32 Island Paradise Part 3

"That looks ominous as hell!" Terry shouted. "Ain't no way Terry is going down those stairs." A loud howl could be heard in the distance. Closer than the last howl they heard earlier. Terry barged to the front of the door and held up his light. "What are you all waiting for! Let's hurry up down there!"

"You changed your mind fast." Drew laughed. "Thought there was no way?"

"Drew now isn't the time." Sam said concerned by the howl as well. "We shouldn't linger longer than we have to."

"We are safe in the base." Drew said. "You two worry too much."

"No you just don't worry enough." Terry sighed as he started down the dark stairway. The stairs were made of metal and were as old as the walls of the base. Aside from a small amount of oxidation they were safe to traverse. The walls of the stairs, which had been illuminated by Terry's light, were painted white with green stripes in the center. Tiny arrows were within the stripes pointing down the stairs. As they walked down they saw a word written in the stripe. [das Labor]

"Anyone speak whatever language that is?" Drew asked. "das Labor? Sounds like that's labor. Maybe it's where the workers stayed. I mean labor means to work, so maybe it is that?"

"Or it's another language and you are completely off." Sam snapped. "It could mean danger or keep out or who knows! It could be a warning is what I am saying."

"Probably some Nazi stuff." Terry chimed in.

The trip descended down the stairs slowly in silence from that point forward. Finally after a few minutes they reached the bottom of the stairs. "That took a while." Drew said, wiping his brow of sweat. "Stairs are not my friend, as well as this jungle heat." They shined their lights around the area and Drew saw a generator in the corner of the room. He walked over to it and crouched down next to it. He studied the device with his light and found its pull chain. "Let's see if this works." Drew said as he grabbed the chain. With a few jerks of the chain the machine remained silent.

"You honestly didn't expect that to work did you?" Sam laughed. "That gas has to be eighty years old, there's no chance it would run."

"Well it never hurt to try." Drew said as he got up from his crouched position. "Looks like there's some doors over there." He said while shining his flashlights beam directly on the doors. Inscribed on the doors were [das Labor] along with two swastikas.

"Told you it was damn Nazi shit." Terry said. "When are you going to start listening to Terry?"

Drew ignored Terry's taunt as if enthralled by the curiosity of what laid behind the mysterious door. He walked towards them and opened them. Inside were cages upon cages. Large ones, much larger than would be required for a person. Inside some of the cages laid human remains such as skulls and femur bones. Examining the cages one of them had its bars completely broken open.

"You think that's the beast?" Sam said worried while further scanning the room with her light. Claw marks lined the room's exterior and tables were flipped over. She found a stack of papers next to one of the flipped tables and went over to investigate. She picked one up and dusted it off. "Great, it's in German." She sighed. "Too bad none of us know how to read it. It might as well be a recipe for a cake at this point."

Drew walked over to the cage with the bent steel. The edges of the broken areas appeared to have been chewed through. "Looks like the beast bit through the bars and then bent them in order to escape." He explained. "What kind of animal would be strong enough and smart enough to do that?"

"Damn Nazis!" Terry shouted. "They must have made some sort of super predator to use in the war and it must have escaped before they could use it!"

"That would make sense." Drew nodded in agreement.

"Or they caught an alien." Sam replied. "Could very well be an alien as well."

"This looks too primitive and savage to be from a species capable of intergalactic travel." Drew said. "But if they did make an animal eighty years ago, that type of genetic modification didn't exist yet, there just isn't a way I could see them pulling that off with the technology of their time period."

"Which is why I still vote aliens." Sam said.

"Maybe," Terry said, "but Terry agrees with Drew on this one. Maybe they didn't make a beast, maybe there was already a beast on this island that they discovered and were studying."

"A brand-new species." Drew said with excitement. "Did you know when you discover a new species you get to name it! What would I name this thing. How bout Drewasaurous?"

"It's not a dinosaur Drew." Sam sighed. "Besides who says you get to be the one to name it, if it is indeed a new species."

"I was only kidding." Drew laughed. "Besides I think it might be something else entirely." Drew kicked away some of the dust and dirt on the ground and shined his light upon it. The newly cleared area had a piece of a strange symbol running along the room. "What if like our cultist friends from the first case, the Nazis summoned something they could not control."

"Another demon you think?!" Sam shouted. "I hope not!"

"I don't think it's a demon." Drew said. "So far nothing overly creepy has happened to us on this island. When we were facing the demon our lights gave out a lot and we experienced cold spots. No, I think they may have summoned something else."

"Or it is just an interesting floor design." Sam replied. "We honestly won't know what the creature is until we lay eyes on it."