Nicholas Smith - Hell Divers

“Once we retrieve the cells and the pressure valves, we haul ass to the crate. Looks like it’s about a quarter mile from here.”

“Got any idea where the loot might be?” Katrina asked, looking at Weaver.

He shook his head. “Like I said, I’ve never been in here before.”

“Only one way to find out,” X said. “Let’s move out. I’ll take point. Katrina, you got rear guard. Weaver, keep close to Murph. Magnolia, with me.”

“I think we should split up,” Weaver said. “This place is huge.”

X considered the suggestion. The building stood ten floors high, with dozens of rooms on each level. The cells and valves could be anywhere. He didn’t like it, but Weaver was right and they were running out of time. It could take hours to search the building.

“Okay,” X said. “Magnolia’s with me. We’ll take even-numbered floors. Katrina and Murph, you’re with Weaver. You got odd-numbered floors.”

He checked the hallway a second time. The doors were unmarked, the labels lost to time. He unslung the rifle from his shoulder and gripped the stock. Frost ran down the length of the barrel. Magnolia raised her rifle, and they started down the passage. X bumped his comm pad and opened a private line between them.

“You’ve done well, kid,” he said. “Still think this beats prison?”

She shot him a quick glare. Their glowing battery units provided just enough light to show the worry lines around her electric-blue eyes. “I’m scared, X.”

“I’m scared, too. But we’re going to make it through this. Just keep breathing.”

She acknowledged him with the weakest of nods.

X took another sip of water and ran his tongue along the roof of his mouth. The hallway ahead curved with the tower’s elliptical floor plan. An open door led to an old stairwell. By the time they reached the entrance, X could feel the blood tingling in his extremities again. He took a cautious first step into the stairwell, aiming his rifle up toward the first landing. It looked clear, and he waved the other divers up the steps.

“All right, this is where we break off,” he said. “We’ll start on the second floor. You guys clear this one.”

Weaver and Katrina nodded, but Murph simply stared ahead.

“Good luck,” Katrina said.

X caught her gaze in the blue glow from their battery units. In that moment, he felt something he wasn’t sure he understood.

“Good luck,” X said after the briefest pause. He continued up the stairs without looking back. Magnolia followed closely, her footfalls ghostly silent. Even with the heavy armor, she moved like a shadow. He considered sending her ahead, then remembered how she had frozen every time they got attacked. She was good at sneaking into places, but he didn’t trust her in combat.

“Should we use our headlamps?” Magnolia whispered.

“Negative,” X said. He stopped at the next landing to listen before creeping around the right edge. The faint blue light from his pack showed the passage clear. He hustled up the next flight and stopped on the landing.

Placing a hand on her armor, he said, “You good?”

In a shaky voice, she said, “I’m the goddamn best.”

Ash cringed as the edges of the storm expanded on the main display. With both hands on the wheel, she stared at the weather monstrosity racing toward them. The clouds in the center swelled and surged outward.

The Hive was at twenty-five thousand feet now, and she still couldn’t see an end to the storm racing after them. She didn’t need navigation to tell her they weren’t going to clear it. She had to take drastic action.

Ash felt as if she had a gun to her head as she tilted the bow into a fifty-five-degree angle upward. It would push the ancient ship to its limits, but she needed the precious few seconds it would buy them to sail above the storm before it gobbled them up.

“Thirty thousand feet!” Jordan called.

“Brace yourselves!” Ash shouted. She risked a glance over to Tin. The safety harness formed an X over his chest. He flashed a weak smile, as if giving her the go-ahead to do what she must to save her people.

The outer edge of the turbulence caught the stern before she could pull them above it, and the Hive lurched forward as if it had been rammed. Ash lost her grip on the wheel, and a second jolt knocked her to the deck. In her mind’s eye, she got a glimpse of what was likely happening belowdecks. She could even hear the frantic screams of passengers and imagine the crackle of random fires breaking out under her feet.

There was a voice shouting at her now, but it took her a few seconds to comprehend the words.

“Captain, are you okay?”

“I’m fi—” Wailing sirens drowned out her response. She reached up and grabbed the wheel with her left hand and fought her way to her feet. Her eyes instantly locked on the display. “Come on, old girl, I know you can do it,” she said, unsure whether she meant the ship or herself.

“Almost clear!” Ryan yelled. “Thirty-two thousand feet and climbing!”

The ship groaned and creaked, slewing violently from port to starboard. The flash of fire and death belowdecks raced across Ash’s mind. She closed her eyes, snapped them open again, and gripped the thick wooden spokes with both hands, pulling slightly to starboard. The aluminum guts of the ship screeched in protest as the Hive split through the clouds. They were almost above the storm, but she could feel it pulling the ship apart. She had never pushed it this hard before, but like Captain Willis, she was doing what she must to save her people—to save the last people on Earth.

For a moment, Ash reflected on the fear Willis must have felt in his final moments. In her experience, there were two types of fear: the fear of death and the fear of letting others down. The latter was worse. She was afraid now, not just of letting the Hive down, but also of letting down every human who had ever lived. The future of her species depended on her. The Hive was treading along the edge of extinction, and Ash was terrified she couldn’t stop it this time.

“We’re going to make it,” she whispered over and over again. “We’re going to make it.”

X inched the door open with his palm. He searched the passage’s green-hued walls and ceiling first, then the floor. Something lay on the dusty tiles, but it wasn’t big enough to be a nest.

Thunder rumbled throughout the building, sending flakes of ash wafting down from the ceiling. He propped the door open with his boot and wedged his body halfway into the hall.

“Come on,” he said to Magnolia.

There were more of the frozen, reddish-black things halfway down the passage. He continued cautiously, keeping his rifle muzzle trained on the mysterious objects.

“What are those?” Magnolia whispered.

X paused and bent down for a better view. It looked like frozen flesh, meaty and thick. He took a guarded step forward, squinting. Another step, and he froze.

“Look away,” X whispered.

“Why?”

“I said look away, kid,” X repeated.

He had thought the team had endured everything Hades could throw at them: first the dive, then the snowstorm, then the Sirens. He hadn’t thought things could get any worse. As he stood there shaking, he realized he had been wrong. He couldn’t stop staring at Cruise’s ruined body. His helmet was gone, his mouth frozen open in a scream. Both eyes were wide and dead beneath icy eyelashes. The creatures had torn him apart. Broken ribs protruded from his sundered chest, and the frayed coils of frozen intestines hung from his belly. Only one stump of a leg remained attached to what was left of his body.