Part 59

"What the hell?"

The trio of explorers had been out of sight for only a few minutes before Maurice reappeared.... bathrobe flapping around his thighs as he ran; moving faster than Frank would have thought possible. He was also screaming, but the doorway swallowed the sound, turning it into an inhuman whine until long after Maurice was almost through the door.

Something had gone wrong. But where were the others?

Frank stepped aside... then, frowning, stood in front of the doorway again as Maurice approached.

"Where are-" Frank shouted.

"MOVEMOVEMOVEMOVEMOVE!!!!" Maurice chanted.

"...fuck." Frank stepped out of the way and Maurice sprinted past him without slowing.

Frank squinted into the "fog" on the other side of the doorway. The dust or ash or whatever the hell it was still roiled from Maurice's passage, with a few other swirls of movement further out. But there was nothing that could be a man. No shapes appeared in the distance. He turned-

"CLOSE IT!" Maurice screamed. He reached past Frank and grabbed the edge of the metal door. He started pushing it shut.

Frank stepped into the path of the door.

"Where are the others?"

"DEAD!" Maurice replied. The door continued to close; Frank caught it with one thin hand, attempting to stop it. But Maurice not only outweighed him, the larger man also had the strength of terror behind him. The door plowed through Frank's efforts to halt it and almost struck him in the face as Maurice continued to shove.

"HEY!" Frank growled as he darted aside. Again, he grabbed the door and tried to stop it. It kept moving. "STOP!"

"NO!"

"IF YOU CLOSE THAT DOOR THEY MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO GET OUT!"

"I TOLD YOU! THEY'RE DEAD!! WE HAVE TO CLOSE IT BEFORE IT GETS US TOO!"

"BEFORE WHA- Fuck this."

Frank abandoned the door. Instead, he punched Maurice in the kidney. The sharp, quick jab brought and end to the door's movement. Maurice stumbled back, grabbing his side and gasping. The look he gave Frank had hints of confusion and anger, but it was mostly blind panic. Or a good imitation of it.

"Wha... you... the.... we have to close-"

"Why? What happened in there?"

"I… I TOLD YOU! They're DEAD!"

"How?"

"It… it came out of nowhere! We didn't even SEE it! ...fucking invisible! Like… .like it was waiting! But that black guy… he walked right TO it like he knew it was there the whole time!"

"Then what?"

"What do you THINK!? I RAN, THAT's what!"

"Jones? Steve?"

"If they weren't right behind me; they're dead!"

Frank returned to the doorway. He glanced behind him to make sure Maurice wasn't up to anything, then scanned the clouded landscape. The dust had mostly settled from the disturbance that Maurice had caused. There was still no sign of the others.

"What was it?" said Frank.

"Big and hungry."

"But you were too busy running to see what happened to the others."

"Yeah, you'd have run, too, if you'd been there. So don't give me that."

"Or maybe there wasn't anything out there but you and them. And now its just you."

"Wha… what are you saying?"

"Then you come running back here, trying to shut the door before anybody can see what happened."

"You think I-"

"I'm just thinking out loud," said Frank. He turned and gave Maurice a long, distrustful stare. The dust shifted slowly in the landscape behind him. It quickly settled, then shifted again, closer.

"You wanna go out there and look for yourself, you go right ahead," said Maurice. "Don't expect that door to be open when you're done, though. I don't want that thing getting in here; we got enough monsters on this side already."

"How about we just wait a while and see who shows up." Frank said as he turned back to the doorway. "Just in case."

"See who shows up? SEE who shows up? Weren't you listening to me?"

"Yeah, I heard-"

"Did you hear the part where I said it was INVISIBLE!?"

Suddenly, the dust-laden air around the doorway exploded into motion, thrusting into the opening from the other side. Dust swirled away from the movement, revealing the shape that had somehow been hiding within it. Long, pointed teeth stabbed at Frank as the antlered beast sprang.