Chapter 5: Escape
October 29, 9:36 AM
Vash's POV
This is bad. This is bad. This is oh-so-very bad.
I'm inside a subterranean cavern untold miles beneath the surface of Gunsmoke, standing next to a gargantuan mural depicting my slightly-unhinged brother reveling in a snuff orgy, and to top it all off I'm surrounded by a bunch of ugly, slimy, tentacle-y thingies.
Things have now officially Gone To Shit.
"What do we do now?" I hear Knives mumble to no one in particular. Only one option left, I think: run like frightened little church-mice. We haul ass like never before, but the cthonians don't move. Then one unleashes a bellow, which is echoed by the others until the small cavern is filled with the din of a dozen hellspawn.
I might not speak their language, but I get the general idea: CHAAAAAAARGE!
They pour towards us in a scarlet flood, and we open fire on those who block the entrance. They scream and thrash, and a domino effect makes most of them fall over. In preparation for this little excursion, I replaced the regular bullets in all our guns with Piledriver bullets, which apparently paid off.
We reach the cave mouth seconds before another wave scrambles over their fallen brethren and lunge at us. Knives cranks up the chainsaw and swings it wildly in the general direction of the burrowers and the whirling blade sinks into soft flesh and rips out the other side to the sounds of guttural shrieking, and he moves to the next and repeats the process. He hacks and hacks as if the saw were a living sword and bright-red – almost pink – ichor gushes out of the wounds in grisly fountains and splashes him head to foot. He raises the saw over his head, shakes it and screams like a Scottish warrior, escapes the sanguine baptismal and joins us just as we start running the winding path. We reload in record time and recommence firing as we run faster than we ever have, and I look up and try to get a mental picture of how far we have left to go, but the fog has suddenly grown thicker and obscured the top; I guess the only viable option is to keep going and hope for the best. The light from the cocoons has not diminished; if anything, it's glowing brighter, like it's feeding off the violence.
The cthonians have burst forth from the cave mouth, some even burrowing through the rock wall, acid oozing from their tentacles and burning smoking holes in the floor. They head for the path and reach it in seconds, some try to crawl up the path but most just ooze up the walls. Knives lets loose another battle cry and charges into the fray yet again, saw spinning at full blast and he lays into them mercilessly as Meryl and I keep shooting and running. Knives stops his onslaught, mumbles something, and runs up and joins us. He tries to start the saw, but from the looks of things the blade is clogged with gore. He groans, yanks his gun out, and starts firing again. Fifteen seconds later we've cut through at least half the ranks, and from the look of things, there aren't any replacements on their way and I think, we're gonna make it! Then the cavern rumbles as a deep, nearly sub-audible roar shakes the very foundations, and the cthonians stop coming at us as the biggest fucking one bursts out of the floor.
Christ, this thing is huge! It takes up half the floor! It doesn't have eyes, its bulbous head is completely covered with tentacles that are easily as thick as a good-sized tree, the nexus point of the tentacles is a mouth filled with teeth like jagged railroad spikes, acid oozes from its rubbery flesh and smokes on the black-glass floor, and judging by the reverent way the cthonians are regarding it, I'd say we're looking at none other than Big Mama.
It throws its "head" back and lets loose the loudest, highest, most piercing shriek I have ever heard and I clamp my hands over my ears, but it does no good. My ears are ringing so loud I can't hear a goddamn thing, so naturally I don't hear the cave walls shatter, nor do I hear the broken rocks hurtling through the air towards us. No, I sense them instead, and in just enough time to dive out of their way. Gargantua roars again, and the entire cave starts shaking. We look around, and see more rocks breaking apart from the walls and whizzing through the air towards us. I duck as a basketball-sized one whizzes past my head and shatters on the ground in front of me.
"Alrighty then," I say, "time to go!"
We tear-ass up the path, weaving and bobbing as stone chunks of various sizes slam towards us and break apart like bread crumbs on the ground. I hear Knives call me mentally, and I ask, "What?"
"Look up." I do. I can't see a thing; the fog's blocking it all.
"Look past the fog, you idiot!"
Ah. Night-eyes.
"Yes! Do it!"
I look up again and I can see that we are about to get to the rows of cocoons, and I realize what he means: the walls are lined with the chrysali, which are bunched together on top of each other like grapes, leaving no space between them. To wit: no bare walls, no more rocks.
If we get there, we'll be okay. Or at least in a better position than now.
We're in the fog now. Since I can't see anyway, I close my eyes again and let my "plant sense", as Knives calls it, expand and feel the missiles coming towards us. I sense that Knives has done the same, so he's okay.
That just leaves Meryl. She can't see or hear the stones, assuming her ears are still ringing. And even if she could, she's too terrified and too pumped of adrenalin to notice. I'll have to protect her, also.
Mile after mile, stone after stone, I sense the cocoons ahead, just a few more feet, just a few more, just a few – SHIT!!!
I pull my gun out and shoot at the boulder heading towards us. I feel it shatter, but a small chunk keeps flying and before I can even move, hits Meryl in the small of her back.
My eyes pop open as she falls and screams. I kneel beside her and examine her still form. The rock tore a hole in her shirt, but it didn't pierce the skin. That's good – no risk of infection. I gently (but quickly) probe her spine and, feeling no broken bones, check for a pulse. She's alive, but unconscious.
"VASH!" Knives screams. "Come on!"
I scoop Meryl up and keep running. Without warning, a giant scarlet tentacle flops up out of the pit and grabs Knives by the wrist. He screams as I hear crunching and I unload the last of my bullets into the appendage, which shrieks and retracts. I run to my brother, who is cradling his wounded wrist and whimpering. I look closer and see that he has a right to be acting like a whipped puppy: his wrist is mangled almost beyond recognition; the flesh is nearly torn off completely in three separate places, and I can see the crushed bones and torn ligaments dangling and shining in the fog. He rips a piece of my sleeve off, wraps it around the gaping wound, and then takes off again. Gotta say I'm impressed; despite his homicidal outlook on life, he's usually a huge wuss when it comes to pain.
I close my eyes again and see that we're out of the corkscrew. No time to celebrate, though – still gotta find the hole we came in. I sense our trail leading to one in the center of the wall. I turn around and sense Big Daddy Cthonian pulling its ugly bulk out of the pit behind us, so I whip my gun around and pull the trigger.
Click-click-click-click-click-click. Shit!
Okey-doke, time to run like a sonofabitch.
I get about halfway to the tunnel when I sense what Knives is doing, and I stop dead in my tracks. I spin around and open my eyes, praying he's not doing what I think he is.
Oh dear God he is.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?"
"What does it look like?"
"But –"
"We're out of bullets! This is the only option left!"
"We can still run!"
"It'll only follow us!"
"You don't know if that'll stop it!"
"But it might!"
"You'll kill us all!"
"No, I won't"
"Goddamit Knives, don't do this! STOP!"
Too late. His arm is already powered up and he lets loose a blast just as the big worm crawls entirely out of the pit.
Direct hit. SKRA–THOOOOOOOOOOOM!
My eyes are immediately seared, but I see the master cthonian sent flying back into from whence it came. I breathe a sigh of relief, but suck it right back in when I see the roof of the cavern crumbling apart and about to fall.
Well, back to the running.
Knives catches up with me as we enter the tunnel and the entrance to the cavern caves in behind us. We veer left, the cavern walls shudder and I realize the whole things comin' down.
We put on an extra burst of speed and Meryl screams in pain in my arms. When did she regain consciousness?
We reach the end of the tunnel and Knives clambers over the top, I hand him Meryl and he takes her and sets her down in a chair as I jump up and something comes together in my mind: I remember the blue color. The cthonian's eyes, the color of the fog, the light from the cocoons; all the same hue. And now I know why I recognized it: it's the exact same color as the energy from our angel arms.
There's no way in hell that's a coincidence.
The tunnel caves in as I crawl out of the hole, and about half of the kitchen wall falls over.
THWOCK!
"What was that?" Meryl asks.
"That," I reply, "would be the sound of a concrete splinter flying through the air and embedding itself in my eye."
Knives spins around and stares in horror and disgust.
"I'm going to crumple to the floor and scream like a wounded kitten now."
And I do.
1:35 PM
Meryl's POV
So here we are: Vash pacing around nervously munching on donuts, Knives sitting at the table sullenly nursing his hand (and a scotch), and me lying on the couch with my back screaming in excruciating agony.
Finally I break the silence. "So, what now?" Knives tosses back the last of his drink, then pours himself another. "Not a damn thing."
…
To say that's not the answer I want to hear would be an understatement of biblical proportions. I try to sit up in order to protest, but a white-hot blast of pure, unadulterated PAIN makes me think otherwise. I stick my tongue between my molars and bite down as hard as humanly possible just to keep from screaming, and I feel the flesh part and a trickle of blood seeps into my mouth, but I keep my poker face: I am NOT going to give Knives the satisfaction of seeing me in pain.
"I'm afraid he's right, Meryl."
"What?!"
Vash sits down next to his brother and sighs.
"This thing…it's too big. We have no idea what we're up against, and even if we did…we're in no shape to fight it. We don't have enough firepower, we don't have enough mobility, and in the shape we're in right now…" he lets the sentence trail off.
"So that's it? We're just going to leave Milly at the mercy of those…those things?"
"Meryl, we don't even know that Milly's in there –"
"She is!"
"I don't thin-"
"She's in there and YOU KNOW IT!"
"We have no proof-"
"BULLSHIT!"
"Meryl, please let me finish a sentence before you yell at me."
"Fine!"
"Where Milly is, I have no clue. Now, her kidnapping, the incident here this morning, and what we saw in that pit are all connected, I have no doubt of that. But there is no concrete proof that she is being held there."
"But what do you believe, Vash?"
He doesn't respond, but the look on his face is answer enough. I lean my head back against the pillow and use every ounce of willpower I have to keep from crying.
"YOU FOOLS!!!"
We spin around to see someone blast into the room, screaming in rage.
It's Mike.
"Stupid, stupid, STUPID FOOLS!!!Do you realize what you've DONE?!" He wheels around and grabs Knives by the collar. "WHAT YOU'VE UNLEASHED?!" He throws him back into his chair and spins around. "All my WORK for all these CENTURIES…GONE!!" He slams his fist into the table and screams.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Vash pipes up, "what's gone? What's unleashed? What have we d-"
"SHUT UP!!! Just SHUT UP, you IMBECILE!" He sighs explosively and hangs his head. "I was obviously wrong in turning to you. You've ruined everything…can't stop what has begun…"
"Now, wait a minute, Mike," I chime in. "You told us to go down into the pit."
"But did I tell you to use your fucking angel arm?! HMM?!!! DID I?!" He looks up again and pure, unbridled fury burns in his eyes. He throws his hand up in the air and snorts derisively, then turns around and heads for the door. "Worthless bastards," he grumbles.
In a split-second Vash rushes past me and jams his hand into the small of Mike's back, and the man in black screams and crumples to the ground.
Silence hangs leaden in the air.
"Vash," I whisper, "what did you do to him?"
Without turning around, Vash lifts his fake arm, and I see a bolt of electricity dancing between his thumb and forefinger. "Built-in Taser," he murmurs. Mike groans and tries to move.
"Aw, did you fall down, Mikey? Here, let me help you up!" In another lightning-quick second Vash picks him up by the collar, slams him into the wall, and presses his arm-gun against his throat. Finally I see his face, and I almost shrink back.
This is not my husband. This is not the man I love. This is a demon; this is fury personified.
"Now, you listen to me, Mike," he growls. "I don't care who you are, or where you came from, but let me tell you something: I have NOT had a good day. My wife was nearly paralyzed, my brother might never be able to use his hand again and my best friend is missing, maybe even dead. And to top it all off, there's an army of slimy, tentacled things somewhere out there, and I don't think they want to sell us copies of The Watchtower. Now I think you owe us an explanation, and I don't care if you have to pull it out of your ass, but you're going to tell us what the FUCK is going on, OR SO HELP ME I'LL-"
"You'll what, Vash?" Knives shouts, enraged. "Kill him?"
Vash stops.
"After everything you've been taught?"
Silence.
"After all you told me?"
Vash stands there for a minute, visibly calmed, then turns around and glances at his livid brother.
"Did I ever say I was gonna kill him?"
His gun leaves Mike's throat, then jams into the one-armed man's groin. "No, I'll do worse. I'll take your best friend, and I won't give a tin shit."
Again, silence fills the room. Mike seems to be considering it. Despite the blatant obscenity of what's going on, it makes me wonder: what secrets are he guarding that would be worth losing his manhood?
"All right. All right, I'll tell you. But please put me down first."
Vash does, and the black-clad man walks over to a chair and sits down, then sighs, deep in thought. Finally, he shakes his head, and looks up at all of us.
"What I'm about to tell you will most likely be very disturbing to you. In fact, you may even be tempted to call me a liar. But I assure you, everything I will say is true."
Vash sits down next to me and the one-armed man begins his story.