Chapter 107 The Purge
The air in the Spire didn't just smell stale; it tasted like ash.
I positioned myself at the main lobby's center point while I used my hands to touch the security desk's cold marble surface for balance. The beacon I was keeping on the roof used up a lot of Origin Stone power which made me feel dizzy. The dizziness came from more than just magic exhaustion. The oxygen levels were the cause of my dizziness.
The oxygen levels were decreasing.
The lobby had five thousand refugees who occupied every space. Emergency blankets covered the humans and Wolves and New Citizens who sat on the ground. The lobby area filled with a persistent sound of coughing which produced a dry hacking rattle that resonated through the vaulted ceiling.
I observed a young girl who stood nearby. She held a damaged doll tightly. Her forehead was covered with a thin coat of black dust. She wiped her forehead but the dust smudged like grease.
I spoke the word status into my comms system.
Kael’s voice from the Control Room confirmed that "Air quality is at 60%." He sounded panicked. "The filters have dissolved, Elara. The spores have entered our intake system through the intake manifold. We’re now inhaling the Rot. The irreversible saturation point will occur in ten minutes if Ryker fails to arrive. The people will start to turn."
I spoke "He is coming" while fear coiled in my stomach. "He made a promise."
CRASH.
The main blast doors at the lobby entrance experienced a powerful impact which caused everything inside to shake. The refugees screamed while they moved back.
Baron growled "They’re knocking."
The Wolf Alpha stood near the doors while he held a heavy fire axe with his strong arm. His elite guard—the few wolves who hadn't been infected—stood with him, their hackles raised.
Baron said "They can smell our fear." The spiders understand that we are confined so they have stopped trying to break down the door. They are searching for entry points through which they can enter our location.
Suddenly, my radio crackled. A burst of static, then a voice. Rough. Exhausted.
"Spire... come in."
"Ryker!" I gasped. "We read you! Where are you?"
Ryker’s voice rasped "Sub-basement." "I’m at the freight elevator. I have the package. But the lift is dead. I can't get the drums up to the roof."
Kael interrupted "You don't need to go to the roof." "If you're in the sub-basement, you're right next to the primary intake fans. You can dump the chemicals directly into the mixing chamber. It will cycle through the whole building."
Ryker said "The mixing chamber is behind the maintenance bulkhead." I need Vane to override the lock.
Vane said from across the lobby "I can't." He was working on a fuse box, trying to keep the lights on. "The system is locked down. The Rot has gummed up the electronic relays. You have to open it manually, Ryker."
"Manually?" Ryker let out a harsh laugh. "Vane, that door is a ten-ton steel slab."
Vane said grimly "Then you better push hard." "Because we have company upstairs."
SCREEEE.
A high-pitched sound of tearing metal came from the ceiling of the lobby.
Everyone in the room turned to see what had happened.
The ventilation grates.
Black sludge was dripping from the vents, sizzling as it hit the marble floor. And behind the grates, shadows were moving.
Jaxon shouted "They’re in the vents!" He raised his rifle. "They’re bypassing the blast doors!"
The grates burst open.
Instead of air, the spiders started to emerge from the opening.
Dozens of the black, bone-spiders rained down from the ceiling, landing among the terrified refugees.
"Defend the civilians!" I screamed.
I had lost my mace in the reactor so I didn't have it with me. I grabbed a steel chair from the security desk.
The lobby erupted into chaos.
People scrambled, trampling each other to get away from the drop zone. The spiders hissed, lunging at the nearest targets. A spider leaped at the little girl with the doll.
I didn't think. I threw the chair.
The chair hit the spider in mid-air which caused it to change direction.
I yelled "Move!" at the girl. "Get behind the desk!"
Baron and his wolves charged into the crowd. They were a blur of fur and teeth, snapping the spiders out of the air. Jaxon and the militia opened fire, aiming carefully to avoid hitting the civilians.
Ryker! I shouted into the comms. "We have a breach! We can't hold them off forever! Do it now!"
The Sub-Basement
(Ryker’s Perspective)
"I hear you," I grunted.
I stood in the dark hallway of the sub-basement. The handcar was behind me, loaded with the four drums of chemicals. Ahead of me was the bulkhead door to the Mixing Chamber.
The door to the Mixing Chamber remained sealed tight.
The electronic keypad was dead, covered in black slime. You could not operate the door because it had become inactive.
I muttered that weight equated to ten tons which belonged to the field of physics.
I used my iron spike to force open the door's seam when I applied my full strength against the door.
The door refused to move even an inch from its position.
I growled at the door to open it.
The radio played loud screams which I recognized as Elara fighting while my people perished.
My chest filled with anger. The Hollow King expressed cold and efficient anger. But the Alpha expressed burning rage.
The door remained locked until I commanded it to open.
I used my muscles to turn my rage into strength. I accepted my situation because I lacked magic.
I used my strength to pull.
CREAAAK.
The metal produced a sound which indicated that its interior gears had started to function.
I pushed my body until stars appeared in my eyesight. My boots failed to grip the concrete surface so I started to pull back.
The door opened enough space to give me what I needed.
I took hold of the first bleach drum. I used my arms to lift the drum which I rolled through the opening. The drum hit the Mixing Chamber's metal grating.
I rolled the second ammonia drums.
I squeezed through the gap.
The Mixing Chamber operated like a wind tunnel. The huge intake fans operated at a slow speed to draw air into the system. The incoming air contained heavy black spores so it failed to deliver clean air. Rot-covered walls created a visual effect of pulsating veins throughout the chamber.
The Rot detected my presence.
The veins on the walls started to move. They began to extrude thorns. A mass of sludge near the fan coalesced, forming a humanoid shape. A Void Walker.
"I said no time to play."
I took out my sword weapon. I didn't ignite it because the fumes in here were too strong. One spark would cause an explosion that consumed the entire area.
The Void Walker advanced towards me.
I moved closer to the fighter's range. I thrust the blade through his chest which sent him backward into the fan blade's area.
THWACK-SPLAT.
The fan ripped apart the monster which released black ichor into the entire area.
I faced the collection of chemical drums.
The system lacked an intake port which forced me to proceed with messy operations.
I used my sword to slash the top off the first bleach drum. The smell hit me instantly—sharp, burning chlorine. The unpleasant smell made me cough while my eyes started to water through the mask.
I used my weapon to slash the ammonia drum.
"I found out from Kael that this chemical creates chloramine gas," I said while I lifted the heavy drum. "I highly doubt that the Rot has lungs to breathe with."
I poured the bleach into the intake funnel which led to the fan below. The clear liquid poured in.
I reached for the ammonia.
"Drink up," I snarled.
I poured the ammonia in.
HISSSSSS.
The process began with a loud violent display of force. A thick white cloud emerged from the funnel while it released gas into the air. Chemical warfare happened when the chemical combination produced more than steam.
The gas struck the operational spinning fans.
The fans picked up the white cloud which they then blasted into the exhaust ventilation system.
The Lobby
(Elara’s Perspective)
The battle was shifting toward our enemies.
The spiders appeared in excessive numbers because they descended through every vent while they moved around the building surfaces. Jaxon used his rifle as a club after he ran out of ammunition. Baron defended a group of children from multiple attackers while he stood above dead spiders and bled from multiple wounds.
A massive spider, bigger than the rest, landed on the security desk in front of me. The monster displayed its mandibles to make hissing sounds while it raised all of its leg blades.
I forced myself to create a weak wind attack before I made my wind attack.
Then, the vents roared.
The ceiling began to make low rumbling sounds which progressed to a powerful white mist that shot out of the grates directly toward the spiders on the ceiling.
SCREEEEEEEE!
The sound reached a deafening level.
The spiders didn't just fall; they convulsed. The chemical gas hit their biological components, melting the soft tissue between their bone plates. They shrieked in agony while falling from the ceiling like heavy objects.
The spider in front of me gagged. The gas washed over the spider who clawed at its face. The spider lost its battle because it died after its body went through violent twitching.
The white mist filled the lobby.
"Cover your faces!" I screamed to the civilians. "Don't breathe it!"
The refugees pulled their blankets over their heads.
The gas showed harsh characteristics because it had an odor that combined swimming pool chlorine with intense fire. My eyes burned. My throat tightened.
The Rot hated it more.
The black sludge on the floor hissed and evaporated. The spiders curled up and died by the hundreds. The shadows in the corners retreated, dissolved by the chemical purity of the bleach.
For five minutes, the Spire was a gas chamber.
The vents began to cycle after the five-minute period ended.
The room received an airflow of fresh air which had been cleaned by the chemical reaction process.
The white mist cleared.
The lobby became completely quiet.
The lobby contained dead spiders which covered its area. The black stains were gone, bleached white.
The people took down their blankets while they stepped forward to take their first cautious breaths.
The room had an intense and clean scent that made it seem like all germs were eliminated.
Jaxon whispered "It worked" as he coughed into his sleeve. "He did it."
I activated my comm system.
"Ryker?" I asked, my voice trembling. "Ryker, report."
Static.
"Ryker!"
"Here I am," he responded back with a voice that sounded broken. He was coughing violently. "I... cough... I made it out. I left before the gas reached the danger level."
I started to sob in relief, and I sat down on the ground.
"You crazy bastard," I whispered. "You poisoned the whole building."
"I need to cough I cleaned the space," Ryker rasped. "Housekeeping."
Kael spoke up to announce that "Air quality is rising. Spore count is zero. We killed the biologicals in the ducts with the chemical flush system. We can safely breathe now.
A cheer went up from the refugees. It began as a soft sound and developed into a loud sound. The people embraced one another while they cried.
But I didn't cheer.
I looked at the blast doors.
The spiders inside were dead. But the army outside was still there. The Titan had breached the North Wall. The Void Walkers were marching through the streets.
We had cleared the air. We had bought ourselves time. But we were still trapped in a glass tower, surrounded by a city of monsters.
Ryker walked into the lobby ten minutes later.
He looked terrible. His eyes were red and swollen from the fumes. He leaned heavily on his sword.
But he was standing.
He walked over to me. He offered me a hand and pulled me up.
"We have air," Ryker said, his voice a gravelly whisper. "We have water. We have light."
"And we have four days of food," I reminded him.
"Then we have four days to win the war," Ryker said.
He turned to the blast doors.
"They tried to suffocate us," Ryker said to the room. "Now, they’re going to try to break the door down. Vane, Baron, Jaxon. Get ready."
He looked at the refugees.
"The Siege isn't over," Ryker declared. "But neither are we."