by Ryan Kinzy
“Hold on,” Lauren said, running back to where the man was. She waved her arm in front of him.
No response.
Lauren ran to catch up with her sister.
“Wow, it really does work!” Julia said.
The two kept looking for the hidden port.
“It should be right …” Lauren said, walking around a corner.
As soon as they rounded the corner, they stood face to face with a group of Zebs walking down the hall. Lauren and Julia stopped, staring at the group—neither breathed.
The group didn’t notice the two and walked right past them and through the dock door.
Lauren grabbed her sister’s hand and dragged her through the door.
The dock was bustling with activity. A mid-sized ship sat on the dock. Several Zebs were loading boxes full of supplies into the ship.
Lauren whispered to her sister, “That must be it. Let’s find a way in.”
The two circled the ship. On the far side, they found an open door and boarded. There were boxes of supplies all over the ship.
“Over here,” Lauren said, pointing to a stack of boxes. Behind the boxes, there was enough space for the two of them to sit and peer out a window.
They sat for a few more minutes while the Zebs loaded the last of the supplies and waited for the ship to take off.
Chapter 22
Going into the Belly of the Beast
Two Zebs boarded the supply ship when it was finally loaded. They got into the cockpit and turned on the engines, then guided the ship out of the dock.
“I’m scared,” Julia said to her sister.
Lauren just looked at her, thinking the same. She poised herself, saying, “We’ll be OK.”
The two sat in their hiding place aboard the Zeb transport ship. The ship was much larger than Ankit and Raja’s ship. The girls just stared out their small circular portals into space. Lauren could see New Cielo getting smaller and smaller as the ship sped away.
Julia could see the Gr-awl-toltz in the distance getting larger and larger. She closed her eyes and shuddered. She patted her fanny pack, thinking of their plan. She had no idea if it would work, but it was the only chance they had to save their dad. So far, things were going as expected.
The supply ship accelerated as it closed in on the Gr-awl-toltz. The Gr-awl-toltz was enormous. There were tentacles spreading out from the center of the creature, which curved as the Gr-awl-toltz spun, making it look like a miniature galaxy.
The ship approached the belly of the monster. They felt a twinge of static in their brains, like a faint hum in the back of their thoughts. Lauren shook her head.
“I’m not sure this was a good idea,” Julia said to her sister, cupping her hands over her ears. But it didn’t help—the hum persisted.
Triangular-shaped flaps of the exoskeleton curled back like a mouth exposing the inside. The Zeb pilot guided the ship into the gaping hole.
As they entered, the flaps rescinded too, sealing them in its belly. Inside, there were thousands of smaller passageways that branched off this enormous cavity. The chamber pulsed like a living, breathing animal. Each of the passageways had a membrane-like flap that would open and close, seemingly at random.
The Zebs navigated their ship deeper into the monster, knowingly choosing each passageway. As they approached, a flap would open, allowing access. Then it would close after they went through it.
A dead calm persisted throughout the passageways, allowing the girls to reflect that they might be slowly riding toward their own execution.
Lauren wondered how the Zebs knew which way to go, as all the passageways looked mostly the same. Further in, the interior walls started flashing from bioluminescence, with pulses of blue, pink, purple, and white shooting through the monster’s flesh.
Lauren’s mind wandered back to the dream she and her sister had shared. It seemed years ago, but in reality it was just a few months back. She vaguely remembered it now, having tried to suppress it as best she could. The walls seemed familiar. She struggled to remember them from the dream. They looked fleshy to the touch. The air looked thick and soupy. The ship glided further into the innards, eventually navigating to a small chamber where a metal landing pad had been constructed. The landing pad connected to a door at one end of the room with a metal grate walkway.
Lauren looked up and glanced around the small dock. The metal doors and walkways were similar to what they had seen at the star gate, so she assumed the Zebs had put them here. Apparently, she thought, it didn’t bother the Gr-awl-toltz too much, because the structures were everywhere.
The ship settled down on the landing pad with a loud clunk. The exterior door opened, exposing them to the damp air. The faint hum invading their thoughts grew louder. The two Zeb pilots got up out of their seats and exited the ship.
A group of Zebs came out of the door, marching down the walkway. The two Zeb pilots spoke to the group, and then they started unloading the supplies onto some small carts.
Lauren and Julia stayed quiet, watching them. The Zebs came and left, carrying boxes.
“There’s no one here now. Let’s get moving,” Lauren said, standing up and walking to the center of the ship.
Julia sat fumbling with her fanny pack. She had opened it to get a snack on the ride and was zipping it shut. When she set her hand down to get up, she noticed a wristband lying on the ground next to her. Immediately, she looked over at Lauren, who was peering out the door of the ship, and saw she wasn’t wearing her wristband.
“Lauren!” Julia whispered, cupping her hands around her mouth.
Lauren waved her off.
Just then, two Zebs were walking up the ramp to get onto the ship and stopped, gawking at Lauren.
“What in the world?” one of the Zebs said.
The other one said, “Grab her!”
Lauren looked down and noticed her wristband was gone. She froze.
Julia didn’t know what to do. She stood staring at her sister with her mouth wide open.
One of the Zebs grabbed Lauren by the arm.
She didn’t struggle. She knew there was nowhere to go. She motioned to her sister to stay hidden.
Lauren plodded along with two Zebs in front and two in back. None of them spoke to her. She just stared ahead with a glum look. Lauren took comfort knowing that her sister was right behind her.
Julia followed the group, keeping enough distance so that the Zebs didn’t suspect she was there.
The door opened, exposing a long hallway that resembled the same hallway they floated through in their horrific dream. The images from her dream raced back to Lauren, causing her to pause before entering the door. For a moment, the hum escalated, almost throbbing, then receded. Stepping aside, Lauren grasped the door frame with one hand and her chest with the other. She whimpered, then stumbled forward a couple steps.
Julia’s vision narrowed as she almost blacked out. She reached over and grasped the rail beside her.
The Zebs behind Lauren stopped abruptly, noticing her reaction. “Keep moving,” one of the Zebs in back said in a low monotone. Then he gently nudged her forward.
Lauren stopped, frowning. “When do I get to see my dad? I know he’s here.”
“Soon enough,” one of the Zebs said. “Let’s keep moving.”
They marched for what seemed like a long time on the winding walkway. The air was still thick and humid, making it difficult to breathe. The air condensed on the girls’ foreheads like beads of sweat. The walls of the hall pulsed and shivered. Every now and then, they heard a low grumbling.
There was a simple elevator at the end of the hall. It wasn’t fully enclosed. The sides were short rails with chain link around the perimeter of the platform. The elevator was attached to a tall metal column that drove the platform up and down. The shaft where the elevator resided was a huge open cavern whose sides pulsed in and out. With every pulse, a quick gust of air blasted on anyone inside.
The platform was just big enou
gh for four Zebs and Lauren. They boarded while Julia looked on. The elevator started inching upward. Lauren’s eyes widened, seeing that her sister was about to be left behind.
Julia ran to the side of the platform and jumped onto an outside ledge, holding firmly to the rail just as the platform shot upward. She lost her footing and hung suspended as the elevator ascended.
Lauren gasped, looking at her sister out of the corner of her eye.
“What’s the problem?” a snaggletoothed Zeb asked, grinning. “Lose your stomach?”
Lauren just glared at him, not saying anything.
Julia regained her footing and stood back up on the outside of the platform.
The sides of the cavern heaved in and out, forcing air up the shaft. With each blast of air, Julia tightened her grip on the railing, making her knuckles turn white.
At the top of the steel column, the elevator stopped abruptly. One of the Zebs flung the cage door open. Lauren and the Zebs got off the elevator, standing in another chamber.
Julia quietly jumped over the side and stood behind them.
The hum buzzing in the girls’ heads escalated again to an almost excruciating level. Directly in front of them, they saw the brain of the Gr-awl-toltz—fleshy, grey, and stinky. The smell was almost unbearable. For a moment, the stench took the girls’ attention off the painful hum.
In the middle of the room, columns of flesh supported the ceiling with a large blob-like membrane in the middle. Flashes of light crackled like lightning over the membrane. As it did, the pain surged. With every pulse, the pain intensified.
Lauren shrieked, “Ahhhhhhh!” She grabbed her temples. Tears trickled down her cheeks.
“Come on,” one Zeb said, grabbing Lauren by the elbow. She ripped her arm from his grasp, stomping forward.
“Dad!” Lauren shouted. Near the membrane blob, their dad stood blindfolded by some sort of visor.
He reached out. “Lauren? Is that you?” The Zeb guarding him shoved him to his knees.
The Zebs pushing Lauren forced her forward, not letting her check on her father. They moved her directly in front of the brain. This close, the Gr-awl-toltz’s power could subdue the barrier from the treatment.
Julia rubbed her forehead, her mouth contorting to fend off the pain. She knew that if she shrieked, she’d give away her position. It became unbearable. Blood trickled out of her nose. She reached up to wipe it, but the pain was too much. She grasped her head and screamed.
“What? What is that?” one of the Zebs said.
“It came from there,” another one said. They gang tackled the spot, landing on Julia, ripping the signature modifier off her arm. She reappeared under the pile, her arms pinned down.
Lauren could feel and sense the Gr-awl-toltz, but it couldn’t control her. It pushed further, probing her mind, trying to dig like a worm pushing through earth. The hum had graduated to a shrieking pain. Lauren looked over at her sister. They had stood her up, holding her by her arms. Blood trickled from her ears, too, as she winced in pain.
Lauren ripped her hand away from the guard who had hold of her and ran over to Julia, jumping on one of the guards with all her weight. They fell to the ground in a ball.
“Julia … now!” Lauren screamed.
Julia plunged her hand into her fanny pack, grabbing the canister. She aimed it at the brain’s membrane and pressed the button on the side of the apparatus.
The familiar foul stench permeated the air. The ooze spewed onto the surface membrane. Almost immediately, the pulsing lights where the ooze touched dimmed. The Zebs holding her released their grip, covering their mouths and noses.
Julia immediately ran closer to the membrane, canvassing the flesh with the canister’s contents. The grip the Gr-awl-toltz had on the Zebs started to fade. Julia ran around the perimeter of the brain, holding the canister out, eventually tossing it as high as she could onto the blob.
Lauren ran to help her dad. She ripped off the visor. Her dad looked at her, surprised.
“Dad? Are you OK?” she asked.
Stunned, he just looked at her, not saying anything for a moment. Then he came to. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
Julia sprinted over to them. “Come on!” She didn’t stop, running past them toward the elevator.
Lauren helped her dad scramble to his feet, and they hobbled after Julia. The great monster rumbled with an enormous tremor. The floor heaved up to the ceiling, almost flattening them.
The elevator creaked and groaned under the stress. Julia opened the elevator, waiting for her sister and father, waving them on and peering between the flaps of flesh that formed the floor and ceiling.
“Come on! We have to get out of here!” she yelled.
The monster relaxed for a moment, which returned the cavity back to normal and gave Lauren and her dad just enough time to get to the elevator.
The pressure from the tremor bent the elevator shaft. The metal creaked and groaned as it flexed.
“I’m not sure it will work,” Julia said, pressing a down symbol.
The elevator moved down slowly, rubbing metal on metal and screeching all the way down. Julia’s teeth tingled, almost as if someone had run their fingernails down an old-fashioned chalkboard.
The elevator started and stopped, finally coming to rest at the bottom of the shaft. They stepped out into the first hall where they’d started. The Gr-awl-toltz heaved again. This time the elevator shaft crashed behind them, sending a shockwave down the metal walkway and hurling the three in the air.
The girls crashed on the walkway, bouncing and then settling down on the twisted steel. Their dad wasn’t so lucky. The fatigued steel finally snapped, exposing serrated edges. The exposed steel sliced deep into their dad’s leg when he fell back to the floor.
“Ugh,” Lauren and Julia looked back to see their dad suspended in the air with his leg caught on the jutting steel. Blood dripped down onto the steel grate.
A low bellow erupted from the monster, almost seeming like a laugh.
“Dad!” Lauren shrieked, jumping up to help him, ignoring the gash on her own head.
Julia jumped up. On seeing the exposed wound, she dry heaved, “Blah … blah.” She turned to hide her horror.
“Argh,” their dad said, grabbing his leg with one hand. He reached up, finding a stray metal rail, then tugged as hard as he could. The metal dagger slid several inches out of his leg, covered in blood and leaving bits of skin.
Gritting his teeth, he said, “Keep going.” He pulled off a belt from his clothes and buckled it around his leg as quickly as he could.
Lauren put his arm around her shoulders, helping him hobble to the end of the hall. The door had been tossed aside by the upheaval.
The walkway to the ship had been upturned, but luckily the ship was still in one piece. The squishy floor of the landing cavity slowed them down, but they made it out to the ship without too much more trouble. Once there, they climbed in.
“What now?” their dad asked, gritting his teeth and holding his leg.
“Get in. Fasten your seatbelt, Dad,” Lauren commanded.
“You … know … how?” he tried to get out.
“Relax, we got it covered,” Julia cut him off.
“OK.” Lauren looked around the cockpit. She slid her hand over the left panel on the dashboard. The engines fired with a low roar but didn’t start. She tried again, but it didn’t start. All of a sudden the Gr-awl-toltz collapsed the chamber, squashing the ship against the floor and ceiling. It relented for a moment. Lauren tried starting the engines again. This time the low roar crescendoed, growing louder. She grabbed the joystick with her left hand. The ship immediately responded, hovering above the ground.
The Gr-awl-toltz heaved again, forcing the ship to bump the ceiling. As Lauren struggled to gain control, the ship weaved and bobbed through the tunnels. The pulsing lights of the walls almost blinded them as she guided the ship out of the maze, eventually entering the enormous chamber they thought was
the stomach.
“Sealed shut,” Lauren said, looking out the window and circling the exit.
“No problem,” Julia said, smiling now that it was her turn. “I knew the target practice on the asteroids would come in useful!”
With a flick of a switch, Julia armed the weapons. The powering up of what she could only assume was a capacitor hummed loudly over the sound of the engines.
Lauren banked the ship around and flew directly toward the center of the mouth.
“Fire!” she shouted.
Julia pulled the trigger, releasing an energy blast from the front of the ship. The pulse exploded a hole in one of the flaps big enough for the ship to escape. Bits and pieces of the shell splattered everywhere, some onto the window of the ship.
Lauren threaded the ship through the hole and out into space. Outside, she kicked in the thrusters, accelerating away from the Gr-awl-toltz.
They looked back to see the tentacles flaying in space. Its mouth gaped open now, as if it were trying to swallow them.
Minutes later, with the monster safely behind them, Lauren slowed the ship down.
She looked back at her dad. “How are you doing?”
Their dad coughed, clasping his leg. “Not so well, kiddos.”
Julia looked back to look, too. Her eyes widened when she saw the gash in her dad’s leg. “Lauren, hurry, we need to get him back!”
Lauren accelerated considerably, leaving the Gr-awl-toltz far behind. Soon they couldn’t see the monster behind them anymore. As they approached Cielo Prime, the vast field of farms and other satellite stations appeared. Lauren backed off the accelerator so she could navigate through the farms.
Julia looked back again. Their dad was shivering, still holding his leg.
“Lauren, hurry,” Julia said with a slight quiver in her voice.
“I’m going as fast as I can!” Lauren growled.
Lauren weaved in and out of the farms.
She headed towards their apartment building and tapped the map pad when she got close.
The window displayed a couple icons on the station, highlighting where the hidden docks were.
