Origins (The Wasteland Chronicles, #2) (18 page)

Samuel walked from the computer. In that lab, with the hundreds of computers humming around us, Xenofall seemed like a date that would never happen. But it was real. It was coming. And we had no way to stop it.

“We need more information,” Samuel said. “But this...” He waved his arm around, indicating the entire room, “this is all there is. We know more than anyone else on Earth knows, and still, it’s not enough.”

“So what more can we do?” I asked. “We’re stuck here in the Bunker, surrounded by hundreds of miles of Blight and monsters, with winter coming on and no way out. And probably no food or water. Looks like we’re as good as dead.”

Samuel ignored my cheery assessment of the situation. “The only thing I can think of is going to Ragnarok Crater.”

My insides lurched at the thought. We had just gotten here, of all places, and Samuel was talking about picking up and going to the Ragnarok Crater, another thousand miles away?

“Why
there?”

Samuel shrugged. “This is pure speculation, but it makes sense to think the Crater would be the center of it all. It’s where Meteor landed and began its work. There might be some central hub where everything communicates with each other.”

“Key words:
pure speculation,”
Makara said. “We came here. We found nothing. We lose. We found our answer. The answer is: there is no answer. This was all for nothing. All we can do is hope to get out of here, find the safest place we can, and wait for the end.”

“We’re not getting out of here,” I said. “Our ride blew itself up. It was a miracle that thing even flew.”

Something quite unexpected happened. A voice came from every speaker in the lab, booming from the walls.

“Apocalypse Team,” the voice said, “this is Dr. Cornelius Ashton. Can you hear me?”

We stared at each other in shock. So he
was
here.

“Yes!” Samuel yelled. “Dr. Ashton, where are you?”

“I am not in Bunker One,” Dr. Ashton said, “but there is little time to explain. With luck, there will be time for explanations later. You all will die if you stay in this lab a minute longer.”

“Die?” Anna asked. “What do you know? How are you even communicating with us?”

“Never mind that. I will explain later. All that matters is getting out of here alive.
It
knows you’re here. The Voice. Every turner within a hundred-mile radius is converging on this point. It never wanted you to know what you have learned here today. Remember that the old axiom is true: information is power. The Voice does not want you to have it.

“There will be time for answers soon, but for now, you must escape this place. Already they are inside.”

As soon as those words were said, there was a crash against the vault door. I could hear the creatures’ screams and wails coming from the other side. If they could get in the tunnel when it had collapsed, they could probably get in here, too.

“Go to the runway,” Dr. Ashton said. “I will provide your escape.”

With that, the voice cut off. The silence that followed was pierced by more screams from infected creatures.

We could hear groans. They were coming from within the labs.

Howlers.

I guessed that was where all the bodies had gone.

H
owlers charged from two corridors into the main lab. Their clothes had long since rotted from their bodies. They slunk toward us, flesh pink and thin, coated with purple slime.

“Don’t shoot!” Samuel said. “Head for the stairs!”

We followed Samuel away from our attackers to the staircase that led to the lab’s second level. I didn’t know if there was a way out up there, but there sure wasn’t one on the bottom floor.

We reached the landing and found no way out. The second floor was just a balcony that surrounded the entire lab.

“That vault was the only way out,” Makara said. “We’re trapped.”

“There has to be another way,” I said. “Let’s just keep looking.”

Some of the Howlers charged for the stairs. We had to keep moving.

We followed Samuel around the balcony, until we had reached the other side. We were above the computer where we had searched for the Black Files – there were no doors, no windows, nor any other way back down to the lab floor. And now Howlers spilling from the balcony doorway cut us off on both sides.

This time, Lisa wouldn’t be here to save the day.

“We’re going to have to kill them,” Anna said. “Explosions or not, we’re dead either way.”

“Kill these,” Samuel said, pointing to the left. “We’ll bring ’em down quick and jump off for the floor, and run deeper into the labs. I can see no other way.”

We rushed to do just that. I aimed my Beretta, firing it into the oncoming infected. They shrieked as my bullets connected. I was getting much better at aiming the thing. I hit one creature in the head, and it crashed to the floor; the one behind stumbled over its body. In quick succession, Anna sliced one of the Howlers in half, and beheaded another. Makara fired, each shot finding its mark right in the head.

They were starting to swell. They would explode in moments.

“Now!”
Samuel shouted.

We hopped over the railing, landing atop what seemed to be a large computer. We jumped the rest of the way down. Though not as dangerous as the plane jump, the falls were a shock to my knees. I forced myself up, hoping I could run the pain out.

I hobbled after the others as they went to the empty corridor. Above us, the bodies popped, and purple goo rained down, drenching the floor. We made it into the corridor, following it as it circled downward.

“We do not want to be going down,” Makara said.

An infected man emerged from a nearby door, his mouth agape and dripping slime. Quickly, Anna stabbed him through the heart, retrieved the blade, spun, and sliced off his head. She kicked the torso into the room from which the Howler had come.

“There has to be some other exit,” Samuel said.

We followed the corridor at a near sprint. The infected were falling farther and farther behind, but their howls still pierced the air. The hallway ended in a giant chamber filled with large machinery. It reminded me of the nuclear reactor we had come across in Bunker 114. This chamber was much larger, though, which was saying a lot; that one had been big. Four reactors rose from the floor, the power source for all Bunker One. Only one was running – likely the only one that still worked.

“These things can run forever if maintained properly,” Samuel said. “Or maybe not even maintained properly. It explains how this place still has power.”

“This isn’t time for a lesson, Samuel,” Makara said. She pointed. “That ladder. If we can reach the top catwalk, we might find a way to make it to the runway.”

We ran for the ladder, which was on the other side of the chamber. We began our long climb. I felt dwarfed by the gigantic size of all the machinery in the room.

We had reached about two-thirds of the way up when the chamber was filled with echoes of hundreds of horrifying shrieks. I could not see where they were coming from, but looking up, I saw them.

Entering through the ceiling, through air ducts and hidden openings, came hundreds upon hundreds of birds.
Turned
birds. They swarmed for us like locusts, their white eyes glowing and their wings beating madly.

“Hurry it up, Samuel!” Makara yelled.

The swarm of birds homed in on our position. There were hundreds – big, small, but they all had one purpose – to kill us and keep us from reaching the top.

There was no way we could fight these. We had to get out of here.

Makara fired into the mass from the ladder, and a couple of the flying things plummeted toward the floor.

Hurriedly, we reached the top. We ran away from the avian swarm, making for a nearby door.

“Inside here,” Samuel said.

We rushed in, finding ourselves in another corridor. Samuel slammed the door shut, locking it against the birds outside. They slammed into the door, pecking it, to no avail.

“Glad we got out of that one,” Anna said.

“Yeah,” I said. I turned forward, and wanted to scream.

After seeing what was ahead of us, I almost wanted to try my luck with the birds.

***

B
efore us stood a creature at least twenty feet tall, with three heads on snakelike necks, and a long, spiky tail – a creature that could only be described as a Hydra.

It was the most alien thing I had ever seen, and each of those mouths bore long, sharp teeth that dripped purple saliva. It walked on four muscular legs, and its scales were the color of crimson blood. Its necks stiffened, and the three heads opened their mouths to scream, each a different pitch, producing the most horrifying, discordant noise I had ever heard.

It charged forward, lightning-fast. We didn’t even have time to shoot before it slammed all four of us back into the door from which we had come.

One of the heads was in front of me, snapping around my face. I dodged it, again and again, but I couldn’t keep it up forever. The head reared back on its stalk. I took the chance to grab the neck. I could feel the hard scales and the muscles bulging beneath. I slammed it with the butt of my Beretta. The thing screamed, hacking up purple phlegm that spewed onto the wall behind me.

I aimed for the neck, and fired.

It screamed again. I was hurting it, but I had made no visible wound. Those scales were strong if bullets couldn’t pierce them. All I had managed to do was piss it off.

Its head reared back from me again. It shot forward, nearly sinking its teeth into me. Instead, its face slammed against the door, making a dent in the metal.

I grabbed the Hydra in a chokehold at the top of its neck. I had no idea if it was working. I noticed Samuel and Makara were each busy with one of the heads, while Anna was behind the Hydra, dodging its swiping, spiky tail. She was trying to find an opening to stab it with her katana.

I screamed as the neck shook me loose, sending me spiraling horizontally through the air. Disoriented, I got up, only to knock my head on the creature’s belly. I had somehow ended up underneath it.

But when my head hit it, I realized this part of it was soft. Taking my chance, I took out my gun and fired.

It clicked. The magazine was empty.

A head snaked under its body, searching me out. I scrambled away, reaching for my combat knife. It wasn’t often that I used it. I hadn’t had the need.

Now I did.

I took it out, and stabbed the blade upward into the creature’s gut.

It gave a horrible wail, and purple gunk spewed onto the floor, covering my legs. Disgusted, I drew back, but I couldn’t stop. Infected or not, I had to keep gashing it. I stabbed it, again and again. Its tail behind slashed wildly, nearly hitting Anna. She slid on the floor, through the puddle of goo, holding her katana up as she slid. The blade sliced through the stomach, making a deep wound – so deep that it couldn’t support the creature’s bowels, which tumbled out and plopped on the floor right in front of me, causing me throw up on the spot.

The Hydra’s legs gave out. I had to move before it crushed me. I slid out of the way just as it came down, Anna doing the same thing on the creature’s other side. It crashed to the floor. Its tentacle-like necks quivered and grew still.

I was covered with purple goo and monster excrement. I felt as if I could wash myself for the rest of time and never be clean.

“Gross does not even begin to describe this,” I said.

“Come on,” Samuel said. “Stairs are over here.”

I followed the others, looking and smelling like death.

“You alright?” Anna asked

“Yeah. That was a slick move there. Wish you could have done it in a way that didn’t involve me smelling like sewage.”

She cracked a grin. “I try.”

We ran up the stairs. Somehow, the monsters had gotten in. They chased us upward through the flights. Looking down, I saw them two floors below us.

We were on floor twenty. We still had thirty to go.

I picked up the pace. I was dying from exhaustion, but if I died from this running, it would be better than letting those bastards get to me. We took the steps two and three at a time, never letting up. I thought I needed to grow a third lung to get enough air.

Finally, with ten floors left, Makara collapsed. The monsters were just one flight down. And unlike us, they didn’t get tired.

“Come on!” I yelled. “Up, let’s go!”

I remembered all the times Makara had forced me to go on. It was my turn to return the favor.

I grabbed her with my stinky hand and pulled her up. We ran the rest of the way. There were dozens of crawlers slithering their way upon their squat, bowed legs.

Finally, we made it to the tunnel that led to the runway door. The temperature up here was cold, and the monster fluids covering me from head to toe certainly didn’t help matters. We ran at a sprint. The door came into view.

Unlatching it, Samuel pushed it open. The rush of subzero wind would freeze all the liquids on my body within moments. Crying from the pain of it, I ran with the others across the runway, wondering first why we were even here, and second, how long it would take us to die, either from monsters or the cold. There was nothing waiting for us as the doctor had promised. There was only a sea of crawlers closing in from every direction. There was no airplane, helicopter, nothing that I expected. Whatever was supposed to be here was not.

Monsters flooded the runway from all sides, including the door we had just left.

There were hundreds – maybe thousands. Even worse, even the skies were clouded with swarms of infected birds.

We weren’t going to get out of this one alive.

T
hat was when a blinding light flew over the top of Cheyenne Mountain. And I mean,
flying
. The engine roared, drowning out even the noise of the monsters. Even they paused a bit at the approach of the giant, flying machine. The machine flew closer, along the side of the mountain from where it had been hidden, floodlights illuminating our shivering bodies on the runway.