Konrad emptied his last magazine, then threw the pistol at the nearest creature stalking him in a vain attempt to buy them some time. They weren’t human, or anything else for that matter. They were sluggish, and it made him sick to his stomach just watching them. Their movements were bizarre, almost as if their bones were broken, and yet still they kept up their pursuit.

Together Konrad and the girls carried their comatose comrades down the zig-zagged hallways, delving deeper and deeper into the bowels of the facility. He abandoned any hope of reaching the surface anytime soon, which was a fair trade if they could just escape whatever these things were. 

They were tall and lanky, thin and eery. Their heads were wide where they carried one massive jawline, and were topped with a crown covered in eyes! The sounds they made were the stuff of nightmare, their screams like a babe being ripped from the womb! 

An acrid rotting smell accompanied them, and Konrad couldn’t help but notice the build up of rust carpeting the walls as they were pursued.

Whatever these things were, they were clearly an abortion! Something the Redever military had been cooking up in their labs for years, and ultimately left behind. But that didn’t seem quite right to him. There was something about them that truly struck a nerve. Just being near them gave him a sense of dread…something he hadn’t felt in a long time. 

He assumed the Redever military believed they would wither away and die in those vats after all this time. Whatever they were supposed to be, or what they were conjured from, they had evidently failed their initial purpose. What they were now were some form of menace.

Bullets seemed to have little effect. A trail of ripped off flesh and sinew was left in their wake. Snapped bones didn’t seem to slow them down. Even after wasting most of their ammunition, not a single one of those things had fallen.

They wouldn’t make it much further, they were running on pure adrenaline now. Konrad knew they were on their last legs. Stairway after stairway brought them to hallways that hadn’t been traversed in decades, and more than once they had to backtrack around a dead end.

Somehow, after rushing deep into the guts of the ancient facility, they managed to come across a miracle. A working blast door. Sealing themselves off from the creatures pursuing them, Konrad then brought everyone to the next chamber, and found it to be a loading bay. The chamber was filled with ancient artillery shells, and the means to transport them to higher floors. The elevator system built to carry the shells might be their way out, if they could figure a way to bring them online.

Monica had lost her spear when she tried jamming it through one of those things. She had pinned it against a wall, but that seemed to do it little harm. Without anything to use as a weapon, the woman seethed with rage. 

Marci abandoned her own firearm in order to better carry the woman over her shoulder. It was no matter, she was a terrible shot anyway. In these tight confines, it was even more dangerous having too many guns firing all over the place.

Konrad only had his sword, which was coated in sticky brown gore. He looked down at the blade, realizing the hilt had rusted, and it was likely that the rest of the blade was tarnished as well.

“Shit,” he tried to wipe the grime off the blade, only to have his suspicions confirmed. The once pristine steel blade had grown brittle. 

“Did we lose them?” Marci asked, dropping Lucy onto the floor against the wall.

“For the moment.” Already they could hear the deathly cries of the creatures somewhere in the distance. Their wails were muted somewhat through the blast door, but no less terrifying.

Once Konrad dropped Mike next to the others, Marci rushed his side. Each of the three comatose members were pale, their eyes still wide open and rolled back. Their chests were barely rising, each shallow exhale sounded like a death gasp.

“Mike why won’t you wake up!” Marci tried to shake him awake.

Monica leaned next to Laura, whose lips were quivering in between breaths. Konrad laid his ruined blade aside, and sat next to her.

“What is she saying?” He asked Monica, who had noticed it first. There were words mumbling from Laura’s lips. They were hard to make out, barely a whisper, but now that everyone had a moment to catch their breath, they could try to pay them more attention.

“Something like…” Monica tried to lean in closer. “I can’t tell.”

“Hold on,” Konrad said, leaning in alongside her. His ear was right next to the vampires lips. Her breath was sour, as if something was rotting inside her mouth. It was then that he could make out the words.

Konrad jerked back, his eyes darting to the others. His heart leapt up his throat as Lucy, Laura, and Mike started to move, their mouths gaping wider and wider.