H.A.L.F.: The Makers (25 page)

Tex had lived through much in his relatively short life. And for the first time, he felt he had something – someone – to live for. He doubted Erika felt the same way about him that he felt about her, but it did not matter. His heart longed to see her again, to know she was safe. And he wasn’t going to lay down his defenses and simply submit to the eradication of all that it was to be him.

He did not need to utter the word
no
. The Conexus knew his thoughts as instantly as he did. And their reply was instantaneous too.

The tiny beads of pain that had found their way to his temples exploded into his frontal cortex. The bile that earlier had been caught in his throat ejected itself forcefully. A tube came from somewhere and roughly suctioned his throat, leaving it a raw, burning mess.

Gone was the euphoric feeling they had gifted him. Taken was the simplicity and harmony of the hushed whispers of the collective. Tex’s skull reverberated with the echo of millions of voices screaming in a long, narrow tiled hallway.

A lone voice cried out, raspy and cracked, loud and urgent. “Stop!” he shouted.

But they did not stop. Their mind marched into his like an invading army, trampling over him without a care for the pain they caused.

Tex tried his best to imagine walls springing up in his mind like bricks mortared around his consciousness. But the pain was so intense. It was nearly impossible for him to form a cohesive thought. It was like a thousand rats scurried into a warehouse full of filing cabinets and nibbled away at the papers until nothing but tiny, illegible shreds remained.

A specter of darkness rose up around him, blotting out the intensely bright light and easing the pain in his eyes. He could not distinguish if the thing that loomed over him was real or created in his mind. Another wave of nausea flooded him followed by a chill that ran from his spine to his toes.

His eyes perceived pure black all around him and his heart leapt to his throat. The flash of darkness brought a small bit of peace to his mind. He mentally beckoned it back, and this time allowed it to overtake him. He preferred to dive forever into a pit of blackness than live one more second in a world where he was stolen from himself.

Erika’s lungs burned from lack of oxygen and her thighs throbbed from exertion as she jogged to keep up with Dr. Randall.
He moves fast for an old guy.
The wound on her left thigh burned, but it no longer hobbled her.
There must be something in that goo that causes cuts to heal faster.
She was glad Dr. Randall had taken it as well as the antiviral.

As they walked, Erika tried to shift her thinking about Tex. She’d convinced herself he was the enemy. Once her mind was made up about something, it generally stayed locked that way. Ever since they landed in the world of the Conexus, she’d assumed that Tex betrayed them.

But Xenos had shattered her ideas about him. Tex, too, was a prisoner of the Conexus. And it sounded like he could be in worse shape than they were.
Maybe even dead by now.
Guilt wound its way into her gut, making her feel sick inside.

Dr. Randall turned a corner and they entered a hallway that seemed familiar, even in the dark. It was like a memory plucked from a dream she’d had long ago.

They were in the H.A.L.F. wing. Above them was the opening for the gate that had come down from the ceiling and behind which Dr. Dolan had been shot down.

There were no flashing red lights or sirens whooping and wailing. There was only the musty dark. The hall was silent except for the hiss and sputter of water finding its way into the long-abandoned conduits.

Dr. Randall slowed his pace. The toes of Erika’s shoes were wet, and she squished as she walked. They were in no immediate danger of a deluge, but it was only a matter of time until the few inches of water on the floor became a few feet. “How do we know which door he’s behind?”

Dr. Randall didn’t immediately answer. At last he said, “We don’t. We’ll have to try them one by one.”

Erika counted to herself. “Eight doors, Doc. I don’t think we have enough torch canisters for all of them.”

Dr. Randall pulled the pack from his back and handed Erika a fresh canister. “Hopefully it’s not a dud.”

Erika shoved the fresh canister of chemical fire into the end of the torch. “Pick a door.”

Dr. Randall scanned the hallway but settled on the first door. He put his ear to it then called out, “H.A.L.F. – I mean, Tex?”

His voice echoed in the empty hallway. No one responded.

“The doors are thick. Even if he’s in there, he may not have heard you.”

“Or he may be unable to respond.”

“We’re running out of time, Doc. Pick a door and I’ll torch a hole.”

Dr. Randall stood silently in the middle of the hall with his eyes closed.

“What are you doing?”

“Trying to think like a Conexus. Where would they put him?”

“Good luck with that.” With the torch in hand, Erika moved to the door closest to her and pushed the red button on the torch. The heat was so intense, it singed the hair on her hands, filling the air with the smell of burnt hair. She moved quickly and traced a large rectangle in the door. She pushed the center of the shape she’d cut, and the newly formed door fell in.

Dr. Randall climbed through the hole.

Erika stood in the doorway. It was dark inside. “Anything?”

“Nope.”

Of course it can’t be that easy. Not in this godforsaken place.
Erika pushed a strand of her greasy hair out of her eyes and handed Dr. Randall the torch. “It still has some juice. You pick the door this time.”

Dr. Randall headed down the hallway and made a hole in the last door. But that room too was empty.

“Look, Doc, your hunch about where he is could be wrong.”

Dr. Randall ignored the idea of searching elsewhere and torched three more doors. All three rooms were empty.

With each empty room, Erika’s patience grew thinner. All she could think about was how they were no closer to finding Tex and that she’d left Ian alone and vulnerable for a fool’s errand. They’d been able to stretch the canister juice, but they were on their last canister and still had three more doors. They likely didn’t have enough fuel for the torch to cut holes in all three.

“We’re running out of fuel, Doc. Let’s give this up and try somewhere else.”

Dr. Randall’s eyes grew dark with anger. “He’s here. I feel it. I’ve trusted in you, Erika. Now I’m asking that you trust in me.”

Erika raised her hands to concede his point.

“I’ve picked the last two and was wrong. Why don’t you pick this time. You may have more luck,” Dr. Randall said.

She found herself doing what Dr. Randall had done.
If I was a Conexus, where would I put him?
The exercise was futile. She could no sooner think like a Conexus than think like a tree or a dog.

She closed her eyes and tried to reach out to Tex with her mind. She’d once gone ape on him for reading hers. She now hoped he would hear her thoughts and give them a sign of where he was. But he didn’t speak to her telepathically, and they heard no one in the hall.

It was up to her, and she decided to go with her intuition. She took the torch from Dr. Randall and went to the next-to-last door on the left.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“No, but I’m doing it anyway. Stand clear.” Erika used the last of the fuel to torch the door. Her fingers were blistered from the heat of the torch and her eyes burned from the intensity of the light.

The steel fell to the floor with a crash. Dust billowed into the air. They coughed up dust; then the hall was once again silent.

The prior rooms they’d tried had been dark inside. A dim light emanated from the hole she’d just cut. Erika was about to step through when Dr. Randall caught her arm and whispered in her ear, “Remember. He may not be alone.” He pulled his gun off his back and held it out before him, ready to fire. Erika tucked the spent torch in her back pocket and readied her rifle as well.

Dr. Randall pushed out in front of her and Erika followed on his heels as they slowly and quietly entered the room. They met no immediate resistance. The only sound came from water hissing and spitting in pipes above their heads.

There were lights along the perimeter of the ceiling as well as the floor. Though the light was quite dim, it was the largest amount of light Erika had been in since– well, for however long they’d been at A.H.D.N.A. future.

A knot seized Erika’s stomach as a foul odor assaulted her nostrils. The smell was a combination of urine and sweat and – something else. Something familiar. A smell that brought to mind the awful memory of dead and dying soldiers in Aphthartos.

Blood.

They moved toward a monolithic table that appeared to be made out of a single slab of granite or some other smooth rock. And there on the wide table lay a small, naked being. His large head looked all the bigger by the frailty of his body. Tex’s ribs were clearly visible, his collarbone poking up in a way that looked like it would break through his skin.

Erika edged closer. A device was hooked up to Tex at the back of his head. A long tube came from the dark ceiling and was attached to him with metal clamps. She didn’t know what the device was doing to him, but if the Conexus had put it there, it wasn’t for a good purpose.

Tex lay entirely still and silent. His chest rose and fell so slowly, Erika had to concentrate to even see it. The only other movement was an all over shivering that racked his fragile body.

For as long as they’d been stuck in this horrid nightmare of a future, they’d been in the dark. Literally. And now she approached Tex, who was bathed in a bright white light. She could see him clearly. Plainly. Not in shadow or silhouette. And in the moment that she grasped fully his condition, she wished they were back in the dark. She knew she would wish for the rest of her life to never have seen what was on that table.

Feet shuffled through the shallow water, taking Erika’s gaze away from the broken and suffering Tex lying on the table. Before she could see anything beyond them, a twinge of pain throbbed at her temples. It wasn’t enough to send her to her knees, but it distracted.

Erika ignored the pain as best she could and reached behind her for her gun. Dr. Randall held his head in his hands and stooped over. He looked like he was trying to speak, but she couldn’t hear what he said. He pulled one arm away from his head and tried to grasp one of the grenades hanging from his ammo belt, but his shaky fingers couldn’t get hold of it.

Erika inched away from the table where Tex lay, back into the dark shadows behind her. While Tex still lay on the table bathed in light, the rest of the room was a silhouette against the bright cone of light. She knew she’d heard something, but she couldn’t see anything other than Tex.

She roved the room with her eyes, searching for another way out. But the door in was the only way out as well.

She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. She created an invisible force field of energy in her mind and used it to repel anything trying to get in. The pain didn’t cease, but it got no worse.

She wanted to open fire and blast the scrawny grey creatures to hell and back. But in the dark she couldn’t see where to aim. She could end up shooting Dr. Randall or Tex.

Erika breathed deeply as she crouched down. Her injured thigh reminded her that it was unhappy as she shuffled toward the door, hoping the light from the hall would give her a better view of the situation.

Her eyes were trained on Dr. Randall and Tex, but something flitted across the periphery of her vision to her right. She turned, and for an instant it was there, no more than five feet from her and advancing on her.

Erika pulled the trigger. The spark of gunfire briefly lit the dark room and reflected off the huge eyes of her attacker. It let out an eerie screech but continued to advance, its arm outstretched toward her. She pulled the trigger again only this time with better aim and more intention. One round then two and three. Her face was slick with sweat, her heart thumping away in her throat.

The Conexus made a gross splat sound as its body hit the ground. Erika looked forward to feeling the relief of the pain going away, but it didn’t ease.
There’s still at least one more in here.

She considered continuing on her path toward the door but decided to stay put.
I’ll let it come to me.

Erika hunkered down again and tried to calm herself. It was no use. The Conexus she’d killed was only a few feet away from her. She could smell its blood, a putrid smell that was a mixture of iron and peat and rotted flesh.

The perimeter lights flickered.
The water’s shorting them out.
The bright cone of light over Tex sputtered too and then went dark. Though it left Tex in the dark, the loss of the bright light helped her see the room better. Dr. Randall was on his knees beside the slab where Tex lay, his head in his hands.

Erika’s temples throbbed and she wanted to rub them to ease the pain, but she kept her hands on her gun instead. Dr. Randall was out of commission. If they were to survive this room and get Tex out, it was up to her.

Something moved at her right side. She turned and was ready to fire at it, but long, thin fingers came from behind and wound themselves around her throat. She had the presence of mind to hold her gun with her left hand as she used her right to try to free her windpipe from the surprisingly strong fingers that squeezed her neck.

Already weakened and lacking for oxygen, Erika knew it wouldn’t take long for the thing to kill her. She couldn’t get any leverage on it with only one hand, so she decided to drop the gun. It splashed on the ground as Erika got her left hand up under one of the skinny fingers and simultaneously kicked backward, hoping she hit something. Her foot hit the creature and it let out a screech but kept its hands on her.

As suddenly as the thing had taken hold of her, it let go. A loud smack filled the air followed by a thud as the thing fell to the ground behind her.

Erika sucked in breaths of the fetid air. Dr. Randall’s tall frame loomed over her in the shadows. He held his rifle like a baseball bat.