The stench of blood and gore.
Blood-stained walls.
Corpses of people and lizard monsters.
The inside of the building was not a pretty sight.
It was complete carnage.
In addition, the flickering lights and odd silence made the interior look like a scene from a horror movie.
The gruesome scene would have dissuaded most from entering. Still, Oliver and his party walked through the main entrance into a tunnel leading to the command centre.
The research outpost was built by burrowing into the mountainside. There were many large tunnels connecting individual parts or blocks, serving different functions.
The command centre was one of the outermost blocks according to the blueprint they had at hand.
"Sir, the security systems are offline. We can go in." One of the soldiers informed the team leader.
"Okay, let's go."
They stepped into a large tunnel easily capable of transporting an entire truck.
"Were they planning to make a subway system?"
One of the soldiers muttered.
"Maybe they had large equipment they had to transport."
"Don't tell me they have a mech inside for security."
"No way. Mechs need larger tunnels."
"Yeah, that makes sense."
"Whew… Almost scared me."
The soldiers murmured amongst themselves.
*Lzzz*
*Tick*
*Spark*
Suddenly, mysterious sounds came from the other end of the tunnel.
The flickering red emergency lights that were lining the edges of the tunnel suddenly turned off.
*Sh*t*
The sudden loss of light caused them to curse out.
Fortunately, everyone was wearing combat suits with masks and night vision capabilities. Even Oliver and Achara wore them when they entered the tunnels.
These combat suits were designed to protect the body from sharp objects, projectiles and environmental hazards like acids and radiation. It was the latest of its kind used by the military.
Quickly, they activated the night vision goggles.
So, the sudden disappearance of light didn't throw them into panic.
"Everyone, focus. Keep formation and adjust your gear." The team leader's hushed voice came into their ears through the earpiece.
"12 O'clock, thirty meters ahead, movement detected."
"Where is it?"
"It disappeared."
The voices talked.
"Possibly an enemy scout."
"Everyone, move forward." The team leader commanded.
While they walked to the command centre, occasionally, they would sense movement. But just like before, the entity would scurry away once it realised they noticed its presence.
Initially, everyone thought it was a scout of some kind. But that thought disappeared when they realised the entity was not showing any malicious intent at all.
At most, it was behaving like a curious kitten, observing people and running away without causing any harm.
While they thought that, none of the soldiers let down their guard. This was a life-or-death situation where a single mistake could cause them to lose everything.
They were unwilling to gamble their life based on vague feelings.
–
A couple of minutes later, going through the twists and turns in the tunnel, they reached the front of the sealed door to the command centre.
"Does the master key not work?" The team leader asked the technical member of the team.
"It works. But something is jamming it from the inside or the power to the doors was disconnected. Most likely, the person inside cut the power cords to the door. I am pretty sure that there are survivors inside." He said before suggesting, "Should I try to connect to the mainframe and broadcast a message?"
"Do it."
Two-way communication was impossible but broadcast through an open channel would be picked up even if the other side didn't want to.
"Hello, we are from the base camp. Is there anyone inside the command centre? I repeat, is there anyone inside?"
The voice of the team leader was transmitted through the radio.
"Are you really people from the base?"
Immediately, a reply came.
There were survivors.
This was good news.
"Yes, we are. Can you open the door so that we can talk face-to-face?"
"No, we don't believe it. The signals were blocked. You cannot be people from the base camp. The distress signal wouldn't have reached you." The voice from the command centre spoke.
He seems to be unwilling to believe.
"How could you come here without receiving the distress signals?" The man asked.
"We detected some anomaly and were directed to investigate." The team leader tried to persuade them.
"No, you are with the demon, right? Don't think you can fool me again, you damned demon." The man spoke hysterically.
Anyone could see that his mind was not in the right condition. He was breaking down due to the constant threat of death.
Oliver watched what was happening from the sidelines. He carefully organised every word the voice on the radio said to get a general understanding of the situation.
"Sir, I don't know who you are or what you went through. But believe me when I say we are here to save you. I can prove we are from the base camp if you could power on the doors."
"How are you going to prove it?"
"We have the master key to this entire facility."
"Are you really human?"
"Yes."
"Not demons?"
"Yes."
The man from the other side rambled nonsense, and the team leader entertained it to gain the trust of the other party.
While speaking, the person finally revealed his identity as the chief of research. It was the title given to the head of the research facility.
Other than military personnel, he was someone who had full command over everyone inside there.
Though it took a while, the team leader finally gained enough trust for him to reveal what happened in the facility.
Apparently, the team of researchers were on the cusp of developing a revolutionary technique to synthesise stem cells. It was supposed to be an innovation that would change the world.
But before they could complete it, the demons attacked the research facility. They were fully fused demons among the researchers and they were blindsided because of it.
So, they abandoned everything and huddled inside the command centre for safety.
The command centre was one of the most securely built parts of the building. That was why the few survivors came here.
The chief quickly explained the situation.
However, the bullsh*the sensor of Oliver was going off into overdrive hearing his world.
Whatever the man says was not the full story.