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Chapter 30: The Silent Choir
The cavern pulsed like a living thing. The fleshy walls exhaled a damp, putrid breath, filling the air with the scent of rotting meat and something far older—something that had never belonged in this world. Wallace swallowed down bile as Mercer smiled at him, her blackened eyes gleaming with something between amusement and hunger.
"You don't understand yet, do you?" Mercer whispered, her voice layered, as though more than one being spoke through her. "You are already part of us."
The walls shuddered. The nest was waking up.
Vanessa gripped Wallace’s arm, her breath ragged. "We need to move. Now."
Rhodes kept his rifle trained on Mercer, but Wallace could see the fear in his eyes. Fear of something bullets wouldn’t stop.
From the shadows, figures peeled away from the cavern walls—half-human, half-nightmare. Their faces were frozen in eternal screams, their limbs elongated and fused together in grotesque unity. They moved as one, their footsteps in perfect rhythm, their whispers a hymn of horror that slithered through the air.
The Silent Choir.
Mercer’s smile widened. "They have waited so long."
Wallace raised his flare gun. "For what?"
Mercer tilted her head, her bones cracking. "To sing."
The Choir opened their mouths.
A single, piercing note filled the cavern. Not sound—something deeper. Something that reached inside Wallace’s skull and scraped against his mind. His vision blurred, his ears rang, his body convulsed as if his own flesh was rejecting him.
Vanessa screamed, clutching her head. Rhodes dropped to one knee, blood seeping from his nose.
"They’re—" Wallace choked, "—they’re trying to break us."
The Choir’s voices layered, twisting into something vast, something ancient. The ground trembled. The walls pulsed. Mercer laughed, her body twitching as though something inside her was trying to escape.
Then, from deep within the nest, the darkness moved.
And something looked back.
Wallace staggered to his feet, barely able to think past the Choir’s overwhelming song. But he knew one thing—they had to get out. Now.
He grabbed Vanessa and Rhodes, dragging them toward a rusted service tunnel on the far end of the cavern. Mercer’s laughter echoed after them.
"You cannot run from what you already are."
The Choir stepped forward.
Wallace fired his flare gun into the ceiling. The burst of fire and smoke disoriented the creatures for a second—one precious second.
They ran.
The tunnel twisted into the dark, the whispers following them, growing louder, closer. Wallace’s vision swam, the song still clawing at his thoughts.
Then the tunnel ended.
And what lay beyond was worse.
Chapter 31: The Eye of the Deep
They burst through the tunnel’s exit and into something impossible.
A vast underground lake stretched before them, the water blacker than night, reflecting nothing. The walls of the cavern stretched endlessly upward, disappearing into a ceiling that did not exist. There was no sound here—no echoes, no ripples, no air.
And in the center of the lake, it loomed.
An eye.
Not human, not animal—something else. Something that had never been meant to wake. It was the size of a building, its pupil a swirling void of endless hunger. Veins of black ichor pulsed outward from it, twisting through the water like roots reaching for prey.
Wallace felt his knees buckle.
"Oh, God," Vanessa whispered. "What the hell is that?"
Rhodes exhaled a shaky breath. "Not God. Something older."
The eye twitched.
And then it saw them.
The silence shattered. The lake roared, the black water convulsing as tendrils erupted from its surface. The nest was not just a place—it was alive. And now, it knew they were here.
Wallace grabbed Vanessa and Rhodes. "RUN!"
They sprinted along the rocky ledge, the tendrils slamming into the ground behind them, leaving craters in their wake. The whispers had stopped. The Choir had stopped. Everything had stopped.
Because the Deep had awakened.
Vanessa tripped, her body tumbling toward the edge of the lake. Wallace lunged, grabbing her wrist just before she fell in. The black water reached for her, writhing, whispering.
"Come home," it murmured.
Wallace yanked her back just as a tendril struck the ledge where she had been.
Rhodes fired his rifle blindly, the bullets disappearing into the void. "We need an exit!"
Wallace scanned the cavern. There—on the far side, a rusted ladder leading upward, disappearing into the rock. He pointed. "There! Move!"
The ground trembled as the eye began to rise, its pupil expanding, swallowing the darkness. It was no longer just looking at them.
It was judging them.
Vanessa scrambled up the ladder first, followed by Rhodes. Wallace was last, his muscles screaming as he climbed. Below, the tendrils struck, missing them by inches.
Then, as they neared the top, the whispers returned.
"You cannot leave."
Mercer’s voice.
Wallace looked down.
She stood on the edge of the lake, her body shifting, her skin peeling away to reveal something underneath—something no longer human. Her eyes, endless and black, locked onto him.
"We will find you."
Wallace climbed faster.
The ladder led into another tunnel, this one leading sharply upward. The whispers faded, but Wallace knew they were not gone.
They had seen the Deep.
And now, it would never stop watching.
As they ran, Vanessa gasped out, "What… what was that thing?"
Wallace didn’t answer.
Because he knew the truth.
Palatka wasn’t just infected.
It was a doorway.
And something had just stepped through.