Submerged the labyrinth.., p.3
Submerged: The Labyrinth, Book 2, page 3
2
F orty-three miles off the coast of Belize and four-hundred and ninety-nine feet beneath the surface of the ocean, a doorway opened.
The door appeared at the bottom of the Great Blue Hole—a circular marine sinkhole that spanned over one thousand feet wide. Before becoming a sinkhole, it had existed as a cave, accessible atop a tall mountain range, back when the dinosaurs roamed, and the Dark Ones ruled the Earth astride their Clicker beasts of burden. Over millennia, the seas rose, and the mountains sank, but the Great Blue Hole remained, submerged in eternal darkness. In more recent times, independent explorers like Jacques Cousteau and Richard Branson, and science expeditions funded by benefactors like the Globe Corporation and Alpinus Biofutures had mapped the formation from one end to another.
At the hole’s upper reaches along the ocean’s surface, sharks fed on parrotfish, but at the hole’s floor, there was no oxygen, and no light, and no life. So, when the door opened, there was no one to witness it, save for the layer upon layer of bones scattered amidst the sediment.
But then, light and life returned to the ocean’s floor. A glow emanated from the opening, and figures swam out—horrific, misshapen things. Merfolk and sirens. Humanoids with shark and squid heads. Carnivorous flying fish. Serpentine forms with tentacles. They poured from the doorway, a seemingly endless parade of eldritch perversity. Then, the luminescence dimmed on the other side of the doorway as a massive figure blocked the light...and looked out into the world.
He’d been called by many names in many tongues. The Sumerians knew him as Cthulhu. The Philistines called him Dagon. To the Aztecs, he was Tlaloc.
Teddy, Sarah, Henry, and Tony knew him as Leviathan.
And he was once again about to be turned loose upon another unsuspecting world.
But not yet. Instead, he waited, allowing his advance troops to march through the door. For now, he was content merely to cast his baleful gaze upon this new conquest. When he was finished, he slowly turned his ponderous bulk back to his massive throne. He would wait, allowing enough time for Behemoth and his army to sow the first round of destruction. It was a joint effort that had worked well in the past, hastening the end of many worlds before this. That process would take weeks, but the passage of time was nothing to him. Time moved slowly for those who could eternal lie.
He moved slowly, as well. Soon enough, when he finally did lumber through the door, terrible waves and tides would herald his approach. But for now, he would rest. And watch.
At the bottom of the Great Blue Hole, the door remained open, and the waters of two worlds began to merge.
ON THE EXACT opposite side of the Earth sat West Island, the capital of the Cocos Islands and the antipode of Belize’s Great Blue Hole.
When a second doorway opened several miles beneath the soil there, the residents thought it was an earthquake. They ran from their homes and businesses and out into the rain-slicked streets, seeking shelter until the rumbling and shaking stopped. When it did, they checked the ocean, expecting to see the tide rushing away from land, heralding a tsunami. Instead, they were perplexed to see that if anything, the tide was still there, albeit higher than normal.
It began to rain harder.
They stood watching, and waited to see if the earthquake would resume. What they couldn’t see was the movement deep beneath their feet, as once again, forms emerged from the open doorway—elongated, worm-like figures that wriggled forth, burrowing through stone and soil, heading with determination toward the surface.
And then a monstrous, giant shape oozed from the doorway. It was a mountain that slithered and squirmed. Like Leviathan, it had many names.
Teddy and Sarah knew it as Behemoth.
And it knew Teddy, as well. It sensed him here, on this level.
And it sensed an opportunity for revenge.
Slowly, the worm turned, and tunneled deep beneath the surface toward Indonesia.
ABOVE BOTH BELIZE and West Island—and all over the rest of the world—the sky darkened. Thunder boomed over cities and mountains and plains and deserts. Lightning flashed across skylines and oceans. The winds increased, gusting across the continents.
And then it began to rain worldwide.
3
T he Exit flung back the curtains and opened the blinds. Then he turned back to them as another blast of thunder rumbled.
“There.” He pointed. “Do you see now?”
Henry stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing his sleepy eyes. He stopped and blinked.
Despite their fears and rising panic, Sarah noticed that Teddy did his best to hide his expression and smile. Then he tousled the sleepy boy’s hair. “How are you doing, Henry? Good to see you again.”
Henry gaped. “It really is you, isn’t it, Mr. Garnett?”
Teddy nodded, and then patted his chest. “In the flesh.”
“But...?” Henry turned to Sarah. “How...?”
“They got here the same way we did,” she explained. “These are Teddy’s friends.”
Another round of quick introductions were made, except for the Exit, whose attention was still focused on the rain. He was so preoccupied with it that when Frankie introduced him as Javier Mendez rather than his preferred name, he didn’t comment. Nor did he notice as—one by one—they slowly joined him at the window.
“What’s everybody looking at?” Henry asked.
“They...” Sarah paused, took a deep breath, and then exhaled. “It might be happening again, Henry.”
“What might be happening?”
“You know.”
The boy looked at her, then out at the rain, and then back to Sarah again.
“It...it followed us here? Leviathan?”
“Not exactly,” Tony replied. “This is happening everywhere. One by one, in all the alternate realities. You two just had the dumb luck to land on an Earth that was the next to be slated for demolition.”
Henry blinked. “All y’all are from our Earth?”
“No,” Frankie explained. “We’re each from different Earths where things like this have already happened, or were about to happen. Now it’s about to happen here.”
“How do you know that for sure?” Henry asked. “I mean, I get scared every time it rains, but it’s just rain. It ain’t like...back home. How do y’all know them worms and such are coming?”
“We don’t for sure,” LeHorn admitted, “but this is where the Labyrinth led us, and the path seemed clear. This would be the level where the next attack would take place.”
“The kid has a point though,” Frankie said. “Maybe it’s not Behemoth or Leviathan. So far, all we’ve got is a thunderstorm outside. That could be unconnected. How do we know it’s not Ob and the Siqqusim or one of the others?”
Teddy turned to Sarah and Henry. “Do you have a television?”
Sarah nodded. “In the living room. No cable, but we have streaming so we can watch English language shows.”
“All we need is the news,” he replied. “And if we’re right, then it won’t matter what language it’s in.”
The group headed toward the living room. Halfway there, the house began to shake. The foundation groaned and rattled. Light fixtures swung from the ceiling. Their coffee mugs slid off the kitchen counter and shattered on the floor, spraying brown liquid and jagged ceramic shards. The couch slid across the room, dislodging Henry’s pillow and blanket. Their cries and shouts were muffled by the sounds of breaking glass. The lights flickered and went out. Then, as quickly as it had begun, the trembling subsided. Outside, a car alarm shrieked. Seconds later, a woman joined it.
“I don’t think we need the news,” Bloom said.
Teddy and Tony lifted the television, which had tipped over. Sarah stumbled through the wreckage, and found the remote control buried beneath a pile of fallen English language newspapers and bootleg DVDs.
“Let’s see if it still works. Although I suspect, given that the lights are off…” She pointed the remote at the television and thumbed the power. When nothing happened, she dropped the remote into the debris again. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. The electricity is out.”
Outside, the cacophony increased as more alarms shrilled, and more people screamed.
“What do we do now?” Henry asked.
“I do my job,” LeHorn said, striding across the room, “and open a door for the rest of you to shove them through.”
“Shove what?” Frankie sighed in exasperation. “There’s no proof that was one of the Thirteen. Y’all are strutting around half-cocked here. It could have been an earthquake. It could have been the storm. A bomb. Anything.”
“I wish that were true,” Teddy said, “but I don’t think it is.”
Tony nodded. “Something is happening outside. Listen to the screams.”
LeHorn undid the chain fastening the front door and turned the lock. Then he glanced back at them. “Ready?”
“Fuck no,” Frankie said. “We left our weapons in the bedroom. And we still don’t know what’s out there.”
“We are the weapons,” LeHorn reminded her. “And as for what’s out there...let’s find out.”
“I’ll get them,” Bloom said, placing the potted plant on the kitchen counter.
“You can’t go out there brandishing guns,” Sarah said. “If that was an earthquake, people are going to be on edge. They won’t react kindly to a bunch of tourists running around with weapons.”
Tony opened his mouth to argue, but Teddy cut him off.
“She’s right. Last thing we need is to get locked up again like we did after Baghdad. Leave the weapons here. If there’s trouble, we can run back in and get them.”
“If there’s trouble,” Bloom argued, “we might not have time.”
“We will if we don’t waste more time sitting here arguing about it,” Teddy countered. “Now, come on. Let’s go have a gander.”
There was no sunrise to greet them as they rushed outside, only rain splattering against their skin and hair. And darkness. Thick, roiling clouds blanketed the sky, and mist swirled through the streets and alleys. Water gushed alongside the curbs and churned into storm grates. Already, it was beginning to pool in parking lots and across other flat areas.
The roads and sidewalks were filled with people, most of whom had been awoken by the earthquake. They stood clustered together, looking around in panic, drenched and miserable. Car alarms blared shrilly in the gloom, and emergency sirens wailed.
Frankie squinted against the downpour. “See anything?”
Bloom pointed. “There’s some injured people over there on the sidewalk in front of that restaurant. We should help them.”
“No.” The Exit raised his voice over the thunder. “First responders can help them. That’s not our purpose. We need to stay focused.”
“On what?” Tony gestured. “So far, all we have is a bad storm and an earthquake.”
“That was no earthquake,” the Exit countered.
“I reckon he might be right.” Teddy blinked in the rain. “That’s what it felt like...before. When Behemoth showed up.”
Sarah nodded, brushing her wet bangs from her eyes.
A little girl stumbled toward them, and tugged Frankie’s hand. She was crying, but her tears were indistinguishable from the rain on her cheeks. Her knee was scuffed and bleeding, but she seemed okay otherwise, at least physically. She pleaded in Indonesian, her tone frantic.
Frankie knelt in a puddle, and gently patted the girl’s shoulder. Then she responded in English. Amazingly, the girl seemed to understand her. Sarah supposed she could have learned English at home or in school. But more amazingly, Frankie, Teddy and the others all seemed to understand what the child was saying.
“All I caught was something about her mother,” Sarah whispered, turning to Teddy. “You all speak the language?”
“Not exactly,” he replied. His expression was confused. “She’s speaking her language, but we all hear it in our language. And when we talk, she hears us speaking her language. To be honest, I didn’t know it was happening until you mentioned it just now. I reckon Amun gave us this ability when we were reborn.”
“Like the babel-fish in Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy!”
Teddy shook his head. “I don’t know what that is.”
“Science fiction,” Sarah explained. “You know, like the universal translator in Star Trek?”
“Tell me about it later,” Teddy said. Then his tone turned serious again. “She says her mom is trapped in their house.”
As if confirming, the girl pointed at a nearby building. The roof had partially collapsed, and one wall leaned precariously inward.
“Shit.” Frankie got to her feet. “Come on, y’all.”
“We don’t have time for that,” the Exit reminded her.
“Fuck you, Mendez,” Frankie replied without looking at him. “Sarah? Give me a hand?”
“Of course.”
“I’m coming, too,” Bloom said. “Should I get the weapons?”
“Don’t need them for this,” Frankie said.
Tony, Henry and LeHorn turned to Teddy. The old man opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, a group of people began screaming near the beach.
“Go.” He nodded at Frankie, Sarah and Bloom. “The rest of you come with me.”
“Where?” LeHorn asked.
Water dripped from Teddy’s nose. “Well, I reckon the screaming might be a good place to start.”
4
T he little girl led Frankie by the hand. Sarah and Bloom followed. When they reached the wreckage, Frankie handed her off to Sarah.
“Take her under that tree.” Frankie pointed. “Try to shield her from some of this rain and do your best to comfort her. Just be careful if the ground starts shaking again.”
Sarah nodded. “Can you explain to her what we’re doing?”
“What do you mean? She understands English.”
“I don’t think she does,” Sarah said. “Teddy thinks that Amun might have given you guys the ability to hear and speak any language, automatically.”
Frankie cocked her head. “You mean like in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?”
Sarah grinned. “Exactly!”
“Well, that’s handy.” Frankie turned to the child. “My friend and I are going to help your momma. You stay here with this nice lady. Her name is Sarah, and she’ll keep you safe.”
The girl nodded in understanding.
“Amazing,” Sarah whispered.
Bloom stepped forward and peered into the ruins. Then he cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hello? Anybody in there?”
All was silent for a moment. Then they heard a faint cry from inside the wreckage.
“Hang on,” he shouted. “We’re coming.”
“Hold up.” Frankie grabbed his arm. “We can’t just go charging in there. The whole damn building could come crashing down on our heads.”
“Then we move slowly. We can’t just stand here and do nothing.”
Together, they clambered over heaps of rain-slick fallen masonry and entered the house. The shadows were thick, and they stood still for a moment, letting their eyes adjust to the gloom.
“Big crack in the floor, there.” Frankie pointed. “Watch your step.”
Nodding, Bloom wiped his face dry with a thin curtain that had been shielded from the downpour.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“What’s wrong?”
“I wish we had a way to defend ourselves. It doesn’t sit right with me, leaving the weapons back in Sarah’s apartment.”
“Well, like LeHorn said. We are the weapons.”
“I don’t feel like much of a weapon. And I left the tree there, too. I hope it will be okay.”
“Forget about that damn tree. What’s with you, Bloom?”
“I don’t know. I just…everything is so different. I thought I knew who I was, and it turns out I didn’t know anything. The me I thought I was? I wasn’t that person in some of the other realities. I mean, I was still me, but I was very different. Does that make sense?”
“It’s that way for all of us,” Frankie said. “Listen, in my reality, my baby was stillborn because of choices I made. Bad choices. That shit was my fault, and it haunted me in ways you can’t even begin to imagine. Or maybe you can. I guess you’ve probably got a lot of ghosts following you around, too.”
He nodded, unable to meet her gaze.
“And as for the rest,” Frankie continued, “well shit, I was struggling to believe when the Siqqusim invaded my world. I didn’t even know that’s what the fuck they were at the time. I just thought they were zombies or demons or some shit. But I had no choice other than to accept them as real. And everything we’ve seen since? I’m approaching it the same way. I’m accepting it all as real.”
“Oh, I’ve got no problem believing,” Bloom replied. “You forget. I was fighting Kandara’s cultists long before Amun brought the seven of us together. I’ve got no problem accepting and believing in the supernatural. What I’ve been struggling with is believing that I’ll ever be able to have a normal life again. I think what Amun did to us might have made that worse. I saw all of my other lives. My other selves. And so many of their lives were normal, compared to mine. That’s why I’m worried about the tree.”
“I don’t get it.”
“That tree is the one bit of normalcy I’ve been able to hold on to, Frankie. It’s a survivor.”
“Well, so are you.” Frankie smiled. “Now, let’s go help that little girl’s mother so she can be a survivor, too.”
Bloom stood there blinking, and then creeped ahead. Frankie followed along behind him. The wreckage groaned around them, and the injured parent cried out again.
“We’re coming,” Frankie called. “It’s going to be okay.”
Bloom glanced back at her and crinkled his nose. “What’s that smell?”
Frankie sniffed. “I know what it smells like to me.”
“What?”
“Sex.”
Bloom gaped at her for a moment, blushing. “Well, maybe. I thought it smelled more like...I don’t know. Musty.”
