Breachers

Breachers – Path of Steel

35

I

Rat

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Day 40

Marcus

Marcus slowly woke up, greeted by a wave of soreness all over his body. He winced at the ache in his muscles, and how bruised he himself felt, slowly reconstructing the memory of his confrontation with Specter. ‘Great... I passed out,’ he thought, remembering the words his companion had said to him and how much they had hurt. He swallowed nervously, instantly regretting it when he felt the jolt of discomfort that made him realize how bruised his throat was. ‘I knew he was stronger than me, but he could’ve at least held back a little.’ The ache coursing through him served as a solid reminder of how he had increased his Stat. ‘My Strength went up by one point, but it hurt a lot more than the Vigor boost,’ he thought as he opened his eyes, seeing the strange pulsating vines above him, showing that he was still in the underground chamber. ‘How long was I out this time? Minutes or hours?’ Marcus mused, shifting his gaze to the side. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he gradually recognized Specter’s silhouette, partially protruding from the tunnel that led back up to the surface. He could see the shield in front of the robot, with the robot’s limbs wedged in the debris to form an impromptu barrier. ‘Smart move, keeping the monsters out like that.’ Marcus attempted to get up, only to encounter resistance—the snug embrace of his sleeping bag. He sat up gradually, tugging the zipper down to free his upper half. When Marcus looked back he noticed the makeshift pillow in the form of a folded-up raincoat. ‘First, he chokes the life out of me, and then he treats me better than I’d treat myself?’ Marcus thought before he spotted the plastic bag with Glass pieces on the ground next to him. He picked it up, studying it for a moment. ‘No doubt this is his way of telling me that I need to think about what I’ve done.’

The sting of Specter’s cutting words still lingered in his mind, each one a deeper wound than any knife could inflict. “Specter’s right,” he muttered under his breath, his fists clenched in frustration. “The old me has to go. It needs to die... I need to become someone else... someone better.” After simmering in self-loathing and guilt for a few minutes, he turned on his HUD and noted how almost sixteen hours had passed. Marcus then perked up at a sudden sound, his gaze shifting to the left, vaguely spotting a sack that had previously been empty when he and Specter had cleared the place out. Now, it held a fully intact monster that was starting to wake up. Other sacks nearby also showed signs of having repaired the damage, with some even containing partially formed creatures. His eyes widened as he observed the awakened monster using its claw to rip through the membrane, unleashing a torrent of noxious liquid that assaulted Marcus’s nostrils like a sledgehammer. He felt rooted in place, despite the pungent smell spreading throughout the chamber. He just stared as the monster emerged slowly from the sack, breaking free from the pulsating tendril attached to the Glass in the back of its head. The creature tumbled to the ground, disoriented, flailing its limbs like a newborn for a fleeting moment. It then rose to its towering height, twice the height of Marcus, its head brushing against the ceiling, scraping against packed dirt and debris. The monster boasted wing-like arms ending in nasty looking claws, a thick blubbery body, and a crooked beak.

The creature’s three eyed gaze shifted around the dim chamber, a series of unsettling clicks echoing as it communicated with its brethren that were still growing. Suddenly, the eerie rumble intensified as its gaze locked onto Marcus, still paralyzed within his sleeping bag. As slowly as he could, the young man shifted a trembling hand toward the zipper to pull it down further. In an instant, the monster lunged forwards, wings slashing through the air, a guttural hiss following its movements. “Shit!” Marcus shouted as he rolled to the side, kicking off the sleeping bag as the creature crashed into the wall behind him, leaving the air thick with dread and dust. Marcus quickly got up, his eyes locking onto Specter as he sprinted toward the motionless robot, closing the distance in seconds. ‘Just a single touch!’ Marcus thought as desperation fueled his body. Just as he was about to make a physical connection and wake up his companion, a massive wing struck him forcefully from the side with enough force to slam him into the weird sacks on the other side of the chamber. He dropped to the ground and gasped for air as the impact knocked the wind out of him. Shaking his head in a brief moment of disorientation, Marcus tried to regain his bearings before he spotted the bird creature charging at him once more, forcing him to roll to the right. The creature collided with the sack he had just been standing at, smashing it apart upon impact and sending bits of partially formed monster flesh and foul liquid flying in all directions. It then shook its head before finding Marcus again, instantly charging towards him, only for the young man to duck past another sack, repeating the process.

Sensing his chance, Marcus dashed towards his backpack, quickly opening it and pulling out a handful of flares. A few tense moments later, he sparked them to life, suddenly bathing the room in a sudden blinding brilliance as the flares crackled and billowed smoke. Gripping a knife from his makeshift chest rig, Marcus extended the flares toward the charging monster. It shielded its face with its wings, wildly swinging the other, damaging nearby walls as it went into a blind rage. ‘This is a dumb idea,’ Marcus thought as he dodged several blind swings from the creature until he noticed a pattern like he had been trained to do since childhood. He ducked underneath another large swing while moving forward, getting up close and seeing the creature’s armpit. He thrust the knife repeatedly in its armpit while waving the flares closer to its face, stabbing and twisting his knife until the wing hung limply, afterwards ducking to the side as the monster thrashed around. The blinded creature hissed and clicked its beak at Marcus, attempting to blindly swing its limp wing while blood sprayed out from the wounds it had sustained. ‘Come on, bleed out already,’ he thought, wondering how effective the knife wounds had been. Slowly, Marcus stepped backward, inching closer toward the robot. The monster, alerted by his footsteps, rushed forward on sound alone. Marcus just threw one of the flares against its face before dashing to the side at the last second as the monster crashed headfirst into the wall, spinning around, disoriented and blinded. ‘Now,’ Marcus thought as he seized the opportunity. He darted in low again before leaping upward as high as he could and driving his knife into the creature’s chest.

Using the imbedded weapon as a handle, Marcus pulled himself up as the monster began to thrash around violently while trying to get at him with its one good wing. After a few tense seconds, he was able to move up further, allowing him to thrust the remaining lit flare into one of the creature’s three eyes. The scent of burning flesh and eyeball filled the air as the creature wailed and thrashed around, its wing ripping into the nearby walls. Marcus just held on for dear life all the while stabbing the lit flares into the creature’s face. After a few tense minutes of this, the monster stopped its movement before it slowly began to topple forward. Feeling the change, Marcus let go of the knife and kicked himself away from the monster just as it crashed into the ground. The impact drove the knife even deeper into its chest, delivering the fatal blow. Most of the flares dropped to the floor, slowly setting fire to parts of the creature or the bits of plastic that were close by. Marcus panted for a moment, eyes fixed on the partially burning creature sprawled on the floor, blood pooling beneath it. He just stared at the red liquid, his mind reluctant to accept the fact that he had won and actually killed it. He yanked the second knife from his chest rig before rushing back at the monster, jumping on its back. In a frenzy, he stabbed and slashed at the corpse, again and again, until his arms ached from exertion and the knife handle grew slippery with blood. Exhausted, he stared at the lifeless monster, seeing the flames slowly engulf its head as he accepted his victory. Collapsing on the floor, he tried to catch his breath as the chamber started to fill up with smoke from the flares, the burning corpse and the smoldering plastic. Coughing, Marcus’s eyes and lungs started to sting from the thickening smoke. He crouched low, searching for his backpack. When he spotted it, he rushed over, stuffing his sleeping bag inside along with the plastic bag of Glass pieces. Knife and filled backpack in hand, he then ran towards Specter, pouring every bit of Mana he had into the robot the second he clutched the steel frame. “Wake up,” he hissed as their minds connected. Memories suddenly flooded in, allowing him to recall how Specter had spent what little battery it had left taking care of him, doing its best to keep him safe and block the tunnel to prevent monsters from coming down.

Marcus slammed the memories aside as he forced his mind to focus on the task at hand, both bodies moving as one before Marcus let go. The robot quickly started to move, extracting itself from its position and descending into the chamber, shield in tow. “Go up, I’ll grab the Glass from the monsters here,” Specter said while Marcus shot upward, coughing violently as he dragged his gear with him, cursing each time his spear or backpack snagged on something. In a matter of seconds the tunnel became a swirling abyss of smoke, the acrid odor of burning flesh and plastic clinging to Marcus’s senses. His nostrils burned, and his eyes stung as he crawled desperately, fingers fumbling over uneven surfaces.

Visibility deteriorated rapidly, and soon, he was navigating purely on touch, holding his breath for as long as he could. Climbing faster, the discomfort intensified as he felt himself about to pass out or choke to death in the fumes. ‘Not like this!’ The smoke seemed to wrap around him, an ominous black shroud closing in. Then, just as the encroaching darkness of unconsciousness threatened to engulf him entirely, the tunnel abruptly opened up. Marcus felt the cool rush of outside air, and with sheer instinct, he threw himself to the side, collapsing on his back. Gasping in a lungful of the comparatively cleaner air, he teetered on the edge of consciousness. He could hear and feel his body cough violently, desperate to inhale some oxygen and to expel all the smoke he had collected. Marcus rubbed his eyes, trying to lessen the irritation. As he did so he caught the occasional thought and memory from Specter, glimpsing how the robot clumsily extracted Glass from monsters within the smoke-filled chamber and gathering their gear, including Marcus’s partially torn raincoat, which had served as a pillow. As the young man continued to cough for a while longer, he slowly rose to a kneeling position. ‘Please don’t let this have ruined my lungs permanently,’ he thought before he heard a noise nearby. His gaze shot to the right, where a tall man in military gear with a missing right arm stood, a gas mask hanging from his hip. Tension gripped the man’s expression for a moment as he glanced at Marcus’s hands, which instantly relaxed and lifted in a nonthreatening gesture.

“Well, well. Seems I’ve caught our little rat,” the man remarked with a hint of a German accent, a smile playing on his lips as he took in the disheveled state of Marcus and his gear. “We’ve been on the hunt for you for a while now.”

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Copyright: OsiriumWrites