Page 25 of Dark's Savior

The natural and artificial light slipped away, as did the storm above, the rain lessening somewhat, turning into nothing more than a light drizzle as the water was stopped by rock and platforms above only to trickle and cascade the rest of the way down to the bottom. The darkness grew more vast and was only barely fought back by the bulbs along the cave face and the few floaters hovering along each level. As Aly made her way down, she looked for the bright-red floater but feared it had already beaten her to the bottom. The system of rock around her began to warp and change, becoming more smooth and symmetrical, showing the slightest hint of some man-made design.

When the elevator car finally hit the bottom with a not so gracefulthunk, the doors opened, but Aly didn't step out right away. Instead, she peered out, staring into the darkness beyond where few lights could be found, most circling the elevator and a few feet ahead, focusing on the ground like a spotlight.

Never having set foot at the bottom before, Aly felt like she had just been transported to a whole other world. A world that knew nothing of daylight or the sun. Just endless night.

She imagined if the underworld were a real place, it would be something like what she was seeing now (or not seeing) and so feeling the uneasiness of being in such thick darkness was no great surprise.

Because she was a being of the light above, trespassing in this kingdom of night where its god ruled and he didn't much like her at all and she was very much unwelcome.

But damn if she was going to turn back now. So, she straightened herself up and walked out of the elevator and—

And rushed right back in, her palm ready to slap a button for any level above. Only the barest amount of courage stayed her hand because something roared in the distance and it soundedhuge.

"It's okay, Aly. You're good, you're cool," she said softly to herself. The roaring grew more distant, until it was nothing more than a dull rumble. Whatever it was seemed to move on. Aly brightened the lights attached to her slipsuit, specifically around her wrists, and pointed her arm out in front of her. The light only pierced a few feet in front but it was enough to at least see where she was walking. Aly took one step then another until she dragged herself away from the elevator car and away from the comforting set of lights around it, setting off into the dark unknown.

***

Aly got lost a few times and had to backtrack until she could see the pinpoint lights of the elevator car. There was no way the floater could have gotten so far in, and yet, she found no trace of it. As she searched, she also got sidetracked a few times by the curious elements she found as she went along. The ground, for instance, was rocky in many parts, but in a few parts, it was actually soft and full of moss. Another curious thing was the set of pillars she happened across. Pillars that supported nothing in particular and were not natural by what she could tell. It seemed to her they were long-lost ruins of some ancient people. But who in their right mind would actually live down here?

And once she got her mind to wander just like her feet, she found herself lost again and had to once more backtrack the way she had come.

When she finally set on a path that focused on her true goal, she walked for an impressive amount of time before she finally caught the dullest red light blinking in the distance.

When she got to the source, she stopped and looked down into a small ditch to see the floater there, ripped down its middle with its wiry tentacles laying everywhere around it.

That explained why she hadn't found it right when she came out of the elevator. Because it had been dragged away.

With a shuddered breath, Aly circled her light around the area but found no movement. Quickly, she climbed down to the floater to search in vain hope for her techband among the debris.

She turned the bulb of the floater's head aside and saw no band caught in its remaining tentacles. She cursed under her breath then searched around.

There was nothing. Not even parts of the techband to be found. Aly dropped her shaking hand and felt she needed to sit for a moment and think. As soon as her butt plopped on the ground, she heard the sound of something behind her, and she quickly stood back up.

For a minute, it sounded like a hyena, with a high-pitched laugh-like call. But there were definitely no hyenas around here, though she wished there were because she would take a hyena over whatever just made that noise. The sound came again, to her left, and she whirled around to face whatever it was. She pointed her hand up and saw something shoot past her light, making her shriek and stumble back.

The cries of many responded to her own, and, as Aly beamed her light in every direction to catch a source, her light fell onto a creature so vile she gasped.

It smiled back at her, showing its razor teeth, and Aly screamed.

Chapter Eleven

"That's odd," Ryziel heard Nar say behind him as Ryziel dropped the last bit of minerals from his canister bag into the converter tank. Not nearly enough. And he had been at it all day.

Tired and annoyed, Ryziel dropped his bag and rubbed at his brow. "What is?"

"An alert just popped up of an intruder nearby." Nar, at the console, brought up a separate map of the surrounding area. "Looks like someone came down and is just aimlessly running around and"—Nar looked closer—"they are going pretty fast. Weird."

Ryziel didn't bother to look over at the map that Nar was studying. Every so often, a miner somehow found their way down below and were stupid enough to go exploring around, only to meet their death. Many, if not most, of those on Lethe thought it was him, but it was never the case, though he allowed rumors to fly in hopes it would be a warning to others. Some, it seemed, still didn't bother to listen, but the sluths would get to them before they even had a chance to find his lair, so it didn't matter much anyway.

"Let me just see if I can get a reading on their tag," Nar said.

"Don't bother. They are as good as dead anyway," Ryziel replied indifferently as he went to unzip his slipsuit and strip it off, ready for a hot bath.

"Yeah, probably, but I'm curious if it's another tylian. They said one got found close to the bottom the other day in the forum, but it didn't look like a usual sluth attack from what I read. Plus, they are going pretty fast," Nar stated.

"Do what you like. It won't matter." Ryziel got the slipsuit halfway off before Nar made a curious little noise.

"Oh, it's not a tylian."

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