Survivor (14 page)

She lay in rough dirt. It dug into her flesh
and left scrapes and bruises along the side of her body. Her head
ached and pounded in time with her beating heart. Her breathing was
laboured as if she'd just been running. The purple lights running
along the sides of the room were dimmed, barely lighting anything
at all.

Her muscles were weak. She felt like she'd
spent her whole life straining against something and now her body
was paying the price. Her memories were shattered, and the broken
pieces were all the wrong shapes.

She pushed herself up onto shaky arms that
quaked under her weight. She breathed deeply and pushed harder. Her
vision was clearing; the lights weren't dim at all, it was her
eyes. They were shaded, darkened, seeing the world through a
shadow.

She blinked, wiling her eyesight to return.
Gradually the lights got brighter and she could make out
silhouettes in the room. There were two black shapes on the floor,
one next to her and the other two metres away. She squinted at the
closest object.

Material. Two leather boots. Why did they
look so familiar?

Nova's stomach dropped; it was her body. She
was looking at herself, but it felt so foreign.

She reached out a shaky hand, patting the
limbs which extended out from her torso. The feel of them was so
familiar and yet it was like tapping another person. Her legs dimly
registered the contact, but the internal connections were fried.
Her hand could feel and her leg could feel, but they barely
recognised each other.

She ripped her eyes away and looked at the
second object.

Shiny metal came into view. Tobius!

Memories of the creature came back to her.
He had shot her with the impossible gun. She looked around. There
were shattered pieces of metal and plastic scattered around the
small room; all that remained of the powerful weapon.

Nova breathed a sigh of relief; the threat
of the gun at least was gone.

…
Beginning to get tired…
No good… How about…

Nova whipped her head around. Where had the
voice come from? The whispers tingled over her ears. They brushed
around her head, weaved their way through the air.

She turned in tight circles where she knelt
on the ground. Her boots sent dirt flying in all directions. There
was no one there.

But the voices!

They continued to talk at her, garbled
chunks of conversation, half-heard sentences melding into an
ongoing stream.

A shadow moved at the corner of Nova's eye.
It ran from one side of the room to the other. She turned but there
was nothing there.

Another shadow on her other side. She
whipped around. Nothing.

A flash of purple on her right. Red on her
left. Images flashed just out of her range of sight. She cringed.
The Ancients were probably playing more tricks on her. She wished
they'd just let her go.

A loud groan caught her attention and
stilled the faint images. Tobius was stirring.

She drew a shaky breath and crawled over to
his body. The armour glimmered in the purple lights; solid,
unbreakable. She daren't touch it.

There was only one way she would get free of
this hellish room; she had to kill Tobius. But how could she kill
him when he was encased in unbreakable armour?

The helmet.

She'd seen one of them take his helmet off,
there had to be a way. She looked over the sleek capsule. There
were no obvious hinges or clasps. But there was a button. Or at
least it looked like a button, a circle of purple light.

Nova reached out a tentative hand and
pressed down. A loud click echoed around the room and a gap opened
at the base of the helmet. She reached out; her hands shook, and
pushed the helmet free.

It rolled away from Tobius's body and left
his head revealed. He looked very much like the creature Nova had
seen outside, with a scaled face and massive eyes. His eyes were
closed but moved rapidly beneath his lids.

She couldn't wait another second.

Nova braced herself and pulled her trusted
gun up so that it was pointed directly at Tobius's head. She
squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her index finger. The gun went
off in her hand and she was showered with warm blood.

She breathed deeply, not wanting to open her
eyes, but knowing she had no choice. She opened one eye and looked
down. Tobius wasn't there anymore. Or at least, his face wasn't
there anymore.

In its place was a gaping crater filled with
grey flesh and brown ooze. It bubbled and dribbled around the mess
of broken bones. Grey chunks spread out from the armoured body.
They were scattered across the floor and over Nova's legs.

The trail of flesh continued up her arms and
coated her hands and shoulders. The front of her shirt was covered
with the stuff. It soaked through her clothes and she could feel
the warmth of it against her skin.

Bile rose in her throat. Her eyes were
pinned on the grizzly mess. She tried to look away but her eyes
kept returning. She couldn't help but stare at the blood trailing
all over her body. It smelled. It had the tangy metallic scent of
blood and something else which she couldn't place.

There was something on her face. She reached
a horrified hand up to feel her cheek. It came away with more
blood. The sticky substance dried on her cheek, pinching her skin
together like a thin layer of glue.

It was too much.

Nova's stomach heaved. Her entire body
clenched and convulsed at once and a mass of vomit poured out of
her mouth to join the rest of the mess on the floor. Her vomit
mixed with the brown blood and created a marbled mess of bodily
fluids in the sand.

As Nova watched, the fluids swirled. The
colours joined together and came apart again. The patterns changed
until there were faces looking up at her, familiar faces and
strangers. They stared up at Nova from the putrid puddle. They were
screaming. Why were they screaming? With the images came the
sounds. Voices yelled at Nova. They begged and pleaded with her,
they screamed.

Nova's face became a horrified mask. She
looked down at the puddle with her mouth open. The swirling
patterns changed again and now there were monsters looking at her.
Their dark eyes stared at her and their mouths opened wide to eat
her. Razor teeth in the night.

She scrambled away from the puddle until her
back was against the cold wall.

With distance came clarity and the monsters
disappeared. The puddle became just a mix of blood and bile.

The sand at least absorbed the liquids and
stopped them leaking further. Red and brown droplets spread out
from Tobius, dried remnants of what he had been.

His body was completely still. Whatever
great technology they had, it appeared that in the end, even the
Ancients couldn't stop death. They also made mistakes; there was no
way Tobius would have shot her with the gun if he knew she'd
survive. Of course that didn't help her now; she was still trapped
in the dim room.

Her only way out was through the rock door
the size of a small space ship. She got to her feet. Her legs shook
as she stumbled to the door and fell against it. She used all of
her weight to push, but it didn't budge. She heaved, but nothing
happened.

She took three steps back and fired at the
door. A few chips of rock flew off but that was all. There was no
way she could get through. Worse still, the voices were
returning.

Nova backed away from the door, shaking her
head. Her hands were quaking so badly that she dropped her gun. It
clattered to the sand and lay forgotten. She continued to backpedal
until her back was flat against the wall.

Shadows ran around her in the darkness.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Something shrieked to Nova's left. She whirled around and
scooted backwards, her shoulder scraping along the sandstone wall.
She searched desperately for whoever, or whatever, had made the
noise.

Fingernails scraped over a blackboard while
rusted metal knives scratched together. A hundred noises pummelled
Nova's head and raised the flesh along her spine. Her skin tingled,
threatening to fall straight off. She shivered uncontrollably.

Her teeth scraped and scratched each other
as she clenched her jaw. She forced her mouth shut, stifling the
scream in her throat. It was so loud and yet she was completely
alone.

Someone laughed. It was a deep throaty voice
with a chuckle that echoed around the room. It circled Nova's head,
taunting her. She swatted at the noise with her hands, but it
didn't go away.

She blinked.

The sandstone room was replaced with a green
forest. She was surrounded by vines and trees. They covered every
speck of ground she could see, reaching out to grab her. The
sandstone walls were gone. There was no sign of Tobius. Birds
screeched overhead, flapping their mighty wings and flying between
the trees. Other creatures scurried through the undergrowth. There
was a smell in the air, fresh and green.

She got to her feet, shaking. She had no
idea how she got here, but at least there was a way of escape. She
didn't know where she was going but she leant forward and sprinted.
Her only thoughts were of getting away, finding her way to
Crusader, and flying free.

She went five steps and slammed into a solid
wall.

Her lip split open and she toppled over. She
fell on her back, crying out as pain surged up her spine. She
looked around, but the forest was gone. She was back in the small
prison, lying in a pool of Tobius's blood. More blood poured from
her lip. The tangy metal taste seeped over her tongue, reminding
her of something.

She couldn't remember what.

Nova blinked.

She was still lying on the ground, but on
the side of a city street. There were people walking past her, but
they didn't notice her prone body.

She twisted her head from side to side. The
taste of blood was strong.

A man stood in a side street. It was dark,
but Nova could make out his black clothing by the dim glow of a
street light. He had slanted eyes and pale skin. He watched the
street and sniffed the air. He looked familiar and yet Nova was
sure she'd never seen him before in her life.

The man's gaze flicked to his left, where a
young girl approached. The man smiled and before Nova could react,
he leapt out of his ally and drew the girl back with him. He had
her on the ground, leaning over her neck. There was something
coming out of his mouth. It looked like a black snake. No! A leach.
The man was a lecheon.

He was leaning over the girl, sucking her
dry. Her skin went pale as the blood was drained out of her. She
struggled at first, but the energy slipped out of her and she fell
silent. The man continued to suck until there was nothing left. He
lifted his head from the girl, grinning. He stood up and let her
body fall to the concrete, sprinting out of sight.

"Hey! Are you ok?" Nova called to the girl.
There was no response.

Nova struggled back to her feet and stumbled
towards the girl. She held her hands out in front of her face but
she couldn't remember why. Her lip was bleeding.

Her hands slammed into something solid and
rough. She frowned and stared hard at the air in front of her face;
something shimmered. She looked harder and in an instant, the world
disappeared around her.

She was back in a sandstone room, facing a
solid wall and surrounded by spatters of blood.

She lifted a finger to her bloated lip, then
drew it away, covered in blood.

She whirled in a circle. The room was just
as she remembered. There was no sign of the forest or the city.

The door.

Nova ran to it, pushing and banging against
it. There was no response from the other side.

"Cal! Cal! Can you hear me?" Nova's eyes
rolled. There was no reply.

The ground tilted beneath Nova's feet. She
was thrown off balance and collapsed. The walls vibrated and rocks
dropped around her. She closed her eyes and sheltered her head with
her arms.

The quaking continued for three minutes.
Only when she was sure it had stopped, did Nova open her eyes.
Something was different. The body and blood were gone. The door was
open!

She ran to the doorway and peered into the
tunnel beyond. There was no sign of life, just the dark corridor
lit by blue lights. It seemed cleaner than before. There was less
dust and loose dirt.

She looked back but there was no sign of her
gun. Maybe she'd fallen asleep and the Ancients were playing some
kind of trick on her? She felt naked without her weapon, but she
didn't have a choice. She had to get back to Crusader.

She tiptoed along the tunnel. She had no
hope of remembering the way, so she settled herself with always
turning right. Eventually, she had to get to the exit. Her feet
scraped along the rough floor, but there was nothing she could do
about it. She pushed forward.

So much of her body ached. Her ribs cried
out for attention, her head pounded, and her lip was bloated and
bruised. No matter what Cal said, there was no way she was going to
stay on this planet. Let the universe be damned. She'd fly away.
There had to be somewhere that the Ancients couldn't get to.

Voices shook Nova out of her reverie. She
slowed down and crept forward towards the sound. It wasn't hard to
find them. Two Ancients, both in black armour with eye-slits that
glowed yellow, were talking. They stood close together, their heads
bent forward.

"You understand your orders?"

"We are to stay here until the tomb is
disturbed. From there we will carry out our sacred duty to guide
the galaxies forward."

"Correct. I don't know how long this plague
will last or how bad it will be. Perhaps we'll survive it, in which
case I'll see you in a few weeks. If we don't-"