SNAFU: Wolves at the Door

All eyes went to Dot as the small radio clipped to her shoulder crackled and popped. More than one of them jumped. A moment later a garbled voice came through. “…request immediate assistance. I repeat…all security forces are dead. The experiment…loose…”

“That sounded like Dr Dillard,” Mara said.

“Yeah, but what’s he doing on the security forces’ frequency?” Dot asked.

As if in response, the radio crackled and the blood freezing sound of a wolf howling vibrated the small speaker. Dot’s eyes went wide.

“We can’t worry about any of that right now,” Rolf said. “All we can do is get the doc here to her rendezvous point and persuade the powers that be it would be in their best interest to let us come along for the ride.” Rolf glared. “Have I made myself clear, Doctor?” He extended a hand and helped her to her feet.

“Yes, very clear.” She smoothed out her lab coat. “Allow me to make myself clear. The only hope you have of getting out of here is escorting me down to the fifth level. There’s a ventilation shaft that leads directly to the surface. A helicopter will be waiting.”

“Fine. But we play by my rules. I say stop, you stop. I say go, and you go.”

Sturgess nodded.

“Any objections?” Rolf asked looking from person to person.

“What about everyone else?” Bernice asked. “Are we just going to leave them?”

“They’re already dead,” Dr Sturgess said. Rolf could almost see her breath from the iciness of her words.

Another scream preceded running footsteps, the sound coming from the stairwell.

Cruz moved closer to the wall and raised his Desert Eagle. Rolf motioned Sully over to support him. “Cover our six,” he whispered to Dot. She moved a few paces away from the group, her rifle pointing off into the gloom.

A guy in a blood streaked lab coat burst through the stairwell door and tumbled over Cruz. The guy came to a stop a few paces from the door as it closed behind him. Heavy breathing could be heard from the stairwell. Someone, or something, was coming after him.

The guy’s face blanched. “It’s right behind me. We have to get out of here!” He clutched a shredded arm to his chest, blood staining the polished white floor below. “They all started changing. Costello. Beck. Coates. Don’t you see? They’re all infected!”

“Whoa, take it easy, buddy.” Sully moved toward him but the guy inched back.

“Don’t come any closer!” He looked down at his wound and grunted.

“Dot, get them in the lab,” Rolf ordered, seizing command. “Keep your heads down and don’t move until I give the signal.”

Without a word Dot gathered up the scientists and did as instructed. The wounded scientist refused to budge.

Cruz backed away from the door as a pair of feet slapped to a stop on the other side. They all heard something sniff the air the way a dog would.

“Oh, God, she found me.” The wounded scientist leaned against the wall and staggered a few steps down the hallway leaving a bloody trail. After another two steps he fell, sweat pouring from his body.

The door burst open.

The slender hybrid stood silhouetted in the doorway, a confused look on its face. It sniffed at the air as Cruz retreated. A tattered lab coat clung to her shoulders. The badge identified it as Ashley Costello. In her little photo she had much less hair and smiled. With one giant stride, the thing that had been Ashley was at the puddle of blood, lapping it up.

“Holy mother of God,” Cruz mumbled.

Sully eased up behind her, and double-tapped the beast. Ashley’s body slumped to the floor adding to the crimson puddle.

Rolf ran past the carnage and stepped into the stairwell. Gunfire from below. Someone was still alive down there. As he turned to head for the lab, the injured scientist jumped up to his feet, his body changing from normal to hybrid in about a minute. Cruz turned just in time to catch a claw to the jaw. He tried to scream but only a garbled whimper escaped. The hybrid was on him and biting as Sully opened fire. Two shotgun blasts tore chunks out of the thing’s back. It stumbled forward trying to stand, but fell.

Rolf hurried to his fallen comrade. Cruz was a mess of shredded flesh. Blood poured from his ruined mouth. He clasped Rolf’s hand and choked. Rolf squeezed back knowing it wouldn’t be long. “Hang in there, Cruz.”

With another shotgun blast, the infected scientist was no more.

“Sully, get one of those scientists over here. Now!”

By the time Mara ran over, Cruz was gone. Rolf handed her the Desert Eagle. “I hope you know how to use it.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, a frown creasing her brow. “He wasn’t part of the experiment. How did he change?”

Dot and the others turned to Sturgess.

“We don’t know,” the doctors finally replied. “It happened shortly after the first successful splice. One of the technicians got too close while recording a hybrid’s vital signs.”

Realization washed over Mara’s face. “Oh my God, Natalie.”

Dr Sturgess nodded. “Yes. We covered it; said she had a family emergency.”