Prologue: A Friendly Introduction

To anyone reading this letter,

It's too late. By now, I'm already probably long gone. I beseech you, whoever you are: please keep them placated. Keep them preoccupied. Do not let them grow anxious, or jealous, or depressed. Otherwise, unspeakable horrors will befall the world, tragedies that I do not have the courage to write out on this paper.

It matters not if one of them finds this; they will simply toss it into the fireplace like disgusting, maggot-filled trash. They cannot punish me any worse than they already have. Regardless of how this endeavor goes, I will not suffer to live at this base any longer.

If you are the next Commander, heed my advice: Do what they say. Make them lower their guard. And finally, once they have grown complacent, look for a way out. I'm afraid you won't be able to use the same escape method I am about to employ; they will probably have sealed it off already and posted guards around it. If there is another possible escape route, I would suggest-

The letter ended abruptly as I felt a cold hand crush my shoulder, the fingers pressing against my collarbone so forcefully I thought it would snap.

"What do you have in your hand, Commander…?"

I shuddered uncontrollably. Whether it was due to fear or the stale, the chilly air pervading the cellar, or remembering the corpse lying at my feet, I couldn't tell.

"It… it's just trash…"

My mouth formed the words, but all that came out were shaky whispers and moans. My breath appeared as condensed clouds in front of me before they dissipated. Above my own breathing, the only other sounds were coming from the rats scurrying across the floor. They gave the other person a very wide berth, as if they sensed the looming danger that would eradicate them if they approached too closely.

"You know you shouldn't be here, Commander," she continued.

I braced my body, prepared for immense pain and the darkness of eternal sleep to take me. However, I couldn't have predicted what came next.

She whipped me around and pressed me against her ample bosom. Before my sight was completely obscured by the softness hiding underneath her shirt, I saw a glimpse of a military cap and a long black coat hanging from her shoulders.

"Shh…"

My heart started rapidly beating at a thousand paces per minute from either arousal or sheer terror, perhaps both. I felt the paper wrested from my hands, torn free when I was flailing my arms about, trying to break free from this woman's unyielding embrace.

Suddenly, I realized something important: I couldn't breathe.

"Mmph…! Mrrgh umph…!"

"Shh…" She repeated the same line over and over again. "Just relax…."

I renewed my desperate struggle, my arms lashing out and slapping against her with all the strength I could muster. But it didn't matter in the end: she either couldn't feel it, or it didn't bother her. As my lungs gasped for air, a sweet, pungent odor wafted into my nostrils and flooded my mouth. Was this… chloroform? For a split second, my mind only thought of the softness smothering me before it began to grow unfocused, and it felt like the world began to tilt and spin all around me, causing my legs to trip and stumble.

I suddenly felt her grip on me tighten. Her fingers continued to snake through my hair, wrapping around the back of my head as she pulled me further into the abyss between her breasts.

"Don't worry, Commander. This is where you belong."

By now, my arms hung limply at my sides as my knees finally buckled, and the only thing preventing me from slumping to the floor was my busty, unrelenting detainer. As I sank lower and lower into the warmth of the endless void, a final silent cry for help crept from the recesses of my mind and swam through the murky sea of my fleeting consciousness:

I want to go home….