Eric Brown: The Kraken Rises

“Yeah, actually I did,” Chuck said with a frown. “Got a problem with that, sir?”

“At ease, Chuck,” Larson warned. “Robbie, let Hawks get a look at the schematics on your screen before we move out. I still want him on point.”

Of course you do , Hawks thought. He couldn’t really blame Larson for it though. Only the two of them had any real experience under their belts, and one of the newbies getting trigger happy or spooked and blowing away a survivor would be bad for them all.

The group got moving again. The closest route to the engineering section was to the right. According to the data Robbie downloaded, the corridor they were already in would take them straight to a lift that led down to the level engineering was located on.

They were halfway to the lift when Hawks heard something from a corridor that led off from the one they were in. He stopped, holding up a hand to tell the others behind him to as well. Hawks carefully leaned around the corner of the side corridor to steal a glance into it. At first, he didn’t see anything then the squid creature on its ceiling moved. The thing hung upside like a bat, its tentacles somehow holding it tight to the corridor’s ceiling. Its primary tentacles were coiled up and ready to strike at anything that came near it. Hawks didn’t dare speak, even in a whisper, to let the others know it was there. Instead, he ever so slowly raised his rifle and took aim at the squid creature. If it saw him, it gave no indication of it. Hawks took a deep breath and said a prayer that the squid creature was the only one close by then squeezed his rifle’s trigger. It chattered, spent round casings flying from its side to clatter to the corridor floor. Hawks put two three-round bursts into the squid’s central mass, splattering its guts into the air. The creature’s body fell from the ceiling to thud onto the corridor floor.

Hawks darted around the corner into the side corridor, his rifle ready, looking for any more squid creatures lying in wait there. There weren’t any at least that he could see. He motioned for the others to continue along the corridor that led to the lift as he hung back to cover the side corridor. When the others were passed, he joined them bringing up the rear. Larson had taken over point.

As the lift came into view, it was clear it had been attacked. Though the interior of the lift looked fine, there was human blood smearing its walls and its battered doors lay ripped off on the floor in front of it. Larson waited for Hawks to move around the others and join him at the front of the group. Robbie stood with them his tablet in his hand.

“Robbie?” Larson asked.

“The lift is functional from what I can tell,” Robbie answered. “Its systems show green.”

“Somebody died here,” Hawks commented.

“Makes you wonder where the body is then,” Larson said.

“Maybe those things ate it,” Chuck spoke up from behind them.

Hawks frowned stepping into the lift. “There may be more truth to that than you think.”

He knelt and picked up a piece of a bone from the floor that couldn’t be seen from outside the lift. He’d only noticed when he entered. Hawks held it up for the others to see.

“God have mercy,” Hyatt muttered.

“God didn’t have anything to do with what’s happened here,” Larson growled.

“We need to keep moving,” Hawks urged Larson.

Larson nodded, motioning the others into the lift. The group filed into it. Larson knew the lift wouldn’t move with its doors gone. “Robbie, can you…?”

“Override the safety protocols of this thing and get it going? Yeah, I can. Give me a sec,” Robbie answered.

Robbie worked on his tablet for about a minute and then looked back up at Larson, grinning. “Here we go, sir.”

The lift lurched as it started moving. It descended in its shaft, carrying the group to the level of the platform where the engineering section was located.

“Be ready,” Larson warned the others. With the doors of the lift gone, they’d be completely open to anything that might be waiting on them when it reached its destination. Hawks removed the magazine from his rifle and traded it for a new one.

The lift stopped. The corridor outside of it appeared to be empty. The lights along its ceiling were mostly out though and the few that remained were flickering on and off.

“No issue with the power, sir,” Robbie whispered to Larson. “This is actual damage to the lights here.”

Larson nodded and gestured at Hawks. Hawks slowly advanced out of the lift. He looked up and down the corridor. There were shadows everywhere. As he continued along the corridor, Hyatt followed him. The big man didn’t carry the standard issue rifle that Hawks and the others did. Instead, he carried an automatic shotgun. He’d switched out weapons during the ride on the lift. His rifle now hung from his back by its strap. Hawks was grateful to see Hyatt breaking out the heavier firepower. In such close quarters, the shotgun would be devastating to any squids that they encountered.

Nothing came at them. Hawks and Hyatt paused waiting on the others to catch up. “Which way?” Hawks asked.

Robbie pointed straight ahead of them. “That big door right up there,” Robbie told them. “It leads into the engineering section.”

The group approached the door and took up defensive positions around it, the barrels of their weapons aimed at the corridor behind them.

Hawks examined the doors with Larson. The heavy door had clearly been attacked by the squids. There was some impressive and scary damage to it. It had held though. The squid creatures hadn’t been able to rip it down or break through it. It gave Hawks hope that someone might still be alive on its other side.

“Robbie,” Larson urged the young specialist.

“Working on it, sir,” Robbie said without looking up from the screen of his tablet.

Hawks heard something inside the wall next to the door click into place. The heavy door began to slide open inside its frame. It moved slowly as if something were wrong with the motor that made it function. Hawks moved to peer into the engineering section before the door was fully open. Only the grace of God and his instincts saved his life as a gun thundered from behind the door and a bullet pinged against the metal of the door’s edge where his face had been a moment before as he jerked his head back.

“Don’t shoot!” Hawks screamed at whoever was inside. “We’re human!”

Hawks heard two people behind the door start yelling at each other, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. The door finally fully opened to reveal two women and a man standing several yards away from it. The taller woman clutched a still-smoking rifle aimed at the doorway. At the sight of him and the other soldiers outside the door, she lowered it, looking terrified and relieved at once.

“See? I told you help would come!” the shorter woman at her side shouted.

The man moved forward to rush Hawks and others the rest of the way into the engineering section. “Come on,” he urged them. “We need to get this door closed again before those things out there show up!”

None of the soldiers argued with him, not even Larson. As soon as they were all inside, the man activated the door again and it slid closed behind them.

“My name is Riggs,” the man told them. “That lady there holding the gun is Cheryl. She’s in charge here.”

“Sorry about taking a shot at you,” Cheryl said weakly. “I thought those things had finally found a way in here.”

“No harm done,” Hawks lied. His nerves were wound up tight from the bullet hitting so close to him. “Just make sure you know what you’re shooting at next time before you squeeze that thing’s trigger.” He gestured at the rifle she held.