Hanna’s free hand caught hold of the wobbly aluminum railing as she planted her right foot onto the next step above. She slowly shifted her weight to avoid a sharp and sudden escape. Ease into it, she repeated to herself, but her actions weren’t fooling any of them.
Out of the pack, one particular creature seemed to be in charge. It was bigger than the others, and it scowled through the darkness with simmering suspicion. Despite the immense, crippling fear that locked her bones solid, Hanna couldn’t help staring into the creature’s long black eyes. The sight of an extraterrestrial this close was an out-of-body moment and certainly extraordinary. Maybe I can communicate, the logical side of her mind thought. They’re intelligent after all, right? It was worth a try.
“I just want to go home,” she pleaded from her dry, cracked lips. “Please. I mean you no harm.”
The long block of silence that followed was less than encouraging. She somehow suspected they understood her, but they remained silent and sized up her next move. She was trapped. They had the upper hand and in no way needed to overreact.
“What do you want from me?” she shouted with the last bit of emotional resilience.
The lead creature stepped past the other two and stopped a foot below her.
“What? What do you want?” cried Hanna.
The creature’s brow lowered as it growled something that could only be construed as aggressive. Its blackened gums flared, exposing yellowed, razor-sharp teeth. It hunched down, readying itself to pop forward with the attack.
Hanna stumbled back, supporting her weight alongside the railing. She glanced up toward the ceiling. The staircase vanished up into the next floor. She turned away to make her escape, leaping up to the next step with the speed and gracefulness of a ballerina. But as her body spun to a stop, she found herself face-to-face with yet another creature. Without a second’s warning, the monster shoved her backward toward the lower landing. Hanna immediately lost balance, tripping over her feet and tumbling backward. The room spun out of control. She reached out to grab the railing, but she missed. Her skinny body toppled and went into a violent roll down the flight of steps. She crashed to a stop into the concrete wall below. Her head slammed into the floor like a wrecking ball. Her vision sputtered out to blackness as the sounds of the facility were replaced with a familiar setting.
The rain hit the windshield in an orchestrated fashion against the constant drumming of the wipers. The comfort of new-car smell and expensive coffee lingered. A luxury sedan with leather seats. Hanna was fixed on the road ahead, trying to steer her way through the wet and soggy roads of Arlington, Virginia. Her hair was fixed. Her makeup was perfect. She looked the part of a stylish government warrior on her way to the office. The road seemed to represent miles of guilt as the sedan crossed through the open lanes of Courthouse and turned left into Arlington toward the nation’s capital. Hanna’s face was stoic, contemplative, and troubled. She dreaded her destination.
“Mamma, how long are you going to be gone?” a gentle voice spoke from the back seat, yanking Hanna from her tormented state.
She looked in the rearview mirror and spotted the little girl. She was barely three years and clearly her daughter. The little girl sat up in her car seat, struggling to comprehend the situation.
“I don’t know, honey,” Hanna replied gently.
The response was of little satisfaction to the child. She grimaced and looked out the window, trying to find the words to respond in her own way.
Hanna looked back, acknowledging the little girl’s trouble with a guilty sigh.
An approaching traffic light flashed yellow and then red. A barrage of brake lights beamed through the spotted windshield, flooding crimson across the dashboard. Hanna pressed on the brake pedal, sending the car into a subtle stop.
“Where you going this time, Mamma?” said the girl with an uptick of emotion.
Hanna turned to look back at the child. She had only been home for five days before she received the call to leave again. She missed her daughter so much, and work had become an excuse for her guilt. But not this time. Hanna stared off for a moment. Determination and defiance poured across her face. She locked eyes with the sweet little child and spoke words she wished she had said sooner. “Home. We’re going home,” she replied.
A smile started to crack across the child’s face. Hanna reached back and gently touched the little girl’s hand before turning back to the dashboard. She quickly popped the car into gear and readied herself for a U-turn.
“I won’t leave you again.”
The light turned green. Hanna slowly accelerated forward.
The sound of screeching tires shook her attention. In a flash, a large truck slammed into the driver’s-side door. The window exploded into pebbles; metal twisted, and airbags went off. The car spun in a circle, melting the tires down to the rims. Hanna bounced around her seat like a rag doll. Then everything went silent.
CHAPTER 17
Hanna’s eyes fluttered open with the return of turbines and machinery. Her vision slowly adjusted to the brightness of the fluorescent lights of a tunnel. She was back. Her body jolted as something tugged her. Her hair mopped across the dusty concrete with the motion of being dragged. She lifted her head up. One of the creatures had her by the leg and was dragging her down the hallway.
She immediately kicked, but the creature had an amazing grip. She struggled to break free by twisting to her side. The creature fought back and shoved her to the floor. Hanna felt something rub against her hip bone; it was the screwdriver. In a blur, she quickly produced the tool with her shaky right hand and took a hefty swipe at the creature’s forearm. The first impact was a slice that dug about an inch into the creature’s leathery skin. The creature growled in what sounded more like aggravation than pain. Hanna pulled the tool back and stabbed downward, this time lodging it into the creature’s thigh region. The creature doubled over, and Hanna quickly squirmed away and jumped to her feet. She blasted down the hallway back toward the machine room with the staircase.
Hanna hurtled up the staircase with a few large steps, ascending to the second landing in a matter of seconds. Behind her, the creature was just starting to rally from her attack. It lumbered down the short corridor into the pump room and toward Hanna’s location.
It only took Hanna a minute and a half to climb all fifteen stories of the long stairwell. As she reached the top, she looked around pitifully. It was another concrete room. No doors. No windows. A seemingly dead end for her escape. She glanced down the staircase to see the creature slowly rising from the lower level. Hanna turned back across the room and looked around wildly. She then focused on a distant wall across the room; there was a small air vent. A sliced beam of daylight seeped out from inside.
Hanna dashed toward the wall, stabbing her screwdriver into the surface of the vent upon arrival. The sounds of footsteps were getting closer. She knew she only had a matter of seconds to remove the vent cover. She dug the screwdriver under the lip and chiseled away at the rusty bolt holding it to the concrete. With the twist of the handle, she managed to snap the cover from the wall and tossed it to the floor behind her. On the other side was a vertical shaft. The old breakouts. She stuck her head through a nest of spider webs. An opening at the top seemed to lead outside. An old wooden utility ladder was her only option for reaching it. The climb was another eighty feet.