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Train Ride Part 3
By Jason Bourne
Then, there was a single sharp retort. The creature squealed and I felt warm liquid spill onto my back. Four rapid shots followed, and the creature screamed. Then, the weight on my back was gone.
It was Tricia who pulled me up to my feet. She was holding the gun in her hand and as it passed inches away from my cheek, I could feel heat radiating from the hot barrel of the gun.
¡®Thank you,¡± I said, looking at her. She had saved my life.
¡°Don¡¯t say that. I owed it to you.¡± Tricia said. We both laughed.
A shrill cry interrupted our laughter. We turned to the sound, looked at each other, and ran for it.
4
¡°Alfred, Neil, do you copy?¡± Gordon roared into the radio in vain.
For the past five minutes he had been trying to reach all of the troopers in the mission, but to no avail. Finally, he threw down the radio in disgust.
¡°Oh no¡¡± Waldo said, burying his face in his arms. ¡°I knew it. I just knew we would all die down here!¡±
¡°Get a grip on yourself, soldier!¡± Gordon barked.
¡°Yeah, Wald, take it easy, man!¡± Irving said.
¡°Stop being such a pussy cat.¡± Lester said.
¡°The Lord will lead us through this, Waldo. Just believe.¡± Ace said.
Waldo glared at Ace, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like ¡®Stupid religious freak¡¯.
¡°Can¡¯t we just blow up a door and get out of here or something?¡± Waldo whined. ¡°We could get HQ to launch an air strike to destroy this damned place.¡±
Gordon lost his temper. He grabbed the soldier by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
¡°We can¡¯t do that because if we did, and if that thing survives, we¡¯d be screwed. Now we know that that thing is hostile. Those idiots at Area 51 didn¡¯t contain it properly and now it¡¯s escaped. We¡¯ve got to kill it, soldier. What if more of it start to come? What if they start taking over the whole world like in those shitty B-grade horror flicks shown in the movies everyday?¡±
Gordon released him and moved on. He turned back and said, ¡°Think about it, soldier.¡±
Suddenly the radio crackled, and a scratchy voice came on the radio.
¡°Hello-anyone hear-¡±
As quick as greased lightning, Gordon picked the radio up.
¡°This is Captain Gordon Roland of the U.S Marines reporting in!¡±
¡°My name-Nick Harrison.¡±
Gordon listened.
¡°If-can, please send help-am at¡¡± There was a pause. ¡°King Street Station. I-we- still alive-¡±
¡°Hello? You¡¯re not coming in very clearly, Nick!¡±
¡°-careful-thing-out there-killed-else-¡±
¡°Hello? Hello?¡±
¡°-please-lp-us¡¡±
Static followed.
Gordon put down the radio.
¡°There¡¯s others left down here?¡± Ace asked.
¡°Yes.¡± Gordon said.
¡°Then we must rescue them.¡± Ace said.
¡°Yes,¡± Gordon said. ¡°My God, yes.¡±
*********
In the view of the night-vision goggles, the world appeared to glow bright green. Gordon looked at the words ¡®WE WERE HERE¡¯ spray-painted on the floor.
¡°Great. Just great.¡± Gordon said.
¡°Why don¡¯t we search the entire area?¡± Ace asked. ¡°We might find some clues to where they¡¯ve gone to.¡±
¡°Probably somewhere in a monster from hell¡¯s stomach.¡± Waldo muttered.
Gordon bristled, but said nothing.
They reached the lobby. There were two escalators, one leading to the elevators, the other leading to a maintenance room or something like that. Gordon saw something glint on the ground. He picked it up.
It was a .45 bullet.
He found more of them, about five in total.
¡°This means that someone had used a gun here, doesn¡¯t it sir?¡± Toby asked, although he already knew the answer.
¡°Yes,¡± Gordon said.
¡°Well let¡¯s go find them, then.¡± Harold said.
¡°Okay team, listen up. Irving, Harold, Toby, go to the one leading to the elevators and go upstairs, Ace, Waldo, Lester, follow me to the other one. We¡¯ll meet back here in twenty minutes. Move!¡±
¡°Sir, yes sir!¡±
¡°C¡¯mon.¡± Irving said. Harold and Toby followed him.
They climbed up the escalator and moved in silence for a few minutes. Irving tried to disguise the mad, hopeless fear that was frolicking about in his heart. He hated cold, dark places like this, when your imagination created things like shadow monsters leaping out at you, claws raised, wide dripping jaws open¡
¡®scuttle...scuttle¡scuttle¡¡¯
¡°What was that?¡± Irving said, looking at his friends.
¡°What?¡±
¡°Ssshh¡listen¡my God¡¡± Irving whispered, his eyes wide with horror.
Slowly, his friend¡¯s eyes started to widen. They could hear the sounds too. They brought their rifles to firing position.
¡®scuttle¡¡¯
Irving turned to the right, where the sound was coming from. In a split second, he gauged the position of the source of the sound and brought his rifle to it. He yelled as he aimed at¡
¡a rat.
The rat gave a squeak and scuttled away.
For a moment, the group stood still, and then began to laugh very loudly.
They turned a corner and found the elevator.
Irving clicked his radio on and said, ¡°We¡¯ve found the elevator sir.¡±
¡°Roger that. Uh¡ use it to explore all the levels. If you find any clue to that kid¡¯s whereabouts, report it in.¡±
¡°Roger that.¡±
¡°Oh, and one more thing. If that thing attacks you, don¡¯t hesitate to fire. Remember, our main objective is to kill it.¡±
¡°Roger, sir. Over and out.¡± Irving said.
He watched as Harold pressed the lift button and as the numbers on the display descended.
¡®10¡9¡8¡7¡6¡5¡4¡3¡2¡1¡B1¡¡¯
¡®Ding!¡¯ The lift doors slid open¡
From the back, Irving watched as a high pressure spurt of blood came from Harold¡¯s left eye. In frozen horror, he watched as Harold was lifted about a few centimeters of the floor, turned around, and slowly dragged into the open door. Blood was dripping from his eyehole and making little puddles on the floor. They watched as a dripping grey tentacle emerged from Harold¡¯s eyehole and curled around his forehead.
That did it. Screaming with terror and anguish, Irving and Toby fired.
¡®POWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOW!¡¯
The ear splitting explosion of two carbines firing filled the room for about four seconds, before it was interrupted by a ¡®click¡¯ that seemed louder than the gunshots.
Their guns had run dry.
Irving¡¯s eyes finally focused. He saw that Harold¡¯s bust had been totally blown away. Another tentacle protruded from Harold¡¯s stomach. The creature had used him as a human shield. Irving was horrified for a moment, before realizing with a kind of stupid wonder that the bullets had not hit Harold¡¯s backpack; if they had, all the explosives in it would have exploded, killing them all.
A tentacle, long, thin, grey and wormlike, slid out of the darkness of the lift. Irving was now regretful that they had missed the explosives. At least they would be killed less painfully.
Extreme terror and disgust crept up his spine as the tentacle slid toward him, rearing up like a snake¡
¡past his face and to the left. Irving watched as it reached the panel and pressed the button, sliding back as the doors closed, leaving the two soldiers staring at the spot where their friend was fifteen seconds ago.
5
Finding the monorail had not been difficult. After all, it was only two stations away from King Street. The only problem was that none of the computer-controlled trains worked.
¡°Batteries are dead.¡± I said, checking a train.
¡°You sure?¡± Tricia asked.
¡°Yeah,¡± I said. ¡°Seems like the power was cut here.¡±
¡°What do we do?¡± Tricia asked, looking very tired.
¡°Well¡¡± I said, thinking. ¡°There should be a generator room somewhere. If we can turn on the particular generator or generators that activate these¡¡±
¡°We can get out of here?¡± Tricia finished.
¡°Yeah.¡±
¡°Well, let¡¯s get started then.¡± Tricia said, smiling.
*******************
¡°Hot damn.¡± Gordon said, shining his flashlight at the map. There was a marker-drawn circle on the words ¡®monorail station¡¯.
¡°That guy is smart.¡± Lester said.
¡°Yeah,¡± Gordon said, looking at both soldiers, smiling. ¡°That monorail is our only ticket outta this shithole. If we could get there we would find the survivors and get outta here. Two birds with one stone.¡±
Suddenly, a loud explosion made them jump. Being experienced soldiers, they knew exactly what made it.
It was too loud to be one rifle; no, it was two or more.
They stood still listening for more, and it came.
There was a single blast, the sound of an M9 pistol.
¡°Irving and the others¡¡± Ace said finally, looking at Gordon.
¡°Shit.¡± Waldo said simply.
¡°Let¡¯s go check it out.¡± Gordon said quietly.
*******************
They moved up the escalator carefully, bringing their rifles up at the slightest sound. As they rounded the corner, they walked into a horrifying scene.
The walls were spattered with blood. There were empty bullets lying everywhere on the ground. Gordon turned around, and saw Irving lying on the ground, smoke coming out of the barrel of his M9 pistol. His half-head lay in a pool of blood along with pieces of it strewn grotesquely around the floor. Toby was squatted against a wall, his face buried in his hands.
He turned and looked at Gordon, then got up.
¡°What happened here?¡± Gordon asked softly.
Toby looked up, and his hideously bloodshot eyes struck Gordon like a slap. Where was the usually good-natured Toby he knew?
¡°H-Harold w-w-was k-k-k-killed ¨Cby t-t-that t-t-t-t-t-t-thing¡¡± Toby stuttered, his bloodshot eyes popping wide, his face white as sheet.
¡°And Irving?¡± Gordon asked grimly, his eyes closed, even though he already knew the answer.
¡°He-he-he-he sh-sh-sh-shot h-h-h-h-himself.¡± Toby started again, suddenly weeping. Ace put a hand on his shoulder.
Gordon stood still for a moment, then turned around and started walking.
¡°Sir?¡± Ace asked. ¡°Where are you going?¡±
Gordon stopped dead in his tracks for a moment, and then turned around and said, ¡° It¡¯s we, not I.¡±
********************
The circular beam of the flashlight illuminated a patch of floor. The only audible sound was that of my breathing.
We had split up to cover a wider area. We had found another flashlight somewhere that still worked and, to communicate, we used the two radios I had found,.
Walking around in there made think of bedtimes when I was eight. I could dimly remember my parents singing me a song to lull me to sleep.
¡°Children, have you met the bogeyman before?¡± I sang softly in the dark. ¡°No of course you haven¡¯t you¡¯re much too good I¡¯m sure. Don¡¯t you be afraid of him, if he should visit you. He¡¯s a great big coward, so I¡¯ll tell you what to do.¡±
¡°Hush, hush, hush, here comes the bogeyman! Don¡¯t let him get too close to you, he¡¯ll catch you if he can. Just pretend that you¡¯re a crocodile and he will run a mile.¡± I grinned. ¡°Say shoo-shoo-shoo! Then stick him with a pin! Bogeyman will very nearly jump out of his skin!¡±
That really made me feel better. I found that I was able to conduct my search more easily after that.
After about ten minutes, I still found nothing. I took out the radio and-
-footsteps.
Slowly, I put the radio back in my pocket and took out the Swiss Army Knife. I would fight the creature with it if it came to that.
Lines of the song I had just sung ran through my mind.
(hushhushhush here comes the bogeyman)
I swiveled the flashlight around to the sound. It revealed a door that had a gold plate on it that said, ¡®CONTROL ROOM¡¯
Slowly, I
(don¡¯t let him get too close to you )
walked away from the door, my heart beating like a machine gun. The room suddenly seemed colder, and an image of the door bursting open, with the monster leaping out came
(he¡¯ll catch you if he can )
to my mind.
Footsteps came from the door, and prayed to God that the thing was not there. The door opened and-
The first thing that came to my mind was that the room should have been a dark one, but it was fully lit.
The second thing that came to my mind was that there was no monster in the room, but instead, there were five men in full combat gear, holding their rifles up to firing position, in it.
¡°Yes,¡± the Captain, Gordon his name was, said.
¡°Well, what are you waiting for, get us outta here!¡± Tricia, who I had radioed to come over said.
The Captain¡¯s demeanor did not change for a moment, then he leaned forward from his seat and said, ¡°Ah, there is a slight problem with that, kids.¡± And he told us.
Apparently, they were the only team left; all the others had been killed by the monster. They themselves had a run-in with the monster, in which two of them died, one of them the demolitions man; their only ticket out of the subway.
¡°What about the monster?¡± I asked.
The soldiers looked at each other for a moment.
Then, Gordon sighed and said, ¡°This is something really confidential, dig?¡±
Tricia and I nodded.
¡°Top, top secret. The files covering this are under maximum security and all that other crap.¡± Gordon said.
Tricia and I nodded again.
Gordon sighed.
¡°Well¡¡± Gordon began.
7
¡°You ever heard of a place called Area 51?¡± Gordon asked.
¡°Yeah.¡± I said. ¡°A military base in Roswell where they keep aliens in. The thing came from there?¡±
¡°Well, it¡¯s an Air Base and yes, the thing came from there.¡± Gordon said.
¡°On the fifth of May, a small comet was spotted flying overhead Earth by the radar of that particular base.¡± Gordon continued. ¡°They decided to go over to it and collect it for research purposes.¡±
Gordon smiled without humor. ¡°But when they went found it, they got the shock of their lives. It wasn¡¯t a comet at all, but a metal capsule. The metal was unidentified.¡±
¡°When they x-rayed the capsule, they were practically vomiting with excitement.¡± Gordon paused for effect. ¡°There was an alien creature inside it.¡±
¡°They welded the door open, and someone armed with a trank gun shot it twice. The thing was knocked out and they locked it in a high security room to do research on it for about three weeks or so.¡±
¡°Apparently, the thing was very intelligent and friendly in captivity. So peaceful, in fact, that they cranked down security on that E.T for convenience.¡±
¡°That was when all hell broke loose.¡±
¡°The thing escaped, killing about twenty or so people along the way.¡±
Gordon asked. ¡°Anyone got a cigarette?¡± Waldo gave him one. Gordon lit it and started inhaling deep breaths from it. He continued.
¡°A cargo truck heading down from Roswell to your town, Greenwater, was found with a hysterical driver who said that there was a little green man in his car. When it was searched, the thing left a small drip of green blood in it. It had scratched itself on a box of cargo. The stuff was tested, and they were sure that the blood was really from the thing. The incident was covered up, the driver bribed to keep quiet.¡±
¡°Then, someone told the police what happened in the subway of Greenwater today, and the Marines realized what was going on, and the mission was transferred to us.¡±
7
¡°Hell.¡± I muttered.
Then I remembered about the trains. I told them about them and the generator.
¡°Makes sense.¡± the engineer, Toby said.
¡°There¡¯s only one problem,¡± Tricia said. ¡°We don¡¯t know where they are.¡±
¡°No matter.¡± Toby said, swiveling his chair. There was a Dell computer on the table. ¡°I¡¯m sure we can find that out in this computer.¡±
¡°How sure are you that it¡¯ll work?¡± Waldo, the gloomy looking soldier asked. ¡°The generator is off.¡±
¡°In that case,¡± Toby said, glaring at him. ¡°The lights shouldn¡¯t be on. No, Waldo, the control room has power of its own.¡± Toby pressed a button on the computer. It flickered on. ¡°There, ya see?¡±
Waldo grunted.
¡°Uh-oh.¡± I said.
¡°Whatever for?¡± Toby asked without looking at me.
¡°Shouldn¡¯t there be a password you have to type in?¡± I asked.
¡°No problem.¡± Toby said.
The blonde soldier with the rosary around his neck, Ace, said, ¡°Toby¡¯s great with computers.¡±
¡°Huh,¡± Toby said in disgust. ¡°I thought the system would be harder to hack into. I bet a kid could hack into a system this ancient.¡± He tapped a few keys and a jingle came from the computer, indicating that Toby was in the system.
¡°Right, let¡¯s look for a map.¡± He said.
¡°C¡¯mon Toby, you can do it!¡± Lester, another blonde said.
*******************
¡°Done.¡± Toby said. There was a detailed map displayed on the screen. ¡°Now, all we need is someone to turn the generator on.¡±
¡°Any volunteers?¡± Gordon asked.
For a moment, nobody answered. Then, Lester raised his hand.
¡°Good.¡± Gordon said. ¡°Lock and load, soldier.¡±
10/27/2005 7:04:31 AM
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