Shifters

Chapter 2

The light almost blinded him, he was so used to the pitch black night it startled him for a moment before his eyes adjusted. The smell was so strong it hit him with a force that felt like it should have pushed him back against the wall. 

He looked down the hatch and saw no movement.  Heading down through the hole in the floor he followed the greenish hue which the signal smell gave off only he could see and smell.

The hallways were lined with large grey rocks that were crumbling and breaking apart. Several large chunks lay scattered on the floor.  The walls also were leaking some kind of foul smelling water.  But water seemed like the wrong word for it.  Whatever it was seemed to ooze out from between the broken sections along the wall.

The dull lights overhead cast sinister looking shadows onto the walls and floors. The passageway could easily fit two men walking down it.

“Looks like these old tunnels were built a long time ago”, he thought.

But he wasn’t concerned with that now. Although the fluid did smell odd, he supposed it could be because of it being down here for so long. He jumped when he heard a faint CLICK behind him. The hatch had closed.

“Great, now I need to figure out how to get it back open,” he grumbled in his head.

 Reaching the end he peered around the corner to the left and to the right, no movement, no smells. He followed the green hue to the right and down the hall.  It looked almost like a horror scene:  big black bear sized wolf stalking down the hall of a dimly lit concrete hallway that was leaking odd, foul smelling water.  He would have chuckled if he wasn’t afraid it would echo and alert someone, or something. 

Reaching the end of the hall the greenish mist stopped at the door. He could smell them now, his men.  Smelled the blood, urine, and sweat.  Looking around the door he couldn’t see a way to open it. No latch, lock, keypad, nothing. Nothing he could pick, bash or break to open it. Focusing again he looked around the door itself and the area surrounding it. Hoping to see some small circle or hole like before, he found nothing.

“Shit now what?” Jared thought.

He didn’t know what to do other than to bash the door in, which he wasn’t sure he wanted to do since it would definitely alert whatever it was that he was here.  He snorted softly, thinking that was what he needed along with being locked in a smelly hallway.

Looking around again he saw a door to his left, this one was wooden, and just hanging on the hinges. One small push and it swung open. The room was dark and smelled musty.  A faint shaft of light pierced the room from a small window with old wood covering it. Mold was crawling on the walls and he realized that it was warm down here. Warm and wet.  The smell made him want to stick his nose out in the snow but he blocked it out and scanned the room. His eyes widening he noticed another door to the right of where he was standing which looked like it might be adjacent to the room he was trying to get into.

“Way too easy,” Jared thought.

He backed up into the hallway again and tried to listen. Concentrating in an almost meditative state he focused all his senses on hearing. He heard a moan from his right, the room where he thought his team was. He heard something else as well, something else somewhere in this maze of halls. He couldn’t quite make it out. It sort of sounded like rushing air but it wasn’t rushing it was in one place, not moving.  Like a vampire. Not that the real vampires were anything like what the movies and books made them out to be.

  He heard the moan again from the room next to him. If they were vampires they had learned to hide their scent. And had hid it well.  But other things did not add up either. That rushing air sound was when they were moving, but this, this was motionless. He could sense it. It sounded like moving, rushing air but …it wasn’t.