Pilgrim (12 page)

The tunnel went on in pitch blackness. A
burn began in her chest. At first, it was just a small niggle but
it grew, begging her to take a gasp of air. She refused her body
and kept swimming.

Her head felt dizzy. Stars glittered at the
edges of her vision. Her ears rang with the need to breathe.

Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. She
repeated the mantra in her mind. Keep going. Keep going. Can’t keep
going!

The urge to breath was too strong and she
was forced to push off the bottom of the tunnel and propel herself
towards the surface. She expected her hands, followed by her head,
to collide at full force with the tunnel roof. Instead, she came up
in air, glorious air.

She gasped as the oxygen flowed into her
lungs. It was the most wondrous sensation, breathing. She paddled
on the surface of the water allowing her vision to return. Along
with that, came her survival instincts.

Her breathing stopped mid-gasp as she tried
to keep quiet. She lowered herself right down so that only her eyes
and nose were above the waterline and turned in circles using small
movements underwater to avoid splashing.

The light at her waist filtered around the
whole space and lit it up the large underground pool. The cavern
roof was metres above her head and a rocky platform rose above the
water on the far side of the cave.

She made straight for it and pulled herself
up out of the water. She shivered in the cold. There was no wind
through the cavern and the air smelled stale. The tunnel through
which she’d come was a dark patch just below the surface of the
water. Another tunnel led away from the platform and into more
darkness.

“Cal,” Nova said.

“You’re alive!” he replied.

“For now,” she chuckled.

“I told you we should have bought that
water-breather when we were on Hasard,” Cal said.

“You just wanted it because it was shiny,”
Nova said, squeezing the water out of her hair.

“Be that as it may,” Cal said, “I bet you’re
wishing we got it now.”

“Fine, from now on I’ll buy every shiny
thing you want,” she said with a grin. She’d never admit to Cal
that he was completely right. The breather hadn’t even cost that
much. One thing was sure, once she had the money from the mushrooms
that would be the first thing she bought.

She turned towards the new tunnel. At least
this one was above water.

She got to the entrance and glanced down
when she heard a crunch. She lifted her boot. Lying on the ground,
half of it reduced to a fine white powder, was a bird skull.

“How would a bird get in here?” she wondered
to herself.

She bent down and turned it around in her
fingers. There was no mistake; it definitely belonged to a small
bird. She shrugged and put the skull back on the ground.

The second tunnel looked almost welcoming in
the light shining out from her waist. The walls were abnormally
smooth. She ran her hand along the side and pulled it away with a
squeak. She lifted her hand to her face and splayed her fingers.
Some kind of goo dripped between them. It covered her whole hand
and oozed down to the floor.

“Yuk,” she said, looking around for anywhere
to wipe the substance off. In the end, she settled for the leg of
her pants.

The floor was similarly slippery with goo
and she had to walk slowly to avoid tripping and falling face-first
into the slime.

“Cal?” she said. “Cal?”

There was no reply thanks to the thick rocky
layer that blocked their signals. She was alone again in the
tunnels. “I’m sure it’s just moss,” she said, taking a deep
breath.

Step after step she went deeper into the
tunnel system. She breathed a sigh of relief that there weren’t any
side tunnels. After almost an hour of walking bent over with
cramped legs the tunnel opened up into another cavern. There was no
water but it did glow with mushrooms.

“Jackpot.”

She dropped her bag to the floor. Pulling
out jars, she scooped up as many mushrooms as they could hold. They
glowed blue through the glass and she could feel her heart rising:
money in the bag.

She put the last of the jars into her bag
and stood up. A sudden scratching noise made her jump. She spun to
face a second tunnel that led off from the cavern.

“What the—” she said, peering into the
darkness. Even the bright blue glow of the mushrooms didn’t extend
far up the tunnel, only inky blackness looked back.

She squinted her eyes and was sent careening
backwards when a body slammed into her. She fell to the floor in a
flurry of limbs and snarls, crying out as her back smashed against
the ground.

She grabbed hold of her attacker’s arms and
threw him to the side. His body was light and she got free. She
stood and whipped the gun out of her belt. Her attacker wasn’t
alone. More creatures streamed through the black tunnel. Some of
them were naked, others wore tattered pieces of mismatched
clothing.

They poured out of the tunnel in a
continuous stream and ran straight for Nova. She held up her gun
and squeezed the trigger. Blue blasts of plasma shot out and hit
the chests of the oncoming people. They snarled and fell over each
other in their rush to get to her.

With each gunshot another of the human-like
creatures fell, a gaping hole in either their chests or their
heads. They screamed as they were shot down and then lay convulsing
on the floor.

A pile of corpses was beginning to block the
tunnel entrance. The creatures had to climb over the bodies of
their comrades to get to Nova, which made them easy targets.

Click. Click. Click.

“Dammit!” Nova holstered her first gun and
whipped out the second. The pause in gunshots gave the creatures
the time they needed to get around the pile of bodies. Two of them
were running straight for her.

They were only two metres away. They ran
with an off-kilter step, leaning one away and then the other in
their rush to get to her. Their mouths gnashed open to reveal
pointed rotten teeth. Their oversized eyes glowed with unnatural
light.

“Get back you bastards!” she yelled, firing
her gun.

Both blue energy bolts were perfectly aimed
and the two creatures collapsed to the ground.

Wasting no time, she returned her attention
to the tunnel entrance and resumed her continuous fire, sure that
they had to run out of bodies soon.

She fired shot after shot, taking down tens
of the possessed creatures. Out of the corner of her eye, she
noticed that slugs were pouring out of the ears of the fallen. They
crawled out leaving a trail of slime and began to edge their way
back up the tunnel.

Nova didn’t have time to deal with them,
especially not when she heard sounds approaching from a different
tunnel.

She backed away towards the tunnel through
which she’d come. At least she knew there were no creatures down
that way. She fired as she backed away, the sudden bottleneck of
her small tunnel created an easy firing range. It wasn’t long
before a new pile of bodies filled the entrance.

“Gotcha,” she said. “I bet you didn’t—”

She was cut short when a hard object
collided with the back of her head and she fell unconscious.

CHAPTER
NINE

Nova swam back up to consciousness. Pain
surged through the back of her head. It coursed through her brain
to her eyeballs, then down her neck to the rest of her body. She
wanted to cry out but her survival instincts told her to keep
quiet.

Her eyes flickered open for a second and
then closed again. Focus, she chided herself. She forced her brain
to think about what she’d seen in that brief instant of vision.
There was a cave wall. There had been some things hanging to her
left. Mostly it was dark. There wasn’t much else she could make
out.

She slowed her breathing and forced herself
to concentrate. Why were her wrists so sore? And what was wrong
with her shoulders?

Inwardly she frowned, her feet and legs felt
funny. It was almost as if she was floating above the ground… No!
Not floating, hanging. She was strung up by her wrists to the
ceiling above. That was why her hands and shoulders ached. Her legs
were also tied down, so that her body was stretched out.

She took another deep breath. What did she
remember? There were the creatures, she was fighting them and
backing away down the tunnel. There shouldn’t have been anyone
behind her. The ache in the back of her head said otherwise.

So what were they doing with her? Weren’t
they some kind of mind-controlling parasites? Was she being
controlled right now? No. If she was being brain-washed, she’d know
it. Wouldn’t she?

“I know you’re awake,” said a voice right
next to her ear.

Her eyes flew open and she stifled a
scream.

Darkness surrounded her. A faint glow lit up
the cave wall opposite but that was it.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

“Ah, well that depends on you.” She couldn’t
tell if it was a male or a female voice. The accent was peculiar,
unfamiliar.

“What do you mean?”

“You have something that I want. If you
behave then maybe we can both get out of this.”

“What do you want?”

“I want a ride in your spaceship.”

“What?” Nova said. She craned her neck to
see who was talking but the illusive voice was moving about in the
shadows of the cave.

“You’re stranded here now though aren’t
you?” he said.

“I can fix it. But wait, how do you know—
you set those children on my ship!” Nova said, her eyes popping
wide.

“Well not me personally,” the man said with
a cruel smile. “You won’t stay in control for long here you know.
Her great majesty is right now giving birth to the new queen. She
will crawl into your head and take over your brain.”

“Queen? My brain? What?” Nova said. Her head
still ached with the blow she’d taken and her brain refused to
follow the conversation.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for someone
like you, someone who could take us away from this wretched planet.
And now the queen has decided to create a new daughter for the
honour. But it should be mine.”

“Why would you want to leave?” Nova said,
fishing for any shred of information that could help her escape the
wretched planet. “This seems like a very nice place.”

“Ha-ha, at least you’ve kept your sense of
humour. Unfortunately for you, this is no laughing matter. Here are
your options, I suggest you choose wisely. Option one: you wait for
the queen to lay larvae into your ear. It will then take over your
mind and won’t leave until you die. Or, option two: you allow me to
crawl in and hide there while we make our escape. I promise not to
take over your brain if you promise to take me into the stars.”

“What will you do once you get there?”

“Find someone else to infect of course!”

“I refuse both options.”

As soon as the words were out, a tight grip
snapped around Nova’s throat. Pain shot through her temples as
blood pooled inside her veins. Sharp jabs of agony stabbed through
her lungs with each gasping breath. Air scraped against her throat
as if she were swallowing gravel and stars flashed in front of her
bulging eyes.

“I thought I made myself very clear. Those
are your only options.” The voice was so close that she felt the
breath of it on her face. It had to be male, she decided, judging
by the grip at her throat. Although, she supposed, what gender the
slug was could be very difficult to determine.

“How’d you get here?” she asked. She choked
on the words as they scratched over her throat but she was
desperate to change the subject and get the thing off her.

“Do I sound like I’m in the mood for
answering questions?” the voice hissed, “We were left here and
that’s all you have to know.”

Nova couldn’t reply. Her lungs jerked in a
futile attempt for air and her vision went black. She teetered on
the brink of consciousness when miraculously the grip around her
throat disappeared. She gasped and choked on the air as it rushed
back into her body.

“I’m afraid you’ll be left here again,” Nova
said between wheezes. “I refuse both of your options.”

“Suit yourself; we’ll wait until the queen
arrives with your new master.”

“We’ll see,” said Nova.

Her voice sounded confident, but inside her
mind was racing. She had no idea how she was supposed to get down
from the ceiling, find her way through the tunnels and back into
the sunlight, whilst also evading the creatures.

“Can I have some water?” she asked.

“Do I look like a waiter?” her captor
replied.

“If I die of dehydration, I won’t be much
good to her majesty, will I?”

Her guard grumbled. She heard retreating
footsteps as the man left without bothering to reply.

“Cal! Cal, can you hear me?” she said.

“Nova? Where have you been, it’s been hours
since we last spoke.”

“Cal, listen carefully. I went into the cave
and was captured by more of these infected people. They’re planning
to use my brain as a host for their new queen. I’m trapped.”

“I told you not to go in there,” Cal
replied.

“Yes, Cal, I know I should listen to you
more often, you ever-intelligent robot. Can you just see if any of
the other hunters are in the area? I might need a hand. I’m just
grateful the rock is thin enough here for us to talk.”

“I’ll see if I can make contact,” Cal
replied.

“Thank you!” Nova said.

Her eyes were growing accustomed to the
dark. Now she could see that the black shapes hanging next to her
were actually decomposing bodies. As if the sight created the
smell, she was overpowered by the scent of death and decay.

Aside from the bodies, the only other things
she could make out were the cave walls and a tunnel entrance to her
right. That was the only way in or out of the cavern. She could see
the floor below her feet, it was a metre drop. How her captor had
managed to grab hold of her throat was a mystery. If only she could
untie her hands.