Free Slimer by Harry Adam Knight Page A

yards or so in front of him. He called out again but she didn't give any indication of hearing him. She continued on at her same fast pace.
        Paul broke into a run and caught up with her just before she reached the next corner. 'Hey, I want to speak to you,' he said, grabbing her by the shoulder and pulling her around.
        Then he gave a gasp of surprise.
        

SEVEN
        
        Mark groaned. Someone was shaking him roughly by the shoulder and he wished they wouldn't. Reluctantly he opened his eyes. Where was he? Oh yes, on the floor of the video room. But why? What had happened?
        He focused his eyes and saw Paul bending over him with a concerned expression. Behind him there was someone else. A woman in a white coat. With short blonde hair…
        Then he remembered. He screamed again. Frantically he tried to scramble to his feet. He had to get away from her - the Woman With No Face. The Woman With The Round Eyes…
        'Mark!'
        Paul's yell coincided with a stinging slap on the side of Mark's face. He stopped screaming and slumped back to the floor. He could see the woman plainly now. She had attractive green eyes, snub nose and wide, sensual mouth. She was very beautiful. He stared at her in amazement.
        'Mark, what's wrong? What happened?' cried Paul.
        Mark couldn't speak. He continued to stare dumbly at the woman. She was looking down at him with concern in her eyes.
        She spoke. 'He's suffering from shock. I've seen it before. He needs to be kept warm.'
        Mark finally managed to say something. 'Who's she…?'
        'This is Dr Carol Soames. She's who we saw on the TV screen. She's going to help us. But what happened to you? What's wrong?' asked Paul.
        Mark shook his head dazedly. 'I saw… I saw something. It must have been another hallucination. I'm okay now. Help me up.'
        As Paul did so he said, 'What was it this time? More black slime?'
        'No, no… I can't describe it. Don't ask me to.' He glanced at the girl and shuddered.
        'It must have been bad if it made you pass out,' said Paul worriedly, then he turned to the girl. 'You said you'd explain everything if we agreed to help you to get away from this place. As spokesman for the group I guarantee no one's going to object to your coming with us so give - tell us what the hell is happening out here.'
        She gave the door a nervous look then sighed and sat down on one of the room's three swivel chairs. 'We don't have much time so I'm going to have to make this brief. The sooner we get going the better. Charlie is under temporary control at the moment but there's no guarantee for how long…'
        'Who is Charlie?' demanded Paul.
        'Charlie is a nickname we gave to… but I'll explain from the beginning. I gather you've heard of Lloyd J. Brinkstone?'
        Paul frowned. 'No. But I know this platform is owned by the Brinkstone Company.'
        'Lloyd J. Brinkstone is the Brinkstone Company. He's enormously wealthy - a dollar billionaire. A few years ago he reached the age where he decided he had to use some of his money to do something for the human race. In fact, he decided to save the human race. Being a Texan he doesn't think small…' She smiled briefly and Mark saw that his first impression of her had been correct - she was very beautiful - but then he had a mental flashback to the image on the screen and nausea began to build up in his throat. It had been so real…
        'For years Mr Brinkstone had been obsessed by the fear that the human race would be wiped out by a nuclear war,' she continued, 'so finally he got a group of microbiologists together - I was one of them - and told us to see if there was any way the human body could be protected against hard radiation by means of genetic engineering. Money was to be no object. We could have whatever we wanted in terms of resources, equipment and so on. The result was this place…'