Slimer

to make you gag.’

‘Black slime?’ Mark stared at Alex with shocked eyes, then he turned to Paul. ‘This smell — it’s the same as in the crane cabin when I thought I saw that black slime come out of the overalls. Paul, maybe I wasn’t seeing things.’

‘What the fuck is he talking about?’ demanded Alex. He was reverting back to his usual self now.

Mark described what he’d seen in the crane. Alex laughed uneasily. ‘A pool of slime that moves around by itself? You’re off your rocker.’

‘Then so are you if you’ve been seeing women with their clothes growing out of their skin and who get up and walk away after you’ve stabbed them.’

‘Someone must have moved her body,’ growled Alex. ‘I tell you she was dead.’ He brandished the knife. ‘I put this right through her heart. I didn’t mean to, mind, it’s just that she took me by surprise.’

‘Yeah, we know you wouldn’t really hurt a fly,’ said Paul dryly as he examined the knife in Alex’s hand. ‘No sign of anything on the blade. No black stuff or blood. And no blood on the bed covers, or the floor.’

‘You think it was the same woman we saw earlier?’ asked Mark.

‘I suppose so.’ Paul began to look aound the cabin. He opened a chest of drawers and pulled out a pile of folded womens’ clothing. ‘She said it was her cabin?’ he asked Alex.

‘Yep. Come on, let’s go search for whoever took her body away. They couldn’t have got very far with her yet. She weighed a ton.’

Paul raised an eyebrow. ‘She was unusually heavy?’

‘Like she was packed with lead weights.’

‘Must be the same one alright.’ He told Alex about being flung across the video room by Dr Carol Soames.

‘I don’t understand any of this,’ complained Alex. ‘What the fuck is going on around here?’

‘I think maybe I can help you guys out on that score,’ said an American voice from behind them. They all spun round. Standing in the doorway was a young man in a dirty uniform. And he was holding an Ml6.

Nine

‘He’s still waiting out there. I know he is.’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Linda. ‘It’s been ages since we’ve heard a sound. Alex is too drunk to be that sly. He’s either gone or he’s passed out. I’m going to open the door.’

‘No!’ Chris grabbed Linda’s arm. ‘Don’t! He’s out there. I can feel his vibes.’

Linda sighed. ‘Chris, people stopped having “vibes” at the end of the 1960s. I’m going out. We can’t stay in here forever. Besides Paul and Mark are probably back by now and looking for us.’ She unhooked Chris’s fingers from around her forearm and reached for the key in the door. As quietly as possible she unlocked the door and opened it a couple of inches. She peered out through the crack. No Alex. Encouraged she opened the door wider and looked out. The corridor was empty.

‘Come on,’ she said to Chris, ‘it’s all-clear.’

Chris reluctantly followed her out into the corridor. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked fearfully.

‘Back to that recreation room we were in.’

‘But Alex might be there!’

‘We’ve got to take that chance. The guns are there and I won’t feel safe again until I’m holding one. Anyway, if the guys are back yet that’s the first place they’ll go. So come on or I’ll leave you here.’

‘I’m coming,’ said Chris hastily.

The recreation room was empty. Or so it seemed at first but as Linda bent down to pick up the revolver she’d dropped earlier when struggling with Alex she heard a noise. It came from a nearby cupboard.

Someone was in there.

Chris stifled a frightened gasp. Motioning her to keep silent^ Linda approached the cupboard, the revolver cocked and ready to fire. This time she would have no compunction about shooting Alex if he made a move against her. If it was Alex…

She opened the cupboard door and immediately something leapt straight out at her with a piercing shriek. Linda fell backwards as she tried to avoid the claws that were ripping at her face. As she fell the gun exploded with a deafening report, sending a bullet harmlessly into the ceiling.

The shock of the report distracted Linda’s attacker long enough for her to see who it was. ‘Rochelle!’ she cried.

Rochelle stared down at her. She was almost unrecognisable. Her eyes had the wild look of an animal and her lips were drawn back from her teeth in a feral snarl. But slowly recognition dawned on her face. ‘Linda…’ she whispered in surprise, ‘thank God… I thought it was her.. ’ She got up off Linda and covered her face with her hands. She started to sob. Linda was incredulous. She had never seen Rochelle like this before. Nothing ever unnerved her. Hell, if she could live with Alex she could take anything. Then she noticed a large wet patch on the front of Rochelle’s jeans and realised, with distaste, that it was urine. Something had scared her so much she’d actually pissed in her pants.

‘Rochelle, what happened to you?’ asked Linda as Chris helped her up. ‘And who do you mean by her?’

Rochelle had sunk down onto her haunches now, her face still covered. ‘The woman from the… tank,’ she said between sobs,‘she almost got me… I fell…my ankle…she touched me… but I got away… I crawled away and then I started running and running, but I kept falling over… and I could hear her behind me…’

‘Shhh, listen!’ said Chris urgently, holding up a hand. ‘Someone’s coming!’

‘Who the hell are you?’ demanded Paul.

The young man grinned at him and lowered the Ml6. ‘Name’s Ed Buckley. And boy, am I glad to see you guys. I can’t tell you what it feels like to be with normal people again.’ Paul stared at him suspiciously. ‘Well, I wouldn’t exactly call us normal but what about you? How do we know you’re all right?’

‘Relax. I’m not like them. I avoided getting, uh, infected. I’ve been hiding out ever since. This is the first chance I’ve had to get to you.’

‘And you’re the only one who avoided getting infected?’ asked Paul, still suspicious ‘I was lucky. For a time there were two of us.’ He gestured at the room. ‘Dr Soames was with me but she got careless. Then there was just me. I’ve been on my own for two weeks now, hiding from them… and Charlie…’

Paul sighed. ‘Ed, who is Charlie? And what happened here? All we know is that it had something to do with some experiments to make an artificial gene called Phoenix’ Buckley looked surprised. ‘You know about Phoenix?’

7 fucking don’t,’ growled Alex, ‘what the hell is this Phoenix?’

‘We got part of the explanation from some video tapes,’ said Paul, ‘but we still don’t know the full story.’

‘Well,’ said Buckley doubtfully, ‘it’s not easy to describe and I’m no scientist. I’m just a security jock.’

‘But you had a general idea of what was going on here?’ ‘Yeah…’

‘And you do know what Charlie is?’

‘Yeah, but it’s all pretty crazy. It’s going to sound funny to you…’

‘Believe me, Ed,’ said Paul with heavy sarcasm, ‘we could all do with a good chuckle. So tell us.’

A shot rang out.

For a few seconds everyone was too startled to react. Then Paul muttered, ‘The girls…’