Page 2361

((The Mon/Wen/Fri Double -- page 2 of 2))
This government facility was being used for a multitude of things, it seemed. This little entrance here was only one of many, and it served primarily as an emergency escape route.

Hector could see it being used on several occasions. People with indecipherable faces flowing out of it. Rushing. Running. The only thing clear about them was their panic.

He wished he could understand the timescale better, but it was foggy, at best. One thing was evident, though. It ended with an explosion.

That was why this small building wasn't actually here anymore. It had been blown to smithereens.

And not everyone escaped that time. He could see people on fire rolling in the grass. Smoldering corpses among burning trees and underbrush. The whole forest around was aflame.

And roars. Piercing, guttural roars.

He couldn't actually hear them with his ears, yet he could perceive them through the vision nonetheless. There were so many of them. And not all were angry. Some were more pained. Some were whimpers.

Vast rooms with cages lay deep underground. Empty one moment, then filled to bursting with animals of all sorts, then empty again, then filled again. And perhaps there were also some creatures that... weren't animals at all--or at least, none that Hector recognized.

And there were people moving between them. Prodding them. Antagonizing them. Sticking them with needles. Tranquilizing them. Taking them out and tying them down.

And dissecting them. Opening them up. Then stitching them back together, different from before.

With the help of reapers.

Those were somehow less clear, so it had taken Hector longer to recognize them. They'd been there all along, he realized. Murky specters, always in the background, sometimes indistinguishable from shadows. He couldn't tell how many there were, though. It could've been two. It could've been twenty.