It was all the encouragement Richard needed. He pressed his mic button and whispered, “Ramirez, we’re on Level 3, any movement?”
Fearing it was the creatures that were in the room earlier until a piercing screech had called them away, Boris cowered deeper into the shadows when the hatch screeched open. Though Boris recognized one of the humans, a female friend of his man friend he had failed to find, he remained hidden. They had already made too much noise; the creatures might already be on their way to find out what had caused it. No, best he remain here for now, hidden and safe. His eyes followed the humans across the room until they were out of his sight. Cocking an ear to their faint voices from outside the room, Boris focused his attention upon the dim light shining from the door through which they had arrived. He wondered where it led.
With half her brood following, EV1L squeezed her pliable form between the elevator and the wall. She glanced at the chair blocking the doors when she entered the corridor. Changing into Svetlana again, she glanced in each direction and then at her offspring gathered around her waiting for their orders. Alien screeches from her human mouth sent them scurrying away in both directions.
Sensing their time to begin conquering the humans’ world was drawing near, EV1L chose a direction and headed along it.
In the control room, Ramirez glanced nervously behind at the small glass door panel when distant shrieks grew louder, nearer. His eyes flicked to the Level 1 screens and the small dark shapes moving rapidly through the rooms. This isn’t good.
Concerned they’d be attracted by the glow of the CCTV screens seeping out, he pulled the poster he had stuck back in place from the wall. Hoping the sticky pads on the back were still tacky, he crossed to the door and stuck it over the glass.
“Ramirez, we’re on Level 3, any movement?”
Ramirez rushed to his seat and quickly turned down the volume in case the creatures could hear. His gaze flicked across the Level 3 screens as he replied softly, “No movement on your level, but some of the creatures have just arrived on Level 1 and some are still on Level 2.”
“Okay, we’re heading for Escape Chute 2. Warn us if you see anything we need to avoid.”
“Copy that.”
Wondering how the hell he was going to get out alive and trying unsuccessfully to ignore the scampering of claws clacking on the hard floor and the sounds of rooms being ransacked back along the corridor, Ramirez concentrated on the Level 3 screens. He followed Krisztina and Richard’s dash though corridors that, for now, seemed a lot less dangerous than those outside his door.
Though they had already turned the volume low on their radios, their fear intensified senses caused it to seem louder than it was and prompted them to reduce the volume further.
“It will be faster if I lead instead of continually giving you instructions and also less talking to give us away,” suggested Krisztina.
Richard waved an arm along the corridor. “Be my guest. Anything that gets me out of this hellhole sooner gets my vote.” With his self-preservation senses on high alert for danger, he followed Krisztina.
Krisztina and Richard’s sprint through the corridors went unencumbered by any creature attacks, and they soon reached the room with the entrance to the Level 4 escape ladder. Remembering her last time at the hatch and the creature that chased her, which might still be in the chute, she pointed her weapon at the floor hatch and glanced at Richard. “Move the props and open it.”
Richard knelt, freed the mop and broom and spun the wheel to release the locking pins. Krisztina tensed as he heaved it open. Nothing jumped out. Richard leaned into the hole and gazed down the ladder. “That’s a longer climb than I expected.”
“Getting down will be easy, climbing up, not so much. I’ve done it. Put your gloves on and copy me.” Krisztina slipped the rifle strap over her head, fished gloves Dalton had loaned her from her pocket and slipped them on. Without hesitating, she crossed to the hole and climbed down the ladder until her head was below the floor. She looked up at Richard. “You will follow me, yes?”
Richard smiled as he pulled his borrowed gloves on. “To hell and back, Sweet Cheeks.”
Krisztina rolled her eyes. She placed the side of her shoes, whose designer never imagined them ever being used in such an inappropriate fashion, against the outer edges of the ladder and released her hand grip slightly.
For a few indecisive moments, Richard watched her slide speedily deeper into the void, and sighed before climbing into the chute. Copying Krisztina’s technique, he followed her down.
Richard and Krisztina had become lost from the camera’s viewing field when they entered the storeroom, so Ramirez focused on the other screens. Because Level 4 was in total darkness, he could do nothing until they returned, if indeed they did. He glanced at his watch. He had orders to evacuate at five minutes to the detonation of the charges they had placed throughout the facility. They didn’t have much time. Come to that, neither did he. Though the creatures running amok through the rooms hadn’t ventured as far as the security office yet, they were getting closer and would eventually cut off his only escape route.
Krisztina gripped the sides of the ladder tighter to slow her progress when the bottom drew near and gently touched ground. Stepping back, she glanced up at her reluctant companion, who she had half expected to turn and flee. Though she would have carried out the frightful task by herself and Richard would not have been her first choice to accompany her, she was comforted by his presence.
As Richard approached, Krisztina readied her weapon and peered out through the open hatch into the darkness past the small patch of light spilling from the dimly lit escape chute. She briefly pictured the two tiny green indicator lights on the chugging generator’s control panel as belonging to the eyes of some foul monstrosity staring at her. Startled by Richard’s less than elegant arrival, which saw him spilled to the floor, she turned to check he was okay.
Recovering quickly from his rough landing, Richard climbed to his feet and gazed back up the towering ladder. It wasn’t a climb he was looking forward to.
“You okay?” whispered Krisztina.
Richard nodded.
“Not far now.” Krisztina flicked her NVGs over her eyes and stepped through the hatch.
Richard followed suit and gazed around the room at the generator tinted ghostly green and the small, bright light on the explosive charge before following Krisztina’s spectral form into the corridor.
Recalling the map from the instruction pamphlet showing the location of the bomb, Krisztina hurried along the corridor past prison cells that emitted the lingering aura of misery suffered by their prisoners now long dead and into the hall.
Noticing the ripped-open elevator doors, she shuddered at the thought of what creature the Black had mimicked to rip them apart. She gazed ahead at what remained of the laboratories, the resulting damage of the explosion she had felt earlier.
Their footsteps crunched glass that sounded as loud as gunshots in the eerie silence prevalent throughout the level. Krisztina made her way forward, stepping over and around larger pieces of wreckage as her gaze took in the ghostly destruction. So much pain, suffering and death had gone on down here, it caused her no remorse knowing it would soon be vaporized, wiping clean the lingering souls of the tormented. To ensure she didn’t suffer the same fate, she concentrated on her task that was made more difficult by the amount of debris everywhere. She swept her eyes over the floor while Richard kept lookout and roamed his rifle and senses around the darkness.