Leaving the warehouse district, we enter a large train yard. Many train cars remain here long abandoned and forgotten, some toppled over, most just slowly rusting away. The graffiti that adorns many of their sides having faded or been covered by the creeping vines of the ever-persistent plant life. Trees grow where they can between the abandoned train cars and shipping containers, sprouting forth from between the tracks, forever dooming the cars to remain where they lay until the day that they are reduced to nothing but rust.
We stealthily move our way north through this graveyard of lost locomotives, wanting to move through quickly and reach the airport that waits on its other side.
It makes me sad seeing these trains left like this, I like trains…
Clambering over the coupling of cars and weaving between trees and debris, we slowly make our way through.
We all come to a stop as we hear the sudden yowling and loud hissing of cats coming from up ahead. The Sergeant signals for us to stop and get down, and we quickly follow suite.
Up ahead, all we can hear is the hissing and screeching of cats made from beings that defile the precious memories of the lovable and cuddly house cat (*Only when they feel like it.) and make one shudder as they recall the numerous stories of those that have survived encountering the rabid terrors.
Suddenly there is more.
Screeching, hissing, the sound of something striking metal and of breaking flesh and bone.
The noises play out for some time until they simply stop. There is only silence now, the birds in the trees having long fled, the monstrosities of the surrounding have stopped their calls as they to listen and wait to see how things will unfold.
There is only silence…
Ever so slowly the ambient noise of the world returns. Whatever had happened up ahead, the world has lost interest and moved on. In the distance monster continue to make their calls, claiming dominion over their territory against any that can hear them.
The Sergeant slowly lifts his hands and waves us forward. We don’t know what has happened, but we are about to find out, we need to pass through here if we are going to reach the airport.
Moving low and slow we eventually come across a scene of violence. Scattered between the cars parked around us is the broken and ripped apart carcasses of what has to be an entire pack of mutated cats, at least twelve members. Although it is impossible to accurately count with how utterly ruined some of the corpses are.
The sides of the cars are dented in in many places and splatted with blood and entrails.
Sandy curses, “Jesus Christ, what the hell did this!?”
Sanders takes up his camera and snaps a shot of the scene as the rest of fan out, searching for any trace of what created this mess.
“Hey Rookie, you think your Shadow did this…?” Sanders ask me.
“I honestly have no clue, I haven’t seen even a sign of it all day, why would it though…?”
Thomas speaks up, “These cats were on our path, if we had kept going, we would have run straight into them. A pack this big would have been difficult to handle with only knives…”
“Are you saying…?”
I don’t get to finish as the Sergeant calls out, “It doesn’t matter what did this, only that are path is clear. Move through and leave the theory crafting to the egg heads. We have a mission to finish, now let’s get to it. Quickly, before whatever did this decides to come back.”
We all nod, getting back into tight formation and walk through, carefully avoiding stepping on scattered organs and broken bodies. The soles of our boots being painted crimson as we walk over the now blood-soaked gravel.
Sanders takes another picture as we walk away, leaving the of sight carnage behind us for the birds.
Working our way across a few more tracks and around the last few remains of abandoned train cars, we move through some rough foliage and cut our way through some fences to finally emerge out onto the cracked and frayed runways of the Louisville Airport.
From here we can see the damage that was caused on the first day of the //World Tree’s arrival.
On the runway lays the crashed and ruined remains of airplanes that had got hit by the pulse while trying to take off. Off to the side, one of the airports walls is collapsed in as a plane had come down during a landing, seemingly crashing into the tarmac before sliding into other parked planes and then into the building itself, leaving a mess of twisted metal and the black marks of a long burned-out fire.
The Sergeant gives the order, and we move in.
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Thankfully, due to the many trees growing over the tarmac, making our way to an entrance is simple enough and we avoid detection. As we are moving in, Sanders takes many pictures of the area, the outside of the building and couple things of note for when we make our reports.
Arriving at an entrance, the Sergeant tries the door, but it is locked. Moving forward without a word, Sandy comes forward and works on picking the lock as we fan out and watch the surrounding.
A few moments of some jittering and scratching, the door behind me opens up and we file through. Before shutting the door, Sanders pulls out a spray can and marks the door on both sides, matching the marks that he has made on his map and journal.
Oh, how I miss technology, this mission would so much easier if we could use body cams and radio comms, or hell, just send in drones to search everything. Instead, we have to do everything with pictures and notes with pen n’ paper.
While Sanders works on his notes, flashlight held in his mouth, the rest of us spread out a bit and scan the area; rifle mounted lights passing over the dark interior of the room. We apparently entered the part of the airport dedicated to air shipping goods, not to surprising being right next to a train yard. All around the room is crates and large shelves, forklifts and tuggers, and a spiderweb of conveyer belts spread about the large space.
Soon Sanders is done with his notes, and we are signaled to move forward, heading deeper into the guts of the building proper.
We move past lines of conveyors, over the spilt remains of busted open containers, sweeping our lights as we move, parting the darkness of the warehouse like a florescent jellyfish slowly making its way through the dark sea.
Something moves to our right and we shift. Lights move and soon a screaming creature is throwing itself at us. Thomas moves forward without a word, gabbing the flailing creature as it fails to claw through his metal covered chest. Holding the horrid thing with both hands, he gives a twist, pulling with both arms. A loud pop and a crack sound out and the thing in his hands goes still.
Turning to us he shows us his catch, held from one hand he is holding a rat large enough to be mistaken for a really ugly dog. Its head hangs limply to one side, a small trinkle of blood running from its open maw of disfigured teeth.
“Rats, disgusting.” He says simply before tossing the dead thing aside like a dirty rag.
“You alright? It didn’t get you anywhere? Who knows what these things could be carrying.”
“I’m good, it only hit armor.”
“Shit…” Sgt. Lenz speaks up, “Alright, operate assuming that there is a rat nest nearby. If there is one, we need to find and mark it, let’s move.”
Everyone seems to tense at the orders, but we all nod and fall in.
Moving through, we notice the occasional movement in the dark. Knives out we take down any rats that notice us and charge, trying to be stealthy with our takedowns so as to not draw a large number of them.
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Four dead rat’s later, we make it to the other side of the facility and into the service tunnels and backrooms of the airport. Following Sanders’ map of the place, we move our way through the guts of this old building and soon arrive in the airport proper.
Now with windows and skylights letting the daylight shine inside, we turn off our flashlights and make our way down hallways and past terminals.
The occasional monster will be wandering these halls, ducking into a bathroom or behind furniture, we will wait for them to pass, not confident in being able to takes them down with nothing but knives and muscle.
All the while, Sanders is busy recording notes, taking pictures and marking doors with different symbols. We often have to stop as we leave him to his work, spending the day skulking through this long dead building like mice exploring a barn.
As the sun begins to descend outside, slowly painting the inside of the building with reds and oranges, we find it. The rat nest. A plane parked and connected to one of the terminals is overflowing with them as they come and go from the plane. Sticking to a reasonable distance we wait as Sanders does his thing.
Standing guard and watching the perimeter, we patiently wait for him to finish. Seeing some movement down the hall, back the way we came, I signal that we have incoming. Sgt. Lenz tells Sanders to hurry up as I watch the monster drawing near from my corner of the hallway.
Sanders quickly gets everything packed up and we quickly move into a nearby terminal and grab cover.
Soon, the monster draws near, and I am able to more clearly make out its details. It has a large quadrupedal form with a large bulbously round head. No eyes are visible on its face, but its ears are incredibly large and its long slit like mouth that runs from ear to ear is lined with an excessive number of teeth and a pair of curving tusks.
It moves, face low to the ground as it flares the pair of nostrils that adorns its face.
It’s following our scent!
I signal to everyone else, ‘Hearing, Scent, Being Tracked, No Noise.’
The beast draws closer, heavy breaths kicking up dust as it turns towards our terminal. We spread out, moving as silently as our heavily armor covered bodies can allow. As it moves into the terminal, we shuffle and work our way around the beast, slowly moving and holding our breaths.
With my heart beating in my chest, I keep moving until the beast suddenly jerks its head and looks in my direction, its ears twitching as it tries to catch every noise around it.
I stop and freeze.
It takes a step forward and climbs over a line of chairs, they buckle and groan under its weight as it crosses over them with slow steps.
Nostrils flaring and tasting the air it slowly draws near, that long slit like mouth soon unfolding open like the bulb of a blossoming flower. Rows upon rows of teeth are revealed and lead into a deep throat where a small glowing orb hangs from the back of its mouth.
My eyes stop on the orb, and I can’t look away. A fog starts to fill my mind as I fight to resist.
Letting out an involuntary shudder as I stare into a slowly approaching pit of death, I try to back away but end up kicking a travel bag that was left on the floor behind me.
The beast lets out a growl, its mouth opening further to until it has fully blossomed like a killer rose, the glowing orb adorning its center letting off a gentle light.
The beast prepares to lunge, and I go to raise my rifle with shaking arms, fighting to resist the fog weighing down my mind, my eyes unable to leave that orb.
Before I can even think to pull the trigger, the beast moves and I hear someone callout, “MOVE!”
From the side, before the monstrosity can lunge, Thomas comes charging in and tackles the beast, burying his combat knife deep into its side. Hitting the thing like a football player, his massive frame carries the beast in a charge as it roars and calls out in pain.
They reach the already broken window and he lets go, the monster flying out though the opening and out of the building where it lands on the tarmac some meters down. It calls and roars all the way down until it hits the ground.
There is noise everywhere now, mixing with the banging of my beating heart in my ears; Sandy runs over and shake me out of my stupor, “We need to move! Now!”
“Wha, what?”
I can only stare straight ahead, my eyes refusing to focus on the panicked face that is right before me.
“Rats! Move! Now Rookie, that’s an order!” She slaps me across the face and the fog starts to thin.
My mind latches on to that, grasping through the fog and confusion. Orders. We can follow orders! Especially when they are yelled at you. Soldiers follow orders!
I turn and run, rifle held tight to my chest, as I join everyone else running. With each step the fog clears from my mind as if it is leaking from my ears and soon my sense of self comes back to me.
What the, what the fuck just happened!? Why are we running? Orders, orders to run. Run from what?
I look over my shoulder and instantly regret it. Behind us is a living tide of flesh and gnashing teeth. Hundreds of squeaks come from being that have no right doing something as cute as ‘Squeaking’ and with every second they draw much closer.
I run faster, pushing my limbs as adrenaline and a potent fear of ‘Death by a Thousand Bites,’ compels me to move faster than I have ever ran before: regardless of all the gear weighing me down.
We round a corner and Sgt. Lenz calls out, “Hostile up ahead! Sanders, you have permission to fire. Put that thing down!”
Sanders raises his rifle, and with three pulls of the trigger takes out the legs of the monster ahead of us. It trips over itself as its knees give out and it collapses, bellowing out in rage and pain as the tentacles that run down its back flail around in every direction.
As we pass the fallen beast, Sgt. Lenz uses his 12 gauge and put a round of 00 Buck shot through its skull. The roaring stops and it goes limp as we pass by.
Off in the distance roars and screams call out from all around and inside the airport. We are drawing more attention.
“We need to lose this swarm! Head back the way we came and hide, when things calm down, we can leave and retreat!”
“I’m sorry Sarge, I don’t know what happened, I…!”
“Not now Rookie, focus on running!”
Behind us the swarm of rats draws closer, flowing over the corpse of the monster and over any furniture and debris that gets in their way. The hallway behind the swarm cannot be seen, there is only a writhing wall of flowing fur, flesh, and teeth behind us.
We are almost to the door, a bit further and we will be able to get back into the service tunnels, put some doors between us and this swarm.
We get to the door and the Sergeant throws it open. Holding the door, he beckons us through. Sandy and Sanders make their way through, Thomas shortly making his way in after. As I am about to go for the door, the Seargent grabs me from the back of my armor and pulls me back. I want to call out in surprise and ask why, but soon my question is answered as a large crash rings out. In an explosion of debris and dust, twisted metal and shatter glass, a large figure plows through the space that I used to occupy from outside and collides with the wall.
The wall loses against the impact with the massive creature and collapses over it.
Sgt. Lenz hauls me to my feet from where I had collapsed and pulls me with him into a run.
“Wai, wait! What about the others!?”
“They made it through, they know how to handle themselves. We still need to get the hell out of here Rookie, now fucking RUN soldier!”
I don’t question my orders; you tell a soldier to run away from a swarm of hungry beagle sized rats; she fucking runs away from the beagle sized rats!
Looking back as I sprint, I get a brief glimpse of the creature than came plowing its way into the building as it extracts itself from the rubble. Standing on six legs and covered in fur, its two front most sets of legs, one stacked atop the other, are webbed with membranes, turning its front four limbs into makeshift wings. Its body is cat like in appearance and two massive fangs adorn its mouth like a sabretooth tiger. Behind it, its tail is split down the middle, becoming two and are joined together by more leathery membrane before being tipped with a pair of spikes that stick from their ends.
I look away as the creature starts to shake itself off, we round another corner and flee. The rat swarm was only slightly slowed by the intrusion and is quick to round the corner and continue pursuing us.
Up ahead we find the doors leading to the security offices and we go for them. Running as fast as our legs will take us, we almost fail to notice a new monster charging towards us. Sgt. Lenz sees it first and pushes me forward.
“Go!”
I almost trip but manage to catch myself, reaching the door and throwing it open, I turn to see Sgt. Lenz pointing the barrel of his shot gun at the charging beast and unloading two shots into its massive chest, a third goes into its head as it stumbles, sliding forward towards his feet.
He turns to run towards me as I hold the door, as the swarm is almost upon him. I call for him to run, but he trips and falls.
The monster, despite having a hole blown through its head, is still alive and has its hand clasped around his ankle.
The swarm flows over the both of them and continues towards me. Cursing, I slam the door shut and lock it. Backing away from the door, it begins to shake violently as the rats throw themselves against it. I turn on my flashlight, with the door closed, it is pitch black in here.
Through the door I can hear as the they try to scratch and chew at it. The door won't hold for long as it quickly starts to make some rather concerning sounds and sections of it are quickly torn away by gnawing teeth.
Looking around, I find another door and quickly go through, shutting and locking it behind me. Flipping a table, I brace it against the door and put whatever I can in front of it before moving further in down the hallway and searching each door as I pass.
“Come on, come on!”
I can hear as the barricade behind me breaks open.
“Come on!”
Finally, I find the door. A holding area for keeping people until the police arrive.
I go through, shutting the door behind me and quickly barricading it.
Soon the hallway outside is flooded with the sounds of running paws and squeaking. Searching through every area that they can and tearing down doors in an attempt to find me. Some claws scratch on the outside of my door, questing to see if they can tear through.
But they can’t. The door is metal, a cheap metal, but still more than hard enough to stop even overgrown rats from chewing through.
I stay deathly quiet, refusing to give them further reason to think that I am in here. Praying to a god that I haven’t worshiped in years for these damn things to go away!
Suddenly, the noise outside dampens. I can hear as the rats sprint away and funnel out of the hallway in a hurry.
There is only silence and darkness in this room lit only by the light mounted on my rifle.
Why did they leave? Did something else get their attention?
Was it one of the others? Or Sgt. Lenz!? Was he able to get out of there?
I go to open the door but stop my hand and reconsider.
They could still be out there. If I leave now, I would just be right back to getting chased. I want to check if the rest of the team is ok, but I need to wait for now, I need to rest…
With my entire body shaking, I grab one of the chairs in the room and sit down, pulling out my canteen, I take a deep drink of it and try to relax my flaring nerves.