Free Floxham Island ~ Sinclair V-Log AZ267/M by Merita King Page A

to
leave, that’s all right.”
    “I’ll be fine
Sam,” he replied with as much defiance as he could muster, which
wasn’t much but I couldn’t help but admire him. “I’ll be fine.”
    We worked our
way along the corridor and each cell held at least one body. Some
lay on their bunks as if asleep but all bore the same injuries as
the ones we’d seen upstairs; the abdomen split open and the
contents wrenched out in an untidy heap leaving us wondering how
all of that stuff could fit into that small space. The floor was
awash with blood and the metallic smell tainted the air, making us
all retch by the time we reached the end of the corridor to find
the emergency exit door standing open.
    “So here’s one
way they’re getting in,” Dex said as he pulled the huge heavy metal
door closed and struggled with the cross lever that held it shut.
“Help me with this would ya?” Luggs put his weight to it and
together, the two of them secured the door. “Thanks buddy, that’s
one down, three more to go.”
    We jogged back
along the corridor and up the steps to the central hall to find
Kitt and Eddy standing there with a tray of cold drinks.
    “Oh my god
you’re okay,” he sighed with relief. “I heard shots and then it
went quiet for ages. I was just beginning to wonder if me and Eddy
were alone here. We’ve made some cold drinks for everyone, thought
you might need them. Here, help yourselves.”
    “Man are we
ever glad to see you,” Luggs smiled as he helped himself to a
drink.
    “You obviously
got some creatures down there too then?” Kitt asked and Dex
nodded.
    “What do you
mean us too?” I asked.
    “I heard shots
from that corridor too,” he said as he pointed to door number five.
“They started shooting a few seconds after you did, but they’re not
back yet.”
    “Maybe we
should go and,” Ronjo began but just then the door opened and Flark
stumbled out, swiftly followed by Cap, the blue eyed plank and then
Marta. All dropped to their knees and heaved deep breaths. Marta
was visibly shaking as Kitt went up and handed drinks around.
    “Oh god,” she
whispered, “I’ve never been so terrified in all my life. They were
down there, hanging from the ceiling and just came for us as soon
as we switched the light on.” The blue eyed plank reached out and
took her hand and gave it a squeeze and she did her best to
smile.
    “Yeah, same
with us,” I replied. “We found the emergency door at the end was
standing open. I’m guessing that when the laser fences went down,
the inmates decided to let themselves out, little realising that
they were signing their own death warrants.”
    “Yeah, our door
was open too,” Flark nodded.
    “Shit I would
kill for a cigarette,” I said. It’s been five years or so since
I’ve smoked regularly but under extreme stress I do find it calms
me down. Not once had I seen any of my colleagues smoking so I
guessed I’d be out of luck, but to my surprise, the blue eyed plank
dug into his pocket and threw a pack over.
    “Help
yourself,” he said, “and light one for me while you’re at it would
ya?”
    After a short
break we set off down to cell wing number two, leaving Flark and
his group heading off to number six. As we got to the top of the
short flight of steps that led down to the door, we stopped dead in
our tracks with shock. The steps were littered with bodies, all
torn open as before and it looked as if the inmates had been caught
as they tried to enter the main building. We picked our way down
through the bloody mass of bodies and Dex put his hand out towards
the sensor pad that would bring the lights up. He looked at me and
I held up three fingers, then two, then one and he slapped the
sensor; bringing the whole of cell wing two into view. No creatures
flew at us this time but the place was littered with corpses. We
could see the door at the end of the corridor was closed so we
assumed the inmates had either gone out that way, seen what was
waiting for