Scar fell.

Grappling with the strangling creatures coiled around him, he tried to keep teeth and claws at bay, knowing better than to use his blades or plasma gun "I must not make them bleed, the water beneath me will become an acid bath!"

Over and over they tumbled as he plummeted downwards, mazing his senses. He managed throw off two of the hard meat by flailing them madly against the wall, battering them, scraping them off on the metal, standing the pain as his shoulder glanced off it too. Still falling, he heard their piercing shrieks as they dropped.

The last bug clung on despite all he could do. It wrapped its tail and limbs around his and he pulled back a fist and punched it squarely in the forehead, snapping its head back. It snarled and drew its grimacing face near to his, as close as a lover, fetid breath making a sheen of condensation on his mask. Pushing back with all the strength in his arms Scar held it off, always aware of the striking inner mouth. It raked its claws across his skin, making long ragged gashes.

Together they plunged into stinking, freezing water. The cold was almost as devastating as the impact, driving the air out of him in a shocked gasp. He hadn't fallen nearly as far as he was expecting so he guessed the shaft must be more than half full already. He felt the coiling strength of the hard meats tail winding around his legs and he was suddenly sinking like a stone, struggling not to give in to the reflex that wanted him to gulp air into his lungs, knowing he would only be sucking down filthy liquid. The bug would not let go.

"No!" He thought desperately "I will not surrender my bones to lie in this putrid abyss!" Throwing out one arm he managed to grab hold of the metal rungs of the service ladder the human scientist had clung to. Still fending off the deadly grin with one hand he pulled himself up. Oily foam churned around them as the water level rose, the current seeking to tear his talons off the rung but he held on grimly. Giving it everything he had, he managed to drag himself clear of the scummy surface, the hard meat still twined around him like a constrictor.

Hooking one arm around the metal to anchor himself he caught it by the throat and finally managed to tear himself free, ripping its limbs from his. As it squealed and thrashed to regain its hold on him he hurled it across the shaft, knowing this would only win him a temporary reprieve but he could not afford to spill its blood into the swirling depths surging up towards him.

He was already climbing as fast as he could when he heard the hard meat hit the wall and splash down into the water. Moments later more splashing noises told him that it or one of its fellows had probably emerged and was already leaping up towards him.

Not even wasting breath to curse he concentrated all effort on pulling himself upwards, but he knew that this wasn't going to save him. He could climb fast but not faster than the hard meat, and he was not even able to make them bleed – a serious disadvantage.

His mask was showing him that a couple of clicks up there was a tunnel leading off this shaft, some sort of service tunnel or vent no doubt. "If I can just make it there before the water and the hard meat it might buy me some time." He thought "Although things might get tricky once the water begins to fill that tunnel as well. I just have to hope it is not a long tunnel."

He hauled himself up over the lip of the shaft just as the first hard meat reached him, leaping onto his back. He turned with a snarl as he felt long slender hands on his shoulders and seized hold of them, feeling the bones grind together as he crushed them. Tearing its arms from round his neck he swung the hard meat round and drove it into the wall with his shoulder, using his weight to keep it pinned. Wet and slippery as it was, he struggled to keep a grip as it lunged at him, nearly breaking his hold, striking jaws shooting forth a hairsbreadth from his face. He snaked his head to one side, away from the chisel teeth that wanted to shatter his skull.

Scar wasn't even thinking rationally any more. His breath came out in hard gasps, sweat and filthy water almost freezing onto his skin in the shattering cold. All higher thought processes had been obliterated by a primal instinct to tear his enemies to shreds. He roared in the hard meats face as he crushed it against the side of the tunnel. He felt no fear; there was no room for any. Nothing existed but the scalding torrent of rage. Its skin was hot like their flesh always was, pulsing with the caustic blood underneath. Iron claws bit into his arm and his own blood glowed green in the darkness. He could feel it gathering its strength for a counter-attack, coiling like a spring against the side of the tunnel.

It opened its jaws to scream at him and then abruptly both of them were bludgeoned to one side as the water reached them. For a few seconds they swayed together, fighting against the deluge and each other, trying to keep their feet under the thunderous barrage. More and more water rushed in, the force increasing with every passing second as the level got higher and higher. Then they were swept away, rolling over and over still clinging to each other, struggling and gouging, sucked down by the current into the oily depths.


Rathbone could feel the bridge tremble as the fire on Island South billowed towards them. A small corner of his terrified mind that was surprised it could stay lit in these high winds, but then he realised there was probably plenty of accelerant around the complex, fuel and oil for it to feed on.

Lex was already a few feet ahead of him "Any minute it's going to start spreading onto this bridge."

He swallowed "We'll be fucked from both ends!"

She didn't answer him but turned and began to run taking the two boys with her, sprinting down the corridor towards Island North, seemingly without any fear of the hideous monsters that he expected to leap out on them at every moment.

He stood for a moment, petrified by indecision. Then, over the moaning of the wind he heard a tortured creaking and crunching from Island South. That spurred him into action, he began to run after them. Then the bridge shuddered again and he looked back to see a spurt of flame and sparks fountain through the broken window pane as something collapsed on the other side of the door. There was a shivering quake which shook the bridge and he was alarmed to see it continued to sway the parallel lines of the corridor bending and warping like an optical illusion – disorienting to the senses.

As he began to run faster the strip lights in the corridor flickered and then died "The generator on South must've finally given it up!"

The corridor suddenly went dark, the only illumination now the flickering orange light from the fire behind them. They skidded to a halt, as one of the vent covers in the ceiling behind them burst open spilling out thrashing shapes that bounced upright the instant as they hit the floor.

Lex didn't slow down but she did thrust the two boys behind her, putting herself between them and the dark coiling tails and clutching hands of the creatures. She raised her forearms defensively and the blades at her wrists came shooting out. As one of the monsters struck at her with its tail she swung, cutting off the razor sharp tip, dancing to one side as the vile thing brought its claws into play, slashing at her so fast he could hardly follow it. She swayed backwards, almost as if she were falling but it was clear she had her body under complete control. He watched, fascinated, as she sheathed the blades and drew out the spear from her back holster in one fluid movement.

As it sprang at her she swept the spear around in an arc that sliced through the front of the monsters head, bisecting its slick brow, stepping back smartly out of the way of the acid blood that rained down. As it staggered and started to fall, the second darted forward over the corpse of the first. Long strands of spittle stretched from its mouth as its jaws gaped open, the inner mouth sliding out.

She rammed the spear forward between its jaws, skewering it, the point bursting through at the back of its neck. She was jerked forward as the thing became a dead weight hanging from the point of her spear and she braced her booted foot against its head and wrenched it free.

"Selim?"

"Yes Mei'Varsi?" Her son answered.

"Take my plasma gun." His mother handed the weapon to him "If you see the hard meat shoot them, but take care the blood does not touch you, either of you."

"Yes, Mei'Varsi." The boy nodded, steady and unafraid. Rathbone was impressed.

"Iversson's brat's terrified out of his mind," He thought "The other little half breed should be pissing in his pants but he looks like this is business as usual!"

At that moment there was another tormented groan and a strong tremor shook the bridge, causing all four of them to stagger to one side.

Lex didn't miss a beat. Retracting the blades of the spear she thrust it back in its holster and seized the hands of the two boys, starting to run again. They sprinted down the swaying walkway towards Island North, ever stronger quakes causing them to skid and stumble. As they reached the door Lex threw herself up against it, pressing her face to the small viewing window at the top. Seeing the corridor beyond was clear she smacked her palm repeatedly against the control panel but nothing happened.

"Rathbone!" She held out a desperate hand to him "Your pass! You have to open it!"

He swiped his card pass, pressed his palm to the recognition pad and his eye to the optic sensor but the door remained obstinately shut "It's the power-out!" He had to bellow it over the now deafening noise of twisting metal "Mechanism's glitching, won't work from this side."

She pulled the spear again, smashing the glass in the window with the butt of it, using the handle to knock the remaining shards of glass out of the frame.

"Boys!" She said "You're small enough to fit through – Selim, come here!"

"Mother, I will not leave you!"

"Do as I tell you! You have to try and open the door from inside, then you can to let us through!"

He fell silent and let her boost him through the window, squeezing through the narrow opening and dropping lightly to the floor on the other side.

Then she turned to Isaac who stared up at her with huge, terrified eyes rimmed with tears "Selim's Mom, I don't want to go in there with the monsters!" He wailed.

"Isaac!" She gripped his shoulders and knelt before him "You have to go through there and open the door. Be brave sweetheart. I need you to help each other!"

He sniffed and swallowed. It was heart breaking to see him trying to summon up his courage. "Alright." He said, hoarse with terror.

"You know they won't be able to open the door from in there!" Rathbone hollered at her after Isaac had scrambled through. The noise was now so loud he didn't worry the two children would be able to hear him "They haven't got the right biometrics to open it! Eyes are all wrong."

"I had to get them through the window somehow." She yelled, the shaking of the floor nearly causing her to lose her footing. Both of them were now pressed up against the door, it was the only way they could stay upright "Even if you and I end up dead, at least my boys have a chance!"

"But what about those monsters?"

"This bridge is unstable, they're not stupid!"

He grabbed her upper arm "If I lift you, you could wriggle through –"

"That's very flattering, but I'm not that slender."

"Gotta be better than waiting here to die!"