He stared forwards down into the long empty lane without taking in the sight before him. His face was expressionless as his mouth hung open, cracked ajar. Hunched over slightly as he caressed himself between his arms, one hand rested on his side while the other was pressing against the right side of his neck.

‘Chet’ He thought as he slowly trotted along. Wishing he had gotten more information out of him, but he is glad that he told him his name, which trailed him back to a question he had prior.

‘Who am I?’ He was still bothered deeply by this, he zoned out even more as he imagined names that he thought he knew.

“Matt, Hayden, Lucy?.. Do I even know anyone?” he says out loud with a frown while pausing his tread. Giving a shake from his head as nothing comes back to him, he shifts his vision back down and plods on, slowly sounds start to become more apparent as he begins to lose focus on the deep burning questions. Hearing the plops of his feet on the hard tile as they themselves were damp with iron rich liquid from unavoidable puddles. Ringing was still faintly present in the canals of his ears, every now and then he could catch the trickle of liquid from within the octagons.

Off in the distance lightly disguised under the closer sounds of his feet were yet more screams, this startled him little as he felt he was getting conditioned to this terrifying environment. What brought him further back to reality was the warmth under his soles. Stopping to get a better feel of the heat, he looked down; taking in the sight of his toes that were lightly dusted in splotches of red freaked him out, regardless, he still had his attention focused on the tepid pavement. He wanted to confirm its warmth even though he felt it previously with his face and currently with the pads of his feet, he had to be sure. Kneeling down, he put a palm unto the flat white top, to no surprise his body wasn’t lying to him.

‘How is this entire floor being heated?’ he wondered, pulling his hand away after feeling the moistness transfer to his palm which he then wiped onto his torso like some bad habit he was unaware of. Standing up his nose kicked back in as the disgusting miasma populating the air filled his nose, sweaty and metallic, it was unbearable to take in for he could almost taste it. He raised a hand to pinch his nose shut but stopped before touching his face, thinking back to all of the vile things he recently had the pleasures of touching. Pulling it away from his face he opens the palm up and observes the acclimation nestled into its grooves and creases, studying it more and more disgusts and disturbs him as the images of the fleshy tubes pour into his mind. Abruptly his attention is diverted off to his left from the chilling shrieks he heard before as they seem to be coming closer. Or maybe these were from different people that were indeed nearby? He could not tell for screams sound like screams.

Rotating his head a full 180, he looks to the structure next to him on his right, thinking that climbing up it would provide a clear scope of the area and perhaps see where the horrid yelps are coming from. Considering this would also make him easier to spot, he decided that climbing up from the inside would be safer and more concealing. Peering into the second lowest bunk that is just slightly higher than the one by the floor seemed to be the easiest to try and slip through. Walking towards it he can see the person held within come into a clearer view, he stares at their face anticipating them to suddenly wake up and snap their head and eyes right at him. Kneeling down before their bed, he looks intently at them for a few moments with a raised heart beat thumping through his chest. He sees that it is a man who looks to be of Indian descent, brown in skin color with short wavy black hair and a messy goatee. The man’s eyes and mouth are closed, he is entwined by the strands from the bed like he himself was before. Watching silently he can see his chest rising and falling slowly, his state is much different compared to the glowing woman, he is alive but unconscious. Now being right before this person he is having second thoughts about crossing over the body, thinking it wouldn’t matter if they were alive or dead as he would still feel the same fear warranting him otherwise. He mulls over the fact that there were and are more like himself that have awoken (hence the men before and the ones screaming), therefore there should be empty beds in other spots throughout this abysmal void.

He looks past the man before him and to the bed that is across within the same structure, there he can see a woman in its place. Turning around and seeking out the neighboring building, he finds that the bottom bed has a man placed within it as well. Moving his eyes up to the one above and to his luck he discovers that the bunk there is empty. Standing up he quickly makes his way over, turning his head side to side making sure that the aisle is still vacant of threats. Once across he grabs on to the ledge of the framework and lifts his body followed with the steps of his feet onto the first ledge. Eyes focused on the nooks he counts how many openings there are including the two he has his feet and hands on, five is the number he counts.

‘Five bunks along with eight sides must mean that each of these octagons could house up to forty people.’ He thinks to himself. Bewildered by this fact he looks down one of the seemingly endless aisles, taking in the long rows of the jutting octagons that fill this massive room. Not even being able to comprehend the amount of people that are here, he dismisses the thought and proceeds to squeeze through the opening of the empty bunk. Gripping the upper parts of the cell, he twists his legs in and rests them on the bed, like the one he was in the bottom is moist and warm to the touch. He hates the way it feels upon his skin and moves through quickly. Poking his top half out of the inner opening he grabs onto the ledge and moves his legs out and proceeds to climb down. He begins to cross to the other side towards the screams he heard earlier, getting concerned as they seemed to have stopped. Paying attention to the ground as he gets closer to the center of the structure he can see the hole in the middle where all the orange liquid was traveling into. The hole appears to be about two and a half feet wide, its edges mimic the number of sides the building has and it seems like the whole floor opens up as each corner has an indented line that meets with the inner wall. Jogging around the hole as he makes his way past, he can’t take his eyes off of the opening. The inside of it is swirling with the gathered liquid, fast enough to tell it has movement but slower than water given its viscosity. The orange golden glow paints the edges of the hole as a light trickle can be heard from it. ‘Where is it all going and what exactly is it?’ where the questions he thought, but who would he be able to ask and would they even have the answers to his questions?

He begins to climb the other side of the building using the openings like a ladder. The building seems to go up roughly 15 feet, as he is looking up he notices the top of the structure. It has eight thin tapering points coming in from the outer edge that almost meet at the middle, in the center the tips are producing a ball of light. The one he is in is graced with a dull red pulsing ball, not entirely too bright to stare into as he feels engulfed by its sight. Glowing and emitting its hues off onto the surfaces of this strange octagon, the fuzzy ball of light bobs up and down slowly as it also appears to spin and rotate.

Climbing up he turns his head and looks into the bunks as he passes by them, no matter how many times he sees the still bodies in the beds, they will always give him the willies. Men and women who lay there motionless besides their expanding and deflating chests, he wonders if they will ever wake from their slumber. As he passes the last one he can hear the person murmuring in their entangling cot. Reeling back down to see if they are waking, he stares into their face as they continue to mumble to themselves, much like sleep talking. It is an African American woman with medium long curly hair.

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“Yeah…no no, she still is…ha ha….oh.” The woman says lethargically with slightly shifting facial expressions.

‘What is she talking about? Must be having a pleasant dream.’ He thinks to himself as he watches the lady mumble about in her unconscious state. He is jealous of her ignorance, envious that she still slumbers for he is terrified of this world and feels loneliness swelling within. He wonders if shaking the woman would wake her; stretching out a hand to grasp her shoulder he stops, stops and considers this horrific realm that he awoke to.

“If someone else were to wake me to this world, I would probably hate them.” He says staring at her face that appears to be warm and somewhat delighted. Letting out a sigh he then continues on up to the top.

Reaching his destination he only lets his torso rise above the structure as he props himself up from the ledge below. The sight before him is a spectacle as he can see much farther off into the distance than before with a wider scope. The vast and spacious room before him is daunting to gaze upon as its size feels like it is going to swallow him whole. Rows upon rows of the octagon shaped structures are seen like before, but instead of just the two on each side of the isle, there is a plethora of em. The tops of them are alight with balls much like the one he is in, the red and purple ones' lights are pulsing while the rest (which are also the majority) have a stagnant yellow. Wondering what the difference is in the colors, he is unable to guess the answer. Still exploring the scape, his eyes are drawn to the other structures that are scaling the room from top to bottom. The great distance is interrupted every interval by these colossal dark red beams that he assumes are supporting the ceiling. Everything is lined up perfectly, the octagons and the pillars as they run down their lanes filling this crimson void. Scanning the horizon he picks up movement off into the distance crawling about through the structures and atop some of the octagons as well. They seem small for how far away they are, but he knows just how enormous those floating bugs are up close, grimacing his face as he thinks back to the one he had a close encounter with.

He scans the area ahead and rests eyes on the closest floating aberration he can see, being only six buildings away from him (which he is assuming to be about fifty yards). It is hovering towards one of the octagons with a blinking purple light above it. Moving from left to right it reaches the mass bunk and goes above the entire structure, it rotates just enough so that he can see part of its front. Given the distances some details are lost but he is still able to make out most, he can tell that there isn’t a face but a black bulbous and reflective sphere in its place.

“What the fuck!?” he says in shock and disgust. He continues to observe the creature as its body starts to pitch down from its front towards the building. In response the building begins to open up from the top, spreading out its eight points as the blinking light fades away from the tips. Slowly the monster begins to lower itself in as it stretches out its long lanky appendages, he guesses that it is reaching for either the bottom or for the body's resting within. The beast then starts to rotate within the structure so he can only assume it is the latter.

Interrupting his focus down the aisle on his left he hears a sharp shrill scream from a woman. Immediately turning his head to see who made the noise, off down the lane he can see two people running in his direction, one female and one male. They were a little closer to him than the grotesque bug he was watching, which was gravely unsettling to him for chasing them was another one of these beasts. The next few moments happened rather quickly, but felt like it took a lifetime in his eyes. Both were charging forwards in a full sprint, faces were stricken harshly by fear while tears pooled out unwillingly from their eyes. Arms flying forwards and backwards rapidly followed by over-exerted legs in a strenuous attempt for self preservation. All of their efforts were in vain for the monstrosity was disgustingly quick as it zipped along through the air effortlessly. It reeled back a few of its limbs readying to strike as it further encroached onto the two unfortunate beings. The slaps from the pads of their feet along the pavement followed by the tremulous grunts emitting from their lungs was painful to hear. The first one to be stricken by the beast was the male who was lagging behind, the bug had jabbed him in the back of his neck forcing him violently to the ground. Making impact with the floor, its needle-like arm punctured through his neck, poking a hole all the way through to the front as his body went limp. Seeing this happen to the man made his heart sink and his body freeze from the peril. Shortly afterwards it stabs the woman through her midsection, skewering her through her stomach forcing out a gasp from her. Knowing that it has caught its prey it slides forwards through the air coming to a halt. Lifting the impaling arms, the bodies slide further onto them as blood starts to drench the surfaces. It rotates the arms towards itself, lifting the front of its body to make the next task easier.

The holes that are on its underside begin to glow the same bright orange he saw from the opening in the ground. The woman is weak from pain and shock as she grabs its tendril and kicks about with faint energy. Another appendage peels out from its underside that has numerous joints much like the others, except this one’s tip has a scorpion like bulb to it. It spits out a strand of flesh onto the man that is similar to the ones from the bed, slithering around him as it then binds his limbs together. The beast moves its bulb onto the woman and proceeds to do the same with her, doing what she can to resist while letting out screams and shouts. It then feeds the male first into a glowing orifice, head first he goes as the light begins to glow brighter. The fluorescent goo bulges out to meet the incoming corpse, grabbing and latching onto him as his body begins to glow and melt into the mass of this strange liquid, going deeper and deeper until his entire body is absorbed. Midway through it proceeds to do the same with the woman, but puts her in feet first. As her legs get engulfed by the consuming slime she lets out yelps in pain and agony, once she is chest deep into the liquid her shouts die off. While assimilating them the rear end of this bug seems to grow in size increasing its girth. The beast then pulls out the spindly tendrils that are dripping with the bright orange liquid, most of which disappear as it absorbs back into its carapace.

Watching all of these events take place he isn’t sure if he is breathing or not as his chest is getting squeezed by his own muscles. The only thing he can see is the monster floating in the distance down the aisle as the rest of his vision is tunneled in darkness. It is taking measure of itself with the long sharp arms touching certain spots around its body, once it has gotten a good feel it lets out a couple of scratchy toots that pain his ears and takes off into the air upwards in the direction past the other bug. This breaks him free from the choke hold of fear as he quickly lays his torso and head down atop of the octagon, pulling air into his lungs quickly and holding it while jamming his eyes shut. Hearing the monster bubble and thrust away he waits a few moments before looking back up. Once he deems that it is a safe distance away he opens his eyes and looks up at it, he then watches as it throttles towards the ceiling. Hearing it signal out with a robotic like wobbly whistle, he then sees a purple and teal pulsing light come from its central fin. He guesses that it is at least one hundred feet in the air at this point. A spot on the ceiling seems to be indented with a clear circular shutter that he didn’t notice before. The outer ring of this opening responds back with a whistle and a similar pulsing light along with strange symbols that are engraved into it. It stops amidst the indentation as three eyes open up from the up-slanted interior, they scan the bug with rusty beams like the one he saw and felt before. Everything seems to be cleared as the eyes shut and the inner shutter opens up into a blinding white void as the bug then flies into it. He stares further more with enticing thoughts of liberation, alas, encountering a forlorn realization that he does not encompass wings.