Written by: Lady Hinoto Feedback to: LMFuluvaka@aol.com CHAPTER ONE: KEVIN AND HOWIE He ran for all he was worth. Behind him in the echoing labyrinth the creature chased him, relentless in its pursuit. Panting and jumping over a carelessly thrown aside body, left in this hell hole, he landed on his feet and was instantly off running again. The creature plowed right over the body, intent on killing its next prey. He knew they were up there, watching and studying his reactions, his next move and plan. Even though he had only been here for about a week only, he almost knew the routine. He still couldn’t quite believe he was here, then again, who would? Trampling through a puddle, his chest was beginning to burn with every heaved intake of air, his legs were tiring as was the rest of his body. He couldn’t do this much longer, but what was there left to do? There were no hiding places, or any kind of object about that could be used as a weapon, absolutely nothing he could do. The creature let out a throaty, and what could be counted as soft compared to what its usual voice level was, roar as it lunged. Letting out a yell, he managed to use one last burst of energy to jump forward and avoid it raking claws, he could feel the slimy sharp objects tear the back of his shirt but he kept running, unfortunately he was beginning to slow, the burning sensation in his muscles was unbearable by now and the creature was getting furious that it couldn’t catch him, tearing through the hardened slim on the walls and ceiling it roared and through out its claws again, this time managing to hit him. Crying out, Kevin was thrown forward into a wall before flopping on the ground like a rag doll, into the slug. Blood poured from a large split in his skin on his back, just below his neck and across his shoulder blades. Maybe it even managed to get his head to, because he felt a stabbing pain in his brain that could have made anyone throw up, but by now, resting on the cold hard uneven ground Kevin felt his entire body relax as he slowly began to fall into a comforting blackness that promised him a release from this hell, and from the death the he knew was going to come with the creatures razor sharp teeth that he knew would tear into him in only seconds. As Kevin was rendered unconscious the last thing he heard was the creature’s horrific scream as it descended over him, the last thing he felt, was relieved. ```( )``` “Ugh!” Kevin groaned, his hands gripping the ground as he twisted a little, retuning to conscious. He winced and opened his eyes a little, his head was screaming for relief as the constant pounding of pain in it. His shoulders were also in unbelievable pain, it was strangely silent, the only sound was the dripping of water unseen in the tunnels. Raising his head with difficulty, Kevin listened intently. Where was the monster? The last thing he remembered was it coming over him screaming, so where did it go? Why hadn’t it killed him? Trying to raise himself up a little, and instantly his arms gave out, he grunted in pain as he fell back to the ground and laid there, his head and body screaming at him for trying that. He sucked in much needed mouth full after mouth full of air as he laid there for a couple of minutes, trying to recover some use of his battered body. Another question suddenly popped into his mind, how long have I been here? As he lay there, he let his mind wander for a bit, wondering if any of his academy training covered this area, some of it had helped, but nothing covered this! Suddenly from in front of Kevin, a sound rang out, it took a moment to register what it was, it was the sound of a door being forced open, raising his head again, Kevin’s vision blurred for a second before he saw what was happening. Someone was trying to force open the door all right, they grunted as they struggled franticly, the door not wanting to open. Kevin suddenly felt furious, I was that close to the goddamn door and I collapsed! You idiot! You could have made it! He yelled at himself. The person had managed to squeeze himself halfway through, pushing against the steel doors, slim and hardened goo fell away. With all his might, the man shoved the door one last time, it actually staying open a little, the man fell through. The man wore the same cloths as Kevin, a simple cotton white tee shirt and pants, strapped to his back was one of the huge guns the guards carried, Kevin wondered what he was doing with that, this man was obviously one of the people being held here, come to think of it, what was he doing coming in here all together? The man stumbled before straightened up a little; he spotted Kevin and hurried over the rough terrain to him. Kevin groaned and squeezed his eyes closed as the man dropped to his knees in the murky water next to him. Grabbing his shoulder, the man gently turned him over a little, Kevin looked up at the man. The guy looked Latino; his brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and his brown eyes looked at him with concern. “Hey man, you okay?” He asked. “I’ve been……..a hell of a lot better then this!” Kevin groaned, the man laughed a little. “I think we all have been.” The man pulled at Kevin’s shirt looking at the bloody rip in it. “Did that creature get ya real bad?” “It just scratched me.” The man grabbed Kevin’s shoulder and helped him into a sitting position. “Uh!” Kevin said as a wave of dizziness past through him, and nausea then settled in, Kevin felt the blood rush away from his head. “Wow! Wow! Okay, now,” The man said steadying Kevin, after making sure he wouldn’t fall over the man reached behind him and grabbed a bottle of water, he held it out to Kevin who took it gratefully and drank almost all of it. The man waited patiently for Kevin finish, when he did he took the bottle back and began reattaching to his belt. “Who are you?” Kevin asked confused. “Names Howie Dourgh” The man said cheerfully. “Or Howie D. Whatever you want to call me. How bout you?” “Kevin,” Kevin shifted, “Kevin Richardson.” He decided to leave out the Major part. Howie nodded, “Well happy to know you, or anyone for that matter.” Kevin looked around the tunnels confused. “What’s going on? How long have I been down here?” “Don’t know how long you’ve been here, three days maybe?” Howie ignored Kevin’s horrified look and continued. “As to what happened your guess is as good as mine. The scientist guys were experimenting on me on some sense project. They put me in some sensory depravation room.” “Sensory depravation room?” Kevin was even more confused. Howie nodded and shuddered, “Yeah, its this room where it completely suppresses all of your senses for however long they want. I think they wanted to see how long it would take for me to go insane or something.” “Jeez!” Kevin said disgusted. “Well after a while they started some other experiment where they only gave me one sense or two at a time, I remember seeing some men observing what I did and how I reacted. They did that for a while before they suppressed all of my senses again and left, a long time past before the room was completely shut down. It needs to be monitored or it will do that, it took me a while to get used to using all my senses again but when I did I found out that there was nobody around where I was. Or anywhere for that matter.” “Where were they? Securities as tight as anywhere I’ve been, they wouldn’t have just left.” Kevin pointed out. “That’s what I thought, after a while of looking around I found that the power was out on all decks.” “What happened to the people?” Howie was silent for a moment, “Dead,” He finally spoke. Kevin starred at him unable to register what the man had just said. “Dead?” He echoed, Howie nodded. “How!?” “I have no idea!” Howie cried throwing up his hands, “From what I managed to find, I think one of their little animal splicer pets they made got out and got them all! Completely took over the station and slaughtered everybody! Including the people they were holding here! I’ve never seen anything like it! I panicked and came to this deck, man is this place trashed!” He added. “One of the computers was still on and showed you here, I thought you were dead, but decided to take a second look anyways.” Kevin nodded, “Well Howie, I can start thanking you from here until the day I die from taking the consideration.” He said and Howie laughed. Kevin looked around again. “Did you see the thing that killed everybody?” He asked. Howie shook his head, “No, whatever it was though, it chased me for three decks, that’s how I got to this one, I got this gun from one of the dead guards.” He explained pointing to the one strapped to his back. Kevin nodded, when a thought suddenly struck him. “Wait!” He cried, “Down here there’s a creature that they use in one of their “tests”, it didn’t kill me, maybe that’s the thing that got out!” Howie thought for a moment, “Creature? Big with lumpy scaly skin and a clawed hand that had slim on it?” He guessed. “Yeah!” Howie shook his head again, “No, that’s not it.” “How do you know?” “Because, when I got here that things hand was sticking out from a torn metal wall, it was as dead as everyone else here. My best guess is whatever got on the station killed it cause its chest is completely torn apart.” Kevin sighed, “Great.” Suddenly the sound of metal bending rang out, both men jerked up and looked around. Howie looked back at Kevin. “Come on, lets get out of this sewer!” He suggested. “No argument here!” Howie reached over and grabbed Kevin’s arms, he helped the older man to his feet, and he swayed for a second then regained his balance. “What is this place anyway?” Howie asked wrinkling his nose and looking down the tunnel. It was a dark place, with a strange blue light coming from the end of the tunnel that barely lit up the rest of the place; goo had hardened into a crystal like substance that covered the walls and ceiling. The ground was wet with slim and dirty water, and smelled unlike anything Howie had ever smell before. Kevin looked in the direction Howie was looking in. “They call this place the Labyrinth, they put a whole bunch of people down here and put that monster in with us so they can test out survival skills and instinct. See who can live longer then anyone and how they manage to do so.” Kevin pointed to the ceiling. “There’s some kind of special paneling up there that allows the scientists to watch us.” “God!” Howie said displaying the same disgust Kevin had earlier. He looked over at the still open door; “Well at lest you can get out of here now. I don’t want to be stuck down here with that thing that killed everybody! Think you can walk?” “Yeah,” Kevin took a step forward even though his legs ached like the rest of him. Howie waited patiently and put his hand on his back, instantly he pulled it back slightly horrified when he saw blood covering it. “Jeez man! You’re bleeding!” he yelped. “Well I told you that thing got me a little.” Kevin pointed out. “Lets go to the medical bay and see if we can fix that.” ”Uh huh! No way! I just want to get off this god forsaken station!” Kevin said vehemently. “Listen Kev, the only way onto this station is the transport that brought us here. No other way, we can’t leave!” Howie said. “Oh perfect! Stuck on a dead in space station with a creature that killed everybody else here!” Kevin moaned, “I’ve had so much better days.” “Tell me about it, we still have to get food and water too.” Howie pointed out, “So that means more going around with that creature.” “Wonderful,” Kevin muttered, he sighed. “Where’s the Med Bay?” He relented. “Next deck up, I vaguely remember passing it as I ran.” Howie responded. “Make sure you have more clips,” Kevin said referring to the gun. “I don’t want to run into this thing and be out of ammunition.” “Got it!” Howie held up a small brown bag that dangled off of the strap. “All in here, as much as I could get.” “Good.” The two began making there way to the door. Once there Kevin managed to get through, he bit back a yelp as his shoulder scrapped the door. He stumbled out and his shoes slapped against the floor, Kevin looked down when he heard the sound as if he was walking through a puddle. He instantly blanched. “Ugh!” He said seeing that he was standing in blood. It was covering the entire floor, spilled forward down the hall for about six doors down. Kevin made a face of horror and disgust and looked over his shoulder, there a few doors down was the damage Howie had told him about. The metal really had been ripped a way, it looked as if a bomb had gone off behind the wall. The claw from the creature that had been chasing Kevin stuck out, slimy and bloody. The blood had spilled from the huge hole in the wall all over the place. “Man!” He muttered looking back, Howie managed to squeeze through the door with out trouble despite having the gun attached to his back. He heard Kevin’s last comment as he came through. “Yeah tell me about it,” He said looking around at the bloody covered floor. “At lest the smells dulled a bit.” He offered. “It has!” Kevin asked in disbelief, covering his mouth and nose trying to block out the metallic smell that made him want to throw up. Howie looked down the other side of the hall, and tapped Kevin’s shoulder gesturing for him to follow. “Come on, its this way.” The two began moving, thankfully, away from the creature’s body. The hall was absolutely silent, making the place even creepier, the lights were off, save only the very few working emergency lights, and one was at the end of the hall. The only sound was the men’s footsteps as they continued, neither spoke. It felt so strange to be in the halls, with out people buzzing around getting ready to conduct the next “test”. Kevin felt uneasy, and kept alert, listening intently for any sound out of the ordinary, or any sound for that matter. Howie was doing the same. Blood splashed at their pants, staining them red. Kevin frowned and looked down as the sticky substance brushed against his skin. Gross! He thought before looking back up. “So!” Howie suddenly said, deciding to break the silence. Both though kept a keen eye forward. “How did you get here?” “I assume the same way you did.” Kevin answered looking over his shoulder quickly. Howie chuckled, “Well yeah, but how exactly did you get here? How did they get you? Where did they take you from?” “How about you say first?” Kevin suggested, not sounding at all like he wanted to talk about it. Howie shrugged, “Well I was working as an engineer on a patrol ship that was surveying some kid of Nebula. Can’t remember which one, after the first three kinda gets boring trying to remember them all. Anyway, we were doing a routine trip when some kind of blast hit the ship, totally blowing the engine. Everything was in complete chaos, the captain said that a ship had arrived to help us, that’s when another explosion hit the engine room, the last thing I remember was this huge burst of light, then next thing I know, I’m laying on the floor in complete pain with this steel beam over me. Then these guys show up and come over to me, I blacked out again and the next time I wake up, poof! I’m here! Pretty simple story.” Howie said as they cleared the blood pool, though they still tracked it. “How long have you been here?” Kevin asked not sounding as hard as he had the last time. Howie thought for a couple of minutes. “Five years.” “Five years!” Kevin cried, stopping horrified. Howie stopped to and looked at him. “What?” “You’ve been here for five years!” Kevin asked in disbelief pointing to the floor, referring to the station. “Yeah, why?” Howie asked looking honestly confused. “How long have you been here?” “Two weeks! Three tops! I think.” Kevin said still looking at the Latino man in disbelief. “How can you be so blasé about this?” “Well its not as if I could have done anything about it. I knew I just had to wait.” Howie said shrugging. “Okay, let me get this straight, they kept you in a room that completely deprived you of your senses for god knows how long at a time, and you just waited!? That would have been torture!” Kevin cried. “Actually………” Howie grinned as he turned around and began walking again, “It wasn’t.” Kevin stood there for a moment before hurrying to catch up. “What do you mean?” The two turned a corner and began walking down another long hall, a blood free one thankfully, but the emergency light didn’t cast light through this hall, they were walking into a dark corridor. Kevin repeated the question again as they walked, Howie’s grin got bigger. “Those damn science freaks put me in that room to test my reactions and left me there for weeks at a time. And with all those monitoring and observation they never even guessed I could be acting!” “I don’t get it.” Kevin said confused looking ahead starting to get uneasy again at the gaping darkness. “I adapted Kev!” Howie said proudly. “Adapted?” “Yep! I managed to adapt to the environment. I faked the reactions that I gave them. That’s why I was able to wait instead of going insane like their other test subjects. Though it may have back fired a little, they found my with able to with stand the room quote “fascinating” and they just tested me more.” Howie stopped suddenly and turned to the wall, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a glass disk, sliding it into a black spot on the wall, he hit a couple buttons and the panel lit up. “I thought you said the power was out.” Kevin said. “It is, but I said I was an engineer, I got this chip from the sensory depravation room, it’s kinda like a portable battery that powers certain parts of a computer.” He said concentrating on the panel. Kevin looked around in case the thing that had killed everybody came out. Even though the darkness seemed to be eating away at the hallway, Kevin’s training came in handy; he listened and kept his eye on the pitch black, waiting for the slightest shift. Walking around Howie, he peered down the other hall way and his heart jumped. Laying in the hallway was a body, thrown onto the ground it looked like something had crushed it, even from Kevin’s distance he could tell that much. He quickly nudged Howie’s arm while still staring at the body. “Uh…….Howie,” He started. “Don’t bother,” Howie said with out even looking up, he continued to type. “That’s the guard I took the gun from.” “Oh.” Suddenly there was a loud clicking sound. “There! Got it!” Howie said excitedly. “Damn!” He cried after a moment. “What?” Kevin asked circling around again. “The power outlet on the disk is now low, I’ll only be able to use it one more time, maybe.” He said as the disk slid out. “Well maybe there will be more in the med lab. Right now all we need is to get up there.” Kevin answered patiently. “Hope your right.” Howie quickly pocketed the disk and stepped back. He pointed to the floor. “Step there.” He instructed. Kevin did so and waited as Howie reached over to the panel ready to hit a button. “Okay, only one of us can go up at a time. So stay there when you get up there.” “Yeah, cause I can get so far in that short a time.” Kevin said smirking. Howie grinned and hit the button, a circle lit up underneath Kevin, from the edges of it what seemed like a glass cylinder rose up glowing softly, it attached to another glowing circle at the ceiling, then Kevin began to rise toward the ceiling. He looked around slightly surprised, Howie watched as Kevin disappeared into the ceiling. As Kevin went through the ceiling he was completely blinded as he pasted through by a yellow light, but it was only for a moment, when his vision cleared he could see the next deck. Unlike the one below, this had absolutely no light, the only light being the one admitting from the glowing tube Kevin was in. As he came up fully, the glass cylinder came back down and the entire thing turned off, leaving Kevin in complete, suffocating darkness. Instead of being afraid, Kevin remained calm, knowing that panic only got people killed. Quickly he stepped aside, waiting for Howie to come. Sure enough, another circle lit up, casting a yellow light over the hall, Kevin watched as the cylinder came up touching the ceiling and Howie came through. The light disappeared leaving the two, yet again in darkness. “Hey Kev! Where are you?” Howie called out, Kevin reached out and touched Howie’s shoulder, the younger man jumped. “Jeez! A simple, “over here” would have done!” Howie yelped. “Don’t suppose you have a flash light?” Kevin asked. “Uh, yeah.” Howie groped around on his belt and grabbed a penlight. He clicked it on; it was almost nothing, but at lest it could provide something to point out an objects in the way. “Which way?” “Follow me.” Howie began walking down the hall. Kevin found this deck to be even more unnerving then the one below. The only sound being there footsteps and breathing, for some reason it seemed to be even more distracting in the dark then with some light. “You know,” Howie said sounding just as uneasy as Kevin felt. “You-you never answered my question. How did you get here?” Kevin remained silent for a moment, talking might help. He mused. “I was a pilot in the Squad Force.” He said his eyes training on everything. “We were sent out to do battle with some new raid gang that stole some kind of shipment. They struck another caravan and we were deployed to take care of it. My ship was hit and I was forced to land on a planet. I was injured and managed to crawl a few feet from my ship before I saw some men approaching, I thought they were an aid team there to help. Didn’t occur to me at that moment that they couldn’t have come that quick, but it didn’t, and when they came over they put a mask over my face. Next thing I knew I woke up in some sort of Cryogenic Pod.” Kevin paused, “My story is even more simpler then yours Howard.” Howie shrugged to himself. “Squad Force huh? So what rank were you? Corporal? Captain?” “Major!” Kevin said in a tone that sounded like Howie should have obviously known that. “Scuse me!” He muttered looking around. He sighed, “I never could figure out why you people wanted to do flying like that. To dangerous for me! Personally I thought you people were just a bunch of ya ya’s who flew dare devil style just get a adrenaline high to hold you over until the next………….: “Ssssssshhhhhh!” Kevin suddenly hissed. Howie instantly stopped talking and walking, he listened eagerly. Both men stood there listening, but Howie didn’t hear anything. “What?” he whispered, though even though he did that it seemed too loud. “I thought I heard someone yelling.” Kevin said softly still listening. “Could be the ship adjusting.” Howie suggested. “Yeah.” Kevin muttered, they stood there for another moment listening, when suddenly Howie heard what Kevin had heard. It was indeed someone yelling. “Somebody please help me!” A frightened voice cried out. Kevin and Howie looked at each other wide eyed. “Please! Help!” The voice begged sounding not very far off. “Med Bay!” Howie said and they instantly started running toward whomever it was that needed help. Kevin only prayed, it wasn’t the thing killing another survivor. Or one of the scientists. BACK NEXT |
| Science And Madness |