Formless Apocalypse

(Authors note: Thanks for checking out my story! This is a slow burn horror erotica story. No sex in this chapter, but stick around, things are gonna get weird!)

I didn't know where I was. I didn't know who I was. My first memory came when I found myself hitting the cold, metal floor. I hit it with a wet slap, my naked body, covered in some odd sticky liquid.

It's hard to define everything, as my body convulsed, the sudden rush of, well, everything. My mind and body overwhelmed in the sudden rush of sensations that wracked my very being. I saw colors, bright flashing lights, all blurred and without definition. I heard the whir and whine of machines around me, the buzz of fluorescent lights. I felt the cold discomfort of the floor, being repeatedly pulled from it as the gunk on my body glued me to the tiles every time they connected in my spasms.

I tasted metal and sweetness, followed soon by the coppery tang of blood and the sour bite as I vomited some large volume of lime green gunk. I smelled the foul mixture of odors around me which only made my situation worse, as I could do nothing, my body refusing to respond. I took all of this in at once. Have you ever woken up in a fever, not being able to think? It was sort of like that.

Eventually, my body fell under my control, and I was exhausted. My body had fired all it's neurons, every nerve sending signals at once. My muscles had pulled and contracted all at the same time, and I was left a gasping, beaten mess. To think I had only been there a few seconds, ten at most. The first ten seconds of my life, and I was ready to go back into whatever I was in before.

Slowly I turned my head, which was not an easy task thanks to the sticky, gunk that clung to what I could see now as pale, soft skin. I looked over my shoulder, to see some glass tube, a huge one at that, open and spilling more of the lime green liquid onto my naked body. I must have come out of that, I told myself, before promptly passing out.

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I came to, some time later, I wasn't really sure how long I lay there in the filth, but it was far long enough. With supreme effort, I managed to push myself to my feet, looking down at myself, as I stood on shaky legs. I was a pale man, that I could tell from the package between my legs. Granted I needed to double check, with the room I was in being so cold that I shrunk several sizes. no doubt. I was also totally hairless, making me look like a newborn in many ways.

As I glanced back at the large glass cylinder I had fallen out of, and wondered how much truth there was to that thought. Now that I was standing, I could take a better look at my surroundings. The tube was affixed to metal devices set in both the roof and floor, holding the tube several feet of the ground. Some holes had opened in the bottom of the tube, but I hadn't any idea what they were for.

I glanced about, seeing several other similar tubes, on both sides of the room, though, they were all empty, and decidedly cleaner than the one I was in. Just what the hell was this place? I spotted a desk behind a pane of glass that ran along one side of the room, and a door in the wall beside it. Everything was made of this clean looking metal, and the same metal at that.

Slowly I stepped over to the door, and idly wondered how I knew what a desk or a door was. I knew I had never seen these things before, yet, somehow I knew what they were and how they were supposed to work. I knew that the thing on the desk was a computer, and the thing behind it was a chair. I knew I was in a room, that this room was some sort of lab, but not how I knew that. I didn't know who I was, not my name, nor how I got here, but I knew that if I approached the door it would open.

The door slid open, noiselessly. Sliding into the wall and out of sight. Revealing a small chamber after. Lights were recessed into one wall, the other wall was a glass pane, separating me from the desk room, and the floor was padded with rubber bits that stuck up from the metal. I hesitated for a few seconds, as now my understanding faltered. I knew of these things, but not the combination. Something in my empty mind told me there was something else here, but I could not discern what.

Eventually I stepped into the room, the door sliding closed behind me, this time it made a noise, a hissing sound filled the small space and a voice swiftly followed. It was tinny, and hard to hear, but it clearly said, "Beginning decontamination sequence." Then the room was filled with a murky fog, my body assaulted by stinging pellets. I raised my hand to shield my face, but the stinging would not be denied. The hot, stinging eventually began to subside, and I was left dripping what I hoped was water. Standing there wet, cold, but thankfully less sticky, I could only wait as the room suddenly filled with sweltering air that crashed into my groin and forced me to perform a less than manly noise.

Once my treatment was done, I was allowed to leave, the door on the other side opening to let me progress into a new room. This one was full long, running to my left and right a great distance, before finally turning. The wall before me was lined with suits, some were bulky and yellow, with lots of odd attachments. The rest were blue single piece outfits, plain and unadorned. I glanced down at my only friend, who was looking much better now that I was warmed up, before I reached forward and grabbed one of the blue suits.

It took me a moment to figure out where the zipper was, wasn't sure how I knew what that was, and got into the coveralls. They were a bit big on me, so I rolled up the sleeves, and started seeing if there were some shoes or something. After a moment, I managed to find some in a drawer in the wall I had missed on my first pass. There were a number of brown work boots, and bright orange rubber boots. No socks, though, so I went with the leather, hoping it would chafe less. Not sure how I knew that.

As I pulled on my shoes, I thought to myself. Once again I questioned where I was, where everyone else was, how I knew these strange things, who I was. Most of all, I wondered why I was so calm about all this. My instincts told me that I should be terrified, that I should be in a complete panic. I didn't feel that impulse however, like another, bigger part of me was telling my instincts to calm the fuck down.

My new boots now on, I stood, looking down the hallway. I wasn't in the middle, one end was closer by far. All along the hall, there were more doors, each identical save for a neon yellow number that painted on the front. The one where I just came from was marked with a D-12, but I didn't know what that meant, so I decided to not worry about it. Instead, I looked to the next nearest door. D-11. I decided to head in that direction, hoping that it would take me to where this place began.

The trip was longer than I was expecting. When I hit door D-7, the hallway took a left turn, and the spacing between the doors got dramatically increased. Sometimes taking minutes in between, I think. I knew it was a long time, the space between D-5 and D-4 was almost five times as much. Which gave me plenty of time to think. It seemed that my understanding, or perhaps, my perception of time was an area I had a gap in my mind. I had a firm understanding of math, at least. Enough to understand multiplication, and that things started at one, at any rate. I paused, a thought coming to me, and looked at a sign on the wall. I had seen a few of them, but hadn't actually paused to look at one properly.

'In the event of containment failure, please alert security personnel, and evacuate to the nearest safezone. All exits will be sealed with Rank 1 permissions required to override.' Then there were a bunch of symbols listed.

Didn't understand the symbols, but I could read. Something that for some reason hadn't occurred to me to do with the other signs I had passed. Perhaps it was due to my currently overtaxed brain trying to put things in order? No idea, but I decided to read the rest of the signs further down the hall. The next door was coming up, and putting it off any longer wouldn't get me anywhere. Besides, the next sign was likely to be an interesting one.

Up until this point, all the doors had been on the right hand side, but D-3 was on the left, it also had a large sign beside it, which the other doors didn't have, they had smaller ones at around eye level. This one was bright orange, and filled a large section of the wall.

'Warning! Informis test chamber D! Authorized personnel only! Informis resistant hazard suits are required beyond this point! Failure to uphold safety procedures will be met with immediate termination!'

Again, I was baffled by my ability to read, though, I had to be honest with myself in that I did not understand most of the meaning behind the words. That it was a warning, and I should not go in was clear. I got that from the big WARNING writing it, and that I was likely not wearing any sort of resistant suit. Maybe those yellow suits in the back? As I pondered that, I noticed that on the other side of the door was a window. My powers of observation were lacking, probably best I try to improve that.

I stepped to the window, peering into the interior. The inside was a partially lit... place, and that was all I was sure of. I could see a number of tables, odd shaped machines, and a lot of broken stuff. I could see shattered glass, tools, paper, discarded clothes, and a few other things. It was hard to get a clear picture of the situation inside due to the majority of the lights being out inside, and the sheer size of the room. The inside was massive, it must have taken up the entire interior of the floor, and I could only see a small part of it.

As I looked around, I noticed that the window I was looking in had a crack at the bottom corner, which didn't reach all the way to my side. Yup, not going in there. Not that I could, I wasn't sure how these doors worked. The information in my brain said that a door was supposed to open with a handle or something. I didn't see anything like that, and the doors in the hall didn't open when I approached like the one near where I woke up.

I pondered my situation again, being shaken from my reverie when something moved out of the corner of my eye. I looked back into the dark inner room, and strained my eyes to peer into the shadows. The room was full of dark shapes that overlapped and obscured everything within. Though, I couldn't see what had caught my attention for a moment. I spotted it then, something moving between two larger shapes, which managed to get an actual pang of fear to shoot through me. It was massive, larger than me by many times.

Chills ran down my spine, and I stepped back. My calm demeanor had finally been cracked, I hated it. That thing that had been keeping my nerves in check faltered, staggering for a moment like I was hit by an actual blow, all the things I knew I should have been feeling. That thing in there. I hated it, with all that I was. Fear and loathing washed over me and forced a cold sweat to coat my bald head. Sheer panic overwhelmed me, and I dropped to my knees, heart pounding against my ribs so hard my body shook. I scrambled under the window, trying to hide. Covering my mouth before I could scream in rage and terror. What was wrong with me?

I remained like that for a while, trying to get myself to the state of calm I was in before. What the fuck was that? What was that almost animalistic fear that suddenly hit me? The thing that was lurking there in the dark terrified me. Spending no more time looking into the window, afraid whatever that thing was would come look. I crawled away from the window, staying close to the wall, until I had passed the D-2 door. Only then, did I stand, and take a few deep breaths.

I didn't know what that thing was, it might have even been a trick of the shadows, or my mind playing a trick on me. Maybe someone else was playing a trick on the empty headed man who just woke up. Something told me that wasn't the case, that thing in there was real, and wanted nothing better than to hurt me in unimaginable ways. I could live without that, so I hurried down the hall, walking faster than before.

I didn't slow until I passed D-1 and reached the last door in the hall. I expected it to be labeled D-0 or something like that, but instead it was a plain silver door with a pair of arrow buttons on the side. An elevator, my brain helpfully provided. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go up or down, so I pressed both, and waited for something to happen. I heard things moving on the other side, the same whirring of machines I had heard back in the tube room.

So fixed was I on the sounds, that when the door finally opened, I jumped a little. The inside of the elevator was a sight. The walls were scratched and torn in places, a few holes sported wires from the damaged electronics inside. The floor, which had once been a wooden paneled affair, was now a mess of stains. Some black substance marred most of it, though it had long since stained and hardened. Some of the wood even looked to be rotting in places, and I opted not to step on that part as I moved into the lift.

On the inside I found a panel with a large number of buttons. I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't it. The top was a 5 then it counted down to 1, but then after that was 'A' and went to 'E' from there. Beside the buttons was a rough black surface with three lines on it of increasing size. No clue what that meant, so I pressed 1, since it was in the middle, and I'd like to be anywhere else but on this floor. Nothing happened, the doors didn't even close. I pressed a few more buttons, to the same effect.

"Ah, you're actually here?" A woman's voice asked me from the panel in front of me. I took a step back, surprised. "Well, that's interesting," She continued, "I had written you off for dead when the main power failed on sublevel-D. If you're here, then that changes things." She spoke in a way that made me feel like she wasn't looking at whatever she was using to talk to me. I opened my mouth to speak, but she talked over me. "We should meet, probably best I don't let you get killed after you cheated death for me. Sadly, I can only do so much. I'm on Sub-level A, but you'll need to reach me on your own.

The elevator is not reliable, and I had been cutting power to it to preserve other systems." I heard something clank on her end of the conversation. "I only turned it on when you sent a signal for it, I'll need to turn it off again soon, so time is short. I can get you to sublevel-B, the shaft is damaged, so it won't be able to take you higher than that. There's a maintenance room on the level which will get you up to the next floor. Make your way to me from there, and try to stay alive. There aren't many on that level, but they'll try to swarm you. Avoid being seen if you can."

I choked out a reply. It was the first time I had heard my own voice. It was hoarse, and it hurt to push words out. My voice wasn't particularly deep, nor was it high in pitch. It seemed neutral, somehow. The woman on the other side didn't say anything else. The doors to the elevator slid shut and let me be alone with my thoughts again, and the new nauseous feeling that filled my stomach as the elevator moved.

I had more questions now, but it seems like there was someone who could answer them. I tried to remain positive about the situation, but that new outlook was harder to hold onto than I would have preferred. As the door opened on a similar, but much darker floor. Many of the lights in the hall were out, and the area was in a much greater state of disrepair. One of the lights hung from the ceiling by its wires, blasting the wall with a pool of light, and a number of the panels on the ceiling around it had fallen to the ground. The walls were full of marks too. Holes, gouges, scars, and other damage I could not identify.

The floor was also stained, much like the elevator, with occasional patchers of some dark material, which had this odd odor that filled the hall. It wasn't necessarily bad, as I didn't recoil from the scent, but I wasn't sure I would call it good, either. The whole thing told a story of struggle, I just didn't know the sides, or who won.

I started slowly making my way down the hall, approaching door B-1, when I realized that I had no idea what I was looking for, nor what it was I had to avoid. That woman could have taken a moment to give me the answers I needed to survive. I suppose I had to just be cautious, and proceeded to do so by stopping to take note of my surroundings. Beside B-1 was a small sigh, Administration B. The door was open, unlike the ones below, something had forced the door open. It was crooked, with the bottom being far more ajar than the top. I could get in if I crawled, but that might be a bad choice.

I couldn't see much inside as I peered around the frame, the inside did not have the same lighting as the hall. What little light managed to get in only illuminated a few scattered papers on the metal floor. A few of the pages were stained with that same dark substance, which really made my choice to not go into the room easier. Though, I still wasn't sure what I was supposed to be sneaking past.

I took a few moments, listening and straining my eyes trying to see if I could see anything. Once I was confident that nothing was going to come charging out of the shadows to end my brief stint of life, I moved past it and headed on down the hall. It was much the same scene as outside the elevator. Whatever battle had taken place on this floor had covered most of what I could see. Which, to be fair, was only one of three hallways, but the assumption was probably correct.

B-2 was locked, in essence. The door was open, but the opening was filled with a pile of that dark matter, which covered most of the open doorway. Arms length of space was open across the top, but I wasn't nearly tall enough to see inside.The sign beside it labeled it as, 'Sample Storage B'. I could hear something inside, some sort of scratching sound. Whatever was in there was going to stay in there. I pressed on, not wishing to draw the occupants attention, and test the durability of the black-ish substance.

I walked on, thinking I knew what would come next, and much to my dismay, I was right. B-3 was much like D-3 had been, the only door on the inner wall. At least, what I assumed was the inner all. This one too had a large sign, warning people of the dangers and to wear proper protective gear. Pressing myself to the wall, I sidled up to the window, peering into the room, and saw nothing. The entire interior of the window was coated in more dark gunk.

I was simultaneously grateful, and annoyed. The window being blocked certainly made it easier to sneak by, but I still had no idea what it was I should be avoiding. The fact these things didn't seem to be particularly open to showing themselves off, was only causing my anxiety about the whole to steadily rise. Despite the stronger instincts telling me to remain calm, there was clearly a limit. As I learned on the floor below, I wasn't immune to the influences of fear, be it a sudden burst or the slow shaking of my nerves. The knowledge that something was on this floor, just out of sight, I didn't like it.

I moved closer to the door, I could see it was open, unfortunately for me. Inching as close as I was willing to, I glanced around the corner. The inside was a bit better lit than the floor down below so it was a bit easier to peer inside. Then I had to peer again just to make sure I was seeing this right. The floor was just as massive as the one on D, but covered in a layer of that black-ish, whatever, that part I had expected, the part I hadn't expected was the number of large, circular mounds made of the same substance all contained behind glass walls. At least, what had been glass walls, most of them were now destroyed from what I saw.