The two transfers from the military make their way through the halls of the facility and to where Campbell, Dawn, Sawyer and Erik are waiting.
"Right on time."
Campbell looks at the two men before turning to Sawyer.
"Meet Gale Harrison and Jericho Johanne, both have served abroad and are highly skilled combatants. From now on they will be under your command as part of unit 24."
Gale Harrison, age 34, was a rough - looking man with blonde hair and a lazy eye. The other, Jericho Johanne, age 41 seemed more put together, however, his longer brown hair and goatee made him also look like somebody who'd been kicked out of the military.
"Your final unit member will join you soon. He's been briefed about anomalies and our duty here at the facility, and has agreed to join."
Later in the day, Sawyer, Erik, Jericho and Gale sit in the back of a military helicopter, geared up and armed with guns ressembling assualt rifles. Richard is there too, still in his jeans and white tank top. An axe leaned by his side, nobody questioning his weapon of choice.
"I presume the two of you haven't actually been face to face with a cryptid yet?" Sawyer asks the two new recruits.
"That's right." Gale replies.
"Well then, don't let your guard down."
The helicopter flew past the city, their destination the highway in the hills. A thick fog lingered around.
They land on the empty highway, exiting the helicopter.
"According to Dawn, there's an unmoving anomaly up ahead. Our mission is to investigate and secure it. The highway's been blocked off and due to the fog, nobody is around. Nonetheless we should do this quickly, so stay alert."
After Sawyer's speech, he leads the way up the empty highway, the others following him.
As the group walks, Gale speeds up to catch up to Erik and speak to him.
"Hey, mind telling me sum'?"
"Sure, what is it?" Erik replies.
"How come that guy's the leader?"
Gale nods ahead, indicating at Sawyer who's slightly ahead of the rest.
"Sawyer? He was chosen by the director due to his immense skill. During the time I've been at the facility, Sawyer is the only one who's taken down a cryptid by himself. He's seemingly super-human."
"Right." Gale nods lazily, not fully believing the statement, at least not until he sees something worthy of that praise with his own eyes.
"What else d'ya know about him?"
"Well Sawyer doesn't talk much, and frankly keeps to himself. Seeing him express emotion is a rare sight, he's always… focused, which I suppose is necessary when you're dealing with the things the facility does. He's fairly young, he was in the military for a while but ended up leaving after some big deal that happened, though I don't know the details. After that. The director personally recruited him to work at the facility."
"What about the scar and the finger?"
"His scar was caused by a cryptid, but harsh injuries like that are common in this line of work. His left hand's ring finger was shot off at his old post abroad, now replaced with a metal prosthetic.
Along with the scar on his face covering his cheek from his mouth to the side of his eye, Sawyer's finger was in fact replaced with a prosthetic. A small price to pay for the dangers of war, but the more noticeable scar was a reminder that war between humans was much more predictable than the horrors of facing a cryptid.
Jericho chimes in from behind them.
"Sounds like a real respectable guy. Unlike Dale. He got kicked outta the military for snorting lines in the bathroom and threatening to kill a senior officer."
"Tsk, you're full of shit! You're in the same boat, asshole!"
…
Looking through the thick fog, Dale thinks about the mysterious entities that they have been assigned to investigate and contain, and he speaks up again.
"This is different from the military, we'll be shooting at some mutant animals where anything goes. I'm betting a position of leadership is just straight up handed out here."
"Don't get too far ahead of yourself, man, Hellen Keller would do a better job than you."
Richard chuckles slightly behind them, causing Gale to turn around in anger.
"The hell you laughing at, you fucking shizo?!"
Just then, Sawyer finally speaks up.
"Hey, be quiet. We're close."
The group turns from the highway, and makes their way up the hill to the side. The fog still lingers.
They walked in silence until they reached the top of the hill, where their target resided. It resembles a tree sampling in size and shape, although this thing seemed to be made out of beige - colored material, frighteningly similar to human skin. The sapling was clearly unlike anything they've seen, a twisted object far from nature. It twitches, like it's attempting to grow, but it doesn't have roots in the ground.
Sawyer approaches it, and Gale follows suit - trying to get this job over and done with he exclaims - "Alright, we found the weird thing, grab it and we can go back."
"Hold on." Sawyer interrupts him. "It's wedged itself into the ground, there's no telling what'll happen if we touch it."
Inspecting the planted anomaly, Richard kneels down. "Let's just dig up the dirt under and lift it up, get it back to base."
"There could be something much worse under it. This isn't just another cryptid, so I don't kn-"
Interrupting Sawyer, was a sense of dread that filled the group's mind. The wind picked up, dragging the fog around. The ground started to shake, causing the group to back off.
"What's going on?" Richard yells, trying to stand his ground in the chaos.
Sawyer looks around for the tree - sapling anomaly, the possible cause of all this, but his eyes lose sight of it in the fog.
"Stay together! Don't get lost in the fog!" He shouts at the group, trying to suppress the panic.
Just then, an ominous sound of something gasping for air, the noise of a coarse throat panting played in the deep of the fog. It was apparent this noise wasn't caused by any of the men, so Erik looked towards the direction the noise had come from…
"Hey! Something's coming!"
The group of men start to back off back to the direction of the highway, but Richard suddenly starts gripping onto his head and groaning in pain.
"I hear something…"
"Richard, let's go! We're getting outta here!"
Sawyer tries to get through to him, but spots something as the fog clears up for a moment… several large shapes in the fog, all connecting to the sky. The shapes deep in the fog loom over them, multiple legs, eight - no maybe more, thin but each as tall as a tower, all connecting to the main body up in the clouds.
And then, it starts to seem like it's moving closer, each leg raising up and stepping forwards. Soon it became clear that the massive abomination was chasing the group, and at high speeds.
As the rest of the men glance at what Sawyer was looking at, the reality sets in - they're being hunted by something too gigantic to handle.
Sawyer shouts at the top of his lungs. "Everyone! Get back to the helicopter now!!!"
One of the legs begins to get close to the group, Gale takes out his gun and starts firing at the leg.
"Idiot! Just run!" Jericho grabs his arm and pulls him to run away.
The ground runs down the hill, frantically avoiding getting crushed by the behemoth's legs. A leg starts to get closer to them, then another. Behind Jericho's back, one of the monster's limbs rushes at him. With no time to dodge, Jericho keeps running in hope of escape.
Moments before the limb could get close enough to Jericho to squash him, Richard sprints in, swinging his axe vigorously, splitting the behemoth's leg - causing it to detach and roll down the hill. Another approaches, but Richard once again hacks through it with extreme force - ensuring it doesn't reach anyone in the group.
The group makes it down to the highway, the cryptid's presence still looming above the fog, following them intently.
"Sawyer! Which way's the chopper?" Erik asks while frantically looking around for any attacks from the cryptid.
"To the left! Run to the left!"
Just as they change course and begin running down the highway, the ground shakes and another eerie noise echoes through the fog, a low pitch of weeping. Even through the shaking of the ground, they still run with all their might, hoping to reach the helicopter in time before the cryptid has a chance to catch up to them.
"It should be close, don't stop!" Sawyer's message to the group was cut short by one of the men, Erik, stumbling and tripping over while running. In a frantic hurry, Erik desperately tried to get back up on his feet, but by that point the rest of the group had already gotten far ahead. Noticing this, Jericho stops to turn around, unsure of what to do but wishing to help is swiftly interrupted by Sawyer - who tries to encourage him to keep running.
But before Sawyer can utter a word, or Jericho can act, one of the large cryptid's limbs appears from the fog and slams down on Erik, crushing his head into the asphalt concrete.
Witnessing this caused Jericho to freeze, Erik's face now flattened on the road, his blood splurting out like a stream.
"Hey! Don't stop or you'll be next!" Sawyer yelled at Jericho, who snapped out of his split - second trance after hearing those words. Even for a soldier, seeing such a death only a few meters away from yourself would cause immediate shock, but the idea of meeting the same fate kept the four remaining men running as fast as the human body allowed it.
After sprinting in the fog - filled highway for almost a minute, the group had seemed to outran the towering entity, but a new problem arose.
Catching his breath, Gale looks around in panic.
"Where the fuck is the chopper?!"
Jericho stares at Sawyer with wide eyes.
"Don't tell me you sent us the wrong way…"
"It was right here! We landed here, the pilot was told to wait for us no matter what."
He starts yelling out into the distance, but the fog seems to drown out Sawyer's cries.
"HEY! WE'RE OVER HERE!"
"Maybe the monster got him… ate the helicopter or something." Richard suggests.
Scowling at Sawyer, then putting his hands over his face, Gale cries out. "FUCK, man. We're dead!"
Sawyer attempts to call someone, anyone over the radio mic his collar, but only jittery static gives him a reply.
Gale continues, "No one's coming to save us! This fog's a death trap, I'm telling you."
"Shhh, do you hear that?" Jericho stops the group from making a sound, before closely listening to their surroundings."
"What?"
"The footsteps of the cryptid, they started to sound like it was moving away from us, possibly in the opposite direction on the highway. But it's stopped now, there's nothing."