Urbex

Arrival

Nolan turns on the radio. A weather reporter gives the forecast for tomorrow. "Expect scattered clouds and temperatures around 67 degrees." The man says before Nolan turns the radio back off. "We close?" I ask, loading a spare magazine for my USP. "It's just up the road a ways, we're going to have to go through a bit of woods to get to it." He replies. He stops the RV a little while later and we all hop out. I turn on my flashlight and it illuminates a muddy path through the trees. I lead the way, and notice the mud is rather thick and sticky, making it difficult to traverse. "Let's just cut through the tree line, it'll be faster." I say. They follow me through, and we hear a distant wolf howl. We come out of the trees and I see the building. "There it is." Nolan says. I look up and see it. A giant rusting hulk of a structure, smokestacks sticking out of it like the ribs of a decayed corpse. "Place looks a lot worse than it did last time." I say. Fenix emerges from the bushes, brushing leaves out of his hair. "Oh damn. Glad I've had my tetanus shots." He says, looking at the building. "Right-O, let's get to it then." Nolan says, leading the way with his flashlight.  We arrive on the east end of the factory, standing in front of a floor to ceiling window with a divided section on the bottom. Fenix grabs his crowbar and gently pops the smaller bottom portion of the window open and we all crawl inside. As I stand up, I dust off my trenchcoat, attach my mask in case of asbestos, and pull my wind-up light from my bag, giving it a few cranks. I illuminate what seems to be a small office with a huge, beautiful mahogany desk. "Ooh.. I'm taking this with me once we're done." I say, brushing the dust off of it. The mask makes my voice sound slightly growlish and Nolan jumps a bit. "Heh, sorry." I say, opening one of the four drawers on the desk. A shiny police issue maglite lies inside, with a gleaming polished black finish. I grab it and slide it onto my belt. "Holy fuck!" Fenix yells, making me jump a foot in the air in surprise. I sprint over to where I hear him and he's sitting on the floor in front of an open door, catching his breath. "Fucking used needles at eye level sticking out of a chunk of wood." He says, pointing inside the open door. I see a 2x4 with needles seemingly hot glued to it at about six feet off the ground, all covered in dry blood, likely from when they were last used. I grab his crowbar from his bag and knock the board to the floor, sweeping it aside with my boot. Inside the room I see a dark shadow standing in front of a window, silhouetted by the moonlight. My pistol is pointed at the shadow before I even realize I've taken it out of my holster and I shine my light on the source of the shadow. It's a goddamn full-size cardboard Shaquille O'Neill cutout. I sigh, slightly irritated, holstering my USP. I help Fenix off the floor and call out to Nolan. "Where you at man?" I say. "Over ere." He says, from down the hall. I push open a set of double doors, seeing Nolan on top of a stamping machine, searching through a pile of comic books. I notice that beside the machine is a concrete stairwell, covered by a rusty grate secured with an old padlock. "Hey guys, looks like there's a lower level to this place." I say, noticing the immense echo of this room. "Yeh, I noticed that bit earlier. I can hear dripping into water, I think there's some slight flooding." Nolan says, jumping down. "That grate's locked up though." He says, pointing to it, I step closer to the grate and think about just bashing it in. I then think about the possibility of needing to shut something out in case something chases us, be it a crackhead squatter or a rabid raccoon. I pull two Bobby pins from my coat pocket and get the lock open, swinging the grate open as quietly as possible. I whistle for Fenix and he comes to us. "That looks more than creepy." He says, looking at the stairway and checking the orange face of his watch. "But whatever, the night is young. I'll take point." He says. "It'd be a good idea to keep your guns drawn down here guys, it's a little too tight for comfort." I say. They follow my advice, and I see Nolan quietly draw his shiny British revolver and Fenix pull his matte black .45. The glowing sights on my USP shine brightly even in the dark tunnel. This appears to be some kind of transport tunnel, judging by the rails on the ground, and slightly resembling a storm drain. It's wet in places as well. Suddenly we hear a sound of bare feet shuffling against the concrete and we all quickly take a knee, Nolan aiming forward and Fenix and I covering the rear. "The fuck was that sound?" Nolan asks. "Not sure, let's just keep low, cover both ends, and keep moving. I turn back around to advance down the tunnel, and see what looks like reflective eyes, like a cats, farther down the tunnel, not looking in our direction but seemingly facing left. "Nolan look." I whisper, shutting off my light. "Straight ahead, see that?" The tunnel grows dead silent... The eyes slowly look in our direction and rise up off the ground about four feet. We hear a horrible sound, resembling a cough, escape the creature. It looks away and scampers off "Fuck this! Fuck this, man." Nolan says, his breathing growing rapid. "Agreed. There's a grate above us, you guys cover me while I get it open." I say. Reach up and slide the grate off, and it makes a loud scraping sound. We hear the cough, more distant now, and can hear the sounds of its bare feet slapping against the concrete in our direction. I climb out, Nolan and Fenix close behind me, and I shut the grate back over the hole, sticking a large barrel on top of it. "That was either something really bad..." Fenix starts, "Or just a really sick fucking cat." Nolan says. "I don't know what it is, but I don't much care for it." I say. "It seems like this place has more to it than meets the eye."

We stop for a water break and have some crackers, courtesy of Nolan. As I sit on the floor with my water bottle, I notice what looks like a manhole cover about ten feet from us. Suddenly a bright light flashes from under it. And again a few minutes later. "Hey guys, check this out." I say, motioning to the manhole cover and walking over to it. I lower my head to it and listen. A gentle buzz. "I think there's electricity running down here." I say, lifting the heavy steel cover and dragging it off the hole. I look down into the hole and see a shiny polished floor. I jump down. This area is a long, curving hallway, with rounded, tunnel-like walls, lined with lights on the bottom. The place is remarkably clean, and doesn't at all resemble the factory. Nolan and Fenix jump down too. "Woah." Fenix says. "This doesn't look like it belongs here." Nolan replies.

"What the hell is this place?"