Val turned to Carrie and tugged on the other woman’s sleeve. “Carrie...”
“Yes?”
“What’s that?”
Val pointed to the nearest of the lines she’d seen tracking toward them. But they weren’t moving anymore, and the flattened grass had bounced back.
“What is what?” Carrie asked.
Val frowned. “I... I guess I must have imagined it.”
“Don’t worry,” Carrie said, turning away with a tight smile. “We’ll be heading back soon. I don’t see anything here to—”
A sudden rustling noise drew everyone’s eyes away from the pond to see three lithe black monsters with yellow eyes leaping out of the grass, with claws outstretched and massive jaws yawning wide.
Val remembered to scream, and rifles roared to life, the muzzle flashes dazzling her eyes. The creatures landed. One of them fell short, and lay writhing in the grass as bullets tore through its hide with meaty thwups. The other two landed and clamped their jaws over the heads and shoulders of their prey, shaking them briefly before dashing into the tall grass with their kills. Not even a muffled scream escaped their jaws. The remaining two soldiers fired after them, but soon even those sounds fell silent as they lost sight of their targets in the grass.
“Get back!” Carrie said, and began pulling Val away. Silence fell like a stone, followed by a loud splashing as Keller ran into the pond.
“Where did they go?” he asked, his voice shrill.
No one answered. Carrie held Val in protectively in front of her with one arm, while her other tracked back and forth with her pistol.
Val stared hard into the mist, searching the field for those snaking lines of flattening grass.
“Keller,” Carrie said. “We need to leave before they return.”
More splashing sounded from behind them.
“Are you listening to me?” Carrie demanded.
She and Val turned to see him standing in the middle of the pond, with shallow water barely reaching past the soles of his boots.
“There’s something in here,” he said, and stamped his foot with a ringing report.
“What do you mean, there’s something in there?” Carrie asked.
”Contact!” one of the two remaining soldiers cried. Their rifles roared, stitching the night with bullets.
Another of the creatures leapt from the grass and landed on one soldier’s back. He screamed as teeth and claws raked through his flesh. The other one whirled around, and a second monster leapt on top of him.
Carrie popped off two quick shots, but they either missed or didn’t sufficiently injure the animals. “Run!” she screamed. She turned Val by her shoulders and shoved her into the pond where Keller was standing. That short, rail-thin man had his rifle up and tracking, the stock pressing into his shoulder as he sighted down the barrel.
Val and Carrie splashed through the shallow pond to reach him. Just before they did, their boots hit something smooth and metallic. “What is this?” Carrie asked, stooping low to feel around through the water.
“The hell if I know,” Keller said, his attention focused on the monsters who’d just dragged off the last of their escort. Four soldiers down in as many minutes. Loud rustling issued from the field as they withdrew, and then silence fell once more—nothing but the sound of their own ragged breathing.
“I think I feel something!” Carrie whispered urgently. “It’s a handle! Everybody get back!”
Val did as she was told, and Keller obliged with a heavy frown.
The bottom of the lake flipped up, and water cascaded down a smooth black sheet. A hatch. Val peered into the shadowy recesses of a stairwell. Water was flowing into a drain around the opening, keeping the stairwell itself dry.
“Here they come!” Keller warned.
A rifle shot cracked, loud and close, leaving Val’s ears ringing. Her gaze flashed over to the field and saw those snaking black lines in the grass once more. Four of them this time, coming in from all sides.
“Move!” Carrie cried, almost pushing Val down the stairs.
She stumbled on the first step, and then flew forward in the stairwell, with Carrie’s feet echoing close behind her. Keller’s rifle roared with a stream of bullets, and then he came screaming onto the stairs after them.
“The hatch!” Carrie cried.
Keller froze at the top of the stairs. Val heard the loud splashing of countless feet as the monsters came running across the pond.
“Close it!” Carrie screamed.
Keller snapped into action, letting go of the rifle and grabbing the metal sheet with both hands. He yanked it down with a resounding boom just seconds before they heard claws scrabbling noisily on the other side. Carrie’s and Keller’s flashlights illuminated the darkened stairwell, and Val watched as he fumbled around inside the hatch, searching for something.
“What are you doing?” Val cried.
Then came a groan and shriek and thunk of metal. “Locking the door,” Keller explained. He jogged down the stairs to reach them, then stopped for a second, breathing hard. He held his rifle in a one-handed grip, aiming it at the ground.
Heavy footsteps hammered on the hatch above them, making Val cringe. “Can they break through?”
Keller shook his head. “Not without tools, and they’re pretty dumb brutes.”
“If there was a lock on the hatch, then why wasn’t it locked in the first place?” Val asked.
“That’s like asking why people don’t lock their front doors,” Keller replied. “Because they should doesn’t mean they do.” He jerked his chin to the bottom of the stairwell, and Val turned to see their flashlights vanishing endlessly. This was a long stairwell.
Carrie whistled softly. “The better question is, what is this place? And who built it?”
“Let’s find out, shall we?” Keller asked, and brushed by them to descend the stairs.
After a brief hesitation, they followed him. The stairs didn’t actually go on forever, just for another sixty or seventy steps. Then they reached a landing, and a metal door with a handle at the right height for a human to open it.
“What the...” Keller trailed off, reaching for the handle.
Carrie grabbed his arm. “Be careful.”
He nodded and hefted the rifle up to his shoulder. Carrie held her pistol in both hands, ready to fire. Val stayed behind, her heart beating so fast that she thought she might faint.
Keller’s hand closed around the metal handle, turned, and the door clicked open.
All three of them froze.
“Not locked,” Val whispered.
Keller shook his head and pulled the door open the rest of the way.
THIRTY-SEVEN
Roland
The rain abated slightly, but there were lingering tendrils of mist nearby, sending people into a panic.
“We need to find Harper, tell her what’s happening,” Roland said. It was clear that the good Reverend Shelley Morris was trying to take over their colony, but to what end? If he hadn’t seen her man kill the guard in cold blood, he almost wouldn’t have believed it. Hell, up until the moment she’d decided to call herself Mary incarnate, and Hound the second coming of Christ, Roland had almost been willing to believe she was harmless. But even then, words held power. Now he was witnessing the result of those words. Violence.
Tony was gobsmacked, his mouth hanging open beneath the oxygen mask. “She… they killed him. With a rock.”
Roland wrapped an arm around Tony’s shoulders and pulled him behind the sleeping quarters’ structure. “We have to hide. Morris knows we don’t like her, and if she…”
Roland heard footsteps behind him, and was ready to defend himself against one of her congregation when he saw little Diane running toward them. She was crying, her elbows bloody. Tony lowered to the ground, accepting her into his arms as she bawled into his neck.
Tony ran a hand over her wet hair. “Diane, you’re going to be okay. Where’s Jennifer?”
Dia
ne met Roland’s stare, her eyes filled with tears. “She’s dead. A woman shot her.”
“Oh, dear God. What’s happening here?” Roland’s heart hammered in his chest. The drama should have been over. This whole time Kendra, Andrew, and he had been so worried about Hound and Keller being suspicious, and they’d unwittingly brought the devil to another planet with them.
“Diane, I need you to stay quiet for a little while, okay?” Roland asked, and she nodded, sobbing lightly, but no longer wailing in fear.
“Where’s Kendra?” the girl asked, as if seeking her mother.
“She’s gone…” Tony started, and Diane looked about ready to start another fit. “Not gone. She’s away with Andy. They’ll return soon. She’ll like to hear how brave you were.”
This seemed to calm the girl a little, and Roland led them around the Eden structure. He’d seen Harper heading for the greenhouse, and that’s where he went now. People were lingering, confused in the aftermath of the storm. Some were trying to revive a few blatantly lifeless bodies, and Roland didn’t know if they’d done it to one another, or if the reverend’s people were responsible for the carnage. He spotted Oliver, the old man he’d mopped the floors of Eden with for a couple of days.
A gunshot wound bled from the man’s chest, and a woman was pressing her hands into it. “Someone find Hartford!” Roland shouted.
The colony was a disaster, but Roland didn’t see any of the reverend’s crew nearby. No one walked around armed, as far as he could see.
Roland took the chance to speak with them. “Everyone move for the edge of camp, to Eden Fourteen. Seal yourselves in.”
“Why?” a woman asked, her red hair plastered to her forehead.
“Keller and Carrie are gone, and the reverend has taken over. She’s responsible… for this.” Roland pointed to the body of a middle-aged woman. Wrong place at the wrong time.
“She can’t be…”
“Not her…”
“She’s harmless…”
“I saw them shooting…”
“She’s evil…”
“The devil…”
“Where’s Hound?”
The questions piled up around Roland, and he lifted his hand, trying to make them stop. The mist was gone, so he pulled the oxygen mask loose, letting it fall to his chest.
“Everyone listen to me. Move for Eden Fourteen,” Roland said, muttering as he walked away from the gathered group. No one seemed to be hearing him, but he couldn’t wait. “Tony, take Diane and head there immediately. Secure it.”
“How?” Tony asked with wide eyes. He was usually so sure of himself, confident in his role among their group, that Roland tended to forget he was just a kid.
“I don’t know.” Roland started to run past the group, who were asking questions of him as he left.
He needed to find Harper, and as he approached the large tinted-glass structure they used as a greenhouse, he spotted her near the rear of the building. She was huddled with one of her men. He appeared injured.
“Freeze!” Harper shouted, and Roland lifted his arms.
“It’s me… it’s only me,” he told her, racing to her side.
Harper’s face was grim; she had blood on her chin. The man beside her was clearly dead.
Roland reached for the man’s semi-automatic rifle, and Harper slapped his hand away. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You’re going to need help. I know how to handle a gun.”
Harper gave in with a stiff nod. “All right. Come with me. They’re going to move for the armory. We have to stop them.”
“How are we going to do that? They have an army,” Roland said, accepting the weapon as Harper passed it to him. He stared at the limp hand that had been holding it seconds ago.
“Then we’ll have to outsmart them,” Harper said, standing up.
The armory was across the colony, and the pair of them moved silently along the perimeters. It was too late. Roland spotted Tony clutching Diane near Eden Fourteen, but they were being herded toward the colony’s center by two of Morris’ zealots.
He wanted to go rescue the bunch, but Harper grabbed him, shaking her head. “Weapons first. Then retaliation.”
Roland wasn’t cut out for this. He was meant to be behind a closed door with a computer, not a gun in his hand. He wished Andrew and Kendra were here. He’d trade anything to swap spots with one of them at the moment. Or even Val, wherever she was.
* * *
Val
The door at the end of the stairwell swung wide as Eric Keller pulled it open, and a blinding wash of light spilled out.
“What the hell?” he muttered.
Val’s eyes took a moment to adjust, and then she began to pick out shining walls of screens and equipment. Keller walked through, followed by Carrie and Val. They emerged into a vast room, with high ceilings vanishing into darkness. The floor was crowded with aisle upon aisle of control stations and empty chairs. The controls were unfamiliar: glowing keys with strange symbols on them, and screens that floated transparently in the air. Some of them showed familiar scenes: the water treatment plant by the lake; greenhouses; and the sections of Eden rising against the horizon like giant fuel drums, gleaming in the moonlight. They perused the rows of screens and controls, their eyes darting and their heads turning back and forth.
“This is...” Carrie trailed off in a whisper, shaking her head.
“A control center,” Keller breathed. He nodded to one of the screens, and Val noticed that the image was moving. Whatever was holding the camera, it was slithering through the grass. “They’ve been watching us this whole time with hidden cameras.”
“They who?” Carrie asked.
They reached the end of the aisle of control stations, and emerged in a field of illuminated glass tubes filled with alien creatures that Val didn’t recognize. The tubes weren’t filled with water, but rather were some version of the cryo tubes that they’d used aboard Eden. The glass was frosted, and their occupants appeared to be frozen.
“What is this place?” Val wondered aloud. She walked on ahead, for a moment forgetting the danger that they might be in.
“Val, get back here!” Carrie hissed.
She needn’t have bothered. Val’s feet were rooted in place; she was frozen with horror, afraid to even blink. There, at the end of the rows of frosted cryo tubes, was a U-shaped control station with glowing screens around it, and a reclining chair in front of them with wires trailing to it. The chair was rotated halfway to face Val, and she could see that there was someone lying in it. Someone all too familiar, with big, staring eyes turned up to the ceiling, and thick wavy black hair. His lips were slightly parted, his arms lying flat at his sides.
“Val? Is everything okay?” Carrie appeared beside her in a rush, and then sucked in a rattling breath.
“What is it?” Keller asked loudly, no longer bothering to whisper.
“We’ve found Lewis,” Carrie whispered.
“He’s not moving,” Val added quietly.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Kendra
The howls cut through the air, waking Kendra from a light sleep. She sat up, pulling free from the tight confines of the sleeping bag. Andrew was peering in the direction of the noises, the fire dwindling to embers beside him. It appeared he’d run out of flammable materials, and the surrounding woods were too wet to burn.
“You should sleep.” Kendra rubbed her eyes; even the small movement caused her shoulder to ache.
Andrew’s head jerked around to meet her gaze. “Kendra. No. I was going to wake you.” He held up the tablet, showing the red dot moving away again. “It’s on the go.”
“You need some sleep, Andrew. You’re running on fumes.” She could see the exhaustion in his face, the lines in his forehead deep and furrowed as he frowned at her.
“No can do, Ken. We’ve made it this far. I’m not losing our prize. Pack it up,” he ordered as if she were his subordinate, making her wonder if his earlier acti
ons were just the heat of the moment.
Kendra ran a hand through her hair, knowing what a mess she must look like. Telling herself to stop being so foolish, she climbed out of the warmth of the sleeping bag and into the chilly night. The clouds had rolled away, uncovering a sky full of stars. She didn’t recognize any of the clusters or constellations, leaving her with an uneasy feeling in her gut.
Andrew doused the fire with dirt and waved the smoke away with the tarp, before shoving the supplies into his pack. He moved his head from side to side, cracking his neck, and he gave Kendra a grim smile. “Ready for this?”
“How much farther to the ridge?” she asked, her legs already protesting.
Andrew started forward, passing her the tablet as he walked. “I’d guess two miles.”
“Two miles,” she repeated. That wasn’t so bad.
“Uphill the whole way,” he said, his words a blow to her spirit.
“Of course. Why can’t anything ever be simple?” Kendra asked, not expecting an answer.
“I’ve asked myself that many times over the course of my life,” Andrew told her.
“Do you think they’re okay at camp? With the storm?” Kendra asked.
“Sure. That’s why we have a protocol, locking ourselves into sections of Eden. Those things are airtight. Shouldn’t have anything to worry about tonight,” Andrew said with a confidence Kendra didn’t feel.
She wished there was a way for her to check on them, but apparently only Keller and his group were allowed communicators, and even those struggled to relay over long distances in the valley they called home.
“Don’t you think there’s a more hospitable place to live on this planet?” Andrew asked, as if reading her mind.
“I hope so. If we’re in the nicest region, I’d hate to see the dangerous neighborhoods,” she said with a light laugh.
“We landed pretty quickly. If what Keller says about the meteors is true, I doubt this was Plan A,” Andrew said.
Final Days: Colony Page 27
