"There was an explosion," she said, in a surprised voice.
"Mae, where are you? I can't see."
Everything was pitch black. I could see nothing at all. I was deep in some damn cave full of spiky things and I couldn't see. I fought panic.
"It's all right," Mae said. In the darkness I felt her hand gripping my arm. Apparently she could see me. She said, "The flashlight's on your belt." She guided my hand. I fumbled in the darkness, feeling for the clip. I found it, but I couldn't get it open. It was a spring clip and my fingers kept slipping off. I began to hear a thrumming sound, low at first, but starting to build. My hands were sweating. Finally the clip opened, and I flicked the flashlight on with a sigh of relief. I saw Mae in the cold halogen beam; she still had her goggles, and looked away. I swung the beam around the cave. It had been transformed by the explosion. Many of the clusters had broken apart and the spikes were all over the floor. Some substance on the floor was beginning to burn. Acrid, foul smoke was billowing up. The air was thick and dark… I stepped backward, and felt something squishy.
I looked down and saw David Brooks's shirt. Then I realized I was standing on what was left of David's torso, which had turned into a kind of whitish jelly. My foot was right in his abdomen. His rib cage scraped against my shin, leaving a white streak on my pants. I looked back and saw David's face, ghostly white and eroded, his features eaten away until he looked as featureless as the faces on the swarms. I felt instant nausea, and tasted bile. "Come on," Mae said, grabbing my arm, squeezing it hard. "Come on, Jack." With a sucking sound, my foot pulled free of the body. I tried to scrape my shoe on the floor, to get clean of the white muck. I was not thinking anymore, I was just fighting nausea and an overpowering sense of horror. I wanted to run. Mae was talking to me but I didn't hear her. I saw only glimpses of the room around me, and was only dimly aware that the swarms were emerging all around us, swarm after swarm after swarm. They were buzzing everywhere. "I need you, Jack," Mae said, holding out four caps, and somehow, fumbling with the flashlight, I managed to light them and she flung them in all directions. I threw my hands over my eyes as the hot spheres exploded around me. When I looked again, the swarms were gone. But in only a few moments, they began to reemerge. First one swarm, then three, then six, then ten-and then too many to count. They were converging, with an angry buzz, toward us. "How many caps have we got left?" I said.
"Eight."
I knew then that we were not going to make it. We were too deep in the cave. We would never get out. I had no idea how many swarms were around us-my halogen beam swung back and forth across what seemed like an army.
"Jack…" Mae said, holding out her hand. She never seemed to lose confidence. I lit three more caps and Mae threw them, retracing her steps toward the entrance as she did so. I stayed close to her, but I knew our situation was hopeless. Each blast scattered the swarms for just a moment. Then they quickly regrouped. There were far too many swarms. "Jack." More thermite in her hands.
Now I could see the entrance to the chamber, just a few yards ahead. My eyes were watering from all the acrid smoke. My halogen light was just a narrow beam cutting through the dust. The air was getting thicker and thicker.
A final series of white-hot blasts, and we came to the entrance. I saw the ramp leading back toward the surface. I never thought we'd get this far. But I wasn't thinking anymore, everything was impressions.
"How many left?" I said.
Mae didn't answer me. I heard the rumble of an engine from somewhere above us. Looking up I saw a wobbling white light in the cave higher up. The rumble became very loud-I heard an engine gunned-and then I saw the ATV poised on the ramp above. Bobby was up there, shouting "Get outttttt!"
Mae turned and ran up the ramp, and I scrambled to follow her. I was vaguely aware of Bobby lighting something that burst into orange flame, and then Mae pushed me against the wall as the riderless ATV roared down the ramp toward the chamber below, with a flaming cloth hanging from its gas tank. It was a motorized Molotov cocktail.
As soon as it passed, Mae shoved me hard in the back. "Run!" I sprinted the last few yards up the ramp. Bobby was reaching down for us, hauling us up over the lip to the level above. I fell and scraped my knee but hardly felt it as he dragged me onto my feet again. Then I was running hard toward the cave entrance and had almost reached the opening when a fiery blast knocked us off our feet, and I went tumbling through the air, and smashed against one of the cave walls. I got to my feet, head ringing. My flashlight was gone. I heard a kind of strange screaming sound from somewhere behind me, or thought I did. I looked at Mae and Bobby. They were getting to their feet. With the helicopter still thumping above us, we clambered up the incline and collapsed over the lip of the mound, and tumbled down the slopes, out into the cool, black desert night.
The last thing I saw was Mae waving the helicopter away, gesturing for it to go, go, goAnd then the cave exploded.
The ground jumped beneath my feet, knocking me over. I fell to the ground just as the shock wave caused sharp pain in my ears. I heard the deep rumble of the explosion. From the mouth of the cave an enormous angry fireball billowed upward, orange laced in black. I felt a wave of heat rolling down toward me, and then it was gone, and everything was suddenly quiet, and the world around me was black.
How long I lay there beneath the stars I am not sure. I must have lost consciousness, because the next thing I remember was Bobby pushing me up into the backseat of the helicopter. Mae was already inside, and she leaned over to buckle me in. They were both looking at me with expressions of concern. I wondered dully if I had been injured. I didn't feel any pain. The door slammed beside me, and Bobby got in the front next to the pilot. We had done it. We had succeeded.
I could hardly believe it was over.
The helicopter rose into the air and I saw the lights of the lab in the distance.
PREY
DAY 7
12:12 A.M.
"Jack."
Julia rushed toward me as I came down the corridor. In the overhead light her face looked beautiful in a lean, elegant way. She was in truth more beautiful than I remembered. Her ankle was bandaged and she had a cast on her wrist. She threw her arms around me and buried her head in my shoulder. Her hair smelled of lavender. "Oh, Jack, Jack. Thank God you're all right."
"Yeah," I said hoarsely. "I'm okay."
"I'm so glad… so glad."
I just stood there, feeling her hug me. Then I hugged her back. I didn't know how to react. She was so energized, but I was exhausted, flat.
"Are you all right, Jack?" she said, still hugging me.
"Yeah, Julia." I said, just above a whisper. "I am."
"What's wrong with your voice?" she said, pulling back to look at me. She scanned my face. "What's wrong?"
"He probably burned his vocal cords," Mae said. She was hoarse, too. Her face was blackened with soot. She had a cut on her cheek, and another on her forehead. Julia embraced me again, her fingers touched my shirt. "Darling, you're hurt…"
"Just my shirt."
"Jack, are you sure you're not hurt? I think you're hurt…"
"No, I'm okay." I stepped away from her awkwardly.
"I can't tell you," she said, "how grateful I am for what you did tonight, Jack. What all of you did," she added, turning to the others. "You, Mae, and Bobby too. I'm only sorry I wasn't here to help. I know this is all my fault. But we're very grateful. The company is grateful." I thought, The company? But all I said was, "Yeah, well, it had to be done."