Icosahunter

Geiger

The slow drip of the damp hallways echoed around him. The only sound more incessant and ominous than the drip was the steady crackle of the Geiger counter he clutched tightly in his left hand. It had been several hours since he last heard anything out of the ordinary, and the dim flickering lights and droning noises of the place were making him feel dizzy. He made his way slowly down the tunnel, limping from the wound in his right leg. He held a small break-open revolver in his right hand, leaving his flashlight wedged awkwardly between his arm and his body, its beam bobbing periodically across the walls as he hobbled along.

The generators couldn’t be more than a few hundred yards away by now, but that’s what he told himself an hour ago. A slow creak followed by a loud metallic crash interrupted his thoughts. He whipped around, nearly dropping his flashlight, as he positioned himself so it’s beam fell upon the culprit: an old rusted-out shelf collapsed on the ground. He dared let out a sigh of relief—and then the ticking. His Geiger counter clicked furiously and loudly and he frantically turned this way and that until he caught a glimpse of two glistening yellow eyes, then he started running. Stumbling on a can from the shelf he dropped his flashlight, but there was no time, he got right back up and half-ran half-stumbled through the darkness. He looked back—against the backlight of the flashlight he could see the creature's slender form, with its many withered insect-like legs, as it bounded toward him. As he ran he let off a couple shots at the creature. His ears rang but his pursuer was unphased, and it was gaining on him. He could just barely make out a T-intersection up ahead and he put every ounce of energy he had into sprinting toward it. Having gained a couple yards more on the creature he slid to the right and stumbled his way behind some machinery. He sat there, crouched in a corner for dear life, as the creature reached the intersection. His Geiger counter kept up a quick pace, but these monsters could barely hear anything; smell is what doomed you, and it was the one thing that wasn’t easy to hide. The creature slowly peeked around the corner. As it meandered closer and closer, the Geiger counter ticked faster and faster, until he could feel the creature’s cold breath on his neck and the ticking made his head hurt. He held his breath, as the creature backed away, and slowly sauntered down the other corridor. That couldn’t be right, though, there’s no way it didn’t catch his scent; what did it know that he didn’t? Whatever the case, he got back up, trembling, and walked further down the hall. He realized it the moment he’d gotten here, the thing he hid behind was a generator, he’d found the power room. Feeling along the walls, he found a large metal lever and yanked it down, rust and old paint flying up at his face as he did so. The main lights began to turn on, one by one, down the hallways. Now at least he could see. Looking around there were a lot of different control panels, but one in particular caught his eye: “comm systems”. He walked up, flipped a couple switches, grabbed the microphone, and tapped it a couple times: “Drake\! Drake\! Can you hear me?” He looked down at the small blurry blue screen and could see a human form looking into the camera. “Yeah I can hear you.” Came back the staticy reply. “I’ve found the generators, Drake. I’m gonna rig ‘em up, I’d give myself maybe 5 minutes to get out of here before they blow. In case I don’t make it out… well, let’s just hope this works.” He said. “Good luck.” Drake replied over the comm. With that he walked over to the generator, pried the maintenance panel off the back, and began rewiring.

Minutes ticked by as he carefully rewired each generator, keeping one until the end so he had light. As he stood there prying off the plate to that last generator, he heard the crackling of the Geiger counter pick up. Looking around he could see the creature standing there at the edge of the hall. It let out a screech and then barreled towards him. “Not this time\!” He yelled, and pulled down the massive master power lever before dashing out of the room. The creature was close behind him now, and he was much slower and exhausted from his injuries. Still he pushed on, panting and gasping for breath, until a couple minutes in he fell to the ground. The beast skidded to a stop and stood there, towering over his small bloodied form. “Not this time… because this time… we’re both on the menu…” he gasped. He could hear the blast as it filled the tunnels with ash and flames, but it didn’t nearly reach where they were; he’d had a change of plans. “That’s it right? There’s only one thing you fear.” He continued, as a loud roar like rumbling thunder filled the air, coming from back down the corridor they came from. The creature turned around slowly, looking back down the tunnel. “Just one thing: the bigger fish…”