Aftermath (16 page)

As they reached the crater, the ground grew more rugged. Paige and Drew were careful to watch their steps, but the tranced-out Shamblers seemed to have no difficulty with the change in terrain.

And then they were descending into the crater. The point of no return. The knot in her stomach felt like she’d been punched in the gut. Please don’t let me puke, she thought to herself, as they shuffled down the slope.

The boulders they’d hidden behind last night were now high above them, and Paige was fighting this nagging urge in her gut to turn back. This trek to the temple wasn’t even the hard part. That would come once they were inside the place. How would they find Chad? How would they escape? What would happen to them if they were caught?

For the millionth time that night, she found herself so grateful that Drew was there with her. Beside her. Her partner in crime. She couldn’t imagine how scared and alone she would be feeling right now without him.

She thought of Valerie, and envied her for being out of this place. Paige was determined to get through this, and have something to spend long hours recounting with Valerie. Maybe those soldiers even knew how to distill liquor.

And Chad. That knot in her gut almost exploded when her thoughts drifted to him. It seemed like a lifetime ago that she’d left him to get the guns and antibiotics. Was he even still alive? Or worse? No, she told herself. She wasn’t going to allow her imagination to go there.

The steep incline gradually rolled onto the crater’s floor. They were crossing it now, with that massive temple looming ahead. The guards were there, stationed at intervals along the parade of Shamblers. Paige put on that blank stare, her eyes focused only on what was immediately ahead.

As they finally closed the last twenty yards to the temple, she repressed a shudder. The immense size of it was terrifying, as it loomed darkly against the night sky. But it was the aura she felt that made her skin crawl. This place was evil. It felt living, and hungry, and alien. No amount of design or engravings could remove that stain. It was constructed of stone, but that stone emanated a presence. And that presence was vile, and hating. Aware of its own supremacy, and without compassion or empathy, it lorded over the humans in the crater below.

And then they entered it.

The Belly of the Beast

Nothing could have prepared Paige for the overwhelming sense of dread and terror she felt as she passed through those massive metal doors at the entrance. And that’s because nothing built by man had the instilled sense of presence this temple had. The building sensed her, and watched her. It knew she was there. And it hungered and thirsted for her. She felt it, the way you feel an intruder in your room in the dark of night. Or the way a dog stares into a corner, sensing something beyond human sight. And what terrified her all the more was that she couldn’t pinpoint the source of this presence. It just
was
the temple.

The tunnel through which she and the throng were passing was dim, stretching out far into the distance before fading into darkness. What little illumination there was came from those phosphorescent rocks placed at irregular intervals along the ceiling.

The walls were dark, and moist, and felt to Paige like the organs of some enormous beast. But of course they were of stone, as was the rest of the structure. At least that’s what she assumed. And hoped.

Periodically, she caught the faint echoes of moans reverberating in the distance. Like the haunting whispers of phantoms, or tortured souls doomed to an eternity of suffering.

Then a loud gong clanged, and the massive metal doors at the entrance crashed shut. That was it, she thought. There was no going back. She was trapped in this place. In this
thing
.

She and Drew kept with the throng, as it flowed down the corridor. They were somewhere in the middle of the Shamblers, she guessed, and it looked like about a hundred had entered when the doors closed.

As they proceeded down the corridor, Paige noticed other passageways splitting off from the one they were on, and veering off into the darkness. Her instincts told her that if they were ever going to find Chad, they needed to take one of these side passageways. The Shamblers were expected to stay on this main corridor, so she could only guess that it ended in their doom.

She gently brushed her hand against Drew’s to get his attention. They were approaching one of the side passageways, and she nodded her head in that direction. He nodded back.

As they passed the passageway, the two of them slipped out of the throng, and disappeared off down it.

***

The passage they were now in was much narrower than the main corridor. It was also darker, and Paige couldn’t shake the feeling it was much more hostile to their presence in it.

There were a few of those phosphorescent stones, but they were more spread out, barely giving enough light for them to see by. But what Paige could see made her skin crawl. The walls seemed to be made of a translucent material, with what appeared to be veins running just beneath the surface. At least that was the best way she could describe them.

As they crept further down it, she also sensed the walls were moving. Ever so slightly. The “skin” covering the walls, as she was now thinking of it, had a sheen that reflected light when seen at the right angle. And it was that sheen that seemed to give away the movement.

What the hell was this place?

They reached a fork, where the passage, or artery as she was now thinking of it, split off in two directions. Drew nodded towards the passage veering to the right. There seemed to be a light coming from the distance.

It was at the moment Paige realized they’d been in silence this entire time. Drew’s presence had been the only thing keeping her sane as they had descended into the bowels of this monstrosity, and it meant everything in the world to her that he had come.

They headed off down the passage to the right, following it around several turns, and finally seeing the source of the light. The passage opened into an enormous chamber.

The Pods

Paige and Drew crept from the passage, and into a cavernous chamber. It appeared to be the size of a school auditorium, and was well lit with thousands of those phosphorescent stones embedded all over the walls.

The center of the chamber was lined with rows of what looked like pods. Each pod had a vein-like tube attached to it, that ran up to the ceiling high above.

As she and Drew approached the pods, she noticed they were made of a semi-transparent material. Almost like a membrane. They seemed to be some kind of incubators. Or wombs.

Paige raced over to one of the pods, staring through the membrane. Suddenly she sprang back! Terrified, and sickened. Inside the pod was a monstrosity, floating in an amniotic fluid. If she were to describe it, the thing vaguely resembled a giant hairless dog, blended with human features. And it was massive, with thick muscles covering its body. She had no doubt it would stand over seven feet tall if standing on its hind legs.

Whatever it was, it was a complete abomination against nature.

She startled at Drew’s touch. She had been so frozen in shock, she hadn’t heard him approach.

“Holy shit,” he muttered. “These are the hybrids your friend was talking about?”

All Paige could manage was a nod. She was that sickened. And shocked.

Drew glanced back at all the pods, in all the rows. “I’m gonna take a look around. Are you gonna be okay?”

She nodded.

He gave her shoulder a light squeeze, then headed down the rows. “What’s your friend look like?” he asked, keeping his voice just above a whisper.

She finally pulled herself away from the thing in the pod, and turned to Drew. “He’s kind of a surfer looking guy, about your size. Blond hair. He was wearing a letter jacket.”

“Ken,” Drew grinned.

“Basically. Yeah.” She caught herself grinning at that, despite herself.

“Hey, come over here and check this out,” he whispered.

She hurried over, to where he was staring at a pod. “What is it?”

“Check it out,” Drew said, nodding to the pod. “This guy still looks human.”

And he did, Paige noted.

“It seems like there’s a progression,” Drew continued, “with the ones at this side either being human, or in the early stages transformation.”

“And the fully transformed ones are at that end,” Paige added, filling in the rest.

“Exactly.” Then, turning to her, he added, “which means there could still be hope.”

Paige’s eyes were wide. It did mean hope. “Can you help me look,” she said, scooting down the row to the next pod.

“That’s what you’re paying me for,” he smiled.

She turned, smiling back at him. This guy was absolutely adorable, she thought. Even here, in the bowels of hell, he could still make her smile.

The two of them split up, each taking a separate row. They started at the end of the chamber, where the occupants inside the pods were still human. This was Paige’s idea. She still wasn’t sure she wanted to find Chad if he was at the other end of the chamber.

Altogether there were over a hundred pods in the chamber, and they had searched through maybe a third of them when she heard Drew call her.

“Varsity letter ‘P’?” he asked.

Paige sprinted over, pressing her face against the pod. It was him!

“Chad!” she exclaimed. She spun around, and threw her arms around Drew’s neck in a tight hug. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

She released him, and turned back to the pod. She tapped on the side of it. The casing was some sort of organic material, that felt a little like a thick, rough shower curtain.

“We need to find something to cut this,” she said, scanning the area.

“Like this,” he said, pulling a chisel from his belt.

“Where’d you get that?” she asked.

“I snuck it out of the quarry today. This place is sadly lacking in weapons.”

“Genius,” she grinned.

Drew shoved the chisel into the side of the pod, puncturing its thick skin. Amniotic fluid dripped through the opening.

He punctured it again, and again, then grabbed the chisel with both arms, and ripped a long opening in the side.

Amniotic fluid poured out, splashing across the floor.

“Here, hold the pod steady,” he said, as he reached inside, and wrapped his arms around Chad. Paige held it steady, as Drew tugged, finally hauling Chad out of the opening, and setting him on the floor.

“Chad,” Paige whispered, kneeling down beside him. She felt his neck for a pulse, then leaned her ear against his. “He’s not breathing,” she said frantically.

She spun herself around, so she could lean over this chest. She then placed her palm on his chest, and pressed down. She then waited several seconds, and pressed again. “Come on, Chad,” she muttered to herself. This CPR was something her dad had taught her and Brad back during his Army days. It’d seemed like a big waste of time, but he was adamant that his kids learned survival skills. And now that wisdom was paying off.

She pressed again, then waited, repeating this process several more times.

Then he jerked!

Paige scooted back, as Chad coughed up lung fulls of amniotic fluid.

“Help me turn him on his side,” she said to Drew, and together they rolled Chad onto his side.

Chad choked, coughing and puking up buckets of that amniotic fluid. It went on for almost a minute, before he finally rolled back on his elbows.

“Hey, Chad, can you hear me,” she whispered, scooting around in front of him.

He nodded, coughing several more times. No more fluid was coming up, but his lungs were still drying themselves out. He sat there for several more seconds, catching his breath.

Then he looked up, scanning his eyes around the alien chamber, apparently seeing it for the first time. Then he focused on Paige, watching him with a concerned look on her face. “Paige?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, her face breaking into a smile.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“We’re inside… I guess it’s like a laboratory those things in the ships built.”

“Do you feel okay, man,” Drew asked, kneeling down beside Paige.

Chad nodded, turning back to Paige with a puzzled look on his face.

“This is my friend, Drew,” Paige explained. “I met him and several of his friends after they took you.”

“Yeah. It was the soldiers. I remember they came into the hotel while you were gone.”

“You don’t remember anything else?” Paige asked.

Chad shook his head. “Just waking up now.”

“Boy are you in for a surprise,” Drew grinned.

Paige couldn’t help herself. She had to grin at that. Chad looked at them both with that puzzled look.

“What he’s saying, is LA’s gone,” Paige explained. “Those aliens built this whole new city where it used to be.”