On Distant Shores (Exiles Triology Book 1)

by Mark Harritt

  Mike nodded, “Yeah, good idea. I’m more concerned with them accidently hurting us, than I’m about them hurting each other or themselves, though.”

  Mike grabbed a small pack that had a flashlight, his Sig .45 pistol with extra ammunition, and a bottle of water. It was his standard day bag when he moved around foreign countries, looking for the bad guys. When the team was extended at Area 19, Mike had talked to 1st Lieutenant Jondreau and Captain Dickerson, pointing out that the team had more weapons and munitions in the play room, and the pistols wouldn’t make any difference. He received permission to bring the weapons in when the team came to work. They weren’t able to wear them on their belts, so they carried the pistols in their day bags. Personal electronics, like their e-readers, e-music players, and computers were still left in the rental cars.

  “I’m going to go check on Rob and Tom. Maybe they found something that will explain all of this.”

  He turned to Everett. “I’ll let you know if we find anything up there.”

  Everett nodded.

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  The engineering team was getting the debris straightened out. The equipment was moved and stacked neatly. Any trash or broken equipment was moved to a different area where it wouldn’t be in the way. Everett moved to help the engineers put the mech armor on line against the wall.

  Mike climbed the stairs, holding onto the railing, watching his steps to avoid a twisted ankle on the angle of the steps.He yelled up the staircase, “Hey guys, find anything up there?” He got a reply back.

  “Mike is that you?”

  “Yeah, what’s up?” he yelled back.

  “You need to come up here and take a look at this.”

  To Mike’s thinking, that didn’t sound good. He climbed the stairwell, placing his feet carefully. He climbed to the top landing where Rob and Tom were. He didn’t see the ceiling of the stairwell though. As he moved up, he turned on his flashlight to see. The lights on the top landing were missing. The top of the stairwell had been replaced with a curved surface that glinted as the light hit it.

  “What the hell is that?” he asked.

  Rob and Tom were on the top landing of the stairwell, and just above them, there was rock. This rock was as smooth as glass. It looked like poured liquid.

  Tom spoke, “As near as I can figure, some kind of rock.”

  The elevator which led out of the complex was gone. The security station was gone as well, replaced with more of the rock. Most of the main entrance area was gone, though it was possible to get to the elevator shaft that led down to the floors below, and the door that led to the first floor. “That’s impossible. We’ve only been down here for three hours. We would have heard some kind of construction or something. It wouldn’t be able to dry that fast and hold form,” Mike said.

  Rob nodded, “And the damn thing is as smooth as a baby’s behind. There aren’t any imperfections.”

  Mike shook his head. It was as if somebody had sealed them into the vaults. This didn’t make any sense to him, “Even glass is imperfect. I don’t know what kind of form or material could have been used to pour this.”

  Rob and Tom just looked at him. There was nothing behind the stares. They were just as mystified as he was.

  “Well, we can’t do anything about it,” Mike said. “We have to concentrate on what we can do.” He turned to Rob, “Have you guys been able to get into the other levels?” he asked.

  Rob nodded, “A few people are banged up and bruised, but nobody is really injured. It could have been worse if the floor tilted further.”

  Mike looked at the door that led into the first floor. Problem was, the rock impinged on the door frame. Since the door swung out the door couldn’t be opened. “What about this level?” he asked. Rob shook his head.

  Mike walked to the security door, leaning over to clear the rock formation. He reversed his flashlight, butt end toward the door, and hammered against the door three times. Nothing happened, so he did it again. He did it three more times, and finally, there was a very muffled knocking from the other side of the door, three knocks, then three more, then three more. This repeated several times, and then stopped. Mike banged on the door again. This time, he hammered against the door, five knocks, several times, to let them know that he heard them.

  He crawled back, “Well, it looks like we’re going to need something up here to get the door open. Do we have any breaching tools on the pallet?” He asked.

  Rob replied, “Yeah, we have a few. We didn’t know what we would need for this mission, so I brought several different styles of crowbar. I didn’t bring anything heavy with us, but I can run back down and get a few crowbars to see if we can pry this open.”

  Tom spoke, “I wonder if any of them know the knock code.”

  Mike thought about it. The knock code was used by American POWs in Vietnam to communicate with each other. Anybody that went through survival training in the US military was familiar with it. It was used to communicate through walls by the POWs so that they could pass information. “We can’t assume that they have that knowledge. We can’t assume that they have been to SERE school. We’re just going to have to do it the hard way.”

  They nodded their assent. The three of them talked about how they could get through the door. If they used thermite, it would be pretty easy to burn a hole through the door, but the fumes wouldn’t be good to breath in this enclosed space. They didn’t want to use explosives, because they had no way to tell people on the other side of the door to move away from the door. They would have to do it manually, with crowbars. Then Rob had an idea, “Maybe the fabrication team has a cutting torch.”

  Tom pointed out the elevator shaft, “You know, it would probably be easier for us to use the elevator shaft to move up and down to this area and the other floors.”

  Mike and Rob agreed. They moved over to the elevator. They tried pulling the doors apart, but it took all three of them heaving against the door. They were finally able to leverage one of the doors open. They looked into the shaft. The shaft was complete down to the top of the elevator, which was resting against the bottom of the elevator shaft. As they looked up, it was the same as the rest of the landing. Smooth glass like rock, no visible flaws, with the top of the elevator shaft gone. The ladder in the elevator shaft was at a strange angle, but Tom and Rob were able to use it to climb down. They took it slow to make sure that they didn’t fall from the ladder.

  As soon as they were gone, Mike leaned against the wall. “Oh God, Jo, where are you?” Mike was sick with worry. The fear he felt for his wife and child made him ill. His stomach convulsed as he dry heaved. He didn’t know if she was dead or alive. He wasn’t a praying man, but at that moment, he prayed to God in heaven that she and the baby were safe.

  Mike used the stairs to climb to the second floor below. He knew the general lay out. Security was the floor with the stuck door. Offices for the engineering team were on the second floor. Labs and fabrication tools were on the third floor. The fourth floor held the play room where they trained with the mechanized power armor. Below that, on the fifth floor was storage of materials for fabrication, and other items as well. Mike knew that utilities such as plumbing and electricity were routed through that area.

  He walked to the door on the second floor. As he walked, his mind was racing. There are only two ways to get into this vault complex. The way that he just checked, and the service elevator on the back wall. If that was blocked, they would have to wait for rescue. He was still concerned about what he saw above, though. How the hell could that have happened without anybody here knowing about it? For rock to run like liquid, there would have to be a hellish temperature. He wasn’t sure that a nuclear bomb would be able to create that kind of temperature a hundred feet below ground. At that temperature, nobody in Area 19 would have survived. There were too many things going on here, and he didn’t have enough information to figure out what was happening.

  He talked to the people on
the second floor, told them the stairwell was blocked to the outside. He told them there was food and beverages below, and that more people were downstairs. No, he answered to their questions, he didn’t know what was happening. Unhappy with the lack of answers, they decided to go downstairs to the play room. The group left, and he decided to check the floor one more time. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Rob and Tom, but a second pair of eyes might see something that they didn’t.

  “Is there anybody in here?” he yelled as he walked through the hallway.

  “Hey, help me, what happened?”

  It was a male voice, sounding disoriented.

  Mike started walking towards the voice and yelled back, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, nothing broken, a little banged up is all,” The voice sounded relieved that there was another human being that he could talk to. Mike could well imagine what the man was going through.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “My name is Ricky, Ricky Sustein.”

  Mike yelled again, “Ricky, my name is Mike. I was with the army guys that are working with the team downstairs. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m stuck though, can you help me out?”

  Mike yelled back, “Just keep yelling and I’ll come to you.”

  Mike found him pinned in an awkward position by a desk that didn’t allow him leverage to push the desk back. He had been covered by the desk and debris, and just woke up. It was no wonder that he had been missed during the first sweep by Tom and Rob.

  Mike helped him out, and then checked him over to ensure that he was okay. Ricky didn’t seem to have any problems, so Mike moved him back to the stairwell to go to the fourth floor, telling him that there was food and beverages below. He told Ricky to go directly to Dr. Humphreys and Mickey for a medical checkup. He continued through the hallway.

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  The monster’s rage was boundless. It slouched forward, an eldritch, chthonic horror, fetid breath fogging the floor of the cave. Thick fangs flexed in broad snout, poisoned saliva dripping in the dirt. Gigantic talons dug long channels in the floor, punctuating the madness of the monster. Thick, muscular tail lashed the air. Tentacles around the neck surged in whipping frenzy, a nest of serpents, feverish medusa nightmare. Color pulsated pink to red, cascading along the tentacles from tip to root, betraying murderous intent. The violence of the species, the competition from other females had driven it to this cave, protection against the destruction of its eggs. Its efforts had been useless, its children gone, smashed and broken, and it didn’t understand why. It became fury incarnate, thirsting for violence, vengeance. Its nest was gone, in its place a large hole.

  The tongue tested the air over the shaft, filled with the scent of its children, the scent of blood and death, fueling its rage. The scent of plastic and metal from the elevator shaft was unfamiliar, unrecognizable to it. There was something else, subtle, intangible. It smelled fear and anxiety. It smelled prey, increasing the monster’s madness. A coughing growl ripped from its chest, echoing through the cave. Now, the great beast would hunt, and whatever was at the bottom of this shaft, would die. Ropes of saliva dripped from fangs in anticipation of gore, shattered bone, and the taste of blood.

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  Everett turned to Mickey, “What the hell was that?” Mickey shrugged, stunned by the unexpected scream. It sounded again, coming from the service elevator. Eyes were drawn to the elevator doors. Scientists and techs, between Everett’s position and the service elevator, looked toward the source in startled apprehension. They stood or lounged on the floor, staring pointedly at the elevator, not understanding the danger. They were locked in their old reality, the one where they could go out and climb into their cars, and go to their homes, safe in bed at night. There was fear on the faces of a few of the techs, but for most, the situation hadn’t penetrated the scientists’ amygdalae, their lizard brains. They were scientists, formulating hypothesis and theories, trying to understand the phenomena. Everett yelled to get their attention. “I don’t know what the hell that is, but you all need to get your asses over here.” A few turned and looked at him. Some ignored him completely.

  Lieutenant Pang took charge. She didn’t know what was happening, but she trusted Everett’s instincts. She ran to the engineering team members around the service elevator and started pushing them towards the other side of the room. She punched the arms of some of the more recalcitrant individuals to get them moving. “Get your fat asses moving, NOW.” She ran forward and grabbed one of the younger members of the engineering team and shoved him towards the other side of the room, away from the service elevator. Her intensity woke them up. Another scream sounded, increasing their interest in getting away from the elevator, speed of their movement increasing. The screams continued, getting louder, sounding closer. The sound sent chills down Lieutenant Pang’s spine, provoking deep, primitive fear responses. She was sweating, hair standing up on her arms. The fear was very specific. She didn’t know what was in the service elevator, but she knew it was hunting her. Fear punched through her chest, shifting through her stomach, making her feet feel as if they weighed a hundred pounds. She felt like throwing up, running, or hiding. These were deep emotions with an intensity that she had never felt before.

  She didn’t know what the hell was going on, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. That scream didn’t sound like anything that she had ever heard. Even a bear’s roar didn’t sound like that. Living in Montana, she heard a few when she went out deer hunting. She was a small girl, but she carried a .500 Smith and Wesson whenever she went hiking or camping. She really missed the weight of the Smith and Wesson on her hip. Her hand moved down to her belt unbidden. She realized what she was doing when her hand closed on the non-existent handle of the pistol. She was running now, passing techs. Her haste put movement into the others. Fear drove them now. They were moving as fast as possible. The younger and more mobile were helping the older ones. They were all moving at top speed now.

  Everett heard something behind him. He turned. It was Rob and Tom. “What do you want us to do?” Rob asked. Everett thought for just a moment. “Guns, we need guns, break out some big damn guns. And lots of ammunition. I don’t know what the hell it is, but I want it to be in lots of pain if it decides to come our way.”

  Tom nodded agreement with Everett. Tom was the hunter of the party, spending some of his Army staff sergeant pay to do a big game hunt in Africa. He spoke, in a very serious voice. “Y’all may want to consider hand grenades and the M203 40mm’s. I heard a lot of things out hunting, and I ain’t never heard anything like that.”

  Everett was still for just a moment, and then slowly nodded his head. “Grab some grenades, frags, concussion, and flash bang. We may need them.”

  The team didn’t hesitate. Tom started throwing boxes around until he pulled out his SRS .338 Lapua. Rob grabbed his M4/M203. Only after he found the bandoleers of 40 millimeter for the M203, did he start rummaging for the 5.56mm bullets. Everett and Mickey pulled out the Barrett .50 caliber and Mickey started to load it. Everett pulled his SIG 716 and popped in a magazine to get ready for whatever the hell was making that noise. The engineers and scientists were streaming past now, hastily trying to get as far away from the service elevator as possible. The sight of the team loading the weapons only hastened them towards the other side of the room.

  Lieutenant Pang stopped when she got to the team, “Give me a gun.”

  Rob didn’t flinch. He pulled a Benelli tactical shotgun and tossed it to her, followed by a box of slugs. A few others, John Smith, Luis Garcia, and Hank Bethel, with prior military experience ran over. Rob pulled a more weapons, and handed them over. Once the techs had the guns, they rummaged to find ammunition before the screaming creature came through the door.

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  The beast moved into the hole. It could hear movement at the bottom of the shaft.
The monster moved with sinuous grace, belying its bulk, tail slowly moving back and forth, the tip whipping faster. The rage settled as it went into hunting mode, and now, it stalked. It was huge, seven tons, but that didn’t keep its bulk from moving down into the square hole before it. Its body stretched and thinned, elongating to move into the hole.

  The hole it dropped into was tricky, canting back below the cave from which it came. It bent its body around to fit into the hole, almost gracefully. As the thick hide brushed against the side of the metal walls, dense keratinous scales scraped the metal into a burnished shine. The stench from the gore of its children was overpowering as it climbed down the shaft, their bodies shattered from the drop, shells and blood surrounding them. The talons shredded the metal of the elevator shaft as it slowed its descent. The monster found her children dead, dying. They were too young to live outside the shell, and their shattered bodies only increased the anger. It sniffed the dead bodies of her young, lifted its head, giving a long howl, mourning the dead.

  Claws slid on the unfamiliar metal of the elevator, her bulk deforming it. The lines of the elevator car lay cut, bunched, tangled. Tongue flicked out gathering unfamiliar scent, oil, plastics and metal. Its body bunched in muscled intensity as it shifted its weight. The elevator was not designed for the stresses, screeching in slow collapse. The gigantic triangular head moved towards the doors of the elevator, inhaling the delicious scent of the prey’s sweat, urine, feces. It gave a shrill scream, anticipating the kill. Everything in this strange cave would die, ripped, shattered, broken.

  It didn’t know what this door was, but the monster could feel and hear the movement of prey behind it. A small opening was present, and it could see light emanating from the opening. The tongue flicked and assessed the opening. The opening was wide enough that the tip of the tongue could slip through. On the other side, the scent was much stronger. A moaning purr shuddered from the beast’s throat, ecstasy at the thought of bloody flesh.