Nicholas Smith - Hell Divers

X tried to slow as he approached, but slipped and fell against the upslope. He grasped the metal bars and heaved with every ounce of energy he had left. The gate inched open to the left, but the gap was too narrow even for Magnolia to squeeze through.

“Pull!” he yelled.

Together, the team wrenched the door open another foot.

“Go!” X grunted. He held the gate open as Katrina slipped through. Magnolia followed, then Weaver.

The outer edge of the snowstorm hit before X could pull himself inside. A torrent of snow blinded him, and Murph vanished in the cloud of white.

“Murph!” X yelled.

A muffled reply over the comm drowned out the next second in the roar of the wind. There was nothing he could do for the engineer right now.

X pulled himself to the left, bar by bar. The gate was closing from the force of the storm, blowing against the sheet metal that was welded onto the gate’s upper half, above the grate.

He wrapped his left foot around the edge of the gate and pulled himself into the opening. When he had wriggled halfway through, the bars pinned him against the concrete with the next gust. He squirmed as the metal pressed against his chest armor, crushing him against the tunnel wall. With the right half of his body stuck outside, he watched helplessly as the wave of snow came at him. He had only seconds before the storm’s full fury hit. It would crush him like an ant under a boot.

“Come on, God damn it!”

In a sudden fit of rage, he arched his spine against the concrete behind him and pushed the metal bars with both arms. After a few seconds, he let out a defeated groan. The force of the storm was too powerful. He was going to die right here, pinned with his back against the wall of a storm drain, and popped like a ripe tomato.

A wave of helplessness and anger washed over him. He gritted his teeth and pushed again. The armor that had saved his life countless times cracked, and his chest plate pushed in on his ribs. He couldn’t breathe…

The compression on his armor slowly let up. Before he knew what was happening, someone yanked so hard on his arm, he thought his layered suit was going to tear. He fell to the ground as strong hands dragged him over the concrete and around a bend in the tunnel.

X lay there, sucking in deep breaths. He could hear voices over the comm but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

As his vision slowly cleared, the outlines of three divers came into focus. But where was…

“Murph,” X mumbled.

He sat up and scrambled toward the snow streaming around the corner of the tunnel. A hand pulled him back, knocking him to the floor.

“No, X! You can’t go out there!” Weaver shouted.

“We have to save Murph!” X yelled. He crawled across the floor, but the hand tightened around his ankle and pulled him back again. X dragged his fingers over the concrete, struggling for leverage.

“Let… me… go !”

“He’s gone!” Weaver yelled. “And you’re lucky as hell you weren’t crushed. If Katrina and I hadn’t pushed on those bars, you’d be dead, too.”

X fell back to his stomach and probed the tunnel, praying that Murph would suddenly emerge. The passage was quickly filling with snow behind them.

“We have to do something,” X said, more to himself than to anyone else. Murph was their best chance of hacking into the ITC security system. They needed him, and X wasn’t about to give up now. He pushed himself to his feet, and before anyone could stop him, he bolted toward the river of snow spilling into the passage.

“X, don’t!” Katrina yelled.

Ignoring her, he ran around the corner, into a gust of wind. The blast sent him flying backward before he could react. The fraction of a second was enough for him to see the barren landscape covered in a rolling wave of white outside the tunnel. A beat later, he smacked into a concrete wall. Air exploded from his lungs, and he slumped to the ground. He slowly raised a battered hand to shield his visor from the storm. The muddled shouts of the other divers calling him were lost in the screeching wind, and in that moment, X didn’t even care.

Hades had taken another diver—this time, the man who was supposed to get them inside the ITC building.

Captain Ash stood behind Jordan’s station. Her eyes shifted from the storm on the main display to the status of bladder twenty-one on her XO’s monitor. She massaged her throat and longed for a cup of tea—anything to soothe the burning ache.

“Captain,” Ensign Ryan yelled from nav. “The disturbance on the surface appears to be a massive storm. Sensors indicate it’s about ten miles in diameter.”

“How the hell is that possible?” Ash asked, glaring at the ensign. He was just doing his job, but every time he spoke, it was to deliver more bad news.

Ryan shook his head. “My guess is, the electrical storm must have caused it.”

“ Must have? ” Ash shouted.

“Captain, with all due respect, it doesn’t matter anymore,” Jordan said. “That electrical storm is headed right for us. At its current speed, it’ll hit us in about thirty minutes if we don’t maneuver out of its path.”

There was no time to think. Ash had to make a decision immediately.

“There’s something else, Captain,” Jordan said. “The surface storm has already moved through the city and is passing over the industrial zone right now.”

Ash met his eyes. “The divers…”

“I’m sure they would have seen it coming in time to take shelter. Right now we have to focus on the ship. The Hive just sank to fourteen thousand feet. Even if we get those bladders fixed, it’s going to take us a while to regain altitude.”

Ash clasped the back of her chair. “Has Tin found the leak?”

“He’s been in there for ten minutes. So far, nothing…” Jordan cupped his hands over his headset. A beat later, his eyes brightened. “Samson just reported they got bladder three online. He’s filling it with helium right now!”

Ash felt a wave of relief, as if the helium were buoying her spirits along with the ship. “Finally, some good news. Tell him to direct all power to the turbofans and rudders. If Tin patches bladder twenty-one, we should have a good shot at getting above that storm before it can hit us. Without it, I don’t know if we can make it.”

Ash gripped the spokes of the oaken wheel and stared at the monster storm raging toward them on the main display.

“Jordan, take us off autopilot,” she said. “I’m taking the helm.”

Travis stood with his back to the wall, by the comm speaker. Besides the humming of air handler units above, there were only random grunts and clucks from the livestock. No one spoke, not even Alex.

Brad had just informed Travis of the strike team’s retreat from just outside the farm entrance. That meant Captain Ash had more important things to deal with than the farm. He suspected now that she wasn’t lying about the gas bladder or the danger the Hive was in. The ship continued to shudder and shake every few minutes. Turbulence was common, but this felt different, as if the ship was fighting to stay in the air.

Alex broke the silence by shouting from his sentry post on the platform above. “We just going to sit here all day and wait for the Militia to make a move, or what?” He climbed down the ladder and jumped onto the dirt.

Travis thought of Raphael and wondered what he would do in this situation. His big brother hadn’t always been a violent man, but over the years, the Hive had broken him as it had so many others.

Sometimes, you have to sacrifice the innocent for the greater good.

Raphael’s words echoed in his mind. The dark-skinned farmer whom Alex had kicked in the gut glared at Travis before looking back down at the dirt.