“We’ve got to get out!”
Summers heard a woman’s voice yelling beside him. His eyes snapped open to find Adams holding the barrel of his M4 at the chest of a fully naked woman in the doorway.
“What?” Summers heard himself say.
“Ma’am I need you to stay back!” Adams said, backing up himself. The woman however either didn’t care about the gun leveled on her by a nervous, screaming private, or she had a death wish. It was at that point Summers noticed the sheer amount of blood in the hallway behind her. There were bodies everywhere, and dozens of naked men and women hovering over them.
“We need to leave!” The woman screamed again, just before lunging for Adams. To his credit, Adams didn’t hesitate, he fired a controlled burst straight into the woman’s sternum, she dropped before she could even close the distance. Whatever fog in Summers’ head cleared at the sight of the corpse hitting the ground, and he looked for his own weapon, trying to make sense of the situation.
What he found was a body beside him, he recognized it as one of the new soldiers. They were outfitted in a full kit, grenades, extra magazines, he looked ready for war. Well he would, if Summers could find his lower half. The empty grenade pouch at his side might explain that and Summers’ recent nap.
“What in the fuck is happening?” Summers turned to Adams, who was still staring at the body of the woman he’d just shot. Summers followed his gaze, and finally got a good look at the woman. Her skin looked paper thin, nearly translucent against a sickly thin, bony frame. And her face. Somehow it just looked off. Moreover, it was covered in moss, sticks and blood, especially around the mouth area. Didn’t take a genius to put two and two together on that. He turned to the rest of the group in the hall leading to the bunker.
He’d assumed they were checking on the wounded, the nudity he was still trying to reason out. But as he finally, really looked, he could see they were tearing huge chunks of flesh from the exposed areas of the corpses. They were eating them.
“Well, shit.” Summers said absently.
“I didn’t mean to.” Summers turned to Adams, who was still staring at the woman on the ground.
“Adams, I need you to tell me what’s happening!” Summers tried to get the private’s attention.
“Stay back!”
Summers’ head snapped up as he saw another naked figure heading down the hall towards them.
“Stay back!” He heard it say again, he watched in horrified fascination as it ambled towards them, body twisting into a wider, more masculine shape. Most worrying of all was that the voice was familiar. It was speaking with Adams’ voice. More followed behind it, the group as a whole breaking into a full sprint down the hallway and directly towards Summers and Adams.
Something must have snapped in Summer’s head. Either he had a concussion, a stroke, or the stress of his situation had gotten to him. Logically, he should have realized that something was wrong as he reached down towards the dead soldier. He’d just been knocked unconscious, and now he was seeing things that couldn’t logically be real. If he was smart, he’d put down his gun, and wait for someone at base to help him before he hurt anyone. Those thoughts raced through his head as he felt the pin of the dead soldier’s grenade come loose. At the sudden realization Mr. Grenade was no longer his friend, he tossed it into the hall, then dove for cover.
The explosion that slammed into him felt like a baseball bat to his ribs. His head was dug into the ground beside the small entrance to the bunker. Adams must have seen him toss the grenade, because he had the good sense to hit the ground as well. As he cautiously looked up, he saw several of the bases’ guards heading in their direction.
“What in the fresh fuck is going on?” Were the first words he heard after his ears had stopped ringing. He looked up to find Colonel Braun standing a healthy distance away. The Colonel snapped out a few orders, and Summers saw a couple of privates take off, presumably to round up more people. Braun approached Adams, but the kid was still too shellshocked to get a coherent sentence out.
The hallway looked devoid of life now, there might have been some twitching, but Summers wasn’t about to check. He looked back to find the Colonel staring at him. If he’d asked a question, he hadn’t heard it. Probably another bad sign.
“Sir, we were standing guard when the doors blew out, we heard gunfire then the woman at Adams’ feet attacked us. I’m not sure what’s happening inside.” Summers wisely left out the part where he blew himself up a second time. He tried to get to his feet, then immediately realized that was a mistake. He sat on his ass as the Colonel scrutinized him.
“You and you, watch the door and shoot anything not wearing a uniform.” The Colonel indicated two armed MP’s.
“Sir?” One of the MP’s said in reply, rightfully skeptical about a kill order on their own base.
“Kill anything not wearing army fatigues. Do I make myself clear?” The Colonel repeated.
“Yes, sir.” The MP’s said in unison.
Nowak must have shown up in the confusion, because just as he tried to get to his feet for a second time, he felt an arm pull him up.
“I got you brother.” Nowak said, hefting Summers up.
“The rest of you, kit up. I want every man we have on this exit asap. Summers, Adams, you’re with me. I don’t want to hear a single word out of your mouths until I give you the all clear.” The Colonel said. The Officers around them moved to follow through with the orders almost immediately as Nowak more or less dragged Summers in the Colonel’s wake.
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“…You heard a scream?” The Colonel asked. Summers was seated beside Adam in what was quickly becoming the control center for, as the Colonel put it, whatever the fuck was happening.
“Yes, sir.” Summers replied.
“I didn’t get a good look at what it was, but something ran off after the doors came down. Not one of the people, something as big as the damn hallway.” Adams added. That was news to Summers, as far as he knew they only had to deal with nudist cannibals.
“You’re telling me something survived a grenade detonating point blank?” The Colonel asked skeptically.
“I don’t know how far it got, but it was moving.” Adams said, then added. “Uh, sir.”
“And the people, like the woman that attacked you…” The Colonel prompted.
“Sir, she was going for my gun, sir. Summers saw her, sir.” Adams said quickly. He looked like he wanted to tack a few more sir’s on there as he looked to Summers for confirmation. As the Colonel’s attention turned back to him Summers nodded in confirmation, deciding the less he actually said, the better.
They heard the door behind them swing open, Summers looked to find a panicked lieutenant in the doorframe. “Sir, we’ve secured the entrance to the bunker. There hasn’t been any activity, however we’ve heard gunfire further up. Should we move in to assist?”
The Colonel considered that for a moment. “Organize what fireteams as we can muster, keep the rest at the entrance. If we’re going in, we’ll do so with everything we have.” He turned back to Summers and the increasingly nervous Adams. “You’re dismissed, I’ll want a full report when this is over.”
That was… odd. It was a given the Colonel knew something more about what was happening, but generally when your two guards killed a room full of people, there was at least a few minutes of consideration before you handed them back their guns. Then again, the base was also apparently a warzone. Just what in the hell was happening?
The Lieutenant saluted. Nowak stood as well, turning to Summers. “You two still combat effective?”
“Yes, Sergeant.” Summers replied automatically, after which his brain caught up to him and he realized he’d just volunteered to go into the active combat zone with said cannibal nudists. Well shit.
The Colonel nodded approvingly. “You have ten minutes, get yourselves ready.”
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The scenery really was beautiful, Summers noted. He hadn’t taken the time to appreciate the twin mountains the base was built beside, the natural beauty of the landscape around them. He took a moment to correct that while doing his damndest to keep his shit together. It’s not that he was afraid of dying. Well, he was, but he’d accepted the risk a long time ago. He’d joined up with a combat unit after all. But being eaten alive hadn’t been something he’d given much thought to. There was a primal, animalistic fear in that, to which Summers addressed by checking his weapon and admiring the view.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
And while he hadn’t really had time to think about it earlier, he’d had a moment of realization shortly after leaving the Colonel. It occurred to him that, for all they knew, an entire platoon of soldiers outfitted and trained for what they were about to do had been wiped out. Now they were going in blind, with less equipment, and less intel on the enemy. Common sense would suggest that they were screwed.
“This is such a stupid way to die.” Summers muttered to himself. It was true too, this was the slowest, most out of the way place some of the brightest minds in the US Army could find for him. And he was going to die there.
“Summers!” Nowak called over. Summers got up, heading over to find Nowak, Cortez and Adams beside him.
“You good?” Nowak asked.
Summers nodded in response. He noticed Cortez had her hand wrapped around her rifle, and the under-barrel grenade launcher attached to it. That made him a little nervous.
“You know if you fire that off in the bunker it’s just as likely to kill us as whatever else is in there.” Summers said, indicating the weapon.
“It’s what they gave me. Don’t worry if it comes to it, I’ll shoot you first. Make it nice and quick.” Cortez replied. Summers nodded as if that settled the matter.
“From here on we’re designated Fireteam Delta. We’ll be running point.” Nowak said.
“Ex-fucking-cuse me?” Summers asked, then immediately regretted it. In his defense, he’d thought they were screwed before the Colonel decided to throw him into the blender first.
“I don’t like it any more than you do, but me, you and Cortez here are the only boots at this base with any actual combat experience. So that’s our role. We go in, back up any remnants of the 63rd – that’s what the colonel’s calling the other platoon, then we help with extraction.”
“You going to tell us what’s going on now, Nowak?” Cortez prodded. Nowak only looked annoyed in response.
“I know as much as you do, there’s bad shit in yonder hole, we need to kill it.” Nowak responded.
“Swear on your mother’s grave?” Cortez asked.
“She ain’t dead but, sure?”
“Good enough for me. Private in front?” Cortez gestured to Adams.
“Sorry, what?” Adams brain had only just caught up to the situation at hand.
“Yeah, I’d rather not get shot in the back of the head. Sorry kid, it’s the best place for you.” Nowak agreed. Adams looked to Summers for help.
“Once we’re out of the hall we’ll have some cover, don’t worry.” Summers placed a reassuring hand on Adams’ shoulder.
For his part, Adams was doing his best not to look terrified. He was failing miserably but they appreciated the effort.
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Summers stepped in past what remained of the bunker door. It was all twisted, pockmarked metal. The grenade really did a number on the facade, but the thick doors had weathered the actual blast pretty well. No doubt it would have held if Summers hadn’t felt the need to check on the noise, so he could thank himself for that.
“What’s this shit?” Cortez asked, glancing at the bodies around the hall. There were about a dozen corpses between the soldiers and the… creatures Summers had subsequently liquified. He hadn’t noticed before, but there was a lot of green in the hall. Not blood, more like grass stains. Moss, leaves, foliage that didn’t look natural was littered around.
“Eyes forward” Nowak urged. He was probably trying to sound professional, but the tension in his voice was obvious.
BANG!
Summers turned on heel leveling his gun on the fireteam about 30 feet behind them. He saw a young private, finger on the trigger and gun trained on a very dead body. One that he’d shot for some reason or another. It would be understandable that the group was jumping at shadows, the corridor was literally painted with the dead, but the corpse he’d shot had been one of their own wearing army fatigues. Now the private was quietly being chewed out by his sergeant.
“Move faster.” Summers urged, eager to get more distance between them and the trigger-happy group at their back.
They passed through what would normally be a security checkpoint. Large rows of computers with that distinct 1980’s flavor broke up the room. There were no bodies, but they still saw the strange green stains around every corner in the room. Like someone had dragged a tree through it.
The distant sound of automatic fire caught their attention from up ahead. But that wasn’t right. The next room was the storage area, the biggest, and last room in the bunker. The gunfire was too far away for that.
Then they came upon it. A lush forest stretched out in front of them. It wasn’t a portal, or a window or anything like that. It didn’t really have an edge at all. It was as if the room just merged with the landscape. The concrete ceiling giving way to a cave’s rough-hewn stone, and the tiled floor to a leafy brown and green mulch just a few feet below it. There was something that looked like a half-assembled satellite at the center of the merger, somehow it was vibrating the air around them. It felt… wrong.
“Sergeant I did not sign up for this shit.” Adams said, staring at a scene that rightfully shouldn’t exist.
Another shot resounded in the room, then a scream. A woman’s scream. No, a girl’s scream. Summers remembered the kid he saw when the suit first arrived. She had to be someone’s daughter or something, right? They wouldn’t be dumb enough to bring her along, would they? More gunfire was the only response he got.
“I am not paid enough for this.” Summers whispered to himself as he pushed forward. The others must have wrapped up whatever internal debates they were having as they started to follow.
They ran for about five minutes, they tried to make a beeline for the noise but as near as Summers could tell it was moving. Then the tree line in front of them exploded, the sound of wood splintering made his teeth vibrate.
About 300 yards ahead he saw something moving through the debris. It looked like a mound of corpses two stories tall had been bound together with sticks and moss, moving impossibly fast on stumpy legs. Like a tidal wave through the trees, and it was on a direct path towards them.
Just then it occurred to Summers that the creatures he saw couldn’t have overwhelmed an entire platoon on their own. As terrifying as they looked, they were at their core, just unarmed combatants. They were scavengers, and this was the predator.
“Fuck me.” Summers muttered.
Before the others could even get a word in, Adams was already unloading his entire magazine into its mass. It was about as effective as you’d expect to something that had the momentum and bulk of a tank. Summers heard gunfire again and saw three soldiers moving towards them, the girl in tow. Well that answered that question.
“Cover them!” Nowak yelled. Summers sort of admired the man’s ability to not lose his shit given the situation. The group unloaded on the shambling mound of wood and flesh. He heard a distinct “thump” from beside him and watched as the creature’s left side just sort of collapsed. He saw Cortez beside him holding the grenade tube underneath her rifle. She looked just as surprised as he did.
“We need to move!” Summers said as the shambling thing stumbled, it was definitely hurt but something told Summers they’d need a tank to actually put it down. Nowak ran to the soldiers, shouldering one who Summers just now noticed limped with a leg that looked as though it had been through a blender, a woodchipper, and a knife fight all at once.
“Where’s the general?!” he heard Nowak scream over the intensifying roar of the thing behind them.
“Dead! We need to leave!” The soldier replied.
The girl running alongside them more or less collapsed on the spot. “Ton! Ton sec!”
Summers didn’t quite understand what that meant but he picked the girl up, slinging her over his shoulder and ran all the same. It wasn’t the most dignified or thoughtful way to handle a child in distress, but in his defense, he was absolutely terrified at the moment.
The creature roared behind them and once again they heard the now distinct sound of wood being torn apart. It became quickly apparent that they wouldn’t make it, the monster was just so much faster than they were.
An M4 fired somewhere to their left. Summers could just barely make out that same trigger happy private from earlier, the rest of his fireteam unloading everything they had into the creature. They must have gotten turned around in the trees because they were a good distance off.
“Oh, thank god!” Nowak said as monster immediately changed course for the other group, giving Summers and the others some much needed space. That relief didn’t last long, however, as it proceeded to immediately tear through them. Summers watched in abject horror as the private was crushed under a giant fist. The man had essentially traded his life for Summers’, even if he didn’t know it. Then more gunfire erupted, a lot of it. The creature charged at its unseen attackers. Summers then realized that it might have been them that got turned around. Well shit.
“What happens if that machine we saw stops?” Summers asked the limping soldier beside Nowak. He saw “Logan” on the man’s nametape, apparently, he was a corporal as well.
“What?” Logan managed to get out between breaths.
“The hunk of shit you put in the bunker, that’s what’s doing this, right?” Summers persisted.
“…Yes?”
“That way!” Summers indicated, following in the monster’s wake.
“Are you nuts?!” Cortez, quite understandably, asked.
“We were the only one’s going after the 63rd, that gunfire’s from the base. If they start a fight there and destroy that… machine thing we could be stranded wherever the fuck this place is.”
He ran, the girl still slung over his shoulder. Whether the others saw the logic in his reasoning or not, they followed.
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What they saw was a slaughter. Somehow more of the pale creatures had found their way towards the base. The shambling mound was in the process of dismantling fireteam beta, it the most sickeningly literal sense Summers could imagine, and it didn’t look like it was slowing down.
The two soldiers at Nowak’s side rushed for the base.
“Wait!” Nowak cried after them, they ignored his shouting and kept pushing forward.
“Goddamn morons, cover them!” Nowak shouted, firing into a group of the smaller creatures as they converged on the two men. Summers saw Cortez and Adams pushing up, firing into the crowd as the fleeing soldiers were torn apart. The shambling mound turned its attention on the soldiers inside the bunker, many now running for their lives. There had to be thirty, maybe forty of them still left.
Summers recognized the faces of the dead in front of them, people he’d eaten with, killed time with. He didn’t like them, but they were still his people. The shambling mound ducked into the cave that became the bunker, close behind the retreating soldiers.
As it moved beside the strange machine, the only thing tethering them to their old world, Summers raised his gun, then fired - into the machine.
Pieces of metal bent inward as Summers' shots hit their mark, and everything seemed to stop. A moment of deafening silence, as if the world itself had to take a second to process what had just happened. Then, as if it were making up for lost time, reality exploded in front of them. Pieces of the shambling mound unceremoniously dropped to the floor, lifeless. They looked as though random chunks of it had just been carved out, or more likely they’d ended up on the other side. There was no bunker anymore. Just a cave.
Summers let the barrel of the gun drop, a few of the pale creatures were screaming in agony as parts of them looked to be similarly missing. The others were firing into the now stunned crowd of monsters. But even over the sound of gunfire he could still hear Cortez’ voice.
“Summers you fucking asshole!”