by James Harden
It was a nano-swarm.
The blast doors closed completely, slamming shut.
It was now pitch black.
But we could hear it. The familiar snake hiss of the swarm moving through the air.
Ben grabbed me by the shoulder again and whispered in my ear. “Get in the tank. Now. We need to hide. Don’t make a sound.”
Chapter 13
We carefully and quickly stepped over the bodies of the infected, feeling our way into the armored transport vehicle. Ben slowly and quietly shut the hatch. We knelt inside the tank, in the darkness for a few seconds that felt like a few hours.
We listened for the familiar hissing sound of the nano-swarm. But we couldn’t hear anything.
“Maybe it was a false alarm?” I whispered.
“Maybe. Do you have a torch on your rifle?” Ben asked.
I felt around on the barrel of my rifle, looking, searching for the torch. I was convinced I had one. I hadn’t used it yet. But I was pretty sure there was one attached to the underside of the barrel.
I finally found it. I switched it on and breathed a sigh of relief.
We peered out one of the portal style windows of the tank.
Outside, everything was still and silent.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I think the nano-swarm tripped the proximity alarm. And now it’s inside. Then again, maybe someone at the control center flicked the switch. I just don’t know.”
Suddenly, orange flashing lights lit up the entire hangar. Emergency lights. The calm, soothing, female voice spoke to us again. “Security failsafe has been activated. Purge will commence in three minutes. All personnel must evacuate. Repeat. Security failsafe has been activated. Purge will commence in three minutes. All personnel must evacuate. Repeat…”
“Purge? What the hell is that?” I asked.
“It's a failsafe,” Ben answered.
“What?”
“It’s like a self cleaning oven. A pyrolytic oven. This room will heat up to a thousand degrees. Maybe hotter. Every living thing will burn. Everything will be turned to ashes. It’s a failsafe. A security measure.”
“Purge will commence in three minutes,” the female voice said.
“Oh great,” I said. “What the hell do we do?”
“We have to get to the tunnel.”
“But if there’s a swarm out there we’ll never make it.”
“We’ve got no choice. We stay here. We burn.”
“What about this tank? Can we hide in here? Is it fire proof?”
Ben thought it over. “It might be enough to protect us. But we don’t know how long the purge will last. We don’t know how hot the blast will be. We don’t know how much oxygen we will need.”
We then heard the hissing noise of the swarm. Louder. Closer.
There was a nano-swarm in here all right. It had tripped the proximity alarm and caused the hangar’s blast doors to close, caused the failsafe to commence. It had waited though. It had kept to the shadows. The darkness. It had watched us. It was studying us. Watching and learning. Adapting and evolving. It was hunting.
And now it was ready to strike.
Chapter 14
We continued to hide in the tank from the nano- swarm. But we were running out of time. We had two minutes before the hangar turned into a pyrolytic oven. A self contained inferno that would burn at over a thousand degrees. We could not afford to be stuck inside this tank when that happened.
We would either burn or suffocate.
Or both.
Ben moved back over to the small portal window of the tank so he could watch the nano-swarm. It was currently searching the hangar. It slithered in and around the other vehicles. The Humvees and the choppers. It would circle them and surround them and engulf them. And then it would tear them apart. Flip them over, throw them around like rag dolls from one end of the hangar to the other. And the noise. It was enough to make your skin crawl. It was the noise of metal being twisted and bent and smashed into the concrete.
“Purge will commence in two minutes.”
I turned to Ben. “What the hell do we do? I don’t want to burn. I don’t want to suffocate. Not now. Not yet. I can’t die. Not until I know Maria is safe.”
“I don’t know,” Ben answered. “I don’t have any EMP weapons. No EMP gun. We might just have to run for the tunnel.”
“Wait. I have an EMP grenade.”
I felt for my backpack. But it was no longer over my shoulders. I must’ve dropped it outside the tank when we were attacked by the infected.
“You do?” Ben asked. “Only one?”
“Yeah. We found someone. A scavenger, I think. He was dying. He gave us his last EMP grenade.”
Ben shook his head. “One EMP grenade is not enough to stop the nano-swarm. But it might be enough to slow the swarm down. Give us a few seconds to get through the blast door, get inside the tunnel.”
I looked over to the circular doorway to judge the distance we would have to run. It was almost on the other side of the hangar. We would have to sprint as fast as we could to make it. And then we’d have to get lucky. Hopefully the swarm wouldn’t see us. Hopefully nothing else jumped out of the shadows and attacked us. If anything like that happened, we were dead.
“If we sprint as fast as we can, we should be able to make it,” I said.
But then the doorway began to close. Moving and rotating slowly.
“Oh no,” I whispered.
“What is it?”
“Look. The tunnel, the doorway. It’s starting to close.”
“Purge will commence in one minute, thirty seconds,” the female voice said.
“That’s OK,” Ben said. “The door needs to be closed. If it remained open, the flame, the heat wave would race through the tunnels. We can’t have that.”
Ben was able to remain calm and level headed. He reminded me of Kenji in that regard.
He was still watching the nano-swarm. It had moved over to the Predator drones. The swarm then paused and spread out in front of the drones. Then it seemed to take on its shape, like it was mimicking the design of it.
“Strange,” Ben whispered. “It must’ve seen the drones flying around in the area. It appears to be very interested in them.”
“Maybe it thinks it can mimic its shape,” I said. “Use it as a camouflage technique. Like the car headlights.”
“The what?”
“Back at the outpost,” I said. “We were attacked by a swarm while you were unconscious. It took on the shape of a car. Even had headlights. It was a camouflage technique. So it could sneak up on us.”
Ben shook his head in disbelief. He then moved away from the window. “We have to make a run for it,” he said. “Into the tunnel. The tunnel will lead us to the control center. It’s basically one long subway system.”
“But the swarm? We’ll never make it.”
I remembered how fast they could move. If it saw us and decided to chase, it would catch up to us in no time.
“We don’t have a choice,” Ben said. “We stay here, we die.”
“Purge will commence in one minute.”
The entry to the subway tunnel felt so far away. It was on the other side of the hangar. It was a huge circular doorway. It continued to slowly close. Once that doorway was shut, the purge would commence.
“We go now,” Ben continued. “While the nano-swarm is busy studying the Predator drones. If it attacks us, throw the EMP grenade. That will slow it down. Give us a chance to get away. We can’t let it get inside the tunnel.”
“OK,” I said. “But wait. There’s a problem. The EMP grenade. It’s in my backpack.”
“Where’s your backpack?”
“I’m not sure. I think I dropped it when we were attacked by the infected.”
“Purge will commence in thirty seconds.”
The circular door was almost closed.
We were leaving our run too late.
Ben swore under his breath. �
�This is our only chance,” he said. “We run. If you see the bag, pick it up. Get the EMP grenade ready.”
“Purge will commence in twenty seconds.”
Ben had moved over to the hatch of the tank. It was go time.
I was hesitant. “Wait. What if I don’t find the bag?”
“If you don’t find the bag, keep running.”
“And?”
“And pray.”
He turned the handle, opened the hatch.
“Purge will commence in ten seconds.”
Ben pushed me out of the tank. “Run!”
Chapter 15
We sprinted for the tunnel. I held my breath.
The circular blast door was a huge thing made of steel and concrete. It was almost completely closed. I guess Ben had waited for the last possible moment. Less chance of the nano-swarm following us into the subway tunnel.
As we ran, I saw my backpack. I had dropped it when we had been attacked by the infected. I bent down and scooped it up in one movement and kept running.
We couldn’t see the nano-swarm. But we could hear it. The hissing sound.
It was over in the opposite corner of the hangar somewhere. It was still moving in and around the surveillance drones.
I began fumbling around in my bag to find the EMP grenade. But it was difficult to search for it, feeling for it blindly while sprinting as fast as I possibly could.
In the end we didn’t need the grenade.
We had timed our run to perfection.
Ben made it to the doorway and turned around. “Forget the grenade! Just run!”
I slung the backpack over my shoulders and dived for the tunnel. The doorway slid into place, closing and locking.
It had nearly crushed me.
One of the straps of the backpack was caught. I had to pull it with all my weight to get it free.
But we had made it.
We were in the tunnel. A dark tunnel. We were breathing hard. Ben was coughing and wheezing. I couldn’t see, but it sounded like he was spitting up blood.
“What… what’s stopping that thing from getting in here?” I asked.
“The heat from the purge should be enough to kill it.”
“Should?”
“I’m not really sure. But it can’t get through this door. At least not right away. The door is massive. It’s vacuum sealed. Pressurized. It can't get in here. Not unless it starts eating through the metal.”
“And what's stopping it from doing that?”
“Nothing. But that would take it a long time. You saw how thick the door is. It’s at least six feet thick. Solid steel. It’ll give us a good head start.”
“Great. That's real great. Real reassuring.”
“Not trying to be reassuring. We’ve just bought ourselves some time. And that’s as good as we are ever gonna get. Let's go. We got about a day’s walk.”
“What? A day? How long is this tunnel?
“Not sure. The train that transports passengers back and forth is a bullet train. It travels at about two hundred miles per hour. Sometimes faster. It takes at least fifteen minutes to reach the residential area. Ten minutes to reach the lake.”
“There’s a lake down here?”
“Yeah. This place was designed to survive an extinction level event. Water is essential. There are at least three of these entry points that I know of.”
I still couldn’t believe it. “So there’s a lake down here?” I repeated.
“Yeah. It’s huge. It keeps this place running. There’s a massive bridge that spans across the lake. This place really is a modern wonder. An unbelievable achievement of human engineering and endurance.”
I looked at the train track. It was deep and wide. Heavy duty.
“So how deep does this tunnel go?” I asked.
“Not sure. Miles. Like I said, deep enough to survive an extinction level event. Nuclear. Asteroid. Zombies. Nano-swarms. Whatever.”
Ben was trying to give me the layout of this place but he was struggling to talk. He was breathing heavily.
“Are you all right? Are you going to be able to make it?”
“No choice. We have to walk in. Not sure how we are going to cross the lake. But we’ll deal with that when we get there.”
Ben was a tough son of a bitch, but at that moment he was weak from blood loss and dehydration. The only thing that was keeping him going, was his desire for revenge, and his hatred of the people in charge.
“OK,” I said. “But before we go anywhere, we need to find Maria. The ladder she climbed down has got to be close. Where would that maintenance shaft lead to? It should be around here somewhere.”
“Yeah. It should be right near the entry.”
I switched the torch on my rifle again.
Finally found the door for the maintenance shaft. The sign on the door read:
Authorized engineers only. Emergency access. Door is alarmed.
But something was wrong.
The door was open slightly. Just a crack.
I ran to it.
Opened it.
I should’ve been more careful. There could’ve been anything hiding behind that door, waiting for me. Zombies. Nano-swarms. Crazy bearded soldiers.
I pointed the rifle inside, shone the torch up and down.
It was a narrow maintenance shaft. An emergency exit and entry point. The ladder went straight up.
The maintenance shaft was empty.
Maria was nowhere to be seen.
Chapter 16
I began to panic. Maria was gone. She was supposed to have climbed down this maintenance shaft. This door was supposed to be locked. She was supposed to have waited here.
But she was gone.
To make matters worse, Ben was struggling. He was getting worse. He had dropped to his knees. He looked like he was having a goddamn heart attack. I couldn’t see how bad he was because it was too dark. But he was definitely struggling.
Maria had to be close by, I thought. But where?
“Where is she?” I asked Ben and no one. “Where the hell is she?”
Ben did not respond.
“Where the hell is she?” I repeated. “What the hell is going on?”
I spun around. I looked deeper into the tunnel, into the darkness.
“Keep your voice down,” Ben whispered.
“No. I will not keep my voice down. I don’t care if it’s not safe. I don’t care if infected zombies and nano-swarms hear me and come and eat me. If we don’t have Maria, if she is not alive, it’s all over. Nothing will matter. I won’t matter.”
“You said you were prepared to die for your friends,” Ben said. “Sacrifice yourself. You came here searching for answers.”
“I came here because I wanted to help. And we can help. As long as we have Maria.”
I was getting frantic. I was starting to panic. We had all agreed to keep Maria safe. Above all else. And I had stupidly risked her life by coming here. I had risked everyone’s life by coming here.
And for what?
Maria had disappeared. I should’ve known I wasn’t strong enough to keep her safe. Not in this world. We could barely keep her safe when Kenji and Daniel were protecting us.
Ben was still kneeling a short distance away. Hunched over in pain. He spoke quietly. I could barely hear him. “The Fortress is a refuge from the virus and the infected and the apocalypse. It is self sustainable. It is protected. It is a paradise in a wasteland. But...”
He trailed off and coughed up some blood.
“But what?” I asked.
“It is also a prison. A prison for bodies. And souls. It is a nightmare. A place of torture and evil. It is a place of love. And hate. Of good. And evil. You cannot have one without the other.”
I couldn’t tell if Ben was looking at me. It was too dark. I couldn’t tell if he was delirious from blood loss or not.
Once again, I looked up ahead into the dark tunnel. There was only one way to go.
Down. Deeper.
I was right.
Just then I heard a scream.
A girl’s scream.
Chapter 17
I ran forward, around a slight bend in the tunnel. Up ahead there was a train. There were four carriages. The two at the rear were dark. The two at the front had their lights on. They were blindingly bright in the dark tunnel.
I heard another scream.
“Maria!”
Ben grabbed me from behind and put one of his giant hands over my mouth.
“Shh,” he whispered into my ear. “Be quiet.”
I wrestled away from him. I didn’t have time to be careful or quiet.
“That was Maria,” I said. “It has to be. She’s in trouble.”
“Something is wrong,” Ben said.
Ben doubled over again. He was too weak to stand up straight. He looked like he was holding his guts in with his hands.
He dropped to one knee. “The Lockdown,” he said. “This track should be closed. It goes for miles.”
“So?”
“So there shouldn’t be any carriages on the track. We are in the middle of nowhere. Something is wrong.”
Another scream.
“Yeah, something is wrong. Maria is in trouble. I need to go and get her.”
“Don’t do it. Not safe.”
“No kidding. But I have to go. I don’t have a choice.”
Ben grabbed me and pulled me back. Even as he was lying on his deathbed he was still unbelievably strong. But I needed to go. I didn’t care if it wasn’t safe. I didn’t care if it was a trap. I didn’t care that there weren’t supposed to be any carriages in the middle of this tunnel, miles underground, in the middle of nowhere.
Maria was screaming out, in pain or for help, I couldn’t tell. But I wasn’t going to let Ben stop me. He could either shut up or come with.
“Let go!”
I slipped out of his grip and pushed him with all my strength. He fell backwards. Sprawled across the tracks. Now he really did look dead.
