Chapter 12 - The Void Within
The attack happened in less than a second. Vance didn't even have time to scream; he was yanked off his feet and pulled headfirst into the shattered drywall opening with a sickening crunch of breaking wood.
"Vance!" Mark yelled, lunging forward and grabbing the heavy steel mallet that the agent had dropped on the floor.
"Mark, stay back!" Sarah screamed, pulling Buster hard toward the living room window as the drywall around the kitchen opening began to ripple and warp like melting wax.
Mark didn't listen. He rushed to the edge of the jagged opening, shining his smartphone flashlight directly into the abyss. The beam didn't hit a back wall or concrete foundation; it cut through an endless, labyrinthine corridor of rusted steel pipes, concrete pillars, and pulsing gray membranes that lined the entire inner core of the building.
In the middle of that horrifying expanse, Vance was suspended ten feet away, held fast by three thick gray tendrils wrapped tightly around his chest and arms. His canvas jacket was torn away, revealing skin that had already begun to take on a sickly, gray, crystalline sheen.
"Miller..." Vance choked out, his eyes bloodshot and wide with terror as he stared past Mark into the apartment. "The baseline... it's breaking down. Once the core opens... the whole city block..."
Before Vance could finish his sentence, a massive shockwave rippled through the subterranean pipes, and his body dissolved into a cloud of gray dust that was instantly sucked deeper into the ventilation network.
Mark stood frozen at the edge of the breach, the dust settling over his hair and shoulders. The air rushing out of the hole was freezing cold, carrying a faint, haunting melody—dozens of children's voices whispering his name in unison from the darkness below.
"Mark... Mark... come down to the basement..."
"Mark, please!" Sarah's voice broke through the haze of the whispers, filled with a primal, desperate terror. She was standing by the front door, desperately pulling at the heavy brass handle, but the deadbolt was fused shut with solid ice. "The front door won't budge! The whole building is freezing over!"
Mark turned away from the black opening in the kitchen wall. He walked slowly back into the hallway, his face completely devoid of expression.
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"The front door doesn't matter," Mark said softly, picking up his smartphone from the floor. "The exit isn't through the hallway, Sarah."
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