“Doc, now you wait here while I see if there’s company waiting for us on the other side of this door. Do you understand?”
Frightened to death after he had peered into the darkness far below and seeing the stairs ripped out, Charlie could only manage to nod his head up and down several times.
“Damn it, Doc. I asked if you understood,” Jack barked angrily and then immediately regretted it.
“Yes … Colonel,” Ellenshaw finally managed.
“Alright, do as I say and maybe I’ll let you have a hand grenade,” Jack said with a wicked twist of his lips, knowing he would never give Crazy Charlie one of the small explosive devices, one that he could pull the pin on and hold until it went off in his hand. But the mere offer worked on the old hippie turned soldier wannabe.
Collins turned to the door, took a deep breath, and then opened it slowly. The hallway as far as he could see left and right seemed to be clear. The emergency lighting was still functioning, meaning that the creatures more than likely had not visited this level. He looked back at the wide-eyed, crazed-haired Charlie who waited without breathing for Jack to say something.
“Okay, come on, Doc.”
Charlie followed Jack into the curving corridor. He raised the M-14 carbine, careful to aim it away from the colonel’s back as he had numerous times since their journey had begun and been stingingly admonished for it. There were several flashes from the emergency floods likely due to weakened wiring that made the two men pause as they moved down the seemingly clear hallway. They passed the brand-new nuclear science labs and made sure to duck beneath the broad windows in case there were surprises waiting in Virginia’s laboratories. Collins raised his hand up in the air and Charlie stopped, but not before running into the colonel’s backside. Jack looked back and shook his head.
“Wipe your glasses off, Doc; they’re all fogged up.”
Ellenshaw did as he was told, surprised when he placed the thick glasses back on at how he had seen anything before he was told to clean them.
Just as Jack started to move forward again the radio at his side sent a message through to his earpiece. Collins was instantly ashamed that he had actually jumped at the suddenness of the noise, which in turn made Ellenshaw yelp. Collins hissed for the hundredth time in the last thirty minutes. He quickly placed a finger to his lips, making sure Charlie remained quiet, but still ashamed for acting just as frightened and actually showing it. The answer Jack knew was to blame Charlie … it made him feel better.
“Compton to Colonel Collins.” Jack tried to return the call, but Niles jumped in too quickly, cutting him off. “Compton to Colonel Collins, come in.”
At that very moment Charlie reached out and took Jack by the arm, tilting his head to their rear. Collins looked and saw nothing, but Ellenshaw pointed to his left ear and tapped it. Jack listened. He heard the sound of heavy breathing, and then something crashed far away but on the same level.
“Damn, we have company on this level, Doc,” he said as he started walking faster toward the large curve and the stairwell beyond. As they moved away from the sound behind them, Jack reached down and made sure his volume was lowered since he didn’t exactly know how sensitive the soldiers’ hearing was. “Collins to Compton, come in. Over,” he said softly into the microphone poised at the corner of his mouth. “Collins to Compton, over,” he repeated.
Suddenly Ellenshaw saw the colonel jerk as the voice of Niles came screaming over his earpiece.
“Colonel, listen, I don’t have a lot of time,” Niles said while breathing hard and running. “I have one ugly son of a bitch chasing me. You have to get down to level eighty-four immediately. Those smartass bastards have shut down the cooling pumps for reactors one and two. Do you hear? Level eighty-four, Jack, eighty-four — gotta go!”
Charlie saw Collins freeze as he heard what Niles had to say. “What is it?” Ellenshaw whispered as he turned when another crashing noise was heard below them.
Collins reached back and grabbed Ellenshaw by the collar, forcing him along the hallway. As they approached the stairwell door, Jack cursed as he heard something back along the corridor start running after them.
“Oh, there’s something coming Colonel,” Charlie said as his feet were flying down the hallway past Jack like a scared rabbit with the colonel dead on his heels.
The two men finally reached the nearest stairwell door and Jack threw it open. He took one step inside and started to fall. Ellenshaw reached out and caught Jack by his collar, reversing the roles from just moments before. Collins had stepped right off into space. Charlie dropped the M-14 and tried using both hands to pull Collins back from the abyss as he realized the creatures had torn out the landing and the stairs below it. Collins dangled as the three assault packages slipped from his grip and tumbled end over end into the darkness below. Charlie struggled to keep the colonel in check, but he was quickly losing the battle. Collins finally managed to reach out and take hold of a twisted piece of metal to arrest his fall and help Ellenshaw, who was far stronger than Jack had ever given him credit for, gain a better handhold on his shirt. Finally he found purchase for his foot on a partially ripped out stair and pushed himself backward. With a final heave both he and Ellenshaw fell backward through the open door. As they both tried to catch their breath, they heard the pounding of heavy footsteps stop and then the sound of breaking glass as whatever it was crashed through the window into the nuclear sciences labs.
“Thanks, Doc,” Jack said as he gained his feet and pulled Ellenshaw to his. He quickly reached out and grabbed the three remaining assault packages strapped to Charlie’s back. He immediately knew what their only escape could be. He pulled out several large coils of very thin black nylon rope. It wasn’t thick but had the tensile strength of a thousand pounds. Jack quickly brought out his rapelling ring and attached it to his pants at the waist. Then he repeated the same for Ellenshaw who was staring at him with wider-than-normal befuddled eyes.
“What is this?” Charlie asked with a small whine.
“Have you ever rapelled before Doc?”
“Uh, no,” he said shaking his head even though Jack had already started prying at the elevator doors next to the stairwell.
“Well, suck it up Doc because you’re about to get a crash course,” he said as he finally parted the two doors and looked down the black tube until it vanished forty-two levels below. The draft produced by the empty and powered-down shaft lifted the colonel’s collar as he watched and listened.
“Suck it up?” Ellenshaw said with panic forcing his eyes now even wider than the thick lenses could account for.
Jack continued to stare into the deep, dark elevator tube. He looked back through the doors when the sounds of crashing and breaking stopped inside the distant laboratories.
“We’re out of time here, Doc.” Jack went to Charlie and quickly threaded the rope through the tungsten steel ring attached to Charlie’s waist. He could feel Ellenshaw shaking almost uncontrollably as he made the connection. “You have to go first, Charlie. I hate to say it, but if for some reason you fall you won’t take me with you. I have to get to the reactors and start the cooling pumps.” Jack added this last little tidbit to take the sting off of Ellenshaw’s possible, no imminent, death.
“Reactors?” he said as he watched Jack reach into the tube and find a good solid attach point for the rope. Then he pulled out another coil of black rope and double-knotted the two together, adding the last of the rope from Charlie’s third assault package. “I hope this is enough,” he said as he stood and patted Ellenshaw on the back.
“What do you mean, you hope? What if it isn’t?”
Jack smiled. “Isn’t being a soldier fun Charlie?”
“If I get out of this I am never leaving my lab again.”
Jack quickly reached into the bag and pulled out two pairs of leather gloves, slapping one of them into Ellenshaw’s hand. “Put these on, that rope’s going to get hot.”
“Hot? What do you mean—”
“Okay, sling that weapon, no, no, sling it to your back. If it’s in the front it’ll take your head off when … when you land. Now, take your left hand and hold the rope here. Then bring your left to your back and take hold of it there just above your spine. You control the speed of your descent by tightening and loosening your grip at your spine. Do you understand?”
“Uh, no, not—”
“Good, now lean out backward with a firm grip … that’s it, just lean out over the tube. Balance yourself Charlie and hold both rope points tightly,” Jack said as he heard another crash of glass, this time outward into the hallway close by. “I hate to be a little wimp here, Doc, but something wicked this way comes. Hang on,” he said as he kicked Ellenshaw’s feet away from the edge of the elevator doors.
Jack was shocked when Charlie disappeared in a split-second. All he saw was the last of Charlie’s white hair as it vanished into the darkness below just as the colonel’s heart fell through his chest. He knew he had just basically murdered Ellenshaw. He quickly came to his senses.
“Tighten your grip damn it!” Jack screamed fast realizing he had just alerted the thing in back of them to exactly where he was. He leaned into the tube and tried to see Ellenshaw’s bent and broken body anywhere far below. “Doc!”
“Wahoo, that was a rush!” came Ellenshaw’s voice from deep inside the tube. The statement echoed six times before it vanished.
“Damn!” Jack said as he attached his own rope. “Go ahead, Doc, get moving and make it fast. Bizzaro superman is coming.” He had to smile when he heard Ellenshaw zip farther down the tube into the black hole where there was once nothing but good people, and now was filled with monsters. “Good boy Charlie.”
Collins slung three weapons, the shotgun, the Ingram, and an M-14 carbine over his shoulder, and then positioned himself facing away from the tube just as the creature hunting them came around the bend in the corridor. Their eyes locked and the creature exposed its teeth, which were wide and long and were showing through a surprised but very pleased grinning mouth. The abnormal eyes shown in the semidark like those of a hunting cat. It shook its head at the easy prey ahead of it and charged.
“You’ll excuse me if I don’t wait around dickhead,” Jack said as he pushed off into the great abyss of the tube just as the beast roared in anger and defeat.
* * *
As the six men and women scrambled down the stairs, it was Mendenhall who realized after half an hour that he was not hearing the sound of pursuit from the creature that had surprised him in the doorway. He held his hand up and the others stopped their descent. Sarah reached around Henri and felt the blood flowing pretty freely.
“Will, the colonel’s wounds have opened up,” she said, trying not to shout.
Denise Gilliam raised the Frenchman’s lab coat and surgical blouse. She shook her head. “Damn it, it’s like he wasn’t stitched up at all.” She looked up at Farbeaux and shook her head, knowing he would have a hard time seeing her disapproval in the darkness of the stairwell. “You stupid Frenchman; why didn’t you say something?”
“Well, Doctor, I didn’t really want to stop and receive any more wounds. That chap in the doorway up there didn’t look like the type that would pause for a wounded man. I don’t think mercy to the fallen is one of their strong suits.”
“Good point,” Sarah said, finally smiling up at him.
“Okay, if he dies, it may be a better death than what’s waiting for us,” Will said as he turned and faced his charges. “Dr. Pollock, we’re on sixty-one. The first vault enclosures are here. Is there anything we can use on this level to help us?”
Virginia tried to bring up the inventory secured inside vaults 0001–1000 from memory to see if anything stood out. She shook her head. “I don’t know, Will. We just moved new artifacts in four days ago. Hell, my mind isn’t working.”
“Can’t say as I blame you for that,” Mendenhall said as he cracked the stairwell door and looked through into the darkened corridor. He saw the security arch leading to the vault section. He could see the dead laser grid and darkened arch, meaning they could enter that section without getting zapped by ten thousand volts of electricity.
“Lieutenant, I think locking ourselves inside one of your magnificent vaults is a very good idea at this point. I prefer it to running aimlessly in this dark stairwell,” Henri said as he tightened his grip on Sarah, who returned the gesture. He was beginning to like being the helpless one in the group.
Mendenhall looked back at the five people behind and above him on the stairs. Gloria looked at him with the hope that he knew what to do. He was loath to disappoint the doctor, so he nodded his head.
“Okay, Colonel, I think you may have something. But the electricity is out, meaning that the vaults are all open. But maybe we can find one of the larger ones and barricade ourselves inside until the cavalry comes.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Virginia said.
“Let’s do it. I have a real bad feeling our luck on this stairwell is fast running out,” Denise offered, looking nervously up into the darkness.
Will again pushed the door open and stuck his head out. He waited for something to rip it off, but nothing came out of the dimly illuminated corridor. He cautiously pushed the door open all the way and at the same time waved the others forward.
As they exited the stairwell next to the elevator tube, Sarah stopped and hushed everyone. They all heard it immediately. It sounded just like the muffled voice and yell of Crazy Charlie Ellenshaw coming from inside the elevator tube. But they all knew there wasn’t an elevator for Ellenshaw to ride. Then the sound vanished just as fast as it took for them all to stop and listen more closely.
“That was weird,” Sarah said as she took a stronger hold of Henri and started to move again.
Mendenhall held out the nine millimeter before him as he made it to the security arch. He cautiously leaned over the desk where a guard would usually be stationed to cover that level. He looked at the screen and quickly saw that it was still blue. Europa was still down.
“Damn it,” he said as the others approached.
“Has anyone checked the old girl’s batteries,” Henri said as he slumped a little further against Sarah.
“Good one, Colonel. I’ll remember to tell Dr. Golding of your comment. I’m sure he’ll make allowances for the next monster invasion,” Will said as he took Gloria by the hand and moved off into the long and curving corridor that housed the vault area. Mendenhall thought he had made a good return quip when he realized that he and Gloria were the only ones going inside the security arch.
“Uh, Lieutenant, our company has arrived,” Farbeaux said as all at once all four people turned and ran through the arch past Will and Gloria.
As Mendenhall peered into the darkness where they had all been just a second before, he saw it. The beast, the glow of its eyes visible, was just standing by the stairwell, or floating would be a better word as the beast dipped and rose as it continued looking at him and Gloria.
“As I was told earlier, there is now nowhere to run,” said the deep and raspy voice. The creature started forward at an easy gait, knowing the six men and women had no place to go but farther back into darkness.
As Virginia led the way, she turned suddenly to the left into a vault she had most recently been inside of just three days before. She stood at the front of the twelve-inch-thick steel door and waved everyone inside. Sarah and Farbeaux tripped over the steel threshold and went down, causing Will, Gloria, and Virginia to crash into each other. Mendenhall made a quick decision and pushed everyone farther inside and then just as quickly stepped back out of the vault.
“What in the hell are you doing Lieutenant?” Virginia shouted angrily as she pushed through the others to try to pull Mendenhall back inside.
“Giving this thing two targets instead of one. Seal this up as best you can,” Will shouted as he pushed the two-ton steel door closed, effectively shutting out the cursing from those inside.
They heard the beast laughing as it reached the very threshold of the vault Will had just left, or at least they hoped he had left. Virginia knew the vault door wouldn’t lock as she spun the security wheel in the center of the stainless-steel door. Just as the wheel locked, Virginia felt the beast outside start to turn it back to the open position. She looked around in a blind panic, and it was a shocked and stunned Gloria who came to their rescue. In the light of the single emergency bulb in the back of the steel-encased room Virginia quickly saw what the young scientist was carrying. Dr. Pollock nodded her head vigorously as Gloria, tears streaming over Mendenhall’s sudden departure, placed the short-shafted spear through the wheel’s spokes and then secured its bottom half against the metal framing crisscrossing the door. She made sure the sharpened point was secure against the steel bracing at the top just as the beast outside pulled heavily on the vault’s door and tried to turn the wheel from the outside.
Gloria and Virginia stepped backward with a start when the door was hit, sending dirt and small rocks down from the ceiling. The thick shaft of the spear held even though it bowed to the left, almost to the breaking point. Just as the wheel was about to turn, snapping the small spear, Denise and Sarah were there with two more of the short throwing spears copying what Gloria had just done. Now there were three of these small spear shafts holding the door’s locking wheel closed against the onslaught from the other side.
“Where would I be without you guys?” Virginia asked as she backed away from the steel door, watching the spears rattle and bend and then become still.
* * *
Will regretted not having at least perused the list of new artifacts now being stored on the newly constructed vault level. From behind him in the dark corridor with gleaming but at the moment dull stainless-steel vaults running along both sides of the wide hall, Mendenhall heard the scream of the creature as it attacked the vault he had just left with all of the women and a wounded Farbeaux inside. He was relieved when he failed to hear the screams of his friends after the first assault on the steel vault.
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