Renascentia - Climb Out of The Dark 3D Render, Digital Artwork by RedSpartan

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Renascentia - Climb Out of The Dark

3D Render by RedSpartan

She rounded a bend in the tunnel, finding more debris ahead. It was darker now, overhead lights flickering, the mist swirling in gentle eddies just above the water line. There were no more cracks in the ceiling, and the outside vegetation had gone. She got the sense that the tunnels may have gone below ground and a mild sense of claustrophobia gripped her. As she walked the illumination began to take on a more reddish tint, the shadows began to encroach, the atmosphere was more foreboding. The odd doorway appeared on either side of her, shuttered and locked. Faded signs indicated that the rooms beyond may have been laboratories, the occasional storage space. No indication that anyone had lived in this section of the facility. She didn’t bother with them. Food and clothing were her main priority.

There came a sudden noise somewhere ahead of her and she stopped, steadying her breathing. It had sounded like a gargling, slurping noise, like something wet had been dragged along the walls, something large and heavy. She peered into the dark, waiting, uneasy. Just ahead of her a shaft of light pierced the black from above and as she approached she realised a wall ladder rose up through a hatchway in the ceiling. Another hatch lay beneath the water, the ladder going down into the lower flooded depths. Next to it were the damaged and open doors to what appeared to be an elevator, but it was clear this car was going nowhere. She peered up into the light and saw a grill some three metres up, hinged on the one side.

The sound came again, closer now and accompanied by splashing sounds. Something was moving in her direction and her unease mounted to something akin to terror. She knew at her core that she didn’t want to meet whatever it was that was coming towards her out of the darkness. She gripped the rung of the ladder and swung her foot across the hatch in the floor and began to climb. The metal was smooth and her wet hands and feet made it more treacherous than she might have wished for, but a sudden sense of panicked urgency drove her upward. She reached the grill and pushed, aware that the sounds below had gotten louder and more rapid, as if whatever was approaching had quickened its pace. Suddenly there was a roar the like of which she had never heard before, a guttural scream so primal in its nature it froze the very marrow in the bones. Her foot slipped suddenly and she dropped half a metre before reaffirming her grip on the rung above. She found her footing and pushed upwards with all the strength she could muster, ramming her shoulder into the grill and finding that it thankfully swung upwards with relative ease.

As she continued to climb through and up the scream came again, this time directly below her and accompanied by an incredibly pungent smell of what she could only describe as rotting meat, a smell so bad it immediately turned her empty stomach and made her retch. She crawled her way through another hatchway and turned out onto the floor of another corridor, brightly lit and dry. She lay there, panting heavily, desperately trying not to vomit what little lined her stomach, retching quickly turning into a harsh dry cough. Her throat was sore and ragged, desperate for water. She turned over and pushed herself to her knees. She looked cautiously back down the hole through which she had climbed but there was no sign of whatever monstrosity had made the noise. All was silent and still, the awful smell lingering in the air but fading. The thing had thankfully moved on. She could only hope that it didn’t know of another route up to this level, or that something just as frightening didn’t haunt these corridors as well. She looked up and her heart sank.

All over the opposite wall, dried and caked with age, but unmistakable nonetheless, was blood.

Lots and lots of blood…

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Things taking a scary turn now. You've probably noticed that Stonemason's incredible creations are used quite extensively in these pictures. I use them in a kitbash fashion, taking bits from various sets and combining them in new ways. Sadly that's not easy to do in Daz, which is one of the reasons I use Cinema4D a lot (that, and it's much quicker render engine). Some of the wall panels in this one come from a sci-fi set I got from CG Trader - wasn't too expensive and they're really good.

Thanks as ever for looking.