“There is still so much we don’t know,” I said. “We don’t even know if we can stop this.”
“Yeah, that’s the bottom line,” Makara said. “Can we stop this? What’s the next step?” She pointed outside the lab. “Because if you tell me Lisa came out here and died, and those Files don’t tell us how to proceed, we wasted our time. We wasted a life.”
“I honestly don’t know,” Samuel said. “If this sentience, this Voice, were somehow destroyed, I guess that could make all xenolife directionless. I don’t know how we’d go about doing that.”
“Great,” Anna said. “This just gets more and more impossible.”
No one said anything. It was a lot to take in. Even though we knew where it came from, even why it was here, we were no closer to knowing how to stop the xenovirus. Nothing definitive, anyway. Kill the Voice — but how do you kill something that isn’t attached to a corporeal form?
None of this made sense. I was expecting the answer to be obvious. I was expecting something like a chemical or a drug that would kill anything that had the xenovirus — an actual cure that targeted the xenovirus, and eradicated it.
Knowing how something existed didn’t tell you how to make it no longer exist.
“Do the Files say anything else?” I asked. “Anything at all on how to kill this thing?”
“No,” Samuel said.
So that was it. If these researchers couldn’t figure anything out — in the Bunker with the biggest labs, the most computers, and most expertise — what shot did we have? We were only four. Other than pure guesswork, there was almost no hope.
Within a certain amount of time, the world would be covered with Blights. There would only be one Blight, and humanity would no longer exist.
We were facing extinction.
“There is one thing you didn’t explain,” Makara said.
Samuel looked up from where he had been hanging his head. His form was hunched in near defeat — it was disconcerting to see that in our leader.
“Explain what Xenofall is.”
“Xenofall is what it sounds like,” Samuel said. “Ragnarok was only the beginning. The writers and moviemakers in the Old World always thought aliens would attack with giant ships and lasers. Nothing is further from reality. It’s all biological warfare, and the most brilliant kind there is: the kind that harms your enemy, and only helps you.”
“So when Meteor fell, it was only clearing the way,” I said. “When the rest of them come, the natives will be gone, so to speak.”
Samuel nodded. “Earth is being terraformed. Not by giant machines of metal, but by tiny machines of life. When they’re through, Earth will not be ours anymore. We will have been long dead, and the planet will be ready for them to use. We are being colonized.”
“When will this ‘Xenofall’ happen?” I asked.
“The Files don’t say,” Samuel said. “However long it takes for us to die out, and however long it takes for the Blights to cover the Earth. But we’re the only ones who can stop it. That is, if it can be stopped.”
Samuel walked from the computer. In that lab, with the hundreds of computers humming around us, Xenofall seemed like a date that would never happen. But it was real. It was coming. And we had no way to stop it.
“We need more information,” Samuel said. “But this…” He waved his arm around, indicating the entire room, “this is all there is. We know more than anyone else on Earth knows, and still, it’s not enough.”
“So what more can we do?” I asked. “We’re stuck here in the Bunker, surrounded by hundreds of miles of Blight and monsters, with winter coming on and no way out. And probably no food or water. Looks like we’re as good as dead.”
Samuel ignored my cheery assessment of the situation. “The only thing I can think of is going to Ragnarok Crater.”
My insides lurched at the thought. We had just gotten here, of all places, and Samuel was talking about picking up and going to the Ragnarok Crater, another thousand miles away?
“Why there?”
Samuel shrugged. “This is pure speculation, but it makes sense to think the Crater would be the center of it all. It’s where Meteor landed and began its work. There might be some central hub where everything communicates with each other.”
“Key words: pure speculation,” Makara said. “We came here. We found nothing. We lose. We found our answer. The answer is: there is no answer. This was all for nothing. All we can do is hope to get out of here, find the safest place we can, and wait for the end.”
“We’re not getting out of here,” I said. “Our ride blew itself up. It was a miracle that thing even flew.”
Something quite unexpected happened. A voice came from every speaker in the lab, booming from the walls.
“Apocalypse Team,” the voice said, “this is Dr. Cornelius Ashton. Can you hear me?”
We stared at each other in shock. So he was here.
“Yes!” Samuel yelled. “Dr. Ashton, where are you?”
“I am not in Bunker One,” Dr. Ashton said, “but there is little time to explain. With luck, there will be time for explanations later. You all will die if you stay in this lab a minute longer.”
“Die?” Anna asked. “What do you know? How are you even communicating with us?”
“Never mind that. I will explain later. All that matters is getting out of here alive. It knows you’re here. The Voice. Every turner within a hundred-mile radius is converging on this point. It never wanted you to know what you have learned here today. Remember that the old axiom is true: information is power. The Voice does not want you to have it.
“There will be time for answers soon, but for now, you must escape this place. Already they are inside.”
As soon as those words were said, there was a crash against the vault door. I could hear the creatures’ screams and wails coming from the other side. If they could get in the tunnel when it had collapsed, they could probably get in here, too.
“Go to the runway,” Dr. Ashton said. “I will provide your escape.”
With that, the voice cut off. The silence that followed was pierced by more screams from infected creatures.
We could hear groans. They were coming from within the labs.
Howlers.
I guessed that was where all the bodies had gone.
Chapter 22
Howlers charged from two corridors into the main lab. Their clothes had long since rotted from their bodies. They slunk toward us, flesh pink and thin, coated with purple slime.
“Don’t shoot!” Samuel said. “Head for the stairs!”
We followed Samuel away from our attackers to the staircase that led to the lab’s second level. I didn’t know if there was a way out up there, but there sure wasn’t one on the bottom floor.
We reached the landing and found no way out. The second floor was just a balcony that surrounded the entire lab.
“That vault was the only way out,” Makara said. “We’re trapped.”
“There has to be another way,” I said. “Let’s just keep looking.”
Some of the Howlers charged for the stairs. We had to keep moving.
We followed Samuel around the balcony, until we had reached the other side. We were above the computer where we had searched for the Black Files — there were no doors, no windows, nor any other way back down to the lab floor. And now Howlers spilling from the balcony doorway cut us off on both sides.
This time, Lisa wouldn’t be here to save the day.
“We’re going to have to kill them,” Anna said. “Explosions or not, we’re dead either way.”