by Marc Everitt
“Taylor, this is some kind of joke, right?”
“No joke, I….”
He was interrupted by Lana, “Sara? What is he saying?” She directed the rest of her question to Taylor himself, “I thought you had it in your head that my husband did it.” The room suddenly seemed to erupt, with questions and comments flying all around him.
“Is he mad? Sara? How can he say it was Sara? Taylor, answer me….” Taylor weathered the storm, keeping his eyes at all times on Sara; she was the only person in the room who had not had a comment to make.
He saw her move to speak now and tried to cut out the surrounding noise to hear what she had to say. “Mr West, I think you have made a mistake.” The room quietened down as they all strained to hear her continue. “What evidence could you possibly have to implicate me in these horrendous crimes?”
Taylor had been prepared for such a question and began his carefully planned speech. “I thought it could be you when Eli told me you were the only one of the research team who requested to be posted to the planet.”
“That proves nothing,” she smiled. Eli still held her almost defiantly, Taylor thought.
“Because I am a scientist that doesn’t make me a killer.”
“Not at all, Sara. But a person who wanted to protect the secret of this world would be unlikely to leave their posting to it to chance. As I said this only pointed me in your direction, I never claimed it proved anything.”
“As you shouldn’t have,” Eli said reproachfully.
Taylor ignored his friend and continued. “I found it strange that you seemed to know that the alarm was broken in the control room, when Lana said we should call for help.”
“What are you….,” Sara tried to interrupt but Taylor pressed on regardless.
“It was possible that you saw it had been smashed, but more likely that you smashed it yourself trying to get me killed.”
“Oh this is ridiculous,” Sara exclaimed. Eli nodded his head, he was not convinced at all. “Taylor, these things are circumstantial, they don’t prove she did anything. What about when you said he did it?” Eli gestured at Chris who seemed to be enjoying seeing someone else take the blame for things he knew they all thought he had done for so long.
Taylor held his hands out and went on. “Look, I knew I was dealing with someone who was careful and wary, I knew that if I made them think I was on the wrong trail, then they were more likely to let their guard down. And you did, I am afraid, Sara.” He walked over to where Sara and Eli stood. He could still hear the Warrior outside the door and wanted this conversation over with as soon as possible. Eli looked to Taylor to be getting a little aggressive towards him, a sight he had not seen before and not one he relished seeing now.
“I found a deleted file in the Major’s personal records,” he said looking for a reaction in Sara. He thought he may have seen one, but couldn’t be sure about it so pressed on. “It told of how the Major sent Jeff Hanley out to survey the area where this bunker is buried.”
“I never knew about that,” Alan said.
Taylor continued. “No, most of you didn’t. But his killer did. I think Hanley had no idea what he found but he mentioned it to the wrong person. He was unlucky enough to mention it to the one person on the base who knew there was a bunker out here and didn’t want him telling anyone.”
“What makes you think that was me?” Sara spoke evenly and calmly. The noise outside the door was getting more and more worrying to Taylor, it sounded as if the Warrior was digging some way into the panel and was deep into the circuitry beneath.
He answered Sara, “I couldn’t be sure until you told me yourself.”
“What do you mean?” she replied.
Taylor smiled in spite of himself. “You were so keen to get here before the scientists could interfere anymore that you told me you knew the way here.”
Eli shook his head. “No, hold on. She only said she had heard there was something out here. You told us all yourself there was a base out here. Sara was just following your lead.”
“Mr West, if that is the best you can do, I think I deserve an apology,” Sara smiled.
Taylor was ready to respond and couldn’t wait to see her face when he did. “But I told you all it was a base, I never said it was a bunker. You told us you thought the ‘bunker’ couldn’t be far and that you’d heard a rumour it was this way. A small risk, revealing any knowledge of it at all. But I expect you were anxious to get here and I was dithering around out there, wasn’t I.” He smiled broadly as the first of his traps was revealed. The faces around the room were not so certain now. They had missed her comment about the bunker but now he had pointed it out, it did seem a little convenient.
“Mr Hanley mentioned it to me, that’s all,” Sara explained.
Taylor leapt in on this response, “I think that much is true....”
“But that doesn’t mean I killed him,” she continued.
Taylor nodded his head. “On its own, you’re right, it doesn’t. But it seems strange that Hanley saw the bunker and he’s dead. The only other person who knew about it was you. The person who Hanley told would not have wanted anyone else to know, I suspect that was why Shanks was killed. But you were not killed. If one of the others here had known about the bunker I think they would have said about it when we were in the desert running for our lives from that thing.” He indicated outside the door.
“Taylor this is weak, it’s nothing more than guesswork,” Eli snorted disdainfully. The others around him were not so sure, but Taylor knew he had to make Eli and see and revealed his trump card.
“Well, let’s put it this way. Will you believe me if I can prove that she opened the Lab door and let the alien in?” Without waiting for a reply, he called Dr Skandia over and went on, “I thought she was quick to volunteer to try and juggle the codes and keep it out, so I took the precaution of covering the security override switch with a little ultra-violet dye, with the Dr’s help.” Skandia nodded his confirmation and pulled out a device from the cavernous pockets of his lab coat. Taylor noticed Sara’s face change to an expression of near panic and he couldn’t help but smile.
“Doctor, if you would be so kind,” Taylor said. The Doctor spoke weakly and timidly, he had not been in such a situation before. “Mr West here asked me if I had any way of marking the switch because he thought someone would press it. I showed him the dye and he sprayed it on the button. If she pressed it to open the door this ultra-violet light beam will pick it up.”
Sara looked at her own hand, horrified and turned to Eli. She didn’t know what to think and stammered.
“Sara, is it true?” The beam from the device in the Doctor’s hand ran over Sara and Taylor was relieved to see the dye, invisible in normal light, all over her left hand. Sara’s eyes widened as she looked at her branded hand. She looked up at Eli but he had stepped back from her in total shock.
The room was silent as a crypt until Taylor said, “Thank you, Doctor. Sara, will you answer my question now? Why kill Hanley and Shanks to keep them from knowing about this place?”
Sara leapt at him snarling like an animal and she was on top of him before anyone had time to react, clawing at his face trying to reach his eyes. He used her weight to throw her over the top of him and she fell heavily to the floor. He turned to face her, ready for her to try again; and that was when the Warrior managed to open the door.
***
“My God, would you take a look at that!” Cameron breathed as they picked their way into the bunker. All around their feet lay the twisted remains of people who had been horribly mutilated. Kyle tried not to look too closely at the corpses, but it was difficult not to. He could see probably fifteen men, all wearing Company uniforms, some guards, some technicians, lying on the floor. Many of them had detached limbs or were cleanly cut in two. Their faces wore varying expressions of horror and fear. One of the men was hanging from the ceiling by his own intestines, and Kyle found himself starting to retch at the sight.
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br /> In his time, he had seen a lot of dead bodies, some of them dead by his own hand, but he had never seen such a scene of butchery. He heard his young cousin throwing up behind him as he kept moving through the carnage. He turned to help, but saw that Pope was already pulling Cameron to his feet. Kyle could see that even the world-weary Pope was disturbed by what was all around them. Looking to the back of the crew, Kyle was not surprised to see that Fenchurch did not seem to be shocked by the mutilated corpses.
Indeed, he seemed to be enjoying the sight and Kyle found himself wondering, not for the first time, if having him as a member of the crew was a wise idea. They had entered the bunker by means of a hatch that Kyle had spotted almost immediately upon landing. It was not open, but seemed to have been blasted apart by some sort of energy beam, the residue of which Kyle could still see glowing around the charred edges. He could see that whatever had forced its way into the bunker had not done it long ago and he had told his crew to be on their guard.
Even though he had been prepared to see violence in the bunker, he had never in his wildest nightmares imagined that he would find himself stumbling upon such a macabre scene. Once he passed the last corpse and was in the main corridor, he felt the nausea fade a little, and decided to press in into the depths of the bunker. He had his Plasma rifle raised and ready to use and told his crew to do the same, with the scene of death still fresh in their minds they needed little encouragement.
“Keep alert, something nasty has come through here,” he warned as they moved through the shadows.
“Something just as nasty is coming through now,” muttered Fenchurch as he walked at the rear of the group. He didn’t know who had been responsible for what he had seen in the immediate entrance to the bunker, but he was looking forward to making their acquaintance. In his opinion, only when an opponent was as merciless a killer as he was himself, could he really relish the chance to lock horns with them. He felt no fear about meeting the person who had caused such an atrocity. He was anxious and excited to get on with things. He peered from side to side in the corridor, he could see nothing around either him or his crewmates, but was alert to the slightest sound.
At the front of the group, Kyle slowed. They had come to a curve in the corridor and he wanted to have a look around it before he walked into a situation he was not prepared for. He pulled a scope out of his pocket and aimed it at the far wall. The device sent a tight beam of light to the wall and it reflected around the curve before returning to the unit in Kyle’s hand. He looked at the image that appeared on the small screen on the front of the scope. On it he could see what lay around the curve in the corridor without risking injury by putting his head around it.
He had seen too many people have their heads blown off in that fashion and so, when he thought he was in a combat situation he always erred on the side of caution. He was pleased to see that there was nothing except a clear corridor ahead and moved on, his crew close behind him. No one spoke during this time, they all knew well-enough that silence was more likely to get them what they wanted. If you wanted to sneak up on someone, it helped if you could sneak.
Kyle could see that this part of the bunker had not played host to such a ferocious fire-fight as the entrance; there were no tell-tale blast markings on the walls. He thought whoever had blasted their way in and butchered the people had met with little resistance once inside. He hoped that had made them careless, as he didn’t want to walk into them if they were still ready and spoiling for a fight. Another curve in the corridor that he couldn’t see around was coming up, but this time when he looked on his scope he saw something else entirely.
He could see what looked to him to be a monster, standing around the bend, but not looking in their direction. Instead it stood facing, if he could be sure of what was its front and what was its back, 90 degrees from them. It stood over two and a half metres tall, he guessed, and shone in different shades of gold. It had a tail rising out of its back like a scorpion and that seemed to be glowing with the same kind of energy he had seen on the edge of the blasted doorway.
“Look at this!” he whispered to Pope, showing him the screen.
Pope raised his eyebrows rapidly and his eyes boggled. “What is that?” Fenchurch and Cameron pushed Pope out of the way so they could see also.
Kyle raised his finger to his pursed lips to tell his crew to be as quiet as they could. “If that is what caused that massacre out there, we have to try and avoid it,” he reasoned.
Fenchurch looked startled. “Why would we want to do that? I’m sure whatever it is, it dies as well as anybody.” He flashed his homicidal grin and, before Kyle could grab his arm to stop him, he raised his weapon and was halfway around the bend.
“Fenchurch!” hissed Kyle as he saw his crewmate disappear from view and appear on the screen of the scope as he turned the corner. The creature on the scope appeared to have been trying to get through a door and into a side room, Kyle could see the internal door slide upward and the creature taking a step inside. He wondered what poor soul was in that room.
Pope grabbed his arm, “We have got to go after him.”
Cameron nodded. “If we all go, that thing won’t stand a chance.”
Kyle was not so sure. “Those guards out there probably thought the same thing.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t have rifles like this baby,” Cameron raised the muzzle of his Plasma rifle and smiled. Kyle conceded that was true and was about to say so when the shouting started.
***
Taylor had seen the Warrior take a step into the room and had been frantically trying to think how he was going to extend his life beyond the next minute when he saw the creature turn its head back out to the corridor. The next few minutes were a blur. He saw a man he didn’t recognise firing a big gun at the creature and yelling loudly. He couldn’t hear what the man was trying to say, and had no idea who he was or where he had come from, but he was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He wasn’t particularly fond of looking any horse in the mouth, but a gift one even less so.
He turned to Eli, who was still trying to come to terms with the radical change in behaviour Sara had shown, and grinned. “It’s all go, isn’t it?” Sara was picking herself up off the floor and looking at the commotion in the hallway.
“Who the hell is that?” shouted Chris, grabbing Taylor’s arm as if he thought Taylor should know.
Taylor shrugged his shoulders, pulled his arm from Chris’s grip and replied, “I have no idea, but let’s not hang around for an introduction.”
Taylor and Chris moved towards the door and. As they did so, Eli snapped out of his daze and moved with them. “Skandia, keep an eye on that young lady,” said Taylor, indicating the young guard who seemed scared and bewildered by the whole situation. She had seen what the creature had done to three of her colleagues and was not keen to approach it, whether it was distracted by strange men who came out of nowhere or not. Dr Skandia put his arm around her and guided her to the door. United by their common need to escape the room and get past the creature before it could finish off the man in the corridor, Taylor had no thoughts of what he was going to do about Sara. She, however, knew exactly what she would do once out of danger, and she doubted Taylor West would like it very much.
***
Kyle ran around the bend, already firing his rifle at the creature that had turned to face the onrushing Fenchurch. It fired a rapid burst from its weapon that missed Fenchurch by the closest of margins. Kyle assumed it was finding its range and decided he would not be in the way when the second blast came. Fenchurch had stopped a few metres short of the creature and was letting off blast after blast from his own weapon.
The gun Fenchurch carried and used almost exclusively was not one that Kyle had seen in the possession of anyone else. It was a vicious weapon that discharged a beam of energy that was composed of sonic pulses, laser beams and microscopic particles of metallic shrapnel. The effect was that when Fenchurch used the gun, his target was stunned b
y the sonic waves and both blasted by the laser and cut by the shrapnel. These metallic particles cut through the densest armour allowing the beam to penetrate deeper into the target.
On this occasion, though, Kyle could see instantly that the creature Fenchurch was firing at was not falling down once hit. It did not even seem to be damaged by the blast; Kyle could see Fenchurch’s weapon hitting the creature but it seemed to be weathering the blasts and moving slowly in his direction.
All the while the weapon the creature seemed to have built into its tail glowed brighter and brighter as if charging. “Fenchurch, down!” he yelled as he fired his Plasma rifle at the creature. Fenchurch dropped to the floor as a huge energy beam fizzed over his head. Kyle could see the blasts from the rifles of Cameron and Pope impacting on the creature and it seemed to be slowed by them, but it did not fall.
Kyle thought quickly, Fenchurch was back on his feet and backing towards where Kyle and the others had made their stand. Careful to aim over the head of their retreating crewmate, Kyle, Pope, and Cameron concentrated their firepower at what looked like the creature’s head.
“Why doesn’t it die!?” screamed Cameron. Kyle tried to think of another idea, the Plasma streams were hitting the creature’s head. It was not even trying to avoid them. Kyle could not think how any being could stand and take three Plasma streams being fired in its face. It seemed to be soaking the Plasma streams up, as if it knew that their guns couldn’t stay discharging forever. Holding his rifle in one hand Kyle reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a Snare & Stun net.
“Let’s see how it likes a bit of S & S!” he shouted and threw the small cube at the creature. It opened as it neared the Warrior and covered it with a fine network of metallic flexible strands. The thin net settled over the creature that was trying to pull it off its head when it discharged its stun charge. Kyle could see the net spark as the voltage coursed through the creature, but still it did not fall.