Story #5724

Story #5724

The night had become a victim of the vicious storm that showed no signs of slowing down or stopping. Rain came down hard, and thunder rumbled in the distance, getting closer despite no lightning. On the ground were five soldiers who had just broken into a secured area and now stood before a massive secret compound. The men didn’t flinch or move a muscle as they stood there and stared at the behemoth of a complex, wondering just what in God's name was going on here. Jones, Simmons, Baker, Conrad, and Brooks were no strangers to infiltrating secret bases and buildings, but there was something otherworldly and daunting about this one that none of them could shake.

“Alright, men, here we are. It’s time to see what’s going on around here.”, Simmons says.

“Remind me again just what in the hell we’re doing here in the middle of the night during a storm?” Conrad asks.

“Damnit, Conrad, maybe if you got your head out of your ass and listened the first time for once, I wouldn’t have to go over this again. We’re at SECT headquarters. As you know, SECT is a corporate business that deals with foreign and domestic counterintelligence. In basic terms, they’re a smaller, more organized military branch that deals with specific tasks. SECT itself stands for Surveillance Enterprises of Continental Tactics. They’ve been low on the radar for years, but recently they’ve picked up steam and have been found making some strange deals, and many have reported strange things happening here at night. We’re here to find out just what exactly it is they’re doing and how big of a deal it is to us or the public.”

“So it’s basically the new Area 51?” Jones asks.

“Yeah, you could say that, or at least they’re trying to be. That’s what we’re here for, to find out. However, unlike Area 51, this place doesn’t have top-level security, so we can go undetected... at least I hope we can.”, Simmons says.

“Are we looking for anything specific like secret files or weapons?” Conrad asks.

“Now you’re asking the right questions, Conrad. We’re looking for weapons or any sort of technology that would be otherwise criminal in anyone else's possession.”

“So we’re going into that building?” Baker asks.

“No, we’re going into that hangar next to it. We’ll have easier access.”, Simmons says.

“And what happens if they catch us?”, Jones asks.

“We’ll have our weapons, so we do whatever we have to.”

The men walk through the treacherous storm conditions and over to the hangar. As they get closer to it they are absolutely dumbfounded. It doesn’t appear to be a hangar at all but rather something else entirely. It’s a giant purple metal dome-like base with a single door with a keypad aligned perfectly in the middle of it.

“This doesn’t look like a hangar.”, Conrad says.

“It must be some type of fortress where they store their secrets.”

Simmons reaches in for the knob, which is built into the metal. He flicks the rectangular knob up and presses it toward him as the door suddenly opens.

“Are you kidding me?” Jones asks.

“And this is what I meant by strange technology, and that’s just to get in here. So just think of all the stuff we’ll find in here.”, Simmons says.

The door closes behind them as the men look straight ahead and find themselves in a long corridor. They walk down it, and when they get to the end the notice a ramp going up on the left side.

“What the hell? A ramp?” Baker says.

“Yeah, this is a bit strange. I thought it was all one level, but then again it was so dark out I didn’t get a good look at the place other than just the base part.”, Simmons says.

They slowly walk up the ramp and reach a square platform and then go up another ramp until they reach another square platform. Conrad looks up before addressing the rest of the men.

“Uhh guys, look up.”

They all look up and see what looks like over two dozen ramps and platforms.

“Who designed this place? M.C. Escher? It’s just ramps all the way up into forever.”, Baker says.

“This better be worth our time, Simmons. Otherwise, we’ll have done a whole lot of walking and climbing up stairs for nothing.”, Brooks says.

Simmons says nothing and just waves them to keep going as they all ascend up the next two dozen ramps until they finally get to a door. They walk through it and are now standing on a solid rectangular platform. They look straight ahead about fifty feet and see another door, and to their left they see a freight elevator. Baker shakes his head.

“Okay, so explain to me why we just went up twenty-plus ramps and only now are we seeing an elevator!”

“Yeah, whoever designed this place clearly wasn’t thinking straight.”, Brooks says. The men walk over to the other door and open it and are immediately baffled.

“What the hell! It’s just another set of ramps.”, Conrad says.

“Well, I guess we’re taking that elevator.”, Jones says.

They exit the door and walk over to the freight elevator. They all get on, and Simmons presses the button as the door closes automatically and they feel themselves going up.

“I swear to God, if there are more ramps, Simmons, I’m done. I’m going back down, and you can all do this your damn selves.”, Brooks says.

They reach the next floor and get off. They look up at the wall on the right side and see a sign: Sector 1.

“Uh, if we’re on level 1, then what the hell is down there considered?” Baker asks.

“Guys, relax, okay? I told you this place wasn’t normal, and we’re bound to run into something interesting now. Will you all stop complaining?” Simmons asks.

The men walk into a concrete corridor with caution stripes painted on the floor and along the wall. They look over to the left side and see a window, and as they peer in, notice it’s some sort of small laboratory.

“We just went from feeling like we were in a Sonic the Hedgehog level to Resident Evil”, Conrad says.

“Let's see what’s in there.”, Simmons says.

Simmons opens the door, and they all walk in.

“Why are all the doors open in this place?” Brooks asks.

“I don’t know, Brooks. Who cares?” Conrad asks.

Brooks just groans. The men look in the laboratory and are immediately drawn to the two metal tables that have two white sheets over them with feet sticking out the bottom.

“So we’re all seeing the feet, yeah?” Baker asks.

“What do you think they are? Test subjects?” Conrad asks.

Simmons and Conrad walk over to the two tables as the rest of them stay back. They each look at one another and on three lift the sheets off. They see two grotesque looking males with hideous looking facial features and marks and scars all over their bodies. The one near Conrad opens its eyes, rises and glares at him before reaching its bony hand out to choke him. Conrad gets out his gun as he’s now being choked as the man grips Conrads neck tight. Simmons without even blinking takes out his handgun from his side and shoots the man in the head as he falls back down onto the metal table. The man’s arm is still choking Conrad who instead of reaching for his gun now grabs the lone arm and gets it off him as he throws it across the room.

“I had to say Resident Evil, didn’t I?”

Simmons points his gun at the man laying down in front of him and shoots him in the head just to be sure.

“What the hell were those things?” Baker asks.

“What the fuck do you think they are, Baker? They’re zombies!” Conrad says.

“Let’s get out of this laboratory!” Simmons says.

The men exit the lab and walk up the embankment and get to another door. They open the door and there are about a dozen ramps going up.

“This is your idea of secrets? It’s just ramps! This is madness!”, Brooks says.

They go up the first set of ramps with Brooks leading the way in anger. Just as he turns the corner to go up the next ramp a solid chrome soldier with no face uses its sword and slices Brooks face in three swipes.

“Ahh oh god!”

The men step back and bring Brooks back toward them and fire their heavy artillery guns at the silver chromed assassin. He deflects all the bullets with his sword and then charges forward and slashes at the men where he once again hits Brooks in the face this time he takes off his jaw. Brooks’ jaw falls to the floor and the others look at him in a state of shock. The silver assassin then takes his sword and slices it through Brooks’ head as it turns into several different layers that all fall off and onto the ground one after the other until Brooks is headless and the rest of his body falls forward.

“Holy shit!”, Conrad says.

Simmons fires at the chrome soldier, but again it deflects the bullets with its sword.

“You 3 fire at it I got an idea!”, Baker says.

“What the hell are you gonna do?!”, Conrad asks.

“Just do it!”

Simmons, Conrad, and Jones fire their bullets at the soldier as Baker gets behind it. He grabs it’s head and twists it. The soldiers neck snaps as sparks begin flying out and wires come out an entranceway between its neck and chest. It falls to the ground dead.

“How the hell did you think to do that?”, Jones asks.

“We’re soldiers, aren’t we? We gotta think smart.”

“I don’t know what that thing was, but if there’s more, we’re in for it. And now Brooks is dead.”, Simmons says.

“Is it even worth seeing this through?”, Conrad asks.

“Maybe not, but we’ve come this far so we have to. For Brooks’ sake.”

The men continue up the next ten sets of ramps until they come to the next floor. The sign on the wall reads Sector 2.

“Just exactly how many sectors does this place have?”, Conrad asks.

“I don’t know but we gotta keep moving.”, Simmons says.

“Are we just gonna ignore the fact that that thing back there was some kind of robot ninja that looked like something out of a goddamn video game and that it killed Brooks?!”, Jones asks.

“We aren’t ignoring it but if we stay in one place for too long we risk getting caught.”, Simmons says.

“Do you hear yourself? That doesn’t even make sense! We just lost a man and all you care about is finding out what secrets are in this godforsaken fortress!”

“Jones, enough! This place isn’t normal I think we can all agree on that. Sure we lost a man but we have to keep going, because we’re soldiers and we need to see this through until the end!”, Simmons says.

“Alright Sergeant, whatever you say!”, Jones says sarcastically as he salutes Simmons.

The remaining four men walk into the base of the floor and notice there’s two doors one on either side but no windows.

“Alright, now anyone wanna guess which room has zombies or robot ninjas in it?!”, Jones asks.

The rest of the men ignore him and they walk in the middle of the floor.

“Conrad you come with me to check out the left room. Jones and Baker you check out the right side room and just be careful.”

Simmons and Conrad walk into the room on the left side. It appears to be some sort of storage area with tons and tons of creates and five gallon metal barrels. The creates all have the same thing written on them: SECT: Industry #5, Sector 2: Calico. The barrels all have bio-hazard labels on them with writing below it that says FOR TESTING ONLY!

“What the hell do you suppose all this is and what’s it for?”, Conrad asks.

“Your guess is as good as mine but I think it might be some kind of weapon and whatever is in those barrels are chemical weapons. This is what I was looking for but then again I can’t be certain they are weapons but lets see if the others found anything in their room.”

Jones and Baker open the door to the right side room and are immediately hit with a pungent odor that hits their nostrils hard. The two cover their mouths as Jones feels for a switch and finds one. When he turns it on the men are met by the sight of three human bodies decaying and rotting in chairs.

“Oh dear god!”, Jones says immediately closing the door.

“What’s in there?”, Conrad asks.

“Dead bodies. Three of them and by the smell of them it seems they’ve been there a while.”

“Simmons what the hell is going on? You said this was a top secret base that held secrets and possibly deadly weapons yet all we’ve found so far are a shit ton of ramps, two zombies, a robot ninja, and now three dead bodies. None of it makes any damn sense!”, Baker says.

“I’m just as baffled as you are but this is the right place obviously and I was told by high command that there’s something here.”

“Well, I don’t know how much more of this crazy shit I can take.”, Baker says.

The men are caught off guard by two chrome soldiers.

“Oh no, not these things again.”, Jones says.

“Baker, same plan as last time?”, Simmons asks.

“Yeah, but there are two of them now, so it might be a bit more difficult,” Baker says.

Just as the men go to fire an alarm goes off on the wall and the two chrome soldiers shut down and stay in place. The alarm sound is followed by a voice: Intruders in Sector 2! Intruders in Sector 2!

“Well, that’s lovely, we’ve been caught. How? No clue, but we have.”, Jones says.

“Come on let’s keep going up!”, Simmons says.

“Sure, because that makes total sense!”, Jones says.

The men go up more ramps and get to Sector 3 which they find is pitch black.

“I swear I’m gonna wake up from this. I’m gonna wake up and never want to dream again.”, Jones says.

“Alright men, put on your thermal goggles.”, Simmons says.

The men take their thermal googles and put them on. They can now see the layout of the floor which is like the other two only this floor has two cylindrical beams that look like huge bulky wires in the middle going all the way up into the ceiling. On each side are two doors like the previous floor.

“Simmons I know you wanna look in there but seeing as the word is out on us and the last room we went into had dead bodies I don’t really care what’s in them. So you can look if you want but I’m going right up to the next floor.”, Jones says.

“No, no you make a good point Jones. Let’s just keep going. Besides, we can’t see much anyways.”

The men head up the embankment and stop when they see orange heat of a figure coming down the ramp. The figure doesn’t see them as they are still in pitch black. The figure walks through the small opening between Baker and Conrad with its hands out trying to find its way through. It walks past them as the men slowly walk up the ramp. They looks down and see the figure has disappeared.

“Think that was one of those ninja robots?”, Conrad asks.

“No, I feel like those would have seen us. That might’ve been a regular person.”, Simmons says.

“Right, cause normal people are walking around in here besides us.”, Jones says.

“Jones shut the fuck up you miserable prick! I’ve had enough of your snarky and sarcastic words. If you don’t like this mission then leave. Have fun finding your way out!”, Simmons says.

“Man, who the fuck do you think you’re talking to huh? I don’t give a shit if you got rank over me, I’ll knock you flat on your ass!”, Jones says ready to fight Simmons.

Conrad intervenes.

“Enough! Jones please calm down okay? I know things aren’t exactly peaceful or normal in here but the last thing we need is to go at each other. Now let’s keep going alright? And please, save your comments to yourself.”

“Fine.”

The men get up to the set of ramps and reach Sector 4. Once again a similar sight with the two giant cylindrical tubes coming out of the ground and up into the ceiling.

“What the hell do you think these things are?”, Conrad asks.

“Not sure but I think we’re gonna be seeing them from now on as far as we go up.”, Simmons says.

“Uh guys, what the hell is that?”, Jones asks.

Up ahead past the tubes and up on the embankment to the left side of the ramp is an old woman in a rocking chair. She appears to be knitting.

“I feel like I’m in the goddamn Twilight Zone right now. None of this makes any sense and-

The old woman looks up and half of her face is missing. She puts a finger to her half lip. The men look at each other and walk toward her. They get to the tubes and she stops knitting and her head turns all the way around and her body does as well and gets up from the chair and crab walks really fast toward them. The men reach for their guns. Just as Jones does he’s hit by her. She turns her head back around while pinning him down and kisses him latching onto him not letting go. Jones struggles to breath as the rest of the men look on not wanting to shoot in fear of also shooting Jones. Jones’ muffled cries turn into low sounding weeps as the color drains from his body and he turns blue as the old woman made out with him and sucked the life out of him. She gets up off Jones and looks at the men.

“Would you young boys like some fresh homemade oatmeal cookies?”

The remaining three men look at each other then back at her as they fire their guns all at the same time. The old woman is riddled with bullets one after the other as she steps back and makes vigorous movements before she falls dead on the floor.

“I hate oatmeal!”, Conrad says.

“Are we gonna talk about-

“No! At this point, I just want to get to the goddamn top of this fortress and find out if there’s anything going on here. Because from what I’ve seen so far, nothing makes sense and I think if we try to rationalize it, we’ll go insane.”, Simmons says.

“I mean I thought we already were at this point but okay fair enough,” Baker says

The three remaining men go up the ramps to Sector 5 and don’t even stop. They merely looks straight ahead and seeing that there’s nothing of importance and nobody there they go right onto the next Sector. When they reach Sector 6 they notice it’s bigger and more spacious. It’s also filled with a bunch of wires hanging on the ceiling which all go into a giant breaker box on the right side of the floor.

“What do you suppose those are for?”, Baker asks.

“I don’t know but they look they they go all the way to the top. So we’ll know soon enough”, Simmons says.

‘Will we, Simmons? I’m starting to wonder. I think we’re all gonna be dead before we reach the top. Either that or we get to the top and find out that we just went through a psychotic funhouse fortress for nothing and there ain’t a goddamn thing up there!”

“Look, I know we’ve endured a lot, okay? I know Brooks and Jones are dead but I swear to you that this mission will pay off and we’ll find out what’s going on here.”, Simmons says.

“I feel like we already are finding out.”, Conrad says.

The men head up to Sector 7 and seeing that it’s clear and there are no people and no doors they head up to Sector 8. When they reach Sector 8 They notice three doors. Two on the left side wall and one on the right.

“I suppose you wanna look inside?” Baker asks Simmons.

“Yes, if we could.”

The men each walk over to a door and go to open it. Simmons door does not open and is locked. Conrads door doesn’t open either. Bakers door opens and he looks inside and immediately sees a group of five men in suits sitting at a table. They look over at him and two of the men get up to go confront him. Baker closes the door but immediately opens back up.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?! This is a secret facility!”

Baker thinks on his feet to come up with a lie.

“We know that! We came to tell you to evacuate. Their having a problem and they sent us in to look into it. We’re clearing everyone out of each sector. We got word an alarm went off but nobody knows what the hell is happening.”

“An alarm went off? No alarm went off here. What the hell is going on?!”

“Of course it didn’t! Someone tripped the alarms, but it only went as far as Sector 6. We don’t know why, but yeah, something or someone is here, and they are making their way through each Sector. We were called in from another district, so we are as clueless as you are, but our orders are to evacuate everyone out now. How many Sectors are left in here?”

“Uh..4. There’s 12 total. So we’re meeting everyone at the bottom?”, The man asks now panicking.

“Yes. Some floors have crazy shit on them so be careful. If you have an easier way of going down I’d suggest you and everyone in there do it.”, Baker says.

The man opens the door and tells everyone the situation. They immediately get up and exit the room. The suited men all nod and begin running down the ramp of Sector 8. Baker looks at Simmons and Conrad with a smile.

“Okay, Baker now that was impressive improve skills. Let’s hope that was the only time you’ll have to use them.”, Simmons says.

The men look in the now empty room and realize its just a conference room. Conrad looks around the table and sees each man had a styrofoam cup. At first he expects to see coffee but instead sees a bright neon green liquid.

“Hey you guys, check this out. What do you think they were drinking?”

“It’s too green to be Mountain Dew or Gatorade. I haven’t a clue.”,Simmons says bringing a cup to his nose as he smells it.

“What is it?”, Conrad asks.

“I have no idea. It doesn’t have a smell.”

“Well, lets go. We gotta move up before those guys decide to come back.”, Baker says.

The men exit the room and get to Sector 9 where a black and purple creature with one eye and long bony hands sees them and lunges at them.

“What the hell is that thing?!”, Conrads asks.

Simmons and Conrad get their weapons out, but Baker is not so lucky. It claws him right in the face with one deadly swoop before landing on him. As Simmons and Conrad point their guns at the creature and shoot it, it gets another scratch at Bakers face and even bites the left side of his neck off. He screams in pain as the men’s bullets pierce into the creature sending it off Baker and off to the side killing it. They rush over to Baker, but it's too late, as his wounds and blood loss are too much.

“Godamnit!”, Simmons says as he closes Bakers eyes.

The two remaining men go up to Sector 10. When they reach it, they notice the amount of wires has become larger and bulkier, so much so that they practically block off walking over in the area. They walk around it, and Simmons sees a mirror on the left side of him. He steps in front of it and sees that there are impressions of faces wailing as they are stuck in the mirror. Conrad stands next to him as they watch.

“You mentioned a funhouse earlier. Well there’s your weird trippy mirror.”, Simmons says.

“Simmons, what is all this? I mean, I was expecting us to find people and weapons and I don’t know, something criminal but all we’ve found in this place are unspeakable unknown things that I still can’t figure out.”

Simmons looks right at Conrad before speaking.

“I didn’t want to say this to all of you but after Brooks died and we kept walking into stranger and stranger situations it occurred to me of what this place might be. I don’t want you to think I’m crazy but after I tell you the two things I think it is, I’ll let you judge for yourself.”

“Tell me Simmons. Where do you think we are?”

“First off, I think our minds have all shattered and this place is playing tricks on us. It’s taking our fears and using them against us.”

“That doesn’t sound crazy at all. And the second?”, Conrad asks.

“Maybe this is Hell. What if our concept that we grew up believing about Hell is nothing more than a facade to cloak the truth. What if this is Hell? A bunch of ramps going up, which is ironic because Hell is below, and it tricks us just a little bit more in hopes that we’ll discover something useful, but in reality just keeps throwing evil at us.”

“I think I’m crazy too then because that makes a great deal of sense to me as well. Hell or wherever we are, let’s find out once and for all.”, Conrad says as he begins up the ramp to Sector 11.

Simmons looks at the mirror one final time.

“I hope whoever you all are that at one point in time you had peace and a clear sense of mind. God knows I’ll need it after all this is over.”

Simmons meets Conrad at the top of Sector 11 and they both stand there with their mouths as there are five doors on each side of the wall.

“Simmons, it's your call, but I say we just keep moving.”, Conrad says.

“Let’s just try them and peak inside. If there’s nothing inside then we move on.”

They each move to the opposite end of one another and begin trying to open the doors. Simmons first three do not open and the third opens as he steps inside and sees another door inside. He opens that and finds himself coming out the first door.

“Conrad!”

Conrad looks over.

“It’s an illusion. They just lead to each other.”, Simmons says as he walks throw door number 4 and comes out door number 2.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking this is Hell alright. Let me try my doors.”

Conrad goes through door number 1 and ends up coming out of door number 4.

“Okay, I’ve seen enough let’s go to the final sector.”, Conrad says.

As the men approach the ramp they hear something coming down. They look at one another before they back up and look ahead ready to face whatever meets them. They are met by a man in a ripped white lab coat. He has wild, unkempt blonde and reddish hair, torn pants, and has an almost demonic smile on his face as he breathes heavily while staring at them.

“My god...it’s you!” Simmons says.

“Who? Who is that Simmons?”

“It’s Arcadi Marks, he’s the CEO of SECT.”

The man known as Arcadi Marks says nothing as he stares the men down still, with a demonic smile on his face, and breathes heavily.

“Mr. Marks, yes?”

He still says nothing and turns his head sideways and then back to normal. He opens his mouth still even smiling as a sound emits from it.

“E-i, e-i, e-i, e-i, e-i!”

He looks at them again and puts his hands out as two purple colored beams shoot out and hit both men, who fly backwards.

“What in the fuck?!”, Conrad asks.

“Something has taken over him.”, Simmons says.

“Yeah, no shit!”

The men get up as Arcadi Marks walks toward them. Simmons reaches for his gun but it’s blasted out of his hand. Conrad does the same but Marks does the same with him while his eyes are still transfixed on Simmons. Before he can react. Conrad pulls out his handgun and fires it at Marks who falls back into the giant beam of wires. Marks’ hands go up as he’s shot causing him to hit the wires and he gets electrocuted before becoming solid energy and being sucked into the wires.

“What the hell happened to him?” Conrad asks.

“I don’t know but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him.”

Simmons and Conrad get up off the ground and retrieve their guns. They get to the ramp and look at one another. They each take a giant deep breath before ascending up the ramp to the last sector. The ramp is lengthier and eventually leads to a door on the right side. They open the door and walk down a set of steps. They find themselves in a small, narrow chamber-like room, and they now see that the wires go into to. Straight ahead they see a cylinder pod with purple energy rushing through it. Soon a yellow pixelated face is seen. It is the face of Arcadi Marks.

“Oh my god. So this is it. This is the big reveal? Arcadi Marks has become something else?”

Before Conrad can give an answer, Marks begins emitting the same sound from the previous sector, except he gets louder and louder.

“E-i, E-i, E-i, E-i, E-I, E-I, E-I, E-I, E-I!!!”

Simmons and Conrad waste no time as they fire their guns at the cylindrical pod with Marks’ face. However the bullets are useless as they hit the pod and simply fall to the floor in front of it. Mark, now aware of what is happening, fires a blast of purple energy from his eyes that hits both men. He then has a transparent, pixelated purple hand reach out and pick them up and slam them onto the ground. The beam comes out again, and this time it lingers slowly on the men, burning their skin as they scream out in pain. The beam comes back slowly and the process is repeated. Simmons and Conrad lay there, bloody and in pain but not dead just yet. Marks’ eyes look over to the left, where there are two smaller circular-sized pods attached to the walls. Simmons and Conrad get up and walk up the platform, and as they fully get to their feet, Marks hits them with another beam blast, sending each man over to the two separate pods. The pods open up and each man is sucked into one as it closes.

Marks smiles wickedly and does his chant yet again as Simmons and Conrad look at one another from their pods. The wall they are on begins lighting up as circuits and breakers are seen, and a computer-like background is revealed. The two men look on as Conrad yells to Simmons.

“We’re gonna run out of oxygen! What the hell do we do?”

Simmons waits to respond letting the silence linger for a bit.

“We aren’t getting out of here, Conrad, but I finally know where we are.”

“Where are we, Simmons? What is all of this?”

Before he can speak, a smoke-like substance emits into the pod, causing both men to cough as they slowly lose consciousness. The pods soon fill with smoke as Marks looks over and then ahead with the same look he had when human. The pods light up, and the entire wall does as well. The energy lights up the entire room as the building begins shaking. The computerized version of Arcadi Marks laughs maniacally as the building begins to shake more and more.

“Brain..brain.”, Simmons says with his final breath.

Outside, the building can be seen shaking violently, only it isn’t a building at all. It never was. If only the men had looked up at the sky when they were looking straight ahead, they would have known what they were about to enter. A giant mechanical purple head sits at the top, with its neck followed by a torso, pelvic area, and long-limbed legs going all the way down, capped off with its giant feet, with the doors in the middle of each foot. Conrad’s eyes go wide before he takes his last breath. With both men’s lifeless bodies stuck in the pod, the brain finishes its impulses, and with Arcadi Marks it sends a final impulse through its body. The eyes slowly open and glow purple as the giant being slowly lifts its arm, and its hand forms a fist and finally an evil smile.

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