After The End

Tentacles

Once we are down in the tank room, Jamie and I start to get things ready to make sure the tank keeps its power no matter what. I walk over to Abe and Dariela, handing them bolt cutters, "Abe, Dariela, cut the cable directly in front of you."

Jamie goes over to Max and Mitch, "At the exact same moment, Mitch, Max, connect your cables together."

"30 seconds until the tank loses power." A.I. Logan informs us.

"Can we shut him off, please?" Mitch complains.

"Everybody ready?" I look from the boys to Abe and Dariela.

Everyone nods and Jamie takes a deep breath as she and I walk over to the tank to flip the switches we need to, "Okay, on three. One... two... three."

The electricity crackles and goes out for a moment then comes back on, "Power successfully rerouted. Critical power loss imminent. Avionics failure imminent. Engine failure imminent. Critical altitude loss imminent."

The plane starts to rumble again and I sigh, "We need to kill that hybrid. Now."

Abe nods, "Jamie, let me modify the beacon signal, draw the hybrid off the battery so you can reboot the system. I know the risks, but we're out of time."

"Full engine failure in ten minutes," Logan informs.

Jamie nods, "Okay you have five. Once the hybrid is off the battery, I'll reboot the system. Mitch, Max, go to the bar and be ready to throw that switch when I tell you."

Mitch nods, "You had me at, go to the bar."

"Warning: there's a malfunction in the forward reserve tank. Detecting a fuel leak."

I sigh, "Perfect. We can't use firearms now."

Dariela looks over to me, "then how are we suppose to kill it?" Dariela looks up to Abe, "We are killing it."

I look over to Jamie and smile as Jamie nods, "Come Dariela, I know something I think you'll like."

Dariela and I head back to the vehicle bay and I open one of the cabinets, showing Dariela Jamie's large collection non-firearm weapons. Dariela smiles, "Happy Birthday to me."

Dariela and I grab a few weapons and head back into the lab, walking in on Jamie and Mitch kissing. "Uh.. guys..." I call out, "Not sure if this is payback and as much as I hate to break up this lovefest, but..."

I am cut off by A.I. Logan. "Full energy failure in seven minutes."

Jamie nods, "okay, get to the master switch."

Mitch nods, heading off with Max to the bar. As Dariela and I head over to Abe. Dariela tosses Abe a weapon, "Ready?"

"Ready." Abe nods.

Soon we hear Mitch over the earpiece, "Okay, Jamie. We're in position."

I speak over mine as well, "We are in position too."

Abe looks over Dariela and I, "Once I press this, that hybrid will be coming straight for us."

Dariela smirks back to me, then up to Abe, "We're good."

I nod, "Trust me. I'm in the mood to kill something right about now and if it happens to be one of my sister-in-law's hybrids, that's even better."

Dariela nods and speaks over the earpiece, "Jamie, we'll let you know as soon as the hybrid's loose."

Before long we hear Logan over to P.A. again, "Main battery unit is back online."

"Okay, Abe, Dariela, Kat, the hybrid is off the battery. I'm starting the reboot."

"Copy." Abe comments. "But there's still no sign of it."

Just as Abe turns to Dariela and I a tentacle comes up and grabs Abe around the waist, pulling him back. "Abe!" Dariela and I shout. We run after Abe as he is pulled away, finally the hybrid stops moving and holds Abe against one of the false walls.

"The master switch is still in the off position. Manual restart required." Logan announces.

I look over to Dariela, "Where the hell is Mitch and Max?"

"Losing altitude. Prepare for emergeny procedures."

Abe stabs the hybrid with the syringe needle he was doing to us to extract its spinal fluid. When he does it shrieks and lets him go. As Abe gets away the hybrid grabs Dariela, "Dariela!" Abe and I shout as Dariela screams. As I go to help Dariela I am grabbed as well, as I look around a kick the sword Dariela had over to her, while Abe cuts the tentacle that had grabbed him again and Dariela and I do the same to the ones that have us. Continuing this with tentacles that come after us once we are free. Finally, Abe is able to throw the ax he is using at the hybrid, killing it. "What is this thing?" I walk over to it, as Abe takes a fluid simply from one of the tentacles, "some kind of squid?"

"Aircraft will cross the minimum recovery altitude in 90 seconds. Prepare for emergency landing."

Dariela looks to Abe, "Isaac."

The three of us run out to the main area of the plane, Abe runs to get Isaac as Dariela and I strap in. Once Abe gets back with Isaac they do the same. "Minimum recovery altitude in 60 seconds. 50 seconds. 40 seconds. Minimum recovery altitude in 30 seconds." Isaac clings to Abe and Dariela. "20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, ten, nine, eight..." the countdown stops and it feels like the plane starts to rise again. Once we are level, we unbuckle and look for the others.

Then I find Max, he is helping Jamie, who is sitting on the couch upstairs. "Are you two okay?"

"Yeah, Kat. We're fine." Jamie nods.

I look around, "Where is Mitch?"

Max turns to me, "Mitch is gone. He is not on the plane."