Soon, they all reached their destination. The members instinctively stopped suddenly, shocking the children. Damien held his necklace and placed it on the ground and the floor opened up, revealing a staircase. The path was dark and eerie while a whistle like sound echoed throughout the waste land.
Damien gestured for them to enter, he flicked his hand to the entrance while he carried Blaze on his back. Slowly making his way down the staircase, being careful of the odd slippery steps as he felt his way down with the help of the railings.
The others followed suit, focused on the path before them. Brandon almost tripped and dropped Kayden but Ray steadied him and the three walked down together, hoping to find the real entrance soon. Each time they were to enter the underground staircase, the entrance always seems to be getting further and further away with time.
Zephyr walked behind Castiel and Ethan while watching the ground close above him. He felt something drip on his arm and instinctively knew what it was. Blood. He wiped it off on the wall and held onto the railings that were wet and sticky.
Strange liquid kept dripping down from the soil above while the others kept breathing heavily. Everyone was clearly nervous, even more so than they were when they were fighting the whole group of mutates.
"Hey..why do I feel something weird that I just grasped?" Castiel asked, when he felt a strange texture while he was holding onto the walls and trying to find the railings. The deeper they went down, the smaller the path got while the railings disappeared.
Ethan followed after the voice and reached out to where Castiel hands could vaguely be seen. He felt like he was merely touching a piece of flesh that was probably Castiel's but he felt a cold part of it and retreated his hand. It was now wet and soaked with a strange red liquid.
"Corpses..probably." Ethan murmured, sounding slightly scared and taken aback. Wondering why would there be dead bodies in the entrance and safe place of Thanatos. Suddenly, he realised that he couldn't hear the footstep of the others except for Zephyr. He panicked and rushed down while holding onto Castiel's hand.
"Ray? Brandon? Tina?" Castiel yelled out when he realised the source of Ethan's distress. The others in front were missing, they couldn't be heard at all. He wondered whether they had finally found the entrance, but if they had done so, why didn't they call for them?
Zephyr tapped on Ethan's shoulders to get his attention. "Can you light up the tunnel with your explosions? Just throw it down." He asked, sounding like he had figured something out.
Ethan contemplated whether if his explosions would've hit the others but Zephyr sounded so urgent that he released his power at once.
The orange light flashed and the darkness lifted for a moment and everything was revealed in an instant.
Dead human bodies were all they saw, it filled up the pathway completely. Bugs and flies feasted on the decaying bodies. They were all either ripped or shredded apart, none of the bodies were intact.
Zephyr reached out and ripped off a person's shirt and looked at the logo. "It's the two stars we saw when we ventured on earlier today." He said, understanding what was going on.
The staircase was to pick up all intruders of the government's, the trap somehow didn't set off when the trio walked by but it wasn't damaged or rusted at all. It must've been an ability of one of the mutates.
"And.. the tunnel gets smaller as more bodies are piled up below." Ethan continued, getting a hold of everything now. He was in disbelief of how they had been touching corpses all along without even knowing about it. Some were far too rotten to be even recognised as flesh.
"It feels as if we are getting tested.." Castiel said, looking around at the dead bodies that made up the tunnel, even the stairs was made up of small pieces of flesh.
"How about we just.. continue walking down?" Castiel suggested after a while. Knowing that they can't do much about the corpses that surrounded them like air.
The three walked down while holding each others hands tightly with no intention of letting go ever. The staircase soon came to an end and a long tunnel could be seen, there were torches lighted at the side of the walls and no more dead bodies could be seen scattered around. It seems like any possible intruders haven't reached this far yet.
They walked through the tunnel where every footsteps and sounds they made echoed. In the distance, they saw a whole string of metal bars blocking their path.
Ethan speed walked and reached the metal bars first and peeked in. He made a soft gasp and attempted to back off but his shirt got stuck on the bars. He started sweating profusely while he looked away from the contents of the cage.
Castiel followed behind and gently pulled Ethan off to prevent him from injuring himself but his eyes wandered to the items inside the cage. He stepped back and fell on his back, he turned around and felt something coming up his pipes. He wanted to puke.
From that distance, Zephyr could already tell what was inside the cage. His vision was extraordinary to he able to see all the mess that was trapped within the metal bars.
It was a large cage filled with mutates that were feasting on humans in the exact same uniform as the intruders. Sharp teeth plunged into the meat of the bony officers who were struggling for help, begging for mercy before their head was being ripped off by another mutate. More humans were dropped into the cage by a strange mechanic, mutates rushed over while bearing their bloody fangs, feasting on their next delicious meal.
Without even counting the amount of mutates in there, Ethan could tell that there were hundreds of them. Was this what Thanatos had done to the intruders who managed to reach down the hell hole this far? Even though he loathed the government, the scene in front of him was far too gruesome for him to handle, he felt nauseous seeing the monsters repeatedly mutilate the bodies.
Zephyr took the initiative to pull his two friends away from the cage and placed them in a safer spot. Wanting to get a closer look inside. He suddenly spotted a red light at the corner of his eye. They were watching him.
Suddenly, the whole tunnel shook and made Zephyr panic, looking in front of him, he saw the metal bars slowly lifting up. The mutates grimy hands tried to force itself through the metal bar's small gap that was still being lifted. The monsters were all looking at the fresh body before them, licking their lips in anticipation for their next prey that laid defencelessly before them.
Although Ethan and Castiel was still recovering from the sight they saw, the grasp the situation when they took a look at the scene. A long slimy mutate hand was making it's way out of the cage, it's attention completely fixed on Zephyr who was running away at a fast speed.
The monster took advantage of it's ability and extended it's arms through the gap and grabbed onto Zephyr legs, yanking him back roughly. He lost his balance and fell to the floor.
"ZEPHYR!" Castiel and Ethan yelled out in desperation. Regaining their footing and trying their hardest to not shake in fear when they see the absurd amount of monsters wanting to break free from the cage.
Ethan was about to run towards Zephyr and save him but he was held back by Castiel who was on the verge of tears.
"You can't save him and neither can I! If you go, you'll be too devoured too!" Castiel explained, pulling Ethan back as he saw the metal bars lifting even higher. If they waited any longer, the gap would soon be enough for the whole group of mutates to fit through.
"LET GO!" Ethan screamed at the top of his lungs, trying to fling Castiel off. The moment he did, his vision went black.
Zephyr used his hands to grabbed onto the small dents in the floor in an attempt to pull himself away gradually. However, he felt himself being overpowered by the strong force that held him down. Unfortunately, he lost his grip and was jerked back by the slimy monster.
"Run."
Ethan's heart broke into pieces when he heard the defeat in Zephyr's voice telling him to run away. Wasn't he too selfless? He stopped struggling and allowed Castiel to take him away, leaving his saviour behind in the dust.
Zephyr turned around and saw mutates towering over him. Their eyes fixated on his flesh while they stuck their long talons into his body. He groaned in pain as he attempted to fight back. He then felt his arm being ripped apart by something sharp, it was agonising. He tried to run away even though he knew it was futile.
"Don't leave me behind.." Zephyr murmured while tears slowly formed in the corner of his eyes. He punched the floor in frustration and gulped, looking up at the set of sharp bloody teeth that was ready to tear him apart into pieces.