“Alright, everyone, keep your heads on a swivel,” says the sergeant. He glances at the four men behind him, making sure they’re all ready for what they’re about to do. He’s quickly satisfied that they are appropriately prepared, and turns forward again. Not that he really doubted they’d be. The men in his little squad are some of the most neurotic people he’d ever met.

He pulls the night vision goggles down over his eyes, the device making a small humming sound as it warms up. Not long after, four identical sounds come from behind him, as each of his men do the same.

“Wow…” whispers Eric, the shortest of those under his command. “Full color, huh?”

The sergeant nods, finding himself similarly impressed by the new piece of tech they’ve been given. The recent… developments had allowed the eggheads in R&D to develop these babies.

“Looks like daylight in here with these on, right, boys?” he says with a chuckle. The four behind him murmur in agreement, keeping themselves mostly quiet. “Alright, let’s focus from here on out,” the leader says warningly.

All five of the men start their slow trek through the tunnel, which at one point had been a subway station. Not that long ago, either. Not like you could tell that, from how overgrown everything is. The roots and mushrooms growing on most surfaces make it seem like the place had been buried for a millennia, instead of a little over a year.

One by one they hop down onto the rails, keeping their rifles raised and covering each other as they go. Each one of them had lost comrades to the threat inside this place already, which is why they’d been put together in the first place. Experience with the recently arrived threats.

They make good time down the tunnel, two of the group facing behind them as they creep through the decaying cement tube. The only sound besides their footsteps being the occasional drip of water from a burst pipe. The rails under their feet are the only things that look appropriately weathered, being mostly spotless. It’s not long until the group runs into their first brush with danger.

A hole in the side of the tunnel. Not a man made one either.

“Stay sharp everyone, burrow ahead,” the sergeant warns. The four behind him swap positions, so that only one person is watching their back. The other three of his subordinates keep their barrels trained on the murky depths of the hole, which resists their night vision. It's not long before the inhabitant of the carved-out depression senses their presence, and begins to move.

The second the creature’s slimy brown head pokes out of its home, all four men facing the burrow light it up. Their muzzles flash as their weapons spew hot metal death onto the creature. Despite their prompt attack, the damage is minimal as the bullets stick into the slime covering the beast with little penetration. Irritated by the intruders, the slick creature slips from its den and scampers up onto the ceiling.

The creature now out of its home, the soldiers get a good look at it. Its body is that of an otter, but each of its legs end in long, thin blades instead of claws. It makes an angry chittering sound from its vantage point on the ceiling, before jumping down at the five.

The four forward facing men turn their rifles to the side, so that the small, silver discs on their right arms face the descending predator. Just as the creature is about to land on them, it instead slams into a dome of blue light. The silver discs quickly begin to heat up as they emit the shield, not giving the humans long to figure out their next move.

“Greg!” the sergeant yells. “Hit the fucking thing!”

The fifth member of the squad, Greg, pushes his way to the front, avoiding the now glowing red metal discs on his comrades arms. He reaches behind his back, and grips the weapon there. In one smooth movement, he pulls the worn baseball bat out of its holster, and swings it through the blue shield. The wooden bat smacks into the otter’s face with a wet thud.

For a split second, the creature stops its furious assault and just looks at the weapon in confusion. The oversized stick didn’t even make it through the outer coating of slime, let alone hurt the beast. But then a ring of white light appears around the grip of the bat. The first light is quickly followed by two more, each equally placed along the wooden weapon.

Then, in a bright flash, the weapon erupts with energy, sending the otter flying. As the airborne creature slams into the far wall of the subway tunnel, an unseen announcer yells ‘home run!’.

“Lightning rounds, everyone!” the sergeant barks. Clicking sounds fill the echoey tunnel as the soldiers eject the remainder of their magazines. All five of the men reach into the pouches on their hips, grabbing new mags that are light yellow in color. In under five seconds, they all manage to smack the new ammo into place.

Just in time for the otter to extract itself from the crushed stone. As soon as it’s on its feet, it shakes its head and charges at the group of men. None of the soldiers waver as they level their weapons to aim at the rapidly approaching beast.

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“Fire!” Sergeant yells. Their guns pummel the beast just as it comes within a few feet of the group. A moment after each bullet strikes the gooey outer layer of the creature, they explode into arcs of electricity. The small bolts of lightning worm their way through the mucus, electrifying the otter’s soft body. The monster freezes up mid-stride as its muscles are assaulted by the sudden shock therapy.

Even with the thing on the ground, the group doesn’t let up, continuing to pepper it with rounds until it stops breathing. Which, eventually, it does.

In the deafening silence after the fight, Pete, the engineer of the group, laughs. “Greg, I’m never going to get used to that stupid move.”

The man in question rubs the back of his head with a weak smile. “Yeah, the fake crowd cheering is a bit much.”

Eric scrunches up his face. “Crowd? I only heard ‘home run’!” He makes a dumb voice, attempting to imitate the ethereal announcer.

“Huh, I guess only I hear cheering, then…” Greg says sheepishly. Normally his slight blush would be covered by the darkness of the tunnel, unfortunately for him, everyone is still wearing their improved goggles.

“Alright, guys, pull it together, we’re moving out in fifteen.”

The four, hearing their commanding officer’s orders, sit down and pull out their snacks of choice. Not long after, they all wolf down their food and get ready to move out.

As they begin to walk again, the final soldier of the group, Jeff, speaks up.

“Hey, Sarge…”

“Hmm?”

“How far in is this facility anyways?” Jeff asks.

“Hmm…” The sergeant thinks for a moment before answering. “Well, the drones made it to where it was in under fifteen minutes, but we know better than anybody that this stuff doesn’t work on drones like it does people… Since we’ve been walking for an hour already… I’d say we’re almost there.” The officer nods to himself.

The man’s guess isn’t far off. Ten minutes later the group sees a clinical white light up ahead. A small fluorescent light hangs over a large steel door placed into the tunnel wall.

The group reach the door, and push it open cautiously. When nothing immediately jumps out from within, they head inside. They keep their weapons drawn as they make their way down a long hallway that looks as if it was ripped out of a surgical wing. As they near the end of the hall, they’re able to see the wreckage on the other side of the glass sliding doors.

What used to be similar to a hospital now is just total chaos. Furniture is strewn everywhere, screens hanging on the walls smashed and sparking. Every so often, huge spheres of the building are just gone. Scooped out of reality, like someone just deleted an orb in a modeling software.

“Shit…” Greg mutters. The others nod in silent agreement.

As they make it to the entrance, the sliding doors attempt to open. One just gets stuck as it slides, bouncing in place instead of getting out of the way. The heavily geared men just walk through the open side, heading further in.

The rest of the facility is just as bad as the entrance, except for the addition of people. Or, more accurately, what was once people. As the squad pass through hallways with chunks taken out of them, they glance into cell-like rooms on either side. The majority of them are empty, save for sets of clothing on the floor. But every so often, a room holds a corpse. People who were not close enough to whatever played with reality to be consumed, but not far enough away to be unharmed. Their bodies have huge pieces missing, cut clean out just like the building around them. The only other odd thing about the corpses is a complete lack of decay.

They continue on, keeping themselves focused. As they go, more and more sets of clothes clutter the ground. The prison uniforms they’d found up until now are quickly joined by lab coats and maintenance uniforms.

“It’s like they got raptured out of their clothes…” one of the guys whispers. No one responds as they push even further in.

Finally, they reach the labs. Or what used to be the labs, according to the signage overhead. In reality, all that’s left is a few outer rooms, and a massive crater. The four subordinates follow as the sergeant slides his way down into the cleanly cut pit.

The crater is totally empty, just smooth gray stone on all sides, except for something small glowing in the center. The group makes their way towards the light.

In the middle of the empty space floats a small rip in the air. No bigger than one of the men’s pinky fingers. Through the jagged edges of the shape, bright stars twinkle. The five men circle the strange phenomenon.

“So… now what, Sarge?” Pete asks.

The sergeant shrugs. “Take pictures, I guess, we were just supposed to see if we could reach the place. Should’ve asked for a science team…”

Greg chuckles. “I don’t think some brainiacs from the army would know what to make of this…” he motions towards the tear in space, “science fiction.”

“I thought we were in a fantasy story now,” Eric grunts.

A bright flash takes four of the five men by surprise as Pete’s camera goes off.

“Sorry…” Pete mumbles.

Suddenly the air shudders and pulses, pushing the men back slightly. The small glowing mystery between them begins to twist and stretch, controlling itself as if alive. In a final spasm, the thing flashes identically to the camera, and vanishes.

The four soldiers slowly look towards Pete accusingly.

“I didn’t do anything!” he complains. He flicks through the menus of the camera for a few seconds before frowning. “Hey, that’s odd, there’s nothing in the picture…”

“Give it,” the Sergeant barks, grabbing the camera. He looks at the small LED display, and sees an image of everyone besides Pete circled up around empty air. “What the fuck…” he mutters.

The commanding officer lets out a long sigh. “Whatever, let's go check out those surviving labs…” The four other men follow their deflated leader closely as they climb out of the hole.

When they enter the closest lab, their eyes all immediately lock onto the figure lying in the hospital bed. The corpse of a young adult is strapped into place, but unlike the others they’d found so far, this one is still whole. Instead of being cleanly bisected, the body was… twisted. Its skin pocked and warped like it had been melted and cooled repeatedly, fused partially to the bedsheet, features dried out like a mummy.

“Well… at least whoever did this got hit too…” Jeff says, kicking a lab coat lying on the ground.

As the men look around the room, Eric notices something. “Hey, were all the rooms this dull green?”

The group all look towards the walls and see the messy green paint job.

“No… they were all tiled wa—” The sergeant cuts himself off as his gaze lands on the corner of the room. “What the hell?” he mutters.

In the very corner of the room, behind a towering piece of medical equipment, is a dark wooden door.