The Runners

The beginning of the end

We park on a hill overlooking the bunker, shrouded in darkness and foliage we watch the guards outside the large metal door. "This is the place, the code is in there," Ren says proudly.

"You guys ready?" I ask. Everyone nods and Sovetsky and I pull out small rifles and aim at the two guards. We count ourselves down and we both fire at the same time, striking our targets and beginning our assault. 

Sovetsky, Ries, and I slide down the hill while Ren drives the car around to the gate. We rush our way into the fenced-off area and take down a few extra guards, "Ren, Sovetsky! Set up the explosives!" Ries shouts.

"Im coming, I'm coming. Hold your horses." Ren replies as he takes the satchel full of C4 and begins walking over to the wall. He opens the satchel and tosses some charges over to sovetsky, to which he catches them with a look of fear.

"Calm down, C4 is a really stable explosive. You could shoot it and it wouldn't go off." Ren laughs. 

They begin placing the C4 charges on the wall and connecting wires to all of them. After the final charge is placed Sovetsky tells everyone to take cover and everyone complies, all of us hiding behind barricades.

"Three, Two, One!" He yells, on the count of one the C4 detonates, the resulting shockwave knocks us all on our ass except for Ren, Who braced himself by putting his back to the barricade and digging his heels in the dirt.

"Do none of you know how to brace properly?" He laughs as he picks us up, our heads somewhat rattled from the shockwave. 

Ries and Sovetsky stumble around, the shockwave really seemed to hit them hard. Ren is even a little dazed, "You guys ok?" I ask concerned.

"Yeh, We're fine, at least I think we are?" Sovetsky says as he slightly slurs his words. It takes a moment but they start coming around, their stumbling comes to an end.

"Ok, now that you ladies are done, we should get inside, gotta a job to do after all." I taunt as I start walking towards the now smoldering hole in the wall and taking a sip out of my flask. "Hey, why the hell weren't you affected by the blast?" Ries argues.

I continue walking towards the wall, only holding the flask in the air. "I went to a lot of parties back in college. I exist in a constant state of disorientation, I've gotten used to it." I say with a laugh.

They followed me as I enter through the hole, It's a small hallway with a long and very steep staircase. "God that's a lot of stairs," Ren says as he peeks through. "Yeah, and I ain't takin em!" I shout as I start sliding on the ramp between the two paths of stairs.

As I slide I take my cane off my back and get ready for a fight because I notice soldiers are sprinting up the stairs. I wind up and soon I swing. The force created from me sliding, them running, my wind up creates a hurricane worth of force on their skull. They fall back, shouting in pain as they fall back down the stairs.

My ride ends and I hop off the ramp and skid to a stop, Behind me, I hear gunshots and I turn around and see Ren shooting at the other soldiers I didn't get. It seems he liked my idea and slid down the stairs as well.

"where are the others?" I ask as I watch him reach the end of the ramp. "They're walking, something about 'safety' or something like that." 

We wait for a moment and soon enough they reach the end of the stairs. "About time," I say as I push myself off the wall I was leaning on.

"Well, we're not reckless like you two are," Sovetsky says, a look of disapproval on his face. "let's get this show on the road and get the coordinates, this place puts me on edge," Ries interjects.

I nod and we start heading down a hallway. "Why are the lights flickering," Ren asks to the air around him. As we venture deeper into the complex, we collectively get the feeling of dread. it's subtle at first. A small noise, like an animal scurrying around, just out sight.

We head deeper into the building, each door forward, the rooms get more and more disturbing. Corpses lying about, torn to shreds. The white walls stained red, and now and then a scream which is then cut short almost as soon as it has begun.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Ries asks. No one else dares speak. As we move forward I swear I see something duck out of view from the corner of my vision, I turn around quickly and aim my gun at it.

From what I was able to see before it vanished it looked vaguely human, but it looked wrong, like some part of my brain just knew, implicitly that it wasn't human.

"Somethings here with us," I whisper.  Everyone shoots me a look, confused. "What do you mean Something?" Sovetsky asks, he may be trying to hide it, but his voice gives away his fear.

"I saw something, it looked." I take a moment to calm my breathing, "Vaguely human, but just wrong. I can't explain it." I say.

We continue, the less we stay here the better. Following the main hallway, we turn a right. "The next turn should be the server room," I tell everyone. We walk down the last hallway, thankful our journey is half over. 

Turning to the last hallway we stop, all at the same time. The sight is laid in front of us, it chills us to our very cores.

Across the walls, and ceiling, Is flesh. Writhing, and moving flesh. Standing there, none of us dare to move. We stand there for what feels like hours, days even until Sovetsky bends over to puke.

"What the fuck is that." Sovetsky asks between dry heaves. No one says anything,  No one dares. Ries takes peeks to his right down the hallway we came from, his glances getting more and more frantic. We all turn our heads to look and we see them.

Monsters of various sizes and shapes, all made of flesh. Malshapen heads and limbs coming from wherever they please. One of them anchors itself too the ceiling, its head covered in dagger like teeth.  

"Oh god," Ren trembled. Ries raises his gun, "Run, now!" He shouts as he starts firing at the flesh monsters. We all book it through the hallway covered in muscle and bone. The smell is horrid, like the inside of a rotting carcass. 

Hands and tendrils reach out of the wall to try to grab at us. As we near the end of the hall, to the door I feel something grab my wrist. I try to yank it loose but to no avail, I look at what has grabbed me and see what I assume is tendons wrapped onto me.

On the section of wall where the sinew is coming from a face is looking at me. "Help us." It croaks. I stare at the face, my wrist, and then the monsters approaching me. The Tendons start retracting, pulling me closer to the wall as hands start grabbing at me.

I hear everyone yelling at me, the blood rushing in my ears drowns them out. A second line of tendons shoot out of the wall and grab my other wrist as I was reaching for my knife. I yell for help, I yell for help as I see a third sharp tendril shoot towards my throat.

I barely dodge it as Sovetsky runs and cuts me free from its grasp. I throw myself towards the door and just as we get through Ries and Ren slam the door and start barricading it. 

"Long time, no see everyone!" A familiar voice says behind us on a screen. A Man appears with a mask. "Its really been awhile, hasn't it?" He says