CHAPTER NINE THE CLEANSING FLAME #2
Rollins watched the wall at the end of the hall explode inward, and another one of the creatures stepped through.
Reyes stumbled into the hall and tried to get past it, but it cut him into three pieces with one swipe of its massive hand, killing him instantly and spraying blood all over the hallway.
“Reyes is down!” roared Rollins. “We’re under attack!”
More alarm klaxons sounded, and the fire suppression system began spraying water into every corridor. Rollins knew that meant the facility was on fire. If the fire hit the reserve tanks, this entire place was going to go up like a massive bomb.
“Evacuate now!” Rollins roared as he slid into the control room.
Hensley was still at the controls.
“Get out of here!” shouted Rollins. “This place is about to blow!”
“I know,” snapped Hensley. “If I don’t keep the fire suppression systems online, we’re all dead. Get out of here while you can. I’ll buy you some time.”
“I won’t leave you, Todd,” replied Rollins.
“If you don’t go now,” Hensley replied calmly, “you’ll just die here with me. There’s no sense in both of us dying today. Go!”
Rollins locked eyes with Hensley for a moment, and both men nodded. No words were needed. Hensley was laying his life down for his coworkers, giving them time to escape. Rollins turned and headed out the door. He began opening side doors, looking for anyone who might be trapped.
Down another hallway, Meg was sprinting for the exit when one of the creatures smashed through the doorway and into the corridor. From a side door, Voss burst out into the hallway and froze when he saw the creature. He looked at Meg, fear in his eyes.
“Is there another way out?” Voss whined.
“We’ll never make it,” Meg replied.
“Where is it?” snapped Voss.
“Down that hallway and to the left,” she said.
“Thanks,” Voss said, and shoved Meg at the creature.
He ran down the hallway as fast as he could go, never even glancing back.
“Fucking coward!” screamed Meg as she fell to the ground right in front of the monstrosity.
Voss rounded the corner and slid in his expensive Italian loafers, almost slamming into the wall.
He shoved past several other people, even stepping over a woman who’d fallen.
As he ran through a doorway marked “Emergency Exit”, he slammed right into one of the creatures as it emerged from the wall.
It ripped him to shreds as he screamed and screamed, before it gurgled and stopped.
Meg watched in horror as the creature raised its leg to crush her when one of the security guards ran out into the hallway.
It was the new man from the Rez, Jesse Crow.
He wore his hair long in the Oglala fashion.
He was in his late twenties and had served in the National Guard before coming back to live on the Rez.
He immediately put himself between the creature and Meg.
“Run!” shouted Jesse. “I’ll cover you.”
Instead of attacking, the creature froze and stared at Jesse for a moment. Then, inexplicably, it turned away and smashed through a wall into another part of the facility.
“Why did it do that?” asked Meg.
“I don’t know,” Jesse said. “Maybe it was my spirit bag. It was blessed by a powerful shaman.”
“Whatever the reason is,” said Meg, “we need to get out of here.”
“Follow me,” Jesse said.
They raced out the opening in the wall and sprinted across the parking area toward the guard shack.
Behind them, alarms screamed, and they smelled smoke.
Then, the ground seemed to pitch upward and sent them flying into a ditch.
Jesse dove on top of Meg to protect her as a wall of flame and heat rolled over them.
Red Basin Pump Station #3 exploded, sending a rolling fireball almost a mile into the air. They could see it a hundred miles away. However, when the blast wave rolled back, Jesse and Meg were still alive. They were both scorched and bleeding from numerous cuts and scrapes, but they were alive.
As they got to their feet, they saw the massive conflagration that had once been a pumping facility. No one else had made it out. Nothing could have survived that explosion.
“Dear God,” Meg whispered.
Then, in the heat of the flames, movement caught their attention.
More than a dozen enormous creatures walked slowly out of the inferno.
They moved as if the fire were of no consequence.
As they emerged from the flames, they stepped clear of the wreckage.
The oil that had coated them all was still burning, yet they stood there as if it were nothing.
Each creature was close to fifteen feet tall and seemed to be made of living rock.
They were vaguely humanoid in appearance, but that’s where the similarities ended.
One by one, they began sinking into the ground.
The last one was the biggest of the group, and it seemed to stare directly at Jesse Crow.
Jesse stood protectively in front of Meg and stared back at the creature. Then, it too slowly sank back into the ground. After a few moments, the only sound they could hear was the crackling of the fire and the groaning of steel as what was left of the facility collapsed in on itself.
“Call 911,” said Meg. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” asked Jesse.
“To the emergency shut-off valves,” Meg said. “If we don’t shut those down, we could lose the entire pipeline from here to town.”
“I’m coming with you,” Jesse said. “I’ll call while we’re working.”
“We’ve got to shut those lines down, or we’ll lose a hell of a lot more than this pump station,” Meg said. “And those people in there would’ve died for nothing.”
“We won’t let that happen,” Jesse said solemnly.
“And thank you,” Meg said.
“For what?” asked Jesse.
“For saving my life,” she said.
“No one is going to believe what just happened,” said Jesse. “Hell, I’m not sure I do, and I just saw it with my own eyes.”
“Someone will,” Meg said. “And it’s our job to make sure we tell as many people as possible before these things wipe out more facilities.”
Jesse nodded and took out his phone. He dialed as they ran for the far side of the facility where the emergency shut-off valves were. Thousands of lives in Martin, South Dakota, depended on them to stop the flow of oil before the fire spread.