The Containment Team by Dan Decker Read Free Book Online

just shown up and that we hadn’t found her being terrorized by a monster while she’d been showering. She’d even managed to put on a little bit of makeup. My heart fluttered as I took her in, but I quickly stamped it down. I’d been down that road once before, I didn’t need to be burned twice to learn my lesson.
    “You went on a date dressed like that?” I asked. She wore jeans and a t-shirt. I’d only ever seen her dressed like that once during the entire six months that we had dated. She normally wore a flirty skirt and high heels. Just more tools in her tool chest to get men to do what she wanted. “What were you really doing here?”
    She gave me an impish smile that I couldn’t help but return on instinct. I stopped my lips from forming a full smile and tried to turn it into a snarl. It made her beam, even more, when she saw the conflict on my face.
    “Seriously,” she said, “look at yourself in the mirror. They’re swarming all over.”
    Loading another shell into my shotgun as I ran, I went to the mirror and saw that she was right. Beads of the dark purple creature were everywhere. The balls were creeping along. Some joined into a larger mass while I watched. I moved my hand as if to brush them from me but stopped before touching them. There were so many that there was no point in risking the contact with my skin. I had to find another way to remove them.
    I ground my teeth. “If only we had more kerosene.” I wouldn't be above shucking my clothes and burning them. Madelyn would have to leave the room, of course.
    “Kerosene?” Madelyn asked as if she was unfamiliar with what it was.
    I studied the door at the back of the bathroom. In all the confusion, I’d somehow thought that it was another way out, but I now realized that was incorrect. Wasn’t that where the water heater was? I seemed to remember watching a janitor open the counterpart door in the men’s room, but I couldn’t be certain. It made sense that there would be a water heater for each bathroom. I’d never once had anything less than a scalding hot shower. Most of the time I couldn’t turn up the heat more than halfway. Even at that temperature I usually came out redder than a lobster.
    I was also sure that the water heater ran on gas. I crossed the room and tried the door. It didn’t turn.
    “Any of you know how to pick a lock?” I wasn’t expecting anything so I was surprised when Madelyn answered in the affirmative.
    “Why do you want to get in?” she asked.
    A look of comprehension crossed Pete’s face. “The gas line? You can’t be serious. You’ll kill us too, probably take out the whole building!”
    “It’s the only way to stop them,” I said. “Fire is the only thing that will destroy them.”
    “And us with them.”
    “Actually,” I said, “it won’t go past this room. The walls are cinder block on the inside and tile on the outside.”
    Madelyn folded her arms. “Forget about it, I’m not going to open it for you.”
    I shrugged, doubting that she really had the ability. I pounded on the utility room door and determined that it was as thick as the wooden door to our room. I wasn’t going to be able to blast my way through that with buckshot. I’d been hoping for a hollow door.
    A ball about the size of a marble had formed on my right pant leg, I sent it flying with a flick of my finger. It landed on top of the hand dryer.
    Crossing quickly, I punched the button and held my arm underneath. The heat from the dryer had the same effect as the fire but to a lesser degree. The little balls begin to vibrate, similar to what they’d done when I’d lit the kerosene on the large ball in my room. 
    “Heat! These things don’t like heat. Why didn’t you say something about that, Slammer?”
    Pete was too busy kicking the monsters to hear me. Madelyn raised an eyebrow but failed to share my enthusiasm.
    Praying that it would work, I went to the sink, turned on the hot water, and thrust my arm