The pest that had been crawling across the wall at eerie speed had jumped at Claudia, who had just missed her shot. In the critical moment her finger rushes to fire another shot, this time hitting the pest. It falls, and in an instinctive attempt it grabs onto Claudia's arm.
She holds her arm up, gritting her teeth at this creepy interaction, and shoots her handgun at it again. The bullet however goes clean through her arm and into it. The cryptid falls to the ground, and so does Claudia's gun as she realises she had shot herself. Her mind was still in kill mode, Dawn's earlier explanations of a cryptid's healing and durability played in Claudia's mind before she took out her knife from its sheath on her waist and plunged it into the pest.
She stands back up, looking at the others for approval, her self-inflicted bullet wound already fully healed - the pain didn't even have enough time to register in her mind.
"Good job."
Before Sawyer could approach the pest's corpse, Jericho's voice rang in her earpiece.
"Sawyer! Another one coming your way!"
As another pest rushes towards the exit of the underground store, Sawyer flicks around to where Jericho had gone off to. From that direction came another cryptid similar to the one Claudia has killed, but a few differences made it stand out. Larger size, sharper limbs and a darker hue than its fellow.
The thing crawling across the ground made Richard swing his axe at it, but after missing he witnessed a strange happening. The pest had burst skin-flabby wings out of its back and began fluttering in the air to escape Richard. Despite its transfiguration, it still ended up being splattered on the wall by a second axe-slam from Richard.
His violent swing cracked the wall that it hit, and the sound of the impact slightly shook Claudia.
Jericho comes around from the corner, peeking at the two small dead cryptids with little interest.
"All good?"
"Seems so."
Sawyer takes a glance at the two corpses while everyone else makes their way to leave back up to the surface. Lex, however, is still behind, which doesn't go unnoticed by Sawyer. He sees Lex examining the squashed pest - specifically the one who grew wings in some sort of survival adaptation attempt.
"Hey, the bodies are the cleanup crew's job."
Sawyer clearly doesn't take well to Lex's unprofessional intrigue, Lex's silent dabbling makes it seem like his little aftermath inquiry is for his own personal gain.
"Give me a break." He doesn't look up at Sawyer.
"We're not obligated to mess with the corpses, you're no exception."
Lex stands up. He certainly looks pissed, but in a way satisfied from what he's discovered in that short time.
Upon returning back to the facility, Claudia is approached by Dawn.
"This belongs to you, doesn't it?"
She holds up a necklace with a cross on it. It was an item most dear to her, holding the emotional value of being an anchor of faith during hard times and her only reminder of home. However, Claudia thought it had been discarded after she was set free by Professor Lavender.
"Oh, thank you…" She takes the necklace from Dawn, her tone possessing sincere gratitude.
"You're welcome. Honestly it's crazy to think about how not one, but two people were locked away at the facility until recently… I guess there's probably even more that they don't tell me."
"Are you referring to the tanktop man?"
"Heh, is that what you call Richard?"
Claudia awkwardly shrugs.
Meanwhile, the others can't help but notice the group that had arrived back at base just before unit 24. Two of which were severely wounded, barely standing up. The rest, of those who came back alive, were in harsh spirits.
"Son of a bitch! They shoulda sent the dogs down the pit, not us!"
"First we lose Voss, and now this…"
Apart from Sawyer, the guys had no clue as to what these subjects that the other unit was conversing about amongst themselves were.
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Go walk the damn dog!"
A man sat on his porch drinking a beer, his relaxation interrupted by his girlfriend's yells.
"Alright bitch, I'm on it…"
Getting up and putting his bottle down, the man starts walking away from the shoddy house.
"Barry!"
He shouts for his dog. The brown german shepherd comes running from the open house door and walks alongside his owner.
Passing by their usual route, the man and his dog walk past a dark forest area.
The man stops walking and turns his attention to the dog, who has stopped and began barking at something in the woods.
"Barry, quit that shit. Come on!"
The dog reluctantly stops barking and continues following his owner.
Upon arriving back home, the man takes off his jacket and sits down onto the living room couch.
"Damn dog always goes crazy when we walk past the forest." He complains as his girlfriend walks by, his hand instinctively reaching for another beer.
"Dogs do that, they bark." She rolls her eyes.
Later in the evening, the man has had a few too many beers, and his girlfriend is in another room yapping away on the phone with a friend.
"Hey, you know what? Tomorrow when I take Barry for a walk, I'mma take the shotgun and the whatever is gonna get what's coming!"
On the following morning, the man set out to leave the house, gun in hand.
"Jack! Don't be stupid, this isn't even bear country!" Jack's girlfriend rushes out the door trying to stop him from parading around with his shotgun like a paranoid idiot.
"Well, whatever it is, it's upsetting my dog. Relax, I'll scare it off and call it a day."
Eventually, Jack's girlfriend gives up on following the stubborn man - whose dog follows him on their usual outing route.
Jack marches to the part that converges the woods with the town and as if on cue - his dog barks frantically at a mystery something covered by the darkness of the trees. He raises his shotgun, jerking it to the side to feel the rustle in it ensuring the weapon is loaded.
"You think it's a wolf, Barry? I bet it is." He steps into the darkness of the woods. "Come on, Barry, don't be a pussy. I bet it's a wolf."
The dog continues barking from a safe distance - not daring to follow Jack in fear of whatever is causing its distress.
"Barry! Fucking hell, there's nothing here you stupid mutt!"
Jack, about to head back home, took one final sweep of what was in front of him - just trees, nothing else. However, the moment he turned back to the path where his dog was simply pacing back and forth spewing his aggravated barks - the noise stopped.
The dog had completely stopped barking abruptly and all that Jack heard was a fearful whimper.
A sudden presence behind Jack made him cock back around. Though, due to an inhumane pressure on his arms, he couldn't help but drop his shotgun. The sensation of something large yet human-like grabbing him instantly enveloped him before he was yanked into the woods and not even given the chance to scream out for help.
09:25
Four days later, the ones who had found Jack's corpse was unit 24 of Facility:Null. The moist morning dew lingered around Jack's corpse. He was found with lacerations all over his torso and face and most of his limbs flopping due to an immense number of broken bones.
"The man's girlfriend reported that he went out with a gun looking for something in the woods, and later only his dog had returned home." Dawn was there too, in her usual light-gray suit and black cardigan. She had been in the small-town area gathering information from anyone who may have seen or heard from Jack before the attack.
"Looks like we're late. Any sign of the cryptid is in hell and the only victim has been dead for maybe a week."
Sawyer momentarily ponders while looking at the body.
"Right. No action this time."
They had pretty much expected that though. The group wore casual-ish clothing such as their coats, which were used to conceal their weapons, so that they could walk through the town without appearing like the military unit that they were to bystanders. Sawyer and other facility soldiers would sport a black wool trench-coat in the stead of their protective vests when in a non-combative setting. It was something that kept their sense of union and esteem without being uniform while attaining comfortability. Nonetheless, Sawyer felt naked without feeling his sword on his back - it was something Dawn had to convince him to leave in the car while the group moved in a public area during daytime.
"Alright, Dawn, keep an eye out for reports from this town. For now, there's nothing we can do."
Two men in protective gear and medical facemasks then came to collect and dispose of the body.
"Oh yeah, that's bad…"
Richard covers his nose by the repugnant smell of a rotting corpse being carried past them. He had been wearing a simple gray hoodie over his standard outfit featuring the white tanktop which, after the previous pest eradication, definitely needed a wash - or better yet a total replacement.
After concluding that the investigation of the cryptid that killed Jack was a complete bust, the group is driven back to the facility. Sawyer, however, takes a detour alone.
After being dropped off in the city and parting ways with his unit, Sawyer takes a cab to a coffee shop which boasts a lovely seating area overlooking a river. There, he sees his inviter. Sawyer rarely is invited out to places such as this, and even stranger for him was seeing the director of the facility drinking a cup of coffee enjoying the view of the river and the minimal background chatter of customers.
"Director Campbell." Sawyer announces his arrival.
Turning his attention to his invitee, Vincent Campbell motions with his hand to the seat across his. "Please, sit."
Once Sawyer takes a seat, Campbell takes another sip of his hot drink.
"Morgantown has some great cafés, I miss when I had time to venture and try a few out."
Sawyer doesn't care for the idle chat and immediately gets to the point.
"Director, is this something that couldn't have been discussed at the facility?"
"Well, no, it could've been. But I just thought it'd be nice, seeing as I'll be very busy for some time after this."
"I see."
"So, you had concerns about your new subordinate, Lex Dyrral, am I correct?"
"Well, yeah… you don't tell me anything about the person. He's somehow allowed to mess about with anomalies as he pleases and has some ungraspable ability."
"It isn't an ability. Mr Dyrral can do things others typically can't, however it isn't innate. My inability to go into further detail about it is in our deal involving his confidentiality."
"So he's from outside of the facility? How do you trust him?"
"I just do. I've allowed him this freedom in exchange for him being a valuable asset for dealing with complicated missions. I mean, take the Gumberoo extermination for example - an impenetrable beast only killed because Dyrral was there to offer a solution."
"No offense, but that doesn't change the fact that he refuses to accept my authority."
"I do understand how you feel. Some people are harder to deal with than others, but in your unit that's to be expected. I believe the others are troubled too - but why do you think I would put this responsibility onto you?"
He takes a deep breath before continuing his monologue to the now non-responding Sawyer.
"Opposed to other military organisations we have very limited numbers of available field operators. There's a threshold to how many men I can find that can keep secret about the paranormal. Men who are strong, unafraid of the unknown and willing to face it - and yes, often psychotic. Nevertheless the efficiency of your unit will save many lives. I have full faith in unit 24, I do. And in your leadership."
Campbell then takes a final sip of his coffee cup before placing the empty cup down. Taking a couple of dollars from his wallet, he slips a tip for the waiter onto the table.
"Would you like something to drink too?" He asks Sawyer while taking one last glance at the river, taking in that peaceful moment.
"No thank you."