The Red Quarry #5
Mara saw something large move behind the rubber curtains.
The curtains lifted over a broad horned skull.
The triceratops stepped into view.
One horn had broken near the base. The remaining horn was dark at the tip.
Bell saw it.
She tried to pull away from Jules.
“No.”
“Keep moving.”
The upper door pressed harder against the prod.
Plastic split along the handle.
Mara shoved Bell toward the gap.
Jules reached through and caught her vest.
Bell’s shoulders crossed the threshold.
Her hips caught beneath the descending door.
The prod snapped.
The steel panel struck Bell across the lower back and pinned her.
She screamed.
Mara grabbed her legs.
“Reverse it,” Jules shouted.
“There’s no control,” Rina said.
The conveyor dragged against Bell’s trapped body.
Mara pulled.
Bell screamed again.
“Stop.”
“We can get you through.”
“No, you can’t.”
The triceratops came closer.
Its hooves struck the conveyor heavily enough to shake the mechanism.
Mara tightened her grip on Bell’s ankles.
Bell twisted enough to look at her.
“Mara.”
Mara stopped pulling.
The door had compressed Bell’s abdomen nearly flat. Blood spread beneath her.
Jules knew too.
Her hands remained locked around Bell’s vest, but she no longer pulled.
The triceratops lowered its head.
Its horn slid beneath Bell’s legs.
Mara stepped aside before it reached her.
The horn entered through Bell’s thigh and emerged above the hip.
Bell’s body jerked.
Her mouth opened without sound.
The animal lifted its head.
The door held Bell in place.
The horn tore upward through the pelvis and abdomen.
Blood sheeted across the triceratops’s face.
Jules caught Bell’s shoulders as the lower half of her body dropped away.
The upper door closed.
Bell fell into Jules’s arms on the safe side.
She was still breathing.
Jules lowered her gently.
Bell looked down once.
Mara knelt beside her.
“You asked about them,” Mara said.
Bell’s eyes moved toward her.
“I should have come myself.”
“You did.”
“Too late.”
“Yes.”
Bell’s mouth trembled.
“Don’t tell them I didn’t know.”
“Who?”
“My family.”
Mara did not promise.
Bell understood.
Her breathing became shallow.
“I did know enough.”
Then she stopped.
The system announced:
“Group reduction accepted.”
Jules sat beside Bell’s body.
She closed Bell’s eyes.
Then she unclipped the Palisade badge from Bell’s vest and attached it beside her own.
Noah looked at her.
“What are you doing?”
“Keeping it from opening doors for anything else.”
Rina still held Nadia Pierce’s maintenance badge.
Three different access levels.
Four living people.
The wall behind them shook.
The cloudy-eyed dinosaur had followed the conveyor route.
Jules stood.
Blood covered her hands.
She picked up the remaining restraint pole.
Mara looked once at Bell.
Then they moved into the dark service passage ahead.
The facility voice followed them through the ceiling.
“Cycle four adaptive phase initiated.”
Behind the sealed door, the dinosaur began testing the edges.
* * *
The sealed door shook behind them.
Mara followed the others into the service passage.
Only the green floor lights remained active. They led deeper into the facility, appearing a few feet ahead as the lights behind them went dark.
Rina held Nadia Pierce’s maintenance badge against the first junction panel.
The door opened.
Jules still wore two badges: her own and Bell’s, clipped together above her blood-smeared vest pocket.
Mara noticed them striking each other as Jules walked.
“What happens if the system still thinks Bell is with us?”
“It doesn’t,” Jules said.
“The badge—”
“It announced four subjects.”
Rina looked toward a ceiling sensor.
“It tracks the transmitters, but the cycle is using something else to count people. Weight, heat, cameras. Maybe several things.”
Noah limped behind them.
“So it knows she’s dead.”
“Yes.”
“But her badge can still open doors.”
“Yes.”
He looked at Nadia’s badge in Rina’s hand.
“And the little one learned that.”
Rina did not answer.
The door closed behind them.
The russet dinosaur struck it immediately.
The panel flashed red.
Mara expected the steel to hold.
She no longer trusted that expectation.
“Where does this passage go?” she asked.
“Maintenance access,” Rina said. “It runs behind the maze and connects to the central utility shaft.”
“Does that reach control?”
“If the plans are accurate.”
“They haven’t been yet.”
“They have been accurate about where the doors are. They simply leave out why anyone should fear opening them.”
The passage narrowed until they had to move single file.
Noah’s remaining boot dragged slightly with each step. The replacement was too small, but his swollen right foot had already forced the leather outward around the laces. His bandaged left ankle left spots of blood on the concrete whenever the sock touched down.
Jules noticed.
“We need to stop.”
“We need to move,” Mara said.
“If that wound opens farther, we’ll be carrying him.”
“I can walk,” Noah said.
“You’re doing a persuasive impression.”
Jules pushed open a maintenance alcove.
A stainless-steel sink hung from one wall. Empty shelves lined the other. There was only one entrance.
Rina closed the door and tested the lock.
The russet dinosaur remained behind the previous barrier.
For the first time since Darren died, nothing was immediately trying to enter the room.
Jules sat Noah on the lower shelf.
“Boot off.”
He pulled at the laces.
His fingers shook too badly to untie them.
Mara knelt.
“I can do it.”
He looked down at her.
She waited.
After a moment, he moved his hands away.
The cramped boot had rubbed the right heel raw, but the larger problem remained the bite around his left ankle. Blood had soaked through the gauze.
Jules opened what remained of her medical supplies.
Her bag had lost most of its contents during the juvenile attack. She had several bandages, antiseptic wipes, a pair of trauma shears, and one sealed syringe.
“What’s that?” Noah asked.
“Pain medication.”
“Enough?”
“For one person.”
Nobody looked at Bell’s blood covering Jules’s knees.
She cleaned the bite.
Noah gripped the shelf edge.
Mara held his calf still.
“You were right,” she said.
He breathed through his teeth.
“About?”
“The boots.”
“You already admitted they didn’t fit.”
“I should not have made you wear Dad’s.”
Noah looked toward Rina.
She had turned away politely and was studying the wall diagram.
Jules continued cleaning.
Noah said, “They saved my foot.”
“One did.”
“One tripped me.”
“Yes.”
“The new pair was worse.”
“Yes.”
He watched Mara.
“What conclusion are you trying to reach?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“That’s new.”
She accepted it.
Jules wrapped the ankle tightly.
“You need to keep weight off the left side.”
Noah looked at the corridor.
“I’ll schedule that.”
Jules sat back.
“You’re bleeding.”
“So is everyone.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
Rina returned from the diagram.
“Central control is above us. There’s a utility stair at the end of the passage, but the direct route crosses an animal-wash gallery.”
Noah put the undersized boot back on his right foot.
“What washes the animals?”
“I assume water.”
“What washed the people?”
Rina folded the diagram.
“I assume lawyers.”
The line surprised a laugh from Jules.
It ended quickly, but for a few seconds they sounded like people in a room rather than survivors inside a machine.
Then the wall speaker activated.
“Rest interval exceeded.”
Noah looked up.
“It gave us a rest interval?”
The green floor lights turned red.
“Adaptive pressure increased.”
The locked door behind them released.
Mara picked up the last electric prod.
Its charge indicator showed one bar.
“Move.”
They left through the opposite side of the alcove.
The animal-wash gallery was built around a deep tiled room. A grated service walkway crossed above it. Pipes and spray nozzles covered the ceiling below.
White plastic curtains divided the wash floor into stalls.
The room smelled of bleach, standing water, and old meat.
Rina tested the first section of grating with her heel.
“Stay on the support lines.”
Dark rust marked the seams.
Jules went first.
Rina followed, then Noah.
Mara entered last.
The maintenance door behind them opened.
The russet dinosaur did not appear.
That frightened Mara more than hearing it charge.
It had stopped following the obvious route.
Halfway across, Jules raised one hand.
Something moved beneath the plastic curtains.
The cloudy-eyed dinosaur stepped into view.
The red distraction vest still hung around its neck in torn strips. The steel tether dragged behind it, striking the tile.
It looked up through the grating.
Noah whispered, “How did it get ahead of us?”
“The maze has other routes,” Rina said.
The animal walked beneath them.
It kept pace.
Jules continued toward the far side.
The grating flexed under her left foot.
Rina shouted.
Metal tore.
Jules dropped through the walkway.
Her arms struck the edges and stopped her body at the waist.
The cloudy-eyed dinosaur lunged upward.
Jules pulled one knee against the underside of the grate.
The other leg hung beneath her.
The animal’s jaws closed around her boot.
Mara and Rina caught her arms.
Noah dropped and grabbed the back of her vest.
The dinosaur fell back to the wash floor with Jules’s leg still in its mouth.
Her body slammed against the torn metal.
Jules screamed.
“Pull.”
They pulled.
The dinosaur twisted its head.
Jules’s knee rotated sideways.
The joint opened beneath her pants.
A pale section of bone pushed against the fabric.
The animal adjusted its bite above the boot.
Teeth entered the lower leg.
Blood ran down its muzzle.
Mara braced one knee against the grating.
“Again.”
They hauled Jules upward.
The animal shook her once.
The damaged knee separated.
Jules came through the opening as the lower half of her leg tore away.
The dinosaur dropped with it.
Mara rolled backward, pulling Jules onto the walkway.
For several seconds, Jules made no sound.
Her leg ended below the knee in shredded muscle and splintered bone.
Then she screamed until her voice failed.
Rina tore off her belt.
“Higher.”
“I know.”