At eleven in the morning, Clinton Aquis half stumbled into the rickety old elevator. More than a tad tipsy he found himself heading to work as a centi tech while not clear of mind and lacking sleep. No one else rode down with him and for good reason as he was over an hour late to work. With a squealing bang, the elevator hit a bottom that was hundreds of feet below the ground. As he rubbed his eyes and scratched his stubble Clinton walked out into a dim room lined with lockers and made his way to one with his name on it. Opening it he found scruffy protective attire, a rectangular backpack, and a dinged up yellow helmet with a headlight duct-taped to the top. He was just adjusting the helmet on his head when a short woman covered in grit and dirt burst into the room in a rather unpleasant mood. "What the fuck," she exclaimed seemingly in his direction.

"Yeah, yeah I know I'm late," he responded. She laughed in disbelief.

"You're more than a fucking hour late, two centis in your jurisdiction have gone missing, and the supervisor is about to explode cause he doesn't have anyone to see what the hell happened," she explained.

"Sounds exciting," he said without meaning as he pulled a cigarette out of a box in the locker. Looking up he noticed the picture of a woman with hazel hair he stopped for a moment before snatching it off the wall and tearing it up. Producing a lighter from his pocket he burnt the scraps a bit before tossing them down and stomping them out.

"Relationship issues?" the woman guessed with an unimpressed tone.

"Understatement of the fucking century." Clinton lit the cigar and took an elongated draw before exhaling a cloud as grey as the scratched and dented walls.

"Well, it not going to mean jack if the supervisor snaps your head off."

"Don't you have your own shit to take care of?" he asked in an attempt to get rid of her.

"Right now my shit is hauling your ass down to the mine so the supervisor can get it into your fucking head that you have a job to do."

"Fine fine," he mumbled as he pushed open the steel door opposite the elevator and stubbled into the poorly lit and rocky underground. Noticing his more than slightly off gait the woman laughed behind him on disbelief once more.

"You're drunk aren't you, it's eleven in the morning, you're at work, and you're fucking drunk," she exclaimed. "Oh, the supervisor is gonna love this." Clinton just turned to the right and walked on in silence for a while until he reached an elevated metal platform in an open cave space. A man in an orange vest and a similar helmet turned to him noticing his arrival and walked over.

"Here you fucking are, first I had to wonder if you've been doing your job when two of your centis stop responding, then I find myself wondering if you're even gonna show up to fix it," the man was older and seemed to have a dwindling temper. "Not just that but you look like you got fucked by a centi on your way down here. Now I don't give a shit what's going on with you but get down there," he handed him a touch device with a map on it with two red circles at the end of one of the mine tunnels, "and find the fucking things before the higher-ups get on my ass about it and you're outa a job."

"Ight, alright," he responded as he looked at the two last known locations on the map.

"Well don't just stand there and fucking stare at it. Fuck off and find em." Clinton started in the direction of the nearest marked location with a sigh. Descending down the tunnels with his dimmed senses was beyond risky. More than once he nearly got lost or got in the way of a centi, the massively long automated mining bots that looked far too much like centipedes. The farther he got into newer tunnels the few and farther between lights became. He found he had to keep his headlamp on at all times to ensure he could see in front of his feet as to not trip over outcroppings of rock. Eventually, he reached the first marked area, a more open space with dim blue light coming from the left end. Upon an investigation, Clinton discovered the mangled remains of a centi. The metal was all twisted and dented as if it had been beaten around by something much larger and the ladder half had been smashed off entirely.

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"Fuck me," he breathed as he looked over the mess. "That's gonna send the supervisor over the edge." Determining there was nothing he could do but report it he continued to the second location while cursing under his breath. He failed to see the cave walls looked like they had been chipped away in unnatural places. As he entered another more open area and this time noticed the blue of Kinuon veins along the rock wall, it didn't take him much longer to find the remains of another centi strewn all about the place. What's more, as he picked around the scrap searching for any reasonable rhyme to it, the whole of the cavern pocket grew darker and darker. He looked back at the entry from which the little previous light had been coming from to not see it at all. Aside from his headlamp, the cave was pitch black now. The unsettling silence made his breathing and heartbeat audible and faster.

For a few minutes, all remained the same until he heard a rough noise like rock rubbing against the stone. The touch device began vibrating and to his astonishment, he saw SOS after SOS register from techs all over the mine. He even recognized some of their names. Worse the live map which also showed active centis and techs was losing them left and right. "The hell is going on?" Clinton muttered. He looked around sure that he had entered somehow and trying to see the exit. It took a bit for him to see subtle crack letting in near no light from the direction he came. To his delight, he had found the inexplicably blocked exit, but to his horror, the stone in front of it was shifting and sliding against itself. "What the fuck..."

He made the fatal mistake of opening his bag and pulling out a Kinuon steel cutter. Proceeding to use it he clicked it to life and a beam of blue shot out half a foot long. The heat let off instantly made him begin to sweat as he began attempting to cut away the stone. Instead of letting itself be cut the stone jut forth into his gut knocking him back. The whole blockage leaped onto the ground and with the help of the dim light behind Clinton saw a spider's silhouette made of Kinuon and stone. He just sort of stopped, terrified and unable to process he didn't move as it turned to face him. The kinuon in it started to let out a blueish light as it made a loud grinding noise comparable to a sort of roar. It raised a rocky leg in pose to smash Clinton. It took until the very last moment for him to snap back and scramble out of the way.

"Clinton what the fuck is going on," asked the Supervisors frantic voice through the touch device. "You the only one still registering on the map."

"I," he started as he slid under the monstrosity and took off running down the tunnel. "I'm being attacked by something. I think i-it smashed the centis as well," he explained between shallow breaths.

"What the hell is it?"

"I don't know. It's like a giant fucked up spider."

"Spider- Oh stop dicking around for fucks sake." Clinton glanced back to see the thing clawing down the tunnel after him.

"I'm not shitting you right now, evacuate the mine," he yelled.

"I don't have anyone registering that I can evacuate if I wanted to. I swear if this is a joke you're all getting fired."

"I might be in the shit long before that."

"Just stop messing around and find the others."

"What about IT, have they said anything about it? Is it a communications error," he asked more for his own sake as he began to realize what might be happening.

"They said everything was fucking fine."

"Oh shit," he explained in fearful apprehension as the monstrosity continued to chase him through twists and turns.

"What do you mean oh shit." A frighteningly familiar noise could be heard in the background of the supervisor's audio.

"Oh shit, look around you."

"What in the hell do you- oh shit." A grinding noise came through the touch device accompanied by a scream. "Fu-" There was a crash, crack, and squelch all at the same time. Clinton was fully aware of what had happened and began to lose hope as he peered down another tunnel to see another rock amalgamation. The light of his headlamp reflected off more Kinuon and another semi-reflective red substance that was splattered up its legs.

"Oh you've got to be shitting me," he turned down a different tunnel and ran until he simply no longer could. He couldn't see them anymore but could hear the nearing monstrosities. However, as he turned to continue again he came face to face with something worse at the tunnel's end. It was made up just like the others but was snakelike in appearance and much, much larger. He turned back to view the previous two coming from the other end. Having no other option he reactivated the steel cutter and made an attempt to ward them off. Much to his continued terror, a grinding noise resounded above his head. With a deathly chuckle, he looked up. "At least I got to hear the supervisor shut up." Crack, squelch.