Camping Ch. 6

 

The corridors were red and alarms were sounding- they were now in red alert. Ahead Joon could hear shouting. Then gunshots. They were approaching an intersection and they could see shadows on the wall. He gripped Maia's hand tightly as they hit the intersection. He turned right but looked left. Soldiers- thirty meters away- engaging Sasquatches. Gunfire, then dark forms overtaking the soldiers. Screams, then silence. 

Fuck. 

Joon pulled Maia after him, heading for the tube. Or a lift. Whatever. Just need to get off this floor. The beasts saw them and pursued. They were fast. Maia slapped a button as they passed through an archway and a blast door began to close. It sealed the tunnel seconds before the creatures arrived. Banging and howling commenced. 

The two of them raced on, breath coming in ragged gasps. Joon stumbled but they kept going. Up stairs, down a passage, then down stairs. Then they were there- the tube nexus. There were other people there, too, but no tube. 

Dammit. 

"What's happening?" someone asked him. "Has the place fallen?"

Joon scowled. He didn't know, honestly. The most secret location on Earth (hell, it wasn't even on Earth) and you had Sasquatches running around all over. Where was Command? If he had a comm... 

Somebody did. A scientist, older. Sweating and doubled over. Out of shape. With a commlink. Grabbing it, Joon signaled to him to stay calm, while he looked for a command frequency. 

"Stella. Stella Arios. Come in, Stella. This is Joon. Copy?"

There was just static. 

Dammit, why didn't he have his comm? He'd lost it somewhere. Or his phone. Where was his phone? 

"Joon, you there?" The comm crackled to life. Mallory's voice. "Where are you?" 

"Give me the phone." Stella. 

"Where the fuck are you, Joon?"

"Where am I? Where are you?"

"We're in Secure Command #36 "

"Where's THAT?"

"Aren't you familiar with the complex layout?"

"Well..."

"Never mind. Get here. Where have you been?" 

"I went to the ops center, like you said." 

"Oh. Right." 

For fucks sake. 

The howling was getting closer. He could hear the tube now, though. It would be close. 

"I'll get there as quick as I can." If I can find it. "I'm at the tube nexus. Where are you?"

"Tell the tube Command Center 36. Wait... Secure Command 36. Priority Epsilon. It'll go there first." 

"Thanks..."

"Joon," Maia cut in. She touched his arm. 

There was a shuffling noise from one of the side passages. A dark form... a Sasquatch. Incredibly large, peering in. It saw prey- or victims- and just then the tube arrived, whooshing into the nexus terminal at a high rate of speed and then coming to a halt. People started climbing aboard as the creature bellowed in rage and came in, impossibly fast. 

Joon and Maia leaped aboard into the first car. 

"Command Center 36. Fuck. Secure Command 36. Priority Epsilon," he shouted. 

"Acknowledged," came a pleasant female voice. The tube started to move, but the Sasquatch was on the tube now, climbing aboard and reaching for one of the screaming people. Huge paws clasped around a woman's neck, hurling her off the tube into the track below. Everything dissolved into chaos. 

Other creatures were now in the chamber. The Sasquatch aboard the tube swung about, cracking skulls and breaking bones left and right. Its roaring filled the air. Joon somehow found himself moving- what was he doing?- and as the Sasquatch lifted another unfortunate into the air, Joon tackled the thing. His momentum overbalanced it, and with a roar it fell off the tube,landing with a sickening thud on the track. The person it was holding aloft landed wrong, too, sadly. Another casualty. 

"Joon!" Maia called. 

Looking around, he saw another one running parallel with the tube on the landing. It leaped onto the tube and held on, and Joon moved back to the front. It was too close to Maia, but the tube cars were picking up speed and entering the tunnel now, and the tunnel was narrower than the nexus so the Sasquatch hit the wall. Howling, it dropped. 

And they were clear. 

Maia grabbed him and held on, and he thought he was going to faint. Blood rushed in his ears. The survivors sat stunned, some bleeding, as the car whooshed through the dark tunnel. He felt like he was at Space Mountain. 

"You could have been killed," Maia was saying. She sounded far away, even as he held her closer. He felt exhausted as his adrenaline wore off. He still had the comm unit. Where was its owner? He couldn't see the guy. 

"Um, Joon." 

"Yes?"

"What's that?"

Joon turned to look forward and... what was that? Ahead of them was a dark, yawning... hole in the air. The track disappeared right into it. No time to stop. With a scream they went in.