36. Strider: Misdirection

Trying to find the other groups back tracking along the halls brought about a slight panic. Checking the chamber of my rifle to be sure it was loaded I brought it to my shoulder ready for any contact. I followed the exact path we walked before. I should’ve seen them within seconds of marching back to report. It'd been minutes. Hearing something charging down the hallway I turned waiting for whatever was coming to breach the corner. With a being flying past the corner I pulled the gun away as the individual slid to the side.

“Jesus friendly! Are you wounded?”

Staring at Bishop breathing a long sigh of relief it was only him in these halls.

“I’m fine… Why’d you come sprinting over?”

“I heard you scream like a bitch, the fuck was that about?”

“I’ve just been moving towards Sparrows team. Haven’t made a sound, go cover Flux.”

“He’s with me.”

“No, no he’s not.”

Looking back Bishop realised that Flux had not followed him after hearing the supposed scream. Our faces stricken with concern either for Bishop’s sanity or Flux’s safety we proceeded back towards his position at jogging pace. Following the exact path back to the offices we found ourselves in a different room with only Bishop’s confusion breaking the silence.

“This was definitely the way.”

“It was. Something's wrong here…”

Cautiously scanning the room and clearing it we took a moment to confirm our bearings and both came to the conclusion a mistake couldn’t have been made. We continued to proceed down the corridors scanning rooms for any sign of Flux but he disappeared without a trace. Bishop began murmuring to himself as our flashlights rolled over the poorly lit walls of the facility.

“Where do you think he went…” Maintaining my composure over the stress of the situation I informed Bishop of his state the day prior inspiring haste.

“He’s chasing the voices, surely. We shouldn’t have brought him down here. We have to find him. Quickly.”

Moving forward as quickly as we could while maintaining a reactionary posture with our weapons we began throwing open every door of every room. Exploring the depths of every lab or office avoiding tears unknown to even the most veteran pioneers and remnants of unidentifiable atrocities. The most concerning fact though was that there weren’t any bodies. This place should be littered with the fallen of those who worked in this place but it sat undisturbed by our presence.

An aura of life could be seen over the walls. Some form of disturbance as if creatures had brushed against them over the years this place sat undisturbed. We weren’t the only ones in this complex but the first to enter it in decades. There was no telling what this darkness held. All we knew was that for right now it didn’t seem to be alerted to our presence.

Coming to a large dome like atrium with collapsed rubble filling the room as substantial cover I heard a soul piercing scream so dreadfully familiar. Diving into cover alongside Bishop the same withered creature from the forest that almost saw the end of us in our first days stumbled into the room.

With burnt flesh held together by a metallic exoskeleton frame haphazardly welded to it’s original disintegrating bone it began to shierk once more. Firing into the creature it immediately began upchucking balls of energised bloodied flesh before collapsing as the rounds ripped through it’s frail frame. Protected by the headbands we wore the creature went down without issue as Bishop chuckled.

“Heh, without your psionic crap you aren’t shit are you.”

Just as we prepared to move on the balls of still dripping flesh rose from the ground to float in a wedge formation of five followed by a bolt of unidentifiable energy striking just past my head. Barely managing to duck away in time the second crackled by my side.

Taking off towards some large chunks of reinforced concrete that had fallen from the roof the bolts began firing wildly around me getting more and more accurate the more I ran. Diving into cover again a bolt struck where I would’ve been if not for the rubble blocking the shot. Bishop began to take shots at the targets ripping through the center of them resulting in their entire form being distorting for a moment as it stabilized itself with a dissatisfied shriek taking a more more fluid form.

Firing more bolts at Bishop I took my chance to let a few rounds off into the balls of flesh attempting to pull it off Bishop’s position only to be met with a hail of reinforced concrete thrown at me. Desperately diving again the boulders of concrete shattered and crushed my previous cover showering me in pebbles. Dazed on the ground beside the destruction refocusing my eyes I noticed the balls a few meters away from me hovering in place generating another bolt of energy.

I wouldn’t get my gun in time. This looked as if to be the end. Dying because we all had the idiotic idea to come to the zone for a new life. Staring motionless at the atrocity it hovered away to take bolts of fire at Bishop again as he moved quickly taking what opportunities he had in his rapid movement to get shots off gaining its attention. The weight of fire was beginning to heavily distort the atrocities form.

It left me on the ground while I sat still and that sparked the light of hope to formulate a plan. We had a way to kill this thing, conventional ballistics didn’t seem to do any lasting damage. Seeing it’s disrupted form stabilize itself again the only chance we had was to get in one big hit. Grabbing my rifle I called out to Bishop.

“Stay in cover! Launch a grenade when you’ve got the chance!”

Over the distance of the dome cavern I made out his face of pure shock as I charged out from my position and in between the boulders of rubble. Juking left and right through cover the bolts of energy fell all around me as they locked in my position following my erratic movements. With the orbs of flesh preparing a focussed bolt of energy I heard a life saving thunk driving me to dive down. With a tremendous crash bolts of energy shot out scouring the entire room.

As the last of the loose rubble settled I looked up to see the burnt remains of the room and Bishops amazed expression proud of his marksmanship with the launcher. The flesh of the atrocity had been blown over everything that wasn’t behind solid cover. With a thumbs up we took a moment to collect ourselves and pressed on while Bishop was still bewildered we managed to kill the atrocity.

“Still alive. I thought that son of a bitch had us when bullets weren’t doing a damn thing.”

Moving forward we entered a door which led into a control room with an observation window overlooking a large silo with a massive pillar in the center with the ground at least fifteen meters below us. Looking across we noticed a similar room across from us at to our right and another to the left with its observation window shattered.

Suddenly a terminal in the room lit up and text began to rapidly fill the screen. With Bishop transfixed by the pillar in the room in front of us I went to the terminal unfazed by finding the heart of the zone. Looking at the screen I realized that something was attempting to communicate with us.

{Type to respond}

{Type to respond}

{Type to respond}

The same text kept filling the screen until I tapped the keyboard a few times generating some random input followed by more text different to the last while Bishop secured the door.

{Is this Flux?}

The operator knew Flux somehow. Seeing no reason to lie I confirmed otherwise and questioned who the operator was.

{This is Frenchenko Milatz, supervisor of laboratory E forty two. Are you an associate of Flux?}

Seeing his name on the screen inspired trust. The last name Noah spluttered out before his untimely end. With a quick confirmation the text continued.

{This report is of absolute importance, take a copy from the device being ejected while information is put on screen. Flux must survive and be contained: Twenty ninth March nineteen eighty six. While experiment Entity is to be terminated further research is going towards creating a human interface to focus psionic emissions through itself rather than attempt to store it in order to manipulate the energy at an operator's discretion.}

{The interface is theoretically possible though two stabilized psionic energy packages in a body are required providing a psionic solenoid directing the energy through the body faster than it can build up in the individual preventing excess energy in psionic sensitive organs and displacing an individual's sentience.}

{However this would require an organism to be occupied by two psionic energy packages which would overload or drive an individual insane in most circumstances due to the conflict with their sense of reality. While deemed possible to achieve it would require enormous investment due to the stabilization requirements as well as heavy augmentation to the body to effectively use the energy as a weapon at background levels. Prototypes however have shown overwhelming success and are attached to this report.}

{Edit: twenty sixth April nineteen eighty six. Entity has breached containment as reactor four of CNPP exploded. Shockwaves compromised the chamber allowing for the creatures escape. Security cameras show that the laboratory has been reduced to bedlam and madness. Some have sworn their allegiance forming a cult known as collective swearing to give their sentience to feed Entity in order to serve a greater purpose or simply survive.}

{Only one scientist is believed to have escaped. His current status is unknown though cameras detected him using the train elevator to escape before leaving detection range. I myself have managed to use the prototype servers from experiment Pi to transfer consciousness. I will continue research efforts in either an attempt to maintain my sanity or provide a means for combating Entity should this information be found.}

{Twenty first September twenty twelve. The esoteric amplifier, the first psionic manipulation device ever created has been perfected and readied for manufacture. Through piggybacking on Entity's psionic intrusions subject Flux has been found and sub consciously indoctrinated to find the facility. Under the background influence of Entity these two psionic packets within the vessel known as Flux have been able to coincide with some meaning and understanding of reality. Flux stands as an optimal subject for esoteric augmentation.}

With the text no longer flooding the screen I asked if he knew where Flux was now. The screen lit up with a status reporting all the cameras in the facility were down. Agitated I let out a breath before continuing typing asking where we could find we find Frenchko or the server he resided in to recover him before the screen flooded with text again.

{This would not be possible even if you were able to reach the machine I reside in. If you arrived with others they will find their way to the focus chamber you see in front of you. It is suggested you wait here for their arrival. Be aware it may take up to a day with the facilities security. Do not leave this room in search for them. You will only be misdirected.}

After that the screen went blank. With a sigh we barricaded the door and set up a small camp overwatching the chamber from the observation window. The small campfire did little to overpower the emergency lighting in the room that glowed with a dim light threatening to go out at any moment. All we could do now was hope it seemed. That hope dwindled as the facility seemed to come to life with a earthly groan.