Both bullets hit Rimmer, the first taking off a section of his cheek bone, the second going wild and hitting him in the shoulder.
Chittering sounds filled the room as more gobbets of flesh turned into many-legged spiders. They all started skittering about, under tables and along walls.
Jerry wobbled on the spot and looked like he was about to pass out.
Andy grabbed him. “You okay?”
“I just don’t like spiders, man. They’re kind of my nightmare fuel. That and being buried by snow—don’t ask me why because I don’t know.”
Rimmer came forward again and this time Nessie let off a burst of fire from her assault rifle. The bullets missed Rimmer’s thrashing head and buried themselves in his chest. The glistening rope of his beard lashed out and grabbed a hold of Nessie’s rifle.
She fought to hang onto it, but found herself sliding on her heels towards Rimmer’s snarling jaws.
Sun leapt forward with her scalpel and swiped at the slimy beard, severing it in two like a piece of gristle on a bad steak.
Nessie tumbled backwards, the rifle still in her hands. Rimmer let out a pained snarl as viscous black fluid expelled from the open wound at the tip of his beard.
Andy took his opportunity and aimed his revolver carefully. He squinted, pulled the trigger, and then flinched as Rimmer’s head exploded in a fountain of gore.
“Sorry about that, Sergeant.”
One of the spiders fell from the ceiling and landed on Andy’s back. He immediately felt the pressure as the thing tried to bite him. It hissed right beside his ear.
Primal panic took over; he began spinning and thrashing on the spot like a mad man. Sun grabbed him and threw him forward over a table, doubling him over.
He was blind to what was happening but the pressure on his back increased for a second but then removed itself completely. The hissing stopped.
Andy turned around anxiously, only to see that his wife held the dead spider upside down on the end of her scalpel. She was smirking at him.
“Glad to have you back,” said Andy.
“Somebody has to save your ass. Just like old times.”
Andy laughed.
Hissing filled the room all around them as the remaining spiders scuttled out of their hiding places. “Time for us good guys to make an exit,” said Lucas.
Andy frowned. “I don’t think somebody who calls themselves the devil can claim to be a ‘good guy’.”
Lucas grinned. “My days of mischief are behind me, lad. Lucky for you.”
Jerry shuffled side to side, scratching at himself and glancing around nervously. He held the bulbous X-ray machine in his arms and appeared to be struggling. “Can we go now, please?”
A spider flew at Andy’s head. He just managed to duck in time. “Okay, let’s vamoose.”
The group ran towards the library, dodging hissing spiders that leapt at them from all angles. Nessie got hit by one and fell to the floor, but Jerry came to her aid and booted it away. He helped her up off the ground and they carried on running again.
“They’re everywhere,” cried Nessie. “Hundreds of them. We’ll never make it through.”
“I have an idea,” said Jerry. “Everybody keep running.”
Jerry skidded to a halt. Andy looked over his shoulder as the kid fiddled with the bulky machine in his arms. Spiders converged on him from all sides.
“Jerry, come on.”
“I got this, dude.”
There was an electrical humming followed by the familiar clunking sound as the X-ray unit started working.
Andy was forced to face forward as he made it across the room with the others. He was positive that Jerry was a dead man.
The clunking sound was joined by dozens and dozens of pained squeals and screeches.
Andy reached the library and wasted no time in yanking open the door. Everyone flooded through and closed the door behind them just as another kamikaze spider lunged at them. Andy felt it hit against the other side of the door.
“We have to go back for Jerry,” Nessie cried.
“He’s screwed,” said Andy. “He was completely surrounded by those things.”
“There’s no way he could have made it,” Sun agreed.
“We don’t know that,” said Nessie. “Open the door.”
Andy chewed his lip and then huffed. “Fine.” He grabbed a hold of the door’s handle and yanked it open. “This is going to get us killed. There’s no way he could have-”
Jerry came flying through the door like a bullet. He hit the ground and began thrashing around like a lunatic. “There’re on me. Dude, get em off.”
There were no spiders on Jerry but Nessie still knelt down beside him and batted and his arms and shoulders.
Andy looked at his wife in surprise.
“I guess his plan worked,” said Sun.
“I feel bad.”
“So you should,” said Nessie with an angry frown on her usually friendly face. “Shall we get the barricade back in place now?”
Andy shook his head. “No time. We have to get out of here before the concrete starts filling in.”
“Hate to be the bearer of bad news, fellas, but I think the horse may have bolted on that one.”
Andy followed Lucas’s pointing finger and saw several hoses jutting out of the wall two inches from the floor all around them. They had started to release a fine mist of steam, but after a violent clug clug, a hot jet of grey liquid began to spew forth and cover the floor.
Andy shook his head. “Shit! We have to get moving right now.”
“The facility fills from the bottom up,” said Nessie. “The more dangerous levels go first with the Nucleus and the living quarters going last. If we can keep moving up we can outrun it.”
Andy rushed over to the open shaft at the back of the room. They had left the sturdy bookcase in place beneath it, but the ladder was still a good ten feet up from the top.
There was no other option but the climb the bookcase. The hot, setting cement was almost at their feet. Nessie hopped up onto the bookcase just as the pool was about to envelop her shoes. She looked like an old lady avoiding a mouse in the kitchen.
They all clambered onto the bookcase and climbed to the. They looked at one another as they balanced precariously, side by side.
Andy laced his fingers together and nodded at Jerry. You need to get yourself onto that ladder above. It’s our only way out.”
Jerry nodded and used the boost, flying upwards and managing to get both arms around the bottom rung of the ladder. He dangled for a few moments, grunting and heaving, but slowly he managed to hoist himself up.
Nessie went next, her small frame easy to hoist. She landed high up on the ladder and quickly climbed up after Jerry.
Sun stood opposite Andy, a concerned expression battling with her delicate features. “How are you going to get up, Andy?”
“Let me worry about that. Just go.”
Sun nodded sadly and took the boost. She grabbed the ladder with one hand and effortlessly swung herself up to the higher rungs. Her athleticism was still as impressive as always; especially considering what she had just been through.
Andy looked at Lucas. “You’re next, buddy.”
Lucas shook his head. “No, you are.” The Irishman laced his fingers together and nodded to Andy. “Don’t worry about me, lad. You get your arse up there.”
Andy shrugged and then stepped onto Lucas’s hands. He felt a brief spark go through his ankle and then he was sailing upwards, launched like a child by his father. He grabbed the ladder so high up that his head almost collided with Sun’s rear. They all managed to keep a grip, though, and moved upwards in a line.
Andy looked down at Lucas and worried about the man’s fate. But then Lucas leapt ten feet in the air and grabbed the ladder just beneath Andy.
“Woah,” said Andy, shocked by what had just happened.
Lucas grinned. “Being a supernatural being has its wee perks now and then.”
<
br /> The hiss of pouring cement set their minds back to task. Each of them hurried up the ladder as if their lives depended on it.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The batling swept through the corridors of subbasement 1, rallying his troops and leading them to the surface. The facility was consuming itself from the bottom up and it was imperative that he liberated his army and joined his brethren in the war ahead.
I will not miss out on the glories to come.
The batling rose above his cohorts, looking down at them with pride. They stood beneath him as one single being: a legion.
“Yesss, I will lead you to a magnificent victory over the rancid hordes of humanity.”
There was a chorus of bloodthirsty growls, snarls, and hisses.
“We must leave this place—a place that has shackled you and your brethren for far too long. We must leave now and wreak our vengeance. We are the scourge. Let us return to our past glories.”
The army of beasts slithered, crawled, and stamped down the corridor of subbasement 1, heading towards the elevator shaft that would take them to the surface.
• • •
The ladder rattled and creaked with every step they took. Several times, Andy looked down at the terrifying drop beneath him, into the rising river of cement, and shuddered.
“We need to get a move on,” said Lucas. “I don’t much fancy taking a dip in that pool down there.”
“I’m going as fast as I can,” said Jerry from above them. “But exercise was never really my thing, you know?”
“Then perhaps you should have gone last, lad.”
“Cheers for that.”
“Don’t listen to him, Jerry,” said Andy. “You’re doing fine. Just keep going, one rung after the other.”
Jerry was huffing and puffing, gave no reply other than an affirmative grunt. He did, however, manage to pick up speed.
Andy focused on Sun, climbing the rungs just above him. He watched her regain her strength with every step, growing fitter rather than weaker like the rest of them. She was back to her determined self—back to the woman he married.
We have to get out of this place alive. I can’t watch her die.
After another two minutes of climbing, they neared a hatchway built into the side of the shaft.
“It’s the old maintenance hatch for subbasemnt 9,” said Nessie. “There should be one at each level. It will let us know how far much farther we have left.”
“Great,” said Andy. “So we have another eight levels to go?”
“No,” said Nessie. “We have eight subbasement levels plus the four other floors that house personnel and the Nucleus. We have another twelve floors in total until we reach the surface. Even then we have to deal with the fact that the shaft has been sealed at the top.”
“Let’s just concentrate on getting to the top,” Sun said, “before we worry about the next part.”
Everybody shut up and resumed their focused climbing. No sound existed inside the shaft, other than their laboured breaths and the soft pitter-patter of wet cement flowing beneath them. It was disconcerting.
Calm before the storm, thought Andy. Where is the batling? We can’t allow him to leave this place.
“Anybody got any charming tales to tell during this quite time of contemplation?” said Lucas. “Feels like if someone wished to unburden their souls, now would be a good time.”
“Giving a confession to the devil doesn’t sound like a good idea,” said Jerry. “Think I’ll pass.”
“Me too,” said Andy.
Sun let out a bitter laugh. “I did terrible things while under the influence of an ancient, malevolent being. I’m not even close to being in a place to talk about that just yet. First place I’ll go if I get out of here is therapy.”
Andy laughed. Therapy or not, he had hope that his wife would be okay. Not remembering her actions was a blessing.
“I’ll confess something,” said Nessie.
Everybody went silent.
“My dad was a terrorist. Emigrated to America from Belfast, but took his ties with him. I was just a little girl when he tried to blow up the British embassy in Boston. The car bomb went off, but somebody had parked a delivery van beside it, which dulled most of the blast. Seventeen people still died though, including a pregnant women one week away from maternity leave.”
“Wow,” said Jerry, breaking the silence that had fallen over everybody. “That’s…horrible.”
“Me and my mom were taken away and given new identities before the public could find out who we were and lynch us. My dad shot himself in a Dairy Queen parking lot before the police could capture him. When I kissed him goodbye that morning and went to school, I had no idea that I would never see him again—that I would never even be able to say his name again without my mom crying.”
“I’m sorry,” said Jerry. “I know what it’s like not to have a father, but I can’t imagine what that was like for you. Look how far you’ve come, though.”
“Yeah,” said Andy. “You should be proud of yourself.”
Nessie grunted. “Proud of myself for burying myself in a great big hole where the world can’t get at me? Truth is: I never got over what my father did. I threw myself into study, determined that I would somehow change the world. All it did, though, was lead me here.”
“You can still change the world,” said Sun. “But right now we need to stop the batling and his army from leaving this place. Do that and I guarantee you will save a lot more lives than your father took.”
“And whether or not it helps,” said Lucas. “The good Lord does not blame a man or woman for the sins of their fathers.”
“Thanks,” said Nessie. “It was nice just to get it off my chest. You people are the closest I’ve had to friends in…well, ever, really.”
“There’s another hatch up ahead,” said Jerry.
“Must be subbasement 8,” said Nessie. “Everyone still okay?”
Everyone groaned and nodded. Andy felt his calves cramping up and wondered if he could really make it all the way to the top. If he couldn’t then he was a dead man. They couldn’t even stop and rest as the cement was quickly filling the shaft beneath them.
Just ignore the pain. We have to keep going.
Another five minutes passed and they had ascended beyond subbasement 7 and started towards subbasement 6. Despite the cramps and tiredness in Andy’s calves, the pain was not progressing any further. If anything, the ache was turning to numbness. He started to feel hopeful that they could do this.
It wasn’t until they made it all the way to subbasement 1 that Andy began to have doubts.
The sound of chaos had returned.
Growls and snarls from animals that would not be found anywhere within the pages of National Geographic textbooks filled the corridor beyond the closed hatch.
Jerry stopped climbing, bringing the line to a halt. “Do you guys hear that?”
“Yes,” said Andy quietly. “Just keep going.”
Jerry nodded and continued upwards carefully.
So did everybody else.
It was Nessie that let them all down.
The assault rifle strapped around her neck swung back and forth as she climbed. Just as she passed by the maintenance hatch, the rifle butt struck against one of the steel rungs.
The hollow ring reverberated through the entire ladder, sounding almost like a church bell chiming.
Everybody froze.
The animal noises ceased.
A stretched-out moment of tense silence ensued. Andy could hear his heart beat in his chest. It pulsed in his eardrums.
The more time that passed, the more Andy was sure they’d gotten away with it. He waved his arm and signalled upwards. “Jerry, start moving again, but very very slow-”
The hatch burst open, the steel plate almost taking out Nessie as it flew into the shaft. A gap opened up in the wall, letting in a flood of light and, with it, a swarm of spiders.
They were the same as the one
s they had seen earlier—many-legged monstrosities risen up from the blood and gore of carnage.
There were hundreds of them. And they could climb much faster than Andy could.
• • •
Jerry cried out. “Shit, man, what do we do? I can’t take anymore spiders.”
Andy swatted at a crawler on the wall of the shaft two feet away. “Just keep climbing. Fast as you can.”
Jerry started running up the ladder, his feet clattering on the rungs and making the entire ladder wobble.
Everyone began yelling out as the spiders swarmed on them, skittering around the walls of the shaft and surrounding them on all sides. Andy managed to swing his leg and crush one against the wall with the toe of his shoe, but doing so almost sent him slipping from the ladder. He was left with no choice but to concentrate on climbing. There was no choice but to ignore the relentless biting and scratching that drew blood from his flesh in a dozen places. He closed his eyes and ignored the feeling of glistening fangs opening up the back of his neck.
“These things are biting me,” said Nessie.
“No shit,” said Andy.
“Perhaps we should try biting them back,” Lucas suggested, as helpful as ever.
Andy took a firm grip on the ladder and allowed himself a quick shrug. He managed to dislodge the spiders that clung to him, but many more were ready to take their place.
“Look,” said Sun, pointing below them. “The cement is almost at the open hatch.
Andy looked down. The cement was steadily rising, only a few feet below the lower lip of the open hatch. Spiders were still scurrying through the opening, but they would be engulfed by cement soon. Andy also saw that the spiders he had just shrugged off were now thrashing beneath the surface of the cement, sinking to their doom.
“Everybody stop and fight,” said Andy. “We just have to hold them off a few more seconds. We need to deal with the ones already in the shaft.”
Everybody wrapped an arm around the ladder and held on tight. Then they kicked and flapped at the spiders, batting them down the shaft like some sort of hellish rainstorm.
The day it starts to rain spiders, just count me as done!
Holes in the Ground Page 42
