“I saw what Caliax did back there, letting you go so easily.”
Out of the shadows stepped Celia. A cloud of spores was growing hazy around her, and on her face there rested a very cruel smile. “I’m not going to do anything like that. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long, long time, and I plan on savoring every minute of it.”
Terrence looked her over. Clearly, her intention wasn’t to spare him, and it didn’t look like anything would convince her to do so. She was definitely too strong to fight directly, and although she was slow, her spores had a range. Still, he wasn’t planning on giving up without a fight.
Celia was still talking. “I always expected that you were going to be easy prey. You’re so dumb, Terrence. Really. You didn’t even take the other guard’s gun. It’s as though you fluttered right into my hands.”
Terrence could have kicked himself, but he suspected he would soon be kicked enough. He tilted his head to the side and, in spite of himself, shrugged. “Maybe you’re right,” he consented.
Celia simpered. “Of course I am.”
“There’s just one little problem that I can see in your plan,” he noted, almost offhandedly.
Celia glared, her eyes darkening. “And what would that be?”
“You haven’t caught me yet.” With that, he ran for his life.
The monster lunged and Terrence feel the air behind him growing thick with the smell of rot and spores. He held his breath and kept running. The screams of rage began to fade, and Terrence agilely dodged a few chunks of rubble that otherwise would have tripped him. After a minute, Terrence slowed and stopped, panting. He knew this facility better than any of the monsters, having had a chance to walk through it while free, and that advantage seemed to be working well. He couldn’t hear Celia anymore.
“Hey Terry! Why the hurry?” Terrence glanced behind him and, as though he was looking though a mirror, saw himself. The copy caught up to him and cartwheeled to a stop. “Looks like we left sissy Celia in the dust,” the other Terrence grinned. “Hey, what gives?!”
Terrence swung at him, and Prismec ducked out of the way. “This place is in total chaos because of you!”
Prismec ducked again and folded her arms. “Well, I sure wasn’t gonna hang around in a cage until I died. What did you expect me to do?”
Terrence glared, but he couldn’t claim to like the thought of sapient creatures remaining in captivity. At the same time, he also didn’t like the thought of monsters slaughtering everyone in the facility. “You could have just left, maybe with a few other monsters. You didn’t have to let everything out. People didn’t need to die over this,” he finally said.
“Eh, I don’t really care about the people or the monsters.” Prismec tossed her head. “But anyway, I didn’t free any monsters, so there. That one’s Blink’s fault.”
Terrence frowned. “Who’s Blink?”
“You know, the big, super powerful ball of mist that showed up by itself a few weeks ago and got stuck here? The guards were totally about to corner me and that thing was in the cage behind me spouting all this ‘Free me, mortal, that I might unleash my wrath’ crap. I didn’t stick around after getting it loose, but I’d sure hate to be a human right now. That thing opened all the doors with its mind! Oh, and there was this one guard who started shooting at it, and suddenly her gun was sticking out of her chest. I mean, it was actually embedded into her chest, like—I’ll do an impression of it.” She fell to the ground, turning into a short-haired woman. “Heeeelp!” the woman gasped shrilly. “I’ve got a wife and kids! Please don’t kill me! Please!”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The scene was a parody but the meaning behind it was real. Terrence began to feel sick. “That’s not funny.”
“You’re right. It’s hilarious! She looked like a squashed bug. Pleeeeease—Hey!”
Terrence made a furious swipe at her. Prismec stomped on Terrence’s foot, got up, and took off running. “See ya!” Terrence doubled over in pain for a moment before chasing after her.
“Get back here!” The monster abruptly stepped to the side in front of an open door and Terrence skidded to a stop, his momentum carrying him a few steps farther than his target. The door slammed, and Terrence wheeled around, grabbing the handle. The metal was cold and the door wouldn’t budge. “Open the door!”
From behind the thick metal, Terrence could faintly hear the monster laughing. “Well well, look who’s locked up now. Make sure you stay cool in there, buddy!”
“You’re a coward, Prismec! Open the door!”
“I will once you’ve cooled down a bit,” Prismec sang. “Get it? You’re in the freezer, dummy.”
“Prismec!” The giggling echoed and then faded. Terrence banged on the door. It was, of course, locked.
The freezer was large, with plenty of room to walk around in. A dim light flickered overhead. Slabs of meat and other packages were stacked along the walls, each one crusted over with ice. He picked one up and chucked it at the door. The slab shattered.
Whatever fury burned inside of him, it wasn’t going to warm him up. Terrence glared at the door, hugging himself and shivering. There was a keycard reader on it, put there in case any authorized personnel found themselves accidentally locked inside. Quickly, Terrence dug through his pocket for his ID card. He brought it up to the scanner, wincing as the cold bit his unprotected hand. The card reader, covered in ice, didn’t respond.
Terrence’s breath came in small clouds of fog as he wiped the sensor. He scanned the card again—no response. Why wasn’t it working? Taking a step backwards, he slipped on a patch of ice. Terrence grabbed at the wall for support and sliced his hand against a protruding piece of metal. He looked down and saw blood, but was too numb to feel it hurt.
Teeth chattering, Terrence backed up against the wall and sat down. He had no idea what was wrong with the card reader and even less of a clue about how to fix it, and he was getting tired. The icy wall wasn’t the most comfortable place to rest against, but he was too busy shivering to care. Drawing his knees close to his chest, he turned his ID card over a few times before placing it and his hands into the protection of his pockets. It was quiet, aside from the dull drone of the freezer, and the more that the cold seeped through him, the less he seemed to feel it. He could try opening the door later, maybe after he took a break…
That was when the second earthquake came.
A small piece of meat fell, hitting Terrence directly over the head. He jumped up and smacked his hands together, forcing himself awake. He was freezing. Cursing himself, he rubbed the feeling back into his face and arms and felt as though a million needles were sticking through him. “Hey! I’m in here! Somebody let me out!” he shouted, banging on the door.
It seemed to jump. Terrence paused, gasping in hope. He kicked the door again, this time focusing on the area between the door and the wall. There was a latch, he noticed, and it jumped every time the door was hit. It jumped a little, but not enough. His heart pumping with renewed energy, he searched frantically for something to pry the latch open with. His pocketknife wasn’t much of a help with monster slaying, but it fit neatly into the gap. He forced it upwards and the door was open.
He flopped onto the ground, accompanied by a rush of escaping cold. As he caught his breath, a many-armed shadow fell across his vision. Scrambling to get back on his feet, Terrence slid up against the door and his head went straight into the heavy steel handle. For a second, he felt pain. The next moment, he was unconscious.