Garrick followed Anna lower and lower into the bowels of the building. Emergency lights emitted a weak, yellow-grey glimmer on the walls as they descended. He kept one hand on the railing for guidance, the other resting on his MP5. As they approached the last few flights of stairs, the levels of light began to inexplicably lighten. This light was a different colour, a warm yellow-orange that emanated from the walls themselves.

“Do you see that?” he asked.

Her head jerked as she acknowledged him. “Yes.”

He waited for an answer, but none was forthcoming. He grabbed her elbow, fingers enclosing her slim arm. There was hardly anything of her. “What is it? Is it supposed to be like that?”

She shook her head. “It’s bioluminescence. Insects use it to mark territory or paths.”

“Oh.” He stared upwards. The luminosity extended all the way to the ceiling. Scrutinising the weirdly glowing walls gave Garrick a queasy feeling in his stomach. He reached out to touch the wall. It was greasy, like it had been waxed. He rubbed his fingers together, feeling oiled lubrication between them. He was aware of Anna watching him, her eyes wide, tousled hair framing her face. She reached up and ran her own fingers against the wall.

“We should keep moving,” she said, tilting her head upwards in the direction from which they had come.

They jogged the last two flights of stairs to the bottom landing which was empty, save for a steel door recessed into the wall.

“Security is still working under the emergency solar generator. The system is designed to remain locked in a power failure.”

The lock clicked open with her card swipe.

“I think we were due a bit of luck.” Garrick stepped forward, pulling her small hands from the door so he was first through. He brought his MP5 up in front of his body and turned the handle, pushing the door open.

On the other side of the door was complete darkness.

A puff of cold air rushed up to meet them, heavy with the stench of death. They recoiled, but a loud shuddering crash accompanied by even louder Chittrix screams from above their heads halted their retreat. There was no choice but to keep going forward. Garrick pulled a torch from his belt and clicked it on, holding it in his left hand while scanning the space in front of them with the nose of his weapon. There was no going back now. This was their way out.

He peered over his shoulder at Anna. Her face was pale in the light from his torch, but the set of her shoulders was resolute. She held her pulse rifle with white-knuckled fingers across her armoured jerkin.

“I can take care of myself,” she said. He nodded, not really believing her. He had thought that about his men, and they’d been wiped out in a matter of moments. He blinked, erasing the memory from his mind. He needed his head clear, not clouded by emotion.

“Stay close,” Garrick said and stepped into the access tunnel.

Air heavy with moisture blew across his face. Perhaps the air conditioning systems vented near here. He scanned with his torch as he walked forward, musty air filling his nostrils. Her hand touched the small of his back, an unexpected comfort in the darkness. Torchlight bounced off the walls. At least there’s no slime on the walls in here.

The torch provided enough of an anaemic glow for them to navigate, but after only a few steps, water was lapping at their feet. Another minute and bone-cold water was over their ankles. Garrick tried not to think about the small bumps and knocks of floating objects as he walked. Nothing had jumped out and tried to kill him yet, so that had to be a good thing. The splash of her feet reassured him Anna was still following.

“This water is freezing,” she finally muttered. “Where the hell is it coming from?”

“I thought you could tell me that.”

A small grunt behind him. “I’m a bio-weapons engineer. I didn’t build the place.” He ignored her edge of irritation.

“Good job too. You’d be awfully pissed by now if you had.”

They had been walking for at least five minutes by the time they came to a ladder recessed into the wall. It came into view on his left, outlined in the insipid, wavering light from his torch. He cursed and banged it against his leg. It rallied, brightening for a few seconds. And then went out.

“Garrick?” Anna’s tone was angry, but she bumped up against him in the now all-encompassing blackness. Garrick reached out with his left hand, his fingers encircling hers. He took her hand and placed it on the rusted side rail of the ladder.

“Ladder’s here.”

“I’ve got it.” Her voice was grateful in the dark.

He reached above her to the next rung. It was badly corroded and slimy with algae. Garrick yanked with both hands. The ladder protested but didn’t fall off the wall.

“Ok, now we go up.” He stuffed his dead torch under his belt. “We need to find the rest of my team.”

“How many more of you are there?” she asked.

“Three.” He started to climb. “Ok, start climbing with me now.”

“I’m on.” She sounded small beneath him. He didn’t like the fact that her back was unprotected. He climbed the greasy rungs quickly.

“Only four of you?” Her surprise floated up through the darkness.

“We’re not the goddamn army. In case you hadn’t noticed, the army doesn’t exist anymore.” Annoyance and frustration coloured his reply, but there wasn’t time for apologies.

He stopped climbing. His fingers traced the rough circular edge of a drain cover above his head. He lifted the strap from his shoulder and swung the MP5 out of the way to use both his arms freely. He pressed with the palms of his hands, hard, then harder, putting his thighs and back into it, his arms trembling under the strain. Finally, it shifted with a gritty groan.

Evening light filtered in to the dark space and relief flooded his body. He raised his head and checked outside. Magdon Down was ablaze behind them, illuminating the darkened sky. Nearly a mile away, fire consumed the edges of the main building, tongues of orange and red competing with the heaving shadows of giant black insects. Even at this distance, the air shimmied and thrummed with a cacophony of insect calls and bodies.

His fingers closed over the lip of the drain, and he lifted himself out in one clean move. Crouching, he extended a hand to Anna.

She hesitated slightly and then took his hand, and he pulled her out of the drain. They fell onto the grass and lay there for a moment, catching their breath. Garrick sat up and lugged the drain cover back in place.

“We need to keep moving,” he said.

“What the hell is that?”

Garrick turned to see what she was pointing at. Moving towards Magdon Down was a black shape, the like of which he had never seen before. It resembled an alien craft, except it was the size of a small office block.

And it was alive.

Even from this distance, the surface was visibly moving, undulating with alien life. Literally. Vibrations sank into his bones. The air was replete with the shrieks and clicks of Chittrix. The bread he’d eaten for breakfast rolled uneasily in his stomach. He scanned the area around him, seeing only blank-faced buildings in the dusk. Where were the others?

He pressed the radio transmission button on his earpiece and spoke rapidly, asking for the other members of his team to reply, aware that Anna was holding her breath as he listened to the empty hum of static.

He pressed the communications button again.

“Sawyer, Hardy, Foster?” He waited. Nothing.

She huffed out a breath. “Are we out of range?”

Garrick shot her a look and stood. “Come on. We need to cut through these buildings. We can get closer without being seen.”

He took off at a jog, crouching low to reduce his visibility. She ran noisily behind him but kept up with his pace.

He came to an abrupt halt at the rear of a tired looking garage block. Anna bumped into his back. He held up one hand, motioning for her to be quiet, suddenly aware of the warmth radiating from her thighs against his own. When was the last time he had been this close to a woman? At the CB, he avoided women as much as possible. There was too much to do, and he knew deep in his bones his own inadequacies with intimacy. A flame of heat ignited low in his belly, forcing him to take a breath. Concentrate.

Satisfied it was safe for them to move, Garrick crouched and ran to the remains of a nearby car, melted and twisted as if tossed off the road by a passing giant. Through the smashed windows, he could see the maelstrom of activity that encircled the main building continued unabated. Flying Chittrix hung low in the sky, their middle limbs tucked into scaled bodies. The stream of alien insects had reversed, and now there were as many pouring out of the building as had invaded it earlier, many taking to the sky toward the organic behemoth that now hung in the sky, almost directly above their heads. His team was nowhere to be seen.

“We’re completely out-gunned here.” He shook his head. “This was meant to be obtain-the-secret-weapons-shit-and-get-out. Done. Then we turn up, and it turns into a freaking carnival sideshow.” He stopped, his thoughts churning. “They knew we were coming,” he said eventually.

Anna huffed out a breath. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“What if the Chittrix are here for a reason? There seems to be a hell of a lot of them for it to be a coincidence.”

“Oh, my God,” she said as she peered over his shoulder. Garrick followed her line of sight. Three Chittrix near the primary entrance were lifting into the air, and suspended beneath them was a long parcel, bound in opaque white webbing. Garrick tried unsuccessfully to mentally block out the similarity to the webbing spiders used to restrain prey.

“That’s body shaped,” Anna whispered.

The white body-thing disappeared into the mass of Scutters that hovered and vibrated in the sky. They surrounded the disappearing parcel, obscuring it until it was no longer visible.

“Three,” she said. “You have three team members. I have two, Blake and Julia. They’re all still out there somewhere.” Her voice had gone up a few octaves in fear. “We can’t leave.” She retreated from him. “We need to find them.”

He grabbed her shirt at the small of her back and pulled her against him behind the car. The generous swell of her breasts rose against his chest, momentarily distracting him.

He gripped her chin, his fingers pressing into her skin so that she paid attention as he spoke. “We can’t go out there. It’s suicide. We’re no use to anyone if we’re dead.” He paused, waiting for her to acknowledge him with the smallest of nods. “My men can take care of themselves and your team members. What I can do is take you somewhere safe.”

He continued. “We have location transmitters on our wrists.” He showed her the compact device strapped to his wrist with ribbed nylon.

“We can be tracked from our base with these. The most likely thing they’ll do is head to safety, just like we’re going to do now. There’s nothing for anyone to gain from going back in there. All of us need to keep moving forward.”

Garrick tore his eyes from her and took in the seething monster of insects suspended in the sky. A raw knot lodged itself in his belly as he thought of his men out there somewhere. Not again. He pushed the thought away. He had no time to think about that now.

“We need to go. There’s only a little light left, and we’re easy picking once it’s dark.”