“What the hell, Matilda!?” Jeremy shouted into his comms as he pushed a rack full of heavy guns and boxes in front of the reinforced door. A ping sounded out as the metal bolts holding the door in place rattled, another slam contacting the slab of metal from the beast trying to get to its prey.

 

“What?” The AI sounded perplexed as the ranger shouted, almost caught off guard by the lashing.

 

“You know what. I told you to watch my back and I nearly got eaten!” He yelled again as he grabbed a few more ammo boxes from the other side of the room and dropped them at the door. “Are you really that petty!?” He shouted over the door’s continuing beatings

 

“I told you I didn’t see anything!” She shot back, sounding rather distraught. It would be the first time he’s ever heard her with anything that wasn’t her normal, collected self or the occasional shock or rage. “Please stop yelling at me, I don’t handle yelling very well!”

 

He looked around the room - a claustrophobic alcove only big enough to give 5 men and a short teen room to breath, bland concrete walls broken up by shelves of weapons, equipment, clothes, boots, rations, and a single chair. There were only three exits out of the room: the one he had just came through, now guarded by a beast that yearned for his gory demise. The other two was a similar door in the opposite corner with a console to its side, and a ladder leading up to an observation room.  

 

To Jeremy, the choice was obvious: delve deeper into the mountain base and put as much of a buffer between him and the ravenous thing outside.

 

There was one window in a narrow slit looking out into the valley. It let in precious little sunlight, as a shutter waited over to match the stone kept it unseen from others. The window it was armored and reinforced, which made it an unlikely entry point. Still, he gave it a wide berth and watched it with suspicion as he moved over to one of the weapon racks. He pulled a shotgun from it and a box of shells as he heard the lupine outside continue to scratch at the wall, slipping the ammunition into it with a satisfying click.

 

“Well, you sure enjoy making people do it to you!” He shot back as pulled the pump on the shotgun and heard mechanical love as buckshot was loaded into the awaiting chamber. It was a brief feeling of serenity before he was reminded of his situation by the rhythmic attack from outside. He pointed the twelve gauge towards the door, time wasted away as he waited for either the barrier or the Mystic to fail.

 

Each wild slam he felt through his nerves, a pang of fear shot through his spine and clutched his heart like a vice. But as the impacts seem to lessen and lessen so did the jitters. Eventually it stopped, replaced with… desperate scratching at the metal door and whining? Jeremy was bewildered, his jaw slowly made its way closer to the floor. Was it begging to come in like a needy house dog?

 

“I did save your life, mister,” Matilida pointed out, and he grit his teeth as she prodded the issue at the worst time. When the Mystic was pulling itself from whatever abyss they spawn in, he was staring like a dazed child at the monster that was trying to rip out his throat. And the electronic gardener was the one that slapped him to his senses. Although that was true, he wouldn’t say that to her face given the choice. He’d rather chew his own arm off than admit it. Certainly not now, while he was still dealing with the Mystic in question and it’s murderous path.

 

“That’s your job! If it weren’t, we would have had you decommissioned years ago.” Jeremy’s anger was boiling over, the pressure on his teeth pulling his skin tight around his neck. The AI had already chipped away at his patience.  He was sore from pushing his body so hard in a span of a few minutes, his favorite gun was left outside with the Mystic, and after he had seen the abomination seemingly appear from out of nowhere, he wasn’t even sure the bunker was secure.

 

“Oh, you wouldn’t do that,” Matilda brushed him off. Confidence oozed from her, she thought she had Jeremy on the ropes. He wasn’t in a position to disagree with that.“The council doesn’t just hand out AI, and I’m not the only one they gave out. You all need me.”

 

Whatever retort Jeremy had was silenced when the vicious attack from the Mystic renewed, this time the lupine beast slammed it’s skull into the shutters around the armored window slit, causing the hunter to feel his heart almost bust from his chest. He thought the window was concealed, but it seemed the beast saw through the camouflage and it tore away the steel plates like scraps of paper.

 

Natural light shone in, framing the head of the Mystic as it snapped at the glass. The material gave way to the furious attack, and Jeremy realized it was getting through.

 

He recoiled back as the monster scraped its teeth across the glass plane, it's hot breath leaving a film of spittle and condensation on the window with each attempt to bite dug out gashes into the material. The sound was unbearable - the ranger felt his entire body shrink away as a high pitch whine send pain across his body as the window creaked. It sounded like a knife piercing flesh as its twisted its way through a screaming victim.

 

Terror gripped the ranger. As it wormed through the defensive barrier, it’s wisp like body filtered through the small cracks that formed with each new push, in moments it would be in the room. He bolted to the door, nearly stumbled as his fear reached a peak, and reached for the door to find it locked.