Dead body on the stairs...

Rachel led the small team through rows of vehicles and machines while maintaining absolute vigilance. They were slowly progressing towards the central tower where Dean's master control room was likely to be. Rachel had discussed this with her dad the night before and they both agreed that there was a high chance of finding the information they were looking for in the control room.

There were no guards in sight. They moved with the night's cover towards the back entrance of the tower. The sound of explosions and blood-freezing roaring was still vibrating the air. Such a savage sense of terror the distant battle was giving off. Rachel tried her best not to think about any of it. Yet remembering how it was to face a monster like that in person threatened to freeze her soul and stagger her pace. Taking a glance at the unfortunate family of hers, she managed to suppress her fear and proceeded with determination holding the assault weapon aimed and ready for any shadow to move and place bullets in them.

Before long they found themselves out of the jungle of metal and right in the backyard of the tower. The place still looked deserted. There was a sense of rush in the air. All the light that lit the place did not cast even a single unfamiliar shadow. But they remained wary nonetheless as their scanning eyes looked for trouble. They were now deep in the enemy territory. And they needed to remain incognito for their little venture to succeed.

"Look!" breathed Rachel. "They left the door open!"

John moved ahead to take a look at the exit door. It was wide open. A smile appeared on his lips automatically. No matter how tough those damned rebels may brandish themselves to be, they were not real soldiers. As they rushed out in panic, they forgot to shut the door behind them. He walked up the stairs and stepped inside through the door.

"Don't mind if I do!" he whispered. Then scanned the landing inside for sign of guards but found nothing. He turned back and shouted quietly, "Get in. There's no one here!"

Blue and red lights of the emergency alarm system were flashing inside the tower's staircase. They began ascending towards the top floor. The tower was about six stories high. The first few floors contained nothing but soldiers' camps and weapon volts. Almost no sound was coming from those quarters. Made sense because all the soldiers were now directed towards the neutralization of the monster that surfaced outside the base.

Their first encounter with trouble appeared just as they ascended above the first two floors. A guard was coming down with such hurried steps that by the time he recognized the approaching figures under the maniac flashing of red and blue lights to be intruders, many rounds from Rachel's automatic weapon pierced his body. The poor fella was instantly jerked away from the ground and slammed against the brick wall. He did not even have time to aim his weapon which was hanging by his shoulders, though it worked out for Rachel just fine. All the noise of gunfire was suppressed under the roaring anarchy outside.

"Keep your eyes open for the stray guards!" warned John from behind.

"Got it!" said Rachel.

"Oh, Lord! This is dangerous!" whispered Laura in a quivering voice.

The three of them passed the third floor without issue. Rachel and John took a look inside and the floor seemed like it was a regular office floor with many cubicles with busy workers. But it was all quiet now. They must have been evacuated to a bunker on the same floor; this sort of emergency bunker room was pretty common around this region. Every residential house had at least one of these bunkers down in their basements. They proceeded towards the next floor. No guards on the stairs. As they came up to the landing of the third floor, a gasp came out of them in unison. The walls were all made of some kind of metal on the floor. And they could see something odd through a slightly opened door. Rachel went ahead with caution and pressed the door inward. Her eyes widened and her mouth gaped as she witnessed the absurd elements inside the floor. There were sealed giant glass tubes inside the room. There was liquid inside of them. And in those liquid drowned pieces of one of the giant monsters killed by Dean's men. Laura could not move at all as she stared at the surreal nature of the scenario. She felt transfixed at the slightly shaking limbs and vile-looking organs of a deceased monster. She felt her dad coming inside from behind her.

"Oh my god!" breathed John as he gawked at the tubes and their contents in the room. "So, this is why they've established this base in the middle of this monster hot zone. To conduct research on them!"

"But how!" said Rachel from behind, her face filled with the puzzle.

"Exactly!" added Laura to her daughter. "Even the scientists from the government have not managed to study these things!"

"How could they?" said John with a frown. "These things just evaporate once they're dead, and you certainly can't capture them alive!"

There was a pause. John continued in a blank tone, "When I heard the rumors about the existence of a device capable of driving the monsters away, I thought… I thought it was all just a bunch of bull. But now… now that I see what Dean is capable of, I am almost certain he has that device!"

"And it isn't finished, just as you said earlier," said Laura with a nod of understanding. "If it were, he would have surely used it to neutralize the monster that is currently attacking the base instead of having his men die out there for no reason."

"Let's get to the top floor. I'm sure we'll find our answers there," hurried Rachel as she turned back and started towards the exit.

"Hmm, let's go," nodded John.

Rachel led the way out of the eerie setting of the research floor. They were now climbing up the stairs again. They stopped at the fourth and fifth floors but did not have a chance to inspect what was transpiring inside of the chambers because the doors were tightly locked and required a passcode to enter. Rachel suggested they should break the lock and force their way inside, but since the fourth and fifth floors were not their true objective, John disagreed. And now finally, they were before the door of the sixth floor. John was slightly out of breath having to climb so many steps. He stood still for a minute leaning against the wall beside the door to recompose himself. Laura was right beside him. Meanwhile, Rachel was trying to figure out how to open the door's electronic lock. Right in the entrance of the door was a lock protected by a passcode and user id which you were required to enter before punching in the passcodes. She looked at for a while before shaking her head hopelessly.

The struggle between the creature and Dean's men is coming to an end, the fading sound of gunfire and the roaring suggested this. The time for their little guerrilla operation was running out fast. They probably had twenty more minutes before somebody discovers a dead body on the stairs.