"Did I say I fought on the side of angels?"

"You sided with Bub?" The anger in Andy's voice was apparent.

"The war waged for centuries, until there was barely a soul remaining on either side. Those left amongst the angels retired to Heaven while mankind inherited the earth, left behind as its protectors. The surviving humans made an oath to contain the defiler and his wicked creations forevermore."

"Deus Manus," Nessie said.

"Deus Manus took what was left of the scourging army and vowed to keep them from ever being able to do harm again. The defiler went his way. I went mine."

"What happened?"

"Civilization happened. Mankind pillaged and manipulated the earth to suit their every whim, digging and cutting, reshaping things to their liking. Bub and I crossed paths a few more times, as allies, and as enemies. His luck ran out a few hundred years ago with the Mayans. Eventually the defiler's tomb was unearthed and he once again began walking the earth-biding his time until he could regain the strength he once wielded. Until recently he had been unable to rediscover his armies. Then came along the Internet, and some fool who gave Bub access to it at Samhain."

"Dr. Belgium."

"Aye. Bub was able to research enough from online conspiracy theorists, secure military websites, and Google Earth images to make an educated guess at where his former legions now lay."

"That's why the batling is here," Nessie said. "It wanted to get captured all along. So it could lead a prison break and raise an army."

Sun put her hands on her hips and asked, "How big was your army, Lucas? Back when you were slaughtering people?"

If Lucas was hurt by the insult, he didn't show it. "Over a million. But if the defiler escapes with just a few dozen of these beasties, it wouldn't take longer than a year to raise an army a hundred times as big."

They were all silent for a few moments.

"Maybe we're all better off if this whole place fills with concrete," Nessie said. Her previous good spirits had been dampened.

"Would that kill you, Lucas?" Sun asked.

"Don't know. Wouldn't be pleasant."

"How about Bub?"

"Might. He's a hard one to kill. But you might be forgetting that there are many Deus Manus facilities around the world, and this is happening at dozens of them. Even if you kill this Batling, there are others. Armageddon, as Nessie put it, will likely happen no matter how things transpire here. At this point, maybe running isn't a bad idea. You can have a few good months left before hell breaks loose. Andy, you and Sun can get on with your honeymoon. Nessie, you can get laid. You could all have some bright days before they turn dark."

"You said it was our destiny to stop Bub," Andy said.

Lucas shrugged. "Maybe not here and now. Maybe at a later date. He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day."

"You're just playing the devil's advocate," Sun told him.

Lucas laughed. "Aye. I do that sometimes. Old habit."

Nessie closed her eyes. She thought about the possibility of being with Jerry. Even if it was just a quick fling. When you had your whole life ahead of you, your priorities could be long term. Nessie had never really longed for a relationship. She figured it would happen eventually, but there had been no rush. But now, things were much more imminent. Sex. Love. Family. Dedicating her life to research suddenly seemed less like learning and more like hiding.

Conversely, Nessie, imagined, quite vividly, a world where the monsters in the Spiral roamed free. The misery. The horror. The death. Worldwide panic. Unheard of destruction. It would make all of history's wars seem inconsequential.

There was a chance, however slim, that Bub was defeated at all the other Deus Manus facilities. Which meant it was up to them to make sure he was defeated here, too.

Maybe it was all for nothing, but even at the risk of giving up everything, Nessie couldn't take that chance.

"We need to make sure Bub and his army don't reach the surface," Nessie said.

"How?" Andy checked his watch. "We have twenty-two minutes left, and Bub can't be stopped. He survived a nuclear explosion last time. What exactly are we supposed to do?"

"Stall him until the facility fills in with concrete," Nessie said softly.

That pronouncement was followed by silence.

"Sun?" Andy eventually said.

"She's right, Andy. We can't let Bub get out of here."

Andy turned to Lucas and shoved him, hard. "So this was your plan all along? That's why you brought us here? For us to die stopping Bub? We have to be fucking martyrs?"

Lucas said nothing.

"Jesus, Lucifer... I don't know who the hell you are, Lucas, other than a first class asshole." Andy turned to his wife. "I'll try to stall Bub. You get to the surface."

Sun shook her head. "No way. I'm staying with you."

"I'm not letting you die down here, Sunshine. Like Ol' Scratch said, I'm the one meant to save the world."

"And I'm staying with you," Sun said, grabbing both of Andy's hands. "Through all of it."

Nessie watched them kiss, and felt bad that she'd never experience a love like that.

Then the elevator dinged, and they all turned to see the doors open. Nessie braced herself, but no creatures leapt out at them.

"The elevators appear to be working again," Lucas said. "You can all get away."

"Go ahead and run, Lucas," Sun said. "We're staying."

"Bub will slaughter you like sheep."

The trio stared at him.

"So you're all willing to die, for the greater good? You humans keep doing this, over and over. All throughout history. Gotta say, it's why I love you cheeky monkeys."

"It's what makes us human," said Andy.

Lucas looked at him. "Aye, that it is. That it is."

"Dr. Gornman called Bub to negotiate a surrender," Sun said. "She's on level 4. Hopefully Bub is with her, and we can stall him until the countdown is over."

Sun moved toward the elevator with Andy, but Lucas held them both back. "You both wait here for West and Jerry to return. Nessie, you go get Rimmer and bring him up here, to give him the anti-venom when it arrives. Then all of you escape together. I'll be the one dealing with Bub."

"What are you saying?" Nessie asked.

"None of you have a chance against the defiler. I do. Perhaps it is finally time for me to stop watching things happen, and to actually do something. If God hasn't forgiven me by now, he's probably never going to."

Lucas stepped into the elevator.

Andy said, "I don't trust you."

"I wouldn't trust me either," said Lucas. He winked at them, before disappearing behind the closing doors of the elevator.

Chapter Fifty-Four.

Jerry kept close to West, who had slowed down to a walk. The boy rubbed at the bridge of his nose and wondered if it was broken. The recoil on the rifle had been a bitch and the bleeding had only just stopped.

West crept forward, his rifle scanning left and right. The security guard was doing a damn good Rambo impression, but Rambo never had to face off against monsters.

As they passed by each room, West took a look inside. Each one they checked was empty. When they reached Lab 3 they discovered the door was mangled and bent, but it was partly closed and still covered the entrance.

West kicked it open, did a quick sweep, and said, "Clear. Let's find that anti-venom."

Jerry was out of breath, and had no idea where to look. The lab had been trashed, the floor littered with broken equipment.

"Where do we even start?" Jerry lamented.

"Try the cabinet."

"Which one? There are dozens."

"Try the one that says Anti-Venom."

Jerry immediately saw what West was talking about. "Well, shite, now I feel bleedin thick."

"Hurry up."

Jerry opened the cabinet. Inside was a box lined with vials. Each had a tiny label on it.

"Do you have a magnifying glass? There are two dozen of these."

"Just take the whole damn box."

Jerry took the whole damn box, along with a handful of syringes, which he shoved into his jeans pocket. West left the room first, checking the hallway.

"Clear."

When Jerry exited Lab 3, they both heard the DING! at the same time. Jerry turned to see the elevator doors opening. And out came- Jerry's lower lip trembled. "Game over, man. Game over."

The creature had multiple, spindly legs like one of the harvestmen spiders, but two pincers like a giant scorpion. A female torso jutting out of the cephalothorax like a centaur, with claws and teeth like a dracula. And for hair...

Snakes.

Writhing, snapping, Medusa snakes.

Jerry abso-fucking-lutely hated Medusas more than anything. Ever since seeing the original Clash of the Titans as a kid. It wasn't being turned to stone that scared him; and indeed he didn't turn into stone while looking at the Medusa in the elevator, but the whole image of a twisting, squirming, terrifying ball of snakes was, as he'd said earlier, nightmare fuel.

They were hooded cobras, too.

Of course they were cobras.

"Dr. Gornman?" West said.

Jerry looked behind the spider/scorpion/centaur/dracula/Medusa thing to see if Dr. Gornman was also in the elevator. She wasn't.

But she was.

Dr. Gornman was the spider/scorpion/centaur/dracula/Medusa thing. It had her face, and still wore shreds of her lab coat.

West fired, drilling an entire magazine into the creature. The Gornman-thing screamed, harpy-like, and scuttled forward, grabbing West in her scorpion claws and lifting him off the ground. Then at least ten cobras from her scalp bit the soldier in the face, latching on.

Jerry was so terrified he'd forgotten how to move. And breathe.

The Gornman-thing snipped off West's arms, then pulled his twitching corpse in close so it could feast on him, twirling him around as if on a spit as it chewed. It was like watching a monster eat a giant, bloody corn-on-the-cob.

That got Jerry moving. He turned and sprinted, running for his life, the anti-venom box tucked under his arm like a rugby ball.

Behind him he heard the click-click-click-click of spider legs on the tile.

Gornman was in pursuit.

And gaining on him.

Jerry considered ducking into a room to try and hide, then he felt the most sublime poke on his scalp. As if someone just gave him a friendly pat on the head.

Two steps later he fell to his knees.

It bit me.

One of the snakes bit me.

Jerry blinked twice, and then fell onto his face, the anti-venom box skittering across the tile floor as his heart stopped beating.