Chapter 20

The creature hit the ground hard enough to buckle the ancient floor.

Ramona was already moving.

She didn't retreat. The chamber was collapsing around them, the Black Division had escaped, and the creature was the only thing standing between her and the tunnel back to the surface. Fighting it head-on would be suicide, but she had already noticed the weakness in its right side.

That was enough.

“Gary! The left shoulder!”

Gary understood immediately.

He swung the plasma scattergun toward the creature's damaged side and fired.

The blast struck its shoulder, tearing away a section of black armor. The creature roared and staggered sideways, exactly as Ramona expected.

“Lina, eyes!”

Lina dropped to one knee and sighted through her rifle.

“I have it.”

Ramona sprinted beneath the creature's sweeping arm.

Its claws smashed into the ground behind her, spraying stone across the chamber. She didn't look back. Her attention stayed on the exposed section beneath its shoulder where cables and dark veins pulsed around a glowing core.

There.

The same pulse she'd noticed earlier.

Three seconds between the chest glow and the movement of its right arm.

She waited.

The red light intensified.

Ramona changed direction.

The creature's claw came down where she had been standing, but she slid beneath it and drove the Fang into the exposed joint.

The blade sank deep.

The creature screamed.

Ramona twisted the weapon and ripped sideways.

Black fluid erupted across the floor.

The creature slammed its other hand toward her.

She barely escaped.

The blow caught her across the ribs and launched her into the wreckage of the transport. Pain exploded through her side, and for several seconds she couldn't draw a full breath.

Lina fired three controlled shots into the creature's exposed shoulder.

Gary followed with another plasma blast.

The combined attack forced it backward, but the damage wasn't enough.

The creature tore the Fang from its own shoulder and threw it across the chamber.

Ramona watched the blade disappear beneath the rubble.

For the first time, the creature's expression changed.

It wasn't simply angry.

It was recognizing her.

“Ramona.”

The voice came from somewhere inside its distorted throat.

She slowly pushed herself upright.

Gary stared at the monster. “It knows your name?”

Ramona ignored him.

Her attention was fixed on the creature.

“Who are you?”

The creature's chest opened slightly, revealing the pulsing red core beneath layers of black armor.

“You were not supposed to return.”

Ramona's breathing stopped for half a second.

The Black Division commander had said the same thing in a different way.

Your memories survived the rebirth.

The creature took another step toward her.

“You died before the Gate opened.”

Ramona's hand tightened around her rifle.

“What Gate?”

The creature raised its head.

“The one they are preparing to open again.”

A deep vibration rolled through the chamber.

Ramona looked toward the ceiling.

Dust fell from the ancient stone.

The vibration wasn't coming from the creature.

It was coming from somewhere much deeper.

Gary's expression changed. “Please tell me that's not another one.”

“It isn't.”

Ramona looked toward the tunnel they had entered through.

The sound was moving upward.

Something beneath New Mercury was waking.

Lina checked her ammunition. “Then we need to leave.”

“Agreed.”

Ramona retrieved the Fang from the rubble and looked back at the creature.

It was wounded, but it hadn't attacked again.

Instead, it was watching her with an expression that was almost familiar.

Almost human.

“Why did you call me the weapon?” Ramona asked.

The creature's red core pulsed.

“Because that is what they made you.”

Ramona felt a cold weight settle in her stomach.

The Black Division hadn't created her.

Someone else had.

And whatever had been done to her before her first death might explain why she had been able to return.

Another tremor ripped through the chamber.

This one was stronger.

The ancient walls began splitting apart.

Gary shouted over the noise. “Ramona!”

She turned toward the collapsing tunnel.

“We're leaving.”

Lina pointed toward the passage. “That's our only route.”

Ramona studied it for less than a second.

The main tunnel was already collapsing. The left passage was blocked by debris. The right passage descended deeper into the ruins.

Deeper meant danger.

It also meant answers.

The Black Division had expected her to run.

They had expected her to follow the route they prepared.

Ramona looked toward the creature.

Then toward the descending passage.

“No,” she said.

Gary frowned. “No what?”

“We're not going back the way they expect.”

She pointed toward the lower tunnel.

“We go down.”

Gary stared at her.

“Down? Into whatever is waking up?”

Ramona secured the Fang against her wrist and lifted her rifle.

“If the Council, the Black Division and whatever is under this city are all connected, then running back to the surface puts us exactly where they want us.”

Lina understood first.

“They're waiting for us.”

Ramona nodded.

“And I'm done walking into other people's traps.”

Another tremor shook the chamber.

The creature suddenly turned toward the lower passage.

Its expression changed.

For the first time, Ramona saw fear.

Not rage.

Not hunger.

Fear.

The creature backed away from the tunnel.

Ramona noticed.

“What is down there?”

The creature stared into the darkness.

Then it whispered a single word.

“Home.”

A massive impact struck somewhere beneath them.

The entire chamber dropped several feet.

Gary grabbed Lina before she fell.

Ramona caught the wall and looked into the descending tunnel as a faint red glow began spreading through the darkness below.

Something was climbing toward them.

Not the creature.

Something much larger.

Ramona raised her rifle.

The Fang was already in her other hand.

“Move,” she ordered.

The three of them entered the lower passage as the ancient chamber collapsed behind them.

None of them noticed the creature watching them leave.

It lowered its head.

Then, for the first time in centuries, it smiled.

“They found you,” it whispered.

Far below New Mercury, something answered.

And this time, it spoke with Ramona's voice.