Were Inc Uncaged

by Marcus Breathnach

“good work Sargent, move out”

  he seemed to bounce back from the incident seemingly instantaneously?

  It made the team uneasy and very inquisitive, but they put it down to the advanced medical equipment the local gp had used.

  As they readied themselves to leave Lieutenant Storm’s eye was drawn to the shadow that disturbed the light under the room door, it seemed to be making its way further and further into the room! The shadow began to thicken and became firm as it lifted itself up and take solid shape

  “Captain!”

  she yelled taking aim at the living shadow

  “what the hell is that thing?”

  shouted Corporal Knightley.

  They watched in stunned silence as the darkness took the form of a tar like creature with sunken eye sockets, yet it had no eyes, a mouth with no teeth just multiple tentacle like tongues that flayed from its mouth, its hands were that of five different lengths of tentacles and its feet were joined together like that of a snail’s body allowing it to glide slowly across the floor. The shadow had become an horrific living nightmare that begun to creep towards them menacingly

  “open fire”

  ordered the Captain.

  The rattle of gunfire filled the tavern and the streets of the village around them, their stealth mission had well and truly been a failure at this point. The shadows body spurted out thick lines of black oil or tar like substance with the impact of each bullet, it seemed like the team’s weapons had little effect against the monstrosity. When it reached out what would be its fingers, then wrapped around Sargent Devonne like she was a gift while the others jumped out of its way avoiding its stranglehold. Sargent Devonne was pulled directly towards the creature and into its gaping mouth been engulfed by many egger tentacles, the creature lifted her off the ground by arching its body and stretching itself upwards towards the ceiling, slowly lowering her body into its mouth and lower yet into its body causing a sizzling sound. Her weapon fried wildly as it began to feed on her like she was a living snack. Lieutenant Storm and Corporal Knightley raced to grab her legs and try desperately to pull the Sargent out of the monster’s grasp, then there in the centre of the creature’s chest, Captain Quis Podex could see an opening, it appeared to be a heart of some kind, whatever it was it seemed to be pulsating

  “aim for the heart”

  he ordered.

  Corporal Knightley and Lieutenant Storm stood back by their Captain’s side; Lieutenant Storm respectfully picked up Sargent Devonne’s gun and joined with the group as they opened fire on the creature’s heart. They attacked the heart until it burst into liquid flames burning the creature that let out a painful and sorrowful groan as it began shrivel and dissolve. Corporal Knightley raced to the melting monsters grabbing Sargent Devonne calling out to the others

  “Help me”

  as she pulled on Sargent Devonne’s legs been sharply aided by Lieutenant Storm while Captain Quis Podex loaded his weapon. What the two ladies pulled from the dying creature’s mouth was not entirely Sargent Devonne nor did it resemble anything human! Whatever that substance inside the creature’s mouth was it had dissolved almost all of her armour, fusing what remained of it to her body and it had even melted a great portion of her skin, hair and muscle

  “my god”

  gasped Corporal Knightley

  “was that the thing that attacked your team?”

  Captain Quis Podex asked Lieutenant Storm

  “sir, yes sir, this one had no red markings though, but it was the same kind of creature”

  she explained glaring at the body of Sargent Devonne.

  “Corporal, call this into command, we move in five, the mission must take priority”

  ordered the Captain as he knelt down to the body whispering something to himself.

  When he stood back up and blessed himself

  “conserve your ammo, from now on, fire in short controlled bursts only”

  the Captain declared totally un-phased by what had just happened

  “sir, what about the Sargent’s body?”

  asked Lieutenant Storm

  “leave it, we can’t do anything for her now, the mission must take priority”

  he answered, this would be the first time Corporal Knightley disliked an order her Captain had given, yet she would follow the order for the sake of the mission.

  They set out to follow the route Captain Quis Podex had on his visualizer, the path the team walked slyly became increasingly difficult to drudge through, the mud grew up to their knees while the foliage grew from seemingly every possible direction forcing the team to hunch down to avoid the long thorns from the moving vines, after sometime, in the distance they could all make out what they all believed to be the entrance to the facility. The distance didn't matter to them as they were all as hell bent as they could be on getting to solid ground; fighting through the ever-growing earth, the slop that was once around their ankles was now over their knees and draining them of their energy even planting the seed of doubt in their minds, that they would not be able to reach the facility, but Captain Quis Podex knew his team would succeed in their mission regardless how difficult things may get. He tried not to let the struggle get the better of him but he fought against exhaustion so much he had to resort to closing his eyes at times to get that little extra burst of adrenaline. Finally, the team reached solid earth, their energy drained, almost completely depleted. The Lieutenant gasped, her eyes wide with alarm, the team followed her stare, and to their astonishment their stare was met at the facilities entrance as it was covered by a plant of sorts; it’s stems reaching into the earth and across the entire front of the facility, some even reached out and wrapped themselves around the trees but what caught Lieutenant Storm’s attention was at the centre of this plant was a man! His body was engulfed by the plants roots, it seemed like the planet was growing out of his stomach somehow, his eyes were screaming in horrific pain and when he dared to speak his lips would move with a quiver yet no sound could to be heard.

  “How is this possible?”

  Corporal Knightley asked in disbelief reaching out to the man unsure what she would do if he reacted

  “No”

  exclaimed the Captain looking to Corporal Knightley and shaking his head

  “the plant seems to be growing from inside of him, like it’s using him as a food source”

  Captain Quis Podex told his team before he pointed his rifle to the man's ribs were several vines had growing out through his body and wrapped around his torso and legs; they were pulsating with each breath the man took, it was like they were acting as his lungs.

  “Sir what do we do?”

  Lieutenant Storm cried out

  “how could this happen?”

  Corporal Knightley muttered to the team not wanting the unfortunate man to hear her,

  in the moments of silence that followed Captain Quis Podex aimed his rifle at the man's head, the man was able to mumble just loud enough to be heard by an alert ear “thank you” he said and nothing more just those simple words, what followed was the echoing bang of a single bullet from the Were Inc Captain's rifle.

  The sound of the poor man's salvation rang out across the countryside, with the tortured soul now dead, the plant rapidly began to wilt and fall away from the walls of the facility dropping from the facilities entrance lying dead at the team’s feet. The team could at last gain entrance to the facility

  “I wonder who that was”

  asked Lieutenant Storm aloud to herself while she crouched down to examined what remained of man within the plant

  “Brandon D. West, Dr. Oscar Burton's assistant”

  replied Captain Quis Podex,

  Chapter 3: Gained Entrance

  Captain Quis Podex stepped over the wilted remains and right up to the huge sealed facilities main doors; still covered partly by vines, nettles and other unknown possibly undiscovered strange foliage. He pointed his rifle to the key panel on the centre of the door

  �
�Marie can you bypass this?”

  he asked knowing all too well she could. She rushed to the door unzipping a pouch from her utility belt and began the bypassing process, while Corporal Knightley begun to bypass the lock the Captain wondered what other strange creatures could be waiting for them inside the facility. The Lieutenant questioned how her team never encountered any of the strange and horrible things that this team had? It was only after they gained entrance to the facility they had to fight for their lives, could it be possible when her team entered the facility they let lose something dangerous could her team be the cause of all these unsettling encounters in Eiru? There was no time to think too much on it when the doors began to slide open it opened only slightly before appearing to become jammed, it wouldn’t open any wider, the door had only slid open a few feet to the left but it was enough to get them through, if they squeezed themselves through, all except Corporal Knightley who was the smallest of the team in height and build she could fit through the gap quiet easily. Captain Quis Podex ordered his team inside with haste, then ordered Corporal Knightley to seal the doors shut behind them! They would leave the outside world and its horror in all its forms outside the safety of Were Inc’s walls for this was where Captain Quis Podex felt most secure.

  Once the door closed behind them the darkness inside was frightening even overwhelming they would have to rely completely on their night vision equipment until the power was restored to the facility. Lieutenant Storm was trying to hide her fear as she instantly tried to fight off a panic attack

  “listen up, I won’t say this twice, we are here to restore the power to the facility, call it in to HQ and await further order’s, nothing else, the sooner we do that the sooner we can all get the hell out of this messed up country, now move out”

  Captain Quis Podex’s voice was firm and resolute as he gave his orders,

  he was not going to suffer foolishness or heroics

  “Captain what if we encounter hostiles?”

  asked the Lieutenant

  “if it doesn't die, run like hell”

  he answered, his voice now boomed with worry.

  Captain Quis Podex and Corporal Knightley reached into their backpacks taking out helmets and activating their night vision filter on the helmets lenses, Lieutenant Storm felt odd using Sargent Devonne’s helmet but it was a necessary evil if she was to get the mission done and dusted. They followed their Captain’s lead down a great steel staircase that was as cold to the eye as it was to the touch, the walls from what they could see were callus as if the cracks were there intending to send a shiver through the teams very being, yet the most shocking sight of all was that of the countless bodies that littered the hallways. The bodies were partly covered in a thick black substance, the same substance that the Lieutenant knew very well; she tightly grasped her rifle and began to choose her steps with extra caution. The narrow corridors had many claw like markings deep in multiple sections of the walls

  “ahh what is this now, what the hell could have done that?”

  asked the Lieutenant as she ran her hands along the claw markings that ran deep into the wall

  “whatever it was let's hope we don't run into it down here, better yet, let's pray that’s it long gone now” Corporal Knightley jibbed

  “whatever it was it's incredibly strong, these walls are triple reinforced steel, coated with two foot of cement, keep a sharp eye and your trigger finger ready”

  ordered Captain Quis Podex.

  Corporal Knightley examined the substance on the bodies that resembled the creature that murdered Sargent Devonne

  “bag a sample and let's keep moving”

  ordered Captain Quis Podex his eyes carefully watching for any movement around them, his ears were cocked as if she had heard something drawing near to them at a quick passé.

  Corporal Knightley reached into a different pouch on her utility belt then before, taking out a metal screw top vial and an extractor device that looked to the untrained eye like a metal straw with a collapsible scoop at one end. She asked herself what would happen if the vial broke in her pouch, would the sample be a hazard to her or is it really as dead as it seems, it was just a risk she’d have to take. She quickly filled the vial and put it back into her pouch with the extractor then picked up her weapon and readied herself to carry on with the team.

  The team found their way through the graveyard like corridors into what must have been one of the laboratories where Corporal Knightley made a suggestion

  “Captain, there may be an answer here as to what we are dealing with, I suggest I hang back, find out what I can, once you restore the power I’ll have access to the computers as well”

  she could see the worry in his eyes, staying anywhere alone in this facility wasn’t a good idea however, he knew she was a capable soldier and agreed to her request

  “fine, stay here, see what you can find but, keep an open com link (communication link via their visualizer) at all times”

  he replied then carried onwards with Lieutenant Storm.

  It seemed that regardless where they went they found bodies lying on the ground or hunched over desks even hanging from the ceiling tiles or worse. None of the poor men and women seemed to put up a struggle when they died; it was as like none of them saw their attacker(s)? They’re careful march to the control room was none eventful and once the Captain and the Lieutenant reached the control rooms main terminal, they found it had no power going to it nor did any of the others, indicating that maybe even the backup power supply had been drained

  “keep a keen eye”

  ordered the Captain as he got underneath the main terminal to open the panel to assess the damage, he let out a great sigh along with a great amount of swearing

  “this is going to take a few hours, get comfortable Lieutenant”

  he grunted.

  While the Lieutenant sat on the computer terminal she could see the memories of her team being killed and Sargent Devonne be devoured by the same creature playing in her mind, she could see all that had happened to her since her mission was deemed a failure, she had been abducted, sold and used as slave labour and used as a living drinks dispenser, received a number of beatings for trying to escape which her body is still feeling the effect of and so much more. As a soldier for Were Inc she was trained to feel only once the mission was complete but; this was not your everyday mission and this was not a kind of enemy she could have been trained to fight against, not only that but she couldn’t shake the feeling they were been watched

  Chapter 4: Behind Closed Doors

  W Hile back to the laboratory Corporal Knightley found the bodies of two armed forces personnel that were not covered in the substance like the others, they had been shot at point blank range in the back of the head (better known as execution style)! The weapons and armour they had were indeed Were Inc. issued, but the armour they wore was found to be flawed and decommissioned roughly fifty years ago while the weapons were remarkably outdated, they too had been decommissioned over seventy years ago because of overheating problems with the barrel of the weapon, yet the soldiers couldn’t have been executed more than a week ago; there was more to this mission then HQ told them during the debriefing. Corporal Knightley was not one to allow herself to be used, and so she decided to duplicate all information on the computers once the power was back online, the duplicated data would be sent directly to her wrist worn PDA (personal data assistant) where she would be able to send the data to HQ and back it up on her visualizer for her own means. She also found among the written files was a collection of letters and numbers that meant nothing to her but clearly someone was trying to crack some sort of code '161891435-139385112' she tried to remember the code as best she could as she thought she would be able to crack the code at a later time, maybe her fallen Were Inc friends that littered the floors of the facility were close to cracking the code and that’s why they were murdered? It was all speculation at this point however, she needed to find as much information as she
could about this facility and what it was that killed the Sargent, hopefully she could find out what left those claw markings and possibly find a way to defend herself against whatever those oily creatures are.

  As the power returned to the facility the lights illuminated the laboratory and Corporal Knightly along with her attacker! She turned away from a console once she had to begin to download whatever data she could when her heart jumped into her throat, one of the creatures stood only feet from her and was towering over her drawing ever closer; she frantically backed away from the black and red creature that Lieutenant Storm had described, she scrambled to aim and fire her weapon at the creature, but the creature seemed to slowly absorb each and every one of the bullets she fired. If she hadn’t stood on a fire extinguisher and falling backwards flat to the ground, she would not have had the idea that saved her life. The creature seemed to be blind as it just absorbed whatever it came in contact with, the Corporal noticed this and an idea clicked with her, if it worked she would be safe from her attacker if not maybe it just might scare it away, it was the only idea she had, running away would not get her the data she wanted. She picked up the fire extinguisher and threw it to the monster then readied her side arm (a 45 calibre Socom pistol). The extinguisher landed on the creature’s chest and was mostly absorbed into its body; she waited until the creature had absorbed enough of the canister to insure maximum damage before she fired a single shot. The single shot hit its intended target causing a small explosion of CO2, the explosion was enough to hurt the creature but the CO2 seemed to have an unexpected effect on it, the creature quickly became a solid as stone and was unable to move, the red veins stretching across its body began to dim in vibrancy and even began to dissolve as did the creature itself. She sat up against the wall closing her eyes for a moment and taking a well-deserved breath of relief, now more than ever she became more interested in these creatures, she was interested in their creation and even more interested in how they got into a sealed Were Inc facility.