Andy cradled Julie to his chest, murmuring sweetly into her cylinder. She thrummed in his hands, warm and welcoming. “Okay baby, this is the one.” Andy held her at arm's length, firmly, but not suffocatingly. The surge of power started in his feet, rising up from the cave floor through the soles of his shoes. It shook his knees, but he braced to keep it under control as energy swelled through his hips and stomach, reverberating in his chest, pushing up past his neck into his skull where it tingled like fireworks. Andy breathed in the power, containing it, indulging in it for a moment before sharing it with his lover. He squeezed Julie’s trigger lightly, feeling the energy wash over her, pooling in his shoulders and flowing down his arms. Aiming her at the vault door steadily, Andy let it all go. A Vortex Missile thundered through the air–a lancing vortex which ripped a wound in space–stabbing into the steel slab.

The sound of the impact was deafening, like a thunderstrike inside his skull. It vibrated Andy’s organs. The walls of the cave shook as dust and rubble fell from the roof, but the door was still standing. Three dents were drilled into its centre, but none had managed to pierce it.

“It’s not working,” Clara said, taking her fingers out of her ears. She was standing behind him at the edge of the walkway which delved into the cave. Gathered around the elevator shaft at the opposite end were the sum total of surviving vault dwellers, about fifty people wearing different coloured overalls, all splotched and stained with red, like an eclectic pastel painting.

“Give me another go,” he said. “Julie’s just misbehaving.”

“We don’t have another go, the roof’s going to cave in.”

“Just one more.” Andy turned his back on Clara, whispering to Julie. “You’re not holding back on me, are you?”

Julie suddenly felt cold and heavy, drooping in his hand.

“We can break this door. Come on, just connect with me.”

Julie wouldn’t respond.

“What? What is it? What have I done? Why are you being a bitch?”

“Andy. Don’t shoot.” Clara rounded on him. “It’s too dangerous.”

Andy paused, inspecting the cave’s roof. The excavation job was rough–fissures cut through the rock and chunks of stone protruded from the roof like loose teeth. “Got any other ideas?”Andy said.

“We may have to stage a counter attack.” Clara was holding her ribcage where she had been cut. Her black vest underneath was stained with blood. She sighed heavily. Andy knew the sound. Fatigue.

“I’m game,” Andy said, topping up Julie’s cylinder with fresh rounds.

“It won’t be easy. Actually, it’s suicidal.”

“Okay, I’m a little bit less game. I don’t want to die for these people.”

Clara shook her head, stuttering to get her thoughts out. “We’re well beyond that now. We’re trapped down here with them. There’s no… there’s nothing. Why did we come here?”

Andy paused. “Salvage.”

“I mean, why…” she struggled for words.

“We got a shock rifle out of it I guess. That’s a small victory.”

“Victory,” Clara hissed. “Andy, come on. Give me a break. We lost.”

“There’s no escape hatch? Emergency tunnel for two? I don’t mind if it only fits us, I’ll make that call.”

Clara leaned against the railing, gazing around the cave as she thought. A soft blue glow emanated from her fingertips, lighting her face as though she had sunk beneath murky waters. The wet smell of the cave mingled with the sharp tang of blood. Below, at the bottom of the walkway, the vault dwellers were removing their clothes, gathering flammable items into piles, ready to light them if the shadow entity attacked. They were working under the light of torches, beams spinning this way and that, casting a mirage of shadows up the cave’s walls. Many more of the vaulties kept their flashlights trained on the walls, dispelling the darkness where it crept in, but Andy could tell that it was pointless–the darkness wasn’t yet palpable.

“There is a ventilation hatch.” Clara flicked through her wrist terminal, zooming in on something. Andy took a look, but couldn’t make sense of it. “Two in the workshop. But that’s two levels down from here. There’s also a natural stream which runs through the Water Purification centre at the opposite end of Hydroponics. We ran past it, but I doubt it would have been of any use. Besides, I asked Gary already. He’s been looking for a way to escape the vault for months. If there was a better option, he’d know about it.”

“That vent sounds good,” Andy said. “I’m skinny and you’re… well, you’d probably fit.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

Clara hesitated. “Everyone here would die.”

“Everyone here’s gonna die.”

Clara shook her head. “The vents are in the workshop area. We’d have to fight our way through Admin Sec to get to them, down the staircase, into the workshop, then climb up into the vents in complete darkness, and crawl about one hundred metres up to the surface. I say crawl, we’d probably be climbing it. Straight up. Are you fit enough to do that?”

Andy tensed his biceps. “I am a specimen of mankind.”

Clara smiled meekly and bowed her head. Her shoulders shrank. The brim of her cap hid her face. Her body twitched as she hiccuped, then she raised her face and whipped her eyes. They were red, her cheeks flushed, her nose wet. Andy froze, confused. Clara removed her cap and fixed her unruly ponytail, then whipped her face on her sleeve. “I feel bad for them.” Her voice was razor thin. “It’s our fault.”

“Nah… What, this?” Andy waved his arm over the room. “This is the apocalypse, baby. This sort of thing just happens.”

Clara shook her head. “We brought it here. We let it in.”

“Ehh, did we though?”

“You said so yourself.”

“Yeah, we probably did, but we’ve been trying to help.” Andy waved at the survivors beneath them. “See, and we’re not even getting paid.”

“They were safe before we came here.”

Andy snorted. “Yeah, for how long? A bunch of them were trying to break out.”

“That’s not the point,” Clara said, fists clenched. Golden light swelled in her hands. “They were safe. They were fine without us. But because we were greedy-”

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“No, come on. We thought the vault was empty.” Andy holstered Julie and patted Clara on the shoulder. It was intended to cheer her up, but she just looked at him puzzled. “Where’s our tech support anyway? Shouldn’t he be opening this door for us?”

“He went silent.”

“Course he did. Bet this was all part of his plan.”

“I doubt that.” Clara’s voice sounded hollow.

“Cheer up sis. Shit happens.”

“That’s not the point.”

“What is then?”

Clara turned her head away from him, gazing into the cave. “I don’t know.” Taking the stairs, she descended into the cave. Andy sat on the top steps, watching as she approached the vault dwellers, walking amongst them, talking with them. Andy wondered what she got out of it–what was the point? Vault dwellers moved around them, tending to the injured and undergoing small tasks, keeping themselves busy. A few had ventured off the walkway to inspect the cave’s walls for cracks or crevices–secret ways out. Andy could see well enough in the dark to know it was hopeless.

Clara wove through the throng and knelt beside a mother with her two kids. Not many children had gotten this far. One boy held a small flashlight in his hand, the light of which had grown dim. Taking the flashlight off him, Clara clutched it in her hands, saying something to the boy and his mother. Andy watched them with piercing eyes. They might turn on Clara–blame him and his sister for bringing the shadow demon here, despite that the two of them were the vaulties last remaining hope of survival. People did strange things when they were so close to death. He’d seen it happen before. A dying man’s gambit for revenge–a bloody trigger pulled with a man’s final breath. It was commonplace in the wasteland. Yet, these vaulties weren’t like that. They’d been sheltered from it all. This was their first exposure to the madness.

The soft yellow glow around Clara was shy at first, then it grew stronger, defying darkness. When she returned the flashlight to the child, it twinkled like a gem. The boy turned it over in his hands astounded, then started waving it around excitedly. His mother squinted and stroked her boy’s head, then said something to Clara. She smiled, like a grimace, then rose.

Watching from afar, Andy sighed and relaxed. “If you’ve been coding some sort of burrowing, Megamole ability,” Andy said to his AI. “Now would be the time.”

Negative, the voice informed him.

“What about you?” he said, drawing Julie. “Ready to tell me what’s up?”

She didn’t respond.

“You sure do pick your moments, don’t you. Has this got something to do with my cool new vampire powers? Are you jealous?”

Julie dangled from his finger, limply ignoring him.

“That’s it, isn’t it? I’m sorry babe, but I’ve got more going on in my life than just… this.” Andy set Julie down on the stairs. “I’ve been a killer long before I met you, and now I’m doubly special. An augmented-vampire. Probably the only one in the world.”

Julie was silent.

“Never mind then, if you’re not going to say anything.” Andy reached for his hip flask, but it was still empty. His chest felt tight, but he had to be strict. “Maybe it’s time we took a break from things.”

Somebody screamed in the cave below, rising to a shrill chorus as the vaulties fled the elevator shaft. “They’re coming,” they screamed, stampeding up the steps towards him. Andy holstered Julie and clutched the railing, wading past the horde to get to the elevator shaft. Clara cast light on the rectangle metal shaft poking up through the walkway. Black smoke sifted through the metal seams, like silk threads, rising on an inexplicable cold wind.

Suddenly, the smoke got caught in the beam of bright white flashlight, singing it to dust. A mother clutched her child at the back of the walkway, pointing the flashlight on the elevator shaft. Clara charged ahead, adding her golden light to the assault, but what followed the smoke wasn’t so easily dispelled.

Amorphous flesh bulged through the seams like rising dough escaping a cake tin. The doors screeched as they were dragged open on their tracks. Engorged limbs cracked the steel casing like an egg shell. The aberration reached out of the darkness, grasping the edges of its confines, birthing itself into the cave. Clara struck it with a thunderbolt. The air crackled as the cave shook. More flashlights joined the mothers’ in the assault, forming a blazing spotlight upon the crumpled elevator enclosure.

Two fat, seven-fingered hands gripped the broken elevator doors, followed by all manner of limbs, trunks and tentacles. The militant vault dwellers backed up, weapons raised, huddling in groups with riot shield bearers at the front.

“Excuse me,” Andy said, from the back of the group. “Excuse me, please.” He could eviscerate the monster with just one Vortex Shot from Julie, assuming she behaved, if only the vaulties moved out of his way. Ahead of him, Blue-cap limed into the melee, shoving the barrel of his shock rifle into an outstretched trunk like a spade into mud. He pulled the trigger and sparks erupted from the contact, showering him with a furnace glow, screaming profanities. The vault dwellers entered some sort of primal rage, emboldened by Blue-cap’s heroism, and charged headfast into the fray. One man kicked and bashed a trunk-like limb with the barrel of his gun, another stabbed it with a kitchen knife. They banded together, arm over leg, severing limbs, repelling the monster off its purchase.

Blue lightning showered the elevator enclosure as Clara pumped wave after wave of electricity over the hull. With a crash, the monster plummeted down the shaft.

“Yeah, fucking die down there,” Blue-cap yelled as the vaulties cheered in victory.

“You’re never getting up,” someone else shouted.

Andy ignored them, surveying the damage. He had already learned that the hulking monster was just a fleshy vanguard–a tool which the shadow entity used to bore a path towards its prey. It had tore a hole in the elevator doors, ruptured the metal frame, created a breach. Job done. It might come back to widen the gap a couple more times–in fact, Andy hoped it would. So long as the fleshy-thing was attacking them, the main threat was absent. Once the shadows came for them, they were in real trouble.

Andy sat at the bottom of the walkway steps, watching Clara organise the combat-ready vaulties. There were only so many useful weapons to go around, which left the majority of the vault survivors huddled on the steps behind Andy, keeping their flashlights on dim settings, ready to shine them on the elevator shaft if something popped its head out to say hi. But Andy knew, if there was no way out, and he couldn’t blast a hole in the vault door, then it was only a matter of time for them all.

“I’ve sent a distress signal.” Clara sat beside him on the steps, wincing at the wound in her chest. Settling in, she tapped her wrist terminal. “This close to the surface, I should be able to transmit outside. I think… No, I can. It is transmitting outside. Anyone passing will detect the signal and know that there are people in here. Then…” She got lost in her own thoughts.

“Then they’ll open the door, probably looking to ransack the vault themselves.”

“Exactly. There’s a control panel on the outside. They can… Probably, they can…”

“Yeah, they’ll just press the green button, it’ll open. Voila. That said, I hope I didn’t damage the door too much that it’ll get jammed.”

“I don’t think we’ll have a problem in that regard.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Clara glanced back at the vault door, barely dented by his efforts. “I’m trying to say your skillset is a bit lacking, Andy.”

Andy’s jaw dropped and he stared at his sister in mock horror.

She snorted. “What?”

“So, I can’t blow up a vault door built to withstand a nuclear bomb, and my skillset is lacking?”

“Yeah,” Clara smiled softly. “So is mine.” She gazed at her hands. Her eyes were pitted with bruises, her breathing shallow. Her head lolled on her neck, and she leaned on Andy’s arm. He sat a little stiff, then she rested her head on his shoulder. She was shorter than him, so he had to slouch a little to make it comfortable for her. Putting his arm around her, Andy glared at the elevator shaft, a fresh determination sweeping over him. No matter what came out of there, he’d murder it. Nevermind logistics, or the odds of them surviving, or how long it took. He didn’t care. He’d kill whatever came for them. That was that.

After a few minutes, Andy took off his leather jacket and laid it on the floor for Clara to rest her head. She lay at his feet and fell asleep almost immediately. Andy loomed over her, legs spread out on the step, moving for no one. When vault dwellers approached, seeking Clara’s attention, Andy glowered at them, a death stare which sent them away. Clara murmured in her shallow sleep, legs twitching. The minutes slithered by as time chased its own tail, spinning out into the darkness, getting lost and growing meaningless. Likely, hours had passed as Andy marinated in the stale air. The mountain hummed above him–not so much audible as it was physical–like an engulfing subsonic oppression. The moist air of the cave coated his skin, filling his lungs, tainted with the smell of human bodily fear, tickling his tongue with a sickening hunger.

A scraping sound alerted him, coming from the elevator shaft. The voices of vault dwellers picked up around him, a gaggle of geese, waking Clara from her rest. She gazed up at him, a question in her glassy eyes.

“Wakey wakey,” Andy said. “It’s last stand time, sis.”