At Jessica’s urging, Tony filled two water bottles with alcohol and shoved them into his back pockets.
“Well, the good news is, if I get ripped in half, I can put some alcohol on myself to keep it clean,” said Tony.
“That’s not funny,” said Jessica.
“It was kinda funny.” He forced a fake smile. “See ya in a little while.”
Jessica grabbed him and gave him a long hug, then Theresa hugged him, too.
“Damn, I woulda suggested this weeks ago,” he said. “Lock the door behind me. The all-call button is open.”
They quietly opened the sealed door to the bridge and Tony leaned out and looked around. He listened. He even smelled the air. He motioned them to close and seal the door, and they did. And then he ran for his life.
Tony ran as fast and as quietly as he could, stopping only at the watertight doors, which he sealed behind him each time he went through. It seemed like a blink to reach Deck Three, and then time stood still. On Deck Three, Tony didn’t sprint. He tiptoed slowly and quietly, barely breathing as he strained every pore of his being to listen for sounds and be aware of smells. It was clear to the stairs, and once there, he used his hands to slide down the handrails to Deck Five as fast as he could go. Once at the bottom of the stairs, he became aware of the smell instantly. He froze.
For a long time, Tony stood with his back against the wall, listening and sniffing the foul air. It was that nasty hagfish odor again. He inched down the hallway toward the lab, painfully slow, pulling one of the bottles of alcohol from his rear pocket and opening the top. His only plan was to aim the bottle top opening at the creatures and squeeze, but he really didn’t think that would stop the things he saw destroy and eat Ted. He inched forward, scared, but refusing to allow it to paralyze him.
He moved into the actual lab. He scanned every inch before moving in deeper. On the table, he spotted a beaker lying on its side, broken. Attached to a piece of glass was something that could only be described as some type of alien worm—part arm, and part tube worm. It was almost two feet long and moved back and forth like it was searching for food. Nearby were the remnants of the isopod Mike had named Jersey. Tony fought the urge to vomit.
He kept his back against the wall and moved around the room until he got to the first large red box. It was marked in large letters: DANGER! MANUAL JETTISON. Tony put the alcohol bottle down and quietly removed the box cover and looked inside. It was a large wheel, like on the watertight doors or the vault on a safe. He used both hands to start cranking, but it was very hard to move. It took every ounce of strength and almost five full minutes to release the internal locking device. When he was finished, he looked around for the ejection tank, but it was nowhere to be found. Think!
He walked all over the immediate area, looking up and down, but couldn’t find it. Then it dawned on him. You couldn’t eject them one at a time—the ship would topple. There had to be one central location to eject them simultaneously. Shit. He thought about yelling to Jessica on the bridge to find the location, but he heard that thing on the table move. He looked over at it. The end of it was aimed at him, white slime dripping out. Time to beat feet.
Tony moved quickly just as the arm-like worm shot a gob of digestive enzymes at him. It made a splat on the floor and wall, and Tony hauled ass out of that side of the lab. He was looking all around as he moved through the lab as quietly as he could. At the opposite side of the room was the next red box. He went through the same procedure, his heart pounding as he released the second leg. He was ready to move again when he heard the tinkle of glass on the floor. He looked for the source and saw the worm doing its best to slither in his direction. It was looking for a meal.
Not knowing what else to do, and in total horror, Tony grabbed the plastic bottle and aimed at the worm. Just before it was ready to shoot another gob at him, Tony squeezed as hard as he could and sent a shot of alcohol through the air, which landed on the bizarre creature. It immediately shriveled up to half its size, and a loud bellow filled the ship. Tony’s face went white at the noise. It wasn’t from the worm on the ground—it was from amidships. Those things above him knew. They both felt what he had done to the small one on the floor, and they weren’t happy about it.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ!” was all Tony could manage. He ran past the squirming, shriveling thing on the floor and headed to the back of the lab where the third leg was located. The creatures in the power plant were still bellowing in rage. It was like whale music played at quadruple speed through an amplifier. The speakers in the lab all sounded off at once with Jessica’s voice.
“Tony!” she screamed.
“I’m okay! I’m okay! It’s the things in the plant. I think they’re still locked in there. Three more to go. Stay quiet!”
“Stay quiet? Are you kidding me? Do you hear that screaming?”
“No shit,” he mumbled as he ran to the third leg and started turning as fast as he could.
The remaining legs weren’t in the lab; they were down the hall on the opposite side of the ship in two separate storerooms. The hallway was creepy, but as long as the two things were shrieking upstairs, at least he knew where they were. When he pulled the box off number four, he found the master ejection switch. There were warnings printed everywhere. Jackpot. He’d have to come back for that one. He unscrewed the fourth leg and ran to the fifth one across the hall in the other room. As he was finishing, he could hear slamming noises above him. The fuckers were trying to get out.
The second the final leg was finished, he ran back to number four. He yelled up at unseen speakers. “Jess! You hear me?”
“Yes! Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m gonna hit the jettison. We might move. Hang on to something and get ready.” He opened a lid that revealed a series of valves and a button. He read the instructions as fast as he could, waiting for Ian or Jim to appear any second. He opened the valves, which charged the tanks, then hit the switch. A loud thud reverberated through the hull, followed by some dull clanging noises outside. The floor pitched slightly for a second but then found its own center. They moved.
“Thank God!” screamed Theresa over the intercom.
“Yeah—and now I need God to get me back to the bridge without getting eaten,” said Tony to himself.