“There are a lot more weapons than I visualized,” said Colbert. He moved his mouth towards his mic. “Control, I assume you are seeing this. There’s no way we can collect them all.”
In the control room, Admiral Thomson stared excitedly at the store of alien weapons. Colbert was right. It would take more men and a lot more time than they had to salvage them all. The feed was also being watched by the President, so he would need to confer with him before making a decision. He pressed a button to speak to Colbert. “Make your way to the armory. By the time you arrive I’ll have new instructions for you, but if we lose comms grab what merchandise you can and instigate operation Phoenix.”
“Yes, sir, orders acknowledged.” Colbert glanced at Ramirez. “We need a route planned from here to the weapon store.”
Ramirez was scrolling through different options. “I’m already on it.” He found what was required and chose the destination they wanted to travel to.
The map reformed and depicted a route to the armory, but as the men examined the route, the lights flickered. The map collapsed and reformed.
Colbert glanced at Ramirez. “Did you do something?”
The man held his hands away from the controls and shook his head.
The map collapsed and the lights went dark. The men switched on their flashlights and swept them around the room.
“Maybe the ship’s losing power,” Ramirez suggested.
“From here on in it’s all in the dark,” said Stedman, a little too cheerily for Richard’s liking. He was glad he wasn’t going with them.
“Has anyone got a spare flashlight?” asked Richard.
“No Richard, they haven’t,” replied Colbert.
“Just smile and let those shiny white teeth of yours light up the way,” said Crowe.
A couple of the men sniggered.
Richard sighed. “I want to leave. I did what was asked of me and you don’t need me tagging along and getting in your way.”
Colbert couldn’t get rid of the man quick enough and glanced at his escorts. “You can take him back now. The rest of you, follow me.”
After the SEALs had gone, Talbot, Jenkins, and Richard moved up the ramp, out through the door and headed along the corridor towards the back of the ship and the hangar. None of them envied the SEAL team heading in the opposite direction.
CHAPTER 23
Smoke and EV1L
LUCY STOPPED WITH the flashlight and her gaze aimed at the turning in the vent ahead. Movement she thought she had heard from around the corner had caused her imagination to picture some horror waiting in the darkness for her. She strained her senses to the limit in an attempt to pick out anything above the continuous creaks and groans of the large vessel that might signal danger was nearby. Though she thought she detected something breathing, she wasn’t sure if her imagination was to blame.
Lucy took a few deep breaths to calm her anxiousness and aimed the light behind. Perhaps it would be safer to go back and seek out different route. After a few moments thought she decided to continue forward; there were nightmare creatures in any direction she took. With the spear ready to counter any attack, Lucy cautiously edged nearer the turning.
One of her worst fears―the list far longer now since her time aboard the spaceship―confronted her; the flashlight’s beam faded to a dim yellow glow. When a few slaps on the casing failed to revive the light, Lucy stared at the pale glow dimming before her eyes until the dark engulfed her in its lightless embrace. She stifled the sob that threatened panic in its wake and moved forward before she became rooted in terror. Her heart rate increased as fear screamed for her to turn back. She pressed her body against the cold side of the vent when she judged she was almost at the corner and slid closer, expecting some foul monster to appear at any moment. When her fingers felt the edge of the passage, she prodded the spear around the corner. When it failed to pierce flesh or invoke a reaction from anything that might be lying in wait for her, she leaned forward and peered around the corner into the never-ending darkness and cocked an ear. Her heartbeat, amplified in the pitch-black that shrouded her, was all she heard. Forcing her body to keep moving, she scrambled around the corner and continued along the passage.
She hadn’t travelled more than a few yards when an ominous slithering froze her. Something was in here with her and moving closer. Though the vent’s acoustics made it difficult to determine from which direction it came, Lucy thought it sounded slightly louder behind her. Because she doubted the parasites could have climbed the vertical vent, it had to be another monster that stalked her. She spurted away from the sound, haste now more important than caution.
A surprised scream flew from her throat when her hand fell into nothingness and ended with a pained groan when her shoulder slammed into the floor. She quickly recovered and ignored her aching shoulder whilst she searched the darkness with her hands and discovered a crossroads of passages. One of which dropped to a lower level. It was this she had stumbled into. The slithering grew louder and now came from more than one direction. Slowing her rapid fear-induced breathing, Lucy glanced at something she noticed in one of the passages―a faint glow of light. It gave her hope. She rushed towards it and the slithering coming from the same direction. She was almost at the light when something entered its glow and stopped, as if proudly presenting its vile form to its prey. Arms or tentacles with net-like webbing stretched between them, reached out from its body to grip the vent walls and propel it along. The mouth, a circular orifice ringed with needle-sharp teeth, was surrounded by a ring of black, golf-ball eyes that stared at Lucy.
Lucy shot a glance behind. Though she saw nothing, she heard the slithering approach. She slipped the useless flashlight she had been reluctant to part with before, from her wrist and threw it back along the vent. Something screeched before the flashlight clattered loudly to the floor, evidence something had been struck. Hoping she had held it at bay temporarily, Lucy sped along the vent towards the light and the monster in her way that now rushed towards her. When it was within reach, Lucy held the spear at arm’s length and jabbed it at the creature’s flesh, aiming for its eyes, but missed and instead stabbed it between two of them. It screeched and lashed out a tentacle that grabbed her leg. Pulled off balance, she fell onto her back. Lucy sat up and thrust the weapon at the creature reeling her in. Conscious of the second creature coming up behind her, she stabbed frantically at this one’s flesh in the hope of hitting a vital organ. Lucy yanked the spear up when it entered flesh and tore a long gash in the monster’s skin. The monster’s piercing screech was deafening in the vent’s confines. It pulled away and writhed, its tentacles thumping the metal sides loudly. Lucy shot her shoulders to the floor and thrust the spear over her head. The screech that followed indicated her target had been hit. She repeatedly stabbed at the creature she couldn’t see until it moved out of the weapon’s reach. Lucy rolled onto her stomach. The wounded creature’s eyes reflecting the dim light behind her was all she could see of the Lovecraftian monstrosity that seemed wary to approach too close again. A glance behind revealed the withering creature collapse to the floor and lay still. Keeping one eye on the wounded monster, Lucy backed towards the light. She almost slipped on the warm blood that had pooled around the dead creature when she climbed over its hideous corpse that squelched beneath her. When she reached the light she glanced at the weak glow highlighting the slats of the grill from below. It was a way out of the rathole she was trapped in.
As she kicked out the grill and watched it drop to the floor below, the wounded monster used the distraction to try a second attack. With surprising speed it shot along the vent. Lucy raised the spear at the sound. The monster’s speed impaled it on the tip and knocked Lucy to the ground. She jerked the weapon from side to side, smacking the monster hard against the walls as its tentacles grabbed at her. She pushed it away and forced it through the opening. Its tentacles unwrapped from her arms with a moist slithering as it fell. The spear, pulled from her tired grasp by the monster’s weight, journeyed with the Lovecraftian horror to the floor of the room below. The slap of flesh on the hard ground echoed through the room.