*****
Lionel remained silent as the group was marched through the forest, occasionally glimpsing the stars twinkling through the canopy. Kaya’s attention though was focused instead on the solemn gentleman in front of her. “So,” she said, rolling her tongue, “gentleman, purveyor of mystery was it? There is something I’m mystified about now, seeing as how you’re obviously such a distinguished adventurer - what exactly was the plan back there? You hoping by wetting yourself the enemy would succumb to crippling laughter while you bravely escaped?” He remained silent.
Jen was quiet too, although that was considered fairly inconsequential by her friends as she was often lost in thought, and had a tendency to shrink into herself whenever there were a large number of strangers around. Even so, seeing Lionel broken like this, like a little boy who’d been woken from a wonderful dream to be dragged violently down to earth. “It’s not all his fault,” she muttered, taking pity. “No sense blaming him for all this.”
“Oh, I don’t,” said Kaya, “I blame you.”
“M-me?” The blonde squeezed her eyebrows together and squinted. “Why me?”
“If you hadn’t insisted we all go camping and stargazing we wouldn’t be in this mess now.”
“I had no way of knowing,” Jen puffed. “It’s not like astronomy is always this dangerous. I’ve only ever had run-ins with criminals twice before.”
Sayuri sighed, “This is why I prefer astrology. My horoscope just said I was going to meet a man walking with a stick.”
“Well, it wasn’t wrong,” she turned and grinned at one of the men walking beside them, who responded by butting her with his shotgun.
“Don’t have to suffer all this you know,” Tenley muttered grumbled with her head low, “should just let me kill ‘em. At least one. I can do it without any of the others noticing.”
“Can’t risk it,” Jen whispered back, “not all of us can heal ourselves like you can.”
The black haired little girl sighed wearily as she raised her head. “Yes… I suppose I forget how much you all need protecting. It’s tough having to be the responsible one all the time.”
The girl picked up her pace, marching up into the middle of the group as the armed men and women kept their position flanking them. “You know,” Kaya said to her, “Jen wasn’t always so rational.”
The girl instantly became curious. “She wasn’t?”
“When we were your age, she had us draw a circle on her patio so she could summon a demon.”
“Just to study,” Jen said, red faced and with a hint of protest in her voice, “I’d have let it go free afterwards. I’m not a monster. Anyway, what we were doing was actually science – mother had all these rituals recorded in some of her old books, so we were seeing if there was any validity to them.”
“Like when you tried to bring that golem to life?”
“We never made a golem.”
“Oh right… sorry. It was your teddy bear we tried to bring to life.”
“Teddy Woolsfelt…” Jen sighed as she recalled her old companion. He remained only ever alive in her imagination. Likewise, the summoning experiment only resulted in some scraped knees as they were forced to scrub the patio clean.
Tenley asked, “I take it none of that stuff worked?”
“Well, Kaya wasn’t willing to be a sacrifice, so we didn’t entirely disprove all of the rituals …”
The punk swiftly changed the subject, “Hey, remember that time you took apart your dad’s computer to try and build the space ship from Explorers?”
“I was six when I did that,” Jen rebuked, “and anyway, I think Ten has heard enough.”
“No,” the girl said with a white toothed grin, “I like hearing what you were like as kids. It reminds me of how superior I am.”
“We had fun though,” Kaya looked back, a sad lost smile on her face.
They did, Jen silently agreed. She missed those days, sometimes, when she believed in forest sprites and fairies and would try to catch them. She never did, but she still believed. The moment that changed… it wasn’t when her parents disappeared. She held out hope of them returning for many years, as did her uncle who she lived with for a while. When the other authorities gave up, he turned to spirits, hiring all these psychics, mediums and clairvoyants to try and find her parents. That was when she changed, as they all told her different things, depending on the mood and character of the clairvoyant in question. One very nice, well-meaning lady, told her that her parents had been marooned on an island but were still alive, although she couldn’t give precise coordinates. Another sour looking man said they had been killed in a storm. One very bitter woman hiding behind satin, jewelry and chalky makeup told her that her mom and dad had been kidnapped and sold into slavery. And slowly Jen realized that truth – that no one really knew anything and the people who asserted the most that they did likely knew the least. Fairies or witches or aliens weren’t going to bring her parents’ home. If there was any chance of ever uncovering the truth, then it was up to her to find it herself.
Learning to question more hadn’t been a bad thing, she thought. Without the critical thought she’d learnt studying science, combined with her natural drive to investigate, she’d never have been able to uncover the truth about Alvin Stag’s experiments. But had she really just become bitter as well? Was she… not fun anymore?
“W-we can still have fun,” Jenny mumbled. “Like the other night when we consumed alcohol and you braided my hair.”
“Er… sure,” Kaya looked at her strangely. “I just mean it’s different now. Back then, everything was magical and exciting. Now, it’s all dangerous and scary.”
“Hey!” The thug leader, who during the march they had ascertained went by the name of Tom, yelled back at them, “Pipe it down back there. And Li, I hope for all our sakes this raid is worth it. I mean, just to break even after buying all of the guns, ammunition, explosives, not to mention lunches for everyone… let’s see…” he began to count on his fingers.
“Ooh!” Sayuri’s eyes suddenly lit up. She reached into her jacket, skipping ahead a few paces. “Do you need a calculator? I can sell you this one for a very reasonable…”
One of the mercenaries was busy chewing, hardly taking notice of her as she held out the math machine in one hand and had a stupid, begging grin on her face. “You know boss,” he murmured, “you’re got an app on your phone for…”
“Shut up!” Sayuri snapped angrily. Her father’s bad business choices were clearly affecting her more than any of them had thought. “No one needs to know about that!”
“Give me that thing,” Tom sneered as he snatched the calculator from her. Sayuri must have just then remembered the situation she was in and backed off a little.
“All right,” she held her hands up again, “consider that a free sample. Just remember, after you strike it rich, or your time in jail, or however this expedition ends, you’ll find plenty of bargains at Oshiro’s Discount Depository.” The shop mascot, which appeared to the right of the initials on the sign, was actually a sphere with arms and legs and a drunken expression.
“You!” Tom thrust out his arm, singling out a member of his party who instantly starting to squirm and avert her eyes. “You were supposed to have searched them. They got any other gadgets I should know about?”
The mercenary shrugged her shoulders, meekly answering, “Just wallets, keys, phones, some kind of iPad tablet thing...”
“You took all that from them, right?”
“Sure. O-of course.”
“What about the brat. Did anyone search her?”
“Well, we didn’t think that was really necessary…”
“Not necessary?” Tom’s head rolled to the side as he clicked his jaw. “People, you are supposed to be ruthless mercenaries. You can’t get stymied just because of a kid.”
Tenley, with her hands tucked behind her back, took a small jump toward him. ?
??It’s really not necessary,” she said, “I’ll tell you exactly what I have under this duffle coat. About a half dozen throwing knives, dagger, a whip, Beretta, three hand grenades, darts tipped in various poisons, and the deadliest weapon of all,” she said, posing like a ballerina as her arm stretched around to rest her hand on her chest, “adorableness.”
There were many confused stares and crunched faces, people wondering why this child wasn’t more scared. Until Kaya said, “It’s true about the throwing knives.”
“Jesus…” Tom eyed the girl who eyed him back. The others all waited tensely, even his own mercenaries seeming unsure what he would do next, although anticipating that they wouldn’t like it.
Lionel’s round little eyes looked worriedly between the man and the girl, then his jowls flapped as he spat out, “we’re nearly there…”
Tom’s lips curled as slowly he backed off and turned from the strange girl. “Alright,” he nodded, “lead on, Li.”
The march resumed, with less chatter this time. But that just allowed Jen time to worry. She had set out tonight hoping to share some of her passions. There may not be fairies or ghosts or demons out there, but there were still wonders in the universe waiting to be seen. But whereas Kaya had taken ghosts and fairies seriously when they were young, now she kept making fun of Jen, arguing for no reason. Jen still loved and was fascinated by those stories, she had just changed perspective on them. Grown to understand that the stories themselves weren’t true, but there was a greater truth hidden underneath them – that humans had always sought to understand and comprehend nature. Ancient people just lacked the tools she now had. You had to observe, form hypotheses, test them, and above all question everything. It was harder work than just saying that gremlins did it, but in the end much more satisfying and uplifting.
There was a clearing ahead into which Lionel was shoved, Tom swaggering after him. The gentleman adventurer looked up and froze, eyelids peeling back as he turned, raising his hands immediately to defend from the scowling thug leader.
“What the hell is this?!” Tom snarled, punching and eliciting a helpless yelp from the gentleman. “Where is it?”
“I-I don’t understand!” Lionel cried out. “It should be here…”
But Tom didn’t seem keen on listening, continuing to rain his fist down on Lionel’s arm. “This another of your cons, huh? You think you could just take my money and run?”
“No! Look…” Sir Baker reached into his long coat, pulling out an envelope and shakily holding it out to the other man. “Look at the photographs. This is the place!”
“More photo shopped garbage,” Tom hissed, “what I see is that there’s nothing here!” He punched again, Lionel dropping to his knees as the leader stepped back, swiveling his gun around his chest to point at the gentleman’s head.
There was something about Tom that seemed to stupefy those around him. He could seem calm one moment, then suddenly erupt into violence, then just as quickly revert back. That unpredictability seemed to petrify all these people and render them unable to speak or act at all around him. This time, even Kaya was stunned into silence as she had no answers or explanations that might placate him. Lionel cried pitifully and Jen, without thinking at all, decided she had to stop this.
“Wait!” She yelped, rushing to stand between the adventurer and Tom. She very quickly took the photo from Lionel and held it out to compare to their surroundings. It was definitely the same clearing, but the picture showed a large concrete bunker whereas here was just leaves and grass.
Tom kept staring through the blonde, his lower lip curling over his teeth. “You’ll wanna step aside there, girlie. Don’t wanna mess up that pretty little face.”
Kaya jumped forward, forming another barrier. “You stay away from her face!” The punk snarled. Although Jen was visibly trembling, she reached out and gently moved her friend aside.
Jennifer swallowed. “You are making a mistake,” she told the thug leader.
Tom snorted. “Alright… I’ll give you a minute to explain yourself.”
It was longer than she needed, so first Jen turned around to hold out a hand to the sweating and trembling Lionel. “You see,” she said as he wobbled to his feet, “the universe is full of mysteries and wonders and things we may never completely understand. But we try, and a lot of the time the trick is just figuring out the right question,” with Lionel up looking relieved and perplexed, she glanced across at Sayuri. “Not, ‘how did your dad’s keys suddenly appear on the table’, but, why did no-one see them there before? Sometimes we’re so engulfed in searching for something we don’t see what’s right in front of us.”
“And what has any of that got to do with Stag’s vault?” Tom demanded.
“Well, a-assuming,” Jen fluttered a bit, but quickly regained her composure, “assuming this photo is genuine, the vault obviously didn’t just up and move itself. So we should consider other possibilities. Like maybe it is here – we just can’t see it.”
“Pretty hard to break into something we can’t see. And I would just hate it if we wasted our time coming here… and you all will really hate it, but at least not for long.”
"There's got to be a way in,” Jen insisted, turning back to Lionel, “I need to see all the information you have.”
Lionel looked uncertainly between her and Tom who allayed his fears with a swift nod. The gentleman adventurer shakily handed her an envelope. “My contact furnished me with photos and this location, as well as codes he said would grant access…”
Jennifer tore open the envelope and thumbed through the pages until she found the said codes. “Two numbers,” she noted, “the first looks like it could be a frequency… I’ll need my tablet. Please.” Again Tom nodded, this time to one of his men, and as Jen went to work scrolling through various screens she warned them, “You might want to stand back. Perhaps to the tree line… yes? Good.”
She finished punching the last button with a flourish, and they waited. Tom was about the reach for one of his guns, when he was shaken by a little tremor as the ground opened up. Dirt and grass began to cascade into a small crack, faster and faster as it widened until it became a circular hole covering half the clearing. More tremors echoed through their feet accompanied by a metallic grinding as a sloped concrete bunker entrance rose up and juddered to a halt. And then it just looked like it had always been there, just like in the photographs, although some dirt still dripped from its roof.
“Guess it’s my lucky night after all,” Tom snorted, relaxing the grip on his shotgun. “You! Get it open!” He ordered, a couple of men rushing forward and setting to work breaking open the door itself.
Kaya stepped sideways, whispering into Jennifer’s ear, “So what do you think is down there?”
Jen had no idea. What she would like most was information, she might even dare to hope for information about her parents. But she knew that was unlikely. It would be things Alvin Stag had wanted hidden from Meridiem. Gold and money, maybe. Possibly the odd vanity project of his or a prototype or two from Stag Corp’s history. She knew what Lionel was hoping for – alien technology and hybrids, but she had no reason to think that was at all likely either.
But then as the door was opened there was cause for concern, as Tenley suddenly shivered. “You shouldn’t go inside,” she uttered enigmatically.
“Why not?” Jen asked.
“Something’s there,” the girl squinted into the darkness beyond the portal. “I… I don’t know how I know, but I know it’s something. And it’s bad.”
Tom and Lionel and most of the rest had already gone inside. The four females were again prodded to continue, but they were slightly more hesitant than before. After all, Tenley was never afraid. She was stronger and faster and a whole lot more resilient than everyone and thing around her. Really, there was only thing any of them knew that Ten would have any cause to be afraid of, and that was another one like her. But to
Jen, fear only stoked her curiosity further. If there was something bad down there, it was better to know about it rather than wait until it got out on its own and caused mayhem. So she went in.
It was light inside. One might have assumed the lights had come on automatically after the doors opened, but as Jen descended the steps she felt a warmth despite the lights cool, bluish hue. “UV lamps…” she uttered. “And they’ve obviously been operating for some time…” The corridor in front of her looked unfinished, the ground loose and uneven with mounds of earth scattered along its length. Yet, through the thick glass panes in the walls she could see there were rooms fully stocked with equipment and active computer terminals.
A thud turned everyone around, the door they’d entered through suddenly closing, sealing them inside. Tom marched, barking orders to make sure they hadn’t tripped any alarm and to get the door open again. Meanwhile, Jen’s eyes were drawn to one of the mounds. Why ultra violet lights in here? As she was pondering this, a small amount of earth began to slide and then there was a little puff, a small quantity blown away as if something was stirring beneath. Her eyes wide, she snapped an arm out in front of Kaya and Sayuri, blocking their path and then beckoning them and Tenley to one side where she quickly hooked up her pad to the door panel.
“What’s wrong?” Kaya asked. In reply Jen just quickly gestured back to the mound as she hurried to get the door open. All around them the mounds were starting to shift and only slowly were the others starting to notice it. Lionel began to backing up toward the women, while Tom cautiously raised the barrel of his weapon to the nearest one.
And then the mounds erupted and burst, a fog of dirt and dust filling the corridor. A man screamed as something lashed out at him and he was pulled to the ground. Through all the haze it was impossible to see exactly what was going on. There were bangs and flashes of gunfire, more screams, while Jen worked furiously on her pad.
“Hurry up!” Kaya cried.
“Hurry? Really?” Jen cried back through her gritted. “I thought I’d just relax a while, rest my fingers a bit…”
“Alright. Don’t get sarky,” the punk sternly admonished. “It doesn’t suit you.”
“Guys…” Sayuri tugged and pointed deeper into the corridor. Through the dust cloud a creature emerged, walking on four claws but hunched like a hyena. It didn’t have a head, at least not like the head of any animal. In its place was a large bulb like a tulip, the layers of which peeled back to reveal hooks and a round mouth filled with razors from which a long tongue licked. The creature shuddered, and charged, veering a little as it went straight for Tenley.
No one had time to shout out anything. The creature leapt, the girl dived and rolled underneath as it sailed over. It slammed into the floor and turned, only backing up a little as Tenley fired on it with her Beretta. In other circumstances the adults might have asked where she got her hands on such a thing, but it didn’t seem too important right now. The creature was undeterred by the bullets and whip out its tongue, knocking the gun from her hand and striking her across the face. She screamed and fell back, being caught by Kay just as Jen got the door open.
“This way!” The blonde cried out, making sure her friends and Lionel all got inside before looking around for the mercenaries. Tom and just a few others were backing toward her, not seeing the creature that had attacked Ten. “Look out!” She yelled. One man turned about, just to be struck in the face the same way the girl had been, screaming and covering his eyes as if they had been burned. Tom caught him, firing his shotgun into the creature as he hurried to Jen. After they were all in, she quickly followed and the doors slid shut behind her.
There were several bangs as the creatures tried to force their way through, but the entrance remained closed and they seemed to give up after only a few attempts. Of the mercenaries, about a dozen had entered the vault. Now there was only Tom, three other men and a woman, and one of the men was lying on the floor still screaming, his eyes bloodshot as another tried to give him anything to calm him down. His body convulsed several times, his screams muffled by the drool and foam bubbling from his mouth. Then he was silent.
Their tongues must have been coated with some kind of venom, Jen realized. Then her breathing stopped as the events of the last few minutes caught up with her. “Ten…” she gasped, looking around. Kaya had sat the groggy looking girl up on a crate feeling her forehead and doing things adults were supposed to when a child wasn’t well. Jen hurried over to them, and saw that the whites of Tenley’s eyes had also turned red.
“I’m not feeling so good,” the girl winced and whined. Jen leant over, told her it would be okay.
“Hey, don’t worry,” Kaya assured Tenley, herself and especially Jen who looked the most worried. “Kids a lot tougher she looks, right?”
Jen nodded. At least Tenley didn’t seem to be having quite so violent a reaction as the mercenary had, and she had a much more advanced immune system. “Your body is probably just adapting to the toxin. You’ll be fine.”
“Those things,” Sayuri said with a croaky voice, “they were like guard dogs, right?”
It was a fair assumption, Jen thought. “I expect so. Stag must have made them and left them down here.”
“For how long?” Kaya asked. “I mean, how would they have survived if there’s no-one here to feed them?”
“I don’t know, but… they almost look part plant, so maybe they just absorb nutrients from the soil until an intruder wakes them up. They may even be capable of photosynthesis… that would explain the lights.”
Lionel, not hearing their conversation, remained transfixed by the door, staring fearfully even though the banging had long stopped. “My god,” he gasped disbelievingly, “I was right… I was actually bloody right…”
Kay shot a mean glance at him. “Wouldn’t get used to it, bub. And you might wanna stand back a bit from the door,” then after an exasperated sigh, she turned quietly to Jennifer. “Was he right? You said yourself this was far more advanced than anything else reported in the world. And, I mean, it’s not actually impossible is it? Aliens and that.”
“No,” Jen gently smiled, “It’s not impossible.” It didn’t necessarily break any laws of physics as she understood them. And when she had spoken to Titania, she’s mentioned that Alvin Stag had stolen some of the technology, but not from where. “But all other contingencies must be ruled out first, and humans are occasionally capable of being brilliant without extra-terrestrial interference.”
Tom was evidently over the death of his comrade, and listening with interest to the conversation. “You know about these things?” He asked in a way that made it clear he expected an answer, and that the answer had best please him.
“Well,” Kaya shrugged, “Not those things exactly…”
“They’re ELF’s,” Jennifer elaborated. “Engineered Life Forms.”
“So,” Lionel peered across, “those creatures are, what? Dogs crossed with Triffids?”
“No. They might have been inspired by such, but they weren’t created through any splicing or modifying an already existing organism. Stag Corp invented a machine to allow them to code a genome from scratch, like writing a computer program, and then implant it in synthetic cells that then divide and grow. The only limits to what creatures can be created with technology like that are physics and your imagination.”
The mercenary was unimpressed. “What does any of that shit mean in English?”
“Well,” Lionel gulped, pulling down his cap, “to put it in your sort of vernacular, my good man, unless someone thinks of something very clever, we’re royally f….”
Kaya gasped in mock shock, slapping her hands over Tenley’s ears so she didn’t hear. The girl flinched and squirmed but remained seated despite her indignation, while Jen started to examine some of the consoles in the room.
The mercenary leader’s neck muscles bulged and tightened as he growled, “None of you thoug
ht to mention any of this before coming down here?”
“The original project was shut down a long time ago. We had no idea Stag had created anything else,” Jen explained. She then considered quietly to herself, “If the lights are what’s been feeding them, then maybe there’s some way we can use that to lure them out of the corridor…”
But Tom had a much broader perspective than merely escaping here with their lives. “Just a minute there, missy,” he said, suddenly lurching forward and taking her by the wrist. The blonde gasped, but it was Kaya who reacted most strongly to his sudden assault on her friend.
“Hey!” The punk yelled, bounding into and shoving him away. “Back the hell off, zounderkite!”
‘Zounderkite’ was one of the words from her book of archaic insults (one of the few books Kaya had ever read all the way through) that Kaya was trying to bring back. Tom, like most of them, had no idea what it meant. What he did have was a shotgun which he slowly raised to menace the punk with as his throat rumbled, “you know, I’m starting to like you less…”
“Yeah?” Kaya responded by rolling her tongue to the side. “Feelings mutual. So why don’t you put down that toy and let’s see how much of a man you really are?"
“Tom,” Lionel began to plead, “be reasonable, man…”
There was a thud, crates crashing to the floor, then a groan that caught everyone’s attention for a moment. Evidently, Tenley had tried to stand but collapsed. Sayuri was kneeling beside her, trying to help her up, but the girl refused despite her muscles being tense and her arm drawn in tightly across her chest. Jen and Kaya rushed over to her as well.
“Easy, kiddo,” The punk said.
Ten continued to bat away anyone’s hand, only using Sayuri to pull herself up as she growled and grumbled, "why'd the dumb thing go straight for me, anyway?”
“You’re the smallest,” Lionel observed sympathetically. “If these creatures behave anything like the natural predators I’ve encountered in my travels around the world, their instinct will be to single out the weakest and most vulnerable members of the herd, which are usually the eldest or the littlest.” Tenley glared, the lights in the room reflecting as flecks like stars in the dark pools of her eyes, forcing him to quickly add, “u-usually…”
“Kind of mean though,” Sayuri noted.
“As nature often is, my dear. Animals have got to feed, and ideally not risk injury themselves in the process.”
“Alright, break it up,” Tom ordered, his remaining compatriots prodding the women with their guns again. “Remember we came here for a reason. That way,” they were herded toward a door on the far side, leaving the mercenary and the gentleman stood next to each other. “You too, Li.”
“What’s your game here, Tom?” Lionel asked. “How are you planning on getting out, past those things out there?”
“Just got an idea from you actually, Li. You said those things will prey on the weakest members of the herd. So once we have what we came for, we send your groupies out there and while they’re getting chomped on the rest of us slip out,” he explained, Lionel’s jaw hanging open as he digested the cruelty and ruthlessness of that plan. “Nature’s cruel, right? You know the kid’s done for anyway. Now move.”