That was a long gap and I'm sorry about it. It began as putting the chapter off to finish something, but then there was another something to finish and another something to finish and then a month had gone by. I won't let it happen again. Updates every week for the rest of this section, I promise.
Through dark, suffocating tunnels the four of them crept. Though the cement ceiling hung a dozen feet overhead, it seemed to sink down with each step and to loom with the heartbeat. A tough, grey slime coated the low edge of each wall and the floor like resin. A peculiar sour scent filled the air. Ian kept his gun trained ahead at all times, always watching for movement of any kind. Flashlights swung about behind him, splashing their light across the walls and ceiling, and digging into the depthless wall of darkness. There was never any purchase made with those endeavors, a fact which drove home the desolation they marched toward.
The insect sounds multiplied with each movement, and seemed to have slipped inside Ian's own head. Those ghastly scrapes and clicks were now just around each corner, and always lying just under his feet. Ian couldn't think of the creatures, especially not now, without his thoughts flying toward Markus's death. Just one bite, and it was over. No matter the severance or the fire, there was a horrific poison which could destroy him on contact. That ant had leapt from nowhere and taken the man's life from total surprise.
Observation, crazed eyes flicked about. In every shadow or hidden space an ant seemed to linger. Not only ants, though. That face returned to him, constantly floating through the darkness like a specter. That man who had stood with the ants now stood here, in and among the shadows. Such a cruel illusion, for that was impossible. It had been before, surely. No man could stay among the ants as he had. No, that had obviously been a hallucination or a mistake brought on by fear and adrenaline. There was no man with the ants. There was no man in this darkness. That was only a shadow, and that face was not a face at all, but rather just some stain on the wall. But what of that? That movement too high to walk on six legs, or that sound like flat-soled footsteps? If there was no man with the ants, then what was here?
In an out of Ian's thoughts, a silence prevailed. Though the clicking and footsteps existed, a tense omnipresence floated around them. Nobody spoke. Breathing filled the air but no words. Bryan and Amata were at the back, both shining lights forward, or occasionally into the black behind.
These words came quietly through the sparse, stale air.
"That man is a monster." William said in a hushed, growling voice. The man had suddenly come up next to Ian after a long while spent trailing behind.
"What do you…?" Ian began.
"A madman, a complete lunatic. I should have known it from the start. He's always been like this. Just as greedy and detached. I should have done something before."
"What are you talking about? He doesn't seem…"
"He caused this." William waved his free hand around, gesturing at it all, "He created the creatures that destroyed Greyditch, and look what he's doing now. He doesn't care about the people who… All he cares about are the results of this experiment."
"No. I've seen my dad like this a few times. He's not really so apathetic as he seems, just obsessed. He's a doctor, or a scientist. They are like this sometimes."
William laughed, bitterly.
"I," the man said, "am a doctor. I'm sure I've been obsessed, but not this. Lesko is the wasteland's own Frankenstein. Resident doctor God…"
"I don't know," Ian insisted, though William's words had made some sense to him and were beginning to drive him off defending the man, "I could be wrong, but I still want to think he is doing this to help people."
"We are doing this to help people," William said, pointing an extended thumb over his shoulder, "Lesko is doing this to see if he can. No humanitarian goals, just an ego boost. "
"Hm," Ian muttered to himself.
Leaving the subject abruptly, William gestured ahead and said, "That should be our door, huh?'
There was a door set in the tunnel wall, mostly surrounded with the cemented slime. This was not complete, however. A torn tunnel ran under the door, apparently providing a way for the insects to enter and escape the area below. Thick clumps of dirt lay all around the hole, balancing on the lip and spilling out across the floor.
Ian leaned precariously forward over the pit and jerked the knob around. The door came open easily, though only an obscured staircase existed beyond. One of the flashlights was pointed down into the stairwell, but to no avail.
"Think so," Ian said, stepping closer to the edge, "Only one way to find out, I guess…"
Ian dropped down precipice and scrambled onto the first step. This brief advance left him in darkness for a few moments before Amata joined him with her light in one hand and gun in the other. The four of them collected on the step before moving lower. The descent went like average stairs for a perhaps two dozen feet before suddenly widening out. This area of it was obviously not manmade. Whatever cement had been applied was long torn away and lost. Slime coated the walls, as it always did. That sickly scent was heavy in the air, and hard on the walls. In some places dirt slipped through the cracks in the coating and poured out across the ground into dark pools of soft matter.
The four of them moved downward with a slow, measured creep. There was not a moment that Lesko's words managed to slip from Ian's mind. Whatever guardian ants were to be found in this place, they were apparently larger and more ferocious by far. Those terrible things were around here, waiting in the tunnel or in the walls or anywhere about. Pure behemoths awaiting unsuspecting prey, and the four of them could fit no other role so perfectly as they did this.
Through some twist of strange luck, Ian caught sight of the lumbering creature while it remained over two dozen feet off. There was no reflection to its hard shell, and no color. The thing seemed a soldier and a monster at once. Great beady eyes were set in a translucent skull which seemed to be fashioned from glass itself. Smoky, faded glass, but glass still.
"Stop," Ian whispered frantically to the others, "There, there's one of those guardians."
"Sure looks like a tough bug," William remarked.
And with that, they began to fire on it. Ian focused his shots as near to the head as he could manage, as the other three picked portions to destroy. The monster writhed beneath the bullets and began to charge toward several times. However, the assault quickly began to tear away at its pale armor. Short flashes of fiery light bit at the tunnels darkness as the insect slowly dropped dead. They did not move forward until that became certainty.
The ant was pulverized against the tunnel floor, beaten down by red hot rounds and the awful strength of gravity. The insect was no more than torn exoskeleton and oozing slime by the time they finally approached it. Bryan shone his flashlight down onto the broken mess, allowing them all to examine the few remaining aspects. Most apparent, among all these, were the two pincers which had been left nearly intact. They reached longer than Ian's forearm and were at least as wide. The serrations seemed to be like teeth upon teeth.
Satisfied with what he had seen, Ian said, "So that's one of them. Still two more, then this is done."
There were slow nods and wary looks around. No matter the seeming ease, this would be harrowing. And there would be no real ease, Ian knew that already. He knew better than to trust this simplicity. Something was bound to come and tear apart the plans, but what? And where? They all went ahead slowly, carefully. Ian found himself waiting for tragedy to burst from the shadows, for some monster to manifest itself.
If ever there were monster, it was this ant before them. Ian saw the second guardian and gritted his teeth. One more, but it couldn't be this easy. It was not moving, and it didn't seem to notice them at all.
Ian raised his gun toward the distant creature and waited for the others to do the same. Only a moment and they had. Only another moment before Ian raised his hand, counting from three to zero.
It was on the count of two that the third guardian appeared from its hidden place at Ian's side. A monstrous skull burst from the place by Ian and began to snap at them. It quickly pulled at the walls, dragging itself out from the hidden space within.
Ian fell back against William, pushing the whole group back a few steps. He raised his gun, shouting as he did so. William soon began firing on the nearby ant as the other two did. Ian tried to watch them in the corner of his eye, but could not. Blinding flares and the eagerly advancing death kept him blind to their doings. Ian thought he saw a round pierce the imminent insect. It continued to push forward, though, and he could feel the massive legs pressing at him.
The whole group moved backward and became pressed against the far wall. Ian heard a shout amid the gunfire and saw the other guardian moving in.
"Get back!" Ian roared, hoping to somehow top the cacophony, "Up! Move!"
It seemed that Amata heard his words, because she was shoving Bryan back away from the menace. They moved a few feet up the stairs before turning, waiting for the others. Ian started to follow them but, after two steps back, realized that William was not moving.
"Come on!" he shouted, still firing. For a frantic moment, Ian wondered how many bullets were left in his gun.
Still immobile.
Ian reached out toward the man, and felt everything shifting beneath him. A sound of great crumbling tore through everything and Ian found himself being thrown toward the monstrous insects. Luckily, they were thrown off step as well and tumbled about the uneven ground. William had fallen against the wall and was staring about in shock.
The floor fell away in one sudden disappearance. Ian was slipping down through a dust touched void. Lights were gone from the world, leaving only the slight red barrel of his gun. In a moment, Ian struck down and felt the stone body punching against his. He rolled over onto his back and tried to breathe. It seemed as if his ribs had collapse inward, and were pressing in on his lungs, constricting breath.
The air returned with strange suddenness, as did sight. Ian sat up and found himself to be in an arched cavern. There was a portion of the ceiling which seemed gone, apparently serving as the point of admittance. Those stones and dust all around were surely the remnants of that place.
A strange fungus covered the walls, throwing off sickly soft light into the air. It hung there like a gas and floated about. Through this glowing haze, Ian saw that one of the ants had been torn apart by the impact and the falling stones atop its body.
This sight of mutilation drew William back to mind and Ian began to search around for the man. It was a short search, for the man was near at hand. However, he lay flatly down and stayed still, covered in a thick layer of dust. Before Ian could investigate further, a rattling noise sounded from behind him.
Without thought, he leapt aside. This proved to be lifesaving, for the remaining guardian had come up behind him. This one had not escaped damage in the fall. One leg was missing altogether, and another two stayed still, having been bent into unusable positions by impact and hard debris.
Ian reached for his gun to end it, but found with a start that the weapon had vanished. A moment's thought told him that it must have been lost in the fall, must have slipped away and come to rest among the remnants.
He stared at the ant for a long moment, staying still all through. During this, Ian's eye was caught by something and he dove for it. With reaching hands, this something became William's heavy knife, already halfway out from its sheath.
Ian stood with the knife, perched over William's unconscious form, and stared at the ant only inches away. The hellish pincers had been scratched and pitted by the fall, but still seemed deadly. More deadly than the knife, by far.
The ant was not afraid of his weapon. With a soft, ratcheting noise, the insect took a quick step forward. Ian, however, did all he could to be faster. Somehow, the blade in his hand slipped past those protruding mandibles and up against the great black eye. In a single motion, Ian managed to draw the blade back against the eye tissue.
The ant's assault fell aside but was not totally averted. That creature was still standing, still threatening. The pincers clenched shut with a sharp snap, then it was moving forward again. Ian lashed out as he could and saw blade strike the thin form of an antenna. That fell away and the insect seemed to as well. Simply put, it went wild.
Finally, Ian approached it and shoved the knife through its eye, ending the struggling thing in its writhing.
"Ian! Are you down there?" a voice from above called. A certain resonance told him that this was Amata speaking. She must not have fallen.
"Yeah," Ian shouted back, and began to look for his gun among the rubble. William still had not shifted and the knife would not be any help against an unmaimed ant. "Is Bryan with you?"
"Yes, he is." She answered, "Is William…?"
"He's here," Ian said, picking up his gun from its hiding place, "Unconscious, though."
A moan came from the prostrate body, and with a slow motion it ceased to be such. William sat up and looked around the dark place.
"Where is…?" he murmured to Ian.
Ian handed the knife back to him and said, "The floor gave out. I think we're somewhere deeper in the tunnels."
Then, to the invisible Amata, "He's awake now."
"Is there any way out of there?"
"I don't know, we haven't looked yet."
William was searching around, moving slowly with one hand pressed to his head. It didn't take long to find a tunnel from the room. Along the way, William discovered his weapon sticking out from underneath the body of the crushed ant.
"We found something," Ian called to Amata, "Just one way. We're going to try to find a way back up."
"Okay," was all she said.
"Take Bryan out from the nest," he said, "This could take a while."
Amata repeated herself before becoming silent. She'd left, leaving William and Ian to do the same. Having readied themselves as far as possible, they entered the tunnel. It was cramped, having apparently been carved out from dirt and stone by the ants. Ian was a little shorter than William, but even he found himself stooping in order to move forward.
The gun never went away, though, as they went along. Ian kept it trained forward, always ready for something to appear from the shadows ahead.
For a moment, Ian contemplated the oddity of all this. Just a few days ago, he'd never held a gun, and now he was behaving like some kind of soldier or whatever kind of person did this. Without thought, Ian had slipped into readiness, slinking through the darkness as if it were normal.
That train of thought faded as the luminous fungus appeared. The strange stuff coated the walls in thin clumps, casting a grey-green haze over everything. The light of the fungus only stretched so far, but it was more than enough to light their way. The tunnel ahead for a few feet was, if not plainly visible, at least transparent enough to decipher.
Soon enough, the tight walls floated off to become a cavern. Several natural columns stretched up from the ground to infinity in a show of abstract form. And beyond those, Ian noticed the first piece of unnatural stone he'd seen since descending. From beneath layers dirt and insect worked stone, ancient cement shone out. Those were steps, leading sharply upward. Neither of them knew which place they would lead to, but those seemed that best possible way to go. It was a start, at least.
However, as the two of them approached, something massive and awful rumbled about beyond those columns of roughhewn stones. Dragging its huge body along the wall in great, slow beats, that monster was truly no more than a gargantuan version of the others he'd seen. Just one ant, more massive than any other in these tunnels.
"That's the queen…" Ian muttered to himself.
Ian was going to say something, but the minute sounds of a gun being raised and readied drew his attention. In a flurry of movement, Ian lunged toward William, pushing the gun back and the man against the nearest column. There they stood, still for a moment. It lasted only that, a moment, before William was struggling against Ian. He fought to keep the man back, and put every bit of weight and strength into the hands of pushing and holding.
Ian began to growl slightly beneath his breath, "There are ants over there! Almost a dozen!"
There were, all meandering about the queen, all dressed in camouflage. Somehow, Ian had managed to catch them there. If they attacked the queen at this point, everything would go to hell. Those hidden guards would have flown up from their currently hidden place and confronted the aggressors. With so many of them and so few people, it would have been a very one sided match.
For a dozen more moments, William struggled against him. Ian, however, was able to keep the man pinned against the pillar, though hardly. A long while passed in this manner before the ants had gone past. They seemed to wander into another, more distant portion of the tunnel system. Whatever had happened, Ian knew they were gone and he stepped back from William.
The man, however, did not move. Ian was shaking slightly from the effort of that, but William was frozen in his place. He stared off past Ian and past the tunnels, off into something far more removed.
"I'm sorry," he muttered, "They're just… it was them and… I can't…"
Ian watched the man carefully, trying to pick the meaning from his scattered words. William saw some of the curious ignorance in Ian's eyes and paused. Slowly, he began again.
"Those ants came out of nowhere and killed my family. My wife and my kid… It's a shitty excuse but, I can't stand them now. Let's… let's just go. Get out of this hell hole. I don't ever want to see another ant."
Ian nodded and looked around. It seemed as if William would get his wish. The whole area was empty save for them. Still holding his gun ready, Ian led on up the stairs. They were let out into a cramped room, a closet. The lower half of the door had been broken to pieces a long time ago. First Ian, then William crouched through that shattered opening.
It wasn't long after this that they me up with Amata and Bryan. Those two happened to pass by that corridor as Ian thought about which way to go. Question made simple, they joined the other two.
Immediate questions were the only greeting, but those were shrugged off. It had just been a hole, Ian explained. They'd seen the queen but slipped past without getting noticed.
"We've got the guardian ants out of the way now," Ian declared, "The place is clear for Lesko to take care of this. Let's get back there."
Amata nodded and Bryan let out a subdued "yeah". William just looked at Ian with a scowl reserved apparently for the mere thought of Lesko.
It didn't take long to find their way back. Between the batch of them, everyone was able to remember the truths of a turn or two. Adding all that fractured knowledge together, they finally reached the correct hallway.
Approaching the door of Lesko's shoddy laboratory, Ian looked out and saw a metal door at the tunnel's far end. Some rust touched its surface, and had even eaten through in one place. That point was a void to allow sunshine in.
"That's the way out," Ian remarked, gesturing there.
William nodded.
With that, they entered the room of Dr. Lesko. The man was bent over a scattering of things across one of his many desks. Before Ian could say a word, the scientist spun around.
"Ah, it's you again. Please tell me that those brutish specimens have been disposed of."
"They're gone"
"And the queen is unharmed?" he seemed anxious of this especially.
"Yes"
"Excellent," Lesko announced, before tearing up a stack of things and running off out of the room. Papers were scattered around and dropped to the floor with a slow flourish. However, before the papers had even touched down, Lesko was gone.
A moment passed, then the sharp noise of toes on cement. Lesko came rushing back into the room with some strange bag atop all his scientific things.
"I suppose I should reward you in some manner, huh? It's all in the fair nature of arrangements such as these. Here, take these. They are hardly money or equipment, but it's all I can spare. Don't be afraid of them, I was exceedingly careful in the chemistry. Too bad they proved unnecessary. Anyway, take them along with you."
Lesko handed the bag over to Ian and disappeared once more. The four of them waited for a long moment to be sure if he was really gone. It seemed so, and Ian eventually peered inside the bag. There he found an assortment of syringes, all labeled with careful black ink. Ian pulled one out with his free hand and examined it.
"ANT MIGHT," read the label.
Ian stared down at it with obvious confusion and shuddered. Then, with no more ceremony, he shut the bag and hid it away inside of his backpack. Nodding to the others, Ian headed out and toward the door he'd seen. It was a short walk there, but still tense for the flat darkness all around. Ants still wandered, surely, and still possessed that strange, devilish ability.
However, they were able to leave the tunnel without event. In just a minute, they had reached sunlight and stood atop a hill which overlooked Greyditch. Everything here was dead, as expected, but a relief after the foreboding tunnels.
"What are you going to do now?" Ian asked, looking over at William.
"I guess I'll try to take back the town, or at least my house. I can take care of Bryan there, if he'll let me."
Ian nodded slowly and looked down at the boy, who mirrored the action.
"We should get down there, then," Ian declared. And with that, they began to descend slowly toward the city. It was a short, quiet walk. Ian held the rifle, but kept it down by his side. There was a calm in the air, and something invited him to trust it. Across a dead field they moved before finally entering the city.
As before, it was all looming buildings and decayed concrete. Their steps echoed slightly through the streets, but fell silent before too long.
Looking upward for a moment, Ian saw some spot of movement through a window. He wasn't sure what it could be, having only recognized it in the corner of his eye. Something strange about it warned him, and he warned the others.
"There's something up there," He said, "Moving on the second story of that building."
As he said this, Ian saw something move the other side. This, however, was slow enough to be identified. A person, covered in dirt and metal and leather. A sadist by trade.
"Raiders," Ian continued, and William growled something.
"What's a raider?" Amata asked. Bryan became white at the mention of the word.
Ian's eyes picked something else out, and he pointed it out to the others. A door, left open, which led into an empty room.
"This way," he announced, and they began to run that way. Before the third step, there were gunshots in the air. Ian saw people emerging from windows all around, and some stepping out of doorways. Ian ran into the room and swept his gun around, searching frantically for any occupant.
The other three piled in behind him, pressing themselves against the wall. Ian stood near the door, and William went over to the staircase. Amata and Bryan hovered somewhere in between, guns drawn but both unsure.
"There's a lot out there," Ian said after checking. Teeth gritted, he leaned around the corner and took quick aim. As well as he could, Ian shot the nearest raider. Bullets skipped off concrete then through flesh. Retreating back into the building, Ian listened to the bullets which flew in after him.
William cursed and began to fire up the stairs.
Ian didn't look that way after seeing this. He needed to focus on the door. More raiders were approaching, fighting their way nearer. Ian shot and killed several, but there always seemed to be another ducked behind something to return fire.
The sound of squealing tires shot through the air.
"Shit," William growled, and Ian found himself muttering something very similar. He watched as some kind of assault vehicle pulled into the street, pushing parked cars aside. Raiders poured out from it, all holding rifles and larger weapons.
Ian counted as many as he could and relayed the number to William. The man cursed again and resumed shooting.
Leaning out to shoot, Ian saw something strange. The newly arrived Raiders were not approaching the door, but instead taking shots at the existing raiders. Warfare erupted between the two groups, apparently taking all concentration away from Ian's group.
"They're fighting each other!" Ian exclaimed, "Hurry, let's get out of here. Is there a way through there?"
"I think I see something," William replied, and they were all running up the stairs.
They reached the second floor quickly and looked around. In next room, half a dozen raiders were shooting out the window. However, their attentions seemed wholly captured by this. They took no notice of the four people. Ian and the others took a different door and escaped into a different part of the building. Several more doors and stairs later, they were running out into a different street.
The four of them ran past broken cars and buildings as the raiders' sounds faded in distance. Eventually, after many blocks had passed, the noises were faint. They continued until the sound had gone away entirely, and then ducked into a building. William shut the door behind them with a careless slam and let out a deep, ragged breath.
"The scum moves in quick," he remarked disgustedly.
Ian nodded, staring out a window at the street, waiting for movement.
"I guess this place isn't safe anymore, not for anyone." William said, looking around at the room. Ian did too, and saw that it had been some kind of home. However, a strange grey crust lay over many surfaces. "Where were you two going, before you found me there?"
"GNR," Ian said, relaxing his surveillance. He slowly approached a spot of the crust and poked it with his boot. The stuff shattered and became dust against the pressing toe. "We're looking for someone."
"Bounty hunters," the man observed.
"No, it's… something personal," Ian said.
"Could you do with one more, or I guess two with Bryan?" William asked, "I suppose it means I've gotten used to people, but I think it would be better to go with you two."
Ian looked over at Amata, but her face was impassive.
"That would be fine," Ian said, "You could help, and one more gun is always…"
"Good," William nodded, and looked out the window, "I don't think anyone is coming this way, we should get moving."
Ian opened the door and peered out.
"Sun is going down," He remarked, "It might be better to just stay."
William nodded and Ian shut the door. Between the two of them, they were able to carry a heavy piece of furniture against the door. It seemed a little safer then, and they all went in search of somewhere to stay. Nobody wanted to sleep out in the front room.
Ian ventured into something which appeared to be a kitchen. While he was there, Ian decided to check through some of the cupboards, in case something useful could be found. However, all he could find were toppled and smashed glasses. Ian shut the cupboard and fell to the side as something moved toward him from the direction of an unexplored room.
It was grey like the crusted substance, and leaking something similar from all over. Ian raised his gun but only managed to get off one shot before it had slammed him down to the floor. With struggling arms, Ian kept its strange body back, but he could feel them constantly weakening from the fight.
In a desperate heave, Ian tossed it aside and began to scramble away. His gun had fallen aside in the wrestling, and Ian had it in his hand now. However, the creature was dragging him away from it. Ian lost his grip and the gun skittered out across old, filthy tiles. A grip on the counter's edge faded quickly and Ian was sliding back toward the monster.
Two gunshots rang out, then a third and a fourth in quick succession. The grip on Ian's leg loosened, allowing him to scramble forward and retrieve his gun. It wasn't until he stood that Ian recognized Amata in the doorway with her gun held straight out. Ian stood up beside her and they both stared down at the dead creature. Its body was slimy and squat. Ooze had fallen out over the floor and was slipping outward with each moment.
"Thanks," Ian said in a ghostly voice. In another second, William and Bryan were there, staring at the creature.
"What is that thing?" Bryan cried.
"Some kind of mutation," William answered slowly. With a measured movement, the man stepped forward toward the dead thing. Ian nearly spoke out as he reached down and plucked something from the body. It was a ring of keys, dirty but still apparently usable.
"I found a basement, I think," He said, explaining, "But it was locked."
Moving uncertainly, they all followed him. William led to a square hatch set in the floor of the hall. It took a minute to find the right key, but eventually he did and they were greeted by the reassuring smell of ancient dust. If there was such old air in here, then surely nothing else could have gotten in.
With this thought in mind, they clambered in and eagerly locked the door behind.
Once inside, they searched around, still uneasy. However, it became quickly apparent that the room had not been touched in many years. With security finally reached, they all settled down quickly to sleep. Exhaustion flooded out from its hidden places and they were quickly gone to dreams or simple blankness.
