Krisztina hurriedly crossed to the only other door in the room, which would look more at home in the U-boat it seemed to have been plucked from. She spun the metal wheel that was almost as wide as the door. The rods holding the airtight door in place slowly retreated from their internal docks with protesting squeals.
Krisztina glanced fearfully behind at the Black oozing beneath the door, a single protruding eye watching her. In a few seconds it would be upon her. A hiss of positive pressure air escaping from around the frame signaled the locks were free. She pulled open the door, its hinges stiff from inactivity, and slipped inside. As she pulled the door closed, she glimpsed the Black stretching towards her. The satisfying clang of the door against the frame echoed through the chamber as she spun the wheel, redocking the locking rods.
Hoping the airtight seal would hold the creature at bay, she glanced around the small round chamber as air was pumped into the tall tube to increase the pressure to higher than that outside, a precaution against contaminants filtering throughout the upper levels. The escape chute was warmed by the generator’s exhaust fumes being sucked up the hand-width tube running up the side of the shaft. She focused on the metal ladder that would lead her to safety and stared up its towering length lit by dim lights set at intervals. It stretched so high she couldn’t see its end. Though not particularly good with heights, her fear of the Black and the gruesome, painful death it brought outweighed her fear of slipping from the ladder and plummeting to her death. Resolved to the task ahead, Krisztina began her long climb.
Reforming its stretched mass into its preferred creature for its current size, EV1L 2.0 padded over to the door its prey had escaped through. After a few moments studying the door mechanism it had observed the human operate, its head extended from its body on a glutinous tarry thread and formed into a hook it latched onto the wheel. Its paws formed suckers to anchor it to the floor as it pulled. The wheel turned. It shifted the hook to the top spoke of the wheel and repeated the process.
Krisztina glanced below at the metallic squeaks and gazed at the door wheel turning. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Fear of what was coming increased the speed of her climb up the towering ladder.
CHAPTER 18
Level by Level
The team of alert Navy SEALs and an anxious Richard out of his depth moved cautiously through the facility’s upper level. Pausing at each door, Dalton and Buckner ventured inside each room to check it was clear. The constant halting to search made for slow progress.
Mindful their window of opportunity was ticking away with every second they spent in the secret base, Colbert changed tactics when they reached the elevator that provided access to Level 2 and 3 and the elevator to Level 4.
Colbert informed his team of his decision. “We’re running out of time, and as we’ve seen no sign of the scientists, I think it’s safe to assume they’ve all fallen foul of the alien creature, which for the moment seems to be confined to level 4. We’ll head to the laboratories on the lowest level, plant the explosives to kill or trap the creature below ground and leave before Russian reinforcements arrive.”
After receiving nods of acknowledgment from his men, he tapped the button on his radio mic. “Eagle 2, we’re moving straight to Level 4 to plant the explosives. Any movement on the monitors?”
“Copy that. Nothing on the top levels and no sign of the Russians yet, but that creature we glimpsed has put all of Level 4’s cameras out of action. Whether that’s because it doesn’t like being spied upon or it’s up to something it doesn’t want us to see, I can’t say. I recommend you keep on your guard and expect the unexpected. It might be a trap.”
“Understood. Keep me appraised if you spot anything we should be concerned about.”
“I have your backs,” assured Ramirez.
Colbert glanced around at his men. “Let’s do this.”
Kessler punched the call button, and they piled inside the elevator.
When they arrived on Level 3, the men roamed their weapons around the corridor as they cautiously stepped out.
Colbert glanced at Richard. “Which way to the Level 4 elevator?”
Richard scrolled the blueprint on the tablet. “Head left, then first right and it’s about halfway along the corridor.
Without having to be ordered to do so, Sullivan led them left. He slowed his approach at the right-hand turning and peered cautiously around the corner. His gaze wandered past the elevator doors as he searched the corridor. “It’s clear.”
The others followed Sullivan along the corridor. They halted at the elevator doors that would take them to the facility’s lowest level and stared at the ripped bloodstains clothes dotted with pieces of melted bone.
Sullivan lifted the remains of a long white coat with the tip of his rifle. “Looks like we’ve found one of the scientists.”
Colbert glanced at the charred end of a piece of string and followed its route beneath a bunched-up rug and beneath a cracked open door. He pondered the viewing window obscured with paper and the spyhole in its middle. It seemed the scientists had set a trap for the alien creature. Pondering their success or failure, he turned to Kessler and pointed at the door.
Kessler nodded his understanding.
Colbert pushed the door open. The two men stepped inside smartly and scanned the room. Finding it was empty of any threat, they returned to the corridor.
When his men had formed a semicircle of firepower around the doors, Colbert pressed the call button. The scent of death and blood wafted out from the parting doors.
Krisztina’s body and limbs ached from the climb. Though she wanted to pause for a moment’s rest, the thought of the Black below catching her kept her moving. She gripped the cold metal ladder tightly when a strong current of air whooshed over her with a hissing roar, loud within the confines of the chute. The Black had opened the hatch. She shot a fearful gaze below and watched the evil creature enter and look up at her. Its shriek sent an icy chill along her spine. When it leapt onto the curved chute wall, it morphed into an articulated insect-like monstrosity. To Krisztina, it looked like an amalgamation of ant, centipede and scorpion sculptured in an alien design. It clicked the curved pincers jutting from its jaws menacingly, as if informing her they would soon be sinking into her flesh. It was all the encouragement Krisztina needed to snap her out of her terrified frozen state. She climbed.
Without pausing in her frantic climb, Krisztina shot glances down at the creature scuttling up the chute in a circular direction around the wall. It had already covered half the distance separating it from her. She directed her gaze at the hatch still high above. She almost sobbed in despair. The creature would be upon her before she reached it. Fear induced adrenaline drove her on.
The numerous feet of the Black insect clicking on the concrete wall was as unnerving as the clash of the pincers it continually clapped together. Both sounds grew nearer, louder, far too quickly. Breathing heavily from the exertion of pulling her body up the ladder with limbs now leaden and weakening with every rung she climbed, Krisztina faced the fact that if she didn’t do something she would die, excruciatingly sliced into strips by the gnashing pincers or melted when the Black seeped over and inside her. Unarmed and lacking the weaponlike appendages of her pursuer, she was at a loss as to what she could do to survive.