FLOOR 21: Descent (The Tower Legacy) Read online

  I think what bothered me is she remembered something as she was dying, something about her human life. Maybe if she hadn’t said that word, just like I had, it wouldn’t bother me. It’s just that it’s been killing me that I put a needle into someone that basically ended them. But it wasn’t even a person, right? It was a monster. She had to be killed. Thing is, I just keep thinking, monsters don’t cry for their daddies.

  So, this dream I started having a few days after we got back . . . It plays out the same way every time. I’m back there, in the halls, and everything is out of control craziness, just like it was the day we fought her. Thing is, this time, there’s a difference. This time, I’m on top of her, and I’ve got the needle to her neck . . . and she’s crying. Like, not too loud. I guess it’s more like sobbing. Anyway, I’m there, and I’m about to push the needle in when she starts talking.

  “Why did he leave me?” she asks, and I stop for a second.

  “Who?” I ask her. “Who left you?”

  Then she grabs my arm and pulls me close enough to hear her whispering, “Why did you kill me? What did I do?”

  A second after she says this, she falls back, opens her mouth, and lets out the most horrifying scream I’ve ever heard in my life. It practically sends me flying out of my bed every time. Then I find myself drenched in sweat with the covers all around me soaking. It’s almost like I’ve been working out for a few hours. At first, my heart’s beating at a hundred miles an hour. Then I start to settle down. Thing is, that’s when the real nightmare begins.

  That’s when I just sit here, in the dark, thinking about her.

  Sally.

  I know I did what I was supposed to. I know she would have killed us all. What’s bothering me is, I don’t even know if she realized what she was doing. The one second she had her old memories back, she just wanted her dad. Did I kill a monster, or did I kill someone that just got completely jacked by horrible circumstances? Does that even matter in a situation like that? It’s kill or be killed, right?

  I think about the stories we’ve always heard about Sally. The kids’ story says she lived all alone on Floor 16 and was paying for her sin, whatever that means. Everybody’s got their own version of the Creepy Sally story, but you know what’s always the same in all of them? She’s always alone. That never changes. Maybe she was angry or depressed, but whatever she was going through, she was by herself. That’s how the Creep got her. I think about that and I’m just like, you know, I can relate. I spent almost five years of my life with my parents treating me like a stranger. They stopped saying they loved me. Dad used to take me to play baseball and basketball all the time, then one day we just never went back. Mom had always been so touchy and huggy and then one day she wouldn’t even put an arm around me. I might understand the why, and I know it hurt them to do all that, but growing up it was just super hard. Everyone wants to know why I started spending so much time by myself on the lower floors instead of being cozy with the other students. Well, it’s pretty easy to be reckless when you don’t feel like anyone cares about you. Who knows, if it hadn’t been for Allison, I might have gone off the deep end just like Sally.

  Maybe that’s what’s really bothering me. Sally was a monster, but I can kinda understand how she got to that point. I was never as bad, but things were pretty lonely for a long time. If I’d have lived on any of the lower floors, the Creep might have gotten me. I may have never gotten as bad as Sally, but then again, what if I had? I never felt like anyone wanted to talk to me, and it’s not like it’s easy to go up to someone and say, “Hey pal, I’d really like to know you, but I’m an emotionally stunted teenager whose parent issues have made it impossible for her to connect with anyone else.”

  Damn it. It’s almost three in the morning now. I have to go to sleep, but tomorrow I’m going to have to see dad, and things between us are a mess. I know we’ll get through this stuff eventually, but it’s not like it’s easy for someone like me to whip my feels out for people, parentals included. And just, to be real, I don’t want to close my eyes. Every time I do, I see Sally’s face there in the darkness while she’s calling for her daddy. So sure, I did what I had to.

  I killed someone who died thinking about her family.

  Recording Nine

  Life is progressively becoming one of those things that I can’t get away from since death is basically my only other option. The problem is my life’s so dysfunctional because nobody’s who I thought they were. The biggie example is obviously Tommy, who’s not the bully he was when we were nine years old. But, I mean, if it hadn’t been for us training together, and Allison pushing me to get to know him, I would’ve just always assumed he was a toolbox. My parents, on the other hand, are just a whole other box of crazy. I thought once the Tower stopped spying on us and they could act normal that we’d just, I dunno, get along. Pretty much a poor prediction on my part. Before, I could just put them in boxes. Mom was the crazy crying one. Dad was the loner. Now I’m having to deal with them like a normal human and it’s pretty clear that I never learned that trick, which I kind of already knew, but apparently it becomes a whole bigger problem when you’re dealing with people you live with. Then you throw the fact that you love them into the mix?

  I’d rather be in the Deep Creep.

  Sort of.

  All of that’s a long way of saying that dad taught class today. After days of successfully using my hard earned stealth skills to get in and out of the apartment without dealing with all the feels, it was work that forced us together. I pretty much knew it was coming, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t dreading it. At least it was cool at first.

  So, we’re all sitting in, like, this kinda classroom that looks like they just threw a bunch of chairs inside of. Think Blu-Ray movies are rare? Not even. This is literally the only time I’ve seen a for-real projector up close. Now, I’m no stranger to the Creep, obviously, so what made it really interesting was the whole spiel my dad had going on. Just about every conversation we’ve had about what he does for a job has been boring, since he’s always had to lie to me. Now we’re on the same page, though. I’m a Scavenger, and he’s a Creep scientist, so we don’t have to have secrets between us anymore. But, all of that said, we still haven’t really talked about the cool stuff he does, probably because I’ve been freaking out about him freaking out about me going down into the Deep Creep.

  Anyway, he gets in front of us all and immediately he’s a dork. He wore his lab coat as if he wanted to look like a massive science nerd, plus his hair’s just all over the place. Still, he’s got that young looking face that Allison finds weirdly attractive, so at least he’s got that going for him. He shoves his glasses way up onto his coco nose before he waves at the screen. “Today, we’ll be reviewing basic Creep biology and points of interest,” he says while clicking the remote in his hand. The wall behind him ignites with a super gross picture of a slick bulb of muscle tissue that everyone recognizes. “This is Creep. A few basic points before we really get into it. No matter what you might think, we really have no idea where the infestation began or how. What we do know is that we’ve been trapped at the top of the Tower for at least a few centuries, and we’ve managed to hold the Creep off for that long. Now, that’s a good thing and a bad thing. The positive side of this is that it shows the Creep can be held off and that we can survive, but the negative side is that we don’t know how much longer we can keep going. While it’s true that we’re successfully holding ground above Floor 21, we’ve got no permanent hold on any of the lower floors. With that said, we actually have observed signs that we once did have a presence as far down as Floor 30 at some point. We know that because we’ve found technology that’s a lot newer than Pre-Tower Technology. How do we know it’s newer? Because it’s not nearly as sophisticated as the old technology from before the Before.”

  This is actually my first time seeing my dad actually do, you know, his job. It’s weird that for years he kept pretending he just fixed the solar panels on the ro
of, which to be fair, he does on the side. But most people would probably say this part of his job’s a little more important. Maybe. Anyway, you can even tell he prefers to talk about the Creep instead of talking about how we get power for the upper floors. He’s all, I dunno, animated. Excited. Like, he almost gets me energized just watching as he waves at the projection and keeps going. “This is a basic Creep growth, what we also call a biomass. Creep always begins in this phase, like a mass of tissue. From here it spreads out, claiming doors, walls, hallways, and entire floors of the Tower. As that layer of Creep stretches out over large surfaces, new masses grow larger and start to create what we call Creep Clusters.” Dad clicks the control again and a picture of a majorly infested hallway pops up. There’s a slick film all over the walls, like someone laid down skin over the paint, and it’s gross to the point that I feel my stomach double clutch. Growing out of the wall are masses as big as people that just pile on top of each other. “The thicker the growth, the larger the clusters. Now, why is this a problem? Anyone?” He looks at all of us for a second. My chest locks up as our eyes meet, but thank God he keeps hunting for a victim. Finally he finds Tommy, whose head has been bobbing up and down since we got here. Sleep must not have been his friend last night. Anyway, dad points at him and almost shouts, “You! Cadet Jones.”

  Tommy’s eyes come alive as his head shoots up in his seat. “Uh, yes, sir!”

  “Cadet. Can you tell me why a Creep Cluster of the size you see in this slide would pose a threat?”

  Poor Tommy’s like a kid who’s been caught stealing cookies. He keeps looking left and right, like he can find the answer in someone else’s lap. “Uuuuuh, because they’re big?”

  Oh. Poor, sweet Tommy.

  Sucker.

  But my dad’s frown isn’t angry. Nah, that’d be too easy. His frown is practically screaming ‘I’m disappointed in you.’ His body rises as he takes a breath, and his eyes poke at Tommy from over the rim of his glasses. “No, cadet. A Creep Colony of this size does not pose a threat only because it’s large. In fact, it’s the chance of it reacting to your presence that’s our biggest problem. You do know that during a Lockdown, everyone’s ordered into their apartments, right?”

  “Um, of course, sir. I mean, everyone’s got to be kept safe.”

  “That’s pretty obvious, cadet,” dad continues, and I almost want to laugh. Maybe nobody else can tell, but I know when dad’s not angry, but sad because you don’t know something. “Creep growths are psychoreactive. They feed on negative emotions, like anger, sadness or fear. The more people you have in the halls panicking, the more emotion the Creep has to use for fuel. That’s why only trained personnel are allowed out during a lockdown, or why only Scavengers such as yourselves are allowed into the Deep Creep. When the Creep reacts, its reaction can be explosive depending on the size of the colony, in addition to the amount of emotion it has to work with. At the size you see in this picture, Creep will react to the slightest hint that you’re scared. If that happens? Well, you’ll be fighting to tear yourself out of the wall while the Creep tries to swallow you.”

  He clicks the remote one more time, and suddenly we’re staring at what I think is a frame from a video. There’s a time stamp in the top right corner and the whole image is doused in green, like night vision. Dad points to the walls of the hallway in the picture. “You see these?” he asks, tapping on both sides of the frame. Piles of large Creep Clusters are swallowing the hallway. “This video was taken from a Scavenger on Floor 45. This is the real Deep Creep, cadets, and just one slip up is enough to get you killed at this depth.” He clicks again, and we see someone pop into the frame. “This is a still from just minutes later. A second Scavenger is moving up the hall here,” he says, gesturing to the armored man moving down the center of our view. The image switches and now the man is turned to his right, his gun raised high as if he’s about to fire. “At this point in the video, the Scavenger you see was hallucinating. When you watch the original film, you hear him screaming at people that aren’t there, like he’s being attacked.”

  Another loud click snaps the quiet while the flash explodes, this time revealing a tendril shooting out of the infested wall. “Reacting to his panic, the Creep created a tendril that it used to lunge at him. That only escalated his fear. And here . . .” He trails off as the room bursts with another flash. When my eyes focus again, I see a man’s body flying through the air as the tendril sucks him toward the wall. “Here were his last seconds of life. The Creep completely absorbed him. The clusters you see in the image were so large that they barely reacted to the flameguns the victim’s teammates were carrying.” One last burst of light reveals a picture of the man trapped inside the translucent skin of the cluster. Scavengers all around blast lines of fire over the Creep. “Nothing in the world was going to able to save him before he choked to death. The Creep doesn’t have to absorb you to kill you. If you get trapped inside of it, you have a minute or two before you black out. That depends on how big of a breath you take before you get sucked in. After that, it’s only about two minutes at most before brain damage sets in. At that point, even if they get you out of the Creep, you’re just going to slow down your team. You could survive maybe six minutes of time without oxygen. After that, well, you’re dead. I wouldn’t even give you a good chance at four minutes, though. We just don’t have the technology to help you, not to mention the fact that you’d be stuck days away from any medical treatment.”

  Abbott walks into the light of the projector and casts a shadow that fills the room. “This is a serious matter, people. We don’t drill you so intensely simply to be sadists. Every pain you feel, every time we fight and push our limits to their farthest extent, it isn’t about hurting you simply for the sake of it. The Creep will move faster, it won’t give up, and it won’t retreat unless you’ve bathed it in flame. Do you understand? These are your lives, and more critically, these are your families and friends. The death of a Scavenger means one less person your team has to help secure the supplies that keep our society intact. Is that understood?”

  We all sing the song together. “Yes, sir!”

  The commander nods toward my dad. “Anything else, Doctor Coleman?”

  Doctor Coleman? It’s so weird to hear that. It’s obvious that Abbott respects my dad a little, which is kind of strange to say. I never thought of my dad as someone that’d get props from a guy like the commander. I mean, no offense. Anyway, dad clicks the remote and the next slide shows a tendril from the Creep, except this one’s been cut from the wall and laid out on a table. “You can see here that the Creep’s main defense is its tendrils. It uses them to catch its prey and pull them into the wall, where it absorbs the body for food. Dissecting these tendrils has revealed a biological system like any you’d expect from a person. Tendrils have skin, muscle, a nervous system, and veins, basically everything you’d need to have your own arm function. The question we’ve always had is, how does the Creep create a tendril on the spot? It can do it almost instantly and we’ve never been able to figure out how. First, developing a complicated system that includes muscle and nerves requires months in the womb for a human being. Second, it requires energy. Even with all the people it absorbs, that’s not nearly enough energy to keep the Creep alive. It fills almost the entire Tower. Any living thing that big would have to have a constant source of power to feed on.”

  Abbott raises his finger. “This is where we suspect the connection between the Creep and Pocket Space relates. It is the very reason you must use the utmost caution when opening a dimensional window while in the Deep Creep.”

  “Exactly,” dad agrees. “We suspect it’s drawing energy from Pocket Space through the generators that fill the Tower. We’ve also considered that there might be a large power source we’re unaware of. Basically, that might be where the Creep is getting its food from. Now, during the last Scavenging, something went wrong. We don’t know how many people survived, if any, but what we do know is that the last team t
o go into the Deep Creep found something big.”

  When I hear about the lost Scavengers, I feel a spark down my back and it’s like I’ve had a dozen cups of coffee. Mike’s always in the back of my mind, but it doesn’t totally bother me until someone starts talking about the last Scavenging. Anyway, dad clicks a slide, and now we’re looking at some kind of floor plan. “This is the Tower layout as close as we’ve been able to map it. We can say for sure that it stretches down at least fifty stories, but it’s not just tall. The Tower has a central wing that you’re all used to. That’s where we live, although higher up in the building. However, there are wings to the west, east and north. They’re practically miniature towers themselves. What we’re interested in, though, is this location here,” he says with a tap at the top of the picture. “This is an area that we call Polar North, an area that we’ve always thought was impossible to break into. A few weeks ago, that changed.”

  Another click, another snap, and another flash, then we’re looking at . . . I dunno, this . . . thing? It’s a huge piece of technology covered in wires and Creep, and it looks like it goes a few stories down a tunnel. “The Scavengers being led by Commander McGill found some way of accessing Polar North, and this is what they found. It’s some kind of engine or power core so big that it stretches down at least twenty stories. We’ve always theorized there might be something like this. And now? We have proof.”

  Abbott steps up beside my dad, his gloved hands folded behind his arms. The light of the projector bathes his face in cold yellow. “Everyone here knows that this particular Scavenging is different. Tower Authority has taken to calling this the ‘Second Scavenging.’ It is quite obviously a term being used to excite the population and give them something to cheer about. While it is true that we will be searching for any signs of the lost Scavengers, our mission involves many tasks. This device you see before you is one of them. As our secondary task, our goal is to determine the purpose of this engine and its function in the Tower. If possible, we’ve been ordered to determine if it can help shed light on any means of getting to ground floor.”