[Kalli]

No one knew that under their feet was a whole tunnel of rooms and hallways, until the place was bombed out. Swarms of scavengers would have picked it clean before had there not been a battle raging around them, and had it been safe to enter. A few unlucky souls had already found out that it wasn’t safe, and their bodies now lay twisted in pits or between reinforced walls. They joined the other bodies that had been discovered after the roof caved in. Not much lived here, apart from rats and mice and roosting birds, not too disturbed by the sounds of war to make homes for themselves.

The unexplored corridors and rooms spanned quite a distance, and would take awhile to map out starting from either way. It was clearly a medical or scientific facility of some sort. Toward one end of the complex was a large room, which had sustained the most damage. Close scrutiny would lead one to believe that it had been blown up from the inside as well as the outside, but all of the charges probably didn’t go off as planned. If they weren’t dealt with, the whole block could go up, and more innocent lives would be lost.

Judging by the bodies in this room, however, many had already been snuffed out. The walls were lined with pods, which had once been filled with a bluish goop of uncertain origin. It now flooded the floor, mixing with blood and other things too horrible to mention. Wires and tubes, glass, plastic, syringes, all manner of things were piled in corners and against the broken pods.

Only one of the pods remained relatively undamaged, but in the shadows under a roof beam it was difficult to tell what lay inside. Whatever was there, it may have gone completely unnoticed for weeks, maybe even months, had there not been someone nearby in urgent need of supplies.

Stalking his way carefully through the ruined corridors, a lone shadow prowled, looking for food or bits of usable metal or leather, or anything, really. One couldn’t be picky when things were in such a state outside. He was just daring enough to enter this place after others had failed, or perhaps he was desperate. Keeping out of the way of certain gangs and crime bosses meant staying out of their usual haunts. If he had to come down here and risk death in order to survive, it wouldn’t be the first time.

As he came around the bend, the figure flattened himself against the wall, holding his old barretta at the ready. However, as there wasn’t even the stir of anything larger than a mouse that met his sharp ears, he cautiously peered into the doorway. The interior of the room is a shock even to his desensitized eyes, and he pulled back for a moment, eyes narrowing as he tried to piece together what he’d just seen. Mouth forming a hard line, he made his decision and spins to put himself in the doorway, sweeping the room with his gun before settling on the single unbroken pod. The mess on the floor wouldn’t have made the young man bat an eye, but for the unknown blue substance that coated everything, giving typically red gore a surreal purplish tint.

Ignoring the blood, careful to keep his footing, the young man holstered his gun for the moment and began to pick through the bodies. He was decent enough to check and see if any were still living, but as they had all gone cold long ago, he didn’t mind helping himself to whatever they had. It wasn’t much. Every so often, his startling blue eyes scanned the room, and they would always come to rest on the shadowy form in the last pod. The young man had to admit it made him nervous, but so far it hadn’t moved. His movements quickened- the sooner he was out of there, the better.

[Whatsyourface]

There was a shuffling from the pod as eyes within opened and glowed a white briefly. Before diming down. There was a shuffling as the pod rocked in place. Then the screech of clawing against the glass. The clawing ceases after a few moments. Then the tube shakes. Then soon after much of the lab shakes after there is a strange noise heard coming from the pod. Like a cawing noise. *BOOM* the pod bursts as the reinforced glass flies across the room at speeds that let it hardly be able to be seen as it cracks a wall and falls to the ground. There is a lot of dust and thankfully, nothing seems to have caved in.

Something springs from the pod, and onto the ground with a thud. The figure obscured by dirt was not shaped like any earthly creature, though loosely it looked like a bat. It stood tall on two hind legs. and then walked on all 4s seemlessly it moved fluidly like a regular organism. It makes a cackling noise as it is still. Then the dust clears.

The thing is looking at this being who was before it. It was was an all white creature with white ceramic plates armoring it’s body, and no teeth. It had yellow slit eyes that were locked onto the being before it, and flesh around it’s eye, as it blinked and looked at the boy. The wings under its arms were clear…..and it had visible muscle in some areas requiring flexibility, like the neck and joints, but not normally muscle. It was grey. Not the muscle of any normal creature. And it had a thin layer of covering over any area with the muscle.

It did nothing as it watched him, and looked to see what he’d do….blinking once. The only part of flesh seeming to be that little area around the eyes….

[Kalli]

The young man scrounging among the bodies didn’t see the eyes, as he had his back turned to the pod for a moment. Then came the shuffling noise, like someone walking across a wooden floor with loose slippers. The young man froze, fingers hovering immediately near the gun at his side. He could tell the sound was coming from behind, and while it could be a rat, it could also be something much worse. He waited, tense, muscles ready to spring into action.

There as a silence, then the spine-wrenching squeal of something sharp on glass. The young man whipped around, aiming his gun, expecting to see another human, or an animal, or anything within his mind’s catalogue of possibilities. But as he backed away, he could see nothing beyond the shaking pod.

Not wanting to know what was going to come out of it, he turned and bolted out of the room, only to slip in the goo and blood all over the floor. The gun was knocked out of his hands, and skittered off across the floor where he couldn’t see it. As he scrambled to his feet, the pod behind him exploded, and shrapnel rained down on him. He didn’t even have time to cover his head before a large piece of metal clocked him in the back of his skull, buffered only because he’d been wearing his hood up. But he still fell back to the floor in a daze, only trying to get back up because his body and mind screamed danger.

Having no gun on him now, the young man felt out desperately for anything, and felt a piece of pipe roll near his fingers. Grasping this, he whirled around, ignoring the dizziness that nearly made him pitch forward. What did make him fall the third time was what he saw when he turned.

There were no real words to describe it, except it looked like something out of a nightmare. It fit no rational convention of Biology that he knew of, or Zoology, for that matter. The utterly alien face peered at him with its horrible Glasgow smile. For a moment, the young man couldn’t even draw breath to scream. The hands holding the length of pipe shook, and he stumbled backward, gasping. As he did so, one of the bodies caught his foot, causing him to trip, falling backward and hitting his head on the tiled and sticky floor. If it was his lot to be killed by the thing in the room with him, fate was making sure it happened.

The young man went still, the hood of his tattered jacket slipping half-off his head, revealing messy black hair and some faint scars on his cheek. His face, though young, was far too thin, and his clothing was worn and stained. The thin jacket and shirt he wore rode up a bit on his extended torso, revealing a pale stomach, edged by prominent ribs. At the moment, he was completely vulnerable, looking almost like the bodies scattered about the room. It would be easy enough for the creature to eviscerate him right there. A grisly end to a short, unpleasant life.

[Whatsyourface]

The thing watched this being stumble in front of him. It’s head tilted a bit as he tripped up on a body. It walked forward rather quickly. The being laid there and it just stared at him. Eventually it leaned in towards him. Clearly this to it, this was different from the others. It could hear his breathing. His heart beating. The flow of blood coursing through it. It was alive, unlike everything else. However, it just laid there.

It lost interest in the being for a moment and looked around for an exit. It opened its mouth and let out a noise that sounded like a cricket, and when it made noise. It’s mouth didn’t seem to need to move. It simply opened it’s mouth and noise came out. It seems to be aiming almost. Scanning the room as it continues making noise. Looking for a way out. It’s tail extends across the room, and over a corpse at the end, it splits into 3 finger like apendages at the end with nail like claws at the end, and it picks the corpse up, holding it by the back of the neck as it stands on two feet. Holding its mouth in front of the man as it made the noise. Then it flung the corpse across the room into the corner in a way someone would be able to throw a puppy. The tail’s end rejoins and contracts back to normal length.

If there is no apparent way out, it snarls in frustration.

[Kalli]

The young man at the creature’s feet was out for only a few minutes, slowly coming to with his head throbbing, and his eyes focusing slowly. He blinked, grimacing at the pain in his head. What was that damned cricket noise? Where was he? Flexing his fingers and toes, and finding everything in order, he started to sit up, hissing as something like a white hot knife stabbed through the back of his head and neck. He let out a groan, clutching the area and massaging it for a moment.

It took another moment for his brain to readjust, at which point he went very still, muscles clenching once more. Carefully, afraid of what he might see, the young man’s blue eyes fixed once more on that strange, hideous thing from before. It had not been a hallucination, as he had rather hoped. Luckily, he noticed that the creature was looking elsewhere, and managed to keep from screaming, which was his first instinct. Really, it would have been anyone’s first instinct on coming face to face with such a monster. The pale thing, whatever it was, did not look in the least bit friendly.

With slow, deliberate movements, the young man tried to shift his weight off the dead body underneath him, while not attracting the attention of the beast. That strange, insect-like noise filled the room again, and it was only then that the young man realized where it came from. That didn’t help matters. The whole thing was so weird, so surreal, that he couldn’t think about it too much. He just had to stand up and get to the door.

Once he conquered the first hurdle of getting shakily to his feet, without drawing the attention of the thing, his eyes shifted back and forth toward the door. It was now currently blocked by debris, but that wasn’t going to stop him getting out. Maybe he could find a way to bury the creature forever under what was left of the concrete roof? He’d have to steal some explosives, but it would be worth the risk. The thing was going to haunt his nightmares, better not let it haunt his real life, too. He had enough problems.

The young man’s heart pounded loudly in his chest, and he wished he could make it shut up because he was sure the creature would hear it. However, thus far, nothing had happened, though his progress was agonizingly slow. Ever closer he inches, afraid the thing from his nightmares would suddenly leap on him, tearing him to shreds.

[Whatsyourface]

It’s head snaps to the door as it detects it. It walks over on two feet and sees rubble in the way and it pauses. Blocking the entrance to the kid. It makes a cackling noise, and then growls as it seems to take a stance. Determining the structural integrity of the place won’t give, it takes a stance. And then the boy can see the air disort *BOOM* There was what looked like a blast wave that came from the creatures mouth as the debris and the door flies back, debris shattered and the door being blown completely off. It flies back until it hits wall or makes a *screeeech* as it hits the ground and slides along the ground, coming to a halt.

Chunks of the wall are gone, and some of the debris down to the next room is melted. The sides of wall are searing and chunks of the door flew into the next room/hallway. Then the creature looked behind himself at the boy.Then it walked forward. Making a feint cackling noise (similar to what the predator makes) and moves to the next hall or room.

[Kalli]

The young man only jumped out of the way in time, rolling and landing in a crouch, eyes wide at the burned and melting hole in the wall where the door had been. The sight made him shake so badly he felt he couldn’t stand up at the moment; whatever the beast had just done, it would have destroyed his fragile human body. He’d been close to death before, but this went beyond the capacity for rational thought. It had to be a nightmare…

However, as pinches and slaps and shaking of his head did not wake him, he had to assume it was real. Which meant he had to get out of here before more of those monsters showed up. Which meant following this one.

Cursing violently under his breath, the young man got shakily to his feet, still feeling off-kilter from the knocks to his head. He managed to find his gun, which had slid under more debris. Holstering the weapon, knowing it would not do him any good against the creature, he nevertheless had no other way to go. This was how he had come in. And there was something very strange about the way the creature had hesitated before going through the large hole in the wall, almost as though it wanted him to follow. Or maybe he had just hit his head harder than he thought. The whole thing could be a hallucination anyway. With soft tread, he followed in the monster’s wake, careful to stay hidden, in case one of those blasts of heat was meant for him.

[Whatsyourface]

It walked forward scanning the rooms down the hallway and stepping over corpses. Then it walked around the area. And walks around the place. Then it looks around. It makes a cackling noise again as it comes up to find rubble. A hand sticks out from under it. The creature turns into another room making its way the rubble and then continues down the hallway only to find the floor actually has caved into another hallway before.

The things waits and looks at the gap as looks across it. More rubble. Its heavier. It looks down into the dimly lit hallway below. Which has very lighting, it seems going into this hole in the only way to proceed. The creature jumps down into, disappearing into the darkness.

[Kalli]

The young man following in its wake stayed in the shadows, hunkering down whenever the thing turned its head, in case he was spotted. So far, however, it hadn’t bothered with him. He couldn’t help wondering what had killed all these people who lay about him, their glassy eyes open, jaws slack. Some of the heads had no bodies at all, and some of the bodies had no limbs. The young man grimaced, trying not to look too closely at them. He imagined hordes of those pale, transparent things tearing down the halls toward him, ready to separate the top half of his body from the bottom.

Gulping, he slipped down the hallway after the only other living thing in the place…that he knew of. So far, he’d been able to follow, until they came to the huge hole in the floor. Though not terribly far down, the young man closed his blue eyes, feeling dizzy and not sure if his legs would hold him. he had to try, though, and with a deep breath, leaped over the jagged ledge and into the shadows. He hadn’t come this way, or else the floor had caved after he did. Were they going deeper into this insane place? Now he began to fear lest he be stuck in the endless hallways forever with that thing… Still, that thing was his only hope. Maybe it would somehow lead him out. It could cut through walls, anyway. If it wanted to leave, he couldn’t think of anything stopping it but a bad sense of direction.

[Whatsyourface]

The creature wanders through the hallways and walking for a time. Making a cricket noise. It navigated in the dark as well at did in the light and actually left they boy in the dark. For some time….

However about 2 minutes later boy hears something approaching. The thing comes down the hall seemingly at the boy at mad speed hopping on all 4s. And when it gets within about 1 ft within him it a blur as it jumps right over him and bolts into a room breaking a door down, in this lab like area as it dashes into a room.

The way it did made it seem like it was running from something. As it no longer made any sound. There was blue glowing straight down the hall from where the creature fled and it is difficult to see the source…

[Kalli]

Following behind as silently as he could, the young man listened to that eerie chirping sound, a little afraid of what it meant. So far, it hadn’t preceded a blast of energy, but that was his only consolation. At least, until the darkness totally enveloped them both, and then it became his only point of reference for moving forward. That and the wall. Sometimes, he would bump into debris, or a dead body, and only just stop himself from crying out.

More than once did the young man think futilely of doubling back and trying to get out of the huge hole, then maybe leaping across the expanse, in spite of the impossibility of either task. He’d always been afraid of the dark, and now it seemed to crush him from all sides, until he felt like screaming. Even after only two minutes. Bad things always happened in the dark…bad things…

Trying to get ahold of himself, the young man clutched his head, breathing slowly. It didn’t help that he felt like passing out, and saw little sparks whenever he blinked. It took a moment for the young man to realize that the noise in front of him had shifted, from the chirping and steady scraping of claws on the ground, to what sounded like a horse galloping, but muffled. He didn’t even have time to get out of the way, but the thing bypassed him before he could wonder why it had suddenly turned in the first place.

Looking back down the hallway, he saw the approach of a strange blue light. Fro this distance, it looked like something was around a corner down the long corridor. What it was, he didn’t know, but the creature had run away from it. The young man realized this with a start, and took a few steps back, wondering at teh same time why he was so afraid. Maybe it was someone coming to help?

Even as he thought this, his mind rejected it. People didn’t help each other in this place, even if it was people coming down the hall, which he doubted. Something about that light made him want to run, to hide, though he didn’t know why. He could always come out if it was another human being. Frankly, he’d be glad to see any of Nightmare’s boys after this. They probably wouldn’t survive long down here themselves anyway.

Deciding at the last minute to hide, he scrambled around in the dark, barely able to make out shadows from darker shadows with only the blue light to illuminate his way. It was so far down it did little good. Still, at least he was able to avoid some of the bodies and debris that would have slowed him down.

The problem was where to hide? Feeling his way around with his hands, he found the wall, and felt along it, holding his gun in his other hand, just in case. Just as the blue light grew brightest and turned teh corner, he found a broken door and ducked inside the room.

Only then did he realize what else was there as well. Heart nearly stopping in his chest, the breath leaving his body, he shrank against the wall, wide eyes staring into the darkness from which came the sounds of shifting, and claws on the floor. Either the one he had followed, or another of the same species…whatever it was. Just because it hadn’t killed him yet, didn’t mean it wouldn’t now. On the other hand, better the devil you know… The faintest rays of blue now shone against the opposite wall, catching a vague, pale form with huge wings, and that strange, horrifying mask of a face.

[Whatsyourface]

Thing things looks at the boy. With it’s slit beast like eyes locked on the being before it.

It is hard attention then goes to the door as whatever was at the end of the hallway stops at the room. It takes a few steps forward it’s breathing can be heard. It sounds…unearthly. Like a ghost almost. It’s breathing loud, to the point that echoes about. It takes a few steps forward and it came into full view of them both.

It looked like a human, glowing man with tattered clothes pants and no shirt. About 5 ft 11. However, there were differences. It had claws, and mouth was riddled with sharp teeth. It’s glowed a white. It stood arms slumped forward and the slumped back, as it seemed to have troubled standing up right. It walked forward bumping into a desk Before it was a mere 3 feet from the boy. It seemed to be blind. It breathed in through it’s nose and took a few steps towards the boy. Now standing over him. It inhales the air over him, and then leans down to the boys face as it comes closer to ascertaining it’s location.

A tail goes around the creatures neck and suddenly it is yanked off it’s feet away from the boy and throw to across the room into a desk. It gets up yelling out of an apparent anguish as it takes a desk and hurls it at the winged creature like a was a pillow. The metal desk hits the winged thing into the wall and dents it. It flips the table off and the blue creature already in front of it smacks and sends it flying until it’s head dents into a wall.

The winged creature gets up and the two go tooth and claw at eachother. The winged creature slashing and the blue slashing and throwing wild fists. However, the blue thing though shorter was stronger as it eventually gripped the winged things neck and chucked it into the ceiling, causing rock to fall. The winged creature slashes and the thing mostly shrugs it off as slashes and tears partially through one of the winged Not breaking bone, but tearing into it. Then it grabs the creature again it’s head going up and causing to fire a blast into the ceiling. Then the winged creature gets tackled to the ground. It struggles as it tries to block the blue things punches and fight back while it’s on it.

Right in front of the boy, who wasn’t that far away and managed to not get harmed. The blue thing creature seems to have forgotten his existence as the winged creature looks at the boy for a split second before turning it’s attention back to trying to lash this thing off it.

[Kalli]

The young man pressed against the cold concrete behind him, breaths wheezing in his chest, at the sight of those yellow, catlike eyes glaring at him. He raised the gun in his hand to shoot, but his fingers were shaking too much to even take the safety off, much less pull the trigger. The next moment, said gun became useless anyway as the blue-white specter of a man suddenly appeared through the doorway. Terrified, but having no voice, the young man dropped his gun and opened his mouth in a silent scream. Somehow, this new abomination was more terrifying because it was so close to being human that the divergence hit closer to home.

Shaking horribly, he tried to push away from the wall, to slip quickly through teh door and out into the hallway, but he found to his horror that his legs wouldn’t support him that far. Silently, he cursed the shaking appendages, actually grabbing one with his hands to try and move forward, but just ended up stumbling closer to the humanoid thing. It couldn’t see him, but only smell him, he realized. Then why wasn’t he taking advantage of that and getting the hell out?

Just as he started to move again, to try and scramble away from the blue thing, it was yanked backwards by the neck…by the bat-winged creature. The young man was so surprised by this that he froze in a half-crouch on the floor, watching the fight unfold with wide blue eyes. It was almost as if… But why would the bat thing try and save him? Shaking his head, and immediately regretting the pain that shot through it the next moment, he tried standing up. When he found that he could, he started to head rather shakily for the door.

Unfortunately, the wild fight between blue thing and bat thing made it necessary to jump away and dodge or be crushed or clawed. Every time he got a few paces closer to teh door, the battle would roll right in front of him, and he’d have to go backward, away from escape. The other problem was that he couldn’t help watching the fight itself, mesmerized by the brutality, the wild, no-holds-barred nature of it. He’d seen people fight before, and dogs, and rats, but this was totally out of that league. It was like watching two forces of nature clash.

As the ceiling rained down on them, he was forced to duck under a metal table. His eyes were locked on the struggling figures from under his arms, which had risen automatically to shield his head and neck. As the blue thing pinned the bat-winged one, he saw for teh first time a clear path to the door. Without thinking, he started to scramble toward it, but happened to look to the side just as the bat-thing’s golden eye found his.

The young man halted, instant panic shifting to something else as he realized that the creature was not looking at him with desire or hatred. He couldn’t quite define the expression, nor why it should mean anything, as the creature was not alive….was it? He couldn’t tell. But that eye that looked at him seemed to be alive, and to be asking him something. Looking down, he saw its torn wing; looking back up, the blue thing with its horrible almost-human face, and sharp teeth near the bat creature’s neck. The blue human monstrosity had somehow been stronger than the bat thing, though it was so much smaller. For some reason, the thought of the bat thing dying, when it might have been trying to save the young man, was not an acceptable idea.

At the same time, even as he scrambled around to find his gun again, the young man’s logical side told him to make a run for it, to leave these things to their fight and get out of there. Usually, he was good at self-preservation, but maybe the dark was making him loopy. He even argued with himself as his hands closed over the handle of his baretta and raised it, shooting the blue thing through the eyes with deadly accuracy. It happened so fast he wasn’t even aware of having done it until the shot had been fired.

(I leave to you whether or not this kills the blue thing. My guy is trying to help lol)

[Whatsyourface]

(I was actually hoping you would do that.)

The creature rears up mouth wide as it clenches it’s it’s eyes with it’s hand and roars loud into the air angrily, in pain, blood streaming down it’s eyes as if they were tears. The winged creature shoves it off. It gets up with claw marks, on it as it open’s jaw and takes a stance. There is a brief distortion from it’s mouth and then it fires an invisible quick blast from it’s mouth into the creature. It flies across the room as if tossed back by an explosion and smashes a good 4 inches into the wall as it shatters. The creature imprints in then falls to the floor on it’s knees, beginning to flare with electrify.

Blue glowing tendrils shoot out from the creatures back and the boy can see the winged creature hopping past him on all fours, however, as he goes past, it’s elongated tail surrounds the boy and he is pulled along with the creature. The boy sees glowing tendrils from the creature shooting out everywhere punching through the walls and surging with electricity and melting much of what they touch. The creature can be heard rampaging as it’s light grows dimmer as the winged creature gets distance away and turns a corner.

The creature continues hopping over bodies. Some torn through, and others actually not having a scratch on them it’d seem. The winged creature then stops at a door with a bio-retinal scanner and stands on two legs. The creature seems intelligent enough to look at the bio scanner. It’s makes that cricket noise again….then it’s snaps to a corpse. It looks at a man who was torn in two, lower body seperated from underbody, and picks up the upper body at the head. It then walks over to the scanner, and clicks a button for it to activate. “Scan commencing…” He puts the man’s face against the scanner so it can scan the eyes of the upper body of the corpse. The door opens and it drops the corpse as it runs into the next hall.

It drops the kid in the hall from it’s tail as it clicks a button behind it with it’s tail and shuts the door. The creature can still be heard roaring. but it’s hard to tell whether or not it’s getting closer or farther. This area seems to be actually well lit. Very well lit in fact. It seems to be a hospital area of some kind, with footprints from the creature in the room they left behind. The winged creature looks at the hall in front of them, and then back at the boy. It looks at him for a few seconds, then looks forward as it continues to slowly walk. The claw mark on it’s armor actually healing. As well as on the other area. The creature makes cackling noise once more as it looks forward. Seemingly aiming it around….

[Kalli]

(Hahaha….apart from fainting or running, that was my character’s only real option XD)

The young man stood where he was, shaky and stunned at what he had just done, rather than running away. Why was he fighting back? What about those yellow eyes looking in his direction had made him fight back? To someone in his position, it might be considered wasting bullets, since it wasn’t like there were caches of ammunition just lying around. Bullets were a precious commodity. Why had he potentially wasted one when he could have vanished back into the hall while the other two were distracted? There was no knowing.

For several terrifying moments, he truly begins to regret the decision as his midsection is surrounded by the white thing’s serpentine tail, squeezing the breath out of him. For a moment, he thought it was a lousy way to die, but then found that he was being dragged, rather than crushed. He had to trot fast to keep up, often stumbling, but somehow supported by the tail. Any thoughts of shooting the white creature were held back by the realization that it had saved him. For what purpose, he could not tell, but it could have killed him easily and hadn’t even tried. Why? The blue thing was still screeching with rage behind them, but slowly the glow from its twisted body receded, then disappeared. Then, everything was dark again.

It was probably a good thing he couldn’t see where they were going, though the stench of blood and death filled his nostrils. He clutched his gun hard in trembling hands when they came to what looked like a retinal scanner. This had to be the way out… As his eyes had gotten used to the dark again, he was just able to make out the basic form of the thing, though at first he didn’t know what it was trying to do. It was standing on its strange hind legs, as though looking into the scanner itself. Could creatures like that use retinal scanners? Probably not. They had to get out somehow, and this looked like their only option. He’d gotten in through a broken door last time, but remembered seeing a fried retinal scanner near the security panel. He looked at the ground, a horrifying idea occurring to him and making him want to vomit. It had to be done, though, didn’t it? There was what looked like a head nearby…he could reach it if he bent over.

Suddenly, there was no need, and he looked away hurriedly, feeling bile rise up and scorch his throat. With an effort, he tamped down on the impulse to be sick all over the floor. He let himself be jerked into the next room where the lights burned his eyes, but the door blocked out the sounds of the blue creature’s violence. the boy sank to the ground for a moment, shaking, covering his eyes against the glare. Only after they adjusted to the light was he able to make out where they were- not outside, as he had hoped, but at least somewhere he could see. The iridescent blue footprints on the white floor told him exactly what had been here. Were they trapped now?

Slowly, almost unwillingly, his eyes rose to meet the golden ones of the pale creature. Fear still darkened them, but not so much as before. Why hadn’t it hurt him? Why had it bothered to save him? He didn’t understand…

However, when it started to walk forward again, he followed automatically, watching it with growing interest. Though he kept a little distance between them, afraid the tail would slash him to ribbons, and though he still held his gun in one hand, the boy didn’t shoot. Instead, he observed the white creature, seeing its injuries heal, watching it use some kind of radar or echolocation, though he didn’t know what it was aiming for, exactly. Questions began to replace fears. Could it speak? It definitely had problem-solving abilities, but was speech a part of its programming? What was it, exactly? Why had it rescued him, if that was really what had happened?

These questions and more filled his mind as the steady pattern of their footfalls echoed along the empty corridors. Empty apart from some dead bodies, but he tried not to think of those. He focused on the creature as the silence pressed around him, almost worse than the utter darkness from before. He licked his lips, feeling the need to say something, afraid that he had died back there and now wandered endlessly through limbo, or some other form of intermediate Hell. How he longed for the noise and clamor of the city above them. If he ever got out of here, he would eschew all underground tunnels forever.

After a long while of walking down the seemingly endless corridors, making a few turns without any change, he decided he couldn’t stand it anymore. If the thing could talk, he wanted answers. If not…well, maybe being killed and eaten was better than being stuck forever down here.

Clearing his throat, the young man said, “Hey….uh…thing. You, in front of me. Can you speak?” In the dead air of the hallway, his voice sounded oddly thin and scratchy, not like himself at all. He shuddered…maybe he was dead.