Go For Stories

“Is everyone alright?” Nigel asked, doing his best to ignore the enraged chittering on the other side of the door. The door jumped as the creature slammed into it. This was followed by a sharp scrabbling sound. As far as Nigel knew, the doors in this place should be strong enough to withstand the onslaught. It didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking, though.
He looked to his companions.

Milly stood away from him, her arms wrapped around herself and shaking. She wiped tears from her face with the palm of her hand and nodded.

“I’m okay,” she said. Then, “I’ll be okay.”

Nigel looked towards Anne, who had sunk down next to a wall, well away from the door. She stared into the distance with empty eyes, shivering with ferocity.

“Anne?” She flinched at her name. Nigel stepped towards her. “Anne? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Anne twitched, shook her head, and looked up at Nigel. She shook her head again, then nodded. Then shook her head.

“I…”

“It’s okay, Anne,” he said, crouching down before her. “It’s okay.”

“I…” she said again. “I don’t know how to be okay. It’s bad, Nigel. I don’t, I don’t … what do we do?”

He put his hand on her shoulder and made an attempt at a comforting smile, then abandoned it.

“We make sure we’re safe, then we come up with a plan to get out of here.”

She nodded. “That sounds good. We should get out of here.”

She laughed; a hollow, haunting laugh.

“But first,” said Nigel, “I need to know what we’re dealing with. What was it? What happened out there?”

“I’m not sure.” She sniffed. “Everything was fine, I came down for lunch. I was waiting for my sandwich and there was a scream. Then more. I was pushed, bumped and everyone started to run. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I pushed my button anyway. I didn’t want to take the chance that it was nothing.
“I got jostled around as people fell around me. There was blood, so much blood.” She stopped and her eyes glazed over. “So much. I caught flashes of white between the bodies as we ran to the stairs. People were dying, Nigel, they were all dying and screaming and falling down. I slipped on some blood, and felt a hand brush over my head, it felt like ice. I fell and … and others fell over me. They piled on me, and I couldn’t breathe, and I thought I would die. I thought I was dead.”

Her chest rose as she took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh.

“Your button?” asked Nigel. “What happened to it?”

“I must have lost it. When the sirens stopped, I tried to reach for it, but my arm was pinned. It must have been crushed.”

“Okay, it’s okay.” Nigel released her shoulders and stood. “I’m going to go have a talk with this fellow and we’ll figure out a plan. How’s that sound?”

They both jumped as the door slammed again.

Anne let out a short scream and violent flinch. “I’m alright,” She blurted, holding up her hand to stop Nigel from returning. “Go. Get us out of here.”

Nigel narrowed his eyes at her, turned slowly, and walked towards their rescuer. He walked through the banks of computers that whirred as he passed and marvelled at the impeccably organised cables that ran from computers to ceiling to walls and out into the compound. Different coloured wires were used to both mark different functions and create an electronic wonderland. He stepped up onto a raised workstation with a circle of computer screens surrounding the man with the gaunt face.

“There’s only one seat,” the man said, facing away from Nigel. “Sorry,” he added as an afterthought.

“That’s okay, I prefer to stand.” Not always true, but the need to be prepared to run at any moment was overwhelming right now. “Jake, isn’t it?” Nigel held out his hand.

“Jacob,” He replied without turning to look. He typed away at the computers with near superhuman speed. “You guys are lucky.”

“I reckon you’re right.” Nigel dropped his hand. No shake for him. “Thank you. I’m Nigel, by the way, Nigel Astley, former Head of Security.”

“I heard. Made quite a scene at the memorial.” Jacob stopped typing for a moment and turned to face Nigel. “Turns out you were right. Good job.”

“Wish I wasn’t.” He moved to lean on a rail next to the computers, as Jacob returned his gaze to the screen in front of him. “What’s with all the computers? I don’t come here much and I swear there weren’t this many last time. There were more people, though.”

Jacob scoffed. “Computers achieve more than people in less time. People get in the way. It’s a big job looking after this place and I don’t have the time to deal with … emotional stuff.” He never looked away from his screen.

“Fair enough, I guess. Listen, how long do you think that door can actually last? They are bashing into it pretty hard back there.” As he said this, a particularly violent crash shook the door. This was followed by more of the chittering, only louder this time. More determined. Nigel continued to lean on the rail and tried to keep his heart from beating its way out of his throat.

Jacob looked back over his shoulder at the door. His head moved and his lips spoke silent words as if he were calculating something. After a while, he looked up at Nigel.

“Don’t know.” He went back to his work.

“Does that noise sound closer to you?” Nigel asked, trying his best to sound casual. He didn’t want to upset the man that saved them.

“What noise?”

“The creatures. The clicking sound.”

“Oh, that? They’re in the vents.”

Nigel surged to his feet. “What? We have to get out of here.”

Both Anne and Milly looked over at him. He looked around, searching for an escape route. The only one he could see was the door through which they had come. Behind the workstation, the room led into a bank of machinery whose purpose was a mystery to Nigel. It didn’t look like there was escape that way.

“Don’t panic,” said Jacob, tapping away at one keyboard, then sliding his chair over to another screen. “They’ve been there for a couple of days now. I think it’s how they’re getting around. Haven’t got in yet.”

“Why didn’t you say something? Tell someone?”

Jacob shrugged. “Thought there was a problem with the filters. I’ve been running diagnostics on everything to find the source. Wasn’t until I heard the siren and came to see what was happening before I figured it out.” He gave a little laugh. “Guess I’ve got to clean the air recyc filters before the bugs get out.” He snorted at this.

“That’s not funny,” said Nigel. “Don’t you get that we are in danger here? Don’t you get that people died? Lots of people.”

Jacob turned to look at Nigel. For the first time, Nigel saw the fear in his eyes. For the first time, he saw some human recognition of the problem they were facing.

“Of course I get it,” said Jacob, his voice wavering. “I’m not mentally deficient. This is how I cope. I ignore it until it’s a problem for me. How else am I going to keep this place running smoothly? My work is vital, but what we are doing here is more important than any one of us.”

“What we are doing here,” said Nigel through gritted teeth, “is pointless if we are all dead.”

Jacob opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a crashing noise in the wall to the side.

“That’s not normal,” he said to Nigel.

“What? What is it?”

“They’re not in the vents anymore. We should go. We should definitely go.”

Nigel beckoned the women over to them, keeping an eye out for any movement in the shadows.

“What’s happening?” asked Milly.

“Are they coming back?” asked Anne. “I can’t face them again. I can’t.”

“Where can we go?” Nigel asked Jacob. “The only door is blocked.”

“We go deeper then.”

“Deeper?”

But Jacob never answered. The movement in the walls had shifted again. The thumping moved from the side and up into the vents that ran through the wall near the ceiling. Nigel’s eyes followed the sound until it came to a grate set into the wall. Its long, narrow gaps were not wide enough to see anything behind, but he knew it was there. Whatever had torn those people to pieces. Whatever had threatened to break down the door and decorate the walls with his insides. Whatever it was, it was here.

He stepped in front of the other three and waited. There was no point running now, as there was no guarantee there weren’t more waiting elsewhere. He would have to fight and hope the others were able to get away. He watched the vents as a set of long, ghost-white fingers reached through the gap. Blood-stained fingers wriggled and snaked and curled out over the vent, joined by the fingers of another hand. The way they moved caused a shiver to run through Nigel’s body. It was almost like the hands themselves were sentient, like they were hunting; seeking their next prey.

Then, another hand fed its way through the gap, and another. The four hands gripped the vent and squeezed.

“Don’t worry,” whispered Jacob behind him, “they’ll never be able to break the alloy. Those vents are military-grade.”

As if in response, the hands reached forward, stretching and groaning. The fingers, already unnaturally long, grew to twice their starting length. They slipped through the gap, followed by four white wrists. Once the elbows had squeezed through the vent, not unlike toothpaste out of a tube, the arms bent downwards. The fingers gripped onto the wall below, digging nails into the concrete wall and pulling forward. The chittering returned, more intense than before. This time it was strained, working hard.

Nigel didn’t move, couldn’t move. He stood transfixed as this creature fed itself through a vent no wider than a finger. It squeezed and pulled and dragged its albino arms through and, finally, a wide patch of flesh forced itself out, cutting off the chittering sound with a squeak. It shivered its way out of the gap, inflating as it met free air. After the most mesmerising and terrifying minute of all of their lives, a head, fully formed and white as salt, looked up at them with its bulging, yellow eyes. It blinked two translucent eyelids and licked lips so drawn back they no longer covered the sharp teeth behind.

It looked at them and screamed.