Ch. 29 Secrets?

Rolling to disperse his momentum from the moving vehicle, Nick stood up and watched the RV driving off into the distance as he turned to face the darkness.

'Its fine Nick, just get the dog and head back to the swat vehicle, I can hitch a ride with them or just drive off alone if I have to!' Feeling the soreness from running miles back and forth in sand and the pain of his injuries, Nick was very short temper at the moment.

Nick originally planned on waiting to fill his five absorption slots with different supernatural creature that have mystical abilities so he could avoid the cooldown of swapping his absorbed creatures, but he realizes now that was a fools errand.

Nick internally swore to himself that after this mission was over, he'd use his vacation days to hunting down a regular animal and absorb it!

Running back to the area where he found Brenda and Bob, Nick was surprised at what he saw. The injured mutants that Brenda had just wounded with her AR-15 had all been killed, theirs necks ripped out by an animal!

"They sure as hell picked out a fitting name for that German Shepherd, that dog truly is a beast!" Looking at the multple dead mutants that Beast had finished off, Nick saw a faint trail in the sand and began following them.

Jogging along the bloody sand trail, Nick saw the occasional mutant that had been mauled by the German shepherd and continued jogging until he spotted the tracks heading into a mountain.

Nick saw that the trail lead directly into a small mansized crack in the mountain, leading into what he assumed was an underground cave filled with mutants.

With a stoic face, Nick crawled into the crack and began walking through the small crawlspace expecting to find a dingy cave filled with mutants but was shocked at what he saw.

As he made his way out dark cragily tunnel of jagged rock, he was surprised to see a large twenty foot metal door covered in rust and chipped away by time, illuminated by a faint red flashing light!

The door looked decades old as there seemed to be faint words painted on it, but were chipped away by time leaving it unreadable.

As he neared the large metal door, he realized that it hadnt been opened normally but had instead ripped open where the door was sealed as iron was bent towards him, making him realize it was something inside that broken out...

As he neared the tear in the door, he couldnt help but smell the scent of iron and rot emanating from within.

"....Beast is a smart dog, I'm sure he'd understand this was a death trap and immediately leave.." looking at the obvious lair of some unseen horror, Nick knew nothing good could be wait ahead.

Turning around and heading back towards the tunnel he came in from, Nick was stopped in his track as he heard a large yelp of pain coming from behind the metal door.

"God f*cking damn it!"

Doing a 180°, Nick conscious got the better of him as he began cautiously jogging to the door, entering the large facility.

Turning on his flashlight, he saw that he was in some large underground warehouse that was very large and had quite a few objects left behind.

Walking over to one of the shelves that still had a box on it, Nick simply ripped the rotting wooden box open to reveal old M1 Garands and Lee Enfield's laying on shredded cardboards.

'M1 Garands and Enfield's? These were used in WW2, why were they left here to collect dust?...' as he began walking through the old warehouse, he stopped as he spotted an old clip board on the floor, picking it up and dusting off the decades of dust.

[ Warehouse #116 Inventory Report:

SHOTGUNS:

Winchester M1897(count: 47)

Remington M1931 (count: 72)

Stevens M520-30 and M620 (count:56)

SUBMACHINE GUNS:

Thompson submachine gun(count: 16...]

Skimming the inventory report and skipping past all the weapons and vehicles listed, Nick noticed items on the inventory had been redacted.

[ Materials:

REDACTED #2279 (count: 235lb)

REDACTED #918 (count: 85lb)

REDACTED #001 (count: 708Gal)]

"Multiple items had been redacted but it sh-"*BANG!* aiming his gun to the sound of the noise, Nick silently put the clipboard down.

Squatting down and listening to the silence that filled the large warehouse, Nick slowly made his way past the shelves and in the direction of the noise.

Throughout this underground warehouse was multiple pathways and doors that led deeper into this underground facility, but Nick bypasses them and entered the door that he knew the noise eminated from.

The door was made of thick steel and yet this door had still been busted open. Passing through it, Nick realized it wasnt just one door but three doors in a row to create a checkpoint. All three doors had been broken open...

Getting through the third door, Nick realized the look of the building had completed changed. The previous military warehouse aesthetic was gone and was replaced with a grey, almost medical wallpaper that weirdly sent chills down Nick's spine.

The scent of rot, feces and iron was overwhelming here as Nick was forced to lift his collar to his face to breath in.

With each step into this new area, Nick had to peel his shoe off of the ground as some unknown brown sticky substance had covered the entire floor.

As he made his way further into the building, his previous guess had been right as medical equipment could be seen strewn about and dozens of gurneys with leather straps and rusty chains were everywhere.

'Why would a hospital need to tie it's patients up with both leather straps and steel chains? Are those gags that prevent people from biting their tongues off!?'

Looking down at the floor, Nick spotted blotches of dark red blood that had been spilled on the floor and couldn't help but shake his head.

'How the hell did I get myself into this situation! A simple missing persons case ended up with me chasing after a dog in an underground government facility that reeks of literal shit!'

Following the blood trail and turning a corner, Nick was stopped in his tracks at the beings before him.

They were three humanoids, they were sickly white and hairless, their bodies emaciated and lith with their skeleton on full display to Nick. They were hunched over what appeared to be a swat member, his uniform torn off as his flesh was being ripped off the bone with their teeth.

Silently shaking his head at this scene, Nick silently began backing up as he wanted to avoid conflict if he could help it, but fate had other plans for him as an angry bark rang out and echoed throughout the facility.

Turning their neck at a frightening speed, these humanoids reveal their bloodstained teeth at Nick and stared for a second, only to immediately charged forth with their dirty black fingernails trying to claw at him.

Thinking for a split second, Nick strapped his gun to his back as he face the charging enemies unarmed, not wanting to draw any further attention to himself.

The small and emaciated humanoids looked frail but they moved at a speed that belied their appearance.

Despite this, Nick was unbothered as his much faster fist slammed into the skull of the charging creature, caving it in as it immediately crumpled to the floor.

Aside from being stronger and faster, his large body and combat techniques made quick work of the mindless creatures.

Stomping the last and third humanoid into the ground next to the second one, Nick once again grabbed his gun before approaching the loud bark that had rung out in the distance.