“Here,” he said, pressing in the wall. There was a boulder. We all assisted him, shoving the heavy stone aside.
We followed him through a narrow icy corridor with a rocky floor. It was only wide enough for us to walk two abreast. Luther stepped out in front of us by a dozen paces, aiming the minigun down the corridor. The tunnel sloped downward with a gradual right turn.
I noticed the two soldiers in front of me, one of them was carrying an additional rifle. “Soldier,” I said.
“What is it?” he asked. Renheart glanced over his shoulder at the soldier’s response.
“I need that rifle on your back,” I said, yanking my thumb behind me at Zion. He was unarmed.
He glanced forward at Luther before turning toward me. “Look. I’m down to two magazines with each rifle. I need them both,” he whispered.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “We’re only going to get one chance at this, and we need as many eyes pointed down rifle sights as possible. That gun slung over your back won’t do us any good dangling there,” I argued.
He looked at Zion. “Does he even know how to shoot it? I can’t do that,” the soldier replied, facing forward.
I tapped him on the soldier. “Hey. You will do it,” I said, glaring at him.
Renheart turned around. “Soldier. Are you disobeying a knight’s orders? She commanded you to give up that extra rifle, now do it,” he scolded.
The soldier did a double take at me. “Oh, ma’am. My apologies, I didn’t know you had been promoted to a knight,” he said.
Neither did I. Considering the circumstances, there wasn’t much to celebrate.
He handed over the AK-47 to Zion. “You know how to use this?” I asked him.
His eyes widened. “Absolutely, I might be a mechanic and engineer, but most everyone in the Legion can fire a rifle,” he replied. I looked forward and met eyes with Renheart.
The dark corridor widened ahead. I noticed some type of metal booth structure that was attached to a large pulley system overhead with cables. “Sire, what’s that, ahead?” Renheart asked.
“It’s a makeshift elevator. We built it several years ago,” Luther said. He set down the minigun and walked to the right side of the elevator. There was a large wheel and crank beside the elevator.
“Three at a time, we’re going down. Renheart, Victoria, and Zion, you go first,” Luther ordered. We boarded the steel elevator. The floors and ceiling were grated steel in a diamond pattern. It was pitch dark below us as Luther gazed downward, holding his stare for a moment. He glanced at us before shutting the elevator door.
The panels on the sides of the elevator were rusted and looked like an amateur welder had slapped it together on a lazy afternoon. While the steel was thick, I questioned its capacity. There was enough room for all of us to fit inside, yet Luther held them back.
Luther began to crank the wheel on the side of the elevator. It made a screeching sound. We dropped down meter suddenly and stopped abruptly. The elevator jolted back and forth.
“Whoa,” I said. The quick fall surprised me. We crouched down, stretching our arms out cautiously as we looked up at Luther. He peered over at us.
“Sometimes it does that, it’s fine,” he said confidently
The descent was faster than I would have liked, but we were in a hurry. The structure swayed back and forth as Zion and Renheart’s faces were slowly consumed by the darkness. My helmet’s night vision automatically engaged, illuminating them.
Zion closed his eyes and bit his lip as we reached the bottom. I noticed his eyelid twitching. He adjusted the grip on his rifle. There was a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead. “I can’t see a damn thing,” he whispered.
“I can, just stay close,” I said, gripping my sword handle.
“Remember your training, knight, proper spacing is imperative,” Renheart said.
“Understood,” I said confidently.
Renheart opened the metal door as it shrieked loudly. He immediately ignited his sword and stepped forward, slowly waving the glowing white blade in the darkness. It hummed in the otherwise silent passage, revealing an icy cave tunnel in front of us.
“I’ve lived here my whole life, I even worked with the Engineer on the railways, I’ve never seen this place before,” Zion said.
“Neither have I,” Renheart muttered. Beside the entrance was an icepick and two hardhats.
We stepped off the elevator. “We’re clear!” I shouted upward loud enough for Luther to hear. He reacted instantly, reeling it back topside as we waited.
The elevator screeched on its way back down, slamming into the rocky floor beneath it. The door opened, revealing the two Legion soldiers with the minigun. Renheart and I met eyes as we looked up. “How’s Luther getting down?” I asked.
As the soldiers stepped out of the elevator, the cable above it moved. A grinding sound erupted topside. I looked up and noticed a trail of sparks as Luther rappelled downward with one hand, interlocking his feet around the metal cable.
He crashed atop the elevator on one knee as the cage squeaked. His cape swooshed up and slowly fell back down on him as the elevator rocked back and forth.
Luther jumped down to ground level, hurrying past us. “This way,” he directed as we moved aside. He held his stare at me as he walked in front, leading the way. Even through his mask, I could feel him assessing my emotional state. Despite the extreme gravity of the situation, I was still very much on his mind.
I gathered a part of him was obviously concerned for my safety, but he understood I was an asset, and we needed all the help we could get.
He ignited his sword, navigating through the cramped, winding rock and ice path. Water dripped from the icicles on the ceiling in places, pooling up on the floor. After nearly a minute of pushing through the cave’s twists and turns, we reached an ice wall. Luther stopped in his tracks. He seemed surprised.
“Did we take the wrong turn, sire?” Renheart asked.
Luther glanced over this shoulder. “No. There was a small crevasse here. It was just large enough to pass through. The ice from above must have melted and refrozen, blocking our entry.”
“Step back,” Luther instructed. He stabbed his sword into the frozen wall. It sizzled and popped as the sword melted through the thick ice. He slowly peered inside the small hole he’d made.
“Anything? Renheart asked.
Luther shook his head. “Negative.”
He plunged his sword back inside the ice. Steam funneled from the wall, quickly filling the passageway as Luther etched out a large chuck of ice almost the size of his torso.
He thrusted his metal fingers inside the cube like an ice hook, pulling it out of the wall.
We assisted him by moving each block out of his way. As he carved out the last chuck of ice, he paused, watching us for a moment.
I allowed him a moment to continue. “Luther, what’s wrong?” I asked.
He continued working. “Nothing. Déjà vu perhaps,” he replied.
Luther tossed the last cube aside. “Victoria, what can you see?” he asked. I hurried forward and peered into the darkness ahead. There was a stone tunnel directly in front of me. There was nothing to see but uneven bricks and spots of ice here and there. To the left were several metal storage crates. It was dead silent.
“Look to your right, far into the distance,” he directed.
I zoomed in. “Oh. There’s... a large sentry booth looks like,” I said.
“Usually twelve soldiers and two knights are stationed there,” Luther stated.
“Ah. I know where we are now, we’re near the main living quarters,” Renheart muttered.
Luther squeezed through the small gap. Renheart and Zion handed him the minigun through the crevasse.
Luther searched the surrounding area on the other side, aiming the heavy machine from his hip. He moved near the sentry booth and peered around it. He turned back, waving us in. One by one we moved through the gap into the dark corridor and regrouped w
ith Luther near the sentry’s checkpoint.
He peeked around the booth and pointed. “The bulk of the population would normally be around this corner.”
“How much time before the Moderator arrives?” Renheart asked Luther, he glanced at me.
Luther shook his head. “Twelve minutes, minimum. The shortcut bought us time.”
We hurried around the sentry’s checkpoint and two large stacks of folded blankets. There was a long corridor about twelve meters wide with dark gray stone floors. The ceiling was ice, and at least twenty meters high. The cool blue color gave off a calming feeling despite the intensity of the situation. There were tall wooden walls on each side of the corridor that divided the area into spacious sections.
It reminded me of a large apartment complex, but more open. There were no doors, only walls between them. In each section, there were between five and fifteen beds along with a desk and a lodging area.
There were large, thick curtains that could extend across each section, giving them additional privacy, but most of them were open.
“Never been here before, have you?” Zion asked me as Luther set down the minigun, he paced back and forth in deep thought.
I shook my head. “No.”
Zion nodded. His eyes were glossed over. “I live here with my family, third section on the right. Each section is a different family, sometimes four generations worth,” he said. I looked at him as he gazed into his home with an even mix of determination and worry.
I noticed the seven beds in his home were made, as if they hoped to return soon. I noticed a few carved wooden toys on the floor.
The accommodations here were different from what I was accustomed to, but it was cozy.
Luther looked back and forth and stopped. “There’s only one entrance here, and that’s the direction we came from. Each of these housing sections has an escape hatch we built in because of the Mave. Here’s my plan: Myself, Renheart, and Victoria will be waiting underground inside the hatches, here, near the entrance,” he said.
Luther pointed to the opposite end of the corridor, a dead end. “I want each of my shooters and Zion, stationed at the end of this hallway in sniping positions, along with the minigun,” he explained.
“As soon as you get a line of sight on the Moderator. Open fire with everything you have. When it turns that corner to the housing units, I want it to think you’re protecting the population, that we’re hiding people in the back. I want it to pursue,” Luther said.
Zion stepped forward. “Sire, won’t it detect you before the ambush?”
I looked at Zion. “The android’s system has an onboard heartbeat sensor. It won’t be able to detect us underground, or you all the way at the end of the corridor, it’s too far. It will be forced to move forward to see what we’re protecting,” I said.
Luther nodded and picked up the chain gun. “And that’s exactly what I want,” he said. Renheart picked up the ammunition belt and positioned it across Luther’s shoulders.
Luther hurried to the end of the corridor. We followed him as he quickly set up the chain gun, placing it beside a metal cargo bin. “Hide here, behind this storage container and wait for it,” Luther directed Zion and the soldiers.
“Sire, when do we stop shooting?” Zion asked.
“When you see us launch our attack, otherwise, don’t stop firing,” he replied.
We hurried back down to the entrance of the living quarters. “We have one more trick up our sleeves,” Luther said. He stopped and ignited his sword. He took a half step forward. “Here,” he said, etching a small line into the ground.
“What is that?” I asked.
“This section of the floor has a pressure release. A trap. From inside the escape hatches, anyone can activate it. When stepped on, anything over thirty kilograms will collapse this entire section,” Luther said, pointing out a rectangle shape along the hall that ran the entire length of the corridor and about eight meters wide. Luther moved inside the first housing unit on the right near the guard station.
Luther pointed across the hall. “Knight Renheart, you’ll be in the opposite housing unit, inside the hatch. When you hear the floor release, bring hell with you. I don’t know how long the Moderator will stay trapped below, but it’s our job to take advantage of the situation before it gets out.”
“I had a feeling you might make use the of floor trap, sire,” Renheart grinned. “For the Legion,” he added, clenching his fist to his chest. Luther and I returned the gesture.
Renheart turned his back and hurried into position, and Luther I did the same, rushing to the back wall of the first housing unit. We moved several beds aside to give us a clear line to rush the Moderator. On the way back, I noticed a baby’s blue crib rocking back and forth. One of us must have nudged it. I stopped, looking inside the empty crib.
“Hey,” Luther said.
“I-I’m on the way,” I assured.
There was a circular metal hatch near the back wall. Luther opened it and waved me inside. I climbed down a yellow ladder into the circular tunnel. “Back inside another foxhole,” I muttered. I was only able to use one hand to descend.
There were dim red lights inside along the rocky walls. “We built these hatches and the pressure release floor against the Mave,” he said, climbing inside with me. He pulled the hatch over him.
There was a small lever that he turned counterclockwise. “Now, the trap is set. Anything that steps on the section will trigger the pressure release,” he said, sealing the hatch just above him.
“How deep will that trap collapse the floor?” I asked. In my mind, a floor pit wouldn’t be enough to stop the Moderator, only slow it down momentarily.
“Just over ten meters deep. At the bottom of the pit, there’s a vat of slimy adhesive specifically designed to bind to metallic structures. We designed it for the Mave. So even if they escaped somehow, their movement speed would be severely hindered,” he explained.
“Hopefully, it works similarly for the Moderator,” I said.
“It will,” he said, glancing at me below.
We waited silently for a few minutes. “Luther, do you think it went to another one of the living quarters? It’s been over twelve minutes,” I whispered.
Luther looked up and paused. “Maybe, but eventually it will have to come here, this is the bulk of the population and—”
“Shit,” I mumbled. My stomach knotted up as muted machine gun fire erupted above us. I could hear the chain gun’s thunderous rapid fire, along with the sound of debris from bullet impacts.
The Moderator was here.
“Get ready, the floor makes a loud crashing sound when the trap collapses,” Luther mouthed. He gripped the handle on the hatch above him. I grabbed his other hand. I felt him squeeze it. This was it.
After fifteen seconds, the gunfire stopped abruptly. I could hear footsteps above us in the hall, like metal hooves clacking against the floor.
“Did Zion run out of ammo?” I whispered. Luther didn’t respond. I could hear the Moderator’s footsteps stop somewhere near the trapdoor.
I closed my eyes for a moment. “Please,” I muttered.
A deafening boom went off. “Let’s go!” Luther twisted and pushed open the hatch. I heard Renheart’s hatch clank loudly across the hall as we scrambled topside, rushing out the trapdoors with our swords ignited.
Luther and I rounded the housing unit dividing wall and stopped on a dime. The Moderator was standing near the trapdoor, tapping the edge of it with its foot. Its arms were outstretched, aiming both its mounted cannons at us and Renheart on the opposite side.
“Almost,” it said.
“Get down!” Luther roared as a blinding bright light strobed overhead. I ducked down and disengaged my sword. I felt a rough grip under my arm as Luther snatched me toward him, cradling me as we rolled across the housing unit. Orbs of blue-white light demolished the wooden structure as splinters of wood and debris flung in all directions.
After several sec
onds of chaos, it stopped abruptly.
We were hiding behind a flipped over desk. I panted heavily as I glanced across the hall. Knight Renheart was leaning against the left wall in the opposite housing unit. A large cavity was blown out of his upper chest. His dead eyes seemed to gaze through us. My hands were trembling as I felt the weight of humanity’s survival on our shoulders. Zion and the Legion soldiers had stopped firing, and now Renheart was gone. It was possible we were alone.
“Come on,” Luther whispered as we scooted back toward the escape hatch.
We crawled along the floor. Luther opened the hatch.
“Fitting isn’t it?” the Moderator said in a taunting voice. I could hear its footsteps as it edged around the trapdoor toward us.
“Just look at where we are now. This place is the very symbol of what you humans consider to be your core—family, and yet, it will serve as the stage for mankind’s end. After the Engineer is gone, I won’t need the XU-97 to finish my work,” it said.
“I can hear your little hearts pounding. I know where you are. But why haven’t I killed you yet? I’m quite capable of doing so,” the Moderator challenged. I felt Luther shove me toward the hatch. “Inside, now,” he demanded.
“Wait.” I kicked my legs over into the hole and began to descend as Luther stood up, igniting his blade. What remained of the housing unit had caught fire.
“Luther, come on!” I yelled. The Moderator slowly walked through the flames, aiming its cannons at Luther. It kicked aside the baby’s crib in its path, and it exploded into a hundred pieces.
The Moderator sighed. “Now... where could you have hidden all these families, Engineer? They’re here somewhere in this underground labyrinth, aren’t they?”
Luther aimed his sword at the Moderator as they circled half a dozen meters apart. “Don’t try it, Engineer. I’ll drop you where you stand before you can take that first step. You might be faster than your human counterparts, but it’s not enough,” the Moderator warned. I glanced down into the hatch below me.
It made no sense to retreat. There was no one waiting to mount a counterattack, I was only delaying the inevitable, not to mention, I wasn’t leaving him behind. I pushed back up the ladder, but before I could climb out, the Moderator’s arm mounted cannon pointed down at me. “Out.” With a flick of the wrist, the Moderator ordered me out of the hole.
The Legacy of the Lioness Page 18
