Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25103566-20140628004408

[Note]: First of all, the story is really long. I don't really WANT/DESIRE feedbacks or additional ideas, but they are more than welcome as I am a firm believer of free speech. I am merely writing out of pure fun, as hobby, and to kill time. I have written manuscripts previously (non-English) and am trying to become a part time writer. I am not a native English speaker/writer, I've only had experience with English language for merely 4 years. If you find my story not fun or creepy at all, you may let me know. You may also make fun of me for any errors I make, I will not take it personally. I can't guarantee that I will respond to your feedbacks, but I WILL appreciate both positives and negatives. I also do not expect - out of sheer entitlement mentality - my story to be published on the main page, because again, this is purely out of fun. I would like to thank Creepypasta wiki to have opened opportunity for people like myself to freely write. (In accordance to the rule of course.) Thank you all and enjoy!

Part 1: Shroud

My story begins here. I used to be part of a major multinational scientific project called the 'Project Tomorrow'. The project alone consisted of around a hundred thousand personnel. It was run by the most brilliant minds on the planet, but at the top of its chain, only six people actually guided the project.

I was merely an officer with my own platoon of security personnel. My impressive military record and commendations got me here, but as soon as I got here, I felt like a nobody; an unimpressive figure. I'm not really into civilian life, but seeing all these engineers and scientists working on something that seem as important as this, made me feel small. I was just a grunt to them and I wasn't really part of the project, because I was only there to protect.

Whatever these eggheads were doing, were none of my business as my commander clearly stated. But before I became a soldier, I studied in the field of engineering. It became a stale subject after a while because of the lack of practical learning during my time in the university, and also because my urge to do something rather than sit around and read books. Making and fixing things were my strong suit. I learned that military was much more practical, so I decided to give it a try. My superiors were impressed by my enthusiasm and performance, thus I rose through the ranks quickly and even commissioned to become an officer from an enlisted soldier. I mainly handled technical stuff.

My particular interest in such a field got me really excited about this project, unlike the platoon of underlings I now command. I often talked to couple of people among the scientific community working on the project to perhaps hear few rumors and stories about it, but those merely scratched the surface; the rest were classified. The more I heard their stories during mess time, the more I became thirsty for knowledge.

-

One of the eggheads huffed at me and said, "Aren't you a security guard? Why do you ask so much about our work here? This doesn't concern you."

I kept my cool and left the mess hall. As I walked down the corridor of this semi-underground mega-structure, I passed by a old woman in formal office clothing, escorted by other lab coats speaking to her in some foreign language. The woman looked awfully familiar. I think I've seen her somewhere on the newspaper or some photo hanging on the wall in one of the many lobbies in this complex. There were just so many people here, I could hardly keep track. After a while, I remembered she was one of what we call the Top Six, directors of this project. All those six people had one thing in common, they were all Nobel Prize winners and were scientists and professors; people who had knowledge and wisdom of some of the most secret and dangerous theories. I shouldn't forget their faces next time, as they could be my priority to protect.

-

One of the physicists I befriended here named Peter, told me that the whole thing started purely out of fear and preparation reasons ever since the Delhi Incident, where an atomic weapon was detonated in the city of Delhi, and millions perished. I remember that incident... it was on the news when I was having rare dinner with my wife. Totally killed our mood. Fortunately, the incident did not spread further, but it had some... effect. Governments of the world did not know who or what caused the atomic bomb to go off in the middle of the city. My own, the United States government, suspected it was terrorism, and insisted that investigation and tightened national security world-wide was necessary. And tightened it was. Millions of people across the globe soon became paranoid, chaos was running amok, and tightened securities in airports and borders were quickly rendered useless. Widespread panic, forced relocation, martial law, mass surveillance, riots, stock market going downhill...etc that sort of thing. One incident that shattered our globalized world. Politicians themselves became paranoid and started pointing fingers, blaming others, forging alliances. Geographical powers shifted constantly, becoming unstable.

Part 2: Yesterday

A year later after I was assigned to Project Tomorrow, shit hit the fan. Another atomic detonation occurred somehwere in Australia, but no one was killed. I gave my wife a call, asking her how she was doing. I already knew she would be fine though, as long as she stayed in military housing unit. I met with Peter afterwards, during lunch hour. Mess hall was surprisingly emptier than usual and corridors were busier with lab coats running about. Peter was awfully calm however, and slowly ate his lunch.

"Hey, Pete." I greeted him as I set my tray down next to his.

"Good afternoon, Adrian." Peter replied, with lack of enthusiasm.

"I just heard, you guys are speeding up the process now?" I asked Peter.

"I'm starting to think we are chasing a fairy tale." Peter let out a huge sigh as he let go of his plastic fork and rubbed his eyes.

"Hey, is everything alright?" I asked. Peter stared at me puzzled for a few seconds.

"You are really something aren't you? You should've just stuck to education, then maybe you would've been part of the team. I've never seen a security guard so interested in this project. Or anything scientific for that matter." Peter scoffed. What a dick.

I stared at him for a bit, then Peter let out a sigh and apologetically said, "I'm sorry, I haven't been able to sleep. I'm just... really stressed out right now. I personally have doubts about this whole thing. Do you really want to know what's going on? Don't tell anyone about this, okay?" Apology accepted, I was most eager to hear about what he had to say.

-

My jaws dropped as Peter finished his last sentence. I didn't know what to think of it.

"Listen, I gotta get going. I'll talk to you tomorrow and remember, don't tell anyone that I told you about this. This is top secret. It could cost me my job. I just put my neck out there for you only because you were willing to learn, and I appreciate people like that." Peter quickly got up and disappeared amongst swarms of lab coats in the corridor.

I remembered, Peter used to be a professor and he loved to lecture.

-

The whole thing did sound like a fairy tale. I couldn't believe countries around the world are literally spending billions annually on this project. Just who the hell were the Top Six? Where did they get all these ideas? And how is this going to stop the random atomic detonations happening across the globe? Peter didn't explain why the detonations were happening though, I thought to myself that they should focus more on finding out who or what is doing this, instead of researching... whatever Project Tomorrow was supposed to be.

-

The main goal of this project was simply put, 'preservation of life' or 'birth of new life'. According to their theory, in order to preserve life, a previous life must be destroyed, which creates a catalyst or a husk to host a life that needs to be preserved; a new life. Whatever the hell that meant, it didn't sound too good. This whole thing sounded like pseudo-science nonsense. No wonder this project officially did not exist.

Peter also said something about residual energy left by light itself. Oh man, he mentioned a lot of things like transhumanism, ascension to transcendence, afterlife, space and time, mind and universe, next dimension, souls, and most crap that everyday intellectuals didn't even want to believe in. I wonder what they are all thinking right now. They all must feel incredibly stupid. I am still amazed how they didn't line up to voluntarily leave the program. But something about this project didn't seem right. It all seemed so wrong. I do understand that science have always tried to manipulate or at least tried its best to defy certain set of rules, but this... this was wrong. This was literally trying to fuck with nature... fuck with god... Or maybe, they wanted to be gods.

But why do this? What does nuclear explosions have to do with any of this? That's one thing Peter didn't understand either. He said every personnel within high clearance level was told that the project's goal was to preserve life, in preparation of worst case scenario... complete annihilation of human race. But he suspected something fishy, he suspected there were far bigger things at work here. And this definitely wasn't about creating a new type of beings to flourish on Earth after we are gone. Every scientists had their own departments to fill, and so the story can never be complete, according to Peter.

As a security personnel, I seemed to be on a neutral ground. I thought if I investigated, and connected the dots, maybe... just maybe I can find some answers. It was time for me to make some more egghead friends before the project was finished... if it will ever finish that is.

-

I was tired, but I couldn't sleep. I rolled around in my bunk bed trying to shake off the thought of what this project might be. It was so strange how I was so deeply intrigued by it. I was never this interested in something, in my life. I was too anxious and wanted to exploit the advantage of being a 'ignorant' security. But I should exercise caution, asking too much question is going to get me off this complex for good, and possibly court-martialed and imprisoned... or even killed. Finally, my mind was at ease and my eyes started to close. And then, the alarm.

The PA system broadcasted in different languages, "Security personnel section one through twelve, report to your posts immediately."

The announcement repeated several times. I quickly got up and ran through the corridor as fast as I can. The corridor was empty and scientists were nowhere to be found. I reached Security Operations Center. I saw other officers hurrying inside. We immediately lined up side by side in this dark room, dimly lit by computers and surveillance monitors.

"Senior officer on deck!" Someone in the room shouted, and the busy room halted all its activities.

An old man in camouflage uniform approached; it was Major General Hayes, our commander. He slowly walked around and said, "At ease." The room bustled with activities again.

He continued to walk around and inspected us.

"You, you, you, and you, come with me. The rest of you, you know what to do." He said as he pointed at each one of us, including me. He turned and walked towards the back room, which was used as conference room.

The four of us got inside and sat down as the senior officer ordered us to. In the room, a man in a suit was already waiting for us.

"I didn't pick you because you are special. I picked you because you are all Americans. The rest of the officers will be briefed by their own designated commanders. Now let's get down to business." The senior officer nodded at the man in black suit.

"Good evening gentlemen, I'm special agent Watson. I oversee the security operations in this sector." The man in black suit said as he stood up. The senior officer cleared his throat and Agent Watson quickly said, "Right. At around 2200, one of Top Six member was killed. We suspect it was intentional murder. As of now, we could not identify the suspect, but we do have the surveillance footage of the situation. Unfortunately, this person was wearing a black hoodie and his face was covered. We cannot verify the suspect within this complex because he was wearing civilian clothing, instead of uniform, lab coat or even the mandatory ID tag. We could not find anyone matching the description."

Watson handed out the photos of the scene captured by surveillance camera to me and other officers. I was shocked at what I saw. There were many photos to make up for the duration of one minute of the footage. As we looked through, we were baffled and looked at each other. It was that woman I saw at the corridor. Seeing Top Six members around the complex was a rarity. The first photo seemed to be showing a lab and she was alone in it. In the second photo, the hooded man approached her from behind. Third photo was what triggered my intrigue. In it, she was already turned around and you can clearly see horror on her face.

Before Watson spoke, I raised my hand and said, "Permission to speak, sir."

General Hayes nodded at me and I continued, "In the third photo, the Top Six member seems to be horrified at seeing the suspect. Do you think she was startled by his presence, or did she see something else?"

"Something else, you mean, under the hood?" Watson replied.

General Hayes slowly turned to look at Watson with concern, then turned back to me and said, "That's a very good observation soldier. But several security analysts have already pointed that out. They think she was merely startled."

"But sir, she looks like she's seen a ghost or something. The suspect wasn't holding any weapons, so I wouldn't personally be that horrified at seeing another person. Even in the fourth photo, she continues to look horrified... Sir." I pointed out to Hayes and Watson. They both looked at each other strangely and checked the fourth photo themselves.

"So what are you suggesting, lieutenant? Are you saying he's some kind of a monster or a ghost?" General Hayes retorted.

"Or maybe her ex-boyfriend with restraining order on him." One of the officer scoffed and two others chuckled, which they soon stopped after General Hayes cleared his throat.

"We'll look into it, lieutenant. But know that we don't have any personnel here that looks like a 'monster' or anything out of ordinary. Speaking of ordinary, no ordinary persons have access to this complex, so we are assuming it's one of the personnel that committed this murder." General replied.

"Lieutenant Adrian Rivers, I'm giving you clearance to B-6, bottom most level of the complex. Site of the murder is located on that floor, so are chambers for the Top Six. I recommend you and your men to keep your eyes peeled." Watson instructed. Watson continued to instruct other officers, then we were dismissed. Before I walked out, Watson called out my name.

"Lieutenant Rivers, may we have a moment to talk?" Watson asked. Every other officers had already left the room and only Hayes, Watson and I remained. "Well, you seem like a bright enough fellow. I've reviewed your file and I expected nothing less from you. I expect you to work with us more, in the future."

"Thank you sir."

"We've brought in the FBI and forensics experts to look around the murder scene, do not disturb them and make sure they don't wander around B-6. On another note, here's the actual footage of the murder. Play it and review it discreetly." Watson said as he produced a flash drive from his pocket.

"This is highly classified. Not even the FBI or other officers know about this. Your own men shouldn't know about this either. If the FBI demand more evidences from us, they are just not going to have them. We are only showing you this because you now have access to B-6 level clearance. Are we clear?" General Hayes was dead serious.

"Yes sir. Of course, sir." I replied nervously. General Hayes stared at me for a moment with great concern. "Dismissed." He finally said, and I walked out.

Part 3: Dew

Some people say dreams weren't true. But my dream was. My dream was based on what really happened, so I guess it was true. I could see that woman... Dr. Seon... that mortified face of hers... the image burned into my head, I couldn't shake it off. I was equally horrified at her reaction. What did she see? What made her so horrified, that she almost knew she would be killed... right in that moment? Was the suspect merely her ex-boyfriend like the other officer suggested? I quickly shook away that silly thought. I could almost hear her screams... her high and sharp scream like that of a banshee's. Blood painting white walls and floors of clean laboratory...

I woke up, breaking cold sweat. I was holding firmly onto something. It was the flash drive Watson gave me. I checked the time on my watch, it was 3:00 AM. I quietly got up from my bunk bed, trying my best not to wake up my men. I went outside into the corridor, which was brightly lit with fluorescent lights. The long corridor almost seemed unending, and it was awfully quiet. It crept me out. What if the murderer was around? What if he was in one of the rooms? I quickly disregarded any negative thoughts but checked for my gun holster anyways and continued my way down to recreation room.

As I opened the steel door of the dark recreation room, I saw that one of the computer was on. General Hayes was on the computer, chatting with someone on Skype. It looked to be his wife or his daughter, I couldn't tell.

"Hold on honey, I'm gonna have to call you back. I'll talk to you again real soon, I love you." He said into the microphone as he noticed me.

"General Hayes, sir." I said quietly, as I saluted him. "I didn't mean to disturb, sir."

"It's fine Lieutenant. What are you doing here this late? Don't you have big day tomo- I mean today?" He replied.

"I thought right now was a good time to review the footage discreetly, sir."

"Very well. Carry on then." Hayes hesitated to leave then said, "Good luck lieutenant. And I'd advise you not to get too attached to this situation."

General Hayes left the room and I wondered what he meant by 'not get too attached'. It probably meant as it was.

I sat down where Hayes was, and inserted the flash drive into the computer. In it was one video file and a text file named 'README'.

I instinctively opened the text file first and read on:

''B-6 and Command Clearance eyes only! If you were briefed, you know what to do. If you weren't, possessor of this evidence will be prosecuted under U.S. Federal Law Section...-''

The rest were legal gibberish, nothing important. As I put the cursor over the video file, I hesitated for a moment. I haven't seen real combat since I entered the military and I wasn't sure if I can stomach someone getting killed in a video... especially someone that I've seen or met. I mustered courage and clicked the two-minute video.

Strange... I thought the footage duration was one minute, according to the photos' time stamps.

Crap... the video had sound. I hesitated to mute, but decided not to.

Dr. Seon seemed to be humming some song as she was writing something on a paper. The song sounded a little familiar, but I didn't know what song it was.

I heard a creek, then a shadow. As the hooded person approached, Dr. Seon quickly turned. She was then clearly screaming and making that horrified expression, but nothing could be heard. Only thing that could be heard was the suspect's footsteps. She knelt down, continuing to 'scream'. The camera could not see what he was doing to her, as the suspect blocked the view. Now, I've reached the part where it wasn't shown by Watson's photos. For another one minute duration, the hooded man just stood there, in front of her while she knelt. Then at the near end of the video, I could see pool of blood on the floor, but avoiding the suspect's feet. He slowly walked away, and I nearly vomited.

Her eyes were missing. She was still making that mortified expression, her mouth wide open. Her eyeballs were neatly placed on her hands, which were on her lap. The video nearly ended and I saw her arms just coming off from her shoulders... and then her head rolled on the ground. The video ended with her disconnected and eye-less head staring right into the camera. Her eye sockets looked like an eternal abyss. I quickly closed my eyes, but it was too late. The sight already burned into my memory. I quickly closed the video and turned off the computer.

I counted... one... two... three...

I took a deep breath and thought about what I just saw. I didn't even bother to review it.

Something definitely strange was going on. Not a single sound came out of Dr. Seon, or from the suspect except for his footsteps. She didn't even struggle or scream in pain. He didn't even move around to cut her arms and head or even reached out to pull her eyes out. And the way he walked... it was so strange. He walked as if he had some kind of physical disability. He dragged his feet around as if they were heavy. And the rhythm was off.

I heard the door open. My hand instinctively reach for my gun.

To my great relief, it wasn't the hooded man. It was some foreign man in glasses.

He stopped and mumbled in a language I could not understand.

"I'm sorry, I can't understand you." I said, with my hand still on the holster.

The man said in not-so-broken English, but in heavy accent, "Am I allowed in here?"

"Yes, please go ahead. I was just about to leave." I said, and I stormed out of the room.

Part 4: Dawn

I could hear Mozart No. 21 coming out of one of Top Six's chambers. I closed my eyes and thought of my pregnant wife. She used to listen to this tune a lot, for the baby. A good thought in a while. My wife and my future child was the only thing that got my mind off the nightmarish horrors that I witnessed couple hours ago.

My meditation was abruptly interrupted by unnecessarily loud yawn from Sergeant Schmidt. I frowned at him but he didn't seem to have noticed me. He turned to me and gave me a tough slap to the arm.

"Hey LT! Everything's gonna be alright. Why don't you cheer up a bit?"

"Atten-TION!" I yelled at him and he immediately slapped his feet together, head held up high.

"Let's keep it professional while we are here, huh sergeant?"

"Yes sir! My apologies sir!"

"At ease."

Others chuckled and second lieutenant Cohen, my second in command, slapped him on the back of his head. Cohen was a former special forces member, and he's seen war. Everyone in my platoon was scared of him. I wasn't qualified to lead, compared to him.

I could see forensics experts going in and out of Dr. Seon's laboratory, scratching their heads. One of the Top Six's chamber door opened, and Mozart No. 21 blared out across the corridor. From the chamber, an extremely short and old man with a back problem stepped out, supported by a fancy wooden cane. He seemed to be in his 80s. He looked up and squinted at me from behind his thick glasses.

"You must be Adrian. Oh I heard that you were coming. Please, I want to talk to you about something. Let's walk down for a minute." the frail old man said. I gave a look to lieutenant Cohen and he nodded as a response.

"Please forgive my son Peter, sometimes he talks too much. I'm sure you've noticed." The old man said in a shaky voice.

"Peter's your son, sir?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes. He's a bright one isn't he? But sometimes, he yells at me too much. I think he assumes that I can't hear him anymore." Old man chuckled.

I gave a smile and asked, "I see. It's actually my fault that he told me about Project Tomorrow. I've asked him about it, after all."

He stopped walking and said, "Well, he did tell me you were awfully interested in what we are doing here. But that still didn't give him the right to tell you about it. It doesn't really matter though. I actually want to tell everyone about this, myself."

"So, what did you want to talk to me about, sir?"

"Please, call me Geoffrey. Geoffrey Lancaster."

"I'll call you Dr. Lancaster."

"If you insist."

Geoffrey continued the slow paced walk. He hummed some music. It was the same music that Dr. Seon was humming before she was murdered. That's right, it was Mozart No. 21.

He seemed to have forgotten all about me.

"Doctor, may I ask you a bit about Dr. Seon?" I asked, also hoping to remind him that I was still here.

He stopped again and he sighed.

"Back in my university days, we used to love each other. We were interested in similar things, and we always competed one another academically. Fate is a strange thing, I haven't seen her for almost 60 years now. Of all places, I see her here. Only to be murdered. Truly tragic. My love for her were all but faded away, so I didn't feel much when I saw her, but she seemed glad to see me." He said as he shook his head in shame.

"She used to be pregnant with my child, until one night she got into a terrible automobile accident. She killed one of the passengers of another car... and my child also."

"I... am very sorry to hear that, doctor."

"Oh so where was I? Right right right... I was going to tell you that we are very close to our research. The project have officially begun two days ago."

"Hasn't it already been a year since the project started?"

"Yes, but we needed that much time to test our theories."

"Is it a success then?"

"I am not sure, Adrian. I'm not sure."

He turned around and we both walked back towards my men. Geoffrey didn't make much sense, but I somehow enjoyed talking with him. Suddenly, I thought of my interest in the project and I didn't want to lose my chance at learning what it was really about.

"Doctor, Peter told me about so many things about this project and yet, it still doesn't answer why this has anything to do with nuclear explosions. And I personally think this whole project seems something out of a fictional book." There, I laid out my opinion before a Top Six member. I expected him to scold me for underappreciating his work. His response was disappointing and unexpected, however.

"I think so too, Adrian. But there are things that we don't yet understand. Something that's beyond our imagination, beyond what our fleshy brains allows us to think. There's something much more. We all have it in us. We all have consciousness, energy, and perhaps even spirits. Now they, my friend, are definitely not fiction."

"Aren't these all sort of, uncharted territory? What if, whatever you guys are doing, can't be controlled?"

"I guess you can say that science is another term for exploration. If we can't control it, then we'll make it so."

"You still haven't answered my question about the explosions, doctor."

"Those weren't explosions, I thought you knew already?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, you don't know then. They were something we call, hell, Adrian."

"H-Hell?"

"Ever since the beginning of mankind, we all had superstitions. Since the beginning of mankind, there were religions and belief of higher power. From stonehenges of worshipping the moon, to believing in different realms like heaven and hell. We always looked up to the sky believing in existence of gods, and we always looked down believing in what was available to us. Something that limits us to such environment, in another words, a backward process. Some say we came out of the ground." He cleared his throat and continued.

"We naturally despised the 'below', and glorified the 'above'. Do you know why this is? It's because we don't want to go back down there, but we want to go up there."

"At our current state, we are in the middle of the process of reaching somewhere greater. The above. That higher power, is where we are heading. Project Tomorrow is a gateway. Science of all science. Science that we were all born with, and destined to master in order for us to build the tower, reaching to the top."

"The explosions you heard of were indeed nuclear explosions. However, no man has caused it. That, I can guarantee you."

Baffled, I asked, "Then what caused the explosions?"

"Nothing. Our world is nearly at an end, friend. It is time for us to part ways with this old world, and into a new, as a new life."

"Does this also explain about the afterlife?" I asked once more.

"Afterlife is merely a concept for new life. The next stage of our evolution. We don't know what 'time' is like in the next world. We have theories that everything have already happened over there, and our world is merely a speck, or a speck that have already died out." He answered.

"Then what happens to all the people that have died in the past? They certainly didn't know about this."

"Individuality doesn't exist in the next life. They are merely back into the ground, and became dirt. I never said we are all going to ascend together. We are merely ascending what we are as humanity, towards the above. This will have applied to both yesterday and tomorrow. And for this, we must perish."

"Wait a minute, are you saying the explosions were caused intentionally, by this project? Your goal is to wipe out the entire species?"

"I told you, man have not caused them. It is 'hell'. The below. It is simply reacting to our attempt at leaving it, as it is natural."

"How does 'it' know what we are doing here?"

"It always knew. It is simply time for us to leave. It always has been. Explosions are happening at this moment. It could be anywhere in this universe. Delhi Incident was merely a one out of trillions of events, which happened to be on Earth, in the forms of our understanding. Should there be any intelligent life forms out there in space, they should be experiencing the same thing."

"Bloody hell! Don't listen to this old fool." A man from behind us spoke to us in a British accent. I quickly turned around to find a middle aged man in a lab coat.

"I told you, Dr. Lancaster. Our project is to prevent such an event! How many times do I have to tell you this?!" He looked extremely frustrated at the old man.

"Oh, I-"

"Enough already! We are going to prevent this, and keep the human race going. THAT is our goal, old fool, you understand?! THAT is why they are funding us to begin with, not to purposely die in a nuclear fire. If that was the case, we would just close up shop and LET IT HAPPEN! That isn't what you call, 'hell'. Hell can't even be defined by science, but we clearly cracked the reason behind why this is happening, did we not?! Damn pseudoscientists!"

"And you are?" I asked.

"Dr. Stewart. Please don't listen to his babble, we've already gone through this process many times. He is suffering from old age. This project isn't a gateway to 'afterlife', pfft what a bunch of nonsense."

"Then what is it?" I asked, menacingly.

"That's classified! Know your place, sir. We've already worked on this project for MORE than a year, thank you very much. And this old fool is mentally deteriorating, and decided to start his own project two days ago, using our research data, budget and diverting our people too no less! It sure pissed off a lot of us! I would like to have you arrest him for doing such a thing, but clearly it's not worth it." Dr. Stewart spat as he spoke.

"Is that true, Dr. Lancaster?" I asked, concerned.

He stayed quiet, then continued to walk down the corridor, back into his chamber, humming Mozart No. 21.

Dr. Stewart mumbled something to himself angrily and walked towards the opposite end of the corridor, where all the laboratories were.

Lieutenant Cohen approached me, worried.

"Is everything alright? What the hell was that about?"

"Ah, it's nothing. This whole thing is something we shouldn't worry about. It only gives people like us headaches." I replied, letting out a sigh.

"Roger that." Cohen agreed as he walked away.

I was extremely disappointed. The entire explanation from Dr. Lancaster seemed invalid after hearing what Dr. Stewart had to say. But I was so damn close to the answer. Maybe it was time I gave up. This was clearly not my territory and I should stay away from it.

-

"Holy shit that's him!" One of my men shouted.

I quickly turned to see what was going on. It was him. The hooded man. Standing at the far end of the corridor. I could feel him watching us, but I could not see his face as he was too far away. One of the lights above the hooded man flickered.

"Cohen, Kim, Schmidt, you are with me. Rest of you, secure the area! Make sure Top Six are safe! Let's move!" I ordered my men, as we drew our guns.

My heart was pumping, and adrenaline rushed through my veins. We sprinted across the corridor towards the hooded man. He slowly turned and entered one of the rooms in the far corner.

"Operations, code red on B-6. I repeat, code red on B-6! Over!" Cohen spoke into his earpiece radio. Alarms went off soon after.

"Bravo Platoon, we see the suspect. B-6 is now on lockdown. Suspect is in room 6-PW. We'll open the door for you when you are ready, over." Radio spoke through.

"Shit, isn't that the power plant?" Schmidt called out.

"Keep your shit together!" Cohen shouted back.

Then, the fluorescent lights turned off, and humming sound of machines powering down could be heard. The corridor was pitch black. We all stopped our sprint.

"Shit! Operations, we need lights down here, over!" Cohen shouted into his radio.

"Please stand by, emergency power is coming online, over." Operator replied.

Red emergency lights came on. Then I nearly pissed myself. The hooded man was right across the corridor, slowly limping towards us. Everytime he limped, he seemed to somehow 'teleport' forward, foot by foot. Worst of all, emergency lights above his head turned off as he limped. One by one.

Our fear stopped us in our tracks.

"Holy shit..." Corporal Kim mumbled, scared shitless.

"Operations! Suspect is out! How the hell did he get out!?" I shouted into the radio, panicked.

"Our automated lockdown protocol is malfunctioning. We are looking into the problem. Do what you gotta do and take care of him!" General Hayes himself spoke through.

Then suddenly, I heard Dr. Stewart crying out from far behind.

"Stop! Stop! Don't shoot him! I order you to STOP!"

I turned around and saw one of my men trying to subdue Dr. Stewart.

"Fuck that, let's kill that son of a bitch! I heard what he did, we don't have time to fuck around!" Schmidt shouted nervously.

"Please, you've got to listen to me for a second! He's part of our resea-" Dr. Stewart was forced inside the room by one of my men.

"Operations! Suspect is part of the research. Orders, over?" I anxiously waited for response, as hooded man closed in.

"Shit. Retreat back and evacuate Top Six immediately. We are going to lock down the entire floor, over." General Hayes responded.

"You heard him, double time!"

We ran back as fast as we can. My men were already evacuating Dr. Stewart, Dr. Lancaster and others. Then one of them shouted.

"Sir! One is missing! We only got four!"

"That'll do, we don't have time. Let's go!"

We shut the thick steel door behind us and quickly ran up the emergency stairs.

"B-6 is now on lockdown. Suspect is successfully contained. Nicely done. Lieutenant Rivers, report to Operations immediately." General Hayes said.

Schmidt and Kim leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. Other personnel looked at them puzzled, as they walked by.

"Holy shit that was intense. Man LT, I heard what he did. I heard it was pretty brutal." Schmidt said, gasping for air.

"Did you fucking see the way he approached us? I've never seen anything like that in my life." Kim cried out.

I ignored them and jogged my way to the operations center.

-

Four of the Top Six members were already waiting inside. Two of the scientists reached out their hands to greet me.

"I'm Dr. Sagan and this is Dr. Friedman. Thanks for getting us out safely."

I shook both of their hands. I had a lot of questions for Dr. Stewart. But before I could ask, General Hayes blurted out at him first.

"Dr. Stewart, we can't guarantee your safety if you are hiding shit from the official records!" General's face turned red as a cherry. He was pissed.

"B-but it's classified." It seemed Dr. Stewart shrunk few inches.

"I have COMMAND CLEARANCE LEVEL, I HAVE EYES ON ALL CLASSIFIED INFORMATION ON THE PROJECT. You better tell me what the fuck that thing is down there." General pointed his finger towards the surveillance monitor.

I turned to look. The hooded man was limping in place right in front of the sealed door. He had no eyes, and strings of some reddish linguine was hanging out of his eye sockets, nose and ears. His mouth was full of even more red linguine, about to burst out. It was as if his entire head was filled with linguine.

"Holy shit, what the hell is he?" I mumbled to myself in great shock.

"Allow me to explain." Dr. Friedman said as he slowly turned his anger towards Stewart.

"That is where billions upon billions of dollars were spent on. That 'thing' was Dr. Fossi." Dr. Friedman turned back to Hayes and continued. "We had it under control, until our naive little colleague, Dr. Stewart here, decided to let him out into our main test chambers, where the very core of our project is located."

The hooded man turned and dragged his feet down the corridor. He didn't limp this time. General Hayes rubbed his neck and demanded explanation of what Dr. Fossi was doing.

"Right about now, he's probably going back to the test chambers. He's attracted to it. Even when he's not... human." Dr. Sagan stated as he turned to look at Dr. Stewart, as if to put blame on him.

"Dr. Fossi was fine, he was still human when he asked me to take him to the test chambers! What was I supposed to do!?" Dr. Stewart defended himself.

"He was a mad man! You knew this! We ALL knew this! You nearly jeopardized our entire project! Don't you remember, Fergus? We KICKED HIM OFF THE PROGRAM! HE WAS ABOUT TO LEAVE, BUT YOU LET HIM IN BECAUSE YOU FELT SYMPATHY FOR HIM!" Dr. Friedman lost his cool.

"B-but HE built that core!" Dr. Stewart replied in his defense.

"Why didn't any of tell me about this? You all have Dr. Seon's blood on your hands now, gentlemen." General Hayes let out a long sigh and shook his head.

"We didn't know he would be a threat. It's only been two days since he turned! We thought we could contain him in the test chamber, but he somehow magically got out! And he just vanished right before our eyes!" Dr. Stewart said.

"He is right, Dr. Fossi had tendency of vanishing without a trace. I'm sure you've noticed General, you couldn't find him on surveillance monitors. Yes, that I'm pretty sure of. But we do apologize for not letting you know. I really regret our decision." Dr. Sagan still kept his cool, but I could see that he was exploding internally with anger.

"What are you people saying? There are literally no places to hide in this complex. All rooms and corridors are monitored!" General Hayes retorted. He paused for a bit, then looked at me.

"Lieutenant, you were right. That thing IS a monster."

"I couldn't agree more, sir."

"The test chambers cannot be monitored, as agreed by-" Dr. Stewart tried to object, but was interrupted by Dr. Lancaster

"It's a husk." Dr. Lancaster quietly said, standing behind the three Top Six members.

"Oh not that crap again-" Dr. Stewart whined.

"Shut up! I want to know what everyone has to say about this. And I say, you've said enough, Fergus!" Dr. Friedman snapped.

"Dr. Fossi is gone. He have transcended. The project seems to be a success then, now that I've witnessed this myself. We have successfully created a husk."

"Wait, that's ridiculous, doctor! How can a husk move around and murder others?" Dr. Sagan asked.

"How could you possibly know what a husk's behavior would be like, Dr. Sagan? Did you actually thought it was going to be a literal husk? We've never even seen something like this before. This is completely new and alien to all of us."

General Hayes let out another sigh, agitated at all the eggheads spewing nonsense in his operations center.

Dr. Stewart said, "My apologies Geoffrey, it seems you weren't the only one diverting our efforts here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back down. We have much work to do."

"Not so fast. You've got some balls, doctor, I'll give you that. But I can't let you jeopardize the safety of the entire personnel by opening that door." General Hayes grabbed Stewart's shoulder.

"Then what would you have us do? Stay here? Our work must continue! Time is of the essence. There will be another explosion within couple of weeks!" Dr. Stewart mustered his courage and shook off the General's hand.

"Wait here doctors. Lieutenant, conference room. Now."

"Yes sir" I replied.

-

I could feel the sticky dried sweat all over my face. I was relieved when I entered the air conditioned conference room; it felt really good.

"Where's Watson, sir?" I asked.

"He's back in D.C., briefing the president about our progress here." He replied as he sat down. He signaled me to sit as well.

"Lieutenant, I'm going to have to ask you to go back down to B-6 with your men. I am going to dispatch more units your way. They will be briefed of this situation, but they will not expect to see that... 'thing'."

"Yes sir." I had doubts in my answer.

"This will not be a easy mission. Your objective is to capture and subdue Dr. Fossi."

Even with the air conditioning, I could feel sweat running down my neck. I stared into the blank for a while and heard silent ringing in my ears.

"Is everything okay, lieutenant? You look pale."

"Yes, I'm alright sir."

"I know you are scared, but this needs to be done. We can't have our investors know that we are sitting ducks here. The project must continue, are we clear?"

"Yes sir."

"Dismissed."

-

That's right. It was all about the investment. But maybe I'm doing something good here. Something that'll possibly save us from incidents like in Delhi. I still didn't understand why this project had anything to do with anything, or even Dr. Fossi for that matter.

Frail voice called out to me. "Adrian, I want to talk to you before you go."

I turned towards the voice and found Dr. Lancaster standing next to my platoon members, who were inspecting the newly provided assault rifles and other military equipment.

"Yes doc?"

"Dr. Fossi was a good friend of mine. He believed in most, if not all, things that I believed in. But he was also an impatient man and hungered to witness evolution while he was still breathing."

"I can see that he's impatient." I jokingly replied.

"I know about his research during his time here. He planned to sabotage our own research and reverse engineer what we were trying to create. He failed to sabotage our attempt, but he succeeded in reverse engineering. He kept trying his best to change our minds about what we were trying to achieve, claiming that it was in the humanity's best interest to, well, bring the accelerated evolution here, in our world."

"Why are you telling me this now, doctor?" I couldn't care less about this project now. This was all too frustrating.

"I want you to kill him, Adrian."

"But I thought he was part of the research? Dr. Stewart mentioned that he was some sort of crucial test subject for this project."

"No. He's an abomination. He IS a success of HIS research, but now that I've witnessed what he has brought from the other side, I can no longer guarantee the safety of the result of this project."

"I must also confess..." Dr. Lancaster started to weep. "Oh, I am so old now. I didn't deserve to live this long. You see, I lied to you about the explosions happening out of nothing. Those millions of people, their bloods are on my hands, Adrian."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Whatever he was about to say, it wasn't going to be good.

Dr. Lancaster wiped away his tears and explained. "Two years ago, there used to be another project. Both experts in paranomal and physics were working on it, code named Project Yesterday. The project itself was over twenty years old."

"Go on." I leaned closer to the short old man.

"We were trying to test out the theory of relativity by Dr. Einstein. But during our research, we discovered that light energies contained vast amounts of historical data. It was as if lights themselves had eyes. It had records, just like the ice and soil in the arctic has geological data. But we could not understand nor knew how to read them. But we knew how to do other things with it."

"Which were?"

"We knew how to travel with the lights. We figured out how to exploit time. From there, our research was no longer about theory of relativity. We've created an experimental time machine in the form of a spacecraft, using our knowledge. We've harnessed the power of light in the form of matter and mass. It was the greatest mistake we've ever made."

Dr. Lancaster cleared his throat and continued in a raspy voice. "We've caused something that wasn't supposed to happen. At the final stage, we launched the spacecraft from Delhi. Without even launching, the spacecraft simply vanished from the launch pad. The reactions were mixed. Some cheered, some puzzled. All radio contact with the spacecraft were cut off."

Cohen rushed towards me. "Lieutenant, the men are ready. Let's do this shit."

Dr. Lancaster began to speak gibberish while sobbing, "I think we weren't supposed to fuse mass with light." Or something like that.

I slowly walked away from him and towards my platoon, but Dr. Lancaster continued to speak as he sobbed. I could hear him repeating quietly, "You must kill him."

Part 5: Day

"Corridor is clear, bravo team. Unlocking the door now." Operator spoke through the radio.

As the door opened, we quietly proceeded into the dimly lit corridor.

"We don't see the target in any of the rooms. Your objective is the test chamber."

"Roger that." I whispered into the radio.

As we reached the end of the corridor, I signaled my men to get in formation around the laboratory door labeled '6-LBX'.

"If things get out of control, we shoot him down, copy?" I whispered to Cohen.

"Copy." Cohen replied.

As we entered the room 6-LBX, we saw variety of lab equipment. The lab was fairly large enough to fit all thirty men of my platoon.

At the corner of the room, there was a reinforced steel double door labeled 'Test 1'. On the side was a control panel used to open the door.

"Operations, we've reached the test chamber. What's the code?"

After a brief pause, Dr. Sagan spoke through the radio. "6-12."

After putting in the code, the heavy doors made a lot of clanking noise, indicating that it was unlocked. I reached for the door's handle and opened it. We all reacted to how blinding the light was. My adjusted to the light soon after. It felt like sunlight during summer. Oh how I've missed the sunlight. The light felt strangely pleasant. In the center was a shadowy figure, which I assumed to be the hooded man. My men raised their rifles and tasers toward the shadow.

"Isn't it beautiful?" The shadowy figure's voice echoed throughout the room. I looked at Cohen, puzzled. He was confused too.

"This is the gateway to the future. Ascension is at hand gentlemen, and I welcome you to it. Please, step right in." The shadowy figure gestured towards the source of the light.

Not a single one of my men budged to move. They continued to aim down their sights, and gripped on their guns even tighter.

"Please, nothing can be gained through hostility. I am welcoming you into the kingdom of heaven. All you need to do is accept, and embrace it." The figure spoke softly.

As the figure started to approach, I shouted, "HALT! Stay right there or you WILL be shot!"

The figure didn't stop. I shouted once more, desperately. "STOP! Get down on the ground NOW!"

Then I saw his face. He looked like a normal human being. None of the disgusting linguine-like meats hanging out of his mouth and ears. He was smiling at me sincerely. His hand reached out and then Corporal Kim reacted in panic and pulled the trigger. His gun fired, but he seemed to have missed.

"Hold your fire!" I shouted at my men.

The light disappeared and fluorescent lights in the lab flickered, struggling to stay on. Then I saw it. I saw the monster, right into its meat-filled eye sockets. The lights went off and the entire room was filled with pitch black darkness.

I heard wet gurgles coming from behind me. And then, the lights came back on. I saw my platoon still aiming down their sights, frozen in place. They weren't moving or breathing.

I turned around and saw Dr. Fossi, breathing down my neck. He seemed normal again.

"Cohen!" I shouted, ignoring Dr. Fossi's presence. No one responded.

"What the hell is this?" I asked Dr. Fossi.

"How can I make you understand? It's better up here." He said quietly as he smiled. Suddenly, he looked concerned and turned around quickly.

Then blank.

-

"Come on, lieutenant, we can't lose you now." The familiar voice echoed through my head.

I woke up gasping for air. I was on a bed. As my blurred vision became clear, I realized that I was in the medical bay. I looked around and saw Cohen and Hayes standing beside the bed. Strangely, I didn't feel any pain, so I assumed I must've been fine.

"What the hell happened?" I asked as I quickly rose up from the bed.

"Congratulations, lieutenant. You got the son of a bitch. He's dead. Capturing him would've been better, but what's done is done. You were gone for only a few hours. Doctor says you'll be fine." General Hayes explained.

"Wait, I did? I got him?"

"Yeah, we all saw you putting lead into his head." Cohen ecstatically said.

"I don't remember any of that." I replied, confused. Cohen's expression darkened.

"We have it on cam. But... Corporal Kim, he didn't make it. It was dark, then when the lights came back on, that thing disappeared. We all saw him vanishing and reappearing as if he was a ghost. We also saw Kim's head on the floor." Cohen shook his head in dismay.

"Kim died the same way as Dr. Seon did. He was dismembered within seconds." General Hayes pursed his lips and looked down.

"Everything was happening just so damn fast, you know. He just vanished and reappeared right behind you, then he touched your head but somehow you just turned and raised your pistol as if nothing happened. Then you collapsed." Cohen said.

"He... He spoke to me. I called out for your name Cohen, but you didn't reply. Everyone just stood there. No one even bothered to move to see Dr. Fossi."

"I don't remember that part, but what did he say?" Cohen frowned and asked.

"He said 'it's better up here,' or something like that." I waved my hand around and got on my feet.

-

I kept having the same dreams, over and over again. It's been three days already since I supposedly killed Dr. Fossi. In the same dreams I've been having, Dr. Fossi would say the things he said to me. When he turned around, what was he looking at? I couldn't know, because that's when the dream usually ended. But one time, I saw another person behind Dr. Fossi. Was he turning around to see that person? Why did Dr. Fossi seem so concerned about the person behind him? I couldn't make up the face of that figure.

This haunted me for days. I tried to distract myself by visiting the recreation room more often, to contact my wife. I even had a party thrown by my platoon for the birth of my child, yesterday. It was a girl. Even with all these, I still had the same dream.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there." I would tell my wife. She understood though. She was the best woman I've ever met, but I felt like I was just throwing her to the side, all because of this damn project. I wish I was home, holding my little girl in my arms.

We used to have a son. I thought of our lost son, who died when he was only seven years old. Just the thought of that wanted to make me leave this place to hold my daughter and tell her that I was her dad. And to tell her I wouldn't let anything happen to her.

Part 6: Night

Special Agent Watson came back from D.C. with troubling news, and required all Top Six to report to the operations center. Surpsingly, this included me.

Dr. Friedman, Stewart, Sagan, Lancaster, and General Hayes were already in the conference room.

"Hey lieutenant, congratulations." Watson said to me as he smiled.

"Thank you."

"Alright gents, I've been given order by the president to declassify couple of things for you guys." Watson said as he handed out sealed packets stamped 'CLASSIFIED'. When he was about to hand one for Dr. Lancaster, he stopped himself.

"Doctor Lancaster, I think you already know about this. You don't need to concern yourself with this." Watson said as he put away the last packet.

I carefully opened the packet. First thing I saw was the label, 'Project Yesterday'.

After everyone finished reviewing the packet, they all looked at Lancaster. Dr. Stewart seemed especially agitated.

"Geoffrey, you KNEW ABOUT THIS! Dr. Fossi knew about this!" Dr. Stewart's voice squeaked.

"Well we DID know about the truth of Delhi Incident, but we didn't know what caused it, let alone the existence of such a project." Dr. Friedman spoke as he stared at Dr. Lancaster.

"Calm down everyone, there's just one more thing I need to show you all." Watson handed out one photos each to all of us.

In the photo was a giant sinkhole.

"How big is this thing?" I asked.

"That's a very good question. That hole is about as big as Delhi. That's where Delhi used to be." Watson cleared his throat and slowly paced around the room. I was awestruck, but Top Six members didn't seem surprised.

"Lieutenant, General. The Delhi Incident wasn't a nuclear explosion, as Top Six already knew. It was Project Yesterday. When the spacecraft supposedly vanished, the entire ground it was on vanished with it. Experts are saying the hole reaches all the way down to the surface of lower mantle of Earth." Watson explained.

"How the hell did you manage to get out of there, Dr. Lancaster?" I asked.

"We were in a remote location." Geoffrey said, his head held low with guilt.

"Now we had major explosion in Australia, that's actually where the spacecraft impacted on. Fortunately, we didn't see any entire city of Delhi crashing down on it too. The remains of the spacecraft are shattered, it created a giant crater though. They were coming down at an extremely fast speed. Almost at an instant."

"Light speed." I mumbled quietly to myself. Dr. Lancaster gave me a look.

"Ah, so it came back!" Dr. Lancaster exclaimed.

"Couple days ago, we found strange activities near the hole. Our experts are saying the size of the hole is increasing inch by inch, everyday." Watson continued.

"They are worried, that it might swallow the entire planet one day. Well, that's probably what Project Tomorrow is about anyways, right gentlemen?" Watson asked for Top Six's response, expecting something hopeful.

Dr. Friedman cleared his throat and said, "Yes of course. We are very close to cracking the mystery on how to close down the hole left behind by the spacecraft."

"It's not just a hole, it's ever-expanding portal. A veil has torn, sort of like a black hole. We've put a scar on the-" Dr. Lancaster was interrupted by knocks on the conference room door.

"Please, excuse me." General Hayes said as he got up.

"So that's about it. Uhh any questions?" Watson asked.

"So that's what this was all about, huh? Can I be excused, agent?" I asked. I felt anguished that I couldn't learn about this sooner. When I asked, they all decided to keep their mouths shut, now they decided talk. I felt betrayed.

This project was nothing but trouble. When I learn of an answer, more questions followed. "None of your business." I recalled that saying from the commander before I was deployed here.

General Hayes was talking to one of the operators, then suddenly he stormed out of the room in a hurry. I followed him outside, wondering what was going on. As I opened the door, I heard General Hayes barking orders to other officers. He noticed me coming out of the room, and signaled me to come.

"Lieutenant, we have a new situation brewing. We have multiple perimeter breaches around the complex. Nearest breach being four kilometers away. Your place is by the Top Six, so I want you to remain here. I don't know who they are or how they found this place, but I'm not going to let anyone in here."

"Yes, sir. But this sounds serious, you sure you don't want all units on the surface?"

"We may have filled you in on highly classified information, but don't forget your place, officer."

"Yes sir."

As I walked out into the corridor, I could see soldiers from different countries running in single file line. Cohen was carefully observing them.

"Uhh lieutenant Rivers, what the hell is going on?" Cohen approached me.

"There's perimeter breach. It seems serious, but our orders are to stay here with the Top Six. Brief the platoon of this situation, would you?"

"I'm on it." Cohen quickly ran towards our barracks.

Top Six members came out of the operations center. They seemed concerned at all the activities on the corridor; soldiers running about.

"Adrian, let's talk." Dr. Lancaster called out. I was extremely angry at him for confusing me about this project. Things he explained to me had all been lies.

"Not any more of your lies, doctor."

"They weren't lies. Every theories I've told you, I meant them. This project is still all part of them. I reckon what's happening right now on the surface is a sure sign of my theories coming true."

"Theories... right. The whole afterlife evolution thing, I don't buy it." I slowly walked away but Dr. Lancaster grabbed onto my sleeve.

"It's time. Soon, you may have to decide."

"Time for what? Decide what? Please make some sense for once, doctor. I'm not a scholar like you." I was starting to get annoyed.

"You have to decide between Dr. Fossi's path of letting the tomorrow happen, or stop it today!"

I've had it. I rolled my eyes and shook his hand off from my sleeve. Peter appeared out of nowhere and stopped me.

"He's right. Look, I'm not sure if you guys have noticed, but the entire project is divided now. Skeptics to non-skeptics. The entire project is falling apart, we are losing scientists. Hell, even my own team's divided. We are losing control here, Adrian."

"So what the hell would you have me do, Pete? All of this are none of my business, and it should've stayed that way. I should never have bothered with any of this. Good bye, Peter. Oh and by the way, your dad has a lot of innocent blood on his hands." I turned my back on them and walked away.

"Everyone on Earth is in danger, I'm sure you've figured that out by now. And that includes your wife and your daughter. We need you and your platoon. You are the only person we can trust."

I stopped and turned back to them. I was about to say something to him, but nothing came out of my mouth. I just began to walk away again. Just exactly why did Peter need my platoon? For what?

I walked into the recreation room to talk to my wife, but the phone lines and internet were cut off. I couldn't bear the stress anymore, I wanted to get the hell out of this place.

Part 7: Sunset

Same damn dream about Dr. Fossi again. Except this time, I could make out the figure of the person standing behind him. The figure was short and seemed like some sort of a child. I woke up from a bang on the door.

The corridor outside became exceptionally noisy. It sounded like arguments. I walked out of my room to check it out.

Huge groups of scientists were blocking the corridor. I shoved them aside to get to the other side, only to end up in the middle ground. To my right were scientists with Dr. Sagan and Stewart; to my left were even more scientists with Dr. Lancaster, Friedman and Peter standing in the front. They were shouting at one another, I didn't want to be in the middle of this but I had no choice, I couldn't go anywhere.

"We HAVE to destroy Fossi's core! They are coming this way! They've already breached the perimeters, it's only a matter of time!" One of the scientists among Dr. Sagan's group shouted.

"Destroy years of research? What then? The damage has already been done, we all know there is no way to seal the scar! You all might as well just die with the rest of the world, but we want to live!" Dr. Friedman angrily shouted.

"You've seen what Fossi's core did to Dr. Fossi himself! It turned him into an abomination! Come to your senses Hermann! Now is not the time to play around. If you truly want to live, you better do what we ask you to do!" Dr. Stewart replied back at Friedman. Friedman frowned as he looked down, trying to decide.

"He's right. If it wasn't for Dr. Fossi and Lancaster's little diversion, we would've completed our goal! It's sad how we need Fossi's core to create a solution to prevent such a disaster, but it must be destroyed in order to save everyone in this facility!" Dr. Sagan agreed. "This is for the good of long term survival. It will buy us time to create another core!"

"Geoffrey, If you truly felt guilty of your actions in your previous project, wouldn't you try to fix it? Wouldn't you save this world from disaster which YOU HAVE HELPED CREATE!? If we abandon this facility, the project would take years more! There's just not enough time to evacuate everyone and every research data we have garnered over the years!" Dr. Stewart asserted. "You are trying to doom us once more, old fool! You wanted Fossi dead because you wanted to get your hands on the core, isn't that right!?"

"I've already been to the other side. I've been to where Dr. Fossi have gone to. And let me tell you, it's better up there." Dr. Lancaster casted a menacing smile as one of the lights began to flicker.

Chills ran down my spine.

"Y-You are a mad man!" Dr. Stewart looked horrified as he slowly stepped back along with the group.

The scientists paced backwards cautiously, away from Lancaster. Even Peter slowly walked away. Friedman too finally realized he was on the wrong side. I reached for my gun, but I was mortified when I couldn't feel its presence.

"RUN!" I instinctively shouted. Then the light above Lancaster shut off. The scientists quickly scattered in panic, and I ran towards operations center as quickly as possible, not looking back.

I opened the door of the operations center to find guns pointed at me. They were lowered down soon after.

"Where's the General!?" I asked the armed men. They gestured towards the conference room.

"General, you have to alert the base now! Lancaster is-"

"Yes lieutenant... I know." General Hayes spoke as he buried his face in his hands.

"I watched the entire development, lieutenant. Right now, there's nothing much we could do." He said as he let out a sigh.

"What do you mean sir?"

"We've lost contact with the security forces on the surface level. They've been overrun."

"Overrun by what sir?"

"Those things they call 'husks'."

"W-what? Sir, with all due respect, my platoon is still in the barracks close by. We should at least warn them righ-"

"Go take a look at the surveillance monitors lieutenant, and you be the judge. God help us all."

What could make General Hayes not be able to act? I went out the room to find out for myself.

I tapped the operator's shoulder. "Hey, get me footage of the surface level. And turn on the god damn alarm!"

Everyone in the room seemed to have lost hope. They all sat in their chairs staring at nothing, guns in hand. Even the operator didn't bother to turn on the footage or start the alarm. I reached out to the control panel and fired up the alarm and turned on the surveillance footage.

"Holy shit..." I saw them. There were so many of them. But how? And why the hell would they come here?

I quickly grabbed the microphone. "Bravo platoon, this is lieutenant Rivers. We are now in Code Red. Regroup at operations, and shoot doctor Lancaster on sight."

"Roger that!" I was relieved to hear a friendly voice from the headphones, it was Cohen. I quickly went for the weapon locker in the room and took out an assault rifle and a pistol.

Cohen and at least four men entered.

"Rivers, things are ugly out there. There are shit ton of dead bodies out in the corridor!"

"Where's the rest of the platoon?"

"I'm sorry, they just never reported in."

Lancaster... he was fast. Fast for a old man. He couldn't have killed off most of my platoon by himself. It must've been the 'supernatural powers' the husks had. Or were the hordes of those things already inside? Dr. Sagan entered the room soon after, sweating and breathing heavily. He stopped and looked around the room, frustrated.

"What are you people doing? We are getting killed out there!"

"I have a plan Cohen. We need to go down to B-6, and get the core in the test chamber. Dr. Sagan, we'll keep in radio contact." Dr. Sagan's expression changed immediately, from frustrated to reassured. He nodded.

"I'll be right behind you." Cohen replied.

-

There were trails of blood and dismembered bodies everywhere, and painful screams and gun fires could be heard down the corridor once in a while.

Bright light was coming from the end of the corridor where the test chamber was located. Sight of the blood became more intense as all lights went off and red emergency lights dimly illuminated the corridor.

"You need to destroy the core. The purpose of it is ripping another rift into... whatever's on the other side. I never thought he of all peo-" Dr. Sagan was interrupted by weak radio signal and statics. I took off the earpiece radio and threw it on the ground. I probably won't need it anyways. Hell, I might not even survive this time. This was my last mission. Last mission that I strangely felt that it must be done, regardless of my fears.

"Adrian. I am so hungry. Being an empty shell, we desire energy. This core, provides us with just that. Isn't it beautiful, Adrian? I wish you would embrace it. It's just as I wanted. Just as I expected." Voice echoed through the corridor. Chills ran down my spine.

Then I heard wet gurgle from behind me. I nearly pissed my pants when I saw Lancaster standing right behind me. His face was deformed, similar to Dr. Fossi.

I quickly raised my pistol and fired a single shot, but he just vanished, as if he was just a mirage. Cohen and four others looked extremely unnerved.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha..." Lancaster's menacing laugh echoed, but he was nowhere to be found.

"There is no need for violence. They say what's beyond is unfathomable. But it's easy for them to say when THEY HAVE NOT CROSSED TO THE OTHER SIDE THEMSELVES!" Lancaster's enraged voice rang in my head. I aimed around, trying to locate him.

"Nothing can be proven without trying, Adrian. Dr. Fossi was too impatient, but I needed him to recreate what was lost to me... to us." Lancaster whispered from afar.

"Come with me. Come to where we are all meant to be." Lancaster whispered into my ears. He was so close behind me. I quickly turned around and saw no one. Cohen and others didn't seem to have heard him. One of my men saw my reaction which planted fear in him.

"Screw this, I'm out of here. I'm sorry lieutenant!" The soldier ran off.

"Come back here!" Cohen shouted, but he did not stop. His desertion was giving funny ideas to three of the others that remained.

"Adrian... Adrian..." Lancaster's voice drew closer, but I could not see him anywhere.

"Adrian." His voice came from right in front of me... but no one was standing there.

"D-Do you hear that Cohen, or is it just me?" I asked nervously.

"I don't hear anything." He replied. I began to doubt my sanity.

"Ah! Get away! Get away from me!" One of the soldiers, Sergeant Richards, wailed and started firing his gun into nothing. Cohen quickly ran up to him and slapped him across the face. Soldier's eyes widened as he stared into Cohen's. He dropped to his knees and began to weep. I noticed that his pants were wet.

"I saw him standing right there. Did you see him?" He asked Cohen as he pointed.

"We have to keep moving, get up." Cohen said, patting Richards's head.

"A-Anna?" Another one was losing his mind. He started jogging down the corridor ahead of us. "ANNA! IT'S NOT SAFE HERE! ANNA!"

"Wait staff sergeant! Come back!" I shouted, but he ignored and went on. He then turned to the corner where the test chamber was located, and he disappeared into the light.

"Double time!" I ordered.

"I think... I think I'm gonna stay here for a minute. Can I do that sir? Can I?" Sergeant Richards was sitting down with his head leaned against the wall. He could not stop weeping.

"God damnit." Cohen mumbled.

Now it was me, Cohen, and sergeant Schmidt that remained. I could see fear from both Cohen and Schmidt, but they carried on.

As we reached the end of the corridor by the bright light emanating from the test chamber. We took couple of seconds to catch our breath.

"Sir, even if we get to the core, what then? Last time I saw it, that thing was just... a bright light. I mean, can we even-"

"That's enough sergeant." Cohen snapped.

"Alright... let's do this." I nodded at Cohen. As soon as I entered the room, I expected to see a shadowy figure, but nothing but the light was there.

"Yes, you are so very close to it now. Now enter. You should be honored that you stand before the gateway to superiority. People of Delhi have come this far on a pilgrimage and so are you." Lancaster's voice whispered into my head. I now understood who the hordes of people were on the surface.

"H-How the hell do we destroy this?" Cohen spoke as he stared into the light. Then I felt cold metal against my temple; a gun.

"You can't."

It was the staff sergeant that ran ahead. He was pointing the gun on my head.

"Sergeant, put the gun down. We don't have time for this." I calmly said. Cohen and Schmidt immediately aimed their guns at him.

"No, YOU PUT YOURS DOWN! If you hurt my little Anna, I swear I'm going to blow your head off."

"Anna is not here sergeant! Why would she be here!?" Cohen shouted.

"I saw her! I saw her going into the light! I'm going to follow her in there and take her back home! But first, I have to make sure you don't prevent us from coming back out."

"Whatever is happening, it's messing with your head! Snap out of it!" I yelled.

After a moment of pause, he put his gun down.

"Good bye." And he ran into the light.

"Wait NO!" I tried to grab his sleeve but it was too late.

"Look around for a switch or something. I'm sure we can shut this thing down somehow." I sighed. After looking around the lab, we couldn't find anything. Cohen repeatedly tried the radio to see if Dr. Sagan responded. No one responded.

"Cohen, I'm going in." I quietly said as I looked down, hopeless. Cohen firmly grabbed my arm and looked straight into my eyes. He was saddened.

"No way Rivers, I'm not-"

"Stop it. Here's my final order. If anything happens to me or if anyone comes out of there... well... you know what to do. Oh and take care of my family for me, would you? Tell my wife that I love her."

Cohen slowly shook his head. "God, no way man. No way." Cohen was still grabbing onto my arm, but I shook him off. Sergeant Schmidt saluted me and said, "It's been an honor, sir." I saluted him back and proceeded into the light.

Part 8: Tomorrow

Same damn dream, over and over again. Except this time, my platoon was nowhere in sight.

"Cohen!" I shouted, disregarding Dr. Fossi's presence. No one responded.

"What the hell is this?" I asked Dr. Fossi.

"I'm glad we made you understand. It's better up here, I guarantee it." Dr. Fossi said as he warmly smiled. Suddenly, he looked concerned then quickly turned around, revealing a child standing behind him.

Dr. Fossi turned back to me and smiled once more. "Oh, I'll leave you be."

Dr. Fossi walked out of the laboratory, revealing the child.

It was my son. He ran up to me, wanting to hug me.

"Daddy!"

I broke down in tears of joy. I slowly knelt down and felt the hug of my son. I firmly held him. I didn't want to let go of him. The smell, the touch... they were all real. I kissed my son's head over and over again as I weeped.

Then my wife holding our newborn daughter walked into the room. She was smiling at me. Then I heard the piece of music that contained the most beautiful memories of mine, Mozart No. 21. She knelt and handed the baby over to me. I held her into my arms and kissed her forehead, then I leaned forward kissed my wife.

I held my son and my wife's hand as we walked out of the room, into the light... to live the tomorrow together.

They were right. It was better up here. 