The Red Phoenix 12: Strength Comes in Numbers (41 page)

“Kerry?” Chris asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

“Just stay close to me, okay?” said Chris.

“Are you worried about me?” she asked.

Chris glanced at her, looked away and smiled.

“Of course I am,” he replied. “It’s hard to look at you and not feel different.”

“Different? How?” Kerry asked.

“Because you look like
her
, talk like
her
and even act like—”

Chris paused.

“Never mind,” he added.

“No, tell me,” said Kerry.

“When I look at you, it’s almost like she was taken away but came back,” Chris stated. “Especially the way you bring up her memories.”

“But that’s what you wanted, right?” asked Kerry.

“Yes,” he answered in a soft voice.

“What if we escape out of here, Chris and the justice system comes for you? What then?” she asked.

“They won’t find us,” Chris answered.

“How do you know?” she asked.

“Because we’re going to so off-grid we might as well as be at the deep end of the ocean,” Chris responded.

Kerry smiled, lowering her weapon, as they gazed at each other.

“I’m glad you feel that way,” she replied.

Suddenly, the water splashed near Kerry’s knees, tantalic-like arms wrapped around her legs, chest, then tightly around her neck. She cried out as she was pulled down into the water.

“Kerry!” Chris shouted as she was pulled upstream.

As Chris ran after her, a serpent creature with three heads, skinned-over eyes, gaping jaws with sharp teeth came out of the water, splashing water everywhere, hissing loudly at Chris and the clones. One of the serpent’s mouths clenched Kirk Five on the forearm, causing him to scream, jerking him around like a rag doll. Another head rammed Kirk Ten in the chest, forcing him against the tunnel wall brutally, breaking a few of the tiles off the wall.

“Shoot it! Shoot it now!” Kirk One cried as he and the others open fire at the three-headed monster, causing it to shriek terribly then collapse back in the water and swim away swiftly, dropping Kirk Five.

Kirks Three, Six and Eight shot at the water as the creature swam under their legs.

“It got away!” said Kirk Three in a loud voice.

“Let’s find Chris and Kerry! Now!” Kirk One ordered as they ran up the tunnel, splashing.

***

Chris sprinted up the stream after Kerry who was being dragged up stream by another serpent creature. Kerry screamed, extending her hand to Chris as he gained.

Suddenly, the creature stopped and its three heads came out of the water, turned to Chris and hissed at him. He fired his gun at it but one of the heads rammed it, knocking it out of his hands. It used the rest of its tail to wrap around him but Chris pulled his tactical knife and stabbed its serpent-body, causing it to shriek, piercing his ears, while its long tail swung wildly with his knife in it, knocking Chris into the water.

“Chris! Do something!” Kerry cried.

He pulled his side arm and fired at the three heads, hitting two of them. The creature fell into the water severely injured, barely moving, unraveling itself from Kerry.

“Are you okay?” asked Chris, breathing heavily, helping her up.

“I am now,” Kerry answered in a soft voice, coughing, gasping for air, wiping gross sewage off her.

Kirk One and the others rushed up to them, panting.

“We came as fast as we could,” said Kirk One. “Another one of them attacked us.”

“Are you all okay?” asked Chris.

“Kirk Five was bitten in the arm but he seems fine,” Kirk One answered.

“Let’s have a look at that,” said Chris, tearing off Kirk Five’s sleeve, examining his bite marks. “Who has the First Aid kit?”

“I do,” Kirk Seven answered, rushing over.

“That thing swung me around like I weighed nothing,” said Kirk Five as Chris took a bandage from the kit.

He remembered helping Kirk when he was ten years old and was stung by a bee. It was a soothing comfort to help Kirk Five with his injury. Chris closed his eyes, reminiscing, saying,
You see it’s not so bad, is it?

“Are you all right, Chris?” asked Kirk Five.

“Huh? Oh yeah,” Chris answered, wrapping the bandage around the bite marks, tying it. “You see, it’s not so bad, is it?”

“Thank you,” said Kirk Five, clenching a fist a few times. “I remember when you said that when I was stung by a bee.”

“What did you say?” asked Chris.

“You always said that whenever I fell down or was hurt,” Kirk Five answered.

“I remember that too,” said Kirk One.

“Me too,” Kirk Ten added.

“So do I,” Kirks Three and Four stated.

“Wait a minute, are all of you having Kirk’s memories?” asked Chris.

“It appears that way,” Kirk Six answered.

Chris nodded at them.

“What are those things, Chris?” asked Kirk Eight.

Chris moved to the dying serpent creature that lay on the side of the tunnel, drawing his side arm.

“It’s got to be a mutation of a parasite,” Chris answered.

The creature’s third head rose and hissed softly at Chris.

“I’m sorry, a para-what?” asked Kirk Four.

“Parasites are naturally in sewer water, discharged from fecal matter and bacteria,” Chris continued, aiming his pistol at the creature’s remaining head.

“The vapors were able to mutate even the microorganisms in this filthy water,” Kirk One added.

“That would be my most educated guess,” said Chis, cocking his hammer. “Lights out, gorgeous.”

He fired his gun, shooting the third head, killing it.

***

Braddock and his soldiers came out of the stairwell door, arriving at level minus seventy-nine. The corridor was square and the floor, walls and ceiling that was ten feet above the floor were made of concrete.

“The destination is just up ahead and around the corner,” said Braddock, staring down the concrete passageway.

It was at least fifty-yards.

The soldiers jogged down the hallway. Siddoway moved closer to Twelve as they trotted at the rear of the group of fifty.

“They’re going to deactivate the nuclear arsenal,” Siddoway said in a quiet voice. “Afterwards, they’ll be heading back to the surface.”

“What does that mean for us?” Twelve answered.

“I’m going to have to do something crazy,” Siddoway replied.

“Like what?” asked Twelve.

“You’ll know when it happens,” Siddoway replied. “Just be prepared to take cover.”

***

Chris and the clones turned a corner in the grimy sewer tunnel, trudging through the sordid water. They came to a brick wall-dead end with a ladder in the corner that led up through a small shaft.

“Looks like we hit the end of the line,” said Chris, looking up the ladder.

“Does the ladder seem safe?” asked Kerry.

“It goes way up there,” Chris replied. “It’s so dark I can’t see where the ladder ends.”

“Could we reach the surface?” asked Kirk Nine.

“Nah, not from the sewer,” Chris responded. “It’s likely to go up to the next floor or two.”

“Only one way to find out,” Kirk One stated.

Chris and the clones headed up the ladder one after another.

***

The nuclear arsenal control room was quiet. Switchboards with buttons and LED lights were inset into the walls. The office chair sat next to a desk with a computer terminal and a tipped over cup of coffee. The desk sat in front of three bay-window style glass panels that allowed one to look out at the laser beam field and the stairs that led to the control room.

Braddock and Osborne watched the control room from their useless positions, peeking around the corner, across the laser beam field, devising a way to outsmart its security measures.

An octagon shaped corridor led from the control room into the arsenal bay in the rear that had twenty steel bases, ten of them on either side of the bay with sixteen nuclear missiles mounted on each one sitting on iron racks that were twenty-feet long. The missiles lay slanted on the iron racks, pointing towards the wall of the bay on the opposite side of the room. The tips were painted in red as the yellow and black radioactive signs were decaled on the sides, along with the serial numbers
F-2365-02.

In a rear corner of the arsenal bay floor, lay a steel grid drain. The sounds of something coming up the drain hole drew closer like it was coming up a ladder in the shaft under the drain cover. A human hand gripped the steel drain, trying to push it upwards, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Damn, it’s locked,” said Chris.

“Where does it lead, Chris?” asked Kerry.

“I don’t know,” he answered, trying to see through the drain. “This drain cover won’t budge,” he added, striking it with his elbow.

“The freeze gun, perhaps?” Kerry suggested.

“Good idea,” Chris replied. “Who did I give the ice gun to?”

“Me,” Kirk Three answered. It was passed to Chris up the chain of clones on the ladder.

***

Braddock and his soldiers arrived at a wide set of closed metal double doors that stated
CAUTION RADIOACTIVE
in black and yellow across them. Braddock moved to a number keypad that was mounted on the wall near the doors. The soldiers stood back and watched as he tapped in the code. The double doors slid open to the left and right. They hurried to the next room that opened to a metal staircase that went from one side of the ten-foot wide corridor to the other.

“Platoon halt!” said Braddock, holding up his fist.

Braddock and Osborne observed the multiple thin lasers that stretched across the staircase in a zig-zag design, guarding the last set of double doors, stating
CAUTION RADIOACTIVE
at the top of the stairs.

“That’s one hell of laser design, boss,” said Osborne.

Braddock typed in a code on a keypad that was mounted on the wall then pushed
ENTER
. The laser field disappeared.

***

“Here you go, Chris,” Kerry stated, handing the freeze gun to him.

“Thank you. Everyone go down a few rungs,” Chris stated.