Behind the Steel Doors

Day 1

I awoke in a darkened room.  No windows, no light, no door.  Where was I?  How did I get here? What will happen next?  I wandered around to find some sort of opening and stepped on something metallic.  I just spilled my water dish.

The questions came back into my head and I wanted answers but sometimes its better not to know and sometimes its better not to ask.  I heard the sound of footsteps slowly making their way down the corridor towards what must be the door into this room.  He gets closer and closer and my heart beats louder and louder.  The footsteps stop and a light switch is triggered lighting up the corridor.  This allows me to find the door and I rush to stand nearby.  The footsteps continue passed the door and down the corridor.

Another door opens further down and I can hear the screams, I could feel his fear and desperation to escape.  I could feel his pain as they beat him to make it easier to drag him to his new destination.  I heard the sounds of steel creak like a giant steel door had just been pried open.  The prisoner's screams intensify as he catches a glimpse of his future.  The doors are closed after him and bolted but his screams still make its way to my ears.  He is screaming so loud it sounds as if his throat is being stripped by his voice.  The screaming became muffled and then silence.

The footsteps returned as they passed my door and vanished into the quiet.  The light stayed on as new footsteps emerged.  They would occasionally stop and a small metallic scratching noise was heard followed by the sound of eating.  It was dinner time.  When it came to my time the short opening at the base of my door flung open and a small tray of porridge was dumped onto the floor and the slide was shut.  I ate the meal to try and forget the previous events but as the guard switched the light off the horror returned to my attention as that man is probably dead and I may be next.

The next morning I woke up with a paralyzing pain in my shoulder and leg from sleeping in the most uncomfortable circumstance.  I heard scratches emanating from the steel door rapidly getting deeper and deeper.  Then I heard them open as if they were broken.  A blood curdling screech filled the air and me with dread.  I hear the guards coming and the gunfire started.  I heard them give each other commands but it was in a language I couldn't make out possibly Russian.  It sounded as though the guards were not aiming and just firing randomly.  It is possible that they couldn't see in the dark but it could also be that whatever they are firing at is dodging their fire.

The light suddenly goes on and the Russian's voices get more nervous.  One guard breaks off from the group and runs towards the thing, he stops outside my door.  I can see the silhouette of the man's boots.  The gunfire starts again and I can smell the discharge from under the door.  Suddenly he gasps and freezes up I can see his shadow stiffen as he contemplates the terror in front of his eyes.

I hear a crunch followed by dripping, the sound of something thick and liquid. My feet became wet and as I looked down I saw the crimson liquid creeping into my cell and onto my feet.  The gunfire from his comrades cease.  Now I hear the thing.  It bellows as it presses its head on the cell door.  It knows I'm in here.  It is sniffing at the base of the door.  That is when I see its silhouette.  I can't tell much but what I can tell horrifies me.  It is big and it isn't human.

Suddenly the gunfire returns startling the creature and sending it back into its lair behind the steel doors.  The guards rush to lock it.  A final scream is heard as the creature must have pulled an unlucky guard into its domain as the rest sealed the door with a loud clang and the sound of heavy bolts thrusting into the sockets sealing the beast inside.  For the next twenty minutes all I will hear is the sound of a man's screams being drowned out by welding.  A haunting vision is conjured by my imagination.  One that will be hard to shake.

Even though I do not know who my captors are or why I'm a captive I can't help feeling sorry for them.  No one should have to die like that.  Then again it is only the fate left to the other captive who was forced into that beast's lair.  Whatever is happening must stop and I am just not the man capable of stopping it.  Locked up, hurting, hungry, thirsty, no military training.  If these guards aren't surviving long then my chances are slim.  I'll just have to see what tomorrow brings me.

Day 2

I awoke the next morning to the sound of my cell door opening.  The lights in the cell are activated from somewhere outside the room.  A man in his 60s stands before me dressed in an honorable military fashion, his decorations confirm my suspicions.  He is Russian.  He wears an Ushanka hat with military markings.  He stands proudly in front of me as he introduces himself. "I am General Gregori Borzakovsky".  I struggle to comprehend the position I'm in.  I'm in a foreign cell with a Russian General and I have no memory of how I got here.  Last thing I remember was boarding the cruise ship heading for the Baltic.

The General asks me if I'm hurt, I tell him no.  He asks if I am aware of my current situation, I tell him no.  He asks me if I'm scared, I tell him yes.  He told me that whatever fear I have isn't fear enough, that my current situation is a nightmarish impossibility become reality.  He informs me that I am the last of the prisoners.  I ask "how many where there to begin with?" He replies "four" I demanded to know the truth.  He says "we had to let two go and one commit suicide" I tell him I know that there is something unnatural within the complex and asked how the other cell mate committed suicide.  The general sternly told me "he smashed his head against his wall and suffered severe trauma to his skull and brain, that was twenty minutes ago when I told him what I will tell you".  He told me to see him in his office if I want to survive.  He left the room and left a guard posted at the exit of my open cell.

I stayed in my cell to study my options.  Stay in the cell and die, either of starvation or be fed to the beast or discuss what he has planned for me.  I decided that the chances of survival in my current position are practically non-existent and that needs to be improved.  I didn't have a choice. I told the guard that I would talk to the general and he took me to his office.

As I left my cell I saw the dead guard's stained blood on the floor outside my door.  I looked around and saw a ruin of a complex, the building looks like it should be condemned and definitely not like a building used by the military.  I see guards in a permanent state of alert surrounding the steel door.  The door looks rusted and damaged.  The light fittings look old except from one or two which makes me think that they aren't official and want this place to remain desolate in its appearance.  As I leave the corridor I catch a glimpse of the other cell mate's corpse who has just been left in the cell.  A brutal image that won't escape my memory.

I arrive at the office which looks like a bomb has hit.  The general points to a rusty old chair indicating he wants me to sit and talk to him about last night.  I sit down in the chair and wait for the information that I have been waiting for since I first awoke in that cold cell.  It must have been five minutes before he managed to conjure the right way to broach the subject. He told me that we are currently in the Ukraine in a "special place" he wasn't specific.  He mentioned a scientific discovery that would have all eyes on the country.  A fossilized creature contained within a meteorite.  He brought it back to this facility to analyze the phenomenal discovery.  Problem is when you are dealing with something completely unknown to modern science anything can happen and any problem can occur.  You will have to stop focusing on discovering the science behind the discovery itself and what it can offer and focus on discovering a way to stop it when it gets out of control.  I'm not sure what the relevance was between the fossil and me being a captive in a Ukrainian cell, but I need that answer.  I asked the General to give me more details on my current position; he informs me that the fossil wasn't a fossil.  The being was held in suspended animation for its entire journey from whatever god forsaken planet it originated from.  It woke up once it was cut away from its meteoric prison.  The meteor must have had some foreign properties inside which allowed the being to remain alive during its hike across our solar system.  I didn't know whether to buy it or to tell the general that I'm actually god encased in a mortal body.  He told me he'll lock me back in my cell so I can think over what I just discovered.  For once I was happy to be heading to the comfort of that cold, dank cell.

As I stepped inside the General said "Tomorrow I will ask you if you want to live, if you say yes I expect you to help us with our dilemma involving the beast, if you say no we will shoot you sparing the horror you would suffer had the beast got to you first. Say nothing now, decide tomorrow". And with a loud bang the door was shut.  The last thing I wanted was for that door to open again.  I don't want to die, not by bullet nor beast.  I wanted to live, an objective that will see me pushing the boundaries of reality itself in order to escape this cell, their weapons and its sinister talons.  I just hope whatever decision I make will be the right one.

I have been sitting in the dark for hours contemplating my current situation and its soul shattering progression since the day before.  The silence is broken by the sound of steel shattering.  It's out.  I hear it calmly walk to my door, it bows to the gap underneath by the floor and breathes heavily letting me know its there.  I can feel it; it feels as if there are no walls or objects between me and the beast, that for some unknown reason I am one with the creature.  Its in my mind, It isn't a language it speaks more of a high pitch squeal that only faulty speaker could provide.  It sounded like static and at the same time I could understand it.  It wanted to know what I knew.  It wanted to know my fears; it wanted to induce nightmares, taunts of my future.  It forced its hand into the door and the metal stretched and contorted into its hand.  I could now see its demonic-like claws imprinted into the door, reaching for me.  Still the sound of its mind rakes through my nerves as I feel my soul cry in agony as if it's torturing my spirit.  The pain I am suffering cannot be described as it cannot be compared to anything that anyone could have possibly felt before.  It stops and my lack of energy causes me to fall to the ground.  My heart is beating at a slow rate when it should be racing.  I glance up and see the imprint still in the door, the room is pitch black yet I could see it, its glowing white but not for long. As it fades the noise of the beast stops and my heart rate slowly returns to normal.  I get dizzy and fall into darkness as I fall to sleep.

Day 3

I wake after the traumatic experience the night before.  I feel dazed and exhausted as if last night's terror has mentally drained me of energy.  I remember the events that took place and quickly walk towards the door.  I rub my hands all over the door to feel the imprint I saw in my mind, but the door opened before I examined the doorway fully.  The general comes in and instructs a guard to turn the lights on within my cell.  The imprint is clearly seen by both me and the general.  "Strong being is it not?" he says as if he is unphased by the image of the twisted steel imprint.  I say nothing, hypnotized by the metal hand reaching out to where I stand.

The general tells me the creature is still "at large".  I feel somewhat uncomfortable with the news.  I was expecting to feel scared or anxious but I just felt disheartened and hopeless.  He tells me that the only chance to destroy it would be to blow the building's reactor and hope it takes it out before it gets to a safe distance.  I don't like it, small chance of success meets short chance of survival, but then again I don't see an alternative.  I ask the general what he wants me to do for my part of his plan.  He hands me a gun, he tells me it's a GSh-18 which bares little meaning to me.  He shows me how to load the gun, fire it and how to use the safety and hands me a few magazines.

He places his hands in his pocket and pulls out a couple of grenades.  He tells me one is for the reactor one is for a spare.  He hands one to me.  "Your my back up plan, If something happens to me and my men your the last line of defense between civilization and this thing ok?" he tells me.  I nod and follow him out of my cell.

He leads me to the Steel Door and tells me we need to learn more about it in order to gain some knowledge about killing it or at least some kind of weakness we can exploit.  I let the general's men in first as they can scout the area out and repel any attacks, keeping me alive.  The general comes in last and a terrible screech is heard like a rusted blade scraping at an electrical speaker.  I turn around and see it but only quickly and vaguely as the General slams the door shut, locking us inside, but the consolation is that it is locked outside.

The General instructs everyone to look around and report any findings, everyone.  I guess I have to do all I can and I may find some answers out for myself.  Immediately I notice the floor is wet and the atmosphere is humid.  I realize the walls are made from a rocky substance and there are corpses cascaded across the room stripped of their flesh.  The horror dawns on me, I am not getting out of this situation alive.  Not whilst I am with the General's men.  I need to escape, not go after this thing.  I look for any signs of a way out but this is stopped as a guard suddenly yells out "General! I have found something!"

I walk to the General and his men and listen to their findings, they have found where the beast sleeps.  This tells us that the creature needs to sleep and needs a place to sleep.  That information is completely useless.  It does however shed light on its biology; it's just an animal, a nightmare of a creature but still an animal.  They can be killed, it can be killed.  New hope emerges.  The guard says that the rocky cave has been created to be the perfect "bed" for the creature meaning that the creature must have secreted the rock somehow.  The rock hasn't formed naturally that is obvious, it hasn't been sculpted or carved out it has unnaturally formed this way.  I ask the general how long ago this creature has been in this room he tells me it hasn't been a month.  I cringe.

I sit down with the General and ask him to tell me why I am here.  He doesn't answer.  I hear muffled screams in the distance, the general sighs with upset and frustration as his men are dying in the corridors of the complex.  He tells me he had another team sweep the area looking for the beast in a last bid to kill it without a nuclear explosion.  I ask again why I am here.  He doesn't say much just "It was necessary at the time".  I ask him to clarify he just shakes his head and tells me he will reveal it to me WHEN we get out alive.  I didn't like that idea much but it was something to cling on for.

I ask him for any information on the creature.  He says there was no time for studies, as soon as they hacked the creature away from the rock it began to show signs of life, twitching in the finger tips, eye flickering.  The rational option was to lock it up and observe it.  It suddenly dawned on me; the rocky secretion and the meteor were the same substance.  I tell the General "It must have used the rocky secretion to enter a hibernation state during its travel through space, allowing it to stay alive during its trip; it must use the same secretion in its "bed rock" to sleep".  He wonders about the relevance.  I tell him that the only way it can survive is in an atmospheric constant that is contained in his secretion meaning that it can perfectly colonize any environment as long as it can secrete.  If we take that away from it somehow we can poison it with our air alone.  All I get is a smile.  He was impressed with the new information obtained but understood that we couldn't use that vital information as there is no way of knowing how to use it.  He tells me to get some rest and hopefully in the morning we can find some information of use, or it's our last line of defense, the Nuclear Reactor.

I sat on a nearby rock and closed my eyes.  Praying I would be opening them tomorrow, hoping under better circumstances.

Day 4

I didn't sleep that night; I just pondered the situation, thinking of how I could get out.  The General and his men woke up with a fright as they heard it howl.  It sounded manic as if it was frustrated that it could not get to us.  That fact should have comforted us but it just reminded us the terror that stands between us and our escape from this nightmare.

We decide that our only option for escape is to bite the bullet and escape.  As we came to the decision we heard the beast at the door, scraping and knocking as if to break the door down or rip it out.  This was more than just an animal in need of food; it was a lust for blood.  This wasn't its choice; it is being forced to do this by its own cravings.  It will never stop.

Suddenly a guard yells out "I see a ventilation shaft!"  We rush in a new hope to look for this way out.  The air ducts are big enough to crawl through but the entrance is blocked by rock, barely visible.  We scale the rocky outcrop of the room to get to the ducts.  The guard began hitting the rock with the butt of his rifle breaking it away.  Suddenly the steel door stopped shaking and the beast stopped pounding.  The rock comes away and the guard pulls the ventilation cover off and proceeds to crawl through gun first.

The General urges the soldiers to carry on quickly as the beast has diverted its attention elsewhere and most likely knows what is going on.  As my turn comes, something is telling me to stop; I feel if I leave the safety of this room I will die.  I force myself to grit my teeth and head through the vent.  It was a lot tighter than I expected, I needed to push with my forearms to move and couldn't rely on my legs at all.

We near the end of the ducts and I hear the front guard drop down into a room, the line moves on and at last I drop down.  The guard behind me is the last and is helped down by the General.  We are in some kind of industrial plant control room.  I look around at the controls, different valves and Geiger counters dotted around.  I ask the General where I am he tells me it's an old Power Plant.  I look at the end of the platform and see it.  For the first time I see it clearly.  It's ugly and big.  Its arms and legs are long and things but very muscular.  His body appears to be raised off the floor due to the positioning of his limbs, like a four legged spider.  Its head is round and crusted like rock.  Its eyes appear as cracks and mouth is long and narrow, full of dagger like teeth.  It has a tail that resembles a more agile, serpentine version of a crocodile tail. Long bully and armored.  It gives off a blood curdling squeal and charges towards us.  The General orders his men to fire and make a stand.  I urge the General to stop but he tells me to run.  I wonder why he wanted me alive so much yet at first he was willing to feed me to this thing.  I forget the question and focus on running, The General stops me and hands me a combat knife with an ankle strap.

I quickly attach it and start to run.  I stop before I leave the room.  I turn around and pull out my gun; I am at the beast and let off my full clip.  Only one lands, and it's only a scrape on its back.  As I reload I see the General shouting "Get out of here!" but I cannot hear him.  All I can hear is the muffled sound of gunfire and my heart beating heavy.  The fear of what is happening is taking hold.  I see the General's men being picked off rapidly.  The beast's head extends like a tortoise's neck from a shell.  Its jaws crushing a poor young soldier's face as it clamps down with hunger.

My heart returns to its normal state as I run to grab the General.  I tell him we need to fall back to a safer place.  He agrees and asks his men to follow.  His men are few and begin to pull back, laying on suppressive fire.  The creature grabs a soldier with its giant arms and pulls him to its mouth.  It takes one bite clean from the man's chest and throws him aside.  He hits part of the reactor and lands on the floor, dead.

We make a run for it following the General as he leads us through the tattered complex.  The beast is still following stamping on the last remnants of the General's army.  I follow the General as he makes his way back to a familiar location, the General's office.  The beast crashes its way through gaining on us.  The general leads me to my cell again and we rush to get inside.  The beast is too slow or is this what it intended?  We are stuck inside my old dark cell.  The beast scurries off leaving us in darkness.  I can hear his frustration as he thinks about the lives that have needlessly been lost.  The last stand did not last five minutes.  It isn't even the afternoon yet.  We both decide not to do anything until the next day.  All the while my hunger is starting to hurt and my mouth goes dry with dehydration.  I haven't ate since day one and I have only had a drink once each day, but stopped the day I got stuck behind the Steel door.  I am just happy to have made it this far.  I keep quiet and so does the General.  Nothing is said until hours later before we decide to sleep through.  I ask the General "where are we?" He reluctantly replies "Chernobyl".  I couldn't believe it.  It explains what this place is and why it's so desolate but also pains me to know we are miles from help.  Whilst this news sinks in I close my eyes and hope tomorrow I can escape Chernobyl.

Day 5

The next morning I woke up with a blinding headache and felt incredibly faint.  I saw the general awake and frustrated, obviously deep in thought, trying to conjure up a new plan.  I let him know I am awake.  He tells me to start thinking of a plan as well.

We both realize at the same time that we can see each other, it is still very dark but we could make each other out ok.  The only way light could enter is via the door.  We turn to see where the light is coming from and we see the light coming from the grid in the door at the bottom.  A face is staring back at us.  The creature is looking at us in angst.  Waiting for our move.  "It mustn't be able to get to us" said the General. I wasn't convinced, this creature is playing some kind of sinister cat and mouse game with us.  It doesn't move, make a sound or do anything it just stares at us as if it knows our fate already and is taking some sick twisted pleasure in waiting. Quickly the General had an idea, reckless and dangerous but an idea non-the-less.  He told me to get as close to the door as possible.  Carefully I complied; I edged close to the door.

The general quickly took a grenade from his pocket and threw it to the wall.  The creature darted out of sight and mind as the grenade blew the wall away.  We did not stop to think of a plan and just ran.  I felt the cool air of the world on my face for the first time in 5 days.  It was a small consolation, if I hadn't been running for my life I would stop to catch a real breath.  We continue to run through the snow to an old office block.

When we arrive inside we bolt the door and look for a new hiding spot.  We run up several flights of stairs until we are on the third floor.  We find an old storage room and head inside.  Guns pointing to the door.

We hear it enter the office with a great slam as the bolted door breaks under its immense strength and power.  It knows where we are, must have been our footprints in the snow.  It turns to silence as it stalks the corridors below us.  Suddenly after five minutes of painful waiting we hear it reaching the third floor. We say nothing; we make no noise of any sort.  We were as silent as the walls themselves.  None of this mattered.  I felt it again inside my brain.  The static had returned, torturing my mind.  Trying to get me to make a sound.  My heartbeat slowed as before, my mind being hacked like a computer.  Suddenly it stops.  I hear it calmly make its way to the storage room.  The general looks at me as if to say "how did it know".  I failed us both.  Its shadow emerges at the door and a deep breathing is heard.  It stays there waiting for our futile response.

The General merely says "let's go" and kicks the door away firing his machine pistol at the beast.  I quickly follow gun in hand but by the time I offload my clip into the beast's armored back the General is gone.  The creature has the General in his hand and is feeding on him.  I realize the General is dead and all I can do is flee.  I attempt at an escape but the Beast's tail quickly swings around and slams right into me, flinging me out of the window and down three stories into the freezing snow.  Luckily I landed on the decline of a hill and the roll eased my fall.  It still hurt but I looked up and I could still see the creature's tail dangling outside the window.  It must be the blood that's distracting it.  I decide to make a run for it, gain.  I needed to put as much distance between myself and the beast.  I ran around the front and saw my footsteps in the snow, closely matched by the beast's footprints.  I walk over them and make my way back inside the office building with the beast.  I made it look as though my trick was aimed towards the facility as I know the beast is smart enough to see through my plan.  To re-enter the office is something the beast will not expect.  It knows I fear it.

I stay on the first floor as I do not want to risk it hearing or spotting me.  I stand by the window right next to where I fell waiting for what was coming.  I then heard the beast crash through the window and land outside by me.  It's ready for the final death match.  I watch carefully as it follows my footsteps, ready to run if it sees through my fake decoy.  Luckily it falls for it and wanders towards the facility area.  I quickly run towards the back door.  I open it and look for a new hiding spot.  I see another office block about a quarter mile away and head for it covering my footprints up as I go by dragging my shirt along the floor behind me.  Luckily the snow isn't deep and can be covered easily.

I finally make it to the office and head to the top floor.  I put my shirt on as I make it up the many stairs.  I see at the end of the corridor a rubbish chute.  I lie next to it and decide to wait for something to happen.  I can't leave tonight as I'm already freezing cold and cannot risk falling ill at such a time.  I think about the lives that have been lost and think about those that are yet to be lost.  I have never been to the Ukraine in my life let alone Chernobyl.  I am lost and alone and completely without any safety or contact with the outside world.  It's just me and the beast.  Someway I feel tomorrow will be breaking point.  The beast will either find me or not.  As dusk approaches I put a hold on the morbid thoughts and just rest.  I'll need it.

Day 6

The date is the 23rd of April 2008; I am in Chernobyl, trapped but a cunning predator.  I have been here for five days, held against my will.  In a joint effort between myself and my captors I have managed to get away from the facility where I was held prisoner and I am now in an old office building alone.  I am the last of group of men fighting for survival against an unyielding foe.  They were military soldiers I am just a supermarket clerk who managed to win a free holiday to cruise the Baltic.  How I got here is still unknown to me as my captors died before I could find out.  I am alone, armed with a Russian pistol with just one magazine left.  One knife and no way out.  My situation tells me I can't escape my experiences tell me I can't kill it.  What do I do?

These are the thoughts I quickly jotted down on a scrunched up piece of paper I had tucked away in my pocket.  I wrote whatever was on my mind in case somebody found me one day, alive or otherwise.  I woke up the following day, day 6.  The image that first appeared was the ceiling, damp and decaying.  I sit up and to my surprise and horror, the creature is there, asleep.  It must have found me whilst I was sleeping, but why did it not attack me.  I am frozen with fear as I thought tonight I may have has some kind of chance of making it to another safe area.  I back up to the edge of the wall and clumsily stumble into a rubbish chute.  The creature hears the noise and wakes up, spots me and begins to charge.  I quickly decide to slide down the chute hoping it takes me somewhere inaccessible to the beast.

The chute takes me outside and I land in the snow where a skip should be.  I don't look back and just run realizing the creature cannot fit in the chute and would have to run down the staircases to get to me.  This will buy me enough time, I hope.  I run through a white, cold forest hoping that on the other side is somewhere I can hide or a vehicle I can drive to safety.  I hear its deathly cry as it bounds after me.  It sounds angry, this is the second time I have outwitted the monster.  There won't be a third.

I arrive at a new city, Prypiat.  Desolated by the Chernobyl disaster.  I run through a fenced area around the side of another office building. I pray there was something more on the other side.  Anything.  I was mistaken; I see an abandoned carnival and more buildings.  I hear it behind me now, it moves quicker than I expected.

I run towards the carnival hoping that the rides may make it difficult for it to move as agile as it does.  I took four steps with the creature matching me for pace, then the creatures steps stop.  The wind behind me is suddenly blocked and a shadow grows in front of me.  The creature lands on top of me forcing me to the ground.  I turn to face the creature, I need to see what it's going to do, I don't know why, the thought of this moment was unbearable before but now it's happening I need to believe it.

The creature hesitates as it savors the kill.  This is my last chance to do something.  I unsheathe the knife the General gave me and thrust it into the creature's side beneath its armored hide.  It shrieks in pain and begins to pull back, just enough time to reach for my gun and offload a full clip directly into the beast's face.

I push myself away from the creature and try to get up, my leg is busted but I can stand.  I get up and slowly, awkwardly make my way to the nearest building.  I hear a crunch.  It didn't come from me.  I turn around and see the creature, getting up.  Its face has rock covering the wounds from where the bullets penetrated.  The rock seems to be a way of healing itself, like incredibly tough scars.  It charges at me again and flings me into the big wheel.  This time my legs do break.  I can't get up or crawl away.  I'm in need of a new plan.  The creature comes right to up to me, face to face.  I had a plan and blew it now there is only one more option.  I take out the grenade in my pocket and force it into the creature's mouth and pull the pin out with my left hand as my right hand goes for the knife.  I pull the knife out of the creature's side and thrust it up through the creatures jaw and into its skull locking its mouth close.  The creature grabs the knife to pull it away but too late.  The grenade explodes.

The end.