A multicolored plasma, like the skin of some cephalopod species. At the ends of the five tentacles that make up the starry head, an even number of eyes open to look at the soldiers. Red eyes, shining with a glow like burning embers. Strong low-frequency vibrations come from the creature’s body, shaking the internal organs of the three soldiers. Sonic waves pass through them like radiation, exerting physical pressure on their bodies as well as on their minds. From the mass of flesh that is constantly changing, which was a man’s chest just a few moments before, an elongated shape bursts out. An obscene tubular appendix protrudes, opening with a suction on the bulbous end. A splash of a yellowish liquid is projected towards the three.
Ralph and Jennings jump sideways to avoid it, but the movements are made difficult by the vibrant sound that shakes their bodies, and in moving Jennings stumbles, ending up flat on his back. Ralph, who is behind him, grabs him promptly by his suit, pulling him back, while the other is quick to change magazine and to shoot towards the monstrosity.
A second splash coming from the being hits Jennings on his legs and on the right arm. In the points where the bare skin gets touched, it starts to burn, while his flesh sinks to the bone as if carved by an invisible hand.
Jennings screams but keeps firing desperately against the creature, hitting it on one of its long legs. It breaks with a sharp snap, collapsing the monstrosity to the ground, less than two meters away from the soldier’s legs. One of the appendices of the starry structure, formed on top of the creature, stretches twisting and shaping its ends in the awkward shape of a deformed hand. Three fingers culminate in as many claws, as black and shiny as volcanic glass, out of which a greenish and dense fluid starts dripping down. Upon contact with the ground, it sizzles producing an acrid steam. Before Ralph manages to pull back his friend, the creature has a sprint, and the hand tightens on him. The claws grab Jennings just below his left knee. The man screams in pain.
“Go away! Run!” He shouts to the soldiers with him. With his still intact left arm, he grabs an incendiary grenade peeling away its safety with a bite. Ralph doesn’t have time to think, a squirt of whitish matter coming from the creature hits him on the right boot.
Cursing the swarming horror that’s crawling and reducing the distance, Ralph turns and starts running. Stu has already moved away from the scene and walks a little further. He has just passed the stretch of path that runs along the underground pond when the explosion of Jennings’ grenade seems to demolish the bowels of the Earth. Ralph runs, thinking he will never make it to reach the exit in time before the wave of the explosion overtakes him.
The heavy steps of the soldier resound on the sandy ground. He looks forward toward the cleft in the rock wall. He doesn’t notice the subtle ripples shaking the yellowish surface of the underground pond.
He is just at half of the section along the tiny lake, when the water explodes.
With the momentum of an avalanche, something comes out of the muddy puddle, jumping against the soldier. Ralph has just enough time to issue a muffled shout before the monstrous being comes out from the muddy water and overwhelms him, crushing him against the rocky wall.
Meanwhile, Stu arrived at the crack in the wall that separates the two caves, and he turns instinctively to the shout of his friend. The view is terrible. The bottom of the cave is filled by a cloud of advancing flames, but it isn’t the only reason of his terror. For a few long moments he watches a monstrous being, the body like a giant centipede which emerged from the water, grabbing Ralph and smashing him against the rock.
The man struggles for his life, he shouts and squirms while splashes of organic matter invest him and one after the other, large pointy appendages as long as an arm, black and smooth as curved daggers, stick into his body dragging him towards a terrifying mouth. A kind of raw cavity, lined with fangs and from which comes a terrible hiss.
Stu is about to run away and take the opening separating the two caves, when a voice shouts to him. “Help me! Stu Help me!”
A familiar voice, which seems to come from somewhere within the huge beast that is tearing Ralph’s body. The flames advancing further illuminate the scene with a vivid glow, and Stu can see for a moment the torso of Seagull half emerging from the twisted mass on the side of the creature. His skull and the right side of his body blend deep within the monster. Only the left arm of his friend is quite visible, and it’s pointing desperately to him. “Help meeeeeehhhh!”
His voice fades into a scream in multiple tonalities. Other appendages wrap his arm, twisting it and breaking it with a chilling snap, then they lure him deep into the mass of flesh that is constantly changing.
Stu stands still, paralyzed by the sight, when suddenly the creature has a start, as if it was seeing the approaching flames just now. His body contorts heavily, turning to face the only remaining soldier.
Overwhelmed by terror Stu throws an incendiary grenade to the creature. When the bomb reaches the muddy waters he is already running across the opening in the rock and trampling the remains of the drone. Behind him he can hear the repeated thuds of something heavy moving rapidly toward his location.
The man reaches the ropes used for the descent. He shouts terrified as he begins to tinker with the hook of one of the straps, which slips between his sweaty hands and falls on the ground at his feet. At the same time he feels the sound of something huge impacting violently against the rock wall with the crack that they went through earlier.
“Roger, Roger, damn, get me out!”
Stu works frantically trying to fast the snap hooks at the ropes. Meanwhile the soldier on top of the pit starts a desperate battle to bring him up.
The soldier starts moving and rising, while he is hit by the sound of mangled bones and liquid splashing coming from the opening in the wall a few meters away from him. It’s like if something is making its way at all costs, forcing itself through a narrow passage. Stu tries to climb faster but his movements are jerky, and his efforts have the sole effect to tug on the rope, making his friend’s task even harder.
Doubling his efforts, Roger watches the man down in the well. The friend is about half way up when his terrified screams seem to grow in intensity.
Since the body of Stu fills the view almost completely, Roger has no way to see what is going on beneath him. He breathes heavily in the effort to lift him out of that deathtrap. Suddenly the marine suspended in the air begins to squirm and to swing more, so Roger can have a fleeting view of the horror beneath him. A monstrous head, gigantic and deformed, is facing from the bottom of the well, and it’s looking at the two men with eyes full of hatred and a fury that has nothing of human.
The adrenaline rush in the soldier on top of the pit increases his forces tenfold. The skin of his hands is whitened by the effort to desperately pull the rope that holds the colleague. The desperate cries of Stu ring in his ears. The soldier shakes frantically hanging in the well.
He is terrified beyond human comprehension and the pit exit appears distant. He kicks to drive away the creature that is gaining ground in the tunnel beneath him.
Aware of the imminent end, in a glimmer of lucidity he grabs another of the many incendiary grenades that he brought with him and pulls off the safety catch. Horror multiplies when he feels something violently shoving his foot.
Roger aims his feet, grinding his teeth with the effort, then something happens. The rope in his hands is pulled down so violently as to dig deep cuts in the palms of his hands. The marine screams and lets it go, clinging desperately to the sides of the well to stop his inertia and not to slip inside. The terrified cries of Stu have now degenerated into the death-rattle of a slaughtered animal. Roger quickly recovers his balance and, from the top of the well, can barely see his friend disappear into a mass of reddish protoplasm and tentacles that occupy the entire tunnel.