by Joshua James
“They figured out how to use the vents,” Ada said.
“How?” Tomas said.
Ada’s voice was flat, but she felt even sicker than before. “They must’ve seen me,” she said. “On the last food run.”
Ada stepped forward and started lighting Shapeless on fire. So did Tomas. The problem was, the aliens just kept coming, one after the other.
“This is bad.” Tomas pointed out the obvious. “I don’t know how much juice these things have, and those monsters aren’t slowing down.”
“Try to concentrate them in one area, focus our flames on them,” Ada said. “Tanisha, I need you to tackle that vent behind us. Freeze whatever comes out and if you can, the vent opening itself.”
Tanisha turned and saw two Shapeless coming straight for her and the small group. They were trying to regain some form as they kept moving forward. She swallowed hard, took a couple of steps forward, and fired the cold caster.
The cold casters sprayed a liquid specifically designed to not only freeze fast, but to conduct that cold to whatever was touched. It was oxygen itself that activated it, and cooling coils in the barrel that flash-cooled it. In practice it was basically an oversized spray bottle that froze whatever was sprayed.
Tanisha wasn’t close enough to the Shapeless, so she had to take a couple more steps forward. Her heart raced as the creatures tried to reach out and swing with claw- and blade-lined limbs, just barely missing her. But to her surprise and, she suspected, Ada’s and Tomas’ too, she didn’t lose her nerve. She even kept spraying as one of the deadly Shapeless limbs stabbed her in the thigh.
“Damn you, asshole!” she shrieked. She focused her cold-caster spray on the Shapeless that injured her, freezing it in place. Then she took care of the second one. Finally she moved her attention to the vent, freezing the Shapeless trying to squeeze out and the opening itself at the same time.
“Do you see him?” asked Ada as she and Tomas had to back up from their handiwork and the resulting extreme heat.
“See who?” answered Tomas with a question. His flamethrower started to sputter; then the stream of flames stopped. “Dammit! I’m out!”
“Captain Saito. Or that thing that pretending to be him.”
Tomas shook his head as Ada’s flame torch sputtered and died. “I think we have more important things to worry about right now,” he said.
Shapeless were still squeezing out of the vents. Many of them died in the fires below, but eventually they started piling up. The new arrivals landed on the ones before them and climbed down, towards the group of survivors.
“Back up,” said Ada as Tanisha did her best to take out as many Shapeless as she could with her cold caster, at least until it started to fall silent. They backed all the way up to one of the steel shutters.
Ada knew what was coming. It was inevitable. They were going to die.
Ada took out her pistol and knife. Tomas picked up a chair, and had his standard-issue pistol. Tanisha held the depleted cold cast gun as a club.
“It was an honor to fight alongside you two. Really. No one else I’d rather greet the great beyond with,” said Tomas.
Tanisha was trembling. Tears streamed down her face.
“Screw that,” Ada said. “It’s not over yet.” She had nothing else to back up her statement with, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t giving up.
The Shapeless got closer. Ada and Tomas warded them off as much as they could with their pistols. Once those were out of ammo, they swung their knives wildly like cornered animals. Tanisha swung wildly with her cold-cast gun until one of the Shapeless’ tendrils wrapped around it and wrenched it away.
She fell forward, but Ada reached out and dragged her back as one of the Shapeless stabbed forward and sucked the knife right out of her hand.
Without thinking, Ada balled up her fists and punched the tendril, slapping the Shapeless away. It was ludicrous, she thought. She was actually trying to fight these things off with her bare knuckles.
She took a step back and felt her ass bump up against the steel shutter that had trapped them in the cafeteria.
There was nowhere else to go. She felt something snap inside.
“Come on, you bastards,” she said, laughing crazily, fists held high. “Put up your dukes!”
Then she felt someone knock on her ass.
Twenty-Nine
“I swear, I can hear something,” Ben said. He knocked on the steel wall again.
“Hello?” a woman screamed.
“Hello?” Ben replied.
“Help! We need help! We’re trapped!” the voice pleaded.
Ben and Ace exchanged a look. “It could be those alien things,” Ace said. “They can look human, right? So maybe they sound human, too.”
Francesca rushed forward. “Ada!” she screamed. She looked at Ben and Ace. “I know her voice. That’s Ada. She’s one of the survivors.” She looked pleadingly at Ben. “She was on the Atlas.”
That was enough for Ben. “Stand clear, we’re coming through!”
Ace looked surprised. “We are?”
Ben raised his rifle. “Get your damn robot up here!”
He fired a dozen superheated bullets through the steel shutter in a concentrated circle. The wall was some sort of temporary emergency curtain, probably to contain fire. It yielded to the bullets easily, tearing open. Ben could hear some kind of animal screeching coming from the other side, but he didn’t have time to investigate before Ace shoved him aside.
“We got this,” he said triumphantly as the police robot crashed its fingers into the hole blown in the shutter and ripped it wide open.
Ben looked over the shoulder of the police robot and through the hole. “What the hell?”
Creatures that looked like churning masses of bone, flesh, and meat, always shifting and trying to find a cohesive shape or form, were massing just beyond the hole. Some of the things must have noticed their efforts, and came straight for the opening.
“What the holy hell…?” Ace said as he came up next to Ben.
“It’s them,” Francesca said. The euphoria of finding her friends seemed to be fading. She was backing away from the hole, shaking her head. “Oh God, it’s them.”
Ben turned to Ace. “Tell me that damn thing can do more than politely ask people to identify themselves.”
Ace reached up to his temple, and Ben knew he was interacting with his HUD. A moment later, the police drone finished shoving its way through the opening, which was now big enough for Ben and Ace to walk through. Its robotic fingers retracted, and a pair of huge autocannons slipped out.
“Watch this,” Ace said. The police drone started firing 20mm pulse rounds into the creatures beyond. “That should slow them down.”
The power of the bullets sent chunks and pieces of the creatures splattering everywhere. Still, the mass of the creatures seemed to barely notice as the police robot kept pushing forward, blasting chunk after chunk away.
“Uh, Ace,” Ben said. “That doesn’t seem—”
“Bullets can’t stop them!” barked a woman who leaned her head into the opening. She was wearing a UEF Marine flak jacket. One of her arms was covered in blood that ran up her neck. A thick vein bulged on her forehead, and she had a crazed look that made Ben involuntarily lean back.
“Who the hell are you?” Ace asked. Ben realized she had the voice that Francesca had called Ada.
“Who the hell cares!” she snapped back. “Your goddamn toy isn’t going to save us.”
“It’s not a toy, lady,” Ace said. “It’s a—”
“Tanisha, go,” Ada said to someone beside her. She shoved a scared-looking woman through the opening.
Without thinking, Ben reached out and grabbed her. She was lighter than he expected. She was tiny, in fact, and she was trembling so badly that he thought something might be wrong with her. “You’re okay, Tanisha,” he said.
She nodded, but looked almost relieved when he let go of her. She shuffled back to join Frances
ca, who was huddling against the other side of the hallway.
“Shit,” Ace said, “Bastards!”
Ben looked back and saw that the creatures were swarming over the police drone. Abruptly, both the 20mm guns went silent.
“Now what?”
Ada stuck her head back through the opening. “Keep them occupied,” she said. “I have an idea.”
She grabbed the man that had been standing with her. Like her, he wore a UEF flak jacket. These were all Atlas survivors, Ben realized. All of them.
“How the hell do we keep them occupied if bullets won’t kill them?” Ace shouted back.
Ada slammed her fist into the metal shutter so hard it dented inward and almost smacked Ace in the side of his face. “Just figure something out!” she growled; then she and the other one took off in the direction of one of the food stands.
“Super,” said Ace. “We try to rescue them and they run off.”
Ben stuck the business end of his rifle through the opening and started firing at the creatures.
“Hey, dummy,” Ace said. “She just said that bullets won’t kill them.”
“But they’ll distract them, dipshit,” Ben said. “So start shooting.”
“This is stupid,” Ace said. “Why didn’t she just come with us?”
“Because she doesn’t want to get away,” said the small voice of Tanisha behind them.
Ben and Ace glanced back at her.
“She wants to kill them,” Tanisha said. “She wants to kill all of them.”
Ben looked back at Ace as the two of them continued firing. “Hard to disagree with that.”
“Well, if the plan is to keep them coming at us, it’s working,” Ace said as the first of the creatures had almost reached the opening. “They’re here.”
Thirty
Ace was right, of course. But Ben also saw that whatever Ada was doing, she was getting time to do it. He squinted as he saw her climbing over the top of the counter and running into the kitchen. She reappeared a few seconds later with a flexible coil-like metal pipe. She dragged it out just as the other Marine with her started pulling more pipe with him. The ends of the pipes were open, and even from this distance, Ben could see the tell-tale disturbances in the air around them that told him what they were.
“Shit,” Ben said. “Those are gas lines.”
Ace followed Ben’s line of sight. “What the hell are they doing with those?”
Ada pulled something from her utility belt. Ben knew instantly what it was. He’d seen plenty of Marines stationed on the UEF ships he’d served on.
Having been a Marine himself once upon a time, Ace spotted it right away as well. “You don’t think she’s gonna—”
Ada almost nonchalantly pulled the pin and armed the white phosphorus grenade.
“I think she’s gonna,” Ben said.
Ada let out a blood-curdling stream of profanity that would make most of the men Ben had ever served with blush as she tossed the grenade into the center of the cafeteria.
Then she dove behind the cafeteria counter.
Ace and Ben both spun around and ran for the other side of the hallway, screaming at Tanisha and Francesca to get down, even though they were already huddled together tightly.
Ben put his arms around them in a big bear hug just as a wave of fire burst through the hole in the steel shutter and scorched the ceiling of the hallway, ripping a hole in it that sent electrical wires and ceiling panels falling down all around them.
A couple of body parts that seemed more or less whole managed to blow through the hole, too. Ace ran around like a madman, blowing any chunks he found into the tiniest pieces he could. Soot and ash spilled out of the opening into the cafeteria, like a black cloud of death.
“Ada!” screamed Francesca, getting to her feet and running toward the opening. Ben scooped her up before she could get there.
“Hang on,” he said. “Wait a second. We don’t even know—”
“What the hell was she thinking?” Ace exploded. “That could have blown open a hole right into space!” He shook his head angrily. “We could be losing oxygen right now. We might be dead and just not know it yet.”
“Take it easy,” Ben said. “I think if we were getting sucked into space, it would have happened by now.”
“Is she still alive?” Francesca asked, as if Ben or anyone else could answer that question.
Ace snorted. “There’s no way—”
Something slammed hard against the metal shutter, and Ben and Ace both instinctively swung their rifles around.
“One upside to blowing a hole into space is that it would clear the air in here a little bit,” Ada said, coughing as she stuck her head through the hole. Her face was covered in black soot and streaked with what looked like a fresh smear of blood.
She climbed out, followed by the other Marine. He, too, was covered black from head to foot.
Ace just stared at her. “You’re crazy.”
“I’ve been called worse,” she said.
“Ada, I presume?” Ben said.
Ada cocked her head. “How did you—”
“Ada!” screamed Francesca, pulling away from Ben’s grip and rushing to hug her.
Ada winced as the teenager gave her a big hug, probably aggravating half a dozen injuries in the process. “Hey, kiddo,” Ada said. “Who are your new friends?”
Ben was about to introduce himself when he sensed Ace raising his rifle.
“Hold it right there,” Ace said.
Ben frowned. “What are you doing?”
“You remember what Bob said.”
“Before you shot him?”
“Yeah, before I shot him. He said that their saviors, the Shapeless, can take any form.”
“We already knew that,” Ben said.
“Yeah, well, now that we’re all getting more acquainted with them in action, how do we know these guys aren’t them?” Ace asked.
“Because I’m pretty sure they just fried ‘them’.”
Ace nodded. “Sure, but that would be a pretty good cover,” he said. “Don’t you think?”
“How the hell do we know you aren’t them?” said the man next to Ada. “I mean, it goes both ways.”
Ace sneered. “I’m not one of them, asshole,” as if that were actually proof.
Ben took a deep breath. Ace wasn’t actually wrong. This was the new reality. They couldn’t even trust people that looked normal anymore. Maybe they couldn’t even trust the person in the mirror anymore.
Still, sometimes you had to take a leap of faith. He looked at Ada. He took her all in, head to toe; then he laughed.
“You’re not wrong, Ace,” Ben said. “But I’m gonna risk it. Because I know a goddamned UEF Marine when I see one.”
He walked over and shook Ada’s hand. “I’m Ben.”
Ace lowered his rifle. “Ah, screw it.”
The man next to Ada shook Ben’s hand. “Tomas.”
“And I’m Ace,” Ace said.
Ada frowned. “That’s your real name?”
“Yeah, it’s my real name,” Ace said, as Ben stifled laughter. “Why the hell wouldn’t it be?”
Ada cocked an eyebrow. “No reason.” She looked back to Ben, seemingly sizing him up as he’d just done to her. “Seriously, though, who the hell are you guys? Military? Station residents? What?”
“None of the above,” Ben said. He glanced at Ace. “It’s complicated. We’re here looking for the Atlas.”
“You found it,” Tomas said, “Or what’s left of it.”
“That’s not the real reason,” Ace said. “At least not for him.” He motioned to Ben.
Ada again cocked her eyebrow. She was a badass, no question, but there was a little playfulness there that Ben appreciated. “And what’s the real reason, Ben?”
He hesitated. “I’m here looking for my dad.”
“Your dad?”
“His name is Ben Saito,” Francesca said, letting it sink in.
Ada lo
oked shocked. “As in…”
“As in Captain Saito is his father,” Francesca said.
Ada stared at Ben. “Captain Saito. Captain Lee Saito.” She searched his face as he said it.
Ben nodded. “The old man is my old man,” he said, reciting an oft-heard joke from his days on starships where his father was captain.
Ada seemed to be at a loss for words for a moment. “Captain Saito is…” She hesitated. “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to tell you this, but…your father is dead.”
Epilogue
Captain Lee Saito found himself in the stairwell of the luxury apartment tower in the UEF Annapolis Naval Base. Admiral Chevenko and the other officers, who’d attended the party celebrating his assignment on the historic Atlas mission, were there with him. All of them had rifles in their hands, but they were frozen. He was the only one who could move.
Saito made several attempts to try and get his comrades’ attention. When he looked at their faces they were twisted, inhuman, as if they were once people whose visages had been melted. Scared and confused, he fell back on the stairs.
Motivated, driven by some unseen force, Saito looked up the stairs. Standing there at the top was his wife, Beverly. She almost glowed in her sundress, the same one she’d worn to the boardwalk on that idyllic day with their son Ben. She wore her usual smile, but here it made him sad, and he didn’t know why.
“Beverly? What are you doing here?” Saito wanted to ask, but the words didn’t come out. He climbed up the stairs on his hands and knees. His wife turned and walked out of view.
When he reached the top of the stairs, Saito didn’t see his wife. She was nowhere to be seen. There was only a long hallway, but it wasn’t that of his apartment building. It was the residential level of Sanctuary Station 33.
Saito stood up. He looked down the red-lit hall and felt an overwhelming dread, though he couldn’t put his finger on why. His feet moved on their own, making him walk down the hallway slowly.
