The Dark Rift: Redemption (5 page)

Mei woke to a loud noise. She didn’t know where she was or why her head hurt so bad. All she knew was that she was scared. Her eyes begged to stay closed, but she forced them open ever so slightly. Nick lay on the floor next to her, his battered and bloody head in Christy’s lap. Bonnie and Fester cringed against the wall behind them.

“Okay, everybody out,” a man's voice called from the back of the truck. 

Mei watched from the floor as Christy helped Nick stand up. She could see that the truck was backed up to a loading dock inside of a garage. Bonnie and Fester stood behind Christy, holding onto each other. Once Nick was standing on his own, Christy bent down and shook Mei’s shoulder. “Come on, honey. We need to get up.”

Mei knew what Christy meant, but her body would not comply. She let her eyes close completely again, comforted by the darkness. Moments later, she felt her body being lifted and carried. She couldn’t bring herself to move, no matter how hard she tried and wished she knew what was happening to her. The noise of a bell sounded and the force of the elevator slightly lifted her body, making her feel like they were going down very fast. She remembered Gypsum and the underground installation and realized they were probably going to be locked up again, but she didn’t care.

“Please, she needs a doctor. She’s hurt bad. Can’t you see that?” a woman said.

It took a moment for Mei to realize the voice must be Christy’s. She wanted to thank her, but couldn’t. A kind of numbness had gripped her face and was creeping down her spine. Mei realized she couldn’t feel anything in her hands or legs anymore. It was as if her mind had abandoned her body.

She thought of her friend Leah, who was in so much pain when she died. Mei wanted to let go and join her, but a fuzzy picture appeared in her mind. Gradually, it came into focus. Jodie’s face. Jodie’s voice calling to her. Telling her not to give up. Pleading with her not to leave. The bell sounded again and Mei heard the elevator doors open. They moved into a hallway and walked to a room, where whoever was carrying her laid her on the floor.

“Take them to the med room,” a man said. She recognized the voice and felt her jaws clench. It was David Martin.

Mei forced her eyes open and looked upward, seeing Nick's face the color of a red ball of fire as he lunged toward David Martin. Mei could tell Nick was intent on doing the man serious harm. She let her mind formulate a thought based on the deep hatred she felt for all the Gypsum people. Whatever horrible things Nick didn't inflict upon this man, she would finish when she got the chance. She promised herself, if she were to come to an end, she would end David Martin's life first. Before she allowed herself to die, she'd make him suffer as much as she was right now.

Christy lunged forward and was about to join in on the attack on David when Nick was shoved to the ground by the Gypsum guards.

"Try that again, and I won't hesitate," the guard said, holding an automatic weapon against the side of Nick's head.

"Get them to medical. All of them," David Martin shouted at the guards. "Get a gurney for that woman."

The guards made no attempt to comply. For a moment, Mei thought they might all be killed.

"I said now," David Martin said. "Or do you all want your names taken off the next transport list?"

One of the guards left the room momentarily, returning with a gurney. They approached her and slid her onto a backboard. Mei could see David staring at her. She thought she saw something in his expression she hadn't noticed before. Something showing remorse, some little bit of hope. It faded as he turned on his heels and walked out of the room.

"Come on, Nick. Let's go and see if they can fix you up before you get into more trouble," Christy said. She reached down and pushed the barrel of the gun pointed at Nick to the side. "He said, go to medical. We can't very well do that with that thing pointed at his head, can we?"

The Gypsum guard slowly lowered his rifle. "That's okay. We'll have time later. Don't you worry," he said, his mouth opening slightly while he leered at Christy.

Nick struggled to his feet as the Gypsum guard reached out and slowly stroked the side of Christy's face.

Christy narrowed her eyes at him, her lips pulling back into a grimace. "You know, if we're ever left alone, I'll do things to you that you've never dreamed of," Christy said. "Even in your worst nightmares." She turned and held Nick back. "Don't worry about him. Let's go. Mei needs help right now."

* * *

Chuck Wending walked down the hallway toward the noise he'd heard earlier and kicked an overturned wastebasket, flattening it against the wall. He was frustrated and angry. Very, very angry. Frustrated that he hadn’t been there to protect Bob and because he had no idea where Jodie was. Angry because of what Gypsum tried to do to all of them, angry because he’d turned into this thing. A machine. A metal giant. A mutant. He reached out and casually put his fist six inches into the solid rock lining the hallway, sending a spray of stone skittering across the floor.

The noises he'd heard earlier mimicked what his own voice had become. Mechanical, insect-like, powerful, unfamiliar. Maybe this same thing had happened to other people. Maybe someone knew how to cure it. He walked on, feeling an odd vibration in his feet. Something was pounding up ahead. The sound of pounding on metal grew louder with each step Chuck took. He neared the end of a hallway and turned the corner into the next. Ahead of him, two large metal door panels blocked the corridor. He could see them vibrating in the dim blue light. Voices called out from behind the metal wall.

“Who’s there?” Chuck screamed.

The pounding sound ceased and, for a moment, an eerie stillness settled in. Suddenly, a piercing scream rang out. Chuck staggered back against the wall. Another scream added to the first, each moment joined by yet another wailing shriek. The doors began to vibrate from the sound waves.

Chuck realized he was terrified. The pounding started back up again, lightly at first, then so intense that the metal panels started to move, one inch at a time. Chuck could see the frame of the door begin to buckle, the rivets holding it in place bending and popping.

He looked for place to hide. Seeing a vent shaft above him, he ran back down the hall, finally coming to an access panel. He leapt up on the ladder leading to the panel, swung the door open with one hand, and pulled himself into the vent with the other. Once he was safely inside the vent, he yanked the ladder from the wall and pulled it up with him.

As he closed the access panel, Chuck could hear metal tearing and the security panels collapsing, hitting the floor with a heavy thud, followed by footsteps. Thousands of feet clattered against the floor and walls, the sound deafening as the things below him passed by, screaming and grunting. The sound of the thrashing horde echoed in the vent. The smell wafting up from below was fetid. For the first time since he ran out of Three Musketeers, Chuck lost his appetite.

He waited in the vent for what felt like hours. Chuck knew he was strong, but also knew he was no match for so many of the things that were milling in the hallway beneath him. He didn't dare move because any noise he made would likely give away his position.

A sudden change in the air caught his attention and Chuck felt the rumble of a distant explosion. The things beneath him screamed and collided into each other. He could hear them starting to move, bashing against each other in a frenzy. Another explosion. More screaming, then a mass rush of the things toward the noise. They clattered and banged their way down the hallway while Chuck waited. He realized, whatever these things were, they weren’t too smart, running toward an explosion, instead of away from it. Either that, or they weren't scared. At all. Of anything.

When it seemed as if it was completely quiet, Chuck slowly opened the access panel and peered down into the corridor below. Looking in the direction they came from, he found himself disgusted. The floor was a mass of gore, covered with rotting skin and muscle liquefied into a sudsy trampled mush. Chuck jumped down, his feet splashing as he landed. Too late, he felt the vibrations on the floor and realized he forgot to look the other direction.

The thing hit him with the force of a speeding truck and they tumbled, banging and bashing against each other, peeling tile from the floor as they skidded down the hallway. When they finally came to a stop, Chuck pushed the thing off of him, launching it against the wall.

He jumped up, trying to shake off the disorientation from the surprise attack. The thing made a deep gurgling noise as it regained its footing and turned to look at him. Chuck felt as if fear held a grip on every molecule of his metallic frame.

A long, scaly tail protruded from the back end of the creature. Teeth jutted from its blackened mouth at unnatural angles. A piece of rotting grey flesh hung from one of its teeth. Chuck was deciding which way to run when he noticed something. The shredded clothes on the thing looked like a combat uniform. He leaned over, ever so slightly, and saw it. A Gypsum logo.

He didn’t know what this thing was capable of. He just knew he needed to kill it. “You’re a Gypsum thing. A … well, whatever the hell you are,” Chuck said, his metal jaws clanging together in consternation. “You don’t deserve to live.”

Chuck jumped up and ripped a metal conduit from the ceiling as the thing crouched on all fours, preparing to lunge at him. He heard it digging its feet into the tile just before it pushed off. As he swung the pipe in front of him, the face of the Gypsum thing opened wide, expelling a horrific scream.

Chuck could feel the blast of its breath and smell the rank odor of decay. He didn’t hesitate. He thrust the pipe forward and rammed it into the mouth of the thing, shoving it through the back of its skull. The sound of the thing’s head tearing apart echoed loudly in the hallway. Chuck's hands glistened as sparks sprayed in all directions from the metal on metal contact.

As the thing fell, Chuck thought he saw something in its eyes. For a moment, it seemed as if it looked like it was thankful to die. Then, it collapsed to the floor, immobile.

Chuck ripped another pipe off the wall near the ceiling. Steam sprayed down on him from the severed pipe as he approached the body. Just to make sure it was dead, he jammed the pipe into its skull over and over, until he could clearly see through the back of its head.

Once he had no doubt the thing was deceased, he leaned in closer. Seeing a key card still attached to a lanyard around its neck, Chuck pulled up abruptly, thinking the lanyard would snap. He was surprised as the head of the Gypsum thing, snagged on the strap, flew past him and landed with a loud clang a few feet away.

“Oops. Pulled a little too hard. Sorry guy,” Chuck said, feeling his metal jaws trying to bend into a smile. Looking at the incredibly delicate spine protruding from the remains of the thing, he realized he now knew a way to kill them, should he run into another.

“You Gypsum people, dressed up in your little play uniforms, really are as spineless as I thought you were, aren’t you?” Chuck started to laugh, but was scared by the mechanical rattle of the noise coming from his mouth, so settled for the smile he thought was on his face. He pulled the pipe out of the impaled thing and grabbed it by the arm, dragging it down the hall and stopping only at a bin that said 'cans only.' Chuck pulled the thing into pieces and slowly filled the recycling bin to capacity before turning and moving down the hallway.

Ahead, in a recessed area off the main corridor, he found what he was looking for. “That’s more like it,” he said, shoving his fist through the front of the vending machine, into the slot holding Three Musketeers. He grabbed a bar and bit into it without unwrapping it first, finding that he liked the taste of the metal-looking wrapper a lot. As he chewed, the scent of chocolate hit him full force.

The aroma of the candy bar mingled with and, much to Chuck’s delight, overpowered the odor of decaying flesh wafting in the air. He tore the vending machine door open and grabbed as many candy bars as he could hold, the pile of candy bars slipping through his hands. He searched the floor for something to carry his cache in, his coverall pockets having long since burst as his skeleton expanded.

Approaching the remains of what appeared to be a girl of about six years old, he bent down and picked up the Hello Kitty purse lying next to her and dumped out the contents. Chuck filled the bag to the top with candy bars and slung it over his shoulder, all the while trying to avoid looking at the girl. Some things were too difficult to accept.

He continued walking, noticing that the rotten stench seemed to follow him wherever he went. Realizing his coveralls were the source of the smell, Chuck slipped the strap of the Hello Kitty bag over his head and set it on the floor on the other side of the hall. He grasped the front of the shredded coveralls and pulled. The remains of his skin and muscle separated from his frame with a wet sucking sound. His entrails spilled out like thin Jell-O and splashed on the floor.

Chuck looked down at the pile that used to be his body and felt nothing, other than relief that he had rid himself of the rotting flesh. Confused by his own apathy, he picked up his Hello Kitty bag and walked on, searching. Finally, he saw it off in the distance. A handle dangling on the end of a chain. A shower, meant as a safety feature for chemical spills. He walked to it, set his bag where it would stay dry, and stepped under the shower-head, pulling the chain down and holding it as the water washed away all outward evidence of his humanity, leaving a gleaming mass of skeletal metal. He released the handle when he was satisfied that his body was clean and the putrid smell all but gone.