CHAPTER 14

Daniel had a good idea of what Tamara had been suggesting. He already had infrastructure in place that could probably extend all the way to the ninth floor where the humans were trapped. That effort had been focused on creating the conditions for the swoop in to capture the queen, but the remaining base could be repurposed. Especially if Iris was available to help and could keep the flies away.

While a chunk of what he had been done had been consumed in isolating the queen from her hive, the core construct that had got his trap up to level five was still intact. Tamara’s suggestion of running a conduit to it had a lot of merit. Once he had seized back control and if Iris was as effective as Carly implied then in theory he could thin the wood to grow stairs till he reached the top floor. “Let’s say we were going to attempt a rescue. How would we do it?”

They all looked at him suspiciously.

“Dan,” Tamara said cautiously. “Isn’t that your field of expertise? You know growing stuff.”

“Sorry, I meant what can Iris do? How far up the stairs can we go? Do I use conduits from here or higher up? The closer I get the lower the cost but if that’s too dangerous I should base myself here.”

“Iris can definitely protect you from the flies.” Carly informed him. “The stairs got up to level three.”

“Only three?” Daniel asked in surprise.

Carly nodded. “Yes, they’re broken after that.”

The adults all looked at each other. That was unexpected.

“Are you sure Carly?” Alex asked finally.

The teenage indicated firm agreement.

“The flies must have seen it as a security threat.” Richard concluded. “Destroying a tunnel near their hive in the wild is definitely something that they’re programmed to do.”

Daniel thought furiously. In his mind, he remembered the supports the flies had created for the queen’s platform. He needed to make use of that. It was possible they could be the framework to get access to the upper levels. If he used his vines to help, they were climbable. Two stories to the central platform and then two more to get up to the higher reaches.

It was doable.

Even if it wasn’t the closer he got easier, it would be to take control of his earlier infrastructure. A short conduit and he would get access to the network of trees he had leveraged initially.

He opened his eyes and smiled. “I have a plan.”

“What is it?” Tamara said suspiciously. “You’re not going to do anything dangerous are you.”

Daniel shook his head and explained his reasoning to them.

There was grudging acceptance all around.

“If it gets risky, you need to turn back.”

“I will,” he promised while giving Finigan an ear scratch and then moving Priscilla from his shoulder to rest on the dog’s back. The mouse looked at him suspiciously.

Me come.

I… he tried to form a mental argument to say no, but the moment the thoughts of the how dangerous the mission was going to be floated into his mind, Priscilla scampered up his arm and settled next to his neck.

Me go. The tone was defiant. Save you, when you do, idiot.

Daniel once more tried to think of a rebuttal, but the determination radiating from Priscilla told him it was useless.

“Fine,” he muttered, getting strange looks from everyone. “Disagreement with Priscilla,” he explained. “I lost.”

Tamara chuckled. “Of course you did, because she’s awesome.” She reached out and stroked the mice where she had cuddled into his neck.

“Let’s go.” Daniel said grumpily, and then he turned to Carly. “Can I carry Iris?”

Carly nodded, and he scooped up the insect and grunted under the weight. Daniel could almost feel the heel of his work boots turning a chip of concrete under his foot to dust. “She’s heavy.”

“Are you sure you can…” Carly asked. “I mean she can walk if she’s too large.”

“How’s my heart?”

Carly focused. “You’re fine.”

“Then I can.” Now that he was accustomed to the weight he could move relatively easily. Though if he needed to do anything quickly, he would need to engage his Strength trick. When they reached the stairwell door that Brian was still guarding, he was surprised to see that both Tamara and Alex had followed and looked determine to accompany them.

“No.” Daniel shook his head emphatically. “I think there’s going to be some precarious climbs. My vines will keep us safe, but I don’t want to manage it for four people.”

“I wasn’t planning on coming. I’m needed here in case the croldlics return.” Alex said. He shot a look at Tamara. “I wanted to ask. Are you sure this is for the best? I mean are you thinking clearly?”

“What’s the supposed to imply?” Tamara objected.

“We’re all adults,” Alex said stiffly. “Or close to,” he said with a glance at Carly. “You know exactly what I mean.”

“What that I’m using my feminine charms… to what.”

“Yes.” Alex said without backing down.

“We’re not a couple. And Daniel’s not an easily led fool.”

“We’re not,” Daniel agreed, not sure how he felt about the statement.

“Tell me you’re not doing this to impress her.”

“Alex,” Tamara hissed at him.

“I’m not.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “That didn’t sound very convincing.”

“And if I am? Does it matter? We want to save them don’t we?”

The man who was equal second in command with Ivey shrugged. “Your life is worth more than theirs. I don’t like saying it, but it’s true.”

“I won’t push too hard,” Daniel promised.

“Both Ivey and I think you should wait till morning. I know.” Alex held up a hand. “The reasons you want to go and it’s not just to impress Tamara but are you sure the benefits of trying now is worth the risk. It’ll be pitch black in the stairwells and on the higher floors.”

Daniel ignored everything apart from the first sentence. “Ivey? She doesn’t believe it’s a good idea?”

“She sent me.”

He considered whether Ivey’s objection mattered. It wasn’t one of her special ones or else she would be here personally arguing the point. “I’m going. If I can save them without putting myself at high risk tonight, then I will.”

“We still think you should wait.” Alex told him. “How much more chance do you have to die during the night? What happens if the croldlics come back and you’re not here?”

Daniel shut his eyes. Alex’s points were good, but now that he had thought about it, he couldn’t get the image of scared terrified toddlers out of his head. Plus, if the flies were randomly breaking things on the top levels, then the building might not last the night. “I think I need to go, and I made the same rushed choices to save you.”

“But it’s not that same. You rightly calculated that our combined strength might be needed to defeat the monster. There’s no military force up there to liberate. Tomorrow we can eliminate the flies at our leisure and do it safely.”

“I’m going.”

Alex stepped forward and lowered his voice. “On record the record, this is a terrible idea. You’re risking the whole community to save dead weight.”

Daniel shrugged. “I’m not sure I am. We own the tower and there are lots of competent warriors. Survival is no longer on me.”

The other man shook his head. “I disagree. But if you won’t be talked down, then good luck. Stay alive Daniel we’re all depending on you.”

Daniel started up the stairs, with Carly following. She didn’t cast a light spell in case monsters from outside were attracted to it. Their best protection was invisibility and the fact the silver fly threat should keep the croldlics away.

Despite Ivey’s confidence, the degree of structural damage they had done was significant. Especially the queen’s attempt to kill them earlier. It had put additional holes in the stairs and pulverised sections of the internal stairwells which had been providing architectural support.

A prolonged fight with something as powerful as the croldlic’s would bring the place down. They had to be extra cautious not to create unwanted attention. The strength of the monster that had blasted though the roller door and moved the car showed how easily a battle with them could cause a key support wall or pillar, to be broken and with the state of this building it wouldn’t take many of them to be damaged to bring the entire thing down.

Daniel put his fear aside and kept moving. He relied on a combination of his enhanced eyesight and plant sense to move almost unencumbered in the near pitch black darkness. Substantial damage had been done to the stairwell. When they approached floor two a hole, the size of a cow had been blasted through the wall. He could see the bent pieces of metal that had failed to hold the structure in place versus the violence of the flies. They continued, and then a section of the stairwell had been reduced to rubble. His club used his magic to hook vines into the ceiling and then around their waists. It took a bit of acrobatics, but the setup allowed him to walk along the wall using the broken sections still attacked to the wall to climb past the missing five steps.

They continued, and the situation got worse.

Both walls were gaping holes that let in moonlight from upstairs. He heard flies buzzing toward him. He engaged Speed, and time slowed. Priscilla added to the effects, and he had time to observe exactly what was happening. There were too many of them. Instinctively, he pulled Blood Drinker to his shoulder while calculating what he could do to drive them away.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It had to be magic.

The flies got close, but they were slowing instead of accelerating to him and then they were turning to fly away. Not one of them, but all of them. It was like he had a magical field protected them.

He disengaged Speed when he realised it had to be Carly and her new pets doing. “What’s happening?”

“Iris is taking control of anything that gets close. She is imparting simple instructions that boil down to; ‘Don’t kill humans and don’t run into any of the structures.’”

The entire stairwell creaked when he leant on a half intact wall. He straightened quickly. “Sensible. And you’re confident a fly is not going to accidental brain me.”

Carly laughed. “Provided you stay within three metres of Iris you’re protected. They take a couple of metres to slow down and her range is only five, so we have to stay close.”

He peered around and assessed their options to go further. The stairwell was collapsed ahead, and they had emerged at the very base of the large hollow they had created. The queen, when fighting off them earlier had destroyed a significant number of internal walls and ceilings when she had chased them. He was looking up at the tens of support beams they had linked through the open air space to the platform Iris had previously rested on.

If they were going to save the kids, he had to keep pushing higher. With the stairs broken, climbing through their hive space was the only option. He communicated his intentions with Blood Drinker and fifteen percent of his mana was drained away as the vines permanently attached to the club grew and expanded.

There was a non-verbal signal, and he put Iris down took a step away and swung the club in as circles as fast as he could before thrusting it upwards. Two tendrils shot out from the club and soared through the air with vines trailing behind them. They reached their apex and then fell before the ends clunked onto the support he had been aiming for. The hooks the weapon had created caught an edge and then power ran from Blood Drinker up the vines and the head of the vine two levels above them grew.

Like a snake, it slithered up the support beam till it reached the queen’s platform.

“That’s how we do it.” Daniel whispered while remotely monitoring the activity. Now that he had access to the platform the two threads wriggled across it and looped around supports and ensured that everything was secured.

Daniel retrieved Iris. “Carly, you need to climb onto my back.” He squatted down to facilitate it. And she climbed up on top of him. The plants from the club continued to grow, tying him, Carly and Iris together and linking them to the support platform. Tom walked forward, scrambling over a mound of rubble till he stood directly under their target.

“What’s going to happen?” Carly asked her voice sounding slightly afraid.

“You know exactly what.” Daniel told her cheerfully.

“I’m not sure about this.”

“To late.” Daniel grinned at her. “Hang on.”

The vines that stretched up two and a half stories to the platform began to twist and tighten.

With a squeal from Carly, they were pulled up from the ground. Like he was on a winch the vines shortened and he rose slowly but steadily upwards. The vines kept coiling and as they got higher; the rate slowed down. Eventually, he was able to reach the edge of the platform with one hand.

Strength.

With a jerk, he pulled them up and over and onto the platform, which did not creak and hardly moved despite their weight.

They had reached the hives centre.

Once more, he observed the expanse of emptiness that had been carved into the centre of the building. With the gaping big hole in the wall and the moonlight flooding in, he could physically see the support beams. Flies covered the walls and sections of floors from floor five upwards. Masses of them glinting where they slept or rested like thousands of ball bearings. When he had first approached the queen thousands had been in the air and now there were only hundreds, but they shone as they flitted around. It was surprisingly beautiful.

Daniel pulled his eyes back from those details and looked up at the roof. He needed to get up there, and he was only five almost six, because the platform was not aligned with human levels and to navigate up the remaining three and a bit.

“Is that where you were going?” Carly asked, pointing at the highest point they could see, worriedly.

“Yes.”

“But?” she inquired, catching the edge of doubt in his voice.

“Can you hear the thumping?”

Carly nodded and pointed. It was coming from the top floor and close to the corner closest to the hotel.

“You understand what that is?”

She gave two slow nods. Then her eyes widened. “Wait, what are you planning?”

He ignored her. Flies above them were active and breaking things. Even if there were no humans up there, it was pretty clear they had to be stopped. “We’re going up.”

His eyes traced angles, and he compared to what he had done earlier. A large amount of the vegetation that had pulled them up had coiled around Blood Drinker while he had been standing there contemplating his next steps.

It was ready to repeat the same trick. So he put Iris down and retreated to the centre of the platform. Once more, he spun Blood Drinker as fast as he could in wide circles before flicking it out in the direction he wanted to go. This time, only a single vine with a heavy head soared away from him. The extra mass let it fly better and it looped into the hole he had been aiming for with a solid thunk.

Nothing fell.

“And?”

“Our way up is secured. Blood Drinker and I will ensure the connection is secure, then we’ll go up.”

It took ten minutes to get everything in place and regenerate his mana. They were not going straight up.

“Ready.”

He felt her nod from behind and Daniel stepped off the platform.

Carly squealed again.

They swung like a pendulum on the vine. Daniel concentrated and used the support beam to slow his motion. They rebounded off another beam and then ended up swing in a dizzying circle a couple of metres wide.

The hole they were aiming for was not directly above the queen platform, and this method was faster than putting extra guiding ropes to control their trajectory. Now to reach the top floor they only had to go straight up.

The vine pulled them upwards. They passed a support beam and a hurried kick killed most of their spinning.

“Better.” Carly whispered. “You should have warned me that was terrifying.”

“How else did you think we were going to get up? We couldn’t go diagonally.”

They continued to rise and Carly she pointed to a spot slightly to the right of where he was targeting. A jumbled of reinforced concrete hung below the rest of the roof surface. “That’s the fire stairs.”

“Yes. They’re our target.” Daniel agreed, “We’ll get into floor eight and work our way across and use them to get up to nine.”

Carly was silent as his plants winched them up past six, seven and then through the floor on their way to eight.

“That’s a big drop.” Carly whispered.

“Don’t look down. And I’m less worried about that and more about the entire building collapsing.”

“Don’t say that.”

Daniel ignored her. Now that they had finally reached level eight, the thumping had gotten louder.

From the spot they had emerged, they could see the way to the fire stairs. The space was a disaster zone.

“This is stupid.” Daniel whispered. The floor felt like it would collapse if you looked at it wrong and the roof which would be the floor when they reached level nine was not much better. There were no holes above they could get through, but it appeared moth eaten. Gaps and holes were all over the place where a fly had punched through. So many they overlapped, but nothing large enough for a human.

Carly cocked her head, listening to the thumps. “I think I heard some crying.”

Daniel ignored her. His heart was thumping. “This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” He regretted his previous position he was firmly on Richard’s side. They should have sheltered in a house. Then he remembered the croldlics and changed his mind.

All the available decisions had been terrible. If they had fled toward the hotel, they’d have been prey to the croldlics. Most of them would have died Daniel had no doubt about that. They could have abandoned the effort to negate the queen earlier, but that would have cost them in the long run. Hiding in nearby houses would have been a disaster the croldlics would have opened up a hole whenever they felt like it.

They had made the best of an awful situation.

“You’re not retreating now, are you?”

“No.” The continuous sound of flies smashing into something above them reached him. There might have been crying or Carly could have just been hearing what she wanted. It didn’t matter there was not even a hint of any noises that might have been human. The thumping continued and that was concerning.

That they had to put a stop to it.

His tendrils spread along the roof while they hung there.

“What are they for?” Carly nodded at the web of plants that were extending out to link them to the stairwell.

“Precaution.” Each of the tendrils wrapped around the supports above them and very carefully with Carly still strapped to him he pulled himself across till he was over the intact floor if he could call it that.

Then he started walking with around half of his weight supported by the roof above him.

Every step he paused to confirm it wasn’t his last. His heart thumped.

If the floor gave way… then his anchors would stop him falling, but it only took a single rock to start an avalanche. This high up his actions could bring the building down.

It was so much worse than he had imagined.

However, the thumps above drove him and prevented him from even considering retreating. That was structural damage and given the state of everywhere he had passed without intervention, he was not sure the building would survive the night. It probably would, but he didn’t know. What he did know was that if it didn’t support him now, then the collapse was imminent. At worst, his exploring now would just bring it forward a couple of hours.

Another step. Everything groaned dramatically.

Rock moved under his feet. Then he heard clumps of rubble falling down below him. The entire floor shifted because of his weight.

One of his anchors came out. A chunk of plaster that must have weighed fifty kilograms fell and crashed into the floor metres away.

Daniel held his breath. Expecting a cascade.

Dust puffed up.

Another rock fell, and he heard it crashing onto the rubble four floors below him.

The shifting and creaked stopped. Carly released a relieved gasp as human instincts reminded her to breathe.

Sweat was dripping down his face, but he didn’t want to risk the motion of wiping it away.

They should never have entered this building, and he should never have agreed to come up.

There was another thump above him.

His vines shifted to new spots. Extra anchor points were added, and they all tightened to put him under pressure and effectively lessoning his weight further.

He moved, half walking, half swinging, with a large proportion of their combined weight supported by the various points on the ceiling instead of the floor. Despite the urgency he felt because of the banging above, he did not rush.

Each step with the reorganisation of supports above him took thirty seconds. It may have been agonisingly slow, but they crossed the floor, anyway.

They reached the fire stairs. The door was jammed, but it responded to his magic. It thickened along the outside and the inner bit opened. There were no protests from the building, but if he had attempted to pull out the stuck door, the entire place would have come down. The wood because of the shifting building was structural.

The place was a death trap.

Cautiously, he stuck his head into the stairwell. Almost miraculously the internal space appeared intact, though there were a couple of ominous cracks as one of them went from the stairs up a wall and along the roof. With his burden of Iris and Carly, he slipped through the narrow gap onto the stairs proper.

The concrete looked solid and while he was in the stairwell any anchor points; he used would also be part of the structure. He could use them, but they were pointless. The floor would not fall out from under him or at least not unless the entire stairwell came with it. Which unfortunately was a real risk.

The plants connecting him fell away.

“What are you doing?” Carly hissed.

Daniel shook his head ever so slightly. His weight on the floor under him increased.

The entire ground under him groaned.

His heart almost stopped and his breathing definitely did.

A crack ran out of his foot. It was only small, and it only extended within five centimetres but that had been caused by him. The effect of him standing there.

He allowed himself to breathe. Shallowly. Very cautiously, he stepped forward.

The entire surface seemed to vibrate under him in ways a floor shouldn’t. They could hear the sounds of large chunks of concrete falling and crashing down through the levels below.

Carly screamed and Daniel froze and waited not daring to move. The emergency stairs were swaying back and forth. It was subtle, but it was like they were partially detached from the rest of the building.

Blood Drinker unbidden grew tendrils up the sides. It communicated its intention to him. It would get the vines out of the stairwell and anchor it more firmly to the building.

Daniel glanced back at the door they had come through. He could retreat, but then when he stepped out hell would be unleashed. The floor might not survive when he landed on it or the sudden loss of his weight might destabilise the stairs completely. The fact he was carrying both Iris and Carly didn’t help. If he was by himself, then it was possible the floor outside the stairwell would have held. With the extra weight…

“We wait.” Daniel whispered.

“We need to get out.” She hissed hysterically. “The stairs are about to fall.”

“We’re to anchor the stairwell to the rest of the building.” Daniel responded calmly. “Be patient. Provided we don’t move, nothing is going to collapse.”

“How are those thin tendrils going to support our weight?”

“They’re not Carly. They’re just for allowing magic to flow. The support stuff will happen upstairs.”

Blood Drinker, with his help finished binding the top of the stairwell to the supports of floor nine.

Daniel knew it was time. He took a step. The reinforced concrete under him did not crack at all, but the entire stairwell shifted slightly.

One second from disaster… If the section fell there was nothing anyone could do.

Too late to retreat. All he could do was to push forward.

Another step.

Sweat was dripping from him.

Another.

There was a creek and groan, but the support that Blood Drinker and he had installed ensured the stairwell was secured to the rest of the building, providing that the entire building didn’t collapse they were secure. When they had first entered, there was a very real risk of the multi-tonne stairwell being torn from the building and falling through the space the flies had carved out.

Daniel took further steps as he climbed the stairs. There was no unexpected noise or extra swaying. With growing confidence, he kept walking and reached the doorway onto floor nine.

Through it, he could hear banging. He wondered what he was going to see. Were the kids still alive? Or was he going to explore floor nine only to see mangled bodies? His hand went to the door, and this one was not jammed. It swung open at his first touch.