Chapter Twelve

Newbay, the once beautiful town with its own lake making the townspeople live happily and peacefully within their fishing community. The large pharmacy company Biotech came in and created a large factory using the lake's water to power it using an experimental hydro powering system.

With this new factory the town expanded and introduced a whole new type of business to Newbay, this included some mysterious people in suits disappearing into the factory and never seen again for months at a time.

Only about five hours ago a fire broke out from an unknown source, and while the townspeople fought against the fire something happened to cause chaos to break out within an hour.

Monsters appeared and wrecked havoc throughout the town, polluting the air and water spreading the infection through the townspeople until a small group of survivors made out a distress call calling the Thunderbirds.

The young men didn't know what they were flying into or what was now happening to them as they battled against the viral monsters to get back to their machines along with the survivors; they were battling against time now that the virus had found them.

With the anti-virus found and on the way to cure one of their brothers; International Rescue is racing against the clock to get out of the town or be destroyed.

Biotech wants their breakout covered up without it reaching the press; come daybreak and the beautiful town of Newbay would be gone.

Virgil and Graham coughed to clear their lungs of the smoke and dust filling the corridor.

�Scott! Where are you?� Virgil called shining his torch through the thick dust clouds hoping for some sign of his brother.

�Virg, down here� what was that� Scott asked as he tried to free his legs from what looked like one of metal covers, it must have been knocked free by the mysterious explosion.

Virgil bent down to help free his brother while Graham kept his shotgun steady, ready for anything. Scott tried to get himself up using his arms but they both froze when they heard the familiar heavy steps, making the ground beneath them tremble.

�Hurry up and get up, I don�t like that whatever it is� Graham muttered aiming his shotgun into the settling dust clouds.

Virgil lifted the panel up while Scott slid out from it; they both hurried over to join Graham and gasped in seeing the familiar figure emerging out of the dust clouds.

It first looked like a large tall man like shadow but then soon it emerged as a tall bald man wearing a thick green coat, he moved with big heavy steps and his eyes were low with no emotion or life reflecting in them.

�Was that what you were fighting earlier?� Graham asked keeping his shotgun aimed up, as Virgil and Scott brought up their own weapons and they backed away slowly from the giant manlike monster in front of them.

�Yep, he�s harder than he looks� Scott muttered as Virgil and himself remembered the earlier battle, he put his hand back for one of his bombs and glanced a look behind him. �Someone shoot that cover there while I put this in, hopefully it will explode with him over the cover and get him from underneath� He suggested as he set up the bomb�s fuse ready to go as soon as possible but not quickly enough to catch them.

John peeked out through the gap of the door, feeding the bit of draining pipe they had managed to find through. Gordon stood close behind him ready to light the small round bombs they had created; they were going to use the draining pipe to feed the bombs further into the room.

�Ok think I�m ready for the first one� John muttered as Gordon lit the bomb and placed it in the tube and heard it roll down the plastic container and into the room.

They backed away quickly and closed the door as small hissing was heard before feral screams were heard shortly after where the fire had started to burn at the vines outside.

�Think its working� Gordon said with a sigh, leaning against the blockade looking over at Jill and the young boy that they had found out was called Joey. They watched them work from a distance but ready to move at a moment�s notice.

John nodded and got ready for the next bomb, glancing above their blockade to seeing the fire was still burning at the moment. �Ok think we�re ready for the next one� He said crawling back over to the gap in the door fitting the plastic tube.

�Right John, are you sure you�re ok?� Gordon asked wondering why John was so determined in doing this job.

�I am, just want to keep busy Gordo� you know what I�m like when I�m fixed on a task� John replied with a small smile.

Gordon blinked seeing that John was actually looking a little better even without the anti-virus being given, the green patches on his cheeks were fading slowly while the flushed look too was also fading.

�Gordon? Are you ready?� John asked looking through the tube until he backed off a little to give Gordon room to work.

�Yeah, I�m ready� sorry John,� Gordon said setting up the bomb and let it roll before they backed away closing the door again.

Outside in the reception area, the only way back to the waiting area was covered in vines of different sizes but all shared similar looks but amongst them were larger mobile forms of the vines. These were large stemmed vines using smaller vines for legs and arms, the most dangerous part were the bright red flowers that formed their mouth.

From what John and Gordon guessed was where they spit the dangerous acid from, the acid that also left small traces along the vines and parts of the floor that weren�t covered in vines. It was this trace chemical that the fires now found, igniting the floor into a fiery blaze engulfing the area to burn away the vines or at least keep them back away from the room until the others had returned.

�We have to clear enough of a path for Scott and �.� John broke away when he felt something, like a buzzing in his head but this was different from any headache he had ever had. It was like a cold shiver down his spine along with a pounding in his heart, like something was trying to tell him that there was something evil out there after the ones they love.

�John?� Gordon asked wondering why his brother broke away, turning pale and looking behind them towards the rest of the building.

John looked around trying to figure out what the buzzing meant to him and as he turned to face the rest of the building, the sound got louder as if the danger was coming from that direction.

�We�ve got to act fast� John simply said getting the next bomb ready once Gordon had loaded the lit one down the tube, positioning the tube once the first bomb was clear of the tube.

Gordon was caught off guard briefly before keeping up with the speed that John had set, wondering what was going on with his ill brother now.

Scott couldn�t believe what happened, the bomb had exploded right under the monster alright but all that had happened was the tall man like monster just shrugged it off with smoke coming from under his long coat.

�It didn�t work� He muttered as they were running out of space as they continued to back down the corridor, they would soon have to run up several flights of stairs to get back onto the main floor.

�Tell us something we don�t know, what are we going to do now?� Graham asked as Virgil and himself kept shooting the occasional shot into the monster hoping to slow it down for a little while.

�Keep shooting its head, we�ll get lucky soon enough and he�ll fall� Virgil replied hoping that he was right as he reloaded while Graham fired, keeping their aim to the monster�s grey head.

�If we get lucky� Scott said offering a glance behind them and kicked at the door that separated them from the first set of stairs before freeing two bombs. �Go ahead of me, cover me as best as you can� He ordered his brother as he set up the bombs in the doorway as Virgil and Graham raced past him.

�Go!!� Scott screamed at them before running up the stairs with them in front just before grabbing the rails as the stairs rocked dangerously from the shockwave of the two bombs.

Virgil chanced a look down and saw the monster down on the ground near the crater caused by two of Scott�s bombs. �He�s out! We better get going now� He said pushing Graham on.

�You�re right, Time�s running out� Graham said as they continued to run up the stairs towards their goal, the other members of International Rescue and the remaining survivors of Newbay.

John looked over the tube and grinned, �That�s done it� He said with a smile as he got up and looked out of the room slowly, looking left and right seeing that the whole floor was scared black from the fires that burnt the vines away.

Gordon raced back for their roughly made flame thrower and accepted the gun Jill offered, �We�re going to look around briefly before coming back in� He said to Jill, who nodded and Joey nodded.

�Be careful out there, there�s no telling what is out there� Joey said softly, his voice still a little weak from under use.

Gordon rubbed the kid�s hair playfully before returning to his brother�s side, still amazed how much John had recovered. He was scared of what was happening to his brother but at the same time glad that he would be ok, hopefully.

John accepted the gun from Gordon, while his brother set up the flame thrower just in case before they left the room closing the door behind them. He could feel the familiar buzzing but it was faint but the thudding in his heart was getting louder.

Gordon looked around to see if they missed anything but could only hear the vines up on the ceiling rustle slightly as they tried to break through the pipes of the sprinkler system, he could see where the ivy monsters had tried to break through into the room where they were. The walls looked like they had blistered out; the paint had bubbled and popped from the acid.

John looked up warily at the vines, �Gordon think we might have trouble brewing up there,� He said pointing up at a couple of transparent pods before the buzzing in his ears suddenly got louder and he found a vine had wrapt around his ankles and pulled him along the floor towards it.

Letting off a few rounds at the source of the vine, John was able to break free and duck as Gordon turned the flamethrower on turning the ivy creature into a crispy plant. John winced as he untangled himself from the remainder of the vine and got back up onto his feet, crossing over to the vine monster to get a better look at it before cursing and kicked it.

�Think its dead Johnny� Gordon said softly as the door near them banged open, making them jump and ready to attack whatever had kicked the door open.

�Don�t shoot! Human!� The call came through the door, sounding familiar to their ears.

To be continued