Exponentially getting more aware.
22:10
Several units are stationed around a high-rise apartment complex.
A light drizzle rained down on the facility field operators as they stood waiting by the building.
"Units 12, 19 and 24 are on their way."
"Unit 24? Ambrose is coming?"
"I thought 24 was reserved…"
"Has anyone gone in since the evacuation?"
"This is Bejines with 22. Do not advance past the second floor. I repeat, do not advance past the second floor of the building."
Voices of field operators bounce back and forth over the radio. They stand idle around the building until several vehicles show up outside the apartment complex. Two full units exit the vehicles before another one rolls up and out of which steps out Sawyer Ambrose along with the rest of unit 24. The idleness of the soldiers breaks as their attention turns to Sawyer who leads his unit to the entrance.
"Alright, brief summary. Inside this building is a newly-identified cryptid. A couple of my men tried to advance to the higher parts of the complex but were pressured back down. They took these two pictures-"
A unit manager is the first to approach unit 24 and fill them in on the situation. This man was the one who had contacted Sawyer's group through Dawn for them to provide their assistance as soon as he had confirmed this as an active high-risk mission in a civilian area.
The manager of unit 22, which had been the first respondents that had gone inside the building, showed Sawyer and his unit one picture on his phone before swiping to the next as he paced alongside unit 24 to the apartment complex's main entrance. Both of these pictures were extremely blurry due to shaking of the photo capturers as they were startled by the entity that they had come across in the building that was slightly discernable as the subject of the photos.
"It just looks like a blob from what I've seen - buncha strange limbs and muscle holding it together and there and maybe a face, I dunno. We're calling it a Layer-Mesh for now. It seems pretty large too. Scared off my boys. We've got no idea the full extent of its body and what it's capable of, so I say be as careful as you can."
"Has it tried to leave the building?" Sawyer asks the unit manager as he checks the ammo in his gun is fully loaded.
"No, no it hasn't. But you know, we evacuated the residents almost two hours ago via the fire escape coz' at the time the cryptid was still rummaging around on the ground floor where luckily no one was. Since then it's moved up to at least the third floor."
Upon entering the ground floor accompanied by the unit manager and some other field operators from the present units, Sawyer looks around to see signs of a large entity being present here prior to their arrival. The ground floor only had a reception and an access-way to the parking garage underneath them. Signs of the nascent threat's movement such as smashed-in dents in the walls and the doors of the elevator completely crushed inwards rendering it useless.
"Thank God we got here before it interacted with any of the residents, that coulda' been the whole block dead. But there could still be people left in their apartments. If you find anyone who's seen the cryptid then, well you know, take them in."
"Right. We'll take it from here." Sawyer nods reassuringly as the others too ensure that their equipment is all ready to take to battle.
"This is your chance to do the good that you believe in." He murmurs to Claudia.
"I hope you'll see that being here is worth something."
Sawyer knows this is the only thing Claudia needs to hear right now. During the drive there, the awkwardness of the scrapped-together unit was slightly less than usual - well, at least among the guys. Sawyer could still sense Claudia's reluctance on partaking in a ghoulish job that she had been forced to work. She had never dreamed of putting bullets in nightmarish monsters while being side-by-side with strange violent men. Her constant displeasement and mind-numbing wishes of going home and forgetting about the facility and the idea of monsters were blatantly apparent to Sawyer as Claudia avoided eye-contact with him during the entire ride.
However, Claudia's true-good nature would never allow her to leave innocent people in danger when she knew that she had the power to help - now fully displayed to her by her super-human healing factor. Of course, hearing that residents could still be trapped indoors while a dangerous entity roamed the halls did ever-so slightly change her attitude to the mission, Sawyer's words were just a further push.
"Attention units, this is Ambrose with unit 24. Members of my unit will be sent to your locations to advance further up the building."
The extermination had begun.
"We're gonna be splitting up for the meantime until we have more information about the target. Richard, you're with me - we're gonna take the emergency staircase to the higher floors. The rest of you work with the other units to advance past the second floor and report anything you find to me right away. This is the first time you've all worked a mission that's set in a residential area, so do whatever it takes to not allow this anomaly to leave the building."
Jericho and Claudia nodded in agreement to the arrangement. Lex, however - who was standing slightly further behind them trying to assess the situation in his own way - also didn't object to Sawyer's orders. He thought to himself that Jericho and Claudia would be easy to split off from and wouldn't make a big deal out of it, therefore allowing him to find a way to deal with the cryptid in his personal unorthodox methods.
"Let's finish this quickly. Move out."
The group splits up. In a hurry, Sawyer and Richard make their way up the emergency exit while the others take the main stairs. The building is unsettling hollow, with the only people present being soldiers from the various units that were sent here.
Upon reaching the third floor of the complex, Richard and Sawyer begin to slow their advance as their caution grows with each step.
"You think it was a good idea to split up?" Richard questions.
"Of course. Why do you ask?" Replying coldly, Sawyer looks out of the window to his side to see the stationed soldiers around the building making sure nothing enters or leaves. Despite Sawyer's stress caused by this incident potentially involving the members of the public, the streets outside were empty and it was a seemingly quiet evening..
"You don't seem to trust that guy - Lex."
"That's right."
Following right behind him, Richard keeps pushing Sawyer with the subject.
"So why take your eyes off him? Don't you think he'd do something shady?"
"I do, but I was told to have more faith in my unit - so that's what I'm doing. Regardless, we'll find the target first."
"Yeah? How?"
"Those photos that we were shown displayed a clear clutter of rubble blocking the main stairway which goes up to the third floor. I'm sure the others will get around it soon, but if our current path is unobscured then we'll get to the higher floors first and have initiated combat first."
They pass by the second floor, in which a stationed member of one of the other units notices them walking past on the narrow emergency exit. He gives Sawyer a nod as it is returned and Sawyer and Richard climb the stairs to the third floor. They open the door into the hallways and scan the area there.
"So why'd you even accept Campbell's proposal to work for us?"
Picking up from their previous conversation about untrustworthy teammates, Sawyer asks a query he's had on his mind for a while now.
"It didn't seem like I had a choice."
"You didn't put up much of a fight, though."
Richard thinks for a few seconds before answering, Sawyer's reply was slightly humiliating and a snarky answer wouldn't cut it.
"What else am I meant to do? I don't remember a shit ton of stuff, not even my own last name. How am I supposed to go back to a home that I don't know exists?"
…
Richard continues. "I don't remember anything good… doesn't really give me a desire to go home. And the crazy fuckin' stuff that happens in my head, tch, that only calms when I kill stuff."
He starts checking locks of apartments. Many residents who had been evacuated hadn't stopped to lock their door, so Richard began to open them and look inside before going onto the next one.
"I sound like I'm mental explaining all this. Shit's got me fucked up." By now Richard was only talking to himself.
"What are you doing?" Sawyer backtracks to see Richard entering somebody's apartment.
"Checking for people. You said some people might've not made it out." Though the reasoning behind Richard's exploration was just, his tone didn't indicate the concern for civilians which he spoke about.
"Leave that to the others."
On the other side of the building - Jericho leads Lex and Claudia up the main stairs past the third floor - where members of the other units scour each apartment for signs of the entity which was reported to be seen here. An awkward silence lingered over the three as they entered the fourth floor.
"Hello? Is anybody still here?"
Claudia scours the floor going door to door to make sure nobody has failed to evacuate.
The other two men, however, keep walking along the hallway to loop around and check for the anomaly.
"So it's pretty obvious now but this thing can move between floors."
"Hm, no kidding." Lex replies to Jericho before taking out a round glass container from his satchel, which held a strange piece of organ-like material cramped inside. "Guess we're gonna find out how…"
He raises the glass container up in front of his chest before grabbing a small metal rod which was strapped to his belt and putting one end of the metal rod to the glass container and the other end pushed into his chest, specifically where his heart was. Soon enough, the material inside the container started reacting by squirming around. Lex then drops the container on the ground, shattering it and putting away the metal rod.
Out of the broken glass pieces rises a small fish-shaped being with one eye and a body seemingly made out of miscellaneous organ-like shapes. Its eye flutters around for a bit before the creature floats into the air and down the hall.
Seeing this happen, Claudia was unexpectedly bewildered. Jericho, however, had already once seen this pointy-faced floating creature, already having discerned that it somehow belonged to Lex.
"Alright, let's follow it."
"What is it?" Claudia asks as she follows behind Lex.
"It's called a 'Compass'. It seeks out the nearest anomaly, so it'll lead us right to the target."
After being led by the Compass to the end of the hallway, Lex scratches his head as the little entity crumbles into dust.
"Well shit."
"So? Did it find anything?" Jericho impatiently asks.
"It doesn't always work…"
Claudia lingers a few steps behind them as they agree to continue to move to the upper floors. As she turns to head back towards the stairs, she's the first to hear a strange grating noise.
"What was that?"
The two guys with her look around to determine the source of the noise.
"No idea… Sawyer, this is Jericho - come in."
Sawyer soon replies over the radio. "What is it?
"Did you hear that too?"
"Hear what?"
Lex picks up the pace as he speed-walks past the other two. Ignoring previous conversations over the radio, Claudia and Jericho follow behind him as he rushes up the stairs to the next floor.
"I'm going up ahead."
"Hey! What? Where're you going?!" Jericho watches as Lex runs off down the hall without them. Wanting to wait for the others to advance up the building but not wanting somebody to split off from their trio, Jericho doesn't even have the chance to take a step to run after Lex before a large section of the wall in front of him is forcefully caved in.
The destruction jolts Jericho and Claudia to take an involuntary step back. The dust caused by the collapsed walls makes Lex disappear, making it uncertain if he had been crushed by debris or managed to keep running on the other side of the rubble.