**** Elysium 1986 ****

They marched wordlessly side by side for some time, the ghostly echo of their footsteps adding to the already oppressive atmosphere deep within the tunnel. Nothing moved around them except the irregular flickering of the tubes along the tunnel wall, barely enough light to see where they were going. Even without the ever-present threat of the crawlers, this place would have been eerie enough. Yuri had the group stop at frequent intervals to listen for something or someone approaching unnoticed. He led the way while Harry brought up the rear. Abigail forced herself to keep her flashlight reasonably steady, not letting the cone of light wander hastily through the area. She had already drawn her pistol and held it under the handle of the lamp, ready to fire.
“Should be there soon,” Yuri muttered. “There’s bend ahead. If conductor is right, maintenance room not far.” The computer specialist behind him made only an affirmative noise and curled her dry lips. She fervently hoped they would find a suitable fuse there and not have come all this way for nothing. If she listened to herself openly and honestly, she regretted a little that they had accepted this mission at all. This was different from having human opponents. This was nothing less than eliminating a threat to the entire city, and they still had no idea how to do it or what to expect. This was a different challenge than breaking into a corporate compound or staying on a luxury yacht. It was terrifying; she had simply underestimated it.
As the three of them slowly turned into the bend, the path almost doubled in width, and the gangway junction the conductor had described to them quickly came into view. A short distance away, the path made a sharp right turn. Surprisingly, there must have been a larger light source behind the next bend, for it shone brightly down the path in front of them. Abigail slowly lowered her weapon with the flashlight and exhaled audibly.
“What’s that ahead? It looks really strange. We can’t have gone all the way to the next station already, can we?” she thought. No, that was really not possible, because the network was not very dense, and the distances between the stations were much too far anyway.
“Maybe a construction site?” Harry guessed, glancing back to make sure no one had followed them.
“Yeah, maybe… But didn’t you say the technicians hardly dare come down here anymore?” she countered. “Someone would have to keep the generators running for the lights.”
“Let’s get fuse and then back,” Yuri grunted boredly. “Fuck construction site. Don’t think there is kiosk with drinks – and if there’s nothing with drinks, I don’t care.” The other two nodded in agreement. It was certainly better if they concentrated on the more concrete clues like the ventilation shaft mentioned in the police file, instead of wandering blindly through the tunnel system and being vulnerable on all sides. As they turned into the intersection, leaving the tracks behind, they immediately noticed that the lights were completely out in this passageway. Harry also had trouble finding his way. His eyes could handle a small amount of residual light very well, but here there was complete darkness. They had not gone far when a most unpleasant smell of sweet decay hit them. As it grew stronger, they searched the ground with the cones of their lamps and quickly found the source of the stench through the sounds of all sorts of vermin. Abigail immediately turned away from the remains of the dead subway worker lying on the ground and wordlessly slipped her flashlight into Harry’s hand. Yuri, on the other hand, marched toward the remains, seemingly unfazed, while the startled cockroaches and rats scattered in all directions from the body.
“Please tell me he’s not going to search the body now…” Abigail whispered to Harry in a trembling voice, still not daring to look in Harry’s direction.
“Seen worse. Not much left of him after all,” Yuri explained dryly, who had been able to hear her comment through the silence that reigned down here. It was true: the man had probably been mostly eaten by the crawlers, and from the looks of it, Yuri estimated that this had happened about two weeks ago. Slowly, with pointed fingers, he slid his hand into the pockets of the yellow safety vest with the reflective stripes and the logo of the transport company, finally revealing a set of keys and a wallet. With a quick flick, he tossed the keys to Harry, who tucked them into his pocket. A brief glance inside the wallet was enough for Yuri to find the man’s ID card, which he tucked into his backpack. Once they were back on the surface, he would simply turn it over to their employer. Let homicide take care of the rest.
“Maybe I could go ahead and see if there’s a fuse?” Harry asked the others. “Since I have the man’s keychain now, hopefully it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Are you crazy?” Abigail snapped at him, startled by the loud echo of her voice. They had been speaking at a low volume the whole time, but the tension had caused her to blurt out the sentence. “Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie? Whenever the main characters split up, something bad happens or the monsters get them all one by one,” she added in a hushed voice.
“Are those the ones where the women like to go outside in the middle of the night, barefoot and wearing only a thin shirt, to see where the scary noises are coming from?” retorted Harry, unable to suppress a brief grin. “Besides, this isn’t a horror movie.”
“No, it’s not,” Abigail confirmed, pointing to the man’s corpse. “This is much worse.”
“Maybe that’s not bad idea,” Yuri mused. “You now have flashlight and keys, are the fastest of us. We already lost some time.”
“Exactly. I’ll be right back,” Harry nodded and promptly jogged off into the black void. After a few moments, only the wobbly cone of light from his flashlight could be seen.
“You guys are killing me, you know that?” Abigail sighed, gripping the handle of her gun even tighter. They watched as he finally turned another corner, some distance away, and the darkness swallowed him completely.
“Try the phone again,” Yuri suggested, trying to distract Abigail from her dark thoughts. She nodded and took the cell phone out of her backpack again, dialed the number for headquarters and waited. After a short ring, only a crackling sound came out of the receiver. Grumbling, she pushed the antenna back in. “No chance,” she muttered to the giant, who shook his head.
“Shit technology…” he started, but suddenly drew his pistol with lightning speed and pointed it in the direction of the corridor they had come from. This made Abigail jump, who had also heard it, and she immediately jerked her gun up to point in the same direction. The hasty movement knocked the phone out of her hands and onto the floor with a loud crash. She clenched her teeth and cursed. Something had passed them in the shaft with the rails. From the echoing sounds, she wasn’t sure it couldn’t have been more than one person. They stood there for what seemed like an eternity, weapons at the ready, blood rushing to Abigail’s ears. She barely dared to breathe. Nothing suspicious happened, however, and even the sound of the falling phone had gone completely unnoticed. Had her overstimulated senses finally played a trick on her? Yuri slowly lowered his weapon.
“Probably rats,” he muttered.
“Yeah, hopefully,” Abigail breathed, picking up the phone to put it back in her backpack. Fortunately, it seemed undamaged except for a few scratches. A few minutes later, Harry’s cone of light finally reappeared from the other direction as he approached them at a leisurely pace. The computer specialist smiled in relief. At least nothing had happened to him. Hopefully he had found what he was looking for. The two of them watched as the cone of light whirled around in a hurry, approaching them faster and faster. This was no longer a leisurely pace, something wasn’t right here. Abigail looked at Yuri, who had also noticed and released the safety on his weapon.
Then they saw him draw his sword and run toward them like a scalded cat. As the cone of light from his lamp briefly pointed upward, they saw for a split second a humanoid black figure on the tunnel ceiling run above Harry on all fours and then drop to the ground in front of him. His reaction was quick enough and he dodged the creature, wasting no time in a struggle and continuing to run. As Yuri shone his light in Harry’s direction, they could dimly see why their comrade had not engaged in a fight. There were about six or seven of these creatures hot on his heels.
“Crawlers!” Harry yelled, panting. Yuri brought his weapon to bear. He had to buy him time, and in this unlit tunnel they couldn’t possibly fight such superior numbers. They would have to at least reach the area with the tracks to get a better look at their opponents and have any chance of surviving the whole thing.
He would try to hold off Harry’s pursuers for a while, and she was the slowest runner in the group. Without a word of argument, she began to run, hands shaking, back to the tunnel they had come from. Yuri, on the other hand, waited a few more moments until he could be reasonably sure that he would not hit Harry when he was about to open fire. When he managed to aim the cone of light at one of the pursuers, he exhaled calmly and deliberately, concentrating and trying to gauge the creature’s movements. Then he pulled the trigger. The shot was perfectly placed and the bullet pierced the chest of the grotesque creature, which let out a bloodcurdling scream. It staggered a few times at full speed and remained motionless on the ground. The other crawlers seemed to pause for a moment, breaking off their pursuit. But when they realized what had happened, they started moving again. Yuri didn’t have time for another shot because Harry had reached him and of course didn’t stop. They were now running after Abigail together. The crawlers began to let out gurgling screams behind them. At least they managed to keep them a few meters away. Soon they would reach the passage with the rails again. Their diminutive companion, still a few feet ahead of them, called to the rear:
“Where to? What are we doing? Left or right?” Yuri thought for a moment, then simply shouted:
“Left!”
It really was the better choice to run towards the unknown light source instead of back into the dark corridor they had come from. The crawlers, on the other hand, continued to slowly catch up. When they reached the tracks, they immediately turned left and ran as fast as their legs could carry them towards the light source.
“Headlights!” Abigail shouted loudly, the first to turn the next corner. Harry’s lungs were burning with exertion by now. If they all reached the illuminated area, he would have to fight. Running was simply not a good idea. These creatures didn’t seem to have the slightest problem with stamina, and there was no way to shake them off. When Yuri took the next turn, he was astonished. The tunnel led straight ahead. On the right side, about 50 meters away, was a large steel door on the wall, with two spotlights mounted above it, shining left and right into the passage. From that direction, two men in red military-style overalls came running toward them, machine guns at the ready.
“Help, we’re being followed!” Abigail yelled, hoping the two would join them in their fight.
“Crawlers?” one of the men shouted back. His question was answered immediately, however, as one of the creatures dropped from the ceiling right on top of him. Either it had outrun the TRAP agents running overhead and they hadn’t noticed it, or it had already been lurking nearby. The man panicked and screamed pitifully as the weight of the falling crawler pulled him to the ground. The creature clung to his shoulders and immediately bit into his neck. The man dropped his weapon and tried to shake the attacker off, but he didn’t seem to be able to. Summoning all his strength once more, Harry overtook Yuri at full speed and ran straight at the struggling man. He would try to free him from his tormentor with a well-aimed sword stroke. The giant, on the other hand, turned to face their pursuers. But he had not counted on the fact that one of the crawlers was already right behind him. When he raised his pistol, he could see that it was an unusually large specimen. On its body, too, with its strangely black, almost burnt-looking skin, there were some of those strange symbols that Yuri already recognized from the police photos. Very good, he thought. He would not be able to miss this crawler. The moment he pulled the trigger, however, the creature in front of him dematerialized into a misty wisp of air and flew through Yuri at an unspeakable speed. About three meters behind him, the creature’s particles reassembled and the crawler reappeared with a thud. Yuri, on the other hand, didn’t know what was happening to him as the crawler flew through him in this mist-like form. At first he felt nothing, but a few moments later he was overcome by nausea and a horrible metallic taste in his mouth. He barely managed not to throw up. He could not lose consciousness now, the next crawlers were already upon him. Behind him, the screams of the others echoed through the tunnel and shots rang out. He aimed at one of the approaching crawlers and pulled the trigger. Before he could confirm that his shot had hit the target, he suddenly felt a hot pain in his left thigh. Looking down, he was startled to see that one of the smaller specimens had approached him from the side and grabbed his leg, sinking its teeth into the flesh through his pants. Yuri reacted immediately, grabbed the creature by the neck, and with the grip of his pistol, struck the creature’s skull three times with all his might, cracking the top of the skull as if he were cracking a breakfast egg with a spoon. Then he rammed the barrel of the pistol deep into the creature’s eye socket and pulled the trigger. When the crawler’s head hit the ground with a loud crack, its jaw finally relaxed and Yuri’s thigh was free again.
Abigail screamed behind him. He immediately turned around and tried to assess the situation. It was chaos. Harry was fighting one of the crawlers, who was skillfully dodging his sword blows. One of the two men and several of the creatures were already dead on the ground. The computer specialist had apparently emptied her weapon and was now cornered by one of the attackers at the steel door. Without hesitation, Yuri ran, throwing away his pistol in the process. At close range and in the melee, he couldn’t risk hurting his comrade. Instead, he pulled his freshly sharpened combat knife from his belt and roared like a berserker gone mad. These critters were about to get to know him for real.

Categorized as: Novel 3 (EN) | Novel Chapter (EN)

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