“I’m so sorry,” I said.
“I’m all in now, guys,” He said in a firmer voice. “What’s the plan?”
“All right, let’s do this,” Manuel said enthusiastically.
“What do you see now?” Curtis said.
I looked through the binoculars again, and this time Carrie was holding a thick brown journal. She just stood there staring at it as if it were gold. Then she put it into her handbag and nodded at Lorenzo. Moments later, they all headed for the exit.
“They’re leaving,” I said. “Carrie has the journal.”
“Hold tight,” Curtis said. “Let them go. … Doug!”
Nothing came back for a moment. “Yes. I’m here.” Doug sounded like himself again.
“Can you see the red light flashing on the ceiling?” Curtis said.
“Yes, I see it.”
“When we’re set, shoot that and the door will open.”
“Got it.”
We stood up and waited. Michael held on tight to his Glock. Just then, something banged against our door. I looked at Michael and shuddered. Our door trembled again, and then I heard a snarl. I raised my gun and took a step back. Michael reached into the bag and pulled out an M4 and stood beside me.
“What’s the matter?” Curtis said.
“I think there’s a Shrinik outside,” Michael whispered.
The thud against our door came again … and again. It happened every couple of seconds. Light from outside crept in through a small hole. The door was caving in.
Michael used the binoculars to look outside. “There’re three of them,” he said. “We can’t take them all.”
“I’m coming to you,” Doug said. We heard him cock a gun, and then there was the sound of automatic gunfire, followed by heavy breathing.
“Curtis, Manuel,” I said, “you okay?”
We heard shuffling but no words. Then the gunfire returned.
“They’re everywhere,” Manuel screamed. The explosions returned. It sounded as if a hundred assault rifles were being fired at the same time. Michael screamed Curtis’, Manuel’s and Mandy’s names, but there was no response. Then everything went dead.
“Manuel! Curtis! Mandy!” Michael screamed again, but nothing came back.
He grimaced and squeezed his knuckles. A crack appeared at the bottom of the door, and one of the Shriniks’ organisms slithered into view, its red eyes looking straight at me. I edged back and fired multiple rounds at it, taking its head off, green ooze splashing everywhere. But more tried to fit in through the hole, and the pounding on our door didn’t stop. I kept firing and Michael joined me. Our bullets sent many of the organisms to their deaths. Then I heard Doug’s voice coming through.
“Michael. Michael,” he said.
“We’re here,” Michael said.
“What’s going on outside?”
“They’re under attack.” Michael fired again when a Shrinik stuck its arms in through another hole, this time around the middle of the door. “We’re not gonna make it. Get out if you can.”
A Shrinik poked its head through the middle hole and snarled. I drew my Glock and released a number of shots to its head, but it just laughed with its reptilian face. I grabbed the rucksack from Michael’s back and pulled a shotgun out. The Shrinik lost its grin. I cocked it and fired. Pieces of the Shrinik’s face were blown off, and it dropped to the ground along with its disgusting green blood. The Shrinik disappeared from sight, but we could hear it shrieking in pain outside. Michael slowly turned toward me with wide eyes. Then he smiled. I lowered the shotgun and wiped sweat from my face.
“Doug,” Michael said, but nothing came back. He reached into the rucksack again and grabbed another shotgun. “We’re on our own,” he said to me.
Just then the hole in the middle of the door expanded, shaking us from our brief moment of escape. Michael and I pointed our shotguns at the door and waited. Then I fired. Further chunks of the door flew off and loud shrieks came from outside. I fired again and again and Michael joined me. The hole through the door was enough to see through. Two Shriniks were against the opposite wall. The last one was on the floor. Michael raised his right leg and kicked at the door a few times. He fired a few more shots until the door flew off its hinges.
We charged out, but just then a Shrinik leaped forward. I dropped to the floor and fired at the Shrinik, but it kept coming. I saw Michael on the floor beside me. He released numerous rounds from the M4 at the Shrinik, sending more of its green blood everywhere. I fired again, and this time it flew to the ground in a heap. A few feet away, the other two were still reeling in pain. An explosion just above my head made me gasp. I turned and saw flashing white light. More gunfire. Then three humans turned the corner, firing in all directions. I crawled back into the room we’d just left for cover.
Michael spun around and dived in after me. He let out a shot before he landed on the floor, sending one of the men crashing to the floor, dead. But Michael rolled around in pain. I held his head and saw blood running down the left side, where he must have banged it. I could hear the men still approaching us, shooting at the same time.
The AN-94 shook in my trembling hands. I saw more and more pieces of the wall falling from the rapid gunfire coming from the remaining two men. The Shriniks had also regained their composure and stared at us with menace. More organisms appeared around their bodies, replacing the ones that had disintegrated. I raised my gun and started shooting, but the Shriniks kept charging forward. I stopped firing and picked up the shotgun. The creatures were now about three feet away. I released shell after shell, sending each one back a few yards.
“Michael,” I screamed as I kept firing.
I felt movement beneath me, and then Michael was back on his feet. The Shrinik with some of its face missing charged forward at that moment, but Michael fired at its head, taking more chunks off. Only parts of the left side of the creature’s face were left, but it was still coming. The gunfire hadn’t stopped either. Then I heard another kind of explosion. One much louder than I’d heard before. It sounded like Doug’s future gun. It must be him. The newer gunshots kept coming. I looked out and saw the Shriniks falling over themselves as the bullets hit their bodies.
Then the one with most of its head blown off lost the rest of it after a bright white light struck it, making it explode into multiple pieces. Scores of its green blood flew everywhere, some onto my cheeks. I grimaced and wiped it off. The other Shriniks kept backing away toward the human shooters as the loud shots continued coming.
When I inched out farther, a bullet just missed my head. Michael pulled me back in and held me down. I could still hear the Shriniks, but it sounded like they had retreated even farther. I wondered where Doug was, as I couldn’t hear his bullets anymore. Then the gunfire from the humans to the right of the corridor returned, drawing nearer with each passing minute. Michael grimaced and rose to his knees with difficulty. The shooters must have been only seconds away. I heard the footsteps getting closer and closer. I lifted the AN-94 again, waiting. But just then I heard machine-gun fire coming from our left. I heard the men coming for us grunt before falling to their deaths.
Doug charged into view holding the AN-94 he’d taken from the weapons bag and, in his other hand, the small alien pistol.
“You guys okay?” he said.
I nodded and glanced at Michael, who was still massaging his injured head.
“Thanks, pal,” Michael said.
“Don’t mention it,” Doug said.
We heard a roar and loud hissing from the direction of the ceiling.
“Come on,” Doug said.
Michael nodded and rose to his feet, the rucksack around his back again. I stood up, too, the AN-94 in my right hand, the shotgun in my left. We stepped out to find the headless Shrinik lay beside the three dead men. Red and green blood smeared the floor and the walls. We called out to the rest of our party outside but heard nothing. Then we looked in both directions.
“We can’t go rig
ht,” I said. “The two Shriniks just now went that way.”
Doug nodded and edged in front of us. We all took short steps toward where Doug had just come from, all our guns raised. The floor vibrated for a moment, followed by hundreds of simultaneous howls. We stopped cold.
“What was that?” I said.
Doug raised his hands and stood there. The vibrations grew louder and louder, like an approaching stampede. Then snarls and screams joined the howls.
“Guys,” I said. None of them moved or acknowledged me. “Guys!”
A horde of Shriniks turned the corner ahead and charged straight for us. We all spun around and bolted down the corridor.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The salty taste of sweat filled my mouth. My limbs ached from running so hard. Fatigue took over, but I didn’t dare think about how much I wanted to stop and pant. I feared that we’d bump into the Shriniks that had attacked us earlier, but the new threat was more immediate. The howls behind us didn’t lessen but grew in volume and intensity. We took another left at the next crossroad but didn’t seem to get any closer to exiting the building.
I felt something moist drip onto my head and looked up. The small sharp fangs of one of the Shrinik’s organisms greeted me. The creature hung upside down on the ceiling and snarled at me. Then it leaped down and landed on my shoulder. I screamed and thrashed my hands. The AN-94 around my shoulder flew in all directions. Doug grabbed the creature and threw it to the floor. I grunted, pulled out my Glock and shot the creature. I turned and kept running as it shriveled and died.
Michael was now a few yards ahead, but Doug and I gained ground on him with each stride. Michael then spun around with panic in his eyes. Doug and I skidded to a halt. I heard Michael screaming out words and waving his hands. But I couldn’t understand anything he said amid the thunder of the chasing Shriniks. Then more liquid dropped onto my head. I ran my finger over it, and it stuck to my hands. I saw the same green slime I’d seen when I blasted the head off the Shrinik that had cornered us. It dripped from the ceiling ahead and behind us. It was everywhere.
My body was thrust backward and I landed in a heap on the floor beside Michael. Doug was lying on top of me. We scrambled to pick up our assault rifles. Michael was staring at the ceiling. I followed his gaze and saw a wet patch the size of a large basin on the ceiling. Then the ceiling crumbled and a Shrinik dropped to the floor. It roared and charged forward. Some of its green blood splashed onto my face. Michael fired his M4 at the creature, sending it back farther and farther. Doug dragged me to my feet, turned around and joined Michael in firing. I shifted to Doug’s left and opened fire as well, the AN-94 jumping in my hands. A number of the other Shriniks had caught up, but the automatic gunfire held them back.
“Aim for their heads,” Michael said.
I nodded and did just that, but the Shriniks fought back. Some walked with half their heads missing, but they still came. Michael grabbed his shotgun and managed to decapitate some after a few rounds, but ammo was light. He switched back to the M4 soon after and kept chipping away at them.
Hordes of the organisms around the Shriniks’ bodies leaped to the ground and slithered toward us. I lowered my gun and fired at them, but they kept coming. Backing away, we now split our shots between the Shriniks and the approaching organisms that flew from their bodies at a rapid rate. Green blood flew everywhere as the bullets tore through the Shriniks’ flesh.
“Come on,” Doug shouted. He turned and continued down the corridor. Michael and I followed, but the screams were still behind us. We took another left and again heard the loud noise that sounded like many generators.
“We’re near the exit,” Doug screamed.
We ran on, but the Shriniks drew closer. Doug and I kept turning to spray rounds into them, hindering them further. Michael had started to drift slightly ahead. We could now see the open door leading to the main hall and pushed ourselves harder. But then a snarl came from that direction, and two Shriniks burst through the wall beside the door like it was paper. They raised their hands and howled. I glanced back and saw the others coming, too.
“The walls!” Michael shouted.
The Shriniks that had just appeared took steady steps toward us. Michael clenched his hands and pounded the wall. I ran toward him and did the same. It felt paper thin, like cardboard. Michael armed himself with the shotgun and started blasting at the wall. I grabbed the other shotgun from the bag and joined him. We tore chunks out of it, but the Shriniks in front of us charged forward. The ones behind drew closer. Doug opened fire in both directions, but their snarls grew louder. Michael and I continued blasting the wall. The hole was now big enough to fit at least my smaller frame. Michael nodded at me and grabbed Doug’s shoulder. I leaped through and my hands stopped my face from hitting the moist surface on the other side. I heard two thuds and looked up. Michael and Doug were beside me.
Apart from a faint green light that came from the ceiling, darkness engulfed us. I’d dropped my infrared goggles when we were trying to escape the first batch of Shriniks. I didn’t see Michael or Doug trying to put theirs on either, so I assumed they’d lost theirs, too. The same generator sound hovered above. We had to be close to the exit.
“Where are we going?” I shouted. “What is this place?”
“It must lead somewhere,” Michael said. “Those two Shriniks that burst out didn’t come out of nowhere.”
The ground was damp and dirty, and the putrid smell of manure filled my nose. It was as if we were running through an entire field of horse droppings. But we kept going. The screams came soon after. I glanced back after I heard movement but couldn’t tell whether the Shriniks were giving chase.
“This way,” Doug shouted. He turned left and Michael and I followed.
I didn’t know what this place was, but it felt like a whole new building. Maybe it was some sort of barn before. Doug pulled out a torch and flashed it in multiple directions. The flashlight revealed walls all around us, with openings leading to unknown destinations. I followed the light from Doug’s torch as it moved around. The area we were in was huge. It looked like a gigantic hedge maze with bricks.
We wriggled through gaps in the walls, stopping whenever we reached dead ends. The screams and howls kept coming, but we didn’t wait to find out how close they were. We turned right after reaching yet another solid wall with no through path. Mud reached my ankles. The foul stench grew worse.
After maneuvering our way through a few more narrow openings in the walls, we came to a large open space with lots of room to move. We ran almost two hundred yards before a brick wall came into view through Doug’s flashlight. We bore right, and then Michael just stopped.
“What is it?” I said.
Doug shone the torch on him. Michael put his ear to the wall. We ran back to him and waited.
“Can you hear that?” Michael said
Doug and I leaned against the wall. We pulled away at almost the same time and shouted, “Gunfire.”
“They’re beyond this wall,” Michael said.
A loud wail filtered in. Heavy footsteps followed. It drew nearer by the second, causing mild tremors. Doug flashed the torch toward where the sound came from, and we caught sight of at least five Shriniks charging toward us.
Michael dived at me. “Get down.”
I dropped to the ground and an organism flew past me and struck the wall. Michael shot it with his Glock, scrambled off me and picked the M4 up. But Doug had already started to engage them, except he wasn’t firing a gun from 2013. The bright explosions left trails of white dust in the air. The wails from the creatures came in thick and fast. I jumped to my feet and pushed the trigger of my AN-94, but I was out of ammunition. Michael threw me a magazine and pushed one into the chamber of his M4. Then we opened fire on the Shriniks at the same time. Amid the fire of the heavy-duty weapons, I could still hear the Shriniks all around us. Then something crawled up my legs. I screamed and kicked. I saw the organism’s red eyes looking up at
me. I reached down and pulled it off, but I could still hear them everywhere, hissing like rattlesnakes.
I drew the Glock and started shooting at the ground. The wails and shrieks told me I was hitting them. I felt someone bump into me, but it was only Doug. He had the AN-94 out, firing countless bullets in the direction of the howls. With Michael’s bullets as well, the whole area was well-lighted for yards. There were even more Shriniks coming through the narrow openings in the distant walls.
“I’m out,” Doug said. He drew the future gun and kept blasting, but soon I heard only clicks when he pulled the trigger.
“Catch,” Michael said. He threw Doug another magazine, and it continued like that for a few minutes: me shooting every time I heard the organisms slithering on the ground and Michael and Doug emptying magazine upon magazine of ammunition into the approaching Shriniks. It was harder to aim for their heads in the dark, but our bullets seemed to be causing damage, judging by the loud screams.
I knew ammunition had begun to run thin when Michael switched to the shotgun. We still held the Shriniks at bay, however, but with each flash of light from the bullets, they seemed to be multiplying. It seemed like only a matter of time before our luck would run out.
“Guys,” a voice said through the earpiece.
We all paused. Everything went silent. But we resumed firing when a number of Shriniks moved closer. I had returned to my AN-94.
“Guys!” the voice said again.
This time Michael replied. “Manuel?”
“Boss! Are you guys all right?”
Michael and I stopped firing. “No, we’re not,” Michael shouted. “We’ve got a horde of Shriniks trying to take us out.”
“Where are you?”
Michael looked around in a panic, unsure of how to describe where we were.
“We’re inside the walls,” I shouted above Doug’s gunfire. “We’re right by the exit.”
Manuel spoke, but I couldn’t hear him
“He’ll never find us,” Michael said. Then he fired his shotgun at the wall a number of times. I did the same with my gun, but then the bullets stopped. All I heard were multiple clicks. The same happened with Michael. I searched inside the bag, but there were no more magazines or shells.
The Children Who Time Lost Page 32