She looked at the wound. 'It doesn't look all that bad to be honest with you.'
'Lucky I had the M16 up or it would have taken my arm off,' said Mick. 'The poor gun took the brunt of it.'
'They'll come for us,' said Julia.
Mick looked around. There was a lot of sweat staining his forehead now. The pain must have been extreme.
Mick pointed. 'Two doors off of this one. You got any psychic inclinations about which one will lead us out of here?'
'Is there a way out of this complex?'
Mick looked at her. 'Complex?'
'This place. Wherever the hell we are.'
Mick smiled. 'We're on a ship, Julia.'
'A ship? You mean a space ship?'
'Yeah. Why do you think it took me so long to find you? This thing is huge. It's the entire mountain.'
Julia's mind reeled. 'The entire mountain? That doesn't make any sense.'
'Think of it as camouflage then. They disguised an entire spaceship to look exactly like a mountain. The tunnel we were in, the jungle, it's all a part of the greater vehicle.'
'My God.'
'It's huge,' said Mick. 'Took me hours to figure my way around it, and that was only using the main corridors. They'll have those cordoned off somehow.'
'And you don't know any other ways off this thing?'
Mick grimaced. 'Shit that hurts.' He looked at her. 'No. My AAA membership didn't have a map for this place.'
'Don't be sarcastic.' Julia glanced around. Two doors. One or the other. One might lead them off this ship and back into the cold of Antarctica or it might lead them deeper into the spaceship.
Some choice.
Behind them, a sudden flurry of noise sounded beyond the door they'd come in through. Mick pointed at the control box next to the door. 'Better fry that thing or we'll have company real soon.'
Julia shot the panel and watched the circuitry pop and fizzle. She turned back to Mick. 'I don't know which one to choose.'
'There's another reason we have to get off this thing,' said Mick.
'Why's that?'
'Because if they feel we're too much of as threat, they might simply lift this thing off and take us home with them.'
'Home?'
'As in other planet.'
Julia pulled Mick to his feet. 'I've already got a home. And I want to get the hell back there.'
'Which one?' asked Mick.
Julia looked at the two doors. Both of them looked the same. Which one to choose?
More activity behind them made her yank Mick toward one of them. She held him up. 'You trust me?'
He smirked. 'Only a little bit.'
'That's enough,' she said.
And then pressed the button to trigger the door on he right.
It slid up and she pushed them both through it, praying it was the right choice.
26
Darkness enveloped them.
'I can't see a damned thing,' said Mick.
Julia shushed him. Something felt odd about the room. There seemed to be some sense of foreboding about the place, even if she couldn't actively figure out why that was.
'You hear something?'
Julia listened. Breathing? There seemed to be long inhalations coming from somewhere over on her right side. Should she go to it and see what it was? Maybe she should just shoot the laser rifle and see if that lit anything up.
'J-Julia?'
The voice sounded like a sick whisper. Low. Gravelly. As if someone had coated the speaker's vocal chords with thick syrup.
'Who's that?'
Mick tensed next to her. Julia could feel his muscles harden. His hand gripped hers.
'Wilkins.'
Jesus Christ, she'd forgotten all about him in the attempt to escape. But wait — where had Wilkins disappeared to? When Mick rescued her, Wilkins wasn't in the room anymore. He wasn't held in the cylindrical tube. Had the visitors removed him? What had happened to him?
And now he was here? In this room? But why?
'Are you okay? I lost track of you when Mick rescued me.'
Wilkins voice sounded stronger now that he realized friends were in the room with him. 'They took me out when they started doing things to you. I thought they were going to let me rest or something.'
'They brought you here?'
'Not at first. But eventually.' Wilkins cleared his throat. 'Is Mick with you?'
'I'm here,' said Mick.
'Glad you made it.'
'Me, too. Are there any lights in this place? We can't see shit.'
'I don't know. I'm strapped down on some kind of table. I can't move. I can't see anything, either.'
'But you knew it was us?'
'I…smelled something that reminded me of Julia. Then I heard the voices. I don't know, I guessed. Hoped I was right.'
'Hang on, pal,' said Mick. 'We'll find some lights and figure out a way to get you out of here.'
'We don't have a lot of time,' said Julia. 'Did you see anything about this room when they brought you in here?'
'I think I was unconscious,' said Wilkins. 'When they took me out of your room, I felt light headed all of a sudden. I saw all these memories flash before my eyes. I started…reliving them, I think. It felt so good to be back in them. So far away from this place. So calm and inviting. I don't know. Then I woke up in here. It's been dark the entire time.'
'Okay, we'll find the lights somehow,' said Julia. Obviously, the visitors had used the mental manipulation on Wilkins as well. But what for? What had they done to him?
'Feel so strange,' said Wilkins.
'Keep your voice down,' said Mick. 'Those dinocreatures will be looking for us and I'd rather them not know we're in here with you.'
'..so weird…'
Julia nudged Mick. 'Can you take the left side of the room? I'll search the other.'
'Yeah.' Mick grunted. 'Damned shoulder.'
'Don't lean on it. Just do your best.'
'Yeah.'
Julia pushed off from him and put her hands out in front of her. She walked into a machine of some sort, its hard edges bit into her thigh and she yelped slightly. 'Damn.'
'You okay?' Mick's voice came at her from the other side of the room.
