Out of Space

Chapter 20: Dungeoneering

The tunnel appears to be part of the ruins, as the walls and ceiling feature the same stone designs as outside. Dangling roots and some kind of fungus lined the sides of the walls. Only the entrance appears to be dug out by someone or something. After several meters, the tunnel slopes downwards and into the side of a stone corridor.

James following the tracks and stops as they entered the corridor. He looks carefully on the stone floor and says, "This way," Pointing to the right. Bits of soil and moss on the stone floor shows the direction of where the attackers went. "Wait." James suddenly stops Karl. He pulls out a chem stick, lighting it, he jams it into the opening in the wall, pointing to the direction they are heading to. "For the reinforcements to know where we went." He adds for Karl's benefit.

Karl nods and starts fast walking with his weapon at the ready. They have tested their communication devices earlier and couldn't get any signals out.

As they went deeper, they noticed there were several side rooms with the doors, rotted or caved in, inside, they found them to be some kind of storeroom, with several unidentified objects with large rat-like creatures scurrying away from the bright beams of their lights. Some of the rooms were even filled with bones or rotting parts of all kinds, they quickly retreated out of the room as the stench of rot and decay was super bad in there.

The stone walkway finally splits into two ways, and James bend down low to examine the floor. "Shit, I am not sure where they went." He cursed. "The stone floor is too hard and dry to leave tracks behind."

"So what do we do now?" Karl asks as he licks his dry lips nervously. "Splitting up seems bad."

"Wait, turn off the lights," James said. With the lights turned off, darkness surrounds them. After a while, James excitedly said, "There! Found them!"

Confused, Karl looks around in the dark before understanding what James meant. As their eyes adjusted to the dark, the right side of the tunnel appears to be brighter than the other. It highly meant that whoever grabbed Kristine, they have to be using some kind of light to travel.

Turning on their flashlights again, James marked the wall with an arrow indicating which direction they went and they set off at a faster pace. After another 10 to 15 mins of walking and passing by more empty rooms, they saw that there appears to be some kind of lights ahead, both of them turned their lights off and clearly could see a flickering glow at the end of the corridor.

As they came closer, they peek out of the corridor to see the stone hallway expands out to a huge hall. From their vantage point, several crude torches hang on the sides of pillars that reached up to the hold the ceiling where what looks like chandeliers hung limply. Sounds of voices and growls reach their ears and they saw several children like creatures, mingling around a huge black pot set in the middle of the hall. Pieces of furniture littered the walls and several sleeping cots could be seen.

"What are they?" Karl whispers. "Natives?"

"Yea, I think we found the natives. You see Kristine?" James ask.

"No, I don't see her." Karls peers around. "Wait... She's in the pot!" Horrified, Karl blurts out loud.

Instantly the hall turns quiet, all the denizens inside turns and look at the two of them.

"Oh shit, sorry." Karl apologizes. "Ah fuck." The childlike creatures shriek and scramble to grab what appears to be knives or swords, as the blades reflected the light from the flaming torches.

"FIRE!" James screams as the creatures closed in. From close up, the size of the creatures appears to be similar to a 10-year-old child. But the long ears with the wrinkly face, bulbous nose, red bleaty eyes, fanged mouths and bald heads seems to be from some fantasy nightmare. They shriek and yelp like hyenas, pushing and shoving their naked bodies at each other in their mad quest to get to James and Karl.

The bark of the M7A1 and the boom of the shotgun drowned out their eager screams and cries of pain. James now understands why the techie says green monsters, as his 1,000 lumens tactical flashlight on his M7 light up the creatures in front of him. The bright glare of his light half blinds the creatures making them flinch away. Their skin is colored in a greenish grey hue, most of them are naked displaying their deformed genitals, while others wore simple loincloths, rags or even animal hides.

The forward wave of the green creatures screams in terror and pain as the bullets rips into them, they turned and shoves against the mass of green that is trying to get to the 2 humans. They couldn't understand what powerful sorcery they have, that throws thunder and fire at them. They try to run away but were blocked by the crowd pushing from behind, getting countless stepped on and crushed to death.

"RELOADING!" Karl screams in the cacophony of gunfire and shrieks, his hearing deafen by the firing in the enclosed area. James steps up to cover him as he sprays his M7 without even bothering to aim. The AP rounds torn through several bodies like paper in the tightly packed space. The flood of green skins soon starts to falter as the panic from the front spreads to the rear. Suddenly, like floodgates breaking, the host of green skins disperses and disappears into several other exits in the hall leaving behind a carpet of dead and dying.

The smell of voided stomachs, blood and cordite linger in the hall. Holding back his urge to gag and vomit, Karl steps over a body of a green skin. "What the hell are these things?" He turns to see Cpl James, dodging a dying green skin's dagger, who then shot it in the head with his pistol.

"I have no idea," James said as he holsters his pistol. "How is she?"

Karl reaches over the huge black pot and looks in. "Eh, she's naked and soaked in a bunch of other things." Karl gave a grimace. "I gonna tip the pot over." He braces his back against the almost 2 m tall cauldron and shoves it off the crude stone support. "Lucky they didn't light the fire yet." He notices the firewood stacked underneath the pot.

James joins Karl at the tipped pot and helps drag Kristine out. Apparently, the green skins have cut the clothes off from her body, as several long cuts could be seen on her body. She appears to be knocked out judging from the bleeding bruise on her forehead, other than that, she is still breathing.

"Better find something to cover her up," James said before realizing there is nothing around and Karl's uniform is a jumpsuit. He sighs and starts removing his armor and harness before removing his marine BDU to cover her up.

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