“Tread with caution,” Xander says as they approach the room leading to the main controls. “And don’t make any sudden movements.”

Miranda holds her flashlight close to her chest. “What if it’s a trap?” she whispers. “Wouldn’t we be walking right into it?”

“Obviously,” Yuuta scoffs. “But who cares if it is?” he says with a shrug, and a wave of his hand, his own flashlight. “We’ve been trained to walk into traps.”

“I know that!” she snaps, a little too loud in comparison to her mother who has yet to speak a word. “But for survival’s sake, it’s still better not to—”

“Quiet,” Xander says, his voice low as he freezes and holds out a hand to stop them from going forward. “Did anyone else hear that noise?”

The station dips slightly to the right.

Inside the ringing silence, metal screeches and rearranges itself.

Yuuta gulps. “Y-you’re hilarious, Xander. Stop playing, there’s nothing—” A shadow descends from the ceiling and drops down next to Yuuta’s ankle. Yuuta’s eyes widen as his flashlight reveals a maggot the size of a human fist, whose lime-green, almost fluorescent skin is dented with holes and what looks to be blood.

Miranda screeches. She drops her flashlight that goes rolling down the hallway, in the direction of the entrance that leads towards the main control panel.

“Oh, come on,” Yuuta says as he rolls his eyes and nudges the worm, that squirms against the silver floor, with his foot. “You’re not seriously scared of a bug, are you? Look!” He kicks at it again. “It’s harmless!”

“Yuuta,” Miranda blurts as she takes a step back, her eyes widening. “That’s not a normal bug.”

“Miranda’s right, Yuuta,” Xander tells him, his features growing sterner by the minute as a gloss of sweat covers his brow. “You shouldn’t be touching it.”

Diane nods as she pulls Miranda closer to her side. “We should come back with something to capture it. And perhaps, for now at least, consider a tactical retreat. I’ve never seen anything like it. We’d be in trouble if there were more, not to mention they could be poisonous.”

There is another screech coming from within the station as it moves again.

Yuuta’s shoulders drop. “Fine.” He sighs and takes a step forward. “Let’s get going, I don’t—” But before Yuuta can finish his phrase, inscrutable pain—coming from rows of sharp teeth that bite into his ankle’s thin skin—runs up his leg. His eyes widen at the sensation of fire bursting across his veins. It is like he has just jumped into an inferno that slowly burns him alive, he thinks.

“Fuck,” Yuuta gasps the word as his eyes dart from left to right in a fit of panic. “Fuck, what’s—” The pain disappears, yet the throbbing of his heart that travels throughout his wound remains.

When Yuuta glances downward, the worm is dead by Xander’s hand, its three rows of sharp teeth—covered in a purple substance Yuuta cannot identify as anything he knows—glistening from within its gaping mouth.

Xander glances up to him and meets his gaze. He parts his lips. “Yuuta,” he says. “Are you all—”

The floor rumbles. The foul stench of decaying flesh and iron fills the room. “Guys!” Miranda shouts as she fixates on something behind their figures, something now partially lit by her abandoned flashlight. “Guys, we have to go. Now! Get up and—”

Miranda’s breaths are stolen from her by none other than Diane, who grabs her by the arm, and starts running in the direction they came from.

It doesn’t take long until Yuuta and Xander are doing the same, as the tall, dark shadow rises before them and dangles the looming threat of a chase in front of their faces filled with terror and fright.

Yuuta is surprised to find his pain has relatively subsided despite the pressure he puts on his ankle, surprised, yet not dissatisfied. Bile rises up his throat as the horrible stench, that now lurks within every inch of the corridor, travels to his location. He swallows hard, tries to ignore it. And then he thinks he feels something. Something cold and inhumane brushing past his arms. However, it is gone within a matter of seconds, and perhaps, he thinks it again, that it is just his imagination—nothing more.

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It is hard to see in the darkness, for the spots of light—that emanate from their flashlights—have now engaged in a strange dance across the walls as their sources are swung around at random due to the group’s hectic dash for the exit. And if the unknown menace hadn’t already shaken them all down to their cores, the foul sound of liquids splattering across the floor behind them, without a doubt, does.

“We need a plan,” Xander finally manages to shout amongst the chaos. “We can’t let it follow us out into another station!”

“And what exactly is it?” Miranda shouts, out of breath and huffing. “Did you even see that? It had hundreds of arms!”

“Miranda, dear, I think your fear may have gotten the better of you.” Diane clears her throat and coughs. “It definitely looked closer to being human. Granted, it was missing it’s eyes, however—”

Yuuta frowns. “Wait, what?” he blurts. “What the hell are you both talking about? That thing wasn’t even close to being human. It looked like a shitload of intestines were bunched together and moving in this weird, sloppy manner, and—”

“Okay!” Xander shouts at the top of his lungs. “We get it. We all saw something different. But that’s not the point here. We need to leave and make sure this doesn’t get out of hand while doing so.”

“Holy crap, you mean you didn’t see it either?” Yuuta’s voice cracks. “Dude, what did you

see then?”

“Yuuta! Shut up!” Miranda cries. “Look! We’re getting close to the exit. He’s right, we need

a plan.”

“Oh great, now I’m the bad guy…” Yuuta mutters with a roll of his eyes.

“Xander? Any ideas?”

“I suggest we detach the station,” Diane says. “That way, nobody gets hurt, and we aren’t taking any risks here.”

“Uh, right.” Yuuta’s laughter is awkward. “That’s nice and all, Diane, but I think you forgot we need two people inside in order to do that.”

“I’m aware,” she says. “But do you truly think we have the freedom to choose here?”

“I mean… w-we could—”

“I’ll do it,” Xander says, his voice stern despite his obvious fatigue. “I’ll be one of the units that stay.”

Yuuta’s eyes go wide. “Hey, what are you talking about?” he asks, his voice shaken, as the world comes crashing down onto his shoulders. “That’s nonsense. Why would you—”

“It’s an emergency. We both know fighters and elders go first. I’m not as valuable as you. Top hackers are much harder to find.”

“But what about your dreams of—”

“There are no dreams, Yuuta,” Xander says. “This is reality.”

Yuuta traps his lower lip between his teeth. He bites down hard in an attempt to stop his tears from coming. “I’ll go with you then,” Yuuta blurts. “I can—”

“No!” Xander shouts. “No, you won’t. You’re going to go back to our station and report what you saw here.”

“As will you, Miranda,” Diane adds.

“Mother?” Miranda whimpers. “I can’t.” She shakes her head. “I can’t. I joined this unit to save people, I don’t want to lose another —”

“We are saving people.” Diane’s voice echoes throughout the hallway as their footsteps slow against the metallic floorboards. By now, the noises of the monster they’d seen is distant, yet, still nearing in a pace fast enough to make Yuuta’s heart race.

Diane hands her key-card over to Miranda.

Miranda snatches it from her without a word. Yuuta can vaguely see her features, illuminated by the red glow of the alarm above. Her brows are furrowed, and she is intent on looking down, her fists scrunched by her sides.

“I care about you, Miranda,” Diane says as she reaches out to touch her shoulder. “I’m doing this because I love you, and I want to protect what we—”

Miranda slaps her hand away. “Don’t you touch me,” she snaps, her boots clinking against silvers as she swipes the card across the slit embedded in the wall. Tears are falling down her face, ones she doesn’t even bother hiding nor wiping away. “First dad, and now you? I don’t believe this.”

Yuuta gulps. But no matter how much he swallows, it isn’t enough to keep his guilt away. “I’m sure you’ll do good,” Xander tells him with a bittersweet smile. “You’ve… been a great rival. Thank you, for everything.”

Yuuta wants nothing more than to switch places with him, to save Xander from the hands of whatever it is that’s waiting to devour them in this lonely station, to hold him in his arms and never let go. But he cannot do either of those things. Because it is too late now, too late to go back and tell him, too late to go back in time and refuse this hell of a mission. So instead, he just laughs. It’s half-hearted, and they both know this, yet none of them choose to comment on it. “Don’t talk like you’re already dead,” Yuuta says as he holds out his fist. “I’ll see you soon, Major Williams, and then I’ll be the one kicking your ass into hell.”

Xander chuckles, yet his smile does not follow. He bumps Yuuta’s knuckles with his, and says, “Sure. Whatever you say.”

Their time is up. Yuuta and Miranda step foot back into the outside world—their world. The four of them hold their respective watches up to the scanners that confirm their IDs, permissions as members of the S.C.U to bypass the system and disconnect the stations.

Smoke emanates from below. The doors between them begin to close as the locks that had kept all gears in place rattle and shake the ground beneath their feet.

Yuuta’s heartbeat thrums within his ears. He takes one look at Miranda, another at Diane and Xander, before muttering the word, “Sorry,” and jumping back into the desolated station. It all happens too fast for anyone to stop him, and once the doors are finally shut, once the stations are now floating away from one another—Yuuta glances at Diane’s face again, distraught and torn with rage, as she shouts words inaudible to Yuuta and bangs her fist against the glass, next to a stunned version of Miranda whose eyes have gone wide.

I did it, he thinks, ignoring his shallow breaths, and Xander who trembles beside him; in anger or fear, he does not know. I’m in, Yuuta thinks.