Chapter 73: Bob's Fourth Near-Death
Bob
The lab's alarms wailed like dying animals. Red emergency lights strobed through corridors filled with smoke and panic.
"Evacuation complete," Dr. Owens reported via radio. "Bob, we need to leave NOW."
I stared at the computer terminal. Research data—four years of dimensional studies, medical records, everything we'd learned fighting the Upside Down. All threatened by structural collapse and fire.
"Ten minutes," I said. "I can upload everything to off-site servers. Preserve it."
"Bob, the facility is compromised! Demo-dogs are inside!"
Through the window, I saw them. Dying creatures, frenzied and desperate, attacking anything that moved. The gate's destruction had driven them mad.
"This research could save lives," I argued. "Future threats, future solutions. I'm doing it."
Joyce's voice crackled through comms: "Bob, PLEASE! Get out!"
"I love you. I'll be fast."
I started the upload. Progress bar crawling. 10%... 15%...
The screaming started three corridors away.
Dr. Owens
Personnel fled past my position. Some made it. Others... didn't.
The demo-dogs were everywhere. Containment had failed completely. The creatures knew they were dying and had nothing to lose.
"Bob!" I radioed. "STATUS!"
"Sixty percent! Keep them off me for three more minutes!"
"I don't have three minutes to give!"
But I held position anyway. Fired at anything that moved. Bought him time.
This is insane. We're both going to die for digital files.
Except the files mattered. They represented humanity's best defense against future dimensional threats. Bob understood that. That's why he stayed.
Brave. Stupid. But brave.
Bob
85%... 90%...
Demo-dog clicked outside the server room door. Close. Too close.
My hands shook on the keyboard, but I kept working. Steve's words echoed: "You're essential. Your technical knowledge saves lives. Don't waste it."
This was what he meant. This moment. This choice.
95%... 98%...
The door buckled. Claws tearing through reinforced metal.
100%. Upload complete.
"Owens! Moving!"
I ran. Burst from the server room as demo-dog crashed through behind me. Heard its shrieking, felt its breath.
But I'd memorized the escape routes. Steve had made me practice, made me drill until I could navigate the lab blind.
Left at junction. Straight 40 meters. Right at maintenance shaft.
Training overrode panic. My body moved automatically, following routes Steve had burned into muscle memory.
Joyce
Watched the lab surveillance from the bunker. Bob and Dr. Owens running through collapsing facility, demo-dogs everywhere.
"Bob!" I screamed into radio. "Where are you?"
"Almost out! East exit!"
On screen, I saw it—final corridor, exit visible, salvation twenty meters away.
Then the demo-dog lunged from the side corridor.
"NO!"
Bob
Time fractured. The creature in mid-air, claws extended, face-petals spread.
Steve's voice in memory: "Drop and roll. Creature momentum carries it past. Then run."
I dropped. Rolled. Felt claws scrape overhead.
The demo-dog crashed into the wall, disoriented.
Owens' gunshot. The creature fell, dead.
"GO!" Owens grabbed my arm.
We burst through the exit as explosions rippled through the facility. Structural collapse accelerating. We hit the lawn, rolled, sprawled in cold grass.
Alive.
Joyce
I ran from the bunker. Didn't care about protocol, about safety, about anything except reaching Bob.
Found him on the lab's lawn, gasping, covered in soot and blood but breathing.
"I'm okay," he managed. "I'm here. I'm alive."
I collapsed onto him, sobbing. "You stupid, brave, incredible man. Don't ever do that again."
"Can't promise that."
"Then promise you'll come back. Every time. No matter what."
"I promise."
We held each other while the lab burned behind us.
Steve
Watched from the ambulance through corruption-blurred vision. Barely conscious, body still processing the Mind Flayer connection's severance.
But I saw Bob survive. Saw him emerge from the lab, alive despite impossible odds.
"Four," I whispered. "He survived four."
The EMT working on me looked confused. "What?"
"Nothing. Just... counting victories."
Bob had survived every near-death moment. The tunnel ambush, the camera installation, the demo-dog attack, and now the lab escape. Four canonical death points, four survivals.
Death isn't inevitable. Fate can be changed. Bob proves it.
My eyes closed, exhaustion claiming me. But for the first time in four years, I slept without the weight of Bob's impending death crushing me.
He lived. They all lived.
Worth every sacrifice.
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