The four groups stepped inside, walking down a singular long tunnel. Nearly pitch black inside, their eyes adjusted accordingly until they could see almost as bright as daytime.
From time to time, the group at the frontmost called out for an altered before shooting with their cannons. The sound was piercingly loud, though their ears had been adjusted to it. From time to time they could also hear gunshots from behind them, probably from the trucks near the entrance covering their rear.
At some point, there was a fork down one of the tunnels. One of the men signaled to Lyle, calling him with his finger and extending his hand out. They shook the hands with their arbiters together, holding them in place for a second. Lyle's eyes widened in surprise, he turned to Marco with a concerned expression as the groups split in half, making eight in each.
One group came down the left, the other on the right. Lyle walked behind two people while the rest were behind him. As they walked, Marco asked "Who was that?" "FAC staffer for this area, normally more than enough for this area, but an... issue arose."
"Issue?" Lyle nodded, "I'm surprised they didn't update all of us on this but... It seems they believe there is a fissure near the mountaintop." The entire group stopped, glaring at Lyle.
"What?!" Someone near the front exclaimed as they came to a halt. None of them took their eyes from the tunnel, but their attention was clearly divided. Lyle's eyes darted as he looked down at his wrist, furrowing his brow. "not one, two."
One A class was bad enough, two would mean bad trouble for a single staffer. "How far ahead," Lyle looked back up, raising his gun. "200 feet from here"
The whole group continued. Something didn't feel right, despite the circumstances, 20 people for an operation like this. Marco looked at Bodhi who looked back at him. "feels off, doesnt it?"
The ones at the front turned a corner, "STOP!" The group halted. "We can't see ahead." One of the two stepped backwards as the one stepped to the wall behind him, keeping his gun trained on whatever was around.
"What do you mean can't see ahead?" Asked Lyle. "There is black mist." Spoke the handler who was looking around. "What do you mean black mist." "COME HERE AND LOOK GOD DAMN IT."
Marco walked around and pushed forward. As he turned the corner, he saw nothing. Not black mist, just the tunnel as usual. "I don't see it." "Don't joke with me boy!" Yelled the handler who was standing at his side.
They all stepped forward, standing in a skirmish formation with Lyle at the front, Bodhi and Marco at very opposite ends. "Marco, do you really not see it?" Yelled Lyle from the front. "Affirmative."
"I don't see it either, Lyle." Exclaimed Bodhi. Marco couldn't really see his face but he could tell that Lyle was slightly conflicted on what to do.
"Marco, Bodhi, with me." He signaled with his left hand for them to pull forward. They both stood in front of him. "Is that true?" He asked not so loudly, they both nodded. A drop of cold sweat dropped from his temple as he stared at the black wall.
"Stick close to me, we all step in at the same time, got it?" The two of them confirmed audibly, not really sure exactly what they were 'stepping into.'
They all took slow step forward. "Let us know when we are in." Marco and bodhi walked at the same pace, Bodhi's shorter legs had to extend much more to meet the distance. At one point or another, Lyle said, "Now."
They both stopped, with their guns trained ahead. Nothing changed, they felt the same. "Now what, Lyle?" Marco asked, but to their surprise, he kept walking, and he would have kept walking were it not for the fact that he bumped into Marco's leg.
"Marco?!" He yelled, Marco nudged him, Lyle didn't move an inch, keeping his gun aimed straight. "Talk to me Marco! You too Bodhi!"
"We are right here!" Bodhi gruffed loudly. The three of them stared down the tunnel, to the two of them it looked no different than the entirety of the trek here.
Down the tunnel there was a bend, a loud boom resonated from within. The three of them kept their sights pointed straight before a giant hand slammed itself down a few dozen feet in front of them. IT balled it's fist,
The two of them tried taking a step back, Lyle followed along as he felt them shift.
"Guys talk to me." Lyle spoke as they all moved back. Marco was shocked by his sheer unawareness, though this 'mist' might have something to do with it.
"Lyle, what the hell is that." asked Bodhi, Lyle turned to him confused. "What's in the mist?"
"Big hand thing, seems like something huge crawling towards us." Marco spoke clearly and loudly, the hand opened, slamming its palm down in front of itself clutching and pulling, he could now see it's wrist. "Extremely slow, barely around a bend about 50 feet up front."
"How big?" Lyle asked, moving his gun, the creature kept crawling. "Just the hand? about 1/3 the height of the tunnel." They could hear murmuring behind them.
"What class?" Lyle asked again, his questions sped up. "Not sure." Bodhi replied. "What do you mean not sure? Look at it!" Yelled Lyle back.
"Too big, Definitely A class." Marco broke over the short lived argument. "Lyle, do we have any rifling cases on us?" He shook his head, "No can do, you think we met our match in this tunnel?"
The hand slammed down once again, dragging itself forward again. He could now see what he assumed to be it's face.
it covered almost the entirety of the tunnel, squeezing tightly by the sides like it was being pulled by it's 'ears.' It had huge eyes that slanted back. It seemingly struggled, trying to fix it's gaze on them, seemingly aware of them.
"We gotta get outta here 100%" Marco said in an almost shaky voice, Lyle glared at him with a slightly confused expression. However, he trusted his judgement.
They all began to walk away, four looking forward and four looking backwards. They were about 100 feet from when they heard a loud crash. Marco was one of the ones facing the way of the mist wall, from within, the large fist slammed into the wall, clinging on with it's finger's while it pulled itself forward. A loud roar echoed through the cave as the beast's head rushed around the corner.
One of the men besides Marco fell over from the surprise. It was almost instantaneous the way it happened. He helped him up to his feet as the other two fired in it's general direction, amongst them Hamzah.
From the hand shot out a large cylinder like a spear from a cannon. It raced straight to Hamzah's face, who bent his knees, shooting down towards it without looking. Marco had the other handler up at this point, however he kept his eyes on Hamzah who he thought for sure would die.
As he turned his vision, he noticed a cylinder coming straight in his direction. Every instinct screamed at him to duck, however he raised his left hand.
The projectile that would have at best pulled him along, and at worst blasted a hole right through, instead dissapeared into the back of his hand. He heard as the one next to Hamzah got hit and fell to the floor.
The missiles didnt stop, they weren't in quick succession but they were coming through fast enough where one could get caught off guard.
"EVERYBODY FALL BACK!" Yelled Lyle, Bodhi took a hold of the guy on the floor and pulled him back. The trek was slow, somehow no one else got hit as they made it to the fork in the path.
From the other side, the other group came sprinting out with two injured men. "What the hell is going on?" Lyle grabbed the FAC staffer by the collar, who grabbed his wrist and pushed him back lightly.
"You know what you need to know, it's not the time to argue. How are the wounded doing?" They tore their clothes open, one of them had a gaping wound to the chest while the other two were hit in opposite arms.
"Everyone, the entrance is blocked." One of the handlers asked while staring down the tunnel they came from. Almost everyone's attention quickly turned to the entrance. The radiant entrance was sealed shut by a large pile of boulders with not a single ray of light peeking through.
The group could hear the loud rumbling coming from between both sides of the diverging path as well, they could only realistically walk back to hatch a plan.
The piled of rocks left large boulders a bit away from the bunch which they used as cover. Those who could had their guns aiming down the tunnel, sitting patiently.
Hamzah spoke through the Duplex to Marco. "I saw that."
"Saw that?" Asked Marco, a bit more surprised that he could speak to begin with. The voice within being deep and growly. "Yes, the thing with your hand, it went through your glove, correct?" "Correct."
Hamzah frowned as he turned to Lyle who in turned looked at Marco. "Did that really happen?" "What?" "You absorbing the whatever the fuck that was." Marco nodded in agreement.
Lyle huffed, "is there anything you can do with it?"
What did he mean by that? Marco looked down at his left hand. From within it came a throbbing burning sensation like something was pushing it's way out through his flesh. He closed his eyes, feeling as the blood coursed through him not too dissimilar to the first time the blade burst through his knuckles and the rosy bud appeared in the back of his hand.