Dungeon Raider System

The reinforced alloy bunker hatch creaked under the pressure of a heavenly rank hunter twisting its mechanism hinting that it had been a long while since the last time it was opened. The rest of the group exchanged an awkward gaze with each other before readying their weapons right before the hatch was pulled open by Atkinson expecting a myriad of cryptids to crawl out.

What happened instead was a burst of stale air coming out of the building as though it exhaled a breath it had been holding for weeks hitting the soldiers on the face. To those raised within city walls it reminded them of home, but Atkinson who was just old enough to hate that staleness knew better than to be relieved.

Despite being the leader or rather, precisely because he was the leader, he was the first one to enter the building in a form of bravery rarely displayed by those in the army or anyone for that matter.

"Clear." He announced prompting his men to climb down the stairs after him.

The lights were on and the air conditioner worked properly. Piles of both military rations and synthetic food were neatly stacked in the kitchen shelves and there were sheets of paper orderly placed on top of the desks at the office. Nothing was out of place and it was precisely that what troubled them most and added to the uncanny sense of foreboding they were experiencing.

Had they found the hatch broken or signs of raiding, they could have easily identified the culprit as rogue hunters or cryptids. But rogue hunters would never leave behind the valuable food and cryptids should have messed with the electronics.

It was precisely the fact that there was nothing out of the ordinary what got into their nerves as each and every one of the squad members did the math, arriving all at the same conclusion 'If there is nothing wrong, then why did they fail to communicate for over a month?'.

Atkinson ordered Lieutenant Brown, the only female member of his squad, to kick open the doors one by one so Evans could scan the rooms one by one using his trait.

"No signs of living creatures in this floor, Captain." He confirmed after using his life sense, a trait particularly helpful in his field.

Atkinson was unsure whether he felt relieved or troubled by the statement. With over a month passing since the last communication they had with the Marais D'Opale outpost the time for rescue was over. His mission was to secure the location and get it ready for the next team of researchers.

"According to the blueprints, the comm array is located downstairs." Gordon, the team engineer informed.

"Why would they place such sensitive equipment underground?" Brown asked, as a combatant she had an albeit limited knowledge in the basics of all fields, but it was enough for her to know that comm arrays were meant to be at the top of buildings.

"Because it's outer antenna is submerged below the surface of the sea, that's the whole point of this outpost." Gordon let out an annoyed sigh. He could not understand why would they send only one engineer to a mission that would obviously require a lot of work, but more importantly, he was annoyed that the engineer they chose to take the entire workload had to be him.

Brown was the first to go downstairs and she moved swiftly across the narrow corridors of the bunker's basement kicking the doors one by one giving Evans barely enough time to activate his life sensing trait before moving on to the next one.

There was one thing she wanted above all else and that was to be able to get settled in a bunk bed and lay back until the mission was finished. A combatant being sent to a mission that didn't involve any fighting was a godsent and she couldn't let that opportunity pass.

Unfortunately, right as she kicked open the door to the comms room she noticed the foul stench of death coming off and with a swift movement she prevented Evans from entering the room. Protecting the medics was the top priority for any soldier as their own survival usually depended on that of their medic.

"Captain, we have a situation down here." She shouted without lowering her coil pistol, but also without moving towards the room.

Atkinson didn't just send his men, he was the first one to show up and confirm with his own two eyes that the people inside were dead. But that wasn't the reason why Brown prevented Evans from entering, it was the ominous writing on the walls.

Written with differently colored markers the sentence 'don't leave' was repeated over and over, overlapping on top of each other.

"What is the meaning of this?" Brown asked in the most professional tones she could muster under the circumstances.

"Evans, take a look of this and tell me what you think." Atkinson commanded Evans to enter the room and he promptly activated his trait.

"Dead, they're dead." He announced in an unamused voice.

"I know that, you airhead. How did it happen and what are those scribbles?" Atkinson glared at the doctor, who only then just realized it wasn't his trait what they sought but his professional expertise.

"Well," Evans made a short pause after inspecting the bodies. "it seems the cause of death is dehydration and judging by the hypergraphy on the walls I would say they were out of their minds.

The cause is unknown, but it should be safe now."

With this information Atkinson called for Gordon and ordered him to start fixing the communication array, which Gordon did letting out annoyed grumbles like usual. His displeased attitude was understandable as the task in front of him was bound to be heavy, but at least now they knew the bunker was safe.

With nothing left to do, Lieutenant Brown was finally free to take a long overdue hot shower. It may have not seemed like much, but hot showers were widely considered a luxury and the army was against spending money into anything other that the basics.

She took off her clothes revealing the shapely body sculpted by her discipline and her years in the army, along with her trait and after throwing them away into the first locker she found she walked barefoot to the showers.

The pipes rattled after she twisted the knob as though someone hit the pipes with a hammer at a distance, then she placed her hand under the shower waiting for the water to hit the perfect temperature and within two minutes it went from unforgiving cold to comfy warm and eventually to what some people would describe as hellfire hot.

"Perfect...," She muttered to herself as she walked under the searing water finding it to her taste. A cloud of steam was slowly lifted turning down the visibility, not that Brown minded it. She took her time with the soap, but right after applying shampoo at the most inconvenient of times a nearby sound snapped her out of her joy. "who's there?" She asked receiving no reply whatsoever. She walked out of the shower covered in foam that dripped down her naked body and caught a glimpse of something in the foggy mirror. "I look damn good." She chuckled.

"You do." Evans said playfully slapping her butt. Thanks to his trait, he was able to see Brown as clear as day despite the steam.

"Dammit Evans, how many times do I need to tell you to quit sneaking like that on me? I could kill you one of these days, you know?" She said after composing herself from the scare.

"You always say that, but your scared expression is just too funny," Evans laughed her not so veiled threat off and walked into the shower. "I never understood why do you like water this hot." Evans said the moment he felt the searing rain in his chest.

"It's so guys can't blame cold water for their junk." She joked as she nudged herself back into her spot by pushing Evans to the side eventually forcing him to turn on a shower for himself, though contrary to Brown he didn't mind the cold water.

Showering together was the daily bread for soldiers and they did not mind nudity, especially Brown since she always considered herself to be one of the boys. That said, Evans creeping in on her was always unnerving and being alone with him in a room, let alone naked, was awkward to say the least.

She rushed in to finish her shower and hurried to her bunk bed where she would lie the rest of the evening just as she planned from the start. She had nothing to do or anything to worry about now that the bunker was deemed safe by the specialist and she allowed herself to take what she thought would be a quick snooze not knowing that Evans would never return from the shower.