David Golemon: Ripper

Will again pushed the door open and stuck his head out. He waited for something to rip it off, but nothing came out of the dimly illuminated corridor. He cautiously pushed the door open all the way and at the same time waved the others forward.

As they exited the stairwell next to the elevator tube, Sarah stopped and hushed everyone. They all heard it immediately. It sounded just like the muffled voice and yell of Crazy Charlie Ellenshaw coming from inside the elevator tube. But they all knew there wasn’t an elevator for Ellenshaw to ride. Then the sound vanished just as fast as it took for them all to stop and listen more closely.

“That was weird,” Sarah said as she took a stronger hold of Henri and started to move again.

Mendenhall held out the nine millimeter before him as he made it to the security arch. He cautiously leaned over the desk where a guard would usually be stationed to cover that level. He looked at the screen and quickly saw that it was still blue. Europa was still down.

“Damn it,” he said as the others approached.

“Has anyone checked the old girl’s batteries,” Henri said as he slumped a little further against Sarah.

“Good one, Colonel. I’ll remember to tell Dr. Golding of your comment. I’m sure he’ll make allowances for the next monster invasion,” Will said as he took Gloria by the hand and moved off into the long and curving corridor that housed the vault area. Mendenhall thought he had made a good return quip when he realized that he and Gloria were the only ones going inside the security arch.

“Uh, Lieutenant, our company has arrived,” Farbeaux said as all at once all four people turned and ran through the arch past Will and Gloria.

As Mendenhall peered into the darkness where they had all been just a second before, he saw it. The beast, the glow of its eyes visible, was just standing by the stairwell, or floating would be a better word as the beast dipped and rose as it continued looking at him and Gloria.

“As I was told earlier, there is now nowhere to run,” said the deep and raspy voice. The creature started forward at an easy gait, knowing the six men and women had no place to go but farther back into darkness.

As Virginia led the way, she turned suddenly to the left into a vault she had most recently been inside of just three days before. She stood at the front of the twelve-inch-thick steel door and waved everyone inside. Sarah and Farbeaux tripped over the steel threshold and went down, causing Will, Gloria, and Virginia to crash into each other. Mendenhall made a quick decision and pushed everyone farther inside and then just as quickly stepped back out of the vault.

“What in the hell are you doing Lieutenant?” Virginia shouted angrily as she pushed through the others to try to pull Mendenhall back inside.

“Giving this thing two targets instead of one. Seal this up as best you can,” Will shouted as he pushed the two-ton steel door closed, effectively shutting out the cursing from those inside.

They heard the beast laughing as it reached the very threshold of the vault Will had just left, or at least they hoped he had left. Virginia knew the vault door wouldn’t lock as she spun the security wheel in the center of the stainless-steel door. Just as the wheel locked, Virginia felt the beast outside start to turn it back to the open position. She looked around in a blind panic, and it was a shocked and stunned Gloria who came to their rescue. In the light of the single emergency bulb in the back of the steel-encased room Virginia quickly saw what the young scientist was carrying. Dr. Pollock nodded her head vigorously as Gloria, tears streaming over Mendenhall’s sudden departure, placed the short-shafted spear through the wheel’s spokes and then secured its bottom half against the metal framing crisscrossing the door. She made sure the sharpened point was secure against the steel bracing at the top just as the beast outside pulled heavily on the vault’s door and tried to turn the wheel from the outside.

Gloria and Virginia stepped backward with a start when the door was hit, sending dirt and small rocks down from the ceiling. The thick shaft of the spear held even though it bowed to the left, almost to the breaking point. Just as the wheel was about to turn, snapping the small spear, Denise and Sarah were there with two more of the short throwing spears copying what Gloria had just done. Now there were three of these small spear shafts holding the door’s locking wheel closed against the onslaught from the other side.

“Where would I be without you guys?” Virginia asked as she backed away from the steel door, watching the spears rattle and bend and then become still.

Will regretted not having at least perused the list of new artifacts now being stored on the newly constructed vault level. From behind him in the dark corridor with gleaming but at the moment dull stainless-steel vaults running along both sides of the wide hall, Mendenhall heard the scream of the creature as it attacked the vault he had just left with all of the women and a wounded Farbeaux inside. He was relieved when he failed to hear the screams of his friends after the first assault on the steel vault.

“Hey you ugly son of a bitch, I’m down here!” Will shouted back into the darkness. The move had caught even himself off-guard. He shook his head as the beast situated around the bend in the hallway ceased moving and attacking the vault. Will just knew it was now looking down the once-gleaming corridor trying to discern where his prey was situated and what trap could possibly be waiting for it.

Then Mendenhall heard what he feared most — the creature turned on its heels and started his way.

“Well, this is what you wanted,” Will mumbled to himself as he turned into the largest vault on the brand-new level sixty-one and closed the giant door behind him, shutting out the running footsteps of the creature as it came on.

Inside vault number 0001, things had calmed when they felt that the beast had left the vault door. As they relaxed momentarily, everyone fought for breath and as they did they all noticed for the first time what vault Virginia had led them into.

“I’ll be damned,” Gloria said, wiping her eyes dry as she staggered over to assist Sarah in getting Henri to his feet.

Farbeaux whistled as he took in the artifacts he could see with the single light bulb at the back of the vault.

“You people never cease to amaze, I’ll give you that.”

Arranged around the large vault were riches and artifacts that had once belonged to a Zulu king known to the world as Cetshwayo — the man who brought down British forces in the largest defeat of a modern well-equipped army by native tribesmen in history. That battle brought on the legend of the Zulu Dawn, a historical fact that the trapped men and women inside vault number 0001-61890 had in common with the British Empire on January 22, 1879. They were in danger of being trapped and wiped out without mercy.

Niles ran so fast around the blind corner that his black shoes caught on the carpet and sent him flying to the floor within sight of the computer center. He cursed his own clumsiness as the radio flew from his hand and smashed against the far wall. He quickly tried to rise as he heard the creature slam into a wall as it negotiated its huge body around the bend in the hallway, taking the turn too fast. Compton hurriedly tried to raise himself from the floor, and as he collapsed back down he knew that he had broken his left ankle. He tried once more and finally made it to his knees and then to his right foot. He hopped three feet before he had to reach out and take hold of the plastic-lined wall. He shook his head in anger and realized he would never make it the thirty feet to the bulletproof computer center.