People had initially fought back, but their bravery was rewarded by them simply vanishing. They’d left then, by road, sea, on foot, but only ended up being trapped in long lines of stalled traffic, or in their march to safe havens, encountering people coming the other way. Those who were stuck outside at night just proved easy pickings for the things that now owned the darkness.

There were few people on the streets, and those who remained huddled inside their houses were locked in rooms, basements, or even garages. But these refuges were not secure, because the things that boiled up from every subway, drain or cellar were able to reach in under locked doors, and even thread themselves through keyholes.

The army had deployed, and those that had only been issued standard ammunition managed to keep the Shoggoth at bay for a few minutes at best, before they too were overwhelmed and either eaten or converted to become the next lump of amoebic flesh to terrorize the neighborhood.

As a final insult to the human race, men, women and children were now being herded together, guarded by rings of the massive blobs of protoplasmic flesh. And herded was the appropriate term – Captain Hensen had dated a cattle farmer’s daughter when he was in high school, and one weekend he had visited her family’s ranch in the holidays. This is what the people gathered there reminded him of – cattle, in pens, awaiting shipment to the abattoir.

Hensen’s squad were some of the lucky ones – they had taken delivery of the compacted salt ordnance – the hardened salt rounds worked a treat, clearing the disgusting creatures from their path. Those that were too slow and took a hit either exploded or melted away, leaving nothing but foul-smelling black puddles of goo.

They’d freed hundreds of people, and many were now being led back to secure camps. But in their eyes was shock and horror. As in all of the guarded fields Hensen and his squad came across, the people inside this ring of monsters were listless and resigned to their fate. They had obviously seen what happened to those who tried to rebel or escape. He knew what would happen as well – he’d seen it with his own eyes – the horror of the things feeding.

Hensen wiped his eyes and held up a fist to signal the next move to his soldiers. For every ten souls they freed, there were thousands more being consumed, or led down into the bowels of the Earth to suffer whatever fate these monstrosities from Hell had in store for them.

*

Adira held up her hand, causing the small group to halt. “You hear that? Smell it?”

“For the last few minutes – water lapping…” Abrams sniffed deeply “…salt water. But we’re miles from the ocean.”

“Miles from any ocean we know of,” Matt said. Up ahead he saw that the tunnel looked different.

“Wait here.” He approached slowly.

“What is it?” Adira lifted her gun.