I moved as quietly as I could while maintaining the same odd movement I’d adopted to keep undetected by the creatures. It took an incredible amount of focus as my feet fought to return to a normal walking pattern. If I’d managed to save every one of the grenades I’d had at Pott’s I may have used all of them in the hopes it would remove any trace of the beasts, but as I was down to one I chose to preserve it. I was nearly past the creatures and into the path, when the pile quivered, one of the creatures pulled itself from the center of it, and began moving directly toward me.

I tried to move faster, making my way toward the wall in the hopes that I could press myself against it, and avoid the creature’s detection, but it was moving too quickly, and I was too far from the wall. I started running.

The moment my feet started to move in a recognizable pattern, I heard a terrible wailing rise up from behind me, sounding almost like the cries of a child. I ran faster hearing the one nearest me begin to move in a horrifying gallop as I did so. I had my gun out and ready to fire, but wanted to focus on putting as much distance between myself and the pack of creatures as I could before using whatever limited ammunition the Cerberus may have left.

I was lucky in at least one way, I could tell that the path I was on was sloping upward, and I was starting to catch a hint of surface air. I was getting close to freedom. I came to a fork and, not having the time to consider my choices, I took the left path that seemed to slope slightly sharper upward. I continued moving, exhaustion starting to catch up with me and my vision taking on a reddish tinge as whatever reserves I had began to run dry. Then, I hit a wall.

The tunnel had turned straight upward, too sheer for me to climb and sized for only a single one of the creatures. I turned around to see the one that had been following me, my night vision forcing me to see it in perfect detail in a way a human would’ve been mercifully spared. I raised the Cerberus, listening as its cylinders began to spin while the beast bore down on me.

Almost on instinct, I activated freeze. The creature’s movements arrested, and it tumbled forward, carried by its momentum. It twisted as it pushed itself to move in spite of the ability’s effects. My face twisted in a look of disgust and pity, my stomach roiling. They were human, or had been. Now they were some hideous caricatures mutated by a mixture of the rEvolutionary Virus and exposure to rads far beyond anything else in the wasteland. I couldn’t bring myself to fire the Cerberus in that moment, letting the cylinders of it come to a stop as I ran out and backtracked back to where the path had split.

I could hear the rest of the creatures pounding through the caves toward me. I started running again, still doing everything I could to put distance between myself and them. As I heard them get closer I eventually risked a look back. What I saw looked almost as if a wall of flesh was closing in on me. The creatures crawled over and around one another like roaches doing everything in their power to reach a fresh piece before the others around them. I started freezing them, picking whichever one was nearest. With one of them completely arrested in motion, the others would fall or collapse on top of them, causing the tunnels to jam and buying me valuable time as they untangled themselves.

It wasn’t enough though, and I found myself getting closer and closer to being grabbed before I managed to cause another jam, and they also seemed to be predicting it, getting better at moving around their fallen and untangling themselves. I started priming the trigger on the Cerberus, and when the creatures got stuck I whipped around, threw my grenade, and then unloaded on them. Red bolts of death flew from the barrel of the gun, tearing into the creatures, then an explosion rang out, muffled by the pile of flesh atop the explosive. They let out more childlike wails that shook me to my core, but I kept the trigger pulled, freezing and firing all along.

I turned back around, and started running again, the scent of the creature’s burning flesh causing me to feel a hunger that engaged in a battle with the disgust I was feeling deep in my gut. I kept moving, and the scent of fresh air grew stronger. My strategy of freezing and firing began picking off more and more of them, while others peeled off, seeming to think better of their pursuit. Eventually, there were no more behind me, and the Cerberus was empty. I moved to toss it to the side, but thought better of it, slipping it into my pack.

I moved, stumbling, as I made my way toward what I hoped was the surface. Eventually, the stone and dirt walls changed into concrete, and I found myself in a large empty pool in what appeared to be some kind of massive warehouse. I moved toward the edge, and saw a number of hand hooks driven into the wall, the partners to those I’d used to climb down the cliff face. I’d taken the same path the Pilgrim had. I climbed up, finding myself once again amazed by the Pilgrim’s tenacity and strength. I doubted he’d killed any of the creatures in the tunnels, as he was so lightly armed when he was found, but he must’ve discovered how they sense prey and managed to sneak his way completely through without being killed. I’d very nearly died myself, and I had a number of advantages he hadn’t.

I followed a series of paths until I reached what looked to be the remnants of a small encampment inside the warehouse. It was ancient, with old MRE’s slovenly tents, and rusted-out equipment. I walked through it without looking for any salvage, my usual scavenging instincts suppressed by my desire to put as much distance between myself and those tunnels as was possible.

I saw sunlight shortly after that, beams of it cutting through a shattered wall. I moved toward it quickly, catching a second wind I hadn’t expected as it came into view. When I reached it, I climbed out and took a deep breath, savoring the taste of fresh irradiated wasteland air. I closed my eyes, letting the warmth of the sun mix with the warmth of the radiation all around me, and letting out a long sigh. Once that second of indulgence passed, I did a quick scan for threats, but saw no one or nothing that I could regard as a threat. I assumed that the creatures in the tunnels likely caused any potential prey to avoid the area.

I turned to look at the building behind me, trying to somehow discern its purpose. Across the top of it, in English, and what I assumed were other languages I’d never seen before, was a message.

This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it!

Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.

This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.

What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us.

The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.

The danger is to the body, and it can kill.

The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.

The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

I read the message once, then a few more times, going over it in my head. I’d never seen anything like it, and it filled me with a sense of foreboding. It was clearly an old message, older than the bombs, older than the Cut, and definitely older than the creatures I’d just encountered. I shuddered to think of what it could have been warning people about, especially considering what was beneath it now.

I turned around and started walking, pulling out a piece of meat from my pack and tearing into it with my teeth as I did so. I was ravenous, and having enough time to catch my breath made me keenly aware of that fact. I was sorely tempted to stop and rest, but didn’t want to chance another encounter. Instead, I ate on the move, clearing more of my supplies than I probably should’ve in an effort to recover the energy I’d just expended. I knew I’d have to come back this way when I was making my way back over to my side of the Cut, but I decided then and there, I’d just risk jumping right into the Cut itself next time. If the jump pack wasn’t up to the task and my legs broke, well, I guess I’d just have to crawl back the rest of the way.