Lumley knew beyond the shadow of a doubt now that the squids did indeed eat those they killed. He’d seen it with his own eyes. Love and Paul had become squid food and that disturbed him far more than their deaths. It scared the crap out of him. Lumley swore that he would never let that happen to him. He felt the bulge of the grenade in the pocket of his jacket and knew what he was going to do if it looked like the squids were going to get him too.
The trio had reached a junction in the Rigel’s internal corridors. Simmons, who had found himself on point, paused.
“Which way?” he shouted at Zek.
Zek shook his head. “How in the devil am I supposed to know? Just pick the one that doesn’t look to have any squids!”
As if the creatures had somehow heard and understood him from wherever they were hiding in the shadows, they dropped from the ceiling of the corridor on the right and began scurrying along its floor towards them. Zek swept the barrel of his rifle in their direction and fired a few quick bursts into their ranks as Simmons charged into the corridor on the left. Zek followed after him, with Lumley continuing to bring up the rear. As Lumley entered the corridor to the left, the group of squids bounding up the corridor to the right joined up with the group already pursuing them. Lumley kept firing, his SAW growing hotter in his hands. The heavy weapon was almost out of ammo and he had no extra belts for it on him. He had used them all already.
Something flew through the air beside his face as Zek yelled, “Grenade!”
Lumley threw himself flat against the corridor wall as Zek and Simmons found cover farther along the corridor they were in behind him. The explosion shook the whole area, sending bits of squid creatures splattering everywhere. Lumley felt the black blood of the squid splash over him. He broke away from where he had pressed his body to the wall, thankful that he hadn’t been hurt by the shrapnel flung about by the detonating grenade and hosed the squids behind those that had been blown apart with the last of his SAW’s belt. The heavy weapon clicked empty. He flung it aside, unslinging his rifle from where it hung on his back by its strap.
“Run!” he heard Zek screaming at him. As if on autopilot, Lumley whirled about, turning his back on the remaining squid creatures and sprinted after Zek and Simmons.
“This way!” Simmons shouted leading them into the large, open area of the ship’s mess. Lumley nearly gagged from the smell that hung in the air of the room as they entered it. The area was clear of squids, but it was far from empty. There were human corpses everywhere. It looked as if the squids had been dragging any kills that they didn’t eat on the spot into the mess and storing them there for later.
Zek was struggling to close the mess’s door as Lumley ran through it. Simmons had collapsed onto his knees and was busy vomiting onto the red-slicked floor of the mess.
“Help me!” Zek ordered him. Lumley joined his CO, and between the two of them, they managed to get the door’s hatch closed and locked before the squids in the corridor reached it. Seconds after they had closed the doors, they heard the squids slam into it. The mad pounding of their tentacles shook the thick metal door in its frame.
“It won’t hold them for long,” Lumley told Zek.
“What…?” Simmons started to say as another dry heave hit him. When he recovered from it, he finished, “What are they doing with all these people?” he rasped.
Neither Zek nor Lumley answered him. Lumley was watching the mess door for the squids to break through it. Zek ran across the mess, searching for another way out of it, disappearing into its kitchen area.
Simmons wiped at his lips with the back of his hand as he staggered to his feet. “What in the hell are we going to do, Lumley?”
Lumley had no answer. He just stared into Simmons’ haggard face, seeing his own fear reflected in Simmons’ eyes.
A burst of gunfire erupted from the kitchen area followed by the sound of Zek screaming. Both he and Simmons turned towards the kitchen area as half a dozen squids came charging out of it at them. Lumley knew that Zek was dead. He had to be, and soon, they would be too.
Simmons jerked his rifle at the squids only to have it click empty. He was closer to the kitchen area than Lumley was so the squids reached him first. One lashed out at Simmons’ legs, knocking him from his feet as another bounded on top of him. Simmons writhed beneath it as its mouth ripped away most of his left shoulder. Lumley watched as Simmons tried for his sidearm, having lost his rifle as he fell. Simmons managed to get the weapon clear of its holster but never got the chance to use it. Even as Simmons raised it up towards the squid on him, the creature stabbed one its tentacles through his heart, killing him instantly. Simmons pistol slid from his fingers to clatter onto the floor.
Lumley knew he couldn’t fight all six squids by himself. He’d never be able to stop them all in time before they were on him. He threw his rifle at the closest of the things as it sprang at him, yanking the grenade in his jacket out. He pulled its pin, clutching it to him, as the squids fell on him in mass.
The explosion that followed brought an end to Lumley and the six squids alike.
Stern looked about at the dozens of wounded filling the Rigel’s engineering section. At first, the engineering section had become a sort of field hospital for the crewmen and soldiers trying to hold the squids at bay. Now, the battle outside it was over, and the squids had won. The Rigel belonged to them. Stern and Dr. Beck had managed to seal off the section, closing the heavy bulkheads meant to protect it from fire and flooding. The two of them were the only uninjured crewmen left in engineering and maybe on the whole of the Rigel. The bulkhead doors were too thick for them to hear the squids on the other side that were surely trying to force their way inside to get at them. That at least was a blessing. There was more than enough fear to go around without those noises adding to it.
Dr. Beck had abandoned his care of the wounded to try the radio gear they had brought with them again. The doctor sat hunched over it, crying out, “This is Dr. Beck aboard the USS Rigel. We are in immediate need of extraction. I say again, we are in immediate need of extraction!”
Stern could tell from Dr. Beck’s expression that no one was answering him. In truth, for all they knew, the squids had done the same kind of damage to the other ships of DESRON 2 that they had aboard the Rigel. It could very well be that there was no one left to come to their aid.
“Give it up, Doc,” Stern urged him.
Dr. Beck looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “It can’t end like this,” Beck wept openly. “My family needs me.”
“We all got family back home, Doc,” Stern said coldly. “That don’t matter squat to those squid things out there.”
“Surely there has to be something we can do,” Dr. Beck pleaded.
“Yeah,” Stern said. “Sit here and wait on those monsters to figure out a way to get in here.”