Blood Lust: A Supernatural Horror (51 page)

A little later, h
e heard voices
back down the tunnel
behind him.
He assumed it was the engineer
McNeil
having
seen the dust cloud
and
assum
ing
the worst. He and his men were checking on Hardin,
a
praiseworthy
goal
, but they were making far too much noise.
He heard a crackling noise and muted voices.

Damn! Were they using a
walkie-talkie
? The creature had excellent hearing and could see better than any of them
, even in the dust
.
Christ
!
Now he could hear their boots scraping the dirt
and crunching gravel. They were acting as if they were inspecting the tunnel, not hunting a monster.
They were asking for trouble.

2
8

Walmsley raised his rifle and peered back down the tunnel
. “Hardin?” he asked
.

McNeil
glanced at Joria
’s look of anticipation and
shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
He pulled out the pistol Walmsley had given him.

It
suddenly
dawned on
Johnson
hi
m
that he
had no weapon. “We’ve got to get out of here!”
he yelled.

“Quiet, fool,” W
almsley
snapped. He
jutted his chin down the tunnel. “The way out is back that way.”

Johnson went silent a
s he
glared at Walmsley.

“Do you see anything?” McNeil asked.

“A shadow maybe, beyond the lights.” He suddenly dropped to one kne
e
a
nd raised his rifle. “I see it,” he whispered. “It’s coming.”

McNeil stared down the tunnel but his older eyes saw nothing. Then, a glimpse
of gray
as the creature passed a light moving fast.
He raised the .357, sighted down the tunnel and gently squeezed the trigger. Walmsley fired first, startling him. The creature swerved midair to avoid the bullet. Now
,
it was less than forty yards away.
This time, h
e and Walmsley fired simultaneously.
The thunder of the reports shook the ceiling and echoed down the tunnel.
Neither shot touched the creature, but it did
stop and retreat
ed
a
short
way
s
back
down the tunnel
and
into the shadows.

“My God, it’s a monster!” Johnson cried out. His hands dug
furiously
into McNeil’s sleeves. McNeil shrugged them off. He knew he should never have brought the station manager along
, but he had wanted to come.
Now it was too late.

“Let go, Johnson
!
” McNeil shouted
at him
. “You’re spoiling my aim.”

Johnson took a couple of steps away from his two companions and stared at them.
His eyes were wide with fright and he was almost blubbering as he
yelled,
“We’re going to die
!
We’ve got to get
out of here
.
” He turned and
in his confusion
began running directly toward the creature.

“Stop, you fool!” Walmsley called to him, but Johnson ignored him.
Walmsley
turned to McNeil. “We’ve got to go after him.”

“Let him go,” Joria spat. “The
Chupacabra
will
be busy drinking his blood, allowing us time to find Tack.”

McNeil
glared at her callousness.
He
knew it was too late but
owed it to Johnson to try
.
“You wait here,” he told Joria. He and Walmsley
raced after Johnson
but lost him in
a patch of darkness in
a bend
of
the tunnel. His scream came to them moments later, a high, piercing horrible sound filled with
the
pain, fear and anguish
of a man who knew he was about to die
. Moments later, they found Johnson’s mutilated body lying across the rails
, h
is chest savaged
, half his face missing and his
torso
twisted at an obscene angle.

“Damn!” McNeil said upon seeing his dead friend.
He didn’t have time to languish. Walmsley nudged him with his elbow.

“It’s coming back.”

They backed into a small niche in the wall, protected on two sides
by sturdy wooden beams and solid rock
. The creature attacked from the ceiling,
scampering across the wooden boards upside down and
diving at them. Both fired at the creature point
-
blank and
this time
did not miss, but their bullets did little more than enrage the creature. The creature, however,
was intelligent enough to
recognize that many such shots could harm it. It backed away and watched
them
from a distance
.
McNeil realized they
were
safe for the moment but
trapped.
He cursed silently.
They had come to rescue Hardin and now they
were in need of
rescue.

The creature
came at them
once more, skirting their position, drawing their fire.
It was
fast and cunning
.
McNeil emptied his weapon in his eagerness to
score a hit
. Hearing the telltale click of an empty gun, the creature suddenly darted in closer.
Walmsley fired and then held the
empty
Mauser
before him
as a club, striking at the creature while McNeil reloaded. McNeil,
frightened and unfamiliar with the .357
, fumbled reloading and dropped his bullets.
As
he
went to his knees and
sifted the dirt for them,
he heard Walmsley’s sharp intake of breath as the creature’s
razor
talons rake
d along
his forearm
.
Walmsley
dropped the rifle
and
f
ell back bleeding.
Now
,
they were weaponless
, at the creature’s mercy
.

Out of the corner of his eye
,
McNeil
spotted someone
running
toward
them
, t
he lights behind him hid
ing
his face.
Hardin? No, it was a stranger
, bigger than Hardin
. The man crouched and began firing his pistol.
Surprise
d by this newcomer
, t
he creature
retreated a short distance to analyze this new threat
.
T
he stranger removed a short rod from his belt and extended it into a long pole. The tip flashed with a blue electric arc and the smell of ozone filled the air. The creature lunged forward
. The rod lashed out and brushed a wing with a bright blue flash. The creature shrieked and flew back down the tunnel.

“Who the hell are you?” McNeil asked.

“Simmons, Clad Simmons. I thought you could use some help.”

“Damned right,” Walmsley spoke up
clasping a handkerchief to his
arm
.
It was already blood-soaked.
“What are you doing here?”

Simmons
eyes followed the creature down the tunnel.
“Seeing that this creature doesn’t do any more harm.”

“Have you seen Hardin?” McNeil asked, anxious for news.

Simmons
shook his head. “Earlier, but I haven’t seen him since the cave
-
in.”

“We left Dr. Alvarez when we
tried to save
Sid
. We had better go get her.”

“Alvarez is here,” Simmons
growled, looking around
. “I didn’t see her.”

“You know her?” McNeil asked. It w
a
s obvious
Simmons’ dislike for Alvarez surpassed his own.

“I know her.
She’s dangerous.
If she’s here,
she’s as likely to help the creature as us.”

McNeil lowered his head.
Simmons had confirmed his own suspicions.
“I’ve made a mess of this.
Now p
oor
Sid
is dead and
Hardin might be dead
as well
.”

“
Sid
p
anicked,” Walmsley reminded
McNeil
.
“It’s his fault.”
He
could
n’t hide his
ang
er
at Johnson
’s
running like a coward
. If he had remained with them…

McNeil grinned
sheepishly
. “So did I when I tried to reload.” He looked at
Simmons
. “If not for your timely arrival, I guess we would both be dead.”

“Three guns
are
better than two. Let’s go look for Hardin.”

McNeil cast one long look at
Sid
Johnson’s body
, shook his head
sadly
and led the way.

****

The trio had traveled barely
half a mile
down the tunnel
when
Walmsley stumbled and fell to his knees.
Instead of rising immediately, he stayed on his knees for several long moments
, breathing hard
.

“Are you okay?” McNeil asked,
his face
showing his
concern for his friend.

Wa
lmsley
glanced up.
His face was pale and covered in a fine sheen of
dirty
perspiration. While it was hot in the tunnel,
the other two were
barely sweating and
McNeil
was much older than Walmsley.

“I don’t feel good,” Walmsley admitted. “
My
arm
burns and I feel weak in the knees.” He rubbed his forehead with the back of his
good
hand and looked up in surprise
as his hand came away muddy
. “I’m burning up
.
”

Simmons checked
Walmsley’s
forearm
. The gash was red and
already
suppurating pus.
“It’s the fever,” he pronounced.

“Fever?” McNeil asked. “What fever?”

“The creature’s talons are poisoned
with bacteria that infect wounds
within
minutes
. It’s supposed to weaken its prey.
”

McNeil was aghast. “My God! What kind of demon is this thing?”

“Demon is right,” Simmons said in agreement
, “But it’s not from hell
.
We have to find Hardin and get Walmsley out of here. He needs medical attention soon.”

Walmsley forced himself to his feet
and
leaned against the wall
holding his injured right arm
. His legs were wobbly. “I’ll never make it. Leave me here and find Hardin.”

“We leave nobody,” McNeil snapped. “We go together.”

Simmons
glanced at Walmsley and judged their chances
at making it as poor if they had to carry him
far
.
He pulled McNeil aside and spoke quietly.
“
Look, t
here’s a storage room not far from here
with
a steel mesh gate. There
’
s a
lso a
breaker box. We can
run a line and
electrify the door
. We know the creature doesn’t like electricity. You and Walmsley
stay there while I find Hardin.
And Dr. Alvarez
,
”
he added.