“You can remove your helmets now that we’ve reached the science station.” Danno suggests.
Though I’ve felt claustrophobic the moment I slipped into the visor, I’m the last to pull off his ranger helmet. My surroundings look no different than they did when we first stepped into the grove, and I fail to immediately notice any indication that we’ve arrived at our destination. It takes several breaths before my eyes finally discern the frame of an open archway veiled in vines and ropes that descend from the grove to cover the entrance. The grove swallows a building of mason block, hiding the structure’s size, but I’ve little reason to doubt that we’ve arrived at the science station the League established to insure the obliterators didn’t erase signs of an alien and sophisticated intelligence. I doubt it took those appointed to the station very long at all before they found what they were looking for, and I suspect the intelligence they sought quickly overwhelmed them.
“How long has it been since the grove expanded to reach the station?” Teddy asks.
Danno answers. “The grove arrived less than a month ago.”
I squint to notice other traces of the overwhelmed structure. “But it looks like the grove’s been growing on the station for centuries.”
“Leave the Spartans at the door,” Mitch growls. “They’re too large to roll down the hall we must enter. Nor would they offer any protection, even if their ammunition was replenished.”
Danno winks. “Nor do you have to worry about anyone stealing them out here in the grove.”
Teddy doesn’t object and follows the rangers into the station. I close my eyes as I force my way through the curtain of mossy vines shrouding the archway, exhaling a breath only when the ropes of growth allow me to pass without gripping at my hair or pulling me into the branches that knot together overhead. Mitch unlatches a flashlight from his ammo vest, and he focusses its beam through the dark hallway. Though I’m certain a monster knit of shadows still stalks us, I welcome the dim environs. It feels like the grove’s light has surrounded me for weeks, and my skin is thankful for the chill the science station holds. Beyond the entrance, the jungle appears to have no foothold within the station’s walls. No vines snake along the floor. No roots rumple the tile. I assume the grove’s responsible for the lack of power, but Mitch’s flashlight otherwise reveals a station interior that remains in good repair.
“Place feels awful empty.” I’m speaking because my anxiety swells in silence.
Danno agrees. “That’s because Mitch and I are the only ones left, not counting Dr. Amberson.”
“But the League must’ve sent any army of scientists,” I respond.
Mitch snarls. “The grove’s collected them too.”
We pass a dozen open doorways as we follow Mitch and Danno deeper into the station. Mitch’s flashlight occasionally seeps into empty chambers to reveal the shapes of various instruments – the curves of microscopes, the keyboards of mainframes, canisters of formaldehyde fluids that hold creatures the missing researchers thought worthy of their attention. Erase boards are mounted next to most doorways, upon which are written notes regarding holiday schedules and social functions, or molecular diagrams and equations that will forever remain beyond my comprehension. Empty lab-coats hang from abandoned chairs, and rubber boots sometimes rest just beyond a doorway’s threshold. A curving receptionist’s desk supports boxes of plastic gloves and safety goggles. Yet I find no trace of the many scientists who must’ve staffed the science station. No corpses fester in the shadows. No skulls grin angrily in the beam of Mitch’s flashlight. The smell of rot doesn’t assault our senses. I don’t sense death, though I don’t doubt Mitch’s claim that the grove’s taken everyone, and that gives me a small hope that we might reunite with a living, and still beautiful, Marlena.
“The station’s much larger than I anticipated,” Teddy comments.
Danno nods. “That’s because the grove’s grown to cover most of the facility. Before the grove claimed it, this station also served as one of the obliterators’ chief equipment warehouses and mudder barracks.”
“So there are larger chambers ahead of us?” Teddy asks.
“You got it,” Mitch replies, “and we’re headed towards the largest.”
A turn in the corridor positions us before a set of double doors, where a pair of glass portals glow in the grove’s pulsating and orange illumination. Mitch extinguishes his flashlight, and Danno points us towards the double doors. Teddy and I hesitate to take another step.
“Aren’t the two of you going in with us?” I balk.
Mitch shakes his head. “We don’t go in there unless Dr. Amberson asks for us.”
“Has she asked for Zane and me?” Teddy inquires.
“She has,” Danno returns. “We never would’ve entered the grove if she hadn’t. We never would’ve found the two of you and we never would’ve made it back if she hadn’t.”
“What if I refuse to go forward?” I force myself to ask.
“It’s better if you go voluntarily,” Mitch answers. “The grove will just grab you if you try to resist, and there’s no way back out after the grove grabs you.”
I still hesitate, and I look towards Teddy. I can’t help but look towards that old hunter when my knees tremble and knock.
“Are you planning to just walk in there?” My voice cracks. “There’s no way to guess what’s going to be waiting for us on the other side of those doors.”
Teddy’s eyes pierce into my heart. “I think I’ll find Marlena where I find Dr. Amberson. Are you ready to abandon her?”
I take a breath and face the truth that I have no other choice but to enter that glowing room waiting beyond those double doors. I promised Harold Higgins I would go as far as the story would take me, a promise I’ve never failed to keep despite all the strangeness I’ve experienced during my jumps out into the stars. Just like Mr. Higgins, I want to harvest all the fame and wealth I can from Earth’s hungry subscribers. The grove guided me to this science station. The grove revealed the path to that room I now face. The grove isn’t going to show me the way back to the mudder camp’s spaceport if the grove wants me to enter the doors in front of me. But I doubt I would turn around even if the grove gave me the chance to do so. Teddy reminds me that I too have come to the grove with hopes of claiming a trophy. I know I can’t walk away from Marlena.
“I’ve come this far,” I try to sound brave.
Teddy nods. “You’ve got more spine than you realize, Zane Thomas. Time we enter those doors and see what it is we’ve traveled all the way to Tybalt to kill.”