The panic quickly spread.
The mind-boggling mass of people began to move under the warm firelight of large iron braziers hanging above them
"How did I get here?!"
"My brother! Manny—where are you?!"
Matthew edged away from the crowd, their voices rising into sharp, panicked arguments and reached into his pocket for his phone.
Where is it?
His hand darted into his bag—no phone. He ripped it open. No laptop either.
A burst of frantic shouting broke his focus. A fight was about to break out nearby. The tension felt like it would crack the air.
Matthew shrank by the wall, heart hammering against his chest. In my car, I was just in the car. Who are these people? What were those whispers I heard when everything fell.
Matthew began to breathe hard, forcing himself to try and be calm and reasonable. His eyes ran over the faces—unfamiliar and all confused.
Forcing down panic, Matthew scanned the temple. No murals. No altars. Just four towering pillars etched with arcane symbols... and the black fountain. Matthew's skin crawled as he gazed at the dark crystals of the statue like a profane demon stuck in its final position.
A voice rang out. "There's an exit!"
The crowd surged like a tide. Matthew moved with them.
A stocky boy with wavy brown hair shouted, "Wait! We don't know what's out there!"
They all ignored him, quickly passing through the dark tunnel that led out of the temple.
Matthew was blinded by light as he escaped the crush of bodies. He stumbled past, looking up with a gasp.
They were underground.
Of course, we are, he thought sarcastically, surveying the cavern around him. White limestone walls stretched far ahead, lit by eerie patches of glowing moss. The ground was cracked and uneven. Matthew hung back, eyes darting over everything.
People seemed confused for a moment, but began to race down the tunnel. Matthew lagged behind walking slowly as he observed the walls of the cavern.
The moss is patchy... eaten? It makes no sense for an underground temple to be this bright. Also what is that?
There was a long, jagged gash in the wall of the tunnel, like a horrible injury. Matthew wondered what could have done that, it was almost as wide as he was tall. It was like a huge sword had torn open the stone walls.
There could be things living here. He took his time walking, trying to decide what to do if people ahead began running back. The tunnel, however, stretched on for so long. He had caught up with the people who had run ahead, panting as they slowed down.
People began to talk again, mostly complaints about the length of the tunnel and talking about how they had gotten here.
"We all felt that pressure right? I closed my eyes and then opened them here."
"Felt like my eyes were going to pop. I was underwater in a compression tank, I thought we had a pressure leak and I was going to die."
"I don't normally subscribe to bullshit, but this is starting to feel like some magic."
Matthew silently agreed, keeping a distance between them. Something wasn't right.
Different people from all over the world in different conditions had all ended up here.
He turned back to the temple wondering if he had made a mistake leaving.
They could have drugged us, but I don't feel any aftereffects. It wasn't like going to sleep, I was awake.
Falling.
It was quiet for a while as people ran out of things to say. The group ahead stopped suddenly.
"What happened?" Someone asked.
He walked forward, but stopped as an eerie clicking sound filled the tunnel.
Everyone stopped suddenly quiet, Matthew moved to the side. His blood turned cold as it got nearer.
There was a bend in the tunnel so they couldn't see what was making that sound yet. One of the bolder boys stepped forward.
"Who Is that?"
It was silent again suddenly, the clicking disappeared.
Matthew held his breath moving back quickly.
The clicking started again, after a couple seconds something crawled across the bend.
A creature the size of a horse—segmented, bone-plated, with soft pink arms twitching beneath. The plates near its head clicked rhythmically, like a grotesque music box.
"The fuck is that?" someone murmured.
The clicking stopped.
The creature rose, its underbelly was pink mottled flesh scarred by horrible injuries caked in mud and pus.
The monster's mouth was a thing of nightmares, a spiral of many teeth that contracted and expanded—like it had been made to suck blood.
The clicking had stopped, everyone grew increasingly horrified. When the first scream sounded, the bold boy in front pulled out a knife.
"What the hell is that?!"
Then it moved.
The creature rolled into a ball, the plates glowing blue—and launched at the boy with the knife.
Like a baseball tearing through paper.
It decimated the boy's body. Blood, visceral and bone fragments scattered across the walls. Matthew's stomach churned as a sickening splat echoed
The screams shattered any remaining courage. Matthew stumbled back, cursing, trying to stay clear of the panic.
"No fucking way."
The creature moved forward faster and faster with no regard for the laws of motion. Each time it hit someone the devastation was greater—turning solid bodies into bloody mists.
Its speed was hard to even track. He could hear the screams—each one worse than the last—as the creature mowed down the people in its path:
"Wait! Oh god please!"
"STAY AWAY!"
The ball of moving death bounced off the wall and erased someone's legs from under them. It blasted through a screaming girl, leaving her head to bounce across the floor.
Matthew stopped running and struggled to keep his breath under control and quiet. A few glances were thrown at him as he began walking in the opposite direction.
It uses sound to hunt, however I'll be crushed by mistake if i stay in its path.
Stay silent. Stay small.
He flattened against the wall as the monster shot past. His chest heaved, but he forced himself still.
The slaughter was merciless.
I should have stayed in the damn temple.
He then saw a simple knife covered in blood.
Matthew inched toward the boy's knife—but an explosion of sound made him stumble to one knee.
In their only path of escape stood a behemoth of a monster.
A creature bigger than a trailer. Thick white armor plates clashed with each step, horrifying mandibles dripping blood. Around its thick neck, hexagonal plates clacked and shifted, stirring the air with a horrible vacuuming sound.
They moved up and down clicking similarly but a great amount of air being moved added a vacuum-sealing sound.
The rolling monster couldn't ignore the noise this beast created.
It launched at the behemoth, the wind burst around it from its sheer speed. The impact was like a cannon blast throwing them all to the ground.
When Matthew got up, he could only gasp. The rolling creature couldn't even dent the ant's armor.
Its armor only glowed faintly red from the force, but other than that it was unaffected.
The small creature ricocheted upward—vulnerable.
The giant ant's jaws snapped shut like a guillotine. The rolling creature's glow faded and blood burst out of all the gaps in its armor.
The ant tossed the corpse aside and turned its attention to the survivors.
Its jaw and legs leaked steam, the jaws reopened like the gates to hell. The monster bent its legs a little then launched forward with harrowing speed.
Matthew watched in horror as it tore apart the leftovers.
It moved too quickly for something that big. Each time the jaws of the beast shut, the force nearly threw him off his feet.
He covered his ears and retreated behind the bend.
The screams and sounds of bodies being pulverized were shut out. He closed his eyes and sunk into the floor. His heart was pounding like it was in his ears.
Waiting until itwas all done to come out.
He almost threw up. Organs, pulped skin and body parts were scattered about like a horrible painting. Matthew couldn't believe his eyes for a moment.
He stood for a long time, before he started to look around. He had to pretend none of it was real, the monsters, the blood, even the tunnel itself.
"Later," He promised.
He scavenged—knife, broken pans, a torchlight, random survival gear. Each item snatched quickly, hands shaking slightly.
There was a lot that was destroyed by the unreal force of the rolling bug.
He eventually found the rolling bug itself, left behind by the ant, maybe because it had stayed rolled up. The white armor of the creature was stained by its strange blackish blood.
It finally rolled open revealing a devastated underbelly that looked like a bloody soup. Yet strangely it was still alive, its mouth quivering with fading life.
He grimaced, a hot hatred filling his belly, "Die already bastard. Must have felt good, finally meeting something you could bully."
He raised one of the long knives he found, plunging it into the beast. The black blood of the creature covered his entire arm. He eventually pierced something solid.
He pulled his arm out and picked up some pieces of cloth to clean off the blood. When he came back, he saw something that made him stop.
It was three strange blue coins. The coins shimmered faintly as they phased through the bug's carcass, not quite touching the ground.
Matthew picked one up, the blue glow dancing in his eyes.
They weren't cold. They weren't even solid. But they pulsed like they were alive.
"Rest well, I guess." He muttered to the slaughtered.
For now he had to return to the temple. There were too many questions to be asked.