Bracken's Treat

Bracken Short Story.

Foot falls echoed down the dimly lit hallways, the beams of three flashlights cutting through the dark gloom, identifying three people walking through the abandoned factory.

The metal flooring made stealth impossible, their boots hitting the floor advertising their presence to anything that could be in the area.

The three men were clothed in orange hazmat suits, providing limited protection from multiple hazards. They also wore hazmat helmets, the heavy items connected to an even heavier pack which could supply air to them if they were in hostile environments, thankfully the climate here was hospitable so the men could take their helmets off if they wanted to.

One of the men inwardly sighed, regretting the many life choices that had led him to this profession. Could it really be called a profession though? The only thing he and many others did was search through old facilities, gathering items of 'value' to sell to an eldritch abomination.

He had never gotten a good look at the creature, just its tentacles when it would shoot out of a window to take items that had been scavenged. He didn't know why or what it could have possibly wanted with what most people would label garbage, nor did he know why The Company was so interested in getting said garbage to the creature either.

The Company. How he regretted signing on to them. Their job postings appeal to people down on their luck. They offered insane pay, for what they advertise as a relatively easy job. And it was... if you managed to survive.

He had needed the money and he had no other options so he had signed on, despite the vague job descriptions, the shady person he'd talked to about the job, and the numerous forms he'd signed to take the job.

The job was simple, work for a month, and make a years salary in that time. Provided you survive.

He'd seen a few people put their month in, but he'd seen many more people fall trying to get there. The places we got sent to were dangerous, either from local fauna, or the old, abandoned buildings we'd be sent into to look for junk to bring back.

Crews were given a quota to fill, salvage a few hundred dollars worth of debris and bring it back. Any crews that failed to fulfill their quota were 'terminated' as The Company put it. People quickly found out just what that meant when previously crewed ships would be seen getting filled with a brand new crew, just a few hours after the previous crew sent out.

He wondered why the governments didn't do anything about it, but a part of him knew there was something bigger going on here, but he'd never know more than what little was required of him.

So, here he was, walking through an abandoned factory next to two men who he'd never talked to, who he knew did not give a single damn about him. You just tried to do your job and get out alive.

His previous crew had gotten wiped out by an Earth Leviathan, he would have met the same fate as them if he hadn't forgotten his flashlight, those scant few seconds saving him from a grisly end. He'd had to fill the quota by himself, which was tough but he was just barely able to do it.

He got transferred to a new crew after that, this one. The two men with him he did not trust at all, and the 3rd was on board the ship, monitoring the maps, ready to inform them of anything in the area, that one seemed similar to him, just wanting to do his job and get out.

A glint caught his eye, tearing him from his thoughts as he swung the flashlight around to what he saw, seeing multiple items lying on the ground.

"Jackpot."

He swung his flashlight around the area, making sure there was nothing around before walking forward. The other two next to him did the same.

On the floor and shelves were several pieces of scrap, but as one of them drew their flashlight further they spotted an engine lying in a corner. "No one must have come through this area before, place is loaded."

"Ya, or we could be in a hoarding bug nest."

"Then let's hurry up before the little bastards get here." The two men set to work, the man who spotted the engine picking it up and walking towards the two who were rummaging through some shelves, but he suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking past them.

His friend was too busy picking scrap up off the ground, but the other man noticed, turning around. "Oh god."

The third guy finally stood up, looking at what the other two were looking at.

The radio chirped. "Guy's, there's something in the next room over."

Stood in the doorway was a Bracken, a tall, vaguely humanoid creature, but extending out of its back were multiple flower like appendages, and in place of its eyes were two silver, glowing dots, making it stand out in the darkness as it stared at them.

It began to emit a low rumbling sound, the leaves on its back making a rustling sound as it began to step closer to them.

"Shit, run!"

He heard the two men behind him drop their items, and just as he turned around he found himself being shoved by the man behind him. He stumbled backward, falling to the ground towards the Bracken. This was it.

He heard the creature running towards him and he tensed up, closing his eyes and waiting for those hands to close around his neck. Instead he heard the footsteps go past him, the man opening his eyes to see the Bracken turn around the bend they had come from.

A few seconds later he heard the terrified screams of the two men who had tried to sacrifice him. The first scream was cut short, but the other one soon turned to pleading, the man on the ground recognizing the voice as the one who had pushed him.

"No no no no, please, no! Oh god no, no no no, NO, N-AHHHHH!" The sound continued for 2 or 3 seconds until it suddenly ceased, immediately followed by a dull thud.

The man just sat there, breathing heavily, his heart going a mile a minute as he waited for the Bracken to come back, but after a minute passed with no sound at all he slowly got back onto his feet.

He picked his flashlight up and slowly made his way towards where his crew and the Bracken had gone.

Just before the room with all the scrap was a catwalk that was around a bend, and as he peeked around at it he could see that's as far as they had gotten. Not because their bodies were there, no, the only sign they were there was the glowing flashlight on the ground. The two men were nowhere to be seen.

But then a radio crackled again, and he looked toward the source, shining his flashlight down at the endless blackness below. He couldn't see the corpse, but he knew it was the man who had pushed him, because he was the only one who had a radio.

"Hey, man, can you hear me? I think the other two are dead, monitor says one of them is right next to you, but the other got carried off. It was a Bracken, wasn't it? You gotta get out of there now... Wait... What the hell is... OH FUCK!" He heard running, then the sound of the ship door closing.

"There's dogs outside. God. I've gotta... I've gotta get out of here, I'll come back in the morning, just... Just survive." The radio cut out, and a few seconds later he could hear the roar of the engines as the ship took off.

His arms grew limp. Survive a night. He'd be lucky if he made it another hour in this place. He didn't blame the guy for leaving, he wouldn't have been able to get back onboard anyway with the dogs nearby, but, damn.

He looked down at the blackness again, his thoughts turning back towards the Bracken. This thing loved to toy with its prey, stalking them from the darkness, then pouncing when they weren't looking, grabbing them by the neck and breaking their spine before they could do more than gasp.

He guessed that's what had happened to the other guy, but why had the same not been done the one who'd shoved him? Maybe this one was just a bit more sadistic than some of the others? It loved to get people when they were vulnerable too, so why had it not gone for him when he'd fallen and his back was to it?

Maybe it just wanted more of a game, and didn't like having its food thrown to it. It would have plenty of time to play its games with him now. He wondered what he could do. Sit here and wait to die? Go somewhere else and die there instead? Hold out in a lit room and also wait to die?

There was nowhere for him to go. If he went outside he'd get eaten by the dogs, or whatever other creatures were out there, god forbid one of those giants catch him, he did not want to be eaten alive by a giant tree.

A rustling stirred him from his thoughts and he turned his head left to look, his shoulders slumping with relief when he saw it was just a hoarding bug. It was staring at him just past the catwalk, its body partially obscured by a wall it was peeking from.

They had a very good habit of making people jump by running out from corners, and he'd even heard of some that were bold enough to take scrap right out of a person's hands. The sight gave him a bit of hope.

Hoarding bugs made for good meals for other more dangerous creatures around, and if there were hoarding bugs around it was a good sign that there wasn't anything dangerous in the area. If those bugs and the Bracken were all that was here there was a possibilty he could survive after all.

The bugs he could probably shoo off, or bribe with some scrap, and as long as he kept his wits up he could probably keep the Bracken from getting close, provided it acted like the typical Bracken, but so far this one hadn't.

He heard a sloshing sound off to his right and he turned his attention to that, finding a blue puddle slowly moving towards him.

"Oh, you fucking...!" He had seen these things a few times, Hygrodere they were called. They were massive predators that looked like a goo blob, their insanely dense form allowing them to go up stairs and over mesh, slowly chasing down their prey, in this case, him.

They weren't hard to evade, their incredibly slow movement making it unlikely to be killed, provided they didn't corner you. If you did find yourself caught by one, you'd suffer an insanely painful death, slowly being broken down by the acidic goo.

He tried to go for the flashlight on the ground, but it was too close to the blob, the man watching it get swallowed up and dissolved. He turned to go back the other way, but as he got closer he saw the hoarding bug wasn't moving away, instead it stood up taller, its wings expanding as it took up a threat pose.

He didn't have time for this, and he didn't have anything to give to the creature either. He walked closer, preparing to punch it in the face, but at the last second the bug went away, allowing him to go back into the hallway.

It had gone down the way he and his crew had originally come in from, and as he looked down there he was glad it had retreated, seeing 4 others standing nearby, all staring at him. He wouldn't have won a fight against 5 of those creatures.

He couldn't go back that way, and he couldn't turn back either, so he was forced to go down the hallway his crew had avoided earlier, entirely due to the fact that there were no lights, and a heavy mist making it impossible to see what was ahead.

His heart started beating even faster, his fear bordering on paranoia, always thinking something was just in front of him, barely out of sight. He hadn't met a single person who liked those hallways filled with fog, they were impossible to see in, you hardly knew where you were stepping, and flashlights did nothing to help in it.

His relief was palpable when he saw that the fog thankfully didn't go more than a couple of feet, his flashlight cutting through the darkness, revealing another catwalk. There were no other ways to go so he walked forward.

It was arranged in a T intersection, the catwalk going forward into a storage room, and as he walked past the T he looked to his right, seeing a dark hallway, his beam quickly swallowed up by the darkness as he looked down it.

He shuddered, deciding to go towards the storage room instead, seeing if there was anything of value in there.

This room was actually lit, and when he walked in there he almost dropped his flashlight, a gasp escaping him. This place was a literal goldmine, various scrap items sitting on shelves all over the place. There was enough here to fill their quotas for the entire month.

A smile crept onto his face as he walked towards the closest shelf, his fear of this facility fading to the back of his mind, instead replaced by a glimmer of hope for the future. If he could survive the night he and his crewmate would be completely set.

He heard a squeaking sound off to his right, turning over, only to find himself scared to the bone. Illuminated for a split second was the Bracken, and much to his horror, he saw it just as it finished pulling the single light in the room out of its housing, sending the place into blackness.

He stared at it with wide eyes and it turned its gaze over to him. It peered at him for a second, those glowing eyes staring right at his own, tilting its head lightly, and then it dropped the bulb.

If he could have jumped out of his skin, he would have. The bulb shattered on the ground, tearing through the silence, and he launched himself back in fear, falling to the ground and kicking himself up against a corner, watching as the Bracken quickly stalked away, its eyes never leaving him as it turned around a door at the far end of the room.

Never in his life had he felt such fear. He tucked his arms in closer to his chest as if he was cold, his eyes wide as his flashlight shakily aimed at the doorway the Bracken had exited from. All hope of him surviving the night vanished in an instant.

He had hoped to be able to keep his wits up, constantly minding the area, but this creature had silently stalked into the room, not a single sound being made. It could have snuck up behind him while he was looking at the shelves, it had ample opportunity to take him out.

Instead it had gone for possibly his biggest defense, his ability to see. He almost wished it had taken him out instead of doing that. It wanted to enjoy the night though, toying with its prey. There was no other reason for it doing what it did, it was playing with him.

It was going to terrorize him for however long he could keep it entertained. He could already picture it stalking him from the shadows, peering at him as he passed hallways, the creature uttering that low, insect-like sound as it shook its petals to terrify him, eventually going in for the kill when it grew tired of toying with him.

His adrenaline pumped when he heard a buzzing, and he swung his flashlight to the right, ready to see the Bracken staring at him, but instead he was greeted by the face of a rapidly approaching hoarder bug.

He screamed, raising his arms up to protect himself as it fell on him, the creature wrestling with him, dread pulling at him when he watched its claws wrap around his flashlight.

"NO! NO!" He desperately tried to keep hold of the light, wrapping both of his hands around it, but the creature was just as desperate to get the item as he was to keep it. It leaned forward, setting its mouth on his hand, biting down.

"Ahhh! Damn it!" He wrenched his hand away from the creature, leaving only one hand left on the flashlight. His grip was no match for the creature's frantic kicks and movements, the light wrenched from his hands, the man watching in despair as it flew off the way he had come, the light rapidly dissapearing.

He didn't care about his injured hand, the creature hadn't bitten down hard enough to even break the skin, he only cared about his sole lightsource being stolen. He starred slackjawed at the now dark doorway the bug had flown down, his mind blank.

He stared for several seconds, his outstretched hand going completely limp and falling down with a thud, not caring about the dull pain that came from his arm hitting the ground. He had no chance of surviving without a lightsource, he was easy pickings for anything in this place, especially the Bracken.

He turned his head over to the hidden doorway the Bracken had come from, silently imagining the glee it would feel when it realized he was essentially blind now. A normal Bracken would have killed him when he was snuck up on earlier, but this one wasn't a normal Bracken.

What would it do now that he couldn't see anything? He didn't want to imagine the horrors that awaited him and he didn't want to stay here and just wait to be killed, so he slowly stood up, taking in the pitch blackness, doing his best to remember how the room was.

There were 3 doorways in here, and they were all on the right side of the room. One was the far doorway which the Bracken had gone down, the closest was the doorway that he had come from, which had the bugs and the Hygrodere slowly heading toward him. That left the door in the middle.

He slowly made his way over, cursing whenever he stubbed something with his shoes. He soon made his way to the wall, running his hand along it as he moved forward until he felt nothing. He took a step forward, feeling around, finding a wall to his left and right. He was at the door.

He took a cautious step forward, he had to be careful now, he didn't know what the floor was like in this area, or if there even was floor. He felt along the wall, slowly shuffling forward. He quickly approached what he found was a 4 way intersection, seeing a singular light far off in the distance to his right.

He decided to look back the way he had come and his heart jumped out of his chest. The Bracken was peeking through the doorway its glowing eyes the only thing visible. Just as he spotted it it slinked away, the man listening to the petals shake as it walked off, the ominous sound disappearing.

He stood there, catching his breath for a few seconds before he started walking towards the lightsource, make frequent glances behind him to make sure the creature wasn't sneaking up on him.

He took a glance behind him, seeing nothing, but as he was doing that he walked up on a pipe jutting out of the wall. It was low to the ground, at the perfect height to take out shins, and that's exactly what it did.

He slammed his right leg into the metal pipe, a dull thud heard, followed by a pained groan, and then the sound of him falling to the ground.

He turned himself over onto his back, letting out a pained laugh as he rubbed the spot which would no doubt be bruised all to hell in a few hours, if he survived. He slowly got back up to his feet, keeping an eye down both ends of the hallway before moving forward again, a pained expression hidden beneath his visor.

He quickly made his way to the light, standing in the center of it. He looked around, not seeing anything so he walked forward some more, soon finding himself in darkness again. He was soon stopped by a wall though.

He felt around, but all he felt were pipes and wall. It was a dead end.

He slumped his head in defeat. Hanging it there for a few seconds, but eventually he looked back up, turning around to make the trek back the way he had come.

He froze, taking in a gasp, then shoving himself back against the wall. Silhouetted against the light was the Bracken. He stared up at its face, seeing nothing there for a second, but then its eyes opened.

It had been following him the entire time, keeping its eyes closed when he was looking at it.

He prayed to god it would go away now that it had been caught, but it didn't. Instead, those petals on its back starting to shake, and it made that chittering sound again. It took a step forward and the man pressed himself further up against the wall, putting his arms to his sides.

As it got ever closer he closed his eyes, turning his head to the side, waiting for his end to come.

The creature was making a chittering noise constantly, and its petals kept shaking, letting the man know how close the creature was getting, and when it was right in front of him it suddenly stopped.