With the door secured I was able to release the breath I was holding. After a second of putting my thoughts together, I turned to address the stunned crowd behind me, but before I could say a thing a massive crash came from the door behind me followed by a massive thud. I wiped the cold sweat off my brow and thanked the gods once again for my quick thinking. I silently gestured to the neighboring room before entering it, once everyone had followed me in, I shut the door. With the security of two doors between us and the monster I could breathe a bit easier, we don’t want that creature to eavesdrop on us and learn our plans.
Aetorias, the leader of my team, was the first to break the tense silence, “What the f**k was that, and what the hell is going on.”
Derek was the first to respond, “I have no idea, I was looking over the inventory invoice when John gave the signal that he had heard something suspicious and was going to check it out. I was debating about whether to alert you guys when John suddenly started to shout at something and that’s when I sounded the alarm.”
I sighed when everyone turned to me almost completely in sync, “I heard a light tapping coming from the front door which I attributed to a sugar-toothed squirrel, and went to check it out. Even though I thought it was nothing I still sent the signal just in case something was up, and what I found was certainly not a squirrel. A man was standing near the edge of the forest, he was gazing deep into the woods and when I shouted at him, he didn’t respond or show any sign that he heard me. I shouted once again but this time he responded, he suddenly appeared in front of me with impossible speed and told me I quote, “It has come for those who have disturbed its peaceful rest.” With those words, it disappeared, and I heard an earthshaking roar followed by the sound of something massive crashing through the woods, the rest is history. I don’t know who that person was, but I think whatever creature that’s on the other side of that door is the same Deadlaf encountered and it's come to finish off his expedition.”
With those words, everyone looked away and stood there awkwardly before Sangal sighed and said, “let me play devil’s advocate here, maybe should give them up. From what we heard from Deadlaf this creature is immensely powerful and I don’t think we will come out of this without significant casualties that will either match or surpass his group.”
I knew no one would accept that option but I see where he was coming from, I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed, it's going to be a long night. Deadlaf and the rest of his group looked over at Sangal, horrified at the suggestion.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Aetorias stepped up and pacified the situation, “We are not doing that under any situation, now we need to come up with a proper plan of action.” He looked over our expectant faces before continuing, “We have several options, wait it out, escape using one of the five exits, or fight back. Now, in my personal opinion think we should either wait it out or escape.”
We pondered his words and discussed our options before we eventually came to the consensus that escape was off the table, even if we escaped unnoticed we would have to trek a couple of miles through the forest to get to Rafton, which would mean that even if we rushed we would still be in the forest long enough for the creature to notice or absence and give chase. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be in that creature’s domain without anything in-between it and me. That means that our only feasible option was to wait till sunrise, from what Deadlaf told us the monster stopped hunting them when the sun began to rise. I hated the thought of hoping for something that may or may not happen but it's our only option for now.
With the plan of action established we split off into groups to collapse and or secure the various emergency exits, leaving only one. From what Deadlaf told us the creature has some form of hypnosis so we had a partner to snap us out of it if something happens, and if we both fall prey there were ropes attached to both parties to pull them back. I was paired up with Sangal and we were tasked with the northern exit, we both stared at the foreboding stone hallway with hesitation, for once my luck had failed me. We had drawn sticks to see who would go first and of course, Sangal and I were the unlucky ones. I looked back at Artorias and saw him nod solemnly I turned to Sangal and saw he had the same resigned look like me, finally I sighed, “let's get this over with.”
We advanced forth with weapons and torches raised, soon darkness followed us. We kept our eyes open and our ears focused but we only saw darkness and only heard our footsteps. After a few minutes of mind-numbing suspense, we finally arrived at our destination, the beginnings of a large dirt tunnel. I walked over to the wooden support and inspected it before looking back at Sangal, he walked over to the opposite side of the support and nodded to me which I responded with my own. I grabbed my axe and wedged the back part in between the wood and wall. I looked back over at Sangal and saw him ready as well, “3,2,1”
On the count of one, we applied force causing the wooden posts to slip out of place and the roof to come tumbling down. With a thundering crash, the roof caved in and soon the other wooden supports failed.