— LUNA HELEN

  I was starting to panic when Carla suggested we return to the command room and see if we could fix the security locks. We hurried back as fast as we could. The problem was that we had no idea what we were even looking for; the system was completely scrambled, and most of it had already been shut down.

  We managed to power up the panel, and Mr. Lucius’s drone feed was still transmitting. The sight was horrifying: dozens—no, hundreds—of creatures piled on top of what remained of the giant’s corpse. They devoured it in a frenzy; the smaller ones were crushed and torn apart by the larger ones in a grotesque carnival of cannibalism.

  My stomach twisted at the sight.

  But at least it bought us time, as long as their focus remained on each other.

  We kept searching when I felt a hand on my shoulder, followed by a dry cough. I turned quickly. Mr. Lucius had awakened. His eyes were turning red again, and the crimson veins were spreading across his skin once more. He coughed with every word he tried to speak, as if his throat might close at any moment.

  “You need to get out of here… cough… cough…”

  He was somehow still showing clear signs of awareness.

  “Lucius, help us. The system is locked. They initiated the lockdown too early.”

  Carla was so desperate that she ignored his condition, clinging to any hope that he might still be able to help.

  “I can’t… there’s nothing I can do. The system would have to reboot, and that would leave us vulnerable… and it wouldn’t come back online in time… ahrr…”

  So there was nothing we could do. Mr. Lucius was growing stranger by the second. The tremors in his body intensified, and he groaned in pain. Even trying to conceal it, he couldn’t hide it.

  “Maybe there’s a way… no… no… it’s madness… they’re going to die… no… they’re going to die anyway. We’re all going to die… die…”

  I had no idea what he was talking about. His condition worried me more and more.

  “What do you mean? What are you talking about? A way… what way?”

  Carla grabbed his shoulders and shook him, desperate for any chance at all.

  “There.”

  He pointed to a door and redirected the drone, revealing another exit outside that led to the external area of Sector 1.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s an exit. It’s independent from the central system. It’s the only elevator still functioning.”

  “But it leads outside. The monsters are out there. What’s the difference between dying here or out there?”

  I couldn’t understand what he wanted us to do. Maybe madness had already taken him.

  He changed the feed again, and I saw the Acrox armored transport. It was a far more advanced version than the one that had brought me here, though smaller.

  “Don’t tell me you want us to—”

  “GO! I don’t know how much time I have left!”

  “But—”

  “Let’s go,” Carla said firmly.

  I saw Carlos and Erick exchange glances. Carlos stepped toward his sister.

  “Carla, are you sure about this?”

  “Would you rather wait for them to break in or try? All the power has been redirected to Sector 3. We’ve been reinforcing it for months. This place is defenseless; the doors won’t hold. Not against that many creatures. And even if they did, how long do you think we’d last without water and with the food rotting? Four weeks is impossible, Carlos.”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “I don’t see how this could work… even if we escape, where would we go?”

  “Here.”

  Mr. Lucius handed me a device.

  “It contains the approximate direction of a place that might be safe. From what we discovered, they possess an object that repels the creatures. I don’t know the details—it was only a brief transmission. Now go, please… I can’t endure this any longer.”

  As he spoke, he tore a clump of hair from his own head. His eyes were now almost completely red, and the veins beneath his skin writhed violently.

  “Let’s go, Luna.”

  Erick pulled me by the arm toward the door while Carla did the same with her brother. Mr. Lucius remained behind. I caught one last glimpse of him smiling as he spoke his final words before the elevator doors closed.

  “We’ll meet on the other side, my friend. I’m sorry.”

  When the doors shut and the elevator began to rise, we had little time to think. No one spoke. Soon we would reach Sector 1, and we would have to move quickly. If any of those things saw us, we were finished.

  After a few minutes, the elevator brought us directly to the door shown in the transmission. It stood about a hundred meters from the creatures. When it opened, the smell of rotting flesh, metal, and smoke flooded the cabin. My stomach lurched; bile rose in my throat. I hadn’t eaten all day, and it was already around 4 p.m., so there was nothing left to vomit.

  I realized everyone else was feeling the same. Something about that place wasn’t normal. Maybe the haze in the air was causing the effect, beyond the stench. We needed to get out of there as quickly as possible.

  The vehicle was about twenty-five meters away, in the opposite direction from the creatures. We made our way through the rubble until we were close.

  Carlos stepped forward, but Erick stopped him.

  “Shit… there’s something there.”

  He whispered. There really was something moving behind the vehicle. Something long—about two meters.

  We needed to distract whatever it was so we could board.

  “There. Throw rocks at the same time, at that spot.”

  “One… two… three. Now.”

  We all threw at once. The shadow moved from behind the vehicle toward the sound. We began circling from the opposite side, and when we saw its shape, the horror revealed itself.

  It was a mass of bodies lined up, distorted and fused together in an unnatural way. Completely wrong. As if several people were moving at once, inside out, forming something like a grotesque caterpillar. Deformed heads protruded from its sides, arms and legs flailing in chaotic motion. Its movement seemed driven by a desperate urge to separate, as if each body wanted to tear itself free from the others… and so it advanced, releasing moans of pain and agony.

  If we hadn’t already witnessed so many unnatural horrors, that alone would have shattered us. But no matter what kind of hell we had to cross, we couldn’t lose control.

  Not there. Not now.