Inseminoid by Larry Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

asked.
    “No way to know,” Mark said. “But I’m going in after him.”
    “Watch out,” Gary warned him. “It’s dangerous in there.”
    Mark opened the door and moved ahead very slowly. It was dark and he knew Ricky might be waiting for him in any number of places. He negotiated his way through the layers of dust and crumbling plaster and around objects discarded by that earlier expedition.
    The next step he took was almost his last. His foot went right through the floor. He grabbed on to a railing for support and narrowly averted disaster. Mark pulled his leg out of the hole. “That was a close one,” he muttered to himself.
    But the relief faded quickly with the sound of footsteps below him. He looked down a rickety stairwell and was just able to make out the glow from the light on Ricky’s helmet. Mark knew he had to follow, no matter how dangerous it might be. He was sub-commander and he really should have been the commander. He had something to prove—if not to others, then to himself.
    He climbed slowly down the steel ladder and finally reached the bottom. To his consternation he discovered that he was faced with three separate corridors. The deeper he went the less likely he would ever find his way out again.
    As soon as the alarm was sounded Holly watched the action on the internal monitors, but Ricky had gone off the screen when he entered the closed-off area. She took out the original blueprints of the complex and studied the layout of that section. There was one way, she figured, of cutting Ricky off. She had to try it.
    Ricky glanced behind him, not knowing where to go or why, yet driven blindly forward. He ran wildly and somehow found himself in the centre of a disused shaft. A single rail ran the length of the shaft and he began following it, stumbling over it as he went.
    That was what Holly had been counting on. She wanted to keep him trapped in that shaft until he could be controlled. She made her way to its far end and found an open car. She was surprised that the power pack still had juice left in it after all those years. “They don’t make ’em like they used to,” she said to herself and put the car in motion. In the darkened distance she was just able to make out a hazy form and a speck of light. She slowed the vehicle and called out, “Don’t be scared, Ricky. Nothing’s going to happen to you. Just stay where you are and I’ll help you. Don’t try anything foolish.”
    Then he wasn’t there any more. She’d lost sight of him. “Damn it!” she cursed. Either he’d slipped into another corridor leading from the shaft or he was hiding in wait in the shadows. “Come on, Ricky, let me see you.”
    She brought the speed down as low as she could to still keep moving. When the car turned a corner Ricky made his presence all too well known to the commander. He leaped into the car. Holly fought back as hard as she could. She lashed out at Ricky, catching his face with her nails and drawing blood.
    Somehow during their struggle for control, the speed lever was inadvertently pushed forward into high gear. The car quickly picked up speed, moving along its rail much too fast.
    Holly held on tightly with one hand while she tried to beat Ricky back with the other. He wanted to topple her over and out of the car, but she held her position. At the best of times, Holly would never have been a match for Ricky but now his crazed strength was completely overpowering her. Ricky applied more and more pressure to her neck.
    Holly began to choke. Her intake of air was being cut off and she realised she had only one choice. She had to give up the struggle and allow herself to fall backwards to the ground. It was a risk, but less of one than staying with Ricky and futilely trying to fight it out. Holly leaned back and dropped to the ground. She rolled to an abrupt stop against a wall of the shaft, fortunately uninjured.
    Just as soon as he was rid of her, Ricky slammed on the vehicle’s brakes and