Subject-59

ch 34- The end is only the beginning

‘it's not my fault– it's not my fault– it's not my fault!’ I repeated to myself quietly while taking a moment to recover. 

pushing myself up I quickly and quietly escaped from the area and headed for the elevators, as guilt twisted in my stomach. After getting a short distance away I ended up emptying out my stomach much to my own displeasure. 

‘Jade was always cruel, but did she really deserve such a brutal death!? I don't know anymore…’ I knew this would happen, I knew people would die– but seeing it happen right in front of me? seeing the death and destruction I caused… I'm having a harder time coping than I thought I would.

After taking a few minutes to calm down I continued pushing forward, the further I went, the worse I felt, and the guiltier my consciousness became.

‘so many lives…so much death and destruction. I just want to find 32 and 59 and get out of this place, I just want to leave it all behind and forget about everything!’

Eventually, I came to the end of the hallway and saw the elevator doors attempting to close but some kind of dark mass on the ground was blocking them from closing. They opened and tried to close repeatedly as I tried my best to navigate forward in the dimly lit hall.

As I stepped closer I could make out the mass lying in the doorway of the elevator was the upper half of a soldier's body, his lower half was obscured by the darkness of the elevator as he just lay there unmoving.

I stopped in my tracks feeling the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as I covered my mouth and turned my head away. ‘I can't do it. I can't keep going like this–’ 

A vine-like tendril snaked out of the darkness and coiled around the corpse, dragging it Inside out of sight. I heard a sickening squelch and slowly looked back to the elevator as the doors opened up completely due to something moving inside.

 vines started creeping through the doorway spreading out from the elevator and slithering along the walls and floor. As they came towards me like snakes seeking out prey I backed away only for my heel to catch on something making me shriek and fall back.

When my hand came in contact with something wet I lifted it up to see dark red all across my arm and palm. Refocusing my eyes I found that the thing that I had fallen on was another body.

As something coiled around my leg, I returned my attention to what was before me and could see the vines were now right on top of me, with one gripping my ankle in a tight squeeze. 

Feeling panic take over I kicked at the vine helplessly, making it tighten its grip as more closed in.

A dozen of the plant-like tendrils coiled around the body beside me, dragging it towards the elevator and another gripped onto my wrist before I felt myself being pulled along as well. 

“No no! Stop!” I struggled to pull free and thrashed around desperately trying to break free as I was pulled towards the dark elevator shaft. my struggles seemed futile as more Vines wrapped around my body restraining me further, until I could hardly move my arms and legs anymore.

Squeezing my eyes shut I quietly begged for someone to help, for all of this to just stop.

an angry snarl from across the hall had me lifting my head to see a dark figure rush past me and dive straight Into the darkened elevator.

The vines coiled around me stopped as snarls, hissing and thuds could be heard from within the small space. As the vines around me loosened I managed to free one of my arms and tried to pull the rest off of my body so I could get free.