Retaliation: The Mortis Desolation, Book Two (3 page)

“
T
his is
where you’ll be staying,” Trevor said as he opened the door in a hallway filled with them. He stepped inside. John and I followed close behind.

I looked around the room and was impressed. To our right was a small living area with couches, a couple of chairs, and a bookshelf filled with books. To the left was a small kitchenette with a mini fridge, microwave, and stove.

“Your beds are through that door,” Trevor said pointing at the door straight ahead.

“So we’re sharing?” John asked.

“Yes, everybody has a roommate,” Trevor said as he walked to the exit. “Dinner will be served at 1700 hours. I’ll have somebody come by show you the way there. For now, get settled in. Make yourself at home. I’ll talk to you later,” Trevor said as he exited the room, shutting the door behind him, leaving us standing there alone.

“So what you think?” John asked as he walked over to the bedroom door, opening it and peeking inside.

I looked around the room. It was a nice room. Feeling the cool blast of the AC on my skin was refreshing. “It will be nice to have a place to lay our heads without having to worry about zombies or Xenomortises.”

“Yeah, not battling for our lives will be luxurious.” John smiled and chuckled.

“Yeah, I guess. But does this all even seem real to you?” I asked John.

John turned and looked at me. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” I began, “this all just seems so… I don’t know. Just something doesn’t seem right. They aren’t even gonna let us leave,” I said.

“Well, can you really blame them?” John said as he sat down on the couch. “This place is super-nice. I know that the Roves would definitely kill for a place like this. Hell, even some of the other settlements that ’aren’t as violent would kill to stay in place. I mean, this has it all.”

I nodded my head. “I guess that makes sense. But if they were so concerned for the safety of this place, wouldn’t they have killed us?”

John looked at me with a puzzled face. “Are you really complaining that they didn’t kill us?” he asked.

I shrugged and smiled. “ I guess I can’t complain too much. I’m just saying that you need to keep your eyes open. A place like this has to be filled with secrets. If we can find the right one, we can get out of here and save our family.”

John interlaced his fingers behind his head as he leaned back on the couch and placed his feet up on the coffee table. “Or we could just gain their trust so they let us leave.”

I didn’t say anything. John was being very optimistic, and optimistic moments were few and far between in the world we lived in. I decided to let him have his moment and keep my doubts to myself. Because the truth was that none of this made sense to me. They were being too generous. They had something up their sleeves, and I was determined to find out what that was.

The sound of footsteps running down the hallway reached my ears. John perked up from his position on the couch, looked at the door, and then back at me. He raised his eyebrows, and I raised mine back. Something was going on.

I walked over to the door and opened it. People and aliens rushed by the doors, whispering things in hushed tones before turning the corner at the end of the hallway. I was still shocked by the sight of the aliens, and even more shocked by how normal they seemed. I had a lot of questions for them, but for now, the only question on my mind was where everybody was going and what the commotion was.

I turned to look back at John, but he was already by my side. “You want to see what’s going on?” I asked.

John smiled and nodded. “Let’s go see what these people are up to.”

I
followed
the people down the hallway with John close behind me. People were murmuring things to each other, but I couldn’t tell what they were talking about. There were groups of three or four people every few feet rushing down the hallway. They ignored John and me, as they were too busy trying to get wherever they were going to pay much attention to us.

We rounded the corner and walked down the outer row of the living quarters, which led to a large, round hallway that arched upward like a gentle ramp. People were rushing up the ramp and gathered around a doorway at the top. Guards stood outside, keeping the crowd at bay.

John and I walked up the hallway and joined the crowd of people as we tried to figure out what was going on.

“Everybody just get back and go about your business. The situation is being taken care of,” a distinguished-looking older gentlemen shouted at the crowd.

“We have a right to know what’s going on! I might know something that could help,” one of the Genari citizens shouted. He towered almost a full foot above the crowd. I felt my knees weaken at the sight of him.

“We have our best humans and Genari working on the situation,” the man said calmly.

“So there
is
a situation?!” one of the men shouted.

More people joined in, shouting and asking for answers.

“Everybody! Calm down before I
order
you back to your rooms. You all know what happens if you defy my orders!” the man shouted above the cacophony of voices.

Everybody hushed at that.

“I heard it’s a new alien creature. Something worse than the Xenomortises,” a man shouted. I turned to look at him. He was standing in the back of the crowd with his arms crossed. He had a smug look on his face, as if he was happy about whatever was going on.

“If you think we have something to do with this, Paul, you’re wrong. We’re just as clueless as you are,” a Genari said to him, taking a step forward to show he wasn’t afraid of him.

It unsettled me to my core to hear a Genari say a name like
Paul
so casually. This place was strange, and I definitely wasn’t used to it all yet.

“Oh, that’s comforting to know,” a woman said from the crowd.

“So there’s some sort of creature out there that not even the aliens know anything about?” another person shouted.

The voices began to rise again as people began demanding answers from the man standing in front of the door, behind which I assumed held the people trying to figure out whatever was happening.

“You hear that?” I said as I turned to John. “There’s some alien they don’t know anything about.”

He looked at me, his eyes wide from both realization and then fear. “You think they could be talking about the
atras
?”

I nodded my head. “Could be. If that’s the case, I think we’re about to become very useful to them.” John smiled as I turned around. “Follow me,” I told him.

I began pushing my way through the crowd. People gave John and I sideways glances of disdain, wondering why we were pushing our way to the front. The crowd began to grow, and it became more and more densely packed. I wondered how they even found about what was going on in the first place. I must have missed the
Hey guys, there’s a weird creature out there we know nothing about
memo over the intercom.

We reached the front and were just a few inches away from the man who was doing his best to keep the crowd contained with his words. Guards stood on either side of him, keeping them at bay with their menacing demeanors and the Taser guns they held at their sides.

“Sir,” I tried shouting to him, but he was too busy arguing with another citizen. “Sir!” I shouted again.

This time he gave me a sideways glance but turned his attention back to the other people who were shouting at him.

I knew exactly what to say to get his attention, though. I took a deep breath and shouted. “I know about the creatures! I’ve fought them on the outside!”

The whole crowd silenced, and everyone turned to look at us. I gulped, and my mind began to scream at me to run away. John and I had just become the most popular people in the Bunker.

“’What are your names?” the man asked, eyeing the two of us.

“I’m Miles; he’s John.”

The man reached behind him and opened the door. “Please follow me.”

I
stepped into the room
. It was illuminated by screens on the wall that showed the image of one of my worst nightmares. An atra paced at the entrance to the cave. I didn’t know what it was doing there, but I didn’t want to find out either.

"What the hell are you doing, Joshua?” one of the scientists in the room asked when he saw us enter the room.

“These two kids say they know what that thing is," the man who brought us to the room—Joshua—said as he pointed to the television screens.

"Are you the two people who snuck in here?" one of the ladies asked. She had short gray hair and wore horn-rimmed glasses, the eyes behind which filled with fear and stress.

"Yes, we encountered those things outside. I’ve spent years out there, but I’ve never encountered them until recently. They travel in the shadows and in darkness. They disintegrate if they come into contact with sunlight."

The Genari and the humans in the room looked at each other while murmuring to themselves, considering what I just told him.

I walked up to one of the Genari and asked, “So you mean you don't know what these things are?"

"I am unsure," the Genari said. His face was contorted in a way that I assumed meant he was slightly offended that I asked him that question.

I felt the chill go down my spine as I looked to the cement ceiling. The fact that the Genari didn’t know what these things were terrified me to my core. If this wasn't some sort of Genarian creature, then what could it be? Where could it have come from?

"You say their weakness is sunlight?” a male scientists with long gray hair asked.

"Yes," I said. John nodded in agreement. “Like I said, they travel in the darkness and in the shadows. They have a solid form, it seems, but at the same time, they are very fast and flexible, almost as if they’re liquid."

"Kind of like an octopus," one of the scientists said, turning to study the atra on the screen.

“Yeah, that's a good way to put it."

I could hear the people in the door behind me as they continued shouting, trying to get answers.

"Somebody call more security. Get those people out of here,” the scientist with the long gray hair said to another person in the room.

As they called for more backup, Long-Haired Man turned to another person. "We need to get UV lights set up at the entrance and anywhere else they might be able to get in.”

I looked at John and raised my eyebrows. Not only did it sound like they had lights that simulate sunlight, which would protect us from the atras, but it seemed like there was more than one way out than just the front door.

Long-Haired Man turned to me and extended his hand. I grabbed it and shook it. "Thank you for your help, Miles. I’m Dr. Porter, the head scientist here in Bunker Bravo. Once we get some preliminary precautions set up against these atras, as you called them, I'll be coming to you for more information regarding these creatures."

"Well, I'm happy to help in any way I can. I want to find out what those things are just as much as you do. I saw three of them alone take out an entire settlement. They're not something to be messed with."

The scientist nodded his head. “Yes, it seems that is the case. But don't worry, I think we will be safe here. But the outside just got a lot more dangerous.”

I nodded. He was right. The outside world was a lot more dangerous than living inside the secure walls of his bunker. But I wanted nothing more than to get out of this place and back with my friends and family. They needed me, and the longer I stayed in the Bunker, the more unlikely I’d be able to save them from the Roves. But for now I would play along, the whole time searching for a way out. The first chance I could get, I would make my way back to Jefferson Memorial.

D
aniel walked
toward the hotel in the center of town, which was the living quarters for all Riven citizens. Daniel stepped into the hotel lobby and took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He wasn't sure why, but they had boarded up the windows. There were some lanterns around the lobby that gave off a soft amber glow.

Daniel walked straight to the back of the lobby, a group of people eying him as they walked past each other. Daniel shook it off and turned left down the hallway. The hallway had rows of doors that led to different conference rooms. He remembered Pete mentioning that he would be in the second door on the right when he saw him on the way to Rocco’s that morning. Daniel walked to the second door and knocked on it.

"Who is it?" Peter asked in a muffled voice from the other side of the door.

"It's me, Pete,” Daniel shouted.

Daniel could hear Peter shuffling toward the door for a few moments before it finally swung open.

Peter huffed Daniel's face. "This place sucks," Peter said as he stood aside, gesturing for Daniel to enter.

Daniel chuckled at Peter. "Come on, Pete, you’ll get used to it. Besides, even if you don't, it's not permanent."

Peter walked around a table that he had set up with various scientific instruments. He gestured to it as he spoke. "Their instruments are so archaic. And they aren't even going to let me use any electricity. Have to use these lanterns that strain my eyes.”

Daniel pointed at the cast on Peter's arm. "Are you sure it’s not that thing that’s hurting you?”

Peter rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is the fact that I'm straining my eyes in order to see anything in this room. Although this arm isn't helping either,” he said.

"Well at least got a cast on that thing," Daniel said.

"Oh yeah, great. It's fantastic." The sarcasm dripped from Peter's voice.

"Well just make do with what you can for now. Rocco, the leader, is going to send me to Jefferson Memorial with a few scouts. If it's not too impossible, he’ll lend us some men and supplies."

Peter leaned up against his table. "Well, hopefully they’ll be able to get this situation taken care of. At Jefferson Memorial I use the generators an hour or two whenever I needed to. Here? Forget it. They don’t have a single generator here, much less the gas needed to power it."

Daniel leaned up against the table opposite of Peter. He glanced over the instruments Peter had laid out. "Yeah, that is strange, right? A place like this seems like they’d have a lot of generators. Seems like everything is all archaic."

Peter nodded his head. "Yeah, that's definitely one way to put it."

Daniel sighed and returned his attention to Peter. "Well, I actually came by here to ask you a question. What do you need to start doing some preliminary research on those atras?”

"Well, a good place to start would be getting some of that black liquid from inside the newspaper room in Brinn. Hopefully the sunlight hasn’t melted all that away."

Daniel nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Okay, I'll see what I can do. I'll see about getting some people together and doing that tomorrow. Maybe if I can get them to trust us more, they’ll be more willing to help out whenever we go scout Jefferson Memorial."

Peter nodded his head. "That sounds good to me. If you need me, I'll be in here trying to get this skeleton of a laboratory set up."

Daniel chuckled and looked at the mess on the table in front of him. "You have fun with that, Pete.”

Peter mumbled something under his breath that Daniel ’didn’t quite catch, but Daniel smiled as he turned around, only imagining what Pete could have said.

Daniel left makeshift laboratory. Now that everything was in place, it was time for him to start getting some answers.