He squeezed, and her face turned purple. His jaw rigid, he didn’t speak, just stared her in the eye as he crushed the life from her.
“Gods, bones, how could you?” Hildra said, moving forward.
Heedless of his erection, Avery climbed to his feet and approached Janx and Sheridan. “Janx—please—don’t—”
“Shut the fuck up, Doc. I’m gonna finish what I started in the Over-City.” Janx didn’t even look at him, just strangled Sheridan. At any moment Avery expected to hear her bones crack or her cartilage snap.
“Bones, you’ve really screwed up this time,” Hildra said.
“I know,” Avery said miserably. “I—” He glanced to Layanna, then back to Sheridan and Janx. Desperation filled him. He told himself to let it happen, to let Janx do what he didn’t have the strength for.
With all his will, he shouted, “JANX! STOP!”
For a moment Janx kept on, but then, as if against his better judgment, he released his grasp, just a bit, just enough to allow Sheridan to suck in a great big gulp of air.
“You have exactly one chance,” Janx told her. “For the Doc’s sakes. Give me one reason I shouldn’t kill you. If I don’t like it, you won’t get a second.”
She stabbed a finger toward the base of the tree she and Avery had been coupling against, or about to couple against. Her belt was there.
“My radio,” she wheezed. “I can—call—my troops—”
“Sorry, but threats won’t—”
“Not a threat, you—idiot. My troops—are in—dirigibles.”
Janx paused. “Dirigibles.”
She nodded. With more breath, she was able to say, “How else do you—think we kept mobile—able to rendezvous with—whatever Nisaar tribe came on you first?” Some of the red was leaving her face, and the vein that had been about to burst in her forehead subsided. Avery wished he didn’t feel a pang of hurt to see her like this, but it was there.
“So what?” Hildra said. “The last thing we want are Octunggen dirigibles bearing down on us.”
“How are you going to get out of here?” Sheridan rasped. “Do you have any plan? Blunder back through the jungle to—what? Your convoy is gone, your vehicles burnt. There’s no way you could survive a trek back to civilization, on foot, through the jungle.”
Janx glowered for a moment, then, very gradually, set her down.
“What are you doing?” Hildra said. “Pitch the bitch over the side!”
Janx spat. “She’s right, doll. If she can give us one of these dirigibles, it’d probably save our lives.”
“Thank you,” Avery told him. Avery’s erection had faded, if nothing else.
He and Sheridan shared a look, then glanced away from each other. Avery turned back to Layanna, not knowing what to say, then reeled back in terror.
Surrounding her, coming out from the doorway, were a dozen maggot men.
They weren’t all men, he saw. Some were women. Two were Nisaar. One was something like a giant earthworm with arms. All of them were infested with maggots. The little things crawled under their flesh, thrust out of their lips and weaved in and out of their eyeballs.
“Lay—Layanna!” Avery said, pointing even as he stumbled back. “Look—!”
Hildra caught him, preventing him from tumbling off the building.
“We know,” she said. “They’re with us.”
“With you?”
“Well,” she amended, “more like we’re with them. But yeah. We’re together.”
“I don’t—don’t—”
“I know. It’s freaky. But believe me, it ain’t nothin’ compared to what I just saw. You two. Fuck.” Hildra made a face as if she wanted to vomit, then moved to Sheridan’s belt and snapped it around her own waist, removing Sheridan’s ability to call her backup or use her gun. She tossed the remainder of Sheridan’s clothes to the admiral, and Sheridan dressed, not seeming particularly embarrassed, though she was quiet. Her throat was turning purple.
“I still don’t understand,” Avery said, throwing on his own clothes. “The infested creatures ...”
“We’ll explain as we go,” Layanna said, and her voice was cold. “The Colony is impatient for the interview to begin.”
THE END
OF VOLUME SEVEN
OF
THE ATOMIC SEA
THE ATOMIC SEA
PART EIGHT
IN THE WORLD BELOW
