.
CHAPTER 04
.
.
I bolted from the van and headed straight for Mikey's room, Don right at my heels. April was there, by his bed. Her face lit up when she saw us, and especially when she caught sight of Don.
"Donnie!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're safe."
They hugged, and then she started going over Mike's condition with him. I listened as they went back and forth but my attention was on Mike. It had been eight hours or so since I last saw him and I couldn't believe how drastic the change was. His color was bad, his eyes sunken in their sockets. I reached out and pulled back one eyelid gently. Right away I could feel how hot he was to the touch. It didn't make sense to me. He was talking when I left. I thought he would be alright.
I did feel better that our house medic was taking the reins though. We'd all had first-aid training but Don had an extensive knowledge of, well, just about everything. The saying around the lair was that if it was broke, Donnie could fix it. April and I assisted where we could, boiling water, sterilizing instruments, retrieving medicines, et cetera. I made a run out to the nearest pharmacy to liberate some sort of antibiotic Don wanted. The name of it was so long he had to write it down and it took me a while to pick through the various bottles in the dark, but eventually I found what we needed.
It took nearly two hours to extract the offending slug. When I heard it tink onto the metal tray, I breathed a small sigh of relief. Mike never woke once during; probably for the best since I couldn't imagine it being very pleasant without any sort of anesthetic. He shifted and moved a lot though, much to Don's annoyance, and so it became my job to try and hold him still. When he was done, Don stood, wiping his hands. He stared at Mike for a few seconds without a word, before he left to clean up.
I knew Donnie was still feeling responsible. I heard him in the kitchen hours later, after April and Casey were both asleep. Mike was still out and I had taken watch, but I decided I could leave him for a few minutes.
I walked in, pulled out the chair opposite Donatello and sat down. I leveled with him. "Is he going to be alright?"
Don slumped over the table, staring into the grooves of the wood. "I don't know," he told me truthfully. "I did everything I could. It was pretty bad in there. I could smell the infection as soon as I took the bandage off." He shook his head. "This is all my fault. You were right Leo… as selfish as it sounds, I'd let the invasion take over the world, before I'd let this happen again."
"Mike wouldn't have a chance unless you were here now," I reminded him. The words of Master Splinter echoed in my head. I often made the mistake of underestimating the capabilities of my brothers, and so I repeated Sensei's lesson to him. "Mikey's spirit is strong, don't forget that. It's up to him, now."
"Well, that a boatload of antibiotics." He dropped his look to the table again. "Thanks, Leo."
I stood to leave. Before I did, I laid a heavy hand down on Don's shoulder. Neither of us spoke. He reached up and gave my hand a quick squeeze, in silent thanks. I walked out after that, catching the sound of his fingers tapping on the keys of April's laptop.
I took the stairs back to Mike's room, where I knew a fitful sleep awaited me. As I lay on the cot, listening to his shallow breaths, I reflected. It was times like this I was reminded of my many roles as leader. Protecting my brothers doesn't always mean standing up for them in battle. It is also my job to make sure morale remains high, and to see that they do not lose hope. I might not have been happy about Don's decision to throw himself into the hands of a known enemy, but I didn't want him to beat himself up about Mike. He was especially protective over Mikey (I suppose we all were, in a way… comes with the territory of being the youngest) and I know he never would have put Mike in danger on purpose. What was done was done, and there was no purpose to him feeling guilty about it. Besides, I'd meant what I'd said. If Mikey pulled though, it would only be thanks to Don's nimble fingers.
The next day brought a small bit of hope. A message came in from Hun at last, though it wasn't exactly the answer I was waiting for. He said he'd located the guys responsible for pulling the job, but they weren't talking yet. He assured me that they would. I felt my spine crawl a little at the implications of that, but it wasn't any of my concern. All I cared about was getting Raph back. It did mean that we'd probably have news of him soon, though. I was eager to get back to the city, but we couldn't leave Mike. I considered going alone and leaving Don at the farmhouse (he was better suited to care for him), but I couldn't bring myself to leave my little brother. I decided to wait one more day. I called Splinter and filled him in and then I went out for a few hours, to walk the woods and be alone with my thoughts. I knew whatever was coming was going to be a trial, and I needed a clear head.
.
.
"Hey. You're not as pretty as my last nurse."
It was late in the morning on the second day, when Mike finally came to. "Mikey!" I gasped. "You're awake!" I kneeled by his bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Um." He looked around groggily. "Everything hurts. A lot." He blinked a few times. "How long have I been out?"
"A few days," I told him. "Just take it easy, you're going to be fine. You took a bullet to the leg, it got a little nasty." I couldn't contain my relief. I leaned over and hugged him. "We were really worried about you, little brother."
We separated and he grinned wide, looking much more like his old self. "Aw shucks. I'm getting all emotional here." He pulled the covers back slowly, taking a look at his thigh. "Bullet, huh? Feels like I took a cannonball." He started picking at the bandage to get a better look.
"I wouldn't mess with that. Don's not going to be happy if it gets infected again."
Mikey snapped to attention immediately, giving me the puppy-dog eyes. "Donnie! He's here? Is he okay?"
"He's fine, really," I reassured him. I stood up and went to the door. "Donnie!" I shouted down the stairs. "Get up here, Mikey's awake!"
Don bounded up the creaky wooden steps a second later. I didn't think I'd ever seen Don so happy in my life. "Mikey!"
"Oh my god, Donnie." Mike reached out and Don came over to hug him. Mike pulled him so tight it almost knocked him off his feet. "Dude I thought you were a goner." He sniffed hard. "I seriously thought I would never see you again, man."
Don grimaced, looking over at me. I hit him back with my best 'told you so' expression. Regardless, it was a happy reunion and it felt good, watching the two of them. It lifted a small cloud off of us it seemed, and I felt just a little bit better about the road ahead. He eased out of Mike's grip. "Yeah, uh… there's a lot we need to fill you in on. Unfortunately there's not much time to catch up. Leo and I have to head back to the city ASAP."
"You goin' to get Raph?"
He shifted his eyes at me. Something was off about it. What was he hiding now? "Yeesss… yes. Eventually. We don't know where he's at yet." He patted Mike on the shoulder. "But we'll find him, don't worry."
Mike let out a huge yawn. "That's cool. I'd join you but then I'd miss out on all this pampering. You think April will gimme a sponge bath if I ask?"
"I wouldn't push your luck," I said. Mike's eyes started to droop but he looked good; worlds better than even twenty-four hours ago. Don said the blood loss would make him fatigued for a while. I went downstairs to let the two of them catch up. I saw April and told her the good news. She was ecstatic of course, and left to take him something to eat.
I stood on the front porch, looking over the long, winding driveway and thinking. There was a light breeze and I could hear the rustle of it through the many trees around us. The effect was calming, but my thoughts were troubled.
Don joined me a few minutes later. "His fever's broken, the meds are doing their work," he let out a happy sigh. "I think the worst of it's over." He paused there, starting at his feet.
"Something on your mind?" I asked. I knew that there was. I also knew that I wasn't going to like whatever it he was about to say.
He looked me straight in the eye. "I think we should go and take out the hive."
"What, now?" It was crazy. I looked at him like he was crazy.
He nodded. "The kill switch code we took? It always had a time limit on its usefulness." He tried to explain. "Standard protocol procedures in any high-security situation dictate that once compromised, the network be scrubbed. Any offending logins are red-flagged by automated bot, then scrutinized by live admin and back-checked against their own archive."
"Donnie, English."
"I mean," he said, "they're eventually going to find out that someone stole the code. When they do, they'll reprogram it, and what we have will do no more good than jamming a fork in the port." He paused, staring off into the countryside. "It might already be too late," he muttered.
"And you didn't think to fill me in on this until now?"
He gave me a guilty look. "I didn't really have the opportunity…?" He knew it was a weak defense. "Okay, okay. I knew you weren't going to be happy about it. But listen. Mikey's going to be okay, I think. April knows how to change his dressings and as long as he keeps taking the antibiotics he should be fine. He's in good hands."
I couldn't be hearing him right. "Let me get this straight," I said. "You're suggesting that we not only put hundreds of miles between us and Mikey – who is definitely not in the clear, Don – but that we also abandon our search for Raphael just so we can go back to fighting this pointless, stupid war." I ran a hand over the top of my head with a sigh. "I mean, you're talking about breaching the Hot Spot, right? The four of us together couldn't even get close, how do you think we're going to get in there with half the team missing?"
He put a hand to his chin, thinking. "Well… the hive is underground, but the building that leads to it is like any other. I say we go in through the top and work our way down. The upper floors should be free of bugs… I think."
This was getting better by the second. "Well that's just great. You want the two of us to go into bug central, to input a code that might not even work, on the shaky premise that you don't think we'll run into eighty-thousand of the creepy-crawlies on the way in there. Solid plan, Don."
He frowned at me. "Hey, I'm open to suggestions. But the bottom line is, we have to try the code before it's too late. There's too much at stake not to!"
I shook my head. When Don wanted to get this code, I was under the assumption that we'd try and hit the hive once we were a full team again. This was ridiculous. Mikey wasn't even fully conscious yet, and Raph… Raph could be in serious trouble. Every minute we wasted doing anything else was only putting him in more danger. It felt like we were gambling with his life.
"Maybe… maybe I could go." There it was. I knew this was coming and it must have shown, because he started in with his explanation, almost as if he had the whole speech planned. "You can go back and focus on Raph, I'll take down the hives. Look, all I have to do is get inside, find the right terminal and initiate the sequence. Once it's started it can't be stopped. The chambers will fill with gas and that's it, it's over! Leo, it'll be a cinch."
"Oh is that all," I said, rolling my eyes at him. "And you don't think a multi-tiered, top secret operation like this won't be heavily guarded? The place is probably crawling with G-men." Not to mention crawling with all sorts of other things.
He stood a little straighter. "I think I proved that I have what it takes to successfully infiltrate government property on my own. I was doing pretty well on my solo mission before you showed, thank you very much."
Solo mission? What, was he taking notes from Raph now? "Just because you're all tanked up on the adrenaline of poking around inside one lab doesn't mean you're ready to go cracking into every facility on your own. This is incredibly reckless, Don. I can't even believe you're suggesting such a thing! Again!" I paced a few steps. "What about Raph, huh? You're just going to turn your back on him?"
He looked hurt at that and I immediately felt bad for suggesting it. "Of course not. But if we don't act on this, it won't make any difference." He sighed, picking absently at a peeling paint chip on the porch railing. "I've been going through the notes I gathered. The numbers they have aren't adding up with what we know is really going on out there. I found documents forged, masking the numbers of the population explosion. Someone at the hive facility is trying to cover it up – why, I don't know, but the results could be catastrophic. By my own projections? They'll be across state lines in as little as a month." His voice was raising in pitch. "Leo, you've seen what these creatures have done to the city, imagine what will happen when they spread? If new nests begin to form? If their numbers become too great, we'll never be able to stop them – and it's already happening! The blockades are starting to fail… parasites are infecting more people… it's snowballing, and this right here," he said, holding up the wrist with the data drive, "is the only means to stop it!"
I couldn't hear this. I couldn't let him convince me. "No. No, this is a human problem, we let the humans handle it. Family comes first." It came out sounding harsh, but I didn't care. I wasn't about to abandon Raph to go fight the bugs some more. It just didn't make sense… did it? I concentrated my breathing, trying to find my center. Was Don right? What was the right course of action here?
"Human problems are our problems, Leo." He wasn't going to let up. Donatello was definitely stubborn when it came to something he was sure of, and this was no exception. A little more quietly, he added, "Maybe you forget that we have human friends, also."
"I didn't forget. And I consider them family." I tried one last time. "They're safe right now. But Raph – he's out there, in the hands of our enemies. Do you have any idea what they might be doing to him?"
"Yeah, I do." Don's tired expression mirrored my own. I didn't need to say these things out loud. Of course he'd been picturing the same terrible scenarios that had been running through my own head. "Don't think for a second that I would be suggesting this if it wasn't of the utmost importance," he said. "Considering what's at stake, I also know Raph would never want us to make this kind of sacrifice for him." He begged me. "Look. One evening, you and me. We'll get in, get out, and go right back to looking for him, I swear."
Get in, get out. It sounded simple. I wasn't worried so much about losing a few hours, I was more concerned that the two of us would run into trouble. With one brother bedridden and another missing, we two were all that was left, and now I was going to throw us right into another fire. This was a poor plan at best. I gave Don a long look, trying to weigh it in. He did seem sure. Master Splinter once told me that I sometimes don't put enough faith in my brothers' opinions. A good general leads his men; a great general allows his men to lead him. I didn't always side with Donnie, but I did trust in his judgment the most.
"Alright," I said. "We get in, we get out."
"Then we find Raph."
I nodded and repeated it back, as if it were an oath. "Then we find Raph."
.
.
We prepared as much as we could. Don armed himself with one of several spare bos he kept at the farmhouse. Convenient, but since his and Mikey's weapons were easy to manufacture by hand, Sensei had taken them there years ago to teach them exactly how to do that. Other supplies were limited. Don wanted to go to the lair to gear up first, but I wouldn't hear it. I was already set against this entire mission; the last thing I was going to do was waste more time. Besides, I still had various grenades and tactical equipment left over from what I'd brought with me. I thought it would be enough. It was a decision I would come to regret.
We waited until nightfall was approaching and then Casey once again chauffeured us as far as he was able. Even so, he couldn't get the van very close to the northern blockade and that meant we had a lot of ground to cover on foot. We hit the tunnels right away, again in full stealth mode, bypassing the firefight around the border. Every so often a blast would rumble the streets above, raining dirt and pebbles down on us. We circled around the eastern side and started easing west towards our destination. Our encounters with the bugs below were few overall, but when a run-in with a group of large, horned beetles almost took one of my hands off, I decided it was too dangerous to continue.
We headed topside just south of the Bronx zoo, a couple of miles from the Hot Spot, or what was now the hive. As soon as I emerged from the manhole, I froze in total shock. The amount of bugs up here was mind-blowing. The area was absolutely infested with them; they scurried along the streets, they filled the air. Homes were decimated, bugs spilling out of the broken windows and doors. The noise of them was everywhere, a constant hum of wings and skittering of feet. The whole scene was unreal. I felt like I'd stepped into one of the apocalyptic horror movies Mikey was so fond of.
I heard Don draw in breath beside me. It was too dangerous to stay in one place too long. "Let's move," I said to him.
This area, like most of the outer boroughs, was more residential and the buildings spaced in a way that didn't allow for us to leap between the rooftops. Not that it would have been much safer. Still, there was no choice but to stay street level. We again picked our way through the shadows, trying to stay as invisible as possible. I took the lead, creeping through the terrain, sticking and moving as wave after wave of them poured from every crack and corner. I became paranoid at every opening, every hole, expecting them to ambush us at any second. It was grinding my nerves to powder. If we survived this, Raphael wasn't going to be the only one with a hatred for insects.
Finally, Don put a hand to my shoulder. When I turned, he nodded at a large, square structure across the street. The building was four stories, white and weather stained. Bars covered every window. It looked old and had an institutional feel to it, much like a school. Or a prison. It was a good front, I had to admit. If I didn't trust Don, I never would have believed that there was really a secret facility hidden beneath the place. I held up one hand, signaling him to hold position. I watched the sky, waiting for the clouds to pass back over the moon. When they did, we hurried across the street and hugged the opposite side. We tried the closest door but found it locked; no big surprise there. While we debated the best entry point, I heard the familiar sound of hundreds of feet coming towards us. Centipedes, dozens of them, and as large around as a basketball, spilled up from a street-side grate and descended on us.
"Up here!" I shouted, leaping from one exposed air conditioner to the next, until I made it to the top. The roof was mostly bare except for a few vents, leaving us completely exposed. I turned to offer a hand to Don. "Careful, they're in the skies up here!" We ducked down as several monstrous yellow and black wasps buzzed by overhead. They didn't seem to notice us, but the flies did. I sidestepped just as one of them, a huge, triangular-shaped beast, tried to bite my head off. I turned and sliced one of its wings, dropping it to the roof where it flailed and buzzed angrily.
This was crazy. I couldn't believe I let Don talk me into this. "Donnie, watch out!"
I leaped and swiped both swords together in unison, cleaving another one of them in two just above his head. Fly guts showered onto him with a wet splat.
"Ugh!" He swiped a chunk off the top of his head. "Thanks. I think."
We took down several more, until the asphalt was littered with squirming, buzzing bodies. When there was a break in the assault, I turned to Don. "We need to get inside," I said, between breaths. We both peered over the edge. The ground below was moving. No going back that way. "Window?" I asked.
We searched around the perimeter until I found one with rusted bars. "Alright, lower me down," Don said. I grabbed him by the ankles and eased him over the edge. I heard him struggling with the bars, leveraging his staff against the metal. I tried to keep watch, nervously looking over my shoulder, expecting to be attacked at any second. He shifted suddenly and I heard a pop as the bolts on the bars gave way. A second later I heard the sound of glass breaking, and then more smashing as he swiped his staff around, eliminating the jagged pieces from every edge. "All clear!" he shouted.
I hoisted him back up with a grunt. "Did you get a look inside?" I asked.
"Not a good one. There's movement in there, but not a lot. The whole floor is wrecked," he said. "I'm guessing the rest of the building will be the same, until we get underground."
I nodded. We entered and crouched, blinking, letting our eyes adjust to the added darkness. I did sense movement right away, but it only turned out only to be several oversized cockroaches. We made quick work of them and headed for the hallway. Don pulled out the small flashlight he'd lifted from Bishop's lab and began reading signs on the wall. "Over here!" he said, and I followed him to the stairwell. When we reached the bottom floor, we began searching for the entrance to the underground facility. At first, we didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Much like the top floor, this one was a disaster. Desks, chairs, books and other debris littered the place. We started tossing aside furniture, searching for anything out of the ordinary.
He called me over a few minutes later, shining the light onto the floor near a bookcase. There were marks, scratches from where it had been moved away from the wall. We pulled the case outwards and sure enough – there was a door hidden behind. He pulled a lock pick from the lining of his belt and set to work. A minute later there was a click and we were in. I moved to take the lead again.
"Leo, wait."
I turned. He looked unusually anxious. "What's the matter?" I asked.
"I've been thinking about something ever since we came in here. There have to be people here, keeping the operation on task. Since I don't see how anyone could be coming and going, then I assume anyone involved must be living on site for the duration."
"So?"
"So, if the plug should have been pulled by now, then what happened to them? Someone has to be here, because according to the files I retrieved, reports were still coming in on schedule."
"What are trying to say, Don?"
He bit his lip. "I… don't know. I'm just not sure what we're going to find down there, is all."
He was scared. He didn't want to admit it, but Donnie was getting cold feet, a little bit. As ninja, we prided ourselves on having nerves of steel, but after witnessing the horrors of the last few months – and especially the last few hours – even the most steadfast of warriors would find themselves wavering. Even me. Not that I would admit it either, though.
"Donnie, listen," I said. "You were right. I thought I had seen the worst of it, but this…" I looked off towards the windows, shaking my head. "I've never seen such carnage and destruction first hand. I made an oath to this clan, but we all made an oath to protect the city. I forgot that, but you didn't." It was true. Another lesson from Sensei, I sometimes put my own goals, namely, to protect my family, ahead of their own individual codes of honor. I had to remember that we were a team, and even with members missing, we fought as one. "This is our home. No matter what we find down there," I told him, "remember – nothing will keep us from our objective. The lives of everyone here depend on it."
That seemed to do it. He stood straighter and gave me a firm nod. I clapped him on the arm. With a half-smile, I said, "Now come on. Let's go save the world."
.
.
Save the world. That one was Mikey's; one of his favorite exaggerated sayings, that is. Every time we battled something big, whether it was going up against an army of Foot or taking on a citywide riot, he'd jump at the chance to compare us to comic book heroes. If Don was right about the bugs breeding out of control, then it wasn't really so much of an exaggeration this time. Mike was probably going to be a little jealous that he'd actually missed out on the real thing for once.
We made our way down a long, sterile flight of stairs to a set of double doors at the bottom. I gently pushed one open and looked through the crack, waiting a few moments. When I didn't see or hear anything, I gave Don the signal to move, but to stay close behind me. We entered a long, dim hallway. There were lights on, but it looked like several had burnt out and hadn't been replaced. There were windowed doors at intervals on either side. I looked into the closest one and saw various forms of equipment, not too unlike the rooms I'd seen in the other lab, while looking for Don. There were differences here, however. I saw glass broken on the floor. Beakers overturned. A chair on its side. Checking a few of the other rooms revealed them in a similar state.
I was starting to get a very uneasy feeling. I pulled my swords. "Stay on your toes," I said over my shoulder.
We continued down the hallway at an easy pace. I could detect the soft hum of motors somewhere, but that was all. Nothing I recognized as the movement of people, and the farther we went the more I didn't like it. Something was very wrong here. Closing in on the end of the hall, I noticed something on the floor, reflecting the light above. It looked like a puddle of water.
As Don and I approached, I could see the liquid was coming from underneath a set of doors off to the left hand side. I tried to get a look inside the room, but the glass on the door was clouded, as if something were fogging it up from the inside. When I looked back at Don, he was inspecting the puddle. He stuck one end of his staff into it and raised it, pulling the gunk up with it in long, slimy strings. He gave me a dubious look.
I'd had enough. It was time to find out what was going on in this place.
I swung one of the doors inward, looking inside. It was hard to see. There was light, but not much. I squinted and stepped forward. Right away I was taken by the air in here. It was moist, humid, and smelled bad. A second later Don was stepping in beside me, trying to avoid the stuff on the floor. I blinked a few times, attempting to get my eyes to adjust, looking for a light switch. I heard a dripping sound coming from somewhere, but before I could investigate, I heard something else.
It was coming from Don. He had one hand pressed over his mouth, hyperventilating, his eyes bigger than I'd ever seen. I followed his gaze upwards.
I rarely use such language, but if any situation called for it, it was this one. "Holy shit," I whispered.
There, stuck to the ceiling in a mass of webbing and gunk, were the bodies of a dozen humans or more. As we watched in terror, several of them moved, clawing out weakly towards us.
"Look at them! Look at their clothes! It's the scientists, the people who worked here!" Don grabbed me, shaking me. "We have to get them down!" I hesitated a second, unsure. "Leo," he yelled at me again, "cut them down!"
I leaped, swiping along the side of the nearest one. The webbing tore slowly along the edge and a woman began to slip out. I sheathed my swords quickly and caught her under the arms just as she toppled downwards.
Her head lolled from side to side, and then raised slowly to look at me. Her face and arms were covered in sores, scabbed and oozing with pus. Her eyes were a gelatinous, milky white. "Protect the queeennnsss…" she hissed at me. Suddenly she lunged, snapping her teeth at me like a rabid animal.
I shouted in surprise, tossing her to the ground. She grabbed my ankle and tried to bite me again. I kicked her, sending her skidding backwards through the slime on the floor. Above us, the others were going crazy, writhing and moaning.
"… protect the queensss… the queeennss… protect…"
They continued to chant it over and over. I stared, horrified, backing out of the room. I grabbed Don, who was frozen in place, and pulled him out with me. Out in the hallway, I backed up a few more feet, never taking my eyes from the door. When I had my wits back a little, I shouted, "Donnie what the hell was that?"
"I-Infected," he stuttered. "Has to be. Some kind of parasite, but I've never seen a-anything like it…"
I could still hear them wailing inside. "Let's get the hell out of here," I said, heading for the doors at the end of the hall.
Still shaken, we eased our way into the next hallway. I moved a little faster now, wanting to put as much distance between us and those… things, as I could. Poor souls. Such a terrible fate. There was nothing we could do for them now, though. We rounded a corner and I heard something. I held my hand up, signaling Don to stop and listen.
Voices. They were close.
I quickly opened a nearby door, thoroughly checking the ceiling this time, and ducked inside, motioning Don to follow. We crouched, listening. A minute later, we heard them.
"…queeensss… protect the queens…"
A group, shuffling by, chanting the same mantra. I stared at my brother in disbelief. Don looked a little pale. Suddenly, his face changed, as though he'd thought of something. He reached down and grabbed my ankle, knocking me backwards on my tail.
"Don, what the-"
He was turning my foot over, inspecting it. "You didn't get bit, did you?" he whispered. I shook my head no and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't let them bite you," he added.
Giant, monstrous insects and now zombies? This was insane. I felt like pinching myself to make sure this wasn't some nightmare. I shook it off. I had to stay on point, here. The group was far enough now; I opened the door a crack and made sure it was safe before we continued on. We didn't even make it fifty feet.
"Look out!"
The door to my right burst open. I dodged, kicking one back but the other tackled me to the floor. I dropped my swords in a panic and grabbed onto him, but it was too late. I turned my head, bracing for the bite.
I heard a thunk as the teeth bit down and felt wood against my cheek. A second later Don gave the man a hard kick, knocking him off of me. He extended a hand, helping me up. "I owe you one," I told him.
We heard footsteps running behind us. "This way!" Don shouted, running for the opposite end of the hall.
"Where are they coming from?" I shouted. "How do keep finding us?"
"They're communicating with each other," he said. "They have to be."
I didn't understand. "What, with their minds? How is that even possible?"
"Not with their minds," he explained. "Through other senses – smell, touch, sound. Pheromones and allelochemicals, most likely. You and I wouldn't be able to pick up on it, but they're essentially talking to each other by the release of certain chemicals. Probably sound too, that might be why they keep repeating themselves."
Right. It was an insect thing. I remembered Don telling me something similar months ago, when I was inquiring about the nature of the "aliens" invading the city. It seemed a lifetime ago now.
We burst through another entrance and I turned, just catching a glimpse of them before shutting the doors. I shoved a sword through the handles, locking them in place. There had to have been a hundred bodies or more on the other side, and what's more, some of them looked… wrong, different from the others we'd seen. I hadn't been able to get a good enough look to say exactly what it was though. Like they were carrying things. Maybe weapons?
They hit the doors hard, pounding and yelling from the other side, rattling them, but the sword held. I hated to leave it behind, but I had no other choice.
"Leo, look at this."
He pointed to a sign on the next set of doors.
.
RESTRICTED AREA
UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL PROHIBITED
RED CARD ACCESS REQUIRED
THOSE IN VIOLATION ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE TERMINATION
.
"I think we found the hive," he said.
It looked like there had been a keycard access to the door at one time, but it had been long since destroyed. The unit was ripped from the wall and wires hung down, exposed and still popping with electricity. The doors were slightly ajar.
Don and I gave each other an apprehensive look. He stepped up, sliding his bo through the crack. Slowly he pushed the door open.
"Celestial spheres of Copernicus," he breathed. "Leo, you're not going to believe this."
I stepped through to another world. We stood on a catwalk, high above a massive subterranean stronghold, covered top to bottom with the same webby gunk we'd seen holding up the unfortunate souls in the first room. Below, I could see dozens of huge, geometrically shaped glass domes, each one housing a single, massive insect of all different species. Looking closer, I could see the domes were filled with eggs.
"Unbelievable," Don breathed. "I've never seen anything like this. The years it must have taken to construct such a thing… the genome sequencing alone is light years beyond anything I thought possible-"
"Don! You can admire it later," I said. "Let's get this over with." Before we could get started though, something caught my eye. "Get down!" I hissed, pulling him with me.
People, if you could call them that. There were two of them, dragging a third up the catwalk towards us. I looked around frantically. Grabbing Don, I shoved him in the opposite direction, pulling him behind a series of large tubes nearby. From our vantage point we watched. These did not look like the people we encountered earlier. The two men in charge had the same glassy look, but instead of sores their bodies sprouted grotesque appendages; hairy and clawed at the tips, like the legs of a large insect. It clicked – that's what I'd seen before barricading the door. The insect parts stuck out from them haphazardly, from arms, torso, legs – a clump of sharp bristles sprung from the top of one's head; the other had a bulbous clump of eyes where his single human eye once was. They were utter monstrosities. The man they were dragging however, had none of those characteristics. He looked normal, save for the fact that he was visibly stunned, as if he were drugged or something. I did however, notice a large wound on his neck.
As we watched, they dragged him past us. We flattened against the wall and thankfully went unnoticed. At least, that was what I thought. A few feet past where we were hidden, they stopped. They stood still, as if listening. I held my breath. There was no way they could hear us, we weren't making a sound, unless…
One of them began to sniff the air. They were communicating with the others, just like Don said. I looked at my brother and saw he was thinking the same. Well, there was no sense in waiting for them to find us. We readied our weapons and crept up behind them. Just before we attacked, they got the jump on us. Dropping their cargo to the floor, they turned with inhuman speed, screaming, and lunged for us. I dodged a hairy leg and sliced upwards, cleaving off one human arm and several insect ones. I took its head off in the next blow. Don was having more difficulty. I moved in to assist, cutting limb after limb. His opponent had more arms and it was everything he could to defend against the constant barrage of pointed extremities. I managed to stop one a split second before it buried itself in his neck.
Don snapped his bo outwards for the final blow, driving the end of his weapon through its mess of eyes. Panting, he bent over and retrieved one of the bristled "legs" I'd severed from the disgusting thing, studying it. As he held it up, a stringy ooze dripped from the hooked end. I looked again at the small, circular wound on the third man's neck, the one lying on the ground unconscious. "Guess we're even now," Don said to me, forcing a smile.
I kept my voice low. "What is all this? What the hell happened here?"
Don had his hand to his chin in thought. "I wondered why they were cocooned," he said. "Some kind of gestation period before turning into… that." He nodded at the things on the ground. "I've read all the case studies," he went on. "There have been eight different species of parasite discovered to have infected humans, all with different characteristics. Some can get into the brain and screw with different functions there, but I've never seen this. It's like complete and total mind control. And the physical mutations…" He shuddered visibly.
I stared at the infected man on the ground. "Is there anything we can do?"
"Hm." He thought on it for a second. "Probably not. The very definition of a parasite means that the host is slowly destroyed in the process. Maybe if I could get one back to my lab for study-"
"Forget I asked," I said, cutting him off. I stood up, checking our surroundings. "Where do we go to input this code of yours?"
He looked over the edge of the railing, studying the layout. "I see a few stations below. One of them has to be able to initiate the sequence."
We picked our way carefully down the nearest set of stairs to the lower floor. Standing there on the same level as the domes was even more staggering. They were easily three stories high or more, and in some cases, so were the queens inside them. They were all here: fly, centipede, wasp, spider, beetle – and more. Everything we'd encountered in all of these months, they'd all been created here, birthed by these awful creatures. I urged Don to hurry.
.
.
"There! I'm in!"
He tapped furiously at the keys. We'd managed to sneak into the main terminal, a rectangular room lined with tall, thin rows of supercomputers. Fortunately, we hadn't been spotted getting in. As a matter of fact, we hadn't seen any more infected in here at all, something I was very suspicious of. Don didn't seem too fazed, though. "I didn't see any other entrances to this room. It's likely there was only the one, especially given the top-secret nature of this place," he explained. "What I'm more worried about is that door holding. They might be infected, but remember what I said about them reporting in to the guys at the other facility? They're not mindless."
As if on cue, we heard a loud, metal bang, followed by footsteps, tons of them, hitting the catwalks. I gave him a sour look. "You just had to go and say it, didn't you?"
He shrugged at me. I armed myself. "I'll hold them back," I shouted, "just hurry!"
I ran out the door, reaching into the grenade pack. I pulled out one of the heavier explosives and ripped out the pin, lobbing it upwards onto the next level, close to the entrance. It landed with a direct hit, right in the middle of the highest concentration of them. With a loud boom, the catwalk blew to pieces, sending bodies everywhere. It was a good blow to their numbers, but there was still far too many for me to contend with alone. This was much more than just survival – a single prick of one of those pointed appendages would infect me as well. I tried not to think about it. Whatever happened, I could not let them get past me. I had to defend Donnie until he was done. I managed to lob two more grenades before the first wave reached me. I held my sword high, steadied myself, and met them head on.
It was a losing battle from the start. I was far outnumbered, and I couldn't give up my position or they'd get to Don. This went beyond the mission. Donnie was cornered with no other escape out of that room, and I wasn't about to let them get to him. I found myself going on the defensive and relying more on the explosives than anything. The grenades were definitely making a difference, but it wasn't enough. Surrounded, I struggled against a woman covered in what looked like armored plates, placed in odd ways over portions of her body. She had a single, black claw emerging from her back. It clamped around my only remaining blade and we were locked, pressing against each other as I struggled to free my weapon. The others were closing in. In desperation, I reached into the grenade pack once more.
Empty.
This was it. I raised my free arm in a powerless defense, bracing myself as several hooks bore down on me. Just then, an alarm began to sound throughout the facility. Every living thing paused in its tracks. The next thing I knew, a wooden staff was smashing its way around me, clearing enemies. I wrenched my sword free and threw a kick into the clawed woman, sending her off her feet. I turned and Don was there. We stood back to back, facing the crowd. "Good timing," I said, breathing hard.
"I think we're back to you owing me again," he joked.
We fought them off for another minute or so, until something strange happened. It was a noise, coming from the domes. I managed to catch a glimpse and saw the glass clouding, filling with the gas Don said would end this whole mess. It was the last time, on this horrendous outing, that I would feel hopeful.
The queens seemed to understand what was happening. They began to screech and howl, making an awful sound. The infected froze. As if of the same mind, they all turned and ran for the glass cages, their wails adding to the horrible din. As Don and I watched in horror, they threw themselves against the glass over and over. The structures being too thick for them to do any real damage, they only succeeded in leaving bloody imprints on the outside until every last one of the remaining infected lay dead in a heap around their beloved queens. I had to look away. Such a horrible fate, and yet I didn't know which was worse; to die, or to live as passenger to a parasitic force. I wished them peace. Perhaps their souls would find it, now that they were free.
In any case, it was over now. We'd stopped the invasion. The city would finally be at peace. I looked over at my brother. Don was watching the queens, writhing in their glass prisons, perhaps to make sure the gas did its job, I didn't know. He was sometimes a tough read. His mind constantly turned in ways the rest of us couldn't understand. I thought I knew what was troubling him, though. He spent every moment seeking knowledge, and while I joked about his mad scientist tendencies, the truth was, he pursued that knowledge for the cause of good. Whenever we encountered things like this, when science went awry and was put to malicious purpose, it affected him. He saw it as a colossal waste.
Don also thought too much on the complexities of life, and while his was a more analytical approach to my spiritual, we were a lot alike in that respect. We had seen too many innocent casualties over the course of this conflict. It was a bittersweet end to it all. "Don?" I said, still having to speak above the alarm, which continued to echo throughout the chamber. "It's over. Let's go home."
He didn't look at me. His eyes were fixed on the domes. "It's not over," he said.
A loud hammering sound was cutting through the blare of the alarm. I turned to see what Don was looking at. Several of the smaller queens had already succumbed to the gas, but others – the largest of them – were in a panic. As we watched, the first of them burst through the glass and escaped, making a beeline right for us.
.
.
.