"Does anyone know when dawn is?" George asked. He had been pacing back and forth trying to form a plan of attack against Thanatos before suggesting that its blood might be the third ingredient. So far, he couldn't think of anything. They would obviously need to kill it first, but when Cindy shot it almost at point-blank range with the shotgun, it shrugged it off. He didn't know if they had enough firepower to take it down.
"I think it's supposed to be at 5:50." Jim answered.
"What time is it now?" George let himself drop into a chair heavily.
"Just after 4:30." Jim said, looking at his watch. "Not much time left."
George sighed, if Peter's escape plan was to be trusted, then someone was coming at dawn. The night was almost over, but they didn't have the cure yet. They were running out of time. George scratched his arm idly; it had begun to itch on the elevator and only intensified since. He was running out of time.
George rubbed his temples as he thought. He felt like he was thinking slower than he should be and a low throbbing headache had been plaguing him since they got into the university. "I think I might know what the last ingredient is, but I almost don't want to be right." He said finally.
"Thanatos?" Cindy asked.
"You saw the heart too?" George looked puzzled.
"The heart? I saw it, but it just made sense that it's the beast Peter was talking about. What else could it be? We've been all over the university and that crazy guy on the monitor seemed to prize this one monster over all of the other ones in here. That's my reasoning." Cindy said with a shrug.
"That's all well and good, but how are we supposed to get that thing's blood?" Kevin asked.
"I can get the blood with a needle, I have plenty and most will be strong enough to pierce its heart, but I need to get close enough to do that. I think we're going to need to find a way to put it down without completely destroying its heart." George explained. "That is where I'm coming up empty. How much ammunition do you all have?"
"I've got a few clips left." David said as he rummaged through his side bag he put the clips on the table.
"I'm at about the same." Mark tossed his clips to David, who added them to the pile.
The rest put their ammunition on the table. It came out to less than four full clips per able-bodied person and a box of shells. Everyone who could fight took his or her allotment.
"Do you think this is enough?" Yoko asked.
"The way that thing shrugged off the shotgun? I think we just need something bigger. Like an explosive or something." Kevin suggested.
"If we're wishing for things, why don't we go for a tank?" David added with a laugh.
"I'm just saying." Kevin shot David a look.
"I'm not saying I don't agree with you, just that we need to think within our means." David turned his hands up and spoke as if he were only stating facts.
"What if we make explosives?" Yoko asked. "I remember doing that in the underground laboratory."
"Do you know how to make them with what we have around here?" George asked, waving his arm around the room.
"Probably not." Yoko admitted, she frowned and leaned back against the wall. Almost as soon as she was against the wall, she pushed herself back off. "Wait, do we have to kill it?"
"I think we probably have to." George said.
"We just need the blood, and you need to get close to get the blood. What if we just stun it? What if we just shock it?" Yoko said.
George thought about what she was saying, and then he understood. "The wires."
"Yes, what if we use them to stun it and then when it's stunned you can get the blood. It's risky, but I think we can do it." Yoko sounded excited.
"That…that might actually work." David sounded impressed. "We just need to lure it under the wires first. Jim, where is it now?"
Jim cycled through monitors with a few keystrokes until he found Thanatos. "It's just outside the president's room on the second floor."
"Let's get out there then." David said, checking that his pistol had a round chambered.
"Wait, I don't think I can go out there just yet." Kevin said wearily. "I think we need to take a minute and just collect ourselves."
"We do still have about an hour and a half. We can take twenty minutes to catch our breaths, right?" George asked.
"I guess it would be bad to go off half-cocked." David admitted and took an empty chair.
"Once we do have the blood, what then?" Alyssa asked.
"Do you see that machine over there?" George asked and pointed to a machine that had slots for multiple vials. The spots for the vials were attached to a large, hollow, circular drum.
"What about it?" She continued.
George stood up and walked over to Yoko. "Can I have the Venom?"
"Of course." Yoko reached into her backpack and pulled out the purple vial.
George took it from her and, on the way to the machine, picked up the P-Base from the table next to Jim. "We have to put the ingredients in here," George demonstrated by placing the two vials next to each other and hooking them up to the machine, "and then that machine will mix them together until they homogenized. That should, in theory, make the cure that Peter was talking about." George explained. "Although, we really won't know if it worked until we don't turn."
"So we assume it worked until we're munching on each other." Alyssa didn't even try to feign enthusiasm. "Better than nothing I suppose."
"How are you doing?" Kevin asked.
"Could be better, I feel like I've been turned inside out, and then put back again. I think that sums it up well enough." Alyssa groaned as she finished and let her head fall onto Kevin's shoulder.
George resumed his seat, and they waited the rest of the twenty minutes in silence until David broke it to tell them it was time to go. George wished he had another twenty minutes, but he could feel his body relaxing enough to keep moving. He had started to drift off to sleep, and was afraid that if he did have another twenty minutes, he would probably give in to that sleep.
"Jim, where is Thanatos now?" George asked.
Since he had been watching Thanatos the entire time, Jim's reply was quick. "It's moved out onto the balcony of the main hall, but it's still on the second floor."
"We just have to get it follow us into that hallway with the wire then." George said.
"You make it sound so simple." David said flatly.
"In theory it is, in practice we just have to not get killed." George explained with a shrug. "Kevin are you okay to come with us?"
"I'm feeling a lot better now, I think I can manage." Kevin said, groaning as he stood up. "I just need to walk it off now."
"Don't strain yourself." Alyssa warned him. "It's not easy to just 'walk that off.'"
"You'll have to make up your mind, whether you want me to stay or go." Kevin said.
"What I want isn't one of those options. Just be careful." Alyssa raised an eyebrow and nodded toward the door.
"Will do." Kevin leaned over and kissed her on the top of the head. "We had better get to it before Thanatos decides we're not worth waiting around for."
The elevator ride was quick, but when they reached the first floor, the doors did not open. The outer door, which Thanatos had dented, was preventing the doors from opening. Kevin and David had to force them apart.
"That might make getting back up difficult. We'll have to shut the inner doors manually." George noted.
"Then we will have to make sure we have plenty of time when we come back." Cindy added.
David, who had ignored the conversation, was already at the door at the end of the hallway. He slowly opened the door a crack and peered out. George opened his mouth to chastise him, but realized they needed to keep quiet. David opened the door farther until he could poke his head out. He took a long look around and leaned back out of the main hallway.
"Did you see anything?" Kevin asked.
"No," David shrugged, "I didn't hear anything either."
Cindy held a finger up and turned the radio down to the lowest audible setting. "Jim, is Thanatos still out there?" She whispered.
"It's on the second floor balcony; you should see it once you step outside." Jim thankfully whispered back.
"It's fast, so I think we just need to run as fast as we can over to that maintenance hallway with the wire. Pissing it off won't be a problem." Kevin explained.
"Maybe we should be as quiet as possible until we get across the main hall though, just in case it's faster than we expect." Yoko added.
"Good point." Kevin nodded. "So we sneak underneath it until we get to the door that leads to the waiting rooms. You all should get a head start, no need for all of us to be standing around, and I'm the fastest. Then I'll make a hell of a racket until it gets pissed off."
When no one argued, Kevin cautiously slipped through the door and ushered the others into the main hall. He lagged behind and followed at a distance. As he crept through the main hall, George switched between eyeing the stairwell and looking at the platform above him. He was suddenly hyper aware that Thanatos was only a few feet above him. His heart was pounding in his chest, which only made him worry that the monster would be able to heart that.
Excellent hearing, however, was not one of the monster's abilities because after only a minute, they were safely opening the door to the waiting rooms. Quietly, everyone but Kevin passed through the door. Kevin waved them to the other end of the hallway.
"Get going, I'll catch up. Someone be prepared with the switch." Kevin whispered loudly enough so that the group could hear him.
"You three go ahead, I'm going to make sure he doesn't trip while he's trying to play hero." David whispered.
George nodded and started down the hall. He didn't like that they were taking what he considered to be an enormous risk, but he neither had a better plan nor was he in the physical condition to play the part of bait. Cindy followed him after warning David to be careful.
Yoko pouted her lips and was about to say something, but instead just briefly squeezed David's arm and continued down the hall after George and Cindy.
"Come on, we had better hurry up." George said and started off into a jog. They ran through the next room and got halfway in before they heard Kevin screaming and banging the door in the main hall. There was a loud roar shortly after. They sprinted the rest of the distance into the maintenance hallway. George stopped just inside the door and wedged a piece of trash underneath it so it would stay open.
Cindy reached the switch first and positioned herself at the switch. George and Yoko stood just next to the wires, watching the open door for when Kevin and David would round the corner. They didn't have to wait long because David slid around the corner precariously, pushing against the wall to stay upright. Kevin came right behind him and nearly fell, but David stabilized him and pulled him for a few strides before letting go.
Before they could get halfway to George and Yoko, Thanatos careened around the corner, smashing through the wall. Thanatos disappeared for a few seconds, but came crashing through the wall again closer to Kevin and David.
"Cindy, get ready!" George yelled. He watched as the two men crossed the threshold into the maintenance hallway with Thanatos hot on their tail. Not wanting to be in the way, George pulled Yoko onto the other side of the wires and past Cindy.
"Coming around the corner!" David screamed. He and Kevin appeared moments after, with Thanatos swinging its claw wildly right behind them. They closed the distance and dove passed the sparking wires a few feet before Thanatos stepped under them.
A brilliant, white, light filled the hallway at nearly the same time a resounding boom clapped. Thanatos stood stock-still as the electricity pulsed through its body, its claws stretched out at its side, and its mouth agape in pain.
After only a few seconds, Cindy shut the current off and Thanatos collapsed onto its knees. George was ready with a needle in hand. He ran at the monster and plunged the needle into its exposed heart and pulled back in the plunger. The blood came out, a dark and viscous liquid. George filled the needle fully.
He pulled it out and started to turn around when Cindy screamed. He didn't feel the blow at first; instead, he only noticed he had been hit when he was sprawled out on the floor a few feet away from Thanatos.
The monster was starting to recover from the shock, but Cindy didn't give it a chance. She flicked the switch again. The electricity shot back down through the wires and into the monster below. This time, however, Cindy left the current on.
"I hope you fry you bastard." Cindy said and turned to George. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I got what we need, now let's get out of here." He explained and pointed toward the door behind them. George put a cap on the needle and placed it in his bag before standing up. He used the wall to balance for a few paces until he felt comfortable standing on his own.
The door led them into the now very familiar parking lot. George regretted that they would have to brave that shark again, but he didn't blame Cindy for what she had done. They moved rapidly through the parking lot and down the stairwell to the dock below. Other than the dead sharks on the bridge, the dock seemed quiet.
Kevin and David led them on the floating bridge, pushing the two carcasses out of the way as they moved quickly across the water. George had kept an eye out for the last remaining shark, but only thought he saw a fin moving in the water. It either had given up, or was actually afraid of them. That was so ridiculous of an idea that George almost laughed, but didn't because the others would wonder why.
Inside the main building once again, David called the elevator. It arrived soon after and George slumped against the inside of the elevator, taking a much needed rest. They had finally gathered all of the ingredients, and whatever rescue Peter had organized was going to be arriving in less than an hour. George smiled as the elevator doors rolled closed.
The lights in the elevator flickered and then everything shut off.
The failure only lasted for a few brief moments, but as the power came back on, they heard a telltale roar.
"It's loose." Yoko said.
"It doesn't know where we are, as long as it doesn't find us, we should be safe." Kevin explained.
"How is it now dead?" Cindy asked.
The elevator began its three floor ascent slowly. It hadn't gotten far when a thunderous screech pierced the silence and the elevator ground to a halt.
"What the hell was that?" Kevin demanded. He jammed the button for the third floor and growled when the elevator only shook.
The screen above the doorway glowed with an iridescent "1." Next to the elevator panel, a red light began to flash, and the interior doors rolled open, showing the security room on the first floor. With a cursory glance, George spotted the problem. As he had predicted, the exterior doors were causing the elevator to get stuck. A portion of the metal was bent at the top of the elevator, blocking the car from being able to go up. It was bent in such a way that they were able to push passed it on the way down, but now it was preventing them from going up.
"Shit, how are we going to get that thing out of the way?" David asked.
"You're the handy guy, can't you think of something?" Kevin answered him.
"If I had the right tools and a couple of hours, yeah, maybe. Right now though? I think we should start looking for a different way upstairs."
Another roar came from closer to the elevator.
"We might not get that chance; I think it heard that noise." Cindy said.
"We can't just sit here." George explained.
"Look up!" Yoko pointed at the ceiling. In one of the corners of the ceiling was a trap door. "Lift me up and I'll take a look inside."
"Better than what we've got so far." Kevin said as he knelt down for Yoko. She stepped up on his shoulders and reached up to undo the latch on the door. It swung down and Yoko climbed up.
"There's a ladder up here!" Yoko called back into the elevator. "We can use it to get to up."
"Good enough for me." David knelt down next to Kevin and put his hands out. "Ladies first."
Cindy stepped into both of their hands and climbed onto the roof of the elevator. As soon as Cindy was on the roof, Yoko started up the ladder.
"George, you're next." Kevin said.
George stepped into their hands, took hold of Cindy's from above, and hauled himself through the door. Following Yoko's lead, Cindy started up the ladder. As George turned to reach back down through the trap door though, an explosive like sound rang out from the main hall. "Take my hand, hurry!" George yelled into the elevator.
"Go David!" Kevin grabbed at the other man's foot and lifted him into the trap door. George grabbed David by the belt and fell back as he yanked him onto the roof.
Thanatos crashed into the security room.
"Kevin!" David was leaning halfway into the elevator as he screamed Kevin's name. His hand was outstretched, ready to pull him up. Kevin ran at the wall, and jumped up, using the railing as a base and grabbed David's arm.
Thanatos charged at Kevin as David and George hauled him bodily onto the roof. George watched as Thanatos struck the wall where Kevin had only moments before been dangling. It jumped up and slashed at the ceiling, cutting large swaths in the metal. A shrill beeping noise started sounding in the elevator and an orange light flickered on and off inside. One of the cables that held the elevator up creaked and groaned.
"Get on that ladder now!" Kevin screamed.
George was the first one on the ladder; he climbed as fast as he could. He didn't look down when he heard the first cable snap, but when the second soon followed, he glanced down to see Kevin scrambling on the elevator toward the ladder. The elevator slammed against the wall as the third cable snapped, throwing Kevin against the wall next to the ladder. He took a hold of the lowest rung he could reach and held on as the final cable snapped and the elevator plummeted below.
Kevin cried out as he hung from the ladder by one hand. David, still not far up the ladder, climbed down and pulled Kevin back onto the ladder.
"Can you please not get hurt anymore? There's a woman up there that would probably kill me if you didn't come back." David jokingly pleaded.
"I'll try." Kevin managed as he secured himself on the ladder.
Yoko and Cindy had managed to pry the exterior doors to the third floor open and were waving them up. The ascent to the third floor was tiring, but incident free after that. With the last ingredient in hand, they made their way to the third floor security room, and finally toward a cure for the virus.
