'Nam nada bezhat!' shouted the second Russian, and now both men ran towards Jack and Michael. Neither got very far. The Vondrax entered the corridor, and there was a noise like the hum of an amplifier, increasing in volume until one of the fluorescent strips shattered, and both Russians collapsed to the floor, their hands over their ears, howling in pain.
'What's happening to them?' asked Michael.
'I don't know,' said Jack, 'but we've got to get out of here.'
They were about to flee when the Russians' heads exploded in a cascading shower of gore, splattering both sides of the corridor. Their lifeless, decapitated corpses slumped to the ground.
'The Traveller…' hissed the Vondrax, in unison, stepping over the bodies.
'Go!' said Jack, taking Michael by the arm. 'Run!'
'Not without you,' said Michael. 'I can't go without you.'
Jack looked at him soulfully. 'You'll have to,' he said.
Michael turned and ran along the corridor until he came to another door, which led out onto a metal spiral staircase. He looked back at Jack just once before running up the stairs.
In the corridor, Jack faced the Vondrax. They were stalking closer and closer, the sound of their breathing like a death rattle. They looked human enough, from a distance, but up close they were quite clearly something else entirely. Everything about them looked diseased, from their sallow, desiccated skin to their hideous, carnivorous teeth. Why, Jack wondered, had they chosen to look this way?
As they drew closer still, their mouths fixed in rictus grins, black eyes behind black lenses, boring into him, he understood. It was fear. They liked to be feared.
'This one is different,' said one of the Vondrax, though there was no telling them apart. 'This one fears but does not die.'
'Kill it,' said the other Vondrax.
The first creature took off its round black sunglasses. It was now only two feet away from Jack, and he could see straight into its eyes, like polished ebony orbs in sunken sockets. A strange sensation gripped him, as if every nerve ending in his body were being shredded. It felt like dying, or rather, paradoxically, it felt like reliving every death he'd ever had.
'It feels pain,' said the first Vondrax, 'but it does not die.'
And then a strange thing happened. The first Vondrax made a noise in its throat as if it were choking. It stepped away from Jack, hunching over, its clawed hands bunched into white-knuckled fists. Black liquid began to pour from its open mouth and nose, hissing like acid as it hit the hard concrete floor.
The second Vondrax rushed forward, hurling its sunglasses to the ground, and picked Jack up by his throat. Again, like the first, it stared into his eyes.
'Cannot die?' it said, and then, as if it were analysing him: 'Curious composition. Why can it not die?'
An expression very suddenly appeared on its face that Jack hadn't expected. The Vondrax looked scared.
'The darkness…' it hissed. 'It sees the darkness…'
The Vondrax dropped him to the floor and it too began to choke, and then vomit out the same black ooze as the first. They were both now doubled over, their bodies shrinking away inside their suits, becoming ever more skeletal, their bones cracking and their skin flaking away as dust.
Jack ran from the corridor and up the metal staircase. Michael was waiting for him at a door two storeys up, holding it only slightly ajar.
'What is it?' Jack asked. 'What's happening?'
'They're everywhere,' said Michael, inviting him to look through the narrow gap between the door and the frame. 'They're
Peering through the gap, Jack saw the substation reduced to a scene of carnage. The foot soldiers were running, confused, in all directions, firing shots at the dozens of Vondrax, who were impervious to their bullets. One by one, the guards fell; some spontaneously igniting, some ripped apart as if by invisible machinery. The stench of blood and burning flesh was overwhelming.
'We'll never get out that way,' said Jack. 'We need to get to the roof.'
They raced up the clanking metal stairs, higher up into the almost cathedral-like heights of the warehouse's upper levels. Below them the sounds of explosions and screaming continued, and the building shook with each blast, powdered concrete raining down around them in grey blizzards.
'It was like this once,' said Michael, 'in the future. I knew they'd come for me again, I knew it.'
Eventually they reached the top of the building, and a locked doorway that led out onto the roof.
'Stand back,' said Jack, and as Michael turned away and shielded his eyes Jack riddled the lock and the door with a dozen bullets. The lock exploded and the door was kicked open by the impact.
'Come on!' said Jack, running through the door and out onto the rooftop of the warehouse. Michael followed.
'What now?' Michael asked. 'Where can we go?'
'I hadn't actually thought that far ahead,' said Jack.
He ran to the edge of the building, looking down at the wasteland and the road between the warehouses. The Russians were swarming out of the building, yelling and screaming at one another. The Vondrax were following, picking them off one by one. Flames licked out of the shattered windows on lower floors, and somewhere in the depths of the building there was the menacing rumble of another explosion.
'Are we trapped?' asked Michael.
Jack ran to the other side of the roof and, looking down, saw a cliff-like sheer drop into the sea. They were too high up to jump and survive, and the water would be cold.
Michael followed him to the edge and looked down. 'We
'Yes,' said a voice from the other side of the roof, and both Jack and Michael turned to see Tatiana, standing at the doorway, holding up her rifle. 'You are both quite trapped.'
'It's over Tatiana,' said Jack. 'Your men are dying. Those creatures are destroying everything.'
'But not you…' said Tatiana. 'They can't destroy you. I saw what you did to the others. You're different, Jack. And all I have to do is kill the boy and those creatures will go away…'
Jack stood in front of Michael.
'I won't let you do that,' he said. 'Tatiana… Face it. It's over.'
Tatiana lifted the rifle, gazing down its sights, and smiled but, before she could so much as pull the trigger, there was a terrible wet, ripping sound, and she was torn violently in half at the waist. As the two halves of her body were thrown in different directions, Jack saw three Vondrax, their lips curled back in sneers, needle teeth chattering frantically.
Michael turned away, and looking down over the edge of the building he saw the moon reflected on the surface of the sea.
'They don't like mirrors,' he said. 'It's something Cromwell said… in the future. He said they don't like mirrors.'
'What do you mean?' said Jack.
'The water…' said Michael, pointing at the sea.
'No…' said Jack, shaking his head. 'If you jump from here you'll die.'
Michael nodded. 'I know.'
Jack shook his head again. 'No… no… You can't do that.'
'It's only over when I die,' said Michael. 'Cromwell told me that. And Valentine. If I die, this… this
Across the rooftop the Vondrax were drawing closer with spider-like movements, their shapes transforming from suited humanoid figures into something bizarre and grotesque; reptilian scales appearing on their skin and writhing tendrils bursting from their torsos.
'I have to,' said Michael. 'I'm tired of this, now. I want this to be over.'
Jack pulled him close, holding him as tight as he could. In that moment, it was as if a part of him had always known Michael, as if their lives were in some way entwined for ever. He wanted the words of Cromwell and Valentine to be lies, just something they'd said, but he knew deep down that they weren't.
Michael pulled away from Jack and nodded. It was the only way. He climbed up onto the wall, and looked
