Lucas huffed. “Didn’t say your options were any good now, did I?”
“I have a third option,” said Nessie.
“What?” asked Andy.
Nessie stood up and went over to the back of the room. She pointed up at the top of one of the large wooden bookcases. “Up there. The old ventilation shaft. It used to go all the way to the top. They may have blocked it up, but they never filled it in.”
West snorted again. “So we’re supposed to, what, just float six-hundred feet to the surface?”
Nessie rolled her eyes. “Not if we can reach the ladder up there.”
Andy went over to join Nessie at the bookshelf. He peered upwards into a shaft rising into the ceiling. About twenty feet up was a rusty old ladder attached to the wall by brackets.
“They put the ladder there for maintenance,” Nessie said. “There are grates every hundred feet or so, but I think they’re pretty easy to remove.”
Andy folded his arms. “And it goes all the way to the top?”
“It used to. I think they may have filled the top in, but it will get us most of the way there.”
“I like it,” said Andy. “Certainly more than options 1 and 2.”
“Okay,” said West. “I’m in. Let’s get to it.”
Andy turned around, chest puffed out. “No. I need to get my wife first. We’re not going to leave her and Dr Gorman down here to die.”
“Do what you want,” said West. “But you don’t give the rest of us orders.”
Nessie huffed. “Really, Tyler? Is that the type of man you want to be? Because I know better. I know most of your paycheque goes to your elderly parents in Maine. Do you really think they would be proud of a son that left people to die?”
West grunted. “Not cool, Nessie. Not cool at all.” He folded his arms. “Fine, but I’m not going out there without a plan.”
“So let’s make one,” said Lucas. “Sooner we get this done with, the sooner I can go find a boozer.”
“So what do we defend ourselves with?” West picked up a book on the shelf and let it fall to the floor. “A bunch of dusty old books?”
“Maybe,” said Andy. “We’re in a prison, so why not do as prisoners do?” He went over to one of the bookshelves and picked up a slim volume of what looked to be geographical maps. He placed it down his waistband and tucked in his shirt over the top. “Voila! Armour.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” said Nessie. “Some of these books are thousands of years old and you want to shove them down your pants?”
“Better than dying,” said West, following Andy’s lead and shoving several slimmer volumes beneath his clothing.”
“As for weaponry,” Andy said, walking over to one of the wooden study desks. “We have West’s assault rifle, but let’s get a bit more traditional.” He kicked the leg of the table hard, again and again. Eventually the leg snapped free of its bolts and fell to the floor. The table rocked on its three remaining legs but remained standing. Andy picked up the broken shaft of wood and held it out in front of him. The broken end was sharp and splintered. “Those things come near us and we can Van Helsing their asses.”
“It won’t kill them,” said West. “That’s just in the movies.”
“Will it hurt them?”
West nodded.
“Then it will do. Let’s move the barricade out of the way.”
“Okay, then,” said Lucas. “Let’s get this shindig a-rockin’.”
Andy grinned. “Time to go to war.”
• • •
Dr Gorman stared at the video feeds on her computer. The facility was lost. The employees at the Nucleus had been slaughtered by the rampaging batling as they desperately sought to get the lift working. All other floors were littered with bodies, with no one left alive.
The only thing of any interest was Rimmer and the English boy stalking down the corridor of subbasement 10 like some sort of hopeless Delta team. She had watched them dispatch the grendal, though, which had impressed her. Right now they were heading towards the conference room. What they were planning to achieve, she did not know. Whatever it was, they wouldn’t succeed. They were being stalked from behind by death itself.
The final images that caught Thandi’s attention were from the library. Mr Dennison was still alive, along with a few others. It was concerning to watch their attention turn to the old ventilation shaft inside the library. Could they be planning to use it to escape? It would do no good. It was blocked at the top.
But if they do manage to get out somehow, they’ll end up letting every creature in the facility out into the world. Kane’s cowardice has risked everything.
Dennison and the others seemed as though they were preparing to fight. They were arming themselves with sticks like inbred tribesmen.
That fool’s going to try and get his wife.
He’ll be dead before he gets anywhere near her.
But what if he somehow manages to make it back here?
There was no way Thandi was about to let the man responsible for what was going on have a tearful reunion with his wife. She would not allow it.
Thandi looked down at Mrs Dennison, who was still sleeping soundly. “You meddling bitch! You and your goddamn husband have ruined everything.”
Gorman headed across her lab and grabbed hold of a portable gas cylinder full of anaesthesia. She untangled the attached inhaler mask and placed it over Sun’s mouth and nose.
Thandi opened the nozzle all the way to full.
“Your fool of a husband can try and rescue you all he wants, but by the time he gets here you’ll already be dead.”
Jerry kept close to Rimmer. He rubbed at the bridge of the nose and wondered if it was broken. The recoil on the rifle had been a bitch and firing the weapon had not been as much fun as he’d expected. The bleeding had only just stopped.
Rimmer crept forwards, his rifle scanning left and right. The bearded security guard was a valiant attempt at being a real-life Rambo, but Rambo never had to face off against monsters. Jerry had a feeling that his earlier decisions had led them down a bad path. Playing the hero wasn’t as easy as he had thought.
As they passed by each cell, Rimmer took a look inside. Each one they checked was empty. Shortly up ahead was the door to the conference room. The door was mangled and bent, but it was partly closed and still covered the entrance.
“You think we’ll find them?” Jerry asked. “It looks like there was a fight down here.”
“I think we’ll find them. Whether or not they’re alive and kicking, I don’t know. Just be prepared not to find what you were hoping for.”
Jerry swallowed. “Okay, I’m prepared. If there’s nobody left inside, we get our be-hinds out of here.”
“Like I suggested we do an hour ago.”
“Yeah, like you suggested we do an hour ago.”
Rimmer sighed and moved on to the last cell: the one that had originally housed the Irishman. Like all of the other creatures, Lucas had escaped.
Jerry peered around the empty cell. “Where you think they all went?”
“My thinking is that they must have gone after the people in the conference room. You still sure you want to open that door?”
Jerry looked at the mangled, twisted slab of steel and wondered what carnage he would find behind it. There was still the option to just turn tail and run. Maybe that was best.
“You will find nothing but the bleeding corpses of your fellow slugs,” said a rasping voice from behind them.
Rimmer span around, his rifle already raised and pointed.
The batling hovered above them, blood and flesh dripping from its talons.
“You’re going down,” said Jerry, raising a fist and shaking it.
Rimmer grabbed Jerry and pulled him back. “Easy there, kid.”
“What do you want?” Jerry demanded of the batling. “Why are you doing this? You have no right.”
The batling snarled. “You speak of right? What right does humanity have to cage our glorious creations? What right do you have to determine yourselves as the only species of worth?”
“We don’t.”
“You do. You cage and eat any animal you please. But today your reign at the top of the food chain ends. You have been living on borrowed time since the very days your time began. Finally, the anomaly that is mankind is to be corrected.”
The batling swooped down and slashed at Rimmer. Rimmer sidestepped and brought his rifle around. He was unable to let a shot off as Jerry found himself stumbling into his path.
“Get out of my way, kid!”
Jerry dived aside.
Rimmer aimed and fired.
The batling leapt up to the ceiling and evaded the gunfire. Rimmer aimed again, but succeeded only in firing into the ceiling.
The batling swooped down like a missile and struck Rimmer in the chest. He went flying back against the wall, instantly winded.
The batling turned its attention to Jerry. Its eyes seemed to swirl like shifting black shadows. The stink of blood and death was upon it.
Jerry edged back against the wall. “Come on, dude. You don’t want to do this. I’m on your side. In fact I got in a shit load of trouble for trying to release one of the prisoners earlier.”
The batling snarled. “The werewolf. He was not one of mine; just another of God’s pathetic creations.”
“Whatever, man. I didn’t know that. All I’m saying is that I agree that it’s not right to lock animals up.”
“Then you may have more sense than most of your kind, but you are still an abomination that must be destroyed.”
The batling hissed and then dove towards Jerry.
There was the clattering of gunfire and the batling fell out of the air. Jerry turned to his left to see that Rimmer had fired his rifle from on the floor.
Rimmer climbed to his feet gingerly. “Come on…” he said, clutching his ribs. “Let’s get out of here.”
Jerry grabbed a hold of Rimmer and helped the large man get moving. They pushed aside the door to the conference room, which was hanging loosely on its hinges.
Jerry had hoped to find the Dennison’s and Nessie, but what he found was something else.
“Fuck it,” said Rimmer. “We’re screwed.”
Jerry scanned the room; saw four snarling creatures with mouths full of daggers staring right back at him. He sighed. “Out of the puddle and into the pond.”
“Take cover,” said Rimmer, letting off a round as he ducked behind an overturned desk.
Jerry dove down behind an executive leather chair, then realised it would make for very poor cover. As he straightened up and attempted to make for something better, he saw one of the suckers—dressed in a bloodstained lab coat—racing towards him.
Rimmer let off another round of gunfire, hitting the approaching vampire and causing it to change course and leap back behind the large desk in the centre of the room.
“Thanks,” Jerry shouted over to Rimmer.
“You’re welcome.”
The batling burst into the room from the corridor behind them. It rose into the air and let out an almighty bellow. “Kill them. Tear their flesh apart.”
The suckers hissed, almost joyfully. Then all four of them approached like a pack of lions.
Rimmer leapt up out of cover and fired, but the batling swooped down and knocked the rifle from his hands. Then it barrel rolled in the air and prepared to dive again.
The pack of vampires headed straight for Jerry, screeching at him with their talons extended like eagle looking to pluck away his life.
Just as the nearest sucker prepared to pounce, its head exploded like a pumpkin dropped off a roof. The blood splatted Jerry and the shock stopped his breath cold in his lungs.
The remaining three suckers spun around and hissed as a new group of people entered from the back of the conference room. Mr Dennison was standing there, along with Nessie and a security guard with a smoking assault rifle.
“Looks like we arrived just in time,” said Andy. “Need some help?”
Jerry pumped his fist in the air. “Hell yes.”
Rimmer scooted down and recovered his rifle. “Didn’t think anyone was still alive down here.”
“We’re not dead yet,” said West.
The batling swooped into the air and began laughing. “No, but you soon will be.”
Rimmer raised his rifle and jammed in his last clip of ammo. “West,” he shouted. “Get everyone out of here.”
West nodded. “Sun Dennison and Dr Gorman are in the labs. Regroup with us there.”
“Roger that.”
West hustled everybody together and got them moving as one. He followed after them but stopped to let off a burst from his rifle as one of the suckers got a little too close. The thing’s head exploded and the body fell to the floor.
Rimmer lined up his own sights and took out a woman that had once worked in Dr Gorman’s lab. She took two in the chest and one in the forehead. It was enough to take her out permanently.
He never saw the sucker coming from behind him.
Rimmer fell forwards and crashed into a computer monitor as something barrelled into the back of him. He managed to hold onto his weapon, but could not turn himself around as a weight bore down on his back.
Rimmer looked left and saw West firing up at the batling as the rest of the group scurried towards the back of the room.
West saw that Rimmer was in trouble and went to bring his rifle around.
“No,” Rimmer shouted. “Just get everybody out of here now.”
West fired off a couple of rounds, but then nodded his head slowly, keeping eye contact with Rimmer for a few seconds before breaking off and moving after the rest of the group.
Rimmer sighed as he saw everyone escape into the labs. The weight on his back became a burning sensation as something penetrated his rear webbing. He cried out and managed to tug himself free and to the side.
He spun around and raised his weapon, fired. He emptied his clip into one of the suckers, exploding its head and tearing its upper body apart.
The clicking of his empty weapon, made him throw the rifle down and grab his knife. There were two more suckers left and the batling overhead.
“Welcome to Thunderdome, bitches.”
The suckers came at Rimmer from either side. The one on his left grabbed his arm and managed to take a deep bite of his wrist. He cried out and kicked at the sucker, removing it from his arm. The sucker on his right made its own move and leapt.