“Twenty-five too?”
She shrugged and held up her hands to show all her fingers.
“Thirty-five?”
She nodded.
“It must have been from going in the water,” Bruke said, his voice lifting in pitch, his words coming out faster than before. “I reckon we should give it five more minutes at the most and head out of here back to that tank. We can’t help Sparks if we’re dead from radiation poisoning.”
As much as Seb didn’t want to agree with Bruke, he nodded. “You’re right. Let’s pick up the pace, then.”
CHAPTER 68
They moved at a fast march and Seb stared into the river. “I wonder what happened to the parasites in those monsters we killed?” His voice rang through the damp tunnel.
“I don’t know,” Bruke said, “but if they want to stay away, I’m okay with that. I’d rather not …” He stopped still.
The crack in the ceiling gave them enough light to guide their way, but Seb had to walk an extra few steps to realise exactly why his friend had halted. The stillness of the place forced him to speak in a whisper. “Good job we didn’t turn back.”
SA stepped up beside them, her sharp eyes scanning the vast open cave in front of them.
“You think this is it?” Bruke said, his voice also low.
They’d come to a massive underground lake. So large, Seb could only just see the other side of it despite the light coming in from above. He had to squint as he scanned the walls opposite them. When he saw it, he pointed across for Bruke and SA. “I’d say so.”
Although Bruke kept his voice low, his clear panic drove it a bit louder when he said, “That’s the queen?”
A grub the size of a cow huddled in a dark corner. Were it not waxy and white, they probably wouldn’t have seen it. It looked pregnant like the last one, and pulsated with a writhing mass of fat little grubs inside it. A chill twisted through Seb. “I reckon so.”
“But how will we cross the lake?”
Other than the sound of the river running into the larger body of water, Seb heard nothing else. So when the sharp static hiss of his radio went off before he could reply to Bruke, his stomach sank. The sound rang out like an explosion and echoed through the huge cave. Not anyone trying to get in contact with them, just a crackle from where Seb had left it on. The water might have been damn near glowing with radiation, but it clearly hadn’t killed the radio when it had been submerged in it.
Seb’s pulse trebled as the three of them stood at the edge of the lake in silence, frozen as they stared out at the grub on the other side.
“Maybe the grub is the only thing down here,” Bruke said.
Before Seb could respond, the crash of breaking water erupted in front of them and a massive pink creature leapt into the air. The largest of the beasts he’d seen so far, he stumbled backwards as his world returned to slow motion.
CHAPTER 69
Just one of the creatures—even one of the largest ones Seb had seen—would have been easy to deal with. But straight after the first one burst from the water, several more of the fat pink beasts followed it. All of them leapt into the air as if catapulted towards them.
Seb, SA, and Bruke stood on a large outcropping of rock. Large enough to give them the room to step back a pace as the first of the beasts landed in front of them, shaking the ground it slammed down on.
A trumpeting roar that blew Seb back a step, and the frenzied thing rushed forward.
The outcropping had seemed large until they hit the wall behind them.
Several more of the beasts followed the first in bellyflopping onto the piece of rock with wet slaps. Each one ran a hard shock through the soles of Seb’s feet.
Before the lead creature got any closer, they opened fire.
They looked good for it at first, taking down the large brute at the front with a shot to the head. Blue mist, it fell limp on the ground, but the others slid over the top of it as if it didn’t exist, pushing it back behind them into the toxic lake.
A wall of red eyes, a wave of trumpeting fury, and the sloshing of their fat bellies sliding over the wet rock. They could overwhelm them at any second.
But Seb, SA, and Bruke took the next wave down. The gun shook in Seb’s hands and he turned his focus to the ones behind the second wave. They burst from the water as if they would never end. More than the previous rush. Maybe too many.
Splash after splash of water broke the surface behind the front line of creatures. They took several down and twice the amount replaced them. They all slammed onto the hard rock, sending an earthquake through the ground.
Maybe Seb heard the crack of the rock splitting beneath his feet and maybe he didn’t. However, if it sheared off, it would drag them into the water and they wouldn’t come out again. He would sink like a rock and the other two didn’t have the beating of the monsters in the lake. On land, they had the slimmest of chances. In the water, they had none. Not that they currently had any other options but to stand there and fight at that moment.
Seb’s arms ached to hold his gun in place. It bucked and shook in his grip and turned the air green with laser fire. Many of his shots did little but hit the hard skin of the beasts in front of them. Every once in a while, he hit their weak spot and dropped them.
The clunk of Seb’s gun jammed in his hands. When he looked down and saw the red light glowing from where it had overheated, his shoulders slumped.
A second later, Bruke’s gun stopped too.
The pair looked at one another while SA continued to nail the beasts. Every one of her shots scored a direct hit, but even with her accuracy she couldn’t do it all on her own.
The splashing from the creatures continued to burst through the cave as they came forward in another rush. The thuds of the beasts continued to land on the rock. The crack of the rock beneath their feet continued to groan like thawing ice. Seb definitely hadn’t imagined it.
Where Seb had seen fear in Bruke’s wide brown eyes, they now narrowed. After hurling his gun at the closest beast, Bruke lost his head.
A roar to rival the one their enemy directed at them, Bruke turned into the creature Seb had seen when they’d fought the Crimson soldiers. He went supersonic, his arms moving in a chaotic swirl as he took the fight to their enemy.
As with his blaster fire, what Bruke lacked in accuracy, he made up for with frequency. Enough punches and kicks that some of them inevitably had to land. Several creatures fell beneath Bruke’s heavy attack. SA took the others down. It forced the wave back.
While the other two fought their enemy, Seb looked down at the reading on his visor. It said ‘20m’.
They didn’t have time to discuss anything now. Seb took SA’s gun from her. At first, she held onto it and pulled it back. A dark glare, and for a moment, she looked like she could turn it on him.
“Trust me,” Seb said. “Please?”
SA relaxed and handed the gun over.
The blasters were much more resilient than the automatic rifles, but when Seb looked down at the gauge on the top, it had a burnt orange glow to it. He looked at SA again. “How many shots do you think it has left?”
She held up one finger.
“Really?”
She nodded.
“Great!”
Bruke continued to drive the monsters back on his own. Those at the rear of the pack were forced to return to the lake.
Although Bruke had the advantage, when Seb looked across the large body of water, he saw the blue surface had turned pink with the sheer weight of beasts just beneath it. It didn’t matter how well Bruke fought, they’d be overwhelmed soon enough.
One shot. Seb raised SA’s blaster and pointed it across the cave. One shot to decide whether they lived or died. Whether Sparks lived or died.
A deep breath to settle his overworked heart and Seb closed one eye. It didn’t matter how long he stared at the queen for, the shot wouldn’t feel any easier. Despite SA having the best aim, he had to take the chance. Almost im
possible odds, he couldn’t put that on her shoulders.
Seb pulled the trigger, the gun kicking in his grip as he loosed a green bolt from it.
As the laser shot flew through the air, Seb tested the gun by squeezing its trigger again. SA had been correct. No shots left. He dropped the weapon on the ground. By the time it had cooled down, their fate would have been sealed.
Most of Seb’s attention followed the green shot across the cave. However, he also noticed Bruke being forced back as the pink creatures started to gain an advantage. Not that the creatures mattered anymore. The shot would either be true or it wouldn’t. That would decide everything.
And it did decide everything.
It missed.
CHAPTER 70
Seb’s entire world crumbled around him as he watched splinters of rock burst away from where he’d shot. He’d missed by a good few metres. He nearly vomited. They were done for. Stuck in a cave, surrounded by hideous walrus-like creatures, and about to die in one of many ways. Drowning, mauling, radiation poisoning—what did it matter? They were screwed.
A look at SA and Seb saw her face limp behind her visor. He’d let everyone down, and as much as he would have liked to fast-forward to their end, he’d have to live every painful beat of it, his world still dragging along in slow motion.
A pop and crack ran through the rock platform. Seb jumped in anticipation of the ledge giving way. He looked down as if simply staring at the rock outcropping would somehow make everything better. Much more weight on it and they’d be in the toxic river. Minutes of radiation protection left and he’d see it out at the bottom of the water. If the beasts even allowed him that. Maybe they’d tear him to pieces before he hit the bottom. Or worse, they’d rip a leak in his suit and he would slowly drown, doing a strange handstand on the bed of the lake as his metal fists pinned him to the ground.
Bruke continued to fight against the creatures. He’d gained the advantage again, driving them back once more as the fat-bodied brutes slipped into the water. SA moved next to him. Were she able to open her suit, Seb had no doubt that she would have battled with her knives. But the radiation would get to her, so she used her fists, matching Bruke blow for blow.
When he heard another crack, Seb jumped again. But he hadn’t felt it through his feet. Another look down at the rock. The darkness of their surroundings made it difficult to see where the cracks had formed. Although the two deep snaps told him he should be able to see them by now.
The third crack snapped like a whip. It definitely didn’t come through the ground. He looked across the lake. Right there, next to the fat pulsating queen, sat the scorch mark from where he’d shot the blaster. Tendrils of cracks stretched away from the blackened point of impact. They grew as he watched them, lurching off from the centre.
Seb stepped back a pace while the other two fought the beasts. He kept his eyes on the rocks above the queen.
Before his back hit the wall, the ceiling above the queen collapsed. A heavy shower of large rocks landed on top of her.
The battle in front of him halted as the queen popped like a water balloon. Clear liquid burst away from her in a thick spray of pus. Thankfully Seb couldn’t smell it. The sight alone snapped his stomach tense.
The pink beast closest to them looked at Bruke and SA. They both kept their fists raised, but they didn’t attack it. It shook its head and its red eyes suddenly turned yellow. It stared in curiosity at the two before it looked past them at Seb.
The creature’s cheeks then bulged and it vomited in front of them. A thick grub fell from its mouth and landed on the rock outcropping. Dead. Limp.
When the pink beast looked up again, all of its rage had left it. Passive inquiry stared at them now rather than fury and the desire to destroy.
A ripple effect ran away from the first creature, the other pink beasts all vomiting at different times. Dead and limp grubs landed on the ground and fell into the water. The ones Seb could see all looked the same. They glistened with the bile of the pink creatures.
One by one, the pink beasts looked over at Seb and the others with yellow serenity.
Seb felt both SA and Bruke look at him as he watched the creatures. A glance at one and then the other before he shrugged. “I’m guessing we got the queen, then?”
Before either answered him, Seb looked down at the reading on his screen. When he saw the timer, he gasped, the sound of it echoing through his helmet. “We have ten minutes to get out of here.”
Although Seb and the others tried to step forward, the creatures moved across to block their way. The calm and inquisitive stares now looked more resolute and assertive. They weren’t moving. Seb and the other two had killed many of their kin. They might have been naturally passive, but the looks on their faces suggested they wanted retribution.
CHAPTER 71
The sound of hundreds of the pink beasts broke the water’s surface one after the other. “All this,” Seb said as he remained where he stood, pinned in by the creatures, “and now they’re going to tear us apart. Don’t they see we’ve freed so many of them?”
Neither SA nor Bruke had time to react to his words before the creatures parted in front of them. Several of the large brutes floated in the water right by the stone ledge.
“What are they doing?” Bruke said.
Seb could only shake his head as he looked at the bobbing beasts. They were lined up as ships would in a dock. “I don’t know. They don’t look like they want to attack us.”
When Seb tried to walk away from the lake in the direction of the path alongside the river, one of the pink-skinned brutes blocked his way.
“But they don’t want to let us go either,” Bruke said.
It took for SA to walk forward for Seb to see their intention. As she headed in the direction of the creatures in the water, the ones on land gave her an opening to pass through.
Both Seb and Bruke watched her step onto the back of one of them. It moved forward with her and another one replaced it next to the stone platform.
“They want us to ride on them?” Bruke said.
“It would seem so.”
“You think we should?”
“SA does, and that’s good enough for me.” Seb walked to the lakeside and stepped onto the back of another one of the creatures. It shifted forwards a few metres so another could come in behind for Bruke.
The creatures had long enough necks for them to raise their heads from the water. SA gripped around it, so Seb and Bruke copied her.
The second Bruke—as the last one to do it—held on, the creatures took off up the river.
Because of the tight river and their large bodies, the creatures moved in single file back the way the three friends had come from. They moved so fast, the sides of Seb’s containment suit flapped in his ears and he had to grip on hard. If he lost his concentration, he’d be at the bottom of the river in seconds, and his radiation protection would run out.
The journey would have taken most of their ten minutes had they done it on foot. When they jumped off the creatures at the end of the river, Seb looked at his visor. He had eight minutes left.
Before they could leave, each creature dropped their head and nuzzled their passenger.
“I think they’re thanking us,” Bruke said with a laugh as his creature nearly knocked him over.
Seb couldn’t help but smile when he tickled his one beneath the chin.
As one, the three beasts trumpeted their thanks at Seb and the others before they disappeared beneath the water and vanished back down towards the underground lake.
Clearly giddy from the experience, Bruke said, “That was amazing.”
But they didn’t have time for that. They could discuss it later. Seven minutes left before Seb’s suit became ineffective. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”
CHAPTER 72
The second Seb got clear of the hole, his radiation reading changed. “It’s doubled my time,” he said. “What about you two?”
“I have forty minutes now,” Bruke said.
“I only have fifteen,” Seb replied. “What about you, SA?”
SA held both hands up to show ten, closed her hands and opened them again.
“Twenty minutes?” Seb said.
She nodded.
He had been in the water longer than her. “Well, even fifteen should be enough. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
The blue and red bracken and tumour trees took on a different meaning now Seb had seen what fed them. No doubt poison ran through the forest like it did the river beneath it. It seemed okay for the pink creatures, but the thing that sustained a lot of the life here appeared to also poison it. He shuddered to think of Moses. An apt comparison.
“I feel bad for the ones we killed,” Bruke said as they moved through the forest at a fast march.
Seb sighed. “Me too.” When he looked at SA, she didn’t give much away. “But we had to. And you know what? If we hadn’t killed them, we wouldn’t have got to the queen down in the lake.”
“That’s true,” Bruke said.
“And think of all the ones we just saved by taking down the queen,” Seb added.
Although SA had led for most of their journey through the woods, Seb overtook her towards the edge and stepped out into the barren desert first.
A second later, SA and Bruke joined him.
The three of them stood there for a second and stared out at the red wasteland. Seb shrugged. “Where the hell’s the tank?”
CHAPTER 73
Eight minutes wouldn’t get them very far in the expansive desert. It would take them hours to walk back to the hangar, and the Shadow Order’s shuttle now existed as a twisted wreck somewhere in Carstic’s wilderness.
“That’s it, then,” Seb said, throwing his hands up in the air before he sat down on the hard ground. “That’s the end of that. After everything we’ve been through, and we now have no way of getting back to the hangar.”
Eradication: A Space Opera: Book Four of The Shadow Order Page 17
