Spores (8 page)

He screamed, “Oh fuck, this is bad. Do it, Miles. Please man! Do it now!”

Miles took one more step forward and pulled the trigger.

Chapter Seven

Amber rested the back of her sweat-drenched head against the cool wall. She took a deep breath and cool, sweet air flowed into her burning lungs. The action threw her off balance and she had to slam both hands onto her thighs so she wouldn’t over balance.

She had lost them, for the moment anyway. How long would it take them to realize that their quarry had double backed on herself? Seconds or minutes? For the sake of her poor knackered body, Amber hoped it would be fucking hours.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that she knew this place intimately, those bastards would have collared her ages ago. Even so, this couldn’t carry on for much longer. If she didn’t find somewhere to hole up quickly, she’d be dead in the water.

The sound she’d been dreading, combat boots striking linoleum floor, reached her ears.

“Can’t you just give this girl a break?” she muttered.

Perhaps they’ll run straight past the left turning she took. They couldn’t possibly know which way she went, could they? The boots slowed down and Amber heard the muffled conversation of two male voices.

She pushed her body off the wall. The way her luck was running, just staying here and hoping those men ran past would surely doom her. She darted along the plain, white corridor, toward the first set of double doors.

Her hope of losing those two idiots down here had seemed like a good idea at the time. There was nothing down this part of the Institute save for a few dozen abandoned rooms and a maze of corridors that seemed to lead to nowhere. How the hell they had managed to keep up was beyond her, unless they were part bloodhound.

Amber wasn’t just trying to lose them down here; she also had a destination in mind. Despite losing her friend earlier, Amber still intended to get to the surface and warn Miles before it was too late.

She burst through the double doors and into a large, dusty room that must have served as a canteen sometime in the distant past.

When Amber first arrived here, the Institute was almost deserted. There were only a few survivors here. All trying to make sense of the incomprehensible blight that had taken away the older generation. The shock of what had happened had such a profound effect upon her psyche. Whilst the others attempted to find solace in alcohol or drugs or sharing their experiences, she took a different route.

Amber spent every hour of each day exploring and mentally mapping the interior of the vast complex. Finding and exploring all those forgotten rooms and corridors kept her traumatized mind away from thinking about the catastrophe.

She knew from her last visit down here that two more rooms after this one lay a two-foot rectangular panel recessed into the wall of a corridor outside the last room. In passing, it didn’t seem to be of any significance but upon closer inspection, the panel revealed an abandoned service lift. Amber knew without doubt that this was the lowest level so the only way would be up, hopefully toward the departure lounge.

As she weaved her way through the rusted metal tables, she heard the unmistakable sound of approaching boot steps; so the bastards had come this way after all. Amber had almost reached the exit when the doors behind her flew open.

Amber almost fell through the doors in panic. She got to her feet and saw another door a few metres to her left. Amber chose that route instead of running for the lift. There wasn’t a chance in hell of reaching the service lift before they would catch up to her.

The last time she was down here, she spent nearly a full hour going through all the cupboards and drawers. This area had always held her attention for more than a few minutes.

The doorway led into a kitchen area that looked like it had been frozen in time. The place was still fully stocked up and judging from the state of the antiquated equipment and the state of the cans of food in the cupboards, it hadn’t been occupied for at least half a century.

As she raced into the kitchen, she noticed straight away that one of the cupboard doors under one of the preparation tables was wide open. That door had been shut when she’d left, she’d stake her life on it. Amber wondered who could have been in here but she heard those boot steps getting closer and realized that it didn’t really matter.

There was no time to find a better hiding place, that cupboard would have to do. Amber climbed backwards into the cramped space and used the narrow slats cut into the wood to close the door.

Her stomach sank when the two soldiers rushed through the doors; oh this was just not fair. How could they possibly know where she was going all the time? Amber attempted to slow down her ragged breathing and attempted to relax. She looked at the two tins beside her knee and tried to imitate their stillness, pretty fucking difficult when sweat flowed into her eyes and her heart sounded like a bloody drum roll.

“Are you sure she’s in here?” asked Pembroke

This really wasn’t right; the bastard wasn’t even out of breath.

“Of course I’m bloody sure,” replied the gingered haired soldier. “We’ve just spent the last half hour running her down. She’ll be well fucked by now, it makes sense that she’ll go to ground.”

Hayder sighed loudly, “If you hadn’t looked so fucking guilty when he barked at you, I may have been able to blag our way through.”

“It’s about time you grew a pair, Pembroke. I’ve told you before. Jackson sees the worse in everyone. You just need to act all offended and get all uppity back at him.”

Pembroke abruptly spun around. Amber let out an involuntary gasp. Oh shit, he was looking right at her.

“Did you hear that? I’m sure I heard a noise over there.”

She glanced to the side of her and silently moaned. She’d knocked over one of those tins and not even bloody noticed. How fucking clumsy could she be?

Pembroke giggled, “I do believe that I can see a painted nail. Hello in there? Do you want to come out and play with us?”

She picked up one of the tins and shuffled back, Amber didn’t intend to be captured without putting up some sort of fight. The man padded over, taking his time, grinning like a mad clown. She was so glad it was him instead of that other one. Hayder scared her. As soon as the bastard pushed his ugly mug through the opening, he was going to get this tin slammed right into his mouth. Amber wanted the fucker to choke on his own teeth.

Oh God, listen to her, as if he was going to poke his head in here like a bear groping for honey, he would shove his arm in either that or his pissing rifle. As he reached for the door, Amber crawled further into the tight space.

She yelped in utter shock as her legs fell out from under her, Amber looked back, panic bubbling up as she felt her torso slipping back. Oh Jesus. Someone or something had burrowed up from fuck knows where, right into the back of this cupboard. Pembroke opened the door and reached in with both arms. Amber didn’t know what scared her the most her falling backwards or the look of sheer terror etched on the soldier’s face.

“Grab my arms, woman!” he shouted.

She dug her fingers into the edge of the wood and fervently tried to pull her body up. Amber just couldn’t hold on for any longer, the interior of the tunnel was coated in a thin film of gloss black glutinous slime. Pembroke leaned further in, trying to wrap his fingers around her wrist but he just couldn’t reach. Amber’s already exhausted muscles couldn’t hold her any longer. Her fingers let go and she plummeted backwards, shrieking.

Before she had time to try to slow her descent, Amber fell through and landed on a pile of what felt like soft material. She dared to open her eyes and found herself looking up the hole she’d just fallen through and at the tiny features of Pembroke at the top.

That soft material turned out to be a thick carpet of huge, black mushrooms. She cried out in revulsion as the crushed caps and stems beneath her released a rank, foul stink. Amber rolled of the stuff, stood up, and wiped as much of the crap off her clothes as she could.

Where the bloody hell was she now? No way could this dark room be part of the Institute. It looked as though the cube shaped room had been hewn out of solid rock; was this a natural cave?

As Amber slowly turned around, she saw that the hole she fell through wasn’t the only one. Above her head were five more next to each other in a circular pattern. They remind her of the barrel on a revolver. She looked up and in the distance glanced pale blue sky. The exit looked like it was miles above her head, Amber reached up and gingerly touched the surface of the hole, it was just like the other one, gross and slimy.

“I won’t be getting out that way,” she murmured.

She padded back toward the opening she’d emerged from, stepping over that vile carpet of strange looking mushrooms. Amber crouched down and gazed up the hole. The face was no longer there. She wasn’t sure whether she was upset or relieved. The gradient didn’t seem to be too steep; if she could find something to dig into the side there may be a chance of getting out of here. Amber stood up, wherever, here was.

Opposite from where she stood there was a huge lump of dark stone jutting out from the wall, Amber made her way toward it, and as she got closer, Amber saw with surprise that it wasn’t natural. A human face had been carved from the rock. As her eyes got used to the dim light, she noticed more discrepancies. Close to the opening was what looked like a pile of broken stone columns, next to those were the remains of the statue of a naked man.

“Oh how fucking fantastic. I’ve fallen into what could be one of the greatest archaeological finds of the decade.” Her voice echoed around the room, “Yippee, I’ll be famous.”

Then her eyes saw something else that wasn’t so ancient. Amber’s stomach flipped when she noticed a pile of glistening bones next to that broken statue. She looked around and saw with growing horror that there were another four piles. She took a step back and gasped when her foot crushed what felt like a snail’s shell. Despite knowing what it must be, Amber still looked down.

She’d just stood on someone’s finger bone. Amber felt her gorge rising when she saw a piece of ragged material sticking to a thick bone next to her other foot. The realisation of what this place was quickly dawned on her.

“Oh Jesus,” she moaned.

She was standing in the middle of a creature’s lair, a creature that obviously wasn’t a fucking vegetarian. Amber then saw several more openings in the side of the cave walls. Her heart lifted slightly; maybe one of them wasn’t so steep.

Amber’s heart sank back down when she heard a snuffling noise coming from one of those openings. She frantically looked around the cave for anything to use as a weapon. After what she’d been through, no way did Amber intend to end her day as a pile of wet bones.

That broken statue held the only source of useful material; apart from the bones, the place held nothing else but fucking slimy, horrible, disgusting mushrooms. She hurried over and kneeled down, trying to search for any piece of rock that wasn’t too large to carry. Oh Christ, the noise was getting louder and louder. Amber grabbed the biggest piece and struggled to where she thought the thing was going to emerge. She lifted the rock above her head and waited. Her patience was rewarded when a bright blue furry sausage shaped body slowly twisted out of the hole. It looked like a big, blue, wiggling maggot. Amber screamed and dropped her stone on its body.

The broken fragment of statue fell through the creature’s body as if the thing was no more substantial than thick porridge. The rest of its body fell from the hole; she watched as the flesh quickly liquefied, then jumped back as dark blue syrupy goo spread across the floor of the cave. The only thing from the creature that hadn’t dissolved was a ring shaped object lying in the middle of the liquid. It took her a moment to recognise it; when she did, an inadvertent hysterical laugh escaped from her mouth. Amber bent over and grabbed it. She stood under the holes and read the writing engraved on a little silver disc, it said – ‘my name is Muggles. If found please ring this number.’

She threw the collar on the floor then sat down and closed her eyes. Amber wanted to go to sleep, to rest her poor body and mind; the idea had plenty of appeal. Maybe everything would be back to normal as it should be.

Amber groaned when she heard the sound of another of those things making its way down a tunnel. She couldn’t take much more of this. Amber’s eyes snapped open; she looked up and immediately saw the absence of light in one of the holes. This time though, the noise emanating from the creature had a different quality, it sounded more insectile. She hurried to the blocked hole and looked up.