The Portal

A man on the other side of the window walked up to it and held up one of the oxygen tanks and began pointing at it to indicate that it was time for all of us to have it on. I didn't know how to put it on and began looking for help from the other people in the room. I glanced at the three of them, and finally the girl gave a loud sigh before walking over and strapping the tank to me. She then told me how to use it and walked back to where she was before.

I was a bit embarrassed that she had to help me, but I decided to put that to the side and try to breathe in like how she told me. I put on the mask and took a deep and forceful breath.

*Inhale*

*COUGH, COUGH*

What the hell is that? Damn, I'm getting a headache.

"What's in the tank?"

One of the men took off his mask and said…

"You were watching the presentation, right? It's some type of inhalant. I think they said it's like the stuff divers use when going really deep. It should help us adjust to the change in pressure faster."

He then put his mask back on, and I decided to do the same.

An intercom to the building turned on and a man started speaking. "I'll get straight to the point, this is a dangerous mission, and while not everyone will make it back, just know that whatever happens you are serving your country with pride and dignity. You all have the backing and gratitude of the United States, and if something were to happen to you, you will be given a proper sendoff similar to those who served in the military. May god be with you, and have godspeed men."

Not too long after a portal opened in front of us. Up to this point, I had only seen them on tv, and It's pretty much what you would expect from a portal, besides the fact that it's a bit bright, you can't see through to the other side, and there were a variety of different colors to indicate how difficult they were. The one in front of me was blue. I hadn't heard about blue portals before, but usually blue and green are colors to indicate something being easy.

The other three people walked right into the portal, and I reluctantly joined them. What followed was a torrent of blinding lights and a feeling of heavy pressure as I passed through and was thrown out onto my side. I slid a few feet and after a moment collected myself and got up. I looked at my arm that just braced my fall; It hurt a bit, and my jacket sleeve got torn.

I began looking around, it looked like I was in a cave, and the only light I could see was coming from the portal. I noticed the other three from my group and began heading over to them. They all took off their tanks and masks leaving them on the ground, so I did the same. The man who wasn't buff pulled out four small flashlights that can clip onto your shirt and handed them to everyone. Once we had our flashlights on, we readied our weapons, and the portal behind us closed. We were stranded now.

The buff guy took the lead and began leading us randomly through the cave. The order of our line was the buff guy, the normal guy, the girl, and me. Apparently, our objective is to try and gather resources that look strange or unusual. That includes anything from a weird looking rock to a monster.

"hmm?"

I thought I heard something, so I turned and shone the flashlight. While I didn't see much, I did notice that there was a faint reflection from the light. A moment later it vanished, but before I was able to investigate…

"You coming?"

"uhh… yeah"

*

We had been walking around aimlessly for about five minutes now, but no one talked. The atmosphere felt heavy, so I tried starting a conversation.

"So who are you guys? I'll start, I'm-"

"Shhh…"

I was taken aback. The girl shushed me.

"Hey, I jus-"

"I don't care. Do you know how dangerous this place is? You need to be on full alert at all times if you want to survive. We don't have the luxury to chit chat here."

The buff guy in front looked back at us while still walking; he smirked and said, "Don't you guys worry, the only way those monsters will get to you is throu-"

Something jumped out from the shadows and pinned the buff guy to the ground. I stared in shock as it tore him apart. That's also when I got my first good look at it; it looked like a wolf, but it's arms and legs were exceptionally long and muscular. It also had human like hands with long claws on each finger, and its fur was a dark grey.

The buff guy tried struggling, but it was to no avail. When that didn't work he began reaching out towards us. Before we could do anything the wolf bit into his throat and tore out a chunk of it before dragging him away.

All that remained was a trail of blood.

We all stared with looks of horror. It had only taken a few seconds to take down the biggest person in the group, how long could we possibly last. Right as I was about to turn around and run the other guy in our group was trembling and raised his pistol before firing at the darkness. He had missed. The sound of gunshots echoed throughout the cave. It was so loud I stumbled a bit and covered my ears. When I looked back, he had dropped his gun and was fumbling to grab it. The monsters showed itself again; it looked at the other guy in our group and lunged at him. He tried to defend with his arms and legs, but the monster made quick work of him, and his limbs became mangled.

"HELP! OH GOD! Please… don't… want... die... "

He looked at us with sheer horror as his face contorted and he too was torn open. His body began convulsing, and just like that he too died.

I turned around to run but ended up tripping and falling on the ground. The girl ran past me and the monster noticed the noise and stared at me; I quickly got up and sprinted towards the girl in front of me. I heard a howl from behind me and instinctually looked back. All I could see now was the glimmer of their eyes.

I had nearly caught up to the girl when she stepped on a rock and fell. I reached out to help her, and as she was reaching for my hand, something grabbed her foot and began dragging her into the darkness. She ended up grabbing my leg and refused to let go.

"LET ME GO!"

"NO! Don't Go!"

Tears and snot were covering her face.

I grabbed my pistol and began firing towards where I thought whatever was grabbing her would be. We stopped being dragged, and I kicked the girl in the face before getting up and running in the opposite direction we were being dragged in. My ears were ringing, I couldn't hear anything, I could barely see what was in front of me, I didn't know where I was, I didn't know where I was going, all I knew was that I needed to get away.

As I ran, all I could feel was adrenaline pumping through me. Then all of a sudden I saw the shining of eyes in front of me; I tried to quickly stop, but I was going too fast and once again ended up on the floor dropping my pistol. The monster took advantage of that and jumped on me preparing to bite, but I quickly put one of my arms in front of me and it bit into it before viciously shaking with it in its mouth.

Strangely enough I hadn't felt much pain, but rather my arm felt as it was warm and pulsating. The monster let go of my arm, but I couldn't move it. I tried to, but it just wouldn't budge. Claws began slashing at my chest and I felt the warmth escaping my body.

Help. Surely someone will come by and help. I can't die here. I don't want this to be the end. I don't want to die.

All that rushed through my mind was fear. The Fear of death. Fear of the unknown. Fear of becoming nothingness. Is this how it ends?

I heard a few muffled bangs, and a bright light encompassed my vision. After that, everything went dark.