by Amy Cross
“I am going to enter the town,” N3 said finally, informing the other Sentinels of its plan.
“Negative,” N1 and N2 said at the same time. “Orders state we are to remain at the perimeter.”
“I am invoking clause nine,” N3 replied, already starting to make its way toward the town's distant lights. “My recent encounter with John and Isobel Farmer has raised a number of questions. Clause nine compels me to investigate further.”
“Report back at regular intervals,” N1 and N2 said simultaneously. “Complete the investigation and then return to your post.”
“I shall,” N3 told them, already scanning the road ahead. As it did so, a faint glow could once again be seen inside its head unit.
“It's beautiful,” it remembered Izzy saying, and once again it thought of her touch as it set the memory into a recursive loop, hearing her voice over and over.
“It's beautiful.”
“It's beautiful.”
“It's beautiful.”
There was something else, too. Another memory, from a long time ago. A memory of a man at the edge of a battlefield, raising his sword above his head and then bringing it crashing down.
A memory of a girl.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Motherf-”
Clattering down against the chamber's rocky surface, Rita slipped and twisted, thudding hard and dropping her flashlight. At the same time, her bicycle helmet twisted round, blocking her vision. Momentarily winded, she winced as she sat up, and then she took a series of deep breaths as she adjusted the helmet, putting it back the right way. Finally she grabbed the flashlight and tilted it so she could see her hands.
“Rope-burn,” she muttered, wincing again. Sure enough, she'd slid too fast down the rope and now her palms were red and sore.
Sighing, she got to her feet and shone the flashlight around. She'd finally made it back to the underground chamber deep in the old mine system, where she'd previously spotted the two strange figures. Before climbing down, she'd spent a few minutes calling out and generally trying to attract attention, but she'd realized fairly quickly that this time there was no-one around. Still, she instinctively double-checked that her knives were still secured around her belt, as she stepped away from the the legs of the rickety wooden platform and blasted the flashlight's beam through the cold air, picking out high rocky walls that led up to the roof far above.
“So are you guys around, or what?” she called out, her voice echoing slightly. “Or are you having a night off from whatever orgy you were getting into?”
Not even bothering to wait for a reply, she made her way over toward the old metal carriages that had been left near the far wall. Although the chamber seemed to have been cleaned out fairly thoroughly when the gold-mine was abandoned, there were a few old tools knocking about, and Rita took a moment to check each of them, tossing some aside but keeping any that seemed like they might be useful. In truth, she ignored only the rustiest, most run-down old scraps of metal. Anything else ended up either hooked to her belt or slipped into one of her bags, and she figured that eventually she'd find a use for at least some of them. Even when the accumulation of junk started to weigh her down, she couldn't quite bring herself to pass up more junk.
“I'm not hoarding,” she told herself, under her breath. “I'm just... acquiring objects that are yet to prove their usefulness. I'm speculating.”
Reaching one of the carriages, she stood on tip-toes and peered inside. She'd half expected to find the bones of long-dead miners, but instead she saw nothing other than a few old lengths of rope and a lot of rubble. And definitely no gold, which she'd daydreamed about perhaps stumbling upon. In her mind's eye, she'd even imagined herself striking it rich and finally getting a place of her own, away from her alcoholic mother. She made her way to the other carriages and checked those too, with similarly disappointing results. All things considered, the night's adventure had been a little underwhelming so far, and when she checked her watch and saw that it was almost 3am, she felt as if maybe she should just head home and get some sleep.
Still, she figured she couldn't leave empty-handed, so she reached into one of the carriages and pulled out a couple of old pick-axes.
“I guess I'll take these, then,” she muttered, carefully hooking them to her belt, which was becoming increasingly heavy. “Finders keepers and all that.”
She turned to head back across the chamber.
And then she spotted the doorway.
Tucked into one of the corners, almost completely hidden away in the shadows, an old metal door appeared to promise access to some deeper part of the mining system. Heading over, Rita gave the handle a tug, only to find that someone had affixed a substantial, new-looking lock. She tried again, with no better results, before crouching down and taking a closer look at the lock. Sure enough, while everything else in the mining network was old and rusty, the lock seemed much more recent. Expensive, too.
“Hiding something, huh?” she muttered, examining the key-hole. She had no idea how to pick a lock, but she knew she could find out and come back another day. After all, lock-picking was something she'd been meaning to learn for a while. “So is this where you store your orgy equipment?” she asked with a smile, imagining rows of whips and masks and costumes. “Or maybe something even more interesting. Either way, I've gotta -”
Before she could finish, she heard a distant bumping sound, seemingly coming from somewhere behind the door.
She froze, listening for a moment, and sure enough after a couple of seconds she heard another, slightly closer sound, as if something was approaching the metal door from the other side.
Leaning closer, she placed a hand on the door's smooth, cold surface.
“Hello?” she said cautiously.
The sound immediately stopped.
She waited, and after a moment she realized she was inadvertently holding her breath. Still, the myriad chunks of metal and blades attached to her belt were rattling every time she so much as blinked, so keeping quiet wasn't much of an option.
“I didn't mean to intrude,” she said finally. “I was just... Well, I guess I was just being a little nosy, that's all. You know, poking about, exercising my natural human curiosity. I can totally not do that, though, if it'd help. I can promise to...”
Her voice trailed off as she realized she could hear another sound now, still coming from the other side of the door. A kind of frantic, fevered sniffing, almost as if some kind of big dog was checking her scent. And yet it seemed a little more focused than a dog.
“I don't suppose there's any chance of an introduction, is there?” she asked. “I've got nothing against secret clubs, I just kinda wanna know what's going on, that's all. I mean, I'm an enlightened girl, pretty open-minded. You never know, I might even wanna join in, and trust me, I could be a real asset to...” She paused, feeling as if she was on a hiding to nothing. “Well, I know how to shake things up,” she added. “Maybe I could be the kick in the pants you guys need, huh?”
She waited, but all she heard was the continued sniffing sound.
“Are you okay, dude?” she asked after a few seconds. “You're not, like, trapped down here, are you?”
No reply.
The scratching, sniffing sound continued.
“Give me one tap for yes, and two for no. Do you need help?”
Again she waited.
“You're not like a prisoner down here, are you?” she continued. “I haven't stumbled into some kind of -”
Before she could finish, the noise briefly peaked, with a hint of a growl.
“You know what?” she continued, feeling a faint rustle of concern. “I think I've bothered you enough already. Obviously you guys were here before me, and it wouldn't be fair of me to -”
Suddenly she heard a low clunking sound, as if part of the door's locking mechanism had been moved. As the sound continued, she placed a hand on the lock and felt it shuddering slightly.
“Goodnight, then,”
she stammered, turning and hurrying away, heading back over toward the rope that she'd used to climb down from the platform. Despite telling herself that there was no reason to worry, she nevertheless quickened her pace, and by the time she'd made the thirty-foot journey to the rope she was feeling distinctly uneasy. She glanced over her shoulder, to reassure herself that no-one was following, but she could still hear a clanking sound from the door in the far corner.
Grabbing the rope, she gave it a tug to make sure that it was still secure, and then -
Behind her, there was a sudden thudding sound, like metal hitting stone.
She froze for a moment. She knew what the sound had seemed like, but she didn't want to believe she was right. Slowly, she turned and shone the flashlight back across the chamber, hoping against hope that she'd misheard.
Her heart missed a beat as soon as she saw the metal door hanging wide open.
“That's cool,” she whispered, trying to stay calm. “That's just peachy, and in no way troubling.”
Turning, she shone the flashlight around, looking for any sign of movement. At first she saw nothing, but a few seconds later she spotted something in the corner of her eye as the beam fell across one of the large metal containers. Holding the flashlight steady, she felt certain that she'd seen a flicker of shadow slipping behind the farthest container, as if something had ducked out of view.
Figuring she could worry about what she'd seen later, she gripped the flashlight between her teeth and turned, and then she began to haul herself up the rope. The jangling of metal from her belt was too loud for her to hear much else, and she'd scavenged so much metal that it was weighing her down now, making the climb harder. By the time she reached the platform and dragged herself over the edge, she was out of breath and had to stop for a moment. Convinced she could hear something scrambling about in the dirt directly beneath her, she took the flashlight from her mouth and then leaned over the edge, shining the beam down.
For a fraction of a second, she saw a face down below, staring up at her with large, dark eyes that reflected the flashlight's beam.
“Holy -”
Before she could say another word, however, the entire wooden platform began to shake. She saw the figure pulling on one of the support beams, but – as she turned and grabbed the railing – the flashlight slipped from her grasp and fell, dropping down to the ground below. As it landed, she heard the bulb shattering. The light immediately died, leaving her in absolute darkness.
The platform shuddered again, and this time she heard a creaking sound.
“That's cool,” she stammered. “That's perfectly -”
She let out a sudden, shocked yelp as the platform jerked down a few inches, and at the same time she heard a clanging, scraping noise that sounded a lot like metal bolts being pulled out from the rock-face.
Although she couldn't see anything in the pitch darkness, she could feel the platform being pulled away from the wall. She turned and reached out, quickly finding another part of the railing and hauling herself along. The broken flashlight had left the chamber too dark for her to even see her own hands, but she knew the exit had to be close, just a few feet away along the platform and -
Suddenly the entire structure creaked again, as if it was being pulled down from below, and she felt the wooden boards starting to swing beneath her body. She held on tight as the boards tipped around and up, and finally she found herself hanging in darkness, desperately trying to hold on and weighed down by the metal attached to her belt. There were more scrabbling sounds from below, but she quickly pulled herself up and then reached out into the void, hoping to find some hint of the tunnel that led from the platform back through the rock and out of the mine system. Her hand grasped in the darkness, but she found nothing to grab so finally she pulled herself forward, clambering along a narrow wooden beam.
Seconds later, the platform shifted yet again, and Rita let out another faint yelp as she felt herself dropping a couple of feet. Still reaching out, she fumbled for a moment before locating a vertical wooden beam in the darkness. Figuring she had no better bets, she lunged forward and grabbed the wooden beam with both hands, just as the boards beneath her knees gave way. Holding on tight, she used her ankles to grip tighter and then she began to climb up, even as the beam started to shudder and tremble.
From below, there was a loud, frantic scratching sound, along with what seemed to be a series of hungry gasps. Whatever was down there, it seemed to be dismantling the entire platform piece by piece.
Reaching out, Rita's hands swung through the air, but she felt no sign of the chamber's rocky wall. She turned, disorientated, and reached in another direction, and then another, still finding nothing. Starting to feel as if she had no idea which way to go in order to find the wall, she felt the wooden beam twitching again, accompanied by a series of shudders as if something was slamming into the base. At the same time, she also heard a faint snarl.
“Can we talk about this?” she asked, as the metal jangled around her waist. “I'm sorry if I -”
Suddenly she let out a yelp as the wooden beam twitched and began to fall. Holding on tight, Rita quickly felt her shoulder slamming into the rocky wall, and she realized the beam had been pushed over until it was leaning at an angle against the rock-face. Reaching out, she ran her right hand across the cold rocks until she found an over-hang that offered some grip. With her right foot, she searched for another point that she could use for support, and finally she shifted her weight and clambered onto the rough wall. A moment later, she heard a loud banging sound, followed by what seemed to be something heavy crashing to the ground below, and she realized the wooden beam must have been dragged down, which meant the entire platform had been ripped down by...
By something.
Clinging to the wall, high above the chamber's rocky floor, she reached around, hoping to find the entrance to the tunnel that led back outside. She'd lost her sense of direction while the platform was being torn apart, and now she had no idea whether to go to her left or right. Trying not to panic, but feeling increasingly short of breath, she finally started climbing to her right, taking care to keep a firm grip. She knew that if she made one mistake, she'd plummet down into the darkness, and that something was waiting for her at the bottom of the chamber, something that had already ripped the platform apart.
A moment later, her right foot slipped slightly. Braced for a fall, she nevertheless managed to hold tight, and after a few seconds she started climbing again. The metal at her waist was still weighing her down, but she quickly dismissed the idea of tossing it all away.
“You can do this!” she whispered to herself. “You know you can!”
Every time she moved her hands, she hoped against hope that she'd find the ledge that led into the tunnel, but there was only more cold, rough rock. After a few more seconds, however, her left hand brushed against something cold poking out from the rock-face, and she realized she'd found one of the support pegs that had been used to hold the platform up. Fumbling around a little more, she found another peg, and then she climbed a little higher. Now she figured she was at least on the right level to find the opening, so she kept going, hoping against hope that -
Suddenly she heard a scrambling sound from below. Stopping for a moment, she listened as the sound edged closer, and she began to realize that not only was something climbing up after her, but that it seemed to be heading in her direction, almost as if it was honing in on her gasps and grunts. Either that, or it could see in the dark.
Gasping, she climbed a little higher and then reached out.
Suddenly a hand grabbed her right ankle from below, clutching her tight and immediately trying to pull her down.
“No!” she screamed, shaking her foot and trying to slam the errant hand against the rock-face. “Dude, leave me the fuck alone, okay?”
Reaching down to her waist, she tried to find a knife but instead all she located was one of the pick-axes she'd taken from the container. Fumbling to get it fre
e, her hands were shaking too much, and just as she unhooked the pick-ax she managed to let it slip from her grasp. Hearing it clattering down to the ground far below, she began to unhook the other pick-ax, as the hand around her right ankle reached up further and grabbed her knee. At the same time, she heard a faint hissing sound getting closer through the darkness.
“Let me go!” she shouted. “I've got a weapon and I'm not afraid to use it!”
She waited a moment, but the cold hand was gripping her even tighter. Finally, reaching down, she pressed the pick-ax's sharper end against the hand and then pushed, trying to tear it away. At first she felt the grip still tightening, but finally she was able to drive the pick-ax's point further, and she felt the fingers loosening their grip around her knee. Twisting the pick-ax, she pulled it back up and then held it higher, using it to strike the rock-face and pull herself up, while reaching out with her other hand.
After a moment, miraculously, she felt the opening to the tunnel. Taking care not to lose her footing again, she clambered a little further to the right and finally she hauled herself up, finally rolling into the entrance and letting out a gasp of pain as her shoulder caught against a section of rock.
“God Jesus Spock,” she stammered breathlessly, “thank you!”
From below, however, the climbing sound was getting closer.
Scrambling to her feet, she began to hurry forward. In her panic, she bumped against the wall several times, and she quickly told herself that she had to be more careful. She remembered the way back, or at least she was fairly sure she could find the route, even in absolute darkness, so she focused on moving quickly and in a straight line. After about twenty meters, she began feeling for a turning that she expected would lead to the right, and sure enough she found it exactly where she'd hoped. She kept going, hurrying as fast as she could manage, until suddenly she heard something lumbering toward her from behind, as if the figure from the chamber had reached the tunnel and was now giving chase.
