This time, the initial blast seemed more white that red, and his vision flashed a uniform green, which quickly dissipated into little purple spots that turned green as his eyes blinked, then shut again as the blast wave flashed over him, deflecting a hail of tiny bits of asphalt disturbed by the blast. Looking back up again, he noticed that this explosion had faded into a roiling black-and-red fireball, which divided as it ballooned out of the window frame and mushroomed into the air, finally dissipating into a wisp of smoke. More smoke began to emanate from the building, but it had cleared enough to reveal the outline of the metal door, which was, despite the blast, quite intact.

Slowly getting to his feet, he was quickly pulled down from behind by Talbot.

"Shh... If you can see them through the windows, they can see you. Maybe we'd better go behind..."

Sliding around and feeling too much like a snake, Mike followed Talbot back around the side of the original office building. Behind it was actually a chain-link fence, with an inset gate leading into some kind of compound. As Talbot examined the lock mechanism on the gate, Mike looked up and realized that it was beginning to get dark. He also suddenly realized, surprisingly, that the rain had stopped by the time they managed to get outside, as he felt the the first distinct drop of water fall squarely in the center of his scalp. Realizing that his jacket was somehow tucked under his arm, he unfolded it and struggled to put it on as the rain began to patter down around him.

Off to his right, there was the squeal of shearing metal, and a bang as the gate finally slammed open.

"Well, I guess this is the way," he said as he walked in through the gate.

"You guess it is?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, I don't usually work in this sector." He continued walking into the compound. A whole series of buildings stretched out before them, connected by a few paved streets and a number of alleyways. "Hmm, I think the access is more towards the center of the facility..."

Talbot walked a few more steps, and paused at the intersection.

"Hmm, perhaps this way-"

A shape came barreling out from behind a pile of metal crates and flung itself at Talbot, who went down with a grunt. At almost the same time, the lighting in the compound clicked on - mostly exterior lights of the standard building variety, but a storage area's bright arc lights revealed the scene in start illumination.

There was a thud, and the creature rolled off of Talbot, who was busily unslinging the submachinegun. Mike couldn't quite tell what it was - it looked almost like a cross between a Doberman and a warthog, but with too many eyes - a row of eight eyes across its forehead, each glimmering green, like cat's eyes, under the lamps.

Mike suddenly found out that the submachinegun made quite a bit of noise, as Talbot fired it at the beast. The gun roared for a couple of seconds as the beast tried to run away, then part of it dissipated in a spray of red and came to rest a few feet away.

"Jeez, I can't believe these things are out-" he paused in mid-sentence as another one of the things ran up, swiveling to meet it. The submachinegun fired again, something akin to a mix between a roar and a rattle, and the creature shuddered, letting loose a horrible sound that was almost like a human moan, before it flopped over on one side, twitching.

Mike noticed something else in the corner of his vision, and yelled "Look out-"

-as another one of the beasts hit Talbot directly in his head, knocking to the ground. The thing growled, and there was a strange, squishing, tearing sound. A moment later, the thing brought its head back up, and something red dripped from its teeth. As it dived its head back down into Talbot, who screamed, Mike heard a growling sound from behind him.