Even though Bob’s reckless march straight through the tunnel walls wasn’t the smartest move in the world, it did provide a convenient path to finally access the hive.

  As we carefully moved through the impromptu route, I was surprised to find that none of the tunnels had collapsed. The antithesis hadn’t coated their tunnels with their special polymer, like they had out in Jasper, but it looked like they’d spent a lot of time compressing the soil in the walls, creating a hard shell around the tunnels. That’s probably why they managed to stay intact, despite that walking catastrophe smashing his way through.

  Even though this shell protected the tunnels, it didn’t do anything for the integrity of the area between the walls. These intermediary areas were full of loose dirt and rock, which seemed primed to collapse at any moment. Most of these sections were narrow, only a foot or so across, but some were so unstable they looked like they could collapse at any moment. In the end we decided to purchase a quick-drying structural foam sprayer to reinforce these sections before we passed through.

  It slowed down our progress, but it was better than being buried alive.

  “Huh… not exactly what I was expecting,” Amy muttered as we stepped through the final hole and into the hive itself.

  Instead of a single large root structure, or even several small interlocking structures, the entire cavern was filled with a thick bed of grasses and wildflowers. The mass had completely taken over the space, not just coating the cavern floor but growing up the walls and even across the ceiling too. Although some of them were pretty, in a strange and alien way, many of them were large and misshapen. The entire ‘garden’ had formed around a pool, which might have been a natural pool at one time but was now overgrown with roots and filled with an acrid, bubbling chemical soup.

  “Double-check your armor’s environmental seals,” Nora ordered as soon as she saw the room.

  “Why? Did you see something?” I asked quietly as I surveyed the room.

  She turned and gave me a strange look. “Yeah, a room full of Antithesis flowers. Normal flowers create nectar to attract insects and spread pollen into the air. I’m not sure what the Antithesis versions do, but I doubt they’re as harmless as they appear.”

  “They don’t even look that harmless,” Amy grumbled. “I think some of them are even turning to follow us.”

  “Well, since the Antithesis are always looking for ways to collect biomass, do you think this hive was created to attract and devour insects?” I asked.

  “This far down? I doubt it. If they wanted to do that, it would be better to do it closer to the surface,” Nora replied thoughtfully. “But there are still insects this deep, so who knows?”

  After quickly double-checking my helmet, I stepped into the cavern. Bob appeared to be hovering over a couple of cocooned forms near the pool, so I slowly made my way towards him.

  The further we ventured into the area, the more unsettling it became. There was a low-frequency hum coming from some of the more delicate flowers, and the largest blossoms, black and purple monstrosities stretching two feet wide, turned to follow us wherever we went.

  “Where the fuck are the antithesis?” I hissed. “I expected there to be an entire horde waiting for us here, but I don’t even see any birthing pods. There’s not even any Model Thirteens.”

  “Do I even want to know what a Model Thirteen is?” Amy asked hesitantly.

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  “Hive guardians. So powerful that they can only survive a couple hours after they’ve been activated. They kind of look like three six-foot tall squids, all attached together at the top, so they’re kind of hard to miss,” I explained.

  “Lovely,” she whispered.

  We got about twenty feet into the field when things changed. The carpet of flowers began to dance and sway, as if moved by some invisible breeze, and some parts of the green carpet began to bulge.

  “That’s not good,” I muttered.

  Dozens of massive leafy maws erupted from underneath the foliage. The closest toothy maw snapped forward so fast I barely had time to pull back before it closed upon my upper torso.

  I threw myself to the ground, emptying the B3 into the underside of the creature’s head. Despite penetrating the leafy exterior, the bullets only appeared to be superficial damage. So I backpedaled as fast as I could, trying to get out of range.

  As fast as I was, the plant was faster, snapping down in a blur. I shoved the rifle into its mouth, using it as an impromptu brace to keep the mouth from snapping down on my face.

  It worked, for a few seconds anyway. The mouth pulled back and clamped down on the rifle with extreme force. The weapon squealed as its metal frame bent and finally broke, allowing the oversized maw to spit out the pieces.

  “Give me a fucking break,” I growled as it barreled down upon me again.

  Just as it was about to strike, something grabbed the back of my collar and yanked me away. I twisted around just enough to see Amy to my left as the two of us were pulled back towards the entrance.

  “Guess that’s why there aren’t any antithesis around here,” Nora hissed as she dropped Amy and me. “What the fuck is that?”

  I scrambled to my feet and stared at the garden. Once the snapping jaws realized they couldn’t reach us, they slowly retracted back under the carpet of flowers, lying flat so you could barely tell they were even there.

  “Some sort of Model Thirteen?” I suggested. “One that’s less mobile but just as dangerous to intruders?”

  “Maybe. This hive does seem to prefer ambushes to straight up fights,” Nora agreed.

  “Why aren’t they attacking Bob?” Amy grumbled.

  I glanced at the Big bear, who was staring at us in disbelief.

  “Fuck knows. Maybe they’re attracted to heat, or maybe they don’t attack the Model Fours. He’s still covered in vines. Either way, I’m not stepping back in there without a plan,” I growled.

  As I picked myself up, I glowered at the oversized patch of vegetation. “You know what? Let’s just not go back there at all. Bob! Bring everyone here!” I yelled at the distant bear.

  “What are you scheming?” Nora asked suspiciously.

  “I'm not scheming anything, I’m planning,” I replied indignantly. “Since this hive can fight back no matter where we are inside of it, I plan on never going back there. Why fight fair when you can fight smart?”

  “Because that’s very unlike you. Ninety percent of your plans involve using excessive physical force,” Nora said.

  “Well, I normally have an army of bears to back me up,” I growled. “So I’m a little short on the excessive force. All I have right now are my feral instincts and endless spite.”

  “You also have us,” Amy added hopefully.

  “That’s true,” I replied lightly, “but I don’t think having anyone risk their lives going back in there is a smart idea. Since the only reason we haven’t burned this entire place to the ground is the hostages, all we have to do is remove the hostages from the equation.”

  “Here you go, boss, one samurai and three bots!” Bob declared as he trudged out of the flowers. The big bear was carrying one large human-sized form over his shoulder and dragging the three smaller ones behind him. I couldn’t tell who it was that had been captured, The vines were way too thick. I could only hope they were still alive under all that vegetation.

  “See hostages handled. Now? Fire,” I declared.

  “Probably not a good idea in this enclosed space; not only will the smoke build up, but the carbon monoxide will flood the caverns,” Amy declared.

  I turned to look at the younger girl. “What? We had to take regular health and fire safety courses at the theatre,” she explained.

  “Too bad not locking people out of shelters wasn’t in the course,” I muttered, earning a smack on the back of the head from Nora.

  “That was a little rude, even for you,” she hissed.

  “Sorry! I guess almost getting chomped by an oversized flower put me in a bad mood,” I grumbled. “If fire won’t work, nanites?”

  “You think flesh melters would even work here?” Nora asked.

  “Only one way to find out… Nyx, a box of flesh melters, please!” I yelled at a random bear.

  As soon as the protector box appeared at my feet, I popped it open and grabbed the nearest grenade. Since the first one was just a test, I really didn’t care where it landed, so I aimed directly for where the maw tried to bite me.

  The vicious blob of grey goo wasted no time digging into the vegetation. Within seconds the surrounding flowers had been cleared, and after a couple of moments the maw shot upwards, thrashing about for several seconds until the nanites managed to sever its stem. Even detached from the main body, the mouth still bounced around, biting randomly until the nanites finally consumed it.

  After about a minute, the nanites slowly burned out. They were slow but effective, leaving a large patch of clear ground where it landed. Pleased by the results, I grabbed another handful of grenades.

  “Come on, everyone,” I chuckled. “Time to do some gardening.”

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