I was reading it further but were then abruptly stopped when it’s only half a newspaper, with the rest apparently…chewed, judging from how the looks of it being teared apart. “Guess someone got too frustrated and leave us by a cliffhanger.” I throwed the paper away, crumpled as this revelation were rather disturbing, knowing my dad could possibly be involved in all this as well.

“Now you believe me? That means there’s more to those things still crawling across the ceiling or vent, this place’s just a huge playground for them.” By the time Martha finished his words, a sound came from the lobby, clanking and plank falling down as we both looked to where it came from. “And someone just came in uninvited.”

We both then took our guns out for a walk, flashlight blinding as ever to guide our path ascending back upstairs through the hallway. My heart constantly skipped a beat, skins profusely sweating cold, and my step trembled as we goes closer to the lobby, fearing that whatever shape these suckers are going to take and mess us up with.

The moment we set foot to the end of the hallway, our boots felt a warm, wet touch.

Puddle of blood. Fresh from a corpse.

“Trails. It’s still here.” Martha whispered, taking a closer look to find it left a long trails towards the back of the large lobby table. We slowly make our way closer, and as we do so, voice of a man weeping were heard, exactly from the back of the lobby table that we will inspect. “Hello?”

The man seems unfazed, continuing on crying as we took a peek, seeing a man kneeling over a corpse of who appears to be his friend. I took a step closer, reaching for his shoulder to see if he’s alright. “Sir, are you alright? We can lend you a he-“ As I pulled the man over to have a look, I was shocked to find his condition.

A face deformed beyond recognition, with empty eye sockets and visible, twitching muscles.

I was thrown aback from it as the body hit the floor, still weeping before having it’s chest squelching and burst open, turning it’s once human voice into the sound of an inhumane growl, screeching towards us as it began towering up, jaws filled with giant teeth lifted by spider like legs protruding from the back.

We both quickly draws our gun, blasting it’s jaws as and leg as it’s parts explodes to small bits of bloods and flesh, all writhing before they decayed into rot. Guess we only pissed it more as it make a jump towards us, trying to catch us under it’s weight, but Martha were quick to throw himself to push both of us aside, hitting the rubbles and boards as the creature instead slammed itself to the wall. “We should’ve brought a lighter.” Martha only looked at me in dismay as I gave out that joke. “What? We don’t have to waste bullets for it!”

“Then we’ll do just that.” Martha then helped me to stood up, as we both then take our guns once more and start blasting the thing to smithereens. Bits by bits fall apart, from it’s ‘head’, jaws and all the remaining spider legs as it writhed on the floor, bleeding profusely before it dies away with a firm shot down to that large gaping, teethless chest mouth of it, leaving it decaying at an extreme rate.

We were both relieved, but to think it’s only one of those things that had just stepped up their evolution game makes me scared of any oncoming encounter by the Northern District. Just as I was about to pass out from the tiredness and impact scars, Martha pulled me close and pointed to the lobby table in a rather irritated look.

The corpse, surprise surprise, is also infected.

“Mar, I’m…limp, I can’t-“ I was heavily breathing as the thing crawled up to the table and charged to us. Martha quickly shielded me with guns pointed forward, only to find that it’s mags are empty and he have no time to reload it within mere seconds.

Just as we both braced for it, nothing happened at all. Martha slowly opened his eyes to find Raisa, now holding Sattvam’s metal spear impaled the being, as it writhes around in pain. “Good mooorniing!” She began lifting the thing up, as the spear began running through it’s flesh right in the middle and with one swift uppercut, the beast were cut in half before it can make any form of those deformities, splattering blood all over us as Raisa then dropped the bloodied spear to the puddle.

“Raisa, you came…” I weakly proclaimed, as she ran to me and gave a big hug of relief, and a firm slap through the face out of knowhere. “Ow! What’s that even for?”

“Just wanna make sure if you’re still you, thank goodness you are brother…” She chuckled continuing to hugging me as I caressed her head. All three of us simply had layed down, Martha smiling in relief before resting himself onto my shoulder. “Oh, oh, brother! Did you see how strong I am back there?? I can lift that thing up easily!”

“Maybe it’s because half of it’s mass are lost, you’re just lucky Sa.” Martha blurted out as he then got barraged by many light punches from Raisa, both chuckling as I only looked with a soft smile.

I felt a little…better, for now. My leg was numb and my back hurts from landing onto those rubbles earlier but it all worn off from seeing these two rascals having fun. We then stood up together, but were then found again by Sattvam, Luh De and Wisnu, who apparently also got caught in a mess from all the bloodstains over their outfits. Sattvam stomped to his spear, holding it as he looked at the three of us with a nod.

“Yeah, I can tell bud.” I simply answered.

“We have no more time to sleep. Me and Sattvam will go back to the communication center, Luh De will help the three of you with your injuries. We’ll be back by about minutes.” Wisnu briefed, as Sattvam then gave Luh De a good kiss on the forehead and waved a goodbye to us before leaving out.

“How bad was it here anyway? Both of you look tenser than a deer in front of cars.” Luh De kneeled down and examined us, pulling out bandages and some wound plasters from the bag she’s been carrying.

“Found a big one. Emptied all of our mags to take it down.” Martha looked down to the scratch and bruises he have as he huffed out, putting his hand down after all the bandages and plaster been used to cover them up.

“Almost, empty. But without any refills, I don’t think we’d be able to do anything.” I showed Martha my rifle’s ammo that I’ve been hiding in my pocket, only two bullets left inside as he only sighed. I was suddenly caught off-guard when Luh De pressed my wound with the bandages, seeing her smirking deviously from it. “Seriously?!”

“Whiny as ever…” She chuckled, continuing to wrap my wounds before slapping it as a way to say it’s done. I tried my best not to scream nor making any form of weird noises that can possibly get me more embarrassed than what I am right now as Raisa only looked at me confused.

The sun once again arises. Hope those two are alright with their work….

…..

Sattvam and I have been busy trying to set the parts together for the communicator to work, but wiring it was tedious without any safety equipment. And for summary, we safely got in here rather more easily! Cables out of the way and none of those creatures lurking, but now to assemble this thing together is no easy task at all. We managed to reuse the scrap heap from the underground display room for the communicator and tools left at the service room which, surprisingly, were next to this place! Maybe we didn’t notice it earlier because of the cables obscuring the already dark corner or that chase we had with the thing…just remembering it makes my body shiver.

“Hey, Wis can you hand me that crimping tool, blowtorch and hammer over?” I then hand Sattvam those said tools, although were a little lost trying to find the hammer through the tool bag…

I kneeled next to him, looking at his work, conjoining the last cable together after minutes of fixing and cutting some of them that are broken to be welded with a new one, which is…not really a good way, but then again this is all we can do. “A-are you sure this’ll work? With all that messed up looking cable, it felt a little…doubtful.”

Sattvam only chuckled to me as he patted my head, before finishing the cable work and shutting the plate. “This will work. Not the best, but if we can at least reach something, then that could mean something.”

He then let me do the honor of activating it, as I flipped the switch, closing my eyes out of fear of the outcome…

…aand, it worked! Engines all whirring, and buttons flashing a bright light!

We both were gasping in disbelieve before cheering and hugging each other while hopping out of excitement before gathering back our composure and patting him on the back for such achievement.

God that’s so embarrassing-

Sattvam reached out to the mic and held down a button on the intercom, as I can nervously wait. “This is Simulacrum Corp HQ, we’re currently in need of immediate evacuation, there are six civilians live, over.” Both of us stood in silence as Sattvam released the button, looking at each other for a while…awkwardly.

After a brief moment, a response flew by, static but we managed to make enough sense of the messages as I ran close to Sattvam’s side. “This is King’s Bay Navy Unit, requesting for your current status and coordinates.” We both were ecstatic as I cleared my throat and reached for the intercom.

“We’re sterile and clean of infection, gather at the northern harbor and we will be ready for the pick up.” For awhile after my answer, behind those statics are what I felt like murmurs. Goodness I hope they aren’t suspicious to anything, we never really meant anything terrible on anyone…

But those worries were washed away as another response flew in. “Copy that, we will sent in lifeboats in the next two days to said location. Good luck, and thank you for surviving.” It warms my heart to find them relieved of such stress, they must’ve been receiving nothing but corpses after months since the bay border patrol began…

I then shut the intercom, looking back with a wide smile to Sattvam who simply nodded. “Alright, now let’s go back an-” Sattvam were cut short when a giant lump of flesh just fell over right in front of the doorstep, causing dust to flew all across as we covered our face with shirts, waving it away from our face as it settles down. I stepped forward to examine it, although Sattvam had tried to stop me but I have to make sure.

I then kneeled down to see it’s now slowly withering surface, squelching and writhing with what remained before it fully dies out. Examining closer all around it’s corpse, it rather surprises me. “No wounds. Something happened inside it’s body.”

Sattvam poked it with his spear, just for safety measure. “Could it be the deer’s doing?” He then stood next to me, as we two witnessed this giant cancerous lump still in disbelief.

“We can’t do autopsy, but it’s not likely. Beside, this one barely resemble anything of a human, just a giant, crawling mass of flesh with dislocated mouths and eyes all over it.” I sighed, as nothing seems to lead anywhere about this, but then we both looked to each other, and as we thought of exactly what, looked onto the exact same direction.

Something is beyond that hallway, deeper below.