Next Stop—Hell

The ride to the Black Grove was mostly a quiet one. Other than the hyperactive Pax asking questions about everything and Payday answering him in excruciating—but ultimately nonsensical—detail, nobody else said anything. Barrel was silently studying all the sights outside, her luminous, glassy eyes reflecting the golden dunes as they rushed past. Fabian sat still as a statue, gaze forward, never once acknowledging the world outside. And Kiehra… she fidgeted. Endlessly. Twiddling her thumbs, readjusting her uniform, fixing a nonexistent wrinkle, cracking her knuckles. Anything to keep her hands busy.

Outside the rumbling vehicle, the dazzling sands of the Golden Sea blurred by, a brilliant, shifting landscape of gold dust stretching endlessly in every direction. The horizon wavered, a mirage of twisting shapes, reality bending under the heat of the sun. But the further they went, the darker the sky became. The golden hues that bathed the world dimmed into something sickly, something unnatural—like the light itself hesitated to touch this part of the land. The once-endless dunes began to break apart, replaced by jagged black stones that jutted from the earth like skeletal remains.

Inside the vehicle, the mood shifted with the landscape. Tension coiled thick in the air. Even Pax and Payday—normally a constant stream of chatter—fell into silence.

Kiehra pressed her forehead against the cool glass of the window, watching as the obsidian trees of the Black Grove finally came into view. They stood impossibly tall, gnarled and twisted, their blackened branches reaching out like skeletal fingers, scraping at the sky. Even before they entered the tree line, the songs of the Grove had begun—a haunting chorus of whispers carried by the wind, threading through the leaves in a melody that made her stomach twist into knots. It wasn't just the trees rustling in the wind. It was voices.

Voices that shouldn't be there.

A low hum vibrated in her bones, a frequency just below hearing.

"So," Payday drawled, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, her tone too light, too forced. "Who wants to bet we're walking straight into a nightmare?"

No one answered. Fabian shot her a look, and she shrugged before returning her focus to the path ahead.

The vehicle slowed as they approached the outpost. Or rather—what was left of it.

Kiehra sucked in a sharp breath.

The station, which should have been standing at the edge of the Grove, was a shattered ruin. The defensive walls had crumbled inward, the once-fortified barriers reduced to jagged rubble. Dark stains marred the cracked ground, like ink had seeped into the very bones of the earth. The main tower—where the distress signals and messages had originated—leaned at an unnatural angle, its structure partially collapsed. Smoke curled lazily from the wreckage, as if the destruction had happened recently, yet there was no sign of an active fire.

More unsettling was the silence.

Even the usual background noise of the Grove—the whispers, the howling wind, the rustling leaves—had stilled.

Outside of the wreckage stood the members of Units 1 and 9, clustered together but hesitant to step forward. They were tense, uncertain, their hands resting near their weapons but making no move to investigate further.

Fabian was the first to break the silence.

"Where's Sergeant Wheeler?" His voice was flat, measured. "Each group was assigned a Sergeant. He should be out there."

Barrel tilted her head slightly.

"I am in agreement. Protocols… further shattered."

Kiehra's fingers twitched.

"…This isn't right," she murmured. "Where is everyone? The Officers in this outpost…there were at least twenty-five people here when I last came. But…"

Her senses stretched out instinctively, reaching for any sign of life. Any trace of movement.

Nothing.

Not a single heartbeat. Not even the subtle, lingering presence of spirits. The entire station… was empty. Hollow.

"Girl, I have the worst feeling about this," Three muttered.

"Me and you both, pal."

Fabian stepped out first, landing lightly on the dirt. His posture remained rigid, movements careful, calculated—like he was already preparing for an ambush. Barrel followed, her large frame moving slowly but deliberately. Pax hesitated, his usual enthusiasm dampened, his bright eyes scanning the wreckage with apprehension.

Kiehra was next. She nearly stumbled as she stepped out, her balance momentarily thrown off.

The other Officers—Units 1 and 9—fell silent as Unit 12 approached. Their gazes lingered, their whispers barely hushed enough to go unnoticed.

"Freakshow squad…"

"It's that girl from the exams."

"Didn't know the Sentry was this desperate for personnel."

Kiehra forced her jaw to remain slack, expression neutral. She had heard it all before, but she didn't think the rest of her unit would get flack too. She could only imagine how much worse it would have been if Riona's Unit were here.

Payday, of course, remained entirely unbothered. She stretched her arms above her head, rolling her shoulders as if she had just woken from a nap.

"Holy nutballs," she muttered, glancing around with an exaggerated grimace. "This place is fucked. Gives me the heebie-jeebies and shit…and I've seen a lot of shit in the Sentry."

Kiehra ignored her, stepping forward and flexing her fingers as she reached out with her senses again. The closer she got, the more she could feel it: something was here. A residue clinging to the air, thick and heavy. It wasn't just the usual eerie atmosphere of the Grove. It was something worse. Something unnatural.

Fabian drew his feather pen, his grip firm.

"Enough waiting around. Unit 12 and I will take the inside of the Outpost. The rest of you search the surrounding area for any signs of the Officers or clues on what could have happened to them."

A collective sigh of relief rippled through the members of Units 1 and 9. Fabian, unfazed, turned to the station's entrance.

The door loomed before them, its surface marred with deep gouges. An unnatural, suffocating aura bled from the threshold.

"The door is stuck," Pax noted, voice a little too hopeful. "We'll just tell the Lieutenants our search turned up nothing and go home! Easy as sludge pie."

Kiehra almost smiled at the idea of walking away from this without any traumatic experiences attached.

Fabian didn't even acknowledge Pax's words. Without hesitation, he kicked the metallic door in. It crumpled inward with a metallic shriek, its frame warping as the door was sent flying off its hinges.

The darkness beyond gaped at them. 

Having created his own entrance, the silver haired man strolled in. 

Payday clicked her tongue. "C'mon, where's your sense of adventure? What, are you scared?" She nudged Kiehra forward, eyes gleaming with something too close to amusement before she decided to skip in. 

"Efficient…reckless. No need saying, work must be done." Barrel trudged past, lowering herself quite a bit to fit through the low hanging frame. 

Pax just sighed and slid in.

Kiehra stared at the darkness within the building, something inside it repelling her very soul…yet beckoning for her to come closer. An image of Rhys flashed in her mind, and she almost turned on her heel and walked away….but that would be cruel. Not to mention, she'd die of guilt if something happened to the rest of her crew. 

"Nowhere to go but in Kiehra." Three urged her, though he also conveyed some degree of sympathy.

"Yeah," she sighed. "I know."

She clenched her fist and stepped into the building. Immediately, she was hit with the presence of something overwhelmingly wrong. That icky feeling she got earlier seemed to have amplified fantastically, her stomach tightening up just by being within the four walls of the outpost. 

It seemed she wasn't the only person sensing it either. Pax was completely silent, his entire body quivering slightly; Barrel stood tall and unmoving, the glow in her glassy eyes dimmed, Payday's smugness had all but disappeared, and Fabian—his eyebrows were furrowed and his teeth were clenched. The fact that Fabian was expressing any sort of emotion other than stoicism was the most terrifying part of all that was going on. 

"No bodies visible. Barrel, you stay here and see if you can use the light from your core to find anything. Pax and I will go upstairs to see if we can find anything else of note. Kiehra, you and this random lady will go further into the Outpost. Call for help at the first sign of trouble." 

"Hey, I am NOT just some random lady!" Payday complained, but Fabian ignored her, grabbing a scared Pax by the head and pulling him towards the staircase. Barrel was already moving to perform her own duty, lifting an overturned desk above her head. 

"C'mon then Kiehra, you're the officer here, lead the way!" Payday nudged Kiehra towards the hallway leading deeper into the outpost. Kiehra grit her teeth and inhaled deeply, psyching herself up for a bit before stepping into the darkness. 

It was cold, disgusting and wet, the nothingness clinging to her skin and sending shivers deep into her spine. She exhaled, her breath visible in front of her much to her surprise. Everything was chilly, and the deeper she went, the colder—and damper—the air became. It was like she had suddenly been trapped inside something, confined within the stomach of a far larger creature. The air was musky, the space around her seemed to be shrinking. Inside her head, Three was practically banging against the walls of her mind. 

"Something….no, this isn't right. Something's….wrong. Kiehra, we should—"

A sudden noise cut through the silence before she could acknowledge his words. It didn't come from outside, neither was it the sound of either of their footsteps. It was close. It was…wet.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Payday gasped and Kiehra turned her head sharply, her eyes darting around the room to pick up on the presence of something, anything. 

Then, as if responding to her attention, the dripping noise stopped. 

Complete silence, not only in the Outpost, but the singing trees went quiet too, followed by the rest of the entire Grove. It was like the forest of darkness had turned into a vacuum. 

"WE'RE STILL HERE!!!"

And that was when the screaming began.