SIREN

Chapter Twenty-One

I smelt something burning. The rancid stench forced me to scrunch up my face and shake my head. I opened my eyes and tried to make out the collection of blurred shapes and lights in front of my visor. I was on my back, but I was moving somehow. I could feel the floor passing under my legs. I rubbed my hands across the ground and felt cold metal.

I flopped my head back and knocked myself against something bumpy. I floundered onto my side and groaned. A rush of pain zapped up my side and made me cry out.

'That would be your broken arm,' I heard Sam say, 'I say broken... It could be a fracture.'

I panted and said, 'what happened?'

'We got led through that hangar like puppets and then someone cut the strings. The Eagle didn't have time to gather enough thrust, so we fell like a damn pebble. Smacked down hard over there. I got us dressed, and here we are. You're welcome.'

I keeled over onto my other arm and let out another savage moan. I opened my eyes and looked down at my suit. The fabric had been assaulted by flame and debris, turning the clothes from white to black. Pieces of dirt stuck to the blood on my fingers.

'Looks worse than it is,' Sam said. He was pulling me along by the scruff of my neck.

'Where are we going?'

'Away from the Eagle.'

I rubbed my side. 'Where is it?'

'It's that burning thing over there.'

I squinted at a quivering orange blob. 'I can't see much. What's left of it?'

'Not enough to get us out of here, that's for certain.

I winced at the stinging throb charging through my skull. 'My head hurts...'

'Not surprised. You took a pretty huge knock to the brain. Those goggles must've weighed a bit.'

A thought arose in my head that made me sit up straight. Sam's grip came lose and I turned to him. 'What happened to the nuke?'

'Inert,' he said, cradling his wrist. 'I disabled it after we crashed. Actually, first thing I did was get you out, then I went back in for the nuke, then I disarmed it, then I pulled you away.'

'And where are you planning on taking me?'

'Where else is there to go?' Sam plodded round in a circle with his arms raised.

I got to my feet and took in my surroundings. We were in a round dark tunnel with a single line of light running along the ceiling. It reminded me of a subway station. I felt a slight breeze coming from the path ahead. The smell of smoke was thick in the air and I noticed that my mouth tasted like blood. I took a step and my legs gave a little wobble. I propped my hand against the nearest wall and collected my thoughts.

'Is this the...?' I tried to finish my sentence but I had to stop to nurse my head.

'Is this the only way to go? Yeah. I looked around for another route, but I couldn't see anything.' He looked around and tapped his thigh. 'I got my saw with me, though. I couldn't find the pistol, but at least we've got something.'

'That's good.' I did my best to smile. 'I don't suppose you scouted ahead?'

'No, no! I didn't want to leave you.'

'Thank you,' I sighed. The pain in my brain wasn't subsiding.

'You okay to walk? Do you want to hold onto my shoulder?' Sam came up next to me and put his arm around my neck. He looked in remarkably good shape for someone who'd been in the same crash as me. A couple of scrapes, cuts and gashes laced his skin, but nothing like my injuries.

'Thanks,' I said, now hobbling next to him. Together, we started to trudge through the dark.

The light above us was faint and lit up just a few feet at a time. I glanced at the walls and noticed that they were smooth, just like the Wreath. The floor, as little of it as I could see, was also featureless. There was no real way to tell just how far we'd walked, or for how long. Over my shoulder, the remains of the Eagle smouldered on.

'So anyway,' Sam said, breaking the silence, 'I got you a present.'

'What?'

He stopped and grumbled as he rooted around in his back pocket. He wrenched out one of the flat screens we'd used in the ship. There was a small crack running across the left hand corner. 'Pulled it from the airlock before I got you out. I figured we'd need some way to talk to the Captain.'

I took the tablet and played with it. 'You mean you haven't talked to her yet?'

Under the soft light, Sam blushed. 'Ah, now, you see...'

'So she has no idea about any of this? She has no idea that we've crashed, I've got a buggered arm and--!' I stopped mid-sentence and took the weight off my left leg. The pain was getting worse.

'You all right?'

'Bloody fantastic,' I spat.

'We can go back to the hangar, if you want? Jaq could pick us up. I mean, we'd have to work out how to avoid that gravity well, but it's doable, right?'

'I don't know.' I tapped the screen. 'I don't even know how we crashed, Sam. You know more than me.'

'Yeah,' he kicked the ground. 'I didn't radio the Captain because I don't want... I don't want to let her down. With Hoshi being as she is, and the Pangaea all smashed up, I just don't want to add to her plate. I want to be a part of something that's going right.'

'Sam, she's the Captain. She's trained to expect bad things. It's no good just hiding things from her because you want to be the best. Hiding things makes it worse!'

'I know, I know, but just let me have this. What if we find a way to fly those things in the hangar? That's a way out, right? You could translate some alien--!'

'Stop,' I held up my hand. 'I don't think I could translate French right now. Let's just see where this thing leads and go from there, okay?'

'Okay.'

'And we're coming clean to the Captain, you got that?' I prodded Sam's arm, 'we're telling her what happened.'

'We can leave out the nuke bit, right? She doesn't need to know you found it.'

I knocked my head back and blinked. 'What?'

'She thought you might get a little jumpy if you knew what we were carrying.'

'You'd have to be a total psychopath to not be jumpy when carrying a nuclear bomb, Sam!'

'Yeah, I get it, okay? But she insisted I keep it from you. It wasn't up to me, man, you gotta believe me.'

I rubbed my shoulder and flinched at the tender wound. If Sam was right, and my arm was broken, I knew I'd need to see Doctor White as soon as possible. 'How far do you think we've got to go?'

'Too dark to see the end of this tunnel, so I have no idea.'

I swallowed and coughed. 'Wonderful.'

'Can't be that long, right? This place can't go on forever.'

'It's not the length I'm worried about. I'm worried about meeting hostiles. We're not prepared for any sort of engagement.'

Sam gave a small chuckle and pulled me along. We resumed the rest of our expedition in silence. I'd check back every once in a while to see how small the Eagle looked. It was now nothing more than a tiny glowing orange dot, like a star that had come out at night.

I was just about to share my observation with Sam when a series of lights turned on and we found ourselves in the most magnificent hall.