Scrreee!
I stood and stared at what happened next without any real understanding. I was going to die. That’s all I knew. But suddenly a steel gate slid across the passageway, blocking it from floor to ceiling. A second later the mob slammed into it, hands thrusting through the bars, trying to reach me. I stood for a moment before the truth wormed its way into my head. They’d been stopped dead. For now we were safe. I glanced back to see Tony lying there, supporting himself on one elbow, and Zak standing with his mouth hanging open. It took a moment for them to realize, too, that the mob couldn’t reach us.
I turned to them. “I don’t know how long that’s gonna last. Tony, grit your teeth.”
After handing Zak the rifle I picked up Tony and hoisted him across my shoulder. I heard him gasp with pain. Now I could see the kink in his shin where the bone had snapped. “Zak, keep moving. If you see any-thing blast it.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
I walked hard with Zak covering me. Tony’s weight nearly broke my goddam back, but I wasn’t putting him down yet. I wouldn’t leave him to those monsters. We’d walked perhaps twenty seconds when we passed through a set of swinging doors. I looked down because something funny had happened to the floor. I panted hard, trying to get the oxygen to my lungs, as I stared at the floor… That was it- carpet. We’d entered the residential area. I made my way straight toward a door marked NO. 3 LOUNGE. This was a bigger version of the one in the annex, with a dozen comfortable armchairs and couches. Sweat rolling down my face, I lowered Tony as gently as I could onto a couch. He grunted as I eased him onto soft cushions. Dazed by pain, he looked ’round at the soft furnishings. “Christ, I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
“Not yet,” Zak murmured, looking ’round in awe. “But close, old buddy-damn close.”
“Zak, help me get the table against the door.” As we barricaded the doorway the voice of Phoenix came padding into the room. “No need for that, guys.”
“So what have you got planned for us, you freak?”
“That’s not nice.”
“Nice it ain’t… but true.”
“Valdiva, that’s the second time I’ve saved your neck.”
“Saved me for what? For that thing’s lunch?”
“Listen, you people. You are safe from them in here. They cannot pass the gate.”
“Unless you open it for them.”
“You think I’d do that?” Phoenix still sounded scared for some reason.
“So we’re not going to come to any harm?” I reloaded the rifle.
“I can’t promise that.”
I murmured, “Great, here comes the next mood swing.”
The TV screen on the wall suddenly sparked into life. I found myself looking at a close-up of Phoenix.
I nodded. “Tony, Zak, meet our host.”
They gazed in awe at the white-painted face and pharaoh-style eyes, surrounded by thick painted black lines, and framing the face itself flowered a mass of black hair.
Tony grimaced, still clutching his leg. “Hell, he’s not a pretty sight.”
Zak let out a whistle. “Would anyone, if they locked themselves down here on a diet of narcotics for months on end?”
I looked up at the screen. “What now, Phoenix?”
“I want you to see something.” He looked away from the camera lens. I could hear a keyboard being tapped. “Remember this?”
The TV flickered. Instead of Phoenix we were suddenly seeing a bathroom. The walls were stained with a tarry substance. More of it slicked the floor like straw-berry Jell-O. Beyond the doorway I could see the poor bastards who’d been drained of their blood. They lay there, as dry as Egyptian mummies, still wearing the fucking stupid rubber shoes.
“We’ve seen this before, Phoenix. We don’t want to see any more of your sick camera work.”
The scene cut to Phoenix in ultra close-up. His bloated face filled the TV screen, his bloodshot eyes burning out at us. “But don’t you see, Valdiva?” he hissed. “The room is empty.”
“You’re telling me the thing has hatched out?”
“Not hatched… it has completed its metamorphosis. Look!” He stepped out of the shot to reveal a figure standing behind him. Desperately he whispered into the mike, “Help me, Valdiva. Please help me.”
Fifty-three
Wherever Phoenix was in the bunker he worked the camera control. On TV I saw the image expand to fill the screen. I heard Zak and Tony breathe in sharply, as if taken by surprise. I found myself staring hard, feeling an electric shiver run up my backbone as my eyes took in a figure behind Phoenix. A girl of around twenty sat with her back to the wall. Dark hair with odd apple-red tints poured down over one shoulder. Her skin had an amber glistening appearance, as if she’d poured olive oil all over herself. Her eyes were lightly closed. She seemed to be dozing with her back to the wall, her knees raised upward. One open hand rested lightly on her knee, palm upward, fingers slightly curled. She was entirely naked.
Phoenix’s voice came over the speakers in a breathy whisper. “The hive changed when you left. Its color deepened to crimson. It began pulsating as if it became agitated. Then a couple of days later I woke to find that the membrane had ruptured, releasing the fluid onto the floor.”
“You’re making it sound like a birth, Phoenix.”
“That’s exactly what it was… Later I found her wandering ’round the corridors.”
“You sure she came out of the hive? I mean, she isn’t someone from the outside?”
“Sure she’s from the hive. This place is locked down tight. Not even a bug could creep in here without me knowing.”
I looked at the close-up of the girl’s sleeping face. You could even see individual lashes resting on her cheeks, while her black eyebrows formed two slender arches above her eyes. A lock of dark hair hung down over her forehead.
“So you’ve got yourself company, Phoenix,” I said at last. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“You’ve got to help me, Valdiva. She won’t let me out of here.”
“Come on, Phoenix; she can’t weigh more than a hundred pounds.”
“I-I can’t explain it, but she’s got into my head somehow. She makes me do things…”
Tony caught my eye and touched his temple. Nuts.
“Yeah, don’t forget I see you, too, guys. I’m not in-sane. This is for real. She can get inside my head. It’s like sleepwalking.” Phoenix sounded agitated. “I black out and find I’ve sealed all the doors to the command center. Then I find I’ve opened the outer door to let those crazy bastards in. I mean, what the goddam fuck’s going on? I can’t stop myself… I feel like my head’s gonna explode. And all she does is sit there for hours and hours. She doesn’t move. She doesn’t even look at me. Jesus Christ, I’m-”
“Phoenix! Has she said anything to you?”
“No…” He took a breath to steady himself. “No.
Not one word. Like I said, she can reach into my skull… Please, it’s freaking me out, man. I want out of here.”
“Phoenix-”
“She’s really scaring me. I know that makes me sound yellow, but she gets inside my head, and I see what she sees. Then I remember what it’s like to be in the hive. I see myself in all that pink shit… It feels like I’m drowning… and-and I’m hungry all the time. I’m so fucking hungry I feel as if my guts are going to explode. Jesus, guys, it’s a nightmare… a fucking nightmare.” Phoenix’s face suddenly ballooned onto the screen, the eyes huge and pleading. “You’ve got to do something! Please, Valdiva. I saved your neck twice. You owe me. A blood debt, you understand? You’ve got to stop her doing this to me.”