Project MCX: The Mission Pt. 03

"Hell if I know!" he replied sharply. "I just want to do...something to help!"

"But you were the one who said not to!"

Martin scowled that she reminded him of this. "I know dammit! But their screams sound..."

"Like agany...," Cammy finished for him. "Look, I get that you want to help but we could've done that earlier!"

"The insect was there!" Martin blurted out, angering himself even more-so. "Look, you gonna help or not?"

"Oh I'm coming..." Cammy's voice had a certainty to it. "I have others I need to find here too!"

"Your friends might be okay." Martin stopped his run, looking around the corner to make sure nothing was coming. Fortunately, nothing was. "Jodi and Niki came down here, just like we did. Your friends are topside, just like Brea."

"It's no guarantee..."

"It's something!" Martin eyed the chamber up ahead, seeing signs that insects were there recently. But he could tell they had left...or were hiding. He sure hoped they weren't hiding.

"Yes," Cammy agreed. "It's something...think the screams are coming from straight ahead."

Martin nodded, darting for the chamber. He glanced in, looking for the insects. Instead he nearly retched again.

"What is it?" Cammy asked, creeping up behind him.

"Oh god..." The remains of two men were scattered across the floor in here, and he couldn't tell what piece was what. Cammy looked over his shoulder and nearly gagged herself. "Poor bastards..."

Struggling to contain what remained of whatever she still had in her stomach, Cammy's eyes fixated on something. "Oh god no..."

"What?" Startled by Cammy slipping by him, Martin watched as she reached into the bloody messes and found a pair of matching watches. The look on her face told him all that he needed to know. "Friends of yours?"

Cammy nodded. "Tony and Todd...they were with us when we came up here..."

Martin fell silent, not sure what to do. A part of him wanted to comfort her, but Jodi and Niki's screams reminded him that he wasn't here for Tony and Todd.

"Let's go," Cammy said abruptly, startling Martin.

"What about your friends?" he protested, following her out of the chamber.

"We can't help them now."

"I know but..." Something about Cammy seemed off. Sure, Martin clearly saw that she was grieving for her friends. Beneath that though...she seemed hopeful. "Cammy...what is it?"

Cammy stopped, looking at him uncertain. "He wasn't there..."

"He?" Martin eyed her suspiciously. "You only told me about Tony and Todd. The only other friends you were missing were the women Janessa and Iva. Am I missing something?"

Reluctantly, Cammy nodded. "My boyfriend Darian was with us..."

Martin bit his lip, understanding. Her friends were dead, but she was looking for this Darian most of all. "We'll find him Cammy."

"I almost don't want to," she admitted. "It means he's not in these caves. He's topside...safe. Hopefully with Janessa and Iva. But your friends aren't safe, and we need to find them."

Nodding in agreement, Martin looked into the next chamber. It looked just like the others, although he could tell that these deeper ones were more developed than the others. Each chamber was round, circular walls with a gentle dome overhead. Somehow the insects managed to keep them lit, although he hadn't any idea how they pulled it off. There were no lights in here, just a strange glow everywhere.

Each chamber's floor was divided like a pizza, or a pie. Each slice almost looked like a large bed, and the floors were soft except around the dividers in here. Every chamber also seemed slightly isolated from each other, with sound struggling to reach from one chamber to another. The only reason he could hear Niki and Jodi's screaming was because the insects hadn't finished soundproofing this section yet.

It was a network, with the caves up top as a camouflaged entrance, but at least it was well designed. Martin would have no trouble finding his way out of here, provided he didn't get eaten in the process.

Cammy abruptly pulled him to a stop. "I don't hear Jodi..."

Perking his ears up, Martin listened as well. She was right; he could still hear Niki but no Jodi. She must be getting tired of screaming.

But his ears did pick something up.

"Back!" he hissed pushing Cammy against the wall.

"What is it?"

He shushed her, and soon they both heard the insect shooting down the corridor. Martin watched it pass them by, fortunately not seeing them as it turned the corner. Martin cursed, realizing that it was traveling towards the same direction they were heading.

It took him a moment to realize that the hand he pushed Cammy to the wall with was still pressing against her large breast. He quickly pulled it away. "Err...sorry."

"Huh?" Cammy didn't pay him any attention. Instead she looked after the insect, horrified. "Oh god...did you see that?"

Martin didn't like the look on her face. "The insect?"

"No..." Cammy looked at him, terrified. "The insect was carrying someone down here..."

The thought of another girl joining Jodi and Niki made Martin queasy. "Poor girl..."

"No!" Cammy pulled him to face her. "It had your friend Emily!"

———————————–

Fox opened her hazel eyes, surprised to find herself back in the hospital. She blinked a few times before she spotted Dr. Emerson. "What is the problem?"

The doctor leaned back against the wall, his arms folded. "The problem is how much you are using that device. I had not even a moment to finish adjusting the device and you plugged back into it without even making sure it was ready. That is unhealthy."

His concern did nothing to diffuse her anger. "What is unhealthy, doctor, is interfering with my mission like that."

To his credit, he didn't back down. "You have used the device on the patient three times today. I think that's enough time for now."

"Psychological harm only happens after hundreds of times using the device," she recalled. "This is my decision to make, doctor."

"Wrong." He frowned at her. "It's mine. I took an oath to do no harm, and letting you remain in that device without rest will violate that."

"My risk." Fox heard a snarl in her tone.

He still didn't budge. "My call."

Fox glowered at him. She could kill him for this; her superiors wouldn't question the need. He was expendable to the needs of the mission. But that would cause her unnecessary headaches. Besides, he was her only backup right now.

She could complain to her superiors, but that would waste valuable time. As Wolf pointed out, no one had time for that either.

There was only one way to get him to cooperate.

"You don't understand, doctor," she explained, keeping her voice measured and composed. "What this man has seen could save many more lives."

He wasn't convinced, arching a skeptical eyebrow. "At the risk of your own life?"

"Yes." The certainty in her voice made much of the doctor's doubts fade, but not all. "Do you know the truth about the quarantine?"

She watched the reluctance play out across his features. "No. I know the cover story, and know that it is a cover story," he admitted. "But that sums it up."

"People are dying right now," she said steadily. "An unknown enemy is slaughtering people by the dozens. Until now, I had not even known what sort of enemy we faced. Terrorists, either foreign or domestic? New pathogen, viral or otherwise? Extraterrestrial? I still don't know what they really are, but I do what they seem to be." She left a deliberate pause. "Insects."

"Insects?" Dr. Emerson found her admission absurd.

She didn't flinch from his humor. "Not like small insects, that bite your arm and leave a welt. No, these are bigger than we are. That man...that survivor..." She looked over at Martin, still unconscious. "...he saw them up close. They survived gunfire, and they overwhelmed two seasoned police deputes...both armed. The man they ripped to shreds, feeding them to the smaller ones..."

Although he still found her claim incredulous, Dr. Emerson's smile had vanished. "And the women?"

"The women were raped, likely impregnated," she said, looking at the device. "This is the first real information we've gleaned about our enemy, and it was from what we are doing here. Now do you understand?"

The doctor remained quiet for a moment. "Okay...if...IF I believed your story...why is it so important to risk your own health?"

"The quarantine is failing," she said simply.

This took him by surprise. "W...what?"

"The news reports are saying that everything is under control." She looked him straight in the eyes. "This is a lie."

He wasn't taking this very well. "But the military said we're safe here."

"Also a lie," she said. "The military is doing its best to hold the insects at bay, but they are winning." Fox gestured towards the device. "That is why it is so important for me to continue my mission, doctor. I must succeed, even if it costs me my life. The longer it takes me to find something...anything to help us...then many more women will suffer the same fate as Jodi and Niki..."

He didn't recognize the names, but he didn't need to. He heard the tone in her voice, and understood the implications. After a brief hesitation, Doctor Emerson switched the device's power back on. He couldn't look at her, fidgeting with his wedding ring. "Alright, I'll let you continue. But my original safety measures cannot be adjusted...not unless we want to spend days adjusting the machine. Should either you or the patient suffer excess stress, it will shut itself off. I cannot undo that part without time."

"Time..." Fox found the word amusing as her consciousness drifted away, back towards Martin's memories. "Time is a luxury we don't have..."