There was no time to stall, the moment the metal grid fell, Moea packed Rosa by the arm and they dashed out of the ventilation shaft and bolted across the room. Moea turned to see the panicking adults cursing and pulling objects from their coats. Objects that Moea had been aqquainted with not long ago. She reached her hand out in front of rosa, trying to shield her from their fire.

With a yell, vines suddenly sprung out of Moea's arm, producing gigantic plates of heart shaped leaves, multiple trumpet shaped flowers grew between the plates, forming a wall between the two and the attacking adults in white coats. The leaves reflected every bullet, until the adults emptied their chambers. Once they started to reload, the flowers grew bigger, and suddenly let out a deafeningly loud, blaring sound, making the people on the other side of the wall crouch in pain, dropping their weapons and holding their ears.

"Rosa! Open the vents!" Moea yelled, unable to move as Rosa pulled on the grid with all she had, eventually managing to pry it open. It crashed into the floor, and the vines and flowers growing from her arm disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

Rosa crawled in and Moea squeezed in soon after, reaching out to shut the grid behind them. They crawled down the shaft, which felt agonisingly slow, immediately ducking into cover the first chance they got.

"Why-why are they trying to k-kill us?"

Rosa asked, too scared to even cry. Moea rubbed her palm on Rosa's head in an attempt to soothe the both of them.

"I don't know. I don't know, okay? But- but I *won't* let them hurt you, okay? I promise."

...

Cold hands were pressed against his bicep, shaking him awake as Aran's eyes fluttered open. He rubbed his forehead, parting his fingers to not accidentally remove the flower on his forehead. It protruded out like a horn and was a vibrant violet color.

"Aran, you gotta get up. The Masks want you ready for an extraction tomorrow."

His friend, Alstro said. Aran got up and yawned, stretching the sleep off his body. What great news to wake up to.

"Man, why'd you have to wake me up right then?" He asked, and his friend sighed.

"Had that same dream again?"

"Yeah, the one on the surface."

"With the giant creatures and machines and everything." Alstro added.

"Still missing her, aren't you?"

Aran hopped off his top bunk and landed on the cold floor. His bare feet slapped against the smooth ground as he grabbed a towel and toothbrush. Before he went into the shower room, he held out his hand, pointing at his friend.

"Don't forget-"

"I know, I know. The cats are away..."

Amaran shut the door, muttering under his breath as he hung the towel and turned on the shower.

"...the mice will play."

...

"Go, go, go!" Moea screamed at Rosa as they suddenly heard metallic clinking rapidly approach them. One look back introduced a harrowing new threat, small enough to follow them even in the vents. Monsters. Small, insect-like monsters.

"Don't look back just go, we're almost there-"

She was cut off by Rosa letting out a blood curdling scream, as monsters appeared at the next turn they had to make. Moea held on to the papers for dear life and pushed Rosa forward, further along the shaft. They'd have to miss their turn towards the exit. This was bad.

Moea looked back just in time to notice one of the monsters leap towards her. She held her arm out, producing the same hard, heart shaped leaves as before, shielding herself from the monster as she whacked it away. That one critter however, was far from the last of the tiny abominations, and Moea had no idea whether there were more heading her, or Rosa's way. She crawled backwards on her elbow, warding off the insects with the other arm as she screamed out.

"Stay where you are! I'm coming!"

She kicked and fought off as many of the creatures as she could, finally making enough distance to focus on crawling as fast as she could.

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She spotted an exit right in front of them and yelled for Rosa to book it for the grid. The both of them rammed themselves against the grid as it fell off with ease, and they plummeted into a fall.

...

The main area was a furnace. Well, not exactly the furnace itself. Just where the fuel was given to the bigger machine. Or at least, part of it. This is where the Group A workers distributed fuel into the furnace. The safer kind of fuel.

Bless the Group B workers working with experimental fuel sources, Aran thought. The middle part was a giant tube of iron. Some windows around the machine showed the process of the fuel being transported along the gigantic tube. Several conveyor belts, chests, and boxes littered the massive space. Several workers were already taking their break.

"There he is!" Angela exclaimed, gesturing toward Aran, who had just come out of the shower and into the room. She sat next to Alstro, who was positioned in front of a chest behind them. Aran had the white shirt and shorts on that everyone else did. Just under their cloaks. He didn't feel like wearing his cloak today. And unlike the majority of his peers, he was the only one allowed to.

"The Masks really just let you do whatever you want, huh? You're late. They said they're gonna do the checkup later on, so now we gotta be careful." Alstro said. He was leaned up against a chair. He pulled out a bottle from inside the chest behind him. It was buried in several blocks of coal, so the bottle was dirty and blackened, as was Alstro's hand. White was never the right color to wear when working with coal.

"What can I say? Fueling the boiler pays off sometimes." Aran shrugged, earning furious glances from his two friends.

"You're telling me..." Angela said, getting up from the stool with the bottle in her hand.

"You went and fueled the worker boilers... And *didn't* tell me?!" Her hair, which was covered with flowers, shook violently as she gestured about.

"You *know* I don't shower when they don't turn on the boiler and you didn't bother to let me know?!"

"I thought it would be funny." Aran said unapologetically, as Angela swung at his arm. The punch connected, leaving a bitter pain in Aran's arm. He winced, rubbing his arm as he held it out to catch the bottle Alstro threw at him.

Angela had gotten her payback, and turned her attention to Alstro, laughing as she took a sip from her bottle.

"It pays to be friends with the sneakiest kid around." she smiled and Alstro shook his head.

"You all just stick around with me because I know how to steal drinks, and because Mr. 'Special Access' can't get the Masks to give him some." he grinned, gesturing to Aran

Angela frowned with a dramatically sympathetic gasp.

"Awh, you know we love you, Allie."

"Told you to stop calling me that."

"Come on man, I need someone to tease! Ever since-"

Angela paused, looking at Aran with a pained expression, who just shook his head.

"Guys, it's fine, I'm over it. She's gone, they're safe and I'm happy. Besides-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the three of them heard a collective blaring sound from above. It was faint, and barely audible considering the noise of the machine centerpiece in the room. Angela was the first to open her mouth to say something, when the door swung open.

The three immediately recalled the trauma they witnessed the last time the door swung open this heavily, but it wasn't any of the Masks. It was Cam. He immediately stormed his way towards the group, awkwardly maneuvering his way through the scattered boxes and chests, slapping the bottle out of Aran's hand. It didn't break and instead just emptied out onto the ground.

"Dude, what the-"

"Are you seriously having drinks at a time like this?!" Cam interrupted, and Amaran rolled his eyes. The interruption really got on his nerves. Cam sighed and wiped the sweat off his forehead, completely out of breath.

"They got her."

An ice cold silence settled in between the four of them. Amaran let out a dismissive scoff.

"What?"

"The Masks got her. Heck, they got everyone. *Everyone*. And they're coming here. So if I were you," Cam looked at Alstro and the chest behind him.

"I'd hide those damn drinks, 'cause things are about to get real."

Angela shot out of her seat to catch Aran, who'd stumbled back and almost fell to the ground. He felt sick. His heart felt like it had folded up a thousand times over. He struggled himself free from Angela's grip and walked towards Cam.

Aran grabbed the collar of Cam's cloak and pulled him up, which was easy thanks to Aran's towering height. Cam simply pushed him away.

"Do not... mess with me, Cam." he said, and Cam shook his head.

"I'm not. You know I know better than to mess with you on that. I-"

Cam stopped. They all did. They looked up at the vent shaft above, and heard rhythmic thumping along with hard metalling clanging against the steel walls of the vents. Suddenly, with a loud bang, the grid of the vent shaft fell open, and two figures fell out.