by Ben Hammott
When Ramirez locked eyes with the female Black, the creature shot forward and stopped with its face almost touching the glass. He staggered back, barging into the cupboard he had moved a moment ago, and watched the face morph into his own. His eyes flicked to the handle when it turned. His finger moved to the trigger as he aimed his rifle at the door. Loud retorts reverberated around the room. Bullets punched splintered holes through the barrier holding the creatures at bay.
CERTAIN THE ALARM SIGNALED the humans were up to something that posed a significant threat to her and her brood, and it would be advisable to kill them all before they completed whatever they had planned, EV1L halted at the door of the room she sensed the lone human was in. She turned to her excited brood gathered around her and hissed them to silence.
EV1L stared at the human when he peered through the door window at her. He would supply much needed sustenance to a few of her brood quick enough to be first to claim it. She darted forward and mimicked his face as she reached for the door handle. She didn’t flinch when bullets gouged holes through the door and passed harmlessly through her body that she had turned malleable and then parted wide to avoid the following shots. When the firing ceased, she issued an order to her hungry offspring.
AS RAMIREZ FRANTICALLY reloaded, gelatinous Black poured through the bullet holes and down the door. Before they had reached the floor, they began forming into vicious creatures. Aware there was no escape and his death was imminent, Ramirez chose a less painful demise that would take some of the aliens with him. He dropped the rifle and pulled the pins from the five grenades clipped to his ammo vest. He stared defiantly at the creatures reforming into hungry, malicious entities. Eager to feast, they leapt at him. Spreading on contact, they began their devouring process.
Ramirez screamed in agony as the Black claimed him. The door opened. The tall Black creature had discarded its female form completely. It was now the Black version of him. Horrified, Ramirez stared at his Black-formed self as it observed some of its brood claiming nourishment while more of its minions poured into the room. When his Black twin looked him in the eyes, Ramirez forced his pain-creased lips into a satisfied sneer.
When the human’s smile replaced his agonized expression, EV1L sensed danger—a trap. She screeched a warning to her young as she collapsed into a pool of Black mercury.
The explosions killed Ramirez and every creature in the vicinity instantly. It bulged the surrounding walls before they disintegrated and sent wreckage flying out in all directions. The blast carried flame, smoke and debris along the corridor until its force dissipated.
“Warning. Evacuation protocol in process. Nine minutes until detonation.”
WHILE KRISZTINA SQUEEZED up between the elevator and wall, Richard glanced down at the large creature almost upon them. One of its long gangling arms reached up for him, its claws grasping air menacingly. Linking an arm around the ladder, Richard pulled Colbert’s pistol from its holster and aimed at the creature’s head. Six shots echoed loudly through the shaft. The creature screeched with each shot jerking its head back. The bullet holes blasted through it, but its face and body quickly reformed. Richard altered aim and fired at the claws wrapped around the ladder. Bullets sliced through its clawed fingers. It toppled back. Gripping on with its feet, it slammed back against the ladder. Its head merged through its body and grew out of its stomach. Its evil eyes looked at him. Its vicious lips snarled.
Ears ringing from the loud reverberating pistol retorts, Krisztina scrambled onto the top of the elevator, slipped the rifle from her shoulder and moved to one edge. She peered down between elevator and wall, took aim on one of the two smaller creatures and fired a short burst.
Flinching from the loud weapon fire, Richard watched one of the small creatures blasted from the wall. Short tentacles thrust from its body failed to find a purchase to halt its tumble down the shaft. Aware it would survive and return and trusting Krisztina had his back covered, Richard holstered the gun and climbed up to her.
To avoid the same fate as its brethren, the second smaller creature melted into sludge and slithered up the wall.
Krisztina turned her attention to the larger creature pulling itself upright on the ladder and fired a short burst. Believing her bullets had been responsible when it burst apart, she changed her mind when tentacles shot out and snaked up the side of the elevator.
“You coming?”
She turned to Richard’s voice and saw him drop through the hole in the elevator roof. She hurried over, passed her rifle down to Richard and lowered herself into the elevator.
With weapons ready to repel any aliens they encountered, they stepped into the darkness shrouding Level 1 and flipped down their NVGs. Richard kicked away the chair preventing the doors from closing—a delaying tactic at most for the creatures in the shaft certain to follow—and joined Krisztina’s rush for the exit elevator.
Richard and Krisztina heard the blast Ramirez had set in motion, twice. A brief boom over Ramirez’s radio before it was obliterated and a longer, louder explosion that rumbled through the facility.
“What the hell was that?” asked Krisztina when Richard pulled alongside her.
“Hopefully Ramirez clearing us a path.” Richard halted at a junction. “Which way?”
Krisztina jerked her weapon right. “That way to next junction, then left, right and at end left again, and elevator will be there.”
“Let’s hope Ramirez is waiting for us with the elevator ready to take us out of here.”
“Warning. Evacuation protocol in process. Eight minutes until detonation.”
They pressed on.
CHAPTER 29
Detonation
Turning a corner, Richard and Krisztina headed towards the gradually thinning smoke lingering in the corridor, evidence the explosion they’d heard a short while ago originated nearby. A few paces farther they stepped over debris and glimpsed the destruction the blast had caused. Through curls of swirling smoke, wrecked walls revealed themselves. Barely recognizable as its former self, it was only the smoldering shells of the CCTV monitors that identified it as the security office.
Richard ran his eyes over the destruction. “Ramirez sure did a number on this.”
“Do you think he was attacked?” asked Krisztina.
“It’s the only reason I can think of for him to have done it,” reasoned Richard, his eyes searching through the choking, drifting smoke for signs of the Black. “Let’s continue to the elevator, he’s probably there waiting for us.” He unnecessarily aimed his mouth towards his mic. “Ramirez, we’re just passing what’s left of the security office and will be at the exit elevator shortly. Colbert, power up the ‘copter, we’re coming.”
Shifting wreckage a few paces away halted them and directed their eyes at the dark shadow rising from the floor.
WRECKAGE THAT HAD RAINED down upon EV1L, shifted and clattered to the floor when she drew in the edges of the Black pool she had formed to escape death. Her increased mass progressively bulged and grew as she formed into a creature that would provide a defense against the humans she sensed nearby.
RAISING THEIR WEAPONS, Richard and Krisztina stepped back and fired at the shadow within the smoke. They ceased firing when the dark phantom disappeared.
Puzzled, Krisztina looked at Richard. “Where did it go?”
Richard shrugged. “Not far I expect.”
“Warning. Evacuation protocol in process. Seven minutes until detonation.”
“Seven minutes,” warned Krisztina.
Richard peered into the smoke. They needed to move, but the alien could be a puddle on the floor, a stain on the blast-blackened walls, a single monstrous creature or a hoard of tiny devils that would flow over them, and anything in-between. He needed to do something fast. Think, Richard, think!
A piece of wreckage fell from the ceiling and clanged to the floor in a nearby blast damaged room. Richard cast his gaze at the sound. The creature was creeping up at them from the side. He grabbed
his last grenade from his vest, pulled the pin, showed it to Krisztina so she knew what was coming, and threw it at the sound. “Run!”
They sprinted through the smoke and along the corridor.
The blast wave funneled through the corridor pressed against their backs, almost toppling them to the ground. The already weakened ceiling crashed to the floor behind them. They kept running.
Spotting the elevator ahead and cursing Ramirez for abandoning them, Richard screamed into his mic. “Send the elevator down, now!”
“On its way,” replied Dalton immediately.
Skidding to a halt at the lift, they rushed inside when the doors spread open. Richard thumped the up button, and both, expecting the Black to appear and rip them from the elevator, anxiously watched the gap between the doors get narrower until they met.
Relief flooded over them.
Krisztina turned to Richard when the elevator jerked into motion. “I don’t believe it. We did it.”
Richard shrugged and grinned. “Just another typical day for a hero like me.”
“Every hero deserves a reward.” Krisztina leaned toward Richard and kissed him on the cheek.”
Richard smirked a little lecherously. “I’m hoping that was just an appetizer for what will follow.”
Krisztina smiled. “Brave, resourceful and funny.”
“Just a few of my many talents I’m eager to share with you.”
“You may have impressed me, Richard, but I not sleep with you.”
Richard shrugged.
The elevator trembled, re-awakening their fears.
Metal buckled above them.
Their anxious gazes lifted to the ceiling.
Krisztina looked at Richard for an explanation.
Richard shrugged. “Either the explosions have weakened the elevator, or one of those creatures is up there.
Krisztina wasn’t certain what she feared most, but if the elevator broke and sent them back down, they were as good as dead. She experienced relief when the elevator halted, and the doors slid open.
“Warning. Evacuation protocol in process. Six minutes until detonation.”
“Quick,” urged Dalton. “We need to get out of here.”
“Something we’re well aware of,” commented Richard. He was about to step out when an ominous sound halted him. He shot an arm across Krisztina’s chest to halt her.
Dalton raised his eyes to the slithering at the top of the elevator doors. Fear spread across his face when a Black tentacle seeped out. Before he could react, the tentacle lashed out like a whip and wrapped around his neck. His mouth opened to scream, but the tentacle’s choking grip squeezing ever tighter cut it off.
Horrified, Krisztina watched Dalton lifted into the air by his neck. She stifled a scream when his torso dropped and slumped to the floor. His head quickly followed.
Richard grabbed Krisztina’s arm and dragged her out of the elevator as more tentacles slithered through the gap between elevator and doors. Dodging and ducking under the searching appendages trying to snare them, Richard snatched a grenade from Krisztina’s ammo vest and pulled the pin. When a tentacle homed in on the schlik of sliding metal, Richard lobbed it in its path. The tentacle wrapped around it and smothered it.
Richard caught up with Krisztina by the exit door she yanked open. The blast slammed him against the door as shrapnel struck the walls. Feeling something strike him, Richard looked at the piece of Black on his chest. Without thinking, he instinctively brushed it off. It shattered on striking the floor. It was dead.
Richard glanced across the room at the Black pouring from the elevator roof like a waterfall formed of melted tar. When it started forming into a monstrosity he had no wish to see completed, he rushed through the exit.
Colbert, Sullivan, and Mason sprinted over to investigate the explosion.
“What happened?” demanded Colbert.
“Good to see you, too,” quipped Richard.
“The alien’s here. It ripped Dalton’s head off,” explained Krisztina breathlessly.
Richard thought it was good that Krisztina wouldn’t be reporting the man’s demise to his family.
Saddened and shocked another of his men was dead, Colbert probed them for more information, “What do you mean it’s here, and where’s Ramirez?”
Richard headed for the helicopter and cocked a thumb at the building he walked away from. “Alien’s in there, and you’re welcome to it.”
Though he didn’t know for certain Ramirez was dead, he thought it probable. He couldn’t risk Colbert delaying their escape while the man was searched for, so he added, “Ramirez is also dead.” He glanced at Krisztina. “Come on, Sweet Cheeks, our work is done.”
Krisztina shrugged at the shocked SEALs and followed Richard. She had done all she could.
“What do we do?” asked Mason, his eyes fixed on the entrance strange slithering sounds came from.
“Nothing we can do except continue with the EVAC and hope the blast incinerates the creature.”
When they turned towards the waiting helicopter, the side of the building exploded outwards. A creature, black, bulbous, and with a body all mouth and teeth, thumped to the ground in a mass of tentacles between the SEALs and the helicopter.
Richard looked fearfully back at the alien. “That thing sure is persistent.”
“What do we do?” asked Krisztina, wondering if they’d ever escape the alien’s clutches alive.
“We get on the helicopter,” Richard climbed aboard and looked at the pilot. “Time to leave. All your buddies are dead.”
Kelly dragged his eyes away from the tentacle-waving monster his three teammates backed away from. “They’re not dead. I can see them.”
“Semantics. They soon will be, so let’s leave while we still can because when it’s finished feeding on them, it’s going to come after us.”
“A little over four and a half minutes to detonation,” warned Krisztina, glancing at her watch.
“I’m not leaving my teammates while they are still alive,” stated Kelly firmly.
Richard held up his rifle. “It would be merciful if I gave them a quick death.”
Kelly leaned into the back and snatched the rifle from Richard. “I’ll shoot you before I let you shoot my friends.”
Richard humphed. “If that monster comes our way, I’ll be begging you to.”
“Why wait?” threatened Kelly, shooting Richard a frosty glare before directing his gaze back upon his buddies. “We have to help them.”
Krisztina nudged Richard. “Go on, think of something.”
Richard roamed his eyes around the helicopter. “Okay. I have an idea. Buckle up, Sweet Cheeks, it’s going to get hairy. Kelly, get us airborne.”
Kelly shot Richard a suspicious gaze. “I’m not leaving without them.”
“Do as I say and we’ll all be leaving together, or we’ll all die here.”
Indecisive as to what he should do, Kelly looked at his friends who desperately needed help.
“Trust him, he’s good at this,” advised Krisztina.
Having no ideas of his own to save his fellow SEALs, Kelly increased the power to the turbine and lifted the helicopter off the ground.
Richard shouted into his mic. “Colbert, I’m coming to save your ass, again.”
Wondering what Richard was up to, Colbert glanced at the rising helicopter. “Then I suggest you do it fast.”
Gazing out the open door, Richard grinned at Colbert. “Get ready for the fastest EVAC of your life.”
“Put the headsets on, so you’ll be able to communicate more clearly,” instructed Kelly.
Richard and Krisztina picked headsets hanging from the ceiling and slipped them on.
“Where’s the abseiling ropes?” asked Richard.
“Under the seats,” replied Kelly, grasping an inkling of Richard’s plan.
Richard crouched and pulled a thick, black rope from beneath the nearest seat. While he hooked the locking clamp attached to one end
of the neatly coiled ropes over one of the locking catches above the door, Krisztina pulled out another and passed it to him. When three ropes were attached, Richard gazed down at the men firing at the tentacled creature. To avoid the onslaught of bullets, it climbed over the top of the Russian transport truck and dropped to the ground.
“Do we have any more grenades?” Richard asked the pilot.
“You and Krisztina took the last ones,” replied Kelly.
Richard turned to Krisztina. “How much time do we have?”
Krisztina looked at her watch. “Three minutes and twenty-one seconds.”
“Kelly, how long to get us clear of the blast?”
“Three minutes, minimum.”
“Then we need to hurry. Take us around in a circle and approach them from the front so they can see us coming.”
Richard gripped the handle attached to the doorframe when the pilot swooped around the compound. He looked down as a grenade thrown by Sullivan at the creature atop the Russian truck, exploded. Tentacles swiped the air chaotically as it tumbled to the ground. Colbert, still limping from his leg wound, and Sullivan and Mason dashed for the smoldering remains of the tanker, probably planning to use the smoke to conceal themselves. Waving tentacles at the fleeing men, the creature emerged from behind the truck and gave chase.
“Colbert, I’m going to drop ropes for you three to grab when we pass. We don’t have time for a second try or to hover, so make sure you grab them on the first pass.”
“Understood,” affirmed Colbert. “We’ll be ready.”
Richard kicked the three coils of rope out and watched them unravel. “Ropes are down,” he informed the pilot. “As soon as we have them, lift up and get us out of here.”
“It’s already on my to-do list. Let me know as soon as they’re on the ropes.”
