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After Hours
The Cage

Another group of guests made their way up the marble stairs, and Travis sat up in his seat.
"Hey, hey! We got some more ladies!"
Across the small room, his partner Parker glanced up, then did a double-take when he saw just what the guests were wearing.
"Whoa...hey, zoom in! Zoom in!"
Travis thumbed the camera controls. The line of exotic women grew to fill the crystal clear LCD screen. Their recent choice in designer formal dresses left nothing to be imagined. Both men ogled at the screen until finally the guests disappeared beyond the camera's view.
Parker chuckled, pushing off on his wheeled office chair. "Can't wait till I get promoted to driver escort."
Travis rolled his eyes. "Please. You don't get promoted to that."
"I could get a transfer."
"Whatever. Then what?"
Parker grinned. "Hey man; hot girl, drunk as a skunk, and needs a ride home. How do you think she's gonna wanna pay?"
"Jimmy got lucky. No one invites the escort in, and he knew her. Some chick or friend of a friend. And he got fired for it. You don't sleep with a sponsor and get off unscathed."
"Jimmy was an idiot. He yapped about it, and that's what got him canned."
Of course Travis knew Parker was right. The job of escort wasn't one you expected to get laid in, but it happened. Everyone knew the unspoken rule that you did not talk about it. All the escorts were good looking guys for a reason; the female sponsors often found reason to increase the funding. Jimmy was a buffoon, who for one reason or another didn't know anything about this unspoken rule of conduct. No sponsors were lost, but Jimmy was quickly let go and paid a nice compensation to keep quiet. He was even foolish enough to be unconscious of what kind of job he'd lost.
Parker could be an escort, Travis thought. He wasn't Brad Pitt, but the women would definitely let him drive them home.
"That was the last ride for the evening," said Parker. "Switch to hall cams?"
Travis shook his head. "Not our job. We're exterior only, tonight. The boys upstairs are interior cams."
"Damn it," Parker muttered.
Four stories underground, the two men we're guarding the ultra secure company data archives. Their job was only to keep a second pair of eyes on the perimeter around the structure topside, plus a watch on the cameras just outside their four foot thick concrete and titanium vault. It was the most secure place in the building, and with good reason. The company kept all of their data in these hard drives--a row of super-cooled computer towers centered in the middle of the vault. Not only was it worth millions, but highly secretive. There were too many technologies to be contracted to, especially when someone had enough money to pay for the research.
The only other sections of the building anywhere remotely near as secure as the data vault was a honeycomb of research labs laced throughout the subterranean levels. As far as Travis knew, though, the data vault was at the very bottom, and definitely the most locked down. It was their job to keep it that way.
"The boys in security upstairs will be running the interior cams, so keep us on channel one in case they have anything to say."
Across the room, Parker reluctantly flipped on an audio switch. Light chatter streamed in from the control room nearly sixty feet above them. Even the security detail up top was in the middle of their own party, and it was getting loud.
"Yeah, yeah, we hear ya," Parker grumbled.
"Come on," said Travis, "just because we're downstairs doesn't mean we can't have some fun."
Parker raised an eyebrow. Travis flipped off the vox; they'd still hear channel one, but no one else would hear them. Then he reached into his pack, removing two long-neck bottles.
"Nice," said Parker. "Get us fired why don't you."
Travis popped the cap on his. "They can't hear us." He tipped back his drink.
Parker shrugged. He turned down the audio on channel one slightly--the party up there was starting to get real loud--and then tipped back his own drink.
Time seemed to lose meaning as Travis cycled through the exterior cams and let the alcohol relax his mind. Somewhere in the back of his head he was aware of Parker thumbing through a magazine, the loud chatter from security upstairs, and the images flashing before his eyes. When Parker started snoring, Travis immediately snapped back to his senses. He nudged his partner.
"Hey, get your lazy ass up."
Parker stirred, then sat up quickly. He blinked. "Ow, what time is it?"
Travis glanced at his watch, although time-stamps were displayed on each screen.
12:15 AM
"Damn," he muttered aloud.
Parker leaned over, turning the audio from upstairs down another level. Now things had really gotten loud, and it was giving him a headache.
"We miss anything?"
Travis wiped cold sweat off his forehead. "No man, no. Damn, we can't let that happen again."
Parker scoffed. "You brought in the booze. Not me."
Travis cycled a few times through the cameras quick, just to make sure he hadn't missed anything. The parking lot was still full--strangely--and the door men were gone. In fact, after another cycle through, Travis realized that none of the grounds security were out and about.
"Weird."
"What?" Parker perked up.
"Grounds security is gone. All of them. What the hell are they doing inside?"
Travis glanced over at his partner, and noticed him staring at the audio station.
"Parker, are you listening to me?"
Parker remained silent. He reached forward slowly, and turned the volume up to maximum. The channel was dead silent.
Travis hadn't noticed at first, but now he was beginning to feel a slight trill of fear. The men upstairs in security had been loud, yes, but it provided ambiance; signs of life. Now that was gone. And suddenly he felt very alone.
"Technical glitch. We're probably not even getting audio through anymore," he said, more to himself.
Parker didn't look too good. And when he shook his head, he was confirming what Travis already knew. "I can still hear the air ambiance. We're hearing everything..."
Travis bit his lip. He immediately flipped the vox back on.
"Sagan, Charles; you guys hearing me?"
More silence.
"I say again, Sagan, where the hell are you guys?!"
Truth be told, Travis never would've spoken like that to the Chief, especially in that tone if he ever planned on keeping his post. Chief Ross Sagan was notorious for his short temper. But right now, Travis just wanted to hear something, even if it was the Chief screaming at him. Still, the silence loomed.
"Shit." He turned to the monitors, and started switching the security system. A moment later he was linked in to the interior camera banks as well. Parker dropped his empty bottle onto the floor and it shattered as the new images flashed across the screens.
Bodies. In every room, bodies lay strewn out across the floors. Blood and gore abounded on every surface. In the party hall, tables had been overturned; expensive decor trashed. The guests were in pieces. At least, what was still left of them.
Finally, on the last screen, the main floor security station came into focus. Half of the corpses were still in their chairs, liquor at their finger tips. The other half had been ripped apart in action. Some still gripped their sidearm.
Parker vomited. The alcohol and scenery didn't agree with his stomach. Travis was beginning to feel a knot of dread well up, and just wanted to puke as well. But he kept his composure, and cycled through a second time. There was no one left alive.
"What the hell did we miss?!" Parker gasped, sitting up again. He launched back into a fit of dry heaving.
The initial shock was still passing for Travis, but enough was enough. He unclipped his sidearm and made for the high-tech vault door. Parker sluggishly followed.
"Wait, man, what if whoever did this is waiting for us outside?"
That struck a chord, so Travis checked the cameras outside the vault. Nothing. He set to inputting the codes.
"I said wait! We don't know what the hell happened!"
"We know whoever they were, they didn't make their assault from the grounds, which means they were already inside."
Parker was shaking, scratching his head nervously. "Shouldn't we call for backup? Get police--hell, SWAT in here. Figure out if the bastards are still in the building."
The codes took. Metal locks clicked and rotated, until finally the massive doors parted. Travis kept his sidearm at eye-level, quickly scanning the hallway stretched out before them.
"We're not hiding down here, if that's what you're thinking. Seal the door and stay close."
Parker made some kind of annoyed grunt, but a minute later the doors were closed again. Both men headed up the corridor.
Travis didn't need to listen to his gut when clear reasoning told him the same thing. If this was a heist, then there would be hostages; there should still be people alive. And even if the robbers had resulted to killing them all, then why was everyone disemboweled? Guns didn't make the mess he had just seen. And, hell, while he was at it, if it were terrorists, then what was the building doing still standing? No explosives, no guns, no hostiles.
What did that even leave? A gang of psychopathic slashers? Suddenly Travis wanted just as badly to turn back and hide in the vault until backup arrived. At his side, Parker still wasn't doing too well.
"Shit man, that stuff almost looked like an animal attack."
Travis swallowed hard. "And what the hell kind of animal could that? A couple of bullets would down the bastard. And we didn't even see anything come in on the monitors."
Parker was sweating. "Are you sure? We dozed there for a bit. Just a little. Oh man, I think there are bears in these parts. What if a whole pack of them came through?"
Travis sneered at his partner. It managed to partially subdue his own fear. "Bears don't travel in packs, asshole. And like I said, a couple of bullets and the thing goes down." And, he didn't want to say, a bear couldn't do that kind of damage. Only problem was, he couldn't think of anything that could.
They took an elevator up to ground floor, and stepped out in a service hall. A decapitated guard lay in a pool of blood at their feet. Parker started dry heaving again.
The body didn't bother Travis so much as the smell. A truly awful stench wafted down the corridor on their right, which led out towards the main hall. It was one thing to see the shredded corpses on camera, but a whole other to smell them.
"C'mon," Travis commanded.
They headed left, towards the main security center. It was worse in person.
Friends and fellow men they had worked with for years were reduced to a bloody mess. Chief Sagan was missing the lower half of his torso and a good chunk of his head. Bullet shells littered the floor. The casings clattered as they stepped through the mess.
Travis had been hoping to get some of the footage stored here and replay it, but the equipment was trashed. Screens were shattered, and several of the computer towers were smashed.
"Holy shit," Parker muttered.
Travis looked up to see his partner's face horror-stricken. He followed his gaze down to one of the desks, where three parallel scratches had been torn into the wood deeply. Travis immediately thought claw marks.
Both men straightened up quickly. Something roared somewhere in the distance. It was far off, definitely not in any of the party halls.
Parker started trembling. "Oh shit! There is a bear in here! How the hell are we gonna deal with a bear when none of them could?!"
Travis tried to think calmly, but he still had shivers running up his back. There was no doubt now that a wild animal was loose in the building, but it wasn't a bear. There were too many bullet shells and too much carnage. No, something else did this, but right now he couldn't imagine what. The only thing he knew for sure was what they needed to do.
"We're going back to the vault."
This seemed to comfort Parker. "Oh thank God! Let's go!"
They carefully made their way back into the corridor, and found the elevator still waiting for them. Travis entered their destination, and they begin descending. Then the car rocked violently.
The lights overhead flickered, but stabilized. They were still going down. Parker was trembling again, forcing Travis to cover his mouth. He strained his ears. Something was on top of the elevator car.
The ceiling groaned and creaked under the added weight. Something big was up there. Parker was bordering on hysteria.
The car continued to descend, finally reaching the last floor. The doors pinged and parted. Parker went stumbling into the hall, gasping for air. Travis gave him his space, opting to make a much more graceful exit. It kept him calm.
"Oh god! What was that?!"
"It's okay," Travis said, helping his partner up. "Nothing happened."
The crash was ear-deafening. The entire elevator ceiling caved in. Travis whipped around in time to see the debris fly everywhere just as the doors closed again. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw something big sitting on top of the pile of debris. Something very big.
Whatever it was, it growled loudly, and pounded violently on the elevator doors. Two indents expanded out slightly from the metal.
Parker screamed. Travis pulled him to his feet, rushing the nearest door. It was a lab of some sort, with bold labeling all over the exterior entrance. He dropped Parker, and grabbed for his ID card.
The doors expanded outward again, this time on the verge of splitting apart. Through the small aperture, Travis could see one big red eye staring back at him. It narrowed.
Travis swiped his card through the scanner in one swift motion, and the security protocols disabled. The steel doorway slid open, and he grabbed the cuff of Parker's uniform shirt. As he pulled him through, he pounded in the emergency switch with his fist. The lab door slammed shut and locked just as the elevator doors gave way. Something collided roughly with the steel plating just outside. The door held.
Travis sighed, falling back against the wall. Parker was still pretty badly shaken, but now starting to sit up.
"Wh-- what was that?"
Travis shook his head. His heart throbbed loudly in his ears, and not from physical fatigue.
"Whatever it was, it's gotta be what killed everyone upstairs."
Parker shivered. "No way...there's no way this is real."
Travis went through his mental checklist again. They had to get back to the Vault, no question. That was their post, their connection with the outside world, and the safest place to wait this out. But when he could no longer distract himself with security protocol, his mind drifted back to the horrific sight of that red eye.

* *

Most of the company's projects were highly classified. This was for industry copyright purposes. If a new product was about to be released, all of the specifications had to be kept hush-hush. Especially for a client such as themselves that dealt with cutting edge technology.
But there was another reason the company's projects were highly classified. Travis knew that of all their clients, there were two that paid the most for their research. 
First was the military, which as far as he knew was interested in developing new materials for various engineering projects. It didn't take a genius to realize that this wasn't all of what they were contracting. But Travis couldn't even begin to count the myriad of different possible research commissions. The military simply had that broad of a field with technology.
Then there was a bio-engineering firm, working on God knew what. Bio-engineering could mean any number of things, and as far as Travis was concerned, it was some kind of pharmaceutical product.
Any way he looked at it though, one of these two had to have commissioned something. Something terrible, even. And whatever it was they had wanted, it was now running loose in the building, killing everything in its path.
"Are you good enough to walk?" he said to his partner.
Parker was much calmer, now that he had had time to rest. He pushed himself up sluggishly.
"Yeah, I'm good." He let out a loud sigh of relief. "That was close."
Yes, Parker was definitely doing better. That was especially good news for Travis, who still wasn't sure if he himself would be okay.
Focus, he told himself again. Get to the vault. Just get to the vault...
"All right, let's get moving," he remarked with a gung-ho tone in his voice. It practically screamed, onward march!
But if that was all his mind was doing to cope, it would be okay. There were worse things.
Unfortunately, of all the doors they could have rushed through, this lab was pretty well self-contained. Although extensive, no matter how many doors they seemed to open, there were only more sub-rooms. Testing chambers, archives, chem-labs, and even several offices, all inter-tangled in a maze-like setup. Whoever rented out this floor apparently did not believe in central hallways. And the opening and closing routine was starting to get old.
Travis checked his watch again. Forty-five minutes. They had been wandering around in this dead-end labyrinth for three quarters of an hour. Only now was he beginning to appreciate the building space the company had constructed. And this was but in one lab on one floor.
"Where are we?" asked his puzzled partner.
"Parker...I think we're actually lost."
"Could we go back?"
Of course they could. They might not have been able to find a way forward, but Travis was fairly certain they could back track. Only problem was, he wasn't sure he wanted to go back. Whatever it was that had chased them in here, he suspected it was still waiting for them outside. Or worse, trying to figure out how to get in.
Something crashed somewhere in the recesses of the building.
Or worse still, it has figured out how to get in.
Parker frowned, still calm as ever. It was almost as if he seemed to have forgotten the carnage they witnessed earlier.
"Now what could that have been?"
Travis stood rock still, his breathing slowed as he strained to hear. At first there was nothing more than the ambiance in the air around them. Then there was a scuffle. Something was moving in a far off part of the lab, and...
It was getting closer.
"Shit."
Travis turned, pushing his way in through the next door before them. Parker followed quickly.
"You don't think—?"
Travis shushed him. It was hard enough to hear over his own footsteps. He couldn't hear it now that they had broken off from the hallway, but at least maybe that meant it couldn't hear them.
They rushed through several more rooms, finally coming to a stop inside a large office with a locked door on the other side. Travis was about to lead them back out the way they had come when he heard a loud crash of metal trays and glass through the wall.
He froze in his tracks.
Parker was beginning to hyperventilate again. Travis would have shushed him, but he was too paralyzed on the spot. He listened as hard as he could, focusing on any sound.
There was a distant breathing. In and out in big huffs, but still quite a ways off. It was definitely the animal, all right. The question was how far off.
"Parker!" Travis grunted under his breath. "Parker, use your skeleton key. Get the next door open."
Parker nodded slowly. He reached for his key-chain, selecting a maroon-bronze key. Only a handful of them existed for the building, and Travis thanked God that Vault Security had been blessed with one. It had some kind of automatic system that re-aligned the teeth for any lock in the building. Supposedly, it could unlock any tumbler-based lock in the world.
There was a soft whir of mechanics as the key's teeth chose their new shape. But that was just one sound Travis was focusing on. Now he could hear that heavy breathing closer.
A lot closer.
"Got it," said Parker.
Wham!
The front office wall caved slightly. Travis jumped back, bumping into the desk. Fragmented drywall crumbled onto the floor. Parker yelped, yanking open the now unlocked door.
The animal outside roared, bounding headfirst against the wall again. This time its head made it through partially. The beast was almost nose to nose with Travis. Parker screamed.
Its ugly face sent shivers down his spine. A long snout stuck out from an armored face. Large arrays of sharp teeth dripped with saliva. With the horn on the nose, it reminded him a lot of a rhino.
A demented rhino.
It reared back, opening its mouth wide and growling loud. Spittle splattered on Travis' face. He took his chance, spinning off of the desk and facing the escape door. He ran full on through behind Parker, and kicked it shut with his foot. Behind him he heard the monster break through the crumpled wall successfully. Now it was trying to smash through the next one.
Travis could barely keep up with Parker. He had never seen his partner run this fast, but then again, before tonight; he hadn't seen a lot of things.
Up ahead there was a door at the end of the hall; another steel reinforced entrance. Or in this case, exit. It was finally the escape from this labyrinth they had been searching for all along.
Another wall caved in somewhere behind, and Travis could hear the creature's heavy feet pounding against the floor. In a flash he drew his ID-card, swiping it through the card-reader the instant they came to a screeching halt against the door. Time slowed as he waited for the computer to process the command and the door to slide open.
Parker screamed. Travis grabbed him by his uniform, shoving him through and out into the hallway. He felt the creature's breath on his neck, and dove for the ground.
Wham!
Travis looked up in a daze. The armor-plated monster had rebounded off the door as it had slid shut. The door was jammed open now, bent at an extreme angle. But the creature was still on the other side, lying on the floor. It made a sound that reminded Travis of a groan.
"What happened?!" Parker screeched. "Is it dead? Did we make it?"
Travis snapped back into action. Dragging Parker to his feet, he started down the new, familiar corridor. They were only a few hallways over from the data vault. And with the creature stunned, he was taking their last chance.
"C'mon!" he growled. "We're almost there!"
Parker found his footing, and the remaining space parted before them. Amidst the adrenaline rush, Travis was faintly aware of the twists and turns they took, once more finally arriving outside their secure haven. Locks clicked and unsealed, and soon both men were collapsing back in their work chairs. The smell of Parker's vomit was still ever present.
"Shit," Parker breathed, panting hard. "Shit...we made it..."
Travis patted him on the arm. "We made it."

* *

"You sure?"
Travis glanced up towards the main LCD screen. The carnage from earlier shifted over as the various cameras cycled through. The creature was nowhere to be seen.
"Yeah," the guy on the other end of the phone line said. "Security crews are on their way. HQ has some kind of contingency plan figured out."
That made Travis frown. Had the company predicted this kind of disaster?
"All right," he finally said. "My partner and I will hold up in the data vault till you arrive."
"Good. Just stay down there and we'll clean up the mess. God, this is gonna be a long night..."
After the call was over, Travis strolled over to where Parker had folded up his uniform coat as a pillow and was lying on the cool tile floor. He blinked his eyes open as Travis approached.
"What'd HQ have to say?"
Travis sat down, putting his back against one of the towering data banks. "They have a team on the way to secure the perimeter and take care of the threat. Now we just wait for them to give the all clear."
"But...but what about the thing?"
Travis just shrugged. "It can't get in here. And soon enough it won't be our problem anymore."
Parker grunted anxiously. "I don't know, man...something's not right."
Travis suppressed a sarcastic bark of laughter. "You're damn right something's not right. We've got some kind of company monster running around killing anything in its path."
"Yeah, but...where did it come from?"
Travis shrugged again. Did it matter? Obviously from one of the many catacomb labs scattered throughout the underground facility.
"What's so important about it?" he grunted.
Parker shivered. "What if there's more...?"
Wham!
Metal groaned, and computers crackled and snapped like glass. Both security guards leapt up, drawing their fire-arms. Whatever it was—although Travis was fairly certain he knew what it was—it had smashed through on the farthest end of the data vault, currently beyond their view.
"Oh no!" Parker whimpered, shaking badly. "It got in! HOW THE HELL IS THAT POSSIBLE?!"
The creature smashed through another data tower, sending shattered silicon all over the floor. Sparks leapt off of its armored feet as it ground to a halt across the tiles. From this point of view, Travis decided it now looked more like a giant rat.
"That is one persistent bastard," he remarked simply. "RUN!"
Darting between the tall data-banks was their only hope. There was no way they could get the vault door open in time, so Travis decided to resort to hide and seek for now. But that was only a temporary solution. Eventually this thing would knock down every last data tower, and then there would be no more places left to hide.
He slid to a stop at a junction, side-stepping between different rows of towers. Parker went right on past him, sticking to his original row.
"Damn it, Parker! Get back here!"
The creature barreled by. Its tail flicked out, slicing across Travis' arm. He grunted in pain, and jumped back out of view. His uniform was covered with flecks of blood.
He cursed, putting pressure on the wound. It wasn't deep, but it was bleeding badly. And where the hell was Parker?!
His partner screamed a shrill cry. It was hard to tell if it was in agony or out of fear. The creature smashed through another data tower somewhere in the background, so maybe Parker was still alive.
The creature continued to trash the data towers somewhere on the far side of the vault. For whatever reason it hadn't come back looking for Travis. And that gave him time to form a plan.
Parker suddenly poked his head out from the data tower right across from Travis.
"Psst!"
Travis put a finger to his mouth, wincing at the pain in his arm. Slowly, he nodded towards the massive hole in the wall where the monster had come in. It would be a long run, but it was their best chance.
"On three," Travis whispered. "One—"
The creature's head appeared through the data tower, popping out right by Travis' head.
Parker screamed, blitzing for the escape. Travis stumbled up in a flash, putting as much distance as he could between him and that mouth full of teeth.
The creature tore its head out of the data tower, and then leapt into the corridor in hot pursuit. Parker got to the hole first and immediately dropped down through a hole on the other side in the floor. Travis briefly considered changing his course after seeing this. Then the creature roared in his ear, less than five feet behind him, and he decided falling into the unknown wasn't so bad after all.
He caught a brief glimpse of the service corridor that the smashed-in wall led out to, and the large, black hole in the concrete floor. Travis' feet dropped out from beneath him, and there was the sensation of free fall.
It lasted a good five seconds.
Then he hit something squishy and soft that absorbed his entire impact force. But whatever it was, it was small, because he bounced off and landed onto some kind of concrete platform. Parker was right next to him.
Parker groaned in agony, grasping at his leg. It might have been broken from the fall. Travis noted several new sore spots as well, but nothing serious. Still, they were down, and that thing had been right on his tail. It was a wonder it hadn't already finished them off. But Travis quickly saw why.
The new chamber they had landed in was enormous. And the only light source came streaming in from the now tiny hole in the ceiling far overhead. He could faintly make out the creature staring down at them, but it didn't stick around long, instead choosing to back off.
Parker tried sitting up. "Why...why hasn't it finished us?" he whimpered.
Travis sniffed the air. There was an odd stench to it...
The floor rumbled. Something shuddered and growled nearby. In the faint light, Travis realized that the concrete floor they had landed on was actually the edge of a shelf. There was a sheer drop off into further darkness beyond that. And a quick glance around did not reveal what the strange substance was that had saved him from the fall.
"What the hell...?"
The ground shook again, and Travis watched as a strange, fleshy ball the size of a car rose up out of the darkness on a pillar of more flesh. It rose up twenty feet over them, and then stopped. Parker began to hyperventilate. Horror welled up inside Travis.
Two flaps on the ball of flesh came apart, revealing a single, gigantic eyeball underneath. The black iris rested once briefly on each security guard. Then a low rumble began to rise out of the darkness, growing in intensity.
Travis almost wished they had simply been torn apart back in the vault.