Deluge: The Conqueror Worms II

CHAPTER 71

Henry switched off the radio and stood there, shoulders slumped, head down, arms hanging limp. He felt drained, both physically and emotionally. His ears felt hot and were filled with a droning buzz. He swayed back and forth, unsure if the tower was shaking again or if he was just about to pass out. The heat spread to his cheeks and forehead. His vision began to blur.

“No,” he mumbled. “Ain’t got time to pass out. Earl and them others will be back. Got to barricade the door again.”

He turned unsteadily. Sarah remained sitting on the floor, her back against the wall. She’d stopped singing, but her shoulders still shook with laughter. Her cheeks glistened with tears. More streamed from her red-rimmed eyes.

“Do it, Henry,” she moaned. “Let’s just get it over with.”

Ignoring her, Henry made his way to the door. It was more difficult than he’d expected. His legs were wobbly, and he kept bumping into things. His mind kept returning to what Steven Kazmirski, the man on the radio, had said. Here was a guy who had a cure, who had a means for saving the world, or at the very least, stopping the White Fuzz. But he’d never be able to do it. Henry hadn’t understood all the scientific jargon the man had spouted, but even if he did make it all the way from Boston to that Havenbrook Research Center, he was still infected. He’d be dead before he ever finished the cure.

They all would be, Henry realized. Even if the man on the radio had been able to stop the fungus, he couldn’t stop the rain. The weather was merciless and unchanging. The rain would not stop. It would still be there long after they were dead. Henry stopped halfway to the door and glanced out the tower’s large window. Where once had been a tree-lined horizon, there was now an ocean. Debris floated atop the churning surface—halves of buildings and uprooted trees, cars and trucks, corpses, and even an apparently unmoored ship. The ranger station stood at the very top of the mountain, anchored deep into the rocks, yet black water now lapped at the cliffs just a few hundred yards beneath the tower’s base. In another week, maybe two, it would reach them. But did they even have that long? The steel was weakening, turning to liquid, and those mold monsters were determined to get in.

“Oh, Ma,” Henry whispered. “I miss you and Pa and Moxey. I can see the end of the world from here.”

He stared down at the waves. Two weeks at most, unless the tower collapsed beneath their feet or Earl and the other creatures got inside before then. As if on cue, Henry heard a familiar shuffling gait on the stairs outside. Then a muffled voice rasped.

“Soft…”

“Shit! Here they come.”

“Do it, Henry.”

“Do what?” he snapped, hurrying by Sarah. As he did, he realized that her voice had changed again. She sounded sane once more. He glanced at her. Sarah’s expression was calm.

“Get the pistol. The one the forest rangers left behind.”

“That won’t do anything against Earl.”

“Not for them. Kill me. I don’t deserve to live. Not after what I did to Kevin. Not after everything that’s happened? What’s the point? To end up like Earl? Or worse? Kill me, okay? I don’t want to die like that. Please? And if you’re smart, you’ll kill yourself, too.”

Fists hammered at the door, slowly at first, but growing more insistent. The door rattled in its frame. Henry glanced at the door and then back to Sarah.

“Do it, Henry. Please? I’m so tired. I’m just so fucking tired…”

The pounding grew louder and more violent. Tendrils of fungus slipped through the crack at the bottom of the door, wriggling across the floor like tentative feelers.

“Soft,” Earl called. “Soft…”

Swallowing, Henry picked up the .357 and stood looking down at Sarah.

“Is it loaded?” she asked. “It holds five bullets. I don’t remember if I loaded it after… the last time I used it.”

He checked it and then nodded. “It’s fine.”

“Good.”

“You sure about this?”

“I am. Just don’t miss. Okay?”

Henry tried to speak but found that he couldn’t. His tongue felt dry and swollen. Sarah closed her eyes and lowered her head. She folded her hands in her lap, waiting. Henry put the gun to her head…

…and that was when the world outside exploded.