Resurrection

“Look, don’t panic.”
“Don’t fucking panic? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Ghoul glanced down and immediately wished he hadn’t. His legs dangled in free air above a room that was full of shadows. They had worked their way down three floors, the usual sentry bots and turrets falling easily and there had been finds of medical supplies and an interesting electrical signal further down. In fact all had been going remarkably well until the floor caved in below Ghoul and sent him tumbling. Party had managed to grab a hand as he fell and now he hung precariously with Jet anchoring Party on the floor above.
Even that they could have coped with until Rainbow had lit a flare and sent it into the room below.
The room that held things among the shadows.
Things with many legs that were way bigger than they had any right to be.
Crimson frowned and leant down, aiming her gun at the largest spider who was scaling a filing cabinet just below Ghoul’s boots. The laser sent it back down into the carpet of spiders below who immediately ripped the corpse to pieces with some excited squeaking. Ghoul swore loudly in six languages and managed to get a hand to the ledge as Party braced and pulled harder.
“Rope?”
Rainbow scooted among the rucksacks and found the coil among the other necessities. She crawled out to Party and Jet, conscious of the groaning coming from the floor joists. Carefully she angled into the hole, trying to ignore the skittering of many legs until Crim took out another adventurous spider who was getting to close.
“FUCK IT CRIM, FUCKING STOP ANNOYING THEM.”
“I’m trying to stop them eating your boyfriend.”
Ghoul grimaced at the pain in his shoulders and shuffled a little further up, slipping for a heart stopping second before Rainbow managed to loop the rope around his torso and slip the knot before pulling hard. This enabled Jet to get a hand on his shoulder and together with Party they dragged their friend back onto the more stable portion of the floor. Rainbow scrambled back from the hole to hug him and check that he was in one piece which Ghoul rather enjoyed.
“I’m ok but clearly going much further down could be a problem.”
Party nodded and stretched out an arm to grab Crimson by the ankle and pull her back from where she had been delightedly baiting the angry arachnids below. She sat up and glanced around before pointing up at a sign.
“Biochemistry is on this floor, biomechanics on the floor with the bugs. Thoughts?”
Jet, Rainbow and Ghoul stared at her before Party grabbed his gun and rucksack, his grin telling his woman all that she needed to know. She chased after him, their laughter echoing around the corridor as Rainbow helped Ghoul to his feet. Jet hugged them both, his smile following his other two friends.
“Let them have the bugs, let’s go check out biochem.”
All of them now had guns drawn and took care to step where the floor looked strongest. Water dripped down from the pipes here and there but there seemed to be very little damage. Clearly the place had just been abandoned and nobody had been curious enough to go looking until Crim had found it.
They found the labs in a state of decay, the plantlife growing unchecked and a few more spiders that were swiftly dispatched. Jet was more interested in a resonating device that the paperwork said could displace concrete. He put both into his bag and followed Rainbow as she entered into another room.
“Wow….”
Ghoul stares upwards, the tree seemed to take up the entire room and hung with thick seed pods among huge leaves. There was also fruit hanging from it and a sweet perfume that was enough to make their mouths water. It reminded Rainbow of strawberries and oranges from before the war and she had a hand out to the nearest of the plush purple fruits when Jet spoke quietly behind her.
“Don’t.”
“Why not?”
Ghoul slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him, all of them taking a step back while staring at the tree. Jet flicked a little further on through the notes and then removed a scalpel from a dented tray on the floor. He expertly flicked it up and lobbed it at one of the pods. As the blade hit, an explosion of thorns erupted from the pod, all three of them ducking back behind a table and only peering out when the noise stopped. The table had spikes sticking out and all could see that they were brutally sharp.
“The fruit is extremely poisonous, you could wipe out a city with one of those purple things.”
Ghoul shook his head and looked over his shoulder, the bunker now seemed a whole lot more like BLI type engineering and it made him nervous. Jet flicked on and looked up at Ghoul’s remark.
“It is genetic engineering yes. Make a plant that you can grow around a fortress and act as an undetectable layer of security. Plus you have a ready made harvest of neuro toxins.”
“If you can harvest it….”
Jet grinned and they left him reading, keeping well away from the tree as they explored the rest of the room. Clearly someone had managed to harvest the fruit as they found vials of purple liquid which Ghoul carefully retrieved, complete with their metal box. He had ideas on that which were not ethical but that side of him had died in the city.
“Take this too.”
Rainbow handed him a large harpoon type weapon and they headed back out into the corridor. All of them were glad to be away from the tree that looked so tempting and they sat for a moment, backs against the wall as they waited to see if Party and Crimson would reappear. Ghoul reached for his last pack of smokes and passed them around.
“We now have a poison….”
“We could destroy the city again yes but that didn’t stop BLI before.”
Jet nodded at Rainbow, he didn’t want to go through all this on a repeating cycle of death and destruction. There had to be another way and he looked across at Ghoul, seeing the concentration on his friends face. Something had changed in him, of all of them he had probably suffered the most and Jet understood the need for revenge.
“Catch a look at this shit.”
Party came bounding up the stairs, a bandage wrapped around his hand but a triumphant grin on his face. He held a large weapon, the barrel emitting a strange glow. Ghoul was about to say something as Party aimed it at the opposite wall. The beam glowed and melted it into putty.
“Well fuck…..”
“We found a stash of them and something else. More small nukes.”
Jet grinned as Rainbow looked past their leader and down the stairs.
“Where’s Crim?”
“Bringing up the something else.”
There was a sinking feeling among the other three as they all stared into the darkness. Crimson appeared with a cheery grin, her rucksack bulging with nukes, grenades and small arms. In her arms she carried a metal box. It moved and shook and Ghoul went pale, a horrible feeling going up his back.
“NO.”
“What?”
“You are not taking home a pet spider.”
Crimson giggled and looked over at Party who unrolled a blueprint.
“We sort of are. They were keeping our creepy friends to learn from and make metal variants that can carry explosives and such like. We have four in the box and hopefully we can make use of them. They have a nasty bite though.”
He waved his hand, the white bandage now blooming with red.
“They could have been poisoned, we found a tree that has neurotoxin as fruit juice.”
“There are more levels but its dangerously unstable. We need more equipment.”
Ghoul for one was happy to be leaving the bunker and they trooped upstairs talking excitedly. The car was soon groaning under the weight and Dr D was prepping the lab for Jet as they headed back. Party kept the car at a steady ninety as he spoke to the DJ.
“Any word?”
“No but an encrypted file came through an hour ago from the city.”
There was a determined smile from Party, relief from the others.
“That’s my boy…”

Notes