Chapter 9
Angela coughed as the ringing subsided. She felt a dull pain throughout her body as she propped herself up on an elbow, thankful for the padding of her uniform. Dust filtered around her as she squinted, trying to focus her eyes. As she sat up, rubble shifted off her back, and she tried to regain her bearings. Feeling around, her hand clutched onto her assault rifle, while her other hand found the headlight. As the light flicked on, she looked about into the darkness.
Foliage covered every inch of the walls, forming a dark mass. Around her feet, segments of old floor had broken some of the vines, though the remaining was probably what had saved her. Looking upwards, she could see the broken stairwell above her, and as her ears focused, she could start to hear Leon's voice in her headset.
"Leon..?" she replied with a groan, stretching her back. Briefly, she checked herself over for wounds, finding that her suit had protected her from most of the impact. She inspected her faceplate as Leon spoke.
"Thank God you're alright," Leon sighed. "Any injuries?"
"None that I can see. Everything's intact. Lots of overgrowth down here, helped soften the impact."
"Alright. You think you can manage to climb a rope up here?"
"Probably. Just let me-"
Angela was cut off as the mass of vines beneath her began to shift, knocking her off her feet. Thinking quickly, she drew her knife, striking just as one of the vines tried to grab her. Surprised at the sudden increase in speed, she batted away another one with her rifle, knowing that firing wouldn't do much beyond piss it off. A vine shot towards her head and she twisted to avoid it, only to trip over another vine. Rolling with it, she managed to avoid another grasp, striking at the offending vine.
Ducking an attack, she swung her blade in a large arc, severing several vines along the floor to secure a foot space. As the vines shied away from her blade, she gained the ability to stand without fear of the floor attempting to betray her. Bringing the blade up, she stared down several vines that hung in the air like vipers, seemingly waiting to strike. It was only when she saw the darkness she was in that she realized she'd been tricked.
Glancing over, she saw the hole she'd fallen through had been sealed with foliage, and was growing more dense by the moment. She highly doubted that either her or Leon would be able to dig through it without significant firepower, or risk to themselves.
"It's sealed me in," Angela announced calmly, focusing most of her attention on the vines ahead of her. Slowly, she put her rifle on her back, realizing that holding it was just throwing off her turning speed. The vines made no move to attack her, and she swapped the blade over to her dominant hand, wringing her grip on the blade impatiently. The moment dragged on as she kept the tendrils within her field of view. Then, just as quickly as they appeared, they retreated back into the walls.
Angela kept her blade out for a moment, expecting an attack, but as the moments dragged on, she relaxed a little, though she kept the blade in hand. "Leon, can you read me?"
"Yeah. What happened? I saw the passage seal up. Are you alright?" The concern was evident in Leon's voice as he talked, even though his voice was quiet, no doubt trying to avoid detection.
"I'm fine. I'm going to try to either find a way up to your level or to the roots. If I can get to the base, I'm going to take it out. I'll radio you if that happens," Angela informed.
"You do realize that you'll be stuck with no way out, right?" Leon asked, and she knew from his tone of voice that he could tell what she was thinking.
"Of course. Wouldn't have it any other way," she retorted sarcastically, silencing her headset before Leon could get another word in edgewise. It wasn't the best move to go dark, but she would be relying on her hearing a lot and she doubted she'd have time to send a message if things went wrong anyway.
Creeping forward, Angela tested the covered section of the floor, expecting it to lurch up at her. Instead, the vines shifted as if reacting to her boot, but stayed mostly in place. Angela sighed in relief, but forced herself to keep walking forwards. Even through her suit, she could feel the heat and moisture of the passage, likely caused by the plant.
It was when she heard moaning that Angela realized that she wouldn't be able to solely use her knife. Slowly, still aware of the presence of the massive organism around her, she grabbed her rifle, but kept her knife on hand, adjusting her grip to hold both. She almost wished she had a bayonet or something on her gun, but she doubted she'd be skilled enough to use it.
Following the curve of the passage, she could see the zombies inside. The tattered remains of hiker outfits told her all she needed to know about how the plant had been getting its share of food. The infected had not yet noticed her, and she took the opportunity to line up her shots. She killed a pair in quick succession with well placed headshots, and the third reacted to slowly as she lead her shot to hit its head as well. Having cleared the corridor, she reached down to top up her weapon.
That was when the plant struck. Her gaze was lowering to accompany the motion, and her off hand was briefly occupied as she reached for the clip. Out of her peripheral, she had seen the tendril shoot towards her, and she managed to roll in time to avoid it. Aiming her gun, she saw that it had already faded back into the mass. Patiently, she waited, expecting it to strike again, but only silence and the slight straining of plant fibers greeted her.
Carefully, she topped up her weapon, performing the action by touch rather than sight. She was surprised when she clicked the weapon full, having never been interrupted during the whole process. She struggled to figure out how the thing intended to kill her. An image of a venus fly trap flashed through her mind and she thought about the sensitive feelers in its mouth. Her eyes strained in the darkness, and yet she still couldn't see anything.
Thinking more intently, both attacks had shortly followed heavy action. The roof caving in would definitely attract attention, while the gun fire had likely caused the second. With the undead wandering the tunnels, she doubted the plant would notice a slow motion through the mass, having grown used to the stimulus. She doubted the plant was intelligent enough to track her motions, but detecting unusual motions was another thing.
If I creep through and avoid firing my weapon or anything else that would set it off, I might be able to avoid detection. I can probably sneak passed any regular zombies, but if I run into a Licker or a Hunter, I'll be screwed, Angela thought to herself, gritting her teeth. Either way, there was nothing she could do but press on.
Moving slowly, she tried to control her breathing, even if she doubted the plant could sense that. She didn't want to risk anything. Straining her ears, she listened to the darkness, hoping to avoid anything that might be out there. Pausing briefly, she flicked on her headset, just in case anything new was being broadcast. When silence greeted her, she flicked it back off.
Approaching a split, she briefly turned off her headlight, not wanting to alert anything. In the pitch black, she could hear something moving ahead of her. The sound was different than the infected she had heard, and as soon heard a creepy, almost hiss-like noise come from it. A Licker!
She briefly debated going the other way, but the stalks seemed to grow thicker towards where the creature was. There was the chance the other direction also lead closer to the core, but this was guaranteed to bring her closer to the main stalk. A flash of realization hit her as she remembered a key detail Leon had mentioned. The creature was blind; she could sneak passed it. There was only one problem; she was equally blind.
Slowly, she drew in a breath, aware that even the slightest sound might set it off. Even if it thought she was just a zombie, she had seen these creatures fight each other before. Stepping slowly, she tried to figure out where the creature was. The sound seemed to come from somewhere ahead of her, at about her head level. She realized with horror that the thing was crawling along the roof, and that the passage was too small for her to go around it. She would have to duck under the thing.
Being close to prone would be risky. Not only would it slow her down, but it left her back exposed if the thing realized she was there. It also brought her closer to the floor, and if her guess about how the plant sensed its prey was incorrect, it would give her less time to react. Her gun would also be slower to aim from a lower position, especially if the enemy was above her.
Focusing internally, she tried to block out as much fear as possible, slowly moving towards the creature. Moving by sound and the vague impression of touch from her feet, she pushed forward. As he listened, she could tell the creature was almost on top of her and ducked down, just in case. She decided to let it pass over her, rather than risk crawling under it. Listening, she could hear it begin to move above her, and she counted mentally how long it would be until it would be passed her. It would only be a moment.
But that moment never came. Instead, it seemed to pause above her, causing her heart to beat faster. Suppressing the urge to curse, she kept control of her breathing, listening to the creature above her. She could hear its mouth open in a slimy, cracking sound, and felt a small amount of saliva trickle down onto her back. She kept back the wave of disgust while tensing to avoid shivering, focusing further inwards in her mind.
When she heard it sniffing, she realized the situation she was in. She didn't smell like something from the plant. It would only be a matter of seconds before the Licker realized she was underneath it. Acting quickly, she decided to strike first, flipping her knife and hoping to hit something important. The knife drove upwards, and she could tell it was something important from the horrific screech the creature produced. She almost immediately regretted the choice when the creature fell on top of her after letting go of the ceiling. Her held breath was immediately released as the hilt of her knife was forced into her chest and the entire mass of it landed on top of her, stunning her.
Angela tried to focus her thoughts despite the pain, and she realized she was going to die. She felt the knife torn from her weak grip as the Licker rolled over and despite her best attempts, she couldn't move, let alone breathe. Her eyes flailed about wildly in their sockets on instinct, trying to look for some way, anyway, to survive. The feeling of darkness before her was almost so overwhelming that it hurt. The sting of adrenaline tinged her nerves as she tried to think.
Right next to her ear, she could hear the hissing of the monster as it struggled with the attack. A claw slashed near her head in its wild fury and she knew it would only be a matter of time before it found her. Bracing for death, she held her eyes closed, even though she couldn't see anything anyway.
The sound of plants moving startled her, especially when she found herself shoved aside by a rising wave of vines. Reflexively, she reached a hand up shakily to flick her light on and was surprised by what she saw.
Vines had encased the Licker, wrapping around its limbs and head, preventing it from moving. It was still obviously alive, as its tongue lashed around in anger, but even that began to subside as an obvious straining was put on its body. Angela was unprepared when she heard a crack, and watched as the constriction broke the bones in its ribcage. In an instant, the entire Licker was pulverized, turned into a fleshy bag that was swallowed by the plants. Soon, the only mark left of its existence was the slight mass under the plants, and her bloody knife, sticking out of the bump.
Angela lay down, stunned at her luck. She had been inches, and her own mistake had saved her. Her hunch had been correct; laying still had prevented the plant from sensing her. Instead, the enraged Licker had suffered its wrath. It took her another moment to realize that she could move again, and she shakily stood up, walking over to the mass. Nervously, she reached down and retrieved her knife, expecting the plant to object, though it didn't move. After a brief moment of searching, she found her rifle, luckily untouched from the scuffle.
Taking a moment to get her bearings, she took a deep breath. "Okay. You got lucky once. Keep moving. Don't let the shock get to you."
Angela mentally pushed herself along, continuing to give verbal instructions to herself. As she crept along the tunnel, an image of her brother flashed through her brain, and she remembered all the advice he had given. Sometimes, it had felt like lecturing, but he had always looked out for her. He had helped her become the woman she was today.
Quickly, she realized her shaking, and knew that she was about to have a momentary bout of shock. They'd always talked about it in training, how it could come at any time, but often triggered in response to near death. Even now, she could feel the well of repressed emotions surging forth, and she braced herself, even as her rational mind fled.
Suddenly, she was aware of the darkness all around her, and the distant sounds of infected. The slime dribbling down her back suddenly seemed much worse, and she began shaking, until she couldn't handle it anymore, reaching back to scrub it off. A visceral sense of sickness rose in her, and she forced herself to hold it back. Even if she didn't have a helmet on, it would only let the plant know where she was. Her knees began to weaken and tried her best to lower herself to the floor, terrified that any motion might set the plant on her. As her rear touched the floor she couldn't hold back the gasp of relief that she had made it down safely. Even that small victory seemed like a monumental accomplishment to her mind.
Grasping her knees with her hands, she gripped tightly, hoping to force some of the anxiety out. Her breath was shallow, and she hoped to whatever God had spared her that she wasn't saved only to die immediately afterwards. Her blood pounded in her ears and she resisted the urge to fall over and sleep, knowing it would mean her end.
Why is this happening now? Angela cursed repeatedly in her brain. She thought she'd been fine after the Incident. She'd lead so many missions before, but the threat before was greater than anything she'd faced, even worse than her own brother. A brief thought flashed through her mind, wondering if she'd perhaps moved on too fast without realization of the imprint it had left on her. No doubt, after it was all over, she would have to seek some help.
Just the idea that she could live through to get the help was enough to help bring her mind back. Her breathing came easier and she soon found herself able to stand up. Gripping her rifle tightly, she forced herself to take a step forward, knowing that it would be best to keep pushing on. It can't be too far, she thought to herself, hoping it was as true as she prayed.
"David King! Put your hands up and surrender!" Sherry shouted as the men flanked out to either side, readying their weapons.
David himself stood in front of them, his back to them. From what Sherry could see, the years had taken a toll on his appearance. She could see the full on beard he sported around the edges, and his hair had a wild look that spoke of his care of his own appearance. His clothes were ripped and messy, not to mention caked in dirt and dried blood.
What he lacked in appearance, he more than gained in physique. The old pictures had made him seem almost laid back, and a tad thin. Now, his muscles were very evident, and he didn't seem to suffer any form of malnutrition. Sherry's eyes naturally traced to his hands, which were clenched tightly.
"What makes you think I'll do that?" He asked aloud, not turning towards them. A certain detachment was carried in his voice, and Sherry held back the irritation she felt.
"If you don't we will fire. Come with us quietly, and you won't have to die."
"And if I do, then I'll be incarcerated for life, correct? I think that's not an option I'd like to take. Besides, I don't think any of you will be able to bring me in," he threatened, turning slowly. Sherry's eyes widened as she beheld him.
David's eyes had a maddened look in them, wide and bulging. The veins seemed to pulse disturbingly, turning dark. His jaw was set in a cruel grin, blood staining his teeth and face. The veins on his neck seemed to pop out as he strained. Sherry's eyes flicked to the table, where she saw the corpse of Nyx, bite marks taken out of its decrepit form.
