Day 295 - The War Corp. - Chapter 3.3 (1311 Words)

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THE WAR CORP.

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 3.3

The growl, which started in the middle of the room, not far from where the yelp was, grew outwards like a wave and the entire area was filled with the noise of these creatures, whatever they were carrying on this now feral sounding cry. It intensified and echoed in the confined and sightless space, the walls and ceiling wherever they were causing the noise to fold back on itself.

The creature he had thrown was still making the pathetic noise, and it was getting steadily more plaintive and fearful as the growling rose to a roar. Then there was scrabbling sound as the creature at the center of this sound attack moved rapidly, trying to get away.

The avalanche of noise that fell, cascading into a cacophony of movement changed the tone of the aggression, escalating to a vicious snarling maw, one group fueled sound of violence and intent as they all raced to the point where the poor unfortunate lobbed beast had been thrown by Liam.

These once placid and unmoved creatures, now zeroing in on one of their own, buffeted his feet. This did leave the wall free to be explored though and Liam took the opportunity to find the door, locating it quickly and easily with nothing in his way. A button was easy to find, it was in the position that he expected it would be based on the other doors he had seen in the light, and a push of it opened the door, flooding the area with light.

The creatures were ringed about the one he had thrown, it was backed against the wall and the semi circle that formed around him was pressing in closer and closer. The NINE processed the sight and gave him the information as the pack broke formation and went in for the kill.

He had an excellent view from a slightly elevated ramp was the creature in the middle, the yelping one was torn apart bloodily by the pack it was a part of. The door closed automatically as the NINE registered the creature as deceased, a fact made obvious by the state it was in, strewn and eviscerated by its brethren. It was no longer even a corpse as the body had been shredded by the multitudinous attack.

The creature was Sugar Wold, an innocuous sounding name by first look but it had been named for the diet on which it subsisted, living off a plant native to it’s home system that closely resembled the cane sugar that once grew on the human home worlds.  It was thought to be a placid and docile creature and it was by a series of unfortunate accidents that led to a few deaths that the true nature of the Sugar Wold was discovered.

They attacked in packs, and they only attacked when in great numbers and even then only when they could sense the fear in the prey. The one that Liam had hurled at the wall in frustration had apparently been scared by the sudden flight and lack of ground beneath it, slamming into the wall opposite and giving it more of a shock on top of that.

The creatures picked up on the fear, the sole Sugar Wold knowing what would be coming dragged itself to a pit of fear for the pack turning on it and exacerbated the problem, making itself more of a target. Then the pack turned and Liam saw first hand what the little creatures could.

He felt nothing, no sorrow and no concern for his own safety. The creatures were what they were and if they attacked him in the dark he doubted he could have fended enough of them off to survive a sustained, frenzied attack like that. He was walking through the valley of death, quite literally if he had enough information to be scared. Others in the same position may have felt something in the unknown of the dark.

Liam felt nothing.

He still felt nothing even as the door separated him and the horde of ravenous creatures. By the sound of the pack they had subsided now that there was no prey left to tear to shreds and the bloodlust had been sated. The sound had carried through the low walls of the under passage at first, when the door auto closed and slowly petered out, rather than faded.

Now he was on the other side and the goal, the exit was a short distance away, he had traversed some way through the underground tunnel leg of the Gauntlet. If he had taken the others with him they too could have survived, but it was also possible that one of them would have reacted in fear to the encounter with an unseen and live organism in the dark, which would have led to a confrontation, an event with the Sugar Wolds and then, fear would have been an outcome.

Liam did not fear death, he welcomed it and so as he stared back at the now silent wall he wondered if the creatures would ever have attacked him, when he had no fear of them. He was happy to find the great black exit hole and sink into it, but he could not do it voluntarily, it had to be as brought on the by the game. What he wanted, desired and was hoping for were all secondary concerns to the pre-programmed need to complete his objectives.

Liam looked about the rest of the course, but he could not see or hear any sign of the other fifteen members of his team. The NINE had not registered any deaths, no injuries and no completions, they were all still in their own paths.

He had to wait, and so he moved to the exit door and opened it to find Sharpe and his four recruits waiting on the other side all in one piece, but looking a little weathered, their clothes steaming with a fine mist and a scent of chemicals in the air.

Sharpe registered the arrival of the Team Leader with a nod and then shot an inquisitive look at Liam, not saying anything but clearly wanting to know what he encountered on his path.

“Sugar Wolds. In the dark. They… attacked each other, they were more scared than me.” Liam told him, not realizing yet why he felt a need to share the information but getting a tiny thrill at being blasé about the encounter. In his service to date in the league this was possibly the longest string of words he had put together. In the shuttle trips and the drop ship missions, the team communicated via the NINEs and only really about strategy and tactics. Reports and status updates were key to a flow of information and keeping people on the same page, but they did not converse.

Now he had no other thing to do but wait for the remaining ten recruits to exit their mazes, and there was a pull to the man who had helped Brodie pull his damaged, pain wracked body over the wall in CBT. This man had probably seen what Liam had seen, the light going out, the wall between the mind and the pain of the body being raised and bliss setting in.

He would have no basis for comparison of course, but he must have seen something like that in Liam when he was on the verge, when he made the trip from victim to corpse and back to the Pod, just in time to be ‘reset’. What had he seen, what did he know of the Nirvana that was on the other side of that thin line?

“What did you see?” He said aloud, before the words had registered properly he heard them coming out of his mouth, sounding like a hollow echo in the small room.