Xander and Yuuta’s footsteps echo across the empty hall. Despite their previous misadventure, the coast seems to be clear—at least, for now.

“How’s your injury?” Xander asks, as they try to navigate throughout the darkness with the help of a single flashlight.

Yuuta tilts his head. “Huh?”

“Your ankle,” Xander says. “Do you want me to have a look? I have a few things that could be used to treat it in my bag if you—”

“Don’t.” Yuuta’s shoulder hits a pipe. He grunts and swears under his breath. “It’s fine…” he mutters. “But more importantly, I really wish I could use my light so that I could stop running into these fucking pipes.”

Xander pauses to make sure Yuuta is okay. However, once Yuuta regains his side, they slip back into their previous pace as if they had never stopped in the first place. “You know we can’t do that,” Xander tells him. “We need to save whatever we can for the time being.”

“Yeah…” Yuuta sighs. “I know, I was just complaining.”

As they take another turn, Xander chuckles. “So honest today,” he says.

Yuuta gazes up to him, pouts, and mumbles, “Well… I might as well be if we’re going to be stuck here for a while…”

His statement catches Xander’s attention as his comrade’s gaze meets his halfway.

For a brief moment, Yuuta wonders if Xander is going to comment and tell him he’s being unrealistic for thinking they are going to get out. But soon, Xander turns back to the darkness of the hallway, and the space between them goes silent again.

Despite his apprehension of what it would feel like to be next to him without speaking, his fear of things growing awkward, Yuuta finds himself to be quite comfortable and can only hope the same stands for Xander as they continue to explore the station, following the holographic map, taking turn after turn, Xander’s heart skipping a beat each time they are faced with the beginning of a newfound corridor.

It is only once they pause again to take a breather, that Yuuta notices the throbbing in his leg has returned.

“You all right?” Xander asks him, just like he had back at the entrance; except this time his voice is a little more hollow, his tone brought down by his fatigue.

Yuuta purses his lips together. He is glad that Xander has not shone the faint, yellow light on him, for it is a certitude in his mind that he must be feverish, and that it would be visible with just one look at his face.

A part of him wants to tell Xander the truth, but he also knows that they probably aren’t safe here, and that he’d be putting both of them in danger—especially Xander—if they were to stop for more than a minute.

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“We’re almost there,” he says, because he can’t bring himself to fully lie to his best friend, and because it’s true—they are almost at the first cabin indicated on the map glowing before their eyes. “It’s better if we talk once we arrive.”

There is a weight in Yuuta’s chest. He is afraid—more than of the void they face, more than anything else—that Xander will ask him to stay, to see his injury. It would take the worth out of switching places with Diane, he thinks, if he were to put Xander at risk like that; and Yuuta very much hopes it won’t have to come to this.

The heavy feeling that had begun to choke Yuuta dissipates once Xander snickers and gives his shoulder a friendly pat. “Spoken like a true soldier,” he coos as he illuminates the path before them and steps towards the thick door—made up of the strongest metals—which will supposedly lead them to a place of temporarily respite. “For once,” Xander adds with a smug grin.

Yuuta punches his shoulder. “Just open the god damned door already,” he snaps.

However, another noise of a fist being slammed against metal rings throughout the room, causing them to pause.

Yuuta tenses. His eyes widen as they both turn to face the door to their left. He thinks he hears Xander gulp, but he isn’t sure, for it could be his imagination at this point. “Xander,” Yuuta says, his voice low.

“Yeah…” Xander whispers, his pulse racing beneath the hand Yuuta has yet to remove from his shoulder. “You take the left, I take the right.”

Yuuta lets out a sigh of relief. “Exactly,” he says, as he turns with the intention of walking deeper into the corridor, into a different room where nothing is apparently waiting for them on the other side of the door. “Let’s try another—” Yuuta pauses. He blinks twice. “Wait, what?” His voice breaks as he looks at Xander once more. “Are you insane? What happened to playing it safe? We can’t just go in there. What if it’s another one of those things we encountered in front of the control room?”

“I am playing it safe.” Xander’s voice is raised now. His hands ball into fists as Yuuta finally pulls his own palm away from his shoulder. “We don’t know who’s in there,” he says. “They could be an ally.”

“It could also be something deadly,” Yuuta chimes in. The glare Xander shoots him is an irritated one, causing Yuuta to add the words, “Hey, just saying,” with a shrug soon after.

Xander clears his throat. “Anyway, get ready.” He motions to part of the flashlight’s dim glow between them with his index finger. “If it’s another—well, I’m not sure what to call them,” he clears his throat. “But if it’s another one of those… lively creatures, we’ll run to the waste dispenser over there.”

Dubious about his plan, Yuuta raises a brow. “You want to use an electric waste dispenser on something twice the height of this corridor when we don’t even have a guarantee that the electricity will work?”

Xander’s brows are knitted together. “Do you have another suggestion?” he asks.

Yuuta steps back and plunges his hand into the pouch that lies lazily around his waist. He takes out a tiny, white rectangular cover that soon stretches out into an arc, its string a light blue beam that travels across its edges in a horizontal line once he releases its lock. “Here’s my suggestion,” he says, as he repeats the process with one of his arrows this time, and gets into position to shoot whatever is behind the door down. “You open the door. And if it’s friendly, I won’t have to kill it.” Another blunt bang resonates throughout the corridor from within the bunker. “Also, hurry up, will you?” Yuuta adds. “I don’t think I need to tell you, but just in case—if worst comes to pass, it would suck real hard if this thing was trying to call its friends.”

Xander sighs. His hand hovers over the handle. “All right,” he says as he begins to twist the handle. “But if all else fails, my plan is plan B. Though… hopefully it won’t come to that, and it’ll only be one of the passengers that were on board before we arrived.”

Yuuta swallows down the lump in this throat. He calms his trembling hands and takes aim. “Okay,” he says. “Deal.”