Episode 50 – Beneath the Surface

  The room felt colder. The sound—the slow, deliberate dragging beneath them—had changed the air. Kade’s grip tightened around the radio. Mason was still out there, alone, standing over whatever the hell was moving below.

  “Get back inside,” Kade said, his voice sharp but quiet.

  Mason’s radio crackled, but there was a pause before he answered. “I don’t think I should move.”

  Kade exchanged a glance with Naomi. That wasn’t like Mason. He was a smartass, reckless at times, but he never hesitated when things got dangerous.

  Owen had already pulled up the perimeter cams. “I don’t see anything topside,” he muttered. “But there’s interference on thermal. Could be interference from below.”

  “Or something cold,” Naomi said.

  Kade pushed the radio to his mouth. “Mason. Talk to me.”

  A shuffle. Static. Then, finally—“It’s not just one sound. There’s more than one of them.”

  A second later, the ground shuddered.

  Not an explosion. Not an impact. Something shifted, deep under the structure. A long, rolling movement, as if the very earth was breathing.

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  Naomi was already moving, strapping her rifle over her shoulder. “We’re not leaving him out there.”

  Kade nodded. “Owen, stay on the feed. Any movement, call it out.”

  Owen barely acknowledged him, already scanning multiple screens. Kade grabbed his sidearm and pushed through the metal door, Naomi right behind him.

  Outside

  The night had an unnatural stillness. The safehouse was built into the remains of a parking structure, reinforced with scrap metal and scavenged parts. Beyond it, the land stretched into decayed roads and skeletal buildings—remnants of the old world.

  Mason stood near the edge of the barricade, barely visible in the dim emergency lighting. He had his rifle raised, not at anything, but toward the cracked pavement beneath his feet.

  Kade and Naomi approached fast but steady. No sudden movements.

  “What do you see?” Kade asked.

  Mason shook his head. “Not what I see. What I feel.”

  Naomi glanced at the ground. “Elaborate.”

  Mason exhaled, shifting his stance. “It’s like something’s pressing up from below. Like the earth is stretching, bulging in places. It moves, but I don’t see a damn thing.”

  Kade studied the cracked pavement. To anyone else, it looked normal—just another piece of a dying world. But Mason was right. There was something wrong with it.

  A deep thunk sounded beneath them. Not a boom, not a crack—just a single, hollow knock from underground.

  They all froze.

  Then another.

  And another.

  A slow, steady rhythm.

  Kade’s pulse quickened. “That’s a pattern.”

  Naomi adjusted her grip on her rifle. “Not random.”

  Mason took a careful step back. “Feels like it’s waiting for something.”

  Then, without warning, the pavement in front of them sank.

  Just for a second. A slow, unnatural dip—then it rose again, like something massive shifting just beneath the surface.

  Kade didn’t hesitate. “Move. Now.”

  They backed away fast, weapons raised, but no immediate threat appeared. Just silence. A deep, pressing silence that made the air feel heavier.

  Inside, Owen’s voice crackled over the radio. “I don’t know what’s happening, but our motion sensors just started picking up activity in multiple locations. Underground.”

  Kade clenched his jaw. “Tell me you’re joking.”

  “I wish I was,” Owen said. “It’s everywhere.”

  Mason let out a slow breath. “So. Azazel2’s been busy.”

  Naomi’s eyes flicked toward Kade. “We need to figure out what’s down there before it figures out how to get up here.”

  Another deep thunk echoed from beneath them. This time, it was closer. Louder.

  Kade’s instincts screamed. Whatever was waiting beneath them wasn’t just moving.

  It was waking up.

  End of Episode 50.