Necropolis (9 page)

Chapter 11

–
Beneath
–

Sleep wasn’t kind that night.

Greg had recurring dreams of the thing in the basement breaking loose and coming to the surface, intent on blood and death. Once he dreamed it came for him by punching a hole up through the mattress and pulling him down.

He woke early, drenched in sweat. Glancing over, he saw that for once, Cage had agreed to let someone else take the second watch. He slept on his back, arms at his side. If it wasn't for the fact that his chest was rising and falling, Greg would have mistaken him for a corpse. He pulled the blankets aside and stood.

By the time he completed his morning routine, Cage had awoken. Greg stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed and feeling refreshed. He walked to the window and glanced out. Rain beaded the window and ran down the glass. Nothing moved. It was easy to believe that he, Kyra, and Cage were the only three living beings on the entire planet.

Sometimes, he wondered if this was a dream.

Greg turned away from the window and slipped out into the main corridor. Kyra was there, sitting on a chair, reading an infopad.

“Finally up?” She looked tired, her hair pulled into a rough, functional ponytail.

“
Yeah. Want to get some sleep?”

She shook her head and stood up. “No. Couldn't if I wanted to. Got that restless energy thing going. Let's eat and decide what we're going to do today.”

They left Cage showering and headed outside. Gray skies beset them from above. Greg felt a strange sense of unreality as he crossed the dirt courtyard. He tried to clear his head of the nightmare and lamented that they were likely going to have to face whatever was down in the basement. Not a thing he was looking forward to.

They heated up some breakfast and Kyra dove right into the conversation. “So, I think we should skip the mining installation.”

Greg felt a cold spike of fear pierce his gut. “Any particular reason?”

“
I've just been thinking about it. We have no idea where this virus or infection or...whatever the hell it is came from, but a mining installation
does
seem kind of suspicious. I've heard all sorts of stories about people digging up weird shit or finding it floating out in space...it's entirely possible and even feels
likely
that the mining installation is the reason for all this. Personally, I don't feel like visiting ground zero.”

“
So...that just leaves here, and the basement, right?” Greg swallowed the bile that rose in his throat

“
Yeah...are you okay with that? I mean, I'm pretty sure we can handle whatever it is that's down there.”

“
I'm not so sure. I mean, we have no idea what's down there, except that it's big, and somehow still alive despite the fact that it's been locked up down there for several days.”

“
Well, it takes a while to starve...and there might be stores of water down there. Or it might not need water. Look at it this way, when we face it, it'll probably be crazed with hunger and not thinking clearly.”

Greg remained unconvinced, but when Cage came in and started eating, he concurred with Kyra. It made more tactical sense to him to simply face the beast here.

“We're familiar with the base, and it's three on one. If we were to go to the mining facility, we wouldn’t have any idea what's waiting for us. It's too dangerous. However, it will be a good idea to set up a plan of action.”

“
Yeah, that would be prudent.” Greg tried to hide his unease with a quiet reply.

* * * * *

Greg was still uneasy with the idea even after they finished breakfast and moved on to the planning phase.

“
Is there really any rush?” They were still in the mess hall.

Kyra sat on top of one of the tables, legs crossed, clearly deep into planning mode. Cage leaned against the wall next to the table, hands in his pockets, quiet for the most part, save to add something insightful every now and then. Greg paced.

“Yes, I think so.” Kyra started at him.

Greg returned her stare. “Care to elaborate?”

“For all we know, the military could be planning a tactical strike on the region. For all we know, there could be a cure already, waiting for us. We've been lucky so far, but the more time we spend here, the more we push that luck.”

“
All the opposites of that could be true, you know. What if it's everywhere and it'd just be best to wait here or what if...you know what, never mind. Let's just do it.” Greg cut himself off.

Kyra frowned. “Wait, why are you changing your mind all of a sudden?”

“Because...I don't know, maybe I was thinking about what you said earlier. Who dares, wins, right?”

Kyra scrutinized him for a moment longer, then smiled and nodded. “Yeah. That's true.”

“Well...let's dare, then.”

* * * * *

The plan, if it went right, was simple.

They would send the elevator down, hope that the creature climbed onboard, and when it was deposited at the ground floor, they'd lure it outside and kill it. Simple. Kyra said she liked simple plans, because the less shit you had to do, the less shit could go wrong. Of course, it could still go to straight to hell rather quickly.

“I'm in position,”
Cage confirmed over their comms.

Greg sighed. Of course, in his fit of need to take charge
and dare, he'd volunteered to make sure it came out into the courtyard. He was the bait. He and Kyra stood and stared at the closed elevator doors.

“
You sure about this?” She glanced at him. “I can do it, if you want.”

“
Yeah, I'm sure. Just...make sure you're ready with that shotgun.” The gloom of the sky didn’t compare to the gloom inside him at that moment.

They were all armed. He and Kyra each had a shotgun and a pistol, loaded, safeties off, ready for action. Cage perched on top of a supply shed with his sniper rifle, stony and silent, aimed directly at the entryway.

They'd set up a canister of fuel right beside the exterior exit. As soon as the...whatever it was showed itself, Cage would hit the canister and blow the creature away. Hopefully. Greg prayed the explosion would take it out and not leave him and Kyra on the ground with a huge, pissed off, really hard to kill…thing.

Kyra would hide just inside the shed Cage lay atop.

Greg turned to her. “Okay, get into position… and wish me luck.”

Kyra hesitated for a moment, then leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

“Good luck.” She hurried away before he could respond. Greg blinked in surprise, watched her go, and smiled despite the situation. He turned to the elevator, took a deep breath and let it out slow. He popped his neck.

“
Let's get this over with,” he muttered and headed into the comms building where the elevator waited.

Greg opened the door, stepped halfway into the lift and hit the basement button, followed by the ground floor button, then slipped back out into the corridor. Just before the doors closed, in a fit of spontaneity, he shouted,

“Come and get it bitch!”

He retreated back down to the edge of the corridor, lingering in the doorway, staring hard at the closed doors. He strained his ears against the quiet, the white noise of the rain, listening for the telltale of heavy footfalls.

He heard them.

They seemed to be picking up speed, heading toward the elevator. Greg grinned in terrified apprehension. He wanted to pull out his pistol or at least hold onto his shotgun, which was slung over his shoulder, but he needed to be mobile.

“I think it's taking the bait,” he said.

“
Excellent,”
Cage murmured.

Greg continued to stare, his muscles tensed up, his hands clenched into fists, fingernails biting into his palm. Time passed in aching, long fragments, the seconds ticking by in apprehension. Greg strained to hear…the hum of the elevator returning to the surface carried to him.

“Get ready,” he whispered.

The doors opened.

Greg's breath left him as he saw what waited for him in the squalid confines of the lift. Cold fear snared his psyche and strangled the logic from his mind. What stood before him, squeezing itself through the doorway, was
enormous
.

It crouched to fit into the corridor, which was nine feet high. The creature was thick and bulky with raw, naked muscle that glided beneath taut, ashen skin. Blackened veins pushed against dead flesh. The beast rippled with sheer power. It wore the tattered remains of a uniform, which was crusted with old blood. Its misshapen head featured a face dredged up from the pits of hell, a visage of pure terror, reserved for the maddest of minds.

It stared at Greg with eyes of inhuman hatred, twin obsidian pools set deep into a sea of bleached skin. A roar of primal anger loosed from its maw, which was little more than a slash across its lower face, stuffed with rows of razor sharp teeth.

“
Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh
shit
!” Greg cried.

It started toward him, reaching for him with clawed hands stained with human blood. He wanted to run, wanted to scream, but every muscle in his body was paralyzed.

“Greg, what the fuck are you doing?”
Kyra screamed.

“
Greg. Move. Now. Move or die.”
Cage’s icy voice sounded in his ear.

That broke something in him. He turned and sprinted out into the rain. The beast roared again, louder than before, and it seemed to echo across the wastelands. Greg's foot caught on something, he stumbled a few feet and came crashing to the ground. Another roar forced him to look back.

The thing was in the doorway now, forcing itself through, reaching for him with blind hatred and hunger. Its eyes spoke nothing of humanity or sanity.

“
What the fuck is that?” Kyra’s voice echoed itself both in proximity and over the radio.

“
Dead.”
Cage punctuated his sentiment with a gunshot. The rifle round hit the canister perfectly. It erupted in a plume of crimson and yellow flames and a billow of black smoke. The force of the blast knocked the creature back into the corridor with a heavy
thud
.

“
Oh, man...” Greg moaned and let out a breath he didn't know he held. He heard someone run up beside him and glanced over, spying Kyra. She leaned down and offered her hand. He took it and she pulled him to his feet.

“
You okay?”

“
Yeah...yeah. Just...oh, man, that was fucking scary.” Greg’s voice shook with fear and adrenaline.

“
No shit. What
was
that thing?” Kyra replied.

Greg shook his head, his voice lost for a moment. He just wanted to sit down, maybe have another smoke with Cage...his gaze snapped over as something shifted in the main building. Automatically, he wrapped his hands around his shotgun and raised it.

“Oh, hell...you don't think it survived, do you?” Kyra murmured.

“
I'm ready for it,”
Cage reassured over their radio link.

Greg and Kyra backed away from the still-burning doorway, shotguns aimed and ready, fingers on the trigger. For a long moment, nothing happened. There was just the hiss of steam as rain met fire. Then, all at once, it burst through the doorway, stumbling out into the courtyard. A large portion of its body was charred, the flesh blackened now, and one of its eyes seemed to be ruined, leaking awful black goo down its wretched face.

Four sniper shots rang out in rapid succession. The first three took it in the chest, punching black bloody holes in the skin, and the fourth ran straight through the remaining eye. Greg watched half its skull disappear in a spray of black gore.

The creature remained standing for a long moment, and then collapsed to the ground.

“Nice shots.” Greg started laughing.

“
What's so funny?” Kyra stared at him for a moment and then started laughing as well. They were still doing so by the time Cage climbed down and joined them.

“
What
is
so funny?”

“
I'm not even sure,” Greg replied, getting himself back under control. He'd laughed so hard his stomach hurt.

“
It's just one of the side-effects of a near-death experience.” Kyra giggled. “Your brain is happy you're alive.”

“
Awesome...now let's burn this thing and head downstairs.”

* * * * *

The basement reeked of blood and death.

Cage volunteered to go down first, by himself. Some tense moments passed as Greg and Kyra waited up top before he radioed with the all-clear. They rode the lift down and came into a dimly lit room of horror.