Descent into Madness

= Descent into madness = Posted by : Winteroak on May 4, 2018, 9:04pm

- 22nd August - Sewers - Before daybreak -

Sharid was running. His footsteps echoed loudly through the dark, dirty tunnels. In the distance he thought he heard a man scream. An agonizing piercing cry that seemed to reverberate from the walls of the confined space and cut right through his being. He felt fear shoot through his being in ways he had only experienced once before in his life. Flashbacks raced through his mind of the fateful day in the Darklands, when his airship crashed, after several lightning bolts struck the engines. They were conducting training exercises when the Maelstrom seemed to come alive without warning and a thunderstorm engulf them. The ray pylons were soon overwhelmed with electricity and the ship tumbled from the dark skies like a stone.

Sharid was the one of thirteen survivors that day, stumbling from the wreckage, leaving behind 30 other souls dead. Dazed, bloody, injured and two days walking distance from the city, they had gathered what little provisions they could raced towards Dusk and safety. Nothing survived long in the Darklands despite its apparent emptiness. By the time he sighted the walls of the City, four days later, he was the sole survivor of his squad. His superiors did not believe what he had seen out there and what he believe claimed the lives of his fellow soldiers. Sometimes he did not believe it either and thought it all a construct of an addled mind. But in the dead of the night, he was plagued by nightmares, visions of the shadows that leaped and flickered in the corners of their eyes, during that foreboding journey, just to be gone when you tried to focus on them. One by one they had all vanished. No trace left. Nothing left apart from the awful blood curling screams... In those moments he knew why Dusk's walls rose so high. To keep true darkness of the Darklands at bay

And here he was again, running. Running deeper and deeper through a labyrinth of old crumbling tunnels, shit and bones. Running deeper into the forgotten bowels of Dusk. Another scream, now closer made him turn a corner and put some distance between him and whatever was stalking him. He tripped and slid to his knees, scrapping his hands and elbows against the hard jagged cobblestones. He cursed feeling his skin split. With no time to think about how nasty an infection down here could turn. He noticed the rising level of the raw sewage and soon he was treading knee deep through it. He tried to keep from gagging but failed miserably. Retching yesterday's meal in short burst that only made him even more nauseated. A small conscious part of his brain hoped that the rising level meant he was getting closer to the river.

Two huge black rats the size of small children, jumped from the shadows and tried to gnaw at his legs. Reflexes took over and he pulled his stun gun from his shoulder holster. He kicked one of the ugly mutated beasts sending it spinning through the enclose tunnel. Its back broke as it hit the wall, leaving a black stain of viscous blood before dropping into the stagnated water. The bouncer prodded the other rat before it could sink its dreadful teeth into him. The rat shrieked as the electrical charge ran through its body. Its dark matted hair singeing at the point of contact. He did not stop. He simply kept running. He knew he was lost. Without the other men he had no chance of finding his way out. And he was sure that at some point he had taken a few wrong turns.

He jumped up a small ledge and ran blindly into the darkness. His light stick flickered. He cursed again. He turned his head. A whisper from his left. Two glowing red orbs appeared out of nowhere. Sharid screamed trying to pull away and lost his balance. Twisting his knee he felt the crumbling masonry of the tunnel give away beneath his body. He spun through the empty air into a pit of blackness, dropping like his airship had dropped so long ago.

The orbs flickered out...