Page 20 of Kryxis

It took her a moment to realize there was a face staring back at her.

“Is that...a head?” Phen asked.

They stared down at it. A skullface smiled back at them like the ones seen on the skeletons in the production line.

Garret moved in and reached inside and grabbed the head. A metal skull. “What the…?” he mumbled, turning it over.

Sheek took it from him and sniffed it, then threw it across the room. She turned to Dani and nodded. “It’s here.”

Shit.

“Myrell,” Dani said out loud. She whirled around, almost knocking into Garret. “Stay with them!” she ordered as she dashed away, sprinting toward the generator room.

“Dani! Wait!” Garret called to her as she got to the wide doorway. This thing was not going to harm her crew, so help her.

The inner workings of the shipping sector beyond the warehouses were a labyrinth of hallways, storage rooms, and offices all linked by automatic doors that slid open when she approached. She ran down one hallway, skidding to a halt near the generator room.

Ryatt was just outside the door sprawled on his back. Pieces of his armor lay broken around him.

She slid to her knees and shook him, but he didn’t wake.

“Myrell?” she called. As she went to peer through the narrow window of the generator room, Myrell appeared.

“I’m here,” she yelled through the glass. Dani could see the whites of her eyes. “The thing sounded just like Garret. I told the guy not to open it, but he didn’t listen! It’s lurking close by. It went down the hall.” She pointed to her left.

“Stay there, and don’t come out until we call for you,” Dani yelled back. She didn’t wait for a reply as she slipped back down the hall. From one pocket she took out a small ISpad and tapped the screen.

On the map, she could see herself moving. Each door was color coordinated—green meaning they were active, red meaning they were shut and locked. She rushed past one door then tapped on the control on her ISpad. Behind her, the door shut, little lights on its side turning red to indicate it had been locked.

She had Lex to thank for this very useful tool. Beside the generator room had been a security pod, and from there, she’d synched the device to the computer system controlling everything from the doors to the lights.

She hadn’t come unprepared this time. As she rounded back toward the warehouse, she froze just before the edge of another door.

There it was, blocking her way.

Her blood went cold as she got a clear look at it with the lights on. It towered at least seven feet if not more. Several pairs of horns twisted along its head like a wicked crown. Its skin was a deep red with blue stripes along its ribs, arms, and neck. Two giant red eyes shined in the light, but there were also several narrow blue ones above its brow, reminding her of a spider. She’d somehow missed them in the dark.

She’d also missed the second pair of arms that had been tucked against its back, long blue-black limbs that folded under its normal pair of arms. And here she thought it had been terrifying in the dark. Now she regretted turning the lights on.

Once it saw her, it stilled, its red eyes narrowing. Its tail slid across the ground, the pointed tip curling upward. Tilting its head at her, its black fangs peeked out from its upper lip.

She knew as soon as she moved it would too. Finger on the ISpad like a trigger, she took a slow step back.

The thing mimicked her, taking a slow step forward.

She counted the hammering beat of her heart. When it got to ten, she tapped on the screen then jolted back as the door above started to close. The thing broke into a sprint toward her as she ran. It slipped under the door just as she veered toward a storage room. She tapped the controls again. As the door to the storage room started to close, she lunged forward and slid underneath.

The door shut behind her just as the creature got there, but it didn’t make it under the door in time to reach her. Dani shot from the ground as she saw it staring at her through the window. Its breath fogged up the glass as it huffed in annoyance. Then it disappeared.

She didn’t stand there to wait. She moved across the room to the other end and slipped into an office space then out to another passage. She snuck through several rooms, locking doors behind her, until she turned down another hallway and dashed for a room that said TRASH ONLY by the door. She raced past piles of junk into a large octagonal space with a set of doors leading into a control room. She rushed for them and closed the door just as a shadow loomed behind her. She gasped and whirled around as the door locked in place. The creature stood there, its fist against the window. It clawed against the glass then turned toward the large pane of glass that looked out to the octagonal room. Its talons racked across the glass as it moved slowly across.

There was no other way inside. She’d trapped herself in. And it knew it.

She didn’t think it knew about the mechanic’s exit though, or if it did, it knew it would take too long to backtrack through that route, a narrow passage under the floor, no more than a large vent system.

It wouldn’t have time to do anything anyway. She closed off the exit to the octagonal room then set her sights on the computer console in front of the window. She turned it on and started going through the system controls.

Yellow lights flashed inside the octagon, a harsh bell going off.

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