From hell, p.27
From Hell, page 27
part #8 of Alex Hunter Series
Soon they were within a dozen feet of the lab door. But they had dragged the remnants of the horde with them, about twenty-five silent bodies that came at them holding swords, bats, and guns. Bullets clanged against the HAWCs’ armor as well as the skin of the laboratory.
“Stop there,” Gray said. “On the count of three, two, one – get down, now!”
Sam, Aiko, and Maria dropped flat to the ground.
There was a hum in the air and then hundreds of concentrated light beams shot out from the sides of the laboratory at about chest level. They looked like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Where the red streams touched bodies, the skin smoked, and the beams either passed right through them, searing away the flesh, or severed limbs from torsos. Nothing was spared. Seconds later the lasers were shut off.
A miasmic stench rose from the writhing bodies, and Sam looked up and shook his head. “Laser-net defense.” He chuckled. “You couldn’t have deployed that a little sooner, huh?”
“No, there were too many before. I needed you to, uh, thin the herd, as they say.” Gray hummed for a moment, before continuing: “I now read all clear on the scanners.”
Sam got to his feet and held out a hand to Maria. She grabbed it and he pulled her to her feet.
“All clear.”
Aiko walked among the bodies and then dropped her empty gun. “That’s all we’ve got.” She turned. “The rest is up to the Arcadian now.”
CHAPTER 44
“That thing is alive.”
Alex only just felt slight warmth against his skin as he set foot outside the heavily armored vehicle. He turned and looked back at the powerful machine bathed in a blue glow, saw the waves of heat shimmering on its surface, and radiating up from over the side of the chasm. He could see Matt in the front with the big head of Torben crowded in next to him, the dog’s nose pressed to the glass. He expected Casey and Janus would be following him via the targeting systems and also every piece of onboard viewing equipment they had at their disposal.
He turned back to the cave and stepped inside. It was dark, but his eyes had no problem adjusting to the low light. They shone silver like those of a nocturnal animal – a little gift from the original Arcadian treatment. One of the ones he thought was actually beneficial.
Even through his armored suit and with his force field, Alex could sense he wasn’t alone in the dark cave. He couldn’t yet determine if Joshua and Aimee where here, but he had been drawn in for a reason.
He headed further inside, then saw the stacks of objects toward the rear of the cave. They were the bags full of people the things had been dragging, and like before, they seemed full. Was this the fate of the captured people? he wondered.
He quickly crossed to them and crouched by the closest, then grabbed one, running his hand up over the slimy surface. It felt like a wet rug, and inside he could feel a limb, which jerked a little when he grabbed at it.
There was no noise, and he wondered whether the captives were either frightened into silence or somehow rendered unconscious – he hoped they were all unconscious and spared the knowledge of what was happening to them.
Alex reached for his short k-bar blade, but then paused – if he opened the sack, then what? The sack had to be insulating them, keeping them alive, maybe even keeping them fresh for the monsters. If he slit it open, what would happen? Would the heat rush in and cook them all? He took his hand away from the skin.
He couldn’t take the risk. For now they had to be satisfied with knowing that the captives were here, and alive.
Alex looked over the huge mound of bags – there had to be a dozen in this cave alone. Too many to drag out behind the vehicle, and he had no way of knowing just how many more there would be in other caves.
He cursed. Bottom line, they’d have to stay where they were for now.
“Sorry,” he said and began to stand.
The blow to his neck felt like a tree had fallen on him. But it didn’t bounce away – it stuck and held him. He lifted his hands to grip the massive thing that held him, straining to turn his neck.
He could just make out the head and face of the thing on the long stump of the neck with all its questing eyes and gibbering mouths. Dozens of hands held him, clenching, grabbing, and pinching, all trying to tear his helmet and mask off, and their combined strength was enormous.
Alex started to tear the fingers away from his neck just as the other massive hand was brought to bear. But instead of pummeling him, it began to drag him toward its horrifying body. Alex could already see the limbs, torsos, and heads all melted in there, and he knew exactly what the thing was going to try and do to him.
The force field held it at bay, but he had no idea exactly what sort of corrosive power the creature used, and he knew if one small thread of those tendrils made its way inside his suit, he’d be infected.
Small caliber and standard rounds were useless against the thing, but he remembered Gray’s words: it’s an infection. And the one thing you can do with an infection is to cut it out.
Alex reached over his shoulder for Aiko’s sword, drew it and, in the same motion, brought it down with all his titanic strength across one of the arms.
The limb severed cleanly and fell with a thump to the dirt. There was an eldritch scream as the thing voiced its pain and fury. It threw Alex to the ground like he was a rag doll and reached for its severed arm.
Alex wasted no time in slicing through the other arm, and he saw that where the silver blade struck, its flesh smoked as if the sword was the red-hot thing and not the creature. It howled and gibbered, and the eyes in that trunk-like neck-head rolled like those of a frightened horse.
“Don’t like that, huh?” Alex grinned like a death’s head. “Then you’re gonna hate this.”
He leaped at the thing and, using both hands, lifted the blade and brought it down across the long column of a neck, severing it cleanly. It too fell to the ground, and the thing lumbered around blindly for a few moments before collapsing.
Again, no tendrils extruded from the end, as the silver seemed to have cauterized and perhaps also disinfected the wound.
Alex turned back to the piles of sacks. “I’ll be back.” He jogged to the vehicle and the door yawned open as he closed in. He leaped back into the cabin.
As he entered, he punched the disc on his chest and the blue glow vanished. Smoke still rose from his body. Tor grabbed his forearm in its mouth and dragged him hard, as though impatient.
“I’m okay, I’m okay.”
The dog finally let him go.
He turned. “They’re in there, the people. Some of them, anyway.”
Janus lurched forward, gripping his shoulder. “You saw them? Are they … living?”
Alex nodded. “Yes, in some sort of comatose state, I think. Still in those sacks we saw the creatures dragging. Seems it surrounds them in some sort of biological insulation and protects them from the heat.”
Janus looked skyward for a moment. “Thank you, God.” And then: “How do we get them out?”
Alex grabbed the man’s forearm, and held it. He stared into his eyes. “We can’t. Not right now. There were probably a hundred people in there, and I’m betting there are hundreds more in every one of these side caves. We just don’t have the capacity to rescue them all.”
Janus grimaced. “Maybe we can –”
“Leave it for now. We’ve got work to do.”
Alex moved into the driver’s seat and Matt pointed at one of the monitors. “There’s a lot of activity up ahead … and down.”
“Then that’s where we’re going.” Alex put the vehicle in gear and accelerated, seeming not to care about the narrowing of the pathway. Rocks were bulldozed out of the way and fell into the crevasse, down to the river of molten rock perhaps a thousand feet below.
On the winding way into the heart of the volcano, they stopped several more times to investigate more side caves. Each time Alex felt that Aimee or Joshua was inside, and each time he found more of the stored sacks of human bodies, but neither of his family.
“More?” Matt asked one last time.
“Like squirrels storing nuts,” Alex said, getting a sinking feeling in his gut. He already knew there would be more people inside, and each time there was one sentinel guarding them that he quickly dispatched with Aiko’s sword.
He didn’t need to enter the alcoves to validate what he already knew. But he would search for Aimee and Joshua until he found them or knew they were no more. That thought almost doubled him over, and he squeezed the steering wheel hard to refocus, making the toughened plastic-covered steel pop from the pressure.
Alex jammed his foot even harder on the accelerator and the heavy vehicle roared ahead. Anything in his way was rammed aside.
From the back cabin, Casey crowed as she blasted creatures that lumbered into their path, swinging the muzzle backward to take down anything that had a mind to pursue them. She seemed to be having the time of her life.
Alex felt it then – the pressure behind his eyes, like a wave of energy directed at them. He slowed down.
“Something’s coming.”
Matt looked down at the console. “Hot now, real hot; we’re closer to the magma pit.”
They passed through a natural rock arch, and then the path toward the crevasse’s edge opened out. Up ahead there was a line of the monstrous beasts dragging sacks toward the cliff. When they got to the precipice they stopped and simply flung the glistening bags far out over the edge where they sailed down toward the magma.
“Those bastards,” Casey spat. She swung the Gatling gun around.
“Hold fire,” Alex said. He moved the vehicle closer to the edge and they crowded to the side windows to look down into the magma pit.
A hellish red heat radiated from the liquid, but then they saw something else – a series of webs strung just above the huge river, all emanating from a single massive form, hundreds of feet across in its middle.
“Jesus Christ,” Matt whispered. “That thing is alive.”
Whatever the monstrous form was, it pulsated with a gut-churning life force. The sacks rained down on it, landing on its surface or on the webbing, and sticking there.
‘Archaea,” Matt said. “So this is what happens to a simple bacterium that is allowed to grow and evolve for over three billion years.”
The sacks continued to land, settle, and then sink into the mass.
“They’re feeding it.” Alex said.
“She must be fed.” Matt looked up. “This is what the Pompeians tried to warn us against all those years ago.”
“Shit, it must be the size of a battleship,” Casey breathed.
Tendrils snaked out and gently scooped up more of the bags from the mesh, and then reeled them in to be absorbed. They could see that the thing, the form, wasn’t sitting on top of the web like a spider, but that the web was part of it.
“How long has it been here?” Alex asked.
“In Mount Etna?” Matt asked. “This volcano has been here for around half a million years. For all we know, this thing is self-regenerating – it could be a true immortal.” He turned to Alex. “It is the ultimate extremophile, living in a place that is impossible for any other creature to exist, and in an environment that both hides and protects it from attack.”
“Until now,” Alex said. “We’ve developed a way to find it, and fight it.”
“I wish we brought a bigger bomb,” Matt said softly.
“Argh.” Alex crushed his eyes shut and put his hands to his head.
“What is it?” Matt grabbed his arm.
“Close,” Alex said. He continued to grimace as the waves of pain smashed through his mind like a prolonged scream. He opened his eyes. “Joshua, he’s trying to find us.”
“Where is he?”
Alex stared out through the front screen. “He’s alive – they’re alive. One of those caves. But they’re blocking him. It’s blocking him.” He bared his teeth momentarily. “If I try and get him, they’ll swarm us. We need a distraction.”
“You need a distraction, boss?” Casey said from the rear. “Then try this.” Her hand rested on the huge bomb.
“Yeah, that’ll work.” He began to grin mirthlessly, but then grimaced again. “Jesus.” He felt another pressure wave cross his mind, and this time his nose began to bleed. “Shit, it knows we’re here now.”
As if on cue, the monstrous patchwork things began to pour from the side caves and crowd in front of them.
“They’re going to try and stop us,” Matt said. “For all we know, it can read our minds. It’s certainly knows us now.”
“Only as food. That’s what it thinks we are. Something inconsequential and only fit to be harvested,” Alex spat back. “Casey, clear that shit out of the way. Time to send the devil back to Hell.”
“It’s already in Hell,” Matt said softly over the roar of the Gatling gun and the thump of the cannon. The creatures were being blown off the cliff, falling to be absorbed in the web or into the molten river below.
Alex pushed the vehicle forward another few hundred yards and brought it to a stop.
“If we kill it, what happens to these things made out of … us?” Alex asked.
“I don’t know,” Matt replied. “But it would be an educated guess to say they are being controlled by it now, and if we remove that control, then they may become mindless beasts, or even stop functioning altogether.” He shrugged. “But I’m only guessing.”
“Good enough for me.” Alex climbed into the back and Matt followed.
Alex crouched over the bomb and lifted the settings plate. He moved the countdown to ten minutes, then tested the canister’s weight – it was around 500 pounds, heavy, but manageable.
“Franks, cover.”
“You got it.” She swung both muzzles around, hands hovering over triggers.
“Once I’m out, I expect to be able to pick up on Joshua and Aimee – I know they’re out there, and close by. I’ll deliver this first, then grab them before it detonates.” Alex worked the bomb settings.
Matt looked at what he was programming in. “Ten minutes – it that enough time?”
“Should be,” Alex said. “According to Gray, the insulated casing will protect it for up to fifteen minutes. So even if the thing sheds it and drops it into the magma, it should still detonate. Any longer and we can lose.” He looked up. “It should only take me a few minutes to locate my family – nothing will slow me down now.”
“What happens –” Matt reached out to grab his arm. “What happens if you’re wrong, and you can’t find them in time?”
Alex snorted softly before looking up. “Then I won’t be coming back.” His lips lifted slightly. “I’ll find them.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Alex took a few deep breaths. “Here goes.” He went to lift the canister but the dog gripped his forearm in its mouth.
“No,” Alex said. “By myself.”
Tor let him go and sat staring.
“I’ll be back soon – with Josh and Aimee.” Alex hit the button on his chest, enveloping himself in the blue glow. He grunted as he hefted the bomb. “Door.”
* * *
Janus opened the side door and as it slid away, the insane heat smashed in at them.
“Ah, shit.” Casey held a hand up over her face. “Gonna get a great tan this year, boss.”
Alex stepped out, eased the bomb onto his shoulder and took a few steps before turning back. He waved as the door slid shut, then turned away.
He exhaled as he felt the heat press in on him. He struggled to walk holding the 500-pound bomb while staying out of the way as Casey continued to pump round after round of the Gatling gun interspersed with the occasional thump from the cannon. He got to the edge of the crevasse and looked down. He couldn’t help but stare at the horrifying sight for a few seconds. There, strung over the massive lake of magma, was the webbing, and at its center was the thing, softly pulsing like the giant, corrupted heart of the volcano.
At the cliff edge, the revolting multi-limbed beings continued to dump their sacks of people over, and he watched as they landed and were quickly brought to the center of the mass, to then just sink into its bulk. He saw the sacks dissolve, spreading out and liquefying; all those poor souls captured, imprisoned, and fed to a monster.
How many years had it been doing this? Taking living creatures from the surface to feed itself – a thousand years? A million? Forever?
“Try eating this, you sonofabitch.”
Alex raised the canister from his shoulder and held it above his head. He knew he needed to throw it far out, and also allow its trajectory to take it a good hundred feet toward the center of the thing.
As he held it, Alex sensed the form became aware of him and perhaps his intentions. A massive orb, hundreds of feet across, opened on its top. It was totally white, pitiless, and probably regarded him as less than a mote of dust. But Alex knew it saw him.
“Immortal, huh?” He flexed his arms and shoulders. “We’ll see about that.” He threw the bomb with all his strength.
The silver tank flew out and then down. The white orb swiveled, perhaps watching it. But then tendrils grew from the edges of the massive blob. Like a giant amoeba with cilia flickering at its edges, the thing’s rope-like limbs began to move up the sides of the crevasse, toward the canister.
Whether it planned to catch it or not didn’t matter as it missed and the bomb landed on its body. However, the other tendrils continued their climb up the walls toward Alex. And worse, toward the armored vehicle.
“Ah, shit.” Alex turned to the row of caves, then felt a psychic jolt. Joshua’s mind called to him, and Alex called back: I’m coming.
The next silent scream came from the farthest side cave, and he turned and raced toward it.
