Next Up

Track 7

The leader glanced up at the ceiling of the cramped room, where the thunderous sounds of what resembled an elephant's stomping reverberated just a few feet above them.

His attention snapped to the door as it crumpled open, and the crimson creature seen earlier barged into the room.

With a single swipe, its claws dug through the bulletproof armor and ripped open the chest cavity of a mercenary. Its tail whipped at the handcuffed soldier, cleaving through his face and splattering the walls with blood as he collided with the glass and writhed on the floor.

The leader barely had enough time to aim his rifle as he sprayed the creature with bullets. The fleshy thuds of the bullets impacting its red skin had no effect as it reached out a muscled arm, wrapping its fingers around his face.

One of the mercenaries ran into the hallway through the hole where the door used to be. The sound of his leader's skull being crushed echoed through the concrete building. The creature's heavy galloping sprint soon overshadowed the sound of his footsteps.

Palmer sprinted down the stairs; his worst fears soon came true. He arrived, seeing the giant hole where the door used to be. Soon, the smell of blood and bodies hit him.

He covered his nose and entered the holding cell room.

"Melody!" He called out, wiping the blood from the thick glass.

"I'm here," a quiet voice sounded back. "What's happening?"

Palmer breathed a heavy sigh of relief, "Don't worry—an accident. You'll be safe; I promise that."

At this point, Palmer had been in the compound for many years. For better or worse, he had seen just about every nook and cranny of the place; he knew all the secret combinations, where the higher-ups liked to place the keys to vehicles...

He tapped a small button on the side of the wall; a small keypad emerged from the concrete. He typed the six-digit code and pressed the big blue button on the bottom. There was a loud grinding behind him as the thick glass slid up as if it were a garage door.

He ran into the cell, scooping Melody up in his arms, and ran out into the hallway, following it down until the concrete hall turned into a dirt tunnel leading to the outside.

The beast dragged the corpse of the mercenary back through the hallway into the room. Noticing that the room was empty of all life, it let out a howl of frustration, biting into the leg of one of the bodies.

After it had devoured everything in the room, it reared back; its eyes shot open. As it lifted itself off its front legs, it grunted as the room was filled with a cacophony of snaps as the creature's bones shifted inside.

It took a moment to steady itself, then another step into the cell. Once it reached Melody's bed, it was fully functional in its bipedal state. Sniffing the pillow, its mouth split open, finding the scent and following it down the hallway and into the dirt tunnel.

Leo, the wildlife researcher, paused, putting his ear to the ground. 'Yup, the rumbling is mostly gone,' he thought. "Hey," he said aloud to his two colleagues, "we don't have far. I think things are about to get a little interesting, though, so keep up."

"There it is," Yahd said, nudging Kalimba and nodding into the distance. "That light and silhouette up there. That's it."

"Ooh," Asher said, leaning between the seats to get a better look. "Doesn't look too bad," he said optimistically.