A slight dampness clung to the echo of their footsteps as they ventured from the revolver and into what Auras explained as an underground train station. The wall clapped in rhythm to their pace in a simplified duet.

  Lara was cold now, she realized, as she focused on the two of them. The goosebumps on her skin intensified as the dripping from the station’s cracked infrastructure gave way to the soggy earth around it. Fungus and the rot of something strange – though she could not make out what – dominated the air and filled her nostrils.

  However, the two-part symphony of smell and sound began to incorporate a buzz.

  Lara couldn’t reflect for long on why, exactly, the buzz resonated with her, for with it came a noticeable increase in the visual detail around them.

  First, she made out the shapes of mounds, oddly laid and sporadically placed. As she noted the funny interconnectedness, light spilled in ahead of them, and she noticed the contrast between the streaks on the dirty white subway tile dressing the arched train station around them. Just as her eyes came to the end of the streaks, did her nostrils, too, flare in avowal as she finally pinpointed the strange, rotting smell.

  A sharp exhale escaped Lara’s nose, her body freezing in place, gaze locked with the greyish-brown mush lining the sides of the tracks. Dried, smeared handprints trailed to their respective owners: leathery corpses with hollow sockets devoid of life.

  Each body strewn in the careless heaps had new cavities between their diaphragms and pelvises. The skin that had once shielded their intestines hung to their sides, papery and thin and all organs missing.

  “Oh my God.”

  “Lara, keep moving.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Lara shivered violently, the cold now seeping into her bones.

  “Lara.”

  Her mind clung to the site as the taste of the air stuck to the back of her tongue.

  She focused her efforts on aggressively breathing out the smell before it could further taint her mouth, regarding the skin that still clung to the bones of bodies more recent. Somehow, she felt them watch her as she passed, Auras’ cold hand now on her back, pushing her along. Lara’s voice echoed, foreign to her ears.

  “It is a mass grave.” Auras responded, answering the question she’d asked. “It was originally a hideaway and gathering spot for those seeking shelter from the war. However, fear consumed them, as more refugees flooded into the safe-haven. The overflow led to famine and paranoia. Inevitably, chaos overtook them.”

  Lara listened, her eyes preoccupied with the maggots and vermin she could now make out, searching through the crevices of the little mounds beside her.

  “They began to ration goods, too afraid to leave the station. An influential few fed on the fear and propagated an idea to consume the weak and elderly to ease capacity-“

  Lara gave a plea to stop, turning away from the sights as they continued down the tracks, finally spotting the blinding light signaling the tunnel's end ahead of them.

  It took a moment for Lara to feel the burning sensation in her thighs and calves as she sprinted towards the opening and bound up the crumbling steps. Once through the archway’s singed Welcome sign, she paid little attention to the blood flushing through her ears, nor the insurgent pumping of her heart.

  Lara’s eyes struggled to adjust to the newfound hues of the contrasting scene before her, showcasing a sight much different than the one they had witnessed below. Trying hard to ignore the churning in her stomach, Lara regarded the city’s remnants, barely recovered from air-strikes decades past. It appeared spring had made its stop here, after having left Champaign in the final thralls of winter, and partly cloudy blue sky floated overhead.

  However, the tightness in her chest had become unbearable. Still plagued by the fresh memory of failed safe-haven and its corpses, Lara pounded a hand against her chest erratically, until, at last, an anxious burp escaped her lips, suppressing her need to vomit.

  She turned to Auras, his face unamused.

  “Excuse me,” she said.

  His trench trailed slightly on the wind behind him as he shook his head and advanced into the addled city, her feet moving at twice his pace to keep up.