The Darwin Elevator

The big island of Hawaii stretched out below them. She could just make out the telescope complex at the top of Mauna Kea, off to their left. The famous Keck Observatory, which had collected the data she now hoped to recover.

The city of Hilo loomed directly under her. Abandoned skyscrapers lined the coast. Vacation homes stretched from the shore off into the foothills, empty backyard pools just visible in the overgrown vegetation.

“Hold tight!” Skyler shouted. He angled toward the university complex. A sprawling collection of tan buildings choked by wild vines.

Below, she could see Samantha’s black parachute unfurl, a small black square against the vast green landscape. Tania placed her arms protectively around the briefcase strapped to her chest and gripped it with all her strength.

Skyler pulled the rip cord.

Before she could think to brace herself the harness around her upper body constricted viciously around her.

Seconds later, the straps loosened and the pain eased.

From the violence of the chute opening, to perhaps the most peaceful moment of her life, in an instant.

The wind became a gentle caress on her environment suit. The campus below drifted closer with each second. Square buildings once white or beige were now covered in the growth of wild vines. The scope and variety of vegetation shocked her, so different from the simple, manicured rows aboard the farm platforms.

“How do you feel?” Skyler asked.

“Overwhelmed,” she said, aware how childlike her voice sounded.

She took in the vast Pacific and felt somehow smaller than she ever had looking at Earth from Anchor Station. The blue water stretched to the edge of the world.

“Is Sam headed for the right place?” Skyler asked.

Tania spotted her parachute below them. Her path would take her to the building on the west side of the courtyard. “Yes,” she said.

Skyler aimed for the same place. “Remember, legs up, just before we hit ground.”

Tania looked north, to the tall building where the sniper had landed. She couldn’t see him, but a portion of the roof had clearly collapsed. He might be hurt—a sprained ankle or broken leg. She wondered if any of the crew had medical training. It hadn’t occurred to her to ask, before.

A few hundred meters below, Samantha landed in the middle of a rooftop dotted by air-conditioning vents and utility boxes. Tania could see her angle just before touching down, moving her legs to hit the ground at a run.

Not a run, a full sprint.

A sharp crack sounded from the tall building, the sniper’s direction.

Then another. Gunfire.

Samantha’s chute drifted away, released with total disregard for collecting it. Tania saw her raise her shotgun as she sprinted.

The wind gusted. It tugged Skyler’s chute off course. Tania could sense him fighting to control their descent.

Below, the roof spun out of view. They would miss it. Tania strained her neck to keep Samantha in view. The woman still ran across the mottled surface, toward a doorway. An open doorway.

A man stood there, wild and filthy. Others loomed behind him.

Samantha’s shotgun boomed as the whole roof slid from Tania’s view.

Skyler shouted, “Lift!”

Her attention snapped forward. The wind pushed them over the courtyard, away from the target building, across the wide space toward the structure with the landing pad.

She pulled her legs up to her chest, something that took more effort than she expected after the long fall. On instinct she held her breath.

Skyler’s feet hit the gravelly surface and skidded out from under him. The loose pebbles offered no traction. He went down hard, on his back. Tania landed squarely on top of him, the impact causing her head to snap backward. Her skull smacked against the inside of the helmet, and she cringed at the sound of it impacting with his chin.

Birds scattered from the roof. More erupted from nearby trees. They filled the sky.

Skyler slid for a few meters before friction won out. He rolled them onto one side and unlatched the belts that had kept her tied to him.

She got on her knees, head pounding. A drip of fluid snaked down her neck. Blood or sweat, she didn’t know. The fabric of the parachute occluded the sky. The wind carried it on its course, over and them and off the roof.

“What’s going on?” she shouted, unable to keep terror from her voice. She knew, yet she had to ask. Subhumans.

Skyler ignored her. He worked frantically at the straps holding his gun in place.

More gunfire erupted from the building where Samantha had landed. Then another salvo, from inside the tall structure where Jake was. His shots sounded different, now. Quieter, more rapid. A different gun, Tania thought.

The captain freed his weapon, brought the butt of it to his chin, and unleashed a burst toward Samantha’s roof, toward the rooftop doorway where the creatures had been. Sparks flew from the metal door and the railing around it.

Tania froze with fear, only able to watch, as Samantha raced to the entrance. Skyler held his fire as the big woman reached the door and kicked it closed.

A sudden, stark quiet fell over the campus.

“Stay behind me,” Skyler barked at her.

She pushed herself up from her knees and blinked tears from her eyes. She had no way to wipe at them.

“Are you okay?!” Skyler shouted across to Samantha.

The woman waved, then pointed north. “We have to get to Jake!”

Skyler dusted himself off and turned to Tania. “How’s your head?”

“Bleeding, I think,” Tania said. “Your chin is, too.”

“Listen,” Skyler said, “you have to tell me if we should abort. I can’t open your suit to bandage it.”

Tania’s heart hammered within her chest. She willed herself to relax. Her head throbbed, and the blood had spooked her. But the pain felt diminished. “I think I’m okay,” she said. The captain had gone still. “What’s—”

“Quiet,” he whispered.

Tania heard nothing but wind through the speakers in her helmet.

Then, something odd. A sound that chilled her to the core.

From below came the wails, the snarls, of a hundred savage voices. They grew louder by the second. Birds streamed from the trees behind the campus.

“We need to get inside,” Skyler said. “Sam! Jake! Meet in the basement!”

“What is that awful noise?” Tania asked. Her knees shook from fear; she felt panic taking over. She knew, had no doubt, what made the sound. She wanted him to say it, so she might draw strength from his confidence.

“Trouble,” he said, and grabbed her arm.

Skyler pulled the scientist as fast has her legs would allow. The bulky suit and air tank slowed her as much as her fear, he realized.

Near the middle of the roof, a maintenance entrance jutted from the gravel surface. A three-step stairway led up to the plain white door, paint cracked from years of exposure.

He let go of her arm long enough to turn on the flashlight attached to the bottom of his gun barrel. The poor woman clutched at his jacket, then his backpack. He offered her a reassuring nod, then turned the door handle.

It twisted, unlocked. Skyler took a breath, then yanked the door open and raised his weapon.

A pitch-black stairwell greeted him. He swept his light across and down, and saw nothing.

“Stay with me,” he said. Her rapid breaths fogged the inside of her helmet, and knew he needed to calm her down soon. “It’ll be okay.”

Tania nodded, but her eyes said otherwise.

After three flights of stairs she stumbled. He just managed to catch her and pull her back to her feet.

“I feel dizzy,” she said.

“Rest here a second. Catch your breath.” He leaned her against the wall. “There’s a water tube, if you turn your head all the way left. Drink a little.”

While she settled down, Skyler examined her environment suit. The sensor on the front showed green, no air leaks, but after nearly two decades of use Skyler didn’t trust it.

A cursory inspection turned up no rips or holes, so he shifted focus to their situation. Jake might be stuck in the tall building on the north side. Injured by the fall, perhaps, though not so bad that he couldn’t fire his gun. Samantha could handle herself, ammo permitting. He wondered how many subs had made the campus their home. From the sound outside, dozens. A hundred, maybe. Too many. They usually formed small packs.

He reached to tap his earpiece, and found nothing there.

“Son of a—” he said, and stopped himself.

“What is it?” Tania asked. Her breathing, though rapid, had calmed.

“Nothing,” he replied, no desire to panic her further. The gadget must have fallen off during their rush to get off the roof. Without it he had no way to contact Angus, no way to arrange landing, or warn the poor kid. Jake carried the other radio. “Let’s get to the basement, and find the others.”

She followed without being pulled now, and Skyler felt grateful for the freedom of movement. He instructed her to keep two paces behind and continued down the steps.

He ignored the doors he came across, marked with decreasing numbers, until they reached one that said B1.

The muffled sound of Samantha’s shotgun echoed through the building. It came from everywhere and nowhere.

Two shots, a third. Then nothing.

Skyler fought the urge to race to Samantha’s aid. He glanced back at Tania and saw terror there. Less than before, but not gone.

“Go. Help her,” Tania whispered, her voice amplified by the speaker on her suit.

“I’m not leaving you here,” he said. “Grab my jacket, we’ll move faster.”

He turned the door handle and slipped into the hall beyond. They were at a corner. Cracks ran the length of the linoleum floor. Parts of it curled where sections joined. Black blotches of mold grew on the walls and ceiling. It stank of age and stagnation, and the hint of human waste. Skyler let a wave of nausea pass.

The idea to abort the mission crossed his mind. He doubted that any of the equipment Tania needed to access here still functioned, judging by the state of decay in the hallway. The place was a wreck.

Her grip of his jacket somehow reassured him.

The blueprint had outlined a square-shaped basement beneath the four buildings above. Skyler guessed that the hall, which went either left or straight ahead, lined the entire perimeter.

“Six of one,” he said, and went straight.

Two doors on either side of the corridor ahead were open, blocking his view. A pile of debris spilled from one room—a storage closet, Skyler noted. Cleaning supplies and other basics. On any other mission he would stop to pick through it for useful items. This time he shimmied over the mound and then helped Tania to do the same.

Another corner loomed, fifteen meters ahead.

“Wait,” Tania said.

He turned. Her face looked ghostly under the tiny white LED built into her suit’s helmet. She clutched her silver briefcase under one arm. “Try the lights,” she said, and pointed to a bank of switches on the wall beside them.

“Great idea,” Skyler said. His flashlight would draw subs like moths to a flame. He crossed the hall and flipped the switches one by one.

Clusters of LEDs along the ceiling came to life, flooding the hall with pale white light. Satisfied, Skyler clicked off the light on his gun.

“Skyler?!”

Samantha’s voice, from beyond the corner ahead. “We’re here!” he called back.

“It’s clear, come to us,” she shouted.

Us. She’d found Jake, and he was okay. A wave of relief washed over him. He flashed a smile at Tania and led her to the corner.

Samantha stood halfway down the next corridor, at a wide alcove that fronted a bank of elevators. The entrance to the lower basement, and the data vault, according to the signage on the wall. A set of ugly green chairs and couches occupied the space, along with a series of empty bookshelves.

Jake sat behind her on the floor, back against the wall, legs straight out. White gauze had been wrapped around his head. His arms cradled his stomach. Skyler thought maybe the man had died, until Jake turned his head and nodded at them.

“You scared the shit out of us with those lights,” Samantha said.

Skyler ignored her and focused on Jake. A gash on his cheek looked superficial. Blood soaked through the bandage on his head.

Tania stifled a gasp at the sight.

“What happened?” Skyler asked.

Jake winced. “Roof caved in. Water rot, I should’ve spotted it. I tried to tell you, but when I stood up I just, I don’t know, blacked out. When I came around the damn subs were right on top of me. Really aggressive bastards, like those ones in Malaysia. I put down seven or eight before they spooked and ran.”

“Worse than Malaysia,” Samantha said. “This place is like a warren, Skyler. I’ve never seen so many in one place, not since the Purge. They’re all over the upper floors.”

“And they did that?” Skyler asked, pointing at the wound.

“No,” Jake said. “The fall did that.”

“I dressed it,” Sam said. She took a long draw from her canteen and wiped her mouth on the back of her sleeve. “He’ll live.”

The sniper coughed and signaled a halfhearted thumbs-up.

“I lost my comm on the roof,” Skyler said. “Does yours work?”

Jake shook his head. “Shattered.”

The bleak news settled in. They had no way to signal the Melville.

“Angus is probably shitting himself up there,” Samantha said.

Skyler raced to formulate a plan. He needed to get Tania to the data vault; she’d said it could take her hours to find the data she needs. He checked his wristwatch. “Angus will make a fly-by,” he said for the woman’s benefit, “thirty minutes after loss of contact. We’ll need to get his attention, one way or the other, and tell him how long to give us down here.” ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">