E. S. P. (a.k.a.) The Sixth Sense

E. S. P. a.k.a. The Sixth Sense
(Extra-Sensory Perception)

The knocking woke him up.

It was dark. After all it was the middle of the night. The luminous dial of the time-piece by his bed told him it was 2 am.

The knocking came again, loud, continuous, and urgent. He tried to adjust his vision to the darkness and stumbled out of bed. A pale glow came in through the window and he felt a cold draught. It surprised him. The windows were closed. She always made sure of that each night. He reached for the light switch when his foot caught on something and he almost tripped. He got the switch and in the bright light he saw her.

It was a macabre sight. She lay in a weirdly contorted position on the ground her neck obviously broken and a trickle of blood on the floor seeping from under her hair. The shattered remains of a glass and its contents were strewn around her.

He tried to scream, but no sound would come out. He tried to move, but he did not know which way to go. His mind has been paralyzed by shock. Fear gripped his every nerve.

This time, again, it was the knocking that got him back to his senses. It was more than just knocking now. It was desperate banging. He shook himself and moved out of the bedroom and into the living room towards the main door. The banging grew more intense.

As he passed the fireplace, his hand automatically grabbed a china flower-vase. He did not even notice he did it. Something suddenly was different. The knocking! It had ceased. He moved to the door and slid the deadbolt and turned the knob. It wouldn't budge. He tried again. The door opened so suddenly onto him that he staggered backwards. He felt himself bodily lifted and thrown into the far wall of the room. He flew in the air and landed onto the fireplace. The delicate vase he was clutching shattered. He crashed to the ground and his whole body felt like it had been through a full cycle in a washing machine.

The menacing form came through the door and slowly advanced towards him, making a weird gurgling noise. His vision was blurred with his own sweat and blood and he could not see exactly what it was. Instinct told him to run and adrenaline came to his rescue. He got up. Miraculously he had not broken any bones from his being tossed. He frantically looked around for a weapon. His eye fell upon the heavy iron poker by the fireplace. It was about five feet away and the creature was almost on him.

He lunged towards the fireplace and just got to the poker moments before the creature was upon him. He thrust the pointed end at the creature's face with all his might and heard the crushing impact of iron on bone and felt the jarring contact at the same time. It gave out a howl and backed away.

He realized he had momentary respite and took the chance to run towards the open door. He got through safely enough and ran out onto the corridor. He saw three more hideous creatures advancing from the left of the long corridor and he ran right. It was not a difficult choice to make really.

He ran on. He tried to think at the same time. What was happening? How did these creatures come inside? The bubble was safe territory. The outer shields were impregnable. It was impossible for them to have got in! But here they were. Why did they come to his quarters? What had happened to the others? He had not passed anyone yet. He remembered her. She was dead. No question about that. The creature or creatures had killed her.

He stopped running. He strained to hear any noise that might warn him of approaching danger. No sound came. He looked around. He was next to the canteen area. He knew down the corridor past the canteen and up a flight of steps was the weapons store. They never carried any weapons normally but kept a store just in case. Just in case of what, no one was really sure. But he was sure that now was just such a case.

He could reach the weapons store in under a minute. First though he had to get the bio-electronic signature pass-key to open the store doors. Only one person on the station had access. This was the programs co-coordinator and head of station. Her quarters were not far from where he stood. Cautiously he peered around the corner. Nothing in sight. As quietly as possible he went in the direction of the senior staff quarters. As he rounded the last corner and approached the access door he caught sight of one ugly fiery creature come bounding towards him. He fumbled for his access card that he always wore around his neck on a plastic string and shoved the card in across the face of the reader.

The doors opened with a faint hiss. He rushed inside and hit the red button set on the wall just inside the door. The doors began to close. The doors almost closed completely when the creature smashed into it like a super-charged bull. The door buckled under the enormous force and the circuitry disintegrated. Luckily the doors did not pop open. Instead they got well and truly jammed. The creature started pounding on it.

He knew he just had moments before it got through the doors. He looked around to find the co-coordinator. That was when he saw the bodies. There were at least five of them in that room. He could see four more bodies in the adjacent room. All nine of them were dead! There were only eleven of them at the station. He was the only one alive! The realization struck him like a bolt out of a crossbow. He saw the co-coordinator lying in the next room. He stooped to pick up her wrist-band that would give him access to the weapons store. He noticed that her neck was also broken. Like some powerful force had turned it rapidly about 270 degrees. The trickle of blood left no doubt as to the nature of death.

The banging now grew louder. There was more than one creature outside that door. There was no way out. Think! There must be some other way other than the door. He saw the air duct on the ceiling. Quickly he dragged a reclining chair under it and stood on it. A firm push and the duct cover gave. He pulled himself into the narrow duct on the ceiling. He moved into it in the direction of the next room away from the creatures by the door. He knew the next room opened into the corridor further down and with some luck he might be able to get to the stairs. He came to another duct opening just like the one he had got in through. He tugged at the cover and moved it away into the duct. Cautiously he peered over the rim and to his relief found the room to be empty. It was a dining room.

He dropped to the floor silently and moved towards the door. He put his ear to it and there was no one on the other side of it. He could hear the door of the room he had just left crash inwards and the creatures get through. He quickly opened the door and scooted down the corridor. He could hear the creatures come after him. He reached the stairs and went up them three at a time. He reached the weapons store. He put his own palm on the bio-scanner and then thrust his co-coordinator’s wristband into the slot for cross-confirmation. The system accepted his entry and the doors opened. He got in and closed the doors in the nick of time. He looked around at the assortment of weapons that lay around him in neat wall brackets and cupboards. He saw the most sophisticated and the most lethal generation-Q plasma guns and the power cartridges. Surely all this was superfluous for a station that was not considered dangerous?

He realized there must have been something he had missed in the introductory course. There was only one way he could escape this place now. And that was to get to the escape pod. The station had one as did any other Z-Grade standard design station.

He unlocked the doors and ran for it. An army of creatures chased him. He fired away his plasma gun and brought down several of the creatures. But their sheer numbers overwhelmed him. They came at him from all sides. Finally he was overpowered and one of them got to him.

It grabbed him by the neck and up close he could see the green fiery eyes with the thin yellow pupils. That was the last thing he saw as the creature viciously twisted his neck and his gun clattered to the floor. Silence followed.

* * *

A few moments later he awoke with a start. He felt cold and clammy. He was drenched in sweat and his breath was rapid and in short bursts. His throat was dry and in reflex reaction he gingerly felt his neck. It was not broken. He was not dead. It was dark. He must have had a nightmare. Saturn Station Z7 was a safe scientific research outpost. He had had a tiring day. He needed a drink.

The luminous dial of the time-piece by his bed told him it was 2 am.

He tried to adjust his vision to the darkness and stumbled out of bed. A pale glow came in through the window and he felt a cold draught. It surprised him. The windows were closed. She always made sure of that each night. He reached for the light switch when his foot caught on something and he almost tripped.

Then he heard the knocking.

- THE END
A short story
(Written: 15-June-2006)