Churning in a pipe snaking through the wall with the top half eroded from constant exposure, iridescent green liquid bubbled and hissed as spatter hit the wall above, littered with burn marks from the green liquid.
Slowly, the pipe eroded from the constant contact with the liquid, the once grey pipe becoming bronze from unprecedented oxidation with the sides showing signs of wear.
Once it splits apart completely, the liquid will cover the floor, and eat through it, creating a pool of iridescent green before it once again eats through the material, continuing until the liquid reached its natural conclusion.
Not the infamous witch's jelly that had been on every loner, soldier, whoever's lips, a different danger.
Still, a danger nonetheless, radioactive enough that too close of contact can cause unpleasant reactions.
A radioactive reminder from the Soviet days, turned fierce from the Zone's creation.
More of the liquid leaked throughout the underground area, whole sections becoming permanent pools for it, unmistakable with the sickly green hue that could be seen from the darkness.
Sudden drops caused by the erosion weren't uncommon, either some had unsuspecting people simply fall to their deaths, some variations with them falling into the same radioactive liquid that pooled in areas and their skin sloughing off their bodies as the intense radiation poisoning kills them.
Though, there are worse fates, as those seasoned would tell people.
Sometimes, the holes weren't caused by radioactive substances eating through, the creatures that call the labs their home sometimes burrowed into the ground, though, some don't live in those holes, rather, they're a form of traps.
Anyone unsuspectedly fall into of these traps will only have a short amount of time to react when the creatures swiftly outnumber them, a quick death was hopefully assured.
Hopefully.
The foul smells wafted through the underground lab, some carry risks of eating away at sinuses if inhaled too much that gas masks were a requirement, else an unlucky individual risked blood oozing out of their nostrils as their sinuses began breaking down, until nothing left, and the individual potentially dying.
It was warned many times by all who lived in the Zone to wear a gas mask in unfamiliar areas for this reason alone, especially in an area like the underground lab where there is no ventilation.
"What the hell?" Wilhelm utters aloud as he stepped through an opened doorway, seeing something slumped on the ground.
Hoisting his Vespa, he went towards it while the group stayed back.
Air became trapped in Wilhelm's throat as the shape took form and instantly, he recongised what he was looking at as he stopped in his tracks.
One of those mutants.
This one's dead, though.
"At ease, he's dead," he motioned for the group to come forward despite their hesitation.
Coming around with his shotgun pointed downward, Paul sees the mutant with clarity under the white hue.
About as tall as him, the white shirt had been stretched into pieces from the muscles expanding and the natural wear and tear thinned whatever remained on the mutant.
Skin is of a sticky colour with parts of the body having blackened veins, prison tattoos covered most of the chest, the exposed large feet blackened completely, and the hands having the middle and index fingers fused together.
Its mouth gap, Paul glances at the broken rotten teeth, the tongue covered in sores.
The head had mutated into an unnatural shape and size, Wilhelm telling Paul how this was one of the mutants that "knocks the screws out of people" whenever it notices someone in the vicinity because the brain had been artificially enlarged to the point that Wilhelm thinks if no one killed the mutant, it would die naturally because it can't handle the mutations.
"W-what were they doing to him?" Anya didn't overlook that this mutant used to be a man.
Shrugging, Wilhelm replied that he heard that the Soviets were trying to develop telekinesis, telepathy, name it, and they had no shortage of unwilling prisoners in attempt achieving their goals.
That was, of course, before hell broke loose and the experiments gotten loose and became everyone's nightmare.
"Why were they making beasts?" Edgar questioned some of the mutants that both men grew to fear with a good reason.
Scoffing, Wilhelm pointed out that Edgar had the Zone talking to him, but Edgar reminded him that the Zone didn't know much about them, either.
"W-what were they doing in these labs?" Taylor sheepishly asks what other experiments the Soviets were doing.
Frowning, Wilhelm summed, "Whatever the hell they wanted."
If Wilhelm had to estimate, there must have been at least thirty-thousand prisoners that were brought to the Zone to be forced into cruel experiments, but given how quiet the USSR were about their politics and how they burned what they could during the fall to avoid further prosecution he shuddered to know the true number and how many died in the ensuring experiments.
"I don't see any wounds on it," Paul cautiously moved the body with his foot, his angel eyes struggled to find any wound on the mutant, nothing showing how it died.
It would've given credence to what Wilhelm mentioned, but the more Paul looked, he didn't think the mutant died of natural causes incurred from the experiments.
"I know the soldiers been using chemical bombs to try and drive down the numbers of some of the animals and mutants in the area," Wilhelm tried to find an explanation for the dead mutant, but given their circumstances, he started doubting that the dead solider managed to set one off before succumbing to his injuries.
He grew disgusted the moment he saw Paul kneeling beside the mutant and touching its head.
"Oi! Are you mental, mate?" Wilhelm questioned Paul as he watched Paul turn the mutant's head, clear liquid mixed with blood oozing out of the ear holes.
Paul determined that the mutant died the same way as the solider.
Shocked, Wilhelm uttered, "What could've done that?"
Mutants didn't have a familial sense, anymore, that much he knew, most preferred solitary existence unless provoked into attacking.
Maybe it got into it with another of its kind, but to tell the truth, Wilhelm wouldn't know.
"What indeed," Paul's brow furrows with a mix of intrigue and concern.
Releasing the mutant's head, Paul went around the area, he expected finding spent shells from the solider, but he didn't.
He didn't remember seeing the soldier with a weapon, either.
His hands together Paul spun around as his angel eyes went around the room, trying to cobble together a scene.
The soldier came down here to investigate the lab, accidentally stumbled into the mutant, lost his weapon to its attacks, and tried escaping, but ran into something else.
No.
The soldier accidentally stumbled into something, tried attacking it, realises the mistake, tried fleeing, and the mutant must have heard the commotion.
Now.
What else was down here?
Having seen enough the group moved on from the dead mutant, going through the doorway into another section with large panel glass looking into the labs.
Through the looking glass, they saw the labs in disarray, black splotches caked the floor and walls, the thick glass broken from the inside, signs of struggles, broken glass covering the floor littered with sheets of paper and broken scientific instruments.
Broken equipment completely obliterated from being thrown around, with one impacting and killing a scientist, the group saw the black splotch sliding down to where the scientist's body landed and subsequently crushed by the weight.
Seeing the doors off their hinges with the frames disjointed, it only helped unnerve Anya.
Raw strength, aggression, didn't have to imagine what transpired once the mutants escaped the confines and began wreaking havoc upon their frightened captors.
Past the labs, there's more disarray from the mutants escaping their confines, everything torn up, destroyed, more black splotches that stained the ground, but no bodies of either mutants, the scientists, or their security.
Wilhelm sure that no one else came through here except them, he didn't know or want to know what happened to those bodies.
Everyone tensed up when they started hearing noises coming from one of the closed doors, it sounded like crying.
Frozen in their spots, Paul turned towards Wilhelm for guidance.
"I didn't live this long to get snuffed out," Wilhelm's voice dropped as his eyes narrows on the door that led into one of the lavatories.
No one could have survived down here this long without going crazy or running into one of the lingering mutants.
"Could it be another solider?" Anya whispers to him.
Shaking his head, Wilhelm sharply responds that he doubted it could've been.
Even if the solider they passed didn't come here alone, there's hardly a chance his cohort had better luck.
"Remember luv, hardly anyone who lives in the Zone comes with a conscious," Wilhelm was then quick to remind her how the Zone became a haven for the craven.
Proceeding to order Paul to stand near the door and Taylor staying back to guard Edgar and Anya, Wilhelm prepared to raze the inside of the lavatory with Vespa.
"Hope you're good using the shotgun like you say," Wilhelm coughs as he counted down, before commanding Paul to open the door, allowing him to look inside the lavatory.
Sporadically the lights blinked rapidly, but Wilhelm can make out a figure in the back of the lavatory, short, stout, wore a black trench that covered its face, and the moment it raised its hands, Wilhelm didn't hesitate opening fire on it.
The bullets echoed throughout the corridors as Wilhelm took on one of the mutants that can sometimes be found in the Zone.
Dwarf-like, nobody knew if they were always short when the Soviets experimented on them or the mutations turned them that way, all anyone knows is, they're bad news all-around.
Like the mutant that came before it, it had abilities given in the experiments.
The latter had telepathic abilities, this one had telekinesis.
With its abilities, it can either yank guns out of people's hands and beat them to death with it, use it on them, and many more creative ways it can bring harm to all and any that had the misfortune of running into it.
Best way of dealing with it, kill it as quickly as one can before it has a chance of yanking the gun out of your hand.
It wasn't wise to use that many bullets, but with this mutant and the mutant before, one had to take every opportunity to make sure it was dead.
As Wilhelm took on the mutant, Paul felt ringing in his head, and it caused him to turn his head to see another stout figure.
Training his shotgun onto it, Paul shouted over the gunfire as he swiftly moved to overtake the figure, as quickly as he could while the pinging in his head continues.
He sees the mutant raising its hands, but couldn't use its telekinesis as Paul blasted it with his shotgun, Wilhelm wasn't kidding when he said that these ones were as tough as the latter mutant they encountered.
The dwarf-like size made it difficult, but Paul managed, and he was able to keep shots dead centre as he kept count of how many bullets he used.
Training his shotgun onto it, Paul shouted over the gunfire as he swiftly moved to overtake the figure, as quickly as he could while the pinging in his head continues.
He sees the mutant raising its hands, but couldn't use its telekinesis as Paul blasted it with his shotgun, Wilhelm wasn't kidding when he said that these ones were as tough as the latter mutant they encountered.
The dwarf-like size made it difficult, but Paul managed, and he was able to keep shots dead centre as he kept count of how many bullets he used.
It took at least eight, but the dwarf-like mutant kept trying to pull the shotgun from his hands, behind he heard Taylor shout for him to move, and he obliged.
She took aim at its head, the makeshift rifle recoiling after every shot, until the dwarf-like mutant dropped to its knees, black blood oozing out of the bullet's holes.
"Damn mutants!" Wilhelm shouts as he finished off the mutant in the lavatory before turning his head to see the second one dead.
As the smoke-filled air slowly dissipated, they counted how many bullets used, at least thirty-six total before retrieving Edgar and Anya, both cowering in a corner.
Wilhelm asked if they were fine and they replied they were, Anya gasping for air as she came down from the adrenaline rush and fear that overtook her.
"They usually don't come up topside, something to do with their skin, but every now again, I hear stories of people seeing them picking off whatever they can from corpses around dusk," Wilhelm gave a grisly description of the mutants he and the two just killed.
Edgar recalled his time with Wilhelm while they survived out in the Zone, "I could hear them sometimes whenever we were in the same area, like they can still speak, but… it was like they forgot their mother tongue."
Quite faint, but he could distinctly hear incomprehensible words.
Not surprisingly considering what befell the mutants, but it only further showed how they were once human, and what little might've remained after the inhuman experiments concluded.
Studying the mutant closely, Paul could see how the mutations affected it, the skin covered in boils that Wilhelm says forms whenever the mutant's skin becomes exposed to the sunlight and the toes bursting through the shoes with some broken and twisted due to being forced through the steel-toes.
Wilhelm hoped that the nerves were shot enough that the mutants didn't feel their toes pushing through their boots, but he would be a fool if he didn't assume the worst.
"We better hurry, we don't have much ammo left," Paul urges them onward.
