Mason dragged his tear-streaming eyes away from the hundreds of snapping mandibles and evil eyes looking up at him and turned to Sullivan standing by the fresher air at the entrance. “Light them up.”
As Mason went outside to expel the fumes from his lungs with clean air, Sullivan pulled the pin from his last grenade and lobbed it at the opening. It bounced off the hatch frame and dropped into the chute. He joined Mason outside and they moved to a safe distance.
A loud whump announced the grenade’s detonation and the igniting of diesel. A whoosh of flames shot from the chute, filled the hut and sprayed out the door, setting the spilt fuel around the tanker on fire.
Colbert joined the two men staring at the flames. “It probably would have been a good idea to move the tanker to a safe distance before lighting the fuel.”
“We didn’t have time, sir,” answered Mason. “The creatures were almost at the top of the hatch.”
To avoid the tanker’s imminent explosion, they moved away.
Sullivan glanced over at the helicopter where Kelly had binoculars to his eyes gazing out at the horizon. “No sign of the others, yet.”
Colbert shook his head. “Richard and Krisztina are making their way to the exit elevator where Ramirez will meet with them. Dalton is waiting in the building to send the elevator down when they are near it so it’s ready for them to ride up. As soon as everyone is here, we leave.”
They instinctively ducked when the tanker exploded, lifting the wheels off the ground and sending shrapnel and pieces of unrecognizable metal high into the air to rain down on the compound. When gravity had forced everything back to earth, the men looked at the burning wreckage, its large tank ripped open, the cab relatively intact. They turned their gazes to the partly destroyed generator hut when the roof collapsed.
“Hopefully that will be the last we’ll see of the creatures,” said Sullivan.
“Amen to that,” said Colbert. Heading back to the main building, he contacted Ramirez for an update on the situation below.
CHAPTER 28
EVAC
The larger puddles of fluid Black, remnants of their kind decimated by the blasts from Krisztina’s grenades, flowed together into an oily pool of sludge and pulled in its edges, bulging its middle. Fueled by Black seeping into its mass, it rose to form an irregular cohesive form that morphed into a creature with a stocky body the size of a Rottweiler. Double-jointed legs formed at its rear and folded beneath its haunch. Spindly arms longer than its body stretched from its shoulders and grew three long claws jointed like fingers. A head, elongated, pointed and sporting a jaw lined with short, dagger-sharp teeth, rose from middle of its back on a sinewy foot-long neck. Its eyes, small, red and sinful, glanced around at the brittle chunks of Black littering the floor, all that was left of its dead brethren.
Its head turned and observed two of its kind skulking warily along the corridor. It shifted its gaze to the elevator door and narrowed its eyes at the sounds coming from within. Growling a command for its two smaller brethren to follow, it rose on its haunches, poked its head into the shaft and gazed up at the humans responsible for the carnage the brood had barely survived. Its long slender arms reached for the ladder and hauled its body onto it. Letting out a low rumbling growl, it headed up the shaft.
The two smaller creatures leapt through the hole and reformed in flight, landing on the walls as the many-legged centipede creatures adept at climbing sheer surfaces. Fearing their vicious, larger brethren would perceive them as a threat for the food on offer and retaliate mercilessly, they were careful not to draw ahead of it and scampered up the shaft at a slower pace.
The deep menacing growl drifting up the shaft sent a cold, clammy ripple down Richard’s spine and filled him with dread. He glanced down. A strange creature poked its head into the shaft and looked up at him. As its long claw-tipped arms reached for the ladder, he returned his gaze to Krisztina. “We’ve got company. Move faster.”
Krisztina glanced down the shaft and immediately regretted doing so. A fresh infusion of adrenalin recharged her tired body and spurted her up the ladder.
Realizing there was nothing more he could do to help Richard and Krisztina from inside the control room, Ramirez grabbed his rifle and dragged the cupboard away from the door.
“Ramirez, what’s your situation?”
Noticing his commander had dropped their call signs, he answered. “Up Shit Creek without a paddle in a boat full of holes and starving piranha in the water.”
“We’re coming to help.”
“Not advisable, sir. I will clear hostiles from my end and head for the elevator corridor to wait for Richard and Krisztina. Be ready to send elevator down on my command.”
“Understood. Dalton is waiting. Good luck.”
Ramirez put an ear to the door. Frightening shrieks drew closer. He was running out of time. When he reached for the handle, the shrieks outside ceased. Straining to hear anything above the insistent alarm, he placed an ear to the door again. Nothing. He grabbed a corner of the poster covering the window and pulled it aside. Fear crept over him. Like faithful puppy dogs, the smaller creatures were gathered around the larger one currently impersonating a human female. All stared directly at him.
When Ramirez locked eyes with the female Black, the creature shot forward and stopped with its face almost touching the glass. He staggered back, barging into the cupboard he had moved a moment ago, and watched the face morph into his own. His eyes flicked to the handle when it turned. His finger moved to the trigger as he aimed his rifle at the door. Loud retorts reverberated around the room. Bullets punched splintered holes through the barrier holding the creatures at bay.
Certain the alarm signaled the humans were up to something that posed a significant threat to her and her brood, and it would be advisable to kill them all before they completed whatever they had planned, EV1L halted at the door of the room she sensed the lone human was in. She turned to her excited brood gathered around her and hissed them to silence.
EV1L stared at the human when he peered through the door window at her. He would supply much needed sustenance to a few of her brood quick enough to be first to claim it. She darted forward and mimicked his face as she reached for the door handle. She didn’t flinch when bullets gouged holes through the door and passed harmlessly through her body that she had turned malleable and then parted wide to avoid the following shots. When the firing ceased, she issued an order to her hungry offspring.
As Ramirez frantically reloaded, gelatinous Black poured through the bullet holes and down the door. Before they had reached the floor, they began forming into vicious creatures. Aware there was no escape and his death was imminent, Ramirez chose a less painful demise that would take some of the aliens with him. He dropped the rifle and pulled the pins from the five grenades clipped to his ammo vest. He stared defiantly at the creatures reforming into hungry, malicious entities. Eager to feast, they leapt at him. Spreading on contact, they began their devouring process.
Ramirez screamed in agony as the Black claimed him. The door opened. The tall Black creature had discarded its female form completely. It was now the Black version of him. Horrified, Ramirez stared at his Black-formed self as it observed some of its brood claiming nourishment while more of its minions poured into the room. When his Black twin looked him in the eyes, Ramirez forced his pain-creased lips into a satisfied sneer.