Colony by Benjamin Cross (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

The creatures… Volkov…

Volkov… The creatures…

The two had become one in all three minds. They had merged into the same threat, a single faceless monster lurking somewhere in this forgotten place.

They edged onwards.

Soon the tunnel ended. The rock that had grazed their elbows now recessed sharply to either side, and the ground ahead sloped away for a distance, before levelling off into the floor of an enormous sub-circular chamber. It had to be three or four hundred metres across. The walls were riddled with openings and ledges, and they rose upwards and inwards to form a dome-shaped ceiling high above.

Rather than an unbroken expanse, the chamber floor was carved into a series of islands. Some were connected to one another and to the walls of the cavern, by narrow stone aisles, umbilical cords of rock that meandered from one to the other. A few of the islands seemed to be entirely isolated, appearing to float, but no doubt rooted to the others lower down.

“My God!” Ava exclaimed.

“Mine too,” Callum said.

The bases of the deep fissures contained rivers of magma. Red-hot and steaming, the molten stone snaked its way beneath them, crackling and sending up clouds of scalding vapour, before flowing out of the chamber through a lower system of tunnels. The overall effect was like a stone web strung across a basin of fire, both awe-inspiring and terrifying.

The first thing to cross Callum’s mind as he beheld the sight was Doctor Semyonov. He had been convinced that there would be substantial geothermal activity on Harmsworth, much to the derision of his peers, not least Ava. He may have got the exact location wrong, but now, standing in the heart of this ancient magma chamber, there was no denying that he’d been right all along.

“Rest in peace, Nikolai,” Ava whispered, evidently sharing his thoughts.

As Callum’s eyes adjusted to the glare, the source of the overpowering stink also became apparent. His pulse picked up. The creatures were everywhere. Hundreds of them. They were not unexpected, but their numbers were. Wherever there was space, he was suddenly aware of them twitching, huddled around the edges of the chamber, clustered in the tunnel mouths, perched on the ledges that jutted from the walls. Most seemed to be curled up in small groups, their heads resting on each other’s backs as they dozed in the heat. Others clung to the walls of the cavern, claws pinned into the rock, arms and legs splayed, just like the birds that would sun themselves on the walls of his house during summer.

Without exception, their feathers were flushed with the same grey-brown as the surrounding rock. It was a triumph of camouflage. If Callum’s senses hadn’t been honed by fear, he was certain the entire colony would have been invisible.

“What is this place?” he whispered to Ava.

“Isn’t it obvious?” she replied. “Volkov’s led us right into the hive.”

Hive. Just the word made Callum’s skin crawl.

Koikov stirred suddenly and pointed out into the chamber.

It was Volkov. Oblivious to the danger that he and Darya were in, he was standing at the end of one of the rock bridges. Darya was in front. She looked dazed, terrified as she peered over the edge of the precipice at the good thirty-metre drop down into the flame. The sight of Volkov’s knife around her throat as he pushed her ahead turned Callum’s stomach, and in that moment he knew that he would not be leaving this cave without her.

Koikov raised his rifle as if to take a shot, but Callum shoved it back down. Even if he was the best shot in the world, he still wouldn’t have risked a bullet in Darya’s direction. Not only that, but it would wake the hive. Just about the only thing in their favour right now was the fact that the creatures appeared to be roosting and had yet to notice them. He tried to communicate this to Koikov, who looked indignant but seemed to understand.

By now Volkov had walked Darya across the stone walkway and out onto one of the islands. The three watched on, each seeming to understand that their best option was to see where he went next, then to follow quietly, without risking a chase across the precarious splinters of rock.

“That’s weird,” Callum whispered. “There’s not a single creature out on the islands.”

“Probably keeping a safe distance from the lake of fire,” Ava replied.

“I don’t buy it. If they were scared of the magma then why congregate here in the first place?”

She shrugged. “Perhaps the islands are reserved.”

“Reserved?”

“For something other than sleeping.”

Possible, Callum thought. But reserved for what? Through the haze, he could make out clusters of pale rocks at each of their centres, but they were otherwise empty.

2

Volkov couldn’t shake his fury. He had the data stick, but once again people had obstructed what should have been a very simple operation and made the whole thing unnecessarily taxing. His own, very expensive, modified helicopter had been destroyed. The man he’d trusted more than any other had turned on him, forcing Volkov to kill him. And now he’d had no option but to take refuge in the stifling, labyrinthine bowels of what appeared to be a volcano. The whole thing was intolerable.

His finger itched against the knife handle. What he really wanted to do was slit the throat of this infernal ecologist woman, to send her the way of all the other irritations and inconveniences that he had dispatched with it over the years. But then he needed her alive. For now at least.

He stopped and threw a glance around the cavern. Koikov and Doctor Ross would undoubtedly be in pursuit, but they were yet to make it this far. He would hide out in one of the tunnels up ahead, wait for them to pass through and then double back. Then, and only then, would he allow himself the pleasure of carving up the troublesome Miss Lebedev and making his way back to the submarine.

The craft was concealed in