Chapter 11 – Rapid Ascent
Several long moments passed as the team watched in silence. Their mission was now complete, but no one had suspected that this was what they would find. The source of the new rampant coming into the city, had been beneath their feet the entire time.
The only sound that could be heard coming from the room below was that of running water, and the occasional erratic movement of rampant spread through the area. It was as if the newborn monster was trying to learn how to use its body for the first time, and it was learning at an alarming rate. At first though it just lay still, curled in a ball, that did not last for long.
Its arms and legs began twitching, looking as if the muscles were spasming completely outside of any sense of control. Then the rampant began to orient itself, rolling over to continue twitching while laying on its back. Splashing could be heard as its limbs slammed through the water, slapping themselves on the concrete floor just out of sight.
Everyone watching knew that they needed to move, that they could not stay here, but as if they were entranced, they could not take their eyes away. Glen was the first to regain his ability to move, he tapped each team member lightly getting their attention on him. Once he could tell they were all looking in his direction in the dim light of the glow moss he began to speak quietly as possible to still be heard over the noise coming from below.
“We can’t stay here. We need to leave. Now.”
Nods came from all around, they began to rise as a group but instantly stopped when they heard a new noise from below. A sound like wind passing quickly over an opening came from the far side of the room shrouded in darkness. Something was moving, but at this distance they couldn’t be sure what it was. A short creature came slightly closer in to the light, and aberrant they had not seen above or below before.
Its body was smaller than normal, rather than walking upright it crawled on all fours, its hands and feet not visible. What was clear immediately though was that something was different abouts its head. Rather than eyes it had a large mouth, slits where a nose should be, and a line running from its forehead to just below its chin. The eye sockets themselves were there, but what looked like skin had grown over them.
The new aberrant continued to walk towards the center of the room while slowly swinging its head from side to side. Every few steps the creature would stop, and its tongue would lash out as if it was trying to lick something that wasn’t there. Then all at once it stood. Now that it was closer the finer details of its body could be seen. Its body was covered in slits like what it had on its face in place of a nose.
The rampant in the room had been respecting the aberrants space and keeping away from it, but their eyes too were on it. A collective silence had fallen over the entire room. Everyone, human and monster alike, were waiting to see what would happen. The aberrant tilted its head back as if to take in the ceiling, and then it began to sniff. At first only with the slits twitching on its face, and then more.
Movement could be seen all over its body as it took in the world through a sense no one else present could comprehend. Faster and faster the openings all over expanded and contracted. Its tongue flicked out with increasing speed whipping in all directions. The aberrant was on the edge of detecting what it was looking for, its just needed a little bit more.
With a wet tearing noise its face began to tear itself open. Their jaw split in two easily, its forehead opened less so. With its hands it reached up and pried its face in half exposing a bloody opening leading straight down its throat, and with one last deep breath it inhaled.
The force of the breath was so great the teams on the ledge above could feel a physical pressure change coming over them. It was as if all the air was being pulled from their surroundings. Glen could feel his ears pop and knew that something was wrong. To add to his confusion, he noticed belatedly that the cave they were in was more well-lit than before. He looked down in fear only to realize that it was coming from them.
The glow moss was glowing brighter than before, and the smell coming from it was becoming more potent. The increase in air flow caused the moss to begin to burn away more rapidly. The team members around him seemed to be coming to the same realization, but it was too late. Looking back down in the room below he knew their time here was over. In the time he had been looking away the aberrant had turned its face to look directly at the ledge they had been crouched on.
Using all the air it had just pulled in the aberrant let out a whistling cry that sounded like a mix of pain and rage. Blood and water were thrown off its face and body as it expelled as much pressure as it could as quickly as possible. It lifted a hand in their direction in addition to the head already pointing their way. The rampant below began to stir then.
It was as if time had unfrozen, the world began to move again all too quickly. Bryan and Miles started to scramble as quick as they could backwards almost bowling right over Glen and Liz. Only their own quick reaction saved them from being trampled by their frontline members pulling back in a mad dash. Glen yelled back for the people behind them to begin retreating.
Pirah heard the order and began to move without questioning it, the other two guarding the rear were just a bit slower to react. Jordan and Douglas were turning to run as well just as the two groups collided, and the first hand started to make its way over the threshold and pull itself up. Unable to move forward with the way filled with people Glen took this chance to look back and assess the situation.
In the distance, from the grate the aberrant had come from, many forms were dragging their way out of the opening. The scream from a moment ago had awoken the hive, and they were all rushing forward now to defend their home. There were so many coming that he couldn’t tell one body from the next at this distance. All he knew was that staying here was certain death, no matter how many scouts they had they could not stop this hoard.
Pivoting back around he could see that the way had cleared. The rest of his team was making its way how the tight corridors, abandoning all attempts to stay hidden. Glen realized his moment of hesitation had caused him to fall behind. Taking off at the closest thing to a sprint he could manage while in these confines he ducked under loose pipes above his head and lunged past piles of debris they had previously avoided. He was making great strides to catch up with the group, but he could now hear bodies pulling themselves up not far behind him.
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He looked over his shoulder as he ran, it slowed him marginally but let him better gauge the situation. Th closest rampant that had been in the room already were the only ones so far that had made their way up. Three of them were loping after the scouts, luckily the tight space was working against the rampant just as well. Unable to reach their top speed side by side, they were forced to approach in a single file.
Glen yelled ahead, “They’re gaining on us! Do we have anything that can slow them?!”
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Even though Douglas had initially reacted slower than Pirah, his longer steps had carried him to the front of the pack. As he ran, Douglas had been tearing at the corroded pipes that had just barely been clinging to the walls to begin with. He wrenched them free with little effort between his adrenaline-fueled strength and combined body weight pulling against them. In the end he was coming to a stop where the tunnel split with six pipes held carefully so as not to get cut himself from the torn and jagged metal.
Stepping to the side Douglas let Pirah and Jordan Pass without his size blocking the passage, as soon as they were past, he turned back and started slamming the improvised spikes into the ground facing the oncoming monsters. He was doing his best to create a makeshift barricade before the rampant closed on them. Three spikes had been forced into the ground on the left side of the tunnel by the time Liz passed. There were only a couple of feet of clearance now inside the cramped space that someone could pass through.
He could see that Glen had overtaken Bryan and was the next that would pass through his spikes. He could not stop now, he drove two more into the ground on the right side leaving only a very small opening in the center of the tunnel. Douglas could see that they were only a couple of steps away but the rampant were right behind the running two.
Glen was sprinting as fast as he could with the slippery grime of the stone passing quickly under his feet, and with one last powerful step he launched himself forward twisting in the air to slip through the barricade of sharpened iron and steel. Douglas watched in slow motion as Bryan was getting ready to do the same, but he knew that the last team member would not make it as things were.
Douglas took the last pipe in his hand as if it were a spear and reared back, preparing to throw it all his might as he had seen Glen do with the Ursa before. As Bryan jumped for the opening, so too did the rampant behind him. Douglas swung forward and released the projectile watching as it flew true at the rampant’s head. Everything was going as it had before and he dared to hope.
Multiple things happened all at once. Bryan was halfway through the spikes when his body was jerked to a stop, a long wiry hand wrapped around his right shin. Blood could already been seen coming out of his pant leg as the crushing force pulverized the bones in his leg in an instant. He let out a cry of pain that years of training could do nothing to stop. Just as quickly though the rampant released him.
The spear did not find its intended mark, the rampant twitched away in the last second before the two connected. It was not a spike through the head, but instead the spear was imbedded deep within the flesh of its shoulder. Whatever the metal had torn through was enough to make the muscle go slack for a couple brief seconds. It was enough.
With an outstretched hand Douglas was able to grab Bryan’s flailing body and pull him roughly through gap that was left. Blood was still dripping at an alarming rate, but he was alive for now. It was harder to run while carrying another person, but he could manage it for a short time at least. He didn’t look back, but it sounded like the trap had worked well enough to slow the rampant’s advance.
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Glen could hear the echoed cries coming from behind him. Human, rampant, and the ever present whine from the aberrant in the distance. The rushed trap that their medic had made bought them some time, but it sounded like it had not been a total success. Slowing down only for a second he did his best to take in what had happened.
He could see Douglas carrying their injured team member, the three rampant that had been the closest in the chase had come to a stop. One rampant was struggling at the front multiple bloody barbs ran through its body, while the other two behind it seemed to be trying to forcefully push past it, only doing more damage to all three in the process. None of them dead, or even showing signs their injuries would be fatal in the long run.
Luckily for the team, the lack of intelligence in the rampant presented itself as the creatures seemingly turned on one another. The one that had been skewered though was defending itself as the other two savaged it. Rather trying to consume what they perceived as a weakened target, or just from the confusion of it hurting the other two, they had decided it was no longer an ally and began to tear it apart. The team ran on until coming to a place where they could catch their breath.
All seven team members met up for the first time since finding the spawning pit in a square room only slightly large enough for them to all have standing room. It was not safe for them to stay long, the room they were standing in appeared to be a small hub where many of the sewage drains came together before filtering in to the larger tunnel they had come from.
Liz was the first speak, “We can’t stay here, and we don’t have time to figure out a solution to THAT right now.” she said gesturing back the way they had come from. “Bryan, how bad is it?”
Bryan was quickly becoming incoherent and was unable to roll up his pant leg without help. Douglas sat him down gently as he could against the side of the room and began to check the damage. With a grimace he looked back between Liz and Glen and shook his head. There was too much blood, and they had no way of stopping it with what limited supplies they had on them. The leg had been mangled beyond use to repair by the monstrous strength of the rampant.
Jordan was doing her best to keep her composure, but her medical experience also told her that it was unlikely Bryan would make it. Holding back tears and through trembling lips she asked the question everyone was thinking, “Where do we go from here? We can’t lead that horde back to Skytop. I can stay here with him and buy us some time...” She said the statement, but her heart was not in it.
To the surprise of the whole group Bryan was the one to answer, more present than he had been a moment ago. “Leave me behind... I can slow them down.” He looked to be having trouble keeping himself upright, but the conviction in his was words was there.
Rather than argue, Glen asked, “How? Unless you have something we don’t know about, you’re in no condition to move, let alone fight.”
“Do you have any more bullets on you Douglas?” was Bryan’s only reply.
Douglas did have more on him, but he didn’t understand the question. He looked between the two teams leads that both nodded, Liz appearing to have slightly more understanding this time than Glen. Both of them nodded after only a couple seconds of hesitation.
“Yes, I do have five more bullets on me. I was saving them in case we ran into the bone dog from the other day. I don’t really think they will help with your leg though...?” Douglas trailed off towards the end in a way that made it clear he was trying to figure out what Bryan intended to do with the bullets that he had brought.
“Can you start getting their black powder ready for me?” Bryan asked.
Again, Glen and Liz nodded. Bryan seemingly had a plan, and they didn’t have time to argue.
Liz with a set face, trying to hide her sadness, asked one last question, “Are you sure Bryan? You and I both know there is no coming back from what you’re suggesting.”
“Yes ma’am, I am sure. I am going to die in this damn cave, there is no reason for you poor bastards to go down with me.” There was a pause then, “Jordan, I know I have said it a thousand times, but... I love you.”
Everyone waited in response to give Jordan the chance to respond, but she appeared to be at a loss for words. After a couple of quiet moments, she only met his eyes and smiled, fighting back tears, doing her best to give him one last smile.
There was silence then as Douglas rapidly popped the casing open and collected all the black powder in to a small pouch. He handed it to Bryan and watched as he prepared to pour the smaller pouch in with his glow moss bag. Just before though he asked if the other members of team specter would be willing to give him their bags as well. They each handed them over without a delay, Jordan and Bryan’s hands lingering for just a moment as she passed him the bag.
“You guys need to get going, you don’t want to be here for this next part.” Bryan said with little mirth, his eyes already starting to glaze over as his end would come soon.
Everyone moved to the exit of the room and watched as Bryan open the bags his team members had given him and reached in. He was grabbing handfuls of the powder and weakly tossing it around the room, trails could be seen left lighting paths through the air and the smell was becoming noticeable quickly. It was then that he finally completed the motion from before and mixed the black powder with the glow moss in his own bag. A new smell began to fill the air and a light hissing could be heard coming from the bag.
“The reaction takes about thirty seconds, but when it finishes there will be a large explosion. It will likely collapse this tunnel and the others connected to it. Let's go.” Liz turned and started leading the team away. Jordan was the last to leave, finding her words again as her resolved hardened.
She spoke the words just loud enough for Bryan to hear them one last time, “I love you too...” With that she turned and began to run to catch up with the others. No more than a moment later the explosion shook the entire underground system.