt down as the light picked up a visor.
"Hello?" he whispered. The visor was attached to a helmet.
"Hello?" he said again. An old Marine sergeant was lying there. His left eye was white. All white. And his skin was scarred with wounds that had not healed properly.
The old Marine stared up at Nathan.
"I'm Nathan West. I'm with the 58th Squadron. We're on a resupply mission."
Far away, the girl was crying and pleading with him to find her.
"Kylen?" Nathan called back. "Are you out there, Kylen?"
When she didn't answer, he turned back to the old man. "Do you hear that voice?"
"I hear a lot of voices."
"Can you tell me? Do you know what's going on here?"
A strange smile passed over the sergeant's lips. "You shouldn't have to ask," he said softly. "You've been here before. Anytime you awake in the darkness in a cold sweat, it means you were here moments before."
"What do you mean?" asked Nathan.
"Fear," the old man whispered. "Your fear. My fear. I'm not me anymore. The light took me away. The light is the enemy. Darkness is its ally, so there is no escape. There are ten thousand battlefields on this place. I've lost the battle. I've lost the war. And you'll lose too," he added.
Nathan turned away. The voice was calling him again.
"Listen. Can't you hear her?"
"I hear her," the old man said. "I always hear her. She keeps calling my name, over and over."
Nathan crept closer. "Do you know her?" he whispered.
"Of course I know her."
"Tell me her name if you know her," cried Nathan.
"It doesn't matter. She is lost to us. We are caught here. Forever and ever. We will never find her."
"Tell me where you've seen her," cried Nathan. "Tell me if she's alive!"
"Yes. No. It doesn't matter. We are caught here. We will never get out. So it doesn't matter."
"But it does matter!" Nathan shouted. "It's the only thing that matters. Why can't you see that?"
When he turned back, the old man was gone. Nathan ran his light along the crevice, but the sergeant had disappeared.
He spun around at the sound of footsteps. He pointed his light. Shane, Cooper, and Wang were standing there, watching him nervously.
"We almost lost you in this ground cover," Shane was saying.
Nathan moved into the crevice, searching frantically.
"Nathan, what are you doing?" Shane cried.
"There was a sergeant in here. He was talking about those flashes of light. He said something about fear. He said he knew Kylen. He's seen her. He said so. He hears her voice calling just like I do."
Nathan moved deeper into the crevice and disappeared.
"I can't see, Nathan," Shane called. "I can't see anything. It's too dark! Too dark!" She pulled out a flashlight and aimed it at the darkness.
Nathan heard her call, but he didn't answer. He was in a tunnel now. Somewhere in front of him water was dripping.
"There's an airlock door! Maybe he's in there!" he shouted.
He waited for them to catch up. When they were behind him, he pointed his light straight ahead. An airlock door was directly in front of them. Nathan pushed it open.
"Looks like it leads to a bunker!" he called over his shoulder.
"What's he doing?" Shane said.
"Don't know," said Cooper. "But I ain't goin' in there! It's too cramped. No space."
"Too dark," Shane whispered. "Much too dark." They huddled by the door together.
"Come in!" Nathan shouted. "Now!"
"I'm not going in there, West!" Cooper called. "Nothing will make me go into that tiny space!"
"It's not tiny!"
"We have to go in there," whispered Shane. "Even if it's dark. Even if it's small. We have to make ourselves do it, or we're doomed."
"Is that an order, Vansen?" asked Cooper.
"That's an order, Hawkes. But I'm right behind you."
Chapter Seven
They moved through the tunnel single file, and an eerie red haze swirled about them. When they reached the airlock door, they entered the bunker cautiously.
There were dead Marines everywhere.
Cooper knelt down and examined each one of the bodies. "Rotten Chigs!" he muttered.
"These guys were not killed by Chigs," Shane said.
"You sure?" Cooper asked.
Wang answered him. He was kneeling beside a dead body.
"This is an M-590 impact wound. Point-blank range. And this one..." Wang indicated the body of a young lieutenant, "this one died from multiple stab wounds."
He rose, shook his head, and took in the scene around him. "They're killing each other. Look. That guy over there must have done it. The K-bar's still in his hand."
Gently, he touched the dead hand. Then he turned and jumped backward. "He's got the same burns that..." He hesitated.
"Say it, Wang!" Shane said. "The same burns that we all have."
"I don't mean anything by it," Wang whispered. "I'm just saying."
Everyone knew what he was saying. They were all beginning to understand now. The light from the mine had burned this lieutenant, and it had burned them, too. The lieutenant had gone crazy, and they knew that they were acting strangely, too.
They knew. They understood. Would that save them?
Nathan spoke. "All right. We've all been exposed to the light. It's changing us in some weird way. And the sooner we accept it, the sooner we can deal with the real issue of not giving in to the effects."
The sad howling of the wind interrupted him. He dropped to his knees, sat back on his heels for a few seconds,
and closed his eyes.
"We must not end up like them," he said when the sound of the wind had faded away.
"We got the burns from those lights. We all know that," said Shane.
"And that's when Damphousse started wiggin' out," Nathan reminded her.
"And Wang," Cooper said. "Don't forget Wang." Wang rose and faced Cooper. His face was tense with fear and anger.
"You weren't exactly displaying nerves of steel, either," he snapped.
Then he took a breath. "Wait a minute. We all had headaches, remember?" He touched a spot behind his ear. "That's where the amygdala area is."
They didn't understand. "It's a collection of neurons that houses fear memories," he explained. "Injections to that area decreased post-traumatic stress in AI war veterans."
AIs were Artificial Intelligence beings. They looked and acted like humans, but they were really computers. Humans had created them to be their slaves, but something had gone wrong, and the AIs had taken on lives of their own. They had risen up and rebelled. Now they were at war with Earth.
"I heard an electronic pop before the light flashed," Wang said. "Like a bomb. What if the Chigs have a weapon that affects the area of the human brain that houses fear? What if our fears become so terrifying that we can't act?"
"The old sergeant in the cave mentioned fear," Nathan whispered. "What was it he said? 'Anytime you awake in the darkness in a cold sweat, it means you were here before.' Something like that."
"The light... this planet... makes your fear return..." Wang whispered.
"An electronic nerve gas that causes us to turn on each other?" asked Shane. "Can you imagine a large scale weapon like that used on Earth?"
The thought silenced them. They huddled together, considering it, until Cooper broke the silence.
"The Chigs must know fear," he whispered.
"Right," Nathan said. "They must know the power of their weapon. Or they couldn't have thought of such a thing in the first place."
"The Chigs must know us well," said Cooper.
"If the pain in that area of our brain has decreased, then maybe it will wear off," said Nathan.
"That's right. You've already forgotten what that crazy old man said about Kylen." Cooper laughed.
Hatred clouded Nathan's eyes.
"That old man isn't crazy!" he shouted. "You're crazy! Didn't you hear what he said? He's seen Kylen!"
"It's all right, man," Cooper whispered. "Calm down. Everybody's hearing voices around here."
Nathan grabbed Cooper's sleeve.
"He has seen her," he said. His words were slow and deliberate. "She is alive. Never forget that!"
Chapter Eight
"Stop this," Wang said. "Both of you! We were talking about the weapon. You might be right about the pain decreasing. But what if our resistance is weakened too? If we were hit again, then our fears would grow stronger, wouldn't—"
The sound of distant Marine gunfire interrupted him.
The four lieutenants huddled in the middle of the bunker.
"Hello," called a voice through the fog.
"Identify yourself," Nathan called.
"Jason Brown." The voice came from deep inside the swirling fog. It was a small, high-pitched voice—a child's voice.
"Are you a friend?" Shane asked.
"Yes. A friend." Then the voice faltered. "No! Stop that humming!"
Nathan peered through the fog. "No one's humming," he called.
"I hear you humming. Always humming. I can't stand the humming." The voice grew even more childlike. "Please stop the humming, Mother."
"Come closer, Brown," Shane called.
The man broke through the fog and stood before them.
"It's the guy who was shooting at us," Cooper whispered. "I thought he got torn to shreds by the light!"
They all recognized him then and raised their weapons. But he didn't seem dangerous anymore. Far from it.
"Please, Mother," he said in that childlike voice. "If you would just stop humming. If you hum they'll find you, Mother."
Shane gently touched his arm. "Who will find me, Jason?" she asked.
"The Chigs will. They've come for us, Mother. They have bombs. They have weapons. If you stop humming, they won't throw the bomb, Mother. No, wait, get out! We have to get out of here. They're coming in. Quickly. Follow me."
Raving, the Marine grabbed Shane's arm and pulled her toward a break in the bunker wall.
"It's all right, Jason," Shane whispered. "Let me go. I'll be all right."
But he wouldn't let her go. He raised his weapon and pointed it at her. Then he dragged her deep into the shadows.
Nathan, Wang, and Cooper stood and followed.
"Go away, Chigs," he called. "Don't hum, Mother. If you're very quiet, they'll go away."
He fired once, scattering the Marines. When they were well hidden, they looked out and saw the butt of his rifle, waiting for them.
"Go away!" Shane called.
They did not move. They knew what she was doing. She was going along with Jason, pretending that her friends were Chigs, not Marines. Once she got rid of them, chances were he'd set her free.
She was his mother. He wouldn't hurt his mother. Would he?
They stayed where they were for a long, long time, until Shane had convinced Brown that the Chigs were gone. When he finally let her go, the others grabbed her and helped her from the bunker.
"What was that all about?" Nathan asked when they were outside.
"He's gone all the way back," she said. "It's as if he's trapped inside his deepest fear. The Chigs must have bombed his house while his mother was in it, and now he's back there. He's a small boy again." She looked shaken.
"That's not going to happen to me!" Cooper cried suddenly. "Never! That will never happen to me! I am never going back there!"
"Speaking of going back," Nathan said. "We'd better get this part back to Damphousse or we'll never get out of here."
"We can't," Shane said.
"Why not?"
"Because the Chigs have planted mines everywhere, and we have to pass over them, or around them, to get back to the ship. If we aren't careful, we'll step on one of them and the light will come up and hit us. And maybe if they hit you enough, it happens. You relive some awful, fearful experience. You become it, just like Brown did."
"But we have to go back," Nathan said. "We have to fix the radio!"
They looked at each other then and saw that they were all terrified. But Nathan was right. There was no other choice.
"If we are hit," Shane said, "we must get each other through. The only way to fight fear is to acknowledge it."
"Remember," said Wang, "it's the light that's changing us. The light is turning us against each other. But we're a team. We've got to remember that, no matter what happens."
Chapter Nine
They didn't speak as they made their way back through the tunnel and out into the night. They tiptoed through the minefield, picking their way through the fog that swirled around their feet, inching toward their ship.
They were almost there when the beam of light shot out of the ground.
"What the—?" Shane cried, jumping back and spinning around.
"A mine!" Wang shouted.
Shane moved sideways and found Cooper and the others. "Who's on it?" she cried.
"It's you, Shane," Wang whispered. "Don't move. Do you have a mirror?"
"To fix my hair before I shred to pieces, Wang? Why would I want a mirror now?"
Nathan moved closer to Shane and tried to calm her. "We can deflect the beam of light, Shane," he said gently. "We can move the light so that it's not on you."
"My left thigh pocket."
Wang reached into her pocket, pulled out the mirror and crouched down. He moved the mirror to a 180 degree angle, changed his mind, moved it to another angle, and groaned.
"What are you doing?"
Wang moved the mirror around the beam of light. "I'm trying to find the right angle,
" he explained. "If the mirror's at a right angle, it sends the beam down, not up. Right?"
"How should I know?" asked Shane, her voice small and shaky. "Aren't you through yet? Please. It's getting darker. "
"Shane," Nathan said. "Stay with us. You need to be here. When Paul says 'Now,' you go. Okay?"
"Okay."
Below her, Wang was bending closer to the mine at her feet. He moved the mirror into position, his hand shaking. Closer. Closer. Until the mirror was almost on top of the mine.
Then, suddenly, he stopped, tensed, and began to scream. "Get it outta there! Get it out!"
"What is it?" shouted Nathan.
"Cockroach! Inside my helmet! Get it out! Get it out, please!"
Nathan grabbed the mirror from Wang and positioned it. When it was over the mine, he looked up at Shane.
"Go!" he cried.
Shane took a step away from the mine and turned toward the ship. As if the mines were linked together in some strange way, lights began shooting up everywhere. Blinding lights of X-ray intensity hit them no matter where they moved.
Nathan was the only one who managed to dodge the lights. They found Shane and brought her down and seconds later hit the others.
"Get back to the ship!" Nathan shouted.
Shane scrambled to her feet and began to run, hard. Sweat streamed down her face, and her eyes were wild with terror as she raced toward the ship. The others stayed with her, managing, somehow, to avoid the other mines until they reached the ship and pushed through the outer airlock door.
But at the last moment, Nathan wavered. That unseen girl's strange cry stopped him—and kept him outside.
"Get in here, Nathan!" Cooper shouted, dragging him into the ship.
"Let me go!" Nathan protested. "I've gotta go back out there! I've gotta help her!"
But Cooper was too fast for him. He slammed the outer door. An instant later he started to tremble. The space between the outer and inner doors was tiny. Suffocatingly tiny. He swung around and glared at Nathan.
"Shut up, West!" he shouted. "Just shut up."
Shane was at the inner door now, but she couldn't open it. It was locked from the inside. She pounded for a long time, and then she began to shout.
Space Above and Beyond - #4 The Enemy - Dina Anastasio Page 3
