“Tenna? Abort.”

----------------------------------------

Janice groggily opened her eyes. The room was still nice and dark... was it still night? For a fond moment, she found herself at peace, looking up at the night sky in the forest.

As she slowly came to, she realized something wasn't quite normal. She was still in her cell, but the lights weren't blaring down as always. They were... a lot dimmer than usual.

She heard a loud, automated voice faintly from outside her cell.

“Security personnel to ground floor. Non-combat personnel, initiate evacuation procedure. Security personnel to ground floor–”

Janice's eyes shot open. She tossed her blanket off the bed and jumped to her feet, stumbling as her body struggled to keep up with her sudden, frantic motions.

Evidently, nobody had come to tell her what was happening. She ran to the door and opened it with utmost haste.

Nobody was around downstairs, as usual. Janice rushed down the lengthy hallways and ran up the stairs towards the lobby, still nobody in sight. Not usual.

The ground shook for a brief moment, with enough intensity to force Janice against the wall to keep her balance.

What in the world is happening?

“Hello?!” she shouted, running towards Carson's lab. The door was unguarded; she yanked it open and surveyed the room.

Carson was nowhere to be seen.

Evacuation... he's probably gone already. What's going on?!

A foreign thought occurred to her just then. Evacuation... escape? Is this a chance at freedom?

With nobody around, there was one place Janice had to go first. She quickly backtracked down the hallways, down to the volon cells.

This really is a risky shot in the dark. She found herself second guessing what she was about to do, fearing the repercussions of her actions should she be caught.

91, 92, 93, she counted. I can't get in trouble for something if there's nobody around to punish me, right?

Arriving at cell 97, she looked in through the door's tiny window.

Zev was right there, face against the glass, trying to look into the hall.

“Ah, ah! Janice...” Zev's voice was muffled by the door.

“Zev! Can you hear me?”

“Yes. Get me out of here.”

“I'm sorry for yesterday! If I let you out, will you cooperate?”

“If you're escaping, then yes!”

“Promise me that you'll–”

“OPEN THE DOOR!”

“All... all right.” Janice took a deep breath. She placed her keycard in the door's scanner and slowly slid it through. The door's mechanisms clunked before Zev shoved it open, nearly knocking Janice over in the process.

“FREEDOM!” Zev cheered as they ducked under the relatively short door frame, stepping out into the hallway.

“Shh, shh shh! Okay, let's go!” Janice had no plan, nor did she even know how to leave the facility, but she knew from experience that acting confident around Zev was crucial to staying on their good side.

“Kyeh-heh-HAH!” Zev cackled, completely ignoring Janice's shushes.

“We have to be careful,” Janice began as she led a hunched-over Zev towards the lobby. “I don't know what's going on.”

“Don't care,” Zev snarled. “I just want out. Ooh, I'm hungry.”

Not the most comforting thing for Janice to hear from a huge monster tailing just behind her. On that note, it was unusual having a creature that formidable following her rather than the opposite.

She knew the “main” floor well enough to tell the exit wasn't here. She continued onward towards the staircase leading up to the next floor up, where she'd used the computer lab not too long ago.

Janice raced up the stairs two at a time, while Zev found it easier to crawl up on all fours.

“Ah, ah, hungry, hungry...” Zev stood up straight once they reached the top of the stairs.

Janice felt it necessary to check behind herself every once in a while, keeping a close eye on her new ally.

About halfway down the hall was a human sitting against the wall, staring down at Janice and Zev.

“Fuuuck! Oh god, fu-u-u-uck–” Seth cried out as he pointed at Zev, scrambling to his feet.

“Wait! Seth!” Janice called.

Seth was already running away.

“Kyeh-heh-heh!” Zev chased him down without hesitation.

“Zev! Stop!!” Janice shouted, trying to keep up with the giant volon, but there was no way she could run that fast. Seconds later, Zev grabbed Seth, holding him in the air by the neck.

“STOP!!” Janice screamed.

“Hrmm... ah! You, I already ate you!” Zev barked, inspecting Seth's face.

Seth struggled and choked, barely able to breathe in Zev's grasp.

Something down the hall caught Janice's eye. “Zev! Put him down!” Janice demanded as she yanked on Zev's coat. She hesitated for a short moment. “...E-eat that one!!” She pointed down the hall.

Zev took their attention away from Seth, looking down at the armed guard just turning the corner at the end of the hallway, no more than a couple dozen feet away. The volon carelessly dropped Seth to the floor and bolted towards the guard.

“You! Open fire!” the guard announced. “Code white!”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

With a sudden gasp, Janice went prone on the floor. Seth curled up in a fetal position.

The deafening TSZ-TSZ-TSZ of pulse rifle fire blasted through the room. Janice couldn't bear to watch.

Zev charged forward, roaring as loud as the gunfire. The pulse rifle stopped firing, and the pained, horrified cries of the guard rang through the hall.

Snapping bone and ripping flesh slowly replaced the guard's screams.

Janice dared to look up. Parts of the guard were lying on the floor, while the rest of him was still, presumably, held up in the air by Zev.

Violent crunching noises filled the air.

Janice crawled up to her feet, now that the coast was clear.

“Seth, a-are you hurt?” she asked.

“Are you– are you fucking kidding me? That thing just... it's... eating...!”

“It's... it's okay! Zev is... uh...” Janice quickly realized she had no way of painting Zev's actions in a positive light.

“That thing fucking... oh my god.” Seth stood up, stumbling, supporting himself against the wall. “Ahh, fuck, fuck,” he mumbled, hanging his head down.

Janice watched as Seth started drooling, moments before he vomited all over the carpet. She grimaced and looked away.

“Get that thing away from me,” Seth huffed before retching again.

“O-okay.” Janice cautiously ran down the hall. “...Zev?”

Zev turned to face her, quickly swallowing an armoured leg. “Ah, ah, variety, variety...”

“Are you hit?” Zev didn't seem to be injured from the gunfire, but there was far too much for the guard to have missed every shot.

“One human can't hurt me fast enough to kill me.”

Janice scanned Zev's body. There were no bullet marks anywhere that she could see. Zev couldn't have regenerated that fast... could he have?

Janice shuddered and pointed to Seth. “Don't hurt him, okay?”

“Why? I'm free.”

“I won't help you escape this place if you hurt him.”

“Threaten me again, Janice.”

“I... sorry! It's not supposed to be a threat! Just please leave him alone, okay? He's my friend.”

“Fine.”

“Seth! We're leaving! Get out of here yourself, evacuation procedure and all!”

“Get that thing away,” he repeated, feebly shambling away.

Janice looked around the corner as Zev continued chewing on the last remains of the guard. Diligently keeping her eyes off Zev's horrible appetite, Janice spotted a sign listing directions on the far wall.

Just above three other lines of directions was a big red “← EXIT”. Janice's eyes lit up, and she beckoned Zev to follow her down the hallway once again.

The wall to her left was purely made of glass, showing off the fancy staff dormitories, dining room, and lounge. To her right was a solid, burgundy wall with a hefty door at the end.

It wasn't an ordinary door; it looked more like the entrance to a walk-in vault. Huge and entirely made of metal, it was sealed by a pair of horizontal bars raised across its width.

“NO ACCESS WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION. Failure to comply may result in immediate termination,” bright red text on the door warned Janice. Despite this, she couldn't help but notice the exit sign just above the door.

Pushing it did nothing, and neither did pulling.

There was no mechanism for a keycard anywhere nearby. She jostled the bars that kept the door locked, discovering they could be rotated to a vertical position with some effort.

Pushing the door did nothing, but with a strenuous tug, the door slowly swung open.

“Zev, get ready.”

Zev grunted.

Janice peeked around the door. Another staircase, only this time, there wasn't a semblance of comfort or decoration – just plain, grey concrete with old-fashioned tube lamps on the ceiling. Nothing else in sight.

The building shook once again, though not as severely as before. Janice could hear an explosion, just faintly.

“I don't like this,” Zev remarked.

“Neither do I...”

The two continued forward, ascending to the next floor. At the top was a smaller, ordinary-looking door, seemingly unguarded by anybody.

More guards' voices could be heard as Janice approached the door. She pressed her ear against it; screams, gunfire, and inhuman roars all mixed together in an aggressive flurry of sound.

Janice stepped back. “Shit... what should we do?” She'd hardly been through the dormitory floor below, let alone this ominous vault passage.

“Move,” Zev commanded.

“Hm?” Janice stepped to the side.

Zev positioned themselves a few feet away from the door, directly in front of it. They raised up their right foot and slammed it into the door, breaking it off its hinges, sending it flying into the next room.

Without an ounce of caution, Zev scrambled under the human-sized door frame and bolted forward.

“Zev!” Janice shouted, running after them.

They found themselves at the back of an enormous lobby, perhaps a dozen feet behind a reception desk. Everything was sleek and pristine, from glass staircases leading up to the second floor above them, to fancy pillars engraved with various patterns. Perhaps 50 feet in front of them was a wide open entrance to the corner of a city street.

A slew of human bodies – only a few still intact – were scattered around, countless blood splatters and smears of viscera painted the floor, and at least 20 stark white, gangly creatures with huge claws dotted the room, standing anywhere from Janice's height to Zev's. Some of them were actively consuming the corpses littering the room.

Volons, unmistakably.

Janice's breaths quickened as she stared straight ahead, largely disregarding the carnage around her. Just beyond those doors was freedom like she had before. No more containment. No more unwilling work. No more gross looks from unpleasant people. No more human guards to tell her “no.” She could leave and be free, and all that stood between her and the open door was a horde of volons.

“Oh my god.” Janice froze as several of them looked straight at her and Zev.

Zev responded by transforming their arms into a pair of axes, assuming a combat stance, grinning wildly.

A few of the volons scampered towards the two; Janice was tempted to run, but she steeled herself and remained still. To her surprise, Zev didn't attack. They simply stood ready to fight, emitting a quiet growl.

Two of the volons walked up to the opposite side of the reception desk with their mouths open, rapidly inhaling and exhaling. They were sniffing the air. Janice felt considerably less tense; if she was a human, she knew full well she'd be dead within seconds.

However, as she expected, the approaching volons gradually lost interest as they realized neither she nor Zev was edible.

“Let's... leave,” Janice suggested, hardly able to believe the words she was saying.

Zev calmed down, relaxing their stance. Their arms remained in axe form, though.

The two quietly walked through the bloody lobby, trying their best not to disturb any of the other volons. The ones that weren't feasting were just standing around idly for a reason Janice couldn't figure out.

Her pace gradually slowed down. She'd definitely heard gunfire and shouts, so where were all those soldiers? A glance around the room told her that some of the dead humans were guards, given their hefty chunks of armour lying around. But a facility this big would surely have tighter security, wouldn't it? Something didn't feel right.

The wide open door to the neon-lit city streets was just before her. The carnage continued outside; as Janice stepped through the exit, she spotted several more corpses, all of which were armed soldiers (or, parts of them).

The surrounding area was ruined with small craters, explosion marks, and a few small fires that Janice steered well clear of. Off to the left side of the road was a black semi truck, and a pair of volons with nearly identical heights to Janice and Zev, the shorter of which was armed with a ballistic shotgun.

“They're like us,” Zev remarked.

“H-hello?” Janice dared to speak up.

They both looked over to her; the overtly feminine shotgun volon did a double-take.

“You're not from the group,” a sickeningly sweet voice came from the shotgun volon. “Wait, are you Janice?” she asked.

“Yes, that's me. What's going on? Who are you?”

She beckoned Janice over. “We're here to break you out! Let's go, now, before reinforcements arrive! You too!” she ordered, pointing at Zev.

“Whoa, whoa, what do you mean? Who are you?!” Janice didn't know anyone who would want to rescue her, let alone this armed volon.

“The name's Tenna! We're on your side! Now let's GO!” she barked, running over to the semi truck.

Thoroughly confused, Janice followed her as Tenna led her to the back of the vehicle.

“Hah! You think I'm going to be kidnapped again?!” Zev roared.

“We're not kidnapping you, we're rescuing you! Now get the fuck in!” Tenna yelled. “Glenn, start the truck!” she continued.

Janice glanced down the street to see several flashing lights approaching. Distant sirens slowly became audible. Not police sirens, but military sirens.

“Come on, Zev!” Janice shouted as the semi's engine revved to life.

“Kyeh-hah-hah! Not a chance! I'm free!!” Zev cackled. Before Janice could fit in another word, Zev eagerly ran down the opposite side of the street.

“Zev!” she screamed. “Come back!”

Her words fell on deaf ears.

Tenna opened a latch on the back of the semi and flung the door up. “Get in! Go!”

“I– damnit, Zev!” Janice cried before hesitantly following Tenna's instructions. She climbed into the back of the semi as the sirens grew dangerously close.

The Zev-sized volon followed her in and sat down against the front of the freight container, and Tenna herself jumped in shortly after. She pulled the door down and locked it with the same latch mechanism from the inside.

“Floor it!!” Tenna yelled. “Go, go, go!”

Janice fell against the back of the truck as it abruptly accelerated forward. “Where are we going? Are we going to make it?” she frantically asked.

“Just hold on! Anywhere's better than here!” Tenna replied.