Countd0wn

Chapter 27: Intermission

Corporal Sean Peters was having what he considered by all accounts to be a pretty normal day. His watch over the server area at Reservoir's main power terminal had been uneventful, and pretty boring to be honest. He was happy when his break finally began at 12:30.

After a quick lunch in the cafeteria, he walked back towards his post, preparing himself to wait yet another 5 hours until his replacement could relive him. But it was on his way back that his day went from ordinary to extraordinary.

As Peters walked down the corridor heading towards the server room, he heard the most peculiar thing through his mask, something that was audible even through the muffling of the cloth and metal that made up his headgear: a baby crying.

Peters froze in his tracks, the hallway going quiet again now that his feet had stopped moving. There was silence for a few moments, and Peters looked around to see if he was just hearing things. But, as soon as his mind was about to go off of it, he heard the baby crying again. It was loud and clear, like it was right next to his face, but he couldn't see anything else in the hallway.

Then, the lights went out above his head, and seemingly everywhere else in the hall. He instinctively raised his rifle in front of his face. He reached up to the goggles on his face and tried to flick on the night vision in his mask, but found that when he pressed the button, nothing happened.

Then, a single light began to flicker on and off behind him, and he whirled around and raised his weapon to try and get a look at it. What he saw was the strangest thing ever. The single spot that was illuminated in the area contained a small white cradle that was slowly rocking back and forth. It was big enough to hold a small baby.

Even though it was against every single fibre of his being to do so, Peters slowly began to walk towards the cradle, his gun pointed directly at it. As the faulty light made it fade in and out of the darkness, he could hear the crying again, coming directly from inside the cradle.

As he reached the very edge of the cradle, he lowered his weapon instinctively, and looke inside. He saw that the pale, perfectly white blanket and bars on the side of the cradle were stained with red blood, which all seemed to be in a large pool that was lying at the bottom. The crying began to grow louder and louder.

Peters began to shake and let out a small scream in his mask, then was about to turn and run off into the darkness, when a large human form that was covered in blood leapt out of the pool at the bottom of the cradle, making an inhuman roaring sound, and grabbed Peters, pulling him backwards into the cradle as he screamed.

The lights went out in the hallway, and all sound ceased. Then, every single light flickered back on at the same time, as if nothing had happened. Standing in the middle of the hall was Peters, not moving, but looking forwards. Then, he slowly unclipped his helmet, then slid off his mask, revealing blood red eyes, and a small, evil smirk on his face.  

After standing for a few moments, he turned around, and began to walk down the hall. Not towards the server room, but to a new destination, that no one else knew about except for a few select people, but Peters had just been granted knowledge about. 

He managed to make his way to an elevator, that seemed unassuming at first, but let to something that Peters knew that he wanted badly for some reason. He pressed the button to call it, and the doors opened. He walked in, and pressed his thumb against a button that normally he wouldn't push.