“That is all that is known,” Doc whispered.
Then, he knew what he had to do. Whether or not the theorists at Chronos were correct in their extrapolation and understanding of how the time stream worked, he still had to warn himself. However, before he could reach his family, he felt his teeth begin to hum, a hum that stretched through his skull and nasal cavity.
The chronal transport process was beginning once more.
Doc took a single step forward and felt his metabolism start to slow, freezing into place as if his very bones were made of ice, and his skin frosted on. He tried to call out, cursing himself now for playing coy and not immediately going up the steps to his own front door and grabbing his young face in his hands and screaming: “It’s over, Theo! Everything falls apart! The center cannot hold! For I am you and you are me and right now, in this reality, we are both separate entities and by God, you must do all in your power to prevent this Dickens-like apparition that has appeared on your doorstep from coming to pass!”
He had done none of these things. Hesitation had cost him dearly once more. When the trawl of the mat-trans unit finished locking and sucked him away from that plane of existence, he welcomed the nightmares to come. He hoped for them to never end as eternal punishment-the dark dangerous visions of the dead.
Chapter Seventeen
“We’ve got seven seconds,” J.B. said tightly, his voice even as it measured out the unstoppable countdown he’d started when setting the fuse on the grenade. His eyes were wide behind the lenses of his wire-rim spectacles as he continued to list the numbers backward to the eventual zero and its explosive conclusion. “Six, five.”
“Let’s gamble these ugly bastards haven’t learned to count. On two from J.B., everyone go flat,” Ryan said, tensing his body in preparation as he spoke loudly over the verbal countdown.
“Four, three,” J.B. continued softly, continuing to count even as Ryan had given the order. “Two-”
Jorge, Soto, J.B., Ryan, Krysty and Dean dived to their knees and stomachs like dropped stones. Seeing their prey suddenly collapse into horizontal positions, the waiting trio of chupacabras, who had activated the weird bioengineered hypnotic spines along their backs the moment they had been spotted, interpreted the movements as a sign of submission, and sprang forward with their wings open to hungrily attack.
As such, all of the horrid mutations were facing the brunt of the explosion when it came rushing upward in a hot spray of dust and debris. Miraculously none of the companions were shaken from the stairs, but there were multiple creaks and groans from the stressed metal of the framework they all hung onto.
“They weren’t below. Got above us somehow,” Jorge said softly as the dust settled.
“The vents,” Ryan said, coughing. “The bastards are probably spread all over the redoubt.”
“Then we need to seal this entire complex,” Soto said, limping from an injury sustained earlier during the fighting.
“If we live long enough to get to the door,” Jorge replied pessimistically.
“Oh, we’ll live that long, no problem,” J.B. snarled. “I’ve got to have a long talk with our prissy friend back at the fortress before I can take time enough to die.”
J.B.’s THREAT WAS PROVED to be true. There were a few more sporadic attacks from random chupacabras, but now all in the group were prepared to deal with the creatures and their methods of murder. Soto used his rusty revolver to take down one, while Jorge’s long blaster was good for two more. At one point, Soto looked incredibly sad, remarking to all, “I find it hard to believe my people spent so much time frightened of these creatures.”
At the exit back into the cavern, J.B. took the last of the four grens and set the time for thirty seconds, tossing it inside as Ryan reversed the code and brought the massive vanadium steel door sliding down with a ring of finality.
Outside, the sun had come up.
Ryan sat at the wheel of the Jeep, turned the ignition key, and was rewarded with the thrum of the small wag’s engine firing into life.