2041 Sanctuary (Let There Be Light) (9 page)

Echoing footsteps and depressive thoughts, beckoned forth by solitude and suffocating stale air, brought to the fore hallucinatory dreams and maddening lucidity. To the minority, who knew of its existence, the way was known to be fraught with danger. To the few who dared traverse its forbidden halls, its mountainous hollow shell, the passage could never be surpassed in scope or threat.

At the summit of a monumental climb – that started a kilometre down in the deep – a hand appeared over a sharp ridge. Feeling about for purchase, fingers dug into thin, dusty soil loaded with gravel. With a final exertion from weary limbs, the explorer heaved herself up, the scrape of clothing and rattle of climbing gear loud to the ear. Rolling onto her back she lay there, chest rising and falling, sweat dripping and heart pumping. All she could hear was the thump thump thump of blood pumping through her veins.

Her breathing eased and she sat up to see a hand extended towards her. She grasped it and accepted the force that pulled her to her feet. ‘Where is she?’

He pointed. ‘Up there.’

She sighed and focused on the area he’d indicated. High above a small figure traversed a precarious ledge, her long blonde hair peeking out beneath her high-tech helmet, its inbuilt torches lighting her way. ‘I think she’s losing the plot, this is a dead end.’

‘She didn’t seem to think so.’

‘
She’s
taking too many risks.’

The man shrugged. ‘It’s what she does.’

‘I don’t like it. I don’t like any of this.’

‘She’s got us this far.’

‘Which is where?’

‘That’s what she’s trying to find out.’

She frowned. ‘She’s not wearing her safety harness again.’

‘She said she needed to move quickly. Our water is running low, or hadn’t you noticed?’

‘It’s all I ever think about.’

His shoulders dropped. ‘Losing the aerial drone didn’t help.’

‘That ceiling could have collapsed at any time. It wasn’t your fault.’

He gave a derisive snort. ‘Our luck sucks.’

‘Maybe. It depends which way you look at it.’ She looked back up and winced as her blonde friend leapt across a sheer drop, sending loose sediment cascading down the side of the rock face.

Adjusting her helmet visor, she brightened the image of the pitch-black cave, grateful for the technology that enabled its wearer to see in the dark – without them they’d be blind and in even deeper trouble than they already were. ‘I’m getting a really bad feeling about this,’ she said, ‘we’re past the point of no return.’

‘Give her a chance, she’ll come good.’

‘She better or we’ll die down here.’

‘When has she let us down before?’

She looked at him and considered the question. ‘There was that time in Pakistan, and then on Easter Island when she—’

‘Recently,’ he said.

‘Oi, you two!’ A voice echoed in their helmets, making them look back towards the person they’d been discussing.

‘Stop your yakking and give me a hand.’

‘Keep your hair on!’ Jason said, through his headset’s microphone.

‘What do you want us to do?’ Trish asked, also using her inbuilt communication system.

‘Grab this rope and pull, but make sure you’re out of the way.’ She threw a rope down to them, its coils unfurling on the long descent.

‘Are you sure this is going to work?’ Jason said, walking forward to collect the line.

‘I hope so,’ her voice crackled over the radio, ‘or we’re going to have to find another way through.’

‘This doesn’t look very safe,’ Trish said to Jason. ‘You’re sure she knows what she’s doing?’

‘Of course I know what I’m doing,’ the voice said through her helmet’s earpiece. ‘I’ve had Deep Reach training, haven’t I?’

‘We’re not in the SED now, though, are we?’ Trish said.

Her friend failed to comment; instead she finished tying her end of the rope around a boulder and moved back the way she’d come, once more jumping over the knee trembling drop. She gave them a thumbs up signal. ‘Good to go!’

Jason and Trish grasped the rope with their climbing gloves and took the strain.

Jason looked back at her. ‘You ready?’

Trish grimaced. ‘I suppose.’

‘On three. One – two – three!’

Trish lent back and pulled as hard as she could. The rope creaked under tension while the dirt underfoot formed tiny mounds as their climbing boots dug into it. With her lungs fit to burst, Trish let go. ‘There’s no way we’re budging that.’

‘Hang on,’ Jason said, and moved off.

A moment later light blazed forth as he returned with the Centipede, their multi-wheeled, remote controlled, all-terrain supply vehicle. Manoeuvring the fifteen foot long, yellow-clad, insect-like machine into position, Jason proceeded to attach the rope to one end.

He gave Trish a grin. ‘No point breaking our backs when Bob can do it for us.’

Trish shook her head. ‘If you had to give it a name couldn’t you have chosen something better than Bob?’

He waved her out of the way. ‘What’s wrong with Bob?’

‘What’s right with it?’

‘You’ve got no imagination.’

‘Says the man who came up with Bob.’

Jason peered at a button on the supply vehicle’s control console that read:
auxiliary engine
. He glanced up. ‘Shall I use the—’

‘No.’ His friend’s voice echoed in his ear. ‘Do not use the power boost, if the rope snapped it’d be out of control. How more times?’

‘Spoilsport. Okay,’ – he pulled back on the joystick – ‘let’s see what he’s got.’

The Centipede, aka Bob, gained speed before jolting to a halt as the rope snapped tight. Wheels spinning, dirt flying, the low slung vehicle weaved from side to side as it sought purchase.

Trish waved to Jason as the vehicle’s motor whined and its wheels slipped and spun. ‘It’s not working!’

Jason ceased its movement.

‘Try pulling at the same time,’ their friend’s voice said, via their helmets.

‘Try pulling at the same time,’ Jason said in mimicry. ‘It’d help if she came down and helped.’

‘I heard that,’ came the reply.

Trish chuckled and grabbed hold of the rope, with Jason just in front of her.

Locking the Centipede’s joystick into position, the sound of the machine’s propulsion filled the air once more and Bob, Trish and Jason heaved back on the rope in unison.

‘Keep going!’ came the command over their com system. ‘It’s moving!’

Jason grunted in exertion and Trish felt her grip failing before the rope went slack. She fell to the ground and Jason landed on top of her, knocking her helmet into the dirt with a clonk and sending her visor image to a momentary fuzz of pixels.

A scream of warning caused the two of them to scramble back to their feet. Behind, Bob careered off into the immense blackness of Sanctuary Proper, straight towards a yawning crevasse. Jason made a dive for the control device and knocked the joystick back to neutral. The Centipede slid to a stop inches from the edge.

Jason looked at Trish. ‘Jesus,’ he said in shock, ‘that was close.’

She nodded and heaved a sigh of relief.

‘Good work,’ said their friend’s voice. ‘I think I can see a way through now.’

‘Is it safe?’ Trish looked back up to see the tail end of a pair of legs disappear inside the entrance they’d just created. Before she could voice her concern at the obvious lack of caution, a deep rumbling shook the earth beneath their feet and great cracks zigzagged out from the hole.

The shaking continued and the sweeping cliff face crumbled. Huge swathes of rock toppled free and the shape of a woman moving at high speed, burst back into view to leap out into midair, a hundred feet up, limbs flailing. A scream rang out over the thunderous noise of the landslide and Trish watched in horror as her friend fell to certain death, before the rope they’d been pulling twanged tight, shooting up between them and dragging a beleaguered Bob back the way he’d come.

The woman, holding on for dear life, slid down the arc of rope at speed, chased by a mass of falling debris. The giant cavern gave a final groan before the whole side came crashing down. The deafening noise engulfed them and a wall of dust swallowed the fleeing climber in its heaving midst.

The ground lurched and Trish and Jason staggered backwards towards the yawning abyss behind. Teetering on the brink, Trish grabbed Jason’s arm as death approached. A whoosh of air swept over them and a cloud of debris filled their vision. Trish shut her eyes and braced for impact. The rumbling grew louder still and then faded away. She cracked open an eye as the sound of small stones and pebbles trickling down signalled an end to the calamity. The dust cleared and, feet from the wall of collapsed rock, where Trish and Jason were huddled, their friend stood in stupendous victory, a victory of survival and indefensible fortune.

♦

Sarah Morgan threw aside the frayed end of the rope that had, without doubt, just saved her life. Sending a silent prayer of thanks to the gods of chance and fate, she removed her helmet and shook out her long blonde locks under the floodlit glare of the Centipede’s headlights.

She approached her two friends, her dazzling blue eyes bright with life. ‘You two okay?’ she said, her East London accent resonating with concerned confidence.

Trish removed her own headgear. ‘Are you out of your damn mind?!’

Sarah frowned. ‘What’re you talking about?’

‘You may not give a shit if you live or die, but when you risk your life, you risk ours; without you we’re as good as dead. What were you thinking, going in there without checking its stability?’

‘Of course I care if I live or die!’ Sarah looked to Jason for support. ‘I’m doing everything I can to get us to the surface, or hadn’t you noticed?’

‘I noticed you didn’t answer my question,’ Trish said.

Sarah huffed and walked away to check the Centipede for damage. ‘Of course I checked for stability. The visor highlights areas of structural weaknesses automatically.’

‘Does it?’ Trish asked Jason.

‘Don’t ask me.’

‘Even if it did,’ Trish said, ‘you couldn’t have checked it properly,’ – she waved an arm indicating the huge landslip behind her – ‘or it’d have picked up that.’

Sarah swung round, her expression fierce. ‘Will you stop lecturing me! I’m doing all I can, but we’ve lost half our water supply and we’re too far from the shuttle station to return!’

Livid, Trish strode forward. ‘Lecturing you? Lecturing you?!’

Jason stepped between the two women and raised his hands. ‘Ladies, come on, this isn’t helping anyone.’

‘Shut up, Jason!’ they said in unison, their eyes locked.

He bowed his head and stepped back again.

‘You’re losing it,’ Trish said, her gaze unwavering. ‘You could have just killed us all and for what? There’s no way through, we’ll have to retrace our steps anyway.’

‘If there’s no way through, then what’s that?’ Sarah pointed up to the newly created mound of rock.

Trish turned. Before her, near where the cave wall had once stood, the final particles of pulverized stone had settled to reveal a new tunnel system beyond.

Trish faced her friend again. ‘Just because it paid off this time doesn’t mean jack, we’re still screwed.’

Sarah couldn’t take much more of this. ‘Perhaps if you weren’t whining all the time, distracting everyone, we wouldn’t be.’

‘What!’ Trish lunged for her, but Jason intervened to hold her back as she tried to get at the object of her fury.

‘Calm down!’ he said, struggling to restrain her as Sarah primed for a fight.

‘Calm down? Did you hear what she said?! She nearly killed us, AND BLAMED ME!!’

Continuing to vent her anger, near hysterical, arms flailing, she caught Jason in the mouth, drawing blood, and he slapped her round the face.

Trish stopped as shock registered. Tears welled and she turned and clambered away over the fallen debris, holding her cheek.

Jason followed. ‘Trish, wait! I’m sorry!’

‘Let her go,’ Sarah said and returned to her inspection of their lifeline, the battle worn yellow supply vehicle. Crouching down, she ran a critical eye over it. It seemed to have avoided the rock fall unharmed, its intricate internal and external mechanisms showing no signs of damage. Their remaining water canisters, secured to one of its cargo plates, had also made it through unscathed.

Sarah glanced up to see Jason conversing with Trish some way away, arms gesticulating and voices raised. It wasn’t long, however, before tensions calmed and the two shared a reconciling embrace.

Jason turned to pick his way back across the rock strewn landscape and Sarah looked back down to continue her inspection.

‘You need to make up with her,’ Jason said, coming to stand by her side.

‘She needed to let off some steam. It’ll do her good.’ Sarah stood up, her long legs straightening. At nearly six foot she could look Jason squarely in the eye.

‘None of this is helping.’ He looked worried and glanced over at Trish, who remained where she was, sixty yards away with her back to them. ‘You need to make this right.’

‘I’ll speak to her,’ Sarah said, not feeling like speaking to Trish at all, but knowing it was what he wanted to hear.

Jason, reassured by her words, carried on yabbering, his Welsh trill musical to the ear, but something that Sarah zoned out as she double-checked the rest of their equipment was secure on the snake-like machine.

It had been over a week since they’d fled the U.S. Army enclave known as USSB Sanctuary. Deep underground, the massive subterranean city had been a revelation when they’d initially stumbled upon it the previous year; however, success had been marred by capture as they’d been thrown in a military prison quicker than they could blink. Many weeks passed and interrogations were endured before they’d been released and, through a series of miraculous breaks, Sarah had found herself working at the SED, Sanctuary’s amazing Exploration Division.

The job had suited Sarah down to the ground and she’d revelled in the opportunity to explore outside the base and far into Sanctuary Proper as a member of an elite Deep Reach team, the pinnacle of SED operations for any ambitious archaeologist such as herself. She’d excelled at the work and lapped up the incredible scientific and archaeological discoveries she’d been privileged to witness. At the time it had seemed like everything in her life had led her towards those moments, an experience carved out by destiny and one unlike any other – an experience that she’d cherish until the end of her days.