by C A Bird
She turned to Mark. “We can search the top floor first and then work our way down toward the exit.”
“Okay,” he said. “Unless the creatures have found their way out of the caves it should be safe enough to split up. You check the infirmary side and I’ll take the cafeteria side and check the Crow’s Nest.”
“Ok, I’ll meet you at the second level dining room.” She ran off shouting for Ashley and Kevin.
Mark ran through the eastern portion of the top floor shouting for the children. He found no signs of them. After making his way through the other hallways he climbed to the Crow’s Nest to find Micah, Will and Darryl still there.
“What are you guys doing? You need to evacuate now!”
“How bad is the flood?” Will asked.
“About knee deep, but it’s rising. The creatures are in the farm cave but it’s probably only a matter of time until they figure out how to enter the shelter. There’s nothing more you can do here! Are the sensors still working?” Still carrying his weapon he walked around the room checking the gauges.
“Some. We’re trying to contact the outside, let them know what happened or find out what their status is. It will be even more important if we’re forced outside.”
“Will, there’s no ‘if’ about it. The power plant’s gone, the place is flooded and there are some serious bad guys loose in the shelter.” He crossed the room and took Will’s arm. “Please, you need to come now!” He tugged Will toward the exit. “I have to get back. Kevin, Ashley and Jeremy are missing. Lori’s searching the top floor and we need to work our way down until we find them. We have to locate them before the monsters do! Come on!”
Will looked at Micah who shook his head. “Not getting anything, Boss.”
“The power’s failing! Water’s reached the emergency gennie!” said Darryl from his position at the computer. “Communications won’t work much longer anyway. I say we vamoose!” As he spoke, the computer screen went blank and the sensor displays and monitors began to wink out one by one around the room. The lights dimmed to a ghostly illumination.
“Oh man, come on, let’s get going!” Mark threw open the door and the four men ran down the stairs. They reached the alcove with Darryl in the lead. The elevator, of course, was dead.
“Wait a second. I need more ammo!” Mark veered into the vault and slung a bandolier full of shells for the shotgun over his shoulder. When he reentered the alcove Darryl and Will were entering the staircase, Micah holding the door for him. Just as he followed Will into the stairwell the shelter bucked, throwing all of them to the floor. Micah fell backwards, the door slamming in his face. Darryl fell down the stairs with Will teetering above, trying to maintain his balance. Mark instinctively reached out grasping Will’s shirt but couldn’t prevent him from following Darryl. The quake continued to rumble, as part of the ceiling gave way.
Rocks and metal caved in all around Mark. Through it all he managed to maintain his grip on the weapon but Will had fallen back down the stairs. The stairwell above and behind him filled with debris and he scurried lower to avoid being crushed as the choking dust filled the confined space. The shaking slowly ceased and Mark detected light behind him where Micah had managed to get the door open.
“Whoa, Boss! Looks like I’m not getting out that way!”
“Come on, Micah! We’ll clear it!” Mark started desperately trying to move rocks aside.
“Don’t worry! You get going. I’m taking the emergency escape route.” He reached through the small opening and Mark reached up to grasp his hand. He held it for a second, then Micah pulled it back. “I’ll see you in the valley Boss. I’m a great rock climber.”
And he was gone.
Mark descended the stairs dangerously fast, skirting and climbing over pieces of metal and rocks and dirt, around a support beam that had fallen, coughing as he inhaled the thick dust and listening intently for evidence of Will and Darryl. He was almost to the bottom when, unable to see in the dark, he tripped over something, going down hard and knocking his breath out. He lost the shotgun. It was a body!
“Will! Oh no, Will!” He felt for him in the dark, found him and pulled him close. Will was unconscious. Mark could feel something warm, wet, and sticky. The metallic smell of blood almost sickened him.
“Mark! Down here!” Darryl called from the bottom of the stairwell. I got the door open!”
“No! Darryl, come here. Will’s hurt!” He heard someone hurriedly ascending the stairs and then felt hands reaching for them. Mark felt for the weapon, slinging the strap over his shoulder.
Together they lifted Will and managed to get him down to the first level where, in the dim light, they could assess his injuries. Mark could see blood on Darryl’s clothing also.
“Are you hurt?”
“I fell part way down the stairs and cut myself on some metal, but I’m okay. How badly do you think Will’s hurt?”
“I can’t tell. Oh God!” He pulled his hand back quickly. He was feeling Will’s skull for the source of the blood when he felt the side of his head sink inward. “Oh shit! Wait here!”
He ran around the corner into the deserted infirmary, grabbed a rolled up military field stretcher and returned at full speed.
“Help me get him on the stretcher! Come on, Dr. Jim and Aaron should be in the exit cave!” They tilted him on to it, each man picked up one end and they labored down the hall to the corner stairwell, descending to the hallway by the entrance to the power plant.
“Hey! Come here!” Mark recruited two men wading through the water toward the escape tunnel. “Will’s hurt bad! We need help transporting him.”
“Mark.” A faint whisper came from the figure on the stretcher.
“Will!” He handed his end of the stretcher to one of the men and leaped to Will’s side. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you to the doctor. Hang on, Will, please.”
With great effort he whispered to Mark, “Did you find the children?”
“No, and I haven’t seen Lori. We’re on the lower level, and you’re almost to the exit. You’re going to be fine.” They were still moving through the water.
Just then, they heard a scream farther back toward the shops, then another, several people screaming in mortal fear.
“Come on guys, faster!” They reached the back door and Mark looked back down the tunnel. Unless she’d found them immediately after he left her, Lori and the children were still in the shelter. And so were the creatures!
“Mark,” Will called out hoarsely, “Find them. I’ll be alright. Go!”
Mark took his hand, and squeezed it gently. He reached up caressed the older man’s face. “I’ll see you at the cave, Will.”
May 8, 7:30 a.m.
In completing her search of the top floor Lori ran into stragglers still evacuating. The Thompsons, including Jerry, had left some time ago, wheeling Sandi on a gurney, and Greg Whitehorse and Brian Morrison were helping injured earthquake victims make their way to the back stairwell. Dr. Jim and Carmen had gone with the first wave of injured. Lori saw Ron and Jean half carrying a woman with a blood soaked towel around her head.
She hailed them, “Ron, If Jerry and Barbara Thompson are in the exit cave and they don’t have Jeremy and my kids with them, don’t let them leave! They will want to come back and search but Mark and I will find the children. It’s very important that no one come back into the shelter once they’ve left. The creatures may break in here at any time and we may lose track of who’s safe and who isn’t. Do you understand?”
“Yeah,” Ron told her. “We won’t let them leave, Lori. I promise.”
By the time Lori finished looking through the top level there was no one else around. She completed her search of the top floor and descended a staircase to the residential level, coming out by the dining room. She didn’t see Mark anywhere in her travels although he was supposed to meet her here. This level was approximately twice the size of the top floor and was going to take longer to search. Mark would just have to find her as she didn’t
want to delay locating the kids. She ran through almost completely dark corridors, barely illuminated by the faint reddish glow, yelling for Ashley and Kevin.
Entering her damaged apartment, she checked it thoroughly, even in the closet, thinking they might be frightened and hiding. She had to climb over portions of the fallen ceiling and looked in the shadows beneath. Rushing back into the corridor, she ran past the central elevator with the doors stuck partially open, revealing the empty shaft. Just as she glanced down the shaft she heard a scream echoing upward from the level below. Her heart leaped, but it was the voice of an adult.
The monsters must be in the shelter!
She met several people coming from the dining room. “What are you waiting for? You need to evacuate the shelter, Now!”
“We needed to get some breakfast. We may have to stay in that damn cave for a long time.” It was the Richenours and their friends, Bernie and Joyce Palmer. Vernon gazed with disapproval at the Uzi.
“You’re idiots!” she screamed at them. “The bottom floor is flooded and the monsters are loose in the shelter. If you don’t get out of here right now, you’ll BE breakfast!”
Mrs. Richenour turned ghostly white, suddenly realizing the precariousness of their situation. “Vernon, please, let’s go!”
“Don’t worry, dear, she’s being an alarmist. Come along.” They turned toward the stairwell next to the dining room.
“You’d better stay on this floor to the southwest stairwell. It’s closer to the exit tunnel,” she warned them. “The creatures are in the farm cave.”
Ignoring her warning, Vernon took his wife’s arm and pulled her into the stairwell, the one that descended to the hallway outside the farm cave. The others followed them.
Lori shook her head and continued her search of the second floor. When convinced the children weren’t there she descended to the lower level using the rear staircase she tried to convince Richenour to use. She barely missed Mark, as he had gone the other direction. She hesitated momentarily at the door that opened into the escape tunnel, but instead turned east until she came to the north-south corridor. She knew in her heart her children were still in the shelter.
Holding the Uzi in front of her she waded through the current toward the machine shops, the water now reaching to her mid-thigh. She passed through an intersection with a cross-corridor when she heard something, a large body, splashing through the water in that other corridor, coming in her direction. She increased her speed trying to reach the corner ahead when the creature suddenly let out a triumphant scream. She looked back as it bore down on her, slowed only slightly by the water that came up to its calves. She swung around and opened fire!
The Uzi kicked, spraying bullets toward the bellowing creature. It stopped, looking down at its chest as multiple bullets tore into it. Even in the near darkness she could see blood and bits of flesh flying. It dropped to its knees, and as she stopped firing the creature toppled face first into the swirling water.
“Yes!” She yelled “One down!” she moved quickly forward, aware the noise would have attracted the others. She reached and rounded the far corner.
“Oh damn!” Several monsters were approaching. She could see massive reptilian shapes looming in the ruddy glow, their backs shaped like an “S” as they hunched forward, quickly moving toward her. She could flee but knew they would get her in the next hallway. Her only choice was to run toward them and try and beat them to the door of the machine shop. She didn’t hesitate - whooping at the top of her lungs, and firing wildly, she sprinted straight at them hoping to confuse them for the second she needed to pull the door lever and duck into the shop.
In an instant she knew she wasn’t going to make it.
She was so close! But the lead creature was now opposite the door. Just as she came to a sudden halt, completely uncertain of her next move a booming sound filled the corridor, shots from a very large caliber rifle reverberating in the hallway zinging by her ear.
“Blam!” The lead creature fell back. “That’s for Lenny, you Son-of-a-bitch!”
“Blam,” he fired again, and the monster dropped into the water. “Take that you fucker!” The others, momentarily disoriented moved back a few steps.
David pulled the trigger again. …And the weapon jammed.
Lori came out of her stupor and jerked the manual lever, glancing at the monsters coming at her as the door seemed to open in slow motion.
“Come on, come on, come on!” she chanted under her breath. She glanced back at David, flashed a thumb’s up signal and saw him disappear back around the corner. The second the opening was wide enough she scraped through into the shop. She whirled back to the door and jumped back as hairy hands grabbed the inside edges of the door above her head, preventing its closure.
She looked into the eyes of death. “Get back you bastard!” she shoved the muzzle of the Uzi toward its face, pulled the trigger, and blasted it out of the crack, allowing the door to close. She turned and fell back against the door, her knees wobbling, and taking in great gulps of air. She was shaking in reaction to her mad dash directly into their faces. They were banging furiously on the door. She swung around wildly wondering if they knew how to use the lever.
She quickly crossed through the shop, sloshing through the flood, discarding her spent magazine as she ran and slamming home the one stuck in her belt. She reached the door that opened onto the cross-corridor and pulled the lever. Nothing happened.
May 8, 7:40 a.m.
Mark waded through the knee deep water around the corner into the east hallway. The emergency lights barely illuminated the corridor. He stopped dead in his tracks, his heart rate accelerating, as memories of a nightmare from a lifetime ago washed over him, paralyzing him with dread. In that instant he was back in the nightmare, all the emotions and feelings washed over him, and he realized who the people in the dream were, the people he cared for but couldn’t quite place. It was suddenly so clear. Lori and the children.
With sudden comprehension he knew what he felt all these years for Chris Hargraves wasn’t love; he loved her like a sister. But Lori, he loved with a fierceness he never knew was possible. How could he have been such a fool to have believed they were just friends!
His dream was becoming reality. The horrifying creature of his nightmare, with others of its kind, was loose in the shelter and the people he loved more than his own life were with them somewhere in the darkness. He crept forward through the dimly lit corridor as the lights faded perceptibly. Straining to hear anything that might warn him of the presence of the enemy he waded slowly, trying not to create splashing sounds and wondering if he were walking into the jaws of death.
The sound of silence was shattered by the rapid staccato gunfire of an Uzi! He threw caution to the wind and quickly moved forward toward the sound echoing through the corridors. He was aware the creatures must have heard it also, but he didn’t care. Almost to the stairwell, he slowed, peering intently toward the corner far ahead. The door to the farm cave, on the right side of the corridor was 50 yards ahead. The latest information from Chris indicated the creatures were in that cave.
Now he heard gunfire from a second weapon, a booming rifle!
He detected movement at the far end of the hallway, barely visible in the dim shadows, and he heard low growling and snuffling sounds…and the sounds of rending flesh and cracking bones.
Then he heard the sound of a human child, crying in the darkness, just like in his nightmare. Only this time he knew the voice… it was little Kevin!
A shadow emerged from the dark corridor ahead, massive, reptilian with horrifying red eyes. It didn’t see Mark, as the crying had attracted its attention. The creature reached the intersection and turned left, looking at the door to the stairwell eight feet into the corridor. It turned toward the sound and cocked its head. It was the gigantic creature Mark had seen staring at him in the power plant cavern. It approached the stairwell and reached out and pulled the lever that operated the door!
“Noooo....!” Mark screamed! He jumped forward, all caution abandoned as he sloshed madly through the water, his weapon held over his head with both hands. “Come here you bastard! Leave them alone!”
Mark reached a point in the corridor where he could see into the stairwell - and froze as he saw the three children on the steps just above the level of the rising water. Their eyes were wide with terror, and they were crying uncontrollably as they huddled together, staring up at the Arby-thing. He heard Ashley’s small trembling voice, weak with fear, “Please, please don’t hurt my little brother.”
“Here! Mother-fucker! Take me!” Mark screamed.
Unbelievably quick, the monster swung to face him!
Mark stumbled back several steps.
Recognition and hatred filled the eyes of the creature as it saw the despised man-thing. Slouched over, it slowly began to straighten, uncurling its back, growing to its full height of eight feet, and baring the two inch long fangs as thick, mucoid, drool, dripped from its mouth. Mark stood transfixed, his jaw dropping, paralyzed as the creature curled and uncurled its claws. It tilted its head, lips drawing back into a horrid caricature of a smile.
May 8, 7:45 a.m.
Water swirled around her thighs as Lori struggled to break open the door. She yanked the lever again and the door opened slightly. She froze, not daring even to breathe, as a huge figure passed the door going left. Readying the Uzi by swinging it from her back to the front, she squeezed her fingers into the opening and pulled with all her strength, stumbling forward as the door unexpectedly whooshed opened completely.
She raised the Uzi in front of her, jumping through the door and swinging the weapon first right, then left. Two emergency lights, casting a dim red glow, depicted a scene that created in her such tremendous fear that her tongue thickened and she made strangling noises in the back of her throat.