CAPTURED

Epilogue

DAYS LATER
Inside the house of the leaker, the front door came crashing down and the team of Korbitron soldiers slowly made their way inside, aiming at the empty air in front of them. After searching for only a week, they had discovered the house where the leaker had lived and they were more than ready to kill him. Sure, he had leaked the evidence, but that wouldn't stop them. The scums who had helped him escape were dead and the only person left to take care of was the leaker himself.
It would be an easy job for such a large company. They were only hoping they would be able to find the evidence and destroy it; make people believe that it was only something that had accidentally escaped from the Dark Web. Everything was going smoothly for the team until they realized they couldn't find the stupid leaker.
They knew something was off about the household, so they kept their guard up.
"Heh, scared of a measly little boy, are you?" Another one of the soldiers asked, elbowing me in the chest. His laugh really got on my nerves; sounded like a haywire tea pot that had a baby with a broken whistle.
"No, I'm writing about how you guys are scared. Keeping your guard up over a stupid little son of a bitch," I called back. I added another insult, "Maybe you should keep that giant nose out of other people's business. Wouldn't want to take up all their oxygen!"
He furrowed his brow and opened his mouth to speak again. Man, he was bad at coming up with comebacks, "Why does a 30-year-old soldier even have a journal?!"
Before I could reply with another great comeback, the team captain turned to us and pressed one of his fingers to his chapped lips. "If you guys don't shut up, I'll skin both of you alive! Focus on the objective!"
I knew he wasn't kidding about skinning us and apparently the other soldier knew as well because we had both shut our mouths as soon as he said that.
I finally began to think about our objective and I called B.S. Searching the entire house for this guy was pointless. We should have just set the guy's house on fire. It would have forced him to come out and surrender...if he hadn't already commit suicide.
"Hey, boss, I think something's wrong," another soldier called from the front of the group.
"What? Why do you say that?" The captain replied.
"You...don't smell that?"
I removed the black half mask from my face and sniffed the air. Now that he mentioned it, I did smell something strange. I already knew what it was; that smell is easily recognizable. Something was dead.
I was starting to believe that he actually killed himself and his corpse was rotting somewhere in the house. God, that would mean we would have to clear it out. Thankfully, the stupid boy lived in a secluded area, so getting it out of the house would be a piece of cake. But the thought of cleaning a rotting corpse...it's terrible stuff. Fresh corpses are another thing, but rotting, old ones are horrible.
"Any idea where it's coming from?" The captain asked again.
"I think it's coming from..." the soldier led the rest of the group down a dark hallway and approached a white, wooden door, "here."
The captain approached the white door and stared at the other soldier before nodding. He pushed it open revealing a set of stairs that led to the basement.
Ah, the basement. Of fucking course it had to be the basement. Out of all the rooms to die in, you chose the basement. Stupid kid.
I sat in the back of the group and did something I hadn't done in awhile: I prayed and I crossed myself. I knew this wasn't going to end well.
"All right, everyone follow me and stay alert," The captain called out again.
I silently followed the rest of the group, already regretting going down here. I also regretted the choice I made about staying in the back. In all the horror movies I've seen, the people in the back of the group always die first, but that's also because they have no idea what the hell they're doing. I wasn't that stupid. And I shouldn't be this frightened of a stupid basement. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? The corpse comes back alive and eats us?
As we made our way further into the basement, the smell of rotting flesh grew stronger and less bearable, so I decided to yank my half mask back over my mouth and nose. I could still smell it, but it was slightly better.
Suddenly, the captain stopped everyone in their tracks and nodded towards a set of flickering candles that were on the other side of the basement. Below the set of candles was a long trail of blood that pooled near whatever was over there.
By now, my heart and stomach was a complete mess. Everything about this situation seemed wrong. It all just gave off a horrible vibe. And I don't know if it was my mind or not, but I could feel something else in the room with us.
My eyes finally adjusted to the dark and I could now make out something in the dim candlelight. It was something not too big that was crouched near a photo of someone that I couldn't fully make out. The captain pointed his flashlight towards the object and I soon discovered what it was.
I gagged audibly through my mask and so did everyone else, including my captain. There was the dead body of the leaker, hunched over on his side with a small kitchen knife stabbed into the side of his neck. I thought I'd never say this, but I hope the stupid kid died quickly and painlessly. A stab in the neck can be a long, painful process of bleeding out if you don't do it right.
But that wasn't the only disturbing thing there. In front of him was a picture of a girl. I think it was the girl we had captured awhile back ago. I assumed she was dead considering the fact that he had literally built a shrine for her. Put flowers around it and everything.
The captain approached the body of the leaker and flipped it over revealing a horrifying face that screamed pain. His mouth had dried blood pouring out of it in streams and his eyes were almost rolled into the back of his head. Poor son of a bitch didn't die peacefully after all. But at least we didn't have to do it for him.
On the other side of his body and in front of the portrait was a laptop with a small hard drive stuck into the side of it. That was the evidence. Now the team just had to destroy it...and clean up the damn body.
"Sucks for him, huh?" Another soldier said.
"Whatever. Just destroy the evidence so we can get out of here," The captain called out as he tossed the hard drive to the soldier behind him.
I exhaled in relief, but was quickly taken over by fear when the lights of the basement suddenly flicked on. The sudden flash of light burned by retinas for a second before I could adjust to the light.
"What the hell?" The captain said, staring around the room while pointing his rifle everywhere.
"Look over there!" Another soldier from the middle of the group shouted. He was pointing towards a shelf in the corner of the room.
I gasped when I saw what he was pointing at. A dark, misty figure standing behind the shelf, staring at us with evil eyes. The creature had black scleras and black pupils with glowing white irises that dripped with hate. It took on the appearance of a girl...the one in the photo. It was her.
She screeched at us, deafening us for many seconds before charging straight at us.
"Fire!" The captain shouted.
Simultaneously, we all fired our rifles at the ghostly woman who seemed to ignore the bullets that were piercing her skin. They went straight through her, but her skin just closed right up. She was invincible.
The captain quickly realized this and shouted, "RETREAT! NOW!"
Unfortunately, he was the first to get caught. The girl grabbed him fiercely by the throat and slammed him onto the floor and crushed his head like it was a blueberry. This terrified me and the rest of my team.
I didn't want to die, and thankfully I was now at the front of the group. I had a better chance.
Behind me, she quickly finished off the rest of my team by ripping them to shreds. I could hear their limbs being torn apart and I could hear the disgusting sound of necks breaking. I was next if I didn't hurry my ass up the stairs. I didn't look back after that.
I could already see the daylight pouring through the broken front door of the leaker's house. I was almost there. I was going to survive.
There it was, the door. Adrenaline was racing through my body along with hope. But then fear took over when I realized that the ghost had teleported directly in front of me, staring me down with those creepy white irises. This was it. The stupid leaker was going to win. We should have destroyed the evidence before this happened. Before everyone was killed. Now I was going to die. But at least I would take Korbitron down with me. That stupid company had it coming anyway.
By now, I had just given up. The ghost lady already had me by the throat and she was going to kill me any second now. She slipped her other hand underneath my chin and pulled. I could feel the bones in my neck separating from my spine and the skin on my neck beginning to tear.
The last thing I heard was the gruesome noise of skin separating from skin and bone separating from bone and a short utter from the ghost that was, "Oh, Zion. Oh, Zion, the final resting spot for my love."