Slither - Edward Lee [112]
He'd taken something off the shelf, something Nora had already seen. The small square box-
Another bomb, she realized. Just like the one he put on the RTG.
He opened the lid and removed the hockey-puck-size disk. Again, he retracted some sort of rod from the disk's side, removed a small cap, and stood the disk upright on the desk. Either the rod had a base she couldn't see, or it had some sort of glue that enabled the disk to stand on end.
Next, the figure's gloved fingers produced a small black cube. He merely touched the disk with the cube, and-
Oh, shit, this is really bad ...
A circular line of green light-thin as threadinstantly circumscribed the edge of the disk.
And the line began to blink.
Nora didn't need to see a clock to know that he'd just set the timer on the bomb.
At least it meant he and the rest of the crew intended to leave soon. But HOW soon? she wondered. With no clock hands or numbers, she had no way of knowing how long the timer had been set for.
I screwed up huge, she realized. I 'should've left with Loren. Shit-I should never have come here! We could be on the boat by now, leaving this place. Instead, I'm stuck in an alien coat closet, and I just watched one of the aliens activate a bomb!
She caught a breath in her chest when the door opened and two more men in black suits and masks walked in.
It was clear-by the way they moved and looked at each other-they were communicating, yet Nora heard no words spoken, alien or otherwise. It seemed that the first figure was giving orders to the others, because a moment later they were taking things off the shelves and carrying-them-out.
They're taking their gear back to their ship.
But would they take it all? How potent was the bomb? Would it destroy anything they left behind?
Too many questions that had no answers.
Then the scariest question:
This room ... The uniforms ...
Nora watched through the crack as the first figure turned and made for the narrow door that led to the room she was hiding in.
She wanted to scream but her fear sealed her throat shut. Oh, please, God, get me out of here!
She could hear the doorknob being turned, could hear the hinge keening, when by another stroke of luck she found another narrow door in the corner. She was through it just as the figure had walked into the room.
She remembered now, how the rooms all seemed to be connected by the narrow inner doors, probably alternate fire routes for the old missile station.
Thank you, God, she thought.
But what room was this? One she'd been in previously?
Her next glance around told her no.
The image that glared back rooted Nora to the floor. It was too vivid ... and impossible. It was ...
A woman.
She was naked, and she hung from the back wall as if suspended in midair in a cruciform position. Strange black bands girded her upper arms and wrists, yet there were no cables attached to them.
What was holding her up?
It didn't matter. Nora's frozen stare ranged the wom an's features, most notable of which was a swollen belly like that of a woman eight months pregnant. Her head was arched backward as though she were staring at the ceiling, a mane of long black hair hanging in line with her spine. When Nora stepped closer and to the side she discerned the next most shocking feature: The woman's left eye was opened and appeared normal, but the right eye was an empty socket. A black tube or wire looped into that socket, having been threaded through the optical canal to reach the brain. A second black wire had been fed into her mouth and down her throat.
A young college girl, Nora managed to guess through her horror. There were bikini lines, plus a generic vine tattoo around one ankle. Piercings that had been removed left telltale holes above the navel and through the nipples.
She simply hung there.
Nora detected respiration; then the left eye blinked. Still alive ... Obviously another test subject they were monitoring directly. The bands