Chapter 21: 21: The Thing in the Cell

“Gregor’s still out there,” Reginald whispered, leaning back from the pinhole Elaine had created in the stone.

“It’s not Gregor.” Andrew said, his jaw set. “Gregor is dead, and something is wearing his body like a skin-suit. Keep it straight –“ He leaned forward in the narrow confines and tapped Reginald on the skull – “in your head, or you’ll hold back when we kill it.”

“Well, that’s a pain in the ass,” Elaine said, leaning back in the tiny stone room they were resting in, hiding away from the mechanical monsters and haunted rooms. “Where are we supposed to find another burglar with more than four breaks?”

“Problem for another time,” Andrew said. “Right now, the issue is removing the field and getting the hell out of here. Elaine, if we found whatever is casting the damn thing and destroyed it, do you think you could tunnel us to the surface?”

“It’d be tricky, my stone shaping magic is a lot easier with open air to move into.”

“But could you do it?”

“Not with the Bent I have. If your objective is maximum safety, we could camp out in a safe room for a week first. Then yeah, I could get us to the surface in maybe a couple days. As long as you guys aren’t claustrophobic.”

“Do we have supplies for that long?”

“Shit,” Reginald muttered.

“What?”

“Gregor had the last of the water.”

Karen perked up at that. Three days without water, that was the rule. You could stretch it out by a couple days by drinking your own piss, but it quickly turned poisonous.

“Out of way,” she whispered, tapping Reginald on the shoulder. Reginald scuttled out of the way, and Karen laboriously leaned down to the hole, her size and heavy armor at odds with the cramped space.

“Shit.” She cursed when she finally lined her eyeball up with the pinhole. Formerly Gregor had found the pack and was busily carving runes into his skin with the dead man’s knife, speaking strange words that rumbled through the stone and made her stomach turn.

His face bulged out in odd places, skin stretched tight over something inside him.

“It’s doing something.” Karen said, glancing at Andrew. Basic etiquette for fighting dictated that they shove their metal boots up his ass before he could finish. “Something not good.”

“We already lost Gregor to that thing before it had a body, what makes you think it’ll stay down this time?”

“It’s distracted with something.” Karen said. “I’ll cut its feet off, then we run.”

“And if it can leave for a new body at the drop of a hat?” Reginald said.

“Well then we’re already screwed aren’t we?” Karen snarled at him, her ire at the young fool rising.

“The rule of thumb, Reginald, is to always plan as if you’re not completely screwed, because what’s the alternative? Planning to be screwed?” Andrew said.

“Understood sir.” Reginald said, trying and failing to salute in the tiny box.

“Take the stick outta your ass, kid.”

“Aww, you can stick it in my ass, Reggie,” Elaine said, drawing the handsome nobleson into a hug, her breasts engulfing his face.

“You’re gross,” Karen said.

“I have fun.” Elaine shot back, sticking her tongue out. “Besides, Reggie’s the first time I’ve had a challenge in-“

Andrew interrupted them by clearing his throat.

“The. Monster. Ten feet away. Has Priority.” he said, pointing with his thumb. “Elaine, when I give the signal, open the door. I go out first and make a lunge for his chest. Karen, you follow behind and disable one leg.”

“Reginald.”

Reggie said something muffled from between Elaine’s mammaries.

“You grab Gregor’s pack and keep moving to the left hand side. speed walk, not sprint. Remember getting split up is a death sentence.”

“Elaine.”

“Yeah?”

“Follow up behind Reggie, and pick up anything that spills from the back, especially the waterskin.”

“please, you know I’m go-“

“Not a word from you,” Andrew said pointing at her, gritting his teeth. Elaine sent Karen a plaintive look, her lower lip jutting out.

“You know Elaine’s good at cleaning up spills.” Karen said, rolling her eyes.

“Why do I even bother?” Andrew said with a sigh.

“Not the wording I would have used, but close.” Elaine said. “I give it a pass.”

“It means so much to hear you say that.” Karen said with all the sarcasm she could muster, getting crouched and ready. Elaine let go of Reggie and settled into a stance.

“Ready?” Andrew asked.

They nodded.

“Go.”

At Elaine’s motion, the pinhole expanded, and Andrew leapt out, clanging forward in his full armor, Karen right behind him. The runes on Gregor’s corpse were starting to flicker with some kind of purple fire, the pattern shifting along his skin as though they were tiny windows to another dimension.

Andrew lunged forward with his sword, and Formerly Gregor caught the blade in front of his chest with his bare hand, giving Andrew a feral smile.

Karen wordlessly swept up beside him and brought her metal leg down on the creature’s newly acquired fleshy one.

Shattering blow

3/8 Bent Remaining.

Karen didn’t want to brag, but the creature’s left leg dissolved under the influence of her Ability. She even got a bit of the other leg. It frowned at them and toppled sideways, releasing Andrew’s blade.

Reggie swept past at a power walk, carrying Gregor’s backpack, followed by Elaine. Karen put her hand on Andrew’s shoulder, and the two of them followed, Andrew facing backward.

The creature snarled and pushed off the ground, clawing at Karen. She put her heavy forearm protectors between herself and the lunging thing. Gregor’s fingertips peeled away to reveal scintillating purple claws that dug into her reinforced steel armor like a knife through cheese.

Andrew caught the thing with a stab to the chest, but it didn’t seem to slow it down at all, yanking on Karen’s armor and nearly spinning her around.

“Fuckin’” Karen snarled and punched the creature away with her other hand, caving in its chest and sending it catapulting backward, its claws tugging out of her protector with a metallic squeal.

It hit the opposite wall in a tangle of limbs, tried to stand up and failed. It tried and failed again. Before it could recover, she put her hand back on Andrew’s shoulder and the two of them hustled to catch up with the other two.

At the end of the hall, Elaine and Reggie were standing still, staring down at something. Karen walked up beside them and cursed.

The hall lead to a spiraling staircase that was partially sheared away by whatever had destroyed this place.

“Drew, you’re gonna need eyes on this.”

Andrew turned and squinted at the staircase. About a third of it was missing, forcing them to jump if they wanted to get down.

“Want me to put up a ramp? I could probably make an outcropping about a foot and a half wide to bridge all the gaps.”

“Your Bent is precious, and I don’t want to make it easier for the Skinwalker to follow.” Andrew said, thumbing over his shoulder, pointing to where the creature in Gregor’s body was clawing along the floor toward them. “Can everyone make those jumps?”

“Yeah,”

“Yeah,”

“I’m not sure. My Body is ten, but my Strength is only seven.” Elaine.

“Reggie, strength.”

“Twenty-four.” Reggie said proudly.

“Karen, you take Elaine, Reggie, take her backpack.”

“Wha-but,” Reggie stuttered.

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“Thirty-six,” Elaine said, scooping up Elaine. The mage let out a yelp and then they were jumping to the other side of the shaft, falling through empty space. Karen hit the next set of stairs with a grunt. There was a little shock to the knees, but it was tolerable.

“Next one,” Karen said.

“No wait, I can make a RAAAMP!” Elaine screamed in fright as Karen jumped down to the next set of stairs. One they got there, Karen set her down for a moment to wait for the other two. Elaine dropped to her hand and knees, shuddering, while Karen checked out their position.

The spiral staircase was studded with doors, each one with a small glass panel allowing a view into the room. Karen had hoped they would lead to halls, or a spinning wheel coated in lightning obviously powering the barrier outside. Then they could smash the damn thing and be on their way.

No such luck. What she saw instead was a humanoid skeleton inside what was obviously a prison cell. It had a mound of green scales around it, oddly enough.

“What do we got?” Andrew asked, landing beside her, Reginald close behind.

“Prison cells.” Karen said.

“Damn, okay, let’s keep going down.”

“How about I make us a ramp?” Elaine asked. “I mean, my Bent comes back pretty fast, it’s no trouble at AAALL!” Elaine shrieked as Karen picked her up and bounded to the next staircase. Karen wouldn’t admit it, but she got a tiny hint of sadistic pleasure out of scaring her friend out of her wits.

She felt a little bad about it.

After a handful more jumps, the stairs came back together, the large cylindrical cut in the floor ended, and they were able to walk. All of them except Elaine, whose legs gave out on multiple occasions, such that Reginald had to walk with her.

When Elaine nearly fell a third time, he lent her his shoulder to lean on. When she gave Karen a smirk behind Reginald’s back, Karen dismissed any remorse she had for scaring the slut.

They descended the winding stairs, keeping an eye out for the Skinwalker above them. The creature stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down at them from its crawling posture, it’s head barely peeking out beyond the stone lip.

It snarled, but it didn’t try to go down the stairs. Karen could have sworn the thing looked afraid before it turning and crawled away. They continued their path downward, Reginald watching for any movement above them while Karen redirected her gaze downward. They were approaching the bottom of the spiral staircase, the light of day from the huge rent in the facility’s ceiling unable to pierce the last few dozen feet or so.

Finally they arrived at the bottom, cloaked in shadow. The entrance they’d come from was hundreds of feet above them, and there was still no sign of pursuit from the Skinwalker.

“Don’t take your eyes off the stairs until I tell you,” Andrew said, tapping Reginald, who’d begun glancing around with curiosity like the others. “Just because it hasn’t followed us doesn’t mean it won’t, and I want every precious second.”

“Sir.”

Karen glanced around the circular room, and spotted three more cell doors, and a large steel one. That looked important. She was walking to the steel door with the intention of assessing its durability when she caught something out of the corner of her eye.

In one of the cells was a pale man with a mischievous look sitting cross-legged, with his eyes closed. He wore a faded orange jumpsuit with a dark numeral written on it. Eight six seven five three zero nine.

Karen motioned silently to Andrew, and their leader crept closer, peering into the cell.

“Are you going to let me out or not?” he asked, his eyes still closed.

“How are you still alive?” Andrew said. “And not crazy like those other things we’ve seen in here?”

“Meditation has an Ability to disconnect yourself from the passing of time. Don’t experience time, don’t go insane.” The man said. “As for why I’m alive, well, I simply refused to die. So my question stands. Are you going to let me out or not?”

“Which way’s the thing making the forcefield?”

“End of the hall, on the left.” He said, pointing. He finally opened his eyes. unlike what Karen was expecting, there was no glow behind his eyes, no magical sheen, or milky white pupils, he had simple brown eyes.

“It that… knight armor? Are you guys a deadly squad of government LARPers or have I been out longer than I thought?”

“Who are you?” Andrew said.

“Elliot Spencer, System Engineer. Had a disagreement with the Harbingers about how things should be run. Didn’t go well for me.”

“Please tell me you’re not going to let this guy out.” Elaine said. “He’s obviously some kind of undead.”

“Hey!” the man snapped, meeting the mage’s gaze with a stern look, his bones momentarily glowing through his skin. A moment passed and he broke into a smirk. “I resemble that remark.”

“And if we don’t let you out?” Andrew asked.

“That’s fine. I estimate I can outlast this cell by a few thousand years. Me being free is not a matter of how, but when.”

Andrew gave Karen a glance, and she knew what it meant. For an adventurer, Andrew was a man who hated taking chances. He was going to let the undead creature rot in there.

That sat fine with Karen.

“Who are you guys talking to?” Reggie asked glancing over at them.

“Reggie watch the damn-“

Splat!

The skinwalker hit the floor, and Gregor’s corpse splattered on the solid black stone, sending bits of him everywhere.

A fraction of a second later, the swirling purple essence tore out of Gregory’s chest in a burst of viscera and dived toward Andrew.

Karen delivered a front kick to Andrew’s armor, and propelled them both out of the way. The purple mist splashed against the black stone and recomposed itself, scanning them for weakness.

“Oh my. Looks like you’ve got a Keraat infestation. Those things are nasty. Come from the other side of the Siphon.”

The remarkably well preserved undead spoke as if none of it had any effect on him, sidling up to the door and watching like a spectator at a play.

“Say Emergency Decontamination.” He said, leaning on the door, watching them dodge the purple wisp of smoke. Nobody wanted to end up like Gregor.

“Emergency decontamination!” Elaine shouted.

There was a whining in the floor as several columns of stone unlocked, sliding upward, revealing nozzles. A pleasant woman’s voice emerged from everywhere.

Please provide Identification.

“Say Omega protocol.”

“Omega protocol!”

Scanning for Harbinger Personnel… searching for Harbinger Transmissions… Omega Protocol Accepted. Temporary Overseer Status bestowed. Please reissue Commands.

“Emergency Decontamination!” Elaine shouted again.

The columns grew little metallic nozzles and shot heatless green flames at the purple mist. It sank into the floor with a death scream that grated against their very souls.

“Ta-da!” the man in the cell said with a grin and jazz hands. “I know a bunch of tricks that could help you get out of here safely. For example, the way to shut down the forcefield without smashing it and sinking the whole site into the Warp, which I assume was your plan.”

Andrew met Karen’s eyes, and she could see that his opinion had changed. he now saw this...thing as an asset.

****

“NO!” Kala leapt out of her bed, every hair on her body standing straight up.

Seer has reached level 3!

Seer level 3: See the truth of the soul.

I wish I had never eaten that mushroom, Kala thought sourly, rubbing the goosebumps on her arms. And why do I keep witnessing Karen’s past? She hadn’t even had a reaction to Karen, hadn’t paid any attention to her. The thing inside Calvin on the other hand…

Her goosebumps came back.

Whatever it was, she had to get it out of him.

It was early morning, maybe five o’clock, her bedroom curtains barely had any light shining out from beneath them. She’d only gotten four hours of fitful sleep, and if she was going to make a full day of it tomorrow, she needed every hour she could get.

She laid back down and tried to calm herself, tell herself that nothing could hurt her in her dreams.

Just when her heartbeat was beginning to slow, a knock on the door started her out of her hazy half-dream. Of course I can’t get a full night’s sleep. In what world would that ever happen?

Kala calmed her inner rage and put on her princess-voice. “What is it?” she asked sweetly.

“Princess, I apologize for waking you, but your father urgently requires your presence. Please get dressed to travel.”

Dressed to travel? She thought, frowning.

Macronomicon

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