Kin was submerged in pitch-black darkness, and he dared not turn his light on. He knew that Sirens were blind, but they were extremely receptive to sound, and even their hideous eyeless heads could tell when a light had been shone on them.

So he continued, upwards, towards a hole far away, a hole that he only knew existed because of vague numbers on a screen, a hole mired in blackness and night.

Night was preferable to being food. Kin was not keen on ending up as something’s snack.

The laser ruler was the only thing he dared to use, the thin beam not having a high chance of hitting something and offending it. Its deep red strobe was the only colour Kin could make out as he pointed it left and right, trying to keep his course as close to the exit as possible.

Finally, Kin reached the ceiling. He spun in circles, trying to find the hole with the laser ruler, until the correct reading came up.

“Time to get out of here.”

Kin kicked his flippers strongly, propelling himself parallel to the ceiling and creating eddies of water that flowed outwards from his frame. He didn’t notice the currents wafting over the ravaged ceiling, swirling around pieces of metal that hung by loose wires and rusty hinges, weakened after who-knows-how long of rust and disrepair.

Kin was alerted to the falling metal bar when it hit the floor a hundred and a half metres down with a sonorous clang.

Oh no.

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Kin froze for a second as he heard hisses coming from the floor as Sirens amassed at the source of the noise. But that wasn’t what worried him. One hiss seemed to be closer than the others. One hiss seemed to be on his level, higher up than the others, rather than dozens of metres down.

Kin snapped his head to the source of the noise. A mottled Siren, three metres in length, had appeared out of nowhere, presumably from one of holes that pockmarked the metal ceiling.

Kin was terrified. But another part of him was darkly amused that he had not foresaw this. Should have realised that danger could be waiting up top too. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The Siren clung to the ceiling with its human hands and crawled upside down in a spiral pattern. It’s looking for me, Kin realised. It knows I’m here. The spiral got wider and wider, closer and closer, the Siren was opening its mouth, human teeth and all, closer and closer--!

Kin bolted. This was a mistake. The current generated by his frantic kicking was picked up by the Siren, and it shot towards him, missing Kin by inches as he rolled aside.

Oh my God! Kin managed to choke back a cry. Quick. Swim, don’t think. Swim. Swim. It’s onto you, don’t think, just go.

Mion wisely kept quiet. However, it could have been a possibility that she was simply too shocked for her problem-solving modules to cycle.

This was a war of speed and agility, and Kin was losing on both fronts, the larger and more lithe Siren able to keep up with his twisting turns.

I have to get it off my trail.

Sirens were attracted to noise and water currents. If Kin could somehow convince the monsters that he was down there making a ruckus, rather than staying up here, quietly, then, maybe--

No time. Kin kicked backwards and snatched out his pressure pistol, squeezing it and sending a high-powered water jet downwards. The effect was drastic. Immediately the Siren turned and dived down after the stream, invisible in the dark. Kin fired again and again, sometimes at the walls, the clangs of high-pressured liquid on steel serving to further distract his pursuer. Then, making sure to generate as little current as possible, he frog-kicked the distance to the hole.

“That was close.” Kin climbed into the wound in the ceiling and found himself in a long passage, stretching both ways. “Left or right?” Kin reached into the pockets of his suit, and stopped.

Oh no.

The laser ruler was gone.

And there was only one place it would have been.

Down.