CHAPTER 26
Alone Again
RICHARD’S GAZE FOLLOWED the flashlight beam Talbot swept around the dark chamber. Powerless screens atop the many workstations positioned around the room where some of the crew once carried out their allotted tasks had not seen any activity for thousands of years. It was though, surprisingly clean and almost dust free, hinting the air pumped into the room might pass through a filtering process. Strange pieces of machinery that hung from the ceiling with drooping cables attached were as dormant as every other object in the room.
Set around the walls were tall transparent cylinders. Though most were empty, a few contained a fluid that reacted with a blue glow when Talbot’s light fell on them, highlighting the hazy shapes of the nightmarish creatures imprisoned inside.
“Another laboratory,” stated Talbot as he walked across the room.
Richard glanced back at the door the Insectoids scratched at. Though he believed they were safe he wasn’t about to take any chances and had little interest in the room’s function. “We need to find an exit.”
Talbot had already noticed one and aimed his light at the door on the far side of the room. “Will that one do?”
“Believe me, I’m not fussy.” Richard headed for the exit. He pressed the door control and took a few steps back, leaving Talbot alone to face any danger that might present itself.
Talbot shook his head at Richard and stepped through the opening into a small room with walls covered in what seemed to be electrical apparatus of some kind. Levers, yellow coils, cables and tubes covered every surface except the floor.
“Is it safe?” asked Richard, poking his head nervously around the edge of the frame.
“If by safe you mean is it free of monsters, then yes.” Talbot took a few steps farther into the room and shone the weapon light along the offshoot of the L-shaped room. A metal ladder led down to a lower level and another ladder on the far wall reached up to a small platform and a door.
“Is that the only exit?”
Talbot, who hadn’t heard Richard approach, was surprised he was so close. “I think so.”
Richard reached out and pushed the rifle barrel down so the light pierced the darkness of the lower level. “It doesn’t look very inviting down there.”
Talbot snatched the rifle from Richard’s grasp. “Then it matches the rest of this hellish spaceship. If you want you can go back and look for another route, but I’m taking that one.”
Going alone wasn’t something Richard was going to do without a weapon or a flashlight, so he followed the owner of both down the first ladder.
A quick sweep of the lower level by Talbot who moved towards the far ladder revealed nothing but inanimate pipes and cables. Just as he stepped on the ladder, the ship trembled and rocked slightly. Something metallic clattered to the floor loudly on the upper level behind him. Talbot almost stumbled to the ground when Richard barged him aside and spurted up the ladder.
Talbot shook his head in dismay. If Richard was ever on a sinking ship he would totally ignore the rule of women and children first and probably grab the best lifeboat for himself and leave the others to their doom. Talbot climbed. When he stepped onto the platform he noticed Richard standing by the door with a hand hovering by the control.
“You ready?” Richard asked.
Talbot aimed the weapon loosely at the door and nodded.
Remaining safely to one side, Richard stared at the door that rasped open with a hesitant grind of metal.
Talbot, also focused on the steadily widening gap, peered at the darkness it opened onto and raised the light. He was about to step nearer when a sound halted him; distant thuds on metal at first hardly distinguishable above the constant groaning of the ship.
When Richard noticed Talbot’s concerned expression, he whispered, “What is it?”
Talbot took a step nearer the door. The thuds, louder now, came from along the corridor the door opened onto. When something entered the flashlight beam, he raised the weapon to his shoulder and fired. Four shots rang out before the gun emptied.
“Shit!” Talbot cursed. He looked at Richard with fear in his eyes. “Close the damn door.”
Dread greeted Richard again as his hand punched the button, but it was too late.
Something leaped through the closing door at Talbot and swiped claws savagely across the man’s chest. Talbot screamed. The monster crashed into him and sent them both to the floor. Richard looked on in horror as the monster took a bite out of Talbot’s arm that had lashed out in an attempt to knock his attacker off.
Blotting out the man’s pain-wracked screams while he took stock of the situation, Richard froze and watched the monster that had its back to him. For the moment, it hadn’t noticed him, but it would if he opened the door. He glanced at the weapon that had dropped from Talbot’s grasp and lay on the floor on the far side of the monster. Though it was now useless, the flashlight attached to it wasn’t. Hardly daring to breathe lest the monster detect the sound, Richard took a cautious step nearer. He would get only one chance. If his hastily concocted plan failed, the monster would soon be enjoying a second course of human flesh.
Timing his footsteps with the grisly sounds of flesh being ripped and devoured and Talbot’s pain-filled screams, Richard approached from behind the feeding monster. He froze when the monster stopped chewing and cocked an ear. It raised its head slightly and sniffed the air. As its head turned, Richard rushed forward and lashed out a foot savagely. The blow landed on the monster’s back with enough force to send it toppling down to the lower level. It screeched when it fell and thudded onto the floor below.
Surprised his plan had worked so well, Richard scooped up the weapon.
“Help me.”
Richard glanced at Talbot and saw the pain etched on the man’s face and the pleading look in his eyes. It was obvious from the man’s wounds he was seriously injured and without medical attention wouldn’t last long. Richard wasn’t prepared to risk his life helping someone who had nothing to offer and stood little chance of surviving.
Richard shook his head. “Sorry, Talbot, dragging you through the ship will slow down my escape.”
Richard peered over the edge as the monster struggled to its feet. It looked up at him, howled a chilling rumbling growl and jumped onto the ladder. As it climbed, Richard rushed for the door, opened it and slipped through. He punched the button and stared at the monster that appeared at the top of the ladder. Richard gripped the door and tried to slide it shut faster when the monster rushed at him. When its clawed hand poked through the gap, Richard slammed the butt of the rifle down on it. Bone cracked. The monster shrieked and withdrew its claw. The edge of the door slid into its frame.
Though he believed the monster would finish feeding on Talbot before giving chase, buying him some precious time, he wasn’t certain. Worried it might open the door and come after him, Richard fled along the corridor. He was on his own again, which came as no surprise. Though he would have preferred Talbot not to have been killed, he wasn’t going to waste time mourning the man. Richard had more important things to worry about: his own survival and escape from the ship.
EV1L drifted into the ghostly blue-lit corridor and stared after the distant slaps of the fleeing two-legs’ feet on the floor. Whatever it was it moved faster than EV1L could in its current weakened state. It turned its attention briefly to other matters. The spaceship it was trapped within was moving, but the gentle throb of the engine that normally travelled through the superstructure was strangely absent. The constant agonized sounds the ship emitted were a good indication it was under stress. Though EV1L had no idea of the cause, it sensed the ship was dying and it would be advantageous to its continued existence if it wasn’t still aboard when the vessel uttered its final death rattle. But first it had to eat. It concentrated its hearing in the opposite direction of the two-legs’ flight, but heard nothing to alert him to any nearby prey. He gazed back along the corridor when the two-legs’ running footsteps stopped and went to investigate.