Task Force 141

The stench of rot and decay was heavy in the air, mixing with an even more pungent scent of bleach, growing stronger as the group of four men made their way through the pristine hallways of the lab.

Their reports had claimed there to be human trafficking and experimentation going on in a hidden underground Russian lab located somewhere in the Ural Mountains. Each file passed around the briefing table seemed to get thicker than the last. The biggest one was the reports on the people that had been taken in there, more than half marked as deceased.

Their mission was to scope out the place, gather intel, find any survivors, and, most importantly, kill any hostiles on sight.

It hadn't taken them long to locate the lab, Laswell pinpointed it easily after some simple hacking of the trail cameras surrounding the compound. The soldiers and scientists coming in and out of the place were minimal, they had counted at least ten in the entire building at a time.

The two guards standing out front were taken down quietly, their bodies shoved into some bushes off to the side so as not to alert anyone else should they decide to step outside.

Since entering the place, they haven't run into another soul.

"Fuckin' creepy as hell..." Soap mutters under his breath, his words echoing off the walls, only making the man shudder with an exaggerated expression of disgust. "Thought there was supposed to be more o' these fuckers?"

"Shut it, MacTavish." Ghost growled in response, the lieutenant glancing back over his shoulder to shoot the Scot a glare. They haven't cleared the place yet, so there very well might be more hostiles lingering around. The place is large and empty. Things echo, and echoes mean getting found out.

"What? Ah'm just saying, it's spooky in here." Soap grumbles.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," Gaz huffs, exasperated. "Better than being shot at."

Ghost looked about two seconds from taking his knife and shutting both sargents up. All their yapping is doing is potentially drawing unwanted attention. They don't know what the Russians have been making in here, and they sure as hell don't want to find out, not unless it's on their own terms.

"Quiet." Price's voice cut through, low and gruff as he held up a closed fist. Both sargents clasped their mouths shut, pausing mid-step behind the captain. It was quiet, the silence on its own was almost deafening. Price's head was tilted to the side, his eyes focused on the floor beneath his feet, straining his ears to listen. He'd heard something, just barely, the quietest sound of chains rattling.

Just as Soap's about to open his mouth to question the man, the sound echoes down the hall once again.

It was quiet enough to be missed if one wasn't paying attention, like someone was shifting around and dragging something along with it, or iron scraping against concrete.

Price glanced over at Ghost, a silent conversation passing between the two before the ladder nods his head, jerking it in the direction the noise was coming from. "North wing." He grunts, already moving forward, his boots near silent on the stark white floors.

Price followed close, weapon raised as he fell into step by Ghost's side, Gaz and Soap following suit and raising their own weapons as they approached a concerningly heavily reinforced door. The reinforcement wasn't the most concerning part of it, no, it's the multiple warning signs plastered on the surface of the door. Some warned not to open the door, others simply said, 'Beware: Crossing further may result in death.'

"Huh, that's mighty reassuring," Soap commented, voice dripping with sarcasm as he straightened from his half crouch.

He goes ignored.

"Gaz, keycard." Price steps forward, grasping the handle, nodding towards the panel sitting on the wall off to the side. Gaz slipped the keycard he'd nabbed off of one of the guards from his pocket, moving quickly over to the panel. He waited for confirmation before sliding it through the slot, the mechanism beeping in approval, shortly followed by the hiss of air releasing as the door creaked open under the captain's hand.

The stench from earlier reached its peak, assaulting the four men's senses as Price shoves the door open the rest of the way.

"Steaming jesus-"

The room before them is far different from any other one they've seen so far. Gone are the hospital white walls, the faint scent of bleach, the sophisticated trimmings lining each wall. Instead, it's dark, the walls are lined with multiple different-sized cages, gore and viscera painting the walls and floors, and a single red light flickering off on the back wall.

Ghost raises his weapon, shining his flashlight along the cages before lowering it once more. "Clear." It's no surprise that he's the first one to step inside.

Price follows him in, his gaze sweeping over the cages with a grim expression. "Christ." Some of them were fresh, too fresh, the blood still wet and glistening under the flickering light. Whoever else was just here is more than likely gone, caught onto them as soon as they took out the first guy.

Ghost doesn't waste any time in looking around, stepping over something that looks to be the remains of some type of animal, beelining it towards the closed laptop sat atop the one clean table in the room.

"What in the bloody hell were they doing in here?" Gaz spoke under his breath, tearing his gaze away from the gore to look around for anything they could use to find the bastards that were a part of this. Soap, of course, was walking off to the back of the room, his eyes flicking from cage to cage, flashlight shining inside of each one to double check the bodies lying inside.

"Nothing good." Ghost supplies dryly, the laptop screen casting shadows over his face as he plugs in a USB.

The noise from earlier shatters the tense atmosphere, only this time, it's closer.

"Shite...." Soap sounds winded, his eyes widening as the light from his weapon shines into one of the larger cages. "Think ah ken what they were doing..."

The team turns their attention to the Scot, each one pausing at the sight that greets them. The cage wasn't empty, but it wasn't occupied by a failed experiment. Something stares back at them. Something that's decidedly not human.