FOUR: Spiders
(START: 10 hours 26 minutes 17 seconds)
Madison watched the man and woman stumble up the stairs. Something blotched their skin with the same red veins she saw on the walls. Their eyes were bloodshot, reflecting iridescent colors, and vacant of humanity. They looked through her, moving whenever she did.
They could definitely see her.
Gripping the railing, Madison went as far down as she dared, then vaulted over it. She landed in ankle-deep water, her hands smoothed across something gross, slick, and pulsing in the water. Yanking her hands out of the water, she glanced up at the steps and could hear the man and woman stumbling back down the stairs, but in no real hurry to reach her.
Madison heard the thin snap of silver, and another splash nearby, followed by another. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. "Madison," Dad said on the radio again. Pulling the radio from off the front of her shirt, Madison didn't dare look up as she backpedaled through the water and sloshed down the hall behind her. The halls she walked through mere hours ago were alien, covered with the same red veins she was walking across.
She recoiled at the sight of more contorted bodies suspended above the ground, eyes open, shining, and unseeing. Behind her, the slow, clumsy pursuit of the bodies that once hung above the ground became collectively busier. Madison kept running. Veering to the left, Madison slipped into the first office she saw and ducked past the office chair under the desk. She turned her flashlight out, closing her eyes against the darkness.
The floor beneath her felt solid, with no trace of the mass. Sliding down the back of the desk, Madison listened to the slow footfalls of her pursuers moving in different directions in their search for her. She should've kept moving. Who knew how long it would take them to leave the hall entirely? Turning the radio off, Madison tried to recount the path Dr. Coleman mapped out for the army guys who were supposed to be rescuing Dad and others.
The COSMOS was still below in the chamber, active, right where her father said it would be. Dr. Chen and Stanton last communicated with them at the comm station, but that was on the upper level she just left. The only person Coleman didn't–or couldn't–account for was her father, who last communicated with them in his office with the walkie-talkie. That conversation ended so abruptly, Foster assumed he'd been killed.
That was when Andrew got the bright idea of going into the base himself. Foster vetoed the idea, it was sure to get someone killed, especially two kids. Not one to be discouraged, she and Andrew slipped past the quarantine, choosing the closest shaft available. Andrew pulled rank, he was the oldest so it was up to him to do the stupid thing. He didn't get too far in the ventilation shaft before he panicked, almost getting stuck.
That was a little over an hour ago. She convinced Andrew to help her reenter the compound while Dr. Coleman and Ling worked with coming up with ways how to reach Godzilla if not Dianoia. The titan seemed primed to leave the outpost containment and kill everyone still inside trying to escape. Andrew was anxious and frustrated he couldn't do the manly thing and play protector to his brave little sister. Madison gave him Dad's non-work phone to text her with before entering the dark shaft.
"C'mon, Madison. Move. You can't just sit here," she whispered to herself. Shifting her weight, she turned the flashlight back on and prepared to crawl out from under the desk. Switching the radio back on, she turned her head to the right, focusing the light on the underside of the desk. "Dad, are you there? Dad?" Raising her finger from the talk button, Madison listened to the quick burst of static followed by the silence on the other end.
Please answer, please answer. Don't be dead, don't be dead.
"M-Madison?" Dad's voice bubbled up from the static, low and shaky. "Are you alright, honey? Are you safe?" Madison breathed a quick sigh, the tension in her muscles lessening slightly. "I'm okay, I'm not hurt. Where are you?"
"I don't know," Mark exhaled sharply. "I can't–see anything."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure." The shaking in his voice grew. "I can't move my legs."
Can't move? "Like you're stuck, or something fell on you?"
"I don't know!" She leaned away from the walkie, taken aback by his panic. "I think something fell on me. I don't—it's wet."
"I think the compound flooded."
"Y-yeah. Yeah, I remember now."
"Do you remember where you were last?"
"No."
"Can you give me a best guess?"
"The infirmary. Maybe?"
"And if you're not there?"
"Cafeteria? I was hungry."
Madison pondered the answer, curious. "Okay, I'll tell Foster and Dr. Chen," she fibbed. "Maybe they'll know how to reach you." I hope.
"Ilene?"
"No, Ling."
"Ling's there?"
"Yeah, her and Andrew."
"You got out?"
"Yeah. I'm with Andrew. We're safe."
The tiniest twinge gripped her chest at the exhale on the other end of the walkie. "Good."
"Dad?" A hum followed, so she said, "Can I talk to you? Keep you calm, maybe?"
"Could attract attention," he said.
"Right. You're right." Turning the flashlight forward, she crawled out from under the desk. "I'll see you soon, Dad."
"See you soon, chief."
Madison shut the radio off. He could yell at her later in therapy.
(END: 10 hours 24 minutes 2 seconds)