Eddy pounded toward the back of the room, where there were two racks of weapons. The first rack contained modern projectile weapons, like amalgams of crossbows and handguns. The other shelf contained weapons that Eddy couldn’t begin to understand. Between the two racks was a seamless wall.
“Eddy, what are you doing?” Eve said, her voice overflowing with anxiety. “That thing is almost in. We need to fight it.”
Eddy didn’t hear a word she said. His mind was focused on the task at hand. “There’s got to be a lever or some other kind of key. I don’t see any seams for a door…”
Wham! Hoder hammered the door from the outside and the hole grew larger, bending inward. Hoder stuck his entire head through the hole and hissed at Steve, who backed away from the door, holding out a weapon, which he had no idea how to use.
Eve stood between Eddy and the wall. “Eddy, wake up. We need to make a stand and staring at this wall is not going to help.”
“The schematic shows a door.”
“There is no door,” Eve said, as she turned to the wall. “Look!”
Eve leaned back toward the wall, but kept on going. She fell straight through the wall like it wasn’t even there.
“Whoa!” Steve said.
Wasting no time, Eddy ordered the others through. The group rushed through the door and into a tight hallway, which was more like an oversized ventilation duct. Kevin stopped at the entrance next to Eddy. “You know where this goes?”
Eddy smiled. “I will when we get there.”
They heard the metal doors being wrenched apart from the front of the room. They couldn’t see what was happening, but it was evident that Hoder was moments away from infiltrating the room and discovering their escape route.
Kevin walked through the wall and Eddy followed close behind. The tiny hall was cramped and Eddy soon found himself crawling on his hands and knees, because running while being perpetually bent over became quickly uncomfortable and his weary body was close to calling it quits.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
The armory door gave way and buckled inward. Hoder burst into the room, roared and whipped his head from side to side. His six eyes squinted when no attack came and no prey was seen fleeing. His sensitive nose took in the fragrant smells of human flesh: four men and one woman. They were so close…but where had they run?
Upon seeing the inside of the room, Hoder realized that he was lucky to be alive. He had barged in on a fully stocked armory. If the humans had any guts in them, Hoder thought, they would have made a stand here…and they might have succeeded. But they were cowards and they were running.
Hoder felt his mouth water. The chase was on. He knew that Marutas would want to be notified of their location, but he was so close…and what a victory it would be if he took them all alone! Marutas had failed to stop their leader when he had the chance. Hoder would not be so forgiving when he caught the humans. He imagined how delectable it would be as he cut open their midsections, spilling their guts. He would hold their flesh in his hands while they watched, and he would eat them alive.
Following the human scent to the back of the room, Hoder became puzzled. There was no other door, no escape. Where had the humans gone, and what kind of Aeros trick aided their escape? The Aeros were known for their trickery, and he knew there was more here than his eyes could tell him. Hoder closed his six eyes and breathed in the human scents, letting them tickle his nose. The scents entered his mind and transformed into an image, a haze of human stench that led…into the wall.
Hoder opened his eyes and reached out his massive arm toward the wall. His hand passed straight through the wall and he paused. Interesting. Hoder stuck his head through the opaque illusion of a wall, wary of a sneak attack. He took in the dimly lit corridor and saw no threat. He squeezed his body in and realized that if a sneak attack were to come, he would be hard-pressed to maneuver.
A shifting of light fifty feet ahead, where the tunnel made a sharp right, caught his attention. He focused his all of eyes on the location and saw through the darkness. His prey was still well within reach! They must have escaped the armory just as he had entered. Hoder transformed into his human Inuit form, bent down and surged into the tunnel. He was more vulnerable to attack, but he could catch his prey more quickly. He crawled down the tunnel, heartbeat quickening; he would soon be drinking the blood of his enemies.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
Inky black swirled before his eyes.
He was awake.
The interface caught him up on thousands of years of history, jamming his mind full of information that might be pertinent to his mission. His head pounded with pain as the frigid waters supplied by the Arctic Ocean swirled away from around his body. He was weak; his consciousness was a whirl of chaotic thoughts, trying to separate new information from millions of dreams.
The tube of glass six feet thick slid open and he fell to the floor. The room shook as his body struck the hard floor. Lying still, he let his mind wrap itself around the new situation, the one he had spent an eternity frozen to act out. He, like many others, had been left to wait for the inevitable, when the time would come to purge a land like an antibiotic waiting for the germ to show itself.
As the events of the past few days and the interactions the holographic unit had with the humans surfaced to the forefront of his mind, it became clear that his job might be one of the hardest yet. He pushed himself up, fighting gravity with his tree trunk-sized arms. He got to his feet and was across the stasis lab in four steps. In his weakened state he wouldn’t make it too far, but he had to be updated on the current situation. If he was awakened from his slumber, it was because any number of events had happened, none of them good.
The internal sensors relayed the information to his cortex: Five humans had entered the complex. They had communications with the holo-unit and began to ask disturbing questions. The influence of the Ferox could be heard in their questions, and the system, designed for a single purpose, used a tactic that worked on nearly every race infected by the Ferox: fear. The doors had been opened and four Ferox had entered.
Acting as planned, the humans had sprung back into action and were making their way through the complex. But the Ferox had other plans. While some were indeed chasing down the human threat, others were headed elsewhere, which was why the system had been set off and the stasis chamber had been deactivated.
And so Artuke of the Aeros had been roused from his slumber.
He stood and stretched his arms toward the ceiling, nearly touching it. It had been too long since he last did battle, but now the Ferox would again taste his might, and these humans, who he so graciously had attempted to save so many years ago, would be cleansed. Artuke took two steps and easily covered the distance to the tall door. He ducked under the door frame and headed out into the hallway.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
The floor of the tunnel became loose and noisy as the group pushed forward. Eddy imagined that they must be in a duct that ran over an empty space. The metal buckled every time Eddy placed a hand or knee down, and popped loudly back up as he moved forward. With five of them moving through the tunnel it was bound to attract attention, but there was no going back.
Eddy noticed something changing in the past few minutes. The noise had grown louder and the hairs on the back of his neck rose up. “Everybody stop!” Eddy whispered.
Everyone froze, but the noise continued.
“What’s that?” Eve asked.
Eddy didn’t have to look back to have his fears confirmed, and he didn’t have time to answer. He knew Hoder was close. “Move!”
The group bounded through the tunnel like scrambling rats. The noise became almost unbearably loud, but the tunnel grew larger and allowed them to move more rapidly. Of course, this would allow Hoder to move faster as well. Eddy glanced over his shoulder and saw Hoder in his Inuit form enter the larger portion of the tunnel. As soon as Hoder had room, he transformed in one fluid motion without stopping into his Ferox form
.
Eddy shouted and ran forward, bumping into Kevin, who toppled forward into Norwood and so on until Eve was knocked forward, landing on the floor of the tunnel with a thud. The tunnel swayed back and forth, confirming Eddy’s thoughts about it being suspended over an open area.
A hiss brought Eddy’s attention back to the creature approaching from behind. Hoder was only feet away and reaching out with his claws.
The sound of snapping metal stabbed through the air. Eddy felt the sudden pull of gravity and began sliding away from Hoder. The tunnel had snapped where Eve had fallen and bent to an angle leading down to a flat surface. The group slid down the smooth metal like it was a giant slide and spilled out of the other end.
Eddy was the last to scramble out of the metal tube, kicking his legs out like they were covered with hundreds of invisible insects. Eddy turned and looked back up the tunnel. Hoder was there, his eyes glowing red in the darkness of the tunnel. But he wasn’t advancing. He was holding his distance, wary of an ambush at the end of the tunnel.
“Is he up there?” Steve said.
Eddy nodded. “But he’s not budging.”
“He’s going to wait for us to leave,” Kevin said. “We’re armed with weapons he’s obviously afraid of. If he tried to come down after us, he’d be at our mercy.”
“What do you suggest?” Norwood said. “That we go back up there after him? We can’t very well just wait for him to grow impatient and come down so we can kill him.”
“I don’t know,” Kevin said. “I just thought it might be important for you to know what he’s thinking. Once he gets out in the open, he has us. In there, he doesn’t have much of a defense.”
“Which puts us nowhere,” Norwood said.
“That’s it,” Eve said with a huff. She pushed Eddy aside and looked up the vent shaft. Hoder hissed at her from the top. Eve removed a weapon from where she had attached it to the belt around her waist.
“What are you doing?” Eddy said.
Norwood stepped back. “Do you even know what that thing does?”
“I will in a second.” Eve leaned toward the tunnel, aimed the weapon straight up and pulled the trigger. A crackle like thunder filled the air and shook the room. Eve squinted as a bolt of electricity shot out of the tip of her weapon, made contact with the metal vent and rocketed up towards Hoder.
She heard him shriek in agony as the glowing blue energy struck his body. He convulsed and pounded the sides of the shaft with his massive fists. The vent shook back and forth, swaying above their heads. Then it was over. Hoder slumped down and let out a slow sigh. He was dead.
Eve sat up and held the weapon up. “Lightning gun,” she said, as though it were no big deal. The men stared at her in stunned silence.
“You realize that was very reckless,” Norwood said.
Eve ignored him, got to her feet and looked around. “Looks like we’re the main course.”
“What?”
“We’re in a dining room,” Eve said.
Steve saw nothing but a flat surface. Above was a tall ceiling to which the ventilation shaft was attached, minus the portion that now descended to the floor at a forty-five degree angle. “Looks like a big empty room to me.”
“And what do you think it is you’re standing on?” Eve asked, as she walked away.
“The floor,” Steve said.
Eddy paused as he noticed an aberration in the floor’s surface, like part of the floor was missing. Eddy looked in the other direction. It was the same. “I think she’s right.”
Eve turned around and faced the men. “This isn’t the floor, gentlemen. This is a table top.”
Steve spun as he took in the size of the table and the view in either direction became clear. They were in an immense room and were standing on the surface of a table he imagined was the size of an aircraft carrier.
Norwood put his hand over his mouth. “Unbelievable.”
“Anyone else get the feeling that these Aeros guys are huge?” Steve asked.
“If no one has any complaints about it,” Kevin said, “I’d like to leave now. I don’t feel very safe sitting on an alien dining room table after having been almost eaten by one. It just doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do.”
Bursting metal boomed from above and a body fell from a hole in the vent. Steve dove out of the way as Hoder’s body fell the distance and landed on the table. As his body hit, the sounds of cracking bones and tearing flesh filled the air.
Steve stood, sucking air. “These bastards scare the crap out of me even when they’re dead!” Steve kicked Hoder’s chest, which triggered a release of air and a slight groan to escape his mouth, which was frozen open. Steve jumped back and tripped. Eve caught him and straightened him out.
Steve yanked his arms away from Eve. “Can we go now?”
Eddy nodded and walked toward the edge of the immense table, looking for a safe way down. It was twenty feet from the table top to the floor and jumping wasn’t an option. The group fell in line behind Eddy, and Steve brought up the rear.
Steve rubbed his temples. “Damn, my head hurts. That better be the last time I need to run for my life today or I’m gonna lose my mind.” Even as Steve said the words, he knew it wouldn’t be the last time he’d be running for his life, not today. He knew there were three Ferox left and they wouldn’t stop until they were all dead. Steve rubbed his temples harder and tried to wipe away the image of the six eyed creatures with the jaws of great white sharks. Steve chuckled and his head pounded. Well, he thought, it’d be a hell of a way to go.
29
ALONE
Following the map was an easy enough task, but covering the enormous distance and navigating over and around some monumental obstacles plagued their progress. Getting down from the giant table had been a trick; jumping eight feet to a chair top and scaling down the remaining twelve feet on a grooved portion of table leg had proven complicated, time consuming and exhausting. Steve grew slower at every new cavernous room. Norwood was limping and in obvious pain. The others were exhausted.
Eddy had been pushing them hard in an attempt to outrun the Ferox, even though he knew they could just as easily already be ahead of the team, just around the next corner, waiting to eviscerate their bodies. The thought kept him moving forward at a steady pace, but what motivated him slowed the others down. He noticed how wary they were of dark spaces and how slowly they moved through shady corridors.
Looking at his map, Eddy saw an opportunity to do something he knew would be met with resistance, especially from Eve, but it was necessary nonetheless. He had to leave them behind. Eddy led them to a large room that was labeled “Staging Area” and was positioned on the opposite side of the giant coliseum through which they had originally entered. Eddy followed the distance between the staging area and the transmitter and imagined he could cover the distance in ten minutes, but with the group dragging the way they were, it might take them another half hour, and that was far too long.
Eddy used the inverted human face lock and entered the staging area. The others followed. “Take a few minutes to rest,” he said.
Steve plopped down on a human-size bench and held his head. Norwood sat next to him and stretched his injured leg, grimacing in pain. Kevin rolled his neck and arched his back with a yawn. No one noticed the size or contents of the room. They were all too preoccupied with their discomfort to notice. Eddy headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Eve asked.
Eddy stopped and turned around. Eve had her arms crossed defiantly, as though she knew what Eddy’s next words were going to be.
“I just want to take a look around,” he said.
Eve raised an unbelieving eyebrow.
Eddy sighed. “No offense, but you’re slowing me down.”
Eve’s eyebrow rose even higher.
“Ugh, Eve, you know I don’t mean you personally. Look, I can make better time on my own. You know I can. This is a secure room and we’re not being followed. If the Fer
ox were to catch all of us out in the open, we’d be dead. Those of us who could run, wouldn’t, because we’d want to help the others…right now, if we get caught, we all die. Alone, I might stand a chance. We all might. I’ve already faced these guys by myself and I lived to tell about it. I’m going to—”
“You’re right,” Eve said.
“What?”
“That makes sense…but…just go.” Eve turned toward the others. “I’ll take care of the guys.”
Eddy placed his hand on Eve’s shoulder, spun her around, and looked into her deep brown eyes. “I’m going to come back. I promise.”
Eve showed a slight smile, though Eddy thought it looked forced, fake. “I know you will.”
Eddy’s forehead wrinkled as he attempted to decipher what Eve was saying or thinking. He’d read somewhere that men and women communicate differently. When men said something, it was exactly what they meant. But with women it was a different story. If a man were asked, “Are you hungry?” it didn’t necessarily mean that the woman was concerned whether or not he was actually hungry; they very well could be saying, “I’m hungry.” It had never made sense to Eddy, how a question could really be a statement and vice versa, but he now wished he’d finished the book.
“We can talk about this when I get back.”
Eve smiled the fake smile again and Eddy lost his patience.
“Dammit, Eve. If you’ve got something to say, then say it.”
Eve placed her hand on Eddy’s cheek. “Sorry.” She kissed his other cheek. “I’m just worried…and we will talk about it when you get back.”
Eddy stepped back into the hallway and the doors began to close.
“Be careful,” Eve said with an honest smile.
Eddy smiled back and the doors closed.
“Where’s he going?” Kevin asked.
“The transmitter.”
Kevin’s voice raised and octave and he grumbled, “Without us?”
Raising the Past Page 26