Cleveland let out a relieved sigh. “Thank God it’s gone.”
“What do we do now, sir?” asked Crowe.
Colbert glanced behind at the approaching footsteps. The concerned expressions worn by Ramirez and Sullivan did not bode well. “My first reaction was to head back the way we came, but something tells me that not’s going to be possible.”
“The wreckage in the corridor shifted and blocked the opening. There’s no way we can go back through,” Sullivan reported.
Thundering footsteps that grew louder with every thump pounded the floor.
All faces swiveled to the door.
The beast’s pounding footsteps didn’t slow when they grew nearer. As if a silent command had been given, the men took a few steps back. The sound wave from the powerful crash sped along the corridor and thumped against the men. Metal screeched like it was screaming in agony when the two halves of the door bowed worryingly. The beast responsible pressed its face in the gap and growled at them before it turned away and loped back along the corridor.
“One more hit and it’ll be through,” stated Cleveland, his voice a little higher than normal.
Colbert looked at the only exit left to them. “Open it,” he ordered.
Cleveland rushed to the door as the thumping footsteps started up again. As soon as he had made a gap wide enough, Ramirez and Sullivan forced their fingers in and pulled the two doors open. Ignoring the pungent stench that assailed them again, the men filed in.
When the beast struck the door a third time, one of the doors blasted free and sped along the corridor. Colbert pulled Ramirez to his knees a moment before the door skimmed over their heads.
Ramirez shot a worried glance at the approaching beast as he rushed through the opening and Sullivan and Cleveland pushed the doors closed after Colbert had stepped through.
The beast that was the size of an adult rhinoceros, just as powerful and twice as vicious, stared at the closed doors when it skidded by. It turned sharply, letting its back legs slide around into the wall, which shook with the force of its collision. It moved back to the door, nudged it with its powerful armored head and snorted angrily.
The men on the other side watched the double doors bow slightly when the beast pressed on it. Though it didn’t have the long run up like before, none of them doubted the beast’s capability to force its way inside.
Sullivan nudged Colbert and when the man turned, pointed his light at the nearest cocoon. Things moved inside. The forms of imagined horrors pressing against the interior walls of the leathery sack pulsated, as if something within breathed.
Colbert turned to his men and put a finger to his lips. If they didn’t disturb whatever nightmare dwelled within the hanging pods, they might make it through the room to the exit he hoped lay on its far side. He nodded for Sullivan to lead the way.
The foul substance covering the floor squelched beneath their boots and set free a fresh wave of eye-watering stench with every step. That and their shallow breaths were the only sounds they made as they moved through the maze of narrow alleys that twisted between and around the grotesque, horror-filled piñatas.
The beast turned away from the entrance and forced its bulk between the partly open doors leading to the medical room. They screeched in protest as they juddered along the beast’s rough skin and curled back from their runners and crashed to the floor. Looking neither left nor right, the powerful beast strolled lazily across the room and turned when it reached the far end. It lowered its head, snorted like a bull facing down a matador, and charged.
Praying for a soft landing, Richard sped down the chute. He dropped into nothingness and gasped when something cold engulfed him. Foul, rancid sludge, thick as lumpy yogurt, slivered into his mouth until he clamped his lips shut. He clawed his way to the surface and dragged air into his lungs only slightly less foul than the putrid ooze he had fallen into.
Fearing the tentacles might be searching for him, Richard glanced around the foul chamber. A soft, blue glow highlighted the surroundings he took in at a glance. He was in a pool set in the middle of a long, vaulted room. Though there seemed to be some kind of machinery dotted about the floor and along the walls, all were covered in a thick carpet of mould with strands of growth tipped with tiny claws that constantly undulated. Thick metal columns, entwined with blue glowing vines festooned with red, barbed thorns, rose from the pool to reach the ceiling. The same vicious vines also trailed down parts of the walls.
A disgusting sucking and slurping put Richard’s danger radar on full alert. He cautiously turned by paddling in a circle to reluctantly discover its cause. Before he even laid eyes on what made the sound, he knew it wouldn’t be good. The shiver of revulsion that ran through him on seeing it was strong enough to send ripples across the thick sludge. Richard froze, lest he be detected by the grotesque slug-like creature that slithered down a short flight of steps and along a path away from the pool. The monstrosity emitted a sickly green glow that highlighted its grotesque pale form. It was difficult to work out if the mass of tentacles that surrounded the Lovecraftian horror were part of it or loyal worm-like followers. The pustules that adorned the creature’s glowing skin constantly pulsated and with each throb a dribble of white, pus-thick liquid oozed from their tips. Richard couldn’t imagine that a more grotesque or eye-offending monster existed on any other planet in all the universes that might exist. Staring at it had the effect of looking through night-vision goggles at a gigantic deformed glowworm with terrible acne. As Richard saw no sign of Talbot, he assumed the man had already been consumed by the Slug Monster.
Though Talbot was still alive, he was certain his death wasn’t very far away and he would suffer the same horrific fate as Jenkins. He had witnessed his friend being fed into the monster’s mouth and chewed by the thing’s sharp teeth when he was dragged out of the vent. Because the tentacles wrapped around him squeezed tighter when he struggled to free himself from the monster’s grip, he had stopped, hoping they would loosen if he remained still and acted dead. So constricted was his chest, it was difficult drawing each breath. As the thing moved and entered a tunnel, he was raised higher, allowing him to peer over the grotesque creature. His eyes searched for Richard, worryingly his only chance of rescue, and when he saw the man he locked eyes with him. He was well aware Richard wouldn’t risk his life rescuing anyone, especially someone responsible for dragging him into such a foul place; however, the weapon, and just as important the light attached to it, would be something he would need to stand any chance of escape. If Richard came after them, he might be rescued in the process. Unable to scream or speak due to the tentacle that had smothered his mouth to silence his terrified screams, Talbot nodded his head as much as the living restraints would allow and darted his eyes at something pinned to his side by the tentacles wrapped around his body.
Just before the monstrosity Richard watched in loathing disappeared into a side turning, Talbot appeared above the foul creature. When the man’s fear-filled eyes locked with Richard’s and he indicated something at his side, Richard’s eyes flicked to the object the man desperately wanted him to see―the rifle and flashlight.
Richard moved to the edge of the foul pool of porridge and dragged his gunk-covered body onto a level floor covered with a thin layer of the foul slush that filled the pool. Most likely the runoff from the pus he had noticed seeping from the Slug Monster’s repugnant body. He nearly gagged on remembering he had swallowed some. Fighting the nausea that might turn out to be a losing battle as he swallowed the bile that rose in his throat, Richard climbed to his feet and looked at the foul substance covering his hands. A few tiny worms, sensing something breathing, wavered in the air towards his mouth. Richard shivered involuntarily and quickly scraped them off on the edge of one of the steps that led up to the slightly higher level recently occupied by the Slug Monster. He slipped off his jacket, heavy with the sludge that covered it and filled every pocket, and dropped it to the ground. He shook his re-soiled hands as clean as he could and removed as much of the gunk as was possible from his face and hair and looked both ways along the room. To his left, a wall blocked the way. Vine-entangled pipes or cables that ran along one side of the room turned up the wall and disappeared into the ceiling. There wasn’t even a hint of a door or an exit. The only direction left open to him was past the turning the foul creature had disappeared along.