David Golemon - Ripper

“Location of Colonel Collins?” Pete said into the microphone.

“Colonel Collins is currently on level eight, south stairwell.”

Pete realized that they had to get people down to the very bottom level of the complex to restart the distilled water pumps and get the reactors to start their cooldown. Without getting them up again, the reactors would blow, taking all of Nellis and Las Vegas along with the complex, and also leave a radioactive hole in the ground half the size of Lake Mead.

“Niles, you have to leave here, get to some radios, and pray that the colonel pops out someplace where he can receive.”

Compton didn’t hesitate as he knew where there were at least a dozen radios — his own office. He ran up the stairs knowing that if they didn’t get this stopped, growing giants would be the least of the problems for his Group.

“Dr. Golding, security cameras on thirty-four have picked up nine members of Department 5656 that have not achieved egress from the complex.”

“What? We still have more people down there?”

“Correct, Doctor, they are trapped.”

“Can you get any kind of emergency power to the main cargo lift and get them out of there?”

“It may be possible to reroute my battery power to the cargo lift.”

“How will that affect your backup power system?”

“Total drainage in seven minutes, ten seconds, Doctor,” Europa replied.

“And how long to get the lift to level one?”

“Five minutes, thirty-seven seconds.”

Pete felt the knot in his stomach grow larger. If he ordered Europa to assist the trapped men and women in the gymnasium and sports complex, she wouldn’t have but one minute and thirty-three seconds of power to either get the men and women help or go up with the reactors.

“Europa, reroute your power to the cargo lift and get those people out!”

Jack placed his hand on the chest of Charlie Ellenshaw when he not only felt something below them on level eight but smelled it. It was an odor he had smelled on every battlefield he had ever served on. It was the smell of blood — a lot of it.

“Stay here Doc,” he said just above a whisper, knowing that Crazy Charlie didn’t understand military hand signals.

“What is it?” Charlie asked gripping the M-14 as tightly as he could. He looked up at the weak lighting of the floodlight and then cursed that he couldn’t see the landing on the next level down.

Jack took the steps one at a time without any weapon at all. He was only ten steps away from the sharp curve in the stairwell when he saw an arm stretched across the landing. Jack cursed as he took another step and then suddenly felt a presence behind him. He turned as fast as he could and almost gave Charlie a coronary as well as himself.

“Damn it, Doc!” Jack hissed, “I told you to hang back and cover me.”

“Colonel, from that angle, the trajectory of any form of cover fire would not have accomplished what I was asked to do, if—” In the darkness Ellenshaw saw Collins and knew that he better not continue his geometry lesson at that time. “Sorry,” he said as a way of completing his sentence.

Jack took another step, and another, and then was at the next level. His jaw set when he saw the six men sprawled on the large grate leading to level eight. They were torn to pieces. Jack had to grab the handrail as Charlie moaned behind him. The worst thing they saw was the head of Sergeant Sanchez placed directly on top of his own chest. Collins knew it was meant to frighten. That was the only statement the killer of his reaction team could have meant, to send fear down the spines of anyone who saw the decapitation. Instead of shaking in his boots as the beast who did this foul act intended, Jack simply reached down and grabbed three of the assault packages that were scattered on the landing. As he passed his men, stepping over them with care, he stopped and waved Charlie over.

“Take two more of these, Doc — we’re going to need them.”

“There is no sign of Captain Everett and his men, Colonel. The last we heard, he was off to find,” he hesitated as if saying the sergeant’s name would bring on more bad luck, “Sergeant Sanchez.”

“Remember that the captain is not only good, he’s the best at evasion, even from these assholes.”

“Yeah, the captain can be on my team any day,” Charlie said with as much bravado as he could muster.

Collins came to the thick steel door and paused. He tilted his head and listened for anything coming from the far side. Then he placed a hand over the door and felt the cold steel. He looked back at Ellenshaw and shook his head.

“Pete and Niles should have had the power up by now. Where in the hell is Europa? That expensive bitch better not have bailed out on us.”

Collins reached into one of the bags and brought out a small box. He felt better just seeing what was inside. Six hand grenades were packed in foam and looked like diamonds in the rough to him. He started filling his pockets.

Above Jack, Charlie’s eyes widened. “Can I have—”

“No,” Collins answered before the stupid question could be voiced. Jack turned and tossed Ellenshaw three new magazines one at a time. Charlie fumbled but managed to catch them all. He then reached inside the canvas bag and brought out a sawed-off twelve-gauge shotgun. He quickly loaded it with the blue plastic-cased solid-shot shells, adjusting the strap and then placing the shotgun over his shoulder. Next came the Ingram submachine gun. He quickly taped two of the long clips together, both facing in opposite directions, and then slammed the magazine home. “There, that feels better,” Jack said.

“I must admit it, you look better, Colonel,” Charlie said, happy that Collins was happy.

Collins brought the Ingram up and slowly reached out in the light of the floods above him and cracked the door open. He looked inside the dimly lit corridor and into the clinic. He saw that a bed had been pushed up close to the heavily damaged elevator doors, which lay bent and crumpled on the tiled floor. The colonel then opened the stairwell door wide enough to get his head through.

Charlie Ellenshaw winced as Jack’s head disappeared through the opening, wanting to say that that’s how teenagers get killed in all the slasher movies — by sticking their heads into dark rooms. He managed not to warn Jack of the danger.

Collins quickly saw that the clinic was empty. He let the door close and then turned to face Charlie.

“It looks like they managed to evacuate Colonel Farbeaux.”

“Oh, joy,” Ellenshaw said.

“Okay, we know the only ones above us are Pete and Niles in the computer center, so it looks like we’re headed down, Doc.”

Charlie had his throat catch in midswallow but managed to nod his head.

“Don’t worry, Doc, it’s all downhill.”

The attack had come upon Everett and his nine men so suddenly that two of the men were dead before a shot was fired in their rushed defense. Just before the creature came through the plastic-lined wall, they had been up two levels and then back down three as the maze of trying to reach anyone still alive was quickly becoming fraught with pitfalls. The creatures had torn free steps in the steel staircases, wrenched away handrails, and rolled large chunks of concrete down upon anyone who might be traversing the stairwells. Everett felt the intelligence of these creatures, even before they came upon several bodies of technicians he recognized as being a part of Virginia Pollock’s Nuclear Sciences division. Somehow they had missed the evacuation order, had been cut off, and then tried to make their way in the dark down the stairwell, where they were ambushed and then busted to pieces. As they examined the bodies they could clearly see that every bone had been smashed.