Hresh, in pure terror, the farthest from the melee, backed away, his eyes bulging and his teeth chattering.
“For crap’s sake, they’re everywhere!” cried Yul. “Quick, in here!” He motioned to a side chamber with steel door marked with red, no-access bars.
Hresh grimaced, clutching at Yul’s muscled arm with curled fingers. “No, this way. Try another bay!”
“Why, you miserable shit? You hiding something? Do you want us to get cut down? Inside!” Using his massive strength, he ripped the bar free and shoved the protesting scientist through. Nonas followed with a grunt, pushed the door shut, shouldering Cloye aside. Blood streamed from a wound on his brow. The man was limping from a crippling shot that had penetrated his leg armour.
Yul’s mouth sagged at what he saw.
“I told you not to come in here,” said Hresh.
Yul’s blinking eyes adjusted to the murk and he caught a glimpse of many bathtub-shaped vessels containing deformed heads, twisted limbs, dismembered appendages and naked body parts, all floating in cloudy water—monsters, dwarfs, human, subhuman. It made no difference. The blur was indistinguishable. Bits of metal—racks or plates—were sewn into some of the skulls, and upon their reptilian-spined backs: circuit control boards or implants, from what Yul could deduce. His mind gave up trying to understand. His fists clenched, then he seized Hresh by the shoulders and pulled him close with his iron fingers.
“You miserable hunk of filth. What the hell have you done here?”
Hresh, wincing in pain, spewed spittle from his lips. “You think it’s easy, Vrean? All these ideas? The dead ends I hit, the swamps of hell I wade through everyday?”
“Spare us the violins,” Cloye spat. “You’re a deranged psychopath.”
“Call it what you will,” panted Hresh. “There’s darkness to the places I go. Any visionary must make the plunge, take the risks.”
“No shit,” cried Cloye, slapping his face hard and boxing his ears. She hip-checked him to the ground.
Yul pulled her off him, sucking in a deep breath and casting many uneasy looks around at the cages off to the sides. They contained live specimens from what he could see. “Easy, Cloye, the damage is already done.”
“I don’t care! This reptile should be put down. He obviously used live humans to test drive his horror show.”
The figures in the cages rattled their bars in sudden movement. Yul caught ripples of movements: of human eyes, bare patches of skin, furred fingers, bodies crawling on all fours.
“They were willing subjects and signed waivers,” defended Hresh. He wiped his bloody lip, as he regained his feet.
Cloye tossed her hair. “No fool is gonna sign a waiver for this.”
“We only used their DNA,” stammered Hresh. “To build clones for studies. They’re not real—These weren’t real humans.”
“Says who?” snorted Cloye. “I’m sure they had feelings too, breathed, laughed, thought and shat like anyone else.”
“That’s a matter of opinion. Bold experiments—all failed. Preliminary research to the Biogron, prototyping the neural net to flesh route. I had to be sure. It didn’t work.”
“I should kick your smug ass for what you’ve done, Hresh.”
Nonas looked on in amusement, enjoying the spectacle. “Listen up, children. We’ve got precious minutes to find a way out of here before hostiles swarm in here through that mangled door.”
Hresh glowered in silence. Yul shouted, “Where’s the exit?”
Hresh lifted a finger. “There.” He indicated a darkened alcove at the back of the lab.
Metallic thuds bombarded the door. Cloye and Nonas pushed through the murk.
Yul, in a fit of fury, blasted the locks off the cages of beasts to either side as he passed by. The monsters, raw-fleshed, furred and nightmarishly hued, flowed out of their cages, cringing at the flashes of movement that came bursting through the door. Now they peered in venom, alerted to their new circumstance.
Some cut into their locust attackers with teeth, nails and claws, others went wild and scattered in every direction. Yul was last to reach the exit, leaving the locusts behind to contend with the panicked brood.
Yul caught a glimpse of Nonas’s bewildered expression. The man, blinking and muttering, seemed ignorant of the whole sordid operation. Lucky for him or he would have wasted him along with Hresh right there.
Yul slammed the door shut and pulled down the bar, securing the exit, chest heaving at the thought of abandoning those who were inside as human fodder for the locusts. “How did the locusts track us so quickly?” he demanded.
“Who knows?” Nonas panted. “The bloodsuckers must be swarming all over this warren. The place is infested with their reek. Does it matter?”
“This is bullshit,” cried Cloye, smacking her blaster against the wall. Tinny echoes rebounded up the hall.
“Quiet, or you’ll alert the squids!” said Nonas.
“Let them come. I’ll fucking kill them!”
Nonas shook his head. “Control your wild bird, Vrean, or I’ll clip her wings.”
“Try it,” grunted Cloye.
They scrambled up the corridor, Hresh wheezing and trailing behind. They went skidding left at a T junction.
But they didn’t get far.
Three hulking Zikri stormed out of a side hallway. Hresh groaned in dismay. Like a babbling lunatic, he clambered to stay away from them, knocking over a water dispenser. Nonas, E1 lifted, jerked the man to his feet. Hresh scrabbled up the corridor. Nonas got a shot in, blasted one of their heads off and ran after Hresh.
Yul and Cloye stumbled after, but the two remaining Zikri cut them off. Yul squeezed off a blast, which ricocheted off the first’s armour, stunning it momentarily. But their backs were to the wall and they were forced into
