Beyond Beast Rank

The Abandoned District

A cold chill ran down my neck as I stared at the metal door of Warehouse Seventeen.

The building looked dead from the outside. Its roof sagged in the middle, and broken glass littered the muddy ground around the rusty foundation walls. No signs of life appeared anywhere near the main entrance. But as I stepped closer over the wet gravel, my eyes caught a detail that did not belong on an abandoned structure.

Fresh tyre tracks cut deep into the mud right in front of the loading bay. The dirt was damp and turned over recently, showing that a heavy vehicle had parked there only hours ago. Oil spots dripped onto the wet stones, still shimmering under the faint moon light.

I pulled out my phone and tapped the delivery application to check the instructions again.

The screen showed the address and the payment amount, but the recipient contact button was greyed out. I tapped it three times, but a red notification popped up saying the user number was no longer active. A cold knot formed in my stomach. I had travelled all the way across the city into a dead end zone, and the person paying for the package was not answering messages.

I stood near the edge of the shadow, weighing my choices. I could turn around right now, ride back to my motorcycle, and forget about the five hundred credits. Lily needed the money, but walking blindly into an empty industrial sector felt like a trap waiting to snap shut.

Yet, walking away empty handed meant returning to our cold apartment without her lung medicine. It meant watching her cough until her ribs hurt, knowing I had the chance to earn our rent and failed because I got scared of an old building.

Then I heard a sound from inside the warehouse.

It was not the clank of old machinery or the whistle of wind through broken pipes. It sounded like a heavy chain dragging across a concrete floor, followed by a low, muffled thud that made the corrugated metal walls vibrate slightly.

I froze in my tracks, holding my breath. My hands tightened around the straps of my delivery bag.

A security camera mounted above the side door shifted with a slow mechanical hum. The black glass lens pointed directly down the alleyway where I stood, tracking my movement with silent precision. The camera was active. Someone inside was watching the perimeter.

Panic whispered in the back of my mind, telling me to run before whoever was inside noticed me standing in the open.

I took a slow step backward into the shadows of a rusted shipping container, keeping my eyes fixed on the security camera. If the camera was active, the guards inside already knew I was outside. Leaving without completing the order meant forfeiting the five hundred credits. Without those credits, Lily would lose her medicine, and our apartment door would be locked by tomorrow afternoon. The thought of her gasping for air on the cold street made my knees stop shaking.

I reached out and touched the cold iron wall of the shipping container to steady my breathing. My pulse hammered against my throat. I had to find another way to reach the recipient or at least confirm if anyone was waiting for the box in my hands.

I crept along the wall of the warehouse, staying close to the dark metal panels to avoid the direct view of the overhead camera. The ground beneath my boots was soft and uneven, covered in wet moss and scrap metal discarded years ago.

Near the side of the building, a narrow glass window sat high near the roof line. The pane was covered in thick grime and dirt, but a soft amber glow flickered from inside, casting strange shadows against the rusty iron frames.

I climbed onto a stack of wooden crates resting against the outer wall. The wood creaked under my weight, making me pause for five terrifying seconds until the silence returned.

I peered through a small clear patch in the filthy window.

The inside of the warehouse was massive. High steel beams stretched across the ceiling, holding up heavy industrial hooks and chains. But instead of standard factory equipment or delivery crates, long rows of metal cages covered the floor. Some cages were wrapped in heavy black cloth, while others were reinforced with thick iron bars and glowing security seals.

Movement caught my attention near the center of the room.

Two large men in dark tactical gear stood near a metal table. One of them held a long steel pole equipped with a glowing electric tip, while the other checked a digital tablet attached to his wrist. Their faces were hidden behind thick leather masks, and their voices sounded muffled over the distance.

Beside the table sat a heavy iron cage, locked with three separate chains.

Whatever sat inside that central cage was small, but it moved against the bars with sudden desperate force. A low growl echoed softly through the structure, sounding less like an ordinary street animal and more like a wild creature fighting for its life.

My heart pounded so hard I thought the men inside would hear it through the wall. This was not a standard storage building or a legal beast training facility. This was an illegal holding facility, hidden deep in the dead end sector where city guards never patrolled.

I backed off the wooden crates slowly, step by step, lowering myself to the ground. My fingers trembled as I adjusted the strap of my delivery bag.

If I got caught out here, these men would not just refuse to pay my delivery f*e. They would make sure I never walked back out of the industrial district.

A sharp, metallic click echoed from the main double doors.

A narrow gap opened between the heavy iron panels. A thin strip of yellow light spilled out onto the dark concrete floor outside, cutting through the thick fog.

A muffled sound drifted through the gap, like a small animal letting out a weak, desperate whimper before a rough voice barked a harsh command to shut it up.

My feet refused to move away. I stood frozen in the pale light, realizing with sudden, terrifying clarity that this building was not abandoned at all, and whatever was happening behind those locked doors was something I was never supposed to discover.