Tunnels 06 - Terminal

her to see where the dark trail went.
    She stuck her head into each room as she moved down the corridor, finding they were empty and the beds all made. Butthen, halfway along the corridor, the dark trail continued up a small flight of carved wooden stairs to the next floor, which she assumed to be the attic. Pointing her rifle ahead of her, she began up the stairs.
    However, as she reached the top, her foot caught against something and she toppled forwards. As she tried to stop herself falling, her finger twitched against the trigger, and her rifle fired.
    The shot resounded deafeningly around the large room.
    ‘Shit!’ she exclaimed, quickly picking herself up.
    It was cold. The skylights in the steeply slanted roof either side of her were mainly broken, so the attic was exposed to the elements.
    Which explained why she hadn’t smelt the many dead bodies in various states of mutilation.
    She’d been brought down by one of the cadavers stretched out at the top of the stairs, but they were everywhere.
    Some were half eaten, and some very much full of life as Styx grubs burrowed away inside them.
    ‘Sh—’ she said again, swallowing the word as she realised what she’d blundered into.
    This was obviously where the Armagi had brought the occupants of the houses for breeding. Some of these poor unfortunates had been impregnated, while others were there for food. And many of the victims had been elderly – she could see that from the wispy grey hair and aged features. That explained why the old people’s home had been empty.
    A terrible wailing sound came from just feet away. She wheeled towards the area of roof closest to her.
    One of the younger Armagi – a lizard-type creature some four feet from nose to tail – was clinging to it. Its headswivelled towards her.
    The head of a human child.
    Its nostrils flared as its forked tongue flicked towards her.
    It wailed again, then another lizard took up the cry, then another. The sound of her rifle had frightened them. She could see it in their shining eyes.
    They were everywhere, probably as many as twenty of them, but there was no way she was about to stop and count. And they were all clinging to the roof timbers, watching her through their slit pupils, their mouths wet with blood.
    In addition to the lizards, she glimpsed large objects tucked into the corners of the roof space They resembled the cocoons of moths or butterflies, but on a giant scale.
    She heard Will calling her name, but she held absolutely still.
    The lizard nearest to her was sniffing her, but it had stopped wailing. However, some of the others continued in a random pattern, much like chickens when they’ve been disturbed. And these young Armagi were still very clearly alarmed by her appearance.
    The closest lizard sniffed her once more. Elliott braced herself, wondering if it was about to use its rows of needle teeth on her.
    Then the most remarkable thing happened. It appeared to simply lose interest, scurrying up to the apex of the roof with a tac-tac noise as its clawed feet dug into the surface.
    Elliott remained stock still, not even allowing herself to breathe.
    Will’s panicked voice came again from the floor below. Elliott heard a door slam – this seemed to agitate the lizards all over again, making them scuttle in every direction. Thenanother door slammed on the floor below. Will was looking for her. Of course he was – he’d heard the rifle shot.
    And at any moment he’d come up the stairs and into the attic.
    Elliott had to do something.
    She took a step backwards, then another, lifting her foot over the gored cadaver. Then she was on the wooden staircase. She spun around and threw herself down it, only to cannon straight into Will at the bottom.
    ‘For God’s sake!’ he cried. ‘Where have you … what happened?’
    ‘Just shut up,’ she said, pushing him backwards. She kept going until he was up against the corridor wall, where his shoulder knocked a painting to the ground.
    As it hit the wooden floor with a crash, Elliott pressed herself hard up against him, so that he was sandwiched between her body and the wall.
    ‘This isn’t really the time or the pl—’ he said, with a nervous chuckle.
    ‘Idiot,’ she snapped, hearing the commotion from the floor above. She was petrified that they might swarm down the wooden stairs. But more than this, she knew – with almost complete certainty – that the calls of the frightened lizards were summoning the adult Armagi.