Chapter 76 - You Squish Bad Bugs?

  Our conversation about that dreadful first day had gotten me thinking. I’d left some unfinished business during those early days. Where was the Rat King these days, anyway? What was he up to? If he and his people had been behaving themselves, that was fine. But what if I’d left a menace down there that had grown? I needed to know.

  I went to the window, unlatched and opened it, and then flew outside, taking just a moment to re-lock everything so the building remained secure. Then I shot off through the sky, flying north toward the river. Once I was across the Charles, I dove down into the same T-Tunnel where I'd first met Alex. It was time to revisit my past.

  The first thing I noticed entering the tunnels was the water. It filled the floor of the tunnel at least a few inches deep, covering the tracks. That was new, and while it had rained quite a lot over the last couple of days, I didn't think that was the only cause. Something must have happened down there to cause the flooding. Maybe the river was leaking in somewhere? It didn't smell like sewage, so that was my best guess.

  I slowed my pace but pressed ahead, flying deeper into the tunnels. Thanks to my NightVision, I had no trouble seeing where I was going, but I still wanted to be cautious. It had been many days since I'd gone down there, and I had no idea what might lie in wait.

  The caution proved warranted. Up ahead, where the pill bugs had broken through the tunnel wall, I saw dozens of the creatures milling about, moving in and out of the crack connecting their lair to the T tunnels. They looked agitated and upset. Probably the water, I figured. It was running out of their passages onto the tracks in a steady trickle. At a guess, they'd probably been trying to expand their home and accidentally dug somewhere they shouldn't have.

  The other thing I noticed was that these pill bugs were substantially larger than the ones I had seen before. The smallest one was tier two, most of them were tier three, and there were even a couple of tier fours. That was surprising—and alarming. In just a week, these creatures had gone from easy tier one kills to something that would be absolutely lethal to an unpowered human. One of them even tried to drop on me. I flew past, pivoting sideways in mid-air, letting it slide past to splash into the shallow water below. It scrambled out of the water and back up the wall again, but I was already long gone, proceeding deeper into the passage.

  Clearly, I’d made the right call coming back to this place to check in. I’d need to deal with the rest of those pill bugs before I left, because if they were being flooded out of their home, it was a matter of time before they made their way to the surface and started going after people. Porter Square was too close to the budding MIT settlement to risk letting them roam free.

  For now, though, I pressed on. I wanted to see the full scope of what was happening down there before turning back to deal with the obvious problem. If the pill bugs had grown so strong, what were the ratkin up to?

  I passed the train I had been riding with the kids and Amanda when the event hit. I didn't stop. There was no point. There was nothing for me in there, so I kept flying onward, deeper into the tunnels.

  I wasn't sure exactly what I’d been after, coming here. Was it closure, maybe? Something else? I didn't know.

  Finally, I flew into the space where the Rat King had held court. But here, too, everything was different. The tunnel floor, where the tracks lay, was still covered with a few inches of water. The barrels where the ratkin had kept light were still there, but the flames were gone. The barrels were cold. I landed on the concrete platform, but no one challenged my arrival. It looked like the place had been abandoned.

  Almost as soon as I landed, a score of pill bugs swarmed out of the surrounding passages, rushing toward me. Like the others I'd seen, these had tiered up substantially over the last few days, until they were a serious menace—to anyone but me, anyway. I used my flight power to float a few feet above the floor again, enough to keep me just out of reach. I was going to have to deal with the problem they represented, but for the time being I needed information more. I wanted to find out what had happened to the Rat King and his people, first. It looked like the pill bugs had forced them out.

  I had mixed feelings about the ratkin. My first introduction to them had been brutal and painful beyond imagining. One of them had tried to kill me. Another had killed Amanda.

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  But I'd already taken revenge for her death. The ratkin who killed her was as cold and still as she was. As much as part of me wanted to hate all of the creatures for what one of them had done, my heart knew that wasn't right. I couldn't judge every member of a species by the actions of an individual, and the Rat King had dealt with me fairly, holding up his end of the bargain after I completed mine.

  Where had they gone? I thought maybe they had traveled deeper up the T passages, maybe even moved as far up the line as Central Station. But they might also have left the tunnels entirely, moving into a nearby building instead.

  I searched quickly for clues but didn't find anything. The pill bugs had done a number on this place, chewing on everything the ratkin left behind. Unsure which way to go, I decided to continue exploring the Red Line northwest toward the next station. Maybe I'd find the ratkin, maybe not. But it was an area I hadn't investigated yet, so it seemed like a useful exploration to make.

  I was only able to fly about halfway from the Porter Square station to the Central Square station before I ran into a blockage in the tunnel. The water hadn't made it this far yet, so I was able to touch down on dry tracks and stare at the impressive bit of magical engineering in front of me.

  Someone, or something, had ripped the metal fences from deeper inside the station, hauled them down onto the tracks, and then fixed them to the ceiling and floor.

  I shook the bars blocking the passage, but they were attached pretty firmly both top and bottom. I noticed some sort of thick gummy substance at each of the points where the bars met the tunnel floor and ceiling. It looked like some sort of epoxy, or maybe just a very powerful glue. I wasn't sure, but either way, it was a sturdy construction. For anyone with less Strength than me, it would have stopped their progress entirely.

  The barrier wasn’t going to stop me, of course. It was incredibly easy for me to remove two bars so that I could continue forward. I laid them carefully against the passage wall so whoever set this up could replace them. I figured the barrier was probably there to hold out the pill bugs storming the tunnel to the south. They’d set it up with gaps narrow enough I didn’t think the bugs could slip through.

  What I didn't know yet was who had placed it there, and I found myself curious. Was it the ratkin? If so, they were far more organized than I'd guessed.

  It seemed just as likely I'd run into another enclave of humans working to secure a new home for themselves. Either way, I wanted to meet this group, find out who they are, and make contact with them. The more friendly communities we had cooperating, the better our chances of more people surviving this mess.

  I pressed ahead on foot. All the flying I’d done on this trip had burned through a good chunk of my mana. It was worth it, to keep my boots dry. But now that I was past the flooding, it felt wiser to walk and restore my mana. I wanted to be in top form in case I ran into trouble somewhere ahead.

  The tunnel continued on, and I made good time. The difference being able to see in the dark made was enormous. The last time I’d been down to this place, I’d relied on a few glow sticks to illuminate everything. They’d worked, more or less, but they’d shown me mostly the highlights of the space, never piercing the shadows completely.

  Now, it was like the darkness was dusk. I could see almost everything, which was why I spotted the pair of ratkin sentries hiding in an alcove. I stopped and turned their way, but they continued to try to blend into the shadows.

  “Guys, I can see you,” I said.

  “No you can’t,” a scratchy voice replied.

  “I really can.”

  “Human see bad in dark. You no see us.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I really can. There are two of you. You’re both ratkin. And I’m not here to hurt you, so can we drop this?”

  One of them crept forward half a step, sniffing the air. “How you see me?”

  “NIghtVision,” I replied. “Crystal power.”

  “Human has many crystals. Can feel human power.”

  Interesting, that. He could sense me? I eyed them both, but they were only tier three. They shouldn’t be able to read the tier of someone else until they’re tier five, right? Maybe he had a stone that granted him special sight?

  “How do you know my rank?” I asked.

  “Am smart ratkin. Can see most rank. Cannot see yours. Too high,” the ratkin replied.

  Being smart makes a difference? I wondered about that. Was he talking about Intellect stones? Maybe if your Intellect was high enough, you could see people’s ranks, same as you could once you hit tier five? I’d have to ask Alex about that when I got back.

  “Listen, I’m not here to hurt you guys. I just want to talk to the Rat King.”

  “You break gate. Let bad bugs in. That hurt us.”

  I sighed. “I’ll help you put the gate back up. I’m going to deal with the pill bugs later, anyway, so they won’t bother you. I just want to speak to your leader.”

  Technically, all of that was at least mostly true. If the ratkin weren’t being a danger to humanity, I was inclined to leave them be. But if they were, I’d deal with them the same way I would the pill bugs. I was perfectly willing to work with new species like the Peristera who were eager to have peaceful relations with humans, but just as ready to raise a fist against those who would attack us, like the Karabos.

  “You squish bad bugs?” the ratkin asked.

  “That’s my plan.”

  “I take you to King, then.” He stepped fully out of the shadows, spoke briefly to the other ratkin still cowering behind him, and walked over to me. “You no hurt?”

  “Not unless you hurt me or other people,” I replied.

  “I take you to King,” he said again, setting off down the passage. I followed close on his heels.