Free Slimer by Harry Adam Knight

noisily and didn't finish the sen-tence. For a few moments his self-control deserted him and they saw the face of a man who was profoundly terrified. Paul felt a wave of unease sweep over him as he stared at Shelley's face. What could it be that could scare a man so badly? That scared him even more than dying?
        Shelley regained control of himself with a visible effort. 'My only hope is that someone finds these records before it's too late. I'll have to hide them somewhere so that it can't get them and yet where they'll be found by whoever comes here next. But where?'
        There was a noise off screen and Shelley spun round again. The door had apparently opened. They saw him raise the gun then heard him say, still facing away from the camera 'Oh, it's you, thank God… for a moment I thought it was…'
        The screen went blank again.
        Paul kept the tape running but there was nothing else on it. Shelley didn't reappear.
        'Think there's any chance of repairing one of those boats?' asked Mark quietly.
        'Take it easy. We saw Shelley last night so he obviously survived. And he certainly looked in better shape then than he did on that tape. Whatever it was, or is, must have been overcome by Shelley and his pals.'
        'You want to make a bet on that?' said Mark. 'And what was all that stuff about being dead not a protection. Protection against what, that's what I want to know.'
        Paul gestured at the racks of tape. 'The answer has to be there somewhere. We keep searching.'
        'Hey!' Mark was staring at one of the monitors. 'Look!'
        Paul looked and saw the figure of a woman walking down a corridor with her back to the camera. He glanced immediately at the screen showing the view of the recreation room and saw that all three girls were still playing cards. His pulse quickened. So there was someone else on the rig apart from Shelley.
        'Which level is that picture coming from?' he asked excitedly. 'Can you tell?'
        Mark shook his head. 'They all look alike to me.'
        The woman, who was walking with a fast, purposeful stride, reached the end of the corridor and disappeared from view. Paul swore and started pressing buttons on the camera controls, hoping to pick her up on another screen. Finally he succeeded, but again she had her back to them and was rapidly moving away from the camera. This time, however, they could make out a sign on a nearby wall. It read 'Level Two'.
        'She's on this floor,' cried Paul, leaping up. 'I'm going to find her. You try and keep track of her with the cameras in case I lose her.'
        Paul hurried out of the room. Mark opened his mouth to call after him but realised he had no idea what he wanted to say. All he knew was that he didn't care for suddenly being on his own…
        He scanned the bank of monitors for the woman. There was no sign of her so he started punching buttons at random, cutting to new cameras. Then he spotted her again. This time she was walking towards the camera. She was wearing a white lab coat and had short blonde hair but he couldn't make out her face.
        Mark frowned as he stared hard at the screen. The woman was getting closer now but her face remained indistinct. Blurred even. Was there something wrong with the camera? A smear on the lens perhaps?
        The woman continued to approach the camera. Then she was directly under it…
        Mark screamed.
        As the woman had walked by the camera she had looked briefly up at it. There had been no way for Mark to avoid the horrible truth…
        She had no face.
        She had eyes. The round, staring eyes of a fish. Eyes straight out of a nightmare. But that was all. The rest of her face was completely smooth.
        

***
        
        Paul caught a glimpse of her ahead of him as she turned a corner. 'Hey!' he called and started walking faster. He hurried round the corner and saw that she was now only ten