The Dark Rift: Ascension (The Dark Rift Book Series 1) (20 page)

"Hi. Not too good. My chest hurts really bad. Feels like somebody parked their car on it."

Besides the gunshot wound, Jodie knew the chest compressions could have done some damage. Broken ribs and deep bruising weren’t uncommon on people who were revived with CPR. "You might have been bruised when Nick and Mei were helping you out. You were shot too, Chuck. Do you remember?"

"Kinda. Not really, I guess. I remember feeling this burning in my shoulder. Thought I was having a heart attack. Then, I don’t remember anything. How are you? You look really tired."

Jodie wondered how much she underestimated this man, asking about her when he was in such sad shape himself. "Well, I am definitely tired. But I’m okay."

"Jodie, I think I remember saying something to you back there. I’m kind of embarrassed. Actually, a lot embarrassed. I wasn’t always such a jerk, you know. I always cared about you so much ..." he said, squeezing her hand, then letting go.

Jodie watched a stream of tears roll across Chuck Wending’s cheeks as his face went slack. His eyelids fluttered and a long breath seemed to deflate his entire body. She waited a moment and then shook his arm. "Chuck? Chuck, wake up … Chuck? Mei, there’s something wrong."

Mei was by her side in an instant. "What happened?"

"I don’t know. He was just talking to me. I think he stopped breathing again." Jodie felt responsible. Even for Chuck Wending. Just like she felt responsible for all of those helpless women disfigured by John Nelson. Death seemed to follow her no matter where she ran. Jodie knew she had to fight this feeling. She knew she couldn't let self-destructive thoughts creep in. She had other people to protect.

Mei pulled out her stethoscope and listened. She checked for a breath. "Nick, wake up. I need some help here."

Nick stumbled over to Wending. "He’s gone again, isn’t he?"

"Yeah. Starting CPR," Mei said, placing a breathing barrier between Wending’s teeth. The two EMTs tried to revive Wending for fifteen minutes, with no response. One by one, everyone woke up and watched.

Finally, Leah leaned over and touched Wending’s hand. "Why don’t you just let him go? He’s suffered enough."

Mei shook her head.

Jodie eased over to Mei. "The CPR would keep his blood circulating until he got to a hospital, but chances of finding one of those where we're headed might be very slim. If we knew where we were and how long it would take to get him some help, it might make sense to keep trying. We can’t help him, Mei. If he does come back, he’ll probably be brain dead." A flurry of thoughts filled Jodie's head, but they all led to one conclusion. They would all have a better chance of survival without tending to a dying man. As much as she wanted to save Wending, she knew what the cost of reviving him would be, to him and to them.

Nick kept performing chest compressions. "I’m going until you tell me not too, Mei, but I think Jodie’s right. He’s got some internal damage that we can’t fix. He’ll be a vegetable. He wouldn’t want that."

Mei stopped CPR and backed away from Wending slightly. "Goddamnit," she said, pounding her fist on the floor. She rocked back from a kneeling position and sat. "I know you’re right." Looking down at Wending, she said, "You didn't deserve this. I'm so sorry, Chuck."

Jodie moved away from Wending and leaned against the wall of the train car. She put her face in her hands. A stream of unexpected tears surprised and betrayed her. She knew she wasn't only mourning Chuck Wending, but she had enough. Enough of death and disappointment. She was interrupted by Hunter at her side, his soft fur touching her skin.

Jodie looked up to see Noah sitting on the floor across from her. She thought his expression was one of desperation. His eyes barely contained his welling tears and his lower lip trembled. Christy slid down next to him and pulled him close as he gave in to the overwhelming need to cry.

Jodie pulled her hands away from her face and rubbed her eyes. She knew she could save her tears for later when she was alone. Although she didn’t know or, at times, even like Chuck Wending, the fact was that he took a bullet for her. He’d spent most of his life thinking about her and she didn’t even know who he was before a few days ago. She felt sad that he wouldn’t be around to build a happier life with someone else. But right now, she needed to be strong.

"He was finally gonna help us find Fester. He tried, at least," Noah sobbed to his mother.

Christy pulled Noah tight to her chest again. "Yes, he certainly did. We'll just have to find Fester ourselves, now."

Jodie watched as Nick and Bob cleaned Wending up and covered his face. They placed his body at the front of the train car so that it wouldn’t slide forward if and when they stopped.

Mei walked over and sat down on the opposite side of Jodie, holding her hand. The group rode the humming car in silence. Jodie didn’t know what to say and she thought probably no one else did, either. They didn’t know where they were going or what they’d find when they got there, but it was safe to say that their lives would never be the same. Surrounded by friends joined by fear, she finally let herself fall asleep. Thankfully, she didn’t dream.

Jodie felt a tug on her shoulder and woke to Bob’s face. "Wake up, Jodie. We’re slowing down. We might be stopping soon."

She looked around to see Noah and Hunter curled up in a ball to her left and Mei, who was sprawled out on the floor to her right. She shook Mei’s shoulder. "Wake up. We’re stopping somewhere. Stay hidden under the window."

Mei reached over and gently nudged Noah. "Come on, honey, wake up. We’re stopping. Go to your mom and tell her. I’ll go sit with Leah."

Bob and Jodie crouched down low by the door. Everyone else sat against the wall under the window toward the back of the train car. The humming of the car gradually gave way to the sound of metal touching metal and the car jerked forward, like before. Jodie looked across the doorway threshold at Bob. "This train must float on some sort of electromagnetic field or something. It only touches the rails when we stop."

"Did you notice something else? It’s been getting a whole lot brighter in here. Like there’s daylight ahead."

"Yeah. And there’s noise. A lot of noise."

The train moved on, wheels weighing heavier on steel rails, slowly grinding to a stop. Hunter began to growl, crouching down to the floor and backing away from everyone. The doors opened. The noise pouring into the car was deafening, the sound waves making everything vibrate.
Thwump-chock, thwump-chock, thwump-chock
, over and over.

Jodie felt sweat running down her back between her shoulder blades. Even during the shoot-out at the cabin, she hadn't been this terrified. She motioned to Bob that she was going to look outside the door. As she did, it started to slide closed again. She leaned over just before the two panels slammed together in front of her face. "You have to see this."

The train rested on a platform at the far end of a huge rock-encased dome. Jodie thought two football stadiums could easily fit inside the area. The space was lit from above with thousands of lamps, the glare unbelievable. After being in the dark tunnel, Jodie found it difficult to keep her eyes open without squinting. She glanced back at Hunter, who remained crouched in the corner on the other side of the train, a stream of urine slowly flowing between his shaking legs, snaking its way across the floor. Everyone else was looking over the edge of the window.

Jodie thought what she was seeing looked like a small city of automated machines, all moving in unison. At the far end of the space, about five hundred feet from the tracks they were on, the tail end of what appeared to be a giant mechanical snake squirmed aggressively. It relentlessly drove into the side of the rock, pulled back, and drove again. Its head was covered in dozens of spinning metal blades, each looking to be four feet in diameter. Over and over, it retreated, then drove forward—
thuwmp
--followed by a huge scraper that pulled back the extracted material with a
chock
.

The machine butted, smashed and ground through the rock, obliterating everything in its path. Chips of stone and dust flew out from the face of the monstrous worm as it drove its insatiable mouth back into the rock, pulling back and rearing for the cobra strike again. Other automated machines followed, removing the material, dumping it on trains leaving the work area in all directions. From her vantage point, Jodie felt like the train they were riding was at the hub of a spoked wheel. The train started moving again and continued through the domed space, the noise gradually diminishing as they picked up speed.

"What in God’s name was that?" Leah blurted out.

"I think that was one of Christy’s tunnel boring machines," Jodie said. "Right, Christy?" And, it scared the hell out of me, too, she thought.

"Sure looks like a TBM. But I didn’t realize they were that large. That machine must have been a hundred feet in diameter. And where do all those tunnels go?"

"I think we’re going to find out where one of them goes," Jodie said, as the train was cast into a dim greenish haze once again.

"What if we never find anyone down here?" Leah said. "I mean, what if there are only machines down here? How will we ever get out? We shouldn't have come here." Leah's expression was anxious and her face patchy red.

Jodie thought she sounded hysterical. She wasn’t surprised that someone in the group was losing it. She had her turn when Wending died, and felt that they were probably all due for a breakdown of some sort.

"Leah, the good thing is, these are machines and they need to be serviced by someone," Christy said. "They can’t do that for themselves, so there must be people down here. I can’t imagine they’d be close to the machines with all that noise and the potential for tunnel collapses, so we might be in for a ride until we get to where they are. I bet this train is for the maintenance crew."

Jodie was grateful for Christy's rational explanation and relieved that Leah looked a little calmer. "What do you think they’re digging for?" Jodie said. "Maybe some sort of rare mineral or something? They don’t seem to be taking too much care with what’s being extracted, just dumping it into those train cars."

"That didn't look like an extraction machine to me," Christy said. "I’ve seen pictures of those in action and they dig into the rock in the front end and extrude the material out of the back end. The machine we saw is probably strictly for digging the tunnel."

"But a tunnel to where, exactly?" Nick asked.

Jodie remained silent. She didn't have an answer and by the lack of response, she could tell no one else did, either. She felt like it wouldn’t be too long before their little bit of luck was going to completely run out. One of these stops was going to put them right in the middle of a group of hostiles, she was sure. "I have an idea, everyone. I think we need to get off of this train unnoticed. I’m pretty sure from what we’ve been through, we can expect that we won’t be welcomed here, so I’d like to get off the train before it stops."

"You what? You want to get off while we're still moving?" Mei asked.

"Yes. Each time we start and stop, there’s a change from being elevated above the rails to the point where the car drops to the rails. We’ve all heard and felt the transition. Then, for about three or four hundred feet or so, we move very slowly until we come to a stop at a wider platform. That's when I want us exit out the back and jump. I think we’ll have a better chance than if we wait for someone to greet us at the side door."

Nick stepped closer to Jodie, his back to Noah and Christy. "What should we do with him?" he said, pointing to Wending’s body.

"As hard as this is going to be, I think we need to leave him behind. We’ll need to drop him out of the back in the dark part of the tunnel. We can’t take the chance of anyone seeing his body if we leave it here. That would tip them to our location. It’s only a guess, but I think they know we’re on our way by now. But still, it was just chance that we got out of that vent when we did. All I’m saying is, I’d like to maintain an element of surprise, if we can."

Nick and Bob exchanged glances. "Well, Bob, we’d better get to work then, huh? Who knows when we’ll be stopping again?"

"You got it, buddy." Bob joined Nick by Wending’s body and they each grabbed an arm. They dragged him toward the center of the car and stopped, Bob motioning to Nick to lower the body. "Does anyone want to quickly say anything? I mean, you all probably knew him better than Jodie or I did."

Jodie forced herself not to think about what she meant to Chuck Wending. She stopped herself from thinking about how much of his life he'd wasted, wanting something that would never happen.

After a moment of awkward silence, Nick said, "I’ve got something. It might not be too poetic, but it’s something, at least."

Bob nodded. Leah took Bob’s hand and the rest of the group followed, all connected in a circle around Wending. Hunter lay down at Noah’s feet and they bowed their heads.

"I guess if Chuck was still alive, I’d take him for a beer for everything he did for us toward the end. So, if we had ale glasses, and a soda glass in your case, Noah, we would raise them for Chuck and say this poem I heard at my uncle’s funeral.” Nick cleared his throat. “Oh, here's to other meetings and merry greetings then, and here's to those we've drunk with, but never can again. May the horns of your cattle always touch heather, Chuck."

As hard as she tried, Jodie couldn't keep from smiling. Nick had a way of bringing an odd form of cheer to any moment.

"Huh? Um … that was beautiful, Nick. Anyone else?" Bob asked.

"Chuck, I never knew you until a few days ago, but you gave your life defending me and the rest of us," Jodie said. "We’ll always remember what a good friend you were and thank you for what you did for us. You’re a true hero. Now, we have to say goodbye."

Nick and Bob took that as their cue and grabbed hold of Wending’s arms again, pulling him toward the door, while Christy and Leah ushered Noah and Hunter toward the front of the train car, where they wouldn’t see the men disposing of the body. Jodie opened the door and a blast of wind threatened to pull her off her feet. "This is going to be dangerous, with how fast we’re moving. Make sure you hang on, guys." She stepped out onto the back deck, gripping the door. Mei followed, helping to keep the door open wide as the two men pulled Wending’s body out onto the back of the train.

"Ready, Nick?" Bob asked.

"Not sure if I’ll ever be ready for something like this. Let’s do it."

They pulled the body up to a standing position. "On three, okay, Nick?"

"You got it, buddy."

"One  … two … three."

Jodie braced herself for the sight of the body hitting the rails, but the train was moving so fast and the tunnel so dark, they lost sight of Wending as soon as he flew over the railing. It looked as if he disappeared into a black hole. Losing sight of him made Jodie feel a strange emptiness. She wished they could have done more for him. They all turned and went back inside, silent for a moment.

"We need to be ready, everyone. Let’s all stay toward the back of the car," Jodie said. She didn’t want to lose anyone else and knew she’d do anything to keep that from happening.

Within a few minutes, everyone was seated on the floor again. They rode in silence and Jodie welcomed the peaceful hum of the train into her thoughts. Even though it didn’t vibrate or sound louder, she could tell they were speeding up by the force she was feeling on her body. Where could this thing be taking them? Right now, it was anybody’s guess, but Jodie feared Leah might be right. They might never run into people down here.

She caught herself second-guessing their decision to enter the tunnel, but still came to the same conclusion. They would have been killed if they stayed in the forest. No one could have known they would find themselves in this situation, with no idea where they were going or who, if anyone, would be there when they got there. The situation made Jodie feel helpless, a feeling that was rapidly turning to anger.

She tried to smile as Bob, Mei and Noah started rolling a quarter back and forth, trying to see who could keep it rolling the longest. Hearing their laughter was comforting, in a way, because it was so normal. Then, she looked around the train and remembered where they were and it made her angry all over again. A few minutes later, Christy slid over by Nick. Jodie could hear their conversation and she closed her eyes, letting their voices soothe her aching head.

"That was nice, what you said for Wending. He was a difficult man, but certainly showed his true colors at the end," Christy said.

"Thanks. It's actually an Irish toast. I couldn’t remember anything else and I wanted to say something. I guess I just felt so bad that we couldn’t help him."

"My husband, Tom … Noah’s dad … when he died, we didn’t have a funeral. Tom’s family was really big. He had three brothers and four sisters and they wanted to celebrate his life, not mourn it. They held a huge party for him. It was beautiful."

"Three brothers and four sisters? That is a large family."

"Yeah, we used to joke about his parents’ sex life. It must have been quite active. They had an amazing relationship. You know how you look at some people and think they don’t belong together? Well, we always thought the opposite of Tom’s parents. They were definitely soul mates."

"I’m sorry about Tom. That must have been hard to take, with a little boy and all."

"Thank you for saying that, but I think we’ve come through the other side of grief. It took some time. We’ll always remember him, but there comes a point when you feel like it’s too painful to continue grieving and you have to make a decision to move on. Noah and I have a great life. How about you? You’re not hiding a Mrs. O’Reilly at home, are you?"

"No, no, not me. I never really thought about that too seriously. I mean, I thought about it, but didn't think I'd ever meet the right woman." Jodie opened her eyes ever so slightly, catching Nick blushing. "I spend a lot of time with my family. I’ve got three sisters. They’re all married and have kids. When I visit, the kids all jump on me at once and yell, ‘bring the giant down.’ I hope they stop that when they get bigger or I’ll be in trouble."

Christy laughed. "I could tell you’ve been around kids. You’re so good with Noah."

"Well, Noah’s a pretty special kid. I like him a lot. He’s so bright. Seems pretty self-assured."