by DoctorHepa
Katia shrugged. “I don’t know if it will. But this double-sided noodle thing is a lot of trouble to go through for it to not make any difference. Maybe it’s just extra fluff to appease the nerds. But it’s been bothering me for days, and now it makes sense. It feels like a trap to me. The announcement said we’d have our hands full, but unless something new happens, that’s not true.”
She was right. But what was the purpose other than to be confusing as shit?
“Hey, Mordecai,” I said. “When you first said you figured out the map, before your time out, you said this was something you’d seen before, just on a smaller scale. What did you mean?”
“There was a floor once that was like a rat maze, and it had rooms that were like giant, sliding puzzle pieces. It was also a fourth floor. The pieces of this one area slid together to make the Syndicate logo, and it opened up the exit. Actually,” he said, eyes going wide. “I forgot about this part. Once the pieces were together, the whole thing spun on the center axis, flipping everyone upside down into a hidden chamber below them.”
Carl: Hey Imani and Elle. What do you know about the province boss that’s hanging out in some of the station 36s?
Imani: It’s a bunch of wrath ghouls tied together. It forms a giant monster covered with mouths. It fills the whole station. It’s pretty much the same thing as the boss at all the station 48s.
I thought for a moment. If the floors flipped, it wouldn’t make a difference. Unless… Holy Jesus.
Carl: Is the boss attached to the ceiling of the chamber?
Imani: I don’t think so. But I don’t know for sure. What are you getting at?
Think, think.
Elle: The fuckers sound scary as shit. You’re not thinking about fighting one are you? Because I’m pretty sure we talked about this already, cowboy. Nobody can even kill one of those city boss mimics, let alone a province boss. Did you watch the recap? Those poor bastards fought that boss and were wiped in about thirty seconds. Also, that was pretty fucked up. What you did to that poor hyena. I know the show is exaggerating things, but I worry about you sometimes.
Carl: Do you know if the ghoul generators at 12 and 72 hang from the ceiling?
Imani: I think they just float in the middle of the room. Carl. Speak to me.
I returned my gaze back to the circled station 24, where the Krakaren babies were gathered. They were getting bigger by the hour. By all accounts, they weren’t ranging far from the area. But if there were so many of them, getting bigger by the moment, where were they all going?
“You know,” I said. “If this whole thing is a metaphor like you say, about how bad the Krakaren monsters really are for the universe, about how they’re using the tunnel system to spread their influence or whatever, then I’m guessing they’ll want them to be the final blow. The exclamation point to their stupid political cartoon.”
“But how?” Katia asked.
I think there might be an empty chamber between the two levels.
I thought back to the time Katia and I entered the empty stairwell station. It’d been a group of stairwells, all closed. They were in a circle in the middle of the room. How big was that empty space in the middle of the circle? Pretty big. About the circumference of a railway tunnel.
Carl: Fuck me. I think I’ve figured it out.
A note from DoctorHepa
Howdy all! It's crazy end-of-book stuff from here on out. Here is the schedule for the fourth-floor endgame.
Chapter 104 - Thursday, October 29th 6 PM PST
Chapter 105 - Friday, October 30th 6 PM PST (A pretty big cliffhanger)
Chapter 106/107 - Double Chapter Grand Finale Monday, November 2nd 6 PM PST/6:30 PM PST
(If the world hasn't burned to the ground thanks to the US election)
Chapter 108 (Epilogue) - Thursday, November 5th 6PM PST
Chapter 104
Immediately after the revelation, we jumped into action. I frantically sent out a notification for everybody to abandon all stairwell stations. Any other place would be safer. We didn’t know exactly when it was going to happen, but I suspected it would be soon.
A few groups thought I was full of shit, and they happily said so. Thankfully I talked Bautista over at the crowded station 72 to get out of there. They mostly fell back to the employee station 60, waiting to see what would happen. Several other groups retreated to the tracks and the platforms. They still had ghouls to contend with there, but not so many. For now the Krakaren babies were staying put and only attacking if you got near station 24. The little fuckers were getting bigger by the hour.
Elle took a team of fighters, including Katia and Donut, to range down to the outskirts of station 24 to fight and grind on the things, which were now all level 14-17 Krakaren Juvenile Clonelings. They were monkey-sized and covered with tentacles. Katia was trying out her new crowd control techniques while the others experimented with different types of attacks to see what worked best against them. Fire worked well. Crossbow bolts took them down, but only if you hit center mass. Chopping off their tentacles caused them to retreat, but only temporarily. Spells like Magic Missile worked, but not too well. Lightning did nothing. Elle’s freeze attacks did nothing unless it was an icicle through the body. Bashing weapons only worked if you hit really hard. Psychic attacks worked really well, causing them all to stop for a moment, but it didn’t do any real damage. We only had two people who could cast that type of magic.
The monsters were fast and had round, teeth-filled mouths that worked like living garbage disposals. Their tentacles burned on touch. Their blood was caustic, like with the xenomorphs from Alien. Plus they screamed, Katia said, which was really unnerving.
While Katia and Donut killed Krakaren children, I went to work. It took a good five hours to get the two interdiction carts back to station 75 and then dialed into a colored line that intersected with the correct station 36. From there I gathered 20 high-strength crawlers, and we went to work transporting one of the two carts—we chose the Def Leppard cart—from the rails to inside the main chamber of station 36. We physically lifted it off the tracks. I was worried 20 guys wouldn’t be enough, but once again I underestimated our extreme strength. We lifted it easily and with little effort. After some experimenting, I found it only took five or six guys to lift the cart.
When I first came up with the idea, I hadn’t thought it through. Each rapid-response cart was about the width and height of a cargo van, and maybe one and a half times longer. While the station platform, and the stairwell itself, was just wide enough to carry the cart, there was no way to get it through the tight hallway system that led to the main room of station 36. In my head, the caverns had been much bigger, but when I arrived, I realized the plan was DOA. The hallway walls were practically indestructible, and we didn’t have time to fuck around trying to figure out how to widen them, go around several bends, and then get the train cart into the room.
Salvation came in the form of Zhang, Li Jun’s best friend. He emerged just as I was directing the crawlers to put the cart back on the track. I examined the bald, Chinese man’s properties as he came jogging up. He was still human. He was a level-28 Earth Mover. Li Jun had said he was a mage-tank combo. He now wore glowing, black and gold, segmented armor.
“Stop. Wait,” he said. He bent over, breathless. “Sorry. I ran here from the safe room. Li Jun told me what you’re attempting, and I’ve come to help.” He held up a stick. “I got you guys.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s a magic wand. It shrinks. It only has one charge left. It doesn’t work on living things, but we still used it get past a few bosses. Once we shrunk the monster’s collar, and it choked him to death. And once I used it to stop a train that was going to run us down. I was saving the last zap for an emergency. It’ll work on the train cart, make it small for five minutes. But it’ll still be as heavy as before.”
“Holy shit,” I said. “That’s amazing. How small will it make it? If it’s still heavy, we’ll still
need it big enough that we can push and turn it.”
“Size is easy,” he said. “It starts shrinking once I zap it, and it keeps getting smaller until I turn it off. Otherwise it stops on its own when it’s about the size of a button.”
“And you did it on a train before? You know it’ll work?”
“Yes,” he said. “It worked on the whole train and killed everybody on board. I jumped six levels all at once. I even got a boss box and a multi-kill box. It saved our lives.”
“Well, shit,” I said, turning to the other crawlers. “Let’s get this thing back up the stairs.”
After a harrowing four and half minutes rolling the much-smaller cart through the twisting hallway, we pushed heavy cart into the main chamber. We quickly shoved it to the center of the room, stopping it between the circle of inactive stairwells. It sat on the circle in the middle of the room. The floor had a faint etching on it: a side view of the Syndicate logo that I’d never have noticed if Mordecai hadn’t shown us the night before. We all quickly backed up as the cart returned to its regular size, making a popping noise like a balloon being inflated.
“All righty,” I said, slapping my hands together. “Now comes the fun part.”
Imani came to stand next to me. She regarded the cart suspiciously. I knew she wasn’t a big fan of this idea, especially the next part. Still, she’d contributed to the plan. She’d still had a few of those chain-making scrolls in her inventory, and I asked her to use them. Several piles of the magical chain sat coiled and ready.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked. She had her colorful butterfly wings fully extended, and every time they touched me, they gave me a constitution buff that lasted ten minutes. The buff didn’t stack, but the timer reset every time the ethereal wings brushed across me. Each brush felt soft against my skin, like a sudden, pleasant breeze.
“No,” I said. I started pulling large, metal pieces from my inventory as the others started attaching the chains to the cart. “No, I’m not sure. But nobody else was coming up with any other ideas.”
She nodded. “What about the others? At the other stations.”
“I warned them what’s coming. That’s the best we can do. Some people are sending folks to the Desperado to buy smoke curtains and hobgoblin dynamite to get ready. Others are forming outside the rooms and waiting to see what happens. If it happens like I anticipate, it’s about to get crazy. Everyone is going to have to fight. They’ll have to carve their way to the stairwells and then keep that path open while everyone goes down.”
“And you really think this cart will keep us from having to fight?” Imani asked.
I grinned. “Oh, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of fighting. I just want to even the odds a little.”
Across the way, a man with a spell that worked like an arc welder joined up two pieces of metal that had been too big for me to work at my engineering or new metalworking table. I’d already attached the two train wheels to the top, which were part of the pulley and lever system that we’d use to lift the cart. When they were done putting all the pieces together, the crane would have five legs, one placed between each of the five stairwells. Each piece would arch up and meet high above the center of the five stairwells. When we were done, it would look like some bullshit college campus art installation, or a half-finished jungle gym, instead of what it really was: a crane.
Less than an hour later, we used Imani’s magical chain to lift the back end of the interdiction cart into the air. The cart lifted easily, and the magical chain did not break. Once it was pulled all the way up and about a half of an inch off the ground, we locked the chain into place. The entire cart hung vertically in the room, like it was a prize fish on display. The front of the cart faced downward. The small scoop that represented the bottom of the portal scraped against the marble floor. With a group of us holding the cart in place and several others leaning against the crane’s five legs, we made a few slight adjustments. Once we had the cart where we wanted, we used additional chains to anchor the front in place so it wouldn’t swing.
From there, I used my handmade ladder to climb up and to the cockpit. I patted the two Growler Gary left hands to make sure they were still firmly in place, and then I turned on the portal. I tuned it to the abyss.
The portal crackled to life, facing downward. It was almost the exact same size as the circle of marble in the center of the room.
Katia and Donut returned to the chamber. Katia was still 37, but Donut had raised a level to 33. Mongo had gone up a few levels to 26. Mordecai had insisted that we used Mongo as much as possible before the level was done, and I was glad to see the dinosaur had done well against the octopus monsters.
“I think it’s going to happen soon,” Katia said. She was in her she-hulk form, about eight feet tall and wide. She had her riot shield on her left arm, and she’d chosen to keep it in its original form. It made her look especially imposing. “They all started heading back into the station a few minutes ago.”
“They’re quite easy to kill,” Donut said. She jumped from Mongo’s back to my shoulder and gave me a side headbutt. “You should’ve been there. It was fun.”
“I bet it was,” I said. I pointed to the dangling interdiction cart with the crackling shield. “God, I hope our theory is correct.”
“Well,” Katia said. “If the entire floor disappears, and not just the center, then there’s nothing we could’ve done anyway. The clock is going to hit one day left in ten minutes. I bet it’ll happen then.”
“Okay, guys,” I called. I looked nervously down at the floor beneath my feet. “Everybody out of the station. Quick.”
* * *
The clock ticked down to one day left. We’d all left the station, spreading out to the several different platforms that led up to the main room. We stood upon the Vermillion line platform, where my sole remaining interdiction cart waited. This was the same cart we’d ridden all the way up to the end of the line to save Bautista and crew. This one was tuned to station E, the same station where the mimic still waited for crawlers to munch upon. No monsters had approached for a while now, but we didn’t want to gather everybody in the same place, nor did we want to get sneaked up upon. So we dispersed. Donut stood on my shoulder while Mongo leaned up against me. Katia and Elle chatted while Imani moved about the others, making sure they were all okay.
And just like that, it was on.
System message. Attention. Attention. The management of the Iron Tangle would like to warn all customers and employees that the system has broken down. No more lines are running. You are no longer safe. We have been betrayed by the Krakaren, whom we thought were benevolent. We have been forced to initiate the self-destruct sequence. Throughout the system, the emergency escape tunnels are opening. Please be aware of possible gravitational shifts when you enter the escape tunnels. All employees are urged to use the tunnels to proceed to station 60 and await further instructions. All customers please use the escape tunnels to proceed to the stairwell portals at stations 12, 24, 36, 48, 72, or 433 on any of the lines. These stairwell portals are powering up now and will open in exactly 18 hours. They will only be open for six hours before the self-destruction charges will blow.
This is the Iron Tangle, signing off. May the gods have mercy on you. Thanks for riding with us, and have a great day.
“They’re laying the story on a little thick,” Donut grumbled. “I mean, really. Are we supposed to be cosplaying as terrified commuters now? Do I look like someone who would use public transportation?”
A mighty screeching noise filled the entire dungeon, like a rusty, old door being forced open. I felt a rumble under my feet.
My chat was suddenly filled with people screaming for their lives.
Ronaldo Qu: a round section of floor disappeared in the middle of the station. It fell away and then it shot up and out of the hole. The octopuses are pouring in. They’re falling into the room, but from below. They’re big now. Human sized. Jesus. Jesus. They just keep coming. We ha
ve to run. We need to find another stairwell. There’s too many.
Gwendolyn Duet: The bomber guy warned all of you dumbasses. Fall back to the train lines. Hold them at the choke points.
Ronaldo Qu: He didn’t say it would happen this bad.
Gwendolyn Duet: Are you on crack? This is exactly what he said was going to happen. It’s literally the exact thing he warned you about. Now clear the chat.
Ronaldo Qu: Fuck you bitch.
Several iterations of this conversation filled my screen. All over, the center of the stations were falling away, and then the Krakaren monsters were pouring into the rooms. I felt an odd mix of terror and pride that we’d accurately predicted what would happen. But that pride was short-lived as I realized how many people, despite our warnings, had chosen not to protect themselves. I couldn’t believe people could’ve gotten this far and still remain such idiots.
We were ready for an onslaught of the monsters to pour out of our own stairwell station and come at us. We all waited, weapons ready. Imani barked at the flamethrowers, telling them to be on the lookout. Nothing happened.
“Holy shit, Carl,” Elle said after a minute. “You crazy sonofabitch. I think your stupid idea worked. Let’s go check it out.”
We cautiously returned up the stairs and through the tunnels. The flamethrower squads uprooted their defensive positions and followed. We entered the station. The interdiction cart remained hanging upside-down, directly over the hole. Monsters poured into the portal. We could see it through the haze of the portal’s backside. The Krakaren monsters fell headfirst, feet first, and sideways into the portal, like the hole in the ground was actually in the ceiling. Thousands of them. They kept coming and coming, getting sucked directly into the portal and to the abyss.
We all stood and stared. The portal crackled like it was getting hit by hail.
Imani was the one who snapped us back to reality. “Secure the entrances. Set the flamethrowers back up like before,” she yelled. “I want a ring of flamers and mages around this portal in case something happens to Carl’s cart.”
