Alice took her time moving through the six foot long Stingray tails. With each step the clear mucus left on the ground squelched under her boots. Thankfully that was just a byproduct and not some other way to detect prey. It was still disgusting nonetheless.
The creatures were totally blind and mostly deaf. They used touch and scent to get around. Thankfully they seemed to be in hibernation mode. The only thing waking these things would be to touch one of their tails. It sounded much easier than it actually was. They typically found small inclosed spaces (like a stairwell) to hibernate. That meant there wasn’t more than a couple inches of space between their tails. The slippery mucus on the ground didn’t help keep a solid footing either.
She could hear the creatures breathing, a sickening whistle type of sound. It echoed off the black stairwell walls, as did the squishy foot steps. She passed the last tail but didn’t stop taking slow cautious steps for another few feet. She always found a reason to be more cautious than anxious. You couldn’t find any other way if you were dead.
She removed a rag from her pack and wiped off her boots. It wasn’t necessary but the mucus could get sticky if not removed soon, that would cause every step to sound like ripping velcro. Something that she could not allow at the moment. There was still a Strider somewhere in the building, she would rather find it than the other way around.
She noted the Stingray pod with a piece of chalk she kept for such occasions. If she had to leave in a hurry she wanted to know exactly where this wass without having to rely on her memory. A large red arrow did the job and she moved on.
Red tinted flashlight back on the barrel of her rifle she moved up the stairs to the next landing. There she bent over the rail to see how many more levels there were in the building. From her vantage she counted two, maybe three more levels.
Yet again the door had no difficulty opening. She noted that for later, no time to think about it right now there were more pressing issues on her mind. Where is the Strider and where is the computer Caitlin wanted her to find. Hopefully the third floor held the answer to the ladder of those questions.
Opening the door gave her a partial answer, but not the one she wanted. More of the tar-like webbing covered the hallways of this floor. It gave the floor a tunnel feeling. Rounded ceilings and rough walls. She had to be extremely careful not to disturb the webbing. Depending on where the Strider was that could alert it to her location.
The rooms on this level shared most of the attributes of the ones that came before with one exception. Bodies. A lot of them. At least what was left of bodies. Most of the ones she saw were nothing more than skeletons anymore. Some of them were exposed, the webbing ripped away leaving the remains of what was beneath laid out bare. Alice could see on some of them where the webbing had burnt all the way down to the bone. Alice would do no looting on this floor.
The fourth floor was different from all the rest. Where the floors beneath had a corridor like build with enclosed private rooms this floor was wide open. Support columns connected to the ceiling every so often but there were no walls on this floor other than the exterior ones. Tents and equipment had been set up in the center of the room. It gave Alice the impression of some sort of military temporary setup.
The webs were here too. A latticework of black covered the ground. Small beads of light bled through holes in what looked like a complete sheet of black covering the windows, Striders hated light. Alice did all she could from the comfort of the doorframe to check the room for the Strider. She didn’t see it anywhere which was concerning but yet again if it saw her and she didn’t know she would already be dead.
Cautiously and as silently as she could she stepped out into the room. She double checked the ground with every step. One wrong move and she was dead. Step after step she followed the same routine. Step. look over the entire room. Check footing. Step. Over and over again making her way to the equipment in the center of the room.
When she was about twenty feet in she heard something. Instantly she halted all her movement and scanned the room in silence. A few moments later she heard it again. Faint breathing noises from directly to her right. She didn’t have the best footing to bring the flashlight around to see what it was so she followed her routine to twist in that direction.
The room was almost pitch black save for the pinpricks of light that bled through the web well. Her red tinted flashlight still did not have the best range but she could still make out what was making the breathing noises. A shade. Standing motionless a few feet away. She couldn’t see it before because it was so dark in the room. Even now she could barely make it out in the red light. Its humanoid form hung there, black mist pouring off of itself. It was too dark to see the thin black skeletal body underneath. It stood there, untouched by the black webbing, silently waiting. It would do so until it or another one of its pack detected prey nearby. This one was asleep currently but that meant there was at least one more somewhere nearby that was awake, prowling the surrounding area for a meal.
Alice felt a hole dig itself deep into her stomach. Just my luck, huh? She was too far in to back down now. Especially when the information she needed was most likely only fifty feet away now. She took a moment to hype herself up to see it through. Sure I've gotten a little unlucky but look at the brightside. That shade’s partner is probably outside of the building somewhere not in here. She thought about that for a moment longer. That only means I’m going to have to deal with an awake one later after I get out of here. She gritted her teeth and persevered.
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Ten feet later she encountered another sleeping shade. Then another one five feet later. It was beginning to look like she had stumbled into an entire nest of shades. She had only seen one of these once before and then she had a whole firing squad with her to take them out. If only I were so lucky. There was one peculiar thing that she noticed however. Anywhere that a Shade was the black webbing had receded or burnt up. She took note and decided to look into that later.
After avoiding a few more sleeping shades she had arrived at the tent outpost in the center of the room. Computers and all sorts of other equipment cluttered the area. There were stacks of unopened crates and cases. A crate Alice knew she couldn’t do, that would be far too noisy. A case with only a few clips keeping it closed however, that was tempting.
The computers made a kind of wall on one side of the outpost. Some desks ran perpendicular with them to make a large L shape. Chairs and a couple other foldable tables scattered the inner portion of the set up. What was curious though was the lack of webbing surrounding the computers and surrounding tables. Alice inched her way towards the set up until she was able to step into the non-webbed radius around the equipment. Immediately she felt a shift in the air. Like some sort of internal equilibrium was just put on its side for a second then returned to normal. She had to double over and swallow some vomit or it would be released into her respirator. She took another step in but whatever happened to her seemed to be over now and she was able to walk just fine.
There were four computers and a couple cases within the radius. She started with the computers. She removed a screwdriver from her pack and as quietly as she could unhooked the computer towers from all their wires. There shouldn’t be any power going to them and she wouldn’t want the light coming from them being on anyway. As soon as she had all the towers separated and placed on a table she set to work removing their hard drives and ssd cards. Any and all information on these things she was taking with her.
Cracking open the side panel of the computer granted her access to everything she needed. She made quick work of the hard drive then set to getting to the ssd card. After locating it she noticed something interesting on the card itself. It had a logo printed onto it. One she had seen before. A rectangle within a circle, a diamond and keyhole in the center of it.
After getting the parts from one computer she took a moment to look around her to make sure she was still good to keep working. She stopped dead immediately after bringing her flashlight up. Not ten feet from her sitting just on the edge of its webbing looking directly at her was the Strider. Its massive spider-like body was hunched over. Disgusting foot long bristles coated its back. Its four legs separated in two at the knee to give it the appearance of having eight legs. The head of the thing looked like the upper torso of a person without a head. The mouth’s made two slits on top of one another where the stomach would be. Its main central eye where the chest would be and its secondary eyes on the end of the “arms.” All three were staring directly at Alice.
As soon as it registered to Alice what was happening she dropped her screwdriver and grabbed her rifle from off the table. She raised it up and pointed it at the Strider but hesitated, as the rational side of her brain took over. She would already be dead if this thing could get to her. There was a reason it wasn’t trying to at the moment. Something about the outpost kept it away and is still doing so. Shooting now would only attract the shades as well and there was no telling if they would react the same way as the Strider.
With apprehension Alice returned to work in the computers. It only took a couple of minutes to get everything she needed. She wrapped them all up in an extra shirt she had and placed them all in her pack. The Strider was still just sitting there, observing with its glossy black eyes. It shifted a few feet when Alice moved over to the cases.
There were three of them, all the same size. Roughly four feet long and a foot wide. Alice had hopes for what was inside. The first one was easy to open, no lock. The clips came undone and the lid flipped open. Inside was a modern M4 carbine with four magazines all fully loaded. Alice smiled at the sight. Additionally there were multiple attachments. Two scopes, an ACOG and a red dot. A flashlight, laser and foregrip as well. Alice removed the weapon, loaded it and equipped the attachments. She placed the extra ammunition in her back pockets. One of them she had to put in her pack because she just didn’t have the room on her person.
The Strider still hadn’t moved so she opened the next one. An even better surprise lay in this one. A semi automatic grenade launcher with six rounds of explosive ammo, three smokes, and three flash bangs. Alice glanced back up at the Strider that was still just staring at her. Sorry friend, looks like my luck finally caught up. She loaded two flashes, a smoke, and three explosives. The case had a bandolier in it as well so put it on and placed the rest of the rounds in it.
The third case was different from the other two. The metal was hot to the touch. Curious, Alice wrapped her hand around her shirt and unclipped it. The pressure built up inside released with a hiss. A small amount of smoke rolled out and onto the table.
Inside was a small transparent spherical object that appeared to be connected to some sort of device within the case. A faint blue light emanated from within the sphere. The light would come and go almost like it was p… almost like it was pulsing. She took another look at the size of the sphere. It was about the right size. Cautiously she picked it up and brought it close to get a glimpse of the inside. A moment passed before the light came back. Her assumptions were proven correct when she was able to make out a human heart inside. It was hooked up to all sorts of small machines within but without a doubt that was the heart of a human Pulser inside. And it was getting dimmer with each pulse.