Story 823: Evolution of Hunger

The charred corpse of the Hollow Eater twitched. Blackened flesh cracked open as something inside it pulsed.

Leon staggered up, blood trickling from his forehead. Evelyn coughed beside him, her hands trembling. The explosion had bought them time, but something was wrong.

The tunnel was changing.

The walls quivered—sickly veins of mutated flesh burrowed into the metal, pulsating with a grotesque life of their own. The air was thick with the scent of decay.

Then—a sound.

A deep, grotesque chittering.

Leon turned. His heart stopped.

The Hollow Eater wasn’t dead.

It had mutated.

Its blackened skin peeled away, revealing a fresh layer of sinew beneath, wet and glistening. Its mouth widened, jaw cracking open unnaturally. A new appendage slithered from its throat—a segmented, barbed tongue lined with jagged teeth.

Evelyn’s breath hitched. “It’s… adapting.”

The Hollow Eater moved faster now, unnaturally fluid.

Mia raised her rifle, but before she could fire—