T-Plus 2

Esther stood in the shadow by the stairwell entrance, her arms crossed and her hands out of view to hide the slight tremor in them. One of Hensley's smaller packs was slung over her shoulder, and her penlight was back in her pocket where it belonged. The boys’ had their own bags, which in this case meant Hensley’s actual backpack and two other backpacks he dug out from the storage room he’d gotten the water heater. They were doing final checks on their equipment before heading upstairs. The slimes loitering nearby had already been taken care of moments ago, courtesy of Vaughn, making the area momentarily a safe haven.

The pink remnants of the slimes covered the walls on the other side of the hall. Splatters decorated the floors, stretching in a way that resembled arms reaching toward them. Esther shuddered, her shoulders shaking as she hugged herself. Either the cold was getting to her or those slime corpses were actually stretching. She stepped back, closer to to the others, keeping her eye on the dark stains.

“Sir, could you zip up my backpack?”

A chorus of no’s answered the intern’s request. His shoulders slumped as he twisted around to do it himself. The straps had been set where the backpack sagged, so the zippers were just out of his reach. He was already carrying the heaviest bag, so she had no idea why he bothered putting more pressure on his shoulders doing that. Esther rolled her eyes, and gave him a hand anyway so she didn’t have to watch him struggle forever doing it the hard way. She patted his shoulder after the good deed, stepping out of the way before he lunged at her in some puppy hug. Or at least, that’s what his sparkling eyes were conveying.

Vaughn came over to them, ready to head out. Other than her, he was traveling the lightest with only the flashlight in his hand and an empty backpack slung over his shoulder. His clothes, that obnoxious bright blue shirt of his, was still covered in pink-colored goop. In the light of his flashlight, it had a dull luster, the same color as skinless flesh. As he approached them, some slid off with a plop, landing by their feet. He kicked it away toward where the main remnants stained the floor, but it clung to the tip of his shoe. In the end, he scraped it off, although some specks still remained.

“Hensley, hurry up!”

“You can hold on for two minutes,” the technician fired back.

He zipped up his own backpack, adjusting the straps on his back. Unlike Vaughn and the puppy, Hensley wore his backpack properly. After the intern’s, his was the heaviest, which she had expressed her dissatisfaction about. The technician had changed his pants, getting rid of his ruined ones and covering his tightly bound legs in another layer before tucking them into a taller pair of boots he fished out from somewhere. Esther didn’t particularly approve of this one either, but he was being careful about it, so she could only give him another warning as they had left.

“Okay, go ahead.”

Vaughn and Joey went up first to scout ahead. The heavy thuds of their boots were gradually muffled by the darkness, leaving only the light Hensley held as a source of comfort. Esther glanced once again at the dark, jelly-like stains on the other side. They must’ve moved closer. She edged further away from them, one step away from the stairs. Hensley looked over, following her gaze.

“What’s wrong?”

“What? Oh, nothing. Just, just my eyes playing tricks.”

Esther hugged herself tighter, shaking her head. Hensley only furrowed his brows as he stepped closer to her, blocking her view of the other side. The tremor in her fingers lessened, but she still hid them in her pockets, feeling the cold shape of her penlight.

The return of loud boots called their attention back toward the stairs. Joey came skipping down the steps, taking a leap near the bottom, and landing with both feet on the ground. Hensley grabbed Esther’s shoulders, pulling her back before the intern landed on her.

“What did you find?”

“Nothing! We’re in the clear!”

With a nod, Hensley followed the intern technician back up. Taking a breath, Esther did the same. They caught up with Vaughn, who had been waiting just out of the range of their lights. Vaughn and Joey took the lead, their heavier flashlights in hand. She and Hensley followed some steps behind, taking it easy while they could. The climb up three flights would be hell, and she didn’t have the luxury of an elevator this time. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about falling off a ladder, if anything.

This time, her feet were covered in Hensley’s socks and one of the pair of boots he had outgrown. They still outsized her feet, but it was better than trekking the cold floor barefoot. She lifted the unfamiliar shoes awkwardly, having kicked herself in the back of the ankles a few times now.

“Should we find your room later and get you shoes?” Hensley whispered, hearing her curse after nicking herself yet again.

“No, it’s fine. It’d be a waste of time.”

Their only companions were the echoing of their footsteps and their flickering shadows dancing on the walls. The thuds of their boots filled her ears, humming a march-like beat that thrummed alongside her heartbeat. It was an erratic smattering of pulses: a thump and a thud and a thump and a thud. Their shadows reached upward, melding in with the surrounding darkness as they danced their mirroring dance.

They followed the curvature of the stairs, winding rightward. The droplets of now dried blood guided their climb. The dark brown stains were a prominent color within the white lights showing the way. Esther avoided them. Something didn’t feel right. It was much colder than it was when she and Hensley had made their way down this same stairwell.

Esther kept looking backwards, glancing over her shoulder as they continued onwards. Goosebumps rose on her arms, and she hugged herself tighter. She glanced behind them again, missing a step and kicking the front of her borrowed shoe into the metal. Wincing, she lagged behind for a moment, her sight following the light ahead. The men seemed fine, their eyes never strayed from the front and their steps steady. Compared to her, they were so much more put together.

Ahead of her, Vaughn stopped on one of the steps. He pointed his light down, revealing the pool that the trail originated from. Compared to its half-dried state from when they had first seen it, the pool was now completely dried in an almost black circle that spanned an entire step and the edges of the two neighboring ones.

“This is where Mr. Jiang got shot!” Joey exclaimed.

The intern stopped silent, throwing darting glances at Hensley.

“I hope he’s okay,” he finished weakly, his eyebrows knotting together.

“Daniel will be fine,” Hensley said. “He and Soup are probably better off than we are now.”

“You’re not worried at all?” the intern asked. “Not even you, Dr. Vaughn?”

“Why would I be?” Vaughn huffed.

“I’m more worried about Bacon,” Hensley muttered, looking back the way they came.

Esther could only nod in agreement. She had been lucky enough for Hensley to find her in that locker. Without him, she wouldn’t have made it down this far. But Bacon was a different matter.

“She’ll be fine. She knows how to take care of herself,” Vaughn said, dismissing their worries. “What I want to know is where those aliens chasing our boy Joey here came from.”

“What do you mean? Aren’t they the ones that chased us down, Dr. Vaughn?”

“No, there were only about ten in the original batch. Counting the ones I’ve already squished, that’s closer to twenty.”

“Wait! Are you telling me that they’ve multiplied!”

“The one that shot Jiang hasn’t shown up either.”

“So what are you thinking?” Hensley asked, cutting into their conversation.

“Well, either they’re naturally reproducing,” Vaughn said, holding his fingers up. “Or more came down from the higher floors when we weren’t paying attention.”

“It’s either, honestly,” Esther inputted. “It would take observation to figure out which pattern this fits.”

“Just keep your ears and eyes out,” Hensley decided, pointing his light forward again. “If it’s the second option, we might run into some.”

Vaughn and Joey’s lights went up again, combining with Hensley’s beam. Esther tensed, ready to sprint down the stairs at the first sign of pink. Her worries were for naught. Their lights revealed nothing but more grey stairs, the same sight they’d been seeing since the beginning of their climb. She released her pent up sigh, only realizing it then that she’d held it.

Back up the steps they went, the echoing of their footfalls reclaiming its throne as the only sound. Mixed among them now were their frantic breaths, hers labored, the men’s more relaxed. Esther kept a hand on the left wall, walking behind the intern. The cold surface slid underneath her fingers, sending chills right up her arm, sliding them down her neck, and running as shivers down her spine. It only intensified the longer they walked, increasing proportionally with the more breaths she had to take.

“We’re almost at the second floor landing,” Hensley called from the front. “We can take a break there.”

A murmur of agreeing noises went around. They all fell into a hurried hustle, their steps becoming quicker and heavier. Esther pulled the remaining energy she had in her to keep up. Her legs were becoming heavier and heavier, and she had to heave them upwards after the others.

The thumps and thuds of hurried walking became the stomping of an all out sprint once they rounded the corner. Their lights revealed the blocked off second floor landing and the mass of pink that bobbed up and down around it. Hensley and Vaughn went straight for them, their lights preparing to ram into them like a car’s headlights. She and Joey lagged behind, their pace slowed by the approaching slimes that cut them off.

“Shit! Mr. Hensley! Sir! Help!”

The other two disappeared behind the wall of pink that surged toward them. The intern grabbed Esther’s hand and pulled her down the stairs, dragging her with him in their descent. She could only stumble blindly behind, her eyes watching as Hensley and Vaughn’s lights disappeared upward toward their original goal.

Her oversized shoes bumped into everything, tripping her down the steps. She lost her footing, rolling down past the intern. All she saw was grey, and all she felt was an intense loss of self, where gravity guided her down and nothing could slow her descent. She reached out with her arms, trying to clutch onto anything. The cold metal of the walls, the stairs, the air that offered no resistance brushed back her fingertips. Her head was spinning, and pain originated from everywhere on her body when she finally did come to a stop. Joey's face arrived in front of her as she was regaining her bearings, and he pulled her up before tugging her down again.

They descended faster than they climbed, reaching the first floor in a matter of minutes. Esther looked behind them, slapping her hand on her mouth before what little she had came back up her throat. The slimes had merged together, their viscous selves creating a flesh-like wall that covered the stairs as they followed. In the center of their mass were indentations in the shape of eyes and a mouth. It jiggled along with the rest of its body, its lips flapping up and down as if saying something. The empty bored holes into them, intent on chasing them wherever they went.

Esther turned around, wanting to bleach her memory of that image. The blinding lights coming from the Elevator room did just that. Joey pulled her in, smashing the door open before slamming it shut. The wall of slimes crashed into it, sending them jolting away from the doors.

Joey grabbed the nearby boxes, cargo that didn’t make it to the storage rooms before this mayhem, and jammed them in front of the doors. Esther pushed some alongside him, helping him barricade the slime aliens out. They ran out of boxes soon, creating two layers of a barricade before they collapsed where they stood.

There were still clear thuds sounding out from behind the barricade in a rhythmic pattern: a thump and a thud, over and over again. Esther felt all the blood drain from her, the goosebumps becoming more prominent. The barricade shifted inward slightly, and the crack revealed the door budging open.

***