What Happened on the Observation Deck

Part One

Hiding under a table I tried my hardest not to breathe. The air smelt of iron and I could feel blood sloshing around my feet. It was weighing me down. I could feel the blood on my clothes and all through my hair. Trembling I got on my hands and knees and crawled out from my hiding place. It had all happened so quickly and I didn't remember how I had come to be under the table. In the distance I could still hear screaming. Avoid the screaming, I thought to myself. 

Standing up as cautiously as I could I realised I was in a windowless kitchen or some sort of cafeteria room. What were once neatly lined tables were thrown about the room. I didn't even know what time it was. If I escaped from here would I just be wandering around in the dark waiting for one of those creatures to pick me off? 

I had discarded my shoes, I couldn't remember when, but it became apparent as my foot hit the ground I heard the squelch. Moving as stealthily as I could I convinced myself I just had to keep putting one barefoot in front of the other. You know when you first notice a spider in your car and then you suddenly see their cobwebs everywhere? That's what it was like with me and the bodies. My foot was sticky in this moist softness and I became hyper aware of my surroundings. Bodies were strewn all around the room. As my eyes adjusted to the light I could see that the bodies were not whole. I slowly brought my hand to my mouth as I carefully tried not to trip over bitten off legs, armless torsos and half eaten heads. I didn't know them, but they didn't deserve this. No one deserved this.

I made my way to a wall and followed it around to a door. Shaking, I gripped the handle and tried to calm myself down as I turned the knob. Blood was pooling under the door from the other side so I braced myself for the horrors I knew were waiting for me.

Stepping into the dark hallway I could no longer hear the screaming of those unfortunate enough to be caught by the creatures. It became obvious why. A creature or group of creatures had already killed everyone on this side of the building. The walls and ceiling were covered in blood and clumps of flesh covered the floor. There were no bodies on this side, just chunks. Terrified of making any noise I tread lightly through someone's remains.

I had no idea where I was going. I had only been to the facility a handful of times and there was always a peppy assistant to act as a guide. Front door, Dr Suranth's office, his lab and back to the front door. We never deviated. We never had any reason to. My mind flooded with thoughts of Dr Suranth. How his office had always smelt of chia or the way he would go off on tangents that we would have to save him from. Dr Suranth, no one could have saved him. I could see it clearly, his body torn in half and thrown to opposite sides of the room. A creature had ripped his torso from his legs with such ease. We thought we were great scientists on the verge of the next big discovery.

"We'll go down with Newton and Einstein" Dr Suranth used to cheerfully declare. Dr Suranth in his lab explaining the numbers on a contraption to a colleague. Dr Suranth's blood raining down on me from the ceiling. Dr Suranth bringing me tea in an out of place tea cup among block coloured coffee mugs. Dr Suranth's lifeless eyes staring at me from across the room. Dr Suranth showing me pictures of his daughter's high school graduation. My mind danced through memories until it landed on Dr Suranth opening the portal to another dimension or planet or straight to hell, I don't know. Dr Suranth's face changing from confident explorer to the pale expression of a misguided fool.

Trapped in the recollection I stood in horror. I remembered I couldn't see the creature then from behind the glass barrier. It's arms moved so fast. They were long and slender with a shimmering mixture of brown and green with what looked like a bumpy texture. It was almost like it was covered in the goose bumps you get in the cold. Through the portal it's arms shot out and as if it's arms could see it picked off the scientists. It then did the same to the guards that were there to protect said scientists. There was a flurry of ammunition, the spraying of blood and desperate screams followed by silence. In the silence not one of us moved. No one in the observatory made a sound.

The arms retreated back into the portal and soon a large mass started to appear. Faint at first, but with every passing second it became more material.

"Turn it off" someone finally demanded.

"I'm not going in there" someone screamed in reply followed by the falling of papers and the sound of rushed footsteps. 

"Initiate remote shutdown" was the response from a visibly shaken Dr Suranth.

The room started to animate.

"It's not working" cried a different panicked voice.

"We have to turn it off. We have to do it now" a guard growled, but by now no one was listening. All the action in the observation deck had ceased as we all looked on in amazement and horror as the creature's arms...or tentacles shot through the portal again. I became acutely aware that the only thing keeping us from becoming torn apart clumps of red was a sheet of glass.

"It'll hold" a voice from behind insisted as if they had read my mind. Without even looking at their face I could tell their statement was more of a hope than a promise. I shuffled backwards as technicians barged past me to throw levers and punch in code. I shuffled backward as the creature's arms started to relentlessly thump on the glass. I hit the back wall as the thumping grew louder and cracks in the blood splattered glass started to show. 

The remaining guards in the observation deck took aim at the cracks. Looking past them I could see that more and more arms were now shooting out of the portal and banging on the glass.

"God help us all'' Dr Suranth yelled and suddenly he grabbed one of the holstered handguns off a guard and shot himself through the mouth. His lifeless body dropped to the deck floor as the glass erupted, sending shards flying. I couldn't hear it over the bullets, but I know I was screaming. Before I could regain my composure arms broke through the metal observation door to my right and swarmed Dr Suranth's body. Without hesitation I tried to cross the room to protect him. A guard blocked my path and threw me to the ground before opening fire at the arms. Undeterred, the arms that had broken the glass and the arms coming in through the door met at Dr Suranth. The shimmering tentacles coiled around and around his body and rose him into the air above us. With what seemed like an effortless tug the creature or creatures tore him in two and flung his pieces like throwing balls of paper. The wet sound his body made as he hit the walls will haunt me forever.  It felt like the murder of Dr Suranth was a display of the creatures unbelievable power. But, maybe that was giving too much reasoning behind a pointless death.

Part Two

My eyes began to focus and I couldn't tell how long I had just been standing there in the dark and lifeless hallway. I couldn't tell which way to go and I didn't know if there was any chance of me escaping. Somewhere from deeper in the facility I could hear a call and response between the creatures. Long and guttural groans echoed through the corridors until they found me. With a deep sigh I came to the only reasonable conclusion: I'm not escaping this. Did I even deserve to? Leaning on the wall I slowly lowered myself to the ground. I could feel my clothes clinging to me and I'm convinced my skin will be forever dyed red with the blood of those I helped doom.

As the adrenaline stopped pumping through my body I could feel a dull ache on the back of my head. I reached back and felt around until I hit some sensitivity. My fingers made the all too familiar squelching sound. No point in checking if I'm bleeding, how would I even know if it's mine or Dr Suranth's? Did I get this when I was body slammed by the guard, when the glass broke or at some other point when I was wandering through the facility? Ultimately I decided it didn't actually matter.

Staring at a fixed point on the wall I decided to close my eyes for just a moment and listen to the sound of the creatures walking, running or scuttering down my hallway.