The Pyramid Chronicles: Fortuna Guard (#2)

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Hunted

The elevator doors closed in front of Ash. "Finally," he muttered as he began his descent. He'd finally escaped the fighting. What a nightmare. And it was all in vain, apparently. Claudia had mentioned evacuating when she'd given him this task.

He was supposed to go to the barracks where they stored soldiers and activate the latest shipment. If Scorpion was leaving the building, they needed to bring as much of their army with them as possible. According to Claudia.

Where on earth were they going to go, anyway? The labs? Would those be large enough to hold everyone? Ash had never been, but that was the only other Scorpion building that existed, as far as he knew. They could return to one of their abandoned buildings, but it was likely those were all being monitored by SCI. The only other option was the Director's house, right? No way could they take all of the soldiers there.

Ash looked down at his shirt. There were a few blood stains, mainly from his last fight with Eric. He should have chased after Eric and his friends, but he was having a hard time staying in the fight today. And then he'd run into Claudia, and she'd thrown this new task at him.

The doors opened. Ash stepped onto the first floor. He'd have to take a different elevator down to the barracks, since they were in the sublevels. Dumb way to design a building, in his opinion, but Claudia didn't care what he thought.

It was cold down here. As Ash walked, he could feel wind coming in from the hole the Fortuna Guard had put in the building. The chill worsened as he drew closer. More than half the lights were out, too, making the journey more annoying.

For some reason, there was a pile of shattered glass on the ground in front of the hole. No, not glass, ice. Why would the hole have been filled with ice? Did one of the Fortuna Guard altered put it there?

And if so, why was it shattered?

The humidity in the air heightened Ash's senses. As he stood there by the hole, mind racing, he started to get the feeling he wasn't alone on the first floor.

A clicking sound came from the darkness ahead. Something moved. Ash tensed. Had an animal found its way inside the building? They were in the middle of a forest, after all. But whatever it was had to be strong enough to break through what looked to be a good six inches of ice. And that was just what hadn't melted yet.

A shadow sprang out of the darkness, and Ash found himself jumping out of the way before he fully processed what was happening. He collided with the wall hard enough to send pain shooting through his shoulder and down his arm.

Barely realizing the pain, he whirled around. Froze. Tried and failed to believe what he was seeing.

The thing creeping toward him was unreal. It had long legs bent like a spider's but bulging with muscle and ending in clawed toes. Its head was featureless except for an oversized mouth. Every inch was covered in pale, gray skin.

It moved closer and let out the clicking sound Ash had heard earlier. He took a slow step backwards, struggling to reclaim his thoughts. His mind. His body screamed at him to move, but he had no hope he'd be able to outrun the creature.

Fighting was his only other option. Well, that or standing still and waiting for death. Ash's hands searched his pockets for weapons. No gun. He never thought he'd need one inside HQ. He did have a knife, but it was small. The creature would have to be on top of him for it to do any good.

Ash continued inching backward. The creature could pounce any second now. He racked his brain and came up empty. Nothing he could do. Weapon storage was a few floors up.

But not the nearest weapons, he realized. The soldiers in the barracks had guns. He just needed to make it to the elevator.

The creature's jaws opened, and something darted out. A tongue? Whatever it was, it struck Ash in the stomach. He gasped for air. Fell backwards. His back hit cold tile. No, this thing was more like a tentacle, he realized as it wrapped around his leg and tightened. Then, it retracted, dragging him along the floor and towards rows of huge teeth.