Chapter 2:
Chapter 2 — Marked
GrimBorne-I Will Devour You
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Karauro’s world fell back into darkness.
He groaned and rolled onto his back, sinking into the yellow foam.
Only the red glow of his wrist terminal remained.
[ DEIMOS COLLABORATOR ]
I didn’t do anything.
I just tried to survive.
Finally, his hand moved.
Whatever had chased him was gone.
Karauro pushed against the foam.
The elevator wall creaked, then toppled outward.
He winced at the crash.
Rows of red lights blinked overhead.
Boots echoed from the steel stairs above.
Karauro froze.
Flashlights swept across him.
Athereon soldiers descended with rifles raised.
“Trash Sector 7. Worker 013. Come with us.”
Rifles clicked.
Karauro raised his hands.
Someone drove his face into the concrete.
Heat burst across his brow.
Blood ran down his cheek.
Cold restraints snapped around his wrists.
A soldier passed a scanner over his terminal.
“Confirmed.”
Another soldier glanced into the tunnel.
“East lift is dead. We take the west route.”
They dragged Karauro with them.
The tunnels narrowed as they descended.
Old cables sagged overhead.
Then the squad stopped.
A wall ahead pulsed.
Not metal.
Flesh.
Commander Mercer raised a hand to his helmet.
“Helix Guard to Athereon HQ. This is Commander Mercer.”
Static answered.
Karauro stared at the wall.
“I don’t think we should be here.”
One soldier glanced back.
“Your Deimos did this.”
Karauro’s jaw tightened.
“I don’t know any Deimos.”
Something scraped behind them.
Flashlights whipped around.
The biomass split open.
“Fire!” Mercer shouted.
Insects erupted from the wall.
Stingers hammered against Nexon plating.
Sparks scattered through the tunnel.
Mercer yanked Karauro behind him and opened fire.
The squad backed toward a steel bulkhead as rounds tore through chitin.
Then something skittered across the ceiling.
Karauro looked up.
A human shape crawled above them on bent limbs.
A Griever host.
It dropped onto a soldier.
Armor tore.
The soldier screamed as mites burrowed into his torso.
Another disappeared into his open mouth.
“Jaxon!”
Flame washed across the wall.
Mercer slammed his fist against the bulkhead controls.
“Back!”
The squad stumbled through.
Grenades bounced across the other side.
The steel doors slammed shut.
The explosion shook the tunnel.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Darren ripped off his helmet.
“Where the hell are the Warden drones? They’ve kept this sector contained for years.”
His glare shifted to Karauro.
“And somehow this one walks out alive.”
Karauro glared back.
“I lost someone down there too.”
Darren stepped toward him.
Mercer caught his arm.
“Enough.”
Darren jerked free.
Mercer looked at Karauro.
“Everyone around you died or turned.”
Karauro swallowed.
“I don’t know why I survived.”
A violent bang struck the bulkhead behind them.
Everyone turned.
Muffled screams carried through the steel.
Mercer grabbed Karauro and pulled him upright.
“Then keep surviving.”
They moved.
Biomass thickened along the walls.
Corpses protruded from it.
The overhead lights flickered.
Then died.
Emergency lights bled red across the tunnel.
Static screamed through the soldiers’ comms.
Several tore off their earpieces.
Karauro’s chest tightened.
Reika flashed through his mind.
Movement stirred inside a side tunnel.
Karauro’s eyes widened.
Something tall unfolded from the darkness.
Green ooze dripped from hooked claws.
Its knees bent backward.
A long bony tail swayed behind it.
The soldiers were still fighting their comms.
The creature crept closer.
Almost silent.
Karauro’s mouth went dry.
“Uh...”
Mercer turned.
Too late.
The creature’s beaked mouth split open.
Its tail fired forward.
Bone punched through Darren’s ankles.
He screamed as the darkness swallowed him.
A wet crunch followed.
Every rifle snapped toward the tunnel.
Darren’s body slid back into view.
Split open.
The biomass above them burst.
Gunfire strobed through the darkness.
The creature flashed between muzzle bursts.
Then vanished.
Karauro dove aside.
Something warm sprayed across his face.
He touched it.
Blood.
Something thicker clung to his fingers.
He stared.
Mercer grabbed him beneath the arm.
“Move!”
Karauro stumbled after him.
Then a vibration hummed through his chest.
Faint.
Wrong.
Karauro stopped.
“Left side!”
Mercer spun.
The flesh wall split open.
The creature lunged through.
Bullets hammered against its body.
Rounds ricocheted from hardened flesh and drove it back into the biomass.
Mercer stared after it.
“How did you know?”
Karauro looked down at his chest.
What was that?
A mangled body dropped from above.
It slammed Karauro onto his back.
His hands landed in warm flesh.
His stomach lurched.
Claws scraped nearby.
Karauro slowly turned.
The Skrawler crept from the darkness.
His body locked.
Mercer shoved him forward.
“Move!”
Karauro stumbled on his cuffed hands.
The Skrawler lunged.
Gunfire erupted behind him.
“KEEP MOVING!”
Karauro threw his hands forward.
The Kinetic glove screamed.
A pale tether snapped from his palm and struck the wall.
Concrete fractured.
Karauro’s eyes widened.
“No...”
The ceiling groaned.
Mercer looked up.
“Kid, RUN!”
The tunnel collapsed.
Karauro threw himself forward as concrete thundered down behind him.
Dust swallowed everything.
He coughed and crawled toward the rubble.
“Mercer?”
A cough answered.
Karauro found a narrow opening between two slabs.
Mercer lay beneath a broken support on the other side.
Blood ran down his face.
“I can move it,” Karauro said. “My glove, I can—”
“Don’t.”
Claws scraped somewhere behind Mercer.
Karauro stopped breathing.
The Scrawler unfolded from the dark.
Mercer looked back at it.
Then at Karauro.
He raised his wrist and swiped across the band.
Karauro’s cuffs clicked open.
They fell from his wrists.
Karauro stared at them.
Mercer gave him a tired grin.
“Keep moving.”
The Scrawler charged.
“But—!”
Its tail punched through Mercer’s chest.
His body jerked.
Karauro froze.
Mercer coughed blood.
His hand still found the grenade at his belt.
The pin struck the floor.
His grin remained.
“MOVE!”
Karauro ran.
The explosion swallowed the tunnel.
He didn’t know how long he wandered afterward.
Eventually, the tunnels spat him beneath a dead sky.
Every scrape sounded like claws.
Every shadow looked too tall.
His legs shook beneath him.
Keep moving.
Mercer’s voice followed him through the ruins.
A faded convenience-store sign emerged between the broken buildings.
Karauro found a way inside.
He dropped into the darkness and struck a shelf.
Boxes crashed around him.
Karauro tried to stand.
His body refused.
For the first time, nothing chased him.
No soldiers.
No gunfire.
No claws scraping through the dark.
That somehow made everything worse.
His hands began to shake.
Jorrin burning.
Darren vanishing into the dark.
Mercer smiling with a grenade in his hand.
Karauro curled against the dusty floor.
“Stop...”
His terminal glowed beside him.
[ DEIMOS COLLABORATOR ]
Karauro stared at the red words until his eyes finally closed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━💬 AUTHOR'S NOTE: If this chapter grabbed you, leave a follow so Karauro doesn’t scream alone underground tonight.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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