Story 1224: Devourer of Limbs

The outpost beyond the forest was long dead. Concrete husks and rusted towers jutted from the earth like forgotten bones. No signals. No survivors.

But something had survived. And it was hungry.

Lena, Ward, and the girl—still limping—searched the main structure: an old containment facility marked SECTOR 7-C. The walls were scorched. Bullet holes riddled the steel doors. A long-forgotten battle had taken place here.

Inside, silence pressed against their ears.

They found the security terminal barely operational. Static crackled across its broken screen.

WARD (tapping keys):

“Logs say this place held something called Subject L-9. Bio-organic prototype. Decommissioned... supposedly.”

LENA:

“Then why seal it off and burn the logs?”

A thump echoed deep within the compound.

Then another.

THE GIRL (trembling):

“It’s still here.”

They followed the noise through winding corridors, past scratched walls and piles of bones—human bones, gnawed clean.