John’s heart beat wildly in his chest as he stared down at the thing lying on the asphalt. Sweat dripped down his face that wasn’t coming from the hot sun.
“Is it alive?”
His father waved idly at his mother who was standing behind John.
“It’s dead Mildred. Probably as soon as I hit it.”
John watched his father crouch down next to the mangled remains of the rabbit. Looking through his dad’s legs John could see the bloody tufts of fur and the limbs angled awkwardly away from the body.
“Poor thing.”
A pair of hands suddenly drifted down over John’s eyes.
“I’m going to get John back in the car.”
John craned his head around the hands to catch another glimpse of the creature. Part of him was mortified at what he’d seen, but the other part was curious.
“No,” he said, “I want to see.”
“Oh honey,” said his mother concernedly, “I don’t think-.”
“Let him come over Mildred.”
His mother paused and John was similarly surprised by his dad’s comment.
“Are you sure?”
“I was his age when my dad took me hunting. It’s important for him to face death and understand it.”
“He’s so young…”
Suddenly the hands left his eyes. Looking up he saw his mother looking down at him with a strange look on her face.
“You don’t have to look if you don’t want to.”
John looked back at his father who was still crouching in front of the body. Staring into his father’s warm brown eyes the momentary nervousness faded.
Nodding he started walking towards his father. The man was watching him carefully as John’s eyes slowly drifted to the rabbit on the ground.
For several seconds he stood there, staring down at the mangled body of the once living creature. No thoughts crossed his mind and he didn’t feel anything. As far as he was concerned the only things that existed at that moment was himself, and the remains of the rabbit.
“It’s okay to be afraid of it son,” his father said slowly, “it’s natural to be afraid of death.”
John didn’t respond.
“John? Did you hear me?”
When his father touched his shoulder he looked over at his dad.
“What are you thinking about?”
“I think it’s kind of cool.”
John saw the flicker of concern that crossed his dad’s face. It was quickly replaced with a forced look of amusement, an effort to make light of what he just said.
“Not exactly what I thought you’d say. What’s so cool about it?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s…interesting.”
“I think it’s time to go Bob.”
His father quickly stood up.
“Your mother’s right, we’re going to be late.”
John was quickly turned around and led back to the car. He gazed over his shoulder at the twisted corpse for a few seconds before he was gently prodded into the car.
Even as his mother buckled him in John found himself picturing the remains in his mind. That same feeling of disgust and curiosity filled him. It was a strange feeling that left his heart pounding and wanting to look at the rabbit again.
There was just something about it.
#
What he saw crawling out of the wall enraptured him with a different feeling entirely.
It was hard to see through the panicked crowd around him, but through the frightened faces and flailing arms he could see glimpses of it. An impossibly living thing that appeared as an undulating mound of flesh.
There were arms, legs, skulls, eyes, and more, all embedded in a sentient mound of liquid flesh that slimed its way into the chamber. Over the screams, babbling, and shouts he could hear the squelching and splashing as the thing slid across the watery floor.
It paused a moment as if surveying its surroundings with the plethora of darting eyes, sniffing nostrils, and quivering ears. It then began sliding towards the kneeling woman with her arms in the air.
As the thing crept toward her she tilted her head back and shouted.
“Feast on my flesh! Return me to the roots so that I may rise to the lofty branches above! Deliver me from the fleshy earth thou profane and abominable worm!”
John watched the horror play out in glimpses as the thing swarmed up and over the woman’s body like a rising tide on a beach. She shuddered and screamed inanely as it flooded up her torso.
“My body shall lie in wait! My thoughts will soon join with my brothers and sisters! Together in the holy embrace we-.”
She was cut off when the wave of flesh enveloped her head. One moment she was kneeling on the floor and the next she was submerged under the mass of flesh.
The thing paused in that space for a moment as the eyes darted. Soon it slithered over to the man who was rocking himself on the floor. John quickly lost sight of the creature just as it reached him.
Tearing his eyes away he found himself staring into the gleeful gaze of his companion.
“I told you. It’s better fresh.”
The giggled man suddenly hissed as someone bumped into him. The transition from babbling idiot to feral beast was a startling one. Even more eerie was when the bared teeth turned to unbridled glee when he turned back to meet John’s gaze before flickering behind him.
“Look! Be lucky again!”
John turned his eyes to see the thing slinking across the chamber towards someone lying on the edge of the room. The person was either sleeping or dead as the wave of flesh washed over them.
“One more,” said the man in his ear, “one more on the edge and then…”
All eyes were on the abomination as it glided towards the crowd. The individuals on the edge in its path screamed and clawed at those around them. Fights were breaking out and the entire group began to jostle more heavily.
The water at John’s feet sloshed and shook from all the commotion. John had to fish his pants up as their weight fought to bring it down again. But he didn’t dare take his eyes off the thing.
It paused on the edge of the circle with the people there in absolute panic. From John’s angle the thing was probably brushing up against a few of them as it rested over the body of the one the crowd had injured earlier.
Looking around John found that the bodies of the others the flesh had visited were missing.
“Now it chooses!”
John winced as the man shouted the phrase in his ear before descending into incoherent blathering. Soon the words gave way to laughing that drove spikes into John’s brain.
The flesh backed away from the crowd and hesitated. It slowly grew in height as it gathered itself together into a more congealed mound. Once it stood a few inches above the tallest man in the crowd it began sliding around the edge of the group.
John watched as it circled over and over again. The dancing eyes scanned the crowd as if searching for something. The toes and fingers on countless broken hands and feet jerked and spasmed as it moved. It was as if the limbs were parts of marionets being yanked around by children fiercely handling the strings.
The thing suddenly surged towards the crowd and several in its path screamed. John watched in increasing horror as the flesh oozed and flowed around members of the crowd. The hands grasped at bodies and the legs wrapped around whatever they touched.
For several seconds it held itself around several individuals while the rest of the group backed away. After a few moments it released most of those it had grabbed but held onto a frail woman.
“Chosen,” shrieked the strange man.
The woman flailed only for a moment before the arms and legs drew her into the flesh and she disappeared under the writhing flabs of fat. Once she was gone the thing backed away from the crowd and resumed circling.
The man next to John gasped and several in the crowd started screaming again.
“It’s hungry! It chooses again!”
John winced as the man slapped him on the back and shoulder excitedly.
“So lucky! So lucky!”
This time the being didn’t wait as long and it darted into the crowd. Again, it seized several people and John caught a glimpse of a mouth on the mass of flesh gnashing on a woman’s hair.
This time the flesh held an older man in a hospital gown. John caught a small glimpse of the man’s eyes rolling back into his head as the liquid flesh flowed over him and he disappeared.
The crowd trembled and jostled as the flesh backed away. It hesitated on the edge before it began flowing towards the opening in the chamber. John noticed it didn’t move as quickly as it had before. It seemed to struggle to hold itself together. At one point the thing was segmented into three barely connected parts before it slumped back together and shuffled forward.
It roiled into the opening at the end of the chamber and slithered into the darkness beyond. There was a palpable sigh of relief from the crowd and a few began sobbing or babbling hysterically.
Looking around John saw the wearied and terrified faces of those in the group. A few wandered off into various corners of the chamber and sat with their backs against the wall. He watched in disbelief as one man quickly fell asleep with his head on his chest. His snores disturbed the glowing water mere inches below his nose.
To John’s disgust he saw various substances floating in the water. Some of it was thick and white like congealed fat that was probably from the creature. There was also blood, traces of vomit, and other things John tore his eyes away from.
Some people that were on the edge were nursing wounds. He was horrified to see a few bite marks and wondered if it was from panicked individuals or the queer mouths on the thing. Remembering their gnashing teeth he shuddered and ran a hand through his hair.
“Come,” said the strange man, suddenly tugging on his arm.
John jerked free of him.
The man fixed him with a curious gaze before his mouth slid into a smile that was unsettling.
“I understand, the first time is difficult to comprehend. Come with me and we’ll discuss it…while it’s still fresh.”
“Come near me again and I’ll kill you.”
Several individuals nearby turned to the scene in mild curiosity. The man’s smile deepened and there was a dull twinkle in his eye. Those who were watching suddenly scurried away.
“Suit yourself, you’ll soon learn that I’m lucky and others here are not.”
The man sauntered into the crowd with a small giggle. John tried following his path, but quickly lost him in the crowd.
“That probably wasn’t a good idea.”
John turned to see a swarthy man studying him curiously. The man wore a soiled long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up and black slacks with dark stains. If John were to guess he had been here a while, but not as long as others in worse shape.
“That fellow has been here longer than anyone else from what I can gather. He has a reputation for ensuring his enemies don’t last long here.”
“I’d rather be considered that man’s enemy than his friend.”
The stranger smiled and held out a hand. John studied it for a second before clasping it in a handshake.
“Atim.”
“John.”
The man smiled and released his hand.
“Fine Christian name. Your parents must have had great ambitions for you.”
“My father named me. Said it was after a president who had the sense to let the people solve their own problems instead of trying to fix it himself.”
He tilted his head.
“I’m not familiar with the name Atim.”
“It means dirt.”
John smiled as he titled his head in confusion.
“More accurately it means earth. My father wanted me to be humble in life and thought it would help.”
Closing his eyes John shook his head and laughed. At first it felt good to laugh, but then he found his throat hitching and the laughter turning into barely held back sobs.
“Easy my friend,” said Atim suddenly coming to his side, “it will be alright.”
“It’s possible to escape from this place then?”
Atim hesitated and John shook his head before brushing off the man’s hand.
“I understand your loss of hope. You wouldn’t be the first to lose it in this place.”
John opened his eyes and looked around. He and Atim had been left alone in the center of the chamber with everyone else migrating to the walls to rest or sleep. Even the newcomers were taking lessons from the others and trying to rest, though their wide eyes and furtive glances suggested sleep or even calm wasn’t coming anytime soon.
“In my time here I have seen that those who hold onto hope survive longer and hold onto their sanity better. Those who lose it suffer either fate, often both.”
“And what point is there in surviving?”
Atim frowned.
“God would not let us suffer in this place without reason.”
“You believe there is a God?”
“Of course.”
“Then what reason could he possibly have for condemning us here?”
“It differs for everyone. I believe mine is to give others hope.”
John smirked.
“And how is that going?”
The man sighed before giving John a small smile.
“If you become hopeful, I’ll call it a success.”
Despite the situation, the horrifying images of the last few moments that flashed intermittently in his mind, and the foul broth lapping at his knees, he found himself drawn to the man’s charm. The man spoke as if they’d been friends for several years and it put John’s mind at ease.
“If it interests you there are others who are trying to devise a means of escape. Perhaps you could lend your ideas to their effort.”
“Do they have any ideas so far?”
Again, Atim hesitated before speaking.
“No, but you can come up with something and take the glory for yourself.”
John let out a small chuckle.
“Come.”
This time John allowed himself to be led away by this kind man. Though as he walked across the chamber he saw the others lurking in their various corners. Some were terrified and barely clinging to their sanity, others lost there’s and were rambling nonsense to themselves.
The ones that disturbed John the most were the hostile gazes from those with tattered clothes and gaunt features. Looking into their eyes was like peering into the eyes of a hungry and feral creature.
Atim led him to a group of people that were huddled against a section of the wall.
Seeing them coming they all stood up. One was a woman whose intact suit suggested she was relatively new. Another was a man with no shirt and tattered shorts. The final was an older woman wearing a shirt that likely wasn’t hers given how large it was on her.
“Atim, you’ve made another friend.”
Atim put a hand on John’s shoulder.
“This is John.”
The woman smiled.
“Hello John, I’m Tara, welcome to our humble group.”
John looked around at the others expecting similar greetings but the woman in the suit was staring off in the distance and the shirtless man seemed disinterested.
“What brought you here John?”
“I’m not exactly sure…I was in a hallway that started…melting.”
Tara nodded.
“Same with us, though in different rooms of the facility. What was your role with the company?”
John was about to respond with the truth but found himself twisting it a little. It wasn’t so much this little group he was afraid of it was those who watched from the shadows that made him hesitate.
“I was assisting research as a volunteer test subject.”
“Mind if I ask which department?”
“I’m not sure which department, I’m fairly new. My first day or two I was assigned to the Manic Machine.”
The shirtless man suddenly turned to John interestedly.
“G-103? The typewriter?”
“You’re familiar with it,” asked John trying to feign interest and not panic.
“I was part of the acquisition team assigned with collecting it. Nasty bugger.”
“I can imagine,” said John with some relief.
The man turned to the others.
“G-103 is a typewriter who possesses anyone who comes near it. It was causing chaos in the basement of an old library in Houston. It was responsible for at least seven disappearances before anyone figured out what was going on with the thing.”
“How on earth did you collect it,” asked John, this time genuinely curious.
“A bit of musical chairs,” he said grimly, “we would take shifts typing away on the thing while we loaded the typewriter and the typist onto a truck. Jostle either too much and the writer would flip out and attack.”
He looked down into the water and cracked his knuckles.
“It was not fun.”
“I can imagine,” when the shirtless man gave him a look he responded, “I’ve had a turn as the writer.”
“Ever read what you wrote?”
John grimaced and the man nodded.
“Yeah I wasn’t too happy about it either.”
Everyone was silent for a moment before Tara got John’s attention again.
“You’re welcome to stay with us. You’ll quickly find that being in a group is safest.”
“How often does that,” he paused as horrifying memories flashed across his mind, “…thing feed?”
“Entirely random. Though it’s rare if more than three days go by and usually a few hours will pass.”
“What about the rooms?”
“Also random. We’re not entirely sure what their function is. Everyone will suddenly fall asleep and we’ll wake up sectioned off into separate rooms. There’s no rhyme or reason behind it and who we’re cordoned off with seems random as well.”
“I’m sorry,” said John shaking his head, “we just fall asleep?”
“It’s sounds worse than it is,” she titled her head to one side as if something occurred to her, “admittedly it’ll be a bit disconcerting the first time or two, but you’ll become used to it.”
“If you say so.”
“Alright,” snapped the suited woman suddenly, “I didn’t join this group to learn things I already know. Let’s get to it.”
John frowned and saw that the others were similarly annoyed by the woman’s outburst.
“Very well,” said Tara with a little less warmth, “has anyone learned anything new?”
“If you wake up in a room with a man in a white undershirt and a tattoo of a goldfish on his back don’t trust him,” said the shirtless man in a low tone, “he tried to choke me out when I turned my back on him.”
“Why,” asked John before it occurred to him, “he wanted you to be bait for the thing.”
The man smiled.
“You’re already learning, good.”
“Duly noted,” said Tara before turning to Atim.
“I was with a young girl who was too frightened to say anything insightful. She must have been new and I lost track of her after the rooms disappeared.”
“I was with the poor young man who was rocking himself. He wouldn’t speak to me and didn’t seem to care or notice that I was there.”
John appreciated how upset she was when she spoke about him. The woman cared for a random stranger in a hellish place, it was a good sign in his mind.
“Well I was barricaded in my office when the walls started melting,” the suited woman said irritably, “I’m not sure how helpful that is, but take what you will from it.”
Everyone turned to John and he frowned.
“Like I said, I entered a hallway when it started melting.”
A thought occurred to him and he started looking around.
“I was with two other people though. Two women.”
Atim gave a sympathetic smile.
“Another strange thing you’ll learn about this place is that not everyone arrives at the same time, if at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been in this place for several days now when the thing first broke containment. But according to those I’ve spoken with that only happened a day or two ago. Some of those who were captured with me appeared a few days after I did and some have never shown.”
“How is that even possible?”
“If we knew that,” said the irritable woman with a huff, “we’d probably have all the information we need to escape.”
“He’s new Rebecca,” Tara responded slowly, “it’s only natural for him to have questions. Much as you questioned us at length yesterday.”
The woman rolled her eyes before looking around the space again. John noticed her eyes would flicker between people as if she was expecting something to happen.
“Who’s been here the longest?”
The shirtless man raised his hand.
“Going on about twelve days now. Assuming every time we fall asleep and wake up is a day of course.”
“How have you survived?”
“Don’t trust anyone and kill anyone who tries to kill you.”
“No, I mean how have you sustained yourself?”
The man grimaced and motioned around them.
“This swamp water. It tastes like shit, for obvious reasons, but it’ll keep you alive. Atim here thinks it probably has nutritional value.”
“Nobody seems to grow hungry that drinks it.”
“What about them,” said John as he gestured to some of the skinnier individuals in the room.
“Some refuse to drink it out of disgust or paranoia. But eventually the hunger and thirst causes everyone to drink.”
“Isn’t it…”
“Absolutely vile,” asked Rebecca in a higher tone than she probably intended.
“Dangerous?”
Atim nodded.
“I imagine it’s riddled with a number of diseases. But surprisingly no one seems to grow ill here. I just recommend only drinking what you need to survive.”
“Though that shouldn’t be hard,” interrupted the other man, “given how it tastes after all.”
John looked down at the brackish water with the glowing yellow algae or whatever the hell it was.
“I’ll wait.”
He looked around at the chamber.
“So what’s been tried?”
“Well,” said shirtless man, “a group tried fighting the thing and that didn’t go well.”
“Fighting it?”
The man nodded.
“They uh…borrowed a few bones to use as weapons. Managed to gouge a few eyes and break some limbs before the thing ate them. Whatever damage they caused seemed to make it hungrier because it ate ten people that day. Admittedly it took longer to come out to feed the next time, but the damage they caused seemed to have disappeared. No one has tried attacking it since.”
“Ok,” said John a little disturbed, “what else.”
“A few tried running through the open…hole…when the thing was distracted eating people. As soon as anyone gets through they get flushed back out by a flood of water. The thing also seems to make a point of eating those who try to escape.”
“So, it’s intelligent?”
“It can’t do any math if that’s what you’re asking,” the man paused in thought, “though it does make a point of eating troublemakers so I guess something inside is ticking.”
“What else?”
The man shrugged.
“That’s kind of it, at least that I’ve seen since I got here. As far as I know no one has escaped…alive anyway.”
The way he said that told John there was something he wasn’t willing to talk about. Considering the horrors he’d already seen in the short time he’d been there it was unimaginable what the man must’ve seen over weeks.
“As I’ve said,” muttered Atim, “devise a plan and take the glory.”
John was about to speak when he suddenly lost all energy. One moment he was wide awake, paranoid, and buzzing with questions and the next it took everything he had to keep his eyes open.
In moments he was falling into the water, unconscious before he felt the splash against his face.
Author’s Note:
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