Chapter Eighteen: The Queen of Leeches
As soon as Billy closed the door, Rebecca grabbed the railing in front of her. At that moment, every bruise she had gained that night began to throb. Her limbs felt stiff and weak. She glanced up to see the lift—large enough to fit a small car onto—was before her just beyond the railing. It sat on a track that ascended on up a slanted corridor, the end of which Rebecca couldn't see.
It's almost over, she kept telling herself.
She glanced at the rest of the room, hoping to find somewhere to sit. Unfortunately, she had no luck. The L-shaped bit of floor not consumed by the lift only held a few rusted, metal shelves and a cabinet in the corner. Cables and power boxes lined the grease-stained lighting. The dim lighting only added to the grimy effect of the room.
Billy grabbed the railing beside her and gawked up the dark shaft.
"You know…for a minute…" Rebecca said. No matter how much she breathed, she couldn't get her breath. "I thought you were turning on me…"
"Oh, yeah," Billy said, scratching his head. "Sorry about that. It wasn't that…it was him…" Billy's face hardened—the same way Rebecca saw it earlier when it seemed as though he were pulling his weapon on her. His grip tightened on the railing. "It was all a game to him. He trying to use me…for his amusement…I'm just tired of being a pawn." He looked back up and smirked. "Guess I should have given you warning about the leech thing."
Rebecca laughed, but more out of relief than anything.
"THE SELF-DESTRUCT SYSTEM HAS BEEN ACTIVATED," a monotone, female voice said. A low siren filled the room, and flashing red lights filled the darkened lift passage.
"You gotta be kidding me," Billy said with a sigh. Rebecca ran onto the lift with Billy close behind. She didn't even really register what the female voice was saying. Instinct took over, and all that she knew was that they needed to get out of there.
She pulled the lever on the lift's control panel. The floor shuttered, and the sound of hidden mechanics mingled with the sirens. Rebecca's knees buckled when the lift jolted and then ascended. Billy paced the length of the lift behind her. Part of Rebecca wanted to relax, but the female voice repeating to get out immediately kept her body tense. She kept glancing up the shaft. There seemed to be no end to it.
The chamber shook, and a sound like dynamite going off came from below. Rebecca and Billy darted to the railing, peering down. We're too late, Rebecca thought, hearing her pulse in her ears. Dust obstructed the blast zone. When the debris settled, what Rebecca saw brought her to her knees.
A mass the size of a minivan pulled itself the hole it made within the lift shaft. Its glistening limbs reached out, clawing at the rubble in the crimson lighting. It lifted what must have been its head, for there was no true indication where it began and where it ended and gave a shriek that rocked the shaft. Then, with far more speed that should have been capable of something its size, the creature barreled after them.
"It's the queen," Billy said in disbelief. He ran back to the control panel, pushing up on a lever that refused to move anymore. His eyes darted over the face of the console like a madman's, and he started pushing every button. "Come on! Can't this thing move any faster?"
Rebecca glanced back up. She wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but she could have sworn that she saw an end to the shaft. Before Rebecca could comment on this revelation, the leech queen rammed into the underside of the lift. It broke from its track, making a fruitless grinding against the sides of the tunnel. With another shove, the entire thing broke from its connections and tossing Billy and Rebecca up.
Everything became a blur. Rebecca's body felt weightless until the breath was knocked out of her when she hit cold concrete. She tucked into a ball as she rolled for several feet, until hitting a large wooden crate. Rebecca's vision shook, and her body ached. She stretched her limbs experimentally. Nothing seemed broken.
She glanced around, to find Billy a few feet away. He too looked dazed but staggered up. They stood in what looked like a large warehouse. Crates and broken machinery lay scattered across the room, cast in shadow by the hanging lamps above. A large encircled 'H' was painted over the middle of the room.
Rebecca drew her weapon and aimed it toward the lift's shaft, though she felt stupid. Her handgun against that thing was like going up against a bear with a BB-gun. Billy limped over to his grenade launcher, which escaped his grasp in the fall, and pointed it in the same direction. With the momentous sound of metal against concrete and metal, the lift was ripped up and out. The leech queen burst from the passage like a child emerging from a birth canal. Its oozing body climbed upon landing, reaching out with its thick limps.
Gunfire filled the room. It echoed off the metal walls and the concrete flooring. Flashes laced with the smell of gunfire lit the darkness in moments of blinding luminescence. The creature's cries mingled within the chaos, though it's body couldn't be seen through the thick layer of smoke and chipped flooring.
Rebecca kept firing, not caring if she couldn't see the leech queen or if the creature was even already dead. Only the click of her empty gun caused to stop. Dust drifted down, creating a veil over have the room. The ring of the firefight still hung in the ear. No sign of movement came from the other side of the wall of smoke. Rebecca and Billy to a tentative forward. She kept her Beretta trained, even though she knew that it no longer would help.
The creature leaped forward. Rebecca and Billy leaped aside just in time. Though, no more did it land, than it gave a monstrous screech and trudge back. Its green flesh sizzled and cracked as it retreated into darkness. A single strand of light shined from a crack in the roof, though it disappeared as clouds outside covered the sun once more.
Rebecca came to a sudden realization—light came from just a crack, but the roof its self was actually a covering that could slide apart. She soon found two safety cranks on the back wall, a few feet away from each other. Rebecca pointed out the roof and the cranks to Billy, and he nodded. The queen seemed to have gained its footing once more. It staggered forward, green skin still hissing. The creature's whole form bristled, as though hundreds of the leeches which composed it gathered to repair the damaged areas.
"You work on the roof," Billy said, throwing the empty Grenade Launcher aside and drawing the pistol from his belt. "I'll use my charm to distract her majesty." Rebecca ran toward the first crank, legs resisting with each step. Billy called out at the queen (what exactly, Rebecca didn't acknowledge), and the sound of its sluggish form moving after him. Rebecca clung onto the lever and turned. It gave some resistance at first, but with a few good tugs, it relented.
Pistol fire echoed like a tiny explosion in the room, but it was nothing compared to the screams of pain and frustration coming from the creature. Rebecca dare not look back while she worked. She wouldn't be able to function if she saw Billy—she just had to trust him.
The first lever came to a halt, the light on its console changed from red to green.
Rebecca smiled but faltered when she heard Billy cry out.
Don't look back, she told herself. Gunfire resumed, and she used that to convince herself that it meant Billy was okay. Rebecca lumbered to the other lever. She grabbed it, and once again, began the process of unlocking it. Her muscles screamed while she fought with the rusted crank. As soon as she finished, mechanics above hummed in a distant drum. Then, came the one thing Rebecca wanted to see most that night—sunlight. The ceiling parted, and it fell over them, and its warmth raised the hairs on Rebecca's skin.
The Leech Queen's roasting flesh smoked. She wreathed in pain as bits of her shriveled and fell off, swinging her limbs to and fro. A limb the side of a small log slammed into Billy's midsection. He fell back and tumbled into a set of crates. He seemed to be reaching for something between the wall and crates, though Rebecca could only comprehend Bully's predicament for a moment. The creature lumbered off to the corner, where the light couldn't reach it.
A corner right next to Rebecca.
A maw of hundreds of pointed teeth filled her vision. Either way, she ran, the monster would surely be upon her in a minute. She was trapped—
"Rebecca!"
Rebecca turned toward Billy just in time to see a piece of silver spinning in the air toward her. She reached out, more from instinct, and caught what turned out to be a revolver. The weapon was heavy as she lined the barrel up with the Queen's open mouth. The creature raised itself, ready for a leap.
"Feast on this, Queenie!"
With that, Rebecca fired. The gun kicked back, and the bullet ripped through the creature. The queen staggered back, a hole the size of a basketball in its abdomen. It reached out toward Rebecca, but its body lost definition—becoming multiple lumps of flesh. The queen fell back. Its body exploded into a mass of dead leeches, leaving a gasping Marcus laying on the cement with a crater in his chest. He was no longer young, but the old man Rebecca first saw in the portrait. Only now, his features were distorted—his left eye lower than his right, two fingers on his left hand fused together. It was almost like looking at the man through a funhouse mirror-remnants of his fusion.
Fire erupted from the lift passage in a plume. The hanger shook, and it took every ounce of Rebecca's willpower to stay upright. Plaster and debris fell from the ceiling. Billy ran over from the other end, gesturing toward the exit—a metal door tucked in a shadowy corner. He tried to say something, but with the sounds of the explosions below, it was hard to make out. Rebecca sprinted toward the door. She almost tripped as she passed Marcus's corpse, only to find out that something grabbed her ankle.
Marcus clung on with a weak grip. Rebecca could have easily ripped away, but he gazed up at her, pleading her to listen. He spoke in a voice so silent that Rebecca had to lean in to hear.
"I…was a fool…" he said, blood ebbing from his pale lips. "Don't be….their puppet….there is…a traitor…amongst you…"
"Come on, Rebecca!" Billy said, grabbing her arm and hauling her toward the exit. She glanced back one last time, to watch a piece of scaffolding came down and crushed what was left of the old man.
The explosion that came next rattled Arklay Forest. The training facility burst in an inferno of wood, steel, and fire. Though the hanger didn't meet as much of a spectacular end, the tremors and fire from the detonation below caused the structure to collapse in on itself. In fact, Billy and Rebecca made it out just as rubble caved-in the threshold behind them.
Still, they ran. Whether it was because they wanted to avoid the fallout of the structure or toward the warm sun, they weren't sure.
No more than a yard or more, they broke free from the forest, up a steep incline, to an open space of a cliff's edge. Rebecca collapsed on the grass, still slick with morning dew. She could hear the earth shake from the destruction below, and closed her eyes—listening to it. After several minutes, it stopped. Still, Rebecca didn't want to rise. With the cool grass beneath her and the warm day around her, she could fall asleep.
"Well if you look-e there," Billy said. Rebecca looked up, her eyelids heavy, and found him sitting on the edge of the cliff, looking down. "Guess there were two mansions out here after all."
Rebecca forced her sore limbs to lift her up, and she walked over to him. Below, hidden amongst the trees, was a mansion that sprawled out for acres. She plopped down beside Billy. Though, when she looked at his wrists, she noticed that his handcuff was gone.
"Yeah," Billy said, following her gaze. "Must have broken back there, when I fell or something. Not like it matters much anyway, am I right? Just going to be wearing another pair soon."
He wouldn't look at Rebecca and kept his focus down. His face was heavy—tired and warn. Rebecca reached over and ripped the nametags from Billy's neck. Billy looked up, eyes narrowed. Rebecca took the beaded chain and connected the clasps around her own neck.
"Officially," she said. "Lieutenant Billy Coen is dead."
Billy watched her, uncertain for a moment before his face broke into a smile.
"Yeah," Billy replied, chuckling. "Guess I'm just a zombie now."
Rebecca stood. Her legs ached, but she forced herself to remain upright.
It still wasn't over. Her teammates were still down there…in that mansion.
"He would be proud, you know," Billy said. "Your dad."
Rebecca gave a small smile and nodded.
"Well, I guess it's time to say goodbye," she said. Billy nodded, standing as well.
"See you around," he said. Rebecca turned, willing herself not to look at Billy. God knows she would like to see him safely out…but, as she told herself before—there was still work to be done. Billy was fully capable.
"Officer Chambers!"
She glanced back. Billy clicked his heels together and brought his hand up in a salute. Rebecca grinned as she brought her hand up and did the same. The two stood there for several seconds, nothing interrupting them but the wind rustling through the trees. Finally, she lowered her hand and continued her journey to the mansion below. The whole time, she could feel Billy watch her go.