Project: Socialize (Chapters 198-Continued) [Hiatus]

222. "Thing"

Everyone paused in their movements, freezing themselves so that no part of their body moved. We held our breaths and kept our eyes open wide in anticipation of whatever danger there might be in store for us. Despite the cold temperature, I was sweating somewhat, maybe from the fact that the flow of my blood had increased due to my palpitating heart that seem to block out all the noise in the world.

I tried to focus and ignore the sound of my heartbeat so that I can listen in on only the environment. Like Irina had notified us, there was a sound: footsteps. Since we were all stopped, those footsteps do not belong to us. It belonged to someone else, and it is rapidly approaching us from the direction we had came from.

"Go!" I whispered to the others as I gestured for us all to proceed ahead at full speed. Idly standing around here wouldn't do us any good. That "thing" is coming in our direction so it is only time before we are caught. It's much better for us to bet on us outrunning that "thing".

After hearing my voice, the others showed no signs of hesitation. Immediately and in sync, we all started running down the hallway, ignoring the loud sounds our footsteps made as well as the creaking of the wooden floor. I looked over my shoulders and into the darkness just behind Zaksus, who was running at a slower pace than he could manage to maintain his position at the very tail end of the group. In that darkness, I could see nothing. However, I could hear the sound of footsteps. It appears as if that "thing" is also running after us now.

"In here!"

I turned my head to face in front of me just in time for me to see Noah and Loyd opening a random door and ushering us into it. I slowed down just enough to make a sharp turn right and into the room, and just after Zaksus entered, Noah slipped into the room and Loyd closed the door softly behind us so that the "thing" would not know which one we had entered.

Hiding here was an act of desperation. We really never thought out anything about hiding here. For all we know, the "thing" saw us dash into here and is closing in on the door right now. Looking around the dark room, there does not seem to be another exit with the only thing resembling an exit being the row of broken glass windows that looked into the hallway, which is another hazard as it might give away our location. In fact, there does not even appear to be anything we could use to defend ourselves with as underneath the dim light bulb overhead, the only thing I could see was a desk in this office-looking room.

"Hide!" I mouthed to everyone, and that is exactly what we did.

Since Loyd, Noah, Zaksus, and I were the last to enter the room, we were nearest to the door. The room was already small in size, let alone the fact that we must avoid any part of our body being in the circular area just underneath the light overhead, there really wasn't much space available for ten people to hide and there wasn't much time to think. My instincts told me to just get into cover. Anywhere is fine. So, I immediately slide into cover with my back pressed against the half wall by the door underneath the glass windows looking out into the hallway. My head was just underneath the glass, and since I am pressed against the wall, I shouldn't be that visible.

It would appear that Loyd and Noah had the same idea as me. They were pressed against the wall to my left while Zaksus was sitting with his back against the door that we had entered in. Since the girls were the first to enter, some of them hid behind the desk in the room while others took cover behind a nearby bookcase.

Our attempts at concealing ourselves wasn't the best, but it was all that we could manage with what little time we had in this desperate situation. All we can do now is to wait until the "thing" passed by in the hallway outside.

The "thing's" pace slowed down as he resorted to a walk. He, or she, seemed to be searching for us now. Slowly, the footsteps came closer and closer to where we were located. Based on that sound and the vibration of the floor, I could tell that the "thing" was getting closer and closer until finally, when I looked up, I could see the figure in the darkness from just over the half wall.

We all held our breaths and stayed still to maintain the dead silence that should belong to an empty room, hoping it will be enough to convince the "thing" to leave. However, contrary to our expectations, the "thing" paused just outside the room, standing by the windows as it looked around.

My eyes have adjusted to this new level of darkness with the light bulb shining down the center of the room, and soon I was able to see even more clearly the true figure of whatever it was that was chasing us. As expected, the "thing" was a human that was rather brutish in appearance. He appeared to be a man with an age ranging between thirty and fifty. It was rather hard to tell based on features I saw in the darkness. However, what I did see clearly was the large, muscular right arm of the savage-looking man. All in all, this man appeared...rather disproportionate. His head was rather small while his torso was huge, leading me to believe his legs are rather short. In addition, he also have a rather long and muscular arm. On his face, there was a blank look, a look that was so deprived of emotion that it was scary. It's almost as if I was staring at an unintelligent animal.

The man stood there for what seemed to be an eternity before he finally turned around. As he turned around, I caught a glimpse of the man's left arm. It...it was tiny, so tiny that it seemed to be that of a baby's. It seemed as if the man doesn't really have a left arm. There isn't even a stump of what resembled a normal arm. That baby's left arm seemed to be sewed on to the clean removal of the man's left arm from the torso. Is that arm...his? That arm appeared to be dried and rotten, but there's no way that it could last this long into the man's adulthood. Unless that arm was soaked in some sort of chemicals to prevent decomposing, then there is no way...

As the man turned and walked away, the sewed-on baby arm flapped about in the air in an uncontrollable fashion. Upon seeing this, I was suddenly reminded of a scene that I saw not too long ago. That night we had spent in the cave to escape the snow storm, I saw a figure walking away with something resembling a tail flapping around behind it. That tail...it was the sewed on arm. That..."creature" has been watching us the entire time.

Author's Note:

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