I stepped in front of her, holding my gun, cocked and loaded. Slowly, I took a step into the bright room, and another. The room began to stir. The tanks were as tall as me, but only two feet wide.
Like coffins.
Eleanor clung to my suit and together we tentatively walked down the middle aisle.
"Daddy, I'm scared," she whispered.
"It's okay, Eleanor. Don't react to anything you see." I muttered as low as I possibly could. She whimpered but kept moving. Things were still very much alive in the tanks. Water sloshed and spilled out as we made our way through. The test subjects could clearly sense our presence because they didn't move until we drew close.
We were halfway through the room, things were slow, but we were getting there, when suddenly an explosion of water came from behind me; Eleanor screamed.
I spun around and grabbed her, shoving her behind me. I aimed my gun at the beast that had leaped from its tank. I stared in horror, unable to move.
The head was human, maybe. It had long blonde hair, but its eyes were large, bulbous, and gold. The head was almost a triangle shape, and its grey skin was transparent. It raised an arm and it was apparent that webbing had been sewn from its arms to its torso.
"Is that a stingray?" Eleanor whispered. Its legs were fused together, and it hissed at us before starting to drag its body along the floor. My brain finally came to and I pulled the trigger on my gun, shooting it in the forehead. It dropped instantly and blood seeped out of the wound onto the stark white floor.
There was a moment of silence as we watched it die. Eleanor took a step back and another tank in the back spilled over. The sound of something slithering across the floor caused us to jump back. Another tank toppled, which caused another to follow suit, like dominos. I waved my gun at each one, but they were all falling too fast for me to react. My ammo was precious.
"Eleanor, run!" I screamed.
A monster with human hands leaped up from the closest tank and I jumped as it tossed its fishlike tail over and began to crawl out.
"Eleanor, we were told you were coming." Its voice was raspy, as if it hadn't spoken in ages.
The manmade mermaid grabbed my shoulder and I spun around, trying to force it to lose its hold on me, but its grip was tight.
"You're meant to die here...." It hissed near my face.
I turned my head and saw it unhinge its jaw as if to bite me. Reflex took over and I reached for my handgun. I raised it to my shoulder and pulled the trigger right under the mermaid's chin, exploding its head. I ran after Eleanor. She was waiting by the doors, ready to slam them shut. I reached her and turned around just in time to see a dozen cruel science experiments rushing toward us.
We slammed the doors and pressed our bodies against them as the beasts on the other side rammed into it. Eleanor had her eyes closed as she held onto my hand.
"We've got this, Eleanor. We're safe on this side. Look," I nodded to the bright neon sign ahead of us.
Emergency Exit.
"There's a bar. Do you see it?" I pointed to the metal rod about ten feet from us. "Go get it. It'll give us time to run."
She ran for it, retrieved it, and hurried back. We slid the large bar into the door handle, barring the beasts inside. I took herhand and we bounded up the stairs. There were no floors to stop us so we reached the first floor pretty soon. The doors that were locked when we first arrived were now wide open, which only exacerbated the rotting fish stench..
Eleanor was gagging the entire way, but I pushed her forward. We paused at one of the doors and discovered why they'd been locked. Inside was a rotted corpse in a white lab coat. In other units there were corpses in other uniforms. The general population must have locked them inside their rooms to enable a safe escape.
Eleanor and I made it to the surface by the evening of the second day.
"We just have to last until tomorrow." I held her in my arms as the sun went down over the miserable ocean. Even with all the doors locking the heinous experiments away, we couldn't stand to be inside the house, so we lay against a lonely tree. I couldn't sleep, so I stayed awake all night keeping watch.
Morning came and the sound of helicopter wings woke her. She sighed and sat up, my arms instantly feeling her absence. I'd enjoyed holding her all night. I wanted to stay like that forever.
The helicopter came down and turned its propellers off. Eleanor, in her beautiful, arrogant glory, stomped over to the soldier waving us in.
"We lived, bitch," she shouted before climbing in and plopping down in her seat.
I smiled and joined her.
That we did.
Chapter 30 - Eleanor
