Chronicles of the Apocalyse: Condemnation (2016)

Chapter 21: Hive

In the throne room of the Hive, the Condemned Queen is sitting on her throne as Scorcher approaches her and bows to her.

Scorcher: (in Condemned language) My queen. We have intruders near the prison camps.

Condemned Queen: Double up the drones and sergeants. Search for them and kill them.

Meanwhile, Kyle and Jake continue travelling further into the Shallows.

Kyle: Jake, you okay?

Jake: I'm holding out...living...bout all I can do, right?...she didn't want me to join the A.O.W....she said I could've worked in her hometown as a blacksmith...make some good money.....we could've started over there....tried again.

Kyle: You did your best, man. Hell; she knows that you did. You bled to try to find her.

Jake: should've bled more...should've given more time into looking for her.....It never ends. We lose people we love the most....whenever you're close to dying, God just spits you back out into hell....Mom...Dad...Keera...they're the holy ones that get into heaven.

Kyle: Jake, you're alive for a reason, man. You're here for a reason. People are scared back at home...and not just home, but everywhere....feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to make it better.....it won't bring her back.

Jake: "Sorry for myself"? The hell do you know, Kyle? You've never had to kill anyone you cared about.

Kyle: Oh, yeah? I don't, huh? What if I'm not being honest with myself?......or to my wife? or to Shawn?....James?....and Walter knew the truth before he died.....what if I knew why Barnes was pushing me? What if I told everyone that he killed Sarah's brother, Nathan? But instead, what if the truth was, that he didn't....what if the truth was that Nathan was going insane....that he blamed me for everything including his girlfriends' death....and what if he had tried to kill me....and what if he killed Billy...was going to kill Ashley....so I had to kill him...and what if instead of telling the truth, I thought I would make it easy on myself by telling everyone that Barnes killed Nathan that the only ones who know what really happened were me and Ashley?

Jake is appalled and disgusted with Kyle.

Jake: Sarah doesn't know, does she?

Kyle looks down, ashamed.

Jake: God, man! What the f-what the fuck is wrong with you?! You killed your wife's' brother and you don't even have the balls to face her?! To tell her what really happened?!

Kyle: How the fuck can I, Jake?! What would you do if you were me?!

Jake: I don't know! Just fucking say it....you heard her...you heard what she said to Barnes...she wants to kill him, because she thinks that he killed her brother..... If we live through this, you need to come clean with her.....Dad would be so ashamed of you.

Kyle: Fuck you, all right? I had my goddamned reasons. Just like you had yours with Keera...Look, we don't have time for this shit. We gotta go.

Kyle and Jake walk through a set of doors and look ahead towards a giant Wasp Hive like castle in the center below a ocean of radioactive fluid.

Kyle: The Hive.

Jake: so where do we find the Queen?

Kyle: I'd bet on the tower in the middle and if you're a queen, you're going to live in a palace.

Jake: So when do we activate the beacon?

Kyle: We gotta get in deeper. We have to make sure none of the A.O.W lifts land in the radioactive fluid. C'mon. Let's make our way towards the palace.