Hanna’s feet started to slide back across the dusty concrete. The door was getting heavier, and it seemed as though there was more pressure from the other side. Perhaps the creature had assistance now. She was losing balance fast. She grabbed the door handle, trying to keep the latch bolt from turning out of the faceplate.
Dimitri twisted his final wire around into a small copper washer that penetrated out from underneath the bottom button of the panel. He then screwed down a bolt with his fingers, locking the wire underneath the washer. He flipped the panel over and started jamming the mushroom-shaped button.
The large freight elevator doors kicked into life with a rickety vibrating sensation, slowly revealing a two-hundred-square-foot freight elevator. The walls and ceiling were lined with a series of thin dark-blue metal panels. A yellow-and-black-striped bumper guard ran along the bottom third of the wall. Scuffs and dents were visible all along its edges.
Dimitri stood up and looked over at Hanna. She was less than ten feet away and struggling with the door. I have a clean shot, he thought. There was nothing in his escape path.
“Dimitri, I’m losing my balance!” Hanna cried out.
He glanced back at Hanna struggling. She was afraid, and his body trembled with indecision. Then a gentle voice in his mind whispered, You can’t leave her.
Maybe it was empathy. Maybe guilt. Whatever it was, it was calling to him to act. To redeem himself from his past. In a blur, he scooped the panel from the floor and ripped it from the wires. He threw the panel into the darkness and ran toward Hanna with what little strength he had left. He slid up next to her and retrieved the other screwdriver from his pocket. With one stroke, he knifed the screwdriver into the doorjamb, wedging it closed via the friction of the two surfaces. He flashed a look toward Hanna. “We move on three. One…two…three!” said Dimitri.
Hanna and Dimitri shoved away from the door as fast as they could and ran toward the open elevator. As the duo raced from the scene, the door blasted open, shooting the screwdriver out like an arrow. Dimitri slid onto the elevator floor underneath the interior control panel. He reached up and shoved in the bottom button. Hanna backed herself into the corner as the large, heavy doors dropped downward. In the hallway, several unsightly creatures piled out of the stairwell and scurried toward the elevator like cockroaches. Hanna gasped as the rickety doors closed in the nick of time. She slid to her ass as the elevator jolted violently into action, dropping with a free-falling sensation.
CHAPTER 15
There was a long moment of equilibrium, which dominated the elevator’s painfully slow descent into the unknown. Although, the sound of servos and machinery was a welcome experience. It was the first sign of freedom they had experienced in a long time. Dimitri looked toward Hanna. She nodded with gratitude. The horror of the laboratory and Pierce seemed to be a distant nightmare, shedding its weight slowly with the passing of time. He had saved her life, and thanks to him, she was on her way to see her daughter again.
It took an eternity for the elevator to drop ten stories into the belly of the facility. We’re almost there, Dimitri thought, and he attempted to sit up from the rusted diamond-plated floor. They had about four more stories to go.
The freight elevator rocked to a halt. It was as if the world stopped spinning and the oxygen was blasted into outer space. How short-lived their moment of rejoicing was. Hanna looked around in a daze. By the look on Dimitri’s face, something was horribly wrong. He glanced toward the ceiling. Two enclosed fluorescent lights were beating out their last pulses of life.
Dimitri painfully slid back to the buttons and gave the bottom button a few more shoves. The box jolted back into action and rocked up and down like a nauseating roller coaster ride.
“What’s happening?” Hanna gasped as the two fluorescent lights flickered out.
The room was solid black. Hanna quickly fumbled for her flashlight. She seemed to have rolled on top of it when she dropped to the floor. A twitch of clothing rubbing against itself could be heard from across the room.
“Dimitri?” she called out.
Her voice echoed through the small metal box and faded away. There was no reply. With the click of a button, she fired up her flashlight and shone it across the elevator, spotlighting Dimitri through a beam of lingering dust particles. He was curled up in the corner. His trembling body looked as though he had been smashed into the floor by a giant. Hanna reached up and grabbed the bumper guard. She peeled herself from the ridged floor. “Dimitri, talk to me.”
He was nonresponsive. His body was in apparent shock. Hanna reached down and placed her hand over his shoulder. He felt like a fire pit. His T-shirt was sweltering and soaking wet. Steam pulsated from his body into the air. She looked around desperately. She shone her light up to the control panel and stepped over Dimitri’s buckled body to press the button that had his bloody thumbprint pasted across the surface.
A loud impact from outside the door startled Hanna back across the room. It was the sound of clamoring tools and the unsettling groan of bending metal. Hanna’s flashlight canvassed the door. The clamor could only mean one thing. They were trying to get in.
“Come on.” Hanna’s voice trailed off as she shone her light back down to the floor.
She narrowed her eyes with a confused scowl. Dimitri was gone.
“Dimitri!”
She pivoted backward and shone her light to the back of the elevator. There was no trace of the Russian in that direction. Was she going crazy? As her thoughts rolled around her head, she caught something from the corner of her eye.
“Dimitri!” she cried out again, and she spun her body in the direction of the movement.
In a blur, Hanna felt the sensation of impact against her body. She tumbled back into the metal wall with a thunderous crash. The impact knocked the heavy wrench and flashlight from her hands. Her face was still pinned downward. She could feel the body heat. As she shook her head from the tackle, she glanced up. To her horror, it was Dimitri. He had her pinned against the wall with his forearm. His blaring LED head lamp obscured her vision.
“What are you doing?” she screamed out.
She shoved back and attempted to slide across the wall. Dimitri’s face dipped into view. He wasn’t himself. Veins and sores erupted from his skin. He looked like a burn victim. But something was much more troubling. His eyes were midnight black, glazed over and pulsating as if they were popping from his skull. His body was transforming before her. He was hanging on. Agonizing. His grasp was desperate and pleading.
Hanna struggled to find the words. A scream was all she could muster. She then slid her back across the metallic wall and settled into the corner of the metal box, using the bumper guard for upright support.
“Help me!” he pleaded pathetically.
Hanna tried to break free, but he had a heavy grip. His weight started to pull them toward the floor. The force of gravity slowly took over as the two bodies slid down the wall. Hanna quickly rolled her hips to the side and lowered to a knee. Dimitri’s balance started to waver. She then shifted her weight, causing him to release her. This freed his hands. He stumbled back into the wall. Hanna leaped forward, almost diving over the top of the man as he fell. She landed face first and took in a mouthful of dust. Dimitri rallied. This time, he attacked her with much more aggression. He shoved off the wall and dived on top of her like a football player going for a fumble.