At Doom's Gate

Chapter 3

— We still don't know what this means, Kentucky. — Nolder stated.

— I know what this means, Nazi zombies in space. — Rickson spoke with a mouth full of chew.

— Don't be ridiculous, Kentucky, let's move on. — Soren rolled his eyes and marched ahead.

— Forward, lieutenant. — Ordered the captain.

Rickson followed reluctantly. When he realized he had emptied the tin of chew all at once, he felt even more resentful. We all descended, plunging into darkness, deeper into the abyss of our doom.

We advanced rapidly in formation, weapons at the ready, convinced we were on a hunt. Over thousands of years, we evolved and honed our lethality with weapons, and after so long at the top of the food chain, elevated to the height of our own arrogance, it seems we lost the sensitivity that animals in nature still retain; we are no longer able to recognize when we are the prey.

We scoured every room we came across, but there was no sign of the creature or the victim, the trail of blood blending with dozens of others. The prospect of what might have happened there became increasingly terrifying.

We were close to giving up when we heard a piercing scream. We ran toward the sound, crossing more rooms and corridors, following the frantic footsteps and cries of desperation until the sounds stopped. A grotesque growl sent chills down my spine. We advanced in silence and found the most horrendous scene I had ever seen.

We entered a hall illuminated by floating orbs that emanated a ghostly light. In the center, a structure resembling a dolmen displayed three door-like openings, with the largest one in the middle. The ubiquitous black metal also featured intricate bas-relief inscriptions. Above the central door was a hideous figure, akin to a starry octopus with dozens of eyes and tentacles that twisted and contorted everything they touched. It's impossible to describe accurately, as its form changed with our every movement, much like Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, which seems to follow you with its gaze. However, in this case, it felt as though the grotesque creature was becoming increasingly aware of our presence with each passing moment. I experienced a primal terror as I observed the abomination, feeling the hairs on my neck stand on end and my bones rattle, as if my soul were being ground by cosmic teeth beyond my comprehension.

Yet, the greatest abomination stood before the central door: an inverted body, arms outstretched in a cruciform, flayed and floating two meters off the ground. Suspended droplets of blood orbited around it. To my horror, the eyes were open, and the pupils reacted to our flashlights; that poor creature was somehow still alive.

The shock was so great that we didn't notice when a man ran to the dolmen and manipulated the fissures in the metal until he produced a noticeable effect in the structure. The side doors emitted an intense bluish light that blinded us for an instant and was suddenly transferred by the creature's tentacles to the central door, creating a translucent plasma where the image of another world formed. When we snapped out of the panic-induced stupor, we tried to call out to the man, but he screamed and ran toward the plasma of the central door, crossing through it as we saw him move away on the other side.

— That was Dr. Sakamura. After him, quickly! — ordered the captain, passing under the flayed body, completely ignoring it and disturbing the stability of the blood droplets suspended in the air with his passage. He truly seemed to have nerves of ice, as Nolder had suggested.

We were still stunned, and our reaction time was altered. It didn't seem like just an emotional response to what we had seen; there was something more affecting our minds since we had entered that diabolical mausoleum, and it seemed to have intensified tenfold the moment we laid eyes on that monstrous image above the central door, or perhaps the moment it laid its eyes on us.