The Children Who Time Lost (46 page)

Chapter Thirty-Three

T
he salty taste of sweat filled my mouth. My limbs ached from running so hard. Fatigue took over, but I didn’t dare think about how much I wanted to stop and pant. I feared that we’d bump into the Shriniks that had attacked us earlier, but the new threat was more immediate. The howls behind us didn’t lessen but grew in volume and intensity. We took another left at the next crossroad but didn’t seem to get any closer to exiting the building.

I felt something moist drip onto my head and looked up. The small sharp fangs of one of the Shrinik’s organisms greeted me. The creature hung upside down on the ceiling and snarled at me. Then it leaped down and landed on my shoulder. I screamed and thrashed my hands. The AN-94 around my shoulder flew in all directions. Doug grabbed the creature and threw it to the floor. I grunted, pulled out my Glock and shot the creature. I turned and kept running as it shriveled and died.

Michael was now a few yards ahead, but Doug and I gained ground on him with each stride. Michael then spun around with panic in his eyes. Doug and I skidded to a halt. I heard Michael screaming out words and waving his hands. But I couldn’t understand anything he said amid the thunder of the chasing Shriniks. Then more liquid dropped onto my head. I ran my finger over it, and it stuck to my hands. I saw the same green slime I’d seen when I blasted the head off the Shrinik that had cornered us. It dripped from the ceiling ahead and behind us. It was everywhere.

My body was thrust backward and I landed in a heap on the floor beside Michael. Doug was lying on top of me. We scrambled to pick up our assault rifles. Michael was staring at the ceiling. I followed his gaze and saw a wet patch the size of a large basin on the ceiling. Then the ceiling crumbled and a Shrinik dropped to the floor. It roared and charged forward. Some of its green blood splashed onto my face. Michael fired his M4 at the creature, sending it back farther and farther. Doug dragged me to my feet, turned around and joined Michael in firing. I shifted to Doug’s left and opened fire as well, the AN-94 jumping in my hands. A number of the other Shriniks had caught up, but the automatic gunfire held them back.

“Aim for their heads,” Michael said.

I nodded and did just that, but the Shriniks fought back. Some walked with half their heads missing, but they still came. Michael grabbed his shotgun and managed to decapitate some after a few rounds, but ammo was light. He switched back to the M4 soon after and kept chipping away at them.

Hordes of the organisms around the Shriniks’ bodies leaped to the ground and slithered toward us. I lowered my gun and fired at them, but they kept coming. Backing away, we now split our shots between the Shriniks and the approaching organisms that flew from their bodies at a rapid rate. Green blood flew everywhere as the bullets tore through the Shriniks’ flesh.

“Come on,” Doug shouted. He turned and continued down the corridor. Michael and I followed, but the screams were still behind us. We took another left and again heard the loud noise that sounded like many generators.

“We’re near the exit,” Doug screamed.

We ran on, but the Shriniks drew closer. Doug and I kept turning to spray rounds into them, hindering them further. Michael had started to drift slightly ahead. We could now see the open door leading to the main hall and pushed ourselves harder. But then a snarl came from that direction, and two Shriniks burst through the wall beside the door like it was paper. They raised their hands and howled. I glanced back and saw the others coming, too.

“The walls!” Michael shouted.

The Shriniks that had just appeared took steady steps toward us. Michael clenched his hands and pounded the wall. I ran toward him and did the same. It felt paper thin, like cardboard. Michael armed himself with the shotgun and started blasting at the wall. I grabbed the other shotgun from the bag and joined him. We tore chunks out of it, but the Shriniks in front of us charged forward. The ones behind drew closer. Doug opened fire in both directions, but their snarls grew louder. Michael and I continued blasting the wall. The hole was now big enough to fit at least my smaller frame. Michael nodded at me and grabbed Doug’s shoulder. I leaped through and my hands stopped my face from hitting the moist surface on the other side. I heard two thuds and looked up. Michael and Doug were beside me.

Apart from a faint green light that came from the ceiling, darkness engulfed us. I’d dropped my infrared goggles when we were trying to escape the first batch of Shriniks. I didn’t see Michael or Doug trying to put theirs on either, so I assumed they’d lost theirs, too. The same generator sound hovered above. We had to be close to the exit.

“Where are we going?” I shouted. “What is this place?”

“It must lead somewhere,” Michael said. “Those two Shriniks that burst out didn’t come out of nowhere.”

The ground was damp and dirty, and the putrid smell of manure filled my nose. It was as if we were running through an entire field of horse droppings. But we kept going. The screams came soon after. I glanced back after I heard movement but couldn’t tell whether the Shriniks were giving chase.

“This way,” Doug shouted. He turned left and Michael and I followed.

I didn’t know what this place was, but it felt like a whole new building.
Maybe it was some sort of barn before.
Doug pulled out a torch and flashed it in multiple directions. The flashlight revealed walls all around us, with openings leading to unknown destinations. I followed the light from Doug’s torch as it moved around. The area we were in was huge. It looked like a gigantic hedge maze with bricks.

We wriggled through gaps in the walls, stopping whenever we reached dead ends. The screams and howls kept coming, but we didn’t wait to find out how close they were. We turned right after reaching yet another solid wall with no through path. Mud reached my ankles. The foul stench grew worse.

After maneuvering our way through a few more narrow openings in the walls, we came to a large open space with lots of room to move. We ran almost two hundred yards before a brick wall came into view through Doug’s flashlight. We bore right, and then Michael just stopped.

“What is it?” I said.

Doug shone the torch on him. Michael put his ear to the wall. We ran back to him and waited.

“Can you hear that?” Michael said

Doug and I leaned against the wall. We pulled away at almost the same time and shouted, “Gunfire.”

“They’re beyond this wall,” Michael said.

A loud wail filtered in. Heavy footsteps followed. It drew nearer by the second, causing mild tremors. Doug flashed the torch toward where the sound came from, and we caught sight of at least five Shriniks charging toward us.

Michael dived at me. “Get down.”

I dropped to the ground and an organism flew past me and struck the wall. Michael shot it with his Glock, scrambled off me and picked the M4 up. But Doug had already started to engage them, except he wasn’t firing a gun from 2013. The bright explosions left trails of white dust in the air. The wails from the creatures came in thick and fast. I jumped to my feet and pushed the trigger of my AN-94, but I was out of ammunition. Michael threw me a magazine and pushed one into the chamber of his M4. Then we opened fire on the Shriniks at the same time. Amid the fire of the heavy-duty weapons, I could still hear the Shriniks all around us. Then something crawled up my legs. I screamed and kicked. I saw the organism’s red eyes looking up at me. I reached down and pulled it off, but I could still hear them everywhere, hissing like rattlesnakes.

I drew the Glock and started shooting at the ground. The wails and shrieks told me I was hitting them. I felt someone bump into me, but it was only Doug. He had the AN-94 out, firing countless bullets in the direction of the howls. With Michael’s bullets as well, the whole area was well-lighted for yards. There were even more Shriniks coming through the narrow openings in the distant walls.

“I’m out,” Doug said. He drew the future gun and kept blasting, but soon I heard only clicks when he pulled the trigger.

“Catch,” Michael said. He threw Doug another magazine, and it continued like that for a few minutes: me shooting every time I heard the organisms slithering on the ground and Michael and Doug emptying magazine upon magazine of ammunition into the approaching Shriniks. It was harder to aim for their heads in the dark, but our bullets seemed to be causing damage, judging by the loud screams.

I knew ammunition had begun to run thin when Michael switched to the shotgun. We still held the Shriniks at bay, however, but with each flash of light from the bullets, they seemed to be multiplying. It seemed like only a matter of time before our luck would run out.

“Guys,” a voice said through the earpiece.

We all paused. Everything went silent. But we resumed firing when a number of Shriniks moved closer. I had returned to my AN-94.

“Guys!” the voice said again.

This time Michael replied. “Manuel?”

“Boss! Are you guys all right?”

Michael and I stopped firing. “No, we’re not,” Michael shouted. “We’ve got a horde of Shriniks trying to take us out.”

“Where are you?”

Michael looked around in a panic, unsure of how to describe where we were.

“We’re inside the walls,” I shouted above Doug’s gunfire. “We’re right by the exit.”

Manuel spoke, but I couldn’t hear him

“He’ll never find us,” Michael said. Then he fired his shotgun at the wall a number of times. I did the same with my gun, but then the bullets stopped. All I heard were multiple clicks. The same happened with Michael. I searched inside the bag, but there were no more magazines or shells.

My fear multiplied when Doug’s bullets also ran out. We were all out of ammo.

The growls didn’t stop. My head trembled to the point where I thought my eyes would pop out of their sockets. Michael and Doug stood beside me, our guns still pointed at the approaching Shriniks. I tried firing but still heard only a click. Over and over, the click was I all I got when I pressed the trigger. Doug raised his torch and the Shriniks came into view.

There were so many of them that I didn’t even want to count. I dreaded what they’d do to us. They moved farther into the light, their lizard snouts scowling at us. Some had parts of their bodies and faces missing. The organisms attached to them continued growing back in masses even as many disintegrated by their feet. They were all around us, on the ground and crawling above us in the dark, their red eyes blinking.

“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” I said.

Doug pushed me behind him and squeezed my left hand. Michael grabbed my right and edged back. The distance between the Shriniks and us continued to lessen. Then one of them raised its arms and roared, and the others did the same. They looked like they were about to pounce.

We heard a thump against the wall from the outside. I swallowed and didn’t move an inch. I just listened and waited. The thump came again. The Shriniks looked to the right, uncertainty and confusion on their reptilian faces. Then the wall caved in. Debris flew everywhere. I glanced left and saw the faint light from the streetlights creeping in. A Shrinik charged through and ran straight for us, except it didn’t attack. Instead, it stood in front of us, acting as a barrier.

I was as confused as the other Shriniks looked, but it all made sense when automatic gunfire arrived through the same gap in the wall. Manuel fired at the horde of Shriniks that were after our blood, forcing them back. He ran beside us with blood, sweat and smudged green paint on the side of his face. The Shrinik beside him looked at all three of us before pumping its fists in the air.

Manuel moved closer. “Go,” he shouted. “We’ll cover you. Mandy’s out there.”

I looked at the Shrinik again and realized who it was. Curtis. He roared in our direction again, but a Shrinik from the pack charged at him. He rushed forward, leaped into the air and wrapped his hands around its neck. The creature thrashed and thrashed, but Curtis didn’t let go. The other Shriniks just watched without moving. Then Curtis pulled the Shrinik’s head from its body and flung it to the ground a few yards from us. The others growled and charged. Curtis met them and got into a tangle.