"But she’s right, Enidri!" Ringa said as she and her partner left their cover. She holstered her other pistol and took a glance at the slain Tauria in the middle of the lot. "All the other witnesses at the park confirmed what she said. This thing absorbed an Exterminator and ran off with him towards the Refinery Sector."

"Maybe that means the missing people are somewhere nearby," Brielle added.

"Well, what do you know. Maybe Refinery 72 might not have been too bad of a guess after all," Enidri replied. She turned to face the direction of their destination. They were now significantly closer to it than before; Refinery 72 was just a short walk away from where their battle had been fought. "Since we got our fighting out of the way, going the rest of the distance shouldn't be too hard. Itzel probably alerted all of the Essencima in the area already."

Janus watched Itzel struggle to keep herself from coming up with a snarky response. She pouted and crossed her arms but managed to keep her comment to herself. Gurk walked by and rubbed his arm, clawing at the Spittler vomit that had gotten stuck to it. "Tired," he said in a long and drawn-out manner.

"I think we all are," Enidri replied. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can go home."

"If we can even make it out of the Refinery alive in the first place," Itzel said.

"Mulling over it isn't helping anyone. And staying here to rest just gives Essencima more time to spawn and track us down. We need to make our way to the Refinery now." Enidri marched forward without looking behind her. The two agents stayed close behind her, prompting the remaining three to look at each other. Gurk let out a long sigh before following the others towards Refinery 72.

"Putting Enidri in charge feels like some kind of divine punishment," Itzel said. She let out a huff of air as she continued onto the trail behind the rest of the team. Janus walked beside her but kept his eyes focused on their destination.

"It beats wandering around here aimlessly and just hoping to stumble on wherever the missing people are," Janus said.

"I think I'd rather take my chances with the Essencima."

The journey towards Refinery 72 was brief compared to the first portion of the outing. Other than a few Lurkers that Enidri promptly dispatched, the path was clear. "There it is," Enidri said, pointing towards yet another dilapidated building. Despite all the troubles of getting to the location, it looked no different than the building adjacent to where they had parked. "All of that trouble just to get to another run-down refinery."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Itzel and Janus stood next to her, slowly moving their eyes down the crumbling structure. The main entrance in the front had rubble blocking it. Gurk stepped in front of the trio. Upon seeing the blockage, he immediately moved in to take care of it.

"Thanks Gurk," Itzel said. "Didn't even have to ask." With a heave, the crocodile pushed the rubble to the side and made a clearing. He waved his hand towards the others, gesturing for them to come follow. Once they had reached the front of the building, Enidri was the first one to peer inside. Her Ion Blade gave enough illumination to light up a small section of the room with a warm yellow glow.

"Stay behind me," she said to everyone else. She then stepped over a large chunk that was once part of the wall and began to make her way inside. The area beyond was lit up by Enidri's weapon was pitch black. "And make sure to follow my path," she said as she quickly turned her head behind her. "There's a lot of sharp machine parts just lying around. Not to mention that it looks like parts of this building could collapse at any moment." As she continued further into the structure, the others activated their screen with their Implants, providing themselves with a small bit of personal light.

Everyone scanned the environment. Massive metal machines took up most of the space within. Long conveyor belts attached to massive, rusted furnaces repeated for as long as their lights could travel. Along the ground of the narrow pathway, more Essencima sludge coated the floor. "Be careful," Enidri said as she looked back to face the rest of the group. "Essencima could spawn at any moment." Everyone silently acknowledged her remark as they kept their eyes open for any potential puddles big enough for a creature to crawl out of.

There was a loud and rhythmic drip that echoed from the far end of the building. Enidri moved towards it first, keeping her weapon drawn and steady in front of her. It became louder and the echo more intense as she got nearer. Soon, she had enough light from her Ion Blade to see what the dripping sound was. The ceiling had collapsed, leaving a pile of stone and tile on the ground in front of her, blocking her path. As she looked up, there was a thin cascade of black goop that came in from the floor above. Enidri raised her Ion Blade as high as she could, trying to get a better view of what was above her.

"Can you see anything?" Ringa asked. She angled her screen upwards into the dark expanse. "I don't think our Implants can make a light bright enough to get a good view of what's up there from this angle."

"That means we'll have to go up there ourselves." Enidri turned towards Gurk and waved for him to come closer. He obliged and put his two hands together and lowered them like a platform. Enidri stepped on his palms. The crocodile raised her upwards just high enough so that she could reach onto the edge of the hole in the floor above her. She climbed her way up. Down below, every could hear a few slashes of her Ion Blade followed by the whimper of a few Essencima.

"Everything fine up there?" Ringa called out from below.

There was a short silence.

"Enidri?" the detective shouted again.

"We need everyone up here! Now!" the rest of the team heard Enidri shout. "Get Gurk to clear out that rubble! We need a straight path to the stairs!" Gurk began tossing the chunks of debris to the side while Ringa remained underneath the hole.

"What's going on?" Ringa exclaimed.

Enidri leaned over and looked down at Ringa. "I've found the missing people."