Three Pairs of Eyes

Trace—a reconnaissance expert, fiercely resourceful, and always has a knack to get into and out of tight situations. Now, he’s just a pile of shredded clothing and lacerated meat. He lays in a pool of blood mixed with clumps of his hair. Small incisions perforate his body in a semi-circular pattern.

They butchered him.

Jen is the first to break the silence, “I’ll administer a dose of stabilizer,” she informs, retrieving a syringe from her medical kit.

Trace’s corpse body is cold, and his blood is dry.

We were too late… days too late… to prevent this.

He was already gone by the time I first learned about Trace during my infiltration of the school.

“Jen,” Harbinger murmurs feebly, trying to coax her away from Trace’s body and out of the room.

Jen pays her captain no mind, absorbed in her pursuit to save a fellow comrade, kneeling by Trace’s remains. “No, for wounds like these, I’ll have no double the dose—no, triple it!”

Harbinger walks over to Jen and places his hand on her shoulder, “Jen,” Harbinger repeats, more firmly this time, “There’s nothing left to resuscitate… I’m sorry.”

Jen trembles, dropping the syringe from her hand. “Liar… You told us that you always knew how to escape a dire situation. It was because of your rough upbringing in the gangs…”

“I know,” Harbinger acknowledges empathetically.

“But he always escapes. He promised us.”

“Soldiers can’t make promises,” Harbinger confesses.

After offering one last moment of silence for our fallen comrade, Jen stows her medical kit, and Harbinger signals for us to leave the room.

We retrace our steps back to the television, and Harbinger retrieves Trace’s communications device and Breakpoint badge, respectfully examining them before securing them to his person.

SMASH!

Our somber moment was interrupted by the sound of shattered glass.

But this sound is familiar… It's the same sound we heard when Trace was attacked on video!

I hear countless bodies move beneath us from the first floor. With so many windows and stairs to cover, we’d be easily overrun!

“Looks like we sprung their trap after all.” Harbinger admits. “No matter. On me, double time! We can’t have them seal off our only exit! Breakpoint will live! We’ll honor our fallen man by conquering those who think they’re untouchable!”

Jen and I immediately acknowledge, spurred on by Harbinger’s words, briskly running down the hall alongside our captain with our rifles drawn.

As we approach the closest set of stairs leading downstairs…

GAH-GRR!

A cacophony of growling fills the facility. Growling? There aren’t many canines in Crux City…

PIT-PAT, PIT-PAT, PIT-PAT!

And footsteps? But neither the heavy footsteps of agents in combat boots nor the fast, rhythmic clicking from a dog’s nails as their paws hit the floor,but rather, it was the sound of bare feet on concrete. Just what are we up against?

I take up a firing stance near the stairs, with Jen and Harbinger covering my flanks. I aim down my sights… Waiting, expecting our assailants to reveal themselves.

Then, our first enemy sharply rounds the corner and turns to the stairs, stumbling on the first step. I hesitate, leaving my finger off the trigger and securing a flashlight to my rifle to take a better look at the enemy combatants. Harbinger and Jen rush to my side, ready to eliminate our adversaries together.

As I aim the beam of light directly down the stairs, the fallen figure raises its head.

Humanoid eyes, cut into three segments, as if it had three pairs of smaller eyes. The eyes are separated by thin burn marks made by a precise instrument… a Paladin-branded electromagnetic carving device, no doubt.

The eyes emit a light violet glow, a telltale sign of human experimentation.

I wince, narrowing my own eyes at the sight of such a monster.

The creature reaches for me with its elongated limb, revealing slender fingers… with no fingernails.

I recoil, withdrawing my trigger finger from my rifle, allowing the creature to open its gaping mouth, filled with long, narrow teeth with large gaps between each tooth, separated by inflamed gums. Almost as each tooth was shifted ninety degrees to one side.

I clench my jaw, grinding my teeth at such a grisly sight.

“What the hell are those?!” Jen screams, panicked, never facing such a foe. “Wait, those incisions on Trace’s body. I knew they couldn’t have been made with surgical instruments…”

“They were bite marks!” Jen announces.

Without hesitation, Harbinger takes aim and puts down the creature before it even gets up.

“It doesn’t matter,” Harbinger replies. “All we know is that we are fighting Trace’s killers! Look sharp!”

Emboldened by our resolve to avenge Trace, not a moment passes before the rest of the horde of creatures scramble up the stairs, trampling their fallen comrade with blatant disregard for their own safety.

We retaliate, firing a volley of bullets at our attackers. Each letting out deranged cries as they succumb to our gunfire. As we empty our clips into the horde of enemies, though we hear movement around us in the distance, the stairs were clear of hostiles.

The three of us seize this opportunity to rush down the stairs, wading through blood and the remains of these creatures, to reach the bottom floor.

Upon re-entering the large foyer, I quickly realized that our original entrance was wide open.

“There, our way out!” I communicate to the team, shining my light at our would-be exit.

Without any further words, we rush towards the exit, desperate to end this horrific mission.

CREAAAK!

…Suddenly, the door begins to close! Our only exit will be sealed if we don’t act now!

We pick up our pace by extending our stride, trying to outpace the mechanism blocking our way home.

Harbinger takes pot shots, while on the move, at the hydraulic mechanism.

CLANG!

One of his shots hit their mark… and water from the mechanism gushes from it.

The door appears to cease moving, but only for a moment.

Then, I see a pair of enemy agents… manually sliding the door from the outside!