Deep within the Async Research Institute building.

The Mole Rats team slowly moved down one of the long hallways; they were way past the door that opened into this area. It was clear that this was where most of the staff died from the attack of the monsters. Blood stains, bones, and signs of battle marked their pathway; they carefully walked in a tight formation down it.

"This kind of reminds me of a breach made by SCP 106. At the very least, we don't have to worry about that black slug all over the place. Still, I wonder how many people die right here from the looks of it as they try to make way for the door. And I bet it was shut; there was no way out; everyone was easy picking for the beast in here."

Mole 4 said, lightly kicking a leg bone out of his footpath. "This entire place is a mass grave. We are going to need a cleanup crew in here later, and we can't be kicking bones every time we come in." Mole 1 spoke, looking down the hallway as they went.

Soon there will be a split along the hallway, with two paths, one leading left and the other leading right. "Hmm... the path goes two different ways; do we split up here?" Mole 1 would shake his head towards Mole 6, who asked if they were splitting up.

"We go down together at a time; we get right first, then we double back and move down the other one. Yes, we can cover more ground, but I am not risking it. I would rather have numbers and firepower to deal with anything that comes our way." Mole 6 could agree with him on that, for there were still many unknowns about what could be around a corner or a dark room.

The group would take a right, heading down it slowly. On the right wall were three steel doors, with one having a window to view the room. The lights in this room were off, shining a light through the window. As the light illuminated the inside, it could be seen that this was one of the preparation rooms, with lines of lockers along the wall.

"Move in or move on. We will have plenty of time to check everything out once we make sure it is safe." Mole 4 said, looking through the window with the others. "True, let's get moving; it looks like we have a cutoff up ahead. I do hope the lights stay on." Moving away from the window, the group moved forward.

Above their heads, the lights did not flicker like the others, but there were parts where the lights were not working. "Is it me, or are we beginning to watch?" Mole 4 spoke up, getting an unnerving feeling that something had its eyes on them. Coming too close to the end of the hallway, it takes a turn to the left.

"Seems clear ahead..." The feeling was creeping on each of them, yet looking ahead, an area of light was out, yet the darkness seemed unusually thick. "Sir... ahead." A cold sweat was breaking out on the backs of their necks, shining their flashlights ahead. Coming out of the darkness, a large smile would appear. Followed by two large eyes, it was all that they could make it for; everything else was covered by the darkness around them. Its eyes were on them. Everything about it was unnatural.

"Open fire!" Mole 1 yelled out as the open-fire bullets impacted the darkness, yet it seemed to have no effect on the other open-fire as well. Without saying a word, even though a hail of bullets was hitting, it never broke its smile as the darkness advanced slowly. Pulling out a flash-bang from his vest, he threw it towards the creature, where a blinding flash went off in front of it, which seemed to have stunted it.

"Throw a flash and stun!" Bullets seem to have no effect moving back yet still firing their SMGs; others would toss stun and flash at it in mass. Some went into the darkness; others landed at their feet, going off within and around their cause, which seemed to have an effect as the smile and eyes would disappear.

"Hold fire!" Mole 1 yelled out, holding up his left hand towards the group, as gunfire would die down some reloading clips. "What the fuck was that?!" Mole 4 yelled out as the group kept on moving backward.

"I don't have a clue, but... I have never seen anything like that before." James said that before their eyes, the mass of darkness that was within the creature started to disappear, revealing the rest of the hallway. A single flickering light illuminated the area. "Who is to go first?" Mole 1 asked if they could double back, but it could be waiting. Just because it was gone here does not mean it could be somewhere else.

"Mole 1 and Mole 2 come in." The group stopped their movement, looking behind them and in front of them. "This is Mole 2. What is going on? Heard a fuck ton of gunfire and explosions... Everyone alright?" Taking a few seconds to catch his breath, Mole 1 would talk to Mole 2.

"No one has been hurt, but be advised. We just saw, at what best I could describe, a glowing smile and eyes within darkness. As far as we can tell, it was immune to gunfire, so we unloaded everything we had. And it did nothing to it; use stun and flash grenades to drive it back, unsure if it was gone or somewhere else." Looking ahead of the group, he looks towards James. "Sir, shall we keep on going or double back and head down the other hallway?" James had his 1911 out and fired a few rounds toward the unknown creature.

"My thoughts? We pull out and leave this area for now to get a better backup. However, it takes up too much time, and for all we know, it could have gone away and alerted others of its kind. We move forward carefully, and slowly, we see anything else we bug out." The group did not like the idea, as a groan of disapproval came from two of them.

"Alright, let's get moving now since we're waiting here for that thing to come back." James and the Mole Rates move forward, keeping their weapons aimed at the darkness and taking it one step at a time. Soon the hallway would come to an end before there was another door power still following it.

"This is not like the first one; it needs a key card... You still got that card on you?" Mole 4 asked Mole 1, for he found a card under the table in that break room. Stepping forward, he would slide the card into the slot, and a few seconds would pass as the screen went blank. A grinding sound could be heard as the door slid open, this time from the left and right sides. One thing that should have been left out was that this door was thicker than the first one they went through.

Once it was open, the group aimed their weapon through it from the other side before they moved forward. "Clear here." Three of the mole rats moved forward before the other two came behind them once the room had no sign of hostiles. Around them were decontamination showers and several lockers; a few were wide open, with equipment lying about on the ground.

"It seems everyone was in a hurry. From the looks of it, no one got a chance to arm or get any supplies here."

Mole 4 looked inside one of the lockers, seeing a shotgun leaning against the wall of the locker with a few boxes of shells at the bottom.

"Weapons, shells, filters... In a way, they did a good job with their preparation before heading forward, almost no different than what we do." Moving past the lockers, Mole 1 eyed the inside of a few, as did James. "I can agree. But even with all of this, it still ended badly for them. Let's keep moving. Something tells me that past the next door, we are about to see this gateway into this place." Nodding their heads and looking at James, the group prepared themselves in the event there was any hostility beyond the last door at the end of the room on the left of them.

Reaching the door as before, a screen was on it with a card slot. Putting the card into it, the screen went blank as before with the door opening. As they aimed their weapons towards the door as it slowly opened, inside was a massive chamber. Stepping into the room, they took notice of an observation room above them. On the left, the glass was still intact. In front of them was another door, just like the one they came through. On the right of the room was a large and massively damaged frame for a door or gate with scorched marks on the side of it.

"So, this is it. It looks badly damaged. It takes a long time to get it in working order if the eggheads want to explore. I, for one, don't want to be the one to say that this place is just... Wrong to speak clearly, I feel like this entire building should be torn down."

Mole 6 spoke his mind as each of them looked over the room; just like with the hallway, blood stains old and faded on the walls at the rear of the room and the floor.

"If it comes to that, then we will do just that... As it stands, no one is going through this gate any time soon. We don't even have a good clue how it works. It takes time for that."

As it stands, they have reached a dead end, for he imagines that on the other side is the same preparation room as the one they went through. "Do we call it head-on-back? I'm going to guess that generators are not going to last much longer, and at the moment, it seems we are clear of hostiles." And it will be night soon, and none of them wanted to be inside when the sun went down.

"Alright, we will bug out for now and be back here in the morning. I will send the report up the chain and see what they say."

Coming to a group agreement, the Moles Rats and James would double back, linking up with Mole Rats 2 and 3. Together, they made their way outside. "Close the door and lock it. I assume we can do the same with the gate. I am not leaving this place open to others."

For now, they head back to base and give a full report of what they have found and discovered within; after that, it is what the command wants done next. The team got to work carrying out James' orders as the two went to get the group that worked on the generator.

"Good timing, sir. One of the fuel lines had cracked and started to burst. A few more minutes, and we would have had to shut it down. We are going to need to do some heavy-duty work to get everything running for everyone's safety."

One of the work crew members told James, who took note of it. "We will get that worked out for now; get your things packed up; we are leaving for now." They, just like the MTF, were at work gathering a few things they had set up, and another had a set of chains and a lock ready for when they left.

James was surprised that everything went well with no losses, but a part of him figure that would soon change. Taking one last look towards the building, he would make his way to his car, step into the driver's seat, and follow the others out of the parking lot.