Chapter 29
Battle in the Broken Lab

Greg jumped into action, pulling out a handgun and shouting orders. “Bradley, Aaron, George, get those doors shut and locked! Now! No, wait, scratch that; leave the east one unlocked…” He double checked the radar on Sting, which was still firmly clasped in FredÂ’s hand. “Yes, itÂ’s the east one. There arenÂ’t any coming from that way. We can retreat there if we need to. Hurry!”

Aaron, Bradley, and George ran to the three other doors, slammed them shut, and then started to barricade them with everything that they could find. Greg turned to Liam.

“Get a sniper rifle from Bradley’s pack over there and find a position.” Greg ordered. Liam nodded and ran towards where Bradley had thrown his pack down. Now Greg rounded on Fred and the other boys.

“Do you all still have your handguns?” They nodded. “Get over towards the back wall and kill anything that comes your way. Do not, I repeat, do NOT try to join the rest of us, agreed?” They nodded again. “And protect Fred. He has the ring, and he’s the most important. It he dies, Czaron will eat us all for breakfast.”

He turned away. The four boys scurried over to the back wall, the one closest to the east door that they were going to retreat through. Aaron, Bradley, and George joined Greg in the center of the room, each producing a different kind of gun and aiming it at one of the doors. Liam was nowhere to be seen.

There was silence. Fred looked over at the other boys. Sam was shaking, and pale, clearly scared, but trying no the show it. MartinÂ’s face was set, his handgun pointed at the west door, opposite from him, but a fearful light in his eyes. Phil was casting nervous glances from his gun to each of the doors.

Something banged on one of the doors, making Fred jump. It was followed by more banging, and more, and more. There were things, lots of them, trying to get through all the doors (except the east one).

“Hold your fire!” Greg ordered. “Hold it!” For once, he seemed less like the F.B.I. agent and more like an army general.

Dents began to form in one of the doors, than another, than another. Finally, one of the doors collapsed inward, admitted the creatures behind it into the room.

Some were humans, short and tall, but all with bulging muscles and wild lights in their eyes, as if their brains had been erased and replaced with bare animal instinct. Some were not human at all, but strange, unnatural creatures, with grey skin and pale green eyes.

Gunfire erupted as Greg, Aaron, Bradley, and George opened fire. CreatureÂ’s heads exploded in busts of blood. Their chest opened up, and their organs slid across the floor. They fell back, clutching their wounds, before falling to the ground, dead. The four opened fire again, dropping another wave.

Another door collapsed, and Aaron turned his gun on those creatures, hitting them with deadly accuracy. The final door was suddenly gone, and Bradley was blasting the things behind it to bits. But it was not enough. Soon, the creatures had flooded the room. And one of them noticed the boys. It turned his head, snarled, and charged.

Martin was the first to open fire. The gunshots echoed in FredÂ’s ears, making him wince. The creature that Martin had been aiming at was suddenly headless, and sinking to the floor. But others came. Phil was the next one to drop his fear long enough to open fire. Sam and Fred joined them, and soon, they were all firing into the crowd.

The group advanced faster than the boys could shoot them down. Fred lost sight of Greg and the others, but could still hear the gunfire. When he turned his attention back to his battle, he came face to face with one of the creatures.

Before he could raise his handgun, its head exploded, showering him in green blood. Liam, it seemed, was opening fire with the sniper rifle. Another one was killed by the Eastern EuropeanÂ’s hand. Fred continued to fire into the crowd.

The crowd was starting to thin. Fred could see glimpses of Greg, Aaron, Bradley, and George fighting for their lives in the middle of the room. He continued to fire, praying he was hitting enough of them.

Then one was in his face, a snarling, terrible picture that would haunt his nightmares for years to come. It was one of the humans, his face torn and bloody, his lips pulled back to reveal bloodstained teeth. His clawed hand seized Fred’s throat in an iron grip, hoisting the boy off the floor. Fred heard Sam’s cry of “No!” and more gunfire.

Too late. The creature lifted another clawed hand and rammed it into FredÂ’s heart. There was pain.

And then there was darkness.

* * *

Sam cried “No!” and opened fire on the creature, pulling the trigger as fast as he could. But he was too late. The creature drove its claws into Fred’s heart. Sam saw his friend gasp, and then his eyes closed. Sam screamed again and fire faster, catching the creature in the side of the head, sending it reeling across the room.

Within a few moments, the battle was over.

“Is everyone alright?” called Greg from the center of the room. He walked around, checking the bodies of the dead creatures to make sure they were really dead.

“Fred…” Sam choked on the words, but composed himself long enough to shout “Fred’s not!” Then he dissolved into tears.

Greg walked over and bent down. Blood was pooled around Fred’s heart. His eyes were closed. Greg scowled. “I think I may be able to save him.”

He started to take off Fred’s shirt, and then gasped in surprise. “Who issued this boy a bulletproof vest?”

Fred started to cough, and Sam perked up. Slowly, ever so slowly, Fred opened his eyes and looked around. “That hurt,” he moaned. “Let’s never do this crap again.”

Greg was open-mouthed. “How… how did you… where did you get this bulletproof vest?”

“Bobby gave it to me.” Fred answered. “Why?”

“This is…” Greg tried to find the words. “Look at this.” He reached over and held up the creature’s hand, showing the entire group it’s nearly 3 inch claws. “Now look at this.” He motioned for Fred to take of the vest, which he did. Three tiny cuts, right over his heart, were all that were on the skin.

Sam’s eyes widened. “That… that’s incredible.”

Greg regarded Fred with a smile. “There’s more to you, my friend, then meets the eye.”

The sounds of screams and howls echoed through the doors. The creatures were coming back. Greg stood and pulled Fred to his feet. “Come on!” He shouted. “Out the east door! Let’s go!”

The fellowship sprinted into the darkness, just as another wave of creatures burst into the room. They screamed, howled, writhed, and pursued the fellowship down the hall. Finally, Greg ordered them to stop and form a circle. “Hold your ground!” He ordered the rest of the fellowship. “We beat them once, we can do it again.”

The creatures circled them, drooling, hideous. Sam tried to stay calm, accepting death when it came, but it was hard to do. All he could do was wait for the end.

A loud roar suddenly filled the hallway. The creatures, once in charge here, now screamed and bolted. The roar sounded again, closer. Something was coming this way.

“What the heck?” Bradley said, pointing his gun into the darkness.

There was a dead silence before Greg answered.

“BA1R0G.” He said quietly. “It’s too powerful… none of you can beat it. None of you would last ten seconds.” He whirled suddenly. “RUN!”

To Be ContinuedÂ…