Holes in the Ground (36 page)

Kane lurched forwards. “The Kent facility? That makes more than a dozen sites now after Chile finding one in the hills of Santiago. What are these things up to?”

“I don’t know, old buddy. I hear you have the survivors of Samhain with you. To tell you the truth the rest of us are all relying on you for answers. I’ve been trying to get a hold of that other survivor of Samhain, Dr Belgium, something-or-other. Guy seems to have fallen off the grid. You’re the only one with any kind of information on these things, thanks to your guests.”

Kane sighed. “I’m not sure I’ll get anything useful from them. Samhain was a disaster and the Dennisons were partly responsible. I don’t have much faith in their abilities.”

“Still, you have a better chance than the rest of us. It’s clear that these things are converging on our facilities. What do you think they want, General?”

Kane rubbed at his chin and suddenly felt very tired and ancient. “I don’t know, Robson, but I guess we’re going to find out soon enough.”

“Why do you want to talk to me?” Andy asked the Irishman. “How do you even know who I am?”

Lucas was still grinning. “Oh, I know you well enough, lad. I know the very core of you. The brokenness and fear that you’ve carried with you ever since you went down that wretched hole in the desert.”

“You know about Samhain?”

“I know about a lot of things. Everything from where to find the world’s best pint of ale—that would be a little place in Scotland called the Clachaig Inn by the way—to what colour underpants the pope wears.” Lucas chuckled. “Purple, if you can believe it.”

“Fascinating,” said Dr Chandelling.

“But let me guess,” said Andy. “Instead of being helpful and sharing all you know, you’re going to continue being a cryptic asshole instead? Am I right?”

Lucas placed his palms against the glass and leaned forward. “Can’t blame a chappy for wanting a few wee laughs now, can you? The fun is in letting you work things out for yourself, lad. Besides, if I could make things easy for you, I would. But there are certain rules to abide by. What is it those fluffy black fellas say in their delightful little rap songs? Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

Jerry moved up beside Andy and folded his skinny arms across his soccer shirt. “What’s your deal, man? Are you like a ghost or something? Why can’t they run any tests on you? What’s up with that?”

Lucas turned his attention to Jerry and raised a fuzzy eyebrow. “Ah, young Jeremy Preston, and without your friend, Benjamin. What a rarity.”

Jerry took a step backwards. “What? How the hell you know…”

“Don’t worry,” said Lucas. “Ben forgives you. Deep down, he forgives you. The two of you have been through a lot. Even more than the two of you know or remember.”

Jerry just frowned and turned away.

“It’s a valid question,” Sun told Lucas. “What exactly are you? You’re
not
human.”

“Few things in this place are, my darling sweetheart.”

“So what are you?”

“I am what I am. One of God’s creations, same as you, same as him.”

Dr Chandelling produced a notepad and started making notes. His tongue peeked out the corner of his mouth as he did so.

“There is no God,” said Andy. “I know that, because a few cells away is a creature that disproves him.”

Lucas glanced sideways as if he could see through the cement walls of his cell and into the one adjacent. “You’re making assumptions there, Andy-boy. I know all about that cheeky little monkey, Bub. He had you believe he was a little grander than he really is.”

“So you’re saying Bub isn’t dangerous?”

Lucas huffed. “Oh, no, that egotistical feck will quite happily wipe humanity off the face of the earth. I’m just telling you not to give him more credit than he’s due. There is indeed a God and he is good. He created you and I, just like the bible tells it. But there are other things, too. Things you have within these very walls that were nothing to do with God’s plan. God isn’t the only creator in this world.”

Andy’s eyes narrowed. “Bub…”

“Aye, Bub has his thumbprint on a few of the world’s more unpleasant surprises. People ask why God lets bad things happen to good people. The answer is because this world does not belong to Him. Not completely. There’s a power struggle. A battle between black, white, and every other colour in between.”

“You’re talking gibberish,” said Andy. “What point are you trying to make?”

“My point is that the earth is a warzone—and the enemy is about to play its final gambit. You could think of this as D-day, only this time it’s the Germans who are storming the beaches.”

“And which side are you on?” Sun asked.

Lucas grinned, folded his arms. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see, my dear.”

“Fine, but you still haven’t said what you want with my husband. You said you were here to see him.”

“Aye, I am. Whatever happens deep down in this hole in the ground is going to be on him. I’m here to see the game play out. It will be very entertaining.”

Andy sighed and turned away. “I don’t have time for this guy’s riddles. Let’s go see the reason we’re really here.”

They headed twenty feet down the corridor until they were face to face with the batling. It still flapped about in the air, apparently able to sustain its ability to do so indefinitely. Like Bub, its metabolism was extremely efficient.

“Dennnisssonsss.”

Andy and Sun both looked at one another in surprise. They had not expected the thing to talk.

“You remember us?” Andy asked.

“We will tear you bothhh aparrrt.”

“Yep, he remembers us,” said Sun.

“What exactly happened between you and Bub at Samhain?” Dr Chandelling asked.

Sun shrugged her shoulders. “We tried to blow Bub up, right after melting his face off with radiation. Needless to say, we were unsuccessful.”

“Bet you pissed him off, though,” said Jerry. “Not a complete bust.”

“No, you’re right,” said Andy. “I’m pretty sure we pissed Bub off quite a bit.”

“Pathetic humans.”

Andy stared at the baltling, fought the urge to spit at the glass. “What are you up to? Why are you here? Answer me.”

“There isss a new kingdom beginning. Humanity’s time isss over.
Bellum internecinum
.”

“What does that mean?” Sun asked. “Bellum…”

“Bellum internecium. It’s latin. It means ‘war of extermination’.”

“Guy thinks he’s a Darlek or something,” Jerry muttered. “
Exterminate!
”

Andy laughed. “Maybe, but I assure you they’ll be no Doctor to come save us.”

“Your death will be the most painful, Andy Dennissson. We will claw my way down your throat and eat you from the inssside.”

“How does this thing know you?” Jerry asked. “He really seems to dislike you. And why does he keep saying ‘we’ like the Queen.”

“Sun and I have history with its creator,” said Andy. “There used to be one giant version of this thing called Bub. He exploded into a dozen of these smaller versions. They obviously still have Bub’s memories and think of themselves as one.”

“Or maybe they
are
Bub,” said Sun. “After all the things we saw him do, splitting his consciousness wouldn’t be that surprising.”

Dr Chandelling looked up from his notes. “It’s very interesting. This thing hadn’t spoken until you arrived. The fact that it remembers you makes it clear that this thing has a high level of intellect.”

“It’s as smart as you or I,” said Andy.

“Smarter,” Sun added.

“But damn if it’s not ugly,” said Jerry.

The batling turned towards Jerry and bashed into the glass. It blinked its eyes sideways and growled. “Quiet your tongue, slug.”

Jerry stepped up closer to the glass. “Who you calling a slug, knob head?”

The batling bashed the glass again. Despite its thickness it actually vibrated half-an-inch.

“Interesting,” Dr Chandelling made some more notes on his pad. “The creature seems to exhibit an ego. That means it has self-awareness.”

The battling bashed the glass a third time. “We have awareness of all. We see into your souls, you pathetic worms.” The batling descended slightly, hovered at head height beside Dr Chandelling. “We know about Aaron.”

Chandelling dropped his note pad on the floor. His pockmarked jaw dropped open.

“Doctor, are you okay?” Sun asked.

“Yes, I’m…I’m fine. If you’ll excuse me I have to go and compile this data.” He picked his notepad off the floor and hurried away.

“Tricks and chicanery,” said Andy. He was unimpressed. As much as he knew the danger of the thing before him, he knew that it was just playing games, trying to gain control. “You can bully and manipulate whoever you want, but you’re trapped inside this cage and that is where you will stay until we decide to destroy you. You belong to us now.”

The batling bellowed with laughter. It flittered about in the air, titling and spinning. It finally stabilised and looked out at them with pure hatred in its bestial eyes. “You humans know nothing, but soon you will see. Soon you will understand how meagrely-numbered are your days. The end is coming. You will all die.”

“Bite me,” said Jerry.

Dr Chandelling holed up in his office and closed the door. The first thing he did was open up his prized StereoMatic 564 record player and put on the soothing tones of Bing Crosby. Lesly had been born in the mid-60s but had grown up to the backdrop of his father’s records. The music of his own generation had lacked the sophistication and class of the decades before—the time before the disco and the drug scene had sullied things.

Lesly sat down at his desk and eased back into the soft Italian leather of his office chair. He budged the mouse on his desk and made his laptop’s screen flicker to life. It displayed the neatly ordered desktop and the background image of Lesly’s class photo from the rundown high school he’d attended in his home town of Canton, Ohio. They had been happy days. The smiling face of his teenage self had no understanding of the perils that his adult life would bring.

How did that thing know about Aaron? Nobody knows. It was kept secret as part of my deal.

Lesly pictured Aaron’s handsome, boyish features and sighed. He missed the young man, wondered what he was up to right now.

Did he leave South Africa like he had always dreamed? Did he make it to England?

Lesly missed the classroom a great deal, missed teaching. Being surrounded by young minds keen to learn was so much better than being amongst the monsters buried inside the Spiral. The things he had seen…

But I’ve been here so long now I don’t think I could ever go back to teaching even if I wanted to. I’m too disconnected from the world. Things have moved on. I’m institutionalised, no different from a prisoner. I may have the freedom to leave, but the knowledge of what is down here makes it impossible to live a normal life. It changes everything.

The Spiral was Lesly’s life now, whether he liked it or not. The life he had once had before was but a morose memory.

But somehow the past had followed him down there.

That thing knows about Aaron
.

Somehow the battling knew Lesly’s deepest secret. It knew about the boy he had once passionately loved. The boy he had been forced to abandon in order to keep his career intact.

If the batling tells anyone about it, I might lose my place here. I’ll have to go back out into the world. I can’t survive out there. Not now.

I can’t let that evil monster ruin my life.

I can’t.

Dr Chandelling leaned forward on his desk and began to think.

While Andy and Sun tried to figure out the batling, Jerry decided to walk up and down the corridor and check out the various creatures imprisoned behind the glass. It was like something out of his wildest fantasies. Of all the films, books, and games he had experienced, they all paled in comparison to the real thing.

He passed by a misshapen creature with long arms and ropey white body hair. It looked a little like what Jerry imagined a yeti to be like, but the text on the LED screen read,
Grendaline Historicum.

The most frightening creature on the level was the thing in cell 6 named
Nosferatus Hominic.
The monster looked mostly like a man but its jaws were more like a shark’s with rows upon rows of lethal dagger-like teeth. Every time Jerry walked past cell 6 the thing glared at him. It moved up to the glass and watched him hungrily. It was like being stalked by a lion and Jerry was glad for the six-inch barrier separating them.

The thing in there definitely wants to play.

In the next cell was Wolfie, or
Lycanus Canus
as the LED display noted. When the hairy, dog-like creature saw Jerry, it too came closer to the glass, but it wasn’t in a threatening manner like the occupant of cell 6. Wolfie just sat down behind the glass and watched Jerry walk by with interest, its ears pricked up like a border collie’s.

“Hey, there,” Jerry said, stopping in front of the cell. “Do you want to eat me? Or are you just bored?” Jerry stared at the creature and watched as it titled its head inquisitively. “Yeah, I think you’re just bored. How long they had you caged-up down here? Years, I bet.”

The creature let out a soft whine. It was somewhere between a begging sound and one of barely-contained excitement. Jerry noticed Wolfie had a tail and that it was wagging enthusiastically.

“I used to have an old dog named Betsie,” Jerry said, wondering if it was silly talking to a giant werewolf, but not really caring. “My mom was always working and I was at school, so Betsie would get left alone a lot. Whenever I walked through the door she would go completely barmy. She would run around the flat back and forth between the rooms, whining and yelping. When she finally calmed down she would sit on my lap with her legs in the air and I would tickle her belly. I can’t imagine how miserable she would have been if we’d locked her up and just never come home.”

Wolfie titled his head further, tail wagging faster.

“I don’t think it’s right that they have you down here. You don’t look dangerous to me. You may have bitten that General dude, but he’s an asshole anyway.”