by Cronan, Matt
"You think they saw us?" he whispered.
"If they did, I think we'd be dead."
"You gotta plan?"
There was a long pause as Sam contemplated this. The 16 bullets in the clip of the rifle would be enough if every one of her shots were dead on. The four extra bullets even provided some wiggle room. But if there were more soldiers hiding around the rear of the buildings or if the darkness affected her accuracy, then they would be sitting ducks. The plan to shoot it out wasn't a viable option.
"No," she said.
Sam's eyes darted around the room, but there was nothing to indicate another plan would be any more plausible.
Jordan's voice filled her mind once more, Midnight runners.
Sam sighed.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," she whispered.
"What does that mean?"
She didn't answer him. The answers would come soon enough. But she couldn't chance telling him that she was about to risk their lives on a hunch from her dead boyfriend. Time was already running out. The self-destruction sequence had been activated. She would have to act fast.
Without a word, she lifted the rifle, took aim at one of the thinner overhanging stalactites, and squeezed the trigger. The sound of the gunfire was deafening. The blast echoed off the canyon walls causing Cole to quickly throw his giant hands over his ears. He looked to her, his eyes wide and filled with shock.
The bullet hit its target, separating the rocky spike at its midpoint. It rocketed toward the ground and a handful of soldiers dove out of the way as it collided into the hard floor of the cave and exploded in a dust cloud of debris.
"As long as they didn't see the muzzle blast, I think we'll be okay," Sam whispered.
To her horror, Cole responded in a yell, "What'dya say?"
Sam's eyes grew as wide as Cole's had at the shock of the gunshot, and then Cole's grew even larger at the realization of his mistake. Through the rocky barrier, Sam saw the guards turn toward them and a moment later a cacophony of gunfire exploded through the caverns.
Sam and Cole both threw their hands over their ears and slid down as far as possible as bullets slammed into the rock wall behind them. The doctor used his body as a shield and draped himself over Alex.
Wave after wave of bullets lodged into the rock wall and each time Sam's heart skipped a beat. Death was close now. She could feel its icy touch on her skin. In only a few moments, she would be reunited with Jordan. Her mission failed but her heartache over. Shards of rock exploded above and debris rained down on top of them. Cole pulled her close to him and then covered her head with his giant arms.
After what seemed like an eternity, the gunfire died off. Sam managed to quell the fear coursing through her body and broke free of Cole's grasp. She raised her head slightly until she could see through the rocks. From her position, she heard muffled screaming, could see the soldiers reloading, some already drawing aim on them again. She dropped back down again, preparing for the next wave of gunfire when suddenly the unearthly screams of the midnight runners ripped through the cavern. Not just one but all of them. And they were close.
Sam drew a finger to her lips and Cole nodded his head feverishly. The doctor rolled off of Alex and much to Sam's dismay, the girl's beautiful purple eyes were wide-open and filled with terror. The sight sent Sam's anxiety into overdrive. She tried to steady her breathing but instead her breaths came more quickly, each one more shallow than the last. Her heartbeat doubled and then seemed to treble to the point of pain, as hot blood was forced through her arteries. Her palms became clammy. Her pupils constricted to the size of pinheads, causing the world to grow dark and blurry. And then again she heard the disharmony of screams and she knew that the monsters had arrived.
Terrified shouts from the soldiers melded with the shrieks of the midnight runners and created a ghoulish opera. They lasted only a moment before a fusillade of bullets ripped through the air ending the macabre ensemble and Sam covered her ears once more.
And then there were more screams. Different kinds of screams. Screams from the soldiers. Bone-chilling, blood-curdling screams. Sam squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the horrible nightmare to be over with. She had bet on the wrong team and now she prayed the midnight runners would kill them quickly once they were done with the soldiers.
The screaming finally desisted, and for a long moment, there was nothing but silence. Sam's entire body trembled and her heart jack-hammered in her chest as she awaited the midnight runners to ascend their tiny barrier and finish the job. The doctor was on his hands and knees, his head bowed underneath his chest, in what Sam could only think of as a crude prayer position. Alex's eyes had closed and again she was lying motionless. Cole, his face stricken with worry, placed a giant, calloused hand over one of hers.
A gunshot broke the silence and then a man screamed out. This scream, however, was not filled with terror or pain but rather victory. It was fused with a sick laughter and Sam couldn't tell which was worse. It was a familiar voice despite of this. It belonged to Eric.
"Take that you motherfuckers!"
Another gunshot.
"You bastards aren't going to take me out! No sir. Not today. Not ever!"
Two more gunshots.
"I run this bunker, bitch."
More gunshots.
More profanity.
Sam took a deep breath and braved raising her head so she could see. From her vantage point, she saw the heaps of bodies and blood strewn across the cavern floor. Mixed in with the human bodies were those of the midnight runners. The massive creatures were twice the size of any man, but their corpses were lying as motionless as the soldiers.
In the center of the aftermath was Eric. His face was bathed in moonlight and Sam shuddered at the sight of him. Blood dripped from a dark goatee, his face as mutilated as the doctor's, but twisted in a sinister sneer. He walked through the crowd of bodies, the muzzle of his gun sweeping back and forth between the hulks spread out on the floor. He paused at one, fired another shot, the creature's body seized and jerked and then went still. He laughed manically and then he continued his sweep.
Sam lifted the barrel of her rifle, rested the stock in-between two narrow rocks and set her sights on the man. She wanted to take advantage of the moment and put a quick end to this victory party before he remembered his original target. This act of cold-blooded aggression might offend Cole or Doc, but Sam didn't feel any remorse. She knew this soldier was as guilty as all the others and she needed to put him down like the rabid dog that he was.
She wrapped her finger around the trigger but paused right before squeezing. Looming over the man, balanced like some sort of majestic bird on the stoop of the building, sat one of the creatures. Its wide jaw was open and the razor-sharp teeth were dripping wet with blood. Its muscular hind legs perched eloquently on the edge of the roof, gripping the stone with ease. Sharp claws on one giant hand hung in midair over the victor below. Only a bloody stump remained of where the other hand should have been.
Sam contemplated shooting the creature from its perch and then dealing with the man below fairly, but she never got the chance. The creature jumped down noiselessly and landed on the lone survivor from the group. The man collapsed under the weight of the beast and Sam watched in horror as it wrapped the massive claw around the man's throat and promptly detached Eric's head from his torso.
"Good god," the doctor whispered.
She felt the knot in her stomach tighten as the beast lifted the severed head of the man into the sky. It stared at it for only a moment and then shoved it into its mouth. The creature chewed once, the blood-curdling crunch of bone grinded against the razor-sharp teeth of the beast, and then it swallowed. The midnight runner lifted its head into the sky and howled. Sam seized the unexpected opportunity.
She hopped up from her position, took aim and unloaded the clip. The midnight runner spun toward her when she popped up, but its eyes went wide as the first of the slugs lodged into its chest. Sam kept
the trigger squeezed tight and counted as each of the 15 rounds found its target. Each one buried into the chest and abdomen of the beast.
The last round disappeared into the creature's chest and Sam watched as its eyes went cold. It took two steps forward, stumbled and then collapsed into a heap.
Sam stood still, her heart echoing between her ears, her stomach clinched so tight that she could puke, terrified that the beast would rise back up or that another would emerge from the shadows to finish the job, but nothing happened. When Cole placed a hand on her shoulders, she screamed before resigning to a flurry of quick jabs to the big man's chest.
Ten minutes after Sam had killed the midnight runner, she swung the door open to the building. The long conference table had been abandoned. Cowered behind it, on the opposite side of the room, were the royalty—huddled together and trembling. There was one soldier who had been assigned to wait inside with them, but he didn't attempt to raise his weapon. Sam pointed her rifle in his direction and motioned for him to drop his rifle which he did without question.
"Evenin', fellas," Sam said, her voice almost whimsical.
The men didn't answer her, nor did any of them rise from the floor. Some had drug their leather chairs to form a makeshift wall for what Sam could only guess was protection. A few peaked out from behind, but didn't dare make eye contact with her.
"Doc, get your bag," Sam said. She was unwilling to waste any time on the animals residing in the room. They were all dead men walking in her opinion.
The doctor squeezed past her and entered the room. He went to the far corner without making eye contact with any of the dignitaries, grabbed a large leather bag from the seat of a chair and returned to her.
"I'll be with the girl if you need me," Doc said. He looked back to the men and then added, "I pray that you won't."
Sam nodded, and the doctor exited the structure.
"Wh-what do you want from us?" a white-haired man stuttered from behind a tall leather-backed chair.
"I want you to stop asking questions before I put a bullet through your brain, Chief," Sam said. She surveyed the room to make sure she had their undivided attention and then continued, "Now, there's nothing else I'd love to do than unload this clip on you sick, old perverts and blow every one of your dicks clean off." She watched as the old men squirmed. "Your families might have kept this city alive for hundreds of years, but all you've managed to do is to turn your own children into slaves. It's a perversion so corrupt and evil that even your ancestors would be rolling in their graves. You should be ashamed of yourselves."
Silence.
"I hope you all rot in hell."
She exited back into the cave where the girls from the adjacent building had been waiting. A few were armed with the rifles and revolvers from the fallen soldiers. Sam scanned the crowd, her eyes landing on a blonde-haired girl toward the back of the crowd.
"Do you know Alex?"
The girl nodded.
"Do you know her brother?"
"Yes."
"Bring him here," Sam said. "Cole will go with you in case you run into any resistance." She half-expected some sort of pushback to the request, the girl undoubtedly knowing what she was about to miss, but instead the blonde-haired girl nodded and took off toward the rear of the building. Sam watched as she and Cole disappeared down a corridor in the back of the cave.
She looked back to the group and eyed the girls. All of them had been modified in some way or another. Augmented breasts were coupled with liposuction and glute implants. Facelifts. Nose jobs. Cheek implants. They were all dressed in slutty clothes and all wore the same emotionless expression on their plastic faces. But beyond that, just beneath the layer of modifications, Sam could see the same burning hatred in all of their eyes. Her eyes landed back to the center of the group and then silently she gave a nod.
A dark-haired girl with bright orange streaks and a nose four times removed from its original state entered first. Her rifle, plucked from the clutches of one of the slaughtered, held high in the air, bloodlust in her eyes. A split-second later the rest of the girls followed and then the interior of the building was ablaze with gunfire, protests and screams.
11
"We'll need to get her back to my office," Doc said and plucked a syringe from inside the leather medical bag. He shuffled through the rest of the contents and extracted a small brown vial. He inserted the needle into the rubber stopper at the top of the vial and pulled the plunger. The syringe filled with a clear liquid.
"What is that?"
"A muscle relaxer," the doctor said. He inserted the needle into Alex's forearm and pushed down on the plunger. "She has a possible concussion, but I'll need to run some more tests back at my office."
"We're not going back to your office," Sam said. "We're getting her brother and we're getting the hell out of here."
"But I need—"
"You saw the same computer screen that I did, Doc. The self-destruction sequence has been activated. We're living on borrowed time."
"Well, that's precisely my point," Doc interjected. "If nothing has happened so far, then who's to say anything will? You know as well as I do the computer was ancient. From a probability standpoint, don't you think it's safe to assume whatever was supposed to happen, can't or won't at this point?"
"I'm not assuming anything, Doc."
The doctor shook his head. "Is it possible to at least stop by my office to get some additional supplies? If we're going to be braving the elements then we'll need to be prepared."
"Who said anything about we?"
Doc stiffened.
"You're the one responsible for all the modifications, aren't you?" Sam asked. "These surgeries and enhancements. The girls have you to blame."
"I was doing what I was told," the doctor said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"The same as the soldiers who stood idly by and let the royalty rape their children?" Sam seethed. "Because weren't they just doing what they were told?"
The doctor stood and took a step toward Sam. "I've never approved of what those men do to the children nor do I approve of the surgeries or the experimentation. Why do you think my face is like this? Do you think I enjoyed performing the surgeries so much that I elected to deform myself? Or could it be that I've used my body as a testing ground to ensure that I don't do any additional harm to my patients?"
"Here's a third option," Sam said and took a step toward Doc, not backing down. "Don’t do the procedures. Stand up and fight."
"You're assuming even a small minority would be willing to revolt with me. If I would have stopped performing their procedures or never performed them in the first place then I would be no better off than one of those monstrosities." The doctor pointed in the direction of the carnage that lay outside of the buildings.
"What does that mea—?”
A severe shout came from the tunnel leading to the mine. Sam raised her rifle and then lowered it as Cole emerged from the darkness. A teenage boy was on his heels and he shouted again as he reached the opening.
"Alexandria!"
The moonlight gleamed in the boy's hollow eyes and his gaunt face was racked with fear. Tattered rags wrapped loosely around his groin and feet. "Where is she?" he called.
Cole pointed in their direction. The boy tried to sprint but slipped and fell to the ground. Cole helped him to his feet, and the boy limped the rest of the way. Blood oozed from the scrape on his bony knee.
Behind Cole and the boy, Sam watched as the blonde-haired girl, tasked with finding Alex's brother, surfaced. She was followed by a countless number of children. They all wore the same confused smile on their face. The girl leading the way called out and the other teenage girls, the royalty's sex slaves, emerged from the building. Squeals of joy erupted as brothers and sister found each other. And then the girls led the children out of the cave and back toward the up-top.
Alex's brother dropped to his knees at his sister's side. The boy's eyes filled with tears and then he
wrapped his emaciated arms around her. He sobbed as he pulled Alexandria into his chest.
"She's going to be okay," Sam said. She put a hand on the boy's shoulder and squeezed.
"Where is he?" the boy whispered.
"He's dead."
There was a long moment of silence before the boy spoke again. "Good."
The boy released Alex and laid her back on the ground. Then he stood and faced Sam and Doc.
"What's your name?" Sam asked.
"Nick."
"You've met Cole," Sam said. "My name is Sam."
The boy wrapped his arms around Sam's neck. It was an unexpected hug but welcomed and Sam returned the gesture. After a moment, he pulled away.
"So what happens now?" Nick asked.
Sam didn't answer. Instead, a siren ripped through the cave. It was louder than anything she had ever heard. She dropped the rifle to the ground and covered her ears. Cole and Doc also covered their ears. Nick fell back to his knees and wrapped his hands around Alex's head.
"What is that?" Sam shouted.
There was an earth shattering crack as a giant stalactite broke away from the ceiling. It smashed into the building's roof, the one where the girls had been held, and disappeared inside. A thick cloud of stone and debris ejected from the hole and from the door.
A split-second later another of the spiked pillars broke away and then another. The self-destruction timer on the mysterious computer in Gates' office had hit zero. The mines were collapsing.
"We have to go!" Sam screamed. She snatched the rifle from the ground with one hand and grabbed Doc by the collar with the other. Cole gathered Alex into his arms and the five of them were took off toward the tunnel.
Emergency lights that had been hidden by the darkness now illuminated the large corridor, flashing in melodic strobes. Others pushed past them as they made their way up the cramped pathway. Girls carrying assault rifles led children covered in soot past them, most running at full speed with bare feet. Behind, the sound of the cave collapsing was deafening.
