Chapter 6: The Mantis
Nicole pushed open the door to her room and stepped in. The sky was black outside the window except for a sliver of moonlight. Amy sat hunched over her painting desk, staring intensely at a half-painted miniature zombie in her hand. She’d angled her desk lamp to shine across her neat rows of paint pots, brushes, and nine other miniature zombies waiting for their colors.
Amy dabbed her brush on a white tile she used for mixing paints.
“Hey,” Nicole said.
“Where have you been?” Amy asked, not looking up.
“Hanging out with the new neighbor.”
Amy set her brush down and turned to Nicole slowly. “Really?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “All day?”
“Got a problem with that?”
Amy shrugged. “It’s just nice to see you socializing.” She turned back to the model and picked up her brush.
“Whatever,” Nicole said. She held up a cardboard tray with more figures on it. “You left these out by the door.”
“Oh, just set it over there,” Amy said, waving at an empty space on her desk.
“Do you really need more zombies?” Nicole said, walking over.
“Steampunk zombies,” Amy said. “That’s like chocolate plus peanut butter levels of extra awesome. And yes, I do. I need three whole units for the army I’m planning.”
Nicole set the tray of freshly primed miniatures down.
Amy eyed the tray for a second. She nudged one corner until the tray was at a right angle to the rest of the table.
“I’m going to take a shower and get ready for bed,” Nicole said.
“Go ahead. I’m staying up to paint some more.”
Nicole opened her dresser and grabbed her pajamas. “Is something bothering you?”
“Yeah.”
“Anything major?”
“Not really,” Amy said. “I’ve just been on edge recently.”
“I know the feeling.”
“Painting helps take my mind off it. I don’t feel like sleeping right now.”
“Suit yourself.”
Nicole left the room and took a shower. When she came back, Amy was on the seventh figure in a row of ten, busy applying a sickly gray coat for the zombie flesh.
“Shoot,” Amy said quietly. She grabbed a wad of paper towel and dabbed the model.
“Problems staying within the lines?”
“There are just so many fiddly bits in the way.”
Nicole climbed into bed and wrapped herself in the comforter. She tried to block out the light from Amy’s desk lamp, but some kept leaking through to her eyelids.
“You should stay up and work on your models,” Amy said. “We can paint together.”
“No thanks.”
“Why not? I’ll prime them for you.”
“That game just isn’t fun anymore. You win every time.”
“That’s because your models aren’t painted.”
“And painted models make you play better?” Nicole asked.
“Of course. Everyone knows that.”
“Pfft!”
“Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“It’s not fun, Amy. Let’s face it. You stole my hobby and then you kept beating me at it. How is that supposed to be fun for me?”
Amy sighed. She turned around in her seat. “Is that really what you think?”
“Well, yeah.”
“You really are stupid sometimes, you know that? I picked up your hobby so that we would have something to do together. It’s not my fault I’m good at it.”
Nicole sat up in bed. “Really?” she asked.
“Yeah. Really.”
“Oh …”
Amy shook her head and turned back to her painting.
“Umm, sorry?” Nicole said.
“Yeah, yeah. You can make it up to me by playing a game.”
Nicole curled up in bed and closed her eyes.
“Maybe tomorrow,” she said, grinning.
“I’ll hold you to that.”
* * *
Nicole rolled over in the dead of night and squinted at her digital clock. The green numbers showed 12:37. She sighed and snuggled up tighter in her comforter. For some reason, the sheets felt strangely stiff.
Uh oh, she thought.
Her heart beat faster. She stayed perfectly still, not breathing as she listened for any sounds.
Nothing. No crickets. No wind. No hum from the air conditioning. The night was deathly silent.
Slowly, Nicole sat up in bed and looked around. The lamp over Amy’s desk was off. Nicole could see her outline under the sheets.
“Amy,” Nicole whispered as loud as she dared. “Hey, Amy. Wake up.”
She pushed her comforter aside and grabbed Amy’s shoulder. It was like trying to move a stone carving.
“Oh no,” Nicole whispered. “No, no, no.” She grabbed her cell phone and was about to try calling Daniel before she caught herself. “No, that’s not going to work.” She let the cell phone fall. It stopped a foot off the ground and zoomed back to the nightstand.
Nicole dropped to the carpet barefoot. She crouched around her bed and looked out the window.
Two centipede reavers slithered through the parking lot, moonlight gleaming off their mirror-like hides. They were smaller than the giant she’d faced in the subway, but their bodies were at least three car lengths long and as thick as her torso. Both slithered towards the condo development’s central lake.
Nicole put her back to the wall and slapped both hands over her mouth. She wanted to scream for help but managed to control the urge. She needed to find Daniel.
Keeping clear of the window, Nicole crawled out of her room and through the condo to the door leading out to the greeting room. She unlocked the door and pulled it open.
Nicole peeked her head out the door and glanced in both directions. She stifled a gasp when she looked to the right. Fat roach-like reavers covered the floor and most of the walls at the end of the balcony, four doors down.
Fortunately, the balcony had two staircases, one on either end. Unfortunately, Daniel’s room was to the right.
Nicole felt the blood pounding in her ears. She slipped onto the balcony between the barely open door and the wall. When she let go of the door, it vibrated oddly for a moment, then slammed shut with a loud click. Nicole winced. She watched the tiny reavers for any sign they knew she was there.
The reavers continued scurrying about the end of the balcony. Some squeezed underneath the cracked-open window looking across the lake.
Nicole slid along the wall. She made it halfway to Daniel’s door when she heard loud metal clicking from outside the window. A centipede reaver climbed the outer wall, eight ruby eyes swiveling wildly before settling on her. It smashed its head through the window and roared.
Kreeeiiiigh!!!
White liquid fire dribbled out of its wide, twitching mouth. The fluid hissed where it touched the wood floor. Hot air rushed over Nicole’s exposed face and forearms like heat from an open oven. The reaver’s eyes adjusted like camera lenses, focusing.
Nicole screamed and ran. She sprinted across the hall and dashed down the stairs, taking them three at a time. Halfway down, the stairs turned towards the center of the greeting room. She hit the railing with her shoulder, pushed off with her arms, and bounded down the remaining stairs.
Nicole stumbled when she hit the ground floor, but righted herself and kept running until she reached the door leading to the main road that looped around the development. She slammed into the door, turned the knob, and pushed through. She kept running until she was on the other side of the street in front of an identical condo. From the walkway, she turned around to see what followed.
Nicole panted, more from fright and adrenaline than exertion. She watched her condo and the adjacent parking lot for any sign of reavers.
“Damn it, Daniel! Where are you?” she shouted, feeling almost ready to cry.
Something let out a deep bass rumble from behind her. A sentinel reaver clambered over the roof of the second condo. It had to be as big as the one in the subway, maybe even bigger. The condo obscured the rest of its body’s massive length.
Twittering mandibles parted around a mouth that could swallow her whole.
BRAAAAUUGH!!!
The hot blast of reaver breath threw her to the pavement.
Contain and observe!
Nicole shook her head, feeling slightly disoriented. She pushed herself into a crouching run, rose, and sprinted for the parking lot away from the giant reaver. The reaver crashed down onto the road. Its long, slender legs chipped the pavement. More segments of its body climbed off the roof and coiled around the building.
Nicole reached the parking lot and sprinted to the opposite end. She put her back to a rusted white van and turned around. The reaver hadn’t followed. It just watched her from the other side of the road, breathing in a low idling rumble she felt in her chest. Its eyes glowed brightly in the moonlit landscape.
“Daniel!” Nicole shouted. “Daniel, can you hear me? Now would be a good time to show up!”
One of the smaller centipede reavers slinked out of a second-story window and dropped to the parking lot. It coiled its body on the ground but did not approach. Nicole backed away from it, bumped into the hood of a blue compact, and sidestepped around the car. The smaller reaver raised its head above the cars and watched her.
Nicole put the blue compact between her and the reavers. She backed away one cautious step at a time until she lost her footing and fell to her knees. She turned to find a sudden sheer drop where the development’s lake and surrounding grassland had been.
“What is this?” Nicole scrambled away from the edge and got back on her feet. The lake was gone, replaced with an unfathomably deep tunnel. Reavers of all shapes and sizes lined its sides, each shining in the moonlight. Some resembled centipedes, spiders, or fat grubs in a variety of scales. Others were nightmares of blades, armor, and glowing eyes. Pale light emanated from tunnel walls that resembled roughly hewn black crystal.
Nicole looked across the tunnel mouth. In the center of what used to be the lake, a wavering image hovered like a desert mirage. It was a huge mansion, three stories tall and incredibly wide with what had to be hundreds of windows. Someone had picked a ghastly pale yellow for the color. The scale didn’t feel right, as if the mansion had been shrunk or she was seeing it from further away than she thought.
“There’s no way this can be real.”
Nicole heard the sharp clicks of an approaching reaver. She spun around. Another giant sentinel reaver and a living carpet of those small roaches had arrived, adding to the reaver semi-circle around her. Panic threatened to paralyze her. She forced herself to move, desperately looking for a weapon.
“Something to throw. I need something to throw.”
Converge and isolate!
“Daniel?” Nicole said. She could almost swear she’d heard a voice.
As one, the reavers closed around her, tightening the semi-circle. She scrambled away from the closest sentinel, then from the two smaller centipedes by the condo. A gap appeared between the two giant reavers, and Nicole ran for it.
The closest sentinel dropped its forward body. Its head and six segments crashed in front of her, balanced on two dozen legs. It growled angrily. Bladed legs stabbed into the pavement in front of her. She staggered back, bumped into a red pickup truck, and retreated to the center of the parking lot.
Another reaver climbed out of the huge tunnel and stepped onto the pavement. She turned and faced it.
The new reaver was unlike any she’d seen so far. The closest thing it resembled was a metal praying mantis twice as tall as her. It tilted a triangular head to the side, watching her with eight small eyes. Four arms sprouted from a slender body. Two were short and ended in flexible digits with tips like scalpels, probably the creature’s equivalent of hands. The other two formed huge scythe blades as tall as she was.
The Mantis moved forward, its four sharp legs clicking against the pavement.
Nicole backed away from it. The sentinel reaver behind her growled, and she stopped.
A corpse-eater, here?
The thought ran through her mind, not so much words but emotions and images her mind interpreted as words.
“What was that?” Nicole said. “Are you talking to me?”
This is unexpected.
“You are talking to me. How’s that possible?”
This could not have happened at a worse moment.
“I think I can understand you,” Nicole said. “You just called me a corpse-eater, right? Can you understand me?”
Your words are irrelevant to me.
“Look, I just want to leave, okay?”
You will not interfere.
“I don’t want to interfere!”
You have seen too much.
“I haven’t seen anything!”
I must accelerate my plans.
“What are you talking about?”
I will destroy this projection. Do not spy on me again.
The Mantis raised a scythe arm.
“Wait! Don’t!”
Nicole turned to run, but the sentinel behind her moved first. It struck her with the blunt side of one leg, knocking her back. The Mantis brought its scythe down. Its arm streaked through her, a momentary flash of mercury. Her right arm flew off in a spray of blood.
Nicole screamed. Pain and terror filled her mind.
The Mantis slashed across with its other scythe, severing both legs just above the knees. Nicole crumpled to the ground, bleeding and delirious with pain. She was going to die! This was it! She was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it!
The Mantis reached down with its lower, slender arms and stabbed its digits into her soft flesh. Eight snake-like appendages twisted through her internal organs. The Mantis lifted her up and stared into her face.
Nicole coughed up blood.
Do not come here again, corpse-eater.
The Mantis ripped her torso in half.
* * *
Nicole screamed in her bed. She must have been making quite a racket because Amy was at her side, shaking her. It took her almost a full minute for her screams to calm down to sobbing.
“Oh, God ...” Nicole said, sucking in a breath.
“What is wrong with you?” Amy asked.
Nicole traced her tongue around the inside of her mouth and tasted blood. Maybe she bit into her cheek during the dream? She wiped her eyes. “God, that was horrible.”
“Bad dream?”
Nicole nodded.
“Oh, come on, you big baby. Just go back to sleep.”
Nicole shook her head.
“Fine. Whatever. Hold on a sec.”
Amy reached for the nightstand and turned on the lamp. The light illuminated a dark silhouette in the room brandishing a sword. Its silver length gleamed in the light.
Nicole screamed.
Daniel vanished before Amy caught sight of him.
“Stop screaming in my ear! What was that about?”
“I ... it ... it was nothing,” Nicole said, holding a hand over her fiercely beating chest. “Just a weird shadow. I thought it was ... Never mind. It was nothing.”
“Okay, good. Just a shadow. You see, the room is nice and empty. Can we go back to sleep now?”
Nicole saw Daniel poke his head out of a closet. She kept herself from looking directly at him. “Can you get me a glass of water?”
Amy shook her head. “Sure. I’m up anyway. It’s not like I have anything better to do. I’ll be right back.” Amy walked out of their bedroom and around the corner to the kitchen.
When Amy was out of sight, Daniel eased himself out of the closet. He lowered his sword and waved meekly.
“Is everything okay?” he whispered.
Nicole grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I ... I heard screaming. The walls are kind of thin here, don’t you think? I came to make sure you were okay.”
“How the hell did you even get in here? The door’s locked!”
Daniel shrugged. “I’m good with locks. So—”
“Shhh!” Nicole said. She heard Amy running the faucet.
“Sorry. Is everything all right?”
“Yes, everything is fine. I just had a nightmare. Would you please put the sword away?”
“Right. Sorry about that.” The sword disappeared into his trench coat with a quiet snick. “I guess I got a little carried away.”
Nicole glared at him. She wiped the tears off her cheeks.
“I’ll be going now,” he said. “I’m really sorry about all this.”
Daniel backed sheepishly into the closet and closed it.
Amy stepped around the corner. “Are you mumbling to yourself?”
“Yes,” Nicole said.
“Well, stop it. It’s creepy.” Amy walked to the bed. “Anyway, here you go,” she said, handing over the glass. Large ice cubes tinkled in the cooling water.
“Thanks.” Nicole took a generous sip. She swished it around her mouth to get rid of the taste. It made her feel a little better. She sat up in bed and peered out the window. At just the right angle, she could see the lake. Moonlight reflected in the water.
No tunnel, no weird mansion mirage, and no reavers.
“Just a bad dream,” Nicole whispered.
“Did you say something?”
“It’s nothing,” Nicole said. “I don’t think I can sleep right now. I’m going to go jogging until I feel better.”
“Okay.” Amy curled up in her comforter.
Nicole slipped out of bed and walked over to her dresser.
“Hey, Amy?”
“What?”
“Would you mind coming with me?”
Amy turned over in the bed. “Say what?”
“I really don’t want to be alone right now.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“No, I’m dead serious.”
“What? Do you want me to hold your hand, too?”
“No, I’m just shook up right now. I want some company.”
“Is this some sort of weird plot to get me to lose weight?”
“No. Why would I care if you’re fat?”
Amy raised an eyebrow.
“Look, just shut up and come with me. It won’t take long. I just need to burn off some stress.”
Amy sighed. She threw the comforter off. “Sure, why not? I get the feeling you’re not going to let me sleep until I say yes, anyway.”
“Thanks. I owe you.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Nicole opened her dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and a turtleneck. She dressed, slipped on her Mass Effect hoodie, and grabbed her phone, wallet, and keys.
“I’ll wait for you outside!” Nicole shouted from the living room a few minutes later.
“Sure! Whatever!” Amy shouted back.
Nicole stepped onto the greeting room balcony and closed the door.
Daniel waved hello. He grinned apologetically.
“You’ve got some nerve,” Nicole said, keeping her voice down.
“Are you mad?”
“You bet I am. Look, I’m glad you rushed in when you thought I was in trouble, but really, could you show some discretion next time?”
“Discretion, sure, I can handle that.”
“And by discretion I mean not barging into a girl’s room in the middle of the night brandishing a sword!”
“Well, when you put it that way—”
“Daniel, there’s no good way to put it! How the hell did you get into the room, anyway?”
“I tau shifted through the door.”
“And by tau shift you mean what, exactly?”
“Started a tau freeze, kicked the door down, and walked through it.”
“Oh ...” Nicole thought on this. “You mean you can come into my room at any time and I wouldn’t know it?”
“If it makes you feel any better, I can do that with anyone.”
“That does not make me feel better!”
Daniel shrugged. “I am what I am. I can tau shift. It’s not my fault.”
“Fine! I’m not going to argue with you! Just show some discretion next time, okay?”
“Sure thing. Discretion. Got it,” Daniel said. “So was it really just a bad dream?”
“I think so. I don’t know. Let me ask you something. There are a lot of different types of reavers, right?”
“Yeah, quite a few. Sentinels, creepers, and drones are the most common, but yeah, we run into other types.”
“Creepers?”
“They’re a smaller version of that big centipede we faced.”
“Are there any that look like a praying mantis?”
“Yes, but they’re really rare. I’ve never encountered one. Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” Nicole said. She stuck a finger in her mouth and rubbed around the gums. The faint taste of blood lingered. “So what do you call them?”
“Mantis reavers.”
“Wow. That’s original.”
Daniel shrugged. His cell phone played a ringtone.
“That’s me. Hold on. Where did I put it?”
“Catchy ringtone. What is it?”
“‘Cruel Angel’s Thesis’ from Evangelion. Shoko loved that show. It’s old school, but really good, and the newer movies are fantastic. Anyway, I haven’t bothered changing my ringtone since we broke up. What’s my phone doing in this pocket?”
“Don’t ask me. It’s your phone.”
Daniel flipped his phone open. “Text message from Chronopolis. Not directly from Chronopolis, obviously. Cell phones don’t work there ... What the ... Oh, crap.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve got to go to Chronopolis.”
“You what?”
“Everyone has to,” Daniel said, pocketing his phone. “All tau guards have been recalled to Chronopolis. The city is under attack by an army of reavers.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I wish I—”
* * *
Time stopped.
“—was. Great. This is the last thing we need right now.”
Nicole looked both ways across the balcony.
“Don’t worry. I doubt anything is that close,” Daniel said. He pulled out his notepad and compass. “Give me a minute and I’ll have a rough idea where they are. Huh ... My compass is going in circles again. That’s not a good sign.”
“Daniel,” she whispered. “By the window.”
Daniel turned to see a dozen small drones sneak in underneath the window.
“Definitely not a good sign,” Daniel said. He put the compass and notepad away and pulled out his sword.
Amy screamed from within the condo.
Nicole and Daniel looked at each other. They shared a brief moment of disbelief. Amy was in the freeze with them?
Daniel acted first. He faced the door and kicked it in. The heavy wooden frame burst off its hinges and spun away, revealing the living room and a panicking Amy racing towards the door. A creeper slithered across the carpet, chasing her.
Daniel reached into his coat and threw a knife in one silky motion. The blade caught the reaver in the head, and burst it apart like a sickening, foil-coated pustule. The headless reaver flopped to the carpet and slid to a halt. Hissing ooze leaked out of where its head used to be.
“Daniel,” Nicole said, tugging on his coat. “The window!”
The first few drones coming through the balcony window gave way to a thick carpet of metal cockroaches. Larger, fatter ones the size of footballs broke through the glass and scuttled over the floor, walls, and ceiling. The condo became filled with their clicking and hissing.
“Into my unit. Now!” Daniel shouted.
“What’s going on?” Amy cried.
Nicole grabbed Amy’s wrist and pulled her along. “No time! Just move!” Her sister followed limply.
Daniel ran forward, opened the door, and held it long enough for Nicole and Amy to get through. He slipped in and released it. The door slammed shut behind them.
“Daniel! On your back!” Nicole shouted.
Daniel reached around and grabbed the fat drone that had dropped off the ceiling. Its sharp legs clung to his coat, but he pulled it free and smashed it headfirst against the wall. It slid down, leaving a yellow trail of ooze, legs still twitching.
Kreeiiigh!!!
Something heavy struck the door. It shuddered on its hinges, but held.
“Creeper on the other side!” Daniel said.
The reaver struck again, buckling the door inwards. The wood cracked at the bottom, splintering halfway up the door.
“Those little things are coming underneath the door!” Nicole said.
“What the hell is happening?” Amy cried.
“Just stay close to me!” Nicole said.
Daniel stamped on the drones with his boot, popping them like small metal zits. He ran over to a stack of two cardboard moving boxes and pushed them towards the door. Nicole grabbed a corner of the bottom box and helped him slide it in place. She grabbed a chair and shoved it under the doorknob.
“Won’t this just reset?” Nicole asked.
“Not if I hold it in place!” Daniel said. He stomped on more drones slipping around the edges. “Get the tunnel open! I’ll worry about the door!”
Nicole nodded and ran to the closet. “Amy, stay close!”
“Whatever you say!”
Nicole grabbed the handle and threw the closet open. Daniel’s spare coats hung on the rack. Behind them were the dark crystal walls of the tunnel. Faint glimmers of silver moved within the dim passage. Nicole ducked just in time.
Two creepers burst through Daniel’s coats, barely missing her head. One climbed across the far wall, the other along the ceiling. Both extended back deep into the tunnel where hundreds of drones swarmed over the floor.
“Behind you!” Nicole shouted.
Daniel turned from the door, spotted the creeper, and swung his sword up. The reaver on the ceiling lunged at him. His sword met the reaver’s face in a flash of sparks. The creature latched onto his blade with its mandibles and front legs. Daniel struggled with it, trying to pull his sword free.
The second creeper slid across the floor, looping around Daniel’s feet where it could easily trip him.
Nicole grabbed the closet door and tried to force it shut on the reavers, but the door rebounded against their hard carapaces. She felt fear, anger, and desperation mix inside her and tried again. This time the door flew out of her hands and slammed into the reavers with unbelievable force, crushing both to an inch thick. Liquid fire and foul pus spurted out of their cracked shells.
Daniel pulled his sword free and decapitated both reavers in a single fluid motion.
“Thanks for the assist!” he said.
“There are more reavers in the tunnel!” Nicole shouted.
“Yeah, that’s not—”
Reavers cracked the entrance in two. Wood splinters blasted out and hovered in the air. The cardboard boxes and chair reset. A creeper and dozens of drones poured into the room. Two more creepers roared just outside.
Kreeeiiigh!!!
Daniel backed away. He scanned the room.
“There!” he said, sheathing his sword.
“What!?”
“Don’t resist! Both of you!” Daniel said. He ran over, blurring with speed, and picked Nicole up in one arm and Amy in the other.
“What are you doing?” Nicole shouted.
Daniel ran for the window a step ahead of the approaching swarm. He ducked his head down and dove, striking the glass shoulder-first. Nicole shut her eyes. She and Amy screamed. Glass pattered off her clothes and left little cuts on her face and hands.
They left behind a twinkling cloud of glass that defied gravity, then fell out of the cloud and landed on the roof of Daniel’s red Ford. It warped inward, and they rolled over the hood. Their sides smacked against the pavement.
Daniel sprang to his feet and pulled out his sword.
“You okay?” he asked.
Nicole moaned and struggled to her feet. “Nothing feels broken or strained, so I guess I’m okay. Amy?”
“Can someone tell me what is going on?” Amy asked, climbing to her feet. Tears ran down her cheeks. Her legs wobbled.
“You’re not hurt,” Daniel said. “That’s good.”
“This is good?” Amy asked. She pulled her black coat tight around her body and started shaking. “This is supposed to be good? How the hell is this supposed to be good?”
Nicole brushed herself off, but was surprised when she didn’t find any glass shards. All the pieces were flowing back to the window on the second floor.
“So now what?” Nicole asked.
“I don’t know,” Daniel said. “Having reavers in a tau guard tunnel is really bad. We should probably—”
BRAAAUGH!!!
BRAAAAAUUGH!!!
“Oh no,” Amy whispered, backing away from the noise.
“Two of them to the south,” Nicole said.
“Those were sentinels,” Daniel said. “Big ones, too. We don’t have much time. The drones are calling in help. There’s no way we can fight off this many. We need to get to a tunnel.”
“A different tunnel?”
“Right. There’s one on the Harvard University grounds. You remember me mentioning it?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“If we can reach it, we can escape to the Boston safe house.”
“So we walk to Harvard?”
“No, we run! Come on, both of you!”
Nicole grabbed Amy’s arm and tugged her along. “Let’s go!”
“But, Nicole!”
“We’ll explain along the way! Move it!”