Arriving to the first floor, the lift doors opened for the two, allowing them to step off into the next set of oval shaped hallways, with windows into the next area of HV-67, sorting through whatever's passed the rigorous testings in the labs below.
One room for each variable.
Food, clothing, furniture, you name it, it's sorted through one of the rooms on this stretch of hallway.
Poking their heads through the opened doors, nobody inside, no signs of struggle, everything where they should be, nothing dictating something happened.
Theodore found the room where workers sorted through the foods brought into the encampment that passed testing, checking the food remaining in their respected packaging, left in trays with identifying numbers and barcodes.
Ho-Hos and the like, stuff that'll outlive even Theodore by a few centuries, give or take, and going by the way they're sorted, the last time it was touched was a few weeks back, when the encampment went quiet.
"Ah, Twinkies, the jester of junk food," Lila commented as she saw boxes of the sugary treat in a box marked for delivery, as it's been properly processed, enough check marks to last a school semester.
Looking over to her while he's browsing the candies that been processed through, Theodore remarked he thought Lila liked Twinkies.
Shrugging as she thumbed through the individual bags of white chocolate truffles, Lila says that they're too sweet for her, oily, even dry most of the time. Just isn't worth it, even in a zombie apocalypse.
"I prefer the Japanese styles, anyway, they're not as sweet as ours, doesn't feel like I'm snorting sugar," Lila admitted she preferred the Japanese confectioneries to the American types, they're less sweet, and healthier than them in most regards.
Eying her, Theodore remarked that Lila ate his jelly babies, which she told him that she had to be in the mood.
British candies weren't as sweet as American, either, but still sweeter than Lila liked.
That included Theodore's beloved jelly babies.
"I thought we were friends!" Theodore's baffled of Lila's opinion on sweets, despite her taking some of his jelly babies when he offered.
Reaching out to touch his velvet arm, Lila informed him that she'll still take some of his jelly babies, it's just a matter of her mood.
Wouldn't be fair to take all of it from him, would it?
Hearing her elaborate, it barely satiated his concerns, until Lila pointed out that it'll keep more jelly babies for him, as she doesn't eat them much.
She did raise a good point, the two jelly babies she'd normally eaten go to him instead, further allowing Theodore to have his delectable treats to his lonesome.
However, Theodore noted that he didn't mind sharing his jelly babies with Lila.
"And I appreciate the gesture," Lila acknowledged that Theodore meant well sharing his treats, something he hardly did for anyone.
Continuing their search for any sign of life in the encampment, the duo went through other rooms, finding more of the same, everything remaining where it's been since it went quiet.
No blood, no burn marks, nothing indicating what happened, given how hospitable it is down here, there doesn't seem to be concerns of a fault in the system that could've caused leaks of toxic gas.
Nobody could've walked up to the exit, Theodore and Lila gotten lucky with Al landing them somewhere leveled, higher up, they'd have to climb down with ropes.
There's no other way out of the encampment except the one-way and there doesn't seem to be signs of an evacuation, either, and they've looked for the telltale signs of an evacuation while hunting for answers.
No one left the encampment, no way they made a new exit without radioing it with HQ, if there'd been signs of a struggle, Theodore and Lila would've spotted it instantly.
Didn't make any sense they haven't seen a person and Theodore went far as finding a security camera, checking if it's operating, and it was, tryin to force a response by waving his hand in front of the security camera, but once more, nobody appeared.
"This… is weird," Lila grew uncomfortable at the seemingly empty encampment while they continued searching through other areas.
Haven't found anybody, not even a body, no signs of something happening, none of it making any sense, and there's no way they could've disappeared without a trace.
Theodore agreed with her, none of this made sense to him, and he's struggling trying to piece together what happened.
It proved difficult because the lack of evidence, without anything looking like a struggle happened, there's no way they'll find their answers.
Once more, the two continued looking for answers, but they found nothing in their trek through the recreation area, complete with a section for the cafeteria.
"It's like they just upped and left, nobody would've given up the chance to eat pizza," Lila mused that something happened, looking at the uneaten standard cheese pizza left under a hot lamp, the oil glistening on top.
Seeing how everything's still in one place, no sign of panic, it confounded the duo, and they're forced to move on into the deeper part of the encampment while seeing similar on their trek.
Everything left in their place, no sign of struggling, the usual things they'd see by now, and no way for the colonists to leave except the way Theodore and Lila came through.
"Temporal distortion?" Lila hedged a guess what happened to the colonists, that for whatever reason, something happened involving a surge of energy causing them to become enveloped by temporal distortion.
Essentially, being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a rift opens.
Furrowing his brow as he's deep in thought, Theodore replied that Al didn't see anything that marked such and event, so it couldn't be that.
Curiouser and curiouser.
He opted for them to reach the command centre and see if there's luck finding the logs, see the movements of the encampment following them going quiet, maybe there's answers there.
"Such as it were," Lila sighed as she held his arm while they head in the direction of the command center, seeing if there's anything of note there.
Silence's the only thing in the oval hallways with faint pattering of their feet barely registering, the way the hallways' constructed prevented echoing, probably for equipment reasons, and the minds of the colonists working to transition to their lives on the dwarf planet, since they'll be far from their home worlds, that they'll be on edge until they settled into their new lives.
Seeing the security cameras active as they're walking, led Theodore wanting to go through the tapes, see what they find, on top of what else's the command centre.
The helpful map plastered on the wall of one section gave them a direct path to the command centre, whereupon they started seeing signs of some amiss.
Always.
Towards the doorway leading into the command centre, Theodore sees burn marks on the walls, at different angles, to the point it seemed like multiple shots happened in the span of seconds.
Uneasily, he opened the doorway into the command centre, light still on, and heaps of bodies.
Cybermen.
"What… the… hell?" Lila's chestnut eyes widened when she sees the carnage of the Cybermen while clinging to Theodore as they entered the command centre.
Seeing them like this, no way the colonists had any chance against Cybermen, even with the tools they brought with them to the planet.
Carefully, they went over the bodies of the defunct Cybermen, looking at them closely, seeing how they've been utterly sliced apart from the top of their heads to half the Cybermen they used to be, and it caused Theodore to break away from Lila, cautiously going towards a Cyberman's body.
Sliced in half.
In half!
Nothing could've done that.
Not a tool, either.
Somehow, something's sharp enough it cut through every Cyberman like they're nothing but butter.
All disabled, too.
Something sliced them apart, disabled their tracking, prevented more from coming out of the woodwork.
Seeing the carnage, it's almost like it was only one person that did this.
One!
"Who the hell was it, the damn T-1000?" Lila remarked that none of this made any sense, that the only logical explanation was that the T-1000 did this.
Frowning, Theodore checked for the security dashboard while avoiding the dead Cyberman.
Going up to the keyboard, Theodore found it was unlocked, and that several hours worth of footage's gone, deleted.
Stranger and stranger, Lila joined Theodore's side when he's looking through the remaining footage that he salvaged.
The footage he found showed the colonists going about their days as usual, nothing out of place, the random cuts started happening when a glider arrived.
Theodore couldn't see the arrival's face, the cuts started ramping up until he noticed the familiar sight of the Cybermen arriving later.
Already, there's something wrong with the picture, Theodore sees them in the footages, the way they're reacting, something that's impossible for them to do, unless, they're looking for someone.
"I thought Judoon were the only ones that did that kind of stuff," Lila noted that she found it unusual that the Cybermen arrived at the encampment shortly after the glider, in search of the new arrival.
In her experiences with the tin heads, Lila never saw them the types to go after someone like this, and watching the footage, sees the Cybermen lining up the colonists and taking them away.
It didn't look like they're trying to convert the colonists into more Cybermen, almost like they're trying to test them, for what, the two didn't know, but the unusualness drew their curiosity.
Guess the Cybermen didn't find what they're looking for, they let the colonists go, but there's several hours lost in between the next footage, showing Theodore and Lila arriving.
Turning off the monitor, it left Theodore with a look on his face with Lila at his side, sharing a similar look on her face.
"Cybermen don't do this, what gives?" Lila's baffled at the sudden changes in the Cybermen behavior, trying to locate someone, it couldn't be a Doctor, they wouldn't go through the effort of checking the colonists. They'd instantly know which one's the Doctor and go from there, more, they wouldn't waste their time doing this, they'd turn the colonists into more Cybermen.
That's their schtick!
"I… I don't know, but it'd explain why Al didn't pick up on them in the first place," Theodore mused that none of this made sense, but it gave them an answer on why Al didn't tell them that there's Cybermen present.
Whoever destroyed them, made sure to disable their tracking, making sure they couldn't detach their heads to find victims to take over.
Even Theodore's Sonic Screwdriver couldn't do the number of damages someone did to the Cybermen. It's like a sword of some sort, sharp enough that it made their bodies cut like aluminum sheets.
"Well, whoever did this, I don't think's around. I didn't see any gliders, did you?" Lila looked at Theodore as he crossed his long arms, deep in thought.
The culprit's long gone since they got there. No way to find them because of the tampered footage, no way to get any of it back.
Unfortunately, Al's not a miracle worker, and the culprit covered their tracks too well, they knew that the moment the colonists went quiet, someone would come and look for them
Didn't want anyone looking at their face, didn't want any the Cyberman telling all, either, not that'd it mattered.
Seeing the sight of the Cybermen, Theodore and Lila attempted to piece together what happened following the glider's arrival.
Whoever arrived, came to encampment, for whatever reason, following their arrival, the Cybermen came after, and rather than doing what the Cybermen typically did, it almost looked like they were too occupied with what they're doing to turn the captured colonists into them.
Whoever they're looking for, lured them all into this room, killed them all, wiped evidence of their existence, moved on with the glider they took getting here.
Now, for the big question.
"What happened to the colonists if they didn't turn them?" Lila posed the question.