“We’ll explain later,” said Jack, urgently. “The iceberg’s growing more unstable by the second and we need to get off this spaceship, now!”
“Tag along with us.” Colbert nodded at Sullivan. “Lead on.”
With Sullivan leading the desperate band of survivors, they continued their dash through the spaceship.
Brusilov and his men ran back the way they had come and reached the first turning when the timer reached zero. The explosion shook the ship violently and sent a radiating wave of chaos out in a circle from the armory. The Russians were thrown to the floor as the blast wave swept over them with a sound like a monster’s furious roar. When it had dissipated they glanced behind at the loud crashes that rolled towards them. Collapsing floors, walls and ceilings rushed ever closer. They jumped to their feet and fled.
Babinski shot an anxious glance back along the corridor as the floor dropped away only a few yards away from his heels. “Faster!” he shouted.
When Alexei spotted the missing patch of floor ahead and the pile of twisted wreckage below, he veered into the open door on his right. The men followed him through and away from the entrance as the floor and ceiling outside collapsed and the wall groaned as it sagged at an angle. When after a few moments the ship settled to its usual gasps of stressed torment, the panting Russians roamed their lights around the dark chamber filled with an ominous aura they all felt.
“Well, unfortunately, I guess that’s it,” said Nikolay to Brusilov. “Unless we can find another weapon store, our mission has failed.”
Brusilov nodded glumly. “To have come so close and to have it ripped from our grasp by the Americans.” He turned to Nikolay. “Did you see all that alien weaponry? If we could have grabbed just one…”
Nikolay nodded. “There was nothing we could do. We tried our best.”
“I doubt that will carry much weight with our superiors when we inform them we return empty-handed.”
“We do have some alien technology. The computers and other technological equipment we found on the engineering deck may soften the blow of our failure to salvage any alien weapons.”
Brusilov almost smiled. “I admire your optimism, Nikolay, but when they learn the Americans have the weapons we failed to acquire, it will take a lot more than a few alien computer chips to soften the blow.”
“Captain, I think there’s a door on the far side,” called out Mikhail.
Brusilov joined his comrades in gazing around the room and for the first time sensed the menacing atmosphere that had infected the men. Any of the plethoras of gloom-shrouded areas could be hiding the evil presence their senses believed they had detected. Brusilov swept his flashlight into nearby dark recesses but failed to pinpoint anything that would explain their apprehension. “We cross to the exit. Rozovsky, take point.”
Rozovsky moved to the front and led the men forward.
EV1L paused when the thunderous roar shook the walls, ceiling and floor and continued when it had passed. A few moments later, EV1L passed the room without noticing Richard’s unconscious form and continued along the corridor towards the distant muffled bangs. When it arrived at a pile of wreckage blocking the corridor it turned into a side room filled with darkness and headed farther into its dark depths. It halted and stared up at the higher level as it listened to the sounds of approaching footsteps filtering through the upper open door. It waited for the creatures making them to arrive.
The force of the explosion rippled through the ship, struck the hull and radiated through the ice. The vibrations reached the large fissure and dived down the crevasse’s sheer walls. The ice barely holding the two large pieces together relented to the pressure and splintered. It parted with the sharp crack of a deafening thunderclap that rumbled through the ice.
The men in the hangar and the cargo hold froze as the growling tremor struck the ship and shook it violently. The unsalvaged alien vessels shifted and loose storage pods screeched along the floor. The chaos spread through the spaceship’s weakened structure. The transparent pods containing the tall aliens cracked and exploded, sending turquoise liquid and the long dead aliens flying across the room. Metal beams and supports shook free and fell, collapsing walls, ceilings and floors. Alien monsters from all over the ship screeched and howled anxiously at the disturbance.
Outside, one of the men organizing the lifting of a recently filled shipping container was struck by a lump of ice falling from the ice wall and killed instantly. A forklift skewed and skidded across the ice shelf when the iceberg tilted, forcing the driver to abandon the vehicle when it tipped over the edge and splashed into the ocean. The shipping container tethered by one cable linked to the large cargo helicopter slid and for a moment balanced half over the ledge before slipping into the sea. The pilot struggled to control the uneven weight as his vehicle was dragged towards the waves. The co-pilot in the back reached for the button that would detach the cable dragging them to their doom but when the helicopter suddenly tilted to the side, he rolled out of the open door and fell onto the ice ledge. Though bruised by the fall, he wasn’t seriously injured. He then saw the helicopter heading straight for him and screamed. The helicopter landed hard on the ice and the co-pilots chest, the skid almost cutting him in two. Blood exploded in a wide arc across the ice. As the helicopter skidded and started leaning over the edge the pilot released his harness and dived out the door. He groaned on striking the ice and turned to watch his helicopter dragged beneath the waves.
The weapons and flashlights held by the anxious Russians heading across the room jerked back and forth, probing dark areas for the threat they sensed was somewhere near. As the room shook and loosened more of its structure to rain down around them, they again dodged the falling debris.
When it settled, Mikhail walked backwards with his weapon shifting from one dark patch to another and stopped when he thought he glimpsed movement. His weapon-light jerked back to the source of his concern and focused on the darkness between rows of foot-wide cables and pipes stretching from the lower level up to the ceiling. His eyes tried unsuccessfully to make sense of the dark shape that seemed even darker than the shadows outside the ring of light.
When Babinski noticed Mikhail had stopped with his attention focused on something back along the path, he walked up to him and followed his line of sight. “What do you see?”
Mikhail turned and grinned nervously at Babinski. “Nada. This damn place is playing havoc with my nerves.”
Babinski cast his gaze over the area Mikhail had stared at. He also felt a sense of unexplainable foreboding, but saw nothing to explain it. “Da, mine too.”
The two men turned away and went to catch up with the others.
EV1L had watched with interest when lights had pierced the darkness and the creatures holding them had entered the room. If it had a tongue and lips to lick, it would have done so in anticipation of the feast it would soon enjoy. There was more than enough food on offer to bring it to its full strength and then nothing would be able to stop it. Unconcerned by the latest batch of falling debris, it slunk through the darkness nearer to its prey and remained still when one of the creatures turned and bathed it in light. Its form, dark and shapeless, all but indistinguishable from its surroundings, had concealed it from its prey. It was a creature of stealth, an assassin without conscience or remorse for the terrible pain it wrought upon its victims. Its survival was its only concern. When the creatures turned away, it drifted from its place of concealment and moved without sound―and at a speed that had caught many off guard―to claim its next victim.