>> A Feast For One

"So when's the next mission?" Kami grumbles, dangling an unhappy Badger by the ankles. "Food or not, our supplies are low. Our cash is zero. If the Night Tyrant breaks, we're bloody toast.”

"Yahhh! Spook! Help! I was just-"

“Dunno mate." Zip shrugs, widely. A feisty Gremlin in one hand, a spare holdall in the other. And a Demon hovering behind, itching to step in. "Clients ain't, like, all that keen on us. Y'know? I mean, like, being-"

"Well, we better bloody fix this soon!" She continues, waving a lil idiot. "It's dumb as heck that we only have one scanner between all of us. I had to bloody scan everything myself! "

"Told ya. When we get more money." I grin, sheepishly, Helping Zip secure the struggling bag. "Scanners cost more than bloody armour.... even if ya make em yourself."

Kami sighs, shaking the snack-cakes out of Badger's underwear. "Spook. If I find out you're pranking me, and there's a box with a bajillion scanners upstairs...."

Zip lets of a resounding snort. "Hey,. Mate. Like, y'know we'd never do that." He chuckles with false innocence, tickling Badger's armpits so he squeals even louder.

"Definitely not." I add in. Swinging the Gremlin-bag in mad, squealy, circles. "We'd never do nothin' that weren't bloody not-nice. Y'know that, right?"

Kami's brow scrunches, fighting to unpick the quadruple-negative. Giving up with a stolid snort, and a snarl. "RRRGGH! Whatever, Spook....! You ass! I'm gonna start carting all this nonsense upstairs!"

"Wooooo! I'll help!" Yells a tiny, inverted, voice.

"Shut it! You're the bloody nonsense I'm talking about!" She roars, shaking him up into a furious blur of eyeballs.

“HEEEELP!!!!!! SPOOK!!! HEEELP!!! I'M DYING!!”

“Oh no. If only I could." I grope at the air, feebly. "But you're so far away.”

“YAAAaaaAAAaaaHHH! SPOOOOK! HEEELP!!!!”

“Whoops! I’m getting further and further away!” I laugh, spinning my sack of sneaky dumbass.

"EEEE!! SssssPOOKieeeesss!!! Nuuuu!!!" It squeals, wiggling furiously.

“Tough luck, squirt!” I cackle in glee as we enter the warehouse, with trollies and bags in tow. "Heh. It's gonna be hard getting through all this food, what with these two are stuck on army rations for a week!"

"BLAAAGHHH!!!" Badger wails. "GROSSSS!!!"

Should have bloody thought about that earlier!" Kami growls, jabbing the warehouse controls with his foot. "Before you clowns went bloody sneaking about a bloody monster-infested lobby on your own!"

"Speaking of bloody sneaking." I growl, dragging two trollies behind me as we cross the warehouse. "Five trollies worth of grub ain't gonna fit in one lift. Not with all of us, too - even if half of it's in bags. We need a damn plan here."

"Two up, two down?" Kami suggests, as massive blue storage-cubes begin to shift around us in a pre-arranged pattern. "One lot guards the lift, and sends food up in bits? Others unload, and guard it? Then the first lot follows?"

I scratch an ear, fidgeting with the point. "Rmmm.... not sure about that. This stuff is heavy. Bulky. We walk outta here loaded down, pushing carts, we can't defend ourselves. We get caught out there, we're kinda done-for. Plus we just picked up some spare bags." I nod as prickly lil claws jab through the surface of one, ripping furiously. "Not a chance."

"Yeah, mate, and - like - some of it's gotta go in the Night Tyrant, for.... uh.... snack emergencies." Zipper coughs, shunting another trolley as the glassy blocks hem us into a space by the exit. Shifting walls humming with strange light.

I tap my claws on one, for a second, then cock my head. "We gotta leave half of it here. Make two.... three trips."

"On its own? With the door half-bust?" Kami winces. "Spook, there's all kinds of nasty little crawly-"

"You can jam it. Or we could stick it inna cube."

"Look. I..... I-" Her fingers twitch a little. Pain on her face. "I'd.... I'll stay and watch it."

"What?" I blink. "No way. C'mon. It'll be fine. It's been here this long-"

"Even so." She says. Almost like a compulsion.

And I know that look.

"....Fine. But I'll watch it. You got too many arms to not be carrying stuff."

"Perhaps it would be wise to place additional guards-"

Kami gives me the finger, six times at once - Badger landing flat on his face. "Shut up, Spook. I just-" She breathes out hard. "Fine. Fine, but you better-"

"Oh. I will. I'll watch it real good." I grin, tinkling my merry claws along the fudge-cakes.

"Sounds awesome, mate." Zip says, cheerfully stuffing a dazed idiot into a second holdall. "So, like, which garbage chute are we stuffing these down?"

"MMMPPH!!!"

"EEEE!!! HISSSS!!! NUUUsss!!!"

"Eh, surprise me." I shrug as the last of the huge cubes finally locks into place, forming a wall nearly as thick as the warehouse is long. I study it for a second, and curse. Eyes widening. "Oh.... crap. Are these all the empty ones?" I turn my eyes to the other panel - which flickers. Displaying a familiar, clockwork, abomination.

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"Correct." It states in a voice of metal death. "The code for our new Automated Wall Defence is now in working Beta. The system is comprised entirely of unused containers, which can be shifted to imprison or crush intruders."

"Shit..... that's a lot of bloody empties though....." I mutter, as cold hunger twists in my gut. "More than I bloody thought."

"It is is to be expected. Warehouse stock has been depreciating for over seventy years. What remains is largely pasta, rice, and inorganic materials."

"Mostly those weird yellow snack cakes." Kami chimes.

"Still....." I mutter, shanking my head.

"I instructed the internal drones to pack the crates more efficiently, and to hide them under the stack." It explains. "This is why it seems more empty than before."

"It'll do." I breathe at last. "Shit, I mean, we knew this was gonna be finite..... But damn...."

"Hey. Like, it didn't have to be here. So it's a bonus. Right?" Zip shrugs again, as me and Tufty eye the food.

"Guess so. But I ain't seeing any bullets, guns, cash, or other supplies in here." I warn, nudging a trolley. Fretfully. "And we're running out of those, too."

"Not my bloody fault." Kami rips at her cloak. "I ran out of 88 calibre ammo, and the pistols are shit at armou-"

"Right. Right." I wave her down, carefully, before she does herself some damage. "Just sayin' we gotta get our bloody asses in gear. Get ourselves a payin' mission. Or else sell a buncha-"

"Ah.... Yeah, uh.... like, maybe let's leave out the 'or else' mate...." Zipper chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Uh huh." I grin. "Hey, that reminds me, how's your shiny new Carrier doin'?"

"Uh, fine mate. Still putting it back together, like...." He winces. "Anyways, we gotta get this food locked up! Yeah?"

"Oh yeah." I grin even wider. "Maybe in a nice fancy gold box, if we sold-"

"See you later mate! Gotta go!" He yelps, hustling Kami and Demon out the door in a whirlwind of trollies and bags. Tufty and Demon helping to drag the two lil idiots behind them.

The door locks.... sort of.

And then I'm alone.

"Oh, bloody finally." I groan. Ripping a meaty bag of crisps off the stack, and laying into them with a fury. "Oh Gofft! Fuud! Fuud! Oh-" I crunch happily, ignoring the slightly musty aftertaste. Half the bag is powder., but I shovel it in good. Stuffing the evidence into my gear, and pouncing on a tube of 'GENUINE Fruity Nonsense!™'.

Which, I assure you, contains exactly 0% genuine fruity anything.

But what they do got are big, gooy, gummy slices of 'orange' or 'lemon' or 'lime' that burst with flavourful juices. Crunching their sweet little sugar rinds against my teeth as I chew. They even look like actual fruit. Like little reminders of a far gone place.... for a far-gone people who still believed in a Sky..... A Surface….

And that maybe they'll go back there, one day....

Just maybe.....

And still the thoughtless hunger pushes me on. Pushing me to wolf down treats that are all just a bit too sticky. Or soft. Or hard. Or crumbly. Or squashed. With weird little wonky bits, or molten chemical goo in all its funky colours.

Except.....

I'm just gnawing through an entire pack of sausages, when suddenly I pause. Jolting out of my furtive huddle, and stuffing the rest into my satchel. Eyes quick. Ears Quicker. One hand slipping down to touch my SMG. Pangs of hunger and frenzy giving way to a dull little tingle of dread. And a sudden awareness....

The tiny warehouse is silent, and cool, and inert.

As it has been for seventy years.....

"Hey.....?" I hiss over comms. "Guys....?"

Nothing. Nothing but static.

And the crinkle of settling food.

I swallow. The sickly acid of old cola still clinging to my tongue. My barren guts clenching, even as my filled stomach curls up for a happy little nap. A tiny spark of realisation, dawning. Oh so slow. Oh so careful. So soft. Like a whisper of sudden sanity rising from beneath the roaring tsunami of rabid, screaming, stamping, howling, GMO hunger.

I'm not alone with a feast, it says.

I am a feast that's all alone.

Alone in a vast, monster-infested, tower. Alone, in an airtight room, in the middle of a Quarantine Isolation Zone.

Very, very, very Alone....

.....while all my friends are too far away to help.

"Well....... Shit." I breathe, at last, to the expectant darkness. "I'm a dumb bloody teen in a soddin' horror movie...."

It doesn't answer.

Nothing does.

Nothing but the Silence.

Endless. Utter. Unthinkable. Silence.

The kind that rings with dull little noises, off in the undecided distance. With terrible little groans, and shifting crackles, and sinuous rumbles in the depths. Of old machines ringing down, down, down, deep - right on the edge of even my hearing.

Tiny noises. Insistent and endless.

But they cocoon the silence of my little hole, and twist its quiet into something.... watchful.

My back finds the corner, and I ready my gun. Swallowing. Licking my lips. Eyes unfocused, to see everything at once. The moment dragging on. And on. And on. Until I start to wonder what the Hell happened to my team. Where are they? What's going on? Surely they gotta be nearly here by now? I flick a screen into existence, but all the cameras are dead and dark....

"Polybius?" I whisper. "Guys....? Anyone....?"

Tink.

A sound so soft it smothers me. So subtle it might not have happened at all.

I flip my SMG to full-auto, and rip a fresh mag off my armour. Slotting it to double the count.

And then I do it again. Tripling my original ammo.

"Fair warning." I growl, leaning the bulky mag on the floor. "Any bastard thing comes that through that door.... is gonna get bloody hosed....."

The silence... thickens. And thickens again. Congealing around me, thick as molten lead, as sweat soaks into the grip-tape wrapping the handle of my gun. Eking itself out, until I imagine it was never any other way-

Tink.

"Who the Hell is that!?" I snap. "Say it or, suck bullets!"

Nothing.

I breathe harder. Licking dry lips.

Maybe it's just a busted fan, smacking it's blade?

No. No, it came from the door. Exactly, from the door.....

"Who is it?" I snap again. "Speak, I shoot at the next bloody knock!"

Nothing. Again. Nothing at all.....

And then....

"The Raven." Whispers a dark little chorus of voices. Ripping chills up my spine, and shivers through my fingers. Flexing one of them, until it brushes the trigger.

I almost scream. For all my talk.... I wasn't expecting words.....

"Who.... Who is that? If that's you Zipper....."

"You know all too well who it is...." Chuckle the low, inhuman voices. "...a-knocking at your door......"

"You....." I swallow. "You ain't bloody real. I bloody made you up....."

"No...." The things murmur, after an infinite moment. "We made you up....."

"What....." I choke. "What the Hell does-?"

"Fruitless. Pointless. We come as a friend. We come as an ally of old. But.... the child cannot be spoken to. No, it cannot....." I hear something rasp. Like many little mouths licking at all kinds of too-fine teeth. "But we will be back. Yes we will. We will..... always..... be back." Things touch at the reinforced door. Shifting it, gently. As if the thing outside could merely push, and tear it clear out of the wall. "We are forever..... And we are never going to leave..... Never..... Not until every promise is fulfilled. And every lie is broken......"

"For- Forever.....?"

"Did you expect less? Did you expect more?" The thing doesn't laugh. Doesn't even sigh. "Beware, child. Your lessons are not over. Your teacher is abroad. And..... And we are but the first..... who will rap your door this night." It pauses, new voices twisting up through the others. Like oily worms in a pot. "And it..... is already here....." The feeling of pressure drops, suddenly. Sharply. As if the thing simply ceased to be. And I am left with only a fog of quiet pressing against my senses, as if....

Slowly, with a pop, my cameras begin to come back online.

Hallways. Stairways. And everything in-between.

I flicker a glance across the lobby - even though we're never, ever, meant to trust what they show us.....

It's empty.

I unhook the third mag on my gun, and pad towards it. Landing, softly. Silently. Spreading my foot before it accepts even a fraction of my weight. The door is.... still. A feeling of emptiness. But I pull a tool from my belt, and slot it into the edge. Wheedling it open just enough to thread a camera out....

Still nothing.....

"I'm bloody hearin' things.... Gotta be....." I mutter, checking the sealed room's O2 levels. Still safe, but tipping into the yellow. Better crack the door, in any case..... They've got to be nearly back by now. "....Omega Zero, check in?"

God, movie vibes again. Things hiding above doors.....

I angle the camera up, but there's only dark. And golden trim. And mirror.

My eyes flick back to the gage.

It's not moving. But.....

My whole body freezes. Breathless.

There....

In the reflection of the door.....

There's.....

....a second face....

It smiles at me.

And then-

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