The air inside Sector–13 felt heavier than before—almost as if the underground facility itself was breathing. Nora walked ahead, her flashlight cutting a thin line through the absolute darkness. Behind her, Rian and Kael followed in tense silence, each step echoing like distant warnings.
They had escaped the glass chamber…
They had survived the shifting shadows…
But what waited in this corridor felt worse—something unseen, something aware.
The Corridor That Shouldn't Exist
The map Nora had stolen from the control terminal clearly showed a storage bay at this location. But instead, the straight metal hallway stretched deeper and deeper, lined with doors that were all the same: frost-covered, silent… locked.
"None of this was here earlier," Rian whispered.
"I know," Nora replied. "But we're too far in. Turning back won't help now."
Kael placed his hand on the wall.
"It's warm," he muttered.
Nora froze. Warm? The walls were freezing seconds ago. She touched it herself—and jerked her hand back.
The metal pulsed.
Like a heartbeat.
Something was alive behind it.
Footsteps That Didn't Belong to Anyone
The group continued forward, flashlights trembling in their hands. Suddenly, a metallic clang echoed from behind them. They spun around.
Nothing.
Just a long empty corridor stretching into darkness.
Another clang. Closer.
This time, Nora saw it—
Not a shape, not a creature…
But a shadow sliding along the wall. Thin. Stretched. Distorted.
Yet no one stood there to cast it.
Kael tightened his grip on his weapon. "Move. Fast."
They ran.
But the shadow ran too.
Not on the floor.
Not on the walls.
On all surfaces at once, shifting like liquid darkness.
Door 47-B
Nora spotted an unlocked door—number 47-B—the only one without frost. She shoved it open, dragging the others inside. Kael slammed it shut.
Instant silence.
The room was small, windowless, and filled with broken screens. Old monitors flickered with scrambled footage. Static crackled.
Then one of the screens cleared.
Nora stepped closer.
A live camera feed appeared—showing the corridor they'd just been running through.
At first, it was empty. Quiet.
Then the shadow appeared on the screen.
But this time, it had shape.
A pale humanoid form leaned toward the camera, its neck bending far too long, its face blurred like smeared paint. It lifted its hand—long, thin, jointed wrong—and placed it directly on the camera lens.
The feed went black.
Kael stumbled back. "What… what is that thing?"
Nora stared at the dead monitor, her heartbeat pounding. "It's hunting us."
The Screaming Walls
A low rumble started.
The walls vibrated.
Rian pressed his ear against the metal and instantly recoiled, choking on a breath. "There's… screaming inside the walls."
The rumbling turned into a deep, violent shiver. The ceiling cracked. Dust rained down. Something slammed from the outside, denting the door inward.
Once.
Twice.
Harder each time.
Nora looked around desperately.
"There!"
A maintenance hatch near the floor.
Kael kicked it open.
"Go!" he shouted.
They crawled inside just as the door behind them split open like paper.
The Crawlspace
The narrow vent was suffocating—metal scraping their knees, air hot and stale. The distant growling echoed behind them, closer than before.
Nora led the way, light flickering with every movement. The vent twisted sharply downwards, almost like it was dragging them deeper beneath the facility.
"What if this is exactly where it wants us to go?" Rian whispered shakily.
Nora didn't answer.
She already feared the same thing.
The Vertical Shaft
The vent dropped off into a massive vertical shaft. Nora leaned over carefully, shining the light downward.
Her breath stopped.
The walls of the shaft were covered in handprints—hundreds of them—dragged downward, clawed into the metal as if people had been pulled inside against their will.
Kael swallowed hard. "We're not climbing down there."
But the shadow behind them hissed.
Something skittered in the vent.
Nora's voice broke.
"We don't have a choice."
She swung herself onto the ladder and began descending. The others followed.
Halfway down, the lights above flickered.
Something crawled into the top of the shaft.
Claws clicked on metal.
The shadow-creature stretched downward, its limbs bending unnaturally as it descended like a spider.
"FASTER!" Nora screamed.
They slid the rest of the way, hitting the bottom with aching knees, but alive.
For now.
The Chamber Beneath
At the bottom of the shaft was a round chamber glowing with faint red emergency lights. A huge reinforced door sat at the far end, labeled:
RESTRICTED ZONE: LEVEL ZERO
Nora's blood ran cold.
She remembered the files she'd seen.
Level Zero was never meant to be opened.
Behind the door, something thumped once—slow, heavy, deliberate.
Kael whispered, "We escaped one nightmare just to walk straight into another."
Nora stared at the door as the shadow-creature approached through the shaft behind them.
Two threats.
One in front of them.
One closing in from behind.
No way back.
No way out.
Just the horrible choice:
Open the forbidden door… or face the thing crawling down after them.
Nora took a trembling breath.
"We're opening it."
The moment her hand touched the panel, the entire chamber went pitch-black.
And a whisper—not human—spoke her name.