Chapter 26

  The Hive

  Aiden opened his eyes and found himself slobbering on damp, spongey ground, gasping for breath.

  His heart was beating so fast it felt like it would burst out of his chest any moment. His vision was blurred and he was coughing incessantly. The thick air around him didn’t help stabilize his shallow breathing. It was dark all around him. And he was alone.

  He was pretty sure what would happen if he failed to slow his heart down.

  He was going to die.

  Deep breaths, Aiden, came Alex’s voice piercing through the darkness. Deep breaths.

  One.

  Two.

  Three.

  Dammit!

  It was no use. The darkness around him had a strange, overbearing weight to it, and the air was just too thick. Aiden was sure there was some kind of a contagion in it, maybe pollen or spores or something. And the smell was a pungent mixture of putrefying insects and rotting corpses.

  He had to get away from here. He had to jump away!

  Aiden pictured the mansion in his mind, and—

  No. It was too risky. If he tried to jump again, who knows what that would do to his heart.

  He couldn’t see a way out of here. And he was panicking.

  Yes… that was the issue. He needed to calm himself, first and foremost, and think.

  One.

  Two.

  Three.

  Come on, Aiden. You can find your way out!

  And then it hit him. Things were different, now. He could always find his way out if he wanted to. All he had to do was stay still for a while and slow his heart.

  Yes. That was it. He wasn’t trapped here. He would never be trapped anywhere in his life ever again!

  One.

  Two.

  Three.

  Phew… Aiden let a deep sigh out.

  He still couldn’t breathe well, but at least his heart rate was stabilizing. Calm yourself, Aiden, he kept repeating to himself. Calm yourself. Then jump out of here.

  Here…

  What was here? Where the hell was he?

  It was too dark to see at first, but his eyes had now adjusted. He wiped the dirt and tears off his face with the inside of his jacket, since the outside was covered in some sort of a strange, gooey, disgusting slime.

  Now that his eyes were no longer watering, he could see just a little bit better. He was in a cave, or a tunnel of sorts. It was still dark in here, but there was a faint, red glow coming from somewhere ahead of him, somewhere close by. The inner walls of the tunnel were all covered in a soft, slimy, bio-substance, and the texture was in a pattern that all too well resembled—

  A hive.

  He was sure of it. His love for plants and animals extended to insects too after all. He’d seen too many documentaries about the architectural genius of a beehive. About how a mere anthill is like a whole colony, an entire civilization, that those tiny little engineers built underground.

  Insects were smart. And whatever insects designed this particular hive were big, too.

  Giant, mutated insects. Just great.

  Perhaps this is the hive that the giant, twenty-or-so-eyed spider had crawled out of.

  If so, he must be quiet. As quiet as he’d ever been. One footstep too loud, one misstep, and the whole swam could be upon him.

  Aiden gulped. There was no way he could outrun a swarm of giant spiders. Let alone those that could curl up into thick, metal-skinned cannonballs that would cover the entire cross section of this circular arm of the hive.

  But no. He must not panic. He could always jump away.

  He could always jump away, right?

  Damn it, what was he thinking? He’d never managed to trigger the ability consciously. So far, it had only manifested when it was about dodging bullets, or more recently, about saving Bloop. And then there was the jump that got him here, which he had nothing to do with, and had no idea what triggered it.

  He never wanted to be here. He didn’t even know where this was!

  How the hell did he end up here, then?

  One. Two. Three.

  Must not panic.

  If his heart shot up again, there was no way he could try jumping away. The process itself would…

  …kill him.

  All right, then, thought Aiden. We explore until we find a way out, the old-fashioned way.

  On foot.

  Aiden hesitated before taking the first step though. What if the ground itself was connected with the hive’s consciousness? That’s generally how it went in movies, at least. Every single part of the hive would be a sensitive nerve-ending, reporting back to the hive-mind. Wouldn’t they feel the sensation caused by his step and send the swarm after him?

  If that were true, thought Aiden, they would have done so already. It wasn’t like he’d been perfectly quiet the whole time he was here.

  So either he was in a spot where they couldn’t hear him, or they’d already heard him, and were luring him in.

  Is that what the red light was for? To bait the prey? To bait… him?

  Only one way to find out.

  Aiden had made up his mind. He was going to explore, boldly. There was a good chance that he could find intel here that Clark and the others could use; assuming that he was still on Earth, of course.

  And if things went south, he would risk a jump. It was how he got here in the first place, right? It would either get him back out, or it would kill him in the process.

  Yes. That’s it. It’s all or nothing now.

  Either we gain something useful here, or we lose everything.

  Aiden shuddered at the thought. And prayed that he was still on Earth.

  One step at a time, nice and easy. Aiden made his way toward the gloomy, red hue. His steps weren’t quiet; they made faint, slurping sounds as he walked forward on the greasy floor. It kind of felt like walking on hardened jelly, if that made sense. Rotting, disgusting, jelly. But not so soft that his foot would sink in.

  He felt increasingly confident with each step in the facts that the jelly-like floor would hold his weight and that the hivemind couldn’t hear him. He must attempt to jump at the slightest hint of mortal danger though, he kept reminding himself. And begging his body, and the mutagenic powers within him, to not fail him.

  It was eerily quiet. The red hue was coming from a partially-translucent, bio-bulb fixed on a branch-like tube moving along the side of the tunnel. It looked like a node that was pumping something through the tube, like a grotesque, exterior heart.

  Aiden had no idea what it was. But whatever it was, it felt alien, and definitively demonic.

  He carefully pushed on. As he put more distance between the glowing red bulb, the darkness grew thicker once again. Since Aiden could no longer rely on his eyes, he made sure he was listening as hard as he could. Trying to feel even the slightest change in the density of the air around him, which might hint at something moving toward him.

  Soon, however, he was at a clearing, without having encountered anything alive and predatory. Aiden quickly took cover behind a four feet tall, protruding tube ahead of him that looked like a curved tree trunk pushing out of the ground and going back in. A dark, demonic tree trunk. The air was slightly thinner here, compared to when he was near the red bulb, perhaps because of the wider area. Aiden took the opportunity to gather his breath and stabilize his heart. Then, he peeked around the corner, carefully, silently.

  There was a drop behind the protruding tube. Ten, maybe twelve feet. The saucepan-shaped room below had several exits lined around its walls. It was like a small hub that connected several routes to each other.

  Great. Which way do I go now?

  Aiden couldn’t hear any movement. If he dropped down, he was sure to make some noise. But it seemed like he was pretty much alone here.

  For now.

  Aiden risked it and jumped. His feet landed on the slimy hard jelly with a faint, squelching thump.

  He twirled around and found six different exits along the circular wall that were merely slits, barely wide enough to fit a small car through them. How were the giant insects traversing through this? Maybe they could widen when they sensed a cannonball spider rolling through?

  Maybe.

  But that shouldn’t be his concern for now. They were wide enough for him to fit through. So the only question that mattered was: Which way should he go?

  Let’s follow the red, thought Aiden. There were only two slits that had the faint red hue glowing through them. The remaining four were as dark as death.

  Which one then? Aiden looked at the two. They were facing each other, like they were parts of the same path. Only one way would be the correct way, though.

  Correct way? What did that even mean? Aiden had nothing to base his decision on except for his senses and his gut. He stood at the center of the circular hub and took a deep breath in. Aside from the disgusting smell that permeated everywhere he’d been so far in this hive, he could almost feel a faint… breeze.

  There was no doubt about it. It was flowing in one direction, and Aiden decided to follow it. He walked through one of the glowing red exits and found that the walls had turned circular again. He was in another constricted tunnel, lined with black, branch-like tubes with glowing red nodes, pumping bulbs, every thirty meters or so.

  Aiden kept pushing through the reddish dark until he came upon another clearing. This one was much, much wider than the previous one; so much so that Aiden couldn’t see the walls on either sides. Even the jelly-like floor ended here, and rocky, earthy ground began.

  In every direction, as far as his eyes could see, there was nothingness. Just dark, empty void.

  The faint red glow coming from behind him illuminated some of the earth ahead of him. But it all went dark beyond a certain point.

  The breeze, however, was stronger here. Aiden could tell that it also came from several other holes similar to the one that he’d just emerged from. There were a few on his left and right, few were perhaps above him, but he couldn’t locate them. It was just too dark.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  What he could locate was the point that they were all heading toward. It was dead ahead, somewhere in the darkness. It was the same kind of breeze that you’d feel when near a mountain cliff.

  Aiden dropped on all fours and began to crawl. If he was indeed upon an underground cliff, he didn’t want to step off it without realizing it. At least like this, he would see or feel the drop coming.

  The red illumination was long gone now. Aiden was crawling in pitch black darkness, but his eyes still found a way to adjust. He had always been able to see in the dark better than most, at least according to his dad and sister. When they’d go camping in the woods at night, they’d always either have a few electric torches with them, or relied upon the moon itself. But during new moons, if the torch had gone out, his dad had always relied on Aiden’s sharp eyes. He had always been impressed at how quickly they adjusted to the dark. He said that Lucy had the ability too, but it was just not as strong as Aiden’s.

  They’d been blessed with twenty-twenty eyesight, he’d say, courtesy of their mother. But seeing in the dark when in the forest was different. The moon was almost always there, and if not that, there was always some meagre source of light and life to hold on to.

  That was not the case now; here, in this pitch-dark cave, black as death. But his eyes still found a way to see. His vision was faint, and fleeting at times. But still, it was there.

  Did the mutagen have a role in this too? Another pre-existing affinity that it had enhanced?

  Who knew.

  Soon, as he’d anticipated, his hands touched the edge of the cliff. There was nothing beyond it. Nothing but darkness. And an eerie, haunting echo coming from somewhere far, far below.

  Aiden gulped. This was it. There was no more ground beyond this point. He must carefully stand back up and head back. Try a different route that didn’t lead to a dead end.

  But there was something about this… a strange attraction. It didn’t want Aiden to leave. In fact, it wanted him to plunge right in.

  That was silly, thought Aiden. Places can’t have wants.

  He shook his head and slowly got back up on his feet, but in doing so, he accidentally kicked a small rock off the edge of the cliff.

  The rock went much farther than it should have, horizontally, before curving its path and falling.

  Shit. If that rock hits the bottom, no matter how small it is, it was going to make a loud noise.

  Aiden peeled his ears and held his breath. Minutes passed in the pitch-black silence, but no sound ever came.

  Just how deep was that chasm?

  Never mind that now. The rock hadn’t made a noise. Perhaps it never reached the bottom.

  Perhaps… there was no bottom. The hair at the back of Aiden’s neck stood up. The way the rock fell was weird too, as though gravity itself was acting funny here.

  Where in the world was he?

  At least he knew that this definitely wasn’t the way out. Aiden stood up and turned around. He must make his way back, and try a different rou—

  Wait. Something was wrong.

  The jelly-like surface had begun to move; ebbing and flowing like a wave, as though in response to… giant footsteps.

  Shit. Someone or something was coming at him. They must have heard the rock. It had created a disturbance, somehow. And they had detected it.

  Should he try to run now, toward the hub? Maybe whoever was causing the jelly-ground to move like this hadn’t reached the hub room just yet. He could take one of the darker exits once he got there, without anyone noticing him.

  No. That was too risky. They were probably much closer than that. Maybe he should quickly run toward the hole that he had emerged out of and stick to the dark corners on its side, hugging the wall, and praying that whoever was coming this way would simply fly past him as they headed toward the cliff.

  Yes. That was the only way. He couldn’t run off the cliff now, could he? Into the pit of death…

  Aiden took a deep breath and prepared to run.

  But it was too late.

  He could now clearly see exactly what was coming toward him. And it was much closer than he’d previously thought.

  It was an insect walking on two legs. Slender limbs and waist. Thicker thighs and a broad chest, upon which rested a disc-like head that looked like it was made of white porcelain. Bulging oval eyes popped out of the porcelain skull that were as black as the dark void surrounding them, slanted upwards. From somewhere behind the eyes stuck out two long antennae. It had wings, too, sticking out from right below his nape, currently in the ‘rested’ state, making it seem like it was wearing a cape. From under its wing cape, it removed a long, flat blade, shining red against the dim hue coming from behind the insect… person.

  Shit. What the hell can he do now? The insect-person was blocking the only exit.

  Aiden’s foot shuffled back by a few inches involuntarily, and he immediately realized that the edge of the cliff was right behind him.

  There was no way to run.

  The insect-person held the blade to his side like a samurai. Then, his black oval eyes constricted, and Aiden knew what he had in mind next.

  He was going to charge him.

  This was it. This was the moment he had already planned for.

  Time to jum—

  Shit! The insect’s wings flapped open and it charged at Aiden with unthinkable speed. Aiden panicked and stumbled backward reflexively, and so his foot slipped off the edge.

  Dammit. He’d had no window to act. He thought he’d at least get a second to get in the right mental zone to attempt a jump, but… unlucky.

  His body shot off the edge of the cliff similar to how that little rock had done. The weird gravity twisted Aiden’s spine into an awkward, downward curve, before he began to fall straight down, back first.

  It wasn’t like normal falling, not that Aiden knew what that was like. He’d never done any adventure sports like paragliding or sky diving in his life, nor will he ever attempt any of that. But still, he could tell that this was different. It felt like falling through thick butter, but the pull was so hard it barely slowed him down. And so the thick air currents grazed his skin and it hurt.

  Is this how it was going to end for him? Alone in the dark?

  Was this it?

  No. It can’t be. Not like this.

  They were waiting for him. They were all… waiting for him back home.

  And he must get back!

  He knew that the drop was long. Which meant he still had plenty of time to glitch out of here.

  The word brought back a memory from a few days ago, when he was explaining to Alex and Lucy, and Clark and Bloop, how he’d glitched out of existence when the bullets connected with him.

  That’s it. That was the idea he should focus on.

  He must glitch out of here!

  Come on. Come on!

  He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw.

  And he thought of home.

  Before he could initiate the glitch though, he heard a loud, fluttering noise from above him, which distracted him and he had to open his eyes to look.

  The insect-person had jumped right after Aiden, but of course, it could fly and stay afloat against the weird gravity. A thin white string shot out of its… mouth? Aiden couldn’t tell. The insect’s aim was perfect, and the web-like string stuck to him like super glue.

  Aiden’s descent came to an abrupt halt. The insect-person flew straight up, carrying Aiden’s body with it like a ragdoll. He passed the edge from which he’d slipped, and a few other similar platforms—or storeys, perhaps—before the insect curved left, facing away from the dark nothingness to their right, and flew in a horizontal path. Aiden expected his body to smash against the side of the cliff on his left, because that’s how physics is supposed to work, but the web-string kept carrying him up in a straight line. It only banked into a curve once Aiden reached the same spot where the insect itself had turned.

  This confirmed it. The gravity of this place was definitely acting weird. Perhaps this meant that he wasn’t on Earth, after all.

  Somehow he found that difficult to digest. The ground that he was crawling upon earlier didn’t feel all that alien.

  Aiden was now being carried through the thick air at breakneck speed. He wasn’t afraid though. If the insect wanted to kill him, it could have just let Aiden fall, or sliced him with its sword the moment it caught him in its web. Since it hadn’t done that, it was clearly taking him somewhere, presumably to its boss—the hivemind.

  And that was his way out. He was going to glitch away the second this insect dropped him on sturdy ground.

  Simple plan. Hopefully its execution would be simple enough too.

  The insect dropped Aiden on the floor with an intentional harshness. A rough fall, rather than a smooth landing that Aiden was sure the insect was capable of providing him.

  And goddamn it hurt. Aiden was sure that he’d somehow managed to cut his cheek on the hard jelly floor.

  The buzzing of the insect’s wings abruptly turned quiet as soon as it landed on its own two feet ahead of Aiden.

  Aiden stole a few seconds to look around. He was definitely still within the hive, the hard jelly floor confirmed it, so did the black, tube-like branches on the walls, along with the red, pumping bulbs. But there was more to this… room.

  There were vials with strange, glowing liquids within them. Large, round-bottom tanks with heat being applied to them from what looked like a… burner?

  Damn. This was someone’s laboratory. There was no question about it.

  It was much wider than any room that Aiden had been in within the hive thus far. But it still didn’t feel grandiose enough to be the seat of the hivemind.

  Nah. This was more like a small, secondary lab. It definitely didn’t have ‘throne room’ or ‘hivemind’ vibes.

  Aiden quickly pulled his eyes away from the ambience and focused on the insect-person in front of him. It was muttering something, inaudibly, to someone standing ahead of it, which was blocked out of Aiden’s view.

  Then, the insect-person bowed, and stepped aside.

  Bowing? An insect was bowing?

  Now he’d seen it all.

  Someone got off from a tall, red chair in the dark. He wore long, dark red robes, that blended with its red hue surroundings perfectly. The creature glided toward Aiden, stepping into the light of the burner.

  His skin was purple and loose, as though holding on to his bony skull through artificial adhesives that would lose their power any second. His eyes were wide and sunken, superficially similar to that of a human—a round cornea, a large retina, and the like. But there was something distinctly evil about them.

  Aiden had no doubt. This was a demon.

  Oh, and he had horns too.

  Large, bony structures, similar to a yak’s horns, that grew out of his nasty skull, inching forward first, then curving upwards. They were smooth and they shone red, unlike his dangly, purple skin.

  His attire was nothing special though, thought Aiden. Long cloak with golden hems, and intricate designs. He also wore a thick, golden chain around his bony neck; large golden rings, interconnected. If not for the inhuman skin and horns, he could have been mistaken for a pontiff. Or a fancy priest.

  The round, bulging eyes of the demon priest scanned Aiden’s body with villainous curiosity.

  “Well, well,” he spoke in perfect English accent. “How in the world did you wind up here?”

  “What’s here?” asked Aiden, still lying on the jelly-floor. The web-string bound his hands to his legs, severely limiting his ability to try and stand up.

  “What’s here? You are here!” said the demon priest, annoyed. “Are you thick in the head, boy?”

  “What I mean is,” said Aiden. “I don’t know where this is. Where are we?”

  The demon priest chuckled. “It is I who asks the questions.” The moment he said that, Aiden felt a piercing pain on the side of his left arm. Something long had stung him, and it had begun to bleed.

  “Ow!” Aiden cried. “What the hell was that for?!”

  He was struck again with a second sting, this time on his right abdomen. It was like someone had stabbed him with a long, painful needle. And it hurt so bad it was blurring his vision.

  “It is I,” repeated the demon priest, “who asks the questions.”

  Aiden weakly nodded. His whole body shook from the piercing pain.

  “How did you get in here?” asked the demon. “How did you pass through the city patrol undetected?”

  City patrol? At least that confirmed he was in, around, or most likely, under a city. Was it Sol City?

  Did he even dare ask another question?

  “I am…” Aiden began, but it was painful to talk now. “…stealthy.”

  He lied. Not revealing his abilities to the enemy was just common sense, after all.

  “Markedly impressive,” breathed the demon priest. “I’m surprised that an earthling like you managed to get past the colossals.”

  Earthling. He said it. Aiden definitely was still on Earth. And there was only one city on Earth that was currently under demonic attack.

  Sol City. He was right under Sol City.

  “How many others?” asked the demon priest.

  “It’s just me,” Aiden said truthfully. But the needles that pierced him glowed hot red, searing his flesh.

  “Arrgghhh!” Aiden screamed in pain. “I’m telling the truth, you dumb old demon, it’s just me!”

  The needles stopped glowing. And the pain disappeared.

  “What have you learned?” asked the demon priest. “How much of whatever you saw here have you relayed to your comrades above ground?”

  Comrades? This old fool thought Aiden was some kind of military, like Dan.

  It did sound cool though.

  “I saw…” Aiden coughed. “… nothing. Arrrggghh!” The searing pain shot through him again.

  “Don’t you dare to lie to me, insect!” The demon priest’s voice boomed through the dark silence of the hive. “I am the true ruler of your fate! I will squash you like the bug you are with a blink of my eye.”

  Aiden continued to wail. The needles grew hotter than they’d ever been, and then, they suddenly stopped.

  “Now,” said the demon priest menacingly, “the truth.”

  The needles stopped glowing and the pain went away once again. “I…” Aiden whimpered, spitting slime and blood from his mouth, “saw… the pit…”

  The demon priest’s face rested easy. “Good,” he said. “And have you told your friends about it yet?”

  “Do you see me…” He coughed again. “… carrying a radio?”

  The searing pain returned.

  “No!! Goddammit!” Aiden screamed. “I haven’t told anyone!”

  The pain stopped. And the demon priest smiled again. “Good,” he said. “Very good. I can tell that you speak true. Lying to the needles is… inconvenient, as you’ve discovered.” The demon priest turned away from Aiden. “Very well, then. This makes matters far simpler than I anticipated.” He gave a knowing nod to the insect-person standing beside him. before walking back into the dark corner of the room that he’d emerged from.

  The insect raised its blade like a trained samurai and pointed it at Aiden.

  Aiden was still in considerable pain. The needles were still stuck inside him, albeit dormant, and blood had begun pouring out of the gaps in his wounds. But Aiden could feel it. He could feel the adrenaline flowing through him. And that could only mean one thing.

  Aiden looked at the shining silver blade and smirked.

  The insect-person was momentarily caught off-guard. Aiden saw his bug eye twitch, and his blade hesitate.

  This moron insect and his senile demon boss had no idea.

  It was precisely at the brink of death that his ability was most reliable.

  The insect-person thrust its blade, aimed straight for his heart. Aiden closed his eyes and thought of home.

  CRACK!

  And he was gone.

  Right before he entered the blank, abstract nothingness that was neither here nor there, he heard the demon priest scream in frustration.

  hell is this demon priest cooking underneath Sol City?

  Ninja Insect?

  Samurai Bug?!