David Golemon - Event

They moved closer to where they thought the town lay. Suddenly the small column stopped and Jack leaned against the wall and waited for Everett to report. It didn't take long.

"Major, you better come up here and look at this."

Jack took a deep breath and made his way past the others, winking at the small boy as he did. He found Everett looking to the right. Jack's eyes widened as he took in the massive tunnel. It had been excavated close to one of the offspring's burrowing and had partially caved it in, the one Collins and his team were currently inside. The large tunnel was three times the diameter of the tunnels they had been traveling through, and its odor was different from the stink they still couldn't get used to. But far more worrisome was the twenty-five-foot width of the hole.

"The mother?" Everett asked, shining his flashlight around the circumference of the shaft.

"Has to be, we haven't seen anything this size out of her offspring. But if it is, she's grown since she dug the tunnel at Site One."

"Can't tell which direction it's heading off in."

Jack lightly slapped Carl on the back. "Come on, we don't need to run into her right now, we're beat and low on ammo."

Carl turned away and started forward again.

Jack took one more look at the size of the tunnel and shook his head. The mother would have to be close to twenty-five feet tall to have made this. He turned his back on it and found the others.

Twenty minutes later Everett again held a hand into the air. They stopped and waited.

"We have a light up ahead, Major," Everett said into his microphone.

Collins eased his way past the others until he reached the front. Then he clicked his light off and waited for Everett, who turned and looked at Jack. Their faces told a story of hardship and terror he never wanted to see again. He had been through some bad situations before, but none that were this oppressive to the mind. He had started to think of the creatures as being much more than mere animals. They had to be sentient beings, with the intelligence to know when their lives were threatened. As he looked at his small group, he knew there could be no other conclusion.

"It looks like it leads up into some kind of bar or cafe or something, Major. No sign of the animals."

Ryan, who had left Julie, Billy, and Tony only after promising he would be right back, joined them. He had taken his nine millimeter and chambered a round, removed the safety, and started to hand it to Tony, then caught a whiff of whiskey from the man and handed it to Julie. "It's ready to fire, so be careful," he had told her.

"Hey, guys, what's up?" Ryan whispered when he found Jack and Carl.

"We have an entrance hole up ahead," Everett said.

"I smell cheeseburgers," Ryan said, sniffing. "Must be the Broken Cactus, Julie's place."

"As good a place as any to get the hell out of here." Collins adjusted his mike to his mouth and spoke softly to his remaining nine men. "Alright, listen up, we found a way out. Let's move quickly and try and make as little noise as possible."

Ryan returned to Julie and the others and let them know they were home.

"After you, swab," Collins said, smiling at Everett.

"Yeah, SEAL would probably taste better to it than some old leathery army type."

Everett slowly approached the hole and noticed ropes hanging down. This must have been some other team's point of entry, but he couldn't remember ever seeing it on the chart. Then he thought about Miss Dawes and her kid; this must have been the point where they had been taken into the tunnel. Everett tugged on the first rope and was satisfied it was secured well at the top, then he tested the second. Slowly Carl pulled himself up. When he was a foot from the top, he freed his automatic from its holster and peered over the top. He was looking into a kitchen. There were stainless steel counters, pots, pans, and dishes lying smashed and bent everywhere. He listened for any sign of movement, then sniffed. The odors of old grease and coffee assailed his nostrils. Then suddenly he heard it, a soft crunching sound he couldn't place. As his eyes roamed over the remains of the kitchen, he froze. One of the animals was hunched in a corner near the stove, and it had a man and was slowly eating him. Everett let his eyes adjust for a moment, then made out a Channel 7 Minicam lying next to the former owner. Carl grimaced and carefully eased his nine millimeter back into his shoulder holster and removed a grenade from his web belt. He placed pressure on his boots and held himself in place as he quietly pulled the pin. He quickly rolled the round grenade over the broken floor, where it bounced twice and landed at the creature's feet. As it tilted its head in curiosity, the grenade exploded. Everett had ducked down into the hole and was holding on tightly when the flash and loud boom shook dirt down on him and the others waiting in the tunnel.

He didn't bother to explain to the major and the rest of the team as he scrambled up the rope again and peered over the flooring and into the smoke-filled kitchen. He looked through the swirling, acrid smoke caused by the grenade and at first only saw the damage it had caused to Miss Dawes's kitchen. Then he saw movement. The creature was down but still alive. Shrapnel had found a weak spot somewhere on its armored body, but Carl didn't know how seriously it was wounded. He reholstered his weapon to free his hands again and climbed the rest of the way up and gained the kitchen floor. He rolled as quietly as he could and pulled his automatic again. But just before he could fire, an angry scream filled the kitchen as a man with a giant butcher's knife fell from the rafters onto the wounded animal. The beast roared and tried to stand, but its assailant plunged the knife again and again under its neck armor until the Talkhan finally collapsed from the shrapnel wounds and the plunging knife.

Everett was shocked when he saw the filthy and blood-covered man as he moaned loudly and then rolled off and lay spread-eagled on the damaged floor. Carl holstered his nine millimeter and knelt down beside the man and looked at him curiously. The T-shirt of the large, bearded man read KIRK OVER PICARD AND JANEWAY UNDER ME!

"Like your shirt," Everett said, quickly checking the man's wounds.

The animal grunted and lay still in the far corner, and Everett stood and walked over to it and, to be sure it was finally dead, kicked it. Then he looked at the remains of the Channel 7 cameraman and grimaced. He then moved his weapon from side to side, sweeping the area for anything that so much as moved. Satisfied, he whispered into his mike the all clear while assisting Hal Whikam to his feet.

"What happened up there?" Collins asked from below.

"Don't let Ms. Dawes and the boy hesitate in the kitchen on their way through. It's not pretty, looks like the Channel Seven camera jock wasn't as fast as his reporter friend."

One by one Everett helped the others into the kitchen of the Broken Cactus. Julie was the first up and saw the man lying against the stove breathing hard. He was bloody and cut in so many places she couldn't believe it.

"Hal!" she screamed and ran to him. "Billy, Hal's alive!" she called back over her shoulder. "Hal, oh, Hal... God, what happened to you?"

Hal opened his eyes and focused on Julie. He smiled at her and then Billy as he joined her.

"That was one tough motherfucker, Jules, I'll tell you that," Hal said weakly. "We fought back and forth down in those tunnels for what had to be the longest four hours of my freakin' life. Then I made it back up here and the bastard had me cornered. Luckily for me, that reporter guy, you know, the one from Phoenix, Kashihara?" Hal grimaced in pain as he tried to raise his head. "He came in the diner screaming about being left behind." Hal focused on Julie again after drifting for a moment. "Well, I guess you could say he saved my life. That monster thing went for him and the chickenshit bastard actually pushed his cameraman in front of him and ran. But he got his when he turned and another one of those ugly bastards got him and took him under. That gave me time to scramble up in the rafters, then Captain Marvel there chucks in a grenade and almost made mincemeat outa me."