Ben Hammott - Siberia

EV1L caught the flashlight and glanced at it briefly before releasing it. Before it struck the floor, EV1L raced after the fleeing human. Finding two legs inadequate, it changed. As it dropped to its hands, it morphed into the four-legged beast again and bounded along the corridor.

Stanislav halted his pacing across the room and looked at Krisztina sitting on the chair she had wheeled from an adjoining office. “What’s taking them so long?”

Krisztina inwardly sighed and glanced at her watch. Stanislav was the most impatient person she had met. “It’s only been twenty minutes.”

Stanislav raised his bushy unkempt eyebrows and glared at Krisztina like an owl would a mouse. “Are you certain?”

Krisztina nodded.

“Humph! I’d swear it was longer.”

“I’m sure they are going as quick as they can. It can’t be easy for Svetlana. I wouldn’t want to crawl through an air-duct with that thing in there.”

“It’s a defenseless black blob, not a tiger,” argued Stanislav. “All they have to do is chill it with the fire extinguisher, put it in the container and bring it here. How hard can it be?”

“You could always give them the benefit of your expertise and go help them.”

Stanislav glared at Krisztina for signs of insubordination. Recognizing none he could be certain of, he strode to the intercom and stabbed the button with a finger. “Alexei, what’s going on? Do you have it yet?” He released his finger and when the reply he expected didn’t materialize, he tried again. “Damn you, Alexei. I need an update, now!”

Krisztina stood and headed for the door. “I’ll go find out what’s happening.”

“No, stay here, they might be on their way down,” ordered Stanislav.

Krisztina returned to the chair.

After a few moments brooding silence, Stanislav spoke into the intercom again. “Luka! Stop whatever unimportant menial task you are doing, and go check on Alexei and Svetlana. Update me ASAP.”

After a few moments, Stanislav’s finger heading angrily for the button was halted by Luka’s reply. “ Yes, Herr Kommendant. Your orders are my only joy. Going there now .”

Krisztina grinned.

“Less of the sarcasm, Luka, and do as you’ve been ordered. Be assured your attitude has been duly noted and will go in my report.”

“ Sarcasm, sir? I don’t understand. When you make your report, could you also mention it’s only fair with all this extra work I am doing that an appropriate recompense should come my way?”

Stanislav fumed. “Don’t worry, I’ll ensure you get an appropriate reward. Ten years hard labour in a Gulag. Now stop fucking about, or I’ll have you taken outside and shot.”

“ I think that’s a bit harsh, Kommandant. Both the Gulag and the shooting bit. However, I am now going to carry out your orders as ordered with no hint of sarcasm or insubordination, sir.”

Fuming, Stanislav turned to Krisztina. “The man’s an idiot.”

Inwardly smiling, Krisztina replied, “Yes, sir.”

Luka headed for the animal room. Though he knew it wasn’t wise to goad Stanislav, it was an entertainment he found hard to resist. The man was a moron who only worried about advancing his own career without any remorse for those he trod on in the process. He glanced through the viewing panel set in the door before entering. Worried by the silence that greeted him, he glanced into the empty cages he passed. The damn creature had eaten them all. He halted at the gruesome sight that waited for him at the far end of the room. Though no features remained to identify the man, the brown shoes identified the mass of liquefied and half-eaten flesh as Alexei.

Fighting down the bile that threatened to spew forth, Luka gave the corpse a wide berth and pressed the Level 4 intercom button. “Alexei’s dead!”

Stanislav answered promptly. “ Dead! Are you certain? ”

“I’m staring at his partly devoured corpse, so yes, I’m damn well sure he’s dead.”

“ What about Svetlana?”

Luka glanced around the area. “There’s no sign of her, dead or otherwise.”

“She went in the airduct.”

Luka gazed at the opening in the wall. “Why would she do that?”

“They thought the creature escaped from the room through the duct. Is she in there?”

Luka climbed onto the bench and peered along the dark passage. “Svetlana, are you in there?” After no reply, he called out again with the same result.

He jumped off the table and crossed to the intercom. “Negative, Svetlana is not in the vent.”

“Well, she must be somewhere, search the level,” ordered Stanislav.

Luka glanced at Alexei’s remains. “What about the creature that killed Alexei?”

“ Yes, find that, too, and bring it here .”

“That’s not what I meant,” argued Luka.

“I know, but do it anyway. That’s an order.”

Sighing, Luka headed for the exit.

Luka stepped from the room and anxiously turned his head at the sound of footsteps running towards him.

“Run!” screamed Svetlana.

Luka was about to ask what was wrong when an unearthly black creature appeared at the end of the corridor. Fear gripped him as he took in the creature’s monstrous details. Four powerful limbs tipped with three claws propelled the bounding monster nearer. A deep rumbling growl came from jaws spread impossibly wide to reveal a long, pointed tongue and teeth designed for chewing flesh. Antler-like spikes protruded from around its thick neck bulging with sinews, reached past its jaws and would be first to impale any victim it felled. Its eyes—small, evil and piercing—locked with his own terror-filled ones. A second warning from Svetlana who was drawing level with him, snapped him from his terrified trance and prompted him into motion. He ran.

“What is that thing, and where did it come from?” he shouted to Svetlana close on his heels.

“A demon spawned from Hell!” was her reply.

Luka though it was a fitting description. Praying the elevator was still on this floor, he stabbed the button. The doors slid open. Svetlana followed him inside. He pressed the up button. The beast rushed for the doors’ narrowing gap.

EV1L leapt for the closing doors and struck just as they met. Its form spread out like treacle thrown from a bucket and flowed to the floor. Rising into a pillar of Black, it formed Svetlana’s effigy and stared at the doors while it contemplated its next move. Having expelled much-needed energy during the chase, it decided to return to the corpse it had abandoned to pursue the human female. After it had feasted, it would track down the rest of the humans. Svetlana’s mimicked face and the front of her body melted through to its back, and it retraced it steps along the corridor.

Trembling from the close encounter, Luka relaxed slightly when the elevator started moving, Luka turned to Svetlana. “What the hell just happened, and where did that thing come from?”

Shaking from the fading adrenalin rush brought on by her harrowing experience, Svetlana briefly explained what had taken place. “The thing, that black blob that attacked Waldemar, has grown, transformed. We were searching for it in the animal room when it killed Alexei and chased me through the vent. I managed to reach Store Room 7, but it followed me out and then I ran into you.”

Luka scratched his head vigorously, a sign he was anxious. “But how could it have changed so drastically from a small blob to…that beast?”

“For the moment I can’t see that matters. We need to warn the others and come up with an alternative plan to capture or kill it.”