Part 5

Escape From Skywheel

"We have to escape and get help!" Cale realized. "Come on!" He ran toward the docking port.

Seth ran behind him, firing all the way.

Cale reached the ship and jumped in, poised himself at the air lock controls. He yelled at Seth. "You can't get them all! Run!"

A demon broke from the line and charge at Seth, who pulled the trigger - out of shells.

He dropped the shotgun, turned and ran toward Cale and the shuttle - but the demon raged behind him, gaining fast.

But it was so fast!

An explosion rocked the room behind them with the monsters, forming a wall of dust, framing Seth and demon.

The demon dwarfed Seth, and was catching up fast. Cale powered up the shuttle's thrusters and prepared for breakaway - but Seth stumbled and almost lost his balance.

He was so close - but so far away - ! Run faster!

Seth could hear the mammoth pounding of the demon's musclebound legs churning closer and closer behind him as he rushed into the docking room. The edge of the shuttle - and Cale - were a bare 12 meters away - he had to make it -

The demon's breath was at his back, he could smell it, practically feel the air of the demon's arms swiping at him, missing by centimeters, see the gaping maw of its mouth lumbering closer and closer -

There it was -

He dove -

Cale slammed his fist into the airlock release, and the shuttle broke away - and the demon crashed uselessly against the armored hull of the shuttle - then floated away into the airless void of space......

As Seth lay breathlessly on the floor, Cale fired the thrusters and pointed the nose of the shuttle away from the station. "I can fly this thing," he declared to himself, staring at the strange array of colored buttons, switches, and lights. He knew what the joystick-like control stem was for- steering, and he knew what the acceleration and braking controls were. He couldn't identify much else. Hopefully he wouldn't have to.

Seth began to pick himself up, trembling from the experience. "Oh, my god......oh my god...oh my god, oh my god, ohmigod, omigod omigodomigod omigod........" his breath came in ragged gasps. He pulled himself up next to Cale and climbed into the copilot's seat. "Where..." he wheezed, "where are we going?"

"Earth," Cale said. "We have to get back and send help to the team - they're trapped inside the station, along with the rest of the people ....... "

He turned and stared at the derelict station, seeing how immensely huge it was - bigger than some of the United States's largest cities.

He saw the docking port for their shuttle blow up into a shower of flame and debris from another explosion........

The explosion kicked out debris in all directions.

"Oh, shit," Cale said, watching with trepidation as a particularly large piece of metal hurled at toward the rear of the shuttle - "oh shit......thrusters.....go.......accelerate!" He grappled with the controls, trying make the ship go faster, but the force of the explosion pushed the debris faster and faster toward the shuttle.......

The whole thing lurched as the debris collided into the back of the shuttle. There was a very loud boom and the lights flickered. The shuttle careened wildly out of control through space as Cale and Seth desperately tried to get the ship back under control.

"What damage?!" Cale yelled over the alarms and Seth studied a diagnostics readout on the monitor.

"It hit the fuel tank," Seth said. "We're leaking. We don't have enough to make it back to earth!" he reported in dismay.

"Oh no," Cale exclaimed, shutting off the alarms and steadying the ship. "Where can we make it to? The moon?"

"No," Seth said, "there aren't any radio stations or fueling depots on the moon."

"Where can we go?" Cale asked, fear in his voice.

"We'll have to go to.....Mars......" Seth realized. "It's orbit should mean that the old UAC facilities will be facing us....... we can make it, just barely. We'll have to refuel and radio for help from there - the place hasn't been touched in five years - I'm sure it'll still work........"

"Mars it is," Cale agreed, turning the shuttle around and gunning the boosters.

As he was setting the course, Seth asked in a faraway voice, "What happened?"

"The docking port exploded," Cale explained. "The other team set off a grenade so they could escape to the center of the station."

"No," Seth said, "I meant what happened? How did this happen so suddenly?"

"I think," Cale said slowly, "that it was our fault."

"Our fault!" Seth exclaimed. "The zombie shot at us - it killed Lagan!"

"The imp," Cale said, "the Imp was there to meet us. They can't control the zombies - they're conditioned to shoot at anything non-monster. That would be us."

"That's an excuse?" Seth demanded incredulously. "They shouldn't have let it get near us!"

"Strather was the first to say it, that the truce was over," Cale muttered. "I think we were all a little too uptight, and quick to follow him. We lost our only chance for peace."

"Now they're duking it out on the station," Seth grumbled. "Who are we with now? General......LeVierce?"

"That's right," Cale confirmed. "We'll have to radio him for orders."

"Okay," Seth said, as Cale readied the shuttle for landing. He could see the UAC spaceport and aimed the ship for that."

"I hope I can do this," he told himself as he used the control stick, an unorthodox method, to bring the shuttle into a bumpy but successful landing just off the side of the runway.

"Okay, so I missed," Cale shrugged at Seth's look. "At least we're in one piece, right?"

"There's no oxygen out there," Seth pointed out, face to the window.

Cale reached under the control panel and withdrew two bottles of oxygen. "It's 60 seconds each," he said, handing one to Cale. "That's the administration and spaceport building right over there. We should make it."

Cale and Seth held the bottles to their mouths, and on Cale's three count, released the hatch and popped the bottle caps at the same moment. Then they took off running, around the ship and toward the building.

Their steps carried a little more weight than usual - Mars had more gravity than Earth. But they made it with about ten seconds of oxygen to spare.

The instant they were inside and had the airlock door closed they knew something was wrong. Although the facilities had been abandoned, the power system was not supposed to run out for about 4 years. However it had been only 3 years and already many of the lights were out and the few that worked were flickering strangely. Shadows formed eerie shapes across the floor. None of the computer monitors were working. From somewhere within the station they could here the hum of power, and a strange dripping noise that seemed to come from everywhere.

Cale reached down to his utility belt and pulled out a narrow-beam flashlight, flicked it on. A beam of light cut through the shadows to the far wall, where there was a closed doorway.

The "UAC" marking on the door had strange claw markings scratching down over it - just like that of an imp.

There was a pool of blood just in front of the door.

Somewhere, a pig-like snort sounded softly.

Cale took a deep breath, readied his pistol, and started walking toward the door slowly. He could hear Seth's stressed breathing behind him.

They reached the door and opened it. It slid up with a loud whine of protest - a far cry from the almost-silent, humming doors that had been when the UAC was here.

The hallway beyond was dark. Small lights cast little pools of lights in front of the various doors along the hallway; but the middle was dark.

They could see clearly the pair of red, alien eyes that glared out at them from the hallway.

Another imp.

Seth and Cale each pumped a full clip into it until it lay dead in a pool of its own blood. All around them inhuman cries and screams went up into a spooky orchestra of demonic moans that filled their brains with fearful images of massacred humans and satanic monsters out for their blood.

They ran, Cale reading the names of the doors until they came into the radio room.

The lights worked. Barely.

None of the radio equipment was in working order - there wasn't enough power for a strong enough signal.

Cale leaned against on the walls and sank to the floor with despair. "What are we going to do?"

Seth looked around the windowless, small room. "We have to get the power working somehow. Do you know where the power station is?"

Cale pointed to a tattered map on the wall. Pieces of it were missing.

Seth walked over and studied the map. "Well, the power generator station is north of here, in a separate, smaller complex," he said. "Part of the map's torn off and I can't see what's between here and it, but I'm going to try."

"Not alone," Cale said, standing up with effort. "This place is infested with monsters and our ship's dead. You'll never make it there and back alive."

"No," Seth protested. "You have to stay here. I'll make it to the power station and turn on the power - I know I can. You stay here and the instant it's working, radio for help." He pulled at the map but it was stuck firmly to the wall. "Stay here and talk me through the way with this map." He pulled out his portable two-way. "Stay on channel 1."

Cale activated his.

Seth went searching for the drawers. They were all empty or contained useless papers. "Do you have any extra clips?"

Cale tossed him a couple clips and one of two sets of brass knuckles.

"Okay," Seth said, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "I've got brass knuckles, 50 bullets, this radio and my wits. I'm going to do it."

Cale looked grim. "I'm not too sure. You don't know what's out there."

"I'm going to have to find out the hard way, I guess," Seth declared. He opened the door into the hallway and stepped over the body of the imp. Growling sounded from far in the distance. "Here I go....."

Cale watched him silently until Seth disappeared through the door marked "UAC." Then he pulled back into the room, sat down in the radio man's chair and waited.

"Okay, I'm in the front, where we came in," Seth's voice crackled through the static on the radio. "I'm going to have to go outside for about thirty seconds, to make it to the complex. I think that's it, over there....." a pause, then "well, since there's no oxygen out here, I'm going to have to hold my breath and run, and hope the door's not locked over there. We can't have radio contact till then, either."

Cale sighed. "Good luck, and hurry. This is going to be the longest thirty seconds of my life."

Seth pulled out the bottle of oxygen, tucked the radio into his belt, and picked up the pistol with his right hand. Then he prepared to run.

And run he did, for the building that he hoped was the right one was further away than it had looked. He was grateful for those days of underwater training where he'd learned to hold his breath for three minutes or more.

He looked back as he sprinted, at the building he'd just left, and as he passed the ship on the runway he saw that a trail of blood was dripped from the hatch and there was a strange flickering, green light inside that hadn't been there before.

He ducked to check his footing, and that saved his life.

Something small and fast went shooting past the space where his head had been moments ago. It had come out of nowhere. Seth resisted the impulse to gasp and looked in the direction it had gone.

The thing slowed and stopped a good 30 feet away, and Seth studied it, slowing his pace.

It was a skull. A human skull. No, it was far too big - it had to be a metal replica of a skull. And it seemed to be on fire.

Impossible, he thought, running again. There's no air out here. His aching lungs could attest to that. He looked at the building, saw it looming ever closer, saw the doorway he would enter through.....

There were impossible flames sprouting from the back of the skull, some kind of motor, maybe? And the thing came shooting at him again, at a speed his eyes almost couldn't track. With lightning fast reflexes, Seth had his pistol up and let off a clip at it.

The skull stopped, but the bullets didn't seem to have any more effect than that. It floated toward him slowly for a moment, then he saw it's metal mouth open in a silent scream and it zoomed at him again.

Seth squeezed the trigger again and again, until finally the thing vanished into a poof of smoke and flame - and then it was gone, without a trace.

He looked around, his lungs begging for air, and saw a group of things in the distance, coming toward him.

They were dark pink colored, huge, with gaping maw mouths and legs that worked like piledrivers.

Demons - the ones that had chased him off of Skywheel. And no less than a dozen of them.

He could practically feel the ground shaking beneath him as they ran at top speed. Seth pushed back a wave of fear and adrenaline and sprinted again toward the building.

He knew the pistol wouldn't do much, he remembered the scientist saying that these things could take three full shotgun shells in the face and laugh.

He ran, toward the door, as the demons drew closer. But he knew he wasn't going to make it.

"Seth!" Cale screamed into the radio. It had been almost a full minute, and still there was only loud hissing static from the radio.

"Are you there?! Seth?!" he kept yelling.

Shit, he thought. Something got him in the vacuum. He ran out of breath. He's dead....I'm going to die.

No. He pushed those thoughts from his head as an animal fear and desperation began to creep over him. He felt like the cornered squirrel, the caged wolf yearning for remembered freedom.

So this is what it's like to go insane, Cale thought, leaning back in the chair and setting the radio on the desk beside him.

A minute, since Seth had entered the vacuum.

The team at Skywheel is trapped, he thought, and they're all going to die. Seth is dead, caught by those bastard aliens and soon they're going to find me and I'm going to be dead too. Then all of earth will be next.

Strangely, these thoughts did not affect him, he felt resigned to his fate. A hazy curtain set over his vision, making things blurry. Dimly, as though his ears were shutting down, he heard a madman laughter coming from inside the very room, and after a second realized it was his own, and hearing his manic laughter, it chilled him.

Seth dove through the door and slammed it shut just as the first Demon slammed itself into the door, rattling its hinges. I can't believe I made it, he thought. It took him almost a minute to catch his breath, then he gathered himself up and looked at his surroundings.

He was in a small room, with four walls made out of stone bricks. In front of him was a switch mounted on the wall. Shrugging, he flipped it.

"There's someone at the door," Cale said aloud to himself as a scratching began to sound from the other side of the door. "Better get the door."

"No," he decided, "I'm not going to open the door." He felt strangely at peace with himself, even as something in the back of his mind was screaming at him, and the scratching at the door grew more insistent.

"Get it yourself," Cale said, "and shut up," he added to his mind.

He looked at the radio. Just static, but he thought he heard something else in the background, too.....

Two minutes. Seth wasn't ever going to reach that power station, he knew it in his bones.

Cale laughed at the radio, spoke to it: "You lousy son of a bitch." And he took the butt of his pistol, and smashed the radio to pieces.

The scratching at the door paused, then continued, louder this time.

Cale sat back, grinned, and accepted his doom calmly, like that of one fully insane.

The elevator came down, and Seth stepped into it. As it began to move up again, he pulled out the radio. "Cale?"

Nothing but loud white noise.

"Cale?" he asked again.

"Cale!" he snapped, but there was no answer.

The worst came over him. Cale must be dead. The monsters came, and broke into the room, and they killed him..........

His head filled with the vision of a demon bent on Cale's back, tearing and ripping the flesh and bone, as blood filled the room......

"Cale!" he tried one last time, in vain. Oh, no.

It was all up to him now.

"Goodbye, mom," Cale said. "Goodbye, dad, sis, goodbye, everyone."

The lights flickered. "Yup," he said, "looks like this is the end."

Some blood trickled under the door into the room.

Seth found himself in a hallway lined with dull gray walls. It had a dull gray ceiling as well. The floor was slightly darker.

The hall stretched in two directions, and he couldn't see or hear anything down them. All was quiet for the moment.

There was a sign on the wall, with a list of locations and arrows:

< NUKAGE WASTE FACILITY

CENTRAL PROCESSING >

< POWER CONTROL

SYSTEM MONITOR FACILITY >

< WATER TREATMENT PLANT

Guessing that "power control" was the one he wanted, he went left.

There was a light metal door at the end, and he went in.

He found himself looking up at the sky, but there was oxygen to breathe - must be in a pressure zone or something. He was in a corridor with no ceiling, and so he walked toward the opening.

It opened into a courtyard filled with nukage. There was a five foot drop into it.

This must be the nukage waste facility, he thought. That meant once he found the exit out of here he would be in power control.

Cale turned the pistol around and sent six shots through the door. There was a groan of an imp outside in the hallway, then more blood seeped under the door.

He sighed, and waited. After a long time, the lights came on to full brightness.

"Huh?" he snapped back into consciousness as a burst of static came and the computers powered up. The insanity curtain retreated and he came to full alertness, studying the computers.

The power was on! Seth had made it after all!

He looked at the radio and thought, oh, no, the radio was smashed, how could he talk to Seth?

But the room was suddenly full of the sounds of monsters, imps, demons, and other things, and there was the sound of Seth's pistol ........

The intercomm! Seth had found an intercomm station and must have turned it on somehow!

He noticed the speaker from which the noises were coming from and pressed the "talk" button. "Seth!" he yelled. "Seth!" His heart leapt with new hope.

Running out of breath, Seth kept pumping the bullets. He'd finally made it to the power control switch and rebooted the entire station circuit, but he had also attracted monsters of every nature and the door to the main room had been destroyed long ago. His only advantage was that they could only fit one at a time down the security hallway and door. But he was fast running out of bullets and he doubted the brass knuckles would get him very far.

He backed up against the wall and felt his back press something into the wall, a button maybe? and fired over the din.

He heard Cale's voice behind him: "Seth!"

He turned, firing over his shoulder. The intercomm! "Cale!" He screamed into it.

"Seth!" Cale screamed, hearing Seth's voice. "You did it! You turned the power on! Come on! Now get out of there!"

"I'm hemmed it," Seth's voice cried. "They're demons everywhere, hundreds of them! I can't get out!"

"Come on, Seth," Cale screamed. "You can do it! Fight your way out!"

"You don't understand," came Seth's voice, desperately over the intercomm. "I'm cornered, and I'm out of bullets."

The noise of the monsters came louder over the intercomm.

"Cale!" he heard Seth shout as there came the sound of tearing claws and snapping teeth. "Cale! I don't want to die - "

There was a loud, long scream over the intercomm and the sound of growling monsters tearing through bone and flesh..... and then silence. There was no doubt in Cale's mind that Seth was dead. The devastating conviction hung in the silence like a massive deadweight.

Cale stood in shock, then blindly shut off the intercomm.

Seth had succeeded.

And the monsters had killed him.

He's dead, Cale thought. I'm the only one left.

I have to get word to earth military, about Skywheel and the new invasion! I have to avenge Seth's death, and keep this from happening on earth!

He punched the radio button and keyed for Nasa's incoming emergency frequency. "Hello?" he yelled. "anybody? Hello?"

Static.

No.

The radio was broken.

Cale collapsed in dismay onto the console, nearly in tears. All this work, all this fighting....the monsters had broken the radio......

It had to be repaired. There had to be an emergency backup system.

He looked at the map thoughtfully, forcing himself to gather his strength and wits, fearing another lapse into insanity again. He studied the torn map.

There was an auxiliary radio station located at the opposite end of the base....he had to fight his way there, and use that to call earth.

He had to make it.

He was the only one left.........