Instinct (49 page)

Robby dropped to the pavement. The asphalt was wet from the falling snow. The leaves on a vine-choked tree were curling in the frigid air.

“What is all this?” Tim asked. He stepped out and was quickly followed by Cedric. The dog approached the plants cautiously and sniffed at the brown vines.

“This is the place it prepared for itself. It was never going to be at the farm, was it?” Robby asked.

Hampton laughed as he climbed out. He didn’t waste any time. He strode through the withered vines towards a small metal building which sat in the middle of the parking lot. It looked like it had been constructed by stacking one shipping container on top of another one.

The driver’s door closed and Ty joined them. He put out his giant hand and let a few flakes of snow land on his palm. They melted quickly.

“What is this place?” Ty asked.

“Stage Two,” Robby said. “Almost Stage Three. Somewhere around here, the final portal is opening and the egg will be fertilized.”

“What do we do?” Tim asked.

“Nothing!” Hampton yelled back at them. He climbed rungs built into the side of the metal building. Robby saw movement behind the window on the second level of the shipping container building. Hampton climbed to the top and then disappeared into a hole up there. His shape reappeared at the window.

“Nothing?” Ty asked.

“They believe that the process can’t be stopped until the Stage Four, so they’re waiting it out.”

“I should have looked at that damn mural myself,” Tim said. “No offense, kid, but I would feel a lot better about this if I’d seen the information firsthand.” He and Ty exchanged a glance.

“No offense,” Robby said, “but you might have gone insane, like Hampton.”

Jackson and Amy Lynne were just getting out of the ambulance. He handed her crutches and helped support her until she got her balance.

“It’s snowing? What are we doing here?” she asked. “It’s freezing out.”

Robby stepped into the vines. At first he stayed in the trampled path that Hampton had left behind. The vines crunched under his shoes. It felt like walking through leaves in the fall. As he got closer to the metal building, Robby veered right. He saw the metal walkway leading away from the makeshift headquarters and he followed that. After a turn, the walkway ended and Robby struck out through the vines again. He saw where they looked greener and fresher up ahead. He walked towards that spot.

He heard Ty and Tim debating behind them, but he couldn’t hear what they were saying. He didn’t wait to find out.

Robby stopped. To his left, under the bed of wilted vines, he saw an orange glow. He followed it farther and got a better look. It looked like molten rock flowing over the pavement, or maybe even in a channel cut in the pavement. The vein of lava appeared to be getting wider.

Robby held out his palm and got closer. He felt only a little heat coming from the flow.

The snow was falling harder and making it more difficult to see. The flakes were melting as they hit him. He wanted to run, but forced himself to walk so he could watch carefully where he stepped. Although the vines he was walking through were dead, he suspected that the same might not be true up ahead.
 

The school buildings were off to his right. They were brick, and covered in wilted vines.

He kept moving towards where the vines looked greener. He turned to look behind himself. He saw Ty and Tim starting out across the brown vines. Tim was turned, trying to coax Cedric to follow him. The dog wouldn’t leave the bare pavement.

Robby looked down to be sure he was still following the glowing rock. It was hard to see under all the vines, but he spotted a line of it a few paces away. His course took him to the left of the school buildings. Across the vine-covered street, he saw an automotive repair shop. The vines creeping up the face looked more lively. Robby headed that direction. As he grew closer, he noticed that the heat coming from the lava was hotter. The snow was replaced with a light fog, like the flakes were sublimating because of the heat.

Robby turned one more time and saw Tim and Ty back at the ambulance. He saw no movement at all from the metal bunker where Hampton had disappeared. If he was still in there, he was hiding behind the thick glass of the second-story window.

Robby slowed as he walked towards the greener vines. He remembered Brad’s story about their thorns and how they constricted. He knew from his journey into the visions from the mural that the vines would ensnare animals to use as fuel for the embryo.
 

He reached out a foot and tapped his toe on a vine that was wilted, but still green. The thing twitched when Robby’s foot hit it, but then the life seemed to drain from the plant. With the twitch, it’s green color ebbed away, leaving it as brown and lifeless as the ones underfoot.

Robby took a tentative step. One time, Robby had stepped on a snake. The vines felt like that. They squirmed under his shoe, but quickly came to a stop. A circle of brown death spread from the spot where his foot had landed. He took another step and waited for the vines to die down before he brought his feet together.

Robby looked up. He could almost see around the corner of the next building, where the vines were even more green and the undersides of the leaves glowed orange from the pulsing lava.

“Robby?” someone shouted. Robby turned to see who had called to him. The first thing he saw was the dirt. He’d been so focused on the vines, that he’d missed the pile behind the garage.

CHAPTER 41: SITE

I
T
WASN
’
T
BLACK
IN
there anymore. The hole was glowing with red fire, like it led down into hell itself. They were still several paces from the mouth of the hole. It seemed to be as close as they could force themselves to get to the pit.

“I’d rather take my chances with the vines,” Romie said.

“You’ll take certain death over the risk of death?” Brad asked.

“If the risk looks like that, then yes,” Romie said.

“We can stay here,” Lisa said. “The snow has stopped.” She looked up at the sky.

“It hasn’t stopped, it’s just melting before it gets to the ground,” Brad said. He looked off to the adjacent building, where they could see that snow was falling by the wall even though at their location, it wasn’t reaching the ground.

“Is that?” Lisa asked. She yelled, “Robby?”

Brad and Romie turned to follow her line of sight.
 

Brad waved his arms over his head and yelled too. “Robby! Over here.”

They stood, unbelieving, as Robby walked across the vines that hemmed them in. His face showed a trace of relief.

“I was hoping you were still okay,” Robby said. “Have you seen Pete or Judy?”

“No,” Brad said. “Weren’t they evacuated?”

“Wait a second,” Romie said. “Before we get into a big family reunion, did anyone notice that Robby just walked straight across the vines that were trying to kill us?”

“These are dead,” Robby said. “Or dying. They’re concentrating their energy around the site.”

“Let’s get the hell out of here then,” Romie said. “We tried our best to burn the thing, now let’s go.”

Robby nodded at Romie’s statement, but seemed to ignore it. “They weren’t evacuated. That was a lie from the guys that Pete calls the Beardos. They were collecting enough people here for Stage Three. They don’t think that the thing can be stopped until it reaches Stage Four, so they’re helping it along.”

“They’re
helping
it?” Lisa asked.

Robby took a few steps closer to the hole. Except for the size of the thing, it looked like a hole a rodent might make. Dirt was piled around it and splattered up the side of the auto shop.
 

“Don’t get too close,” Brad said. “There’s lava in there.”

“I have to go inside,” Robby said.

“What?” Romie asked.

Their attention was suddenly drawn to the alley between the buildings, where Robby had come from. They heard the roar of an engine bouncing off the brick walls and they all took a cautious step backwards as the ambulance skidded to a stop in the vines.
 

The driver’s door opened. Ty was behind the wheel.

Tim leaned over him and spoke. “That crazy guy, Hampton, is getting ready to do something.”

✪
 
✪
 
✪
 
✪
 
✪

They didn’t bother with introductions. Ty and Tim stepped out of the vehicle and Cedric appeared next in the doorway. The dog looked carefully at the ground before he lightly jumped down.
 

“They’re gearing up,” Tim said. “They’ve got these big suits they’re strapping on, and some kind of guns or something.”

“Good,” Romie said. “Maybe they know how to kill the thing.”

“No,” Robby said. “They won’t touch it until it’s impregnated.”

They heard the back door of the ambulance bang open. After a few seconds, Jackson appeared, propping up Amy Lynne.

“I’m going to need some help,” Robby said. He looked to Brad.

“Doing what?” Brad asked.

“We have to go in the hole,” Robby said.

“Wait a second,” Romie said. “Those guys think they know what they’re doing. Why don’t we give them a chance and see if they’re right?”

“Because their approach involves sacrificing everyone who was at the farm. Somewhere around here, they’re all being held prisoner. There are one-hundred and fifty people who will die if we don’t stop the process. Pete is probably among them. And Judy.”

“Why would they sacrifice everyone left?” Lisa asked. “What’s the point of saving the world if everyone is gone?”

“They only want to beat it,” Robby said. “They’re not concerned with the cost. They believe that the organism can’t be destroyed until it has been fertilized. The fertilization requires the sacrifice.”

“You think you can save those people if you go in the hole?” Brad asked.

“Yes,” Robby said. “According to the mural, there’s another way. It’s not easy, but there is one way to drive it off before it takes those people.”

Brad rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’ll go with you,” Tim said. “Is it safe?”

Robby shook his head no.

Ty glanced at Tim and then the two moved as one towards the lip of the hole. The orange glow from the hole lit up their faces. They began to lower themselves to the dirt so they could climb down. Cedric walked slowly up next to them and followed.

Robby glanced back at Brad.

“I can’t move very fast,” Brad said.
 

Lisa still favored her one leg, but she moved up and took one of Brad’s arms as Romie took the other. The three of them followed Robby as he approached the hole.
 

“I have to stay here with Amy Lynne,” Jackson said. It didn’t sound like an excuse, it sounded like a complaint. He genuinely seemed upset that he couldn’t go with everyone else. Amy Lynne took his hand.

“Find a rope if you can,” Ty said to Jackson. “Lower it down so we’ll have a way back up. This is steep.”

✪
 
✪
 
✪
 
✪
 
✪

They slid down the dirt. The glowing lava swirled its patterns up the side of the hole, somehow sticking to the underside of the tube that the group descended. Ty was right—they would need a rope if they ever had designs of getting out of the place. The angle the tube cut into the loose dirt was so steep that they couldn’t hope to climb it.

Ty reached the bottom first. He attempted to brush the dark dirt from his scrubs and then gave up. Cedric, who had skidded down most of the slope, bounded down the last few feet and shook himself. Tim arrived next. He turned and looked up. The sky was opaque and gray at the top of the hole. He figured they were at least thirty feet down.

If he were to stretch to the extent of his height, Ty might be able to reach the ceiling of the tube, but Tim would have to jump. Neither were likely to try it. The iridescent metal flowing there wasn’t putting off a tremendous amount of heat, but it looked like it would burn to touch.

“What if that stuff drips on us?” Lisa asked as she reached the floor.

Robby was just getting up. He glanced at the lava above and ignored the question.

The cross section of the tunnel was roughly circular. It was lit in orange from the glow of the lava flow running along the ceiling. The walls and floor were nearly smooth, like they had been cut instead of dug.

It dipped and curved up ahead. Robby led the way.
 

“The rock digs this tunnel,” Robby said. “It connects the portal down to the water table.”

“How does a rock dig a tunnel?” Tim asked.

They walked quickly.
 

“It’s a moving rock,” Brad said. He was back with Romie and Lisa.

“It moves over the surface until it finds a high concentration of gametes,” Robby said. “Then it digs these tunnels to allow them to access the egg. We have to stop them from reaching the egg.”