Chereads / The Day the World Stopped / Chapter 8 - Chapter 8 Day 2: The Exit Path

Chapter 8 - Chapter 8 Day 2: The Exit Path

The cold left like an aching dream, what was that? I had had these feelings of existential terror ever since this crisis started, but never was it as vivid as today.

Lost in my thoughts the argument about what to do raged, and a decision was made before I could even decide whether or not to share what had been happening to me. 

So we walked onwards, quieter and with a solemn air, past the exit to the tunnel and into the unexplored depths. I had a feeling as though I was being watched, as we started our march into the unknown.

Cautiously I looked around, thinking the walls must be playing their unnerving tricks on me, only to discover that there was a clear reason for it.

Staring over his mother's shoulder, Rain was watching me like a hawk, his gaze unbreaking.

I looked back, into his eyes, finding a strange calm hidden there.

He seemed unafraid from the return of his gaze, not out of some bravery I felt, but trust.

Confused, I turned away, what reason did he have to trust me? He barely knew me. It only added to my confusion.

Again I felt as though some danger was revealing itself to me, and that the others were ignorant of it. But why?

I only knew that I had to keep moving forwards and hope for the mist that clouded our situation to lift itself.

Before I knew it our expedition came to an end. "We found it, we actually found it!" Andrew exclaimed. Lying before us was what we had been searching for, an emergency exit door. It loomed a dark red, an open valve in place of a doorknob, and a gone out bulb above it. 

"I don't know about this, are we really sure it's safe?" Rebbecca queried the group, "How do we know those things aren't in there?" I agreed.

"So long as we're careful we should be fine, this is our saving grace." Andrew responded, dismissively, sounding relieved and pleased with himself.

With that he unlocked the valve, and the door opened. We filtered in, finding ourselves in a dark room, pipes and metal protruding from the walls.

A horrible gaseous smell emanated from inside, and a small winding corridor led around the corner to presumably a staircase out of here.

Before we could find out we stumbled across something else first. "Oh my god what is that, I knew this was a horrible idea!" cried out Rebbecca, the rest of us stopping in our tracks.

Lying dead in our path between us and the staircase was a creature none of us had ever seen before.

It was green, with 2 arms that only held 3 large fingers each and skin that went beyond the elbow, forming some hardened guard.

It had backwards knee joints that went behind them causing its corpse to have a weird lying position with its shins slightly above its head.

On the bottom of its legs were 2 cloud-shaped, circular hooves that were completely free of the blueish armour that coated the rest of its body. 

Its head was slightly taller than a person with a singular pupiless glassy black eye situated in the middle of its face. Its lipless mouth hung open revealing a set of jagged white teeth, it was no herbivore.

Most shocking of all, was its crocodilian tail that stretched out beside it also armoured in that blue material. The only other sign of otherworldly technology was a piece of metal implanted in its temple, which flashed an ominous purple.

The only trace of its injury was a trail of violet blood flowing out of the pair of holes it must call a nose.

"We shouldn't continue, we don't know what that is or what it could do." I was reminded of my horrible feeling, could this be what it was referring to, I wasn't sure.

"I'll tell you what it is, a dead alien. it can't do us any harm now, It's dead!" Tim responded.

"Just up ahead must be where they keep emergency supplies, I'm sure of it. As Tim said it's already dead, I'm sure we'll be fine just scooting past it." Andrew added

Before I could say anything more, Andrew walked towards it leading us forwards once more.

Into our graves.

The second he got close to the alien the flashing purple light in its temple grew far faster as a high pitched purring sound resounded out "bpbpbprprbpbb*".

The flashing purple light expanded out in a wave towards the group, and bouncing off when it hit the walls.

It hit Andrew immediately, his head exploding in a mess of blood, his body falling limply to the ground.

Panicked I ran towards the exit, catching a glimpse of Denise collapsed on her knees, I passed her but not before hearing that horrible creaking noise, followed by the spray of blood onto the wall ahead of me. 

I turned to my right and saw Rebbecca trip and a look of horror and pain came over her, before a wrenching acceptance took her face and she threw herself onto Rain, who lay in her arms, covering him as best she could.

She knew she wouldn't reach the door after the fall.

I looked up to see a sight that would haunt me forever more.

Allison, who'd resided at the back of the pack had reached the door, with Tim seconds behind.

As Allison reached the door she turned around in apprehension and fear, before slamming the door shut and turning the valve, condemning me and Tim to our fates. 

Dread overcame me as I turned back to that wave of purple energy crackling and surging towards me.

Tim's scream of anguish filled my ears as the wave reached me, before everything became silent, and my vision turned to black.