Extracts of the Toxic Cesspit

Chemical Meltdown

Cade and Riley sprinted through the hallway as the monsters following behind them gave chase. They threw open the door to the decontamination room, heaved it closed behind them and locked it. The slime monsters chasing them slammed into the door, knocking the duo back a few inches forward. The door stayed closed and the near thoughtless monstrosities couldn't think of anything else other than their blind hunger for the pieces of meat they could see sitting in front of them. Cade and Riley simply looked at each other. They had no words for what they had just experienced.

"L-Let me check your shoulder," Riley managed to chirp out. Even though that thing had only bitten into Cade's neck for a few seconds, the wound it caused was deep. She was no doctor, but even Riley could see that it was bad. The jacket he was wearing had melded into his wound, with parts of it appearing to fuse into his bleeding flesh. It was as if someone had poured a bottle of pure hydrofluoric acid onto his shoulder. On top of all that, it was still pulsing blood.

Cade winced as he asked, "Is it bad?" Riley's face twisted into an insincere smile.

"No, it's not that bad." she reassured.

He chuckled, which morphed into a cough. "You are such a bad liar. You know that?"

"Oh, you just don't know when to-"

"Decontamination procedure activated," An intercom in the roof above the two sounded out.

"The hell is that?" Cade said.

"I don't know, and I don't want to stick around to find out. Let's go," Riley remarked, helping Cade up as they reached the other side of the room. Riley grabbed the doorknob and to her confusion, it wouldn't budge.

"Why are you just standing there?" Cade asked. She tried to knob again.

"It's locked..." She spoke.

"Oh... god. Oh shit." Cade panicked.

"Decontamination procedure stalled due to lack of power. Searching for alternative power source," the automated intercom system continued.

"How the hell is this thing gonna find power!?" Cade yelled, "This place has been out of commission for decades!"

"I don't know, if it's still connected to the power grid, it's possible that it could..." Riley trailed off as her eyes widened in fear. Cade looked at her in initial confusion, but as he turned his head to see what she was looking at, he shared the same horrified expression. A single hand was pushing its way through the crack in the door at the bottom, and it was just about to get its hand on the doorknob, and the door's lock.

"SHIT!" Cade screamed. He ran to the door in an attempt to stop the disaster, but it was too late. The hand turned the lock and the slime beasts fell through the doorway and onto the ground in front of them. The four amalgamations that sat before them each had a different color hue to them, but the one whose hand had opened the door was clearly more intelligent than the rest. It showed in the way it stood; the fact that it was standing at all. It was hunched over but it was still walking upright as opposed to others that were on all fours.

There was a few seconds of silence between Cade, Riley, and the beings in front of them before they lunged at the two with all their weight. Cade rushed to get on his feet and as he jumped toward the back wall, one of them barely managed to cut into his legs with its claws, but still succeeded in cornering him. Riley ran for the now open door, narrowly avoiding a leap and a swipe from the monsters in front of her and slammed it shut. Looking back at Cade, his back was against the wall, and there were two slimes slowly approaching. Riley's eyes locked with Cade's, full of fear. She tried to think. She couldn't try and help him with the two slimes eyeing her smashing themselves against the door. But what if she only needed to open the door for a second?