Shattered Skies by Alice Henderson

Author:Alice Henderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2019-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

They flew on to the next genebank, in a place once called Siberia. The old maps she’d scanned and overlaid onto her PRD map called the area the Yamal Peninsula. The brown terrain rolled beneath them, with snow dusting certain parts. The area had once been freezing cold for much of the year, and permafrost had been locked up in the soil. Vast grasslands had spanned the entire region, home to grazers such as mammoths, woolly rhinos, saiga antelopes, reindeer, and muskoxen.

She could imagine these creatures moving in mixed herds across the landscape, eating leisurely in the sunshine. Now, no animal caught her eye as they rumbled over the landscape. Strange, nearly perfectly circular holes dotted the ground here and there. Even from their altitude, the depressions appeared large. In other places, odd little hills appeared, like a giant had pressed up on the earth from beneath, splitting the soil.

“We’re nearing the coordinates,” Winslow called from the cockpit.

H124 peered out of the window, trying to spot the genebank entrance. A tall spire flashed in the sun, catching her eye. It rose from a hillock, a towering metal structure similar in design to the first one they’d visited. As before, the spire was only the entrance, the vault itself deep underground so as to take advantage of the natural cold there.

About a quarter mile off, she spotted another of the strange round holes. She pointed it out to Raven. “What’s that?”

He wrinkled his brow. “Not sure. Sinkhole, maybe? The ground here is likely unstable with all the melting permafrost.”

As the Argo set down on its inflated landing rails, H124 studied the entrance. Relieved to see nothing scattered on the ground around it, she hoped the PCC hadn’t found this one. The exterior of the spire had oxidized, and some kind of green mold or moss grew in some areas.

Winslow opened the doors, and H124 grabbed her toolbag. Eager to explore a new place, she was the first one off the airship.

Blinking in the sunlight, she breathed in the air. Something vaguely rotten met her nostrils, and she wrinkled her nose. As Dirk emerged beside her, he covered his nose with his arm. “What is that? Decay?”

“Something’s gone off,” said Raven, stepping out beside them.

“But it’s not the same smell as the first vault we visited.”

Raven cupped his nose. “No, this is something else. Maybe decaying plant matter.”

They crossed to the entrance, the ground soggy, giving way with every step of her boot. Nearby stood another of the hillocks, the soil on its perimeter broken and fractured.

They were almost halfway to the entrance when a loud boom wracked the quiet afternoon and the ground shook. H124 went down on her hands and knees. Dirt rained down on her head, rocks peppering her back.

“What the hell?” she heard Dirk cry, whipping her head to see him lying on his side, shielding his face as pebbles and soil cascaded over him.

The ground settled, and the last of the dirt fell. H124 rose, confused, looking around.

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