The lights never go out, at this point I just need to find somewhere warmer and figure out what the hell I'm trapped in here with.
I look around to peruse the storage room I have found myself in. There has to be something of worth in these equipment lockers.
There's still that dreaded pounding sound. A wet smash against metal followed by the scraping of a metal chair on concrete. I know that I need to move now, but I can't do anything besides sit for a moment while I defrost.
I try to get my legs to work as quickly as possible, rubbing them with my hands to warm up. Finally I regain feeling and can put weight on them so I turn to the large room before me. This room looks like it was meant for excess storage, from objects relating to experiments like microscopes and vials; to new gear like coats and undershirts.
Wow, there's still a decent amount of stuff left. It makes sense, as the weather was probably the last thing on their minds.
I can still hear whatever it is in the depths of this facility. I need to move ASAP.
As I frantically search lockers and crates, I found a locker that produced cold weather gear that actually fits me AND isn't torn to shreds.
"Dr. L. Chen" was the name on the locker.
On the inside of the locker, there is a picture of a young woman. On the back it says:
"For Mel, I hope your new job at Parallax goes well! It sucks you have to be so far away from home, promise you won't forget about me!"
I feel a tinge of pain as I slowly take out the gear from the locker and realize just how many people worked and died here. I don't want to add to that count.
I would feel like Christmas came early if I didn't have to deal with whatever is lurking here. All the gear seems to the puffy coats and pants that make a lot of noise when you walk. They are white with black stripes running down the sides with the PARALLAX INDUSTRIES logo over the heart.
Even just the under layers, pants, shirts, socks and regular boots are enough to make me sweat in this temperature so I keep on what's comfortable and put the rest in a backpack I found in a locker belonging to a Dr. Chen.
"Alright," I steel myself "next up is food!"
I look toward the door on the opposite side of the room. It's dimly lit from the emergency lights and the only sounds I can hear are from the wind howling.
Wait, where did that movement go?
I need to go further in but doing so now could be a death sentence. Maybe there's something I could hear on the other side of the door?
Leaning in, I press my ear up to the door. The bare metal is frigid on my ear, but nothing can compare to what was outside.
Nothing.
Not a single sound from the other side.
Maybe no news is good news? There's a panel next to the door. It looks like a badge scanner. Similar to the one that is on the Datapad, but somebody, or something, decided to smash it in.
Maybe I can use the Datapad to open the door?
I click the power button. Praying that its still on, and nothing. The Datapad is dead.
Great. At least I have a great paperweight now.
I remember a couple of classes from university where they taught basic circuits and rip off the scanner. Behind it were a couple of wires still attached.
Ripping them off wasn't difficult, and I figure that shorting them would hopefully just work. I take the three wires and touch all the contact points. Hopefully one of these still has power.
The door moves!
Not the easiest for sure, the door slides open with the grace of a hippo, but it's functional! I'm glad that there wasn't any alarms.
Looking into the hallway ahead, I see a concrete tube. Doors on the left, and large windows on the right. Every second light is on and lit up with their signature "emergency red". At the end of the hall, about 100 meters away, there are some faint signs on the wall. There's some text but I can't quite make them out.
It's warmer here in the hallway. After peering out the windows on the left I can see that I seem to be on the 3rd or 4th floor? There is a floor that is mostly covered by snow down there but I can see what looks like heavy, reinforced windows and doors.
There also looks to be, what used to be either a floor or ceiling parallel to the floor I'm standing on. Making what I can only assume would have been a courtyard. But now, most of that floor has collapsed.
The doors on the right have different names and lab numbers along with departments.
"Dr. Lang - Quantum Physics"
"Dr. Knapp - Dimensional Physics"
"Dr. Lloyd - Temporal Physics"
Temporal? Like timelines and stuff? Well I must be in the research wing right now so I don't think much of worth will be here.
Moving towards the end of the hall, the signs finally come into view.
Habitation Wing ->
<- Labs
There's also a sign on the left wall pointing to where I just came from
<- Exit
I follow the sign to the habitation labs. There should be a cafeteria, or hopefully somebody had some rations left. Following the stairs, the habitation wing doesn't look much different from where I was. There's a door half cracked open:
"Lexi Chen"
I push the door to the side and find the room to have the bare bones of a regular habitation room. A desk with a terminal, single bed, and a bookcase. The room looks pristine. Nobody's been here for over 70 years but I'm surprised that the bed is made and everything looks, maintained?
The room looks to be a personal space for a young woman, maybe in her early 20s. There are pictures of her with her family, and a lot with her and her colleagues. Two diplomas, and quite a few stuffed animals in a corner. A very comfy room overall.
Maybe there is something of worth in here. Hopefully some rations, or at least some more answers.
As I step foot inside of the room, the light inside struggles to turn on but does eventually. Looking around I notice that the computer, is only a pane of glass floating above the desk and the keyboard seems to be a retro keyboard, yellowing plastic and clunky keys and all.
A weird combination but who am I to judge?
After taking a mental note, I look towards the terminal. There's nothing on the screen, but as I sit down, it turns on and shows a desktop screen with files and folders. One of them catches my eye as I skim over the lot.
Project DEMIURGE
Clicking on it reveals a wall of text files, each dated.
"Aug. 25- The subject has been getting unstable ... Dr. Vey says that they should stabilize themself within a couple of hours but i don't see that happening."
"Aug. 27- The subject has started to emit, an event horizon is the closest i can think. There are particles coming off of it, like a string of red crystalline sand."
"Aug. 28- AXIOM is suggesting a full shutdown of the project. Something seems off. They are advising a full evacuation but i don't think management cares."
"Aug.29- Its midnight. i don't want to stick around while that thing breaks loose. AXIOM hasn't been wrong once in the 3 years i've been working here. Its AI is built to be perfect. And i'm sure it's not wrong now. i'm leaving. Marcus, Max, Song and i are going to evacuate to the surface and try to connect with our parent company. Hopefully they can send people back.
If anybody is reading this. DONT go to sub-basement 3, DEMIURGE is held down there. Leave and survive, that's all I can do for you."
The files end there. Nothing.
I stood to leave, then the terminal flickered. Just once. White text on the black screen appeared for half a second:
LEAVE. FOLLOW THE LIGHTS.
But it disappeared just as quickly as it came. I stared at the screen. Someone, or maybe something was watching me.
I figure at this point there's nothing more I can do here.
"I still have to find the cafeteria. Hopefully it's around here."
As I step to exit out of the room, the lights on the left half of the hallway are off. The lights now are flashing in a slow, but deliberate sequence leading me to the right.
Following the directional lights, the path is straightforward. Each stairwell has their own card swipes to securely access each door, but they are either already open, or aren't locked anymore.
Standing on the top of the landing, I can see that there is a small terminal that is in the wall next to the cafeteria. It reads:
AVOID LOUD SOUNDS. MOVE QUICKLY.
What? Is that automated? I guess I should heed the warnings, it can't hurt.
The cafeteria is large. As big as a full wing of tables, vending machines, a couple of counters on the far wall, and what seems to be an open kitchen behind that.
I start making my way to the back of the room to find the kitchen and suddenly trip over something under a table. It makes a lot of noise as I slammed the chair into the table, causing the table and chairs in the vicinity to slide and scrape across the floor.
I look down to see what I tripped over. It was an arm. Still attached to a body without any head.
I scrambled up from the floor away from the body and that's when I saw the rest. Dozens of bodies slumped at tables, collapsed against walls. Every single one missing its head.
I laughed. Couldn't help it. The sound came out wrong, high-pitched and broken. "Of course," I said aloud. "Of course they don't have heads. Why would they?"
I'd crossed a frozen wasteland. Found a corpse. Got chased by something that shouldn't exist, and now I was standing in a cafeteria full of headless bodies while something that goes bump in the night was coming to add me to the collection.
"Fuck this," I muttered. "I want a refund on this shitty isekai."
Then I hear it, further away, but quick. Too quick for what I thought possible.
That same, dreadful, wet pounding on the ground. Like a wet rag hitting the ground with the weight of a semi-truck. Followed by something being dragged behind it, sharp, cutting into metal or stone. Like nails on a chalkboard.
Quicker than last time, and growing in volume. I realize that I've been found out. I have to make a decision that could end my life. To either run away, letting go of the rations that I need desperately. Or grab what I can and try to hide.
Fuck it.
I was faster than that thing. Had to be. I bolt for the back of the room. Jumping over bodies and chairs alike.
There isn't any blood. There's not even any scratches or markings on any of the walls or furniture. The worst thing I have found is all of the chairs and tables have been moved around and pushed. On a normal day, I would think of this as just a very messy cafeteria.
This is crazy, this is stupid, why of all people do I HAVE TO BE THE ONE HERE?
The steps are closer now. Insanely close. Improbably close. There is no way that thing could've made it here this quick. The sound of the steps are deafening, the floor reverberating with each slam on the ground.
I make it to the back of the room and tear open the freezer to find a stash of rations. Boxes the size of a textbook stacked neatly in the freezer. I frantically shove 3 of them into my backpack beside the cold weather gear. I also find a couple of frozen water bottles and throw those on top. One of them could make for a half decent weapon if push comes to shove.
I look around and see a terminal light up that says
> 30 SECONDS. RUN.
What? How does it know that something is coming? Who cares?
I make a mad dash to the entrance that I came in from, Ice bottle in hand. And as I am exiting the door I glanced back.
The door across the cafeteria exploded inward. Frost and crystalline dust sprayed across the room. Red particles catching the emergency lighting like blood in the air. And vaguely, through the haze, I saw it.
Tall. Too tall. Wrong proportions. Something jutted from its shoulders; crystalline growths? The movement was impossible, stuttering through space like reality was skipping frames.
And it was looking dead at me.
One thought crystallized: This isn't worth sticking around for.
I sprint down the hallway and follow the lights, which are now lighting up in a sequence to lead me away from the cafeteria.
Rounding a couple of corners, I do what I can to steady my breathing, and slow down. I hope I am far away enough to lose it. My steps are now as quiet as a whisper and I slowly creep down the stairwell to the next level.
I have to cross the entire floor to get to the next stairwell.
I slowly walk over the floor, following the sequencing lights. The pounding is now in the distance, quicker still, but staying around where I would think the cafeteria is.
I've already gone down one floor. And now the lights want me to go down another? I am getting too close to where that thing lives, and I don't want to be anywhere near it when it returns.
I passed by the labs and felt something in the bottom of my stomach lurch.
I'd rather not.
After walking past as slow as possible I finally let out a sigh that I didn't realize was being held. The far stairwell is within sight, and coming closer, I found the doorway to this is locked.
Weird, the first locked door I've found here.
I press Dr. Vey's badge to the badge scanner and I hear a soft 'Click'. Pulling open the door revealed only a stairwell down. The lights try to flicker on but to no avail.
Pitch black darkness to something I talked to only briefly. Good luck me.
Luckily, holding the hand rail and being very careful going down the stairs proved to be successful.
I step down onto the landing at what I assume to be the bottom of the stairs and straight ahead, I notice a red light on the wall. Touching it reveals it to be another badge scanner next to the door. Tapping Dr. Vey's badge to it releases the lock once more and on the other side of the door reveals an enormous room.
Far too large for the amount of stairs that I just descended, and about as big as the courtyard. This room held rows of server racks and in the center of its wall is a column of blinking lights and cabling. Most of the lights are turned off and not a lot of the server racks are running either. If I were to take a guess: this is what was helping me, and it looks like it's on its last legs.
There is a terminal in front of the main computer displaying some minor text:
>Welcome, Mr. Kang.
>I am glad you survived.