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  The crowd had grown. More than two dozen had formed a crescent-shaped line around the newcomers. A woman joined the man that had spoken. “These two killed my husband. Joshua was a good provider. I demand you hand your weapons over and surrender your people.”

  “Your husband?” Kay asked incredulously. “Do you know what he was trying to do to me?”

  Another woman spoke out. “He was my husband, too, and we demand reparations.”

  “Sick,” Sara muttered. “The whole damned place is sick. Multiple women marrying rapists. Is this what you had in mind for us, Lawson? Is this the peaceful island you wanted to settle on?”

  “I knew things were different here, but I didn’t know it was this bad. People never had no cause to defend themselves like this on my other visits.”

  “That’s because you came here on your own,” Kay said. “No one tried violating you.”

  “I suppose not,” the Lawman replied grimly. He pulled the guns out, and the crowd started to back away. “Everyone follow me, nice and slow. We’re heading back for Agnan’s boat.”

  “You killed my boy!” A broad-shouldered man approached carrying a club. “You’re not leaving Victory. Not now, not ever.”

  Lawson trained one of the guns on him. “Joshua… you remember me, don’t you? Yer boy committed a terrible wrong. Maybe death wasn’t deserved, but it was my daughter he forced himself on. Surely you can see the reasoning behind her mother’s actions.”

  The senior Joshua considered the Lawman’s words for a few moments. He stared at the guns and looked at his club. He dropped it to the ground and sprung towards Willem. A flash of silver appeared in his other hand as he pulled the boy into his chest. “Drop the guns or the boy dies.”

  There was a knife at Willem’s throat. “You don’t want to do that, Joshua,” Lawson rumbled.

  “Your boy’s life for my son’s. It seems fair to me. Drop the weapons.”

  “He ain’t my son.”

  Joshua pressed the blade in until a tiny line of blood appeared. Willem made a small squeaking sound. “He’s with you. His life means something. Drop your guns or I cut him wide open.”

  “The guns stay with me.” The Lawman placed his weapons back into their holsters. “You got my word… I won’t draw if you let the boy go.”

  “Do I have your word that you’ll accept any judgement we place on you and your people? Will you abide to what we decide?”

  “So long as it don’t result in any of us getting killed.” Lawson held his hands up. “You got my word on that.”

  Joshua moved the blade from Willem’s throat and pushed the boy back towards his brother. “It’s obvious from your actions that you can’t stay here with us as contributing citizens.”

  “Obvious as shit,” William said, wiping blood away.

  “We wouldn’t wanna stay on this piss-hole now even if we had the choice,” Angel added. “Your sick son woulda had his way with me, too, if I’d been out on the streets. Probably the whole male population woulda wanted a crack at me.”

  No one commented on that. Joshua continued. “You won’t be allowed to stay on the island, but you will be going inside it.”

  “Inside it?” Kay asked.

  Joshua pointed to the rusted steel platform in the center of the street. “You’re too dangerous to stay here. Let the Gods below decide what will become of you.”

  Trot groaned. “Back into another Big Hole… Why ain’t I surprised?”

  Chapter 46

  “You can’t let them do this to us,” Sara said as Joshua senior handed Lawson the lantern. “You still have your guns, we can shoot our way off the island.”

  “I could kill a dozen or more before they overwhelmed us,” the Lawman replied as he stepped off from the platform onto the ladder leading down. “But they would surely get the better of us. At least this way we stay alive.” The lantern’s light danced inside the glass as he descended the ladder, casting eerie shadows off the ancient concrete tunnel.

  Trot went next, his shaking hands grasping the ladder rungs. “I don’t wanna do this, I don’t wanna do this, I don’t wanna do this.” He descended anyway, followed by Angel, Willem, Cobe, and Kay.

  Sara was the last of them still standing in the light of day on the platform. She stared at Victory Island’s leader challengingly. “Our seven lives for the death of your son. How much gawdamn vengeance do you need?”

  “Be grateful. We’re sending you to meet the Gods. All those that have climbed down before you were thankful. Citizens here live their lives just for this moment.”

  “You’re a bunch of ignorant fools,” she shot back. “We know what’s down there. They aren’t gods, they’re monsters. They kill for the pleasure of it and eat human flesh.”

  “Blasphemer.” He waved the knife blade in her face. “Go… Go now, or we’ll carve you up and send down pieces.”

  Sara did as she was told. The metal ladder was cold. Its rusted rungs bit into the skin of her palms as she climbed down, towards the tiny light of Lawson’s lantern more than three hundred feet below. They were all clustered around a circular steel cover built into a ring of concrete when she finally reached them. “What is it?” She asked.

  “The way inside,” Lawson replied, handing the lantern to Cobe. He squatted down and tapped a foot-wide raised wheel in the center. “Just like Joshua said there would be. Turn this all away around once to the left, and we’ll have access to whatever waits below.”

  “The Gods,” Trot whispered.

  Kay reached for her mother’s hand. “Monsters you mean. Cryers.”

  The Lawman gave the wheel an experimental yank. It didn’t budge. “Don’t much matter what waits beneath, we’re going to have to face it one way or another.” He put both hands on the wheel and twisted until the rust broke free and it started to turn with an echoing squeal.

  ***

  “You have traveled here to assume command of this facility?” Kelvin Eichberg leaned back in the chair. “What kind of authority do you believe you possess to make such a demand, especially given your present condition?”

  “My authority as President of the United States,” Hank replied.

  Kelvin chuckled. “The United States no longer exists. Our time above came to an end centuries ago. There are no more countries, no more borders. There is nothing left for you to control, no civilizations to command.”

  “Executive Order 79-B states that in the event of a world-wide catastrophe, the sitting President will assume command of all territories, everywhere. This includes everything underground, even Victory Island, all its survivors and descendants.”

  “The people living above us on the surface have control over who enters down here and who gets to leave. We have agreed to remain here so long as we’re provided with a steady supply of fresh food.”

  Kelvin’s last statement puzzled Hank. “The people above control? That makes no sense. They’re primitive, barely scratching at the surface of any kind of civilization. They didn’t force me down here, they allowed me access.”

  “They obviously didn’t know what else to do since you look unlike any of them. Your skin, your eyes—you’re more like the people that live underground… like us.”

  Hank finally sat in the chair facing Kelvin’s desk. It was a relief to sit on dry, padded leather, instead of being forced to stand on the tips of his toes in gallons of cold blood. The facility’s leader had brought him to this large office a few levels above the rocky prison cells. At one time it had probably been an administrative room, or perhaps a security station. It didn’t much matter what its function once was, now it served as this final Eichberg’s main area of control—his Oval Office equivalent buried half a mile under the island. The sterile white walls were covered in metal shelving, from floor to ceiling on all walls, and the shelves were filled with books. These books had come from Hardo and his bearded monks up in the mountain. There were thousands of centuries-old paperbacks and hardbacks stuffed into the spaces, an unorganized b
ut impressive library representing a civilization’s history and imagination.

  “You appreciate my collection,” Kelvin patted the dusty tome sitting on top of the pile that had accumulated on his desk. “I forgot to thank you for this. I probably have every English dictionary ever printed down here, but the leather binding is hard to come by after all this time.”

  Hank stared at all the books surrounding them, those crammed into the shelves and those piled precariously into columns on the floor. “All these books... they all came from up top. Each one brought from a Victory Island citizen.”

  “Livestock.”

  “The books?”

  “Books aren’t alive,” Kelvin replied ominously. “The people above are bred and raised to sustain us. When their time comes, they are sent here.”

  “Those people willingly surrender their lives to you? They know in advance that you’re going to eat them?”

  “Of course not.” The man almost laughed. “The ignorant fools believe they’re being rewarded for their devotion. They think that by coming down here they will become like us… that they will transform into Gods.”

  “And when they arrive, you eat them,” Hank whispered. “All for the price of a book.”

  “I added that condition about a thousand years ago. We have millions of pieces of literature stored in the computers, but nothing beats the feel and smell of an old book, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Hank didn’t want to discuss books with the cannibal. “How do the people above have control over you? Haven’t you ever tried escaping from this prison?”

  “The original builders of this facility incorporated multiple security features. There is only one way in and out of this place, and it is sealed off with two steel hatchways that can only be opened from the other side.”

  “You’re telling me that after so long you haven’t figured a way to blow the doors out? Couldn’t you have dug another hole to the surface?”

  Kelvin shook his head. “A third security feature prevents us trying any of that. Any breach to the exit tunnel, any attempt to burrow back up from another location would result in an exceptionally poisonous gas being released throughout the facility. Just over three-hundred years ago some of our people actually made it through the exit tunnel as the citizens above were trying to send newcomers down. Three of them made it to the surface before the gas started flooding. We lost two dozen people before the doors closed and the gas automatically cut out again.”

  “What happened to the ones that made it through?”

  The big man shrugged. “I always assumed the islanders were able to overpower them. Who knows what happened for sure. Perhaps they fled out into the world… Maybe they’re still out there somewhere. It doesn’t much matter now. They didn’t come back for the rest of us, we’re still trapped down here, and the humans above are more aware than ever what could happen if they let their guard down while sending new arrivals.”

  Hank chewed on his lower lip for a few moments considering his next move. If the security computers running Victory Island’s underground prison were still operational, he had the power to deactivate the deadly gases and open the tunnel hatches. What would Kelvin Eichberg do with that knowledge? Would he surrender control of this new world to him in exchange for freedom? Hank finally realized he had no choice but to inform him. He would remain trapped down here with the rest of them for all time unless he turned the security off.

  A speaker buzzed on the desk just as Hank was about to speak. Eichberg pressed a button beneath it. “What is it?”

  “The exit doors have opened,” a voice replied. “We have new arrivals.”

  Kelvin’s eyebrows rose. “So soon after you got here, Mr. President. A very unusual coincidence… or is it?” He pressed the button down again. “Bring them in and wait for me. I’ll be right there.”

  Chapter 47

  “Lower your weapons,” Kelvin ordered softly.

  Lawson kept his guns trained on the grey-skinned man and woman that had led them through the second airtight chamber. He glanced quickly towards Kelvin and Hank. “Don’t think I’ll be doin’ that. We met plenty of people like you the last little while, and it’s never gone all that well.”

  “The boy traveling with you appears to look more like me than you,” Kelvin replied, nodding at Willem. “Has he given you any problems?”

  Sara tugged at the Lawman’s sleeve. “That’s Hank, the shorter one.”

  Lawson pointed one of the gun barrels at him. “That one was with my friends.”

  “Not much of a friend if he left the others behind,” Kelvin said. “I’m Kelvin Eichberg. Welcome to our home under the world.”

  “Eichberg,” the Lawman said. “You related somehow to another old grey-skinned prick called Lothair?”

  “My Grand-father. You’ve read about him?”

  “I knew the fucker personally.”

  Kelvin’s eyebrows rose. He looked to Hank. “You’ve been lying to me, Mr. President.”

  “I haven’t lied about anything. I’ve never met the man.”

  “But you knew he’d been revived. You withheld that information from me.”

  “It had no significance to why I came here. Nothing has changed. You can continue to torture me and kill these people, but I am still the leader of this new world, and if you ever want to leave this subterranean world, you’re going to have to relinquish all control to me.”

  Lawson trained both guns back on Kelvin and the two creatures that had led them through the second chamber. “The only one in any position to do any killin’ here is me, so I want all of you to shut the fuck up.”

  Angel stepped in front of the Lawman. “You can get us out of here, Hank? You know a way to open them big tunnel doors we come through?”

  “I know a way,” he answered, keeping his eyes on Kelvin. “I can deactivate the gas release mechanisms as well. We can all leave here peacefully if you accept me as your leader.”

  “Only ones goin’ back up top is us,” Lawson said. “We ain’t willingly releasing any more of you monsters out into the world.”

  Kelvin backed Hank up to the wall with one massive forearm pressed against his throat. “You have the codes. All these centuries down here, confined to darkened, stinking tunnels. You can end it… You can take us back up into the light.”

  Hank fought to speak through the pressure on his throat. “Only… if we all leave… and you accept me… as your one true—”

  Kelvin pushed harder. “No deal.” He looked back over his shoulder. “Show the President this isn’t a bartering society we have down here. Kill one of the livestock—the fat, stupid-looking one.”

  The grey-skinned woman reached out with lightning speed and grasped Trot by the throat. Her thumb started to dig in, the blackened nail drawing blood. The simpleton couldn’t make a sound with his windpipe crushing in, but the color of his bulging cheeks started turning sickly blue. His eyes bulged as she lifted him upward.

  A deafening crack sounded as the woman’s head exploded off from her shoulders. Trot’s feet returned to the ground and he gasped air in, wiping brain matter and blood away from his face. The Lawman fired his weapon again, tearing a hole into the second cryer’s chest. He staggered back, clutching instinctively past the jagged ridge of ribs where his heart once was. The creature dropped dead on top of the headless woman.

  Kelvin kept a tight grip on Hank and spun him around, placing the President’s body between him and Lawson. “You savage bastard,” the big man hissed. “Those two were the last of us… all these years… I’m alone now.”

  “You won’t be fer long,” the Lawman said, pointing both guns at Hank’s face. “That one might’ve been travelling with my companions, but he ain’t no friend of mine. None of you gawdamn things deserve to live. I’m gonna end all of you once and fer all.”

  Cobe pulled on one of Lawson’s arms. “You can’t kill Hank, he’s the only one that can get us out of here!”

  The weapons lowered a few inches.
Kelvin acted in that moment of hesitation, jumping back for the open doorway, dragging Hank along with him. Bullets punched into the wall as they disappeared out into the corridor. Lawson lunged after them. One of his boots got caught in the corpse of the woman lying on the ground. The Lawman staggered to one knee, and by the time he’d recovered his balance, Kelvin and his hostage had vanished altogether.

  Sara joined him at the open doorway. “I’m not doing it again.”

  “Not doin’ what?” Lawson asked.

  “I’m not going to go off with my daughter exploring another one of these underground cities filled with the rising dead.”

  “You heard what he said, these two I killed were the last of them.”

  “It still isn’t enough to make me budge from this spot.”

  “I wasn’t askin’ you to,” he replied. “I’ll go after them myself. The rest of you will wait here. We’ll get these tunnel doors opened back up and climb out during night. The town folk above will still be sleepin’ by the time we make it back into the sky rocks.”

  “I’m going with you,” Cobe offered.

  The Lawman was about to deny his request but saw the look in his eye. The boy had something to prove. Lawson knew exactly how he felt. “Alright, but only you.”

  Angel sneered, managing to create an even uglier face than the one she normally wore. Willem sunk his head dejectedly. Trot appeared immensely relieved. “Go,” Sara urged, giving Lawson’s arm a final squeeze. “Try and keep Hank alive long enough to get the doors open.”

  “And after that?”

  “Put a bullet in his heart,” she replied coldly. “Then put one between his eyes for good measure.”

  “That ain’t very civilized of you. Accordin’ to him, he’s the leader of this world.”

  “I don’t want any part of his civilized world. Look where it got them.”

  The Lawman nodded and slipped into the dark corridor. Cobe followed.

  Chapter 48