“Hello, honey. I know you’re still in there. They’re telling me that the effects are irreversible, but you’re improving by the day and I know you’ll be talking again soon. I just want you to know that I still love you.”
–Dr Richard Sherman. Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. 6 Months After.
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This was the end.
As Liam stared over the vast, barren space of western Colorado, he could feel it. The sun had just risen, casting long, wide beams onto the otherwise lifeless plains. After weeks of nothing but uninhabited mountains, it had been easy to forget the sheer weight of civilization that humanity had once had, but now that they’d marched over that final crest of the Rockies and were on the decline, the flats had been exposed, and with it, so came the truth.
Nelly was dead. Lilith was dead. They had both been dead the whole time, well before Liam had ever braved the Pacific on his own. Leah had been right. There was no hope in ever seeing them again. His personal crusade had been a delusion.
Worse yet, even now, even as he faced the sheer insurmountable wall of a dead world exposed, Liam still wanted to believe in their story. He wanted to think that Nelly and Lilith were still out there, hiding in some hole, doing their best to survive this ruined climate. Or perhaps what he wanted was to pass by some tombstone and see their names. Knowing where they had fallen and how it had happened would bring him some solace. Or perhaps he simply wanted to end it himself, so that he did not have to consider such futile questions.
For the most inescapable truth of all was that for every question that Liam might ask, he’d never have an answer. Any trace of their journey had disappeared over a decade before he’d ever arrived, and it was impossible to find where they had gone or what they had done. Whatever happened to Nelly and Lilith wouldn’t be found around the next bend, or any buildings they might pass.
They were just gone.
This here is God’s country, his father had said. We’re only visiting. In so many ways, that had finally come true. Of the billions of years that ever were, humanity was but a blip on the radar, and after the Hollowing reaped what they had sown, their vast cities had been reduced to dark, grey monuments slowly being digested by the natural kingdom besides. There would soon be no evidence that they’d ever been there to begin with.
Unless Liam could surpass this final challenge. The past might have been gone, but there was still a chance to rekindle humanity’s fire. So long as he could prove himself one last time, then perhaps there was hope yet. Liam no longer thought about his family, or what happened to him, or the fairness of it all. He only cared about the mission, and reaching its end.
Liam yawned through the fatigue. They had been moving all night, and his head was starting to burn from the inside-out. He had to have been pushing more than twenty-four hours awake, and had barely had a drop to drink that whole time. The hunting rifle felt comfortable in his arms, at least. It was an old Remington, and Leah had managed to snag it for him from one of the Hunters she’d murdered on the way out. Other than her, he was the only one still armed.
Maybe that would be enough. From what Leah had told him, Hades had recalled all the other Hunter groups, and saved the contract only for Xander. Between their surviving followers and those that Leah had murdered, there could be no more than thirty Hunters left. Only thirty, he considered. Oh, who was he trying to fool?
“How much further?” Liam asked.
“We’re getting close,” Mother said, her eyes fixed forth.
He hopped over a rock. “How much closer, precisely?”
“Just keep moving.”
“So that’s it then? You’re still playing the quiet game, even now?” He would not forget the deception she’d fed him, nor would he ever fully trust her.
“Liam,” Leah said with a bite. Her walk had been reduced to a limp, and one arm hung dead to the side, but the fire was back in her eyes, and she gripped her suppressed M1911, freshly cleaned and once again ready for use. “That’s enough.”
Mastermind gave them both a shrug. He’d barely been able to say a word after having his larynx obliterated, though he could squeeze in a whisper when needed.
“It doesn’t matter,” Mother said as they reached a bend. “We’re here.”
NORAD had been built deep into Cheyenne Mountain, with its entrance cutting straight into granite like a pipe jacked into the wall. A road ran between two hills, with over a hundred yards of open space between the main gate and the mountain entrance. Barbed wire flanked the street, preventing any from entering. But it was what lay between that gave Liam pause.
Hollows. More than he’d ever seen in one place, packed tightly together within the fenced street, all the way into the mountain itself.
“Jesus…” He gasped. “How do we get in there?”
“Very carefully,” Mother said before walking away. The others followed. “When NORAD fell, Hades wanted to make sure that no one would ever be able to use it again. Cheyenne had become a hotspot for refugees because of this complex, so finding herds was easy. We found the largest we could and lured them into the tunnel, all the way to its second entrance more than a kilometer away. It was the ultimate defense, against humans as well as rezzers.”
They reached a power relay station, with the fence half-collapsed, and doors broken down. Mother walked inside and began to peel away floor tiles.
“You can’t just sneak by them?” Liam asked.
“No,” she explained. “Hollow-classed infected aren’t as unintelligent as you think. Whether it’s differences in pheromone production from rezzers, the color of our eyes, or even the subtle changes in temperature when we’ve moved too fast and for too long, hollows are capable of remarkable discrimination.” She tossed aside the last tile. “That’s why we have to be more clever than them.”
There was a pair of hazmat suits wrapped in plastic, with various vials and containers besides. Mother took them both out and started mixing chemicals together.
“These suits are built with a ‘Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus’ to mask your breath, and with the artificial hollow ‘scent’ applied, you’ll be indistinguishable from them, so long as you move slowly. Don’t worry, I’ve made this trip hundreds of times before.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Liam eyed the suits curiously. “This seems like an awful lot of effort to get in there. Why didn’t you just release the hollows if you rebuilt this place in secret, or at least go somewhere else?”
She paused, her lilac eyes revealing nothing. “There is a resource inside this base which is… Unique. I wouldn’t be able to move it without risking its destruction, and there is no better place for containment than here. Had Hades not geolocated us, he would never have suspected that this was my hiding place.”
“And what is this ‘resource’ then that we need to get?”
She went back to her chemicals. “Something that’s made traveling well over a thousand miles worthwhile.”
Liam scoffed, but Leah interposed herself between the two, her own visage more exhausted than his. Apparently, she had developed more tolerance for her vague bullshit than him.
“There’s only two suits,” Leah pointed out.
Mother nodded. “I wasn’t expecting this to be so rushed. I figured that my people would help to keep watch while we made our move. But Mastermind can fit in place of my SCBA if he keeps still enough, and Liam will have a suit for himself.”
“You telling me I’ll have to wait out there?”
“No. You’ll just have to be more discreet than us. A single exhale in that tight of a space, and they’ll detect your pheromones.” She unzipped a suit. “How long do you think you can hold your breath?”
Leah scanned the road filled with hollows, her brow furrowed and eyes fixed as she contemplated the severity of their crisis. “Fifty minutes. An hour max.”
Liam was aghast. “Fifty m– An hour max!?”
“It starts getting risky after that. Hollowing sets in quick.”
“You can go even longer?”
She turned to him, confused. “Huh?”
Liam laughed. “Oh, love. When this whole mess is over, you and I are going to have a very long chat about the ridiculousness of what you just said.” He shrugged. “But for now, I suppose we’ll just have to wing it, yeah?”
They got into their hollow suits, and Liam immediately wished he could swap spots with Leah. The entire system was self-contained, with the old plastic wrapped tightly against his clothes, and metal shanks that dug straight into his flesh. The air tasted like it had been pulled from antiquity, and each breath cast another level of fog against the already dusty visor.
Mother mixed more contents into a vial and stoppered the top. The liquid began to glow. “You’ll have to follow this once we get inside. I’ll try to keep us away from as many hollows as I can.” She slung it over her shoulder.
“What if I lose track?” Liam asked.
“Then do everything in your power to keep from agitating them. A single bite and it’s over.” She clamped her boots in place. “Does everyone know the plan? We can’t risk waiting any longer.”
Liam and Leah nodded, and Mastermind gave them all a thumbs up before clambering onto Mother’s back.
“Remember,” Mother said. “The moment we get in there, we have to be like them. No speaking. No sudden movements. No artificial sounds. We have to move slowly and carefully. And don’t forget what’s at stake.”
Yeah, your shame, Liam could’ve said, but Mother was right. Too much was at stake to get distracted with drama, and there was no denying that he needed any ally he could get.
Mother zipped the last of her suit up. “Good. Let’s go.”
They descended into the valley, with Mother leading the charge, and Leah guarding Liam’s flank. The hollows loitered throughout the street, with a mix of some wandering in circles while others simply sat in place, their faces in their laps. They didn’t notice when the group slid through an open gap in the fence.
Then the hollows were everywhere. Liam looked this way and that, and saw nothing but a sea of grey. Their skin was rotted and peeling, and their eyes were white and dead, and their hair ran in long, thin strands. The clothes had practically disintegrated after so much time, leaving only faded rags in place.
The deeper into the horde they went, the more the hair rose on Liam’s spine. It occurred to him that he’d never seen so many clustered in such a narrow space. His allies had always faced them while he stayed back. Here and now, however, there was nothing to stave off death, save for a thin layer of plastic draped over his otherwise vulnerable flesh.
A hollow suddenly paused in front, dressed in the garbs of a soldier. It bent its head at the sight of Liam’s visor. For a moment, Liam could swear that the two made eye contact as the hollow clattered its teeth. But then it moved on, leaving him only with his own fears. He let out a breath of relief and kept moving.
Delicately, the group moved into the tunnel. Liam caught sight of the faded “Cheyenne Mountain Complex” sign one last time before stepping into the veil of black.
Between the fogginess of his visor and lack of light, it was difficult to see more than a few meters in front, but the activity died down, almost at once. He’d been told that the undead could survive in part by sunlight. When deprived of UV rays and stimulation for too long, they hibernated. Thus, the tunnel felt like a tomb, with bodies strewn about, and many overlapped atop others. The deeper the group went, the quieter they became, until there was only darkness.
Liam could hear nothing but the sound of his own breath as he walked forward, one step at a time, one minute after another. His sole guide was Mother’s glowstick, bobbing up and down the further she marched onward. Keep breathing. Just keep breathing. He occasionally checked behind for progress. The light of day became smaller and smaller, even as Mother’s own lantern held strong.
Until her glowstick suddenly whisked out. Liam blinked through the wall of darkness, but saw nothing. He waited, but still no light returned. Had he lost them?
Fear began to grow as disorientation kicked in. The tunnel’s entrance seemed miles away, and there was no other way to get his bearings. No matter where he looked, there was only more black.
Liam tried to poke his toes out, only to step into something soft. A hollow moaned in response.
Liam withdrew another step and nearly lost his balance entirely when he struck another hollow. Where the hell were they!? He didn’t share their bloody night vision. This place was a death trap!
Then a hand grabbed Liam’s arm and his heart skipped a beat. He froze, expecting the worst to come. But the hand softened before moving into a caress, all the way down his elbow and into his own palm. It wrapped its fingers around his.
Leah. He breathed deep.
The voyage continued, with the two moving as one. Liam was blind in this realm, but she navigated its winding paths like a Sherpa on Everest. No longer could Liam see the light of the surface. He was entirely at her mercy.
And Liam could not have been more thankful. Though the coldness of her dead flesh was palpable, even through the layers of plastic and leather, nothing could’ve sent more warmth to his heart than her touch in this dark, lonely place.
They caught sight of Mother’s light again, and not a moment too soon. The air was starting to get thin in his suit, and Liam wasn’t sure how much longer he could go before gasping.
The ground quaked. It felt like no more than a tremor, as if a distant thunderstorm had been heralded. But then another earthquake followed the first, this one unquestionably louder.
And artificial.
Shit. The tunnel shuddered against another faraway explosion, and the hollows groaned in response. Liam could hear them all, rousing out of hibernation to his sides.
Leah sensed the same trap and yanked him into a jog. Hisses grew in intensity as the native inhabitants of this environment detected them. But her movements were sound, and they dodged the hollows with ease.
The entrance was right in front. Liam could see the visage of Mother through the crack of an exposed blast door. She waved them in.
Another explosion went off, and more hollows moaned. Fingers began to claw at Liam, but his adrenaline was carrying him onward, and he shrugged them off before they could slow him down.
He could see Leah’s shadow now against the backdrop of the blast door. Hollows climbed to her side as she limped in front, as fast as her working leg could carry. With one final charge, she shoved their attackers aside.
The pair broke through just in time. Mother yanked an adjacent lever, and the blast door pushed back in place, even as hollows tried to limber through. The monolithic block was well over a foot thick of steel braced against hydraulic servos, and cared little for the insignificant creatures in its way. What few hollows that managed to find purchase against the closing blast door were quickly crushed against its weight.
Liam ripped off his helmet and breathed in fresher air, but that was all he could afford himself. The rest of the group had already started a run deeper into the complex, and he could not wait behind. There was no time left.
Hades was coming for them.