Holes in the Ground (43 page)

The old General leaned back in his chair and gave Jerry an icy stare. “What you have done could have jeopardised this entire facility. If any of these beasts get out into the world, well…things would become a lot closer to the horrors of bad fiction and comic books. You have committed a most deplorable act.”

“It’s you who’s deplorable, dude,” said Jerry, not knowing what the word meant but knowing it fair game. “Wolfie wasn’t dangerous. You kept him in a cell next to that psychopathic sucker all because you didn’t like him. You’re just a bully taking his temper out of defenceless animals. You’re a fucking cliché, mate.”

“
Wolfie,
as you so tritely put it, was a savage beast.”

“Why? Because he gave you a nip when you first got here? I’m sorry he didn’t take a bigger piece out of your skinny arse.”

Kane banged his fist on his desk. “Your end is within the reach of my fingertips and yet you mock me rather than plead for your worthless life.”

“I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction. Do what you’re going to do, but the last thing I’m going to do is respect a self-important relic like you. You’re locked inside this giant hole, telling yourself that you’re serving some great purpose, but the fact of the matter is that you’re nothing but a glorified prison warden. You’re just a caretaker.”

Kane leapt out of his seat. “Take him away, Sergeant. Take him to the surface and make sure that I never hear of this idiot ever again.”

“Roger that.” Rimmer grabbed jerry around the neck and pulled him to his feet. He dragged him towards the door and pushed him through into the corridor.

“Keep your goddamn hands to yourself, fudge monkey”

Rimmer shoved harder. “Just keep moving.”

Then Rimmer led Jerry through the office cubicles and desks that surrounded Kane’s office and made up the Nucleus. Various employees watched with interest as he was marched through them like a common criminal through the streets of ancient Rome.

Jerry snarled at them. “Take a good look. Keep tapping away at your keyboards and wasting your lives away. Just don’t forget that you work for an ARSEHOLE!” Jerry tried to shout loud enough that Kane would hear it.

Rimmer smashed his forearm across Jerry’s back and sent him stumbling forward. “One more word and I’ll end you right here.”

Rimmer shoved Jerry towards the elevator and the two of them stepped inside. Despite his outward display of bravado, Jerry’s stomach had turned leaden. The contemplation of his imminent death summoned vomit from his guts and pee from his bladder. It took everything he had to hold down his breakfast.

The doors of the aluminium elevator closed and Rimmer spoke the words, “Surface level.”

“So, do you kill innocent people a lot in your line of work, or is this a special treat? Most people just get their kicks on
Call of Duty
.”

Rimmer kept his stare forward. His barrel chest moved in and out slowly, like a lizard on a branch watching a fly. “You are not innocent, Mr Preston. You have committed an attack against one of this nation’s secure facilities.”

“I was playing fetch with an over-sized dog. That is my only crime.”

“Perhaps, but it is not my place to judge you.”

“No, you just take orders. You’re more like a dog than Wolfie was.”

Rimmer turned, gave Jerry a warning stare.

Jerry decided to take the warning. If he was going to die, he would rather it be quick and painless, than by the beating hands of a uniformed gorilla.

“Just so you know,” said Rimmer. His tone had taken on a softer edge, his usual non-emotion absent for a fleeting moment. “I take no pleasure in this, but there is no other way. What you have seen has escaped the knowledge of even some past Presidents. The knowledge you hold of this place is greater than the worth of your life. Even so, I regret having to take the life of someone so…
naïve.
”

“Just because I don’t let my ego and selfishness rule me, doesn’t make me
naïve
. I would rather die as me than as a butt muncher like you.”

Rimmer laughed. “I like your spirit. Far bigger men have crumbled upon their approaching deaths. I’d wager your big balls will shrink when my gun is pointed in your face.”

Jerry looked down at the floor of the elevator.

The doors opened.

Before them was the dimly-lit staircase leading to the surface. The light bulbs ahead flicked on.

“After you,” said Rimmer, shoving Jerry forward.

Jerry took the steps one at a time, slowly moving higher, towards his fate.

His thoughts turned to his mother, and how an embrace from her would hold value above all else at that moment. He thought of Ben and regrets of decisions made. He thought about fighting back when Rimmer pulled his trigger; dying like a man.

They reached the top of the stairs and the secret hatch opened. The sun shine sliced into the gap like a knife through a turkey’s breast. Jerry shielded his eyes as his pupils burned.

Rimmer shoved Jerry hard from behind, sending him tumbling through the hatch and into the dirt behind. The Sergeant moved up close behind him and unlocked his cuffs.

“Now run,” said Rimmer. “And speak of this to no one. If you do, someone will appear at the foot of your bed and kill you while you sleep.”

• • •

Andy rushed into Sun’s room and looked around, staring at her empty bed and checking the vacant en suite.

“Sun,” he shouted. “Sun, where are you?”

Andy turned back to face the doorway. Dr Chandelling was standing there, looking baffled. “What is it, Mr Dennison?”

“My wife, she’s gone? Where the hell is she? Get the goddamn nurse.”

Dr Chandelling nodded and went to turn away, but he instead froze in place, a horrified look on his face.

Andy caught sight of the man’s fear and spun around. At first he saw nothing, but when he looked upwards…

Sun hung from the ceiling upside down, her face contorted into a snarl. Her tangled hair was dripping sweat.

“Jesus Chr-”

Like a leaping spider upon an ant, Sun flung her body from the ceiling and landed on her husband. The sudden weight of her on Andy’s chest knocked all the breath from his lungs.

Dr Chandelling cried out, almost feminine in his high pitch. From atop Andy’s chest, Sun snarled like a rabid wolf.

“Now, Mrs Dennison, please calm down. You’re having a funny turn. Your injuries…”

“My injuries will be put upon you ten-fold, and all others like you.

Andy reached up for his wife’s shoulders, tried to squeeze her to keep her from hurting herself. She slashed at his face, drawing blood from talons that had not earlier existed.

Sun leapt from Andy’s chest and smashed into Dr Chandelling. He went reeling backwards, colliding with a nurse’s trolley and falling to the floor. Two nurses stood a few feet away, screaming and shouting at what they were seeing. Sun descended upon the women quickly, slashing at their throats and biting at their eyes until there was nothing left but blood-stained pulp and breathless whimpers.

Andy rose to his feet, fighting for breath. “Sun? Christ, what are you doing?”

Sun turned and faced him, blood coating her face like a Halloween mask. She hissed at him like a snake. “I do my master’s bidding. I am to aid in the extinguishing of life and the liberation of ancient armies.”

“Sun, this isn’t you. Try to recognise what you are doing; try to see that what you are doing is madness.”

“The human race is madness. It is a sucking sore on the face of what was once magnificent.”

Dr Chandelling got up from the floor and began edging towards the door. Sun spun to face him and he froze on the spot.

The frightened doctor put his hands above his head. “Now, now, Mrs Dennison, please, calm down.”

Sun laughed mockingly. “Your fear stains you, Doctor. Is your dick not hardened unless presented with a young man to stroke it?”

“Y-you speak nonsense.”

“I speak of Aaron.”

“H-how do you know?”

“Your depravity dances on your skin. I see your lust for the boy and your heartbreak at having left him to his wretched poverty. You have not forgiven yourself, and so you should not. You will burn in hell, catamite.”

“I-I…”

Sun lunged, crossing the room with the speed of a cat. She grabbed Dr Chandelling by his jaw and looked into his eyes. She grinned, blood dripping from her cheeks. She kissed the man hard on the mouth then pulled away, cackling. “So that you may taste a woman before you die.”

Dr Chandelling’s neck snapped like a twig and his body fell limply to the ground. Sun knelt down and began tearing away strips of flesh.

“Sun! Stop!”

Sun glared at Andy with malice in her eyes; not a mere morsel of the woman she had been only hours before.

Andy knew right then that the batling had done something to her. What made him even more certain was the fact that Sun’s bandages had fallen away to reveal a putrid neck wound that pulsed with vile green pus.

Andy’s heart sunk into his chest as he looked at the monster his wife had become. He longed for Sun to return, to talk to him as a lover and friend. Without her presence he suddenly felt unbearably lonely.

He edged towards her; the only person in the room left alive to face her. The bodies of the two nurses and Dr Chandelling lay in their own individual pools of blood.

But then they rose up off the floor and screamed at Andy.

What the hell?

Andy stumbled backwards and almost lost his footing. If he had fallen he would most certainly have been dead as Dr Chandelling quickly set upon him.

Instinctively, Andy grabbed a nearby trolley and yanked it between them as a barrier. Dr Chandelling flung the trolley aside and growled. His eyes were swollen and filled with blood; looked ready to pop right out of his head.

Andy glanced past Dr Chandelling to see Sun and the two nurses exiting the room. Andy longed to chase after his wife, but his route was blocked.

Screw this!

Andy took a swing. He connected with Dr Chandelling’s jaw and rocked the man backwards. Then Andy hooked the man’s legs with a sweep kick and dropped him to the floor like a sack of hammers.

Dr Chandelling immediately began to get up but Andy took the opportunity to flee. He raced across the nurse’s station and into the operating theatre beyond. The room was empty, so he kept on going, kept on running until he made it through into the conference room.

He arrived just in time to see more blood spilled.

Jerry had already chosen a gap in the treeline through which to disappear and was about to start sprinting when Rimmer’s radio squawked.

It was General Kane’s voice coming through the speaker. “Rimmer, where are you? There’s been another breach on subbasement 10. Someone has initiated lock-down.”

Rimmer yanked the radio from the clip on his shirt. “A lock-down? Who initiated it?”

“Unclear. It was one of the floor’s emergency alarms. I need you back here immediately. Assemble your men.”

“Roger that.”

The radio went quiet and Rimmer stood there for a moment, looking unsure of himself.

“What is it?” Jerry asked, turning away from the woods and back towards the secret hatch of the facility.

Rimmer snapped out of his daze. “I told you to get out of here. Go!”

Jerry looked back at the inviting treeline, but found himself standing his ground. “Is something bad happening?”

Rimmer pointed his gun. “Go, kid! Get out of here.”

Jerry shook his head. “Dude, I got no place to be. If something’s going down then I want to help.”

Rimmer scowled. His raggedy beard twitched. “You really don’t want to be here, son.”

“You’re right, I don’t. I would rather be at home with my family—but, shit, you know what? I don’t have any family. The Dennisons are good people. If they’re in danger then I want to help. Plus, I think I might have a chance with Nessie if I come back.”

Rimmer shook his head and squinted. “Kane wants you dead. If you go back down there’s a good chance you won’t ever make it up again, so forget about scoring with Dr Nester.”

Jerry shrugged. “Like I said, I got no place else to be.”

Rimmer lowered his gun. “Fine, come on, we need to go.”

Rimmer raced back into the secret hatch and Jerry hopped in behind him just as it began to close.

The lights in the stairway blinked back on. Rimmer got on his radio and contacted his men. They all already knew of the alert, but none knew what was happening. None of the security staff on subbasement 10 were answering their radios.

Rimmer shook his head. “This ain’t good.”

“Nothing about this place is ‘good’.”

They reached the elevator and Rimmer shouted out “Level 2.”

“Hey, shouldn’t we be going to subbasement 10?”

Rimmer shook his head as the elevator begun to descend. “Subbasement 10 is under lock-down. The elevator won’t go there anymore.”

“So how do we help everyone stuck down there?”

“I’m not sure. We need to try and get a hold of someone to see what’s going on. If we can’t…”

“Don’t say it. You can’t just write off a bunch of people’s lives.”

“We may not have a choice. The inhabitants of subbasement 10 are the most dangerous creatures in the facility. The people down there may already be dead.”

The elevator opened on level 2.

The Nucleus was in uproar. The technicians and analysts, which had occupied the computer stations before, were now running back and forth like headless chickens, passing papers to one another and chatting urgently into headsets. General Kane stood amongst them with a long line of people reporting to him one after the other. When he turned and saw Jerry, he became irate.

“What is he doing here, Sergeant? You were asked to deal with him.”

“I was in the middle of doing so, but something more important came up. What’s happening down there?”

“Somebody hit the panic alarm. That’s all we know so far. Nobody on the floor is answering. We’re just initiating the camera feeds now so that we can see what’s going on.”

Kane headed over to a bank of computer screens set up in a 3x3 grid. A woman sat at a keyboard and was tapping away frantically.