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Seeing Chagar had come to no harm, McAllister grabbed the machine, booting Chagar out of the way. “It’s mine, all mine. The McAllister’s win, as we always will.” He slobbered over the controls for a moment, then cackled and smashed his finger down on the human picture button.
Again, the blue light crackled through the chamber, streaks of blue lightning shafting through him, enveloping him as it had Chagar. As they watched, the blue light took on a subtle violet purple tinge, enveloping McAllister. His fingers stretched out rigidly and his teeth gnashed hard, his brows contracted in a rictus of pain.
The old man’s voice echoed again through the chamber. “You too can have the knowledge you seek; it is available to all that brave my machine.”
Chagar groaned, seeing McAllister’s eyes flicker in REM mode as the machine downloaded the complex equations into his brain. The machine dropped from his hands, thudding to the floor in a shower of sparks. Beneath them, the floor shuddered.
McAllister opened his eyes. “I can redesign the universe with this knowledge... no one can stand against me...” He opened his eyes, and they flickered red. “Bow down before me. I am your new God...”
His ranting tailed off as the Professor’s voice boomed out again. “But you are fully human, and worse, of McAllister blood. For that, you will die. Feel what the planet felt in its rebirth.”
The light went from turquoise to an arterial blood red, flooding him in lurid hues. As they watched in horrified fascination, his body was held rigid in a web of red light. His face seemed to ripple as unseen forces buffeted his body from within. His eyes were fixed in a terrible stare. They were windows into Hell as his body had its components rearranged on the atomic level, compounds coalescing into elements.
In the red light, his skin glistened as fluid was produced as a by-product. Even so many light years from Earth, humans remained the same chemical composition as the seas from which their distance ancestors had emerged. Eighty percent water in fact, and a few teaspoons of miscellaneous chemicals.
Charlton McAllister, the twentieth of his line, was being reduced to his fundamental worth. His body shrank in on itself, his face changing colour from red to a rock like brown. Fluid oozed from him, puddling onto the floor. Conscious to the end, his eyes burned into the stunned watchers. A whirling galaxy of whitish dust swirled up, and they realised he was dissolving from the feet up. The sparkling particles spun like a tornado around him, his body crumbling, reforming.
As the light died down, there was a sudden change. The energy stopped flowing out and flew in, imploding into a small, coagulated brownish lump in a puddle of warm steaming fluid.
Silence.
“Anyone else wanna have a go?” Sarge remained unquenchable. “Step right up, watch the floor, and don’t slip in the stupid bastard.... Geez Jo, I know he was your brother and all, but what an asshole.” Under the cover of her prattling, she was loosening her knife, her last, hidden in her sleeve holster. Better than an ace up your sleeve, she had always instructed her recruits. She nodded to Daisy.
Chuck was standing there slack jawed with astonishment, his eyes glued to the small pebble that had once been McAllister. His dreams of power and wealth were crumbling like sandcastles at high tide. The rifle hung slack in his hands.
Daisy erupted into action. Grabbing her neck rope, she lunged sideways, tightening the rope. A knife spun through the air, and the rope split in two. Sarge’s aim was true. Daisy continued her lunge, cartwheeling well out of Chuck’s reach.
Johanna darted across, her quarterstaff flailing out to connect with Chuck’s head. From the other side, a stony-faced Jasmine advanced, and there was a metallic rasp as she drew her sword.
The quarterstaff whistled through thin air. Chuck’s attention had snapped back, and he ducked and unshouldered his rifle. He aimed the rifle at Daisy. “I thought you were different.” His face crumpled as he pulled the trigger. “I thought you cared.”
Johanna leapt in front of Daisy, and a pattern of red flowers stitched their way across her front as she was blasted against the wall. Chuck kept his finger on the trigger, and a line of bullets raked across the roof. A rain of crystals tinkled down. The room rocked.
“Noooo,” yelled Drever, diving on Chuck, sending the rifle flying across the floor. Chagar grabbed it, but they were rolling over and over on the floor. There was no chance of a clear shot.
Large chunks of crystals started falling amongst them, and Chagar and Sneedo’s danger warnings clanged simultaneously. They looked at each other, and then at the roof. Large cracks had appeared, and small rocks and powder rained down.
Rockfall.
“Get out, now,” yelled Chagar, dropping the rifle. Daisy and Jasmine raced to the door, tugging desperately. The door moved, and then stuck. The frame had started to buckle. Jock joined them, and they dragged the door open a body width. Glancing behind him, Chagar saw Sarge standing up with Johanna across her shoulders.
Drever and Chuck were on their feet and circling each other. Chuck still had his knife, but Drever had nothing but his bare hands. Both were oblivious to the rocks falling around them.
Jock pushed the twins through, wedging his body in the door frame to lever it open further for Sarge to get through. His back against the frame, he pushed out with his feet, veins cording his neck with effort. “Just a bit further you bastard. Move,” he grunted.
Sarge stumbled across to the door, carrying Johanna. She didn’t get more than a metre before a thin rock slab came down, knocking her down. The floor rocked again, Johanna’s body rolling across the room, coming to a stop at the pedestal of the machine.
Jock wedged himself in the doorframe, kicking and swearing. It moved a bit, then it stuck fast. He hoped it was wide enough. Sneedo and Chagar had grabbed hold of the unconscious Sarge, and together they manhandled her out of the door.
Chagar went back for Johanna. The small chamber was thick with clouds of white salt dust, and crystals and rocks were falling everywhere. Visibility was poor, and Chagar cursed as he stumbled over rocks obscured by the rising salt dust.
Drever and Chuck were still fighting; Drever had long bloody slashes across his chest and down the side of his face. Chuck’s face was swollen, and he was favouring his left leg where a vicious kick had dislocated his kneecap.
“Drever, it’s coming down,” yelled Chagar. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
He ran across to Johanna. A step away from her and his warning signal clanged again, and he flung himself backwards. Horrified, he saw a huge slab fall from the roof, right on top of her, and she was lost from view. There was a loud crack, and more rocks rained down, and he rolled and dived for the door. Behind him, another large slab flaked off the wall, missing him by a hairsbreadth.
The door blasted shut as Chagar dived through, hitting the bottom step. Large dents appeared in the steel door as a few last rocks fell against it, bending it out of shape. He looked up the stairs, thick dust making his eye membranes grey his vision. The sound of falling rocks had nearly finished. The occasional sudden crash told of rocks rolling and settling into place.
Sneedo was first up, dragging Chagar up the stairs, and checking him for injuries. She glanced at the others, who seemed too demoralised and exhausted to move. They had lost the treasure they sought, as well as Johanna and Drever. Sitting, half laying on the steps where they had fallen, no one said anything. The twins sat on each side of Jock, tears rolling down their cheeks, making wet patches on the shoulders of his filthy singlet. Sneedo put her arm around Chagar, giving him a fierce hug, glad he was alive.
There was a groan from Sarge. She levered herself up, touching the back of her head, and winced. Her fingers came back covered in blood. “Got a bandaid, anyone?” Her joke fell flat, everyone looking back at her bleakly.
“Where’s Johanna? I had her in my arms,” she said, looking around.
Chagar just pointed at the door. “A slab of rock fell on her. I couldn’t get there in time.”
“What, you left her behind? No one gets left behind in my unit.” She staggered down the stairs, yelling out Johanna’s name.
Silence.
She started battering on the door, kicking and pushing it in fury.
“It’s no use Sarge, she’s gone. Even if she survived being shot, the rockfall would have got her.” Sneedo pointed to the pile of rocks visible through the buckled doorframe.
The twins tried to console her, but Sarge didn’t seem to hear. She sat on the bottom step, rocking, her braids white with dust and clotted with blood. Her face in her hands, Sarge wept for her lost daughter.
Sneedo fell to examining the maps Aznavor had given her. While she had visited the old city before, large parts of it remained a mystery. He had said something about an escapeway. She glanced at the others. Sarge maintained her vigil on the steps, voicing a mindless crooning noise, her eyes blank with shock and misery. Jock unwrapped the last of the salvaged turducken, trying to tempt the twins to eat something. Chagar had vanished, going in search of another entry to the Machine room. She didn’t think he would find one.
Everyone looked shattered. We were so close to getting through and safe. Now, I doubt all of them would get through the acid levels again, certainly not before the radiation affects them. There must be an easier way. She bent over the maps again, tattered, blood-stained and falling to pieces. The city maze was hard to decipher, as were Aznavor’s notes. She traced her finger over the maps, murmuring as she recognised certain features.