Anchored by her rear limbs, Ev1L dragged her limbs forward. Metal shrieked, buckled and scrunched when it was ripped back. Releasing her grip on the flap of metal, EV1L shuffled to the hole and dropped through. Hanging on a hooked claw like an evil alien baboon, she roamed her eyes around the interior before focusing on the doors that slid together and reversed direction when they hit the obstacle preventing them from closing. She dropped to the floor, and as her minions poured through the hole in the roof and slithered around the walls, she hooked claws into the doors and yanked them inwards. The buckled doors became jammed partway into their frames and ceased motion.
Two small kangaroo-like springs carried EV1L into the corridor. After checking both directions and seeing no sign of the humans, she shrieked a command. Splitting up, her small army of viciousness morphed into their previous selected forms and while the majority moved off to search Level 3 for the humans, a few remained to finish off the bovine skeleton.
EV1L altered her appearance to mimic Svetlana and headed along the corridor. She observed small groups of her minions slip away from the main insidious mass to search each of the rooms they passed.
From his shadowy hiding place atop a cupboard, Boris watched the four dark creatures enter and cowered deeper into the dark corner. Aware that touching them would bring pain and death, fighting them wasn’t an option. Hoping they wouldn’t find him and leave, he anxiously watched them split up and begin searching the room.
One of the creatures jumped onto a workbench and scattered glass beakers, flasks, Bunsen burner tripods, test tubes and test tube clamps and other pieces of scientific equipment as it rushed along the top, its vicious head constantly swiveling, directing its evil eyes around the room in search of prey.
To the sound of glass crashing to the floor, another creature climbed a row of shelves. It halted at a line of large jars filled with human organs and animal specimens, some partly dissected from autopsies carried out after their experiments on Level 4. The creature nudged the jar containing a skinned rabbit and jumped back when its floating form gently struck the glass. Believing it alive, it attacked. The jar crashed into the one beside it and both fell. Exploding on contact with the floor, the specimens from each jar slid across the floor on a wave of formaldehyde.
Distracted by the loud crash, the other creatures looked at the two animals moving across the floor and rushed to claim their share. The creature on the shelf leapt onto the rabbit and wrapped it in a cloak of Black, absorbing what little nourishment the pickled corpse offered.
The first creature to reach the monkey brain, snatched it up and leapt onto the nearest workbench. The two creatures close on its heels set off in pursuit. Laboratory equipment crashed to the floor as the chase weaved through the lab. The creature with the prize doubled back and leapt onto the shelf unit. As it ran along it, spilling books, racks of test tubes and organ sculptures to the floor, it noticed the row of jars containing larger pieces of food than it possessed. It threw the spider monkey brain away and headed for the jars.
The two in pursuit leapt for the brain. One plucked it from the air and sprouting wings flew away with it and landed on top of a cupboard to devour the prize. It stared at its loser brethren who stared back for a few moments until it turned to another loud crash. When it also noticed the row of jars and the edible things inside, it bounded over to them and pushed them all off. The creature on the floor grabbed the human heart it had freed from its glass prison and leapt out of the path of a jar falling towards it. It climbed onto a workbench, oozed over the food and started its absorption process.
The final creature to claim a morsel, gathered the seven pieces of preserved organs into a heap and flowed over them.
Boris had observed all but now focused on the creature close enough to reach out and touch, perched on the edge of the cupboard where he had taken refuge. Acrid formaldehyde fumes filled the room, watering his eyes and burning his throat. He needed to leave. He cowered when the nearby creature moved away from the edge, nearer him, and then watched it melt and flow over the unappetizing food. This was his chance, while all the creatures were feeding. With his tearing eyes focused on the feasting Black, he placed his human friend’s lighter in his mouth to leave his hands free and cautiously edged forward. The cupboard shifted slightly with a creak of wood. An eye appeared in the Black and looked at him. Boris rushed for the edge as the Black began to reform. He leapt, arms reaching for the nearest ceiling girder. He gripped it and swung for the next girder in line. The creature behind him screeched an alert to its brethren about the live prey in their midst.
All three creatures ended their feasting and reformed. Live prey would be much more sustaining, and the animal was big enough for them all to claim a share. Working together on the hunt, they converged on the fleeing primate.
Boris’s fearful gaze flicked to each of the creatures in turn and then at the exit across the room. His escape route was about to be cut off. He quickly formed a plan. When his hand gripped the next girder, he changed direction and hanging from a foot, he swung down and snatched up a microscope. His momentum swung his hand back to the girder. He homed in on the nearest creature and dropped to the workbench below. In a sideways underarm movement, he hurled the microscope, turned on the two gas taps within reach and jumped onto the next workbench.
The creature easily ignored the missile by dodging around it and continued the chase. The microscope bounced off the edge of workbench and clattered to the floor.
After turning on three more gas taps, Boris leapt for a girder. He veered away from the two creatures blocking his exit route and headed back the way he had come. He dropped to the floor when the creature moving across the ceiling was almost upon him, grabbed the edge of the table and swung underneath as the creature landed on top. Slamming his feet against the floor, his arms lifted the table and threw it at another creature running along a workbench. The table twisted upside down and squashed both creatures. Boris bounded down an aisle between two workbenches. As he rushed past, he turned on the small levers from both benches. Soft hissing and gas fumes seeped through the room, mixing with the acrid stench of formaldehyde.
After climbing onto the top of the shelf unit, Boris glanced at the two creatures between him and the door. They seemed to have worked out it was his only means of escape. He needed to draw them nearer if his plan was to work. He swung along a beam and faked a fall, his hand slipping from the cold metal. He bounced off the workbench and dropped to the floor.
The gaze of the two creatures guarding the exit followed the animal’s progress along the beam and watched it fall. When it didn’t reappear, they looked at one another. One of them screeched instructions. They moved forward, splitting up to come at their prey from different sides.
While listening to the click of the creatures’ approaching claws on the tiled floor, Boris turned his head to look at the gooey Black oozing from beneath the table and stretching to the floor. He didn’t have much time. When the clicks reached the ends of the workbenches and the Black puddle on the floor began to reform, Boris slid back the door in the workbench, climbed inside and closed the door.
When the creatures appeared at either end and saw no sign of their prey, only their splattered brethren reforming, they screeched in frustration. One of them turned their attention to a partly open door and hooked a claw in the gap. It slid it open and peered inside at the racks of glass beakers and flasks. After gazing along the line of cupboards it screeched a series of short commands, and all three started searching the cupboards.