Mask (11 page)

Carson
looked up and then glanced back towards the air-lock.  “Yeah, I saw them.”  He closed his eyes against the image.  “I saw them moving around, northeast.  Just inside the tree line.  They’re getting ready.  Just like Outpost 3, you know.  It’s just like Outpost 3, just like it.”

Doc Larson and Allen swore.

“Did you see how many?  Their weapons?  Did you get a good look at them?” Lane asked.

Carson
just stared off into space and nodded his head.  “Yeah, lots of them, lots.  It’s all over, all over, you know?”

“Lane, what’s going on?  Is this an invasion?” Allen asked.

“The event at Outpost 3 was almost six years ago, just before Wally got here.  Management thought a few platoons and gun-ships would be sufficient until they could get numbers and equipment out here.  It’s been quiet since.

“The marines and Stingers ran patrols, but we haven’t seen or heard anything, not even communications — just nothing.  This seems to be a coordinated attack to drive us off this planet.  Extermination.  And God knows what else; I don’t want to even think about the other things.” Lane said.

“The other things, like Outpost 3,” Carson mumbled.

“Why?  They can’t be from here, can they?  We couldn’t have missed that,” Doc Larson said.

Lane stared at him.  “Why?  Since when does war need a why?  But no, I don’t think they are from here.  These aren’t ancestral lands or anything.  Catherine found a new planet a few days ago.  It’s close by.  Maybe they’re from there.  Who knows?  Outpost 3 was the first salvo; we are the second round of casualties.  We’re the ones that launch the war.”

The three of them stood there staring out the air-lock, lost in thought when a gun-shot rang out.  The sound was deafening in the small vestibule.  They turned in a panic to see
Carson slouched sideways; the pistol lay on the floor next to his chair.  One side of his head was gone, sprayed across the tiled walls — dripping black on gray.  Blood oozed from a small clean hole just in front of his ear and then he fell off his chair.

“Shit,” Allen said under his breath.

Lane picked up the gun and examined it.  “That was his last bullet.”

******

“It’s time,” Lane said to the others.

“Are we sure they don’t take prisoners, maybe they won’t…” Allen began.

“You know better.  I know better.  Doc?”

“It’s time.  Allen, go check on Tim and we’ll head down and get started,” Doc Larson said.

“Allen,” Lane said, “trust me, please.  They don’t take prisoners.  They take experimental subjects.”

Allen nodded and ran ahead and left Lane and Doc Larson in the vestibule.  They walked back to the stairwell in silence.  As they neared they began to hear animated voices and the cries of children, of Lily and William.  Lane stopped at the top of the stairs a moment before descending.

“Doc, go get Larry Tolsen.  He’s at the gym windows on the west side.”

Doc Larson nodded and ran back to the Rec-room.

Lane took a deep breathe and descended the stairs.

Everyone on the stairs grew quiet and stared at Lane as he past them.  One step at a time, one couple; one step, one family; one step, another family; one step, Catherine, Lilly and William.

He stopped and Catherine stood up and held him so tight he thought he would suffocate right there on the steps.  Lilly and William each took a leg and held on for dear life.  Paul, a young member of Lane’s staff looked up at him with helpless pity.

“Catherine, it’s time.”

“We heard a shot, what happened?”

“A survivor from Outpost 11 made it all the way here.  Everyone else, the other Outposts, they’re all gone, we’re the last.  They’ve won this battle.”

“And the shot?”

“He had one bullet left.  He used it.”

Catherine hugged him one last time for strength and then released him.

Lane knelt in close and whispered, “Remember, the parents first.  The kids will be the very last.  I don’t want a fight down here?”

“We might still be saved, you know.”

Lane smiled, “Another reason to leave them for last, just in case.”

He kneeled down and hugged Lily and William and they looked at him with trust and fear.  He couldn’t take it any longer and gently pushed them back to Catherine.  As he stood, Larry Tolsen emerged at the top of the stairs with Doc Larson trailing.

Together they made a path through the waiting colonists, the victims.

Wally greeted them at the door.  They all walked in and Wally paused.  He stared at the gathering and all of those questioning eyes for a moment and then closed the door.

******

“What the hell is it?” Larry asked.

“Mercy, quick and painless,” Doc Larson said soothingly.

“How does it work?”

Lane answered, “Don’t worry about it.”

Lane looked around the room and noted the blankets and towels piled on one side.  He reached up gently and pushed Larry back against the track and guided his head into the space between the bright red tomato and the backer plate.

“We don’t even have last rights or anything?” Larry asked.

“Father Timmons left with Glenda.  Suicide wasn’t a solution for him, I’m afraid,” Lane said.

They all looked at each other, the inevitable having been put off for as long as possible.  Now their mettle was about to be tested, could they do this?  Would they do this?

Larry took a deep breathe and grabbed Lane’s hand.

“It won’t hurt?  You sure?”

“You won’t feel anything, just instant sleep,” Doc Larson said.

“Okay.  Good luck.  I feel like a coward.”

“Trust me, you’re not.  I know what they’ll do to us if they take us alive,” Lane said.

“No,” Larry responded, “I meant going first.”

Lane smiled and Larry smiled back.

“Okay,” Larry said, “let’s do this.  I’m ready.”

He leaned back against the track, pushed his hands flat against the block wall and closed his eyes, preparing himself for the end.

Lane looked at each of his friends as he raised the trigger.  The machine hummed.  The blow-off valve waited impatiently to sing.  The pressure was increasingly eager.

The moment was solitary, finite, contracting.  The room became smaller and smaller. Lane felt Larry breathing.  He saw Carson’s body.  He saw Lilly and William laughing and dancing around Catherine.  He felt the colonists pressing against the Equipment Room door like meat hanging from the butcher’s hooks.  He felt the fear and the hopelessness.  He felt the love and solidarity that had held them all together this last day.  A crushing wave of doubt rushed over him, he couldn’t do this. 

What had he been thinking?

What had he convinced these people to do?

What madness had possessed him?

He remembered the holocaust that was Outpost 3.

He pressed the trigger.

******

Lane had been afraid Larry’s head would explode, but it had worked as he hoped — just like a light switch.  And while Larry’s head remained intact, the particulate matter pushed out by the punch had squished against the back plate and sprayed the room like an exploding water balloon.

Wally pushed the cart in front of Larry as the punch retracted.  Larry fell across it like a rag doll.  His head bled out like a full milk jug that had fallen on its side.  Wally rushed to push the arms and legs onto the cart.  He wheeled it into the Bunker and with Doc Larson’s help, removed Larry and laid him on the ground.

They returned to find Lane bent over, sucking air.

“It worked.  Can you do this Lane?” Larson asked.

“Yeah,” he said, “get that wash basin over there cleared off.  I’m going to puke eventually.”

Doc Larson went over and opened the door to call his next patient.  Wally scribbled Larry’s name in the ledger.  There wasn’t going to be time for this.  He tossed the pen aside and returned to the machine room with the cart.

******

Catherine watched Larry disappear behind the Equipment Room door and wrapped her arms around Lily even tighter.  One by one they would all disappear behind that final sacrificial door and enter the world of Legend and Myth, tales of the early space adventurers that had sacrificed their lives to forge a new frontier of human achievement — or some such horseshit to get more volunteers out here to the edge of Hell.

She heard a shout and turned.  She recognized Allen’s excited voice. 
Dee stood up from the step below Catherine and reached out for Lily.  Catherine handed over her daughter and leaned close to Dee.

“Tell Lane, don’t let anyone go in there,” she said pointing.

Dee nodded, taking William by the hand as Catherine turned and raced up the stairs.

Catherine met Allen running around the corner.

“What?” she asked.

“We have a signal, they’re sending an
EVAC
.”

Together they raced back along the glass lined corridor to the radio room.  As they neared the doorway Catherine heard the crackling voice of the pilot through the monitoring speakers.

“Repeat Outpost 9, emergency
EVAC
in route.  Forty-five seconds out.  Coming in hot to the southern air-lock.  Over.”

Tim pressed the ‘call’ button.  “Roger, the aliens are massed to the northeast.  Over,” Tim responded, sounding much older than his years.

“Roger.  Northeast.  We have them on imaging.  Get your people to the air-lock.  Dust off will be quick.  Space for twenty-two on board, repeat twenty-two,” the crackling voice said.

Catherine grabbed Allen’s arm and nodded towards the stairs.

“Twenty-two,” she repeated, “get the parents and kids.”

  He smiled and sprinted into the hall.  She turned back, placed her hands on Tim’s shoulders and kneaded them slightly staring at the on-screen displays.

“Some of us might make it out of here yet,” she said.

“I’m not so sure.”

“What do you mean?”

“He never used the I
dent codes.  He just started talking.”

“So?”

Tim turned in his chair and looked up.  “It’s procedure.”

“But this is an emergency, I’m sure he forgot.  Everyone is about to die down here.  It’s just nerves Tim.  It’s going to be okay.  No one is thinking straight.”

“No, you aren’t thinking either, Mrs. Pierce.  The Ident codes are used especially for emergencies.  Something isn’t right here.  That isn’t something anyone out here would forget.”

“But what would that mean?”

“I don’t know.  But all communication has been jammed for two days now.  How did he get through now?”

“Proximity?”  Catherine asked.

“Doesn’t work like that, Mrs. Pierce.”

Her eyes narrowed.  “A trap?”

“I don’t know why, but that’s what it feels like.”

“Feels?”

“Yeah, it just feels wrong.  It feels wrong just like it did when Dad left.  I knew I was never going to see him again.  That felt wrong too.”

Catherine turned and leaned onto the door frame, waiting for the first of the colonists to come running up the stairs with renewed hope.  She stared back at Tim.

“But how?”

He just shook his head.

******

Doc Larson opened the door to the vestibule and Dee Roe shouted at him.

“They’ve got a radio call.  Catherine said to stop.”

“Stop, we’ve got an
EVAC
,” Allen shouted as he turned the corner at the top of the stairs.

Larson looked up to see Allen smiling.

“Twenty-two.  They have space for twenty-two.  We need to get the families down to the main air-lock,” Allen shouted.

Doc Larson leaned back into the room and met Lane’s eyes and then Wally’s.  They all glanced at the blood trail the led into the Bunker.

“This changes nothing for most of us,” Lane said, “let’s get top-side and see what’s going on.”

The three of them pushed into the vestibule and ushered everyone back up the stairs.

Lane nodded his thanks to Dee for taking care of Lily and William for him.

Everyone moved quickly and calmly up the stairs and out into the main Outpost corridor that ran like a spine through the complex, terminating at the southern air-lock.

Once in the corridor, Lane lifted his voice and firmly said, “We have room for twenty-two, so families go first.  Nothing has changed for the rest of us.”