“…What the hell is this?”
Somehow, those words slipped out of my mouth.
An utterly pure question born from an incomprehensible sight.
No, to be precise, it should be called a scene I didn’t want to understand.
Due to the brain instinctively refusing to process it, they weren’t properly comprehending the scene laid out before them.
―I want to go back.
A voice was heard.
Voices coming from beyond the control room window.
The room, designed to block out noises from the silo, had soundproofing capable of even muffling the sound of nuclear weapons launching.
Yet, the voices they heard from beyond the wall were chillingly clear to their ears.
―I want to go back, damn it.
From one head, a whimpering wail emerged.
And simultaneously, the head next to it started to sniffle.
Then the other heads, those beside them as well.
They were all harmonizing together, screaming like beasts issuing their dying breaths.
―Take me back, please.
Flesh.
That, no, they were.
A mass of flesh covering the floor, ceiling, and every space in the silo that included nuclear weapons.
It was a tangle of so many people that it could hardly be counted.
Despite having met such an end, they had become beings who couldn’t live or die.
As if longing for something, they endlessly repeated the same words.
―Send me home, I want to go back to my mother, I can’t remember, I’m cold, where is this, I want to go to my hometown, please send me back, please send me back, save me, I want to see you, you promised you’d stay with me, where did you go, I can’t see anything, it’s slippery, it’s dark, I want to go back, I’m going back, I’m going back, please send me back, to home, to my hometown, to the place I was born――
The blood-curdling cries of the souls suffering in agony grew louder and louder.
Now, without properly conveying any meaning, their voices morphed into a chaotic uproar.
The voices transformed from anguish to something closer to a curse, and as curses typically do, they exerted a negative influence on the listeners.
“Ugh, ughhh――”
As all sorts of voices pierced her ears, Eleanor could no longer keep her composure and bent over.
Though she had a stronger tolerance for witnessing such terrible sights than most ordinary people, the scene she was witnessing felt like a slice of hell that had come to life.
The sounds of human screams from hell were definitely not something a person could endure while in a clear state of mind.
“Hey…! Get up! I can grasp how much this sucks, but we don’t have time to be lying here right now!”
Snapping back to reality, Cooper lifted the bending Eleanor.
Of course, he was not unshocked by the scene they were witnessing.
As he tried to endure the nausea and disgust rising within him.
Moreover, among those bodies visible outside, there were faces eerily similar to those of people he knew.
The new recruit who had gone missing shortly after arriving, a senior who had disappeared just weeks before being reassigned, and comrades who had run outside the shelter in a fit of determination.
“I can’t believe this…! Hey, big guy!”
“…! I’m listening!”
“If you’re back to your senses, hold off whatever’s coming from outside! I’ll try to mess with the control console!”
But even so, they could hardly remain still.
From the very beginning, they had somewhat expected that something would be here.
More than anything, there was a gut feeling that if they gave up and surrendered their lives now.
They too would become just like those things.
“Is it even possible? Can we stop that thing?!”
“I don’t know! But we have to try something!”
Cooper scraped the flesh and blood covering the control console with the barrel of his gun.
Thud, the bits of flesh that fell to the floor continued to squirm slightly.
Seeing this, he felt an unbearable wave of nausea once again but tried his best to ignore it.
To stop the scheduled launch, he began to poke at the control console that felt almost alive.
“Member, can you regain your composure?”
Elijah approached Eleanor, who was still sprawled on the floor.
However, even before he could reach her, countless footsteps echoed from beyond the door, piercing his ears.
He could do nothing but whip around to face the door.
“…What the hell!”
As he blocked the door with his body, thud, thud, the impact of hands and feet banging against it struck him hard.
The jolts grew stronger and stronger.
The noise of hands and feet pounding on the door became so loud it felt like dozens had joined in, transforming into an increasingly disturbing sound.
It gradually morphed into something more insidious, something that felt uncomfortably wet.
“Elena! Get your head straight! I totally understand your feelings, but just like he said, there’s no time to be lying flat!”
Since the pressure against the door was getting overwhelming.
Elijah shouted loudly at Eleanor sprawled on the floor.
“Did you see…? Elijah! I saw it…”
“Are you hearing me, Member?!”
“…I saw it. I saw it…”
Yet, she remained completely dazed and continued repeating incomprehensible phrases endlessly.
“Head, in those heads…!”
She couldn’t finish her sentence, starting to retch again.
The scenery she saw upon entering this place was certainly horrific beyond compare, but she had caught sight of something that held her gaze.
Among the intertwining heads, one of them bore a striking resemblance to someone she knew.
A head that looked just like hers.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Repressed memories began to resurface.
Right after getting off the elevator, she had been attacked by something, lost consciousness, and had been drawn to that thing.
The moment she touched it, her thoughts became stained with horrifying memories, immersed in a tidal wave of emotions that crushed her identity.
Then, what about herself here?
A ghost? A clone? Or perhaps, she was simply undergoing a mental contamination attack?
She had run numerous self-checks, but her mind was still filled with chaos.
She tried desperately to grip her sanity, but it was an unsuitable environment for confronting the truth.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing over there?! No matter what you saw, just forget about it for now!”
“I know! I get it! But…”
“If you know, then go block the door already! Are you eager to follow your seniors?!”
Cooper spat out words that were packed with venom.
Of course, he had no understanding of the situation and simply found it pathetic that she couldn’t collect herself even in this dire moment.
Such comments defaming their fallen comrades were not the type of remarks that should be easily condoned, even on urgent occasions like this.
“Y-you think you can say that now?!”
And, ironically enough.
Thanks to that crude statement, Eleanor momentarily pulled herself out of the chaos.
Human beings, generally, were ruled by more primal emotions.
Anger, among those emotions, was the one that lifted people most profoundly.
“…”
Eleanor’s lips, which had been about to say something, snapped shut once more.
The grim scene of Cooper banging on the control console, and Elijah desperately blocking the door that seemed about to burst open.
The current, barely coherent state of mind brought her back to a grim realization of the gravity of their situation.
“Ugh, really…!”
Battling against a cascade of distracting thoughts and surging emotions.
To desperately ignore all of it, she clenched her teeth.
She rammed her body against the rattling iron door.
―――Bang!
“Ugh…!”
With a massive impact from the door, a painful groan escaped Eleanor’s lips.
After a rough estimation, it had been a mere ten minutes since they entered the control room.
Thanks to hastily establishing a barricade, they had managed to hold out for quite a while, but that time was drawing to a close.
Now, they were reduced to blocking the door with their entire bodies.
“How much longer?! I can’t hold this any longer!”
“Just hold on a bit more! We’re almost there!”
Elijah shouted while slackening his arm, and Cooper responded with a roar.
However, sheer willpower couldn’t resolve everything.
The situation they faced was not something that could be dealt with by merely holding on.
“It’s overwhelming! This is beyond holding it off!”
“Damn it, we’re nearly there…!”
―――Bang!
Once again, a colossal impact slammed into the door.
The force was such that it felt as if the door would be completely shattered.
The rattling door had opened wide enough that it could almost be considered ajar.
The two blocking the door could easily sense they wouldn’t withstand the next impact.
“It’s over! I can’t take it anymore!”
“Damn…! Eleanor! Come here and get ready for a fight!”
“W-wait! There’s nothing here to use as cover――”
Ultimately, they decided to give up blocking the door and prepared to retreat for a final stand.
Yet the attack came faster than they anticipated, sending them flying alongside the door――
―――Kuuuuun!!
With a grand sound, the entire door was ripped away.
As they witnessed the horrifying entity waiting for them that was far worse than they had expected.
They froze in place, unable to swallow.
“What the hell is this――”
Before Cooper could finish his sentence, something outside the door snatched him away.
An elongated mass of flesh, stretching grotesquely.
It was less like an arm and more like a tentacle.
Connected to that tentacle was an enormous mass of flesh, grotesquely fused together with various facial features.
It began to pull the prey it had captured closer.
“Damn…! Someone do something about this jerk! Hurry!”
Desperately calling for help.
Yet the only response was eerie silence.
With the accumulated pain weighing down on them, they had succumbed to unconsciousness from the last impact.
Cooper also dropped his gun due to the recent blow.
“Ah.”
Suddenly, regret swept over him.
It wasn’t the regret about why he ever thought of such a job.
But rather, “If I had known this would happen, I should have shot myself in the head back then.”
His body began to be drawn toward the mass.
With no means left to resist, he sank into its flesh.
“Ugh.”
As soon as his hand touched it, he felt as if he were stepping into a swamp.
And from that pivotal moment, his body began to be sucked into it as if being absorbed.
Before long, only his head remained outside.
As he was about to share the same fate as those heads he had seen before, he instinctively opened his mouth to scream――
―――Bang!
Accompanied by a massive explosion-like noise.
He felt his body freed once again, falling headfirst to the ground.
“…Phew! Ugh, bleh, cough!”
Cooper, clutching his head, groaned as he expelled whatever had unpleasantly invaded his mouth.
That warm, slimy substance stuck all over him.
Just moments ago, he had been on the verge of merging with that horrid thing.
Yet now, by some sudden force, he had been liberated and was sweeping away the bits of flesh sticking to himself.
“Cough cough, ack!”
He glanced around while coughing.
The first thing he saw was a mass of flesh that resembled a rag doll.
The mass, spewing various tendrils and bits of flesh around the room, had burst like a balloon.
He couldn’t help but feel confusion over what had just happened.
“…”
Right above it.
The moment he spotted someone standing atop the shredded mass of flesh.
He began to grasp the general cause of the previous events.
“Sorry, I’m a bit late.”
On top of the burst mass of flesh.
He saw a brown-haired girl with messy hair waving at him.
He unconsciously sighed a mix of relief and disbelief, and with that, he collapsed right there.
