Book 2 Chapter 33: ...A Place of Honor

Book 2 Chapter 33: ...A Place of Honor

I moved as quietly as I could, while maintaining the same odd movement Id adopted to keep undetected by the creatures. It took an incredible amount of focus as my feet fought to return to a normal walking pattern. If Id managed to save every one of the grenades Id had at Potts I may have used all of them in the hopes it would remove any trace of the beasts, but as I was down to one I chose to preserve it. I was nearly past the creatures and into the path, when the pile quivered, one of the creatures pulled itself from the center of it, and began moving directly toward me.

I tried to move faster, making my way toward the wall in the hopes that I could press myself against it, and avoid the creatures detection, but it was moving too quickly, and I was too far from the wall. I started running.

The moment my feet started to move in a recognizable pattern, I heard a terrible wailing rise up from behind me, sounding almost like the cries of a child. I ran faster hearing the one nearest me begin to move in a horrifying gallop as I did so. I had my gun out and ready to fire, but wanted to focus on putting as much distance between myself and the pack of creatures as I could before using whatever limited ammunition the Cerberus may have left.

I was lucky in at least one way, I could tell that the path I was on was sloping upward, and I was starting to catch a hint of surface air. I was getting close to freedom. I came to a fork and, not having the time to consider my choices, I took the left path that seemed to slope slightly sharper upward. I continued moving, exhaustion starting to catch up with me and my vision taking on a reddish tinge as whatever reserves I had began to run dry. Then, I hit a wall.

The tunnel had turned straight upward, too sheer for me to climb and sized for only a single one of the creatures. I turned around to see the one that had been following me, my night vision forcing me to see it in perfect detail in a way a human wouldve been mercifully spared. I raised the Cerberus, listening as its cylinders began to spin while the beast bore down on me.

Almost on instinct, I activated freeze. The creatures movements arrested, and it tumbled forward, carried by its momentum. It twisted as it pushed itself to move in spite of the abilitys effects. My face twisted in a look of disgust and pity, my stomach roiling. They were human, or had been. Now they were some hideous caricatures mutated by a mixture of the rEvolutionary Virus and exposure to rads far beyond anything else in the wasteland. I couldnt bring myself to fire the Cerberus in that moment, letting the cylinders of it come to a stop as I ran out and backtracked back to where the path had split.

I could hear the rest of the creatures pounding through the caves toward me. I started running again, still doing everything I could to put distance between myself and them. As I heard them get closer I eventually risked a look back. What I saw looked almost as if a wall of flesh was closing in on me. The creatures crawled over and around one another like roaches doing everything in their power to reach a fresh piece before the others around them. I started freezing them, picking whichever one was nearest. With one of them completely arrested in motion, the others would fall or collapse on top of them, causing the tunnels to jam and buying me valuable time as they untangled themselves.

It wasnt enough though, and I found myself getting closer and closer to being grabbed before I managed to cause another jam, and they also seemed to be predicting it, getting better at moving around their fallen and untangling themselves. I started priming the trigger on the Cerberus, and when the creatures got stuck I whipped around, threw my grenade, and then unloaded on them. Red bolts of death flew from the barrel of the gun, tearing into the creatures, then an explosion rang out, muffled by the pile of flesh atop the explosive. They let out more childlike wails that shook me to my core, but I kept the trigger pulled, freezing and firing all along.

What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us.

The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.

The danger is to the body, and it can kill.

The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.

The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

I read the message once, then a few more times, going over it in my head. Id never seen anything like it, and it filled me with a sense of foreboding. It was clearly an old message, older than the bombs, older than the Cut, and definitely older than the creatures Id just encountered. I shuddered to think of what it could have been warning people about, especially considering what was beneath it now.

I turned around and started walking, pulling out a piece of meat from my pack and tearing into it with my teeth as I did so. I was ravenous, and having enough time to catch my breath made me keenly aware of that fact. I was sorely tempted to stop and rest, but didnt want to chance another encounter. Instead I ate on the move, clearing more of my supplies than I probably shouldve in an effort to recover the energy Id just expended. I knew Id have to come back this way, when I was making my way back over to my side of the Cut, but I decided then and there, Id just risk jumping right into the Cut itself next time. If the jump pack wasnt up to the task and my legs broke, well, I guess Id just have to crawl back the rest of the way.