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  Chapter Nine – Now

  The engineering team was getting the debris straightened out. The equipment was moved and stacked neatly. Any trash or broken equipment was moved to a different area where it wouldn’t be in the way. Everett moved to help the engineers put the mech armor on line against the wall.

  Mike climbed the stairs, holding onto the railing, watching his steps to avoid a twisted ankle on the angle of the steps. He yelled up the staircase, “Hey guys, find anything up there?” He got a reply back.

  “Mike is that you?”

  “Yeah, what’s up?” he yelled back.

  “You need to come up here and take a look at this.”

  To Mike’s thinking, that didn’t sound good. He climbed the stairwell, placing his feet carefully. He climbed to the top landing where Rob and Tom were. He didn’t see the ceiling of the stairwell though. As he moved up, he turned on his flashlight to see. The lights on the top landing were missing. The top of the stairwell had been replaced with a curved surface that glinted as the light hit it.

  “What the hell is that?” he asked.

  Rob and Tom were on the top landing of the stairwell, and just above them, there was rock. This rock was as smooth as glass. It looked like poured liquid.

  Tom spoke, “As near as I can figure, some kind of rock.”

  The elevator which led out of the complex was gone. The security station was gone as well, replaced with more of the rock. Most of the main entrance area was gone, though it was possible to get to the elevator shaft that led down to the floors below, and the door that led to the first floor. “That’s impossible. We’ve only been down here for three hours. We would have heard some kind of construction or something. It wouldn’t be able to dry that fast and hold form,” Mike said.

  Rob nodded, “And the damn thing is as smooth as a baby’s behind. There aren’t any imperfections.”

  Mike shook his head. It was as if somebody had sealed them into the vaults. This didn’t make any sense to him, “Even glass is imperfect. I don’t know what kind of form or material could have been used to pour this.”

  Rob and Tom watched him. There was nothing behind the stares. They were just as mystified as he was.

  “Well, we can’t do anything about it,” Mike said. “We have to concentrate on what we can do.” He turned to Rob, “Have you guys been able to get into the other levels?” he asked.

  Rob nodded, “A few people are banged up and bruised, but nobody is really injured. It could have been worse if the floor tilted further.”

  Mike looked at the door that led into the first floor. Problem was, the unblemished rock impinged on the door frame. Since the door swung out, the door couldn’t be opened. “What about this level?” he asked. Rob shook his head.

  Mike walked to the security door, leaning over to clear the rock formation. He reversed his flashlight, butt end toward the door, and hammered against the door three times. Nothing happened, so he did it again. He did it three more times, and finally, there was a very muffled knocking from the other side of the door, three knocks, then three more, then three more. This repeated several times, and then stopped. Mike banged on the door again. This time, he hammered against the door, five knocks, several times, to let them know that he heard them.

  He crawled back, “Well, it looks like we’re going to need something up here to get the door open. Do we have any breaching tools on the pallet?” he asked.

  Rob replied, “Yeah, we have a few. We didn’t know what we would need for this mission, so I brought several different styles of crowbar. I didn’t bring anything heavy with us, but I can run back down and get a few crowbars to see if we can pry this open.”

  Tom spoke, “I wonder if any of them know the knock code.”

  Mike thought about it. The knock code was used by American POWs in Vietnam to communicate with each other. Anybody that went through survival training in the US military was familiar with it. It was used to communicate through walls by the POWs so that they could pass information. “We can’t assume that they have that knowledge. We can’t assume that they’ve been to SERE school. We’re just going to have to do it the hard way.”

  They nodded their assent. The three of them talked about how they could get through the door. If they used thermite, it would be pretty easy to burn a hole through the door, but the fumes wouldn’t be good to breath in this enclosed space. They didn’t want to use explosives, because they had no way to tell people on the other side of the door to move to cover. They would have to do it manually, with crowbars. Then Rob had an idea, “Maybe the fabrication team has a cutting torch.”

  Tom pointed out the elevator shaft, “You know, it would probably be easier for us to use the elevator shaft to move up and down to this area and the other floors.”

  Mike and Rob agreed. They walked over to the elevator. They tried pulling the doors apart, but it took all three of them heaving against the door to get it to budge. They were finally able to leverage one of the doors open. They looked into the shaft. The shaft was complete down to the top of the elevator, which was resting against the bottom of the elevator shaft. As they looked up, it was the same as the rest of the landing, a smooth glassine rock, no visible flaws, with the top of the elevator shaft gone. The ladder in the elevator shaft was at a strange angle, but Tom and Rob were able to use it to climb down. They took it slow to make sure that they didn’t fall from the ladder.

  As soon as they were gone, Mike leaned against the wall. “Oh God, Jo, where are you?” Mike was sick with worry. The fear he felt for his wife and child made him ill. His stomach convulsed as he dry heaved. He didn’t know if she was dead or alive. He wasn’t a praying man, but at that moment, he prayed to God in heaven that she and the baby were safe.

  Mike used the stairs to climb to the second floor below. He knew the general lay out. Security was the floor with the stuck door. Offices for the engineering team were on the second floor. Labs and fabrication tools were on the third floor. The fourth floor held the play room where they trained with the mechanized power armor. Below that, on the fifth floor was storage of materials for fabrication, and other items as well. Mike knew that utilities such as plumbing and electricity were routed through that area.

  He walked to the door on the second floor. As he walked, his mind was racing. There are only two ways to get into this vault complex. The way that he just checked, and the service elevator on the back wall. If that was blocked, they would have to wait for rescue. He was still concerned about what he saw above, though. How the hell could that have happened without anybody here knowing about it? For rock to run like liquid, there would have to be a hellish temperature. He wasn’t sure that a nuclear bomb would be able to create that kind of temperature a hundred feet below ground. At that temperature, nobody in Area 19 would have survived. There were too many things going on here, and he didn’t have enough information to figure out what was happening.

  He talked to the people on the second floor, told them the stairwell was blocked to the outside. He told them there was food and beverages below, and that more people were downstairs. “No,” he answered their questions, he didn’t know what was happening. Unhappy with the lack of answers, they decided to go downstairs to the play room. The group left, and he decided to check the floor one more time. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Rob and Tom, but a second pair of eyes might see something that they didn’t.

  “Is there anybody in here?” he yelled as he walked through the hallway.

  “Hey, help me, what happened?”

  It was a male voice, sounding disoriented.

  Mike started walking towards the voice and yelled back, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, nothing broken, a little banged up is all,” The voice sounded relieved that there was another human being that he could talk to. Mike could well imagine what the man was going through.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.


  “My name is Ricky, Ricky Sustein.”

  Mike yelled again, “Ricky, my name is Mike. I was with the army guys that are working with the team downstairs. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m stuck though, can you help me out?”

  Mike yelled back, “Just keep yelling and I’ll come to you.”

  Mike found him pinned in an awkward position by a desk that didn’t allow him leverage to push it away. He had been covered by the desk and debris, and just woke up. It was no wonder that he had been missed during the first sweep by Tom and Rob.

  Mike helped him out, and then checked him over to ensure that he was okay. Ricky didn’t seem to have any problems, so Mike moved him back to the stairwell to go to the fourth floor, telling him that there was food and beverages below. He told Ricky to go directly to Dr. Humphreys and Mickey for a medical checkup. He continued through the hallway.

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  The monster’s rage was boundless. It slouched forward, an eldritch, chthonic horror, its fetid breath fogging the floor of the cave. Thick fangs flexed in broad snout, poisoned saliva dripping in the dirt. Gigantic talons dug long channels in the floor, punctuating the madness of the monster. A thick, muscular tail lashed the air. Tentacles around the neck surged in whipping frenzy, a nest of serpents, feverish medusa nightmare. Color pulsated pink to red, cascading along the tentacles from tip to root, betraying its murderous intent. The violence of the species and the competition from other females had driven it to this cave, protection against the destruction of its eggs. Its efforts had been useless, its children gone, smashed and broken, and it didn’t understand why. It became fury incarnate, thirsting for violence, vengeance. Its nest was gone, in its place a large hole.

  The tongue tested the air over the shaft, the miasma of its children’s blood and death fueling its rage. The scent of plastic and metal from the elevator shaft was unfamiliar, unrecognizable to it. There was something else, subtle, intangible. It smelled fear and anxiety. It smelled prey. This drove the madness of the monster, driving it into the hole before it. A coughing growl ripped from its chest, echoing through the cave. Now, the great beast would hunt, and whatever was at the bottom of this shaft would die. Ropes of saliva dripped from fangs in anticipation of gore, shattered bone, and the taste of blood.

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  Everett turned to Mickey, “What the hell was that?”

  Mickey shrugged, stunned by the unexpected scream. It sounded again, coming from the service elevator. The sound drew stares at the elevator doors. Scientists and techs, between Everett’s position and the service elevator, looked toward the source in startled apprehension. They stood or lounged on the floor, staring pointedly at the elevator, not understanding the danger. They were locked in their old reality, the one where they could go out, climb into their cars, and go to their homes, safe in bed at night.

  There was fear on the faces of a few of the techs, but for most, the situation hadn’t penetrated the scientists’ amygdalae, their lizard brains. They were scientists, formulating hypothesis and theories, trying to understand the phenomena.

  Everett yelled to get their attention. “I don’t know what the hell that is, but you all need to get your asses over here.”

  A few turned and looked at him. Some ignored him completely. Lieutenant Pang took charge. She didn’t know what was happening, but she trusted Everett’s instincts. She ran to the engineering team members around the service elevator and started pushing them towards the other side of the room.

  She punched the arms of some of the more recalcitrant individuals to get them moving. “Get your fat asses moving, NOW!”

  She ran forward and grabbed one of the younger members of the engineering team and shoved him towards the other side of the room, away from the service elevator. Her intensity woke them up. Another scream sounded, increasing their interest in getting away from the elevator, the speed of their movement increasing. The screams continued, getting louder, sounding closer. The sound sent chills down Lieutenant Pang’s spine, provoking deep, primitive fear responses. She was sweating, hair standing up on her arms. The fear was very specific. She didn’t know what was in the service elevator, but she knew it was hunting her. Fear punched through her chest, shifting through her stomach, making her feet feel as if they weighed a hundred pounds. She felt like throwing up, running, or hiding. These were deep emotions with an intensity that she had never felt before.

  She didn’t know what the hell was going on, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. That scream didn’t sound like anything that she had ever heard. Even a bear’s roar didn’t sound like that. Living in Montana, she had heard a few when she went out deer hunting. She was a small girl, but she carried a .500 Smith and Wesson whenever she went hiking or camping. She really missed the weight of the Smith and Wesson on her hip. Her hand moved down to her belt unbidden. She realized what she was doing when her hand closed on the non-existent handle of the pistol. She was running, passing techs and engineers. Her haste put movement into the others. Fear drove them. They were moving as fast as possible. The younger and more mobile were helping the older ones. They were all moving at top speed now.

  Everett heard something behind him. He turned. It was Rob and Tom.

  “What do you want us to do?” Rob asked.

  Everett thought for just a moment. “Guns, we need guns, break out some big, damn guns. And lots of ammunition. I don’t know what the hell it is, but I want it to be in lots of pain if it decides to come our way.”

  Tom nodded agreement with Everett. Tom was the hunter of the party, spending some of his Army staff sergeant pay to do a big game hunt in Africa. He spoke, his voice very serious, “Y’all may want to consider hand grenades and the M203 40mm’s. I heard a lot of things out hunting, and I ain’t never heard anything like that.”

  Everett was still for just a moment, and then slowly nodded his head, “Grab some grenades: frags, concussion, and flash bang. We may need them.”

  The team didn’t hesitate. Tom started throwing boxes around until he pulled out his SRS .338 Lapua. Rob grabbed his M4/M203. Only after he found the bandoleers of 40 millimeter for the M203, did he start rummaging for the 5.56mm bullets. Everett and Mickey pulled out the Barrett .50 caliber and Mickey started to load it. Everett pulled his SIG 716 and popped in a magazine to get ready for whatever the hell was making that noise. The engineers and scientists were streaming past now, hastily trying to get as far away from the service elevator as possible. The sight of the team loading the weapons only hastened them towards the other side of the room.

  Lieutenant Pang stopped when she got to the team, “Give me a gun.”

  Rob didn’t flinch. He pulled a Benelli tactical shotgun and tossed it to her, followed by a box of slugs. A few others, John Smith, Luis Garcia, and Hank Bethel, all with prior military experience, ran over. Rob pulled more weapons out, and handed them over. Once the techs had the guns, they rummaged to find ammunition before the screaming creature came through the door.

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  The beast moved into the hole. It could hear movement at the bottom of the shaft. The monster moved with sinuous grace belying its bulk, tail slowly moving back and forth, the tip whipping faster. The rage settled as it went into hunting mode, and now it stalked. It was huge, seven tons, but that didn’t keep its bulk from moving down into the square opening before it. Its body stretched and thinned, elongating to move into the hole.

  The hole it dropped into was tricky, canting back below the cave from which it came. It bent its body around gracefully, to fit into the hole. As the thick hide brushed against the side of the metal walls, dense keratinous scales scraped the metal into a burnished shine. The stench from the gore of its children was overpowering as it climbed down the shaft, their bodies shattered from the drop, shells and b
lood surrounding them. The talons shredded the metal of the elevator shaft as it slowed its descent. The monster found her children dead and dying. They were too young to live outside the shell, their shattered bodies increasing her anger. It sniffed the dead bodies of the young, lifted its head, and gave a long howl, mourning the dead.

  Claws slid on the unfamiliar metal of the elevator, her bulk deforming it. The lines of the elevator car lay cut, bunched, tangled. Tongue flicked out, gathering in the unfamiliar scent of oil, plastics and metal. Its body bunched in muscled intensity as it shifted its weight. The elevator was not designed for the stress, screeching in slow collapse. The gigantic triangular head moved towards the doors of the elevator, inhaling the delicious scent of the prey’s sweat, urine, and feces. It gave a shrill scream, anticipating the kill. Everything in this strange cave would die, ripped, shattered, and broken.

  It didn’t know what this door was, but the monster could feel and hear the movement of prey behind it. A small opening was present, and it could see light emanating from the opening. The tongue flicked and assessed through the crack between the doors. The opening was wide enough that the tip of the tongue could slip through. On the other side, the scent was much stronger. A moaning purr shuddered from the beast’s throat, in ecstasy at the thought of bloody flesh.

  The opening was not large, but the monster could slide the tips of its talons into it. It delicately extended the points of the talons through the doors. Talons slid in, curved around the metal, and pulled. The monster leveraged the elevator door open further, metal screeching as the doors moved. As the doors opened wider, gigantic paws flexed and replaced the talons, applying more force. They slid open and the monster moved its head into the opening. As the prey saw the beast, they started screaming, anticipating their death.

  All delicacy, all subtlety was gone. Roaring its murderous rage, it used its bulk to slam the doors back. The impact rang through the open room and echoed up the shaft. The beast slammed its body against the doors, the warping metal screeching as loud as the monster’s howls. The doors broke and gave way. The monster pushed shoulders into the room beyond. The doors gave further, falling away completely, and the great monster pushed its body through.

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  None of Everett’s special operations training prepared him for what came next. Everett watched the tongue flick through the crack of the door, libidinously caressing the smooth metal on either side of the opening. He watched gigantic talons extend through the door, the tips appearing, and then the entire claw sliding through. The doors of the elevator shuddered open, shrieking as metal ground across metal. Something huge slammed against the metal doors, bending and twisting the metal.

  Everett looked at the monstrosity coming through the door. It was a nightmare, a chimera of hideous proportions. It was every fear, every monster, and every hideous dream that had haunted man through the ages combined into one. It was a beast dragged from the deepest pit of hell. The triangular head, the whipping tentacles, the gigantic talons made Everett feel like he had lost his sanity. He had to consciously fight the need to run. His lizard brain was screaming at him to drop his rifle, to run, to hide, to pray to God for deliverance.

  The same hideous coughing scream echoed through the gigantic room. Despite its bulk, the beast moved sinuously, languidly. The head was huge, broad across the top, great spiked teeth in the mouth. Long, wide scars ran across the hide, evidence of past battles. Everett couldn’t even imagine what else there might be out there to fight this great fiend. Tentacles on the neck whipped around wildly, rippling through shades of red to pink.

  The beast looked reptilian, hide studded with thick scale, mottled green, brown and gray, the camouflage of an ambush predator. It looked like some antediluvian, ancient dragon, but its chest and shoulders were broad and deep, with arms that were used to drag down prey. The body of the damn thing was twenty feet long, the tail another fifteen feet beyond that. Saliva dripped in ropes out of the mouth of the beast. Nothing ever read, or anything ever seen from Hollywood could ever come close to the horror he was witnessing. The chaotic delirium of a madman couldn’t even match what Everett was looking at.

  The techs and scientists watched as the doors buckled, the talons and head of the beast appearing through the door. As the screaming monster emerged into the room, scientists and techs fought each other to get through the door into the stairwell. The group turned from an orderly, though hasty, migration into a scrum of flailing bodies. Complete chaos ensued. They were no longer rational human beings. Fear ran through the crowd like a tidal wave. They turned into a mass of herd animals trying to outrun the wolf. The screaming started as the engineering team realized that they were on the front row to a horror movie. One of them kept yelling, “Jesus, Jesus,” over and over again. The stench of voided bowels and urine choked the air in the play room. The frenzied exodus wasn’t going well for anyone, and there would be injuries.

  There was nothing the team could do to make people act like rational humans, so they didn’t try. How could they, with this horror. The sound of weapons racking the first bullet into the chamber sounded eight times, each sound as different as the weapon system being used. There was only the team, plus Lieutenant Pang and three techs to stop the slaughter that was about to happen.

  Everett thought about this, and turned to Mickey. Everett looked at him, muscled, as big as a house, the huge .50 caliber rifle looking small against his frame, and said, “Mike’s really going to be pissed that he missed this.”

  Mickey had a huge grin. He thought about Mike missing the impending slaughter. Mickey looked back at him, “Yeah, I think he’s going to be a little upset.”

  They both looked at the beast in front of them. Everett watched as its huge fangs flexed in and out if its mouth. Then he noticed its body massing, muscle contracting, the back legs tensing under the body.

  “Get ready, here it comes!” he yelled.

  Tom fired the first shot. The .338 Lapua hit the monster on the top of the head. The head flinched, and the monster paused. It didn’t seem harmed so much as stunned that it had been hurt. The momentary silence was overwhelmed by the sound of gun fire as the rest of the team opened up on the creature. The hide was tough, but blood and gore flowed. Rob scored a shot against the beast as he lobbed a 40mm underneath it. Everett and Mickey piled shot after shot into the shoulder and front legs of the beast. They saw the effect the .338 Lapua had on the head, and they didn’t want to waste shots by putting more rounds there.

  The 40mm grenades did some damage on the creature, but it was so huge, it took the damage and kept moving forward. Soon, the beast would be too close for the grenades to arm before they hit. Rob was prepping another round for the beast. Tom took aim and hit the beast in the shoulder, causing the arm to collapse under it. It was only down momentarily as it fought off the shot and stood back up to attack them. The beast was taking major damage, but it still soaked up all the hits. There was no doubt that it was going to make it to their platform and kill them all. It raised its head and released an earth shattering roar.

  Mickey and Everett did magazine changes, to the sing song, “reload.” They moved in a ballet of violent intent. Tom kept shooting at the joints on the monster. Rob switched to 5.56mm rounds. Some bullets did damage, most did little. Lieutenant Pang just waited until the beast was close enough for the shotgun to have maximum effect, hoping that she would do damage before it killed her.

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  At the edge of the corridor, Mike looked into a large area with desks piled up against the wall. As he looked around, an office door opened. Mitchem and Dr. Randall walked out. Dr. Randall was using one arm to hold the other close to her chest. Dr. Randall had a problem meeting his eyes. Mitchem was different, more belligerent. He growled at Mike, “What the hell happened?”

  Mike tried to be conciliator
y, not wanting further conflict, knowing it wouldn’t help the situation, “don’t know, I’m trying to find out. I was hoping you had an idea.”

  Mitchem shook his head. Mike looked over at Dr. Randall. She was leaning against a desk. He nodded towards her, and pointed at her arm, “What’s wrong with you, Ma’am?”

  She didn’t answer, giving Mike a frosty glare. LTC Mitchem glanced at Dr. Randall, and then back at Mike, “I think she has a broken arm.”

  Mike nodded, “I can get Mickey to take a look at that. He’ll be able to tell us what’s wrong. Is she in shock? How did she break her arm?”

  Dr. Randall was pale. He had no doubt that she was in shock. Hell, Mike was still in shock, and his arm wasn’t broken. He couldn’t imagine how she felt. The silence grew as neither of them responded to him. Nobody spoke, and the silence grew awkward. Mitchem didn’t like the question. Mitchem’s face turned red. Mike couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment or fury. Probably a combination of the two. Mitchem’s anger started to boil to the surface. That was how LTC Mitchem responded to embarrassment, by threatening the world around him. He opened his mouth, about to retort. Mike didn’t know what was going on, didn’t care. They were probably knocking boots, and didn’t want Mike to know.

  Then, Mike heard what distinctly sounded like gunshots. Lots of gunshots.

  He forestalled LTC Mitchem’s fit by holding up his hand.

  “I don’t have time for this right now. We’ll talk later.”

  This wound up LTC Mitchem even more, “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to Chief?” Fury stood out bright on his face.

  Mike turned and faced LTC Mitchem, “Those are gunshots, and I need to find out what’s going on. People may be dying, I don’t have time for your garbage. Sit down, shut up, help her, and I’ll be back for you.” Mike turned and ran quickly up the hallway. He entered the stairwell, and took the steps in two and threes, praying he didn’t break an ankle as he did so. Mitchem’s vile rant followed him as he ran.

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  They were busy with slaughter and violence, and didn’t realize what was happening behind them. Then they felt, more than heard, “Move!” as the speakers yelled out.

  Mike was in the power armor moving at full speed, a blur as he passed the team to engage with the giant predator. He could hear the gunfire quiet as he moved in front of them.

  After six weeks of training, the armor moved like it was his own body. He was at a small disadvantage because of the angle of the floor, but it was not too bad. He moved forward to intercept the horror and to give his team time to inflict some more damage to it.

  “Keep firing!” he yelled.

  Everett looked at Lieutenant Pang. “Damn, I didn’t even think about the mech armor!”

  She looked back at him, “Yeah, me either. You heard the man. You don’t have anything here that’s going to harm him or the armor. Keep shooting at the monster!” She yelled to be heard over the sound of combat and the roar of the beast.

  “Grenades?” Mickey asked.

  Lieutenant Pang nodded her head, “Yes, anything that does damage, the more the merrier.”

  “Good,” Mickey replied, grabbing four frag grenades, then he ran forward to get close enough to deal some damage.

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  The monster was furious. Its body was aflame with pain. Anger and hatred drove it forward to kill the enemy. A large, black shape rose to interfere. It roared and jumped forward to meet the new challenger. As it slammed into Mike’s mech, he grabbed the tentacles and held on, gauntleted fist driving in, pummeling the monster’s face. Bone crunched, and blood exploded. The ridge over the knuckles of the gauntlet ripped into the face like a blade. Infuriated, it screamed as blood filled its eyes. The monster bit, wrapping its arms around the body of the mech armor. The rage of the monster mounted in frustration as the mech suffered no damage.

  Explosions rocked it, as they grappled. It felt the shrapnel of the grenades rip into it. Its hind legs ripped forward to disembowel the mech. It was weakening as the blows from the gauntlet rained down, and bullets and shrapnel shredded its body. Mike felt more bone give away. He wrapped the two arms of the mech armor around its neck, and tightened. The great monster couldn’t breathe, and it tired as oxygen no longer fed the brain. Bullets and fragmentation continued to rock its body, the pain overwhelming. The power armor shifted as its rage was spent. Front legs collapsed, and it felt the power armor move to its back. Its throat collapsed, cartilage cracking, jaw askew, blood spitting from the mouth. The monster felt the bullets rip into its body, not able to hear explosions anymore. Death took the rage from it, and the body went slack.

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  Lieutenant Pang emptied shell after shell into the mouth of the beast. Its face was ruined by the mech gauntlet. Random twitches shook the body as death took it. It stilled, and no longer moved. Only at that point did the team knew that they had won. Mike didn’t let go of the beast, for a good long time, though. He wanted to make sure it was dead. As good measure, he punched the back of the beast’s neck until he felt the vertebrae give way, and he could see the severed spinal cord. The stench was horrible. Blood flowed from the carcass of the beast. Bowels opened as death took it. Carnage covered the floor, pooling down slope. The mech rose, covered in blood, excrement, lumps of flesh and crushed bone.

  He stood up and said, “ACE report.”

  All team members gave him thumbs up and reported green across the board. The team moved back to the pallet. He moved back with them. Debris crunched under foot as he walked the power armor back. He turned around and placed the power armor into the linebacker stance. He went through a modified power down, and opened up the back door of the armor. The stench hit him like a physical blow.

  There was blood everywhere, gore and chunks of flesh pooling below the armor. Thankfully, none of it was his, or the team’s. He stood up in the armor, faced his team and the engineers. More than a few of the engineers and techs were looking at Lieutenant Pang with a hell of a lot more respect. “Can anybody tell me what the hell that thing is?” he asked, in a very loud voice.

  The silence was absolute.

  “Can anybody tell me what the hell is going on around here?” he asked.

  More silence.

  The team was leaning against the pallet boxes and the floor. They looked tired. Adrenaline was starting to wear off, and the stress of the situation was beginning to tell on everybody.

  Bob walked up to the team, “Mike, I can’t tell you what’s going on, because I just don’t know. I think we’re going to have to tell you more about the power armor you’re using, though.”

  Lieutenant Pang looked up sharply at him, “Are you sure that’s wise?”

  Bob looked at her. Then he pointed at the great monster the team had just fought, “Lieutenant, I think they need all the armament we can give them. What if there are more of them where that one came from?”

  Lieutenant Pang nodded. Her hands trembled as she put the shotgun on safe and started feeding more shells into the magazine. “You’re right. Sorry I said anything.”

  “What armament are you talking about, Bob?” Mike asked.

  “Well, you know the slots on the forearms of your armor, right?” Bob asked.

  “Yeah, it kind of looks like the rails we have on our rifles, so we thought something went there.”

  Bob nodded, “Well, it just so happens that we have high intensity lasers and small rail guns that fit those slots.”

  A high nasal, unwelcome voice filled the air, “What the hell is going on here? Why is there shooting in this facility? Who the hell authorized you people to shoot in my facility?” All heads swiveled towards the stairwell. It was Director Jamison. Where he came from Mike didn’t know. Maybe the doors to the first floor were finally open. Jamison stormed over to Mike, yellin
g as he walked. He was screaming at anybody that he could see, cursing everyone, yelling about the broken equipment and the wreckage piled against one wall. Jamison’s face had developed a tic. His hands were flapping by his side. The guy was seriously unstable. Mike was tired of Jamison’s petty posturing. He walked over to Jamison.

  “Director, would you please look over there, towards the service elevator.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Jamison hurled the words at Mike like it was a curse. Spittle was leaking from the corners of his mouth.

  Mike was done with Jamison’s fits. He could feel the anger swelling up in him. He grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket, shook him and yelled, “Look at the service elevator!”

  Jamison was livid, “Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me! Damn you, you can’t speak to me like that! I’ll have your commission for this!”

  In for a penny, in for a pound. The team surrounded Mike and Jamison. Mike nodded at Mickey, “Mickey, escort the Director over to see our dead pet will you.”

  Mickey grinned, “Easy or hard?”

  Mike looked at the sputtering Jamison. “You can make it hard, but no damage to the director, please.”

  Mickey reached out with his baseball glove sized hands, grabbed Jamison by the scruff of his neck, and lifted. He started walking and pulling the Director towards the giant lizard. The man screeched and slapped at Mickey’s arm, trying to get free. Mickey kept dragging and carrying him, the director’s toes barely able to reach the ground. The engineering team goggled as they watched Mickey pick the man up with one hand and carry him over to the beast. They were used to Mickey as the gentle giant, the kind and caring medic, not the knuckle and skull bruiser that Mike knew he could be.

  “Take your hands off of me you, you ape,” the director yelled at Mickey. It wouldn’t do him any good. Mickey was the largest, strongest, man that Mike knew. And in the special operations arena, that was saying a lot.

  Mike looked into the worried eyes of Everett. He shrugged at the question that he saw there. Mike had put up with the director’s garbage for weeks now. He was past his limit. The director and LTC Mitchem were more interested in protocol and their egos. Mike was a survivor. He had been in some of the worst hell holes on the planet. He would make sure that this group of people had the best chance of survival that he could give them. Protocol was out the window on this one.

  He heard a, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” from Jamison.

  “Well, at least we have one bit of good news now,” he announced.

  The team looked at him. Lieutenant Pang asked the question.

  “What good news is that?” she offered.

  Mike answered, “We know the way out.” He thought for a minute, “Hopefully,” he amended.

  Everett thought about this, “Oh hell.”

  Mike nodded. He pointed towards the service elevator. “My question is, if we have a predator that big, what the hell is it preying on, and are there more of them up there?”

  There were curses as the reality of the situation settled into everyone’s minds.

  “Uh, I may have a way to find out what is up there,” John Smith, the electrical engineer, had been one of the techs that stood toe to toe with the team to kill the monster.

  “What’s that?” Mike asked.

  “Big Dog,” was the reply he got.

  Mike looked into John’s eyes. He had no clue what the man was talking about.

  Lieutenant Pang shook her head. “John, Big Dog won’t work. We don’t know what’s up there, and Big Dog can’t climb. We need the drone.”

  John’s eyes shined as he thought about it. He nodded in agreement.

  Bob thought about the conversation. He looked at Pang, “I think we need to let the team know about the other things we have.” Both Pang and Smith looked concerned.

  Mike looked at Bob. He pantomimed pulling up his sleeve. Then he mimicked one of his favorite cartoons, “Hey, Rocky, you want to see me pull a rabbit out of my hat?” His voice switched to normal, “How much stuff do you guys have in storage?”

  They were interrupted again, this time Mitchem and Randall were walking out of the stairwell. “What the hell is going on here? Why is your soldier manhandling Director Jamison like that? And what the hell is that?”

  All three looked over as Mitchem and Randall walked to where they were standing. His eyes were as big as dinner plates. The realization that something was very wrong with their situation was finally starting to drill into his mind. Still, he wasn’t going to let go of the anger or contempt he held for Mike’s team.

  “What’s he doing to the Director?” Mitchem pointed at Mickey, where Jamison was howling and still trying to get out of Mickey’s grip.

  Mike looked over at the director, “That guy is seriously mental. We’re trying to get it through his head that things have changed.”

  Mike looked at the Lieutenant Colonel, “Look, I understand you don’t like me, and don’t like my team. Personally, I don’t give a crap.”

  Mitchem stared at him, his eyes the eyes of a cobra sizing up a rat for food.

  Mike continued, “Right now, there are some strange things happening. First, the exit to this building has been sealed by some kind of glassine rock, and I think that the service elevator,” he pointed at the elevator with its doors ripped apart, “maybe the only way out of this installation.”

  He let this sink in, then continued, “Second, we’ve been attacked by something out of a H.P. Lovecraft novel. It looks like a dragon. I don’t believe in dragons, so I’m inclined to believe that something untoward has happened.”

  He let this sink in. Mitchem and Randall seemed less than convinced.

  Mike studied him, “Colonel Mitchem, I need you to get your security team together, and help anybody that is caught up in this mess. We’ll need to find everybody, and treat anybody that is hurt. While your team does that, I’m going to put the engineering team to work adding the mods to the mech armor. My team is going to make sure that this area, since it is the only way that I know of that anything can get in or out, stays secure. Roger?”

  LTC Mitchem nodded slowly as he looked at the director sobbing uncontrollably at Mickey’s feet. He got his military bearing back, and nodded more steadily. Then his head cocked slightly as he thought of something, “What do you mean that this is the only way in or out?”

  Mike’s demeanor shifted slightly. “You haven’t been to the top floor have you?”

  Mitchem shook his head, “No, I haven’t, what’s wrong?”

  Mike told them, “Everything’s gone. There’s a curved wall of stone or glass up there where the corridor leading to the other parts of Area 19 used to be.”

  Shock was on all four faces as he explained this.

  Mike turned to Bob, “Bob, get your people working on getting the other equipment up. If any of your guys have and know how to operate a cutting torch, the door to the first floor is stuck, and needs to be removed.” He pointed at Jamison, “I don’t know where he came from, but they may have gotten the doors open.”

  Mike turned to Pang, “Jennifer, you need to make sure that nobody goes off the deep end about this. Make sure everybody has a job to keep them busy. I don’t want anyone thinking about our situation too much.”

  Jennifer and Bob went off to ensure that their tasks were accomplished, talking to various members of the engineering team, the ones that Mike had previously watched and figured out were the de facto leaders of the techs.

  Mike looked at Lieutenant Colonel Mitchem, “Do you have any questions?”

  Mitchem looked back at him, “This isn’t over. You’re overstepping your authority, Chief, and I plan on ensuring that you pay for it.”

  Mike waved a hand at him, “Yeah, yeah, I know, you’re going to destroy my career, take my commission. Well, get in line. I think you’re standing behind Jamison at this point.”

  He noticed Dr. Randall holding
her arm. He turned back and yelled at Mickey.

  “Hey, Mick! Can you come over here and take a look at Dr. Randall’s arm? It may be broken.” Mike directed Dr. Randall to the pallet where Mickey and Dr. Humphreys had set up shop.

  Mickey turned away from the sobbing director and walked to his medic bag, then smiled at Dr. Randall, a smile that was not returned. He motioned for her to step over to one of the cots to have a seat. He squatted down next to her, and probed the arm with his fingers to diagnose what was wrong.

  Mitchem grabbed Mike by the arm, “I’m going to get my security team, and we’re coming back down here. When I get back, you’re going to have some explaining to do.”

  Mike looked back at him, no give in his face, “Do what you have to do. I’ll be in the area. No place else to go.”

  Mitchem turned from him, and walked over to Jamison. He pulled the director up from the floor, where he had collapsed in a heap. Jamison wiped his eyes, then tried to regain some dignity by adjusting his clothes. He glared at Mike as he walked by. They exited back through the stairwell.

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