The Shadow Above The Flames

by Daniel Swenson

  Mr. Perkins walked out of Henry's office and headed towards the elevator. Two security guards, dressed in standard black Union Forest uniforms, followed him out.

  Henry sighed in relief as the doors to the elevator closed. He sat in his chair and mulled over what Lenny and Mr. Perkins had said. Something was going on, and it nagged at Henry, but he wasn't certain what it was. He glanced down at his watch, realized how late it was, and jumped to his feet to grab his jacket and rush out the door.

  Henry pushed the call button for the elevator and waited. He heard the familiar elevator ding and stepped inside. Some ridiculous teen bop love song played during a commercial. He tried to ignore it but couldn’t. So he reached for his music player and realized he had left it on his desk. Silently cursing his luck, he checked his watch once again and decided to leave it behind.

  Henry was extremely thankful when the elevator arrived at the first floor. Knowing the time was now against him, he rushed out the doors. But as soon as the doors opened, he smacked right into Mr. Perkin's second in command, Roger Smythe.

  "Watch where you're going, you idiot!" Smythe exclaimed.

  Henry stammered an apology but couldn't help the scowl that started to form on his face.

  "Oh, Mr. Morgan, it's you. Why am I not surprised?" Smythe remarked.

  Henry had to restrain himself from punching the arrogant slug. Smythe was his superior, and the last thing he needed was to give him an excuse to fire him.

  "I'm sorry. I'm in a rush to meet someone," Henry explained.

  Smythe preened himself in one of the nearby reflective windows. "Is it to meet with that fellow who paid you a visit earlier today?"

  Henry was a bit shocked by Smythe's direct and open accusation.

  Smythe was an arrogant jerk who always dressed in the latest designer suits and was extremely vain. He was the type of guy you see in the movies who you hope gets killed first. Henry couldn't stand Smythe’s fake charisma. It annoyed him more than he cared to admit.

  "No, sir, I planned to meet someone else. What does Lenny have to do with anything?"

  Smythe finished adjusting his tie, checking one last time to make sure his hair was perfectly arranged. "Oh, nothing. We just want to make sure our senior officers are not squandering their time with a vagabond like that."

  Again, Henry had to resist the urge to punch Smythe in the face.

  "Oh, also,” Smythe continued, “because of this afternoon’s little interruption, Mr. Perkins has asked that all personnel be checked for any unauthorized or portable drives before exiting the building."

  Henry removed his jacket and slammed it on the counter. "We both know that I've already met with Mr. Perkins before coming down here. He has reviewed my report and knows that I have included every detail. I have been part of the security team at Union Forest for the last twelve months. If my loyalty to the company is in question, please have Mr. Perkins come down here immediately so the three of us can discuss this in person."

  He noticed the corners of Smythe's lips curl into an impish grin when he waved the scanner over Henry's jacket. The light on the scanner flashed green, signaling that his jacket was clear. Henry could see the disappointment in Smythe's eyes.

  "I'm hurt that you feel that your loyalty is in question, and I apologize that you feel like you are being singled out. However, Mr. Perkins has requested that all personnel be checked as they leave the premises this evening. Now, tell me how it would appear to the other employees if we didn't check our own security personnel?"

  Henry sighed, knowing he was trapped and could tell Smythe knew it too by the smile that appeared on his face. Henry's knuckles whitened as he squeezed his fists into balls. He counted to ten under his breath. He knew that Smythe was somewhat telling the truth because Mr. Perkins and Smythe wouldn’t be setting a good example if they picked out who was scanned and who wasn't. How many possible lawsuits would that open up? he thought.

  "Well, do we have a problem?" Smythe asked.

  Henry could tell by the slight twitch in Smythe's smile that he was hoping Henry would continue to argue or throw a punch at him. He wanted an excuse to call security down to detain him. Instead, Henry nodded for Smythe to continue scanning. Reluctantly, Smythe picked up the hand scanner from the front desk counter and waved the device up and down Henry's body. He noticed that Smythe paid particular attention to his pockets. Once again, the light in the device flashed green.

  Henry could see the disappointment in Smythe's eyes.

  "Well, it appears that you have nothing to worry about. We didn't find any devices or drives on you. So you are free to go. Thank you, as always, for your service. Have a nice evening."

  Henry curtly nodded to Smythe and then picked up his jacket. "Goodnight, Smythe."

  Henry walked out of the Union Forest building and signaled for a transit cab. Within moments, one pulled up to the curb. Henry wasted no time jumping into the cab and telling it where he wanted to go. As the cab pulled away, Henry glanced back and saw that Mr. Perkins and Smythe were talking to each other while other Union Forest employees exited the building without being scanned. Henry pulled out the blue card that had been resting inside his jacket pocket. He flipped the card over and inspected it. Why hadn't it triggered the scanner? he wondered. He also wondered what Lenny had gotten himself into this time, and what did it have to do with Rick?

  Rick fired off another round of bullets at the mutated squirrels while he, McAvoy, and Jacobson ran for their lives. The crazed squirrels had returned with a pack of vicious, mutated canines that easily clawed and bit their way through the team’s barricades. Wells had run ahead to scout out the fastest and safest way out of the godforsaken town, but, so far, it didn’t look good.

  These new beasts were nasty, and it took way too many bullets to take them down. Rick had already exhausted two of his magazines while trying to take down one of the canines when it had tried to bull rush Jacobson back at the store. If it hadn't been for Wells’s quick thinking, the specialist may have been ripped to pieces. In their escape, Wells set off some minor charges near the front of the store, creating confusion and allowing the team to slip out the back.

  Wells did his best to suppress the explosion so that it only created a large dust cloud instead of blasting away the entire front of the building. Unfortunately, he did too well of a job because the explosion didn't cause the type of panic they had hoped for. It was the price they paid in their effort to not attract larger problems.

  The explosion scared some of the smaller creatures away with its small chunks of debris showering down on them. The larger, more fearsome creatures, however, sneezed and growled away their irritation and then once again began clawing and chewing their way into the store. During the commotion, the team slipped out the back of the store.

  A cold bead of sweat rolled down the back of Rick's neck as he ran down the alley heading towards Catherine Street with the rest of the team. The terrifying howls of the demonic-looking creatures reverberated off the walls of the alleyways, causing the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end. Another of the canine creatures, followed by a horde of mutated squirrels, rounded the corner behind them. Once it spotted them, it howled to its companions and charged forward. Wells threw a grenade towards the creatures, and all four men immediately ducked into the closest building just before it exploded.

  Rick felt the reverberations of the grenade as it detonated. The surviving creatures cried out in pain. As the dust settled, Rick watched a horrific scene of the canine creatures tearing apart their injured companions while the squirrels chittered in glee from the rooftops. Wells and Jacobson frantically piled up tables and chairs in an attempt to seal off the empty doorway.

  The two men shouted for help as they tried to push a pool table towards the door. McAvoy signaled for Rick to join them. Rick slung his rifle over his shoulder and rushed to join the other two men. It wasn't easy to get the pool table to move. But after a few minutes of heavy pushing, they were able to get it ne
ar the door. They tipped it on its side, the table crashing down with a resounding thud. A few of the old billiard balls went bouncing out the door.

  The rabid canines turned from their deluge of carnage and blood to pounce upon the fist-sized balls in a frenzy of fur and claws. While they scrambled and fought over the billiard balls, McAvoy seized the opportunity to take out a few more of them. The sound of his rifle crackled threw the street as several canine heads whipped back in awkward angles before dropping to the ground lifeless. The creatures dashed off in panic after several of their companions mysteriously died.

  Rick returned to the window with his rifle in hand, searching for any creatures that remained. Some of them lurked in the shadows of the alleys or behind what few cars remained in the area. Rick let out a sigh of relief, hoping that maybe things would calm down a bit. He turned to inform the team what was going on outside and realized for the first time that they had ducked into an old Irish pub. The place was still in decent shape, considering what the rest of the town looked like.

  He cringed and the hair on the back of his neck stood up as the canine’s howls echoed along the alleyways. The discordant noise wracked his nerves. It sounded like nails scraping across a chalkboard mixed with the howl of a sick dog. Rick noticed that it had the same effect on the sergeant as well.

  McAvoy clicked on his comm. "Wells, find us a way out of this building, preferably underground where these damn creatures can't see us. If you can't find us one, then find us a place where we won't run into these damn things again. I honestly don't believe we'll be able to hold out in here for long."

  Wells responded, confirming that he would go check the basement for any possible exits. Soon after, Jacobson came on the comm line. He informed the team that while Wells was busy searching for a way out, he planned on barricading the back entrance.

  Rick watched McAvoy pace the room, muttering curses under his breath. He had never seen the sergeant this frustrated or out of sorts before. McAvoy was generally cool and collected. He always had a plan; no matter what trouble they got into, he always had a way out. It kind of reminded Rick of the leader from an old television show that his grandfather used to watch.

  A few minutes later Jacobson returned and reported that he'd successfully barricaded the back entrance. Luckily, the windows of the pub had already been boarded up, preventing the squirrels from throwing objects through the windows. Sergeant McAvoy walked over and sat down on the edge of an old, tattered booth bench.

  "Well, men, it appears that we are trapped. And unless Wells finds us a way out of this dump, we’ll have to fight our way out of town. Take a few moments to rest. You’ll need every ounce of strength you've got."

  Wells clicked off his comm, gripping his HK MP5N a little bit tighter as the gloom of the basement settled around him. The hallway before him was thick with cobwebs. Systematically, he searched through the rooms. In one of the rooms, a worn out poster of a slick guy dressed in a tailored suit and drinking out of a wine glass clung to the wall. The man in the poster reminded him of a guy named Smythe who had given them their briefing back in the States.

  That guy’s a real douche bag, he thought. During the briefing, he had watched how Symthe had moved and talked and how others employees reacted to him. All of this told Wells volumes of information about the man. However, he still agreed to the mission and would do as he was ordered.

  Wells kicked a box off to the side out of irritation. This was supposed to be his last mission, and then he could retire to a life of boredom with his wife and kid, like Rick's brother. It was supposed to have been a simple retrieval job. Somehow, it had all gone horribly wrong, and now they were running for their lives, fighting off mutated dogs and squirrels.

  Something shuffled in the darkness ahead of him. Wells gripped his rifle tighter and refocused on the task at hand. The beam from his flashlight provided a meager amount of light from which Wells could see.

  The cobwebs grew thicker the further down the hall he went. At one point, they were so thick he had to brush them away with the tip of his gun so they wouldn't cling to him. He pressed forward, hoping that he wouldn't run into anything that would want to snack on him.

  As he rounded the corner, he heard the creaking of a hinged door as it was pushed open. Wells slowly padded down the dark hallway, swatting away the translucent webs while he made his way towards a partially opened door. When he arrived, he saw by the dust trail that something had pushed the door part way open. He slowly pushed it open the rest of the way. The hinges screeched in protest.

  Soon after he entered the room, something moved in the darkness, lunging out at him. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Wells spun and fired a couple of rounds at the fur-covered projectile. The bullets ripped through the creature like tissue paper, halting its momentum and causing it to drop to the floor dead.

  Wells flashed his light on the thing to examine it. It appeared to be a small cat-like creature with a ridge of spikes that protruded out of its spine. Wells carefully approached the dead animal, nudging it with his boot. "Where in the world did you come from? Upstairs? Or is there another way in down here?"

  Nudging the creature again, he moved passed it and surveyed the room, hunting for any possible entrances. The comm clicked to life, and McAvoy asked for a report. Wells berated himself in the darkness. Of course the others would worry after hearing the gunfire.

  Wells took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm himself before clicking on his comm. "It's all clear down here, sir. I ran into a small cat-like thing, but I think I scared it more than it scared me. Unfortunately, it jumped at me, and I reacted. It's dead now. So unless there is something else down here that I don't know of, we're good."

  "I'm glad to hear you're okay. Have you been able to find a way out yet?" McAvoy inquired.

  "Not yet. However, I'm going to investigate a little further to see if this creature knew of another way in."

  McAvoy gave the okay for Wells to investigate further. Clicking off the comm, he moved some of the boxes and containers around in the room, searching for any opening that may have allowed the cat thing in, when he felt a slight breeze on his right cheek.

  Turning, he searched along the shelves and walls to the right. After a few moments, he found the source of the breeze. There was a small crack in the stonework where a current of air flitted through. Reaching behind the broken crates and cardboard boxes, Wells used his fingers to trace the seam in the stone.

  The crack seemed to be an outline of a door, so he looked for a mechanism that would release it. Wells searched until he found a slightly off-colored brick in the wall that wouldn't have stood out unless someone was looking for it. He pushed on the brick and heard a click. He then stepped back to let the door open, nearly tripping over the dead creature on the floor.

  The hidden door swung into the open, revealing a stone tunnel that led into darkness. However, the stench that wafted from the tunnel had Wells guessing it led to the sewers. He drew out his sidearm and held it at shoulder level; his other arm held his flashlight.

  He carefully stepped through the doorway making his way down the foul-smelling tunnel. It wasn't long before Wells confirmed his suspicions about where the tunnel led. He stopped to contact the rest of the team. The comm remained silent with some static crackling on the lines. He stood in the silence among the remains of past sewage along with a few bones of who knows what.

  There were no signs of creatures in the tunnel, so Wells headed back. When he was back in the storage room, he clicked on his comm. "Sir, I've found us a way out. There is some sort of smuggling tunnel that leads to the sewers. It stinks to high heaven, but it appears to be clear of any creatures."

  The sounds of gunfire reverberated over the comm as Sergeant McAvoy quickly responded. "That's the best damn news I've heard all day. If I wasn't blasting the hell out of these freakishly mutated creatures, I'd run down there and kiss you. Jacobson is setting up a little surprise for them. We've been dealing with them for
the last twenty minutes or so. We tried getting you on the comm, but when we didn't hear back, we feared the worst."

  Wells holstered his sidearm, unslung his HK MP5N from his shoulder, and started up the stairs. "I'm on my way, sir."

  Sargent McAvoy returned on the comm line almost immediately. "Stay where you are. We're coming to you. These damn creatures decided that a full on attack to the front of the building was their best way to get at us. Luckily, that pool table is providing a solid barricade, but they are extremely persistent. Jacobson is almost done. Give us about five minutes."

  The comm went silent again, and Wells heard the muted sounds of gunfire emanating from down the hallway. Wells made his way towards the stairs that led to the pub’s common room when Rick appeared at the top of the stairs.

  "Wells, is that you?" Rick yelled down.

  Wells waved his flashlight to signal Rick down. When Rick reached the bottom, he quickly plugged his nose. "Where is that god-awful stench coming from?"

  Wells pointed down the hall. He tried to ask where McAvoy and Jacobson were when a small explosion rocked the building, knocking both Rick and Wells off their feet.

  Wells was the first to regain his footing, after which, he grabbed Rick by the arm to steady him. Both men turned around to see McAvoy and Jacobson running down the stairs. Rick noticed that they were covered in blood.

  "Don't go falling down and breaking your neck on me now,” McAvoy said. “We've got a sweet date with that tunnel that Wells found for us. Sure, it will lead us into the sewers, but it gives us a way out of this hellhole."

  Jacobson covered their escape while McAvoy and Morgan ran after Wells down the hallway to the storage room. Rick immediately covered his nose as sewage stench blew into the storage room.

  "You've got to be kidding me," Rick proclaimed while still plugging his nose. "Sergeant, are we seriously going to go into that?"