The voice cracked, as if trying to hold back tears, and the speaker paused before continuing. “I think I’ll be seeing her again soon,” the man said with heavy sadness and an edge of fear. “She’ll change if she’s alive, then she’ll remember me. If the male of her pack allows it, she’ll be coming. I spent most of last night, before I got too drunk to stand, strengthening up the barricades on the doors and windows downstairs, but I’ve heard tell of those things tossing around cars. When she comes, she will get in.”
The transmission ended and a new one started up, but this time there was only the sound of men and women screaming in the distance, as if they weren’t at their equipment and had merely left it on. When the screaming stopped, a chorus of hissing noises could be heard before the transmission ended and the next began.
“Mayday! Mayday! This is the USS McDaniel. We are under attack! I repeat: we are under attack!” The sound of small arms fire and ripping metal could be heard loudly in the background. “The squids are everywhere! The bigger ones have breached the hull in several places, and the smaller mutated ones are climbing onto the deck. We’re being boarded. Help us! Help…” The transmission became static and cut off.
“That’s all I have been able to piece together so far,” Darren informed the group. “We have been getting a constant live broadcast from Mexico, but it’s just a constant buzzing noise now. I swear it sounds like a swarm of insects talking.”
Warren stood up behind the table he was at. “Thank you, Darren. As you’ve heard, the transmissions do confirm Mr. Higgins’ stories about what has happened to our world. He has also presented us with proof that he was indeed working as a British operative as part of a joint U.N. taskforce sent to the U.S. days after our country fell into complete collapse. None of this information directly changes our situation, but we are left with the question of what to do with Mr. Higgins himself. He has extensive knowledge in many fields that could be of use to us, and his presence will not adversely affect our resources. I would like to ask if he might be allowed to stay.”
Murmurs of shock ran through the group. Michelle spoke up first. “Are you suggesting that you and Mike have actually thought of kicking him out? I mean just sending him out there to die?”
Mike stood up beside Warren. “Transmissions and IDs can be faked. We don’t really know who this man is. I believe he may be unstable and a threat to our continued security. There are no such things as demons, yet Mr. Higgins firmly states that multiple factions of Hell have somehow been loosed upon our world. He believes these factions are at war with one another for the control of our planet. Does that sound remotely sane to any of you? Our problems come from the rats and a mutated viral strand, which has somehow caused an evolutionary jump in the rodent species.”
Darren looked Mike in the eye. “I think believing something different than what you do is not cause to sentence a man to death. As far as I’m concerned, he’s already a part of our group by being human and alive.”
“Those transmissions sounded pretty real to me,” Daniel chimed in. Words of agreement spread through the small crowd.
Seeing he was defeated, Mike sat down and left Warren with the floor.
Kyle, who had been smiling the whole time, suddenly jumped out of his seat like a lunatic. He pointed at something behind the group, and heads turned to the back of the mess hall where Jenkins was leaping to his feet, trying to claw his .45 free from its holster.
A rat sat beside him, sniffing the air. With its blazing red eyes fixed on Warren, Mike and Kyle, it screeched and charged at them, baring its large primary teeth. Its screech quickly turned into a hiss of anger and superiority.
As it made a path towards them, Michelle jumped out of her chair and crushed its skull underneath the heel of her right boot. Warm blood leaked from its eyes as she picked up its corpse by the tail and tossed it towards the back of the room. The group quickly spiraled into panic.
“Hold on!” Warren ordered. “Everybody settle down—now!” The room fell silent at the fury in his voice. “If there were more of them in the room, they’d be attacking us already. Darren, get up to the control center and run a scan. Jenkins, Michelle, go with him! Everyone else, stay the fuck where you are. If they have made it in, the last thing we need to do is split up and take off running through the halls.”
Darren, with Jenkins and Michelle in tow, had already sprinted out of the mess hall. Warren grabbed Kyle up by the front of his shirt. “Are there rats in this base? Have you seen any before?”
Kyle knocked Warren’s hand away from him. “No. If they’re here, they must have followed you. How did all of you get here?”
“The damn cars,” Warren said, realizing what Kyle was suggesting. He turned back to the crowd as the intercom blared to life and Darren’s voice flooded the room.
“The base is clear. That thing must’ve been alone. But Warren, you and Mike need to get up here as fast as you can.”
“Everybody stay calm!” Warren barked. “Go to your quarters, seal the doors, and we’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as possible. Now go!” Warren looked over the crowd as they poured out of the room. Mike and Kyle were running side by side for the control room and Warren cursed as he took off after them.
Warren was the last one to make it. He looked at the external camera screens the others were staring at and simply breathed the words, “Oh shit.”
Darren nodded gravely. “Yeah, it looks pretty bad.” Rows upon rows of rotting bodies stumbled around above the base, and literally thousands of rats skittered about beneath the corpses’ feet.
“My lord,” Mike whispered and pointed at one of the screens showing the main doors. “Are those the things you’re calling demons?” he asked Kyle.
Two massive creatures were looking down the shaft that led to the complex’s inner doors. They stood seven feet tall like humanoid rat monsters from a child’s nightmare. As Kyle spoke, a clawed hand fell over the camera’s lens and the screen went black.
“Yep, those would be them,” Kyle confirmed smugly.
“How the hell did they find us?” Mike wondered.
“They followed us.” Warren drew his sidearm and checked its magazine. “Kyle said the rats want all of us dead and their borders clear before they launch into the war he’s told us about. Think about what our convoy must have looked like to them. It was likely one of the last large gatherings of us anywhere in the U.S. They planned the attack on it and they’ve come to finish what they started.”
“Yeah, but how did they know where to follow us?” Jenkins asked.
“We had to leave the vehicles up top. They must have recognized them by our scent, then all they had to do was look around. With those damn huge open doors, where the hell else could they think we’ve gone to?”
“The bio-scanners are still showing we’re clean so far,” Darren said with a shrug. “But if one got in, others probably will. It’s just a matter of time.”
“The rat was a scout,” Warren and Kyle said almost at the same time. Warren snarled and Kyle gestured at the blank screen. “I’d be worried about the demons. Who knows how many are up there? The two we saw are enough to tear apart the inner doors alone, given time.” Kyle plopped down in a chair. “This is your base now, your group. You guys make the call. Are we going to fight or run?”
“Where could we run to?” Mike fumed. “If this place isn’t safe, where the hell is?”
“My home was still standing when I left. We could try for there,” Kyle offered.
“You’re forgetting something.” Warren slid his gun into the holster on his belt. “In order to get out, we’re going to have to go past them… And on foot. They’ve torn the vehicles to shreds, you can bet on it.”