1.
The delectable aroma of shrimp ramen filled the apartment as Janine, half-beer in hand, opened the door to the microwave and liberated her dinner. She snagged a spoon en route to the table. As she blew on the hot noodles, she pondered the merits of adding soy sauce. It was already very salty. But soy sauce really made the thing, and the rest of her beer would help kill the salt. Maybe helped by some celery? There was a somewhat elderly clump in the bottom of the fridge. It seemed willing.
Resolved, she tore open a little packet of soy sauce, then felt a thump. It was as though something had hit the floor under her feet. Then another thump. Janine stopped and held perfectly still, soy sauce trickling from the torn packet. She pressed her sock-clad feet flat against the floor, feeling. And the floor moved again. This time it didn't stop. It reminded her of an unbalanced dryer shaking the floor downstairs. But she was already in the basement of her building, and the laundromat was down the street.
The vibrations in the floor were getting stronger. An earthquake? In New Mexico? Her basement apartment was good against tornadoes, but probably not earthquakes. She turned her chair, soy sauce in hand, and saw the tan carpet in front of the TV bulge upwards into a mound, overturning a chair. A rip, and a small lumpy head protruded from the lump in a cloud of dust. It was humanoid, about the size of a cantaloupe, and covered with sand and gray cement powder. Soy sauce spurted from the packet as the creature revolved to face her. She saw that the face had no eyes. The thing emerged from the hole and stood, regarding her silently.
Within seconds, more of the same creatures came up through the hole. Except for the first one, they paid her no attention. They were all variations on the same stubby gray theme, like bristly, lumpy monkeys. As more emerged from the hole, they silently and quickly clambered atop the ones already in the room. The apartment had a low ceiling, and when the creature at the top of the pile reached it, it began to scrape with its fingers. Dust and splinters rained down around them. In seconds the creature disappeared through a hole in the ceiling.
As a torrent of creatures streamed out of the hole and up the living ladder through the ceiling, Janine returned the eyeless stare of the first creature out of the hole. It had not moved, and she could see that it did not breathe. None of the creatures made a sound, or even opened their mouths, if they had mouths.
Then she heard the shots. The apartment above hers was unoccupied, and so they must have been from the one above that. One, two, and then many in quick succession. Then the screaming began. She gripped her sauce packet with white knuckles. The flow of creatures reversed, now coming down from above and back into the floor. Then she saw Hamid, the guy from two floors up. He was wrapped in wet pink sheets - plastic, or some sort of membrane. His head was sticking out and as the creatures carrying him tipped him down headfirst to go into the hole, he made eye contact with her. "Help! Help me!" he shrieked. Then he was gone.
Within seconds, all of the gray creatures were gone as well. They poured down through the hole like water down a drain. All that remained was a cloud of plaster dust hanging in the air. Janine moved for the first time since the thing had come through the floor, and walked over to the hole. She could see the dust in the air streaming down, and realized that air was being sucked downwards into it. There was a lot of space down there. She took a deep breath and walked to the door, put on her shoes and left. On the way to 7-11 she realized the sauce packet was still in her hand. She licked off her fingers as she walked.