Baked Scribe Flashback : Into Danger
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Jeff gripped the golf club and walked into the darkness of the factory. He crept along the hallway, surrounded by the sound of heavy equipment masticating the raw materials as it was moved down the intricate network of conveyor belts, to their resting place within the bowels of the building. The lights were all off, save for a few emergency bulbs, and the scant illumination provided by the emergency exit signs.
Still, he knew that someone was in here.
He had watched from the street, as the shadow disengaged from the dense row of trees, and expertly disabled the heavy locks on the door before slipping inside. Reaching over to to grab the phone to call the police, the image flashed before him in his mind of leaving the house that morning in a rush, grabbing the keys from the table and seeing the phone sitting there as he closed and locked the door behind him. He hadn’t gone back for it.
It made no difference. He could call the cops from any number of the land lines inside. All he had to do was find an unlocked office. Part of him cursed himself silently for being too cheap to install a phone at the front reception desk in the lobby. Or maybe even the security detail that had been offered to him at the discounted rate by the local company.
No sense in crying over what wasn’t there, he had to make the best of what he had available to him. And that just happened to be a slightly rusted pitching wedge from the trunk of his car.
Jeff peeked around the corner, down towards the main production line and tightened his grip. The problem was not that he couldn’t hear anything. The problem was that he heard something everywhere, couldn’t distinguish the normal loud noises this factory made from those made by someone who might be a threat to him. His mind raced past as many names of employees as he could think of, anyone who he might have pissed of with his quick temper and his loud mouth. Even if it was possible to name every person in the short time he had, it likely wouldn’t have done him any good anyway.
He heard a new sound this time and spun to look up at the balcony that overlooked the factory floor. That had been the door to the employee lounge, slamming shut. He was sure of it, there was no mistaking it. Either the person up there had made a mistake, or was intentionally trying to draw Jeff into a trap. There was a phone just a hundred feet from him, against the far wall, but something compelled him to start moving up the stairs.
The walkway groaned as he made his way towards the lounge, golf club raised for the threat that he didn’t even know how to prepare for. For all he knew, his assistant manager had just come in to pick up some paperwork after hours. It wouldn’t be the first time. Still, something about all of this felt wrong, although he couldn’t explain why. He stepped through the door and into the lounge, bringing the club up, in case he needed to strike immediately.
He felt his skin and fingers going numb before he could even fully evaluate what was happening in front of him. From the top of the lockers, the shadows seemed to stretch out, bulge up into the air like a bubble being inflated. A dark and hulking shape started to form and glared at him from behind a pair of blazing eyes.
Jeff backed into the wall, vaguely aware of his bowels releasing as the thing crawled down from above, the legs unfolding and lowering down to the floor in order to support the insect-like frame. He couldn’t fathom how something that big had been crammed into such a small space. He tried to scream, tried to turn and run away from this monstrosity that was now advancing towards him from across the room. He knew he needed to run, needed to get as far away from this thing as he could manage, but his legs would not cooperate.
The thing continued towards him, moving across the floor slowly, almost sashaying as it did so. Jeff’s knees buckled out from underneath him and he slid down towards the floor. As if this was what it had been waiting for, the thing surged forward, saliva and other matter flying out of it as it rushed towards him. Jeff screamed as the thing’s mouth clamped down on his arm, biting and dragging him forward towards the middle of the room.
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Outside, in the parking lot, just as the sound of the screams started to dissipate, a sliver of bright light formed in the middle of the crisp night air, like a zipper coming undone. It grew wider and wider until several men stepped through, wielding large assault type rifles and looked around the parking lot. One of the men stepped forward and knelt, peering over the ground and picking up several pieces of debris. He examined it all, lifting one piece to his nose before dropping it and turning back to the others.
“It definitely stopped off here,” he said. “Got to be inside.”
The man in the center of the group nodded and stepped forward. He pressed a button, causing the power to surge and the weapon to crackle with the sound of unbridled electricity.
“Right,” he said. “We’ve got one more good shot at this, make it count. No telling when we’ll have the juice to make another jump like this.”
The men filed in behind, weapons at the ready. The leader stepped forward, looking up at the building that the thing had to be in.
“Let’s track her down.”
The line of men moved silently and quickly into the building. Moments after the last man had gone in, the door opened again and the thing, now wearing Jeff’s body stepped out into the crisp night air. It glanced over its shoulder to make sure none of the soldiers were following it before grinning, reaching up to straighten Jeff’s tie as it walked away from the factory.
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