Surviving The Theseus (19 page)

Travis scanned the floor tiles in the room,
waiting for movement. A minute later, he got his wish. He held his
breath, and then his mind went to thoughts of women past and women
wished. Travis opened fire.

“I can’t reach Mary or anyone else,” Cindy
said. She, Rachel, Regina, and Michael stood inside one of the
rooms. It was small, with only one queen sized bed. The walls were
mauve, the carpet gold. A painting of the Great Pyramid adorned the
wall above the bed.

The tackiness of Pyramid’s décor no longer
bothered Regina. The familiarity of it was the only thing keeping
her calm with the unknown hunting them.

Cindy had been trying to reach the others for
ten minutes, getting no response, no movement on the impact
sensors, nothing. Regina assumed they were dead or encapsulated
like John and George.

“What do we do, sir?” Cindy asked
Michael.

He paused and looked at Rachel, then
Regina.

Regina stared back, expectant. She couldn’t
imagine he would be looking to her for answers. Regina had more
faith in his leadership than George’s. George was too slow to
respond. Taking the time to think was fine, but not under pressure.
Michael was quick, usually, and confident. Not to say George was
not confident, but he weighed too many options. Regina knew what
she would do and she hoped Michael would come to that same
conclusion. His response to the encasement of John and George was
the right call, and she knew it.

Michael took a deep breath. “We continue
on.”

Regina nodded.

“There’s nothing on the cameras,” Michael
said, “nothing on the impact sensors, and we can’t hear anything
over comms from the others.”

Regina wondered why they ever split up to
begin with. Did George not believe the information about the
matchstick disabling device that Blair used? Maybe he didn’t want
to put all his eggs in one basket. No matter.

Michael continued. “How close are we,
Rachel?”

“We’re in 4889, and Blair’s room is
4952.”

“Okay,” Michael said, “I’ll take point, Cindy
you have the back, Rachel behind me and then Regina.”

Everyone nodded.

“And, Cindy, I want you placing impact
sensors, but we shouldn’t need many over the distance. Place one
outside in the hallway, and then at 4922.”

“Yes, sir.”

Without another word, Michael, his eyes alert
yet sullen, led the way.

They moved quickly down the dim, tunnel-like
hallway, passing room after room. At 4922, Cindy had another impact
sensor ready and set it right on the door as they passed. Nobody
slowed.

They were over halfway there. Regina watched
the door numbers as they moved quickly down the hallway.

“Stop!” Cindy said, almost yelling.

Everyone did. They all turned and looked at
Cindy.

She looked at everyone’s feet, probably to
see if anyone was moving, Regina guessed.

“Something’s coming. Two sensors back. Room
4889.”

Regina looked down the hallway from where
they just came from and could see nothing coming, which is what she
expected. She knew one thing for sure about their enemies: they
were relentless. Not for a second was there any doubt in her mind
that they would ever give up.

Michael didn’t hesitate. He quickly walked to
the nearest door, but then turned around and moved to a door up a
bit and on the other side of the hall, 4942.

Regina heard the distinct sound of a locked
door as Michael tried the handle.

He kicked it in with everything he had.

The door crashed open, splintering at the
jam, smashing into the stopper and bending it. The door handle
punctured the wall.

Michael nodded at the others to move inside,
which they all did, double time, and then he closed the door as
well as it could, sticking open slightly.

The room was larger than the last one they
were in, but not by much. The carpet, flooring, and walls, as well
as the door, were similar to the other room.

“Cindy,” Michael said, “take Rachel and
Regina, and work your way up --“

Michael pointed at the wall in the room.

“
-- through the rooms. Use the lipstick
to go through the walls. Don’t go out into the hallway.”

Cindy started to speak, but Michael kept
talking, cutting her off. “It’s an order. No time for debate. I’ll
run up the hallway and draw it off. Has it gotten to the 4922
sensor yet?”

“I think so,” Cindy said. “It’s a weak
signal. Looks like the creature is moving pretty slow.”

“With any luck,” Michael said, “it didn’t see
any of us so it will have no reason to come into this room.”

Regina couldn’t believe it. Ridiculous. They
needed to stay and fight, and knock it down. And then they could
all run to where they needed to go. Against her better judgment,
she said nothing. She had no authority over Michael. Voicing her
opinion would change nothing.

Michael looked at Regina. “Regina,
after I leave, I . . . can you please watch the door? If it even
twitches, unload everything you have, and everyone run.”
That’s better
, she
thought.

“Of course,” she said, and managed a weak
smile.

Michael smiled back. “Didn’t think you had it
in you, kid.”

Kid
, she
thought, pretty sure she was older than he was.

“Sir,” Cindy said, “the 4922 signal is
getting stronger.”

Michael turned to leave, Cindy wide-eyed.
“I’ll radio,” Michael said, “when I’ve pulled the creature away to
a different floor and I feel that it’s safe. I’ll try and make my
way back.” Michael opened the door as much as he had to and slipped
out, taking a left, toward whatever the hell was coming towards
them.

They all looked at one another, Cindy’s eyes
welling up. Cindy turned and went to the far wall in the room.
Rachel closed the door and then walked over to Cindy, and Regina
followed.

As rapid gunfire erupted from the hallway,
Regina caught a glimpse of Cindy’s wrist device, both Rachel and
Cindy watching it as well. There were two circular icons. The icon
with a two beside it rippled faster than the other, and then it
stopped, but the bullets didn’t. Michael, with any luck, mowed it
down and hopefully got past it. Would it follow?

Cindy pulled off her wrist device and gave it
to Rachel, and then got out her explosive lipstick and started
drawing a small door, half the size of a normal one, onto the
wall.

Regina turned to watch the room door. That’s
when a noise came from the bathroom. She noticed the closed
bathroom door when they came in, but it didn’t concern her then.
Regina pulled out her weapon.

Michael just about tripped over the creature
that charged at him, after knocking it down with a barrage of
bullets, or he assumed as much since he couldn’t see it. He kept
the barrel pointed down as he walked around it. Once past it, he
pulled up his wrist device and scanned for impact sensors nearby,
picking up the two in the vicinity.

He backed up from it, watching the device all
the while. Once he got about twenty feet away, he stopped so he
would no longer pick up his own movement from the sensors.

Twenty seconds later the sensor went crazy,
beeping and pulsing quickly. Michael opted not to silence his
signal as Cindy had, just so he could listen and shoot if he had
to, instead of looking down at the pulsing icon.

It was close. But was it close enough? He had
to make sure it chased him and didn’t go into the room.

An orange flash consumed him and the hallway
he stood in. He took a step back when his vision blurred. Nausea
encroached and then retreated soon after, along with the strange
burning smell.

Michael turned and ran.

“Rachel,” Regina said, and waved her
over.

“What?”

“Did you hear that?” Regina whispered.
“Bathroom.”

Regina pulled out her .45 caliber and a fresh
clip, one with shock bullets. She ejected the clip in the gun and
slammed the new one in. She pocketed the regular bulleted clip and
handed the gun to Rachel who, reluctantly, accepted it.

Regina withdrew her SOAD weapon from the
holster hidden inside her coat.

Cindy looked over at them. Regina waved at
her to keep doing what she was doing.

Regina and Rachel moved to the bathroom door
slowly and quietly, Rachel on the left and Regina on the right.
Regina mouthed the words “Back me up” at Rachel, and Rachel nodded
that she understood.

Regina pressed a couple buttons on the handle
of her weapon and then pointed it between the doorknob and doorjamb
on the bathroom door. She fired and an explosive percussion rang
out as the door shredded in a one-foot radius around the door
jam.

Regina kicked the door open, and she
immediately moved toward the closed shower curtain. Rachel was
right behind her, the .45 pointed at the shower.

Regina quickly grabbed the shower curtain and
slid it over.

Both women recoiled at the site of another
pod person, wrapped in the same gelatinous goo that got John and
George, in a full tub of water. Not even a chance.

Regina looked for a source of the noise
and saw a wrist device on the green, marble counter. It was some
sort of videophone, vibrating. She picked it up and saw there was a
message from six hours previous:
Meet me at
the bar. You know the one.

Rachel looked over Regina’s shoulder. Both
women walked out of the bathroom without a word between them. There
was nothing to say.

As they passed through the door, Rachel
grabbed her head with both hands, her face scrunched and in obvious
pain.

"What?" Regina asked.

"Na-nothing. Just a headache coming on, I
think." She pulled her hands away, blinking hard a couple times.
"Whew. That was weird. It's gone though. No big deal."

Regina looked at her, and then up at
Cindy.

Cindy had the chunk of wall out that she had
previously marked with the lipstick, a solid piece of steel, which
Regina helped her place quietly on the ground.

All of them made their way to the next room
over, which looked the same as the last one.

Regina and Cindy pulled the metal piece back
up and placed it so it looked somewhat like it did. Not perfect by
any means, with a gap at the top and sides, but on a quick glance,
someone would not notice it. Hopefully.

Michael ran, stopping very quickly at every
corner and stairwell to set an impact sensor, and also to check if
anything was following. Every time he stopped, a sensor or two back
would be pulsing. It was hot on his trail. Instead of going down,
he worked his way up to the top level, not quietly.

Once on the top level, looking at the forest
of trees and sky before him in amazement, he set another sensor and
watched his device. He had never seen anything like this ship
before. It had everything to make you feel at home. His father
would have loved it. Just the kind of place he used to get away to
with his father and mother as a kid. Michael’s eyes watered, but he
wiped the tears away and mumbled a “No!”

The sensors continued to pulse, including the
one he just set. It must have been moving quickly behind him,
determined, deliberate, and deadly. He both admired and despised
it, admired it for its stealth and determination, but despised it
for what seemed a senseless, barbaric act. The more he thought
about it, the more he thought the creatures to be men, men with
special equipment. And the purpose? What the hell could they want?
Money? The thrill of a hunt? And what was the purpose of the
podding of people? For food? For something more sinister, like a
body for gestating more of them? Whatever he thought, he had all
questions and no answers, and each question led to a more horrible
question.

He grabbed an explosive disc out of his
pocket and set the timer to 30 seconds, and slapped it onto the
wall. He ran towards another stairwell, one he knew about from
studying the layout of the ship. It was either that or get to the
elevator, but the creature was moving too fast behind him to wait
for an elevator. The travel tube made the most sense, but he
wouldn’t do it, couldn’t. People died in those damned things. Just
thinking about it, he broke out in a sweat.

Michael rubbed a spot on his head where there
was now a scar. A childhood dare, before travel tubes became more
secure. He spent a week in intensive care and three months in a
hospital. He never again allowed peer pressure to control him.

He contemplated yet again the quicker,
probably more sensible option of the tube. As he did, he stalled by
setting another impact sensor, which, once set, immediately started
beeping and pulsing when it linked with his wrist device.

But even if he tried the travel tube, would
he have the privilege of accessing it, or would it be restricted to
Pyramid staff? He should, as a SPARS officer, have authority for
any such device. But maybe not. Or did he just hope not? The fear,
it was so stupid to him, yet something he could not deny. Michael
slammed his fists on the wall, and then opened the door to a spiral
staircase with outer glass walls for viewing the ship as you strode
down them, all the way to passenger level 1, eight levels down.

Michael looked down the wide opening between
the spiral staircase and the drop all the way down.

The door behind him opened. He turned, but it
was too late. A brown blob came at him, at chest level.
Instinctively, he backed up, and, as he hit the top of the railing,
the blob consumed him, and then he went over.