++Intruders in sector 7. Intruders in sector 7.++

The creatures halt their advance. Hanna and Maria hold their breath, not sure what to do. A moment later, after a brief and incomprehensible exchange, the creatures turn and exit the room. Once the door shuts, Hanna lets Maria go, both breathing a massive sigh of relief.

"Sorry," Maria sighs.

"Don't worry about it," Hanna assures. "Let's just get out of here."

"That's the best idea I've ever heard."

Drawing her ninjato, Maria slowly approaches the door. Hanna follows, nunchaku in hand. The door opens. Maria and Hanna freeze as they see the two creatures are standing guard. The creatures begin to turn. Maria leaps into action, slicing clean through the middle of one of the creatures with an upswing, cleaving the other in two on the downswing.

"Nice work," Hanna compliments, following Maria through the door.

"Thanks!" Maria chirps. "Just one small problem: how are we going to get back up to the vent?"

Hanna looks up to see the vent they dropped through is too high to reach. "There must be another way out," she theorises, shivering as an idea occurs. "And I think I know where it is…"

"Where?" Maria asks, shivering when she too realises what Hanna is talking about. "No."

"We don't have much choice."

"No."

"Then stay and be captured."

Maria thinks for a moment. "OK," she relents.

Hanna leads Maria back into the torture chamber, making straight for the control panel. Unsure what the incomprehensible markings mean, she hovers over numerous buttons before finally selecting one. Her choice proves fortuitous: the glass cylinder rises into the ceiling. Her second choice is less successful: alarms begin to sound throughout the base.

"What are you doing?" Maria cries in panic.

"Trying to get us out of here!" Hanna yells back.

"You're not very good at it!"

"None of the markings make sense!"

After several panicked button presses, Hanna finally finds the right one: a hatch opens under the metal slab.

"Got it!" Maria cries triumphantly. "Let's go!"

Hanna turns to see Maria already disappearing through the hatch, following without hesitation.

Their ride through the disposal chute is brief. Before long, the girls find themselves ejected under the base, plummeting straight into the water with just enough time to twist into a dive. Maria is the first to resurface, Hanna following a second later.

"There you are!" Danny cries, diving out of the hatch the group entered the base in, Rob and Xander following him a moment later. "What did you find?"

"A torture and execution chamber!" Maria splutters.

"Whoever built this base," Hanna gasps, "we don't wanna mess with them!"

"What happened with you guys?" Maria asks.

"I was spotted," Xander admits.

"It was your own fault for walking straight into that guard," Rob adds.

"We can play the blame game later," Danny snaps. "Right now, we need to flee!"

Maria and Xander immediately set off directly for home.

"Not that way!" Danny, Rob, and Hanna shout in unison.

"Why not?" Xander asks.

"Do you really want whoever built this place to know where we live?" Danny explains. "This way!"

Maria and Xander turn back. Danny then leads the group to a different part of the lake shore.