David Golemon - Ripper

“What in God’s name is that noise?” Denise asked as Mendenhall joined the group, still looking at the stairwell door.

“Something real bad,” Virginia said as she hurried to the opposite side of the clinic and placed her ears to that door, hoping she wasn’t hearing anything from there like they had heard at the door they just exited.

“Sergeant, we need more weapons. Is that all we have on this level?” Mendenhall asked as his eyes never left the stairwell they had just left.

“Yes, sir, and the radios are out. We’re not picking up anything.”

“Our security teams are scattered all over the damn complex. As long as we are keeping to the stairwells, any signals will have one hell of a hard time getting through all of this steel. The radios are meant for use in the complex, not its inner workings,” Will said as an even louder bang sounded from the elevator shaft. Mendenhall reached out and took Gloria’s hand, pulling the frightened woman close to him when she jumped at the sound.

“What in the hell is in the tubes?” Dr. Gilliam asked as another large bang sounded from either two levels down or maybe even closer.

“The men who attacked the complex, they’ve changed. The formula is reacting just the way it did in Mexico, only this is different; it’s like they have actually grown far more than Guzman and his men. The higher dose of Perdition’s Fire, it was in the clean room like a fog — the exposure was far more than at the hacienda,” Will said as he stood in front of the weakened Sarah and frightened CDC doctor.

“Dr. Pollock, I know this is not your field of specialty, but perhaps you can give us something that could explain the impossible way in which these men have grown. It cannot just be the hallucinatory effects of poppy splicing,” Farbeaux said as he reached out and took a pair of green surgical pants from a rack on the far wall. Trying to keep his balance, he slid his legs into them with much difficulty until Sarah stepped out from behind Mendenhall and held him up. Henri placed his arm around her and squeezed as he finally accomplished the task.

Virginia walked quickly back into the main clinic and to the elevator doors, sliding her lab coat off as she did. She stopped in front of the doors and then without looking tossed the coat over to Farbeaux.

“Thank you Doctor,” Henri said as he tossed the hospital gown away and slid into the coat.

Virginia listened intently as the grunts and scraping continued beneath them. The sound was getting louder, as if whatever it was was checking each floor for people before it moved on.

“I don’t know, but I do have a guess. That unknown element that the CDC doctors ran across, Europa was close to identifying it before she went down. She tagged the unknown as human tissue, but that was as far as she got. It was too arcane for the CDC’s analyzer to identify,” she said as she started backing away from the elevator doors until she bumped into the now empty bed. “The only thing it can be that explains the unnatural growth of these men has to be an HGH synthesis that Ambrose created during his experiments.”

“HGH? That’s impossible,” Gloria said, finally thankful she had something to think about. “He couldn’t have synthesized anything close to human growth hormones, not at the turn of the century.” Gloria allowed her mind to wander into the realm of impossibility for a moment. Then she vigorously shook her head, frightened at the prospects of the growth hormone in conjunction with the human brain power that had been opened up in the men who had basically overdosed on Perdition’s Fire. “The second unknown?” she said as she went into deep thought.

“What’s that?” Virginia asked seeing the stunned look on the face of the CDC doctor.

“Could it be possible that this man was working on something related to stem cell research? There is no telling what he could have achieved. But that would have been impossible at the time. Ambrose was a barbarian compared to today’s scientists. He didn’t have the equipment necessary for the work.”

“Regardless of the impossibility of it Miss Bannister, we’re facing something that is a direct enemy of the natural laws of nature here. There can be no other explanation. The human body is capable of so much, but add to that the fact that the human brain has only used 10 % of its power throughout human history and now it has been expanded to use 100 percent. What you have in the end is what is out there: the brain mixing with a human growth hormone and possible embryo research, fetus material, if you prefer. The consequences are phenomenal,” Virginia said just as the first crash of steel sounded on the other side of the elevator doors, creating the smallest of bulges.

“I’m leaning toward the good doctor Pollock’s theory and the young lady’s guesswork,” Farbeaux said as he stood next to Mendenhall. “Lieutenant, I know I’m not a citizen of your country, at least legally speaking, but I vote we get the hell out of here, and I would prefer to be armed as we run like hell for the surface of this menagerie.”

Will looked at Henri and nodded his head. “You don’t have to convince the U.S. Army, Colonel — everyone to the stairwell. Sergeant, give me the weapon and go with them. I’ll draw that thing’s attention.”

Gloria reacted first as the second, much larger dent appeared in the double elevator doors, creating a small separation between them. She reached out and grabbed Will and just shook her head. “No, please don’t,” she said with pleading eyes.

“You go with Dr. Pollock and the others. Sarah and the colonel are too weak, they need a hand.”

“We all go, Will,” Virginia announced loudly. “For once in my life, with Niles out of the complex, someone is going to damn well follow my orders.”

“Perhaps we can discuss this when we’re headed upward in the unaffected stairwell?” Henri said as he pulled Sarah to the left, heading for the opposite set of stairs just as eight very large and grotesque fingers pushed through the opening.

“Jesus,” the airman said as he pushed everyone in the direction Farbeaux had taken with Sarah trailing. “Lieutenant, go!” he shouted at Mendenhall and the others.

Suddenly the doors separated and in the dark they saw the glowing eyes. The impossibility of it struck everyone as the eyes were radiating like those of a night-hunting animal. The brain of the affected was altering the way humans were seeing — Perdition’s Fire was adapting to its situation.

As everyone turned and ran, the airman who was responsible, at least in his mind, for this level opened fire, catching the retreating Mendenhall off-guard. The lieutenant shoved Gloria forward toward the far exit door and turned as the airman emptied his nine millimeter into the creature that was even now balancing itself in the right half of the empty elevator doorframe. It was too large to squeeze through such a small opening so it angrily started battering the left section of steel door, warping and bending it even as the powerful nine-millimeter rounds struck and penetrated its upper body. As each round hit, it would yell and roar in pain as it continued to battle with the steel of the remaining door.

Just as Mendenhall reached out to grab the young security man, the beast had a similar thought as it leaned as far into the clinic as it could, bending the remaining door even further until it caught the airman while he was reloading. The beast’s grip was wrapped so powerfully around his neck that he dropped the Beretta with the clip still only partially inserted. Will reacted fast as the man was pulled toward the towering beast. As his struggles continued, Will retrieved the weapon and finished inserting the clip. He quickly took aim at the monstrosity still struggling in the elevator opening. When he saw he couldn’t get a shot in without hitting the terrified security man, Will placed the gun in his waistband and attacked.