Prisoner Kevin held the long-burning flare out in front of him as he felt his way along the corridor wall. There was another man behind him, and behind him another, and so on for a substantial length of the tunnel. None were in sight now, though, and his nerves were jumping like bowstrings.

?Hey, you hear something??he murmured to anyone who might happen to be within earshot. ?I heard Morse. Sounded kinda-?

The scream silenced him. It was so near it was painful. His legs kept moving him forward, as though momentary mental paralysis had yet to reach the lower half of his body.

Ahead, the alien was dismembering a friend of his named Vincent, who no longer had anything to scream with. He hesitated only briefly.

?Come and get me, you fucker!?

Obligingly, the monster dropped the piece of Vincent it was holding and charged.

Kevin had been something of an athlete in his day. Those memories returned with a rush as he tore back up the corridor. Couple years back there wasn’t a man he’d met he 200

couldn’t outrun. But he wasn’t racing a man now. The inhuman apparition was closing fast, even as he accelerated to a sprint. The slower he became, the faster his hellacious pursuer closed.

He all but threw himself at the switch, whirling as he did so, his back slamming into the corridor wall, his chest heaving like a bellows. The steel door it controlled slammed shut.

Something crashed into it a bare second after it sealed, making a huge dent in the middle. He slumped slightly and somehow found the wind to gasp aloud, ?Door C9 … closed!?

At the other end of the recently traversed passageway prisoner Jude appeared, no mop in hand now. Instead he held his own flare aloft, illuminating the corridor.

?Yoo-hoo. Hey, fuckface, come and get me. Take your best shot.?

Confounded by the unyielding door, the alien pivoted at the sound and rushed in its direction. Jude took off running, not as fast as Kevin but with a bigger head start. The alien closed fast. Once again, seconds were the difference. The closing doorway separated it from its prey.

On the other side of the barrier Jude struggled to regain his wind. ?Over in the east wing: door B7. Safe.?

An instant later an alien foreleg smashed through the small glass window set in the steel. Screaming, Jude scrabbled backward along the wall, away from the clutching, frantic claws.

Dillon stood alone in the corridor he’d chosen to patrol and muttered to himself, ?It’s started.?

?It’s in tunnel B,?Morse was yelling as he ran down his own private passageway. ?Must be heading over to channel A!?

At an intersection, William nearly ran over Gregor as 201

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the two men joined up. ?I heard it,?Gregor muttered. ?Channel E, dammit.?

?Did you say B??

?No, E.?

William frowned as he ran. ?We’re supposed to stay-?