"Goto? Goto? God dammit kasumi, you better not be dead..."
She felt her eyes flicker open. Kasumi managed to blink a few times, then coughed, wincing at a sharp pain in her side. The darkness bore down onto her and she had to reach up to trigger her HUD to make sure that she wasn't blind. The small blue display cast scant light in the gloom. She heard a sigh of relief and looked to the source: Rogila was squatting next to her, barely visible in the black. Kasumi managed a weak smile, though she doubted the woman could make it out.
"So, we're in the pit then? All alive?"
Rogila exhaled, "Just about. Lizzie's out cold. teel's helping Klin. Krogan got a piece of sheared rebar through the leg. Luckily he's a Krogan: they heal damn fast. He's able to move at least. The LT is looking after Lizzie."
Kasumi got to her feet unsteadily, casting a look to their entrance and grimacing.
"So, sealed in? What happened?"
"LT tackled you an' me into the hole. Slid all the way down, luckily: bit of a slope. Klin had Lizzie and Teel wasn't hangin' around. Good job. That thing fried the street. Next thing, artillery started raining down. We dragged you into the tunnels.. .the Tube, Dan, I mean the LT… called it. They must have piled on half the Alliance ordinance, brought the buildings down up that end."
"You need to…" Kasumi added absently. She felt a sense of relief that she was alive, but a pang of pain that garrus had… what? Tried to save the soldiers? not swept in to rescue her? He had a live Reaper and she expected him to put that on hold to give her a few extra seconds? No: she pushed that kernel of resentment away. She saw it for what it was: fear, irrationality. Time to focus on getting out and kicking his ass later.
The HUD was helping with her night vision, augmenting where it could. The troopers would have similar setups in their helmets. She followed the Sniper, taking note of the dangling cables and strange curve of the walls. She had done a basic study of England, once, when she had done a job in London itself: stealing a politicians favourite piece of artwork. She'd considered the Tube as a hiding place, but the place was only mapped on the most prominent of routes and she didn't want the risk of flooding or getting lost. The place was a warren of abandoned tunnels. They were probably on the Central line, if she was a guessing woman. It ran from East to West, cutting through the middle of the city.
The two woman paused next to where the officer was tending to the teams heavy weapon specialist. Lizzie was still unconscious, but her eyes were flickering with REM. lieutenant Sharrocks shook his head and stood.
"We need to make a move. Find out which line we're on, see if we can't make it to an exit station… one that hasn't been completely buried by this damn war. Good to see you're up and about Kas. Feel up for a bit of scouting?"
"Alone in the dark, with who knows what down here? You know how to make a girl wanted boss."
"Yeah, not ideal. We need to make it down the tunnel - radio, extranet, wireless… no comms are getting through at the moment, so we need to find somewhere to jack into a router or with line of sight out so we can get a signal. Now, this is either Northern Line or Central. Which means we have four possible destinations: St Pauls, to the West, Monument to the South, Liverpool Street to the East and Moorgate to the North. Can't tell which direction we're going in and there's no guarantee that those stations have access. So, check your kit, we're moving in five. Klin?"
"Yeah?"
"How's the leg?"
"Movin'."
"Ok, I need you to help me with Deakin, Rogila, you get the heavy weapon. Teel, you've got the extra packs. Let's move."
The tunnel was far too quiet and their movement slow. One hundred metres took nigh twenty metres as they stopped to haul Lizzie along, or froze at the distant clang of metal. eventually they arrived at a station, the tunnel widening into a hallway, with a tiled platform area. Posters were yellowing on the walls, the air thick with dust. As the rest of the Squad made themselves secure in one of the alcoves Kasumi did a quick survey of the upper floors. She only got one flight before she came up against a huge pile of rubble. Cursing, she made her way back down.
"St Paul's. We're heading West. Access up is blocked. No service access down at platform level. We can try the maintenance access points in the tunnels. See if any of them are still connected."
"Good plan, Kas. None between here and Bank that we spotted, but there should be a few as we get to the junction stations. Holborn links up to another line, so we may have some options."
Their voices were loud in the pressing darkness, so the squad were whispering. It added a layer of tension and Kasumi could feel it bearing down on her. They needed to get out of here soon. A gasp from Lizzie nearly made her heart stop.
"I hear them… calling…" The woman rolled onto her side, curling into a foetal position. The lieutenant took one look at her then pointed two fingers towards the far end of the platform.
"Klin, setup at the curve of the wall. Kas, Teel, take the other platform, cover the inbound tunnel and the rear. We may be getting flanked... Rogila, stick by me, rifle out."
The squad moved quickly, taking up defensive positions. They didn't have to wait long: blue glows began to emerge from the tunnel at the far end: their intended direction. Kasumi heard a grunt as the LT hefted the heavy machine gun, propping it up in a prone position.
"Controlled bursts, let them get close for Klin to deal with. We haven't got a resupply down here, so no heat sinks."
The squad clicked their comms in confirmation, watching as the small group of shambling Husks lurched from the deep blackness. As one, the hostiles let out a howl and charged. The sharp retort of Rogila's rifle took down one, another two following quickly as the Lieutenant snapped off a burst from the heavy machine gun.
On the other platform, Kasumi and Teel had their own problems.
"Sir, we have abominations incoming. Three with twelve blueys."
"Shit. Klin, other platform, support."
"Roger."
Ten metres ahead of her, Kasumi saw Klin emerge from the second corridor connecting the platforms. He caught an abomination a running kick as it tried to clamber onto the platform, which sent it tumbling back into a couple of it's blue-glowing brethren. The hissing, red monstrosity shrieked as it exploded, its natural suicide trigger initiated by contact with a non-Reaper. Klin grinned and decapitated a third Husk with a blast from his shotgun.
kasumi and Teel advance slowly, firing short bursts into the advancing mass. Another explosion announced a second abomination was down, along with three more Husks. Klin smashed a seventh into a wall, smearing history with the warped horror of humanity. Teel rattled off another burst staggering a Husk, which klin finished off with a headbutt. He grunted as the final abomination latched onto him, nearly falling as his weakened leg buckled. Kasumi broke into a run and vaulted over the Krogan. Already, the red horror was beginning to twitch as its chemical reaction began to build. She kicked at it's flank, which distracted it enough for Klin to ram his shotgun against the monster's sternum.
The gunshot blasted the creature up and into the ceiling, where the subsequent explosion brought down rubble and concrete dust. kasumi flinched away and shrieked as a blue mawed husk darted forwards and grappled her. She struggled for a moment, keeping the beast's gnashing teeth away from her throat. She could just see Klin wrestling with two more, who had taken advantage whilst he was down. Teel was frantically reloading his weapon.
Kasumi gritted her teeth and jabbed a fist into the monster's stomach, activating her omni blade. The horror spasmed as electrical energy coursed through it, overloading its electrical neurons. It stumbled away, dazed, and Kasumi emptied her clip into it. She spun away as the creature fell, taking aim at the next target. But all was quiet: Klin was panting, a headless Husk lying nearby, another one pounded into a smear against the platform. Teel was slumped against a wall panting.
"Damn close." She nodded and looked at his weapon. He hung his head, "I should have.. grabbed it… not wasted time with this…"
"No, split second. Hard to… make a value judgement."
"You guys ok? Our side's clear. No hostiles."
"Clear sir. Klin uh... sealed the tunnel this side."
"I won't ask. Let's go. The rail lines tend to converge at points anyway. But it may confuse a few of them..."
They passed through Chancery lane without incident - that too was shut up tight, with security gates and collapsed masonry only a few feet in from the platforms. All the maintenance shafts were filled with broken pipes and shattered debris. The underground had buckled under the pounding from above.
Finally they reached Holborn. The access up was a mess, as before, but the stairs leading down were open.
"Not much choice…" Kasumi frowned, peering down the stairs into inky blackness.
Lieutenant Sharrocks leaned against the platform wall and checked his command comp, "Still no signal. And what do you mean? Surely we can push on?" Next to him, Lizzie had regained a semblance of consciousness, but seemed to be suffering concussion. Klin was now carrying her weapon. The lieutenant had left her a pistol, but her was keeping an eye on her.
"Not good news: The tunnel ahead has a big hole in it. Something dug down."
The Lieutenant swore, "So whatever it is we're following just changed lines?"
"Yep. This day gets better and better."
"So, Piccadilly line it is."
They descended, down static escalators and through dead halls. The feeling of a place once so busy now totally quiet was unnerving: Klin seemed agitated, prowling like the predatory beast he so nearly was. Rogila had her rifle up, watching shadows.
they emerged onto another dark platform. Above, the ceiling was torn asunder, like the hand of god had sliced through the concrete. Rubble had sealed one tunnel off.
"So… it went that-a-way." That was Teel.
"Sir, suggest we high tail it in exactly the opposite direction?" Rogila. Her voice was quavering a bit.
The lieutenant stared at the far tunnel for a long time, "Kas, check the other platform."
Kasumi nodded and headed through the access corridor. Quietly, she moved along the platform. From what she could see, both tunnels were clear.
"Looks good boss. Suggest we head South, if this thing was going North."
"Full of good ideas today Kasumi. priority now is getting out. We can't track this thing."
Kasumi heaved a sigh of relief. The rest of the team joined her and she grinned as Rogila flashed her a relieved smile.
"Let's hope Covent Garden's open for business!"
The batarian woman laughed, "Hey, time I did some shopping."
Giggling, the group set off down the tunnel, Kasumi and Rogila in the lead, Sharrocks and Teel helping Lizzie along, with Klin bringing up the rear guard. About a hundred metres down the group froze as the maintenance lights flickered on and then died, briefly casting the tunnel in a rude glow. Kasumi looked down at the floor, her heart in her throat: the rail lines were vibrating.
"There… there's a train…?"
The lieutenant looked down as well, then glanced back the way they had came.
"Run!"
As one the group broke into a sprint, even Lizzie. She half ran, half stumbled along, the Lieutenant dragging her all the way. Klin overtook the officer and scooped the stumbling girl up, allowing the boss to open pick up the pace. AS the ran, Kasumi spotted something up ahead.
"Side tunnel!"
The group took a hard left into an alcove, half concealed by piping. There was a small access gap, leading into the crawl space: it looked like a storage room or some sort of maintenance station. Kasumi pushed Teel through first, then Lizzie, followed by Rogila. Klin beckoned for her to go in, but she shook her head and both her and the LT heaved him through the gap, before diving in themselves.
As the crashed against the floor there was the rattle of rails as something roared around the corner. From their dark nook they watched it pass. And they felt it pass. The presence of it pushed against any conscious thought. Lizzie screamed and thrashed, her eyes white in the darkness. Whatever it was, it was mounted on an old tube train, which clattered past. Kasumi caught glimpses of ridged metal and almost organic, bleeding chunks of something. Her mind flashed and flickered with images: shrieking faces, melting flesh: bones being snapped open and wiring threading through the fractures: spikes covering fields as far as they eye could see, a corpse atop each one. A hand reaching out as the flesh burnt away to reveal metal.
Dimly, she was aware of the lieutenant crawling towards Lizzie. Around her she could see the squad in similar levels of distress: hunched over, clutching their heads. The lieutenant reached Lizzie and swung his hand, pistol gripped tightly. The woman slumped, silent. The officer collapsed then, curling up on the floor.
WE ARE THE HERALD! REJOICE! DELIVERANCE IS AT HAND! THE RESURRECTION BEGINS!
And then it was gone. Kasumi watched dully, her head throbbing, as a swarm of shapes lurched after the carriage: Husks, abominations, Scions, Marauders, brutes. The tide of acolytes seemed to go on forever: an army, following in the wake of their master. Among the horde of cybernetic beasts she could see the unconverted: humans and aliens, staggering along, all skin and bone and dead eyes. Indoctrinated.
After what seemed an age, the tide was gone, leaving the tunnel in silence. And by some miracle, they were untouched. It had gone past them, shrieking its madness in the dark. Seeing and not seeing, a psychic scream of agony and ecstasy.
Kasumi curled up into a ball and wept.