Chapter II: Going Down

AN:
Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Apologies for the lack of upload these past couple weeks. I've been the kind of unwell that makes doing anything more than staring dumbly at a television screen utterly unappealing. I'm well again now though, so here's an update!

I watched the reboot of Lost in Space, and the original old one, while I was sick and I've subsequently been in quite a sci-fi mood, hence why this one is being updated finally after a year. :) Gods, I've been doing this for a lot longer than it feels like. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

phantom99:
Then here ya go. Hope you enjoy.

MaxNeverMaxine:
Out of curiosity, did you get any of the games?

Guest:
Hopefully so. :)

Chloe stared, slackjawed, as the monsters prowled into the room, chittering hungrily at us. "Oh shit, oh shit, Max! What do we do?"

I look at her out the corner of my eye. "What? How would I know? They totally didn't cover this in photography school!"

"Well, that's a fucking shitty curriculum!" Chloe yells back.

Oh dog. We're bickering while a horde of monsters are closing in on us...

We're that couple.

I groan as I make that realisation, forgetting just for a second where we are, and it must've acted as some sort of cue for the monster-things as they howl in response and charge for us.

There's no way we can get away from them.

I look over at Chloe standing on the other side of the doorway. I offer her a small smile. "I love you."

She grins back, confident to the end. "Love you too, Dumbass."

And she takes my hand, and we close our eyes, and hope these things will make it quick.

A sudden explosion rocks the entire station (I could feel it in the gravity plating), and the entire room suddenly lurches to the left. The monsters, running on shaky and unbalanced limbs, all immediately unbalance and follow the movement, hitting the floor or the wall, and everything blocking the right side-door slides across the floor, crushing a few of them.

We take a second to stare in shock and hope and horror before Chloe snaps out of it and grabs my hand. "Run!"

We go for the now unblocked door and try get as far as we can before the monsters recovered to come after us again. They seemed to have eyes, but I didn't know if they had ears or if whatever they had instead of ears gave them good hearing or not, but either way I'd be way happier the further away from them we were.

We run down a long corridor, surrounded by the shrieks and screams of all the monsters and dying EarthGov operatives around us. I blot them out of my mind and just concentrate on keeping up with Chloe, as her long legs keep threatening to leave me behind. I know she never would, but I just didn't know if I could keep up with her longer step.

Oh shoot, Monsters. There were more of those things ahead of us, just milling about. So, as Chloe would say, we nope the fuck out of there and take a left, running down another corridor that was identical to the last, except for the lack of monster-things.

We end up at another crossroads, both groups of monster-things far behind us, wondering where the heck to go now. I mean, the base was strictly off-limits to civilians, on pain of shooting, so we had no idea of the layout of the building. We were basically just running until we found a way out.

"Max, I'm telling you, the way out is up there!"

I scoff. "Chloe, I love you, but that's hella freaking wrong. Why would the way out be upstairs? We wanna go down, not up!"

We glare at each other for a second before a howl in the distance shocks us both into movement. "Okay, we're gonna rock paper scissors this."

Chloe nods, and readies her hand.

"This is a bad, bad idea."

Chloe grins back at me, half terror, half exhilaration. "Stop whining, dude. You lost, and we're going up."

I sigh. "Okay. I trust you."

"That's cool." She shrugs, grinning gleefully as she runs along the corridor ahead of me. "Either way, I won!"

Jeez. She's such a child.

I smile.

We turn around a corner into a two-level room and stumble into a drop in the floor behind some upturned couches that had landed on either side of the incline up to the next part of the room as we spot the EarthGov guards. They're on the upper part of the room, standing about and flinching or whirling every time anything nearby made a loud sound. It would've been funny, if they hadn't been heavily armed jumpy people whose jobs demanded they shoot us on sight.

One of them goes to nudge his buddy, who promptly whirls like the first guy just whispered he wanted to jump him in the shower or something and jams the barrel of the gun into the first guy's throat. "Shuddup! Don't fucking do that, you-!"

He's cut off mid-rant as a series of monster screams echo around us, more and more picking up the call one after the other until we're being serenaded by a cacophony of horrors. The two bickering soldiers both whirl suddenly, aiming their guns at opposite doors just in time to see a half dozen of the monsters stumble into the room. Their eyes narrow on the soldiers, completely missing us hiding in the corner, and they charge forward with another round of howls.

EarthGov troops had very little opposition these days. Most of these men were little more than overly trained security guards. They'd spent their years fighting off occasional raiders and regular drunkards. A phalanx of monsters roaring toward them was something very out of their experience.

They didn't seem happy with this development.

A couple of them wailed in fear, quailing before the monsters charging toward them. They make no move toward their guns. Most of the soldiers did manage to keep it together enough to raise their weapons and fire. They still look as terrified as the wailers, but they pull on whatever training they have to remain useful and present in the situation.

Though, there's one, just one, armed with some kind of pistol, that looks totally calm. This one isn't panicking at all. His voice is cold and controlled in the same way Victoria's sometimes was when an important shareholders meeting was coming up. "Remain alert and united, and we'll survive this."

The way he recited the words made them sound like official doctrine. I didn't know if they were, but if they weren't the man clearly knew how to make his trite slogans sound like rulings from high command.

His aim was damn good too. And he listened to his bosses. Each bullet fired into the joints of each limb, tearing the flesh apart, and several creatures stumbled as their limbs were suddenly absent from their bodies.

The other soldiers were less exacting, putting bullets wherever they could.

The calm man's efforts were not enough, he called for a retreat and the soldiers were quickly pushed out of the room. Chloe and I waited as silently as we could until the screams were distant, then gone, and stood up. Chloe immediately let out a long, deep breath, her upper body just dropping down as she rested her hands on her knees and tried to take yet more. "Woah. That was hella fucking close, Max."

I nod, keeping an eye on the opposite door. "It was. Totally thought we were going to get shot or eaten for a few minutes there."

She giggles quietly, still too breathless to manage a full guffaw, and pulls herself together after a couple of minutes of us staring sappily at one another. We are so that couple.

I hold out my hand and, when she takes mine with an indulgent but agonised groan (Chloe still hated the sappy PDA, handholding and that kinda thing. She, um... had no problem with the other kind of PDA though.), squeeze hers reassuringly. "We're okay. We're going to get out of here Chloe, I promise you."

After a moment, she nods. "Okay. Come on then. Let's get moving. Gotta prove going up was the right decision, don't I?"

I shrug, walking past her towards the other door, taking a peek. The corridor was clear, and it was lined with doors the entire way down, only breaking the pattern for a single turn in either direction. I couldn't see where the soldiers, or the monsters, had gone, but they definitely hadn't stuck around.

I lead the way for the first half, intending to lead the whole way, but Chloe shoved in front of me saying something about going this way being her decision and how she was on a roll. I gave her the traditional response of rolling my eyes, but indulged her. She had been right, after all.

We stop at each turn and peek around the corners, only moving on after we were satisfied they were clear. Seemed like those soldiers had been all that was left of whoever was up here, and now they'd gone the floor was empty.

Empty of living people, anyway. There were a few around who were... not. I came close to throwing up a couple of times, but Chloe quickly kept us moving. But the stench of it always followed us.

It followed us through corridors, through halls, through offices, and through walls (not really. I just liked the rhyme and I'm trying to keep myself from freaking out. Being flippant seems to work. Makes me kind of regret the times I got mad at Chloe for doing it, actually.). The air around us was still, complete silence making the little tip-taps of our footsteps echo around us. We winced, every damn time.

Tip.

Tap.

Tip.

Tap.

Tip.

"Omigodgetdowngetdown!" Chloe suddenly barrels into me, knocking us both into a side office or store-room or something just in time to see a monster go past. It's not one of the usual monsters, though, my mind adroitly observes as I fly backwards in hilariously cartoonish slow-mo. No, this one was bigger. And kind of looked like it'd been set on fire. Maybe it had. I mean, I don't know what these things can survive.

It walks past us slowly, taking long loping steps as it ambles along and I get my first full view of it.

It is... horrific, to say the least. Just looking at it threatens to make my brain try climb out my ears in order to avoid the sight of it. It looks kind of like a pterodactyl, if someone tore its head off and replaced it with tentacles. Its skin was light, almost tan-coloured. Made an oddly pleasant contrast to the dark red of its face tentacles. For serious, where the hell do these things come from? They can't have been hiding on the station, can they?

That feeling of imminent brain GTFO increases when the tentacles somehow... look at us. It looks like a curious puppy, all tilted and nosy. Then, it starts to lope towards us, almost galloping as it collides with the door frame. We immediately back up to the furthest corner from the door, watching in horror as it tries to force its way through.

Chloe growls in anger as it finally gets in, searching around for something to throw or swing at it. It's an office, so the best thing she comes up with is a lamp that shatters on the thing ineffectually.

It prowls closer, the tentacles waving about like antennae on an insect as it maybe tries to find us? It doesn't have eyes, so it's got to see somehow. There's no opportunity to sneak around it, though. It's going to find us, and it's going to...

Oh dog.

"It's okay, Chloe. We tried." I hug her close, and we wait for the end.

Waiting...

Waiting.

Waiting?

My eyes flicker open just in time to see two long streaking cuts appear in the tenta-dactyl monster's wings and the tentacles get ripped away from its body. It flops down to the ground to reveal a man standing behind it, grinning, holding a large knife in one hand and a plasma cutter in the other. He looks up at us, his elated grin never fading. "You two okay?"

We stare blankly at him. Well. That was convenient.

Chloe gets up first, pulling me up after. "Yeah, we're good. Thanks, dude."

He nods. "De nada. I'm Copse. And you are?"

"Chloe. And this is Max." She taps me on the shoulder, then leans in and mutters something reassuring that I didn't really hear and a hurried "Babe, I thought you were supposed to be the polite one. Say something already."

I shake my head, trying to clear the shock, and mumble a quiet "Hi."

Copse grins. "Nice to meet you both. If you wanna get out of here, I'm heading to the hanger bay just around the corner."

Chloe raises an eyebrow. "If?"

He shrugs. "Well, I dunno. Maybe you're of those Unitologist types. My buddy was, he just sort of..." Copse's face goes carefully, deliberately blank. "gave up. When those things came after us." The blank look suddenly disappears and he flashes another bright grin. It doesn't reach his eyes. "Now, I'm all for freedom of religion, so if you're into that, let me know and I'll get out of your hair."

We both very, very emphatically shake our heads. "Nope. Definitely for the living. Yep. Love the living. It's pretty sweet, y'know."

His grin finally reaches his eyes. "Fantastic. Come on, then." After waiting barely a beat to let us pull ourselves together, he's out the door and pacing across the hall to one of the turns we passed. He waits patiently at the corner for a few moments, his head tilted and his eyes do that weird focused-unfocused thing people do when they're trying to concentrate on their ears instead of their eyes.

When he's satisfied that he can't hear anything, meaning there are no monsters around (those things aren't exactly subtle), he takes the corner and strides off down the hallway. We have to dash a little to catch up. He's barely taller than me, but he moves fast.

We take another few corners like that, waiting then dashing then waiting again, before we end up in a moderate-sized hangar. As we walk in, my eye is immediately caught by the high-tech helicopter sitting in the middle of the room. Then, my gaze drifts past that to the carnage of cargo around it. Boxes and lockers and large cargo containers that I assumed had been stacked neatly before were now scattered and upturned and just in messy piles all over the room, making for a neat little obstacle course we'd have to get through to make it to the chopper. Copse turns to us. "I'll meet you there. I've got to toggle the locks and the doors in the back office first."

He's leaving us on our own? I gulp nervously. He must've noticed, because he immediately lights up with another bright grin that doesn't reach his eyes. "Don't worry, Max. We'll be fine. Just keep quiet, and stay calm, and get to the chopper."

As he leaves, Chloe turns to me, her eyes alight with mischief as she smirks, putting on a strong accent. "You heard the guy, Maxie. Get to da choppa."

I roll my eyes. God I hate that movie. Also, it's a shuttle. "Come on, Arnie. Let's do what the man says."

We duck, tuck, and weave through the cargo containers, making our way towards the middle of the room where the 'chopper' stood untouched by the chaos. It wasn't overly large, just a smallish trapezoid-prism cabin with a pair of side engines and another pair at the rear. The small identifier on the front named it as 'Shuttle 36'.

We waited by the small cabinside-door for an agonisingly long time, until the sound of loud and rapid footfalls made us look up just as Copse dashed into view yelling "Get in the shuttle! They're here!" as two monsters, larger versions of the ones we'd seen before, burst through the piles of containers and scattered them everywhere as they roared.

I stare numbly at them as all my mind can do is think 'How did they even get in here? They're literally twice the size of the doorways.'. Not helpful, really, but turns out the photo-staging trick only works when they're not actively charging at us. Chloe, thinking quicker and more on-topic than me, drags me into the shuttle and slams the door shut behind us just as the things reach us.

They slam into the side of the helicopter, shaking the cabin wildly. Chloe manages to land me in a seat just as my mind somehow reintegrates with my current situation. She tumbles past, getting a console to her stomach with enough force to force her to buckle over it.

I could hear Copse muttering to himself in what I think was Spanish as he revved the engines. They roar into life and we start to move forward just as the monsters charge again, and the shuttle rocks to the right as they nearly send us careening into one of the walls. Copse's low Spanish mumbles transition to loud curses in a variety of languages. Somehow, he manages to get the shuttle stabilised and flies us out of the now-open hangar bay doors and into the main sphere of the station.

And away from the monsters. That's the most important part.

When he's satisfied we're away and safe, Copse taps a few keys to toggle the autopilot protocols and looks back at us. "So... can you two remind me of your names?"

"I'm Max. This is Chloe." I reach up and tap her forearm and she grins down at me.

"How long have the two of you been married?" He tilts his head, smiling amicably.

Chloe frowns. "How the fuck did you know we were married?" She demands, glaring at him suspiciously.

I roll my eyes and raise my hand. "We're wearing rings, Chloe."

She frowns down at her own ring. "Oh, right. Yeah. That."

I chuckle at my adorably confused wifey and turn back to the pilot now staring bemusedly at the two of us. "And you're Copse, right? Is that a surname or your first name?"

"Surname. My first name is Aiden." He swings the chair back around and taps another few keys mid-spin before stopping back when he was facing us again. "Nice to meet you fully, I suppose."

"You too." I nod, trying to think of more awkward conversation to make with the guy. Ugh. There's a reason I stayed a photojournalist rather than going into interviews.

Chloe chimes in after a few moments with a muttered "Thanks for saving our lives."

Copse just shrugs. "No worries. It was on my way out, anyway. What were you two doing in the base, anyhow?"

"We, uh- We work there." Chloe tries.

Copse chuckles, shaking his head. "No you don't. I don't know what you two are, but you're definitely not EarthGov. You're too..." He tilts his head as he mulls over his words. "Positive."

Chloe scoffs. "Positive? You don't know shit, dude."

He shrugs, unoffended. "Maybe not, but I know that you definitely aren't EarthGov. So, why were you there?"

"We- uh..." Chloe and I share a panicked look. He might've saved our lives, but he's still EarthGov. If we told him what we did, that all this might've even been our fault, I... I don't know what he'd do. "There's-"

There's a jolt and the little status-representation of the shuttle on one of the side vidscreens flashes red on both left engines. Copse spins the chair around again, and his hands fly over the keys as he tries to steady us. He swears again, before saying three little words that make my stomach drop faster than we were. "We're going down."