Jason Luthor - Floor 21

“What? Why?”

“Because this Tower survives by forgetting the past, Jackie. That’s just how it is. People on the lower levels don’t have to care about it so much because they’re kept ignorant. On Floor 1, though, people are exposed to a lot of sensitive information. That information even filters down all the way to Floor 4, to people like me or the Morale officers. That’s why we have access to Voluptas. Your mom pretends to take it so that Authority will assume she doesn’t know anything. If you know too much, you’re a threat.”

“I don’t get it, Dad. Why do we have to forget?”

He just shakes his head. “I don’t know, Jackie. The reason itself was forgotten a long time before I entered Science. All I know is that something happened way back when that got us here, and Authority is dead set on making sure we don’t get too curious about what’s in the Darkness. Because they truly believe that one day, we’re going to get saved from the skies. Just like the verse says, ‘They will be taken out of Darkness and into the light.’”

“That’s pretty much the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

He laughs. “Yeah, well… I’m not going to argue that.”

It’s fairly obvious we’re getting into some far-out sections of the Tower. All the doors are lit red, which means that nobody’s living here. I mean, just the fact that the shutters aren’t working should tell you that it’s been a while since anyone has done maintenance in this wing.

It’d be a lie if I said that’s the worst part, though.

I look up as we’re walking and catch sight of a big Creep growth. At first I just shrug. It’s Creep, big deal, right? That’s sorta what Floor 16 does. Creep.

Then I take a good look inside.

It’s a guy. Well, a skeleton, and it’s pretty clear he’s covered in what used to be Security gear. I mean, the helmet’s halfway evaporated and the clothing’s all ripped up, but it’s obviously Security armor. It almost makes me gag before I can look away, and Dad grabs my shoulder to brace me.

“Hold on there, kid,” he says, squeezing me with his hand. “That’s just a natural effect of the Creep absorbing nutrients.”

“God, it’s like it’s feeding. ”

“Well. It kind of is.”

That doesn’t help, and I’m about to wretch again when we all stumble forward. The floor shakes and sends us tripping, but apparently, I should give Abbott more credit, since he manages to be the only person that stays on his feet.

I mean, he can’t be a Scavenger commander just because he’s a total ass.

Everyone recovers quick enough to see a flood of Creep rush into the upcoming intersection. The stuff’s like a living wall, and it slows and recedes until the figure of a person is all that’s left. She’s got long hair, like, down to her knees. It does this creepy bangs thing, where it covers the upper part of her face, moving down over her eyes before flooding backward along her back. The girl’s skinny, too. Whatever skin she has looks like living Creep, and it’s pulled so tight that you can make out the bones in her chest and hands.

This is what happens when you take a diet too far, kids.

And I’m not sure what she’s wearing, but it looks like some sort of sundress. I don’t know how it’s kept any color, but it’s still a faded pink. The thing that really stands out about her, though? That smile. She just keeps grinning at us with this smile that stretches too far across her face, like she’s tearing the skin at the edges of her mouth from smiling too wide. It gives us a sight of her teeth, and they’re like dull lightbulbs, just this dingy yellow color.

It gives me the creeps. “I can’t believe she’s alive,” I say.

Dad shakes his head. “She’s not. Not the way we think of living.”

The wall next to us suddenly bursts apart like an egg, Creep lashing at us. It pummels one of the guards and pins him to the wall, the stuff cascading over him until he’s buried. Dad turns along with some of the other guards, and they just let loose with a wave of fire. Long streaks of flame spew across the twitchy muscle, and it releases this howl that shakes the ground underneath me. It ignites in orange blossoms and pulls away, ashy gray globs of it falling to the ground as it releases its prey. The Security guy that got hit stumbles back to his feet, and I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not that he survived. Creepy Sally relentlessly plods toward us as tendrils of muscle start flying from the ground, whipping at the team’s legs.

I just get away as one of the men gets caught by the calf, his leg twisting at unnatural angles as the Creep hauls him off. The guy’s just about to get picked off when Abbott unsheathes this long sword. His pace becomes thunder as his thumb flips a switch on its hilt, the blade igniting in orange and red like a beam of living fire. Abbott moves faster than even the Creep can, and he slices the tendril in half before it can even react to him, the long fleshy stalk burning off black smoke. Without realizing it I backpedal, kinda just gasping at the sight. I get it now.

This is why he’s a Scavenger commander.

There’s a sudden crack along the wall, and I dance away just before it bursts open with a long Creep tendril that cuts the air where my head used to be. As I stumble back, I hit the ground, pain shooting up my back as I do.

Dad twists toward me, rushing to grab my hand. “Jackie!” he screams, but as he turns, a hole bursts open from the rooftop. A tendril whips downward and grabs him by the arm, hauling him back toward the wall. His rifle hits the ground as he wrestles with the creature, screaming as he tries to keep himself from getting pulled into the ceiling. I don’t have time to think as I grab the bat at my side and fly into the air, the hard edge of my weapon pounding into the muscle and tissue that makes up the Creep. The thing shudders at the impact, and I go rolling along the ground, sliding to a stop as I watch my dad collapse onto the floor. Freed, he grabs for his gun, brushing the attack off like it’s nothing and spewing a torrent of fire into the air behind me.

I roll toward him and turn to watch as a wall of Creep at my back ignites into fire, its pink skin searing black under the heat. The thing shudders before collapsing to the ground, exploding into a hundred disgusting chunks that splatter along the wall and floor. Dad hauls me to my feet, and we rush toward the Security team, which is just lighting up the hallway. Abbott’s there in the center, trying to cut his way through wave after wave of living tissue, but Sally doesn’t seem to have a limit to how much she can summon.

Dad squeezes my arm and glances down at me. “You’ve still got the injection, right?”

“Yeah, Dad,” I nod, tapping the bag on my hip. “I’m ready.”

“You’ve got to stick close and don’t worry about me when we go in. I’ll get you near to Sally.”

I nod, and he yanks me forward, bringing up his flamethrower as we run. We cross by Abbott, who’s busy swinging that sword of his, and leap over a huge tendril of Creep that bursts from the wall and swipes at our legs. Dad squeezes the trigger as we come within feet of her, but she counters with an endless wave of twitching muscle that meets us halfway. Flame and flesh battle each other for a second, and then I notice the roof above me and the walls at my side lighting up in an inferno. The rest of the Security team is dousing the hallway, and the entire area is erupting like a scene from hell.

Dad shouts at me, “Go, Jackie!” and I nod. Creepy Sally seems as if she’s distracted for the first time since we’ve got here. Maybe even she can’t deal with this much firepower. I duck beneath the web of thin stalks that she’s weaving across the hall in an attempt to create a wall of Creep between herself and the team, then leap at her. She doesn’t even see me.