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Inferno - Chapter 6: Slaying Darkness
Posted By: Skul<skulkrusha2000@hotmail.com>
Date: 7 December 2006, 11:57 pm
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1432 hours, June 12, 2553 (Military Calendar) / Fire Base Alpha Zulu Foxtrot, Planet Earth
Fire Base Alpha Zulu Foxtrot was positioned roughly between Fire Bases Alpha Tango Omega – five miles to the northeast – and Bravo Foxtrot – eight miles to the southwest. Between all three bases were vast plains of barren desert. In the distance, tall, rocky mountains stood like giant guards watching over the land.
Tensions were high in the base. The attack on the other two installations had unnerved the marines. Fire Base Alpha Zulu Foxtrot was surely next. The most troubling thing was that they didn't know which direction the attackers would come from, or when. Extra guards were posted both on the perimeter and inside, all issued with heavy-duty armour.
This did not soothe anybody's nerves, however. More than once somebody drew their weapon at a sound that would have been ignored any other time.
Nobody went anywhere alone. Those who slept in single rooms before now bunked with their fellow marines in larger rooms. Everyone waited for the night, hoping to apprehend the killer -– or killers –- and get some answers about what was going on.
The lights above Captain Leroy Osmond's head flickered briefly before going out. The Captain sighed and muttered a curse. As if the curse was a command, the lights buzzed loudly and blinked back to life.
Osmond frowned and looked up at his office's ceiling. All sorts of problems had been plaguing the base's electrical systems for several days, now -- alarms starting and stopping abruptly, doors locking and unlocking randomly, lights flickering. One night, there was a base-wide power loss; even the emergency lighting was affected. Apart from the weak, pale moonlight filtering in through the windows, it was pitch black inside for over two hours. Strange sounds issued from vents and around corners during that terrifying duration of darkness. In fact, a Sergeant was wounded in the right arm when a nervous Private fired his sidearm at the Sergeant's echoing footfalls.
Captain Osmond shook his head, sighing and resumed tapping away at his laptop's keyboard. He stopped typing only a moment later, closed his eyes and stretched, his joints cracking. From behind him came a low, vicious growl. Osmond whipped around in his chair, startled. He was alone in his office. The growl came again, rolling out from the small duct in the wall that was level with the floor. Osmond got down on his hands and knees. Peering in, he could see nothing past the steel mesh grate covering the opening. It was too dark in there. He was about to get up again, thinking it was just his imagination, when the growl sounded again, this time more vicious. It grew into a loud snarl. Osmond got up quickly and backed away –- he had felt a hot breath on his face.
The growling animal seemed much too big for the tiny duct it was hiding… lurking in. It could have just been the sound reverberating in the confined space, making the creature seem larger, but Osmond felt that wasn't the case. It was an irrational thought, but he couldn't help picture a large, shadowy form lying on its belly, watching him from the darkness.
Taking his eyes from the duct for only a second, the Captain reached into a drawer, lifted out a flashlight and gripped it in his left hand. With his right hand, he slipped his sidearm out of its holster and laid his left wrist over his right so that the flashlight pointed in roughly the same direction as the gun barrel.
Hands shaking visibly, Osmond slowly pointed his pistol and flashlight towards the vent, the circle of light from the flashlight dancing at the opening. Nothing moved, nothing was heard, but he knew something was in there.
Very slowly, very carefully, Osmond knelt down, angling the flashlight beam to shine further into the vent. He was in a crouched position when suddenly, a black, tortured claw shot out of the darkness, the long, wicked fingers wiggling erratically through the gaps in the mesh, before retracting as quickly as they had appeared. Osmond screamed and fired three quick shots at the claw, all missing their intended mark. Immediately after the claw had retracted, Osmond crouched and pointed the light directly into the vent. He saw a glimpse of something moving around a bend in the ventilation system, then nothing.
His body shaking now more from the adrenaline in his bloodstream than from fear, he punched the button to contact security.
"Security, this is Captain Leroy Osmond. We have a security breach. Intruder alert, repeat, intruder alert. Keep an eye on the vents, I believe our intruder is using them to move around."
"The vents, sir?" asked the security officer.
"I don't believe it either, but I definitely saw something moving around."
"Yes, sir. Understood."
Captain Osmond took his finger off the button and turned his attention towards the vent once again. Had he seen something? He wasn't entirely sure; after all, it was just a glance. It could have been a trick of the light.
The door opened and Osmond jumped. Two security personnel entered the room, M7A pistols drawn.
"We heard gunfire, sir," said the first marine.
"Something was in the vents. It tried to get in through there," Osmond waved his hand at the mesh grate, "but I guess I scared it off."
"What was it, sir?"
"I don't know. Like I said, it was something."
The two marines exchanged uneasy glances.
"Keep your eyes peeled and watch the vents," said Captain Osmond.
"Sir!" the two marines answered in unison and snapped a salute. The Captain watched the two men leave and found his gaze wandering back to the mesh grate, remembering the black, clawed fingers. Each finger, he remembered, had an extra joint, making the fingers' jerky movements look very grotesque. He shivered involuntarily.
Technician Felicity Dillonson opened the casing on the powerswitch panel in the facility's basement. A marine accompanied her; new procedures demanded that no personnel should go anywhere alone or unarmed. The weight of the M7A sidearm hanging in its holster on her belt provided her little comfort.
Felicity wished her guard was more talkative. So far, all he had given her was his name, Frank Peters, and his rank of Corporal. Any attempts to get more conversation out of him were either met with silence or curt grunts. The Corporal held his M7 Sub Machine Gun in a tight grip and he swept the long, narrow corridors of the basement with his brown eyes, his ears listening intently for any unusual sounds.
The technician ran a hand through her dark brown hair, which was just a centimetre over the regulation sixteen centimetres, as she looked at the inside of the third powerswitch panel. So far, she could see nothing that could have caused any of the base's electrical systems to act so strangely.
From around a corner came a tinny crash and the muffled thump of a body hitting the floor, followed by a skittering sound.
"What the hell was that?" whispered Felicity.
Corporal Peters crept forward, SMG raised and Felicity drew the heavy M7A. She thumbed the safety off and stayed where she was. She didn't want to get in Peters's way if he had to back up. She watched him creep up to the corner, hugging the wall. At the junction, he paused for three seconds and then leapt out, his gun pointed directly down the tunnel.
He waved her over and covered her as she crossed the short distance.
"What is it?" she asked.
Peters pointed his chin at a metal grate that had fallen from the wall. The mesh was slightly warped, as if something had punched into it.
"What now?" asked Felicity.
Peters waved his gun to indicate they move forward. The lights at the further end of the corridor had gone out and the female technician felt her heart rate go up. The Corporal turned on the SMG's attached flashlight and shone it down the corridor. The light, faded with distance, faintly showed the end of the corridor. It was empty except for a red fuse box attached to the wall.
Felicity gasped as the lights went out, covering she and Peters in complete darkness. Remembering that the M7A, like the SMG, was equipped with a flashlight, she clicked it on. She waved it around, catching disjointed glimpses of pipes, walls, signs and other various items that littered the floors.
The Corporal moved forward with great caution, his footfalls echoing in the dark, empty tunnels. Nothing could be heard apart from the deep whoomf-whoomf-whoomf of the large industrial fans as they slowly turned deeper inside the basement level.
Nothing moved as Peters and Felicity crept forward. At the end of the corridor, there was a right turn. They could see one of the seven large fans spinning slowly, but powerfully, thirty metres away behind three large, open slats. A powerful, bright light shone behind it, making the fan cast solid, dark shadows. A quick skittering sound issued from a left bend a few metres away. Peters moved up against the wall and edged towards the bend. He waited, listening, then jumped out, ready to fire.
Darkness greeted him.
Felicity whispered, "Shouldn't we go ba--" she stopped as a shape, low to the ground, half-slithered, half-crawled past the light thrown out from behind the fan and disappeared behind a wall.
Peters turned when she stopped talking. He swept the area with his flashlight.
"Something crawled past there," whispered Felicity, pointing, "It went behind that wall."
Peters moved slowly forward, his weapon ready. His hands shook, the muscles in his arms twitched. Taking a few deep breaths, Peters ran and pointed his SMG down the junction, his finger almost squeezing the trigger.
Nothing moved. He turned to survey the hall behind him. All was still. He lowered his gun, letting out a ragged, stuttering breath. Felicity began walking toward him, swinging her gun around to check her surroundings as she did so.
There was a hiss and a blur of movement. Peters cried out as a black shape leapt at him from the shadows, hitting him squarely in the chest and knocking him onto his back. His arms flew up and he lost his grip on the SMG and it clattered away into the darkness. Peters screamed in agony, the creature ripping at him with its claws. There was a cracking sound, followed by a meaty slap.
Felicity tried to train her gun on the creature, but it had already disappeared. The pistol's mounted flashlight illuminated Peters' body. The technician froze at the sight. The marine's eyes were open in shock, there was a large hole in his chest, and bone and gore lay around him. He had been killed in a matter of seconds.
Shaking visibly, Felicity slowly backed away from the corpse. The creature that had killed Peters had moved so fast, she hardly saw it. It was on him, then a second later, it vanished. There was no way she could fight it. She could only hope to make it back to the basement stairway and escape.
She moved carefully, trying to make her footsteps as soundless as possible. There was a slithering hiss and Felicity froze. Moving with agonising slowness, attempting to keep her clothes from rustling even slightly, she swept the darkness of the basement with her flashlight. Her light reflected off of steel drums, pipes, walls and a slick of fresh blood only a foot away. She traced the crimson line with her pistol, unconsciously holding her breath. The line of blood stopped underneath the shape of an unearthly beast. From a small head, innumerable black eyes stared unblinking into Felicity's. There was no reflection of the flashlight in those small orbs. The creature's dark body was slim and tapered away to a shadow-thin tail. Two skinny, yet muscular arms, which were double-jointed, supported the beast's body.
From underneath the black, spider-like eyes, a wide mouth grew into existence, revealing dirty, yellowed teeth. Dripping from them was fresh blood. The only reflection of light came from there. The thing hissed angrily and launched itself towards Felicity. She screamed and squeezed off a shot, the round impacted the spot the creature had been a moment before.
Felicity had no time to fire off another round; the creature was on top of her in an instant, ripping, shredding, killing. A second later, it slithered off of her body and melted into the shadows.
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