We kept moving. It was already the second elevator we found out of order, making descent impossible. Mr. Daves then decided we would go back the way they had come.

  That was when the transmitter started beeping.

  He answered it. As soon as he heard the message, his face went pale. His expression wavered between fear and anger. Something serious had happened.

  - Salicis Daves

  When I heard the transmission, it was a call for help. Another unit was under attack. They had been ambushed near the cafeteria by something large — and I could still hear gunfire and screams in the background.

  Clary approached, worried.

  “Sir, is everything alright?”

  “Trevis… your unit is under attack,” I replied, feeling the weight of the words.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “I… I don’t know…”

  My mind was boiling. It felt as if two invisible hands were pulling me in opposite directions: complete the mission or save my men.

  The screams kept echoing through the transmitter.

  The decision formed at the exact moment my stomach twisted.

  “We’re going. We’re going to help them.”

  “Yes, sir!” everyone answered in unison.

  As we prepared to move, I looked at the kids. Erick went stiff. Luna bit her lip, her gaze lost on a vague spot on the floor — as if the worst memory of her life was about to begin again. And Saklas… he simply watched us, impassive, as if none of it meant anything to him.

  A sharp pang of pity crossed my chest. They never asked to be here.But there was no choice.

  I wouldn’t let my men die without trying to reach them.

  I contacted the other squad. We would meet them soon.

  - Luna Helen

  I was on the verge of collapse.

  All of this had already gone far beyond my limits. I couldn’t take seeing people die anymore, hearing screams echo through the corridors, smelling the metallic scent of blood soaked into the walls. My mind was fragmenting.All I wanted… was to escape this nightmare. Wake up at home. Pretend none of this was real.

  But that wasn’t how things worked.

  Erick and I had been alone before — and that feeling of walking through dark corridors searching for an elevator that didn’t exist had been worse than any monster. It was the helplessness that destroyed me.

  When we finally met the other team… I realized they were all in the same state as us. Wide eyes. Fingers tense on the triggers. Shallow breaths.No one knew what we were about to face.And maybe that was for the best.

  ---

  - Salicis Daves

  We found the team led by Tesia a few minutes later. They were just as nervous as we were — maybe even more. Their eyes begged for answers I simply didn’t have.

  As we advanced through the corridors, the tension only grew. The air became heavy. The smell of fresh blood mixed with another odor, deeper… more rotten… like decaying flesh mixed with rust.

  When we turned the last corridor and approached the cafeteria, the stench became almost unbearable.

  There were bodies.

  Many bodies.

  Some were mutilated in ways I couldn’t understand… as if they had been torn apart. The floor was so slippery that some of the kids stepped carefully to avoid slipping on scattered viscera.

  Then we saw the mist.

  A thin crimson mist. It spread through the air like fetid smoke, filling my lungs. The moment I breathed it in, I felt something inside me… as if a cold hand had gripped my heart for an instant.

  Corrupting…Scratching…Whispering.

  I wanted to leave immediately.But it was already too late.

  When our eyes adjusted, we saw it.

  At the center of the cafeteria stood a creature with its back to us. About three meters tall. From behind, it vaguely resembled an extremely thin woman, grotesquely elongated, with skin so pale it looked like wet paper. A few strands of hair fell over its shoulders, giving it an almost… funerary appearance.

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  But that wasn’t the worst part.

  The creature moved.

  And from the side, we could see what lay on its front.

  Something else… emerging from inside its abdomen.

  A second body, twisted — maybe two meters tall — shaped like a deformed fetus. Veins pulsed beneath its swollen skin. Its arms were long, and its hands had nails long enough to rip open a human chest with ease. Its massive mouth was smeared with blood.

  It was as if two beings had been grotesquely stitched together — where one ended, the other began.

  Then I realized what it was holding.

  Trevis’s head.

  For a second, my entire world collapsed.I couldn’t breathe.My hands shook so badly I almost dropped my rifle. Trevis… my sergeant, my friend… and now… that.

  A gunshot echoed beside me, snapping me out of it.

  Clary.

  She was in tears as she fired — every shot accompanied by a choked sob. Trevis had trained her. He had believed in her. And now she was watching his body being desecrated by a monster that should not exist.

  I tried to gather what little courage I had left.

  I tried to give orders.

  But my voice came out hoarse, trembling… broken.

  I looked at my team.

  At every face, every expression caught between terror and determination.

  And a single certainty formed inside me — cold as ice:

  This might be the last time I would see them.

  We didn’t hesitate to join Clary, firing relentlessly at the creature. No order was needed — we all wanted to end it as fast as possible.

  Bullets tore through the air in endless bursts.The mother-creature writhed, using its long, deformed arms as a living shield to protect the being in its abdomen. They advanced toward us in perfect synchrony, like a grotesque quadruped — four feet, two from each body, pounding against the floor at an unnatural speed.

  The sound of that trot was a nightmare: wet, irregular, far too heavy for something moving so fast.

  We split instinctively, trying to surround them. Flashbang grenades exploded in blinding white bursts that lit up the entire cafeteria — the crack echoing between the pillars.

  The creature thrashed, disoriented.Then, completely out of control, it lunged forward and slammed into a pillar.

  The impact was so strong the floor shook.

  We took the opening.

  “NOW!” someone shouted.

  We activated the electric containment grenades. The currents wrapped around the creature in violent sparks. The mother-creature arched backward, releasing a deep, visceral roar that seemed to vibrate inside the stomach of anyone who heard it. The giant fetus in its abdomen screamed as well — a mix of crying and distorted roaring.

  Then… it stopped.Both bodies went still.

  For a second… we believed.

  Until Luna’s voice tore through the silence:

  “KEEP FIRING! DON’T STOP!”

  Everyone turned to her, shock and terror on their faces.

  “IT’S STILL ALIVE!” she screamed, pointing with a trembling finger at the smaller being. “I’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE! IT WON’T DIE LIKE THAT!”

  I had no idea what she had seen before.But the conviction in her eyes… was enough.

  I kept firing, even as the stench of burnt flesh grew stronger.

  When the electricity from the grenades faded… we all held our breath.

  The mother-creature remained on the ground, groaning softly.But the smaller one…

  …it moved.

  Slowly.Pulsing.Like something that was only just waking up.

  The girl was right.

  “Damn it…” I muttered.

  I checked my belt.

  The containment grenades were gone.Only a few flashbangs remained — useless against something that resilient.

  Explosives? Impossible.If I detonated one in there… half the facility would collapse.

  The mother-creature, even wounded, still tried to protect the smaller one — curling its body over it, even while agonizing.

  The smaller one… had only a few bullet marks on its skin.Almost nothing.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  And, for the first time that night, I felt the most dangerous sensation a commander can have:

  There were no more obvious options. No more plans.Only despair.

  I saw it starting to rise.My heart raced.

  Without thinking, I shouted for everyone to fall back into the room behind us. There was no other choice.I would have to lure that thing away from them and—

  Damn it.That was the only way to end this.

  Everyone ran out, and I locked the door behind me.Clary pounded on the other side, desperate, yelling for me to open it, but I couldn’t.I had already decided.

  In the middle of that unbearable tension, I didn’t notice the tall man had stayed there with me.I didn’t understand.Was he insane?Frozen in fear?Why hadn’t he followed the others?

  Damn it… there was nothing I could do.

  “I’m sorry…” I said, for what we were about to end here.

  But he only looked at me with total indifference.No fear.

  And he began walking toward the monster.

  Everything happened too fast.

  A pressure filled the environment, as if the air had become several times denser.My body grew heavy.I had to struggle just to remain standing.

  He walked to one of the aluminum tables.Placed his hand on one of its legs and… ripped it off.Without any effort. As if it were paper.He spun it in his hand.

  Then he threw the piece of metal.

  Like a spear.

  The speed was so absurd that the impact with the air shattered the cafeteria’s windows before it even hit the target.

  The metal struck the mother-creature’s head directly —and everything above its torso simply vanished.As if it had been erased.

  That sent the smaller, grotesque being into complete frenzy.It charged at him with animal fury.

  He tore off another table leg and hurled it.The creature’s front limbs were obliterated.The rear ones had already been motionless since the first one’s death.It collapsed to the ground.Giving its final signs of life.

  The man calmly walked up to the agonizing body.Reached his hand into the monster’s head…and pulled out a red fragment, pulsing, alive — something I can’t describe.

  Then he brought it to his mouth.And swallowed it.

  My entire body trembled with disgust, fear, and shock.I nearly vomited.

  He raised his face, and black smoke began to pour from his mouth.

  That was when my legs finally gave out.I dropped to my knees on the floor, completely drained.

  And he stood there.Expressionless.As if everything he had done…was the most normal thing in the world.