commercial buildings.
"The
wall on your right, and hurry!"
I
turned and ripped another section of panels away and was rewarded
with a structural steel girder that ran at an angle from the floor
all of the way to the ceiling.
"You
could have just told me that to start out with."
The
words came out with a kind of breathless anger that was all I could
manage while hauling my massive hybrid body up towards the ceiling.
"It
wouldn't have worked. There's nearly enough room for you to be able
to slip through what's left of the metal framework there. It's
rusted, just give the inside corner a good tug and it will bend out
of the way."
Rachel's
voice came out of the cell phone in a staccato rush, but I hardly
noticed. My attention was focused on getting up above the ceiling,
and Rachel was only important in as much as she could help get me out
of there alive.
She
was right; the heavy metal was rusted through so badly that it warped
without much effort at all on my part. As I scrambled up through the
hole I'd made and onto the heavy metal framework that formed the
ceiling, I noticed just how thick the insulation was. The mounting
points for the microphones hung down more than a foot below the
actual framework, a silent testament to just how much insulation was
required to muffle whatever sounds they'd tested with.
"Run
towards the center of the room! Now!"
For
once my beast didn't protest Rachel giving me an order. Instead she
threw all of her energy into the effort of complying with what we'd
been told to do. It took me only two steps to cross the room I'd just
been inside of and another two were all that were required to put me
almost directly in the center of the long corridor that ran through
the center of the testing area.
I
saw Rachel's error partway between my third and fourth steps. The
rust that had allowed me to bypass the microphone framework was
endemic through the whole system. Sheer chance had allowed me to step
on some of the few crosspieces that were still sound enough to bear
my weight, but the chains that supported the framework weren't up to
the same standard.
I
felt the two chains on my left give out at the same time, and
reflexively looked down to confirm that the ground beneath me was
clear of obstacles. It wasn't, instead I saw the werewolf that had
been pursuing me. A section of the soundproofing material had fallen
away at some point in the past, leaving a hole that let me see my
enemy, a hole that allowed sound free passage down to the werewolf.
The
werewolf must have heard me running across the framework. It was the
only explanation for why it had stopped right there, but my mind
examined that theory with only a fraction of my processing power.
The
end of the framework I was on hurtled towards the ground, pivoting on
the two chains on the other end like a pendulum. I would have jumped
free, but there wasn't anything to push against, and I suddenly knew
for certain that I wasn't going to survive Rachel's supposed help.
The last thing I saw before the movement of the framework carried the
werewolf out of my sight was it turning to meet me, arms
outstretched, wicked claws ready to rend my body.
I
was still trying to push off of the framework when the werewolf's
claws pierced the soundproofing material. Werewolf claws were harder
than steel and sharper than a razor blade, there was no possible way
that they could fail to tear through even my massive hybrid body like
I was nothing more than a rotting apple.
Only
somehow they missed.
I
was so sure that I was going to die that I didn't realize the
werewolf had missed me until after the framework had completed its
descent and swung back and forth like some kind of child's toy. I'd
ridden it down, talons on one crosspiece and my left hand curled
around another, but that wasn't the astonishing thing. Even the fact
that the werewolf had missed me paled in comparison to the fact that
those same claws which had come within inches of killing me were
"The
wall on your right, and hurry!"
I
turned and ripped another section of panels away and was rewarded
with a structural steel girder that ran at an angle from the floor
all of the way to the ceiling.
"You
could have just told me that to start out with."
The
words came out with a kind of breathless anger that was all I could
manage while hauling my massive hybrid body up towards the ceiling.
"It
wouldn't have worked. There's nearly enough room for you to be able
to slip through what's left of the metal framework there. It's
rusted, just give the inside corner a good tug and it will bend out
of the way."
Rachel's
voice came out of the cell phone in a staccato rush, but I hardly
noticed. My attention was focused on getting up above the ceiling,
and Rachel was only important in as much as she could help get me out
of there alive.
She
was right; the heavy metal was rusted through so badly that it warped
without much effort at all on my part. As I scrambled up through the
hole I'd made and onto the heavy metal framework that formed the
ceiling, I noticed just how thick the insulation was. The mounting
points for the microphones hung down more than a foot below the
actual framework, a silent testament to just how much insulation was
required to muffle whatever sounds they'd tested with.
"Run
towards the center of the room! Now!"
For
once my beast didn't protest Rachel giving me an order. Instead she
threw all of her energy into the effort of complying with what we'd
been told to do. It took me only two steps to cross the room I'd just
been inside of and another two were all that were required to put me
almost directly in the center of the long corridor that ran through
the center of the testing area.
I
saw Rachel's error partway between my third and fourth steps. The
rust that had allowed me to bypass the microphone framework was
endemic through the whole system. Sheer chance had allowed me to step
on some of the few crosspieces that were still sound enough to bear
my weight, but the chains that supported the framework weren't up to
the same standard.
I
felt the two chains on my left give out at the same time, and
reflexively looked down to confirm that the ground beneath me was
clear of obstacles. It wasn't, instead I saw the werewolf that had
been pursuing me. A section of the soundproofing material had fallen
away at some point in the past, leaving a hole that let me see my
enemy, a hole that allowed sound free passage down to the werewolf.
The
werewolf must have heard me running across the framework. It was the
only explanation for why it had stopped right there, but my mind
examined that theory with only a fraction of my processing power.
The
end of the framework I was on hurtled towards the ground, pivoting on
the two chains on the other end like a pendulum. I would have jumped
free, but there wasn't anything to push against, and I suddenly knew
for certain that I wasn't going to survive Rachel's supposed help.
The last thing I saw before the movement of the framework carried the
werewolf out of my sight was it turning to meet me, arms
outstretched, wicked claws ready to rend my body.
I
was still trying to push off of the framework when the werewolf's
claws pierced the soundproofing material. Werewolf claws were harder
than steel and sharper than a razor blade, there was no possible way
that they could fail to tear through even my massive hybrid body like
I was nothing more than a rotting apple.
Only
somehow they missed.
I
was so sure that I was going to die that I didn't realize the
werewolf had missed me until after the framework had completed its
descent and swung back and forth like some kind of child's toy. I'd
ridden it down, talons on one crosspiece and my left hand curled
around another, but that wasn't the astonishing thing. Even the fact
that the werewolf had missed me paled in comparison to the fact that
those same claws which had come within inches of killing me were
Similar Books
