SUBMERGED

  THE LABYRINTH

  BOOK 2

  BRIAN KEENE

  CONTENTS

  Also by Brian Keene

  Acknowledgments

  Author’s Note

  Part I

  Storm Warnings

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Part II

  In His House At R’lyeh

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Part III

  Surfaced

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Part IV

  The Black Abyss

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  To Be Continued In…

  Appendix

  About the Author

  ALSO BY BRIAN KEENE

  Non-Series:

  Alone ~ An Occurrence in Crazy Bear Valley ~ The Cage ~ Castaways ~ The Complex ~ The Damned Highway (with Nick Mamatas) ~ Darkness on the Edge of Town ~ Dead Sea ~ Dissonant Harmonies (with Bev Vincent) ~ Entombed ~ Ghoul ~ The Girl on the Glider ~ Island of the Dead ~ Jack’s Magic Beans ~ Kill Whitey ~ Monsters of Saipan (with Weston Ochse) ~ Nemesai (with John Urbancik) ~ Pressure ~ School’s Out ~ Scratch ~ Shades (with Geoff Cooper) ~ Silverwood: The Door (with Richard Chizmar, Stephen Kozeniewski, Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason) ~ Sixty-Five Stirrup Iron Road (with Edward Lee, Jack Ketchum, J.F. Gonzalez, Bryan Smith, Wrath James White, Nate Southard, Ryan Harding, and Shane McKenzie) ~ Take the Long Way Home ~ Tequila’s Sunrise ~ Terminal ~ Thor: Metal Gods (with Aaron Stewart-Ahn, Yoon Ha Lee and Jay Edidin) ~ White Fire ~ With Teeth

  The Rising Series:

  The Rising ~ City of the Dead ~ The Rising: Selected Scenes From the End of the World ~ The Rising: Deliverance ~ The Fall (forthcoming)

  The Earthworm Gods Series:

  Earthworm Gods (also published as The Conqueror Worms) ~ Earthworm Gods II: Deluge ~ Earthworm Gods: Selected Scenes From the End of the World

  The Levi Stoltzfus Series:

  Dark Hollow (also published as The Rutting Season) ~ Ghost Walk ~ A Gathering of Crows ~ Last of the Albatwitches ~ Invisible Monsters

  The Labyrinth Series:

  The Seven ~ Submerged ~ Splintered (forthcoming)

  The Clickers Series (with J.F. Gonzalez):

  Clickers II ~ Clickers III ~ Clickers vs. Zombies

  The Lost Level Series:

  The Lost Level ~ Return To the Lost Level ~ Hole In the World ~ Beneath the Lost Level

  The Rogan Series (with Steven L. Shrewsbury):

  King of the Bastards ~ Throne of the Bastards ~ Curse of the Bastards

  The Gothic Series:

  Urban Gothic ~ Suburban Gothic (with Bryan Smith)

  Non-Fiction:

  End of the Road ~ The Triangle of Belief ~ Trigger Warnings ~ Unsafe Spaces ~ Other Words ~ Sundancing ~ Sympathy For the Devil ~ Running With the Devil ~ The New Fear ~ Leader of the Banned

  Story Collections:

  Blood on the Page ~ All Dark, All the Time ~ Love Letters From A Nihilist ~ Where We Live and Die ~ A Little Silver Book of Streetwise Stories ~ 4X4 (with Geoff Cooper, Michael Oliveri, and Michael T. Huyck Jr.) ~ No Rest For The Wicked ~ No Rest At All ~ Fear of Gravity ~ Unhappy Endings ~ A Conspiracy of One ~ The Cruelty of Autumn ~ Good Things For Bad People ~ A Little Sorrowed Talk ~ Stories For the Next Pandemic ~ Things Left Behind (with Mary SanGiovanni)

  Graphic Novels:

  The Last Zombie: Dead New World ~ The Last Zombie: Inferno ~ The Last Zombie: Neverland ~ The Last Zombie: Before the After ~ The Last Zombie: The End ~ Dead of Night: Devil-Slayer ~ He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Origins of Eternia ~ A Very DC Halloween ~ DC House of Horror ~ Gwendy’s Button Box (forthcoming) ~ The Fallen (forthcoming)

  Miscellany:

  A Field Guide To the Thirteen (with Mark Sylva) ~ Apocrypha ~ Liber Nigrum Scientia Secreta (with J.F. Gonzalez) ~ Terminal: The Play (with Roy C. Booth)

  Omnibuses:

  LeHorn’s Hollow ~ The Last Zombie

  As Editor:

  Clickers Forever: A Tribute to J.F. Gonzalez ~ The Drive-In: Multiplex (with Joe R. Lansdale and Christopher Golden) ~ The Best of Horrorfind ~ The Best of Horrorfind II ~ Operation Ice Bat ~ In Delirium ~ New Dark Visions 2 ~ New Dawn ~ The Daughters of Inanna ~ Jobs In Hell

  This one is for H Michael Casper and Paul Goblirsch, here on this level.

  And for Chris Hansen, in whatever level he is currently residing.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to all the readers who supported this creation monthly on Patreon; pre-readers Mark Sylva, Tod Clark, and Stephen McDornell; Ben Baldwin; Joshua Saxon; Robert Swartwood; Kealan Patrick Burke and Elderlemon Design; Paul Goblirsch, Leigh Haig, Kyle Lybeck and Thunderstorm Books; David Niall Wilson, David Dodd, and Crossroad Press; Cassandra Burnham; Mary SanGiovanni; and my sons.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Submerged: The Labyrinth, Book 2 is a sequel to a novel called The Seven: The Labyrinth, Book 1. It is strongly suggested you read the first novel before reading this one. Backstory will be filled in where appropriate, but not at the expense of pacing or plot. If you have not read the first book and are forging ahead with this one anyway, then you’re basically watching The Empire Strikes Back without having seen Star Wars.

  PART I

  STORM WARNINGS

  1

  S arah dreamed that she was back on the boat again. Locke’s Ark—the boat from the other world.

  Her world.

  Like before, they were under assault by Leviathan and his hordes. Starfish men, flying carnivorous fish, octopus-headed humanoids, squid things, beings that looked like intelligent upright Komodo dragons, vampiric sirens, and a bestiary of other horrors swamped the vessel. In the dream, both Mylon and Captain Novak died all over again. In Sarah’s world, Novak had been ripped from the ocean by one of Leviathan’s tentacles—an obscene appendage that was equipped with hundreds of puckered, tooth-lined maws. This time, in the dream, the captain died at Sarah’s hand, after she shot him in the chest with a spear gun.

  Just like she had in reality, the dream version of Sarah jumped overboard, into the roiling water, paddling alongside Gail and Henry, heeding Simon’s telepathic message. On their world, Simon had been urgent and adamant. In her dream, he sounded almost bored, as if he’d sacrificed himself thousands of times before. One thing that stayed the same, however, was his warning.

  The important thing, Simon said, is that you do not fight the current. Let it sweep you along. If you fight, you could end up somewhere else. The Lost Level, or a different realm than the one I’m sending you to. Or simply wandering the Labyrinth.

  Like they had in the real world—the other world—Sarah, Gail and Henry held on to one another, arms around their shoulders, and kicked their legs to stay afloat. The churning ocean current grew stronger, sweeping them toward the center of the vortex.

  “Look!” Henry pointed at the whirlpool.

  Sarah and Gail turned back to the vortex. A light blazed inside of it, and there, in the center of the light, they saw a beautiful, brilliantly blue sky with white, cotton-ball clouds floating in it. Below the clouds was a line of lush green treetops. It was then that Sarah realized what the source of the light was.

  “It’s the sun,” she said, just like she had the last time. She squeezed Gail and Henry’s shoulders. “That light…it’s been so long since we’ve seen sunlight. I’d forgotten…”

  The current swept them forward faster and faster, making them dizzy. Sarah considered closing her eyes to ward off the vertigo, but instead, she continued staring into the sun. Behind them, squid-headed Leviathan—the mountain that walked—raised both massive fists and brought them down, smashing the ship into splinters. Lightning split the sky, striking the ocean’s roiling surface in a dozen locations. The whirlpool increased. Leviathan roared again, and Sarah felt the pressure not only in her ears, but on her eyeballs and against her lungs, as well.

  “Hang on,” Gail yelled. “Oh God…the current!”

  “We’re going to be okay.” Sarah did her best to reassure them. “Just stick together and don’t let go.”

  The vortex swept them toward its center. Leviathan, the horde of creatures, and even the ever-present rain seemed to fade into the background. Henry stared, blinking as the sun grew nearer and brighter.

  “What happens next?” he asked.

  “We start over,” Sarah said. “We get to start over in a world that’s still alive—a world where our loved ones are still alive.”

  She smiled, thinking of Kevin, Teddy, Carl and all of the others she’d lost along the way. She imagined finding them in this new reality. How would they react upon seeing her and what would they say? Would they even know who she was in this world? Sarah decided that it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she’d see them again. All that mattered was she’d escaped. She was alive. When she looked up at
Henry, the teen was smiling, too. So was Gail, as the sun in the center of the ocean dried the tears on her face.

  Together, they sailed over the edge of the world.

  SARAH WOKE up in that new world, a world she still didn’t think of as hers, and the only wetness she felt were the tears on her cheeks and pillow. The bed creaked. The remnants of the dream dissipated. Sighing, Sarah flipped the covers back and sat up, shivering despite the heat.

  “Fuck me,” she muttered. “I really didn’t need that today.”

  The worst part of the nightmare was the hope she’d felt at the end. It was a hope she’d desperately clung to upon their arrival here in this new world—and a hope that had since begun to fade in the two months they’d spent living here.

  Traveling to an alternate reality where all of the people you cared about were still alive sounded wonderful, in theory. In practice, however, it had been a heartbreaking experience.

  The vortex had deposited the three of them in this Earth’s ocean, somewhere off the coast of Indonesia. They’d been rescued by a fishing vessel, and brought to a small town named Pembaruan. They’d learned later that the town’s name meant renewal, but for them, it represented anything but that. The local authorities had asked lots of questions, but Sarah and the others had no good answers.

  Then, Henry had attempted to call home, in the hopes that his parents could help them. Instead, he’d ended up talking to an alternate reality version of himself, who eventually hung up on him, thinking it was all a practical joke. When Henry tried calling again, his alternate reality father answered, and threatened to involve the police if the harassment continued.

  Gail and Sarah’s attempts to reach out to loved ones had been met with equal difficulty and heartache.

  Eventually, they were released. They got a ride to Kuta, a busy beach town with surfing and a raucous nightlife. Having no money, and no one to help them, Sarah got a job waitressing at a bar where expatriates liked to gather. The trio secured a small one-bedroom apartment above the establishment. Henry slept on the sofa, and Sarah and Gail shared the bed. Henry found employment on the docks, gutting and cleaning fish. It was hard, messy work and he came home exhausted every evening. Gail had mostly stayed inside all day and cried a lot...until two weeks ago, when she’d abruptly left. Her note explained that she was going to find a way back to their world—their Earth—and that Sarah and Henry shouldn’t come look for her. They’d disregarded this request, of course, and had spent days searching for their friend, but Gail had truly disappeared.

  It was bizarre—being on a different Earth. Just the idea that something like a different Earth existed was strange enough, but to actually reside on it? There were moments when it made Sarah want to curl into a ball and hide. So, she understood how Gail felt. In Sarah’s opinion, it was the little differences that were the worst—small subtle changes that reminded them they were living in a slightly askew mirror reality. On their Earth, actors Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock had starred in the movie Speed. Here, it was Keanu Reeves and Julianne Moore. On their Earth, the city of Hong Kong was a special administrative region of China. On this Earth, Hong Kong and the entire Pearl River Delta were their own independent state. There was a weekly trivia night at the bar where Sarah worked, and it was popular among the expatriates. Each time the game was played, Sarah was always surprised by some of the answers. They were wrong to her, but right to the crowd and the emcee.

  She caught a flash of light, outside the bedroom window, but by the time she turned her head to look, it was gone. Heat lightning, she supposed. It was still too dark outside to tell if it was something more, like impending rain. She tamped down the anxiety she felt building within her, reminding herself that here, on this world, rain and thunder and lightning were just rain and thunder and lightning, rather than portents of the end of the world.

  Sighing again, Sarah got out of bed and shuffled barefoot into the living room. She caught herself listening for the drip of water. It was something she did a lot. She knew that it was part of her anxiety, but she couldn’t seem to stop. The first time it had rained after their arrival in this new reality, she, Henry and Gail had all admitted to possessing a considerable amount of post-traumatic stress disorder connected to the weather. For Sarah, it hadn’t lessened any during her time here.

  Henry snored softly on the threadbare couch. The apartment had come with furnishings aplenty, but all of them looked like they dated back to the Seventies. The teen still stank of fish. Sarah made a mental note to remind him again about showering when he got home from the docks. The boy had been letting his hygiene go. Probably another symptom of his steadily worsening depression. While Sarah was sympathetic to the illness, they also had to live together. Henry had lost everyone he ever cared about, and the duplicate versions of them on this world wanted nothing to do with him. She couldn’t just abandon him, but neither did she relish smelling fish guts for the next year just because he was too depressed to clean up.

  She turned toward the kitchenette, intent on making coffee, and thought of Teddy Garnett, and that last cup of coffee they’d shared in his home, after the helicopter crash. Tears welled up in her eyes again. Sarah had tried contacting this world’s version of Teddy Garnett. He wouldn’t know her, she was sure of it. But she’d tried anyway. Unfortunately, when she spoke to his daughter, Sarah had learned that this alternate reality version of Teddy had passed away some four years before. Died in his sleep, surrounded by those who loved him.

  Sarah blinked the tears away and took a step toward the kitchenette when a light flashed across the wall. It had come from behind her. This was different than the lightning she’d noticed a few minutes ago. For a moment, she was reminded of the light from her dream. This had seemed just as bright. She turned toward the open bedroom door, and heard muffled voices inside. Heart racing, Sarah dropped into a half crouch and balled her fists. She thought about waking Henry, but was worried he might cry out and alert the intruders. How had they gotten inside? She’d just left the bedroom moments before, and she was certain that the window was closed and locked.

  The voices grew louder. There were several men, and at least one woman, judging by the sound. She could only make out one word—Lucifer.

  Great, Sarah thought. I escape devil worshippers on one Earth only to have them breaking into my apartment here on another.

  She grabbed a table lamp without a shade, unplugged it from the wall, and hefted the appliance like a club. Slowly, she crept toward the bedroom. The voices grew more distinct.

  “First, we need to figure out where we are.”

  “And when we are.”

  “That’s a time travel sort of thing to say, isn’t it? Did we do that?”

  “You’re all wrong. I reckon the first thing we need to do is find a bathroom. This interdimensional travel stuff makes my stomach sick.”