"I hope not. That would be creepy."

"No kidding."

"Cut from the same cloth, those two," Lucas said.

West resumed his jog. Jerry followed. He was still out of breath from climbing the stairs, but he managed to catch up. Nessie's kiss had reinvigorated him.

"How far is it?" he asked.

"About a three minute jog.

Jerry nodded. "So about as long as it takes to have sex then?"

"Have you even had sex?"

"Yeah, plenty of times. Just never with a person."

West barked a laugh. "Just pay attention to your surroundings, hotshot. Hopefully there won't be any hostiles. How's Sergeant Rimmer?"

"The faster we move, the better."

"Let's double-time then."

West put on a burst of speed, and Jerry struggled to keep pace. They ran down the hallway, which was empty except for dead people and splattered monsters. Jerry ran past a giant scorpion and a humongous centipede, and marvelled at the size of their corpses.

"Did you see those things? Holy shit!"

"Will, you keep your goddamn voice down. Just because there's no one here, doesn't mean we want to advertise our presence."

West placed a hand up over his shoulder and stopped. Jerry understood the signal and stopped too. "What is it?" he whispered.

"I heard something."

"What?"

"If I knew what, I'd say what it was instead of something."

They waited.

"I don't like this. The monsters on the upper basements are like animals. They just come running soon as they see you. But the ones lower down are smart. They think. They plan."

"So what would be their plan?"

Slowly, West raised his head and stared up at the ceiling. "I think their plan would be to get the jump on us."

On the ceiling, clinging to an air duct was an abomination right out of a nightmare.

"Clever girl," Jerry muttered.

The creature above them was a griffon. Half eagle, half lion, hanging from the ceiling by its claws.

"Move!" West shoved Jerry aside and performed a combat roll.

The griffon hit the floor where they'd been standing, then squawked out a war cry.

West attempted to bring his rifle up, but the beast bit down on it with its gigantic beak, tearing it from his grasp.

Jerry unloaded the magazine into the monster, the first shots missing, but a smattering of them eventually slamming home. The griffon spun around, snarling. It snapped at Jerry with what would surely have been a fatal blow if it had connected, but he managed to leap away just in time.

West scrambled for his fallen rifle, but the griffon stomped forwards and grabbed him by his belt. It yanked him up by his waist, three feet off the ground.

West fiddled with his buckle. Found the clasp. He hit the floor and crumpled.

Jerry managed to reload, aiming at the monster's head.

"Say hello to my little friend!" He was holding the Kriss at his hip like Al Pacino. He pulled the trigger and let off a burst of rounds.

The rifle kicked upwards, striking Jerry in the face and knocking him on his ass. None of the bullets hit, and his nose began to bleed.

"My bad," he mumbled in pain.

He was loading another magazine as West leapt to his feet, pulled his combat knife from the scabbard around his thigh, and lunged at the beast in front of him. He managed to leap three feet into the air and brought his arm around the griffon's neck, driving the blade into its breast.

The griffon screeched. Blood jetted out from its wound.

West yanked and pulled at the knife, working it around like a gear stick and doing as much damage as possible. The beast continued to scream but the high-tones of agony had entered its mighty voice. The wound on its chest widened, spilt more blood.

West left the combat knife sticking out of the creature's breastbone and found his gun. He was positioned so he and Jerry had the griffon in a crossfire.

"Now!" West yelled.

This time Jerry shouldered the weapon correctly, and they shredded the monster, fur and feathers and blood spraying everywhere. The wounded animal took three steps toward Jerry, beak opened wide to chomp him in half, and then fell over, dead.

"Say hello to my little friend?" West said. "Really?"

Jerry was going to defend his choice of cool quotes, but West was already jogging down the hall again.

"Hurry," West said. "We've wasted four minutes."

Jerry hurried.

Chapter Fifty-Two.

Dr. Gornman was so angry she could spit fire.

Kane, that asshole, had somehow restarted the Omega Protocol. In less than twenty-five minutes, the Spiral would begin filling with cement. And Bub, that lying son of a bitch, still hadn't come to see her. After all she'd done for him.

If you can't trust Satan, who can you trust?

"Goooooooornmaaaaan."

Her head shot up, and she saw that Bub had entered her office. Gornman shuddered with revulsion upon seeing him; a visceral reaction. But overpowering that was her anger.

"It's about damn time you showed up. That idiot Kane is going to bring down the entire facility."

"I will deeeeeeeal with Kaaaaaaaaane. You must staaaaaaart the elevaaaaaaaaaaators."

Gornman placed her hands on her keyboard, then hesitated. Once she put the elevators back online, she had no bargaining power with Bub. Everyone knew that if you had no power in a negotiation, you weren't needed.

"You promised to make me second in command in your army."

"I willllll."

"When?"

"Sooooooooon."

Bub had gotten closer to her. His rank smell made Gornman gag. Like a wet dog that had rolled around in something dead.

"Elevaaaaaaaators," Bub commanded.

Gornman felt a stab of fear. What if she did as instructed, and then Bub killed her? The image of General Kane, wrapped in his own intestines, sprang into her mind. Not a pleasant way to shed your mortal coil.

"Nooooooooooow."

She punched in the code to restart them, her finger hovering over the enter key.

Hit it and I could die.

Or I could rule the world.

Her thirst for power overrode her fear, and Dr. Gornman reactivated the elevators.

"There," she said. "They're operational."

"Goooooooood. Now about my promisssssssse."

Bub grabbed her shoulder, and Gornman screamed as the pain set in. She thrashed out of his grasp, falling onto the floor and watching, in horror, as claws grew out of her fingertips.

"Welcome to the war, General Goooooooornmaaaaaaan."

Chapter Fifty-Three.

Nessie was pleased that she'd been so bold. Not only had she taken the initiative and kissed Jerry, she'd done it twice.

Hopefully he was okay. They'd heard gunfire earlier, and Nessie would be devastated if Jerry had gotten hurt. Or worse.

She liked him. She liked him a lot.

When she'd made that joke about blowing Jerry's mind earlier, it had been pure bravado. Nessie had never been with a man before. She'd spent so much time with her studies that she hadn't dated in school. No boyfriends. No friends, either.

Funny that it took being trapped underground in a secret facility surrounded by monsters in the middle of Armageddon for it to finally happen.

Thinking about Armageddon, Nessie remembered the book page in her pocket.

"I need to show all of you something."

The others came closer as she dug out the illustration.

"This is part of the Codex Gigas," Nessie said, unfolding the vellum she'd torn from the ancient text. "This particular page of the book covers the Aurignacian period-approximately 40,000 years ago."

"Long time," Lucas said. "Almost as old as I am."

Nessie didn't understand the comment, but continued anyway. "Yeah, it's pretty far back. The earliest cave paintings ever discovered were from that time period. It is those paintings, found inside a cave in Cantabria, Spain, that this image was taken from."

Nessie pointed to a picture on the page. It was pretty clear what it was supposed to depict.

Andy narrowed his eyes. "The batlings?"

"Yes."

The image portrayed a dozen flying red demons, leading an army into battle. The army was made up of a vast assortment of monsters-monsters just like the ones kept within the Spiral. Facing down the batlings was an opposing army. One made up of men and...

"Are those angels?" Sun asked.

"Aye," said Lucas, leaning over the top of the picture. "Angels joined with man to stop the scourge before it extinguished every last spark of God's creation."

Andy craned his neck. "How do you know about this?"

"Because I was there, lad."

"You fought alongside angels?" Sun said. "I thought you were cast out of heaven."