First Life, page 29
part #1 of River Saga Series
“He stayed in the interior. Ran the dairy farm with his parents. Said the locals needed businesses to keep going.” She averted her gaze. “I kept in touch with him, but she refused to. She couldn’t believe he wouldn’t come to Miami with us. But I never blamed him. He’s a good man. Worked with his hands his entire life. He kept our hometown running, despite the fact that ninety percent of the residents were gone.”
“My parents stayed too. So did I,” I admitted.
“Really?”
“Yes.” I thought about what Indie had told me. She’d claimed my father was a Loyalist, and how she couldn’t contact me because of it. “The tablet… Damn it.” I’d left my pack with Desmond and the rest of our allies.
“That’s right. I forgot about it too,” Adley said.
“It was tough to focus with the Stingers on the prowl.” Whatever information the photo device held, it wouldn’t help me in this moment. I just hoped Desmond had kept the tablet, and that he and our friends were still alive.
“What do you think the secret is?” she whispered.
“Could be anything. The Unity Accord. The truth about their plans for Earth.” I didn’t think it was overly devastating; otherwise, my father would have leaked the information years ago.
“Maybe it explains what they were using the barges for,” she told me. “You worked there. What was their purpose?”
“I don’t know. I never questioned it. The domes were what bothered me,” I said.
“The domes?”
There was no point in keeping it from her. I scanned our surroundings, as we were only a short distance away from the end of the current crawling segment of our trek. “Huge glass domes, with gas tanks. Everything you’d need for a different atmosphere.”
“Interesting. Maybe the Vezo are coming for a visit?”
“No. I was on Godrien. They could breathe our air. This is something else.” I instantly felt lighter as we emerged from the short tunnel into a wide-open cavern. It could accommodate nearly all of our three thousand. The air was musty, with thick mushroom-like vegetation growing under naturally-shaped shelves in the walls.
Penelope chatted to someone quietly, and returned to my side. Her face was gaunt in the dim lighting. “The entrance across the cavern is obstructed,” she said.
“Obstructed?” My fingers twitched at the word. We were trapped in a cave, a half mile or so deep in the alien mountain. The place felt smaller, and my breath felt ragged.
“Colton.” Adley grabbed my arm. “You’re fine.” She turned to Penelope. “He doesn’t like confined spaces.”
“The scout said the tunnel was open yesterday. But it’s obscured now.”
“Show me,” I muttered. We passed the crowds of people waiting for direction. A few of them asked Penelope what the delay was, but she ignored their pleas. The room was hot with so many of us present. I hoped fresh air was able to circulate from somewhere.
We reached the edge of the cave, where the tunnel’s entrance should have been. Hundreds of rocks sat there, piled in a pyramid. I pulled one free and let it roll past my feet. “Could this have been done manually?”
“You think the Stingers came and placed these here?” Penelope’s expression went from angry to worried in a flash.
“It’s possible. But I can’t picture it. We better remove them.” I peered to the ceiling, feeling eyes on me again.
The doorway to the tunnel was ten feet high, and six wide. “You heard the man!” Penelope shouted. “Clear the stones!” She took charge, and dozens of colonists arrived, hauling the rocks away and forming more stacks of them a short distance from the tunnel.
I helped too, my aching back and legs forgotten with the manual labor. I was so exhausted, but it felt good to be working again, and within ten minutes, we had the first layer off. I took a break, being replaced by a younger more eager member of Team Gold, and Adley and I sat on the floor, drinking from a canteen. Some of the people around us were resting.
Come to think of it, I was feeling drowsy myself. I set the water on the floor, and noticed Adley dozing off.
I glanced above me, seeing more of the mushrooms. They wriggled in a slow, rhythmic movement. I left Adley on the ground and sprang to my feet, walking to the fungus. It shifted when I neared it. I grabbed a lantern from a sleeping colonist and held it up. The mushroom recoiled, turning darker.
The workers by the exit were slowing. A few of them stopped and lay down. My eyelids began drooping, my knees growing weak.
Penelope had disappeared. I knew something was wrong, but my head was spinning. Was it a Xeno attack? But my lungs were fine, my heartbeat slow and steady.
We’d uncovered half of the exit, and I saw the tunnel beyond.
The cavern was silent. I seemed to be the only conscious person. One minute, there were hundreds of people awake; the next, everyone was unconscious on the floor of the cave. I stumbled forward, clutching the lantern like it held my salvation.
I saw the first creature tentatively climb the ceiling near the far corner of the cavern where we’d entered. I’d assumed they were the same things we’d fought on Palora during our dangerous weapon training experience. Six legs. Furry, matted black hair, with no neck, a bulbous body, and forearm-length mandibles. But these were different. Four legs, a thick gray tail dragging behind them. More and more funneled inside, and I peered at the mushrooms, then back to the giant rodents.
They’d set a trap in this cave. Their red eyes glowed in the darkness. Hellrats. It was the only name worthy of the monstrosities.
“Wake up!” I shouted, but there was no response. The Hellrats gathered, crawling from all angles on the ceiling and walls.
I found my GR-852 where I’d left it leaning near the stacked stones, and surveyed the room. The fungus surrounded the entire cavern.
“Colton?” Adley’s voice was weak. I ran over, hauling her to her feet. Her gaze was distant, her legs wobbly. “What happened?”
I shoved her gun into her hand, and aimed at the writhing fungus. “Shoot the mushrooms!”
She didn’t seem to understand, but she licked her lips and pulled the trigger, missing the target.
A couple of the others started to rouse, and I gave them the same orders. Soon I had ten or so colonists armed and ready to fend off the incoming pests. The Hellrats watched us from above, their glowing red eyes making them appear like demons.
I ran along the outer edge, cutting across the mushrooms. I had to maneuver around the sleeping humans and nearly tripped countless times before our small group ruptured and burned all the fungi. Adley found a blower, used to vent the latrines at our makeshift camps. She placed it on the ground near the entrance, sucking the remaining spores from the air.
“Good thinking!” I praised her quick work.
The air immediately seemed fresher, less clogged with whatever spores the mushrooms had released.
“Wake them up!” I yelled to the handful of active people. “We have guests!” I gawked at the ceiling, and Adley screamed while a rogue Hellrat fell from above, landing on all fours. It was longer than we were tall, and its thick tail swung out, tripping Adley.
I ran for her, firing at the thing while dozens more dropped, screeching with anger. People began to stir, and the cavern became loud with fearful cries and confused shouts.
“Use your weapons!” I called, but it was too late for some of us. The Hellrats sank their teeth into a few sleeping victims, and I rushed for them, even if it was too late. My large weapon blasted holes in the pair of enemies, and I ignored the dead bodies I had to jump over.
“Through the exit!” I finally heard Penelope’s voice. She had soldiers defending the entrance to the next tunnel, and people scrambled to escape the violence of the cave. I was entrenched in it. My training had been brief, but I’d been a quick student. I confronted the Hellrats with an efficiency I didn’t know I could gather. Adley broke past her initial shock, and she fought alongside me as we annihilated the creatures.
They continued to come, drawn by the scent of blood. I didn’t care, as long as we killed them before they ate us. A pair of Hellrats dragged a few corpses from the cave, and I saw more of them beginning to retreat as our people gained a concentrated assault.
Most of us were on our feet now, the drowsiness giving way to fear and urgency. The room stank with the acrid scents of blood and charred fur.
I peered over my shoulder, seeing that the majority had fled the cave, and I worked with Adley, backing up to the exit. There were bodies everywhere. Our supplies lay in crates centering the floor, but we couldn’t do anything about that. They were lost.
The Hellrats weren’t giving up. Dozens more surfaced, champing at the bit for a taste of human flesh. I fought my revulsion and continued to fire warning shots across the cavern.
“Colton, we have to leave.” Adley tugged on my sleeve, and I noticed I was the last remaining person. The throng of Hellrats stalked toward me, disregarding their dead with a methodical, almost military-like march.
I climbed the boulders, and Penelope’s ashen face greeted me. “Run. We’re going to blast the hole.”
I nodded, dashing off on exhausted legs. The whole thing felt like a bad dream, and I realized the spores were still present, wedged in my lungs, making my thoughts spin. I heard the blast and felt the reverberations from the collapsing tunnel, but kept running with Adley ahead of me.
The tunnels continued on, and our group, or what was left of us, slogged deeper into the mountain.
____________
Time moves differently in the dark.
We decided to cut the lanterns off, with only a single torch at the lead of our remaining two thousand colonists.
“Where’s Penelope?” The question carried from the front of the line, passing from person to person. When it got to me, I looked behind, confirming I was the last.
“She’s not here,” I whispered. The message was relayed ahead. Everyone wanted a break; there was no desire to linger in this dreaded mountain any longer than was necessary.
The line stopped moving, and Adley slumped to the floor. “So many dead.”
I hadn’t really let the recent events catch up with me yet. But between the Stingers and these Hellrats, our numbers were dwindling. All I could think of was the Angor. It was their fault. They’d brought us to Dicore under false pretenses and thrown us to the wolves. I hated them with a previously undiscovered passion.
I comforted Adley and kept persevering until I reached the sole light at the end. Then I understood the delay. There were two passageways here: one directing right, the other left.
“Where’s the scout?” I asked.
The woman staring forward with the lantern in her grip shook her head. “I saw him being eaten by those… things.”
“Wait, he didn’t explain the division?” I asked.
She wiped her sweaty brow with a dusty sleeve, leaving a streak of dirt. “Only Penelope knew.”
“This is bad.” We couldn’t wait around. We were easy prey crammed together in this corridor, like fish in a barrel.
“What do we do?” She looked to me for guidance. I almost laughed, but the reality of the situation became clear.
“I wish Des was here,” I mumbled. She just watched me, waiting for an answer. “Okay. I’ll take the left. Someone needs to go right. We’re only a quarter mile from the exit?”
She nodded. “Maybe less.”
Adley arrived, her cheeks dirty. She dabbed them and grimaced, checking her gun’s charge. “I’m coming with you.”
“Fine.” I didn’t want to risk her, but selfishly, it would be good to have a second set of eyes with me.
“I’ll take the other.” The woman stared into the void.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Holly. Holly Banner.”
“I’m Colton. This is my friend Adley.” The introduction felt like we were about to have a work meeting, not endanger our lives exploring vacant tunnels. “Be efficient with your time, and return when you reach the end of the road. Hopefully, one will lead us outside and to the colony site.” I smiled at her.
Someone gave me another lantern, and I pressed the button on, handing it to Adley. “Are you ready?”
“No.” Her voice wavered.
I entered the shaft. “Me neither.”
TWENTY-ONE
There are few moments in life that we recall as precious memories. For most, it’s that first sports trophy, then graduation, meeting your spouse, a wedding, big promotion at work. But even those once pivotal occasions had lost some of their meaning since the Angor had come to Earth.
If you asked anyone what they dreamed about most frequently, it was the Angor’s arrival. It was a fact, documented in countless texts in the last two decades. As I stepped into the second tunnel with Adley, I knew this was one such occasion I’d never forget. Landing on Dicore to face these creatures was the most traumatic thing I could have imagined.
Ten thousand of us had been transported by Palora, after visiting Godrien. We’d picked up a handful of the Vezo soldiers to assist with training, filled with excitement at the prospect of our new colony.
When we’d heard of the notion of a home on Dicore, most of the group had probably pictured domes and square buildings with gardens and crops. Men and women tilling the dirt, while drones built structures for us to inhabit. They thought of pairing off and having children, who would eventually play baseball in the fields.
Instead, we’d been dumped on Dicore with guns and a little water, left to fend off the Stingers and travel fifty miles to the colony site. What was waiting there for us? Thousands of citizens would never find out, since they’d already been sacrificed. Because that’s what this was. The Angor allowed our people to die… and for what? A test? A sick intergalactic contest?
Despite the horrors we were encountering, I was determined to make it to the end of this war game.
“Colton, it narrows ahead,” Adley told me. I saw the pink hair in the distance of the lantern’s light, reflecting off the dark stone tunnel. The walls were literally shrinking before me. I felt the incline and winced.
“This better be the way out,” I muttered.
My gun stayed in my grip as we crouched. The rocky ceiling brushed against my hair, and I stooped lower, making my back protest.
I was about to stop when I saw something. “Adley, kill the lantern.”
“But…”
“Do it.”
The light faded a second later, and I let my eyes adjust to the new dark. It was dead silent in the corridor, every noise of the mountain muted by the thick stone. It could have been a coffin, layered over with a million tons of earth.
And there it was. A pinprick of light in the distance. “That’s the way out!”
My words echoed in the tunnel and died.
Adley started to cry, and I couldn’t blame her. We’d been through hell and back.
“Come on.” I helped her forward, taking the lantern.
It grew tighter closer to the exit, but I didn’t even care at this point. We were almost there.
Adley sped up, since she was smaller. She gracefully slid between the ceiling and floor, and I tried to duplicate her actions. I almost got stuck.
“It’s okay. Breathe slowly. I’ll pull on your exhale.” Adley had my arms in her grasp, and the moment I let the air from my lungs, she tugged on me. There were a lot of colonists behind us that wouldn’t be able to penetrate this tight spot. I doubted we’d chosen the scout’s tunnel after all.
We scrabbled up a few loose boulders, reaching the opening. I wasn’t sure how many hours we’d been in here, but the star had begun its heroic rise. The moon was nearly gone, deep on the horizon, and the glow of sunlight basked down on the valley beyond the edge of the range.
Then I spied the colony site. It was a couple of miles away, but we could already see the girders and sections of the city-to-be sitting on the ground.
“Did they drop that off?” Adley asked.
I shrugged. “Could be. They must have.” Were they serious about starting a colony?
“Do you think it’s possible they didn’t know about the Stingers?” Adley’s voice was full of hope.
I felt it too. The warmth of the dawn sun, the calmness of the silent valley… it was so serene.
I’d left my gun, and I reached for it, spotting a marking on the outer section of the tunnel we’d emerged from. My finger rubbed the etching. It was smooth, like someone had used a cutting tool to carve the black stone. “What’s this?”
Adley studied it, shaking her head. “This is a symbol. Maybe indicating a viable entrance to the mountain tunnel system.”
“But who carved it?”
“Our scout?”
“Don’t think so. Did you notice any others?”
Adley said she hadn’t.
“This isn’t good.” I thought the gentle humming sound had been trickling water, or perhaps distant insects letting their final song out before day arrived, but it was different. Click. Click. Click.
Adley furrowed her brow, staring down the mountain face. We were elevated here, and from the looks of things, our descent wouldn’t be simple.
Click. Click. Click.
I scoured the area for signs of the Stingers, and finally understood what I was seeing. The landscape was shrouded in the red glow of dawn, and I hadn’t noticed the hordes of Stingers. Now I recognized the individual monsters, and the thousands of tails, stingers, and mandibles. The endless flood of snapping claws and hissing mouths.
“There has to be ten thousand of them,” Adley mustered.
I thought she was being conservative.
The entire horde was blocking us from the colony site, which was occupied by humans. Smoke rose in small spiraling loops. Campfires. They probably hadn’t even seen the Stingers yet.
My gun. I grabbed it, using the built-in scope. I zoomed, and waited while the image pixilated and cleared. Despite the circumstances, a smile crept onto my face. There were thousands of us at the site. People seemed to be going about their day, blissfully unaware of their enemies.
