“Sir, make your way to the elevator! I’ll be right behind you! Run!”
Without hesitating, I began to sprint towards the double doors on the other side. Once through, I checked both sides of the corridor for any carriers, and saw that it was clear. I held my ground and waited for Masterson to go through the doors. Masterson came through moving backwards and firing. He turned to me and yelled, “Take cover!”
I leapt off to the side of the door as a deafening explosion vibrated throughout my body. I opened my eyes and the corridor was full of smoke and fiery debris. Masterson grabbed me by my shirt collar and beckoned me to keep moving. We reached the elevator, and headed to a floor down. As the elevator door opened, I found myself staring at a multitude of carriers. I glanced at Masterson, and he tossed over a grenade to me. I pulled the pin and let the frag fly. He did likewise, and as soon as they went off, we went at a dead sprint through the pathway, evading the grasps of the carriers around us.
I reached to my belt and grabbed the radio, and contacted Captain Valentine.
“Captain, this is Stockman, we’re about to head in, hold your fire, but be ready to take out any of these sons of bitches that may come in. They’re swarming out here!”
As soon as the electronic double doors to the lab opened I leapt in and Masterson followed landing right next to me. Pushing myself off the floor, I pushed the manual override button for the door, and it shut. When I turned around, there was a person approaching me, who I assumed to be Captain Valentine.
“Sir, we’ve collected all the data samples and research. Unfortunately, I lost five team members.”
“What happened?” Masterson interjected.
“These things began to pour in through all directions, and by the time we got to the lab, there were simply too many. Two of my men sacrificed themselves, so that we could get inside. As soon as we sealed the door, some of them came in through there.” Valentine pointed to the ventilation system in the floor.
“When they began to come through the floor,” Valentine continued, “three of my men went down with them. I sent someone down to clear the way of any more of those creatures.”
Trying to not let the situation take hold of me, I walked to one of the computers and pulled up the blueprints of the lab. The ventilation shaft beneath us connected to the main air duct, which then led to the main hangar. There was only one solution. I felt the need to take charge, and get us out of this mess.
“Well, we can’t go out of either of those doors. They’re everywhere, and they won’t stop hunting us until we become one of them. Our only option of getting out of here is through that ventilation shaft. If we can make it to the main air duct, we may just have a chance to get out of here. Captain, have you heard anything from anyone else over the net?”
Valentine shook his head. “None, the facilities fail safe systems have been activated. No transmissions going in or out. If we’re going to get out of here, we need to do it fast because pretty soon none of us will be able to get out of here. Once the fail safe systems are activated we have a two hour window before all points of entry are sealed.”
“Captain, hold on to the samples and data. I’ll collect them from you once we reach the evacuation zone.”
“Well,” Masterson began, “What are we waiting for?” The labs always had an emergency kit, and I had a feeling we were going to need it. I opened the kit and pulled out a small flash light, and headed towards the hole in the floor.
“Well, here’s goes nothing.” I said, and with that I eased myself into the shaft. The flashlight did its job; however I didn’t like what I saw in front of me. Smeared blood coated the walls of the shaft, like a toddler going crazy with finger paint.