Acheron Chapter 19 – And Grizzly Ghouls from Every Tomb Are Closing in to Seal Your Doom
Marie broke down, sitting upon the floor where she had collapsed, her exhaustion and emotional state getting the better of her as she stared upon the innocent lives that were lost today. Ed, Kevin and Edd along with the other sixteen surviving colonists where in various states of disbelief and horror that this had happened right under their noses. They were supposed to protect these people, they had trusted them to protect them, but in the end they had failed them all. Each of them took their time to collect the dead the creatures had deemed unworthy, wrapping each of them up in sheets as hasty burial shrouds. With each body they collected, Edd's heart broke just a little more, they were all so young barely having seen the joys that life can bring them before it was cruelly snatched away from them. He shed a tear as he picked up the body of the infant Kipper's body had been lying beside on the ground, the small member of his family had probably given his life to try and protect that child.
The funeral was quick and done in silence, as they took the bodies of the young to the morgue to be cremated. Each saying their farewells in their own way to those they had known for only a little while during their short lives. Marie cried her last tear during the silent service, as her resolve to make these fuckers pay for these innocent deaths strengthened her. The group solemnly entered operations after the quick service, "What are our options," Marie asked the group.
No one spoke up, each seemed to be giving up hope of winning at this point, and the thought of rescue for those taken had already been proven a futile effort just on their first attempt to infiltrate the hive. Kevin took Edd's hand and intertwined their fingers, looking into those blue eyes he loved as he answered her, "How far do you want to go?"
"Total annihilation," she replied with a harsh bitter tone in her voice.
As he looked into those eyes he was asking permission, and Edd's eyes replied that it was ok, that he could do what he must, "We can throw the switches and shut down the cooling system." Edd takes a seat beside him, pulling up some information on the computer screen.
One of the colonist asks, "How long would that give us?"
"Thirty minutes once the switches are pulled, with a fifteen minute safety window to abort,"
"That won't give us enough time to reach safe distance," another person protested.
"Yeah then there's the other thing," Kevin added.
Marie cocks a brow at him, "What other thing?"
"We can't throw the switches from here," he knew what he was about to say would cause issues, "It has to be done in the plant itself."
"No fucking way," one bellow, "You got to be shitting me, we have to walk into that death trap," another whined, "Can't we just take the ATV's and run?"
"Run where?" Marie asked with a stern look on her face, "What's going to stop those things from hunting us down? Our best hope is to kill them all and this is our best option to do that," she looks at each of them before she continued, "The one thing we can all probably agree on is that we are on borrowed time now, and I am not going to waist mine begging god for one more moment of life. If I die, I'm going to make sure I take as many of those fuckers with me as I can. So, you can either sit here and wait for the fireworks to go off, or you can come with us and help make sure they do."
"There is probably a way for us to survive," Edd chimed in as he transferred the information he was looking at to the command table, "Here," he points to a location on the map he had pulled up. "There is a cliff wall we can hide behind that will shield us from the blast, the wind is blowing in the opposite direction so the fall out will be pushed that way."
"That's ten miles out," someone was trying to poke holes in his plan.
Letting out a sigh that the answer wasn't obvious to them, he explains, "We take the remaining ATV's to the plant, park near the stairs,' he turns to Kevin, "Honey how long would it take us to get back up after throwing the switches?"
"Five minutes at most," he replied.
"Jump in and get the hell out of there, make a straight line toward the cliff using this gorge, should only take us twenty minutes from the APP,"
"That's cutting it close,' Ed stated, "Leaves no room for mistakes."
"Why don't we send one person in, while everyone else heads for safety, the needs of the many you know," one person stated.
"Kevin's got the codes, lets send him in," that person found their chair abruptly kicked out from under them and Edd's foot upon their face.
"Listen here you little shit," Edd seethed, "We stand a better chance of this working if we go in as a team, besides codes can always be shared and we can always send your happy ass in instead."
"Babe," Kevin says softly and Edd looks in his direction, "I think he gets the point."
Edd backs off keeping his eyes on the man that was on the floor, "I agree with Edd," Marie states, "This is a group effort, and right now would be the perfect time to go in while their attention is elsewhere."
"You mean on the people they have just taken," the one getting up off the floor stated.
"Yeah," she replied bluntly, "it might seem cruel, but we can't save them now not with all those things around them, and if we did try we would only end up like them. The best we can do for them now is to give them a quick and painless death." She looked at each of them in turn to see if there would be anymore decent about this course of action. Leaving them to their fate didn't sit right with her either, but a rescue would have even less hope of succeeding then Kevin's plan would, and they all knew it. "So, for anyone that doesn't want to participate you are more than welcome to stay here. But one way or another that plant is going up and you can enjoy your front row seats when it does." With their choice being effectively made for them with that statement the conversation was over, grabbing the food supplies and weapons they would need they headed out of operations and down the hall. Squeezing through the hole in the barracked, they made their way toward the bridge quickly but cautiously, trying not to draw attention to themselves. Reaching the garage a short time later, they found that only three of the ATV's were still intact from the earlier explosion. Edd, Kevin and Marie went to the supply depot to retrieve the keys while the others loaded up the vehicles with their supplies.
Supplied and loaded into the trucks they kept their eyes upon the hanger door as it slowly opened, breathing out a collective sigh of relief when nothing was waiting for them on the other side. Pulling the vehicles out of the complex carefully, they fell into a convoy formation and made their way around the colony. Keeping their eyes upon the roof of the buildings. Watching for any sign of ambush from the crafty creatures, that have already proven themselves to be a formidable foe. The tension in the vehicles was palpable as the made their approach to the processing plant and down right oppressive as they made their way up the service ramp to the loading dock doors. The door raises automatically as they made their approach allowing them entry into the plant, pulling close to the stairwell they positioned the vehicles so they were facing the exit and on the far side of the massive passage from the stairs.
Proceeding one level down to sublevel 1 the quietly made their way to the control hub for the cooling system located near the heat exchangers. Though the hive was two levels below them, they did not hold out hope that there would be no sign of the creatures upon this level. Keeping their eyes on corners and checking each junction before the continued further in, doing their best to leave nothing to chance. Each step they made upon the metal grated floor sounded as though it echoed off the walls and down the halls to alert whatever might be nearby of their presents. Their ragged shallow breathes were audible to each other, each of their hearts racing inside their chests as they slowly made progress toward their destination. Each flickering light or sudden sound from the plants natural function startling some of them as their fear induced minds were beginning to play tricks upon them, making them believe they saw a shadow move or heard footsteps approaching.
A short journey that felt like hours under their fear and sleep deprived delusional minds was finally at an end as they reached the control center they were making for. Kevin lunges forward as they entered the space, softly breathing out, "What the fuck," examining the console before him. Along the walls encasing the first set of switches was the same secreted resin that they had discovered in the hive itself, effectively jamming the device from its intended purpose.
Kevin examined the device and the second set of safety switches which were also encased, trying to determine the best course of action. Melting the substance with a flamethrower might damage the switches and negate why they had come here in the first place, prying the stuff off might take too much time and cause too much noise. "Kevin," Edd whispered.
"Not now Edd, let me think," he replied concentrating on his goal.
But all the others had seen what Edd was looking at, off to the side out of view from the main entry way were several oval like objects sitting upon the floor that Marie recognized all too well. The tops of which were now starting to move and open, "Kevin, we have to go." But it was too late, Kevin turned his head to look in the direction of his husband, just in time to see one of the parasites leaping toward Edd and no time to react himself. Edd barely had enough time to lift his arms to block the creature from attaching itself to his face, the tail whipping toward him, wrapping itself around his neck, strangling him.
"Fry those fuckers," Marie yelled a little too loudly as she dropped down with Kevin to assist Edd with the parasite. The frightened civilian hesitates for just a moment, but that moment was all it took for the second parasite to leap upon him, incapacitating him instantly with its toxin. Ed did not hesitate and shot a blast of flame at the remaining eggs killing the parasites still contained within.
Kevin and Marie fought with the creature, trying to remove its tail from around a gasping Edd's neck, for such a small thing it was surprisingly strong in all the places it needed to be. Edd began to panic as he continued to fight to bring air into his lungs, his legs kicking wildly his hands now free of restraining the creature were fighting to remove the tail from his throat, only getting in the way of Kevin's efforts. Getting a good grip Kevin unwraps the tail from Edd, allowing the man to breath and couch in air, Marie goes to throw the thing into the flames. Losing her grip upon the squirming creature mid swing, it frees itself and pounces, at close range it is hard for the thing to miss, Marie goes down, succumbing to the toxin quickly.
"We have to go," Edd yelled through a cough as he heard the approaching clanging of claw upon metal, and the threating hiss of their approaching doom.
"But the self-destruct," the frightened man pleaded, gesturing toward the useless control panels.
"There's no time," Kevin replied as he had also heard their impending demise coming down the adjacent hall. The group quickly made their way out of the room with Ed and Kevin in the lead, followed by his husband and the others. A creature bounds in to the room, landing on the console they were just at as the last person exited, jumping forward and tackling them to the ground, incapacitating them quickly. Making off with it's prey as more of those foul beast chased down the remainder of the colony, each one of the fleeing prey cursing their fates and the cruelty of the universe. The two pulling up the rear sending jets of flame down the hall behind them, keeping the approaching creatures at bay. That is until the one on the right was snatched up into an air shaft above him and the one on the left was tackled to the ground as she was distracted by her partners fate for just a moment.
It is times like these that prey do what comes natural, herd together and run, the caribou hoping to god that the wolf will tire of the chase or be sated with a straggler, thus ensuring the survival of the group. The needs of the many outweighing the needs of the one as they say, not that this makes any of them bad people, but what would you do in their shoes? Would you stop and help someone up that had fallen while teeth and claws were mere feet away from you, or would you be that person in the zombie flick that would zombie bate the weaker link so you could survive? It's easy to say what you would hope you would do, as you sit there comfortably on your couch or in the comfort of your bed reading this. But if the reality of the situation was before you would you truly help them, or would you panic hearing the clanging of claws upon steal and the roar of the beast only feet from you, and run for your life?
And that is what they all did, they ran for their lives, being picked off one at a time as their legs could no longer propel them fast enough to our run the terror that followed them, until only three remained. "Get in, get in, get in," Ed bellowed as he ran for the driver's side, Kevin and Edd rushing toward the passenger door.
Forgoing the safety harnesses, Ed stomped his foot upon the pedal sending the vehicle barreling forward, Kevin hitting the control to open the door, the ATV barely making clearance. The sound of banging upon the outer hull of the ATV let them all know they were not alone, Ed swerved to try and shake them off. "Hadley's Hope, this is the shuttle Argo on final approach do you read me?" A voice came over the communicator in the vehicle.
Kevin reaches up and flips the switch as he held on for dear life, "Yes Argo we read you, we are in a state of emergency and need immediate evac, over."
Edd straps himself in as the voice responded, "What's your emergency son?"
"We've suffered heavy casualties and request your assistance," Edd reaches over and straps Kevin in as the voice on the other side responded.
"Is it contagious? How many survivors?"
"No, it's an alien life form that's very aggressive, only three survivors, please help us."
Edd reaches over to get Ed's belt, but a sharp turn of the controls knocks him in the other direction. Ed tries to compensate, losing control of the vehicle, it skids then tumbles, colliding with the rock face head on, sending the unrestrained man through the windshield to his death along with the creatures that were clinging to the hull of the ATV. The man on the other end could hear the collision but spoke anyways, Edd and Kevin as they recovered could hear his warbling voice through the damaged speakers, "We're almost to the landing pad, met us there, we will wait only a little bit for you."
Exiting the vehicle, they ran for their very lives the rest of the way, panting for air, willing their muscles to exert just a little more effort in keeping them alive. Approaching the pad, Kevin could see the man giving up hope that they were coming and was beginning to board his ship once again, he screams as best as his tired lungs would allow him, "We're over here." Waving one arm in the air as he pulled Edd along toward their salvation, the man had luckily turned for one last look, for he did not hear Kevin's cry, but did see him running toward him waving his arm in the air, dragging an exhausted Edd with him.
Tired and ready to fall down to their deaths, they trudged on, boarding the ship moments later, no sign of pursuit upon them. "Just you two," the man asked as he closed the ramp, Kevin nods as he placed Edd down to rest, strapping him into the chair. "Ang didn't make it then?" Kevin shakes his head no as he took the seat beside him, feeling the pitch of the vehicle as it made its way up toward space. The passage they bartered with the smugglers came at a steep price, for they did not want the company to know of their transit back to earth. The only sign that they were even back came as their bank account were emptied to pay the captain of the ship her price and to start their new life. Taking up residence in the small country town of Peach Creek, only going, the inhabitants of that town only knowing them by their middle names, taking up the simple life of tailors to earn a living.
Neither man forgetting what they had gone through, as their dreams were plagued with the memories of all those who had lost their lives, and the things they had to do to survive. For Kevin, it was throwing off Thomas' hand that had reached out for him as he fell, threatening to throw him off balance and take him down with him. For Edd, it was Rebecca who reached out for him as she was snatched up, maybe he could have saved her if he had not been so selfish as to keep running. But one never knows what would have happened to them if they had been more compassionate in those final frightful moments, would they still be alive and safe on earth. Or would they have been cocooned upon those wall fated to play host for one of those things, their final moments of life nothing but pain, loneliness, fear and suffering.
The End.