Desert Base Strike by Gustavo Bondoni

Author:Gustavo Bondoni [Bondoni, Gustavo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2022-03-16T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Mehmoud crashed into a concrete wall and fell back into a sitting position. The pain in his forehead acted as a counterweight, bringing his panic into check. He could still feel the frantic beating of his heart, and his hands still twitched, but at least he was master of himself once again.

He listened, but all he heard was his own breathing, ragged and loud. There were no sounds of pursuit. The monster must have run after someone else.

The space around him was dark. He’d dropped his light when he ran.

“Brahim?” he whispered. “Can anyone hear me?”

Nothing. But now that he was under control, and that his breathing was nearly back to normal, he realized that the soft sounds coming in through the open top of the maze could guide him back to where his friends were.

Also to where the monsters were.

He gripped his rifle tighter. He knew the things could be killed. He’d been one of the people shooting at the one that fell earlier. It was just a question of seeing it before it could hurt him.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned on the light. It might not be as good as a real flashlight, but at least he wouldn’t slam into any more walls.

The sounds were coming from his right, so he headed that way, then turned right again at the next dead end and left when he was forced to do so again. He expected that should keep him moving in his original direction.

The light danced around in front, casting the maze in an eerie light. He’d been in plenty of caves out in the desert, but the sharp, square walls of the obviously manmade structure around him were somehow more threatening than the echoing organic forms of nature. Mehmoud knew that nature was indifferent. It could kill you just because it didn’t care if there was a man in its midst. But this place? This place was here to harm you on purpose. The creatures within as well: they’d been built to hurt people.

He stopped to listen again. Now, the sounds of people calling to each other seemed to be behind him, back the way he’d come.

Frustration welled up as he retraced his steps. One moment, the sound of conversation seemed to come from one side. The next, from the other. He must have gotten turned around.

He looked back the way he’d come, and the sound seemed to come from behind him.

So he turned again. Now it came from the side.

Something clicked.

Mehmoud shone his light down a cross-corridor, but it only went a few paces before dead-ending. He chose a different one, one that was longer. He could still hear the clicking, but the way sound bounced around in the maze made it impossible to tell where the sound came from. If he had to guess, he would have said it came from the wall to his right.

Of course, that was a solid concrete structure. He tapped on it, and it didn’t even sound hollow.

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