Though the room appeared cavernous and never ending, our voices didn't echo amongst the nearly black walls that had an almost reflective quality to them. I tilted my head back to take in the recessed lights burning down from the ceiling. It's like some kind of crazy ass greenhouse except they aren't growing plants, they're cultivating humans, I realized.
I half expected twigs and vines, or perhaps even a flower, to be sprouting out of the human's heads but they remained immobile and completely human in appearance. "Let's get out of here," Betty whispered.
"There's a shower station at the other end," Jessica said.
"Why..." Craig's question faded away as he took in the people. "They bathe them when they bring them up?"
"They're unclean," Cory said in a hushed voice.
"Thank you Jodie," Craig muttered the name of the human woman that had stood by his side all week. The woman that had given him a new perspective on human life, and his own.
I couldn't help but share the sentiment. It was difficult to imagine that at one point I would have stood within this room and felt nothing but excitement at the spectacle spread out before me. I'd always been glad that Bethany had appeared in my life, but now I was so unbelievably thankful for it that I could barely breathe.
She'd saved me from a lifetime of nothing. She'd given me a gift and even if my life ended today, that gift made it completely worthwhile.
"This way," Jessica said.
She led the way through the barrels to the human side of the ship. The thought of touching them made my skin crawl but they were impossible to avoid as we wound through the thousands upon thousands of bodies crammed within the room. I was repulsed by the feel of them and though I knew they were unaware of us, I could almost hear their voiceless pleas to be free of their arctic state.
Relief filled me, and I was finally able to inhale deeply again, when we finally found the end of the people. Jessica moved to the right and a doorway that almost blended in with the rest of the room. The only distinguishing difference between the door and the wall was the simple gold square in the center of the door. Jessica slipped her index and middle finger into the center and pulled the rectangle handle up.
The door slid silently to the side to reveal a dull gray shower room within. There were ten nozzles lining the walls but only one drain. "Won't they hear the water?" Steve asked.
"They didn't last time and honestly it doesn't matter, we can't go out there with blood all over us," Jessica answered.
"We can't leave a wet trail everywhere we go either," Betty said.
"We have to stay in here for a bit after," Jessica informed her. "It sucks, but it doesn't take as much time as you would think to dry off in that main room."
The last thing I wanted was to sit around here with the greenhouse humans for any longer than we had to, but I wasn't willing to do anything to jeopardize our secrecy upon this ship. Stepping into the room, I twisted the knob at the end until a clear stream shot out. The spray was room temperature and unlike earth water there was the subtle taste of fruit and an almost coppery blood tang to it. The taste brought back memories of my infancy and a memory of being bathed in the sweet water tickled at the edges of my mind. I recalled the name of the fruit that had given the water this taste, the olinade. It grew within the water and added its flavor to the supply that was recycled throughout the ship.
My head bowed as the water rushed over me and I tried to shut out the memory. I didn't want to remember anything about this place, it wasn't a part of me but even as I thought that I knew that it was. This place was as much a part of me as Bethany was. It was engrained into the fabric of my being; I had been conceived on this ship and kept alive here for the first two years of my life. This was my beginning and I was willing to destroy my beginning to ensure her future.
I wondered what she was doing now, how she was. Yesterday had been amazing, the only day we'd ever gotten to share with just the two of us; I would have given anything for just one more of those days. I closed my eyes as the water poured over me and I rested my hands against the wall before me. I could almost taste her again, so much sweeter than the water.
My fingers curled into fists as I tilted my head back so that the water was hitting me full in the face. The needlelike spray helped to turn my thoughts off of Bethany and back to where it belonged, on the mission now facing us. The water swirling down the drain became entirely red before it began to finally run clear.
I tried to ignore the thousands upon thousands of frozen humans surrounding us as I stepped from the shower room. My foot tapped and my gaze ran constantly around the room as I waited for the water to stop dripping from my hair and body onto the floor. The heat of the room was helping the drying process but it was nowhere near fast enough as far as I was concerned.
My hair was still damp but the rest of me was dry when I bent down and began to pull the clothes from my bag. The girl's hair was still wet but I didn't have the patience to wait for that right now. I shrugged the shirt back on and slid the buttons into place. "Everyone ready?" Jessica asked as she stepped in front of the door next to the shower room.
"What if someone is out there?" Betty asked.
"We take them out," Jessica answered. "If we can," she added in a muttered aside I was certain only I heard.
I shifted back on my heels as I braced myself for what was on the other side of that door. If anything was out there I was going to destroy it. The door slid back as soundlessly as the shower door had. I spotted the male on the other side of it before it was even completely open. His hand went to the weapon at his side but his posture relaxed when he recognized his own kind emerging.
It was that relaxation that was his downfall as I leapt forward, grabbed hold of his head and snapped his neck before he could put up any kind of a defense. From the corner of my eye I saw Jessica and Steve rushing to take down the other Tintagelian that had been in the hall. Jessica dodged the shards of ice that noiselessly burst from his weapon in a blue cloud, but Cory wasn't as fast.
Lifted off his feet, Cory was thrown back a good ten feet by the impact of the shards. I ducked his body as it soared over my head and crashed into the wall behind me. I didn't have to look; I knew he was dead before his body hit the wall. No one survived a direct hit from a frost gun. Jessica slammed the guard's arm down with her fist before he could fire off another round and drove her fist into his nose. She twisted the man's hands around, pressed the gun against his chest and pulled the trigger.
The force of it was hard enough to thrust the guard back, but Jessica had kept hold of his hands and jerked him down before he could hit the wall. His body slumped to the floor when she released him. I stayed low as I studied the hall and waited for more of them to emerge, but it remained still and I sensed no one else out there.
When I was certain it was safe, I lifted Cory's prone body over my shoulder and placed him back into the storage room we had just exited. It may not be possible, but if we were able to escape this place I was going to make sure he made it back to earth where the human he loved, Blanche, could have some sort of goodbye.
Craig and Steve dropped the bodies of the Tintagelians unceremoniously into the room and closed the door. I knew it wouldn't be long before someone came to look for them or to relieve them. "Why are there guards posted?" Steve asked.
"I don't know," Jessica said. "No one was here last time but there was nowhere near as much blood and no humans inside before."
"We don't have much time, let's go," I said crisply and hurried to the door at the end of the hall. I pulled the small rectangle handle down to open the door.
I frowned as I stared at the ground before me and then at the wall across from me. "What the...."
"You have to step forward," Jessica said. "I was stuck here for a good ten minutes before I figured that out. It's going to take you for a ride and a pretty amazing one, but it will be fine. Or at least it was last time. Just stay on the same pathway."
Those weren't the most comforting wor
ds after the events that had just transpired, but I didn't see any other choice as I studied the polished white floor before me. Taking a step forward I watched in amazement as a step molded itself out of the floor and around my feet before me. It was like an escalator but unlike an escalator it was only one stair that rose up a good ten feet before it began to slide forward.
There wasn't anything holding me to the step but I felt secure on the single two by two piece I was standing upon. I could hear the faint clicking of the mechanics running the "escalator" and as it began to move forward I could clearly see the gold encrusted rail running beneath it that drove it onward.
The walls around me gave way and when I looked back I could see Betty on a stair behind me. I kept my face impassive as I began to move into a wide open room. Other Tintagelians began to appear on steps above and below me as they slid across the cavernous room. There were a few Tintagelians that were moving parallel and even perpendicular to me. The rails running the system were so faintly hued that it almost appeared as if some of the steps were floating through the air.
Massive white crystals reflected the light filling the room as they flipped through pictures of a planet that none of us had ever seen, and that had ceased to exist centuries ago. Even so I found the rolling hills and shimmering water displayed within those crystals captivating as they played through the stones like a movie of a time long forgotten.
Despite my best intentions I found myself more than a little amazed by the world surrounding me. I didn't understand how a species that could create such wonder could commit such atrocious acts. Even as this thought was crossing my mind the stairs began to move over what I assumed was the center gathering area within the massive room.
Royal purple vines twisted over railings that marked what appeared to be a large dining area beneath us. Large sage and orange flowers bloomed from the vines and I dimly recalled that they were the flower of the Tintagelians, the lalitus. Through the center of the massive room ran the clear blue river that provided water to the entire ship. Drifting along the top of the water were dozens of the large red olinade fruits. Looking at them now I recalled that biting into them brought a surge of juice into the mouth. Juice that had a coppery tang to it, much like the blood that pulsed through the prey we all sought in one form or another. It was the only fruit my species ate, perhaps the only other thing, besides blood and souls that they consumed while aboard the ships.
This part of the ship didn't have black walls like the holding area; they were a blue so clear that it made me think of the pictures I'd seen of the Caribbean Sea. It almost seemed as if I could dive right into those walls. The ceiling was ablaze in a yellowish orange glow that reminded me of the sun and as I turned in the other direction I spotted the receding night. It took me a moment to realize that from within the ship the top of it was a massive dome that revealed the open sky, instead of an impenetrable wall like we saw of the ship from the ground.
Beneath me Tintagelians went about their day as normally as any human would have. They greeted one another but where there may have been laughter and loud calls between humans, these were simply nods and quiet exchanges between the Tintagelians. No smiles were exchanged as heads bowed and they moved by one another.
A bell in the distance brought my attention back to the room beneath me. Though no one spoke, excitement rippled through the crowd as they all moved toward the river. I kept my head up as I tried to appear indifferent, but my eyes kept drifting to the spectacle beneath me as they all lined up at the edge of the river.
Another bell went off and from somewhere in the ship I heard a low rumble. I didn't know what had happened but the water in the river began to go down like someone had just pulled the plug from a bathtub. The olinade swirled down to the concrete looking bottom of the river bed and fell onto their rounded sides.
From somewhere within the ship, the sound of something opening reverberated throughout and a small rumble began to shake the step beneath my feet. In a torrent of red, a wave of blood rushed through the empty basin beneath me. Like a fishing bobber, the fruit popped back up to the top as the blood followed the route of the river throughout the ship.
Saliva filled my mouth; my stomach rumbled as the Tintagelians dipped large goblets into the blood and lifted them to their mouths. The olinade danced and swirled throughout and a light bulb went off in my head as to how the fruit had acquired its sweet, coppery taste. Revulsion swirled through me but I couldn't shake the pulsing hunger that the scene beneath me awakened.
This level of greed and gluttony was what I had expected all along as they gulped down their goblets and went back for more. Some dipped down and took hold of the softball sized olinade with both hands. They wiped away the pink juice that trickled from the corners of their mouths as they eagerly ate it.
After the initial rush of blood the viscous liquid settled down to a few inches off the bottom of the basin, a few inches that was quickly consumed by the thousands lining it like pigs lining a trough. With the fourth goblet load by each Tintagelian the blood was nothing more than streaks along the side of the trench beneath me.
The faint grinding of gears reverberated through the ship again and fresh water flowed forth. Water that served as nothing more than a device to wash away the blood, and as a reminder of the once fertile land that The Ancients had ravaged.
I lifted my eyes from the room beneath me as they all resumed their day again and the walls surrounded me once more. Relief filled me as the step came to a halt at the beginning of a hallway. I stepped off and searched up and down for any enemies, but there was no one about.
"It was very calm from here on out," Jessica said in a strained voice. I knew how she felt. My body fairly vibrated with the need to feed that being in the container had awakened, but the river of blood had fanned the flames of hunger to nearly uncontrollable levels. I felt sorry for anyone that got in our way between here and the Hallowed room. "This way."
I stayed close on her heels as she turned to the right and led the way down the hall. We slipped around another corner and doors began to roll out before us in an endless aisle that reminded me of the cabins I'd seen on cruise ships. There were even more rooms here though and I didn't think anyone would make it off alive when this ship went down.
Our footsteps were muffled by the floor beneath us as we moved forward. It wasn't carpet underfoot, but the material the floor was made out of was almost spongy beneath my feet as it gave way a little with each step. The doors on either side of me were a white crystalline color that resembled the crystals in the main room and the one that I had thrown away all those years ago. The more I studied the doors though, the more I realized that they were made up of a different type of stone as they gradually began to change color to a deeper pink. By the time we made it to the end of the hall they were all a deep orange and becoming steadily redder.
At the end of the hall was another wall with stairs that curled upward. "How much time did you spend up here before?" I asked Jessica as she bypassed the stairs and moved down another hall.
"It took me two days to find the Hallowed room and a whole lot of wrong turns."
I imagined that it had as she stopped before a different alcove. She took a deep breath, set her shoulders and took a step forward. I watched as the step appeared but instead of going up or forward, it began a steady descent straight down. For the first ten feet I could see her head and then the floor reformed beneath me. Walls enveloped me as I stepped onto the stair behind her and began my descent into the bowels of the ship once more.
After what we had seen in the last basement area, I wasn't looking forward to this, but as the stair reached the bottom I discovered we were only in another hall. Jessica waited till everyone had arrived before nodding toward the right and creeping forward. Following behind, I kept my breathing as silent as possible as we moved onward.
We rounded a corner and a massive, arched door came into view at the end of the hall. It was made of the same crystal as the other door
s but it was a lot larger and an angry, mottled red. Jessica stopped before the door and pointed to the pad next to it. I recognized instantly that a sample of our DNA would be needed to get the doors to open. Only it wasn't our DNA that this pad would accept. My hands fell to the bombs tucked within my shirt as I studied the formidable door before us. I wasn't sure they would be enough to get us through the layer of rock currently blocking our path.
"Are you sure this is it?" Betty asked.
"The only other area of the ship that I was never able to gain access to was the corridor that The Ancients slept in. However I don't think they would keep The Fountain in the same area as their sleeping quarters. I don't know where else the Hallowed room would be, and judging by the size of this crystal I would assume there's something important being protected by it," Jessica answered.
"This is the only chance we have, if we use one of those bombs it's all over for us. They'll know we're here," Craig said.
"We always knew it was likely that we weren't getting off of this ship," I said as I pulled a bomb out.
"Better make it two," Steve said.
"That could bring the ceiling down on us."
He glanced at the walls above us and nodded. "You're right, let's just hope one will be enough."
I was thinking the same thing as they retreated around the corner and I pulled the lighter from my pocket. I took a deep breath, lit the fuse and placed it firmly against the crystal wall. Turning, I sped down the hall and around the corner where I braced myself for the explosion. The force of the blast caused the ship to lurch beneath my feet. I was thrown against the wall but managed to catch my balance before I fell over completely.
Sirens began to blare and orange strobe lights flashed over the walls and floor in a dizzying pattern. If the bomb hadn't alerted everyone to our presence on board, there was definitely no hiding it now. Pushing off the wall, I braced myself before stepping around the corner. The bomb hadn't completely destroyed the crystal, but it had knocked a good four foot round hole into the base of it.