226 “Thing”

The hour was up rather quickly, and it was soon once again time for us to mobilize. Even though I wasn't able to fall asleep in this hour of rest, I was somehow well-rested. Maybe it was because that after an hour of rest, I was able to clean up my train of thought and outline the plans for the future. In dangerous and desperate situations like these, thinking too much can be rather detrimental, causing your mind to over exert itself. So, sometimes seeing things from a simpler perspective and being ready to adapt on the go can be helpful. For example, I've simplified our situation such that there are only two outcomes: we either die or we live.

Our victory conditions is reaching the radio tower, radio for help, and survive until we are off this mountain. Our losing condition is if we are killed. Hmm...losing condition? That makes it sound way to positive than what it is truly like, but...it's whatever. The basic idea is the same either way.

"I hear nothing," Noah muttered as he pressed his ear against the old, wooden door to detect any signs of activity outside.

"Ready?" Loyd whispered to the rest of us as we all stood against the wall on either side of the closed door.

After everyone quietly nodded, Loyd slowly pushed the door open, revealing the dark and empty outside hallway. I quickly scanned both sides of the hallway but was unable to see anything as it was simply too dark to be able to see anything from too far away. Therefore, our best detection mechanism is our ears and the vibration of the floor. However, even that is negated by our soft footsteps and vibration caused by us walking. This condition is bad for us. We are basically out in the open right now while that sick creep is cloaked in the darkness with the ultimate advantage of familiarity of this environment and stealth.

Walking down the hallway, Noah and Loyd was at the front, leading us on while the rest of us followed them. Loyd held up the flashlight, illuminating the path before us while Noah read the doorplates and any legible signs as we searched for the radio room.

"It's not as cold as before," Zaksus observed quietly at the very back of our group.

"Our body must've gotten used to the temperature," Luna explained. "And besides, the adrenaline in our body must've helped in warming us up a bit."

"I guess you're right," Zaksus said. "My heart's been rapidly beating ever since we lined up by the door."

After that quick exchange, our journey down the hallway continued in silence. This building appeared quite large from the outside, but it was even bigger on the inside with plenty of hallway and rooms that appeared to be the exact same repeating next to us constantly and constantly. If it weren't for the occasional variation in the writing on the signs and doorplates then I would've believed we were trapped in a loop. On everyone's faces was a tense countenance as the silence ensued. I am pretty sure that they were all quite frightened and was simply too tired to react, otherwise they wouldn't be that calm. But now, I suppose their composure has slowly died, murdered by the agonizing and endless torment of this slow walk down the hallway in search of our destination. The absence of any illumination in the hallway made it near impossible to see past the person that walked close in front, and when combined with the occasional dim light from a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, it created an even more eerie atmosphere. The dim light, in this absolute darkness, was as if a pillar of solid light that obscured our vision of what's after it. In addition, the dust floating in the air that was made visible by the light blocked out what little we could see in the light, making the traversing of each spot of light a heart-racing adventure filled with constant fear and torment.

"Do you guys hear that?" Irina suddenly whispered out loud.

"Shhh!" Mura hushed everyone, silencing us and stopping us in our footsteps so we could be on alert.

Everyone paused in their movements, freezing themselves so that no part of their body moved. We held our breaths and kept our eyes open wide in anticipation of whatever danger there might be in store for us. Despite the cold temperature, I was sweating somewhat, maybe from the fact that the flow of my blood had increased due to my palpitating heart that seem to block out all the noise in the world.

I tried to focus and ignore the sound of my heartbeat so that I can listen in on only the environment. Like Irina had notified us, there was a sound: footsteps. Since we were all stopped, those footsteps do not belong to us. It belonged to someone else, and it is rapidly approaching us from the direction we had came from.

"Go!" I whispered to the others as I gestured for us all to proceed ahead at full speed. Idly standing around here wouldn't do us any good. That "thing" is coming in our direction so it is only time before we are caught. It's much better for us to bet on us outrunning that "thing".

After hearing my voice, the others showed no signs of hesitation. Immediately and in sync, we all started running down the hallway, ignoring the loud sounds our footsteps made as well as the creaking of the wooden floor. I looked over my shoulders and into the darkness just behind Zaksus, who was running at a slower pace than he could manage to maintain his position at the very tail end of the group. In that darkness, I could see nothing. However, I could hear the sound of footsteps. It appears as if that "thing" is also running after us now.

"In here!"

I turned my head to face in front of me just in time for me to see Noah and Loyd opening a random door and ushering us into it. I slowed down just enough to make a sharp turn right and into the room, and just after Zaksus entered, Noah slipped into the room and Loyd closed the door softly behind us so that the "thing" would not know which one we had entered.

Hiding here was an act of desperation. We really never thought out anything about hiding here. For all we know, the "thing" saw us dash into here and is closing in on the door right now. Looking around the dark room, there does not seem to be another exit with the only thing resembling an exit being the row of broken glass windows that looked into the hallway, which is another hazard as it might give away our location. In fact, there does not even appear to be anything we could use to defend ourselves with as underneath the dim light bulb overhead, the only thing I could see was a desk in this office-looking room.

"Hide!" I mouthed to everyone, and that is exactly what we did.

Since Loyd, Noah, Zaksus, and I were the last to enter the room, we were nearest to the door. The room was already small in size, let alone the fact that we must avoid any part of our body being in the circular area just underneath the light overhead, there really wasn't much space available for ten people to hide and there wasn't much time to think. My instincts told me to just get into cover. Anywhere is fine. So, I immediately slide into cover with my back pressed against the half wall by the door underneath the glass windows looking out into the hallway. My head was just underneath the glass, and since I am pressed against the wall, I shouldn't be that visible.

It would appear that Loyd and Noah had the same idea as me. They were pressed against the wall to my left while Zaksus was sitting with his back against the door that we had entered in. Since the girls were the first to enter, some of them hid behind the desk in the room while others took cover behind a nearby bookcase.

Our attempts at concealing ourselves wasn't the best, but it was all that we could manage with what little time we had in this desperate situation. All we can do now is to wait until the "thing" passed by in the hallway outside.

The "thing's" pace slowed down as he resorted to a walk. He, or she, seemed to be searching for us now. Slowly, the footsteps came closer and closer to where we were located. Based on that sound and the vibration of the floor, I could tell that the "thing" was getting closer and closer until finally, when I looked up, I could see the figure in the darkness from just over the half wall.

We all held our breaths and stayed still to maintain the dead silence that should belong to an empty room, hoping it will be enough to convince the "thing" to leave. However, contrary to our expectations, the "thing" paused just outside the room, standing by the windows as it looked around.

My eyes have adjusted to this new level of darkness with the light bulb shining down the center of the room, and soon I was able to see even more clearly the true figure of whatever it was that was chasing us. As expected, the "thing" was a human that was rather brutish in appearance. He appeared to be a man with an age ranging between thirty and fifty. It was rather hard to tell based on features I saw in the darkness. However, what I did see clearly was the large, muscular right arm of the savage-looking man. All in all, this man appeared...rather disproportionate. His head was rather small while his torso was huge, leading me to believe his legs are rather short. In addition, he also have a rather long and muscular arm. On his face, there was a blank look, a look that was so deprived of emotion that it was scary. It's almost as if I was staring at an unintelligent animal.

The man stood there for what seemed to be an eternity before he finally turned around. As he turned around, I caught a glimpse of the man's left arm. It...it was tiny, so tiny that it seemed to be that of a baby's. It seemed as if the man doesn't really have a left arm. There isn't even a stump of what resembled a normal arm. That baby's left arm seemed to be sewed on to the clean removal of the man's left arm from the torso. Is that arm...his? That arm appeared to be dried and rotten, but there's no way that it could last this long into the man's adulthood. Unless that arm was soaked in some sort of chemicals to prevent decomposing, then there is no way...

As the man turned and walked away, the sewed-on baby arm flapped about in the air in an uncontrollable fashion. Upon seeing this, I was suddenly reminded of a scene that I saw not too long ago. That night we had spent in the cave to escape the snow storm, I saw a figure walking away with something resembling a tail flapping around behind it. That tail...it was the sewed on arm. That..."creature" has been watching us the entire time.