The Aberration by Bard Constantine Page B

now.”
    He slung the duffel bag over his shoulder and hefted the shotgun.  “And that might be a good thing.”
    Drake shook his head.  “I don’t see how anything about this can be considered good .”
    “You have to look at the big picture.  If the Other One is behind this attack, then it puts itself at risk.  Up until now, we’ve never encountered it directly.  That indicates that it has a sense of self-preservation.  That means it can be hurt.  If it can be hurt, then …”
    He smiled.  “That means I can kill it.”
    Michael’s eyes narrowed.  “I thought you couldn’t remember much of anything.”
    Guy nodded again.  “It’s getting clearer now.  That’s how it works.”
    “ What works?”
    “My memory.  After an Aberration closes, the memories fade.  Perhaps to keep us from going mad from the experience.  I have to assimilate into the world again, tormented by dreams, fixated on things I know but can’t explain.  Waiting for another Aberration, whereupon my memory returns in stages.”
    Drake frowned.  “Sounds like a hell of a way to live.”
    Guy shrugged.  “It is what it is.  I didn’t ask for this.  I was chosen.”
    He walked past the rat corpse to the opposite door.  “We can’t afford to linger.  Let’s go.”
    Fran held up a hand.  “Wait.”
    Guy turned slightly.
    “Look… how do we know that you’re right?  Nothing has shown up yet.  Maybe they’re gone.  Maybe it’s over and all we have to do is hold out until morning, like you said.”
    “I wish that were true.  But what’s true is that soon this place will be swarmed with Others.”  He placed his hand on the door handle.  “I don’t want to see any of you die, but I have more to think about than just a few individuals.  I have to think about everyone else.  If the Aberration isn’t stopped, it will spread.  The wider it grows, the more powerful it becomes.  It may not be able to be stopped then.”
    He opened the door.  The roar of the mill entered the room, almost bizarre in its refusal to be distracted by the macabre events that took place.
    Guy looked back to them.  “You all have to do what you think is best.  And so do I.”  He walked out the door into the darkness of the roll floor.  The door closed behind him.
     

 
    15

Saturnine Ascension
     
    It really wasn’t much of a choice.  Fran, Michael and Drake practically ran out the door.
    The rolling mills hummed unconcernedly as they caught up to Guy. Fran thought of wildebeests on the Nature channel; how they would cross the river en masse so that the crocodiles couldn’t pick them off one by one.  Not all would make it, but at least it improved the chances…
    Guy walked to the freight elevator and pressed the button.  Nothing happened.  He didn’t seem surprised.
    “Elevator is out.  We’ll have to take the stairs.”
    Michael’s brow creased as he looked around.  “Out… or cut off on purpose.”
    Guy shrugged.  “Either way, we have no choice.  It’s the stairs or nothing.”  He opened the stairwell door. 
    They paused; frightened children looking for monsters in the closet.  Something about the shadows transformed the staircase into something sinister; a twisted backbone of steel and concrete that they would have to ascend to escape.  Or at least find the beacon that Guy was sure was up there.  If they made it that far…
    She shivered.  Things are bad enough without letting your imagination run off with you.   She clutched Michael’s arm tightly.  He was too absorbed in trying to spy into the gloom of the stairwell to notice. 
    “I don’t see anything,” he said.  They had removed the small flashlights from their belt holsters.  The thin beams seemed pitiful against the darkness.  Maybe it was just her imagination, but the light seemed to waver as though it was afraid too.
    The door slammed shut as they stepped inside, cutting off the red glare of the emergency lights on the floor.