Lucius raised his head and stared into the distance with a suspicious gleam in his eyes. Ahead of him stretched nothing but a dark tunnel, its rough walls illuminated by clusters of blue crystals protruding from the stone.
The crystals gave off a faint blue glow that filled the passage with an eerie haze, making the deeper sections of the tunnel increasingly difficult to see.
Lucius had become accustomed to the constant sounds of the mining camp, especially the distant gunshots that usually accompanied an attack, but something about the silence behind them felt wrong.
"Is there something wrong?" Helen asked, noticing the sudden change in his expression.
Lucius narrowed his eyes at the question before lowering himself onto one knee and pressing his ear against the cold ground. He remained still for several seconds, listening carefully to the vibrations traveling through the stone. His expression gradually became more serious as he realized what he was not hearing.
"I don’t hear gunshots, I can only hear people scream and run. This is odd... What the hell are those damn soldiers doing?" Lucius muttered to himself.
Helen immediately paled as she glanced toward the direction of the tunnel entrance. Now that Lucius had pointed it out, she could hear it too.
The distant screaming was becoming clearer, and beneath it was the chaotic sound of people running through the tunnels. What made it frightening was the complete absence of the weapons normally used by the military to suppress mutant beasts.
There were no rifles firing, no explosions and no shouted commands from the soldiers. Whatever was happening outside, the military was either unable or unwilling to fight.
"What should we do?" Helen asked as she turned back toward Lucius.
He was already standing. Lucius walked toward her and stretched out his hand. Helen hesitated briefly before taking it, allowing him to pull her to her feet.
"Get dressed. We should go deeper into the tunnel." Lucius suggested.
Helen blinked in surprise and looked toward the dark path leading deeper into the mine. The blue haze became visibly thicker the farther the tunnel descended, almost forming a fog beneath the crystals. Every instinct in her body told her that going deeper into that environment was dangerous.
"Are you sure it’s a good idea? I mean, we may get Aether Sclerosis." Helen didn’t hide the hesitation in her voice.
Lucius was already putting on his sack clothes, refusing to waste time arguing. "And if we stay here, we will definitely get eaten alive.... Would you prefer that?"
Helen shuddered and immediately picked up her clothes. She had seen enough people disappear during mutant beast attacks to understand what would happen if the creatures reached the camp. There would be no time to negotiate, no opportunity to hide and certainly no guarantee that the soldiers would protect them.
"But this tunnel is located at the far rear of the camp. Are you sure the beasts are going to come all the way here?" Helen asked while hurriedly pulling on her clothes.
Lucius rolled his eyes.
’Bitch, shut up for a minute and just do as you are told. Goddamnit!’
Of course, Lucius kept the thought to himself. He had no intention of wasting precious seconds insulting the woman when they should already be moving.
"Better safe than sorry." Lucius forced a smile while picking up his pickaxe. He slung the weapon over his shoulder for support and waited patiently until Helen finished dressing.
"Alright, let’s go." Lucius nodded.
He immediately started walking deeper into the tunnel. The passage gradually sloped downward after several dozen steps, and the blue haze became thicker around them. Lucius continued without slowing down until he suddenly realized that Helen was no longer following him. He stopped and looked over his shoulder.
Helen remained several meters behind, staring reluctantly into the darkness ahead.
"Can’t we just wait and see? Aether Sclerosis is a death sentence. If we contract it, we will surely be killed by the military to stop it from spreading." Helen argued.
Lucius facepalmed, his fingers pressing against his forehead as he desperately resisted the urge to claw his own eyes out in frustration. "See, we don’t have time for these games... Let’s go!"
Helen shook her head firmly, refusing to move. "At least let’s check the entrance and see if there are mutant beasts there. Then we can decide whether to hide in the tunnel."
Lucius stared at her in disbelief.
’Why are all fat assed chicks stupid?’
Her reasoning was so ridiculous that for a moment he genuinely struggled to understand how she had arrived at it.
"Mutant beasts see and hear better than us. The moment we see or hear them, they have seen, heard and even perceived us. We shouldn’t even be having this discussion. If a beast is nearby, it will hear us." Lucius’ voice became increasingly cold as he tried to make her understand the danger.
"I’ll be quiet... I’m really good at sneaking around." Helen winked.
Lucius nearly spat out blood from anger. His grip tightened around the pickaxe as he stared at her. If her stupidity ended up attracting mutant beasts into the tunnel, she would not only get herself killed. She would put him in danger too.
’Do I kill her?’
Lucius’ eyes turned cold as he tightened his grip around the pickaxe.
’If these beasts come here, they will have a corpse to feed on... If they don’t, I can just pass her on as a victim of the tide.’
Before Lucius could make up his mind, Helen suddenly rushed over and kissed him on the cheek.
"Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon."
She giggled before turning around and walking toward the tunnel entrance.
Lucius’ expression hardened as his grip tightened. He slowly raised the pickaxe above his shoulder, preparing to bring it down without hesitation.
Then he felt it.
A cold shiver traveled down his spine as a low growl emerged from somewhere in the distance.
Lucius and Helen froze.
Both slowly turned toward the source of the sound, their eyes straining through the blue haze until three crimson eyes appeared within the darkness near the path leading toward the entrance.
Lucius’ heart sank.
’This bitch has killed us all. I should have killed her right away when she first started asking those stupid questions.’
Regret filled him immediately. Why had he entertained her stupidity in a life or death situation simply because she had a fat ass?
"Babe... babe... what should we do?" Helen staggered backward several steps, her voice trembling.
"We? You sounded so confident earlier, and now your stubbornness has attracted mutants to this cave..." Lucius’ voice was cold and detached.
Helen shuddered.
She turned around and her eyes caught the movement of the pickaxe above Lucius’ shoulder.
Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!
The weapon came down.
Helen collapsed onto the ground, clutching her mangled leg as blood spread across the stone beneath her. Tears immediately poured down her face as she screamed in agony, barely able to comprehend what Lucius had done.
Through her blurred vision, she could only see his figure turning away and running deeper into the tunnel.
"B... babe?" she muttered weakly.
Grrrrrr....
Her body went rigid. Slowly, she turned her head and three figures emerged from the blue haze.
They were mutant hyenas standing more than five feet tall on all fours, their spiky, bushy fur making their already massive bodies appear even larger. The edges of their mouths were pulled farther backward than normal, exposing protruding fangs and rows of razor sharp teeth. Their ribcages had mutated outward through their skin, forming a natural protective shell around their chests and bellies, while thick bones protruded from their joints like crude armor.
"L... Lucius... Help..." Helen stuttered, tears running uncontrollably down her face.
The beasts lowered their heads.
Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!
Helen’s screams tore through the tunnel but they were the least of Lucius’ concerns.
The deeper he went, the thicker the Aether haze became. The blue mist had become so dense that he could barely see several meters ahead. Every breath felt like inhaling burning needles, and his eyes watered so badly that his vision became increasingly blurred.
"Damnit... I always complained about how cheap and bad our protective gear is when working this deep in the mines, but Goddamnit, it’s much worse without the gear... But I can’t stop moving right now or those monsters will catch up to me." Lucius mumbled, keeping one arm wrapped around his nose and mouth.
He continued running and minutes passed.
Helen’s screams eventually died away, but the distant grunts and snarls of the beasts remained behind him. Lucius refused to look back. He could hear their footsteps growing closer, but every attempt to move faster made his lungs burn more violently.
The blue haze eventually became so dense that it felt like a fog had filled his entire body. Every breath felt like thorns scraping against his pharynx, and his chest tightened as though invisible hands were squeezing his lungs.
Lucius finally stumbled.
Bang!
His pickaxe slipped from his hand and struck the ground as he leaned against the tunnel wall, his chest heaving violently.
"Shit... There’s nowhere to hide." Lucius glanced around desperately.
The tunnel remained frustratingly simple. There were no side passages, no collapsed sections and no large formations of rock that could conceal him. It was simply one long passage stretching deeper into the mine.
Lucius turned toward the direction he had come from, but the thick blue fog had already swallowed the tunnel behind him. He could barely see a few meters.
’Should I wait here?’ Lucius frowned.
Grrrrrr!
Barely three seconds later, a cold growl echoed through the tunnel.
Goosebumps spread across Lucius’ body.
"You’ve got to be kidding me... Don’t be greedy now, I already fed you." Lucius cursed under his breath.
He gritted his teeth, turned around and began running deeper into the tunnel.
The footsteps behind him grew louder so he ran faster. Yet the deeper he went, the harder it became to breathe. His chest tightened until every breath felt like a knife being driven directly into his heart. His legs grew heavier, his vision blurred completely and eventually he was running almost entirely on instinct, his eyes squeezed shut and one hand pressed tightly over his nose.
He had no idea how long he continued. Eventually, his feet stumbled out of the thick blue fog.
Lucius collapsed onto his knees.
He immediately ripped his hand away from his face and began greedily inhaling the relatively clean air, coughing violently as his lungs struggled to recover. He wiped his watery eyes and nose with the back of his hand.
When he pulled his hand away, his expression changed.
Blood.
His fingers were covered in it.
"I... I was sneezing and crying blood?" Lucius mumbled.
His voice had become hoarse and nearly inaudible. He slowly raised his head and his bloodshot eyes widened.
A massive structure dominated the space before him.
It was enormous, so large that Lucius immediately felt like an insignificant insect standing beneath it. The entire structure appeared to be a colossal meteor embedded deep within the hill, its surface covered in thick clusters of glowing blue crystals that protruded from the rock in every direction.
"This is... This is the entire meteor embedded inside the hill..." Lucius mumbled in disbelief.
The sight was breathtaking.
For the first time since entering the mine, Lucius completely forgot about the mutant beasts behind him.
Thud!
The sound immediately snapped him back to reality.
Lucius turned around. His eyes widened as the mutant hyenas charged through the fog toward him.
He immediately reached toward his side for his pickaxe but found nothing.
His hand searched again and then he remembered he had dropped it.
"Shit... Shit... Shit!" Lucius screamed as he turned toward the approaching beasts.
With the last strength he could muster, he struggled to stand upright and raised his fists, bracing himself for the inevitable attack.
But the mutant hyenas suddenly stopped. They remained several meters away, partially hidden inside the blue fog.
Lucius stared at them in confusion.
Their crimson eyes were visible through the haze, but they were not looking at him. They were staring at something behind him.
The beasts suddenly whimpered and took one stepped backward, then another.
Lucius slowly felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.
"Yeah... Yeah... You better fucking run or I’ll fuck you all up..." Lucius growled in his hoarse voice, trying desperately to sound intimidating despite barely being able to stand.
The beasts ignored him.
An eerie, inhuman voice suddenly echoed from behind him.
"MT5... NOT EVOLVED BUT CLOSE... RUTHLESS IN NATURE WITH A STRONG DESIRE TO LIVE AND A WILL TO FIGHT... NOT OPTIMAL, BUT SATISFACTORY. VERY WELL, I’LL MAKE YOU MINE."
Lucius’ blood ran cold.
The voice had spoken English but it was clearly not human.
Before he could turn around, several enormous purple tendrils, each nearly twenty inches thick, violently shot out from the meteor behind him. They moved with terrifying speed, tearing through the air as they passed Lucius.
The mutant hyenas attempted to flee. Their bodies barely moved before the tendrils struck and their painful cries echoed through the cavern.
Lucius stared in horror.
"What the fuck?" He slowly turned around.
Bam!
His pupils dilated as another thick purple tendril had emerged from the meteor.
Lucius looked down. The tendril had pierced directly through his chest.
Blood trickled from the corners of his lips as his body trembled. His hands slowly reached toward the foreign appendage, but his strength was already leaving him.
His vision began fading.
"SLEEP TIGHT, HUMAN. BY THE TIME YOU WAKE, YOU WILL BECOME A MAN MANY WILL ENVY AND VERY FEW CAN CHALLENGE."
A low, eerie chuckle filled Lucius’ ears.
His knees buckled.
The last thing he saw was the enormous meteor looming above him, its countless blue crystals glowing through the darkness as his consciousness finally disappeared.