Chương 234: Book 4 - Chapter 24 - Digging Deeper

"I'm not leaving your side ever again," Bob blubbered once he finally made it down into the cavern.

"You almost died."

"I'm really going to die if you don't let me go," I croaked into the bear's chest as he hugged me tight.

"I can't breathe!" Thankfully, the oversized, blubbering crybaby let me go before his bone-crushing hug actually broke any bones. As he gently lowered me to the ground, Nora came storming out of one of the tunnels, fuming.

"These fuckers! It looks like this tunnel leads straight back to the entrance, no twists or turns at all. What was the point of the path we took?"

"Probably to slow down attackers to give the Antithesis time to prepare their defenses and set up traps," Helen replied thoughtfully.

"Bullshit. The Antithesis aren't smart enough to plan ahead like that," Saber growled.

"The antithesis don't normally field Model Four variants that wrap you up like a christmas present before carrying you away or create hives that look like massive flower fields," Nora grunted.

"We've seen a lot of weird shit today. Who knows what fucked up mutant strain could be running around down here?"

"It's not a mutant strain," I sighed.

"After you guys jumped down to help me, I saw a Model Six watching the entire fight. After it ordered the retreat, it dropped to the floor, had a seizure then died."

"I'm sorry, but what does that mean?" Amy asked after a moment of silence.

"It might be common knowledge among samurai, but I'm still pretty new to this all."

"It's not common knowledge," Helen assured her, "and even if it was, it's something I'm not aware of either."

"It's something I encountered in the tunnels under Jasper," I explained. I took a moment to glance over at Nora, looking for some support. Based upon her puzzled expression, she must not have experienced the same issues during her long, painful slog through the tunnels.

"A couple months ago, when we were fighting our way towards the hive located deep under the Rocky Mountains, the Antithesis put up a methodical, well-coordinated, defense to slow our advance. All that pain was caused by a handful of Model Seventeens. Tiny little fucking things that implant a Model Seven variant into other Antithesis.

The Seventeen is connected to the Seven, and its host, through an extremely thin strand, which allows it to command the host or, in the case of emergencies, withdraw the Seven parasite to prevent the enemy from tracking the strand back."

"And when the parasite is withdrawn, the host has a seizure and dies," Saber finished.

"Exactly. If one of those fucking things is down here, we're probably in for a rough time," I grumbled.

"Well… since you're the expert, what do you suggest?" Helen asked.

"We can't allow ourselves to be split up or led anywhere, because when the Antithesis retreat, they'll almost always head towards another ambush point. The real trick will be to identify the Seventeen's chosen host so we can follow the strand back to wherever the Seventeen is hiding" explained.

"That doesn't sound hard…" Nora mumbled.

"It is both smart and cowardly. If it suspects, even for a moment, that someone is on to it, it'll pull back the Seven and abandon the battle. Once we move, it has to be fast." You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Well, that sounds like it's going to be a joy to deal with," Helen grumbled.

"I'd also like to remind everyone that while dealing with that thing is a priority, Trench is somewhere down here. And we need to find the hive."

"Trench needs to be our top priority," Saber growled.

"He has been missing for far too long for my liking."

"That's fine, we'll just have to watch our step as we search," I said, hefting my rifle.

"Our search should be easier now that we're out of the labyrinth. Which way should we go?"

"Assuming the Seventeen was created here, I'd suggest we head straight away from the entrance, deeper down that passage," Nora said, pointing towards the tunnel opposite the one she'd been exploring earlier.

"Even if the Seventeen's some brilliant tactician, the original hive was made by mindless drones. They would have dug some simple tunnels to drag biomass from the surface down to the hive."

"Makes sense to me," Amy agreed excitedly. I couldn't believe she could still be so cheerful after all the exhaustive, awful fights we'd been through today. Her endless enthusiasm kind of reminded me of Issi. The tunnels in this part of the hive were far wider and closer to what I would have expected in a standard hive.

We were able to travel in a loose group, instead of single file, but we still created a loose formation with Saber in the front, Nora in the back, and Bob in the middle to limit the risk of the Antithesis coming at us from different angles. The bears still took both the vanguard and rearguard positions so they could warn us of incoming antithesis. The strange thing was, despite our slow but steady advance further into the hive complex, the Seventeen didn't send repeated hit and run attacks against us.

It was just the slow, but constant, assault from newly born antithesis streaming from what I could only assume was the heart of the hive. It didn't take us long before we stumbled into a chamber full of gnarled roots all twisted together like a miniature mangrove forest. At the center of the chamber was a grotesque tree trunk. It was full of knots and hollows while still being bloated, leaking a rancid sap out of every crack and pore.

"That was too easy," Saber mumbled.

"What happened to that master planner you were so worried about?"

"Fuck if I know. If it was predictable, it wouldn't be that much of a tactician, would it?" I growled.

"Instead of complaining, maybe we should concentrate on finding Trench before it comes back." As we crept through the chamber, I felt a growing sense of unease. Besides the Model Tens, which were panicking and ripping birthing pods open, and the misshapen, early-born Antithesis they were dumping in a last-ditch effort to stop us, the chamber was surprisingly empty. There had been several hundred antithesis in the chamber that I'd fallen into earlier, and not a single one of them had shown up to defend the hive.

After taking care of the headless monkeys and their charges with a couple quick bursts from our weapons, we split up to look for clues. The chamber was too clean and still in one piece, so I doubted Trench Stormer could have made it this far, but it was worth looking. It was a couple minutes later, when I was digging through one of the tangled root structures, that Amy let out a weak, stuttery call.

"I… I think I found them." I looked over just in time to see her stumble away from one of the tree hollows before leaning forward and retching. Never a good sign, but at least she had the foresight to remove her helmet. Since Helen was rushing directly towards the pale, shuddering girl, I slowly made my way over to the hollow. Inside was a pool of bubbling caustic ichor, probably this hive's version of a digestion pool. Deep within the hollow.

I could just make out what looked like part of a hand and a gasmask with a shattered eyepiece. I just caught the briefest glance of the half-dissolved remains beyond the glass before I too turned away, sickened by the sight.

"Shit… How could this have happened?" Nora whispered.

"If I had to guess, Model Four tentacle or Five spine through the faceplate," Saber growled.

"There aren't that many things in the basic Antithesis arsenal that pierce through armor like that. I don't know how the Antithesis got close enough to deliver the blow, though."

"I experienced how they probably did it," I growled.

"Drop someone that's not good in close combat directly into a sea of antithesis, even the weaker models, and they'll have a bad day. I bet the only reason I noticed there was something different about the tunnel was the Antithesis didn't have enough time to do a full repair. I'd probably be in there with them if you and Nora weren't so close at hand."

"That's the most horrible thing I've ever seen," Amy choked out.

"Try not to think about it right now. Just concentrate on breathing. Deep, calming breaths," Helen cooed as she gently rubbed the girl's back.

"It's rare for a samurai to die in the field, but it does happen," Saber explained in a heavy tone.

"All we can do is make sure we collect their remains and make sure they receive the respect they deserve." He reached out and grabbed a grenade as it materialized and chucked it into the hollow. Within seconds the ichor stopped bubbling, and the area around the hollow seemed to dry out, shattering into dust. He didn't move away as the liquid sloshed harmlessly around his ankles and instead reached in to pull out the ravaged corpse within.

"I'm sorry we were late, friend," he whispered.

"It's time to go home."