The Chimera Secret

62

The light from the control room reached only a few yards into the darkness, glinting off damp rocks that smelled of mold. Proctor shuffled a few paces more until he reached the edge of the light, and looked back over his shoulder.

Kurt Agry was on one knee, his rifle aimed directly between Proctor’s eyes.

‘Nothing back here but pain, Einstein,’ Kurt growled. ‘Keep movin’.’

Proctor swallowed and edged further into the inky black grip of the tunnel. He could not see the forest or even the entrance to the tunnel itself, so complete was the darkness. He shifted one foot at a time, wary of tripping over the loose rubble scattered across the tunnel floor. He could smell the clean, fresh air of the night drifting toward him, and realized that he must therefore be alone in the tunnel.

A wave of relief crept over him as he advanced, begging a god that he didn’t believe in that it would be all right.

Suddenly he saw a tiny pinprick of light ahead, and then another close by. The clouds must have passed by in the night, stars twinkling in their place. He walked forward, more confident now, and let his hands drop to his sides as he called out.

‘It’s all clear!’

As his voice echoed down the tunnel behind him, the two stars blinked out together and then reappeared. Proctor had just enough time to realize that he wasn’t looking at stars when he smelled the thick stain of decay that hung heavy on the air at the tunnel entrance. He froze, standing absolutely still as he stared into dull red eyes glinting back at him in the distant glow from the control-room lights.

‘Oh Jesus.’

Proctor’s legs gave way beneath him and he dropped to his knees, his eyes adjusting enough to the darkness of the night to detect the huge form looming over him. He heard a rustle as it shifted position, its immense back stooped as it entered the tunnel, the eyes glowing deep into Proctor’s.

‘You see anything?’

Kurt Agry’s voice rolled down the tunnel toward him, but Proctor’s voice was already a long-lost faculty. He merely kneeled, paralyzed on the floor of the tunnel as the huge creature stooped over him and one vast hand, thick with fur, clamped over his face and squeezed with an unimaginable force.

Proctor screamed into the damp, rough palm that closed over his face, reached up and tried to prise the huge hand away, but it was utterly useless. He saw sparks of light through his closed eyes and a searing blaze of agony soared through his skull as he felt the bones crunch and crack as they were shattered in the creature’s savage grasp.

Proctor felt his body twist as it was hurled aside and smashed into the wall of the tunnel, and then everything disappeared.

‘Answer me, Proctor!’

Lopez watched as Kurt shouted down the tunnel but heard nothing in response. The goddamned idiot had probably taken his chances and fled into the night, not that she could blame him. There was no sense in worrying about him. If the coast was clear then they were good to go, but she could not hope to get out of the facility past all of the soldiers’ weapons.

‘All right, let’s move out!’

Kurt stood up and headed for the tunnel as Klein, Jenkins and Milner moved in behind him.

Lopez saw it from the corner of her eye, a white flash that seemed to fly out of the tunnel’s gloom ahead of them. All at once she saw Proctor’s body arcing toward them, six feet off the ground.

‘Cover!’

A soaring, keening scream of rage pierced her eardrums, as deep as a gorilla and yet gabbling like some kind of ancient dialect. Kurt hurled himself to one side as Proctor’s body flew past him and smashed into the control room doors, the scientist’s skull crushed like an eggshell.

‘Open fire!’

Kurt aimed his weapon down the corridor and let off a three-second automatic burst of fire as Klein, Jenkins and Milner did the same. The lethal hail of gunfire roared down the confines of the tunnel as the muzzle flash illuminated its depths.

And what Lopez saw there sent a lance of icy fear thrusting down into her belly.

There wasn’t just one of them.

The tunnel was filled with sasquatch charging toward them, a raging mass of fur and fury.

Lopez turned in terror and looked straight down the corridor opposite. There, in the shadows, she saw the power light to the locking mechanism flashing bright red. The power was back on.

‘Fall back!’

Kurt hurled himself backward over Proctor’s body and rolled over the restraining chair as one of the creatures burst into the control room. Lopez heard Milner’s scream of terror as one of the animals plowed into him like a freight train and smashed the M-16 out of his grasp before grabbing his chest with one hand and folding the other over his jaw. A moment later and Milner’s head was ripped from his neck with a sound like tearing denim as a fountain of dark blood splashed across nearby computer monitors.

The creature hurled the severed, bloodied head across the control room to smash with a dull thud into the opposite wall as Kurt backed down the corridor, firing as he went. The bullets hammered into the creature’s chest and it wailed as it backed up into the tunnel again to shelter from the hail of gunfire.

Lopez staggered backward, trying to seek her chance to cross the control center and flee down the corridor.

‘Fall back!’

Klein and Jenkins managed to hold the sasquatch back as they fired, wracked with fear as they stumbled toward Kurt.

‘Control your fire!’ Kurt yelled at them, and then took up position on one knee and aimed carefully at of the nearest of the massive creatures as it charged toward the control room.

He took a breath, held it, and fired.

The shot hit the creature just above the eyes, smack in the center of its forehead. The huge head snapped back and the animal toppled onto its haunches as thick blood spilled across its face.

Klein saw the animal go down and lowered his rifle as Jenkins covered his retreat.

Lopez took her chance and hurled herself at him.