'It'll be okay,' Fairbank told her. 'I don't think we'll be completely flooded.'
'D'you want to stay and take the chance?' Culver asked. He peeked around the doorframe into the corridor again. The flow seemed even more forceful than before. He turned back to say something to the others when suddenly the lights dimmed.
For a few frigid seconds the light fluctuated between dim and bright before settling for bright once more.
Fairbank cursed. 'If the generator goes, we're really in trouble. We won't even have emergency lighting.'
Culver pulled Kate closer to him. Where were Dealey and the others when you last saw them?'
'Back in the Operations Room, still fighting it out between them.'
'Okay, that's where we'll head for.'
•Why there, for fuck's sake?' Fairbank demanded to know. 'Let's just get outa here.'
'We need weapons, that's why. We won't stand much chance without them. We can cut through the carrier section, then back to the Operations Room.'
Fairbank shrugged. 'Okay, lead on.'
He waded over to a metal locker and reached for a heavy-duty lamp perched on its top - torches and lamps were kept all around the shelter for lighting emergencies. We may need it,' he said and all three hoped they wouldn't.
Culver fought for balance as he stepped back into the corridor. One hand stretched for the far wall as the water, now past his knees, endeavoured to unbalance him. Kate held on to his other arm and Fairbank kept close behind, constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure no dark creatures were swimming towards them. Something nudged the back of his leg and he was relieved to see it was only an empty shoe. Ownerless, it swept by.
Sparks suddenly sprouted from machinery just ahead. 'Christ!' Fairbank shouted. 'If it goes, we'll all be electrocuted!'
The other two heard him but no reply was needed. Culver just hoped that someone had the sense to shut down all the unnecessary machinery. He pushed between two towering racks of telecommunications equipment, pulling Kate in with him. Fairbank, still busy looking over his shoulder, would have passed the opening had not Culver reached out and yanked him in. Figures raced by at the other end of the narrow alleyway they had taken refuge in.
'Looks like they're making for the door to the Underground tunnel!' Fairbank shouted over the noise.
That might make matters worse,' Culver replied and Fairbank understood what he meant. The flooding in the
tunnel could be even greater than before. A deeper sense of dread surged through them, for they realized that was their only way out.
Culver pushed on, setting himself only one objective at a time, the acquisition of firearms being the first.
Guns would give them some protection against the rats, though they would be useless against too many.
Then perhaps they could find high ground - on top of machinery possibly - where they could be above the water level and in a position to hold off any clambering vermin. Culver knew that the Exchange had two other entrances, but both had been sealed by fallen buildings; how the government planners had been so stupid as not to have foreseen such an event, he could not fathom -perhaps they felt the tunnel exit was safeguard enough.
He stepped out from the narrow, machine-created passage into a wider area where the crushing water had become a torrent. On the opposite side was a metal catwalk, just seven or eight feet above floor level, which enabled the engineers to reach the upper parts of communications equipment built into the wall there. If they could get to the catwalk ladder just a few yards ahead of them, then the narrow platform would provide an easy passage for some considerable distance. Culver pointed to the ladder and the others nodded vigorously, failing to see the black vermin that raced towards the pilot.
One was on his shoulders before he had even realized it had clawed its way up his body. Another bit into the hem of his short, leather jacket as he pitched forward into the water.
Kate screamed, involuntarily shrinking back into the slightly calmer current of the passageway they had just passed through. Culver's body thrashed around in the water, two scrabbling black shapes clinging to it, a wild foam created around them.
Fairbank leapt into the melee, raising the heavy-duty lamp high and swinging it down onto the back of the creature that was about to tear into the pilot's neck. He thought he heard the rat squeal in pain, but the overall noise was too great to be sure. Its grip loosened and Fairbank, now on his knees, water seeping around his upper torso, swung at it again. The rat fell away, but immediately lunged for its assailant.
Culver coughed water, aware that the paralysing grip around his neck had been released, but not understanding why. He pushed himself upwards, bursting through the foamy surface. Spluttering and gasping for air, he tried to regain his feet, but something else encumbered him, something that dragged at his jacket like a lead weight, one with sharp, scudding claws. Almost without thinking he slipped an arm from the jacket, turned, and used the tough material to smother the thrashing rat He bore down, water cascading over his back and shoulders, using his weight to keep the lethal-clawed creature below the surface.
The vermin's strength astounded Culver and it was all he could do to keep a grip around its squirming shoulders. He could feel its head twisting round beneath the surface, trying to reach him with those razor teeth, and he was glad the tough leather of the jacket provided some barrier. But his hold was slipping; he could feel the rat slithering from beneath him. Drawing in a huge breath, Culver lunged down, covering the animal entirely with his own body, using his full weight, fighting the current and the rat, both trying their best to dislodge him, natural force combining with animal strength as if in league against man himself.
Culver clenched his hands tighter around the wriggling bundle underneath, resisting the grey, swirling claustrophobia. Huge, single bubbles of air fought their way from beneath the jacket, becoming a frothy stream of efferves-cence, finally exploding into a gush of larger bubbles as the struggles beneath him grew weaker, began to fade, became almost still. Ceased.
He rose up, his own lungs spurting their protest, falling backwards, rising again, trying to gain his feet.
Arms reached for him, and he gratefully used Kate's support to draw himself up. Before he had fully risen, he saw Fairbank's head just above water, resting against a bank of machinery, hands desperately holding away the snapping jaws of a mutant rat. Culver realized Fairbank must have pulled the animal off him, and now the creature had turned its attack on the engineer himself. Culver plunged for the animal, rage burning inside, loathing for these grotesque creatures overcoming the fear.
He pulled at its body, gripping it beneath the shoulders, heaving and taking the weight from Fairbank's bloodied chest. The engineer twisted free, keeping his hands around the rat's throat. They could see its snapping teeth below the surface, the evil slanted eyes staring at them with a malevolence that held no fear, no acceptance of its inevitable fate, no surrender.
The two men pressed hard, Culver using one knee to pin the powerful hindquarters, avoiding the frenzied claws that turned the water white with their scrabbling. They slowly pushed the head down until it was against the floor, both men relieved they could no longer distinguish those glaring, hate-filled eyes.
Air rose to the surface and it was fetid, an evil smell befitting the monster it escaped from. Soon the creature no longer struggled, no longer twitched. They released it and the body drifted away with the current.
Culver and Fairbank rose, breathless and shivering, both leaning back against the machinery. Kate allowed them no respite.
'It's getting deeper!' she cried. We have to get away from here!'
Culver blinked water from his eyes and looked back along the wide corridor in the direction of the Operations Room. It was not just the rising water that alerted him further, for where the corridor opened out to accommodate the repeater power plant there was total chaos. Figures attempted to run through the water, fleeing from the
