Nicholas Smith - Hell Divers

“Tin,” Ash said.

“Can anyone hear me?” the boy asked.

Ash took the mic from Samson and pulled the cord with her. “Yes, Tin, this is Maria. Are you okay?”

“It’s really hot in here, and I can’t find the leak. It’s too dark.”

“Do you have a flashlight?”

“It’s not working.”

She looked to Samson. “Is there any way to guide him through the bladder?”

Samson scratched his head again. “Yes, but to locate the leak, we would have to fill the bladder with helium.”

“Tin, do you have breathing equipment?” Ash asked.

“Yes.”

“Listen to me very carefully, son. Samson says that the only way to find the puncture is to flood the bladder with helium. You should be able to hear the leak.” Ash bowed her head, then brought the mic to her lips. “Are you sure you can do this?”

“Yes, I think so.”

A smile spread across her face. The boy was just like his father. And like X, too: stubborn and determined. He would make a good Hell Diver.

“Hold on, Tin,” Ash said.

“It’ll take a few minutes to flood the passage,” Samson said.

“Tin, you still there?” Ash asked.

“Yes.”

“Is your breathing mask on?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure how to work it.”

“Just twist the top of the tube that’s connected to the mask part. You should be able to breathe in the filtered air.”

“Hold on, I’ll try.”

They waited a minute before Tin came back online.

His voice was weakened by static. “Okay, it’s working.”

“The tank’s got a thirty-minute supply,” Samson said. “Assuming it’s not broken like every other damn thing on this ship. Tell him that in order to hear anything, he’ll have to close the hatch to the tunnel and seal off the bladder.”

Ash nodded. “Tin, you’re going to have to close the—”

“Got it,” the boy replied.

“Be careful, Tin,” Ash said.

“I will.” There was a pause. “Okay. I’m ready. Go ahead.”

Ash nodded at Samson. He gave the boy a few minutes to get the second hatch closed.

When Jordan’s monitor showed it was sealed off, Samson said, “Hope this works.”

He punched the button, and Ash closed her eyes, picturing Tin inside the dark, hot gas bladder.

“Captain!” Ryan yelled. “We have a problem…”

The words faded away, lost in the chirp and wail of emergency sirens. Ash didn’t need to hear Ryan finish his sentence, anyway. She could see the storm on the main display. It was growing again, and the Hive was right in its path.

Weaver had guided the divers along the border of the industrial zone for over an hour. X’s thoughts drifted like the swirling wind. He followed Weaver toward the tunnels that Weaver claimed would take them to the ITC towers on the other side of the craters—under the pits where the Sirens dug madly for radiation or whatever it was they were digging for. X still wasn’t sure he could trust Weaver, but he didn’t see any other option. The man had been down here for days, and he seemed to know his way around. He was likely their best chance of reaching their objective in one piece.

Ahead, Magnolia suddenly stopped. Snow flurries rose around her armor, caking the matte black with a layer of white.

“Something’s wrong,” she said. The static and whistling wind broke her voice, but X could still hear the trepidation there. Something had her spooked.

X halted. “What you got, kid?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “What do you make of that ?” She pointed to the skyline to their east.

“All I see are buildings.”

“Beyond the towers, in the sky. It looks like a cloud, but it’s too low.”

He zoomed in on the electrical storm stirring above the city. The skyline was the color of a bruise, with smatterings of scarlet. A network of blue electricity zigzagged across the swollen clouds, and thunder rumbled in the distance, the low, dull explosions following the flashes. Beneath the storm, a shadow crept across the horizon.

“See anything?” Magnolia asked.

“Why are we stopping?” Weaver shouted. “We need to keep moving.”

X held up his hand for silence. He centered the binos on the shadows hurtling toward the eastern edge of the city. A web of lightning illuminated a carpet of white beneath the black clouds.

“My God,” X said, taking a moment to comprehend what he was looking at. He panned from north to south. A solid wall of snow stretched for miles, farther than he could see with the binos. And it was heading straight for the frozen metropolis.

Years ago, he had seen a sandstorm roll through another city, but it didn’t compare. This storm dwarfed anything he had ever seen.

The street shook again as the wave of snow reached the eastern edge of the city. A moment later, snow, like an avalanche from the heavens, exploded through the desolate streets.

“Run!” X shouted. “We have to get out of here!”

Weaver was already on the move. “We’re almost to the tunnel. Come on!”

The divers darted across the buckled street. X squinted through the blizzard. Ahead, he could vaguely make out a smooth embankment and what looked like grated steel gates, sealing off passages that led under the industrial zone.

A chorus of screeching arose from the pits as the Sirens heard the storm barreling toward them. X ignored the sounds and ran faster.

“We’re not going to make it!” Magnolia screamed, glancing over her shoulder and tripping in the process. She crashed to the ground and slid over a patch of ice.

Barely breaking stride, X bent down and hauled her to her feet.

“Hurry it up!” Katrina yelled.

The groaning of metal from the city they had left behind sounded in the distance. A hollow crack followed as one of the buildings met its long overdue fate. A hundred stories of twisted metal and glass came crashing to the ground. The ground under X’s feet shuddered, and the concrete fractured into a network of cracks. He leaped over a newly formed chasm in the dirt. Magnolia hurdled it after him. The tsunami of snow was gaining. If it caught them…

No, X thought. We’re going to make it. We didn’t come this far to get taken out by a snowstorm.

“Hurry!” he yelled. “We’re almost there!” The blaster strapped to his leg dug into his layered suit, and the assault rifle clattered against the back of his armor. The weapons pulled him off balance, making it difficult to run.

There was another raucous crack, and a second building crumbled behind them, the structural steel snapping like frozen bones. He ran faster, harder than he even thought possible. His muscles ached, and each breath burned as if he were sucking in icy air.

Murph and Katrina were right behind Weaver now. Magnolia was falling behind, but X could still see her black armor in his peripheral vision. The dark tunnel entrances were less than three hundred feet away, but the roar behind them was growing louder. In seconds, they would be engulfed.

A blast of wind knocked X to the ground. He tumbled, then fought his way back to his feet as Magnolia ran past him.

“Let’s go!” she shouted.

Weaver was first to reach the embankment. Running to the tunnel in the middle of the hill, he grabbed the gate. He tugged for several seconds and then turned, waving frantically, screaming something X couldn’t make out. Katrina and Murph arrived a second later, gripping the bars and pulling so hard, their boots slid over the ground. The realization hit X hard enough to prompt another shot of adrenaline through his veins.

The gate was frozen shut.

They were trapped with their back to a wall. If the storm caught them, it would eat them alive.