When the Night Comes Out Presents the Hive, Part eleven. The count was
bad. Everything was bad. Of the one thousand, five hundred and thirty
five prisoners in the hive, there were only six hundred left. Of the
eight hundred guards, there were just three hundred and twenty left. There were
one thousand administrative staff, medical staff, and others. In the administration building,
there had been just over two hundred total. On the medical staff,
there were only twenty five nurses left, and those were the ones who had
not been on duty the night before. Of the rest of the one thousand
administrative staff there, they had caught a break. There were still seven hundred
left, a grand total of just over sixteen hundred people left. So many
dead and far too many who had been turned into one of those things.
Ketenger looked at the handwritten totals on a piece of notebook paper. Jenny had
handed it to him with shaking fingers. Just a few moments before. His
assistant's fingers were caked with drying blood and her face was streaked with it.
Kettinger had seen her with a rifle, firing away in the opened cargo area
before the doors had closed, a sight he never thought he would ever have
to see now. Her eyes were wide and glassy, and she appeared to
be staring at something off at a great distance that Kettinger could not see.
Jesus, Ketinger said, looking at the numbers, He handed it to Dalton
King, who stood next to him. That means that there are sixteen hundred
people that have been turned into one of those things or dead, let out
a soft moan. Kettenger looked at her and reached out his hand and placed
it gently on her shoulder. Jenny, he said, quietly, go down
and see if you can get some sleep. See one of the nurses if
you can, and get something to help you sleep. I don't know if
I'll be able to sleep ever again. Jenny whispered, but then she turned
and walked slowly and dream like out of the office. Kettenger turned around and
faced the large window behind his desk. The hive had always been an impressive
view. Now it provided nothing but terror. He looked down and saw the
thousands of things that had once been people standing there in the corridors among the
cells. All of them were packed tight like sardines in a can, shoulder
to shoulder, not moving. Their eyes were turned up, as if glaring
at the window out which Kettenger currently looked. They had been that way for
a while now. They were not trying to pound on doors. They had
not crawled up the of the administration building. All of the windows and doors
that led outside into the Hive had been covered with metal panels. The ones
saving grace were the thick windows that were part of Kettenger's office. Just look
at them, Dalton King said he had not said much since they had arrived
inside the building. It was likely the reality of seeing the creatures that Kettenger
had described in the flesh. Everyone was quiet, the just standing there,
like the thinking about something. Kettenger looked down at the vile blood smeared,
rotting faces, many of them with their sharp teeth exposed. They are If
they're really a hive mind, then they're probably sitting there thinking about what to
do next. We have to figure out something to do about them, and
fast King said it won't be long before they decide to go after Hive City.
They'll figure out that they can't get in here and try their luck with
the gate. I don't think they can get through the gate, Kettinger said,
trying to sound confident, but already worried. Karl will hold them.
King turned his head and then cocked it to the side, as if studying
Kettenger to see if he was telling the truth. Do you really think so
one man holding off thousands, all of your gods combined could badly accomplish that
they'll find a way to crawl right over him and into the houses that are
out there. Although you made the announcement, I don't think that many in
Hive City got into this building. Is there a place where they can go
in Hive City? Kenninger felt a sinking in his stomach. He went over
to his desk, grabbed the phone, punched in some numbers, and waited.
A moment later, someone picked up at the other end, Carol.
Kenninger said, yes, we're locked down in here. I need you to
get the people who were left in Hive City into the school, then do
the lockdown there, do it fast. Kettinger slammed the phone down and looked
at it. King. Is the school ass secure as this building? King
asked, Probably not, Kenninger said, almost in a whisper, talking to
the desk. It's not built right into the stone wall like this place.
However, Q and most of the others don't know about it being able to
lock down, and that might help. They didn't know about this here,
King said, waving his hand to indicate the administration building. No, Kettinger
said, just to me and whoever else ends up his warden. This was
to be a last ditch thing that could only be triggered by one person.
What if you had been killed or turned into one of them, King asked.
Kettinger raised his eyes and stared back. He didn't know what to say.
If he had been killed or been turned, that would have been the
end. What do you think they want, Kettinger asked, at last,
They want to get out, King said, turning his head back around to
stare at them. They want to get to the surface. They'll take as
many of us as they can, use the rest for food, and try
to get to the surface. What will happen if they get up there?
I don't think the world will stand a chance, King said. They turn
someone with a single bite, and it happens so fast. If it's true
that the knowledge of each person they turn gets added to their hive mind,
then imagine if they start turning policemen, politicians, terrorists and military men.
These are not the mindless shambling zombies from the movies that we usually think about.
These are something else. But they are a reanimated dead tissue, Kenninger
said, standing beside Dalton King. Yes, they appear to be as I
mentioned. This may be where the legends of zombies came from. However,
I think these are probably closer to demons. There are many stories of demons
being able to take over bodies of the innocent with a mere touch. These
demons take over, killing the host, absorbing their mind into the hide mind,
and then turning them into killing machines. But look at them, King
pointed to the mass of bodies. They rocked quite fast. King said,
the energies involved must burn out the bodies. I don't know if that means
that sitting here and waiting them out will cause them all to die, or
if we'll just end up with one thousand to the vicious, demonically animated skeletons.
I have no desire to find out. Kettinger said, The question is
what do we do next. Dalton King turned away from the side outside the
window and faced Kettinger. You could stop by telling me why you wanted me
here, he asked. I mean, I know that having my brain as
part of the hive mind is not ideal that could have been solved in ways
we've already discussed. Why bring me here? Kettinger sighed and stood up.
He walked across the office and stared at the banks of monitors along the wall.
Most of them were blank, especially the ones in the hospital area.
The other monitors showed empty hallways. Well, you are the biggest mass murderer
that happens to be incarcerated in the hive, Kettenger said, slowly, turning
back around to face King. I don't mean to put too fine a point
on it, but it's very true. You know how to wipe out a
lot of these things in one shot. I was hoping you might have some
idea how we could wipe these fuckers out in one shot. King nodded and
then let out a laugh. He turned back around until he could stare down
at the ghouls that were still there in a tight pack outside the administration building.
I will do my best to forget the semantics, Michael King said.
We shouldn't get into one of our long political discussions about whether or not I
am a freedom fighter or a terrorist or a murderer. The fact is,
technically you are correct. I know how to make bombs and other weapons of
mass destruction. But there is one very fine point that we do need to
put on a discussions. Dalton King sighed and shook his head. These creatures
are already dead. King continued. We know that they can be taken down
permanently if we hit them in the head. But that's a hard bomb to
make. Yes, let me get access to all of your weapons and construct
a bomb that will only hit those intended targets in the head. I don't
think such a thing can be done. I understand that. Kenninger replied.
However, even if they are already dead, if you chop them into pieces,
they'd be disabled. If we blow them to pieces, the pieces don't
seem to bring themselves back together to form a hole again. So the right
bomb will blow them to pieces. Perhaps it would cause so much damage to
each of them that whatever demonic entities inside them will leave or die off.
King gave a nod. I can appreciate that line of thinking. Okay,
so we're thinking that a massive explosive or powerful weapons are the way to go.
Fine, I can do that provided I have the right tools. However,
I am willing to bet that there is one thing that is going to
be a considerable problem. What I'm betting that most of the powerful explosives or
the equipment I need to make them, King said, and then he gestured
out the window dramatically are located over in the mines there. Kennenger followed the
pointing finger. Even though he knew exactly what he was pointing at and what
he was saying, he felt a sinking feeling in his gut, and Kenninger
said, we'd have to get through all of them to get there. Dalton
King nodded. Kenninger walked back over to the window and leaned against his desk.
He stared down at the thousands of ghouls, all of them with their
teeth rotting, flesh tearing hands and mindless methods of attacking. They had already
lost so many, but how many would they lose trying to get back to
the mines? Okay? Then Kettinger said, then we have to come up
with another solution. What do we have here inside the building that we can
use to cut through them and then build a bomb to wipe what's left of
them? Off the map. King laughed and rubbed his hands over his face.
Well, if we have weapons powerful enough to protect us and get through
that swarm, then we don't really need the bombs, do we. Maybe
there's another way to get there. Kenninger shrugged. Think about it, Michael
King said, as if Kenninger were a student in a classroom, and not
a particularly bright one. We use what they used against us against them.
Think it dawned on Kettinger. Slowly, he stood up from the desk and
peered down into one of the ghoul's eyes. The eyes stared back, dead
inside, but somehow burning with hatred and hunger. Only to see blueprints of
this place, Kenninger said, and then he stared at Dalton King. I'm
not sure it's a good idea to let you see those. Do we really
have time to worry about such things right now? No, however, I'm
not sure we can access the air shaft system from the building here, Kenninger
said. This building was designed so that it could be shut off from the
prison like it is now. That means we have a separate air circulation system.
Plus, we did weld a few metal pieces into the air vents to
try and stop them. I want to pinpoint those spots in case we have
to work around them. King put a hand to his chin. You see,
well, that does complicate things. However, we only have to get
as far as the first cell, or what of the closest cells? What
about one of the lower levels. Could we break through a wall and into
a cell and then into the air shaft system? Maybe, just maybe,
Ketnninger replied, we're going to have to find the blueprints ourselves. Normally i'd
ask Jenny, but she's down with the prisoners and tending to be injured.
Are they online? No? The idea was that having them in paper form
would prevent them from being hacked, Ketninger said, come on. Minutes later,
they were in a basement room filled with filing cabinets. Kettinger spent several
minutes refamiliarizing himself with the entire system down there. Once he remembered how everything
was filed, he found the blueprints right away. In twenty minutes, he
had them spread across a table. Dalton King leaned in close while Kenninger stood
beside him. It was clear that King had spent lots of time with blueprints
before. Were you an architect? Kettinger asked, well, sort of,
King replied with a devilish smile. I mean I studied it, but that
was only to benefit my final plan. You can bring down the tallest building
with minimal effort if you know where to look and how to look at it.
King bent low over the Prince and began flipping through the fragile pages.
One after another he cast aside until he came to one that caused him to
stop and press both hands against the table. To Kenninger, it looked like
a mass of blue lines, like veins. This is it, King said,
what. The first cell can be accessed right through one of the walls
in the administration building. King said, once we get in there, we
should be able to get down to the shafts and find what we need.
We have to move fast, but we can get to the explosives and materials
I can use to make a bomb. Back at the shaft. Using this,
Kettenger marked a few places. These are the places where we welded some
metal plates. I think the gouals broke through them, but I can't be
certain. King pointed to one particular blue vein and traced it across the page.
Kettenger followed, trying to place where the blue vein was in relation to
the cells. From what he could remember, it went from a spot not
far from the administration building to one of the cells closest to the mining operation.
It would then be a short hop from the cell into the mines and
the equipment there. In fact, the final cell was not far from where
King's original cell had been. I think if we take that route we can
avoid the welded areas. King said. They'll be in the shafts too,
Kettinger said, King nodded, we'll have to try and block them off.
You started doing that before, We'll need to keep doing that. I think
the shafts will be a one way deal. I don't think we'll be able
to get back here using them, if we can get back here at all,
and that's something you have to be prepared for. You know, this
may be a one way trip for anyone stupid enough to volunteer. Ketninger had
thought about that. Yeah, but I think that may be a small price
to pay to prevent them from getting to the surface. An odd smile crossed
King's face. What are you smiling about, Kenninger asked, Just thinking that
this whole situation is funny, King replied, shaking his head. There was
a time when this kind of thing was what I would be looking to unleash
the world. Now that I see how it works, however, I worry
that there won't be a world left to rule over if this kind of thing
gets out. Just struck me as odd how life turns out. Kettinger let
himself smile and let out a small laugh. It felt good and eased just
a small amount of tension. Okay, so what do you think, Kettinger
asked. The ventilation system of this building is cut off from the rest of
the hive. We did that to make this safe and separate from the hive.
Since we release gas and such in the cells, we didn't want that
coming back into the Admin building. That means that the shaft you're pointing at
is only accessible outside this building, and that means running straight into a giant
pack of undead tooth monsters. Not necessarily, Michael King said, pointing at
the blueprint. You can get into the shaft via this cell here. That
cell adjoins the outer wall of the Admin building. I believe that means we
can probably break through into that cell from within this building. Once we get
in there, the door to the cell will be locked and we can get
into the ventilation system. Kenninger stared at the spot on the blueprint. His
internal maps brought everything that King was saying into focus. He was right,
we have hammers in here, but we have to find a way to bring
down a wall without creating so much noise that those things hear it and figure
out what we're doing. Kenninger said, well, then let's get the tools
and some volunteers. King replied, we can think about how to demolish walls
silently while we do that. It took about three hours to get through.
However, the first part took almost forty five minutes for everyone to find the
old tool shed buried in the lower regions of the administration building. The tools
had long ago been moved for the most part after the building had been constructed.
The hammers were old and rusty. As for volunteers, they found more
than they needed. No one wanted to sit around and watch out a windows
as people that were friends and were now dead stood mutely. It was only
a matter of time before the hive mind would come up with some plan of
attack, trying to get a wall down was easier to deal with than that.
Now, how do we do this without alerting them, Kenninger said.
When he and King returned to his office to look down on the gathering crowd
of ghouls, they were still there, still standing, swaying slightly as if
in a breeze. Do you have a sound system in here? King said,
looking around the office. What do you have a sound system? King
repeated, speakers a way to play the radio station? Why? King looked
exasperated. Don't be thick. We can point the speakers out the window and
blast the loudest fucking music we can find. Put a call into the radio
station and tell them to play the loudest shit they can find. Given the
height and general structure of the hive, it should travel quite nicely and be
very loud out there. How do we get the speakers out the window?
Cut them, break the glass, whatever you need to do. Kettinger had
no response to that. Ten minutes later, six prisoners, Redge, and
two other guards, were removing speakers from within the walls of Kettinger's office.
They then cut holes in the thick glass using laser cutters that Kettinger hadn't even
been aware, were stored in the tool closet. They cut them very specifically
so that the speakers would just fit. Then they sealed the edges around the
speakers with some kind of bonding material that reg dug up. Play whatever you
can. That's loud, Kenninger said over the phone to the radio station in
Hive City. The louder and more obnoxious, the better got it. A
moment later, the sound emanating from the speakers shook the room. The bass
from the music was so intense that Kettinger thought the glass would shatter. There
were squealing and shrieking guitars and pounding drums. The singer, if you could
call them that, was screaming unintelligible words into the mic. Jesus King whispered,
yeah, our DJ has some interesting musical tastes, Kenninger shouted. Outside.
The ghules all turned their heads in unison. They stared up at the
windows and the speakers with their shrieking noise. Slowly, each of them bared
their pointed teeth. We've got their attention, Michael King said directly into Kenninger's
ear. We'd best get moving. Kennenger gave a nod postguards up here I
want someone here with weapons at all times, and that music is not to
stop. I don't know how those things would get up here, but they
might try to attack, and those holes in the windows are now weak spots.
Make sure nothing gets through. The guards that had been there to help
with the installation nodded Kennenger and King turned and left the room. Kenninger's certain
that his men would do as he had asked. Ketninger and King ran through
the halls and were at the elevators, and seconds the guards and Redge fell
in step behind them. They shot down to the lower levels and ran through
a maze of halls that Kenninger had never seen before to find the room that
would lead into the cell. Beyond the wall, it was a storage closet,
and it was filled with boxes of office supplies. They set about removing
those boxes, setting them up in the hallway. Once they had done that,
they faced off against a stone wall that looks rather intimidating. King said,
let's get started. Who has the jackhammer? Two guards stepped forward.
They looked awkward and unsure of themselves. Do we have any miners down here?
King asked. Two prisoners stepped forward from behind the row of boxes.
Give them the jackammas, King said. The guards handed the jackhammers over to
the two men. Seconds later, the room was filled with dust and deafening
noise. The wall began to crumble, but slowly. The jackhammers were ungodly
loud, and Kenegar found himself putting his hands to his ears. Outside,
the ghouls stared intently at the shrieking music and the speakers in the windows.
They swayed gently, almost in time with the beat of the music. Then
about a dozen of them peeled off away from the main pack and walked slowly
toward the administration building. Their teeth were bared, their clad hands were bent
at the knuckles, and they gazed at the windows intently, unwavering. They
stood together, as if thinking, at the base of the building for several
seconds. Then two of them dug their claws into the stone wall and began
to climb. Then four of them, then six of them. Then a
dozen of them were climbing the building like spiders. Down in the basement,
the wall crumbled, they could already see into the cell beyond the wall.
It was a small hole, maybe about the size of someone's head, but
it was a start the wall was thick. That was for sure. We'll
be through faster than I thought, King shouted to Kenninger. Yeah, but
I wonder if the music is blocking this racket. Kettinger replied, I don't
want to step away and find out. In Kettinger's office above, the guards
stepped to the window and looked down. The ghules were climbing rapidly, their
clawed fingers digging into the stone, their feet pushing them forward and upward.
In less than five minutes they were at the windows. The guards held up
their weapons and stepped away from the windows. The faces of the ghules had
rotted. Their teeth seemed longer, as if they had grown more teeth as
their flesh rotted away. One of them was a guard, and both of
the guards knew the man, had known the man. One of them was
a woman, a former nurse, and her bloody and torn scrubs and her
face nearly half eaten away. Each of them was a horror, all teeth
and gray, rotted flesh. Many of them wore horrific wounds that made them
look like shark attack victims. The music continued. It was a new song
now, but the bass and shrieking lyrics were just as loud. The climbing
creatures had paused to stare into the windows. Their eyes looked dead and black.
Some of them had white films over their eyes. They stared into the
office beyond, but if they had any recognition for the guards there, they
did not show it. Down in the basement, a huge chunk of the
wall fell down into dust and rubble. Now the hole looked big enough for
them to crawl through. King stepped forward and told them to stop with the
hammers. Then he studied the hole. It was a short crawl, but
it would be tight. Fortunately, no one used to living this far underground
was cluster fouex. Without a word, King was the first to climb through.
Reg went next, Then Kenninger followed. The other guards and prisoners came
next. There were ten of them in total. Kenninger's communicator buzzed against his
hip. He put the earpiece into his right ear. What it was,
Jenny, they've climbed the admin building. They're about ten of them and they're
right outside the window where the speakers are. Okay, stay calm, Kenninger
said. If they break through, the guards will take them down, but
get a crew up there to seal up those windows. We're through the wall
already, so we don't need the music. Okay, Jennifer said and signed
off, but Kenninger could tell that she was scared. He could only imagine
what she was seeing. We have to move, Kenninger said, We need
to get this done fast. They're outside the window of the office. I
don't think it'll be too long before they break through. King just shrugged and
looked up at the vent located in the corner of the cell. It was
cramped in the tiny room. All of them were breathing hard. King stood
up on the bed and reached up to the vent. Then he turned and
looked back behind him. Anyone got a screwdriver, he asked. There was
a tense moment when everyone looked around and it seemed like no one had a
screwdriver. Kettinger would have laughed had it not been so tragic that their adventure
would end before it could begin due to a lack of a screwdriver. Then
one of the guards produced a pocket knife that had a screwdriver in it,
and Kenninger felt relief. King got back up on the bed and soon made
quick work of the screws holding the vent cover in place. Kettinger noted how
fast he removed them, and thought that if he ever managed to get out
of this without turning into a ghoul or being devoured, they might want to
improve the structure of the cells, including the screws holding the air vent in
place. They all stared at the open vent. I guess I can go
first, Kings, but please, I have no desire to be doing this
alone, so please follow after me. He gave a cock eyed smile and
then hoisted himself up. He got his head and shoulders through the vent,
and that his legs dangled for a moment, and then they vanished too.
Kettinger hoisted himself up next. He had a moment of sheer panic at what
he was doing when the darkness of the vent enveloped him. Then he wriggled
all the way inside. He reached down and found the headlamp he had grabbed
on his way out and put in on his head. He clicked on the
light and he could see King's shoes up ahead of him. Kettenger wriggled forward,
breathing steadily, trying to hold himself together. Onward, he whispered and
wriggled forward. The two guards stood there as the ghouls stared into the office.
Both of them shifted from one foot to the next, their hands on
the triggers. What should we do, asked one, wait, said the
other. Don't shoot them unless they break in. The first one swallowed and
his throat clicked. He felt his forehead break out in a sweat, and
he wiped his hand across it. He had come so close to being chomped
in their mad run to the administration building. His heart was pounding in his
chest, and he felt close to running the terrible creature. A former guard
clung to the edge of the administration building and slowly extended one hand toward the
speaker that was still sending out ungodly noises. The hand found the edge of
the speaker. The ghule's muscles flexed. He's trying to pull that fucking thing
out of the window, said the guard on the right, sad Shawnny.
Yeah, well it was Jesus Christ. This is a fucking nightmare. You've
got that right. Then another of the ghules scrabbled across the window like a
spider. How it was clinging to the smooth glass. They could never guess,
but it was this one alls so extended a hand and placed it on
the speaker and began to pull. Then another one came up the outer wall
and then across the glass, then another, all of them pulling on the
speakers. There was nothing for a while, just the breathing of the two
guards and the pounding bass from the music. Then silently, a crack appeared
in the window. Then the sound of the glass giving way filled the interior
office. Shit, you got that right. The two guards hefted their rifles.
The speaker on the left gave way first, with a rending, screeching
terror and cracking and breaking glass. It fell outward and tumbled into the hype.
Then the speaker on the right did the same thing. The guard on
the left fired first, and the guard formerly known as Johnny's head exploded.
The guard on the right fired and the former nurse's chest erupted and blood but
she clung to the window. Then he fired again and her head burst apart
like a ripe melon. She fell backward into the void outside. The ghouls
opened their mouths and let out a horrendous, unified screech. The music had
been silenced when the speakers fell and the wires had disconnected. They all moved
as one, hundreds of them advancing toward the building, and they began to
climb like a swarm of ants up the stone side of the building. They
moved in a strange, coordinated manner, as if it were a dance.
The guards in the office aimed and fired one by one. They fell as
they tried to climb through the holes left by the speakers. However, it
was obvious that there were more of them than they had bullets, and the
two began to slowly move backwards toward the door of the office. Outside that
door were men with a large piece of metal to weld over the door.
The walls of Kenneker's office had been reinforced to make it a kind of safe
room should there have been any kind of prisoner riot, so the office would
soon become a prison for any one or anything that broke in. Just get
out of there, someone yelled from behind. Get out while we can still
weld the door shut. Both guards fired two more times and then turned to
run. They still had about ten feet from where they were to where the
doorway was behind them. There was a sickening, cracking and shattering sound,
and then the horrendous shriek that the ghules maid filled the air. The first
guard managed to make it to the door and leap through. The second,
however, stumbled as he ran, his foot catching on a leather chair leg.
His gun flew from his hand and clattered against the wall. His chin
hit the thick carpet, and he saw stars. No, he yelled as
hands grabbed his legs and he began to slide backwards. No. The office
door slammed shut, and the sounds of the guards screaming seemed to last a
very long time to those stuck on the other side. They crawled and crawled
and crawled. At some point, Kenninger was able to close his eyes and
just inch a long without having to open them. Despite the headlamp on his
forehead, it was so dark inside the ear shaft that he could barely see
King's souls ahead of him. He was breathing hard, his arms and legs
hurt from exercise that he had not given them for years. Mike Kenninger jumped.
The voice was urgent and afraid and loud in his ear. He realized
that he had not removed the earpiece before climbing in yeah, Jen, he
said. They got into the office. Kenninger felt an ice cold fist close
around his heart. Did you contain them? We have the office sealed up,
Jennifer replied, you know how that office is designed to work. We
put the metal seals over the door and have the office in lockdown. Ben,
one of the guards, didn't make it out, though Jackson did,
but not Ben. There was a hiccup in her voice. It was awful,
she finished. Okay, he replied. That might have been the first
person she actually saw get devoured. For Kettinger, it was just the latest
horror in a day so full of them that he could not remember them at
all or on the move. Keep me posted and make sure there are guards
ready at the door. Remember that Q is part of them now they have
access to his memories. I don't remember off the top of my head how
much he knows about the security systems. Roger, Jennifer replied, and then
she was gone. Sorry. Kennenger tilted his head up and looked up at
the bottom of Dalton King's shoes. Pardon, I said, I was sorry.
King repeated that you lost another of your guards. For you, I'm
sure, being all so close it's like losing a family member. On a
more practical matter, every god that either ends up devoured or in their ranks
is more inside knowledge about the hive that ends up in the collective that makes
things dangerous. In fact, pretty much makes this little mission doubly dangerous.
Did he know what the plan was? That icy hand on Kettinger's heart squeezed
harder. For a moment, he felt like he was going to pass out.
Michael, yes, Kettenger replied, yes, they knew. Damn it.
We have to move faster. I agree, King said, we have
to be well past the place where the ghouls are gathered. I say we
climb out into one of the cells and just make a run for it down
the halls. We'll be able to go much faster. Let's do it,
Kettinger replied, and then he called the new plan down the line of people
behind him. They stopped at the next event, which led into an empty
cell. With two kicks, King caved the vent into the room, where
it clattered on the floor. Then he was through in seconds, dropping to
the floor. Kettenger followed. A moment later, when they were all gathered
in the cell, Kettinger told them what had happened back at the building,
and that their entire mission was in danger. They had to run. The
silence was deafening, but all of them nodded. A second later, the
door was open, and now the silence inside the hype, which always buzzed
with some kind of noise even when things are supposed to be locked down,
was just eerie. They ran. The ghouls meandered around the office. In
front of them, the bitten and partially devoured Guard was still motionless. He
would awaken soon, changed and now part of their collective mind. The thoughts
of the hundreds of them buzzed through their minds. They wandered the office,
touching things, things that still bore some kind of familiarity despite their change.
However, the things that they touched bore no sense of emotion. They had
no emotion. They were one thought, They were one action. They had
to get out, They had to get to the surface. They needed the
one called Dalton King added to their ranks. They needed the one called Mike
Kettinger. The Guard twitched, then his eyes opened, opening to a new
world and a new way of thinking. His thoughts and memories were downloaded to
the collective mind for a moment, they all froze where they were, the
ones inside the office and the ones outside. Then the thoughts and knowledge of
their new member entered their minds like a virus downloaded to a computer. Ketdinger,
King Guards explosives. Thence they opened their mouths and let out a screech,
including their newest member. They had to stop them. The ghouls in
the office bolted for the holes in the window and hurled themselves out. They
clung upside down, scrambling down the outside of the administration building. They moved
fast and then reached the ground. They paused for a moment, and then
they moved as one. They had to get back toward the mines, their
home. They must be stopped. You've been listening to When the Night Comes
Out The Hive. Tune in next time for the Hive Part twelve. Written
by Brian w Alaspa, narrated and produced by Ali James, Music by bevek
Abishek. Catch up on the first four seasons of When the Night Comes Out
Now. Support us on Patreon for more terrifying content.