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Exciting news! Book 1 is out now!
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“Wait!” the creature called again as it paused before shambling over to stand under one of the overhead lights.
Its green body glowed from the illumination, and Arthur felt his stomach roil as he stared at the ooze. Bones, all human, floated inside—though not enough to form a full skeleton. This left gaps between them, filled with weird metal and pink blobs. He forced himself to take a few steps forward for a closer look and immediately wished he hadn’t.
Brains filled the gaps between the bones—brains and the rat’s control devices. They floated there, connected with wires to the bones that ran to the constantly grinning skull. At Arthur’s approach, the creature raised an arm in a strange jerky motion, like a stop-motion puppet.
“Don’t. Stop. Wait.”
“What the hell is that?!” Jemima called out, and Arthur raised his hands to forestall any more questions.
Instead, he ignored the voice and took another step forward. It flinched away, one limb at a time. The way it moved made him grimace, but he didn’t stop even as he launched a question at it.
“Did you take shelter with him, or are you from the tubes?”
From behind him, he heard Jemima curse and Theobold wretch. Arthur really hoped George didn’t know about this, because if he did and hadn’t mentioned it, they’d need to have words. With the fire that constantly burned in his stomach now, he knew they wouldn’t be nice ones.
The creature shook its head and raised its hands.
“I don’t experiment on anyone aside from myself. Not to start with. They fired me for that, you know? She found out. She hated me for it. Never again.” There was none of the electronic filter in his voice as he spoke. Instead, it held sounded human, though, with an undercurrent of popping bubbles.
Arthur wondered if it was because of the wires that ran up the section of ooze that acted as a neck, even as he resisted the urge to close his eyes. This was not what he’d expected to deal with.
“Hello, Dr. Kunibert.”
“Hello, Arthur.” The creatures nodded and briefly looked as though they might tip over. “Do you remember our agreement?”
“That I would allow you to come up topside when you asked me to? Yes.”
He remembered. It was the part of the request he’d always found the strangest. Though it made sense now as Dr. Kunibert took a step forward and Arthur watched as the bones, brains, and cables all moved around. He’d half expected a sloshing noise, but the creature barely made a sound.
“I don’t want to come up yet, not looking like this.”
Arthur nodded. “Then why approach? I’m rather busy, as you can see.”
“I do. My rats have been monitoring things in the tunnels, and people have spoken about your transformation. That was one reason I wanted to see you,” Dr. Kunibert gestured over to him as he spoke.
“Dr. Muriler wasn’t the cause of my transformation.” Arthur wanted to shut that idea down early. “Was there anything else?”
“That is good to know. You remained reasonable then. No. What I wanted to know about most was your expedition into The Pit. I would like to join you.”
That made him stop, and he could hear the murmurs from behind him. From what he could overhear, Jemima was giving a crash course about who this was to Rab and Captain Swordsman. He appreciated that it would mean fewer questions later.
“Why?”
“Because I need to test this body, and something like this expedition would be a good way to do it. If I wish to see my fiancé again, it will be as a man, not a monster.” Dr. Kunibert’s skull was raised as he spoke, looking up the ladder.
“Absolutely not!” Captain Swordsman called out as he pushed his way to the front of the group.
Arthur turned to see the rest of them. No one had drawn weapons, which was good, but it was clear the sides had drawn a line. One that he would have to mediate, though even he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. It ultimately came down to how useful he thought Dr. Kunibert would be versus how much he trusted him.
The issue was that he didn’t trust him at all. Before he could voice that, Captain Swordsman continued.
“Jemima has spoken about how he has taken people in, and I approve. Still, if what she said about his actions toward both you and Dr. Muriler are true, should we trust him?”
“Honestly?” The Explorer said shurgging. “I’ve trusted worse.”
From the casual way he said it, Arthur believed him. When he looked at Theobold and Jemima, they both stared at him. Theobold spoke first.
“Another pair of hands wouldn’t go amiss, boss. If he doesn’t care about much aside from testing the body, we could have him go point.”
Jemima nodded. “Plus, his rats could scout for us.”
“You have scouts?” That came from Rab, who looked suddenly serious.
“I do,” Dr. Kunivert nodded. “And as the mutant man said, I don’t care about the destruction of this body. I simply want to test it and see what lines are beyond my domain. It has been…”
He trailed off before his entire body spasmed. “A long time. A very long time since I have truly seen the world with something approximating my own eyes.”
Arthur heard it then—the slight hitch in his speech—and it clicked.
“He’s going stir-crazy, I bet. This might be his first time out, and he wants to take it.”
“Fine,” Arthur said. “You can come, provided your rats go first to scout. Though, a fair warning?”
“What?” Dr. Kunibert asked.
“If you try to kill me again?”
Arthur didn’t end his threat with words; instead, he simply reached towards a wall and punched it. A loud cracking sounded out, and as he pulled his first away, the overhead lights illuminated the crack in the stonework. No one spoke, and then Dr. Kunibert raised both hands in a surrender gesture.
“I understand.”
“Good. Do you know where the tunnel Jemima found is?”
“I do,” Dr. Kunibert said, hands still raised.
Arthur gestured him forward. “Great. New plan; you’re taking point. Can you fight?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, if you’re up at the front, I guess you’ll learn. Let’s go.”
Captain Swordsman looked as though he was about to speak up when Arthur cut him off. “What he’s done is heinous, but we have a choice. Work with him or leave him here with a body and no supervision. Pick.”
That earned him a nod, and together, the group started off into the tunnels once again.
***
When they reached the start of the tunnel, Arthur called for a pause as he reached into his briefcase and pulled out a small bottle.
“What’s that?” Jemima asked, looking at the small yellow and black pills he shook into his hand.
Arthur double-checked his count before he answered. “Anti-radiation pills. They aren’t perfect, but I figured better to be safe than sorry.”
Captain Swordsman nodded. “An excellent idea. Do you have enough?”
“I should,” Arthur said before he looked over at Dr. Kunibert. “I’m assuming you don’t need one?”
“No.”
“Then yes.”
The Explorer reached forward and swallowed the pill with ease. With a shake of his head, he stuck out his tongue. “I hate these things. They never get the taste right; it’s too sweet for me.”
Arthur frowned, tried his own, and immediately made the same face. The Explorer hadn’t been joking. It was sweet. A strange aftertaste sat at the back of his throat long enough that he’d be able to identify it anywhere. Then it suddenly faded.
All around him, people coughed and grimaced before everyone was done. With one hand, Captain Swordsman lowered the bottom of his mask.
“Are we ready to go, then?”
Arthur nodded. “Yes. Dr. Kunibert?”
“My rats are at the ready,” Dr. Kunibert said even as he gestured forward.
Squeaks filled the air as several rats surged forward down the tunnel. Overhead, lights flickered on as they passed before switching off a few seconds later—the illumination was enough for him to get a good look.
The tunnel was concrete and looked different from the other sections of the sewer. Cleaner, for one. Also, there were visible electrical cables running along the wall from a power box near the entrance.
As they stepped in, he saw signs bearing a collection of familiar names. One, of course, was Genomian Inc., a constant presence. The other was a name he hadn’t heard since he’d first arrived. Dr. Kunibert looked at it too as his slime-coated hand coated the name Glenradine Corporation.
“Glenradine, here for you, even when the world is not.”
He spoke the words in a monotone manner and then, with a shake of his head, turned away from the sign that bore the company’s name. It wasn’t the only sign. Plenty of them covered the walls, from radiation warnings to demands for hardhat safety. Although the latter had a look of age about them.
Arthur considered asking Dr. Kunibert about his old company but decided against it. He could hear Rab chatting animatedly with The Explorer and Captain Swordsman about a large map. A conversation that seemed more immediately useful.
When he turned towards them, he saw that Jemima and Theobold stood nearby, both with weapons drawn as they searched for threats. Augustus shadowed him even on his walk to where Rab stood, a fact he was grateful for. While he intellectually knew how much stronger he was, something about the tunnel screamed escape route to him, which put him instinctually on edge.
“What did we find?” he asked.
Rab gestured at the map, tapping at a section labeled chemical labs. The flat plane didn’t show elevations, but Alyssa had mentioned it being near the top of the pit. It made him wonder if the entire building had been level at one point and then collapsed.
“See this?”
“That’s your normal entrance, isn’t it?” Artur asked.
The large knight nodded. “Yes. There are a few maintenance tunnels listed on the map, and if we assume we’re in one, we’re going to bypass the area entirely.”
“Do you know where we’ll end up?”
“One of three places.” He tapped the map at each point as he named it. “Admin Building, Manufacturing, or Biochemical Labs.”
“It will be the labs.”
Everyone turned to see Dr. Kunibert staring at them. “It is where I, and my colleagues, including Nyssa’s father, were when the collapse happened. That is the only reason we made it into the shelters.”
Arthur nodded at the information. It made sense. That also explained why they’d built the shelter in the sewers. He supposed the distance was to make sure any airborne contaminants would be too far away to infect their sanctuary.
Though, as he looked at Dr. Kunibert, the fire in his gut flickered as a thought crossed his mind. “Not that it helped them against what you did.”
As much as he wanted to voice the thought, he knew starting a fight right now wouldn’t help. So, instead, he asked a more important question.
“Can you tell us anything else?” He asked. “Any defenses or anything we should be worried about?”
Dr. Kunibert nodded, even as he gestured up the tunnel. “My rats haven’t reached the end of the tunnel yet, but from what I remember, there was a blast door. The section we’re walking into is a gathering place for emergencies, so they needed a solid barrier to keep anything we were experimenting on away from us.”
“Is there a way through it?” Jemima asked.
“Yes. All of us had terminal access, so my password should be fine. It will depend on whether the door itself is in working order. Plenty of time has passed since it shut, and I doubt anyone has bothered with maintenance.”
“But the monsters had to come from somewhere,” Jemima said. “The Slagsouls, I mean. That must mean someone’s opened it at some stage.”
“Or something broke through.” Arthur frowned at the thought, even as Dr. Kunibert shook his head.
“No, not possible. It’s more likely that it will automatically raise, which means it will be easy enough to bypass.”
Arthur nodded. “Hopefully. Alright, Rab, are you done with the map?”
“May we take it with us?” Rab asked, looking hopeful.
“Depends. Can you pull it from the wall?”
Rab nodded. “Yes.”
“In that case, stick it in the briefcase and let’s go.”
Once they’d secured the map, they continued back towards the tunnel until Dr. Kunibert stopped them this time. His hand rose, and he hissed in obvious frustration. Jemima tossed Arthur a look, and he saw Captain Swordsman tense from the corner of his eye. Even The Explorer reached to grip his weapon.
“What is it?” Arthur asked, his hand tightening around his cane.
“There are monsters around the door. Chimera. They’ve infested the place,” Dr. Kunibert warned. “My rats are staying out of sight, but it’s difficult.”
“Any particular type?”
“Canine, small, and with multiple heads.”
Arthur nodded and turned to Rab. “How about you lead for now? Let’s see if you can show us what a crusade is actually about.”
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