Their haul had been pretty decent, but James dreaded having to go back to the facility the next morning.
'Hey, what are we going to do about that shadow man?' he asked and sank down on the bottom bunk, letting his helmet fall to the floor.
'Loot?' Dakarai commented.
'Yeah, obviously, but I mean... the monsters, man. We can't just..' He huffed in frustration. 'We'll die.'
'There's at least three other entrances to the building. It's huge,' Bill responded from the terminal. He watched the screen, his back turned on the rest of them.
James nodded. 'Okay. Which one is the farthest away from the main entrance?'
'The one at the back of the building.' Bill glanced over his shoulder at him. 'You okay, James? You seem a bit shaken up.'
He almost laughed. 'Shaken? Yeah, no shit, man.' Running a hand through his matted hair, he looked at Rebecca and Dakarai. 'Any suggestions?'
'I'm... no. I don't wanna go back in there,' Rebecca stuttered. 'I can't. Can I stay here and monitor?'
Bill gave her a look that said he'd accept no such thing. 'We need everyone in there.'
'Oh yeah? And why didn't we need you today? Where did you go?'
'I went in with you, you might recall. I returned with what loot we had, and then I helped you get out safe. Recall that part? I'm gonna do the same tomorrow. It's always safer in the mornings than in the evenings. So the faster we get in and find stuff, the better.' He nodded, as if they had all agreed.
James had no energy to counter it. Besides, it made sense if the part with the monsters were true.
'Let's go in through the back. If we get going fast, we probably won't lose too much time.'
'Might be better with one of the side entrances, though,' Bill muttered. 'The facility is huge and the back door would take a long time to get to. The eastern one is far enough away.'
'Sounds like a good plan. I'm game,' Dakarai said from the floor, where he lay flat on his back. His boots lay discarded beside him, reeking.
To be fair, they all reeked, James thought. 'Yeah, sure.'
Rebecca sighed and nodded in defeat.
The following morning, they left the ship as early as they could, carefully keeping their eyes peeled for the large baboon-hawks and eyeless dogs. The overcast sky threatened with rain later, building up tall and dark while the wind whined around the tall cliffs.
They arrived at the fire exit, high up on a cliff, without any mishaps or monsters. Dakarai was the first to enter, as usual. He pushed the worn, red metal door open and stepped in. The others waited a moment, watching and listening. Then the door opened again and Dakarai assured them it was safe to enter.
James walked with Rebecca this time while Dakarai and Bill teamed up.
Efficiency, and all that. James would have preferred if they could have gone all together. But there was no reasoning with Bill on that subject.
'Don't break the flashlight,' Bill said before they parted ways. 'It's the only spare we have for now.'
'I'll try to remember that when the monsters chase me,' James retorted, annoyed. It wasn't like he'd dropped it on purpose. Besides, a flashlight wasn't that expensive. They could afford a new one.
Rebecca took a deep breath. 'Let's go.'
They headed down a wide corridor that soon split into four. Deciding to keep it simple, they followed the right-hand side, always turning right whenever possible.
'It's easier to find the way back out again,' Rebecca said. 'So we don't need to get lost in a pinch again, like yesterday.'
'It's a great idea,' James agreed.
They walked for a few minutes in the darkness, only using one of the flashlights to save on the battery. When they turned around another corner, something made a whirring noise. They stopped in their tracks. A red beam of light hit James in the chest. With a gasp, he jumped back and pulled Rebecca with him. Loud gunfire rattled, dust, bits of concrete and bouncing bullets flew all around them as they ducked and covered.
'I hate turrets!' Rebecca yelled as it finally stopped. 'It's the third time I've almost walked into one of them.'
'Yeah, it's weird to have them in here. Isn't it?'
'Maybe? Unless the monsters were here while people sill worked here too.' She brushed herself off and turned back the way they'd come. Let's take the next right.'
'Yeah. I'm not trying to get past that.' But before James followed her, he bent and picked up one of the bullets. He frowned. It wasn't the same as the other one he'd picked up yesterday. This was a smaller, rifle type ammo. Not like the big empty shell he'd found. A shotgun. Gods, he wanted a shotgun.
'Hey, you coming or what?' Rebecca called, a few meters ahead. 'I don't wanna do this alone, you know.'
'Yeah, sorry. I just wanted to check the bullets.'
'What for?'
'I found a shotgun shell yesterday, and I just wanted to compare them. I'm fairly certain it's from a shotgun anyway. I'm not an expert.'
'Wow. You think we can find weapons here? Other than the turrets?'
'Maybe. I hope so.'
She smiled, a hopeful expression on her face. 'I hope so too.'
'Yeah. Imagine just being able to blast the face off of any monster that dares to show it's ugly mug, eh?'
'That'd be amazing.' She pointed. 'A door. Let's check it out.'
James tensed, but so far the place had been quiet apart from the turret. Maybe they'd be lucky this time.
They found a large room with machinery and computers. They picked up quite a few things before moving on. Another room had a staircase, but no other doors, so they headed up, and went though multiple rooms and corridors.
'This place never ends, huh? What were they doing here anyway?'
'No clue. Many different things, I think. Research, mining... stuff.'
'Yeah, definitely stuff,' she agreed.
James chuckled. 'But what kind of stuff? That's the question.'
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'Dude, I don't wanna know.' She laughed. 'Probably illegal experiments.'
He nodded. Not a bad guess. Wouldn't have surprised him at any rate. He stepped in something wet and looked down. The floor had a wide wet track leading down to the right. He followed it with his eyes.
'Becca. I think there's a slime over there. Let's go left.'
She turned and followed him back immediately.
For a while, James almost felt calm as they wandered the empty building, room after room, and corridors leading in circles and dead ends, and branching everywhere. But no monsters.
Then James heard footfalls ahead. A thunk. He and Rebecca automatically flattened themselves against a wall, standing still and listening.
'What is it?' Rebecca whispered behind him.
Leaning forward, he glanced around a corner. 'I don't know. I can't see anything.'
He carefully entered the corridor and saw an open door just to the side. The room was lit. He hesitated, but then decided to go check.
Rebecca pulled at his arm, shaking her head.
He nodded and mouthed, 'It'll be alright. I'll be careful.' He'd make sure of it.
She stayed back as he slowly crept up to the doorway. The faint noises in the room continued. Rattling, scuffing, a creak.
His comms hissed and James' heart almost stopped. Fumbling it out, he quickly turned it off.
Holy shit. What if the thing in the room had heard? He barely dared breathe. Was it very quiet? He heard nothing in the room. Shit.
A shadow blocked the doorway, and James jumped back.
'Oh, my GOD!' Dakarai shouted, and something clanged.
'What's up?' Bill's voice called from the room, rapid footsteps closing in.
James realized he'd been sneaking on their friends.
'You scared the shit out of me,' he huffed. 'I thought you were monsters.'
'Man! You scared me too. Why'd you be sitting by the door like that! You freak,' Dakarai laughed and waved his flashlight around.
Rebecca and Bill came up to them as well, sighing and smiling in relief.
'I was trying to figure out if it was something dangerous,' James explained. 'But I guess we'll be on our merry way then.'
'The rooms down that way have been cleared already,' Bill injected. 'But if you turn to the right in the second intersection, we haven't been there yet.'
'Alright, thanks.' James waved and set off down the corridor, Rebecca at his heels.
'I thought you were gonna die, James. Don't do that to me, please.' She poked him in the side.
He laughed, relieved. 'I didn't die. And you're one to talk. The scare you guys gave me...' He didn't finish the thought, unwilling to think too much about what had almost happened the previous day.
Her smile faded and she nodded. 'That's fair.'
They walked to the new area and looked around. They found a large circular room full of pipes and valves of varying sizes, opening up into five different corridors. Like some kind of hub.
'Well, this looks like a pipe central,' James muttered. 'Should we split? Just scout the corridors a little bit to see which might be best?'
Rebecca hummed, her eyes wide. 'Shouldn't we stick together? Safer that way.'
'Yeah, but we haven't found much today. Time's running out. Just check if there's many or few rooms, yeah? Then return here?'
She swallowed audibly. 'Yeah, yeah, okay. I'll check there, and you take the next one?'
'Yeah. See you back here in...' He checked the time. 'Five minutes?'
'Okay, yeah.' She wobbled in place.
James felt bad. It wasn't exactly safe. 'You know what, never mind. Let's go together.'
'No, you're right. Just a quick look is okay.' She gave a quick smile, and set off towards the corridor she'd pointed at.
'You sure?'
'Yeah, I'm good.' She gave a thumbs up.
James wondered if she really was, but this was more efficient. He took the next corridor. No lights here. Glad for the new flashlight, he let the beam go from floor to ceiling, ensuring nothing occupied the space. Then he proceeded. The corridor kept going for a long time before he reached the first door. It was locked.
'Great,' he mumbled and tried to peer inside the small window. Nothing but darkness.
He kept going when he heard something. Rebecca? He checked the comms and remembered he'd turned it off.
Well, that was stupid.
He flicked the on button and pressed the button. 'Rebecca? Over.'
'For the love of the seas you always call out to, why'd you turn the comms off?' her annoyed voice replied.
He grinned foolishly to himself. 'I didn't want the monsters to hear it when I was sneaking earlier. Over.'
'Oh for f... Whatever. Get your ass over here. I found stuff.'
'Coming right away. Over.' He put the comms down and turned back the way he'd come.
Footsteps echoed near the central room as he approached. He halted, listening.
Dakarai and Bill again, perhaps?
The steps were rhythmic and heavy, almost like steel shod shoes. Then they stopped, followed by an odd clicking noise for a few seconds. Then more footsteps.
Were there people here? That felt unlikely. James licked his lips nervously, then carefully walked forward. He stopped by the big circular room with the pipes, looked in all directions, trying to figure out where the sounds came from.
The steps approached, stopped, clicking, more steps.
Maybe from over there? The corridor they had entered from earlier. He squinted. But it was too dark. Might be Bill and Dak after all. They were down there. Perhaps they had found enough and were returning to the ship?
He decided to hurry, and walked out into the room, sticking to a wall. He'd beeline it to Rebecca, he thought.
Someone entered the room from the opposite entrance. James froze, his eyes glued to the opening.
A figure, no, a person with a tall hat, stopped in the doorway and looked back and forth in the room. The odd clicking sounded again.
Was it just a man, after all? But neither Bill nor Dakarai.
James, trying futilely to become one with the wall, stared at the stranger. And more importantly, at the stick in his hands. A weapon? He couldn't quite see in the gloom.
The man stomped forward a few steps, and James entire body tensed. The loud footfalls echoed in the room. Then the stranger stopped again, spun around. Something looked wrong. Sweating, James stared at the man. As he walked a few more steps forward, he came into the light from Rebecca's corridor.
James stared.
What the hell?
The man wasn't a man after all. A human sized doll in old-fashioned military clothes in red, blue and white, a tall black hairy hat on the round head. The doll's upper body spun around then, clicking loudly. The legs didn't move, just the upper torso.
Some kind of robot?
James tensed, ready to run, but not daring to move a muscle unless the thing appeared to see him.
The doll's face stared at him. Painted black eyes and red cheeks on a white face. The mouth was just bared teeth. It had no neck.
James eyes lowered to its hands. A shotgun pointed straight towards him. Shit.
'James! Are you there?'
Fuck. Rebecca. If she just walked in here, she might get shot by that thing.
'Don't come!' he shouted, his heart hammering.
The thing stepped forward again, then stopped. More footsteps approached from behind it.
Were there more than one? Tiny bright dots swam around the corners of his eyes.
The thing's head rose, straight up, and its mouth opened.
James stared at it in disbelief, his mouth gaping, mind reeling from the impossibly freaky thing.
It closed again, and spun. Then it raised the shotgun and a deafening boom and flash had James reeling backwards, his ears ringing. He stumbled and plopped down on his ass heavily as smoke rose and pebbles from a wall rained down over him. Did he hear shouting? Everything was muted and his ears hurt.
Swearing, James pushed himself back towards the corridor he'd emerged from. He had to get away from this madness.
Clicking.
He looked up, meeting that monstrosity. The eye. A large round eyeball on a metal rod, hidden behind the round face of the doll until it rose up, opening the mouth. James stared at it, crawling backwards, unable to utter a single noise. His thoughts frozen, paralysed.
The shotgun raised, and he looked down the barrel.
Death.
Someone screamed.