The creature opened its unnaturally wide mouth, emitting a hiss that carried strangely in the air. I racked a shell into the chamber and raised the shotgun to my shoulder. It began to lunge as I fired.
The door was closing on its hydraulic arm, which ended up saving us. The lunge was caught short as it smashed its head into the door. My shot wasn’t spot on, instead hitting the creature’s outstretched arm.
My shotgun was loaded with buckshot. It shredded the arm, splattering scales and ichor against the walls. An inhuman sound issued from its throat. The arm withdrew even as the other hand scrabbled against the door. It grasped the metal, bending it.
The hand pulled the door back, causing it to screech. I racked the slide on the shotgun, ejecting the spent shell and loading a new one. My shotgun roared as I fired into the chest of the creature. Larry and Castillo also fired into its torso.
The door was ripped free from its hinges as the creature lurched back. It shook its head and started coiling for another attack. Larry and I both jacked the pump, once more sending empty shells flying. Screams were coming from behind me.
Castillo’s rifle continually barked, sending lead flying through the chest of the creature. Black blood covered every surface in the stairwell. Even with all that punishment, it lunged once more at me.
I fired at the creature’s skull as it neared the doorway, causing its head to explode. Gore splattered the railing and walls behind the creature. The body fell to the floor, twitching madly.
Castillo started swearing as he brushed blood and bone off of his arm. My head was ringing from the extremely loud gunfire in the closed space. I could vaguely hear crying behind me.
“What the FUCK was that Castillo?” I wasn’t sure if I was shouting or not due to the newly induced tinnitus.
“Other staircase. That is one BIG motherfucker.” Castillo was evidently shaken.
I ignored his order, and stepped into the stairwell. I was extremely careful not to touch anything the creature’s blood was on. My flashlight reflected strangely off of the black blood.
The stench of gunpowder and blood was thick in the stairwell. The stench of blood hung in the air. I could practically taste it in the back of my mouth. As I tried to breathe as shallowly as possible, the smell struck a memory.
It smelled the same as Geno’s knife had when he reappeared. Even stranger still, while the blood itself appeared black in all but the strongest light, the smell had a connotation of purple in my head.
I exhaled. Then I looked down over the corpse that blocked the stairwell.
This creature was truly enormous. It had to be twenty feet long from tail to head. The torso barely fit into the stairs, wedged between the railing and wall. The tail was just visible on the next set of stairs down. Scales covered the entire creature.
It looked like a giant snake, like an anaconda, but with a twisted human grafted on as the head.
“Holy fuck...” I muttered. Larry surprised me as he put a hand on my shoulder.
“How the fuck did Geno fight one of these? This thing took way too much lead. There's no way he killed it with a knife.”
“Not right now. Give it a minute. Let’s go,” he said as he nodded toward the other stairwell. I nodded, turning the idea over. Castillo was already checking the stairwell and radioing something to the teams below.
He turned to the group and addressed us as a whole.
“Alright folks, it’s time to go. Move quickly. Help your neighbors. We need to get out of here yesterday!”
“Castillo, over here one moment.”
He looked at me, his face hard to read through the mask. He signaled the group to stop, then walked over.
“What is it? We've got to go now.”
“We haven't seen anything like that—“ I said as I waved toward the corpse in the other stairwell. “Why are they attacking now?”
“Look buddy, I don't know. That's the biggest one I've seen. But if they haven't been attacking you, maybe someone or something has been protecting you.”
He turned back to the crowd, addressing them as he took the lead position.
“Let's move out!”
There was no cheering this time. He took the lead, and people mutely began to follow. I held back with Larry. I watched as everybody passed, feeding into the stairwell two at a time.
Geno walked by, a glazed look on his face. His shotgun was slung over his back instead of in his hands. I was worried, but we didn’t have time to check him over.
Larry held me back until we were the last. We waited until there was a half staircase between us and the next. A few flights passed as we walked, pausing on each floor as Castillo cleared doors.
I could hear Castillo shouting as he cleared each door. Larry stayed with me. Finally, he spoke up.
“Now we know what happened to Geno.”
“Do we, dude? Because how the fuck would he have managed to get away from one of those things? Never mind how he got covered in its blood without dying. Did you see the fucking claws on that thing?”
“Calm down. Castillo was shocked by that thing. I don’t think that was a normal one.”
“Yeah, maybe. But still, how would he have killed or wounded one enough to get away?”
He laughed. “You saw his pigsticker. That thing could gut an elephant.”
I nodded, I didn’t feel like laughing.
“So he managed to kill one with his knife, and the blood is what made him go nuts. Think that’s what Castillo meant when he asked if anybody had been exposed?”
Larry nodded. “Definitely.”
We both fell silent. The fact that had been one of the first questions did not bode well. We continued to trudge down the stairwell.
I could hear feet scraping on concrete below us, and the occasional muffled sob. I kept my head on a swivel, alert to any sounds above or behind us.
After twenty floors, I started hearing something else from below. After another ten floors, I could feel a slight breeze coming up the stairwell rustling my jacket. My eyes felt dry in the cold.
At the thirty fifth floor, we were suddenly redirected through the lobby. I paused for a moment and pointed my flashlight down the gap between staircases. A mottled black metallic object shone dully in the light, two floors below.
The concrete showed some charring. The explosion we had heard earlier in the day must have come from this thing impacting the building. It was incredible that the building was still stable.
I caught up to Larry a moment later.
“The elevators in the building aren’t cable, are they?”
“I don’t think so. Why?” he responded. He hitched his bag up, recentering it. I heard medication bottles rattle.
“We’re moving to the other stairwell because that one is blocked by one of the ships, I think. If it crashed into the elevator shafts, then those elevators just literally became bombs.”
“No, I think when the building loses power they go to the bottom of the shaft and lock in place.”
“I hope so.”
Larry said no more, and we continued the descent. It moved quicker now, and we saw signs of battle on this stairwell. Bullet impacts and claw marks engraved a history on the walls.
We passed a human corpse a few floors down. He had evidently died extremely violently. I assumed it had been a he. The upper half of the body was gone, shredded by what had evidently been several grenades exploding simultaneously.
Next to the human remains was one of the snake creatures. This one was much closer in size to a human, maybe eight to ten feet long. Only the tail remained.
The door on that floor had clearly taken the brunt of the impact, and the people ahead of us had thrown the door into the destroyed lobby to allow the group to continue.
Scenes of battle and chaos continued. The crying was much louder now, clearly coming from more than one person. Only about half of the office had been veterans, and only about half of those had been in combat.
I felt for them. It was
a horrifying sight. By the time we fed into the security lobby on the fourth floor, I had counted six dead soldiers. I had seen the corpses of far more of the Xenos, as Castillo had called them.
“Castillo was right. This building was infested. How did we never run across these things?”
Larry shook his head.
We walked into the security lobby, and immediately noticed that there were dozens of soldiers at the ready. Castillo was on the western side, talking with people. Radio chatter was constant.
I found Jessie near Castillo, at a respectful distance as he spoke with his team.
“Dante, I need to talk to you for a moment.”
“Yeah, what’s up Jessie?”
“The bunker—”
Castillo immediately turned toward us and conversation stopped. I looked at him as he walked over.
“You know about the bunker?”
“Yes. As I was about to tell Dante, I have a badge that grants access. Should save you time. There’s supposed to be personnel and files that are important to the project down there.”
“Okay. Give me the badge. We’ll get your personnel out,” said Castillo.
“No. I will give it to Dante. He should go with you. Take Larry too. You saw them, you can depend on them.”
“Fu—wait one.” He turned and walked back to an officer nearby that was constantly talking on the radio. They spoke for a moment.
I leaned down to Jessie and spoke quietly.
“What are you doing?”
She spoke back just as quietly, never taking her eyes off of Castillo.
“I’m not sure we can fully trust them. I want you two there so that nothing gets overlooked. Here.”
She slipped a small blue badge over to me. I took it and concealed it in my pocket. Castillo walked back a moment later.
“Alright. We’re getting all of your people into the trucks out in the road. I’ll take your two men with my team. We’re going to rappel down the freight shafts in the store. Building plans say that’s the easiest way in without power.”
“We have to rappel?” I asked.
He nodded. “No stairwell. This was supposed to be an ultra-secure base. Something must have happened if they never brought your office down.”
“So we take everybody down below to the store, then what? They leave and we stay behind?”
“Above my paygrade. Alpha Squad, form up,” Castillo barked the last line. Three other men in combat armor stepped forward, seemingly out of nowhere.
“Jessie, please watch over Linda and Eddie for me.”
She nodded and hurried off to find them. I had a feeling the day was far from over.
22
June 27, 2033
Seattle, Washington, USA
First floor, Illeni Building
-61°F
2155 Hours
The whole of our office had gathered down in the store. Somehow, the cold seemed less biting, though I was sure it was as cold as it had been for over a week now.
People milled about in what had been our staging area. I had surrendered my shotgun once we were safely in the store. So had the rest of the watch.
The staging area had expanded since I had last been down here. The subsequent trips had had good cause to rearrange everything. But now, instead of five or six people, it was suddenly hosting nearly a hundred.
I had no idea how many troops were present until we all gathered in the store. An officer walked toward the front doors. He turned and faced the group, waiting as quiet descended.
“Thank you folks. Here’s the plan—we have a few dozen vehicles outside. We had no idea how many people you had in your office, and I applaud your resourcefulness. Unfortunately, this means while everybody will be going with us, it’s going to be a tight fit. Some of you look like you know what I mean, I’m guessing you’re vets.”
His voice was reassuringly rich, but not unapproachable. It was clear why he had been chosen to speak. The man had charisma in spades. I looked closer, and saw ‘Kirby’. The name seemed familiar to me. The color pink tickled the back of my brain.
A few small laughs filtered from the crowd, bringing me back to the present. I knew what Kirby meant, but only on an intellectual level.
“It’s extremely cold outside. So, we’re going to let people out one small group at a time as their vehicle rolls up. You will hand your packs to the soldier on top of the vehicle, and they will secure it. Then you will follow instructions to get inside your vehicle. Get comfy, because it’s an hour long ride to the base. You’re going to be getting to know your neighbors very well.” He chuckled at his own joke.
I didn’t laugh because I suddenly realized how cramped this was going to be. The kids were probably going to have it worst. I felt bad for them. Then I remembered I had a separate mission, and I stopped feeling quite so bad. They were going to be safe.
“Gather up in single file here, folks. We’ll be guiding you out and making sure you make it into your vehicle safely.” He looked around, finding Castillo. He gave Castillo a curt nod. Castillo nodded back, then made a signal in the air to bring us in.
I looked around and found Linda. I jogged over as she was getting in line.
“Hey, I’ve got to go help with the bunker. Stick with Jessie, she’s going to watch out for you two. I’ll be catching up in a little bit, okay?”
I could see fright in her eyes, but Linda nodded. A few feet away, I saw Jessie and Larry having a similar conversation. I reached out and pulled Linda into a fierce hug. She returned it with all of her strength.
“Come back to me in one piece, Dante,” she whispered into my ear. Just then, someone jostled us. I looked down to find Eddie clinging to us from the side. I laughed and put an arm around him too.
I met Linda’s eyes for a moment.
“I will, babe.”
“DeWisr! Mason! Let’s go!” yelled Castillo. He was only twenty or so feet away, so it was totally unnecessary to shout. I kissed Linda on her forehead and let them go.
Larry walked up next to me. We stood in front of Castillo as he checked over his team. One of the other soldiers handed us each a Kevlar vest. I looked at the one they found for Larry and laughed involuntarily. It could have covered a smart car. He glared down at me.
Once we had them strapped on, I realized how snug mine was. Somehow, despite how massive the vest had looked in his hand, Larry’s vest now looked too small.
“How the fuck do you do that, Mason?” I overemphasized his last name. I had somehow completely forgotten his name until Castillo yelled it. How had Castillo learned it in the first place?
Larry looked down at me and chuckled. “I ate my Wheaties.”
“Oh fuck you dude, I’m a normal sized adult. Goddamned Jötnar.”
“Ladies, shut the fuck up,” said Castillo.
Larry and I both chuckled. I don’t think either of us had missed being in the military. Castillo ignored us and went over the plan one last time.
“We’re going to the freight elevators in the back of the warehouse, cracking them open, and rappelling down the shaft. It’s approximately two hundred feet, so don’t fuck up. You two good on this?” he asked, the last part addressed to Larry and me.
“Yeah, Sierra Foxtrot before I retired,” said Larry.
“Special forces? Is there anything you didn't do in the military? Dude, do I know you at all?” I asked flabbergasted. He smirked.
“DeWisr, focus. I swear to god...” muttered Castillo.
“Yes sir. I’ve done rock climbing and military rappelling before.”
“Great. Thompson, go get the rope. Velasquez, get these two idiots guns before I rethink it.”
They both barked a ‘yes sir,’ and took off outside as another group was loaded into a vehicle. About two minutes later they came back with a massive coil of rope over each of their shoulders. I vaguely recognized it as carbon line. It had to be pretty light, because neither one of them seemed troubled by the bulky rope.
I guesse
d Velasquez was the one with darker skin, but again it was hard to tell through their masks. He handed me a rifle, one I was familiar with. M16A5, top of the line with all the bells and whistles. I felt a small thrill holding it.
Larry took his rifle from Thompson. It looked like a toy in his massive hands. He shrugged and slung it over his shoulder. I did the same. We gathered up, and Castillo signaled to move out.
He led on toward the back of the store. We hadn’t seen any of the Xenos for a while, but it was better to be safe than sorry. The soldiers led with weapons at the ready, flashlights on. I echoed them, rifle pointing at the ground but ready to go.
Larry walked quietly next to me. It was amazing how quiet he was for his size. I was careful and my shoes didn’t make any noise, but he looked casual and was nearly as silent as myself.
When we got to the swinging doors, Castillo set the squad on a breach formation. Larry and I stayed at the back as Thompson and Velasquez took each corner. Castillo and the fourth member, whose name I hadn’t caught yet, centered up in a ready stance.
With a flick of his hand, all four were through the door in less than a second, lights clearing the room. Nothing happened after a few seconds, so Larry and I carefully walked through the doors. The squad was still sweeping, but it was clearly due to habit and not necessity.
The brushed steel of the elevator doors gleamed in the cast off light from the flashlights. We made our way to the doors. The four of them took up a perimeter around the doors, facing outward.
Castillo withdrew a slim object from a concealed pocket on his right leg. He flicked his wrist and a protrusion emerged, then he handed it over to me. I took it and looked it over. It was a collapsible carbon fiber crowbar.
“Nice,” I said. Castillo held a finger up to his mask in the universal sign to shut up. He then signaled me to go to the doors. I nodded and walked over. Larry stayed by my side.
I slid the narrow tip into the crack between the doors and jammed it in to get some leverage. Larry stood opposite me, and nodded when I looked at him. I leaned back, hearing the doors creak as I broke them free from ice.
Darkness Trilogy (Book 1): Winds of Darkness Page 13
