Bitten (24 page)

“NO, NO, NO!” MITCH SHOUTED. “Power it down, now!” Mitch rubbed his bald head, as if he was rubbing his fingers through non-existent hair, and then continued yelling into the walkie-talkie. “If you don’t power down the main system before you install the backups you’ll blow all the fuses.”

After a crackle of static a voice came out from the other end of the
speaker. “But sir, if we power down the main system now there won’t be any power for several minutes.”

“I know that,” Mitch barked in agitation.

“Just a quick question, sir, but what about our
guests
in the basement? Shouldn’t we be just a little bit concerned?”

“No, that system’s backup is
separate from the mainframe. The doors remain locked at all times. Besides, there’s no way to bypass the security settings unless you have the codes. And the General, Linda, and I are the only ones with access to the codes.”

Down in the generator’s maintenance room, four men wearing bright
blue safety helmets worked on resetting the backup generators. With all the additional bodies, Mitch didn’t want to risk an all-out power failure if they somehow managed to overload the system. So he desperately wanted those backup generators fully operational.

Suddenly everything went dark.

From his radio came the voice of his engineer. “They’re powered down now, sir. What next?”

“I’m go
ing to reboot the system,” Mitch said into the two-way, “We’ll be back in business before you know it.”

“Roger that. Ready on your signal.
Over.”

“In three, two, one
… now.”

A large clunk of giant fuses switching out was heard and then t
he electrical hum of equipment dissipated and the air rushing through the ventilation system died down and an eerie silence took over the underground base.

General Greer and Jesse Zanato froze in their tracks.

“What the hell is going on, man?”

“It’s just a blackout,
” grumble Greer. “Don’t get yourself worked up. The backup generators should kick in any moment.”

“Hey, whenever the lights go out something bad happens.”

“I think somebody has been watching one too many horror films.”

Within a minute the lights flickered and came back on.

“See, I told you,” Greer said. “Nothing to worry about.”

Suddenly there was a
loud clank. The heavy pressurized door slammed shut behind them. But it failed to pressurize. Somehow Zanato’s discarded shoelace snagged on the door and prevented of the magnetic pressure seals from closing securely. Suddenly an alarm went off, the lights changed to a cerise hue, and a woman’s computerized voice rang out: “Warning: Obstruction. Compartment pressurization failure imminent. Failure imminent.”

Both men turned to see the containment door whistling and hissing through the small opening in the seal. Without warning the door exploded off of its hinges and flew toward them. Reacting instinctively, the general tackled Zanato and they hit the ground just as the heavy metal door lodged itself in the wall where they had been standing.

Looking back, Zanato saw that the lab door to the main room was torn wide open as well. The bottom half was peeled upward into the main room.

“Containment breached,” the woman’s voice said.

“Goddammit!” growled Greer.

“See, I told you!” Zanato said. “Bad things always happen when the lights go out
, randomly, for no good reason.”

From inside the other room they heard moaning. Then the sound of a door handle rattling. They looked at ea
ch other with frightened faces.

“Can dead-heads
open doors?” Zanato asked.

“Good question, kid. Let’s not stick around to find out.”

The battery power to the lab was drained from the explosion. With the power completely gone, the doors in the lab unlatched. Creaking open, Greer and Zanato heard the sound of dragging feet and moaning. Pulling out his Glock, the general clenched his teeth and said, “I guess the dead sons of bitches can open goddamn doors.”

“Fuck this shit,” Zanato complained. “I don’t want to die.”

With that he took off down the hall, running blindly in the dark, feeling the wall as he went.

“Wait!” Greer shouted, looking over his shoulder
as Zanato rushed past. “You’re going the wrong way, kid!”

But Zanato did not listen. Filled with fear and adrenaline he could not hear the general’s pleas above the raging sound of his own pounding heart.

Turning around, the general held up his cigarette lighter near his face and lit it. He stood face to face with an eyeless monster. It grinned at him with rotting teeth. The general tried to raise his weapon but the creature was too close for him to bring his gun up and get off a clean shot. So he head butted the damn monster instead.

S
taggering back, the creature let out a screeching howl. The general fired off a shot which got absorbed by the unfeeling meat of the creature’s left leg. Before he could get off another shot pasty hands grabbed his arm and flung him into the wall. Crashing into the wall, Greer’s lighter slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor. In the darkness, the general roared a lion’s roar and unloaded his entire clip into the darkness.

Amid the muzzle flashes, Greer could see the other monsters already upon him—
darkness—then teeth—more darkness—and then more teeth. Each vicious bite tore large chunks of his flesh out of him. There was no escape.

The five crewmen worked diligently in the dark with their flashlights. If they didn’t get the generator’s back up, there’d be hell to pay.

“I got it,” said a big black man named Pearlman. Pearlman’s faced glowed ghostly in the light of his coworker’s torches. From the hall they heard a loud clank.

“Whoa, did you guys hear that?”

“It was probably just the generators winding down,” Pearlman replied. He was the floor supervisor, and it was his duty to keep his men calm and focused.

“No, I’m telling you, I heard
something coming from out there.” Steve Corbin, a skinny man with short brown hair, thumbed over his shoulder toward the hallway.

“That’s just your imagination playing tricks on you,
Steve. Nothing to get your panties up in a bunch over,” Pearlman said with a chuckle. The rest of the men chuckled along with him.

Pearlman used his light to find the lever
that he would use to reboot the power. Grabbing hold, he flipped the switch, then picked up the two-way and radioed Mitch Reinhart back at the control room.

“Mitch, it’s all good down here. You can power back up the main system.
Pearlman, over and out.”

“Roger that,” Mitch’s voice crackled through the two-way. Then with an electrical pop, the power was restored. The lights flickered momentarily as they warmed up. Steve felt something move past the
entrance to the door just behind him and he turned to look out the small square window to try and see what it was. But nothing was there.

Maybe Pearlman was right
, Steve considered. Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him. He opened the door and poked his head out into the hall. Still nothing. He turned back to the rest of the group. “Guys, I’m going to head on over to—” Suddenly a shadow whisked past the door as he spoke. “Holy shit!” Steve yelped.

“What now?” Pearlman grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Steve slowly turned back around to face the men. His nerves were on end and he felt rattled. “I’m telling you guys, someone’s out there.”

Just then a fuse blew and the lights crashed.

“I got it,” Steve said, flicking on his flashlight. Steve made his way to the back access panel to flip the switch and reset the fuse.

Huddling together, the
rest of the crew grabbed their flashlights and stepped out into the hall together. They paused, looked around, and then Pearlman held the flashlight up to his face and started screaming hysterically. His bogus screams quickly turned into bawdy laughter. The rest of the men joined him in a round of laughter at Steve’s expense.

“Ha-ha. Very funny,” Steve said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Nothing’s out here man,” one of the crewmen stated. “It’s just a big ole empty hall.” To prove there was nothing lurking in the shadows he flashed his light around. The rest of the men did the same.

“Alright, alright
,” Pearlman said. “Playtime is over. Now let’s get back to work.”

Steve hit the switch and with a clu
nk the lights came back online. “Piece of cake,” Steve said, dusting off his hands.

Suddenly another scream rang out.

“Okay guys, enough is enough,” Pearlman barked.

But it was just the first of many. Soon the hall bec
ame filled with the voices of men screaming for their lives. Each gut wrenching, terror filled, yelp signified their distress. Pearlman spun around in the doorway, furious that they weren’t listening to him, but something grabbed him and yanked him out into the hall. One minute he was there and the next he was simply gone. Then only silence.

Steve stood in the room with ghostly expression
frozen onto his face. “Come on, guys. This isn’t funny anymore.”

Creeping up to the edge of the
entrance, Steve peaked around the corner to see five living dead munching on the corpses of his fellow crewmembers. To his shock, he recognized the one gnawing on the limbs of Pearlman. It was General Greer. Steve jumped back.

“Holy shit,” he said in a coarse whisper. This can’t be good, he thought. He had to warn somebody. But how? He was trapped. That’s when Mitch’s voice blared out of the radio.

“How are things going down there?”

One of the monster’s heads snapped up and looked directly at him with its disturbingly frosted eyes.

“Shit,” Steve cursed as he recoiled in fright.

Jumping back into the room, Steve slid up against the wall and flicked the radio off. The whole time he silently prayed that
the creature didn’t see him. That it would be preoccupied with its meal and would go back to feeding long enough for him to reach over and slam the door shut. Frozen in terror, he forced his stiff limbs to move. Slowly, he took small steps back toward the entranceway. All he had to do was pull the door closed, and he’d be safe until someone could come down to the basement to rescue him. That’s all. Just shut the stupid door. That’s when General Greer’s face, with frosted eyes and bloody chops, appeared in the entrance. Steve began to scream but was quickly silenced when Greer’s chomping teeth tore into his larynx and ripped out his vocal chords.