Chapter 10

Robert's eyes blinked open at the sound of the growl. "Was that Millie?" he thought sleepily, "She never growls." Robert looked around the room and the nightmare that he saw shocked his body to full alertness. His tension woke Rebecca. "Becky," he hissed, "Don't move a muscle or make a sound."

Millie was in a standoff with a creature straight from a horror movie. Robert couldn't see the entire creature clearly, but the last three feet of it, a black scorpion tail with a dripping 5-inch needle, was almost directly in front of him. Robert had gotten into the habit of keeping their one weapon available right next to the sleeping bag. He started to unzip the bag and quietly as he could.

Robert eyes were glued to the creature and to Millie as he slowly slipped out of the sleeping bag and picked up the knife. Then the dog made eye contact with him. Robert found the dog's eyes full of intelligence, he had a vague feeling the dog had a plan and was wondering if Robert could figure out what it was. Millie suddenly backed up and then re-froze her body position. The creature advanced quickly, opening its giant pincers and almost seizing Millie, but then stopped just after Millie stopped.

"My gosh, it's a motion hunter," thought Robert. "It can't see her if she's not moving. She's acting as a decoy. Millie, you damn good dog..."

Robert crept forward slowly, trying to keep himself directly behind the scorpion tail. "Man, you are one ugly motherfucker," he thought unconsciously. He bent his body into a springing position, thinking rapidly, preprogramming his body with responses to a number of deadly scenarios that he thought might soon occur. He then decided there was no further advantage to wait. He leaped upon the creature's back, one hand pushing the tail to the side and the other holding the knife.

The creature was incredibly fast and strong. Robert felt the powerful tail yanked out of his hand. Robert's knife training took over, the knife entered the carapace just below the back of the head, and Robert slashed deeply across the neck, trying to sever the brain from the body. The creature gave a tremendous vibration throughout its body, and then collapsed and was still.

Robert was dimly aware of Becky crying in fright behind him. "Oh Rob, are you okay? Is it really dead?"

"Yeah, it's dead. Something this ugly deserves a name, how about a scorpio?" Robert turned and hugged Rebecca, their naked bodies shivering in the cool air. "Somehow Millie figured out it attacks anything in motion. If you ever see another one, don't move."

Rebecca nodded her head. "Okay..." She looked at the scorpio quietly and then shuddered. "How about we pack up and get out of here?"

As they were dressing, Rebecca forced herself to examine the corpse. "Rob, this creature doesn't make any sense from a biological standpoint. It's more of a horror movie creation. It does have the general shape of a scorpion. But take a look at its mouth. It's not a mouth at all. There's no gullet. It's just a circular arrangement of razor blades... And there are no gill slits or air holes... This thing wasn't breathing... And its blood is not blood, just clear oil... It's a biological impossibility, more nightmare than reality..."

"I know. The fact that it's impossible but is still here is probably an important clue about what's going on."

The trio left their sleep room and continued their journey down the long corridor.

"Impossible but still here as a clue? That's an interesting idea, Rob. What is impossible but still exists? Do you mean like an illusion?"

"I'm not sure. To think of that thing as an illusion is a tempting thought. It takes away some of the horror, to think that it's not real. But it felt real! I think it almost killed Millie. Would have probably killed both of us if Millie didn't come up with her decoy plan. We owe this dog our lives. No, that was no illusion. At least not how we're used to defining illusions... Rebecca, would you mind carrying the backpack? Millie's doing a great job scouting ahead, but if we do run into trouble, I'd rather not have to spend the extra seconds to shed the pack..." As Rebecca put on the backpack, she noticed Robert had his knife at his belt within easy reach.

They walked down the corridor for over an hour, the empty rooms passing by were very boring. Then Rebecca said, "Look up ahead, about 100 meters. Looks like a cross corridor. That would be interesting." A minute later they were at the intersection of two very long corridors. "Rob, can you get the binoculars out of the pack? Thanks... Looking out from the loop we're traveling... Looks like this cross corridor runs straight for a while, maybe 500 meters, and I think I see another cross corridor. Then this corridor branches into two forks... Looking the other way now, to the center of our circular loop... Looks like either a dead-end or a portal opening, more than 500 meters away... Well, I guess we've got three choices, keep walking the circle, move up the radius, or move down the radius. If I were choosing, I'd be tempted to see what's at the center of the circle. What do you think?"

"I think your choice is excellent. Let's head down the radius." The trio began walking down the new corridor. With their backs turned, they did not see the pack of four scorpios cutting across their new corridor far back near the fork. The two groups passed each other unseen.

About 10 minutes later Millie walked out of the end of the corridor, with Robert and Rebecca close behind. The two humans just stared for a moment. "Well," said Rebecca, "I guess this removes all doubt about being away from Earth. Get a load of the color of that sky! And the star... This place is huge! People who think the Pentagon is big should see this! How high do you think the building goes?"

Robert was looking through the binoculars. "Probably close to 300 stories. Well over 3000 feet. Probably closer to 4000 feet."

Robert and Rebecca were standing at the edge of an enormous circular plaza, with a radius of over four miles. The floor seemed like granite. All around the plaza was the circular wall of an immense building, with numerous balcony-like staircases connecting one floor to another. The sky overhead was a pale green, with a deep orange star off to one side, having over three times the diameter of the sun as seen from Earth, but giving off noticeably less light despite its size. The air was cool, about 65F, the same as in the building. A few puffy snow-white clouds drifted slowly in the pale green sky.

Robert kept scanning with the binoculars. "Becky, there seems to be small building around the center of the plaza. Maybe at the exact center. I guess we should check it out." They started their hike across the open plaza.

They walked across the plaza in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Then Rebecca said, "This building is so huge. Tens of cubic miles of office space. Do you think all the rooms on the higher floors are empty too?"