Chapter 69: Cafeteria
**Some time earlier**
The coffee had gone cold twenty minutes ago, but Officer Crowley couldn't bring himself to take another sip. Something was wrong in the kennels.
It started with restless pacing. The dogs moving in tight circles, their breathing heavy and labored. That, he could have dismissed. But then came the whimpering—wet, guttural sounds that seemed to bubble up from somewhere deep in their throats.
Now there was silence, and somehow that was worse.
Officer Crowley had been working the canine unit for many years, and he knew every sound his dogs made. But this silece somehow felt more creepy than natural.
The emergency lighting cast everything in harsh red shadows as he approached the kennel area. "Easy boys," he called out. "What's got you worked up?"
The words died in his throat.
Duke's kennel door hung open, the reinforced steel twisted outward as if something had punched through from the inside. Smoke rose from the metal as though it had been corroded by something, filling the air with a sharp chemical stench that burned his nostrils.
But it was the thing crouched in the shadows beyond the ruined door that froze his blood.
It looked like Duke. But that was it.
The black and tan coloring was still there, stretched across a body that had become grotesque. The spine had elongated, forcing the creature into a permanent crouch while its limbs stretched like taffy into razor-tipped appendages.
Worst of all, the skull had split open along the top, revealing wet brain tissue that pulsed, with red thread like veins on the surface that seemed to writhe.
The thing that had been Duke tilted its misshapen head, and its eyes fixed on the now frozen Crowley.
A wet tearing sound made him look left.
The rest of the dogs were no different.
"Jesus Christ," Crowley whispered, drawing his weapon.
The sound of his voice seemed to trigger something in both creatures. Their exposed brain tissue began pulsing faster, and thick tendrils emerged from the gray matter like hungry worms seeking prey.
Behind him, a kennel door exploded outward, hurling him forward in the crash.
Duke moved first, launching itself towards the fallen Crowley.
Crowley fired three shots center mass, watching in horror as the bullets passed through the elongated torso without even slowing the thing down.
The impact drove him back against the wall, razor claws raking across his chest.
Before he could recover, tentacles erupted from the creatures' exposed brain, weaving together into a living net. They wrapped around his arms and legs with crushing strength, and Crowley felt something warm and wet being injected directly into his bloodstream.
Paralysis crept up his spine like ice water.
"No... no, please..."
But his words were already slurring as the creatures began secreting that red biomass, wrapping around him until he was completely sealed inside a cocoon.
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**Present Time**
In the facility's main cafeteria, twenty-three inmates sat finishing their dinner. The atmosphere was relaxed, conversations flowing freely in the minimum security environment.
"Food's actually decent tonight," one inmate said, spooning the last of his mashed potatoes.
"Better than that slop they served Tuesday," another replied. "Thought it was gonna kill me."
"Hell, anything's better than the county jail food. Remember that green shit they called vegetables?"
Laughter rippled through the room as several men shared their own horror stories about food. The emergency lighting cast everything in red, but nobody seemed too concerned about it.
"What do you think the lockdown's for?"
"Probably just some drunk guard hit the wrong button. Happens all the time. I mean, what kind of emergency could happen in this place?"
Then the cafeteria door exploded inward.
The reinforced steel frame buckled and twisted as a guard's body crashed through it with bone-breaking force. His uniform was shredded, his body twisted at unnatural angles with massive claw marks across his torso. He skidded across the polished floor, leaving a thick trail of blood before slamming into the serving counter with a wet thud.
For a moment, only silence filled the cafeteria. Twenty-three men stared at this 'impossible' sight.
"What the hell..." someone whispered.
"Is that Officer Blake?" another voice asked, uncertain.
One inmate near the front—a man who'd been laughing about prison food just moments before—stood up slowly from his table. "Blake? Hey, Blake, you okay?"
He took a few steps cautiously toward the motionless figure. The other inmates watched, some half-rising from their seats.
"Yo, Blake!" the man called out louder. "What happened, man?"
He reached the guard's crumpled form and knelt down, reaching out to check for a pulse. His hand came away covered in blood.
"He's dead," he said, his voice cracking with shock. "Holy shit, Blake's dead. His throat's been ripped open."
"Dead?" someone echoed from across the room. "What do you mean dead?"
"I mean DEAD dead! Something tore him apart!"
The inmates began to murmur nervously, chairs scraping as men stood up to get a better look. The relaxed atmosphere evaporated instantly, replaced by unease that grew stronger each second.
"What could do that to a guard?"
"Maybe it was that lockdown thing—"
"Lockdown don't rip people's throats out, man."
Then something moved in the destroyed doorway.
Then the creature appeared.
One of the transformed dogs entered through the destroyed doorway. Red lighting gleamed off its exposed brain tissue as acidic saliva dripped from its unhinged jaw.
For a heartbeat, nobody moved. All the men stared at something that they know shouldn't exist.
"What... what the hell..." someone whispered.
"Is that a dog?" another voice cracked.
"Oh shit, oh shit, OH SHIT!" An inmate near the front stumbled backward, knocking over his chair. The metal clatter echoed through the silence.
Panic erupted like a burstng dam. Men scrambled over each other with chairs scraping against concrete and trays clattering to the floor.
"GET AWAY FROM IT!" someone screamed.
Tables were overturned as inmates desperately sought cover. One man slipped in spilled food and crashed hard, his elbow cracking audibly against the floor. He tried to crawl away, whimpering.
"The door! GET TO THE FUCKING DOOR!"
But the creature had already positioned itself near the exit, its exposed brain pulsing as it studied the trapped inmates. Its head tilted, almost curious, watching the chaos it had created.
Without warning, it launched itself at a group near the back wall. The men's screams cut through the air as razor claws found flesh. Blood sprayed across the white walls.
"RUN! EVERYBODY RUN!"
"WHERE? WHERE THE FUCK DO WE GO?"
As acidic saliva began dissolving flesh, the smell hit the remaining inmates—burning meat and something chemical that made their eyes water. Two men doubled over, vomiting violently.
In the chaos, one inmate—dove for the fallen guard's weapon. Even when he got the gun, his hands were shaking so violently he nearly dropped it twice.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM US!" he screamed, voice filled with terror and rage.
Some inmates hit the floor. Others kept running, blind with panic.
He raised the gun with trembling arms, "COME ON THEN, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"
The first shot went wide. The second caught the creature center mass, spinning it around. Black blood sprayed across the walls as it collapsed, but the inmate didn't stop.
"DIE! DIE, YOU UGLY SON OF A BITCH!"
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
"WHY WON'T YOU JUST FUCKING DIE?!"
*BANG* *BANG*
He kept pulling the trigger even after the chamber clicked empty, his whole body shaking with adrenaline and fury. The creature's head was barely recognizable—a pulverized mess of bone fragments and oozing brain matter.
"Thats enough, man," someone whispered. " I think its dead."
The shooter reloaded the weapon with a mag he got from the guard & approached the corpse slowly, his hands still shaking but the weapon still trained on the motionless form.
He gave it a light kick—no response.
"I gotta make sure", he muttered to the others, then used his foot to roll the creature, revealing the mangled front and the damage he'd inflicted.
Seeing that the creature was truly dead, curiosity overcame his terror.
As the shooter bent down for a closer examination of the grotesque anatomy, movement caught his eye. Something was stirring inside the opened skull cavity.
"GET BACK!" he started to yell.
A wet, pulsing mass erupted from the brain tissue—roughly fist-sized, covered in writhing tentacles. It launched itself at his face like a hunting spider before he could react.
The cafeteria erupted in fresh screams.
"GET IT OFF HIM!"
"SOMEBODY HELP HIM!"
The organism clamped onto his head with a tight grip, its tentacles wrapping around his skull. His screams were muffled as he stumbled backward, arms flailing, firing the weapon wildly in desperation and panic.
"DUCK! EVERYBODY DOWN!"
Bullets ricocheted off walls and ceiling as inmates threw themselves to the floor. The shooter crashed into overturned tables and chairs, clawing desperately at the creature fused to his face.
"Pull it off! PULL IT OFF HIM!"
"I'm not touching that thing!"
"We have to help him!"
But nobody moved to help. Terror kept them frozen as they watched their would-be savior stumble around like a blind man, the organism pulsing rhythmically on his face.
Within minutes, his struggles weakened. His movements soon became sluggish, uncoordinated.
The shooter collapsed to the floor with a thud with the organism still firmly attached to his head. His body twitched once, then went completely still.
The remaining inmates stared in horror, pressed against walls and hiding behind overturned furniture.
"Is he...?"
"Don't go near him. DON'T GO FUCKING NEAR HIM!"
Minutes passed. The only sound was labored breathing and the hum of emergency lighting.
Then the body began to convulse.
His back arched impossibly high, spine bending in ways that should have snapped vertebrae.
The convulsions lasted thirty seconds—violent, unnatural spasms that made grown men look away in revulsion.
Then everything stopped.
The organism on his face completely dissolved into goo, as if its work were completed.
For a long moment, everything was silent except for the steady drip of blood and the ragged breathing of terrified men.
Then he opened his eyes.
Thick tentacles erupted from his back with wet tearing sounds as his spine split open. The appendages moved like serpents, each one as thick as a man's arm and covered in glistening mucus.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?"
"RUN! EVERYBODY RUN!"
But there was nowhere to go. Five tentacles lashed out, wrapping around the nearest inmates like steel cables. The captured men screamed as they were dragged across the blood-slicked floor, their fingernails scraping against concrete as they tried desperately to find purchase.
What had once been human now stood nine feet tall, its spine turned into a tough, armored column. Its arms had stretched into razor-tipped limbs that bent at strange angles, and its legs had become clawed, digitigrade stalks.
Shiny black carapace covered its body, and its long skull held rows of sharp teeth, and with each breath, acidic steam hissed from slits along its neck.
The remaining inmates rushed for the door, fleeing this hell on earth—some weeping openly, others gasping in pure terror.
The creature examined each captured victim, lowering its eyeless head to each man one by one and tilting its head from side to side while sniffing it.
Two of the captured men received quick deaths—their heads twisted off with sickening cracks as their bodies were discarded like garbage.
The remaining three captives found themselves being wrapped in red biomass secreted from the creature's tentacles. The substance was warm and sticky, hardening on contact with air to form organic cocoons.
The transformed creature straightened to his full, impossible height and surveyed the carnage he had created. Blood pooled on the white floor. Numerous bodies lay crumpled in unnatural positions. Three living cocoons pulsed rhythmically near the overturned tables.
Seeing that the rest of his prey had escaped, the creature opened his mouth impossibly wide and released a sound that no human throat could produce—a bone-chilling roar that echoed through the cafeteria and beyond.
Notes :
1) I am going for some xenomorph & Resident evil vibes in this arc.
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Advanced chapters on patre*n
DC : Architect of Vengeance
patre0n*c*m/Lord_Meph1sto