Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 59: Belly of the Beast

I try to hold onto his words as tightly as I do his hand. Shakily, I let out another exhale.

"You're right. You're right..." I mutter, gathering my wits again.

Below us, Marlowe has taken pause, gazing up at us with a quiet sort of intrigue. The penlight illuminates their face from below, and I can see thoughts flickering across those washed-out features.

When they notice me looking at them, they smile and seem to have a joke on the tip of their tongue. They must see something in my expression that makes them stop, however, because in the end they drop their gaze and don't say it.

"Come on," I say, giving Sundo's hand a squeeze and his shoulder a nudge. "Let's go."

He lets go of my hand, but only to switch to the other, so it's easier to go down the stairs. He holds onto my hand the rest of the way down, and I, his. I feel almost childish, like kindergarteners kept in a line so they don't get lost. But I'll be damned if I let go, because right now Sundo's the only thing keeping me together. And somehow, with the way he clings to my hand just as much, I suspect I might be the same for him.

Lynch follows us in that careful, stern way of hers, and she doesn't seem affected by our display in the slightest. If anything, when I spare her glances around the bend of the spiral, and when her face catches the light of Marlowe's pen, she seems lost in thought.

Whether she's considering me—and Sundo—as she had outside the car, or it's something else, I can't tell. It's not like I'm about to stop and ask her.

Sundo keeps up sporadic conversations with Marlowe. I don't know whether it's because the quiet bothers him, or whether he wishes to gather information from the small scientist, but somehow I suspect it's a little bit of both. At least Marlowe still seems friendly enough. They're never rude, and they seem as eager to continue speaking with Sundo as he is them.

Eventually, the echoing bottoms out, and Marlowe's footsteps tap over something that isn't metal. Relief floods me as I follow Sundo off the last step onto a solid concrete ground, but the emotion is quickly overrun again as I peer around him to what Marlowe shines their light on now.

In the ghastly illumination, the door is a looming figure. Heavy, wrought titanium looks as though it'd be more at home in the belly of a submarine than yards beneath cold desert sand. A thin, dingy rectangular window spans the upper part of the door, while narrow beams span the port vertically and horizontally. A dark, barely-worn ring of metal serves as the handle, situated right in the center of it all. It doesn't shine in Marlowe's light.

Sundo's knees lock in the face of it. He stands rigid as a wall, his eyes fastened to the dark shape in the even darker concrete wall. The sound he makes isn't very loud, but it drops into my chest like an anchor. A small groaning whimper, strangled in his throat as if it had fought its way out on its own accord.

"This is it?" I ask, surprised by the even tone of my own voice. It bounces around the space, which I now see isn't very large at all. It's barely the size of a broom closet; just enough room for the stairs and the landing before the door.

"This is it," Marlowe confirms soberly. They flick a look to Sundo, concern and apprehension flitting over their features. "Are you okay?"

All the color has drained from his face. His reply is nothing but another strangled croak.

Marlowe's brow furrows further; they move to touch him, but I step between them, putting myself between Sundo and the door. I give his hand a squeeze, and I hear him release a shaken exhale.

"Just get on with this," I say lowly to our lab-coat-toting guide.

Marlowe sucks in a breath, raising their eyebrows as they rock back on their heels. They reconsider the two of us for a second before nodding and turning to the iron port. Holding the pen up in one hand, they push open an iron grate from overtop a small box in the wall beside the door. Copper keys wink in the light as they tap their fingers over the shiniest of them. Then a pause, a piercing sound beeps, and a small red light above the keypad blinks to a tealy-green.