The group heard the screams and shouts before they had reached the back of the store. As the sounds of mayhem increased they pushed their way through two large swinging doors. Kirk and security man Ward entered first, followed by Spock and McCoy; all had their phasers drawn.
"Welcome to the loading bay gentlemen!" Hooker shouted back over his shoulder to the starfleet crew as he heard them arrive.
Kirk and his men looked around. The loading area was quite small, with a raised platform leading from the store where they had emerged from, to a larger lower open area bordered by a wire fence. Hooker's group of survivors and the other two red shirts were standing near the edge of the platform. Beyond them, the flat level platform gradually led down to a ramp to the lower ground. Kirk looked out beyond this area, past the fences to a long straight road that ran in either direction beyond the wedged open gates. He glanced over head where large white clouds meandered across the otherwise clear sky. Although he had caught glimpses of it through the skylights in the mall, this was the first time Kirk had seen the sky directly since they had beamed down. He could only merely glance at the area though, his focus immediately focussing on the many scruffy grey skinned figures who were coming through the set of broken gates which were now in the process of being torn away from the wire fence. Some walked with arms in front of them, falling over each other as they approached, others growled with heads tilted strangely as they moved.
All were utterly terrifying in their relentlessness and inhuman mannerisms.
"Hold them up for as long as you can !" Hooker shouted to his team.
"Watch yourselves ! Here they come..." added Romano.
Kirk and the others watched as more than twenty of these figures shambled slowly up the access ramp towards the group – moaning with outstretched arms raised as they closed the distance between them, dirty clothes hanging from their thin bodies. Several of the grey people had already made it up the ramp and some of Hooker's group were fighting hand to hand with them. Make shift weapons striking the figures, who in turn seemed to be trying to bite the defenders. The two security officers were hanging behind the group, unsure of the threat that they now faced.
"Watch your lines! Don't let them surround us !" Romano shouted again, his voice barely audible above the wailing.
Kirk watched on as Hooker and Romano tried to form defensive lines with their people. They fired their pistols only occasionally when the grey hoard got too close.
"Jim ! What's going on here ? Who are those people ? They don't even look human !" McCoy exclaimed.
"I don't know doctor, but it looks as though Hooker and his people are losing."
The hoard started to break through the group, the numbers overwhelming the defenders.
"Thompson and Giles, get on either side of these people. Lay down a wide spread of covering fire ! Stun setting." Kirk frantically ordered.
"Jim. If these people see our weapons..." Spock cautioned.
"That's just something we're going to have to deal with later. Mr Spock. Go. Now !"
The two red shirted security men ran to the sides of the group. They started to fire their phasers, placing their shots in a wide arc at the approaching danger. The first bolts hit the dishevelled figures.
The beams did not cause the grey skins did not slow down, as more and more piled up the ramp.
Security Officer Thompson turned to Kirk, "Captain, the phasers are having no effectarrggghhh"
Thompson did not manage to finish the sentence, his words cut short as he was attacked and overcome by two grey skinned attackers. The other members of the Enterprise crew watched on in horror as the inhuman people hungrily bit at Thompson's exposed skin. Others clawed at him, dragging him away and into the chaotic mass.
The red shirted Thompson disappeared from sight.
