The Deathless Trilogy

3.11. Growling

I reach for the first floor door handle when Daniel stops me. "The growling is behind there," he whispers. "Let's leave it that way."

We continue up the stairs to the second floor, which is as tall as it goes, and burst through the door leading into a hallway. The hallways in the Immortal are lit and clean, but the Beast is dark and moldy. The stench sticks in my nostrils like cotton balls soaked in rotting leaves—the kind you find decomposing beneath the snow after a long winter—and Daniel and I lift our collars to block it out. Where there are doors to dormitories, labs, and the cafeteria on the Immortal, the Beast only has cells. Bars run up and down the hall, separated by thick slabs of cement wall. The floor seems to be stained, and when I realize what has discolored it, I run to vomit in the corner. Blood.

"Isla," Daniel says, holding my hair back as I gag the last of my stomach contents onto the floor.

I wipe off my mouth, and think about making a no kissing joke to lighten the awkwardness, but instead I say, "I can't see red or blood," so he knows he's not alone. We both have things that haunt us.

He pulls me away from the corner, turns me to face the wall, and gestures for me to stay. "I'll go first and check out the rest of the hall. Stay here so you don't have to look at the red."

I do as he says, appreciative of the help, and look at a dusty map of the Beast that hangs on the wall in front of me. I brush it off, and try to find food or supplies storage. The top floor comprised completely of cells, except for an office at the end beside the balcony where Gunther first spoke to me. On the first floor is where an infirmary, a small cafeteria, and a lab room are located. What could the growling sound have been?

My back still turned to the blood stained hall, I shout to Daniel, "If there are any supplies on board, I think they will be on the first floor. This map here shows only cells and an office up here."

"I'm checking the office," Daniel calls, and I hear a door open and shut. In the surrounding silence, I hear something stirring downstairs. Whatever is behind that door is alive and moving. I grip my slingshot tightly and draw back the loaded sling.

Warm hands rest on my shoulder, startling me enough to jump and release pellet with a buzz against the wall.

I turn around to find Daniel with wide, apologetic eyes. "Don't scare me like that," I say.

He apologizes and asks, "You okay?"

I shake my head. "Something is downstairs. I heard something moving."

"You're right, there is something downstairs. Animals. A lot of them," he says. I look at him with confusion, my mouth unable to close. "I saw it in the office. The cryo ark that Phoebe, Winston, Gunther, and Alexander created before all of this is downstairs. Except the power has been out on the Beast probably since Gunther abandoned it. All the animals are probably unfrozen in their chambers by now. They're probably starving, if they're even still alive."

Animals, I think, and the fear clears away. We have to help them.

I race downstairs to the first floor. Daniel runs behind me, telling me to wait, but I can't. I swing the door open into a hallway. The cafeteria is on the end, the infirmary is to my right, and a lab is to my left. The sounds of growling intensifies behind the laboratory door.

There's a small window at the top, so I stand on my tiptoes to peak in. Most of the specimens are just drawers of cells and DNA, which will hopefully still be viable, but there are a few animals that have been fully preserved. Mostly North American species. I guess the more exotic animals were preserved in the arks on their continents, now that I know Roberts and Cooper was global.