by Leito, Chad
Allen walked over to Ned, put his hand over Ned’s, and lowered the weapon for him. Once the gun was lowered, Allen’s voice grew sterner. “He didn’t try to shoot me, Ned! Whatever anger issues you’re dealing with, you’d better put them on halt until we get through with this.” He leaned close enough to Ned’s ear that he could have kissed it, and whispered softly. “Otherwise, when we get back to the Hive, I’m going to put in a very unfavorable report of your obedience.”
Whatever Allen meant, Asa gathered that it was very serious by the frightened expression that filled Ned’s face. “Yes, sir.”
“I won’t have any more issues with you?”
“No, sir.”
“Good.” Allen stepped back. “Asa, hand me the gun. Wish you would have shot Thom with the first bullet, but still, good job.”
“Thank you, sir.” Asa bent down, picked up the firearm, and handed it to Allen. He thinks that I missed! Asa realized. He thinks it was an accident.
Allen took the firearm, put it in its holster, turned, and walked down the pebbled incline towards the ground below. The others followed; Ned never took his eyes off of Asa.
42
Asa’s Father’s Traps
Asa couldn’t believe that he had gotten away with shooting at Allen. He walked down into the lower room, constantly on edge that Allen would change his mind and kill him. His anxiety was mentally consuming, and Asa tried to push it out of his mind. Now that Thom was dead, and Asa no longer had a firearm, he had to find another way to stop the Multipliers.
Allen told them that the gas was only active in the air for a minute or so, and that they could take their gas masks off. Everyone did so.
The green and blue pebbled floor of the lower room was littered with yellow and orange leaves. Allen crunched over these as he stomped towards the great tree in the center of the room. Allen explained that the entrance to the lower levels was somehow hidden inside the oak tree. Asa wasn’t sure what that meant, but Allen went to work running his hands over the trunk, and tugging at the different branches.
While waiting for Allen to figure out the tree-entrance, Asa walked around the room, looking at the safes. Each of the metal boxes was engraved in brail and English. Asa imagined Mama coming down to the lower level on the wheelchair ramp, and then having to feel her way to the correct vaccines. Asa took a moment to look at the texture on each of the safes, thankful for his eyesight.
The smell of cigarettes stung Asa’s nostrils, and he turned to see Rose’s face just inches from his. Her eyes were closed, and she sniffed in heartily before exhaling with a smile. “You still smell so fresh,” she told him. “You almost smell like a human. Almost.” She licked her lips with a black tongue, using it to wipe Salvaserum that was leaking out the side of her mouth.
Asa smiled nervously. “I guess I am fresh,” he said. “Only been a Multiplier a few hours.”
Rose closed her eyes again and leaned into Asa’s neck. She inhaled deeply. Asa just stood there, not wanting to push her away, or retreat, fearful that he would break a Multiplier norm. While she sniffed him, he was immensely uncomfortable. Asa continued to find the Multipliers unpredictable and strange. The more time he spent with them, the more sure he became that he would be instantly discovered to be a human when he arrived at the Hive.
Asa was thankful when Allen called for them, so that he could walk away from Rose. “Get over here. We’re moving,” Allen shouted.
Asa and all the Multipliers gathered behind Allen. He had somehow found a way to open up the tree trunk, revealing a small doorway. Inside, Asa saw a glistening silver pole that ran down into darkness.
“This is it,” Allen said, rubbing his hands with a greedy expression on his face. “We’re going to all slide down this pole, and then we’ll be that much closer to reaching those vaccines.” He glanced over his shoulder at the door before addressing them again, as though fearful that more graduates were coming. “I want to move fast, okay? I don’t want another interruption like our dead friend up there gave us. Let’s get in and get out. But that doesn’t mean that we’re not careful. I only had one conversation with Volkner about this place, and he didn’t give me a whole lot of detail on the first two rooms. I don’t know what they’ll be like. But he stressed that no matter what happens, we must not walk off to the side. The second we get into these rooms, we walk straight towards the doors. Anyone not understand what I’m saying?”
No one said anything.
“Alright,” Allen said. “Follow me. No loitering up here.” Allen turned, grabbed the pole, and slid down into darkness, out of sight. The rest of them followed.
Rose went second, and then Ned pushed Asa roughly forward. “Go on, newbie,” he said. “I’m not letting you be the last one.”
Asa thought about spiting back a rude retort, but held his tongue. He walked forward, grabbed the pole, and let his weight carry him down. In moments, he was surrounded by total darkness, sliding quickly down the slick pole. There was no light around him, and he had no way of gauging his speed. It took half a minute before dim lights began to emerge beneath him. He slipped down until the pole ended and he dropped ten feet onto a red rug. Allen and Rose were beside him, and Asa backed away so that the next Multiplier wouldn’t fall on top of him.
“Don’t get off the rug,” Allen growled. “I have a suspicion that this rug marks the boundary.”
“That pole is going to be a bitch to climb back up,” Rose observed, straining her eyes in the darkness above to try to see the next person coming down. The door to the tree looked to be as small as a pinprick at this distance. Asa realized that a normal human wouldn’t be able to get back out of this room, and they would probably die down here. The pole was a high leap above Asa’s head and slippery. With their incredible strength, the Multipliers would have no problem leaping up, grabbing the pole, and climbing out. Asa thought that he could climb out, but it would be with some difficulty. He would rather fly.
Asa looked around at where he had landed. He thought the room belonged in a medieval castle. The walls were made of blocky, gray and black stones, which were chipped and aged. Small candles were burning from holders that jutted out from the wall. Seeing these candles alarmed Asa. Surely, he thought, those aren’t on all the time. Is someone else here with us? Are they automated to come on when the door above is opened?
The idea of someone living down here was creepy. There were dozens of dark hallways that ran off the main area. The initial room was cut in half by a long rug that ran the entire one hundred yards between Asa and the door in the back.
All we have to do is walk straight, and stay on the rug? Asa thought. Why would that be hard? Why didn’t my father make it more difficult to get to the other door? He could have at least put some obstacles in.
Edna, Joney, and Michael came through. Edna, still high, landed flat on her back, traveling at a speed that would have cracked a human’s ribs. She grunted, then giggled and stood up, obviously not that hurt.
“Let’s go,” Allen said. “Remember, don’t walk off the rug. Stay on the rug.”
Asa nodded. He was tired of hearing Allen repeat this so many times. Allen led the way. The first fifteen yards of the room were narrow, and then the space opened up, vast and sprawling.
They took their first few steps, and then a pain-provoked shriek of agony filled the air, turning Asa’s blood cold. The wailing was the kind of vocal-cord shredding scream that Bruce had put out when Allen was shooting his foot off. But that wasn’t what disturbed Asa. What disturbed him was the voice—he had heard it before—it used to sing him lullabies before bed and now it was crying out as though insanely terrified.
“That’s my mom,” Asa said, but no one listened. Asa walked a little faster, and when the room widened out, he could see her. His eyes filled with tears; he never thought he would see her again, but here she was.
She was slender. Her face was dotted with freckles and her eyes were green and wide.
How is this possible? Asa
wondered. Did she not actually die? Did the doctors give her over to the Academy where she would be stored until this moment?
She was standing on a chair, and surrounded by a large, glass, cylindrical enclosure. There were shackles on her ankles with chains that ran down and were bolted to the floor. Horrified, Asa saw that the glass enclosure was quickly filling with water, and soon, she would be chained to the bottom and submerged. But there’s more. Something is moving in the water, Asa thought. He looked closer and saw that there were hundreds of fish in the tank with his mother; they were small, each no longer than three inches. Asa’s mom continue to wail and cry.
“Plea-eee-eese! Help me! Do something!” she begged. The water rose up to her ankles, and Asa realized what was causing her cries to be so urgent—not only would she drowned without assistance, but she would be eaten alive; the water around her feet quickly turned red. Those are piranhas, Asa thought. Or at least some type of flesh eating fish.
Asa looked at the wall beside his crying mother and saw that a sledgehammer was mounted there, as though someone had planned this. Asa watched as his mother yelped and jerked one of her feet out of the water. Momentarily, she forgot about the shackles. She tripped over her chains and fell face first into the water, where the flesh-eating fish began to attack her whole body.
I must do something, Asa thought, watching his mother flail. He had never thought he would see her again, and now that she was here, he felt the need to save her, despite Allen’s warning to stay on the carpet. He dashed off the rug and out onto the stone, running towards his screaming mother.
But the screaming stopped the instant Asa stepped on the stone.
His mother was gone. She had vanished, along with the glass enclosure, the water, and the fish.
“YOU FOOL!” Allen screamed. He drew his gun. “I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO OFF THE CARPET!”
“But my mother…”
“THAT WAS AN ILLUSION!”
Asa felt sick and dumb.
“GET YOUR GUNS OUT!” Allen screamed. “SOMETHING IS COMING!”
Asa could hear it too. There was a heavy clicking sound coming out of each hallway. Whatever was making the noise was coming closer, and fast. Joney, Michael and Allen pointed their guns from doorway to doorway, not knowing where to aim.
Asa felt scared, but also somewhat relieved. If they all died, the Multipliers wouldn’t be able to acquire his father’s vaccine.
Allen was cursing under his breath, spinning around so fast that his hair was flipping through the air. This was the most frantic Asa had ever seen Allen; his usually calm, blue eyes seemed to burn with intensity as he tried to figure out what was coming. The sounds from the corridors grew heavier, faster, and closer.
BANG!
Asa turned in time to see smoke issuing from Ned’s pistol and a monster collapsing to the ground. Asa thought that Boom Boom might know a more accurate term for the creature, but to Asa it looked like a velociraptor. The dinosaur was seven feet tall, and lean, with long, scaly legs that ended in black talons as sharp as razors. Its open, bleeding mouth was full of sharp, pointed teeth, similar to shark teeth. The animal had a long, muscular tail that it used to catch air and change direction as it ran.
They were fast. To Asa, they appeared to be running at least fifty miles per hour. A dozen dinosaurs descended upon them from all directions, leaping, with open mouths hungry for flesh.
Flashes and smoke filled the air, with the deafening boom of gunshots. Michael, Ned, and Allen were turning and firing with superhuman speed. Their awareness of what surrounded them was hard for Asa to believe. As Multipliers, not only were they faster, stronger, and more agile than humans, but also their brains were able to process information much more efficiently than Asa’s.
In seconds, the gunshots had ceased, as all of their firearms had run out of bullets. Asa looked around to see dark blood and collapsed dinosaurs littering the ground. One final raptor was approaching. Michael withdrew a knife, ducked to miss the animal’s chomping jaws, and then drove the knife into the dinosaur’s neck, and abdomen until it was on the floor and not twitching anymore. Asa watched in horror. No more velociraptors came out of the surrounding corridors. Asa was frozen in fear from the attacking dinosaurs, and from seeing how fast the Multipliers could move and respond to situations.
“WHAT WAS THAT?” Allen screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. Asa turned and did not have time to duck before he was backhanded in the face. The world swam away from him for a moment, and he stepped back, suddenly dizzy. “I TOLD YOU NOT TO STEP OFF THE CARPET!” Allen hit Asa again. Asa felt blood run from his lips. He put his hands up, even though they were useless against Allen’s physicality.
Allen stepped back, observing Asa’s stance. His chest was expanding and contracting with enraged breaths. “Why did you do it?” he growled. “Why did you step off?”
“I thought it was my mother,” Asa said. “I’m sorry.”
Allen’s fists went to his side; he tensed, and screamed, “DO I HAVE TO KILL YOU? WILL YOU OBEY ME FROM NOW ON!?”
“YES!” Asa yelled back, hoping that Allen wouldn’t hit him anymore. “YES!”
“I think that he did it on purpose,” Ned said quietly; he was sneering at Asa.
Allen turned and punched Ned in the stomach, taking all his rage out in the blow. Asa thought that if he absorbed such a blow himself that he might suffer internal bleeding. Ned bent over, and fell to his knees on the bloody carpet.
“I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU,” Allen screamed. “I said he’s a Multiplier, so he is! GET OVER YOURSELF! I’m the authority here, what I say goes, and I’m the expert, and I KNOW WHAT’S BEST!” Allen kicked Ned in the stomach, and Ned sprawled out on the ground, wheezing.
Allen turned to Asa; his expression changed insanely fast from rage to indifference. “Do I have to kill you?” Allen asked; his eyes returned to the still blue of clear-skies ocean.
“No, sir.”
“Because I will. If you’re going to screw this up for me, I’ll take your life here. So, tell me, can you control yourself? Because I don’t know what’s in the next room. There may be another illusion, or they may send thousands of bees down to sting us. No matter what, can you walk in a straight line?”
“Yes, sir.”
Allen smiled, showing that his teeth were coated with Salvaserum. “Excellent. Let us continue.”
He turned on his heels and began to march towards the back door. He did not look back to see if everyone followed, but they did. Ned had some trouble standing, and had to jog some to catch up with Allen.
Allen did not pause to give them another pep talk, or say a word as he reached the door. He simply reached his hand out, turned the knob, and began to walk through.
The next room was hot. Steam was in the air, along with another smell.
Sweat.
“It’s an illusion!” Allen called behind him. Though Asa was scared of the secrets this room held, he was curious to see what they would find. They walked further in. This room was set up similarly to the last, with red carpet in the center and stone walls on either side.
Another similarity that the two rooms had was the sounds. Both were full of screaming. While the last room had only one person screaming, this room had hundreds. Asa thought, if hell is real, this is what it sounds like. Looking left and right, Asa saw a sea of chairs, each seating one person. All of the chairs had sick contraptions and shackles on them, holding the screaming people in place. They were all sweating, hot, and red; most weren’t wearing more than underwear, and their mouths were open in screams like they were being burned alive. Their arms, and legs were secured, and so were their heads, which were chained over to one side to expose the vulnerable parts of their necks.
“Oh my Lord,” Rose said, moaning. She covered her mouth with both hands, and Salvaserum leaked through her fingertips.
Ned was looking left to right, tugging at his hair in frustration. The Multiplier’s desire to bite these vulnerable looking humans was v
oracious.
“IT’S AN ILLUSION!” Allen screamed again, trying to be heard over the cries of the shackled humans. Asa thought that Allen was trying to convince himself as much as the others.
Asa felt no desire whatsoever to stray from the carpet, but saw that the surrounding Multipliers had to engage every bit of self-control they possessed in order to walk in a straight line. Asa remembered that none of the Multipliers ran out in the other room, only he had. Asa understood that his father had been smart in setting up the two illusions. This room was to get Multipliers to veer off the path, and the other was to tempt humans to step away from the carpet.
Trying to act like a Multiplier, Asa copied Ned’s mannerisms, and tugged at his hair, staring at the human necks as he walked.
Despite the temptation, none of the Multipliers stepped off of the carpet. By the time they reached the far door, the rug was covered in dripping Salvaserum, and so was everyone’s chin but Asa’s.
That’s another thing, Asa reminded himself. It’s fine for now that I can’t produce Salvaserum; it takes about a month after they change for Multipliers to regularly produce the stuff. But if I’m in the Hive for two weeks and I still can’t, people will become suspicious.
With a shaking hand, Allen reached for the door handle, turned it, and pushed the door open.
As soon as the door was cracked, the screaming stopped. Asa looked around. The people and the chairs had disappeared. The Multipliers around him were panting, exhausted by the restraint that they had just demonstrated. Asa copied their body language.
“Good job, everyone,” Allen said. “We’re almost there. We’re almost at the vaccine.” He turned and began to walk down a hallway.
Asa passed through the threshold, wishing that he could do something to stop them. He was willing to give his life to keep the Multipliers from obtaining the serum, and he hoped that he would be presented with the opportunity to do so.
