The Abyss Above Us 2 Read online

“Fine. So I’m guessing that you have some emergency candles,” he said with a grin.

  “Of course!” she said. “And I’m guessing you have something perfect to light them with for all those beautiful ladies who need a cigarette lit.”

  Jack pulled out a Zippo, opening and lighting it with one killer smooth motion across his jeans. Terra rolled her eyes and headed for the kitchen. They decided to drink up the rest of their limited supplies of safe liquid before leaving, since one way or the other they wouldn’t be needing it later.

  Twenty minutes later they were downstairs and headed towards Collin’s door. Jack had been surprised at exactly how easy it had been to break the gas line going to the apartment’s furnace. It was so easy that he couldn’t help wondering how more places didn’t blow up. He kept trying to do little mental calculations on how long it would take the gas to get to the candles one apartment away, but no matter how he tried he didn’t have anything to go on. He really couldn’t even guess whether it was a couple minutes or a couple days. He hoped Collin wouldn’t know either, smart as he was. The feeling was perversely exciting, like leaning over the railing at the Grand Canyon.

  “I never thought I’d feel so good about a plan that’s probably going to blow us to bits,” he whispered to Terra.

  “Think positive thoughts,” she whispered back. She looked much more serious than he felt. He felt a little giddy.

  They arrived at Collin’s door, and Jack knocked with the base of his bat. Hard.

  “Collin,” he called. “If you’re in there get your ass out here. And you can tell that cocksucker Seth to come on out too.”

  They immediately heard loud footsteps from within, thundering towards the door. Jack and Terra backed off, almost involuntarily. Seth threw the door open so hard the doorknob knocked a hole in the drywall behind it. He begin walking down the hall towards Seth and Terra, eyes blazing. Jack was walking backwards, fast, cricket bat cocked and ready. Collin walked calmly into the hall behind Seth.

  “I’d say that was a poor choice of words, Jacky mate,” said Collin.

  “You call him off or you’ll never find her in time,” called Jack back at him.

  “Stop!” ordered Collin. And miraculously Seth did. He just stood there, fists clenched and huffing through his nose.

  Jesus, Jack thought. There’s a bull just waiting for a flash of red.

  Jack still felt giddy, but realized that it was from fear. The situation was already going bad.

  “Something you want to tell me Jack,” asked Collin.

  “We’ve broke a gas line. If you tell us how to get out of here, we’ll tell you where. If not, or if your thug here tries to beat it out of us, you’ll never find it in time. We’ll all go up together.

  “Including Noel.”

  Collin’s eyes went wide at this, his face blank. It was just for a second, but even halfway down the hall Jack caught it plainly.

  “Yeah mate,” Jack spat the word at him. “You thought you hid it sooo well didn’t you. But we both know you’re not going anywhere without her.”

  Collin waited a bit, then nodded slowly. “You know, yeah. Yeah I really did think that. You’d be surprised Jack, how easy it is to hide secrets from people like you. Anytime they ask anything on the subject, you just ask them something about themselves. People love to talk about themselves, you can distract them from anything that way. And you do love talking about yourself Jack. In fact, I think you’re probably way to self centered to have figured it out.

  “No, no. It’s you, right?” Collin said, pointing at Terra. He was calm and serious, as if he was dealing with nothing more than a Sudoku puzzle. “You’re the brains of the outfit. So tell me Terra, what’s to stop me from just going and getting Noel and leaving while Seth beats you to death?”

  Jack’s head spun. He stupidly hadn’t thought of that. He tried frantically to think of a lie, but was distracted by a popping sound. It was coming from Seth’s knuckles, clenched so hard they were white. Jack took a couple more steps back.

  “You’ll never find her in time,” said Terra. “We’ve hidden her too well.”

  Nice bluff, thought Jack. He looked intently at Collin’s face, to see the working of her lie.

  “Well I guess you’ve got me then,” said Collin. His head cocked to the side and hands spread wide as if in surrender.

  Jack and Terra waited a bit. Collin didn’t say anything. Just awkward silence.

  “So where’s the way out,” asked Jack.

  “The what?” asked Collin, feigning confusion. His tone was thick with mockery. “Oh...well why would I tell you that?”

  “Don’t bullshit us, Collin,” said Jack. He thought back to what Collin had said to Artesia, trying to find something to turn the situation. “I dreamt about that spider thing, and whatever deal you made it to get Noel will be worthless if this place blows up.”

  This time Collin didn’t hide his surprise. He looked delighted by it.

  “Wow,” he said. “You dreamt about it, too? That’s interesting, but how Jack? How...”

  Collin’s shoulders started shaking, and soon he was chuckling audibly.

  “...How did you get soooo close and still get it wrong?”

  Jack could only shake his head, not understanding. His arms were beginning to get tired from holding the bat up.

  “Who the fuck do you think I am, Jacky boy?” Collin asked, his voice growing more angry as he went. “You think I’m just some nobody, selling his soul for thirty pieces of silver? You think I did allll this just so I could...what? Run off with her? Have some stupid little kids and come home to her night after night until I’m sick of the sight of her?”

  Collin was yelling now, his face white with rage.

  “Love is a cancer, Jack. It has ruined me. And the girl I want, she isn’t even real. Just an illusion in my head of what I want. So I did make a deal with the Dark God. But the deal wasn’t to have her, it was to cure me. To take my love for her and cut it out of me.

  “And that’s just what It’s done.”

  Collin looked down for a moment. When he looked up his entire demeanor had changed. He was completely calm, smiling warmly even. Jack felt a chill run down his spine at the transformation.

  “So blow her up,” Collin said with a shrug. “Blow yourselves up. Blow up the whole building, the tentacles and the computer and everything. I can recreate it all somewhere else. All I need is the math, and I’ll be taking that with me when I leave.”

  Jack tried to think of something to say, but couldn’t. He looked at Terra, who was looking at Seth wide eyed and backing down the hallway. Jack started to quickly follow.

  Collin turned and walked down the hall, waving behind him.

  “So long, Jack and Terra,” he called back. “Sorry about what he’s going to do to you. Come find me when you’re done, Seth.”

  Seth came at them. His build didn’t lend itself to running, but with Jack’s bad leg Seth was still faster than him. Jack had the head start though and didn’t waste it.

  Jack turned and ran, following Terra. He thought she’d make for the stairs, but instead she dodged into Pat’s apartment. The door still unlocked from when Jack had first woke up in there two days ago. Jack didn’t like the idea of being trapped in there, but didn’t have time to do anything else. He followed her in and slammed the door in Seth’s face, Terra locking it a split second before Seth turned the handle.

  “OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR,” Seth screamed from the other side.

  Oh God, thought Jack.

  A tremendous impact hit the door low, a kick. The doors were old and solid wood, not hollow like in a newer apartment. Yet it was already bending with the impact.

  More hits rocked the door, Jack and Terra pushing against it on the other side with all their strength. They felt Seth throw his shoulder against it, the noise like a gunshot. The wood around the deadbolt was starting to splinter.

  Jack looked at Terra, who shook her head. He turned to try and look for somethi
ng in the room to help, a chair to shove under the doorknob. Besides the futon there was only a bean bag chair.

  Fucking musicians, Jack thought.

  There was more pounding on the door, along with enraged yelling. Jack began to wonder about standing back to get into some kind of combat position, rather than be knocked over when the door went. Which was surely only a matter of seconds, despite both him and Terra pushing back with all their might.

  “Get ready,” he mouthed to her. She nodded, pulling the knife from her belt.

  And suddenly the pounding stopped. Jack didn’t pull away, suspecting a trick. He just waited, the sudden silence deafening.

  After a few moments there was a sound they’d heard before. A kind of metallic grinding noise, coming distantly from the courtyard. It was repeated a few seconds later. Followed by the sound of Seth’s footsteps walking away.

  Jack looked through the spy hole, not trusting it. He waited, peering through it. Terra had her eyes closed, ear to the door. After about sixty seconds they heard the noise again, and repeated again a moment later. Then all was still.

  “Do you think he’s really gone,” Jack whispered to Terra.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered back. “I don’t think we have much time to wait. The gas leak...”

  Jack realized she was right. They couldn’t wait in the apartment all night, trick or not. He waved her back and slowly and quietly opened the lock.

  He quickly opened it and looked into the hall, hoping to take by surprise anyone who was out there. It was empty.

  “It’s the courtyard,” said Terra. “I think we have to go take a look.”

  “Ok. Lets go around opposite ways again in case they are waiting for us. You go right, I’ll go left.”

  “Ok, be careful.”

  “You too,” he said.

  She surprised him by hugging him briefly, then headed off on her way. He went left, trying to move as quickly and quietly as he could.

  Jack’s distance to his door was much shorter, which was good because he was still moving much slower with his injuries. He walked through the rear entrance to the courtyard and immediately was overwhelmed with several conflicting emotions. Breathing the fresh air, feeling its coolness on his skin, it instantly felt like he had escaped from prison. At the same time the four walls of the brownstone blocking out the city and stars felt very claustrophobic, like they were pressing in on him. This was intensified by the relative darkness of the courtyard. It had never been very well lit, but now most of the lights were out and there was no moon in the sky. He heard various insectile noises, and strained his ears to tell if they were normal crickets and other night bugs or something more sinister. He stood a moment, debating whether to turn on his flashlight or just try and sneak. He decided he was already silhouetted against the light of the glass door behind him, and sneaking would only be useful if he knew what he was looking for. He had to risk it.

  He flicked on his flashlight and shined it around, looking for potential ambush as best he could in the shadows of bushes and benches. He knew the territory. He had the British habit of spending time enjoying a garden. And though the courtyard was surely only a shadow of its former glory, he had enjoyed spending time on the benches or wandering around on the grass.

  Not seeing anything on his initial scan of the area, he started on the footpath towards the other side, hoping to meet Terra. On his first step he felt a crunch beneath his feet, not quite like pebbles. He shined his light down and saw after a moment that the various shades at his feet were moving. Forcing himself to lean a little closer he saw the ground was covered with swarms of large dark insects. Despite the fact that they were all pitch black, they were recognizable. Grasshoppers, potato bugs, daddy long-legs, centipedes, ants-all just grown very large. Not monstrously so, more like in a rain forest. And all shiny chitinous black.

  Jack had always been more the type to capture a spider in a jar and let it outside than to stomp on it, but he didn’t have much choice. The ground was thick with them to the point where you couldn’t really move without stepping on a few. He tried to move quickly and lightly as he could, keeping watch everywhere at once for ambush while simultaneously trying not to let any of the insects climb on him.

  I’m surrounded by enemies who want me dead or worse, he thought. And all I can think about is I hope no one sees me walking like a spaz.

  As he approached the center of the courtyard he began to hear to gurgling of the fountain. His stomach almost twisted with pangs of thirst, despite him and Terra finishing off the last of their limited water just a little while ago. As his light shone upon its cascading reflections he felt an overwhelmingly primitive desire to drink from it. He felt his weakness from dehydration, the headache that hadn’t really gone away for days. He had to fight an extreme internal battle not to drink from it, and was glad for the distraction of Terra’s flashlight coming from the other direction.

  “Have you seen them,” she whispered when they met at the fountains base.

  “No, nothing really. Just these bugs.”

  “Watch out for the daddy long-legs,” she said distractedly as she looked around. “I heard that their poison is more deadly than a black widow’s, only their mouths are too small to bite people. These things might be the exception.”

  Jack quickly shone his light down at his legs, feeling a tingling as if they were already walking on him. The ones he’d seen earlier were at least six inches tall, but still easy to miss in the darkness.

  “I’m not sure what I was expecting to find out here,” said Terra. “But I don’t see it.”

  “It’s a pretty good area to cover,” said Jack as he shone his light around.

  “I don’t think so,” said Terra. “That sound really seemed to me like something grinding on concrete, and that means it had to be this one footpath.”

  “Or the fountain,” said Jack. He shined his light on it, looking for anything strange. The fountain itself was a simple thing, about four feet tall with an elegant but uncomplicated design of rounded curves. He walked around it, vaguely shining his light around in a sort of half hearted way. It wasn’t much of a search pattern, but he found it anyway. He was completely surprised, though he’d seen it many times before without thinking much of it.

  “Son of a bitch,” he said. Terra looked up at him.

  “I knew it,” he continued. “I knew there was another way out. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it. Stupid!”

  He lightly hit his head at the last exclamation, not believing he could have left days ago. Terra shone down her flashlight where he had his and saw it. White scratches on the concrete path leading away from a manhole cover. A small one, but not too small to fit through.

  “It must be for fountain maintenance,” said Terra.”

  “Yeah. But I doubt they’re down there playing checkers. It must lead somewhere.”

  Terra nodded reply. After a moments discussion, she pulled it up slightly from the little hole in it and he jammed the cricket bat under it to pry it the rest of the way. It was fairly loose, obviously opened recently. Jack would have liked to have moved it quietly, but in his currently state it was all he could do to drag it loudly across the ground. The scraping sound was amplified by echoing off the walls. For a split second he had the absurd worry that he might be waking people up. It was replaced by the genuine worry that Collin and Seth might have heard it.

  Terra started down the ladder but he stopped her.

  “Wait,” he said shaking his head and smiling with the humor of it. He felt almost nostalgic. “I’ll go first.”

  “What’s so funny,” she asked smiling back.

  “Nothing,” he said. “It’s just that you take me to all the nicest places.”

  With that he handed her his bat, put his flashlight in his belt, and headed down into the darkness.

  Chapter 37

  ********************

  Shaw wondered if he was any different than he used to be. He wondered if all he�
�d been through, all he’d seen and done, had changed him. They tried to change him in the mental hospital, that was the whole purpose of the place. Drugs and therapy and control, all to make you different than when you came in. And in there he had certainly acted different. But now, living on the lam. Breaking the law as a matter of course. That was different, too. The old Shaw would have never done that.

  Except, he thought. The old Shaw is the one who did that.

  He thought it would be more true to say he was just the same, and any perceived difference was just him responding to the situation. It seemed most accurate to consider him as a set of computer architecture. You could take that machine downstairs and program any number of operating systems on it, all with completely different ways of processing information and interfacing with the world. But it would still be the same Machine, responding to input the only way it could.

  And so there he was, through all of it, just responding to input the best he could. No wiser, no stronger, no braver than he ever was.

  Or maybe he was braver. It had to be possible, that even someone like him could face terrible things and become the braver for it.

  He hoped so.

  He hoped so because he was currently staring down at the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen in his life, and he knew if it had eyes it’d be staring back up at him.

  It didn’t look human, though it was pretty clear that it had tried to. Even from Shaw’s position on the second floor of the parish, staring down through a window at where it stood in the street below, it was clearly not human. Maybe if it had been slinking in the dark, like God surely would have intended it, Shaw might have mistaken it for a horribly bad off homeless man. But instead it stood in the cone of light from a streetlamp, oblivious to the fact that its clever disguise was the equal to any nightmare Shaw had ever imagined.

  He first noticed it while walking the building, looking out the windows to vicariously enjoy the night. He hadn’t got very far when he noticed it, just standing there looking up.