"There's no choice," said Lucas. "If you want to live, then we need to get someplace safe in the next two seconds."

"I'll be back for you, Sun. I promise." Andy raced after West and the others.

The sucker saw their planned route and leapt in front of them, grabbing the last remaining lab assistant and impaling her with one of its twisted claws. A gout of blood erupted from the young man's mouth and the glint of life quickly left his eyes.

Andy and Lucas carried on sprinting.

West held open a door up ahead. "Come on, through here."

Andy leapt through the door and tumbled to the ground, his legs giving out. Lucas followed. West slammed the door closed behind them. Fortunately it was the same thick steel as the door to the cellblock. Unfortunately that door had not been strong enough to withstand a breach.

They had some time; but not much.

"Where are we?" Andy asked, lying on the ground and gasping for breath.

"You're in the library," said Nessie, who quickly appeared from a nearby alcove. "Does somebody want to tell me what the fuckballs is going on?"

Chapter Thirty-Three.

Everybody left alive in the library got to work making a barricade. They slid aside the heavy bookcases and positioned them in front of the door, bracing it as much as possible. They then stuffed the bookcases with the heaviest books they could find.

They all stood back to survey their work.

"It's not going to hold forever," said West.

Andy sighed. "I know, but at least they aren't trying to get through right now. We have some breathing room."

West chewed his lip. "Why do you think they're not trying to get in? That sucker knows we're in here."

"He's drawing it out," said Lucas. "We just lost half our number and we're not going anywhere. You're his prisoners now."

Andy snorted. "Are you saying that it's enjoying the situation? Getting some sort of justice?"

"That thing out there is evil and sadistic. You really think it wouldn't take the opportunity to enjoy some bitter irony if given the chance? There's no rush, it can come kill you all whenever it chooses."

"Why is he with us?" Nessie said, motioning towards Lucas. "Isn't he one of the escaped prisoners?"

"I like to think of myself as a guest, luv. I'm just here to enjoy the hospitality."

"You said that you have tried to prevent evil happening in the past," said Andy. "So what is your purpose here? Were you here to prevent the breakout?"

Lucas shook his head. "I can't prevent the actions of the defiler. That flappy little blighter has its orders and there's nothing I could say to change its mind."

Andy raised an eyebrow. "You mean the batling? And you refer to the defiler? Are you talking about Bub?"

"Aye, that was what you people named him. The truth is he has no name. He has existed as a force of destruction since the days this planet took its first breaths."

"Why is he here?"

"To make himself at home. For every thing of beauty that the Lord created, he made an abomination to destroy it. His sole intention is to wipe out God's creations and recreate the planet anew as his own domain."

"Are you saying that Bub created all of the monsters we have here?" Nessie had a look of wonder on her exuberant face.

"Not all of them, but I can assure you that the bloodsucking monster in the next room had nothing to do with God. He would not create such a vile thing."

"Who are you?" Andy demanded, tired of asking the same question. "How do you know all this?"

"Let's just say that me and the big man upstairs used to be drinking buddies. Back before we had a falling out. Tell you the truth, I've been seeking his forgiveness ever since, despite my earlier misguidedness."

Nessie huffed. "You know God?"

"No, lass. No one knows God. But I was lucky enough to be in his presence for a millennia or two."

"So what changed?" asked Andy, deciding to humour the man. "Why did you fall out with God?"

"Because I resented his most recent creation. I refused to bow down before a lesser creature. My vanity saw me cast down from Heaven."

Andy's eyes went wide. "Wait a minute. Are you saying... You're talking about the creation of man? Are you saying... Are you saying that you are the devil?"

Lucas cast his glance downwards, a sadness creeping across his face. "Tis but a name that many a frightened man gave me, but for a long time it was a name I earned proudly and with gusto. I slaughtered your kin and corrupted your purest hearts."

"Bub made similar claims. Claims that held no proof at all."

"I make no claims. You ask questions and I give answer."

"But you don't deny that you are the devil?"

"My name is Lucifer. The devil is a name I have long sought to shed."

Nessie laughed. "Are you saying that you're reformed?"

Lucas grinned back, almost confrontationally. "I'm saying that my eyes were open to what God created. I saw the beauty and compassion that I once thought absent. I realised my misjudgement of man. I love you now as God meant me to from the beginning."

"So you're here to save us?" West said. "Well, you need to get a move on."

Lucas looked at the man pityingly. "If I could pluck your ass from the fire, then I would. But it's not within my abilities. I cannot directly interfere with the actions of men."

"Some devil you are," said West. "Aren't you supposed to be almighty-God's adversary?"

"I'm afraid you're putting too much faith in your own press there, fella. I have no power. Without God's love and a connection to Heaven, I have little more influence over the world than you do. I can be anywhere I choose, can read a man's heart, but those are just parlour tricks-remnants of my nature as an angel. But I cannot breathe fire or summon legions from Hell. Those are just the fantasies of men and their fiction."

"So why the hell are you here, then?" Andy asked.

"Because if mankind is going to fall, I want to stand shoulder to shoulder and go down with it. I have lived on this earth since the days when you crawled out of your own shit. If somebody is trying to destroy it all, then I'm as much involved as any man. While I cannot act directly. I will do what I can to help you. Bub and his little bastard offspring are the most deadly things on this earth, but they bleed like anything else. I've seen enough of mankind to know that it does not give in to extinction. I believe you will fight back. You in particular, Andy, and your wife, Sun. You have a destiny to stop Bub."

"I don't believe in nonsense like 'destiny', but if it predicts we're going to fight back, then it's got that much right."

"Damn right we will," said West. "I ain't going down without a fight."

"So what do we do now?" Andy asked. "We're trapped in here and those suckers are outside ready to come in at any moment."

"You could always read a book," said Lucas, looking around at all of the bookcases. "I hear Twilight is quite the read."

Andy's face screwed up in disgust. "I thought you said you'd given up being evil?"

"That reminds me," said Nessie. "I found something in a book earlier. Something I've been meaning to show you."

"What is it?"

"A clue to what Bub is planning. An indication of what we're in for."

"Let me guess," said Andy. "It's nothing good?"

"No," replied Nessie. "It's very bad."

Chapter Thirty-Four.

"The shaft ends here," said Rimmer. "We must be at subbasement 10."

Jerry swung his leg out onto the concrete lip that sat below the floor's elevator hatch. Rimmer did so too and they both balanced precariously next to one another.

"Can you get it open from this side?"

Rimmer nodded. "Shouldn't be a problem."

"I'm guessing the problems will start once we get into the corridor."

Rimmer sighed. "I say we're both going to be dead in about three minutes."

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."

Rimmer shook his head. "Perhaps it's best that you're about to be put out of your misery."

Jerry nodded. "Euthanasia by monster. That's how I always dreamed of going."

"You ready?"

Jerry nodded.

Rimmer slammed his knife between the elevator doors and jarred them open. Both men gripped a door each and together they slid them aside.

They were surprised by what they found.

The corridor was empty.

"Where is everyone?"

Rimmer tried his radio briefly, but it was a pointless exercise. Every channel came back with static. Perhaps Kane had put a block on all of the radios.

Jerry called out, making Rimmer wince.

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

Rimmer stepped out into the corridor, his boots padding softly on the concrete. Unlike the other corridors, this one was not stained with blood. All of the high-security glass cells were wide open, however, and none of their former inhabitants were present. The vilest creatures in the Spiral were all loose.

Rimmer narrowed his eyes. But where the hell are they?

He had a bad feeling. It was like he was walking into a trap. It was the same way he had felt moving silently across the Iraqi desert, leading his entire squad into the deadly ambush which had ultimately led to him joining Deus Manus.

Rimmer placed a hand up over his shoulder and stopped. Jerry understood the signal and stopped too.

"What is it?" Jerry whispered.

"I don't like this? The monsters on the upper basements are like animals. They just come running soon as they see you. The freak shows on this floor are smart. They think. They plan."

"So what would be their plan?"

Slowly, Rimmer 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. Rimmer had no need for nightmares, though. He lived in a world where reality and dreams were one and the same.

"Clever girl," Jerry muttered.

The creature above them was Grendaline Historicum. More than just a beast written about in Beowulf, it was a creature of unrivalled strength and ferocity.

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

The grendal hit the concrete with its ham-sized fists, sending out cracks like an earthquake.