An End Read Online Free Page A

wasn’t in the Registry, but hell, Mother said kill them so kill them, right? Women and children, hands raised helplessly before them in surrender, screaming and weeping and pleading in an unknown tongue.
    “Trigger it. We’ll iron out the paperwork later.”
    Zero’s eyes rolled back as he fell to the floor of the bowl, overcome with a realization that he was not yet ready to acknowledge. The two men peering down from the circular cut in the chamber began to climb down to pull him out. Zero was lost in dream.
     
     
    It was like a dream, Fleur decided, as they came to the end of the tunnel to Center Earth. The plush carpeting had begun several hundred feet back, and they now walked on shag the color of neon green. The walls appeared to be covered in wooden paneling instead of the sterile silver expanse of the Vegas pipe.
    At the end of the tunnel, there was a simple wooden door with a brass knocker and a peephole in the upper center panel. Fleur took in her surroundings with utter disbelief. It did not look at all like the living quarters of the Divine Merciful and Wise Mother of the Sixth Extinction that she remembered.
    Whistler strode confidently up to the door and swung the brass knocker down several times. The tap-tap-tapping was more annoying than effective, and they were met with silence from the other side of the door. Whistler nervously smiled, inhaled, knocked again.
    “Mother? We’re home, and we’ve brought your poppet.”
    There was a faint sound of tiny footsteps from behind the door, followed by an odd metallic scraping sound that drew closer. The metal plate covering the far side of the peephole swung out of place, allowing a glint of light to show through for a moment, before the plate was dropped back into place. Clicking and ratcheting and twisting sounds of various locks, deadbolts, then the metallic scraping sound again and the door swung lazily inward, revealing nothing but another dark passage, an ancient folding metal step-stool, and a little girl of approximately five years of age.
     
     
    She smiled and took Whistler’s hand, leading him into the dark hallway beyond the door. He turned and shot Nine a look of silent concern as he walked into the inner sanctum of Center Earth. Hank chuckled a little under his breath, took off his hat and wiped his forehead with a battered red handkerchief before following Whistler in. Nine gently grabbed Fleur’s forearm as she walked by him, and she stopped. Nine leaned in close to the side of her head.
    “What it is? What’s wrong?” His whispers were louder than he had anticipated, and Fleur reached up, pressed the tip of her new index finger against his mouth.
    “She’s dying.” Fleur withdrew her finger and softly pulled Nine after her as they walked through the doorway into the center of the planet.
     
     
    It was a feeling of falling, definitely, but Zero knew that his limp body was actually being pulled up the side of the bowl by hands that were human if not actually human. He was powerless to resist, yet could not tell if it was his own body’s defense mechanisms that had paralyzed him, or if an unknown weapon had been used against him by the two miners who had found him. And that’s what they really were, right? Two miners who had found a treasure buried at the center of a biological fluid vessel, like the milk chocolate center of a sugar-coated confection. He was the prize.
    Up, up, up and then down, slammed to the floor and dragged up an incline, a smooth circular ramp of melted liquid silver, senses still not responding, but the sensation of warmth underneath his legs and lower back unmistakable as the vestiges of a mortal wound to Machine that had been carved in to the bowl.
    An end to the tunnel, and bright lights. A room filled with other men, most holding weapons before them, most standing silently as Zero was lifted on to a hovering stretcher and clamps were secured around his arms and legs. There was a flickering undertone of