The Leech's Library

It was supposed to be a standard rescue. A flooded ravine following a meteorite strike on an old glacier and a village of 3000 people who needed aid. Simple enough thing, get in, move the critical cases which could be moved out first, and organize the walking wounded and the unhurt to somewhere dry and safe. Pray that the critical cases who couldn't be moved could be kept alive long enough for a mobile hospital to be set up and operating. When you're lucky, they'll have organized themselves, and it's only the critical cases we need to worry about.

We... we were far from lucky this time.

Eight feet of standing water greeted us as our helicopters came over the ridgeline; half the houses were barely out of the water and just about every roof had bodies on them. A handful were moving or otherwise clearly alive. Almost all others were only just visible on thermal imaging, barely alive after the sudden wall of freezing water had slammed into their town. Their town hall lights were on, shadows flitting across windows stretching out across the still black glass of the water. Unfortunately, our best landing site was the library across that same frigid lake. 50 feet, that might as well have been 50 miles.

I was out of the helo before it even touched the roof, hauling my keister over to the doors to get a sweep of the building done ASAP. The second Team would be on site in under an hour, and they'd be chomping at the bit to move every citizen out. My Team was right behind me as we swept through the third floor, four two-man teams checking for anybody trapped between shelves or in offices. We found no one. Hardly surprising, few people would visit a library at 3 in the morning. Yet, protocols aren't concerned about what makes sense, just what counts as the 'worst case scenario'. As we regrouped on the stairs to the second floor, I saw right down the spiral staircase, and there was not a drop of water visible in the pale lights from our shoulders. As we hit the second floor, our pilot, Tyler, radioed over, "What's the word, Chief? Library safe? Second Team's asking, over."

"Third floor clear, clearing Second now, so far dry and empty, over." I reported back as we began checking the offices for any poor soul.

"Dry? How? there's thousands of pounds of water pushing against her walls, over." His disbelief was palpable even through the radio's speaker.

"Haven't a clue. Second floor clear. Checking first now. We'll have to use the fire escapes to launch boats and chopper rescues to get people out. Offices will work for aid and stabilizing cases for medevac, over." We swept the ground floor and finally understood why the library wasn't flooded. The first floor didn't have so much as a single vent to the outside world. The double doors out front had held back the glacial tide, a bare trickle coming between the doors as we moved through the silent shelves. "John, Evie, get those doors braced, and sealed if we can spare the silicon. I want this building kept dry. The rest of us, topside, now. Second Team's coming in and we need to get boat launches set up and ready to go." I pinged my radio twice before speaking, "Tyler, this is Chief, over."

"Go ahead, Chief, over."

"Library is clear, John and Evie are bracing the door, rest of the team are coming up to you, over." I said, pulling up the rear on the stairs behind my Team.

"Understood, Chief, over."

"Over and out." As we passed the third-floor landing, the hairs on my neck got spooked. I slowed to check for any cause, seeing and hearing nothing, yet it felt like something had passed me by or been watching me. I shook the feeling away, pushing up the stairs to help my Team get the roof prepped for the Second Team, pulling medbags from the helo, stretchers, and the two skiffs before sending Tyler on his way, before marking the corners of the library with flares. As the first skiff was lowered into the water, the feeling overcame me again: It wasn't just my Team on the roof. I fought the urge to check until the skiff was off our lines, but nothing was there after we were done, and the feeling had passed.

Still, I radioed John and Evie. "John, Evie, this is Chief. Sitrep, over." Nothing came back over the radio. "John, Evie, Sitrep, over." A burst of static came back. We all looked at each other, knowing John wasn't one for games or stupid pranks, at least not on a job. Around the office was fair game, but not out on rescue. Something was wrong. "Bill, Peters, go get them, I'll be behind you shortly." Switching channels on my radio, I called Second Team, "Sierra, Sierra, this is Foxtrot, do you read me, over?"

"Read you good and clear Foxtrot. Send message, over."

"What's your ETA? Over."

"Pilot says 20 mikes. Is there an issue Foxtrot? Over."

"Two from my Team have dropped contact. Can you radio base to bring in escorts? Over."

"Will do Foxtrot. Keep us posted. Over."

"Thanks, Sierra. Over and out." I rushed the doors, charging down the stairs to the first floor, and found Bill and Peters holding John's kit.

"Chief, no sign of John and Evie, save his webbing and radio. The doors are braced and plugged, and Evie's radio isn't anywhere we can hear it."

"We missed something. We'll search this floor again, I'll radio the others." Jumping back to the Team's channel, I hailed Scott.

"Read you Chief. John and Evie been found? over."

"Negative. Keep your eyes open up there. Bill, Peters and I are rechecking the floors. Over and out." The feeling came again as we checked the floor, backs together and knives in hand. "Something's here," I whispered, hoping one of us would spot whatever was stalking us.

"Don't see anything, Chief. Peters?" Bill replied.

"Sa-" Peters' words were replaced with a sickening wet wheeze, his throat torn out in the space of a single syllable.

"Scott! Hostile on site, hostile on site!" Before I could think, the words were out, and my radio was shattering as something punched it into my shoulder, my clavicle and ribs breaking. But the last thing I ever heard was my neck being crushed in a grip soft as silk and a woman's voice chastising me for being so loud in her library.