'click'

"So now you made a photo?"

"indeed"

Mira couldn't help but smile as she saw how Kim and Devon were getting along. The same couldn't be said for Lia, Will, and herself. She had to admit that she didn't really try, but Lia seemed to try and actively avoid it. What Will did was hard to understand, he had seemed to be eager to get acquainted, but still kept his distance after that.

After what seemed like years of staring out of the window, the train slowed down, and they could see one of the soldiers get up. With one of it's dualies it beckoned Eight and Nine to follow.

When Three also stood up, they raised their other hand, balancing the dualie on their thumb. "No. Only they follow."

The two did as they were asked and followed the soldier off the train, giving the others nervous glances as they got off. Once they were both outside, the doors closed and the train started moving again.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

"This time I have to agree with you."

"You've been here before. Have you got any idea what those things are?" She jerked her head towards the two green soldiers that looked exactly like octarians that were colored by someone who wanted to make some sort of horror story.

"Those were soldiers once…"

"What are they now?"

"Beats me, but as far as I could find out he took soldiers and drenched their internals in his sludge."

"Who is this he?"

"Someone Eight blasted into the next Turf War." The corners of her mouth seemed to attempt a smile.

"So those were once like Devon?"

"I believe so."

"But what are they now?"

"Like I said: Beats me. I assume there are mere husks that take orders now, but the bigger question is from who they are taking orders."

"So there is someone down here in control of these figures?"

"And most likely also behind all those missing military units. I think I can guess where they were used for."

"Those soldiers we have fought so far, those were not mindless drones, where they?"

"These are mindless drones, the ones up in the canyon and valley were just like Devon, although they are forced to take orders by those goggles."

"So I've been splatting actual p-"

"Don't think about it, it won't make you feel better. I did, and look how I ended up."

"So you weren't always like this?" As she asked this, she felt the train slowing down again.

There was no reply as they looked out and they saw another platform hanging from the wall they had been riding next to all that time. As the train came to a standstill, the soldier with a roller stood up and indicated Three and Four to follow her.

"I really don't have a good feeling about this."

"I said I didn't either." Three sighed.

"First Eight and Nine, and now Seven. They are driving us apart."

"Than they made a poor choice putting the best two next to each other." Three didn't seem to bothered with having to get out, so Four followed her, unsure about how this was going. "It might have been an unintended compliment, but I'll take it."

They looked back and saw the doors close. The train accelerated and soon they couldn't even make out where the human sat as the train disappeared in the distance. When they turned back, they saw the what Three called a sanitized octoling standing a bit further along the hallway, waiting on them to follow. After exchanging some gazes, the both of them did.

They passed a few doors before turning and entering one of them which let them to yet another hallway, albeit smaller than the one they had come from. They followed the octoling down the corridors, turning left, then right, one straight ahead, another right, more right, and they kept going. They finally stopped at a dead end. The ending had a door to the left and right, and where all the other doors that were open had dark rooms behind them, these ones were lit up. The soldier opened one of them and gestured them to enter.

The room they were asked to enter looked like some kind of waiting room, a bunch of old heavy wooden chairs stood along one of the walls, there stood a small table with a plant pot that seemed to have once held a living plant, and a shelf with dusted books that looked like they would fall apart if you only breathed in their direction. Looking at the floor made it clear that there hadn't been cleaned in here in a long time, as everything was covered in a fine layer of dust, except for the chairs, which struck Four as odd. She walked over to one, tempted to sit down and rest as they waited on whoever it was that had led them there.

"Don't sit down!" Three yelled at her as she tried to do so, stopping just before her behind had touched the chair.

"What all could sitting down do to you?"

"If only you would know…"

"Relax, it's only a waiting room. Looking at the state of this place, I think we should be happy they didn't leave in the old chairs."

"There is still something fishy going on here." She looked at the octoling who now stood next to the door they had entered the room from. "You, sit down in one of those chairs."

To Four's surprise, the octoling did as she was asked and took place in the chair that she had wanted to sit in just a few seconds ago.

"You see, nothing wrong with sitting down."

"I guess you're right."

Four sat down in the chair next to the one that neighbored the one the octoling sat in. The wood made no sound at all as she sat down, it was clearly a sturdy chair. Meanwhile Three started to walk in circles around the small table in the middle of the room, deep in thought.

"Can you please just sit down, you're making me nervous."

"Sorry that I am on edge since our enemy has led is to a seemingly safe room." She sneered back.

"Why even would they be evil?"

"That wretched phone was, and this whole place seemed to do his bidding."

"You two destroyed that thing, why would this place still be so bad after?"

"We have no idea if he was alone, for all we know we didn't defeat him at all."

"How do you not know if you smashed a phone?"

"What is to say that he resided in that phone?"

"Can you at least sit down, you're only tiring yourself out this way."

"I guess you're right." She sighed as she finished her lap and headed for the last chair in the row.

The moment she sat down, there sounded a loud, mechanical click, followed by large metal plates appearing from the sides of the chairs backrests, wrapping around the torso of the ones unlucky to sit in them. Three, Four, and the soldier were all strapped down by the clamps, the other chairs clamps now uselessly hanging about.

Three gave Four a look that had the best 'I told you so' message in it that she had ever seen as both tried to free themselves. The octoling however didn't even attempt to move.

They tried squirming, but couldn't seem to get free of their shackle. After a bit, they heard a robotic voice over an intercom. "Capture: complete. Acquisition: started."

Three stopped fighting her restraints for a second, only to hear two sets of footsteps, soon followed by the door opening as two more of these soldiers came in, both holding a bucket and wearing a thick glove on one hand, pulled over the thin fingerless ones.

Four stopped moving against the metal strip as well and tried to get a better look a the content of the buckets. It helped her somewhat that one of them approached her and put it down, although in hindsight she wished she hadn't looked. The bucket contained a mint green sludge that seemed to pulsate on its own, glowing ever so slightly.

The sanitized octoling that stood in front of her turned away and headed over to help her colleague, who was struggling to even come close to Three since she was doing everything in her power, form kicking to punching, to keep them away from her.

One of them pinned down her arms and took the force of the kicks while the other reached in the bucket with the glove covered hand. As it came back out, the hand held a chuck of the goop. It lay in her hand like a chunk of jelly. Four saw Three stare at it with fear in her eyes, something she hadn't ever seen of her. This moment was short lived however as the octoling brought the chuck to the side of her head and slapped it against the right side of her head, straight against her headpiece where it clung and pulsed like it had done before, although now in a more rapid pace.

Four closed her eyes and put her hands over her headpiece in an reflex to block out the sound as her yell was a sound that send shivers to every last ink drop in her body. When she opened her eyes and let her hands go she saw and heard that it had stopped. Three hung in her clamp, the ooze on the side of her head once again slowly pulsing.

What was worse was the moment the two octolings turned to her and started to approach. She saw how the one who had tried to hold Three down had bruises and even an open wound on her legs, but somehow walked just like the other did, like the injuries weren't even there.

They came up to her, and the same one pinned down the captive, while the other took the bucket that had been put down next to her and got out some of more of the green pulsing jelly. Four could do nothing but look at it and try to avoid the hand by moving her head.

"Please, don't do this." "This can't be good."

They didn't reply, but simply kept going, as marionettes following orders from the one pulling the strings. The moment the sludge touched the left side of her face on where it was applied, it felt cold. As it made contact, she stopped squirming, shivering as it not only felt cold to the touch, but seemed to make her whole left side of her head feel like she had just taken a cold inkbath.

She waited, expecting something that would give her a reason to scream like Three had done, but there was nothing, at least, nothing like mind shattering pain. Four did feel how the cold feeling slowly seemed to leak into her head, making its way to the centre as it spread. She looked up to the two soldiers and saw how they were releasing her and Three's restraints.

The train slowly made its way through the nothingness. Will didn't know what to think of all of this, first he found himself with these 'things', and now he found that there were indeed still others like him, or at least, he hoped they were anything like him. He glanced over at the body that lay next to the one soldier that hadn't yet left the train. If these people were really with good intentions, then why did he witness what he assumed to be murder?

The was still lost in thought as the train once again came to a halt, stopping at a platform that was like any other they had stopped at so far. Just like last time, one of the soldiers stood up, this time the last one, who had attached her weapon to one of her belts and was now slowly dragging the body with them out of the train, waiting once outside.

Will looked at them do so, unsure if he was supposed to follow. When he was beckoned to follow, he did so. The doors closed behind him and the train once again pulled out of the station.

He followed the soldier, who was slowly progressing through the hallway, still dragging the body with them. Eventually, they stopped in front of a door.

"Continue. Find him." The soldier instructed him.

"Continue what? Find who?" Will asked, not realising that she could most likely not understand him anyway.

"The hallway." The soldier replied, leaving him to wonder if it had even understood what he had just said.

Will looked down the large corridor that led down to more of the same gray, dimly lit hallway. When he looked back. The soldier had disappeared without leaving a trace of them nor the body, and trying the door led to him finding it was locked.

After having stood staring at the empty hallway, the door, and back at the hallway again, he continued walking down it, unsure what to expect. There was a near complete silence, only broken up by the sound of something dripping into a pool of something else. However, after walking for a bit, he heard the sound of someone wading through a pool, followed by some metal clangs as some metal object hit another.

He picked up the pace, heading for the sound that he had heard, now once again replaced by more movement through some water. When he rounded a corner, he saw what had caused the sound. The entire floor, that lay slightly lower than the floor of the corridor he stood in, was covered in a layer of water, the dripping coming from a leaking pipe that was most likely the reason for all the water to be there in the first place. In the pool stood a human, looking just like the one that he had seen, although this one was wearing large rubber boots. It was also to be noted that this was a male, and a rather tall one at that. He had a wrench in his hand and was turning some pipesigment, listening to some music through some earbuds.

Will stood there staring at him for a bit. This didn't last long however, as the human turned to go to the next pipe, only to see Will standing there. They stared at each other in disbelief for a moment, before the plumber took out his earbuds and spoke up.

"Wat d-" He awkwardly coughed and started over. "What do you do here?" He spoke in some heavy germanic accent.

Will had to take a minute to answer. "I was send to look for someone."

"I tink tat be me. I have not seen otters apart from tat girl and my colleague."

"Your colleague?"

"Not a bad lady, but a bit…" He tapped his head and whistled as he then spinned his finger around in a circle, still pointing at his head.

"Did she have brown hair and a coat like yours?" He asked, thinking he knew what answer he would get.

"she does. Does not look too bad huh?" He snickered.

Will's mind was working at top speed. It seemed this man didn't know about the death of his colleague yet. If he were to tell him now, he might not get anything out of him.

"I guess, but who even are you?"

"Jan is te name. Number six of te lineup. And you are?"

"William."

"Seven, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Tose cold sleeps do dat to your memories, tey get all vague."

"I noticed…"

"But not to worry, your files should help you clear it up. Let me get tem for you." He strapped the wrench to a belt he apparently wore under his coat and walked past him. Will followed.

"You do not remember tis place, do you?"

Will simply shook his head.

"Tis fa... fas... tis place was used to do science projects. Te one we work for is to do space travel."

They walked deeper and deeper into the maze of hallways, but somehow Jan seemed to know where they were going.

"To travel between planets costs lots of fuel, so the scientists came up wit a solution to get a lot of energy witout needing a lot of fuel." He kept going at a steady pace. "If tey let someting explode behind the spaceship, it gets energy like when burning fuel, but ten without needing fuel. To get to anotter planet at anotter star, tey … eh… used numbers and stuff to know tat if tey blow up a planet the ship is near, tey can go to te next."

"So we must blow up the earth to leave it?"

"Tat is the plan, yes. And tat is why we are here. To blow up a planet, tey made a ting tat can do so, but tat needs tis ting called lietium, I believe tat is how it is called."

"Then why are we still here and not at our destination?"

"Tat is why tis place is here. We are chosen to make certain tat when te fusion reactor is done, we get te stuff up wit us."

"But isn't lithium something that rarely comes from fusion?" Will asked, recalling his physics classes at high school.

"Tat is why it is taken so long to finish. But the warning system was a bit broken, it woke us at thousand instead of hundred."

"So we are ready to go?"

"It is at te moment being loaded into a rocket, and wen it is done, we can enter and go up to te ship."

"And then we can go to a new world?"

"Yes."

"But we can live here just fine, there are even these things living here."

"Wat do you mean? I have seen no one but you, Six, who is the colleague you have seen also, and Four, who I have not seen in a bit also."

"So you haven't seen those green things with blue tentacles walking around?"

"Wat are you talking out of your neck? Are you seeing tings?

The group of three made their way through gray, damp halls and corridors. Eight had to conclude that the bottomless voids she had gotten used to from this place were bad enough, but still better than these pathways, which felt cramped in comparison.

"What even are they ma'am?"

"I am not sure either." Kim looked at the sanitized soldier that was leading them. "I believe we thought they were once normal soldiers and that they got corrupted somehow."

"So that means she might indeed be…"

"Indeed be what?"

"who ma'am, and I thought that she looked extremely similar to my squads leader, even more so did the other two look like the other members, she even has a stab wound where I saw my leader get stabbed with a spear."

"So you think that she...?"

"Yes."

"oh. That must be something to process. Do you require to be comforted?"

"I do."

Eight stuck out her arms and when Devon came closer hugged her. The two stopped and so did the soldier leading them. She waited silently while the two stood in an embrace for a bit. When they let go and proceeded walking, the sanitized soldier did so too.

"I must thank you for that."

"That is what friends are for, is it not?"

"I suppose so."

The three walked on for a few more hallways until reaching the point they apparently were supposed to be. They stood in front of a large door, and without anyone touching it, it opened.

"Are we… supposed to go in there?" Devons voice trembled.

The sanitized soldier made a conservative nod and waited, standing so close to the wall that it almost looked as if she was leaning against it. What lay behind the door was not all that special. It was a mostly white room, holding only two small metal blocks that stood between the centre and opposite corners. The whole brought up some bad memories for Eight.

"I do not think we should go in there." She quivered.

"What other choice do we have ma'am? We do not know what lies beyond."

"That is what makes me think this. Last time I saw a room like this here, it was bad."

"But what makes you say that this will be the same ma'am?"

"It is simply a nagging feeling I feel, making me not want to enter."

"If we do not, I think that they will force us." Devon looked over at the soldier that stood next to the door, patiently waiting.

"I guess you are right. If we stay together, we should be able to overcome anything they could throw at us, and besides, Three is safe with Four and Seven." She took a step forward, then another. Soon the two of them stood in the white room, hearing the door behind them close.

"And now we must wait to see what they have in store for us." She said as she looked up, somehow expecting a saucer to be flying overhead.