Chapter 79: The Apocalypse Begins - Part 1 (Patreon)

Three hours passed. The creatures kept banging on the door, but it had been so long that Lessa, Dan, and the kid, who must have grown used to it, were all asleep.

Dan and Lessa rested on the floor against the wall, tangled together. Catherine lay beside the Operator, her head on a corner of the backpack, one hand clutching a shoulder strap. Down the hall, the elevator doors stood open, and on the other side there was nothing, just the empty shaft rising into the dark. Napoleon wasn't with them.

The Operator gently turned Mordran's head so her third eye faced her, still closed and unmoving since she shut it. She muttered, "I hope you didn't screw me on this one. I did everything I promised, you son of a bitch."

Three hours of rest. You're awfully calm given everything that's happening around us.

"I can't save them if they don't even have the strength to move or to run when they're this tired."

And?

"And what am I supposed to do, Tera? Throw us blind down to level B-15 and walk into whatever's waiting? More of those things, or something worse. I'm blind in this whole damn place." She looked down at the head in her hands. "Besides, it's been almost four hours, and there's something I want to check."

Metal clanged in the elevator shaft, one hit after another, climbing fast. Napoleon came up out of the dark and landed on the floor beside her.

"No dangers around, Operator. No parasites either. The net is set in the shaft at B-15, but the door is locked. You'll have to open it yourself."

Alright. Time to wake them up.

She didn't have to. A deafening, metallic trumpet-like sound erupted behind the Level B-13 door, high-pitched and unbearable. The Operator covered her ears, but the sound seemed to ignore her attempt to block it out.

Dan woke up first, followed by Catherine and Lessa, all at the same time. They instinctively covered their ears, though it likely didn't help. The sound pierced their minds just as it did hers. Dan glanced at the Operator, silently asking what that was.

And then something that hadn't happened for several hours, something unusual occurred: the creatures' attacks on the other side of the door ceased. The metallic noise of the trumpets also came to a halt.

Dan opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, the Operator looked him in the eyes. The expression she had at that moment clearly made him stay silent. She put a finger to her lips and kept it there. The red light appeared first through the seams on the door, a thin line outlining the metal Dan had melted shut.

Lessa looked at the Operator and mouthed the words without any sound. "What is that?"

The Operator carefully lifted the backpack onto her back, moving slowly and silently. She then pointed at the open elevator doors down the hall, keeping her finger pressed against her lips. Afterward, she picked up Catherine, looked at her, and signaled the same gesture. Catherine nodded against her shoulder.

Napoleon came off the floor and settled on top of the backpack. Good boy. He gets it.

The floor moved under her boots, a low shudder that ran up her legs. Then it came again, harder, and harder after that, until the whole hallway was going. The walls shook. An earthquake?

The ceiling took the worst of it, with chunks of concrete crashing down and structures groaning nearby. The Operator sensed the shifting movement around her. The force wasn't originating from below; it was coming from above. What is going on up there?

Then the screaming started. It was coming from behind the door to Level B-13, but it wasn't the creatures making the noise. It was the people. All those in the glass coffins. Did someone wake them up?

The screams they heard weren't ordinary; they were screams of pure terror, thousands united, sounding like hell on the other side of the door. Whatever those people were witnessing seemed to terrify them to their very core. Lessa had her hands over her mouth, eyes fixed on the red door, tears falling as she listened. Dan stood next to her, his face pale as he watched the same door. Catherine pressed her face into the Operator's chest, clutching him tightly with both arms.

Napoleon stood on top of the backpack, facing the door. His blades were drawn sequentially and locked forward, all aimed at the red light, prepared to defend the Operator against any threat.

What the hell am I doing? I'm frozen. We need to get out of here now.

She pointed sharply at the open elevator doors, then directly down the shaft. She kept her hand flat, dropped it, caught it with her other palm, and jabbed again at the shaft. Net. Down there. It'll catch you.

Dan looked at the black hole in the wall, then back at her. She locked eyes with him and stabbed her finger at that shaft again, and nothing in her expression gave him room to argue.

The screaming didn't stop. Whatever Mordran was afraid of, it's here.

The Operator didn't wait for Dan and Lessa to work up the nerve. She removed her backpack, holding it under one arm, pulled Catherine close against her chest with the other hand, and hurried to the elevator. Without hesitation, she threw herself backward into the shaft. Napoleon fell onto her chest during the descent.

Two floors of darkness passed her by before the web caught her. It struck her on the back, gave way beneath her, and halted her. She bounced once and then settled into it, with her backpack still under her arm, and Catherine still pressed against her chest.

She sat up in the web, eased Catherine to the side, and went over the backpack with one hand. Nothing torn, nothing missing, the head still in its cage against her thigh. Alright. Still got it all.

The B-15 elevator doors were shut in front of her. She inserted her fingers into the seam and pried them open, and they yielded easily. She stepped onto the floor, gently set Catherine down, and then turned back to the shaft. Leaning in, she looked upward. Dan and Lessa were still standing at the edge, gazing down.

She snapped her hand at them, once, then again, hard, and put on a look that said everything she couldn't say out loud. Now. Both of you. Move.

They pulled their rifles close to their chests and leaped together. The web took them both. The Operator reached in, seized their hands, and pulled them through. She closed the doors and ran the torch along the seam until it was sealed. The screaming subsided with it. Most of it, at least.

For a moment, everyone was still. Dan leaned against the wall, sliding down until he sat on the floor, with Lessa dropping beside him. Neither spoke; they simply exhaled, eyes unfocused, listening to the faint screams seeping through the walls. Catherine remained pressed against the Operator, refusing to let go.

The Operator gave them a moment. She didn't have an answer for what was on the other side of that door, and she wasn't going to pretend she did.

B-15, Operator. We finally made it to where the Kanryx are.

"Yeah, finally." She kept her voice low. "Now find four Kanryx and get me out of this horror-movie world."

Lessa and Dan appeared visibly shaken by the screams, likely recalling that similar incidents could be occurring elsewhere on the planet. The surroundings felt humid, the lights were off, and unlike Level B-13, this area lacked auxiliary power. Napoleon activated the four lights in his eyes, illuminating the entire floor. God, what happened here?

The lights illuminated a long hallway identical to those on other levels. The emergency exit at the far end was covered in rubble. There was a single lab door, which was larger and different from the small ones she had encountered before. It resembled the vault door in Catherine's room. It was broken, not cut or blown apart. Somebody or something had beaten it in with their fists. And just outside it, there was a Kanryx, face down in a pool of its own blood, spread out around it. Their blood's red, too.

Dan and Lessa stepped back in fear. She understood their reaction, anyone seeing that creature for the first time would find it utterly repulsive and menacing. However, the Operator had studied the reports and knew the truth.

She signaled to the three of them to wait there and then approached the Kanryx. The reports claimed these creatures were noble. They better be right.

Carrying Napoleon on her shoulder, she approached the Kanryx. His lights went with her, and Dan and Lessa turned on their flashlights behind her, with Catherine held securely between them.

A few steps away, the Kanryx's body started shaking on the floor in front of her. She stopped where she was. It shook harder, the whole thing twisting in the blood pooled around it, and staying quiet didn't matter anymore.

"Get ready to attack," she whispered.

Napoleon brought his blades up and ready.

Tentacles emerged from Kanryx's back as it lay face down. They slowly lifted out, each moving independently with side-to-side swings.

"Isn't that thing dead? Guys, please point the lights at that monster. Napoleon's getting ready to attack, so we'll lose the lights for a moment."

All the lights shone on the Kanryx. Suddenly, the five tentacles turned to face her, holding position, all aimed directly at her. From each tentacle's tip, something began to emerge. They worked their way free and fell onto the Kanryx's back, five in total, small with rows of teeth, more than what would be expected for their size.

Parasites.

They assembled around the body, crouched down, and then leapt simultaneously. All five of them jumped off the Kanryx's back, soaring through the air directly towards her with mouths open the entire time.

Napoleon leapt from her shoulder, blades glowing white-hot, and sliced through all of them seamlessly.

A defense system?

"At least we solved the mystery of where those parasites come from."

"Napoleon. Cut the tentacles off."

Napoleon severed the tentacles at their base, causing them to fall around the Kanryx. They moved briefly, twisting on the floor before gradually coming to a stop. Before the Operator could intervene, Catherine quickly moved past and knelt beside the Kanryx, placing her hands on its face. She gently stroked it, and the Kanryx remained perfectly still under her touch.

"Catherine, move away from that and stay with Dan and Lessa," the Operator commanded, louder than she meant to. "We don't understand what's going on down here. Do not leave their side."

They were able to talk now, and Lessa took advantage of it. "Operator, all those people up there are dead." Catherine hurried over and grasped Lessa's hand. "You're nearly finished with your mission, and then you'll be leaving."

The Operator looked at the three of them. They had only been with her for a few hours. She remembered the one she had already lost and the others she had left behind. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Just stay together and stick close to Catherine."

The Operator stepped over the Kanryx's body and moved on. "Napoleon, if you spot any more of those parasites, don't let them touch us. Stay alert."

"Yes, Operator."

Napoleon led the group to the front with his lights on, and one by one, they entered through the broken door into the location where the mission would finally be completed.