yell if one of us slipped back down into the black void to smash our bones on the concrete floor below.
“Nearly there,” I whispered. Yeah, nearly there. How the hell could I know that, but I wanted to encourage Michaela. She was somewhere below me. Sometimes I felt her hands brush my ankles in the dark as she felt for the next rung. Once I put my foot down on her fingers, but she didn’t cry out.
I guessed also that every second that went by she expected a hand to close ’round her own ankle to yank her downward. My heart beat louder and louder. The silence made me edgy now. Phoenix had something else planned. Maybe he could lock that hatchway above my head. Then we would be stuck here, waiting to suffocate or freeze at his leisure. But that didn’t add up. No, he wanted us full of blood and healthy for his big pink vampire across the way. Maybe he could flood the place with some kind of narcotic gas that would knock us out. The next time we woke we could be kissing that pink gel, feeling tubes burrowing into our skin as a prelude to it sucking us goddam dry. Jesus, would this ladder ever end?
I kept climbing. One rung at a time. Nice and easy does it. One rung at a time. Don’t hurry. Don’t rush. One slip and you’ll break your bones at the bottom. You’ll bring Michaela down, too.
Then the voice came roaring back up the shaft like an erupting volcano. “HEY, GET THIS: THERE’S A TV SCREEN NEAR THE BATHROOM DOOR. LATELY I’VE BEEN SHOWING WHAT YOU CALL THE HIVE FOOTAGE OF YOU, AND
GUESS WHAT?” Phoenix’s voice rose with excitement.
I didn’t reply. Just concentrated on climbing that ladder through the darkness.
“THE MOMENT SHE SAW YOU, VALDIVA, YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN HER REACTION.”
My head bumped against the hatch. “Don’t move, Michaela. We’re at the top.”
“DON’T YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW SHE REACTED, THAT BEAUTIFUL BABY OF MINE?”
“OK, Phoenix.” I braced myself, feet against the rung, shoulder pressed up hard against the hatch so I could turn the steel wheel with both hands. “Tell me what you saw.”
“I’VE NEVER SEEN HER DO THAT BEFORE. YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE EXPRESSION ON HER FACE. SHE WAS PLEASED-REALLY PLEASED, YOU KNOW?”
Turn, baby, turn. The steel wheel screeched. “Why was she pleased, Phoenix?”
“BECAUSE YOU’VE BEEN KEEPING A LITTLE SECRET ALL YOUR OWN, HAVEN’T YOU, VALDIVA?”
“What little secret’s that?”
“SHE RECOGNIZED HER OWN KIND. YOU’RE THE PRODUCT OF THIS THING YOU CALL A HIVE, VALDIVA.”
“Well, I’ll be, Phoenix.”
“YOU’RE NOT EVEN HUMAN, ARE YOU?”
“You don’t say?” I humored the madman as I gave the wheel an extra quarter turn. There was a click. “So what do you expect me to do about it?”
“COME OVER HERE AND SAY HELLO TO YOUR SISTER.”
“I’ve got other places to go, Phoenix.”
“VALDIVA, YOU MUST STAY. DON’T YOU REALIZE? SOMETHING WONDERFUL HAS HAPPENED TO YOU.”
“Yeah, right, Phoenix.” I pushed up against the hatch. Like you open a can of soda, it hissed. Air swirled up ’round us as the pressure between inside the bunker and the outside equalized. “As if we’d believe anything you say.”
“LISTEN TO ME, VALDIVA, YOU ARE THE FIRST OF A NEW BREED.”
“Good-bye, Phoenix.”
“DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. REMEMBER? IT’S YOU WHO CAN SENSE WHO IS UNDERGOING THE TRANSFORMATION.”
I pushed upward, opening the hatch until it swung back to crash back against the concrete roof. Moonlight flooded the shaft. Fresh, cool night air swirled ’round my face, chilling the perspiration on my forehead. In triumph I hissed down to Michaela, “We’re out!” I scrambled onto the roof.
“YOU ARE HIVE, VALDIVA. YOU ARE HIVE!” Phoenix’s voice rose to a roar. “AND THE HIVE SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH!”
“Give me your hand.” I reached out to Michaela. In the moonlight I could see her shrink back, clinging so tightly to the rungs that her knuckles turned white. “Michaela, hurry.”
“Greg. What if he’s right? What if you are one of those things?”
“Listen to him, he’s crazy.”
“WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH YOUR KINGDOM, VALDIVA? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH MICHAELA? SHE’S ONE OF THE OLD SPECIES, YOU KNOW? THE ONE THAT’S DIVING DOWN TOWARD EXTINCTION.”
“He’s lying,” I panted. “He’s trying to trick us into staying. Come on, take my hand.”
“VALDIVA, YOU KNOW AS WELL AS I DO YOU’LL KILL MICHAELA ONE DAY.”
She looked at me for a moment, her eyes gleaming like black diamonds. Doubt twinned with fear flitted across her face. She couldn’t go back into the bunker. But did she want to leave with me?
At last she made up her mind. She reached up. I caught her hand in mine and helped her up.
“YOU’LL BE BACK, VALDIVA. YOU’VE GOT FAMILY HERE NOW. YOU’LL NEED TO SEE YOUR BLOOD RELATIVE HERE, WON’T YOU? YOU SHOULD SEE HER. SHE’S OPENING HER MOUTH. SHE’S CALLING YOU. CAN YOU HEAR HER?”
Distorted by the concrete shaft. Echoing. Muffled. I heard it. A long, wordless cry, like a child pleading not to be left alone. The eerie sound raised the hair on my scalp. As I stood there on the bunker roof listening, a shiver started in the root of my spine to creep up over my back like a million insects had burst out of my back from a- HIVE.
The word snuck into my head before I could stop it. Hive. I looked at my hands. Man hands? Or monster hands?
My body began to shake in a series of tremors as I heard that mournful, pleading cry come swirling in a rush from the shaft.
“Greg.” Michaela took my hand. In a suddenly gentle voice she said, “Come on. We’re getting out of here.”
I crossed the flat concrete roof to the edge. The drop to the ground was perhaps fifteen feet. In the moonlight the area ’round the bunker looked peaceful. Astroturf gleamed an unnatural green. The place looked deserted. There were no hornets. Even the remains of hornet dead had been cleared by bears and wild dogs.
After a moment’s search I saw a way down. The branches of a tree had grown close to the bunker. They seemed sturdy enough. I glanced at Michaela. She shot me a smile, her white teeth catching the moonlight.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I can do it.” With that she launched herself from the top of the bunker to land on the branch with the agility of a cat. In seconds she’d reached the trunk and climbed down to the ground. I followed. The branch creaked under my weight but held. Soon I dropped down to stand beside Michaela.
’Round us the forest stretched away into the moonlight. A vast and silent place. Not even a breath of wind disturbed the trees. We didn’t have to speak. Michaela inclined her head toward the forest. I nodded.
Side by side we ran.
Forty-two
Moonlight speared the branches, shooting down thin beams of silver to the ground. All ’round us tree trunks formed eerie, Gothic columns. Beside me, Michaela ran, the white rubber sandals flicking soundlessly across the moss. We ran fast. And for some reason we didn’t become breathless. The exhilaration of leaving that concrete tomb where dwelt the madman and the monster gave us wings. For half an hour we raced through the forest, picking up the path, then following it to the road. A little later we found the garage where the Jeep that I’d cursed over all those days before stood there as if waiting for us.
“Crazy.” Smiling, Michaela shook her head. “Crazy. Did I dream all that? Were we really trapped in the bunker?”
