𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧 :
i hate rats
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WHEN SHE AWOKE, Leon was gone. It had taken them a while to fall asleep even though they weren't speaking, they still say in quiet, just enjoying each other's presence.
Rae climbed out of the stiff bed, checking her clothes and getting ready for the day. Then she was off, walking down the hallway. She had a suspicion where Leon would be.
Rae made it to the small room, the only room they had been outside of their bedroom and found Jason and Leon staring at each other, a tense air between them. Rae watched as both men turned to her upon entrance and then back to each other.
"What are we talking about?" Rae asked, casually walking up to the men with her hands behind her back.
"Nightmares." Leon answered gruffly, staring forward at Jason as if to demand him to stay quiet. Rae figured they had spoken about something else before but if they weren't going to share, she wouldn't push it.
Rae whistled, focusing on Jason, "Boy, do I have one for you."
Leon huffed, turning to her, "Not the grandma story agai—"
"So," Rae leaned forward, going to tell the story despite his objection, "one night I had a nightmare, but it all started the day before when I woke up in my grandma's hou—"
Suddenly it felt like the boat hit something and they were all flung to their right, crashing into the tables. Rae gripped the harsh edge if the table, groaning as it carelessly pushed into her thigh. The boat shook around them for a moment before it calmed down.
"What the fuck was that?" Leon questioned as they all recovered and caught their balance.
"Let's go see!" Rae pushed herself off the table and rushed out the door.
"Rae, wait for me!" Leon followed her immediately, not wanting to separate if something bad was happening.
Then, they were all sprinting down the long metal corridors of the submarine. Quickly they made it to the command room, where a shocking sight met them.
The workers were all face down, on their working station. Leon ran up to one, "Hey. You all right?" Rae looked over his shoulder as Leon tilted the man's head back, only to reveal that his neck had been torn open.
"I mean...He doesn't look all right to me." Rae reeled back at the grotesque sight, scanning the other bodies in the room. They were all covered in blood of some kind.
"Shit." Leon cursed.
An alarm was going off in the room, the sound slowly driving Rae to insanity. However, Leon was the first to make his way to the door, pulling his pistol out of his holster as he did so. Jason rushed forward, grasping Leon's arm, "Hey. We're in a pressurized tube underwater. Remember?"
Leon nodded and instead pulled out his knife. Behind him, Rae did the same.
Jason motioned for the two to go down the hallway to their right, and they obliged, quietly stepping over one of the limp bodies while Jason made his way to the left. "Stay close." Leon whispered to Rae as they spotted another dead body lying in the hallway.
"I don't feel like you have to tell me to do that anymore, we both know its instinct." Rae retorted as Leon stopped in front of the body, crouching in front of it.
Rae checked behind them while Leon observed the body. Then he stood up and stepped over it, continuing to walk down the hallway carefully.
"I hate this job." Rae said quietly, "Have I ever told you that?"
"Only every mission." Leon sighed as they stopped beside the bathroom they had spotted Jason in the night before. He slowly creaked the door open and snuck a glance inside. There was no one there.
"I would just like to make it well known." Rae continued trying to lighten her mood, taking yet another glance behind them. Still nothing.
Down, down, down they went until they reached a dead end. At this point there were five dead bodies, all piled up. It didn't take a genius to realize something was wrong about the scene however, as one of the dead body's shirts was moving by his chest. The sound of flesh being eaten was heard loud and clear and unfortunately familiar.
Rae and Leon watched from a distance as the buttons on the shirt suddenly ripped open, a small bloody creature bursting out of it. It didn't take long for Rae to identify the creature as a rat, its fur soaked in blood.
"You gotta be shitting me." Leon complained, looking at the rabid animal with annoyed eyes.
"No fucking way." Rae gasped as Leon grabbed her wrist, pulling her the other way.
The rat let a war squeal and began to hop towards them. Leon pulled Rae behind him and waited for the rat. Once it got close enough, he kicked it.
It flew into the wall, but it didn't stop fighting. Instead, it jumped around and landed behind them, going into attack when Leon suddenly brought the fire extinguisher down upon it. The rat was crushed as Rae looked at Leon in confusion.
"When did you grab that?" Rae motioned to the fire extinguisher.
Leon nodded his head at the wall, "It was right there."
Rae raised her eyebrows, looking at the wall in bewilderment. She hadn't seen it there before, "Really?"
"Is this really what is important right now?" Leon asked, looking at his girl with an incredulous expression, "Not the demon rat?"
"I mean..." Rae started, "I would much rather focus upon the fire extinguisher than the demon rat."
"It's a bioweapon." Leon muttered, lifting the fire extinguisher to reveal the rat's squished figure.
Behind them they heard the same sound, flesh being eaten. They turned around and found another one of the shirts upon a body moving. They turned around and Leon stood up, standing beside Rae.
Then the lights began to flash a red hue, an emergency alarm blaring as a voice came over the PA system, "Code 13 has been activated. The submarine will self-destruct in five minutes. All crew, board the ASDS2 and evacuate." Behind them, multiple rats burst out of one corpse, then more rats came from other corpses. They were beginning to pile up. "Commencing countdown. Five minutes to self-destruct."
"Wish I had some cheese." Leon said as they began to back up.
"No time for one liners!" Rae grabbed his arm and began to sprint down the hall. She burst through the door to the next section of the hallway first, Leon following after releasing steam onto the rats and closing the door behind them.
They rushed through multiple rooms, shutting the doors behind them. Then they reached another corpse in the hallway, the chest already burst open. They froze for only a second, as a small figure fell from the ceiling in front of them. Slowly they looked up, spotting at least twenty rats upon the ceiling right above them.
"This just keeps getting better." Leon piped.
More rats began to fall from the ceiling as the PA system called out, "Three minutes, thirty seconds until self-destruct."
A rat ran along the wall beside them, almost having the chance to jump off at Leon when Rae caught it with her knife, stabbing the bioweapon into an electrical box. She left the weapon in the creature as sparks began to fly off of it.
Leon broke the glass box to his right that led to an emergency axe. He picked it out and began to hit a pipe that was beside them. Water began to spew out of it, covering the entire ground.
"Grab onto the ceiling!" Leon demanded as he aimed his axe forward. Rae grabbed onto a thick cable as Leon threw his weapon then quickly joined her.
Electricity began to fly around the water, zapping each and every rat to its death.
They hung there, and Rae couldn't help herself from saying, "I want to retire."
"You've been working seven years," Leon agreed with her despite the unfortunate truth, "that won't happen anytime soon sweetheart."
Rae let out a sigh, looking down at the water as the electricity began to stop, "Damn it."
"Okay," Leon said as the electricity stopped zapping through the water, "I think we're good."
"Then let's go before this thing blows up." Rae dropped into the water and when she didn't die, she tapped Leon. He dropped down and they both began to sprint.
They rushed into the room that the escape pod was in, Leon shutting and locking the door behind them. Rae looked at the room, finding that there were three workers, all of which were dead. Two had their throats slit while one still had a knife in his throat.
"Goddamn it." Leon said as he also saw what she was seeing.
The PA system called out, "Sixty seconds until self-destruct."
The PA system began to count down as Leon nudged her, then rushed up the stairs. He began to twist the lid leading to the escape pod. It opened after a few seconds of struggling, and Leon moved the lid to the side only for the pair to hear a gun cock.
They looked up and spotted Shen May staring down at them, a pistol pointed at their faces. A moment of brief silent passed by and Leon put his hand in front of Rae to silently tell her to not do anything. Feeling tense, Rae stayed still.
"We're not rats." Leon said, "You wanna get that out of our faces?"
Jason came to Shen May's side, lowering the gun, "You'll kill us all."
Leon looked between them, "Are we interrupting something here?"
"Not to be the bearer of bad news," Rae said, "but if we don't get out of here in forty seconds, we're all dead."
"Then come on." Jason waved them on board. Rae and Leon glanced at each other before giving the other a shrug. They would be fine.
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AUTHORS NOTE !
Rats ✨
Posted: May 24, 2023
Words: 1693
Edited: ✘︎