"Tap... tap... tap," Shawn's footsteps echoed in the vast ice tunnel, lit by mining lamps. Shawn kept looking back, something was bothering him.
"What's wrong, Shawn?" Naomi asked.
"Nothing," Shawn answered.
"Walk and look ahead, Shawn. Don't keep looking back, or before you know it, you'll be kissing Naomi, you know," Gina quipped.
"I know," Shawn replied briefly, without expression.
"Ugh... you can't take a joke, can you?" Gina replied.
"It's pointless to joke with him, he doesn't understand anything about social interaction, right, Shawn?" Dennis added.
"Yes... that's right," Shawn replied with a cold, expressionless face and a calm voice.
"At least deny it, Shawn," Dennis replied, annoyed.
"Enough, stop teasing Shawn. Let's go, Mike is far ahead," Naomi replied.
"Yeah, yeah... understood," Gina replied, raising her arm behind her head.
They continued walking, but Shawn, who was walking at the very back, still occasionally turned to look toward the shrinking mouth of the cave. He walked on, constantly glancing around like someone being wary of something.
"I have a really bad feeling... what's happening out there," Shawn muttered to himself.
Suddenly, "Yaaaaah," a scream echoed inside the cave, originating from outside. Shawn and the others immediately stopped walking and turned around.
"Hey... hey," Dennis said.
"What's going on?" Gina asked.
Naomi walked to Shawn's side, who was now at the very front, and held his arm.
"That scream... from the city?" Naomi asked.
"Yes, something's happening in the city. I'm going back," Shawn replied, walking toward the mouth of the cave.
"He... hey, Shawn," Naomi said, chasing after him.
Dennis and Gina looked at each other, then they also ran, following Shawn and Naomi. "Kyaaaaa... kyaaaaa... help," when they reached the mouth of the cave, many screams were heard. Shawn, who stepped out, was immediately startled and shocked. He saw a large, shiny metal sphere that looked like a machine with its components emerging in the middle of a swirling black cloud above.
From that metal sphere, billions of cables came out, looking like black robotic snakes with ends like BNC connectors that had iron claws and a camera lens in the center.
"W-what is that?" Dennis asked.
"Kyaaaaaaa... no... no... don't... ugh,"
The four of them looked down. They saw two cables entering a man's rear and mouth, and then several cables piercing his entire body. Suddenly, the man's body turned red as if burning from the inside. The man's eyes bulged, and his face looked extremely pained. His skin and flesh fell off while his muscle fibers turned into terrifying black iron fibers. His eyeballs popped out, replaced by cameras, and his face looked like a skull. The man appeared to be assimilated into a horrible, zombie-like, semi-robot creature.
Shawn looked up. He saw many cables covering the sun above him. Without thinking twice, he turned and pulled Naomi's hand, running into the cave.
"Run," Shawn shouted.
Dennis and Gina also turned around and ran inside the cave. "Swoooosh," hundreds of cables immediately shot into the cave like snakes coiling like waves. Shawn looked back, then he pulled Naomi and carried her.
"Hurry up, you two," Shawn shouted.
"Sha... Shawn," Naomi said, hugging Shawn.
Dennis, who was fat and looked out of breath, was at the very back. Gina turned to look at him.
"Hurry, fatty... run," Gina shouted hysterically.
"Huff... huff... yeah... I'm... running," Dennis replied, gasping, forcing himself to run.
"Whoosh," the cables, coiling like hundreds of snakes, were getting closer. Dennis looked back, then turned forward again and ran as fast as he could. Gina also kept looking back at Dennis. Suddenly, "Aaaakh," "Thump," Dennis stumbled and fell. He turned to see a cable wrapped around his leg. He tried to break free, but hundreds of cables were already in front of him.
"Dennis," Gina shouted, stopping and turning back.
"Run, Gina... hurry... don't worry about me," Dennis shouted.
But Gina went toward Dennis instead, trying to remove the cable wrapped around Dennis's leg along with Dennis, who was also trying to free himself until his hands were injured. "Aaaakh," Dennis screamed again because his leg felt crushed by the heavy iron cable tightly wrapped around it.
"Go, Gina," Dennis said, pulling and pushing Gina.
"Thud," Gina fell backward, and cables began to cling to Dennis's body. "Dennis," Gina shouted, getting up again. Then Dennis turned to look at Gina and smiled.
"To me, you're not just a roommate... ugh,"
A cable entered Dennis's mouth and went into both his eyeballs. Then Dennis's body began to lift and emit a red color from the inside, as if there was an iron forger within his body.
"Dennis," Gina shouted, unable to do anything.
Gina immediately turned and ran fast, entering the cave with tears streaming down her face and without looking back again. "Swoooosh," hundreds of cables immediately chased Gina, passing Dennis, who was being assimilated.
"To me, you're not just a roommate either," Gina said while continuing to run deeper into the cave.
Meanwhile, Shawn, carrying Naomi, continued to run non-stop toward the large cave where the excavation project was located. "Haaah... haah," white steam from the cold came out of Shawn's mouth.
"Put me down, Shawn," Naomi said.
"No, be quiet, don't move," Shawn snapped.
"O... okay," Naomi replied, hugging Shawn again.
Naomi turned to look back and saw nothing behind them. She continued to look at the turning cave corridor ahead.
"How are Dennis and Gina?" Naomi asked.
"I don't know... I hope they're safe," Shawn replied briefly.
Not long after, they arrived at the large cave space where there were several four-story buildings used as offices, heavy equipment, and a large ancient pyramid with only its top showing, the result of the archaeological excavation project. Shawn stopped and put Naomi down. Both were surprised because the atmosphere inside the large cave, which should have been full of workers, was completely silent, and there seemed to be no one at all.
"Sha... Shawn... wh-why is no one here?" Naomi whispered.
"That's impossible... the entrances to this site... there are three of them," Shawn replied.
"So... what do you mean?" Naomi asked.
"We're too late," Shawn answered.
"Grooooooah,"
Shawn's suspicion was correct. Workers came out of the buildings used for offices, research centers, and briefing rooms. They didn't look human but like zombies with half-machine bodies. Shawn immediately pulled Naomi and hid behind an excavator behind them. He immediately covered Naomi's mouth with his hand while observing the situation in front of them from the gaps in the excavator cab.
It turned out that not only machine zombies were wandering around, but also hundreds of cables coiling and floating in the air. "Swooooosh," cables were seen coming out of the cave where they had just arrived. Naomi gasped, but because her mouth was covered by Shawn, she made no sound at all. After the cables passed, suddenly, "Tap... tap... tap," footsteps were heard from inside the cave.
Shawn and Naomi peeked out, seeing Gina walking out of the cave, but when Gina turned to look toward the excavator, both of them immediately gasped because half of Gina's body had turned into terrifying muscle fibers, and her eyes had become cameras. She had become a mindless-looking machine zombie.
"Graaaah,"
Gina walked past the excavator where Shawn and Naomi were hiding. But suddenly, "Grip," Shawn, feeling his arm being bitten, turned. He was immediately startled and shocked to see Dennis, who was only half a body with many cables replacing his legs. All his flesh had melted away, revealing his iron muscle fibers.
His abdomen was torn, releasing many cables, and his face was a half-skull with both eyes replaced by camera lenses. He was biting Shawn's arm. Shawn immediately kicked Dennis to release his bite, sending him flying far away.
Then Shawn opened the excavator door and turned to look at Naomi, who was trembling beside him with her head bowed.
"Na... Naomi?" Shawn asked.
"Sh... Shawn, I don't feel so good... bleargh,"
Naomi vomited fresh blood from her mouth. Shawn looked down. There was a cable that had entered between Naomi's legs, and then Naomi's body began to rise into the air, pushed up by the cable between her legs. Hundreds of cables immediately swarmed Naomi. Some entered her mouth, and Naomi's eyes began to roll back with tears streaming down her face.
"Damn it... damn it,"
Shawn immediately stood up and got inside the excavator machine. Several cables and machine zombies immediately surrounded him. He watched Naomi being assimilated right in front of his eyes. Finally, "Crack," several cables pierced and shattered the glass of the excavator cab, then went toward Shawn's face, and everything instantly went dark.