by Phil Maxey
FIONA PARKER: INMATE 37:
NAVY SEALS
RATING: WARRANT OFFICER
CONVICTED OF HOMICIDE OF SUPERIOR OFFICER 2013.
LENGTH OF SENTENCE: 25 years.
FLOOR 11/12
RESTRICTED ACCESS. ENTER LEVEL 1 CODE.
FLOOR 12/12
RESTRICTED ACCESS. ENTER LEVEL 2 CODE.”
“America’s finest,” remarked Ray.
Zach pointed to the text at the bottom. “Why are those files restricted?”
“I have no idea.”
“What about a way out?”
“When we get to the lowest hub it will be first door on the right, from there it looks like we take the service lift.”
“Sorry for interrupting, but can you get porn on that thing?” A man covered in blood was standing just outside the control room door. Slightly behind him a tall Hispanic man with a heavily tattooed left arm was standing emotionless. “I’m Michael the big guy is Cal.”
Zach and Abbey both tightened their grips on their batons.
“We know,” replied Abbey.
“Hey no need to threat. Looks like freedom came early, it’s a beautiful day…or night,” said Michael moving into control room.
“Have you seen anything… strange?” asked Zach.
“You mean apart from torn up guards and the inmates running the asylum? No can’t say I have.”
“There are things down here, not human things,” replied Zach.
“Right, okay well why…”
A loud thundering boom shook the control room. They all ducked as if being shot at. Small bits of dust fell from the ceiling and the lights flickered.
Michael spun around. “What the fuck?”
“We need to keep moving down.” Zach moved past Michael and Cal to the entrance of the stairwell.
“You all coming?”
CHAPTER SIX
The group arrived at floor nine quickly, but then slowed their descent. The scan showed a heat signature on the floor below.
“So there’s monsters in here,” remarked Michael, while slowly moving down the stairs.
“It seems so,” said Zach who was on point. The loud boom that shook the entire facility, to all their relief did not repeat.
“End of the world,” whispered Ray to Michael, who responded with a discouraging shake of the head.
Abbey descended behind Ray, conscious of the tall scary looking guy behind her. They arrived at floor ten to find another open door and complete silence. Zach stood at the entrance to the hub and looked in.
“There’s nothing here, brother, maybe they moved on,” said Michael. Zach stood his ground.
“Wait here.” Zach moved cautiously into the hub and looked into the control room. The usual upturned chairs, papers and computers but no life.
“If you don’t mind I’ll tag along.” Abbey had crept up behind Zach.
They both walked to the cell’s entrance and straight away heard breathing coming from the far cell. Raising their charge batons they walked slowly forward. Blood smeared the walls of the hallway and gathered in richness the closer they got to the cell door. Moving as slow as a cat about to end its prey they peered around the open door into the cell.
Spindly long arms, legs, hands and what looked like a torso lay scattered across the floor. And blood, lots of blood. The source of the breathing was now obvious, an athletically built woman with straggly blonde hair, kneeled, head down, facing the far wall.
Zach and Abbey looked at each other. The woman’s breathing slowed.
“You know it’s not nice to sneak up on a girl right?” Fiona remarked.
“No one’s sneaking, what happened here?” Zach replied.
“Fiona one, monster zero,” said Fiona.
“Oh man I like this chick,” said Michael who was now with the rest of the group huddled around, looking into the cell.
“We’re moving to the exit. It’s two floors down, you should come with us,” remarked Abbey.
Fiona sighed and stood up. Brushing off parts of something else, she turned around.
“Okay,” said Fiona, leaving the cell brushing past whoever was in the way.
The rest of the group followed walking back into the stairwell. As they passed the control room Ray noticed three charge batons nesting on the wall and promptly grabbed one for himself, while giving the others to Michael and Cal, he figured Fiona didn’t need one.
Fiona started walking down the stairs.
“Hold on, there’s something you need to know,” said Zach, indicating to the newer members of the group. “We saw a scan of the facility and there’s lots of heat signatures on the next two floors, we have no idea what they are.”
“Who cares,” responded Fiona shrugging off Zach’s grip and continuing to descend.
“Maybe we should go back up,” said Cal.
“Your choice but I have a feeling we are better off staying together,” said Zach while following Fiona. The rest of the group followed, except for Cal, who stood for a moment on the landing looking up the stairs, he then started to descend.
They approached the open door to floor eleven cautiously. All the lights were out in the hallway beyond.
“Do we need to go down there?” remarked Michael to Abbey.
“No.”
“That’s real good.”
The group filed past the open door and continued down to level twelve. The door was open and the hallway beyond was also filled with darkness, the difference this time was a distant moaning. The six of them stood around unsure of moving forward.
“How do we get the lights on?” remarked Ray.
“They must be broken otherwise it would have been indicated on the facility scan for these floors,” replied Abbey.
“Does anyone else hear the moaning or is it just in my head?” said Michael.
Cal smiled. “What moaning?”
“That’s not funny brother,” said Michael.
Fiona tutted and walked into the darkness.
“Wait!” Zach half whispered half shouted after her. Sighing he raised his charge baton and walked into the shadows. The rest of the group leaned forward into the gloom trying to see, when a crackling noise made them all flinch.
“Use the batons to light the way,” said Zach, standing next to Fiona ten-feet down the hallway, their faces illuminated by an intermittent blue hue. Abbey walked into the hallway followed by the rest.
As they approached the door to the hub the moaning grew louder.
“What’s the smell,” whispered Michael. “Smells like rotten fish and I know rotten fish.”
“There’s light in there,” whispered Ray. They all slowed. Even Fiona looked unsure of what was ahead.
Zach and Fiona reached the hub entrance, the door was wide open, and moaning bounced off the walls all around them. Hanging from the ceiling were people wrapped in a white wooly substance, some wearing guard uniforms some wearing orange. The ones that were moaning were gently swinging back and forth.
“What the fu…” Michael couldn’t finish his sentence before another loud boom shook the facility. Three bodies fell to the floor, one wincing on impact. Abbey ran over to the source of the sound, but stopped a foot away and started to back up. What was once a guard was now something else, something in transition, its eyes were pure white and its skin hung from bones that were slightly protruding. It writhed in front of Abbey lost in a torment she did not want to see. She turned away and looked about for the exit to the elevator.
A third boom impacted the facility this time rocking the group on their feet making them spread their arms to stop from falling. The booms were louder than before. Abbey spotted the exit to the elevator and moved towards it while beckoning the others. A few feet away from the hallway entrance she froze in her tracks. At the end, in front of the elevator was something she recognized from a newly formed nightmare. A form, part humanoid part something else with multiple limbs was waiting, looking at her. If a human had evolved along the sa
me lines as an arachnid this is what it would look like. The whole group were now standing behind in silence, some not believing what they were seeing.
“Who’s for going another way?” said Michael.
“There was one like it in the cell next to mine, although not as big,” replied Abbey.
“It looks… human in some way. Fuckers they must have been doing experiments on us,” said Michael.
“Whatever it is it’s blocking our way out,” said Zach.
“I’ve already killed one like it, and I’m not going back up,” replied Fiona starting to move forward. Zach grabbed her arm, but she shrugged him off. “Buy me dinner first.”
“We don’t know what it is, but I can guess it created all the mess in here,” said Zach, “We need to lure it out, distract it somehow, then make a run for it.”
“How pray tell do we do that?” asked Ray, looking anxious.
“Bait,” replied Fiona and stepped forward into the hallway, some twenty-feet from the creature. “Hey, you, over here,” she shouted towards the mess of limbs. The creature did not react. The rest of the group apart from Zach hurried behind the control room, peeking out towards the lift hallway. Fiona moved closer. “Hey ugly? Ov…” Before she could get the last word out there was another boom, this one so pronounced that it knocked her off her feet slamming her into the side wall. A body fell from the ceiling and landed on Michael. He jumped back, while another narrowly missed Cal.
For what could be only guessed as the creatures face turned towards Fiona. Its long limbs slowly moving from their rigid posture. Fiona lay on the ground dazed. Zach seeing her distress ran forward. “Come on, you got its attention.” Then pulled her to her feet.
The creature’s legs felt along the walls to both sides of the hallway pulling its body towards them. The rest of the group was crouching watching in silence. Zach and Fiona backed out of the hallway more slowly than they wanted, but falling was not an option. They all watched from behind the control room as the creature moved uneasily towards the door, almost as if it was learning how to walk. A sea of limbs filled the doorway then with a thrust it burst onto the floor of the hub just a few feet from Cal who froze. A long spindly limb started reaching out towards Cal’s face, who stood looking horrified. At this distance they could all see blue veins running up and down the creature’s limbs, blood flowing and tendons stretching. The creature made no noise as the spiny fingers on the end of the limb flickered and probed towards Cal.
“Hey over here!” Abbey appeared off to the side of Cal, charge baton fizzing in her hand. The creature immediately noticed and its limbs lunged for her, making Cal duck, as they swung past. Abbey jumped back while Zach and Michael started waving their crackling blue batons as well, pulling the creature towards them around the left side of the control room. Cal joined Ray who was already inside the hallway to the elevator.
“Get to the elevator.” Zach anxiously indicated to those around him, “I got this.” Abbey hesitated then turned and ran with Michael to join the others. Running up the hallway they arrived at the elevator and pushed the most obvious button. A beep noise sounded, together with a message on a small screen next to it.
“PLEASE CONFIRM IDENTITY”
“Shit!” said Michael his voice panicking. Abbey felt her neck then chest and pulled out one of the ID cards she’d earlier found. Swiping it across the screen, the elevator door started to open.
Fiona stayed behind Zach both of them slowly pulling the creature further around the control room to be positioned on the opposite side of the hub to the elevator hallway.
“Now!” Zach and Fiona ran. Zach paused to close the door while Fiona ran to the lift where the others were standing. The creature started to appear around the other side of the control room, its arms sliding along the glass of the windows.
“Damn door.” Zach pulled on the door but it refused to budge. He looked back at the creature a few yards away. “Screw it,” he said and ran for the elevator. As he entered, Abbey hit the button marked, “surface” and the elevator door started to close. At the end of the hallway the limbs of the creature started to appear. The elevator started to rise.
The biggest boom yet slammed the elevator against the steel walls housing it, its internal lights flickering. The bodies inside hit each other at the mercy of their steel cage. The elevator resisted the attempts to knock it off course and proceeded to rise up through the floors.
“Surface,” announced a female voice and the doors opened.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Dust and smoke blasted the inhabitants of the elevator. Zach staggered out onto dusty concrete, keeping low, trying to make sense of where he was. It was nighttime, but the lights above the lift entrance illuminated a deserted scene in front of them, which contained a few wooden shacks that in a previous life could have been latrines. They were in the desert and a fierce wind swirled around them forcing them to cover their eyes. They all walked forward into a large flat area. Off in the distance to the south a glow hung low in the sky hugging the horizon with a cloud of mist above it. A similar smaller glow to the north. As the wind died down they found themselves standing, hesitant to make a definite move in any direction.
“From the stars and plant life I would say we are in North America, somewhere in the Chihuahuan Desert,” said Cal, “which would make that Albuquerque and that El Paso.” He pointed to the glows north and south.
“I was right,” said Ray, looking a little lost.
“We should stick together,” said Abbey.
Fiona looked irritated.
Zach wiped his hand over his face. “Look, we don’t know what happened down there and we don’t know what’s happening out here, maybe the world ended, maybe not. Either way we should stick together until we do know.”
“It’s easier for us to be caught as a group,” replied Fiona.
“Do you see any guards or MP’s here? They obviously have something else on their minds,” replied Zach. “I say we still have a few hours of darkness until it’s going to get mighty hot around here. Let’s scope the area, find what we can then move out.” They slowly turned and walked away. Cal and Michael headed for one of the shacks, Abbey, Ray and Zach walked to another. Fiona hesitated and joined the latter group.
Zach kicked open the shack door. In the gloom they could see a small space about five by five-foot with shelves. Zach’s baton illuminated bottles of clear liquid on dusty shelves, and various pieces of farm equipment were leaning up against the far wall looking like they had been there since the great depression. Fiona saw a pickaxe and picked it up.
“Now this is something I can work with.”
Ray grabbed one of the bottles of liquid, ripping off the top and chugging it down without thought. Zach went to say something then stopped, figuring if it wasn’t water it was already too late anyway. Ray wiped away the moisture from his face and looked at everyone staring at him. Zach and Abbey grabbed the remaining bottles and they all left, pulling the door closed.
The second shack was larger and the door was already open. Michael and Cal peered in. There was a cobweb-covered battery operated lamp, which surprisingly lit when switched on. Scattered around were barrels with skulls and crossbones on them, and a few empty backpacks which they both took before leaving.
“There’s no obvious roads out of this place, I think we were all brought in by chopper, but let’s say those glows are Albuquerque and El Paso, that would put us somewhere south of White Sands. If we head west towards those mountains we should run into a town,” said Zach.
“I’d prefer to stay off the map,” replied Fiona.
“Staying off the map out here in the noon sun means dehydration and death, but that’s your choice.” Zach pointed to Cal’s lamp. “That needs to be turned off, only use it if we really need to.” Cal turned it off. “Stay close to each other.”
The sand swirled around them as they started walking across the concrete towards the intense darkness of the desert.
After
an hour of walking the wind had died down. Luckily the moon provided some indication of shape and form for the group to follow each other, and the occasional baton trigger gave a course correction when it seemed someone was veering off course.
“What was that?” said Abbey to Zach who was walking a few feet in front of her. Zach slowed and strained to absorb the silence around him. There was a noise of something but it was hardly indistinguishable from the sound of the sand being blown over the ground.
“Probably nothing.”
“I can hear something. It sounds like…galloping?”
Zach stopped and put his hand up for the group to stop as well.
“Why the fuck are we stopping?” said Michael.
“You can’t hear that?” replied Abbey. By now the group was in a small circle all trying to extend their hearing into the void around them.
“Sounds like something’s coming this way, I can’t pin down from what direction though,” said Zach. The group looked around trying to see into the gloom. “Spread out, keep low but don’t go too far.” Zach, Abbey and Ray moved behind a small dune, the others crouched behind some cacti.
Abbey pointed. “Look.” To their north a cloud of pale dust was just visible, something heavy was moving fast towards them. The ground started to shake slightly.
“Maybe a patrol? I’m not going back without a fight,” said Michael. Fiona looked sarcastically at him.
“It’s not a Humvee, no lights,” said Cal.
The dust started to have form the closer it got, eyes could be seen and a snout of sorts, large powerful legs beating down on the desert floor.
“Is just a horse, maybe we can capture it?” said Ray standing up, then running down the dune into the gloom. Abbey made a lunge to grab him but it was to no avail. The creature that had created such a dust storm changed direction and was now heading straight for Ray. The intensity of the ground shaking increased and was now a constant drumming. Twenty yards to his right the other group were gesturing to Ray to go back but he kept on walking forwards his arms stretched out in a welcoming fashion.