Tunnels: The Darkest Nexus by Kenneth Neal
The pack of young girls begin to make their selection by shrieking her order into the BurgerHop speaker firmly planted in the ground perpendicular to the board behind it. Unbeknownst to the hungry hunters quarrelling inside their sedan, the rod mounted onto the speaker begins to give off a slight rocking vibration. Soon developing a small tremor causing a continued reverberation onto the girls’ party wagon leaving them perplexed what could be causing such an odd disturbance. A glimmer of faint light begins to form just outside the car which instantly billows into an oversized circular swirl of blue energy in front of the menu board.
A colossal creature with a dense grey hide makes a sudden barge out of the blue field, terrifying the young passengers inside the car in its wake. The girls, panic-stricken at the sight of the grotesque abomination charging towards them, make every desperate attempt to flee from their seat-belt restraints. Given the creature’s sheer velocity and weight, it easily overtakes topples the menu board and speaker stationed in front of it along with the red sports sedan with violent ease.
It knocks the car over on its side and the screams coming from within can be heard from all over the BurgerHop premises. The creature uses its claws to gouge the car’s iron framework with its gargantuan claws, shredding through the metal as if it was warm cheese, mangling the automobile and the bloodied occupants with it.
A number of creatures similar to this raging juggernaut begin surging out of the blue vortex, exhibiting similar destructive antics causing a disheveled sea of chaos within minutes. Catching the sounds coming from the opposite side of the building, Erma has been finishing the last segment of her Virginia Slim and can hear the clangs of overturned metal that rattle the foundation beneath her. Within shouting distance, she watches a pick-up truck being tossed across the parking lot like a tumbleweed, sending all occupants inside the restaurant into a massive and panicked exodus out of the building.
Erma sprints, carrying her full figured frame around the corner with her handbag firmly in grasp, where she makes a sudden stop as she encounters a pulsing blue orb that is forming right in front of her. Hesitant to find out what develops from this mysterious field obstructing her path, she quickly sidesteps in order to avoid additional danger.
With her car nearby, Erma makes an exhaustive effort to make her wheezing approach to her aging Oldsmobile. Just steps away from the car, a wretched screech bellows from the direction of the developing blue void as another monstrosity lurches out from the other side. It catches sight of Erma sprinting in the opposite direction and makes an aggressive, near barbaric charge towards her. Car keys are firmly inserted in the car door, Erma throws herself into the driver’s seat, making a quick glance into the rear mirror, confirming the danger trailing behind.
A photo can be seen taped on the dash of the car of her and her boyfriend Earl, the two of them standing in front of those cheesy “mall portrait” background that says Earl and Erma encircled in a heart shape. Erma turns the ignition and frantically hurls herself out of the parking lot amongst the sea of chaos surrounding her. She drives over the curb causing a flurry of sparks in her hasty bolt away from the horrors chasing behind her while she grabs her cell from her uniform smock pocket. Erma, with high anxiety, presses the Send/Call button trying to attempt to connect and screaming in frustration.
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60 Miles An Hour
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The receiving cell phone can be seen on the other end, flashing its call lights with bold font spelling “ERMA” blinking on the screen. The phone, placed inside a trucker’s cupholder, is mounted within 16-wheeler driving cabin as Earl snarls at a SUV narrowly missing his payload behind him. He carries the traditional trucker’s shell, portly and unshaven; cranking out his favorite tracks from the I-Pod jacked into his robust sound system. Blasting an electronic/rock hybrid song, jamming his head as he knows all the words, he takes the occasional glance down to jump to a specific playlist.
Proceeding onward down another straightaway, he makes his way into familiar territory, only a matter of yards in front of his massive engine separates him and a faint blue flicker of light linear to the highway road itself. The flicker jumps in size, forming a humongous gorge in space, whirlpool-like is motion that yields dimension greater than the size of the eighteen-wheeler itself. There was not enough time for the driver to perform any evasive maneuvers as he frantically slams the breaking system and circling the steering wheel respectfully. The truck is hurled into the swirling blue tunnel later to find itself reaching through onto the other side maintaining its full speeds upward of 60-Miles an hour.
Thunderous thuds and bangs can be heard from within his cabin while he steers violently between both directions, of which does not appear to steer him back onto any highway surface. Instead, he will find scores of walking bodies that are being trampled by the gravity and weight of his moving transfer truck. Its friction and speed mows them down one by one as if they were summer’s grassy overgrowth, colliding into the engine’s chrome bumpers face first and then flattened by the man-sized truck wheels.
This creates a chaotic speed-bump effect for the driver as the bodies begin to unevenly collide with the truck on all sides. Loud clashes can be heard coming from impacts on the driver’s windshield due to the collisions made from the life-forms flying in the air as well. The aerial creatures can be seen from afar, descending onto the speeding vehicle with great haste and formation.
Seemingly unaware with rabid disregard of the truck’s steel-framed composition, they too become crushed upon impact and shoved aside with little prejudice as the truck continues forward. The visible wind shears prominently whip about the exterior of the truck from the drop in temperature and overall velocity. The speed of the truck’s path will begin to decelerate forcing the truck to jolt from side by side.
The clumps of bodies left behind gradually begin to unnaturally rise and resurrect on their own “legs” (two legged, some four legged). An eerie iridescent glow of blue pulses throughout their bodies is a prominent visible network of veins and arteries from head to toe. The creatures begin to severely claw through the lining of the truck, creating a series of raking sparks along the sides and the roof top of both the pay load and the driver’s cabin as he screams witnessing the terror that surrounds him.
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Thank You For Shopping
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Meanwhile, at a completely unrelated town at a completely unrelated mega-mart, (akin to Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club) is filled to the brim with customers shopping and browsing in every one of its 68 aisles. An announcer can be heard providing updates on the recent markdowns and profusely thanking all customers for selecting their store for all of their purchases.
The store’s concession stand is just as packed with hungry clientele looking to restore their intake with cheap carb consumption, nachos, hot dogs, giant pretzels, the works. Another determined shopper takes up the beverage stand as the line continues to build. She grabs what appears to be each available condiment on display; straws, lids, sugars, napkins. Ultimately leaving the people more and more irritated as she would make indecisive gestures going back time and time again.
Shopping musak is projected through the speakers, certain customers decide to buy a bulk pack of socks, another is selecting a new CD from Electronics, and the condiment lady makes her final selection and proceeds to graze onward. In the women’s section, a young lady holds a new blouse against herself to measure the fit and length, but second guesses the color and decides to place it back on the rack.
She becomes distracted as a faint streak of blue light begins to pulsate in mid-air to the aisle adjacent to her. This creates a seismic rippling effect throughout the whole store to that of an unfamiliar earthquake for this region. The blue streak begins to stretch itself into a large cavernous blue vortex within a blink of an eye that reveals a pair of oversized truck lights piercing through the haze. Out comes the large transfer truck barreling through the women’s inti
The innocent bystanders flee for their lives in the opposite direction of the moving truck; some unfortunate onlookers are also trampled by the truck’s weight and speed. The rubber from the skidding tires creates a deafening sound inside the store, the driver inside the cabin begins to violently swerve the truck’s trajectory in an effort to stabilize the mammoth battering ram. His cargo trailer starts to jack-knife while in store, knocking down near-by aisles full of merchandise toppling onto the unsuspecting assembly of shoppers.
Soon after, another horde of unsightly creatures would follow the trucks path. They become attracted to the sounds of the screaming crowd, they begin to lunge and grab onto the closest person or object around them. The motions of the people yelling and running in a panic are conversely just as new and exciting as the creatures themselves, carrying a skittish instinct to claw at any movement within their immediate territory. They begin their raid towards every man, woman and child, leaping into the air onto those who are out of claws’ reach.
A mother grabs a large and well sharpened gardening shears forged of heavy iron to counterattack one of the creatures that is mercilessly using her child’s face as an emery board. The sharp tool is plugged into the back of the monster, it is plunged into its body but the blade bends and curves upon impact without causing the damage the mother was hoping for. Another creature grabs the neck of the mother and tears through the flesh with fierce brutality, soon ripping through the body in a sweeping vertical motion with the other set of razor claws.
The truck continues to clear a destructive L-shaped pathway throughout the store, the weight of the payload begins to tilt at such an angle that the truck begins to roll-over. It teeters on its side, while its own acceleration continues to push forward. Ultimately making way through the far entrance and cashier’s stations, leaving a devastating trail of rubble and bodies in its wake. An aerial perspective would display the wreckage and continuing slaughter of the store’s inhabitance with remnants of human life scattered about. The creatures continue their movement outside the storefront.
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Tunnels and The Soulless
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The path of chaos will conclude in the electronics section when a large Flat Screen TV is broadcasting a live in-studio press conference with a group of world-renowned religious historians and self-proclaimed prophets. There is a faint trace of audio coming from the TV that can be heard amongst the screams of terror surrounding it. A violent jolt knocks it off the shelf, smashing on the ground, damaging it with significant scratches on the side panel.
The screen would flicker upon impact and steadily regain its picture of the preacher providing a grim testimony of things to come in the near future. He outlines the nature of these Tunnels that have become a traveling plague on our society. More importantly, how necessary it is to have these reoccurrences and that it has been foretold by generations before us.
As somewhat illustrated on the detailed pyramid-like insignia on his lapel, he explains that the Egyptian cultures were able to construct the closest representation of what we know as the Universe around us. With the cradle of life primarily focused within the Egyptian region, they were the first to establish the fundamentals of any explanation of the cycles of life and the many resolutions that come after death. Mummification was a method they used to confirm ones place into Heaven provided to a select few, thus placing a sense of hierarchy amongst society. The scores of individuals not able to make the necessary preparations shall be lost in the afterlife, or worst, eternally punished for the sins and sacrilege they have committed throughout their lives.
The preacher gestures towards his pyramid symbol that is broken into 3-segments with a stripe separating the top and bottom portions. Confirming that we currently exist within the middle plane, the physical plane, of his symbol. Those who cannot go to Heaven (at the topmost of the pyramid) are lost to spend their days in the forever Plains of Purgatory (pointing towards the 2-stripes separating Heaven & Hell).
The Tunnels are a gateway between our physical world and that of Purgatory. These creatures have neither ascended nor descended to their eternal resting place. These “Soulless” creatures are no different from you nor I. They are unfortunate inhabitants of a distant place and time, and have made their necessary adaptations to such a forsaken environment for generations’ past. In fact, the afterlife that is promised to so many may turn out to be something contrary to what most people would assume to be.
Very few of the living men and women who made it back venturing through the Tunnel. Any transcription that has made it back to our realm has been treasured far beyond any Earthly possession. Every word and illustration that has returned has been upheld as holy doctrine to study vital information for us to better understand this reoccurring phenomenon nearly five generations at a time. They grow pale and slate in color due to the absence of our nourishing and enriched sunlight. The journey leaving our realm and arriving to this desolate place must have caused some string of unspeakable deformities.
Namely, the protruding and lining of visible bone that has calcified tracing from its fingers to mid-bicep, some towering over eight feet. There have been some Soulless reported to have their bodies merged with that of feral beast such as wolf or canine. Depending on the individual, each Soulless will have an outward variation of intensity when the glowing blue hues streaming throughout their veins. Their veins become very much apparent while in the darkness, pulsing with blue illuminations that emit a source of light from their undead, oversized bodies. Others have four or more legs, even hoof-like some similar to centaurs in stature.
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Maintain Coexistence
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It has been hypothesized that our world and theirs are interconnected to regulate the human populace. She has many titles; Gaia, The Mother Earth, she cannot deal with an overabundance of the human scale. As a result, these portals allow access for our dead, these monstrosities, to return on our surface and regulate our numbers, regulate our overpopulation. Our Earthly weapons have no effect on the Soulless. Our weapons will only draw unwanted attention onto the bearer. Any exaggerated effort seems to be engulfed or fused into the body of the Soulless, causing zero harm.
There are pockets of indigenous cultures that are grimly aware of these predestined events. No calendar can calculate when and to what extent an epidemic of this scale, some actually welcome this as a traditional phase within the cycle of life. Upon the Soulless’ arrival, some societies know very well not to proceed with struggle or rebellion. Warriors’ spears must lay on the ground and the women must silence their children’s cries as fate has already decided the outcome of this apocalypse. Some tribes have described the Soulless as “Mondib Toobai” (roughly translated to “Dark Gatekeepers”) and the sight of a Tunnel would create cries of the “Chetok Toobaiya” (“The Darkest Nexus”).
The Tunnels provide an established connection between the world we currently perceive and that of this Purgatory we have very little information of its origins. There is a strong hypothesis that the location you are currently present in would be the paralleled opposite to the Limbo plane. Our land, our planets are one of the same, yet on opposite ends of the spectrum, the dark side of the moon if you will.
We have little consolation in the order of a savior or saviors to come to our aid in the time of need. Winged creatures that do resemble the Soulless and has been prophesized that they will come at our most dire of times. They too have been recorded providing assistance to those stranded within this horrid landscape; protecting those individuals by what has been reported as tracking and hunting down the Soulless as prey.
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Electrical Interference
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Just as the Clergymen were preparing their conclusions to the interview, another series of blue light began to pulse throughout th
This, of course, causes the network’s producers to promptly display the “Experiencing Technical Difficulties” graphic on the screen for their distracted viewers. The remaining elders walk towards the gaping tears in reality and begin to make a stance accompanied by a number of ancient gestures. What has been used traditionally among sacred Catholic practitioners from ancient times and currently used today as “The Sign of the Cross”. Moreover, this gesture we know is only the first half of the act. Once a Tunnel is generated, these select holy individuals, men, women and children can easily complete this task:
Placing both hands near the chest, right hand gestures the cross, as the right hand is nearly complete, that arm continues to fully extend and soon the left arm to follow to outstretch to full wing-span. Both hands come back nearly together in steeple formation and do not touch, generating a bolt of mystical energies between their hands. Their hands set aglow with a ball of spiritual light swirling about them. They raise their arms over head, “karate chop” the Tunnel, “slicing” it with their hands all the way downward and splicing it in two. As they raise their arms mid-ways and open their arms fully outstretched, the Tunnel field itself begins to mimicking the gesture and separate itself divided in two even halves. The Holy one would yell an ancient phrase “Be Gone Away From Thee” in Latin, and clap their hands in order to collapse the Tunnel from that location forever to finalize this “Holy Banishing”.