SIREN

Chapter Nineteen

I had just touched down when I heard a sound. It was a hollow knock that reverberated down the tunnel and into my ears. I turned to Sam and saw a small trail of sweat on the side of his cheek.

'What was that?' I asked. My pistol wobbled in my hand.

'It's just debris, Teabags. Bits and pieces floating around, nothing to worry abou—'

He was cut off by another thump. I wheezed in surprise and tottered backwards. My torchlight danced up the walls and onto the ceiling.

'Got you,' Sam caught my arm before I hit the ground and pulled me to my feet.

Another dull thud rang out and my chest tightened up. It sounded like someone using a hammer to thump a tree trunk over and over, but the oddest part is that there was no rhythm to the banging. Sometimes there would be two beats within a minute, sometimes none.

We waited.

'It's not a machine,' Sam concluded. The LED's in his helmet illuminated his shifting eyes.

'What makes you say that?'

'Whatever's making that noise; they're doing it all herky-jerky. Machines don't do that, not unless they're—'

'Broken,' I said, finishing his sentence. A sinking feeling started to grow in my chest.

Sam squatted down and planted a palm against the floor. 'I can't feel anything, so whatever's running, it can't be big.'

'It's just loud.' I shone my lights, but the shadows devoured my beams.

'So, Teabags, what do you reckon is down there?'

'No idea.' I sniffed.

'Me neither.'

'Do we call it in?' I lifted my forearm and waved the touchscreen.

'Olga would say we're wasting her time. Think about it on an objective level; all we've done is boarded a dead ship and it's making a banging sound. Could be anything.'

'I suppose.'

Sam stood back up and put his hands on his hips. 'Shame you don't have those goggles on. Quite useful, they were.'

I shook my head and kept my lips closed. Internally, I shot every swear word I could at Sam's stupid face.

'Onwards,' he announced and hurtled on.

It took me a moment to close in on my teammate, but soon we were flying side by side down the seemingly infinite corridor. The noise carried on. Sometimes we'd hear a series of short smacks, and other times it'd be one large hit followed by silence. Every echoing knock made me pant harder.

We stopped about ten minutes later at another tear. Sam and me both surveyed the cut and came to the same conclusion: it was identical to the previous one.

Without another word said, we passed into the next chamber and kept moving towards the relentless banging.

I looked at the screen on my arm. Twenty minutes had passed since we left the Eagle and we were still no closer to unravelling the mysteries of the Wreath.

'Maybe it's a storage facility,' I blurted. My lips flapped the words out before I could shut myself up.

'What?' Sam banked to the right to get a good look at me.

'Like, a trailer, you know? Maybe this thing was towed by something bigger. It's got no engines, so it could--?' Another slamming sound cut me off.