Chapter 80: The Apocalypse Begins - Part 2 (Patreon)

Everything past the broken door was black. Napoleon's lights caught pieces of it, equipment, and bodies on the ground, dead, scattered around them. Past the reach of his lights, there was nothing, and they couldn't keep going blind.

[Technological Sense Active]

As soon as she turned it on, she sensed it: a hidden generator inside the walls. It was live, powered, and connected throughout the entire level, ready to activate. She traced the energy and identified the single point that triggered everything: a switch on the wall right beside Dan.

“Dan, there’s a switch on the wall behind you. Turn it on.”

He turned and looked and didn't see it. He put his hands on the wall and felt along it, one spot after another, working his way across until his fingers caught the edge of it. The whole of level B-15 came on at once.

The lights activated throughout the entire level, revealing a vast space filled with monitoring equipment arranged in rows. Bodies of staff members, dressed in casual clothes and lab coats, were scattered everywhere, all lifeless with parasites attached to their throats.

"Stay back," the Operator told them.

She began moving through the stations. Each deceased had a parasite attached to the throat, and all of these parasites were dried and shrunken, as if they had latched on, halted the person’s breathing, and then dried out afterward.

The ones closest to the door had several rifles. That was probably what killed the Kanryx as it tried to get out. "Napoleon, sweep the whole place. Anything alive, find it."

He tore off across the level at full speed, into every corner, every hiding spot, every gap he could squeeze into. Two or three minutes later, he came back and landed on one of the desks in front of her. "Everything here is dead, Operator."

In front of them stood a huge glass door, at least thirty feet tall, with a wide hole punched through the top, as if something had smashed its way out up there. It has to be reinforced glass, or the whole thing would’ve shattered. That was where the Kanryx had gotten out.

Lessa spoke up. “Operator, I could pull up the security panel to check what’s on the other side of that door. That way, we don’t walk into any surprises.”

"Good idea. Do it."

Lessa sat down at the monitors and hit a button, and the ones in front of her turned on.

"Dan, Napoleon, watch the way we came in. I don't want any surprises."

Napoleon and Dan ran to the broken door and took up guard duty.

The screens came up in front of Lessa the same way they had at the panels on the upper floors, showing every level she still had access to. There were far fewer of them than before. Then the Operator caught it, and a strange pull of déjà vu hit her. One of the feeds was flickering. B-20.

"B-20?"

Remember the scientist you saw on the monitors in the control room? You close the security door on them because strange creatures were on the other side of the door.

"Lessa, show that B-20 camera. I need to see something."

She pulled up the B-20 feed, and the Operator wasn't ready for what was on it. The scientists were still in there, still alive, still trying to get the door open. "God, they're still in there. They never got out?"

They didn’t look anything like they had before. The clean coats were gone. Some of them had no shirts, and all of them were filthy, with cables and busted equipment scattered across the room. They were down to the last door out, and the one before it had been cut open with a torch, slowly through the metal. It must have taken them days.

“Lessa.” The Operator kept her eyes on the screen. “What do you think of the staff here? The scientists.”

“Anyone on the lower levels is garbage,” Lessa said. “They knew what was happening to all those people they took.”

“That’s what I figured.” The Operator looked at the men clawing at the last door. “Lock their access back down. And if you can, reinforce the last door out.”

Lessa typed something, causing a second security door to descend and seal the last exit. All the doors they had previously forced open began locking again, one after another. The scientists hurried to escape, trying to avoid being trapped. The feed displayed them returning to the main room of B-20, where they collapsed exhausted on the floor, some starting to cry.

At least you're alive, you sons of bitches.

Lessa glanced at the screens. “Operator, the cameras at the surface entrance of the Bioresearch facility are on.”

Dan turned his head from the door to Lessa's monitor when he heard it.

“It’s my world,” Lessa said. “I want to understand what’s happening to it. Please.”

Don't let them see what's doing the attacking.

“I know,” said the Operator. “Guys, I’ve told you everything about Mordran. Whatever’s up there, be it an entity or something else, you are not allowed to look at it. Not even once. Seeing it once will mark you.”

Napoleon turned around. “If humanoid lifeforms can’t look at it, I can. I’m only a machine.”

Lessa looked at the Operator expectantly, waiting to hear what she thought of that.

“Absolutely not,” the Operator’s voice rose. “We have no clue what’s up there. It might infect machines too, for all we know.” She was getting louder, angry, mainly because of the idea of using Napoleon. “And you, Napoleon,” she said, raising her voice further, directing it entirely at him. “You’re not just some machine. You’re my family. In this entire place, you’re it. Plus, I woke you up with my Saga, and we don’t know how that may have changed you, so it’s a firm no.” She glanced at Dan and Lessa. “ARE WE CLEAR?”

Dan turned his head and went back to watching the entrance.

"Understood," Lessa said.

The Operator continued speaking. “Whatever that noise from behind that door was, it didn’t reach us like it did when I was with Mordran. Here’s the plan: we listen carefully but never look. I understand you want to see what’s going on outside, but keep in mind the screams from above. Whatever those people saw was driving them crazy.”

“I get it, and Lessa does too. We’re not looking.” He glanced at Lessa. “What I care about’s right here, not up there.”

Lessa looked at him and nodded firmly.

“Good,” the Operator exhaled. “Honestly, I want to know what’s going on too. Lessa, turn off the cameras and focus on sound. Napoleon, just watch our backs.”

Dan got the message, turned, and headed toward the monitor.

“Are you two sure about this?”

Dan answered. “We’re sure. If we can’t find a way out of this, I’d rather know what’s coming for us than be left in the dark.”

The Operator kept her eyes on Lessa. "Whenever you're ready."

Lessa increased the volume. Immediately, they were overwhelmed by hundreds of voices, all breaking apart simultaneously. One voice then surged above the rest, close to what was presumably the camera.

"DON'T LOOK. DON'T LOOK AT IT, DON’T…”

The word broke in his mouth. His voice kept going, then stopped being his, dropping into something long and low, and it went on too long, a man turning into something else while they listened.

After that, the Operator no longer heard it as sound. She only saw what it did to the people around her.

Lessa pressed her face into Dan’s chest, screaming and clutching his shirt with both fists. She didn’t stop, her muffled screams continuing as tears streamed down her face. Dan embraced her tightly, holding her steady with a clenched jaw, eyes unfocused and staring blankly ahead, as tears also flowed down his cheeks, and he remained silent.

Catherine tugged at the Operator’s leg, raising both arms as she begged to be lifted. The Operator lifted her into her arms, and the girl pressed her face into the Operator’s neck, beginning to cry. Soon, Catherine began to tremble. The Operator sensed it through the girl’s small body, every part of her trembling with the emotional impact of what she was hearing.

She gently set Catherine down, grabbed the monitor, and tore it from the desk, sending it flying as she threw it with all her strength. It crashed into the wall, shattering and scattering across the floor, and then everything fell silent.

Operator.

"There are more computers in this room. We need to get off this damn planet." The Operator turned to Lessa, who was still sobbing against Dan's chest. "I know it's hard, but I need you at another terminal to check this area."

Lessa wiped her eyes, then gently brushed away Dan’s tears with her hands. “Keep your eyes on the door. It’ll be okay. We’re going to get out of this.” She sat down at another station, and with her hands still shaking, she brought up the screen. This time, she pulled up the control panel for zone B-15, where they were now.

Lessa looked at the monitor, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes to regain composure. “This place has cameras, but I can show you something else. You won’t like what you’re about to see.” She then entered a command.

The huge white glass in front of them, the whole wall of it, turned clear. Behind it lay an enormous cavern. There was a massive hole bored through the ceiling, cut out by something, and a giant drill lay destroyed in the middle of everything where it had come down.

The Operator sprinted to the glass. “No. No, dammit, no.”

There were power plants nearby and large mobile research containers. In the cavern’s center was a sealed stone area with numerous holes visible at a glance, resembling enormous burrows.

“Deactivating access door lock,” Lessa said aloud.

The glass door split open partway.

A wet, warm air rolled in and filled the whole place. The control room they’d been standing in was a small box next to the cavern in front of them, and the cavern was sealed, with no other way out.

The Operator looked at Napoleon. "Napoleon, sweep those holes around the drill. Check if anyone's still in there."

"Yes, Operator."

The Operator turned to Lessa. “Check the cameras and find out what happened in here before we arrived. Do it while Napoleon sweeps.”

"On it," Lessa said.

A few seconds later, Napoleon returned and landed near her. "Nothing, Operator. It's all empty."

The Operator looked up at the hole in the ceiling. Son of a bitch. They took them. Did I waste too much time?

"Operator, I've got the cameras," Lessa said.

She quickly crossed the room and stood beside Lessa as they watched the feed together.

"This is from six hours ago." Lessa pointed. "The drill's already down."

On the screen, the drill lay wrecked on the ground. Then a transport came down through the hole, a big square thing about forty feet across, with rockets firing beneath it, lowering slowly.

Soldiers emerged from the transport, shooting darts at the Kanryx. One of the Kanryx broke free, sprinted toward the reinforced glass door, and hurled itself at it. 

Why didn’t they throw the parasites at them? Damn it. They loaded the darted ones back into the transport. The rockets fired, and the transport lifted off and flew out through the hole in the ceiling that the drill had made. Six hours, there’s no way I would have arrived here on time.

The Operator started down the stairs, toward the research equipment and the place where the Kanryx had lived. She stopped and looked up at the hole the drill had punched through the ceiling. The cavern was already so tall that the drill hadn't had to dig much to break through. Once it did, it had dropped straight down into the center and wrecked itself. Up through that hole, all she could see was a small point of light, far, far above her.

She looked over everything below. “Tera, I’ve got an idea for reaching the surface.” She turned toward where Lessa, Dan, and Catherine were. “But I don’t know what to do about them.”

Descending the last stairs, she passed by all the oversized medical equipment. Every piece was built too large for a person, with only one exception: the Kanryx. They had kept these creatures like cattle for their mutation compounds. At the bottom, she examined the equipment more closely. There was a sizable mobile medical unit, roughly the size of a small clinic. She opened its door and saw a surgical table, surgical equipment, and rows of medicine stands. Each scaled for something as large as a Kanryx. She noticed jars containing what appeared to be Kanryx fetuses.

The Operator came out of the unit. Damn it. I don't know what to do right now. I don't know.

Then she turned her head and saw another medical unit, farther down the cave, bigger than the one she’d just been in. As she walked toward it, she looked up and saw Lessa on the stairs, looking out over the whole huge cave, Dan behind her, watching her back, Catherine beside them.

They looked like a family. She smiled.

She arrived at the second unit, which was sealed with a heavy, reinforced door, unlike the first. A locked security panel sat next to it.

[Activating Machine Reading]

The filaments came off her fingers and attached to the panel. The security code came to her mind, and she keyed it in. This gets easier every time.

An internal generator kicked on somewhere inside, and the door slid open. Cold air poured out. She’d expected more medical gear, but what stood in front of her were three mutation pods, the same kind she’d used on level B-9. Behind them ran a row of huge tubes filled with various Kanryx compounds, all fed into the machines by lines of hose.

She looked at and touched the pods. They were in excellent shape, even better. They looked new, as if they’d never been used. These were probably meant for the staff here.

The Operator shifted her gaze to Dan and Lessa. “Tera, is it possible to install my mutation evolution on them?”

Operator, that would require nanobots to guide the process, but they don’t have any.

What if I temporarily give them some of my nanos to ensure the evolution proceeds smoothly?

Why would you do that?

“I can’t help anyone else on this planet, but I can fight for those three. I just need the best chance to keep them alive, and this gives me that.” The Operator removed the backpack and set it on the floor.

“Guys, come here,” she called. “Lessa, get that glass door shut. I don’t want any surprises. I need to talk to all of you.” She lowered her voice. “Tera, please help me convince the nanobots.”