“Marty knew it first!” Steven cried. “He warned us!”
Eric was the last one out of the room. He turned to look at the orange glow. Like a man running from an inferno, LaBerge suddenly emerged from the display case. Through the orange mist that surrounded him, Eric saw a sickening sight. LaBerge’s skin was gone, his flesh and muscles exposed. Some weird noise came from his mouth—or what was left of it.
He collapsed, a bloodied hand reaching for Eric’s ankle.
“Eric!” Rachel cried from down the hall.
Eric broke free and raced to the others. As fast as they could, they hurried up eight flights of stairs. Wil glanced quickly through the window in the door and saw water flooding into the halls. It would be only a matter of minutes before everything was destroyed.
When they reached the top, everyone immediately headed for the doorways. But Wil stopped short.
“What about Marty?” he cried.
Everyone else stopped and turned.
“He’s right,” Samantha said. “There must be two hundred people out there. We can’t let them see Marty!”
Barbara ducked into a closet and pulled out a tarpaulin. Quickly she helped Wil wrap this around the alien.
“It’s okay,” she told him soothingly. “We’re almost out.”
I’m not afraid. I’m with friends. It did not matter to him that Barbara couldn’t pick up his message. His large expressive eyes told her what he was thinking.
Finally they opened the door and walked out into the sunshine.
A huge crowd was milling about the parking lot. Some were still dressed in white cleanroom suits, and were drawing stares from the townspeople who worked in the factory above.
“Who are those people?” a woman asked. “They look like astronauts.”
“I sure never saw them before,” the man next to her commented.
The guards drew enough attention to keep it away from the escapees. They had all taken their helmets off, and a few were scratching their heads in wonder. They only remembered hearing the Klaxons and running from the building.
But none could remember what they’d been doing in there.
“What’s happening?” someone yelled. “Is it a fire?”
“I don’t see any smoke!”
“Maybe it was a false alarm!”
“Someone should check!”
Wil leaned toward George, who was standing closest to him.
“I think we’d better leave while we can,” he whispered.
“You’re right,” George said.
He jerked his head slightly and the group followed him through the throng of people. A few were heading back to the building, curious to see what was going on.
Stop! You’ll be killed!
Marty, they can’t hear you! Julie cried in her mind.
We have to stop them! Work harder. Put all your mind power on the water inside! We must hurry!
The group huddled together, staring at the brick building. All other thoughts but its destruction flew away from their brains. The power that suddenly emanated from them was so strong that Wil and Barbara looked at each other. Somehow, they had felt it too.
“Stop!” yelled a man in the crowd.
“Look at the water! Look at the water!”
Like a tidal wave, a huge gusher came shooting out of the front doors of the building. People ran in all directions, crying out in fear. As others watched in wonder and horror, the entire structure collapsed, sinking into a deep, deep hole in the ground.
And just as suddenly, it stopped, leaving a large quiet pool of ocean water.
“Wow,” someone whispered.
It was suddenly so quiet that his word was heard by everyone.
“Let’s leave now,” Lorraine said.
“Yes, let’s,” Rachel said, taking Steven by the hand. “It’s over.”
They walked toward the town, leaving the crowd to wonder about what had just happened. Even the least scientific-minded of them knew that no natural thing had just happened. But even after years of study, there would be no answers. No one would ever really explain where enough pressure came from to drive the water of the ocean through a tunnel and into a building two miles away, completely destroying it in a matter of minutes.