Benjamin Wray: Acid Reign: Genesis

They came to the iron gate. Alvarez checked for trip wires or traps and signaled to the rest of the team that it was clear. As they moved forward, a faint light came from a hole in the wall near the end of the hallway. Alvarez pointed to it and signaled for direction from the captain, who reached in his pocket and pulled out a small drone with Skynut painted on the side. He entered a sequence into the monitor on his wrist, and the drone unfolded. After he gently tossed it up, the drone fell a couple of inches then stabilized as the propellers gripped the air. He pointed at the small drone, then pointed down the hall. Immediately, the drone turned and made its way to the open section at the end of the hall.

The captain looked down at a small monitor and saw shadows overlapping and mixing with each other.

“Gotta be some kind of hideout for the renegades. Must be dozens,” the captain whispered in the coms. “I’ll take lead now, Alvarez.”

The captain moved forward, rifle ready, and walked out onto the concrete walkway. He crouched, and then motioned for his team to follow. They moved through the doorway, slowly approaching the hole in the wall. The Captain motioned to hold as he moved right next to the drone. He pointed at it then pointed to the hole.

The drone flew through the opening and stopped at the end of a tunnel that led to a huge underground cavern. Hundreds of yellow lights embedded in the walls illuminated a vast underground community. Fringers dotted every landing, every nook, and every path. There were hundreds of them. The Skynut drone tried to focus, but light was too low for a detailed view.

“Too many to take on,” the captain whispered into the coms. “We need to head back. We know the location now.”

The captain looked down at his monitor and saw half of a mutated face staring blankly at the drone. “Quietly, back to the transport NOW,” he said louder this time, motioning repeatedly for the soldiers to go.

“What’s going on Cap?” Gray asked quietly.

“Just move,” he replied.

“Move, move, move,” the captain whispered.

“Fringers,” Alvarez said clearly for everyone to hear.

Just as the team turned around and headed back, the door slammed shut making a monstrous sound that shook the walls.

“What the hell, rookie!” Gray said, before noticing that Allen was nowhere near the door. Realizing that it hadn’t been any of them, they all flashed a light at the doorway and saw the newly added lockbox and the dim silhouette of a soaking wet Gus and Ripp rushing up the stairs.

“Get that door open,” the captain barked, as he turned around. He saw a group of shadows running right at them.

The muzzle flash of the captain’s rifle illuminated the broken hallway, showing the horrible state of the feral humans. Their faces were patchworks of sores and bruises. Their eyes were bright yellow and seemed larger than they should have been. Some open wounds and sores oozed with infection. Their tattered clothing seemed irrelevant.

The soldiers’ gunfire echoed and shook the hallway. One Fringer fell, then another, and then another as Alvarez and Gray joined the captain in firing on the group.

“How’s that lock coming?” the captain yelled.

“We don’t have cutting tools,” Allen replied.

“Shoot it!”

Allen leaned at an angle to avoid a direct ricochet. His pistol fired but didn’t make a scratch.

“Bulletproof.”

“Keep trying!”

“More!” Alvarez screamed.

The growing Fringer group barreling through the opening now blacked out the light from the broken hallway. The muzzle flashes strobed through the pitch-black corridor, making it look like an old movie.

“Changing.”

The Fringer group was thinning, but there seemed to be more shadows spilling out of the opening in the wall. The captain pulled his grenade off his vest, activated it and tossed it as close to the opening as he could. Gray and Alvarez continued to mow down the Fringers until the explosion.

Boom!

Debris, blood and Fringer parts flew in every direction. Other than a couple of disoriented Fringers that made easy targets, the horde was down.

His team shot the remaining stragglers. He had hoped that the blast would have closed off the opening to the tunnel, but it hadn’t.

“You guys good?”

A collective “good”, sounded muffled and inhuman, but was reassuring.

Gray tossed his rifle to Allen, who immediately began hammering the box with the butt of the gun. The box loosened a bit, but held firm. He used the barrel of the gun as a lever to try to free it, but it wasn’t coming off.

Air rushed down the corridor. The floors and walls shook as a rumble grew to a roar. The light in the hallway went dark.

“More!”

The bullets hit their marks, but the group was much bigger this time and no matter how many they shot, the horde was still coming.

“How’s that door coming?” Alvarez asked this time.

“Not coming,” Allen replied.

Gray quickly drew his pistol as his last magazine emptied. The captain was out of his last magazine and resorted to his pistol as well.

Alvarez stopped shooting. He looked back at Allen who was still hammering away at the lockbox, and felt bad for the kid. This wasn’t the way to go. He unhooked his grenade, pulled the pin, and ran into the horde.

“NO!” the captain yelled.

Alvarez dove into the shadows. The explosion was too close. A flying Fringer body hit the captain, and pinned him to the floor. Allen was thrown hard against the door knocking him unconscious.

Gray was in the front of the team and absorbed the main part of the blast. His armor was ripped from his arms and legs. One hand was missing. His helmet had been shattered, leaving shards of glass embedded into his face. It was a quick death for him.

Everything was dark. The gun lights and headlamps had all shattered. Allen could hear the rumble of Fringers making their way to the corridor. Moving was excruciating, as he felt around for his pistol. He couldn’t locate it. He felt his knife still in its sheath, but couldn’t seem to get a solid grip on the handle. His hands wouldn’t work.

He heard a grunt, followed by a scraping, then a splash, then another grunt, followed by another splash. Something was picking up the bodies and was tossing them into the water that ran alongside the walkway. He could only imagine what was able to do that with such ease. The splashes got closer and closer as his vision started to adjust to the darkness. He could make out a huge silhouette against the faint light coming from the broken wall at the end of the corridor. He looked up at the locking mechanism, reached up slowly and pushed against it.

His heart sank as he felt that the locking box was still very much attached. He looked back to the monstrous shadow relentlessly making its way through the mass of bodies. There was nowhere to run and his knife wouldn’t be enough to stop whatever it was that was coming, but he pulled it from its sheath anyway.

The shadow paused. Heavy breathing filled the corridor. Allen didn’t know if it belonged to him or the monstrous shadow coming towards him.

Allen’s head fell and hit the ground hard. The ringing started again and a bright empty light filled his eyes. He felt the cement below him begin to tear his gear as he was dragged toward the end of the corridor. Through his cracked helmet visor, he could make out a hunched mass of muscle charging with a sideways gate right to the lighted hole dragging him effortlessly like a weightless doll. He tried to reach the massive hand that was crushing his ankle, but he was immediately yanked forward, causing him to fall back hitting his head again.

A low rumble of chanting thundered in the air, as he was pulled closer to the hole. Something sharp cut through his gear and ripped into his side. His scream seemed to intensify the chanting.