by Adam Moon
The men opened fire and Jessie started screaming. But the bullets didn’t make it into the elevator. They hit an invisible barrier, smashed flat under their own power and then dropped to the floor four feet in front of Jack, making harmless tinkling sounds.
The men didn’t catch on right away that their aggression wasn’t achieving the desired outcome so they kept up the shooting.
Jack realized that the invisible barrier was the invisible creature that liked to pull pranks, the one that had a thing for him. It was using its impenetrable body as a shield.
It must have quietly ridden up in the elevator with them.
He didn’t have time to feel grateful. He started twisting the murder ball in the air and smashing it off one guard and then the next. Not every hit was fatal because these men were heavily armored so he had to really concentrate. Get a finger here and a mouth there, anywhere that skin showed through.
Eventually there were only four guards left and that was because they were armored head to toe. They must have been on duty outside or something when the sirens went off.
He moved the ball with all of his willpower. He crashed it into the helmet of the first, putting a crater in it and sending the guard to the ground. He broke the right leg of the next guard.
The other two started to retreat, firing intermittently.
He couldn’t let them get away. He had the upper hand here. If they got away and regrouped and then caught them by surprise later on it would be Jack’s fault unless he stopped them now.
He sent the ball into the faceplate of one guard. The remaining guard freaked out and ran away full sprint. Jack pulled the ball free of the bloody faceplate with his mind and sent it at the last guard with all of his might. It crashed into his back and disappeared from sight. When the guard fell Jack saw the hole it put through him.
He saw blood dripping from the ball as it floated down the corridor so he spun it rapidly in midair and used the centrifugal force to whip it dry. He called the ball back when he knew it was mostly clean.
His invisible friend must have dodged out of the way because it came right to him.
Jessie was sobbing but physically he and Melanie were ok. Thank God, he thought and immediately chastised himself for it; thank the invisible creature, was what he should have thought.
He felt a wet kiss on his mouth and could have sworn he heard a girly giggle. Then he heard footsteps moving away as the creature left them. The guard with the broken leg, the last one alive, suddenly started sliding down the corridor away from them and then he floated a few feet into the air. His body pivoted quickly as he crashed into the wall with a thud. The creature had taken him and killed him. As the guard fell to the floor it sounded like the creature took off running, looking for more guards no doubt.
Melanie breathlessly asked, “Was that the invisible one that shielded us?” She decided she didn’t care to wait for an answer, “We need to get out so that Oliver can use the elevator.”
Jack helped them both to their feet while thinking, shit there’s still one last elevator before we’re topside.
Now he wished the invisible creature had stuck around.
Chapter 63: Unleash Hell
They stood in the corridor as the doors of the elevator shut. Oliver must have already called it because it was moving.
Jack strained to listen for approaching footsteps but so far all was quiet. That was about to change. When the doors opened the werewolf, the alien looking screamer, and all the green and yellow bat-mobiles rushed out like a monster tsunami. They ignored Jack, Melanie and the boy and took off down the corridor. It was the strangest thing Jack had ever witnessed. It was probably the strangest thing ever witnessed by man. A minute later the goatraffe that says ‘fuck off’ all the time, the white tiger with the bloody blowhole, the hyena and the pig emerged. They pursued their comrades, the pig rounding the corner at the end of the corridor last. Before the doors closed again, the spider with the human eyes and dangling dick wandered out. It looked disoriented until it saw Jack. Then its eyes became deadly serious and it scurried after the others. Jack laughed at it but it paid no attention. The next load carried just the Karl Marx look-alike. It strode out of the elevator alone with its head high and proud. Jack assumed it had insisted on traveling alone. It just seemed like something the creature would take pride in. It followed in the same direction its comrades had gone with an air of security and strength. The last load arrived with the disgusting toad, the hot naked chicks, his two clones and Jessie’s too. Melanie shielded Jessie’s eyes against the perfect butts of the naked women as they ran away. Oliver stepped out and joined them after the manifestations cleared out.
The toad was the last creature in sight. It was slowly hopping, shaking the floor each time it landed. The little naked dude he liked to eat was nowhere in sight.
“Where’s the toad’s little chewable friend?” asked Jack.
Oliver said, “When I opened the cage door it ate him but it didn’t crap him out this time. I think it only did it to amuse itself or pass the time. Maybe it was practicing for what’s to come. As if to affirm Oliver’s theory a single guard bounded around the corner. He looked like he’d just run a gruesome gauntlet. The toad flicked out its tongue at alarming speed and snatched the armed man. It reeled him into its mouth in a fraction of a second. The guard didn’t even have time to get off a shot.
The werewolf scudded to a halt on the tiles where the guy had just been before the toad grabbed him. It growled and bared its teeth at the toad and then rounded the corner again out of sight. If the toad hadn’t got him the werewolf would have. But when Jack saw the toad grinding the screaming man to mush he wished the werewolf had got to him first. It would have been quicker. Melanie had her eyes shut tight and she had a hand over Jessie’s too. The toad swallowed hard, not used to eating a meal so large.
Then it started shitting all over the place.
Jack gaped and Jessie let out a nervous noise like a giggle mixed with terror and nausea. He must have been watching through Melanie’s fingers.
The toad was shitting out miniature versions of the guard, all identical. They were about a foot tall. They had on the same clothing and armor and they were each armed the same way too. The toad must have squeezed out a dozen of these tiny copies before it was done.
When the last one plopped out, the tiny guards all huddled together in a semi-circle, possibly formulating a battle plan. Then they all yelled ‘hoorah’ but in squeaky, downsized voices and took off jogging down the corridor. When Jack and his group approached the toad it was obviously dead. Its large bulk was unmoving and its eyes were locked in a death stare.
Oliver said, “It did what it was meant to do,” by way of a half assed and totally guessed at explanation.
The toad became a brilliant flash of light that Jack had to hide his eyes from. The light was intense enough to shine through his arm and for a second he thought he could see his bones and blood vessels. When the light dimmed and he dropped his arm away, the toad was gone. He had to blink a couple times to regain his sight fully.
“Back to the land of make believe I suppose,” Oliver mused. It came out as a question rather than a statement. They stood still, no one saying a word until Jack realized they were in some form of mild shock. He said, “Let’s keep moving.”
When they rounded the corner, the corridor ahead was empty. They heard an ear splitting scream coming from up ahead, just around the next corner.
Melanie was the first to drop to her knees. Oliver fell down next to her. Both of them had their hands over their ears, their eyes shut tight.
Jack and Jessie stared at each other, aware that they should both be on the ground in agony as well.
The scream intensified for a few seconds and then stopped abruptly.
Melanie and Oliver were standing up when the scream came a second time. Oliver went down hard but Melanie caught a hold of Jack’s pant leg. He put an arm around her shoulder to steady her. When the screaming stop
ped he helped her to her feet. He knew it was the odd alien look-alike that had made the noise. You don’t forget something like that. The difference this time was that it didn’t affect him at all and he could tell it was far more powerful than the scream it had issued when he first saw it in its cage. It was as though it was just practicing when it was caged up.
When they peeked around the next corner his suspicions were confirmed. It was the alien and it was on the floor in a heap. It was surrounded by dead guards with blood still running from their eyes and ears. That same brilliant flaring of light appeared in the space the alien occupied. Luckily they just had to duck back around the corner to avoid being blinded by it. When the light extinguished the alien was gone just like the toad.
Jack asked Oliver, “Why did it die? It could have kept helping us.”
“I don’t really know. Maybe it used up all its power or something. Maybe it did exactly what it had to do and nothing more. I can only guess.”
It gave Jack hope though. The invisible creature hadn’t died yet even though it had already contributed to their escape. Maybe it would help them again at the next elevator. He could only pray that it would because if it didn’t they’d surely be killed on the ground floor.
They got ambushed around the next corner. This forced Jack to consider whether the shot glass in his belly was benefiting him anymore. How these guards hadn’t been killed was a mystery. Maybe they came from some side entrance Jack hadn’t seen before. Maybe they were goofing around in one of the vacant offices when the sirens went off. It didn’t matter, what mattered was that they got the drop on them before Jack could deploy the ball. Luckily only one of the three guards prematurely fired off a shot and he missed everyone.
One of the guards started yelling over and over for them to get on the ground. The others joined in on chorus; deep, manly voices overlapping.
One of them stopped shouting long enough to say into his walkie, “We have them sir.”
The General’s voice was clear enough through the static and over the yelling. “Kill them all,” he ordered.
All three men were plainly going to do as instructed when behind them someone said in a highfalutin English accent ‘Fuck off.’
It said it again and then spat.
The first guard to turn and see the goatraffe standing there yelling fuck off, screamed like a teenage girl at the freakish sight which made his buddies turn toward it too. They all froze in terror, their brains crashing like freeware.
The goatraffe started to spit at them all, each guard was ducking and juking the spittle like it carried cooties. This gave Jack the time he needed to get the death ball moving without the fear of being shot at.
The men all had exposed skin so it was an easy succession of kills. Before the ball was back in his hands the goatraffe was already being swallowed by the bright light.
“I was wondering how that thing was going to be of any help,” Melanie said.
Jack nodded grimly. There was a distant voice in his head that was trying to tell him that this was all wrong. How many sacrifices and dead guards would there be when it was all over? He’d just added three kills to his resume. Was it worth it? He didn’t hear the words as plainly as he felt the sadness of them.
The death ball twitched in his grasp and snapped him back to reality. It was eager to consume. It willed him onward and he obediently obliged. He felt his abdomen twinge and guessed that the shot glass had sprayed a fresh geyser of go-juice into his belly.
He led the way to the elevator at a jog, with renewed purpose.
The other creatures were nowhere in sight.
Oliver thought aloud, “I wonder which one figured out how to use the elevator buttons?”
Jack assumed it was one of the clones or maybe Karl Marx.
He was pleasantly surprised when something invisible brushed past him. The elevator call button was depressed seemingly of its own accord. The invisible monster had waited. That was good news.
Something pressed gently against his crotch. Jack smiled awkwardly and took a half step back. It didn’t deter the invisible beast though. It groped at him for another ten seconds, the whole time Jack tried his best to pretend nothing was going on.
Melanie didn’t see it. That was good. He didn’t think the others would understand.
Finally the doors slid open. The shots rang out before Jack knew what was happening. Luckily the beast was the closest to the doors so none of the bullets hit their target, instead bouncing off its transparent body. One of the four armed men inside the elevator got hit in the face with a ricochet and went down. The others barely noticed, seemingly intent on expelling every bullet they’d been issued.
Melanie and Oliver cowered and Jessie put his back against the wall; none of them figured out that the invisible creature was protecting them.
Jack swept the ball into the air and sent it careening around inside the steel box. Everyone inside went silent; dead instantly.
There was that now familiar flash of light. It took everyone by surprise except for Jack. He was a little saddened by it.
When it was over Melanie said, “What the hell?”
Jack answered, “It was the invisible one again.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just know.”
Oliver said petulantly, “Maybe next time a little warning?” He was talking about the flash of light that caught them all off guard.
Jack rolled his eyes. If they got out of this facility with only blindness to show for it they’d be fucking lucky. Then he felt the death ball jitter in his palm and he thought, we’ll make it out no problem, just feed the ball and let the creatures do their job. It’s in the bag.
Each thought was so diametrically opposed that he didn’t really know what to think. It didn’t matter. The time for worrying was long gone.
Chapter 64: Topside
They simply nudged the warm carcasses aside with their feet when they boarded the elevator. Melanie propped up a dead body. She and Jessie hid behind it like it was a meat shield. Oliver stole a gun from a dead guy but he fumbled with it so much Jack worried he’d accidentally kill one of them by mistake.
Jack was poised for action with Oliver crouched at his side when the doors opened. The place was deserted. It was not barren of sounds though. They could hear screams and shouts cascading off the walls as terrifying echoes. It sounded like a haunted house at Halloween except far more disturbing because it was real; it was what agonizing death sounded like.
They waited like that, listening and hoping the fight would wind down before they had to get involved. No such luck.
Jack’s oldest clone, the one without the replica death ball, ran past going the wrong way. On its heels were two guards blasting away as they chased it down. They ran past the elevator without noticing the occupants. Jack instinctively reared his throwing arm back, ready to set the ball in motion.
He stepped out and saw his clone round a corner to the left. Just as the two armed men slowed down to round it too the werewolf jumped them from the opposite side. Jack’s clone had set up an ambush.
The werewolf tore the men to shreds until they stopped squirming beneath its furry muscular bulk.
When it was done with its kill, Jack’s clone ran up to it and the werewolf did the damnedest thing. It reached its paw up and slapped the clones hand as a high five. Then the clone hung his head and remained still for several seconds. He was enveloped in a flash of light and then he was gone.
Jack stepped back inside the elevator to make way for the werewolf as it ran past. Its job clearly wasn’t done yet.
A few seconds later an older woman went running past the open elevator, going the same direction as the werewolf. She was wearing a lab coat. Jack recognized her. She was the crazy, ‘you’re all doomed’ woman from the cafeteria. She was running like a bat out of hell.
There came the sound of gunfire and she collapsed dead ten feet from where they were all huddled inside the elevator. A uniformed man
ran past and Jack recognized him as the lab coated woman’s escort. Jack peered around the door just in time to see the werewolf jump the guy.
Shots rang out but they were all in vain. The attack lasted mere seconds. When the werewolf was done, it ran right out the front door, into daylight.
With that final attack an eerie silence pervaded the front lobby. They took this as their opportunity to make a break for it. The lobby was bathed in blood. There were bodies scattered around like modern art.
They were only a couple of feet out of the elevator when gunfire issued from behind the front desk. Whoever was shooting was too chicken-shit to stand up and take aim so he was firing blind over the counter, missing them all. Jack started to usher his group back into the safety of the elevator.
The guard saw them retreating and his courage surfaced. He was tall and bulky but he was quick on his feet as he gave chase. Jack was too busy getting everyone to safety to use the ball. The guard fired off a short burst as he rushed them. Jack felt like this might be it for them.
Then the pot bellied pig stepped out of the shadows right in the guard’s path. The oaf tripped over it and crashed to the floor, his rifle clattering away from him across the tiles.
Oliver stepped forward and aimed his stolen rifle at the guard. He ran five rounds into him and the guard moved no more.
The pig actually squealed right before it fell over dead. The light took it as with the others.
They walked into the center of the lobby, nervous and hesitant.
The windows were all pocked from impacts but remained intact. That was a good thing because the dozen or so guards on the high walls saw them and began firing into the glass. The windows shuddered but held.
Jack was about to inch the front door open to let his death ball out but it turned out that he didn’t have to.
The Karl Marx ant looking creature appeared at the base of the wall. It started to yell and gesture with its ant appendages and human arms. It was obvious from its movements that it was conducting an attack like a military Commander. It pointed up at the walls and yelled something Jack couldn’t quite hear.