Isolation-#Wattys2015

Excerpt 9-The Basement

Once I was done eating I grabbed my gear, had Allen put the map to the basement on my PDA and headed out. Since the power was back on, I was able to walk down to the stair well without too much trouble. The stair case went down about 40 feet or so and I could see the water down at the bottom glowing a faint blue with all the bioluminescent bacteria in it. When I made it to the bottom of the stair case, there was a utility door that had been taken off it's hinges by water and mangled the frame that it was set it. The door itself was laying under the water as a twisted hunk of metal. Beyond the doorway was a small room that looked a generator repair shop, which made sense seeing as how every other room in this lab had one. There were two work benches in the back of the room that had electrical motors on them and there was one on either side which held what looked like parts for a V8 Briggs, the biggest in production. There were pistons and crankshafts on a work bench in the middle along with a turbocharger and a Tesla Coil.

In the back of the room was another hallway which was lined with any possible manner of wires and pipes. There was a wire bracket up top that was carrying five, heavy info cables down the hallway and there were two smaller ones next to it carrying thousand amp lines. On my right and left were thick iron pipes carrying gauges and many, many valves and joints. The floor was grated to allow access to many more pipes and wires that ran underneath and I could see some of them were rusted out while others looked brand new. There was about a foot or so of water on the floor, making it hard for me to slush through. There was a bit of a current to it as well, so I guess that it was flowing down from a stair case somewhere up a head. I could also hear sloshing up ahead and deep, low throated moans.

"Allen", I said getting onto the radio, "what did you say it was that was hiding out down here?"

"The feeders", Allen called back, "there though little fuckers, but as long as they don't get the drop on you you should be fine. Why?"

"Because I think I hear some up ahead", I answered back raising my FAL.

"Let me take a listen", Allen said.

I pulled the ear piece out of my radio and held it out to the air as the moans became slightly louder.

"That's definitely Feeders", Allen said, "sounds like there's a couple of them too. Be careful, you may have acid for blood, but if they get a hold of you and you go under...well...let's just say that I doubt you'll be coming back up."

"I don't intend to let them touch me", I said putting my ear piece back in. I continued down the hall way, coming to a four way intersection. The sign above me had the directions, but judging as it was a neon sing and that there was water dripping from the ceiling, I think it was safe to assume that it was shorted out. I pulled my flashlight out of my vest and shined it on the side, the directions read "TO MAINFRAME, TO GENERATORS, TO REPAIR, TO MANTAINENCE." According to the sign, the generators were down the hall to my right. I turned to the right and started down the long, flooded hallway. I kept the flashlight out so I could see where I was going, and this met that I was holding the FAL one handed, which translated to at least a 75% accuracy loss since I couldn't look down the sight.

At the end of the hallway was a heavy utility door. I let the FAL fall to my side and I held the flashlight with my jaw as I needed both hands to work the door. It was a little hard and I had to put a little bit of pressure into it, but the handle eventually gave out and I was able to pull the door open. Only to get jumped by that Feeder two feet behind the damn thing! He jumped at me with a blood curdling shriek and was literally on top of me so quickly that I hadn't even had time to jump back.

To stunned to do anything, I fell back into the water and the creature wasted no time in pinning me down, hissing and snarling at me as it did. I knew it was intending to drowning me, which it wasn't going to have a problem with the way I was pinned. I was in such a position that I was looking back the way I had come, also exposing my neck in a way that was more than enticing the creature to cut it. My situation also wasn't helped by the fact that I was thrashing around trying to get a grip on the thing. Get a grip on yourself before this damn thing drowns you! I grabbed hold of the creature, sinking my claws as deep into its flesh as I could and with a heave, I tossed it off of me, hearing slam against the ceiling and hearing a splash soon accompanied by a wave rolling over me. I quickly sat up, coughing and choking as I tried to get the water out of my lungs. I felt another wave as the creature got up and snarled at me. I stood up myself and turned to face it.