Meanwhile… Far behind Claus, Kira and Donnel.
Seth trailed slightly behind Brielle and Zane, his face twisted in discomfort as he spoke. “I mean, it’s bad enough that this is an abandoned factory, but now we’ve got flickering lights and this foul stench?”
He fanned the air dramatically in front of his face with one hand, his energy pistols swinging at his sides.
“It’s the smell of decay,” Zane said, his red eyes scanning the dim corridors ahead.
“You might want to get used to it before we go any further. It’s only going to get worse.”
Brielle tightened her grip on her plasma bow, her eyes looking toward Seth. “I brought a flashlight,” she said. “But if I use it, the board members ahead of us will definitely know we’re here. Expecially with how sharp their senses are.”
Seth groaned, running a hand through his messy dark hair. “Figures. So, we’re just going to stumble around in the dark while trying to avoid getting noticed by the very people who probably wouldn’t hesitate to fire us?”
Zane shot Seth a sharp glance. “Keep your voice down. If they don’t hear us, something else might.”
The mention of “something else” sent a shiver down Seth’s spine, and he quickly shut his mouth, his hazel eyes darting nervously toward the factory walls.
Brielle then whispered, “Stay close and keep your eyes open. This place is too quiet. No skittering, no creaking… Just the sound of those three ahead of us.”
“Tho I heard some growls earlier, I guess they must have already encounter some monsters, but once they felt with it everything went silent again.”
Seth gave a slow nod, gripping his pistols more tightly as he spoke, “Yeah, silence. That’s definitely what’s freaking me out.”
The trio kept their steps light, the faint hum of their weapons the only noise accompanying them as they ventured deeper into the factory.
The stench suddenly thickened, causing Seth to gag while Brielle wrinkled her nose in disgust. Zane’s sharp eyes caught a faint glimmer ahead, and he held out a hand to stop the others.
“Hold up,” Zane said.
Brielle and Seth followed his gaze to a bloodied forearm lying beside a wall, the same sight Claus and the others encountered earlier.
The limb was severed just below the elbow. A short distance away, a crude wing-like shape painted in blood could be seen on the wall, the smears dark and viscous under the flickering lights.
Zane narrowed his eyes on disgust. “This is sick. Who… Or what would even do something like this?”
Seth crouched down near the severed forearm, his expression caught somewhere between morbid fascination and unease.
He prodded the hand lightly with the barrel of one of his pistols, watching it shift slightly in the congealed pool of blood beneath it.
Seth then spoke, his voice surprisingly casual despite the scene before him.
“This…”
“This reminds me of a horror movie I watched recently. You know, the kind where the group gets picked off one by one, and there’s always that one idiot who goes, ‘Let’s split up to cover more ground.””
Zane shot him an incredulous look. “Are you seriously comparing this to a movie right now?”
Seth shrugged, standing back up and wiping the barrel of his pistol on the edge of his jacket. “I’m just saying, it has that same vibe. Creepy setting, severed limbs, and random blood art? Classic horror trope.”
Brielle, who had been studying the blood-painted wing, finally spoke. “Well, this isn’t a movie, Seth. And if we don’t stay sharp, we’ll end up just like…” She pointed toward the severed forearm without finishing her sentence.
Seth raised his hands defensively, the faintest grin on his lips. “Alright, alright. Point taken. I’ll keep it serious.”
Zane sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he spoke, “Let’s just keep moving, I want to at least be there when the board members get to the bottom of this.”
Brielle gave a small nod, leading the way as the three of them carefully pushed further into the darkened corridors.
Behind them, the bloodied wing on the wall seemed to shimmer faintly in the flickering light, as though watching them go.
…..
Claus, Donnel, and Kira pressed onward, the sound of the steady, rhythmic heartbeat growing louder with each step. The air around them felt heavy, and the ground beneath their boots transitioned into something unsettling.
Kira slowed her pace, crouching down to examine the surface they were now walking on. She spoke, her voice low and tense.
“This… it’s flesh… But it isn’t human.” she said, running her fingers lightly over the rubbery, pulsating floor.
Claus, walking a few steps ahead, didn’t bother turning back as he replied. “Of course, it’s not human. It’d take thousands of bodies to cover this much ground, and only about 170 people have been reported missing.”
The logic did little to comfort Kira, who stood up quickly, wiping her hands on her pants. The group’s movements quickened as the ominous sounds around them grew. Suddenly, a piercing scream echoed through the factory, chilling them to their cores.
“Pick up the pace!” Claus barked, breaking into a run.
As they sprinted forward, the fleshy floor beneath them squelched with each step, its slimy texture threatening their balance. The flickering factory lights became dimmer, suddenly replaced by strence unsettling red glowing orbs emanating from the fleshy walls.
They passed what appeared to be enormous cocoons, torn open, their gelatinous contents oozing onto the floor.
The husks looked like they had been violently ripped apart, but there was no time to examine
them.
“Don’t stop,” Claus ordered, as they moved deeper into the grotesque corridor.
The red glow intensified as they advanced, coming from strange, pulsing orbs embedded in
the fleshy walls, functioning as organic light sources.
The corridor widened, and the sound of the heartbeat became almost deafening,
accompanied by faint growls.
Finally, they reached what seemed to be the center of the factory.
The scene before them was massive, horrifying. Flesh coated every wall, pulsating in rhythm with the heartbeat.
Hundreds of intact cocoons hung from the ceiling and walls, each filled with mutated human- like figures incubating within. Their slimy surfaces glistened under the red glow, veins
pulsing with light.
Kira’s breath hitched. “What… what is this place?”
Before anyone could respond, their attention was drawn to movement below.
A pale-skinned humanoid creature, tall and gaunt, stood at the center of the chamber. Its elongated limbs and jagged features gave it an unnatural, predatory aura. It barked sharp, growl like orders in a language none of them could understand.
Around it, mutated humans… twisted figures with grotesque appendages and blank, milky eyes… were working feverishly. They carefully removed cocoons from the walls, carrying them toward a massive, glowing red portal pulsating at the far end of the chamber.
“What the hell is that thing doing?” Donnel asked, taking in the bizarre scene. Kira’s blindfolded eyes darted around, taking in the horrifying scene. “It’s moving them… transporting them somewhere…”
Claus narrowed his gaze as he looked at the scene. “We’ll find out soon enough. But first, we need to get closer and stop them from moving these creatures.”