This time was different. Daniel descended first, cautiously, flashlight clenched between his teeth as his boots touched the dirt floor below. Megan followed, stepping down each rung until she reached the bottom beside him. They turned slowly, illuminating the room around them.
Their beams landed on a large metal door at the far end of the underground space, rust-eaten, bulging slightly at its center, and wrapped in the same black, vein-like growths that had infested the wall above. Megan whispered the only thing either of them could manage: “Dan… that door looks like it’s trying to hold something in.”