Here's the new chapter. I know it's been awhile, but I unfortunately don't have the time during the week to write, so it all has to be done on the weekend. The pace of the fic will pick up in this chapter, since there are probably only going to be three or four more chapters. Things will get more intense, and the climactic level will rise. Or at least I hope it will. Lol, here's the chapter. I hope you all like it.
Luck owed them a favor, and it finally came through.
Five minutes after Rachel's alien grand slam, the truck skidded to a halt in front if the closest hospital. "Run ahead and get a doctor!" Ross instructed his wife and Monica as he and Joey worked on getting Chandler's body out of the truck. Monica and Phoebe pushed through two of the hospital doors, expecting to find a busy waiting room, buzzing from the events outside. What they found was an empty room, no patients, family members, nurses, or doctors in sight.
"Hello?" Monica's call echoed through the abandoned hallways. Monica took another glance around before looking to Phoebe, "Where is everyone?" The entrance of Joey, Ross, and Rachel, all carrying Chandler broke the silence. They too stopped in their tracks when they noticed the emptiness of the waiting room.
"Can I help you folks?" A man in a green military uniform appeared from behind two silver doors. He was well over six feet tall, had short blonde hair and piercing green eyes, his muscles almost burst out of his shirt.
"Our friend here was attacked by an alien, he has that blue liquid, that Lorenez stuff, in him. We need help." Ross explained while still doing his best to hold Chandler. His friend wasn't exactly heavy, but he suddenly realized he desperately needed to relieve himself. The encounter with the aliens by the truck had scared him more than he had first thought.
The man in uniform seemed to think Ross' story over. After a moment, he motioned towards the doors he had just entered through. "Follow me."
*******
Ross, Phoebe, and Monica all sat in a small snack room, waiting for Joey and Rachel to return from wherever it was the uniformed man had them take Chandler. They were all more than a little nervous. The eerie silence of the hospital still made them feel like they were in jeopardy. Before their minds could wander any more than they already had, the same military man they had seen earlier entered the room. "First things first, my name is Sgt. Ford. I just wanted to inform you all that your friend is being attended to by some of the remaining hospital staff. They'll get you some news as soon as they have it."
"Um, excuse me sir? What's going on? Where are all the patients and doctors?" Ross couldn't help but asking. They had spent most of the night getting their information from the television, Ross thought it would be nice to have things explained by a human being, in laments terms.
"Most of the doctors and nurses were moved to hospitals with medical staff shortages. About two hundred people, patients and doctors, are being kept here on the two basement floors for their own protection. When the rest of the cavalry," he pointed to the United States Army badge on his jacket, "moves into town we'll be using the top floors of this building as one of our command posts. Then we'll proceed to blow up, shoot, and destroy anything with green skin."
"Sounds good to me." Phoebe mumbled. Their conversation came to a momentary halt as Joey and Rachel entered the room. Rachel's eyes were filled with tears and Joey was holding her close. He guided her to a chair between Phoebe and Monica and sat her down. Phoebe glanced up at Joey, "What's going on?"
"They won't tell us much. All we know is they are operating on him. But, for what it's worth, the doctors did seem optimistic." They all sat in silence. They had done everything they could, and their friend's life now rested in someone else's hands. They were relieved to be rid of the responsibility, but nervous that it fell into the lap of a stranger.
"If it's ok," Sgt. Ford broke the silence; "I'd like to ask you all a few questions about your night. Seems like you've had a lot of contact with these creatures. Can you think of any information that might be useful to us in our fight? Anything at all." He clasped his hands together and looked over the five friends, waiting for any of them to answer.
"Well," Ross spoke first, "They can definitely communicate with each other. There were several different times when they seemed like they were having conversations." Sgt. Ford nodded.
"And don't forgot about that shriek," Joey added.
"What shriek is that?" Sgt. Ford perked up in his chair. Finally, he was getting some new information.
"We locked one of them in a closet. And after a few seconds, he let out this loud, ear-piercing shriek. The loudest thing I've ever heard. It lasted about a minute, and once it stopped, we saw another three aliens come running towards us. It was like a distress call or something. An audible SOS."
"A shriek, huh? Can you be more specific? What exactly did it sound like?" Sgt. Ford pulled a small notepad out of his jacket and began to jot down some notes.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a loud shriek echoed through the hospital.
Ross jumped out of his chair. "It sounded just like that." The shriek sounded just like the one they had heard back in Joey and Monica's apartment. It echoed throughout the hospital, and everyone in the snack room, including Sgt. Ford, held their hands over their ears, trying their best to block out the sound. It was more than a little painful to listen to.
Finally, it stopped. Ross was the first one to uncover his ears. "Where was that coming from?" Everyone in the room slowly stood up, regaining their composure. The ringing echoed through all of their ears, like a telephone that never stopped ringing.
"There's no way those sounds came from the basement, there's too much concrete between floors. And there are only a few other people on the top floors…" Everyone shot everyone else a glance, all thinking the exact same thing. Without a word, all six rushed the door, all six heading for the same place.
All six heading towards Chandler.
*******
Six figures burst into the emergency room where Chandler Bing was being kept. Sgt. Ford led the way, his gun held out in front of him, five thirtysomethings following close behind. He kicked through the steel double doors and aimed his gun at anything that moved. Five doctors jumped away from the operating table Chandler was lying on. Ten hands raised up in the air in surrender. "What the hell is going on in here?" Sgt. Ford yelled, still searching the room for anything suspicious.
Doctor Ismail, the hospitals head doctor, stepped forward. "We've finally got him awake. We think we have the problem fixed."
Sgt. Ford slowly lowered his gun, fitting back inside its holster. "What was that shriek?" After hearing that he was awake, the other five in the room eagerly moved toward Chandler. They wanted to see with his own eyes that he was ok.
"Wait!" Dr. Ismail took a step forward. "Don't touch him. We still have an incision to close, we can't have you infecting it." Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, and Monica all stopped in their tracks, then slowly backed away. "Thank you." The doctor turned toward Sgt. Ford. "Now, the shriek, I don't know about. We woke him up, he screamed, end of story. Now will you all please leave the room so we can finish our job?"
Ross looked to Sgt. Ford, utterly confused. "That sound came from Chandler?" Sgt. Ford shrugged unsure what to make of it. Ross glanced back at Chandler's body, and took notice that the entire blue tint had vanished from Chandler's skin. As hard as he tried, he couldn't put the pieces together. He had been trying to solve the mystery since it started, and it drove him nothing short of crazy to be unable to figure it out. He sighed, "Well I don't care what made that sound, if any of those things heard it, they're on their way here."
Joey nodded, "He's right. We should expect the worse, we're all probably in danger right now."
Before anyone else could comment, the room went black, and the loud groan that accompanied the loss of power was heard in the background. "Damn it!" Doctor Ismail screamed. "Why isn't our backup power coming on?" Everything inside the room went black. After a moment, a beam of light flicked on from one of the corners. It was Dr. Ismail; "I found a flashlight." He stepped back toward Chandler's body. "We have a problem here. Someone needs to get down to the breaker room and get our power back up. We're losing his stability."
Joey looked to Ross, Ross looked to Ford, and Ford looked to Joey. Without words, the team was picked.
********
The three of them slowly walked down a narrow set of stairs, Ford holding his gun and a flashlight out in front of them, Ross and Joey both clinging to their trusty golf clubs. Even after their several encounters with the aliens, they still didn't feel comfortable coming into contact with them. Especially in the dark. "The technical basement should be two more floors down."
Ross was happy to hear that. "So far so good." They took slow, cautious steps down the stairs, hoping they would hear anyone or anything approaching long before it got to them. Ross and Joey were hoping luck was still on their side, but getting out of the night alien-free seemed impossible. They knew those things just never went away.
"Here we go." Ford said as they came upon a small wooden door with a piece of paper duck taped to it that read "Technical Room." Ford turned back to face the other two gentlemen. "Alright, if those things are what caused the power to go off, then there's a good chance that they are in here. If they're smart enough to shut off the power, they're smart enough to know someone is going to come down here and fix it. So just be ready for anything, alright?" Ross and Joey nodded, and with a slight hesitation, Ford pushed the door open.
It was completely black inside. The room was so large that the flashlight could barely shine all the way across the room. The ceiling was so high you could fit a tank inside. There was a lot of room for something to hide.
"The power box has to be along the wall somewhere." They hugged the wall, and began walking around the perimeter of the room. Ford led the way, his flashlight and gun held out in front of them, providing them vision and protection. They were anxious to get the power back, not only for Chandler's safety, but to ease their own fears as well. Things just weren't as scary when the lights were on.
Their pace quickened as they came to the first corner of the room. Ford mumbled as they made their first turn, "Chances are it's along this wall somewhere. Just keep feeling around for it." And they did. Three hands covered every inch of wall that they passed by, grabbing for anything that could even resemble a circuit box. But still, as they came towards the far corner of the room, they found nothing.
"Damn it! Where is the stupid thing?" Joey exhaled in frustration. He wanted out of the basement. He wanted to know that Chandler was going to be ok, he wanted to be next to his wife, and he wanted to hear that all the aliens were gone. So far, he wasn't close to getting anything that he wanted.
"Here it is." Ford popped open a small metal door and revealed a series of wires and circuits. "This hospital has some of the most sophisticated technology in the world, yet it's circuit breaker is as simple as the one you'd find in your apartment. Amazing." Joey and Ross watched their backs, ignoring Ford's ramblings, impatiently waiting for him to get the lights back up. "I can't figure out which switch it is."
As Ford continued flipping, the sound of something tripping was heard behind them. "What the hell was that?" Ross yelled and held his golf club out in front of him. "Hurry up and get the lights on, I don't think we're alone in here." Again, the sound of something moving came from the darkness of the room. "Yeah, definitely not alone…" Ross was starting to lose control. He wasn't sure how many more attacks and surprises he could take. He wasn't an action star; he was a schoolteacher.
Then there were the faint gargling and shrieks that had become so familiar. Joey felt his heart stop beating. "We're in trouble." The sound of movement became louder, and it became increasingly clear that there was more than one of them inside the room. The basement was so large that neither Ross nor Joey could pinpoint where the noises were coming from. The echoes played too many tricks on the ears.
"Got it!" Ford yelled triumphantly and flicked a switch. With a loud whine, the hospital came back to life. The lights and equipment on the above floors turned back on. And after a moment, the lights inside the basement also began to shine.
Joey, Ross, and Ford all stood in complete shock. They couldn't believe their eyes. Spread throughout the room were dozens of aliens, all staring right at them. Ross quickly tried to count how many were in the room, but gave up after he counted to thirty, figuring it wasn't going to matter anyway. They were as good as gone.
Joey's voice cracked as we spoke, "So…should we try to fight?" He looked to Ford, the military man, hoping he would provide some miraculous solution.
Ross' voice was barely audible, as he too looked to Ford. "Should we make a run for it?"
Ford stared wide-eyes at the creatures in front of him. "I don't know…" He tried to control the involuntary shaking of his body. He had seen combat, he had killed, and he had lived through several under the table missions in the Republic of China. But he had never been as scared as he was in that moment. "But if you would like to apologize to God about anything…I'd do it right about now."
We're reaching the final chapters of the fic, so the pace will pick up and the plot will get more intense. I'll try to get another chapter out this weekend, cause like my bio says I just don't have the time to write during the week. I hope you all enjoyed it, be a friend and drop a review. And check out the new chapter in my new fic "All the Deadly Sins."