"And the fact that there are beds, showers, some sort of power source and a massive computer capable of god knows what all tucked away safely down here didn't draw any of them back?"
Coal shrugged.
"It just seems strange that no one would come back, or at least tell someone else about it who would want to come here," I said.
"Maybe it's just because it's Creeper country. Even if they tried to come back, they might not have made it down here like we did."
I nodded, though it still seemed odd to me.
"Found it." Alicia's voice echoed across the room. She had disappeared from view with Laurie while we were talking and we moved on quickly to locate them.
Something rattled across the floor and hit the side of my boot.
"What's that?" Coal asked, bending down to retrieve it. He held it up. It was a rusted metal drink can.
"Where did that come from?" I asked.
We looked down the row. At the end, a silhouette was outlined by the dim red light of the room through the smoked glass beyond.
"Laurie?" I asked, but I knew it wasn't her. The silhouette was too tall, the limbs hung at strange angles and it was positioned almost like a wild animal waiting to pounce.
I felt Coal's hand close around my wrist as he took a step backwards, the silhouette moved into a crouch and let out an inhuman snarl. Coal's torch swung up to illuminate an all-too-human face that was twisted in a growl of rage.
"Run," Coal gasped and flung me around to face the opposite end of the row.
We sprinted, the sound of bare feet slapping against the solid floor sounded too close behind us.
Coal pulled a knife from his belt and turned, flinging it in one fluid motion at the Creeper. We didn't pause to see if it hit the mark but we heard a screech of rage and the footsteps slowed.
"Gunshots will just draw more of them to us, try not to use them," he said.
"Okay," I agreed and moved my hand from my pistol to the hilt of my first knife.
"Alicia? Laurie?" Coal yelled as we barrelled from the end of the row and skidded to the left.
Two more figures loomed out of the darkness in front of us. We spun to head back the way we had come but we were surrounded. Coal shifted to stand between me and the nearest Creepers.
I stayed close to him, looking back at the moving shadows behind us as he held two knives ready and started forward.
We quickly closed the distance between ourselves and the two attackers. As we moved forwards they held their ground seeming unsure, obviously not expecting us to take the fight to them.
We passed another line of computer consoles and Coal stopped.
"Run," he hissed at me.
"What?" I whispered back.
"Don't argue with me, just run."
He turned slightly and shoved me sideways with his shoulder. I stumbled into the passage. Coal ran the last few steps between him and the Creepers and launched an attack.
I hesitated for a moment as the struggle took Coal further away from me. Just as I stepped forward to help, the remaining Creepers moved into the end of the passage, cutting me off from him.
I took a step backwards instinctively, then another. There were four of them and they all seemed intent on coming after me rather than Coal. I did the only thing I could and ran.
Chapter Thirty
Alicia attached the device to the console without difficulty. There was even a handy sign next to the port saying 'USB in' to make it even easier to find. She waited for the device to confirm that it was working. A little progress bar ran along the screen with the words 'coupling complete in:' followed by a timer which was counting down seconds from sixty.