Seeing that the team actually heard her over the blaring alarm and gunfire mixed with the screeching from hell; Maka watched from her peripheral as Kid switched over to his side arm and stored his sniper on his back as he started taking steps backwards towards the blast door. He tapped Blake on the shoulder, signaling for him to fall back and keep their distance close.

As they approached the airlock, still firing into the onslaught of hellish creatures, Maka broke off from the squad in the back and ran over to the doors override panel on the other side to start the sequence to shut the door.

The blaring alarm has finally subsided and left the chamber echoing with gunfire and the inhuman noises that the kishen were making; alongside the mad laughter that Blake was belting out as he continued to carelessly fire his weapon.

Adrenaline coursing through her made it incredibly difficult to operate the control panel. Her hands were shaking too much to accurately hit the keypad and begin the closure. She tried her best to slow her breathing down with such short time on her hands and relaxed her muscles before attempting the keypad once more.

The familiar sound of the doors machinery started whirring up beneath their feet and Maka let out a breath she had been holding in as she activated her comms. "Doors closing. Hold them back as much as you can."

"I'm out!" Blake's voice boomed over the comms as he slung his gun over his shoulder by the strap and unhooked his sledgehammer from its holster on his waist.

"I think we're all running a little low here," Soul tossed his empty magazine to the side and pulled out his last one from his ammo pouch. He reloaded the weapon and mirrored Blake by pulling out his sledgehammer. They began holding off the stragglers within reaching distance that Kid had neglected to clear.

"Heads up!" Kid's call out was a second away from being too late as Soul and Blake dove away from one another. One of the fast kishens they've encountered so far had lunged towards the three of them and landed into a somersault as it missed its targets. This encounter left their front open for a breach as their attention was locked in on the creature that was now dividing their group.

Maka fired off a few shots to take down a few that were making their way dangerously close to the two prisoners now on the floor. Her shots had brought Kid's focus back to the front and he took a few steps backwards as he fired off a round into one of the kishens that were between them all.

"Fall back to corridors B and C. Those doors won't hold them off for long but it'll give us time to lose them." Soul and Blake locked eyes over one of the kishens crawling between them as Kid made the final callout for their backup plan. Both equally terrified and out of breath, got to their feet and split off with their hammers in hand.


Getting to his feet, Soul used the sledgehammer to pull himself up and stumble backwards towards Maka by the doors control panel. She fired off two more rounds towards the kishen at Soul's feet. Reaching her, he pushed her on the shoulder to spin her around and tugged at her elbow to move.

"Let's go!" Soul shouted as he slammed his hand down on the basic control panel. The door hissed open just as quickly as it closed when he reactivated the panel behind them. He watched as Blake and Kid did the same across the chamber before the door blocked his vision. As the door touched the floor, there were several thuds against the door, letting them know they were nowhere in the clear.

Soul followed Maka as she led them down the unforgivably long corridor and sharply turned into an alcove in the hallway. Hidden in the dark was a small access door with a small vault handle. She spun the lock quickly and pulled Soul inside by the arm as soon as it clicked open.

The size of the room they had stumbled into was something she wasn't surprised about considering the size of the door. Inside they probably had a good five by five standing area, most of which was taken up by shelving and cleaning supplies. In the center of the floor was a small drainage grate with several plant vines sprouting from it.

The cramped room was humid, and the small emergency light above the door bathed the room in a dim yellow light. After several minutes of deafening noise, the silence here was painful; ears left ringing.

As Soul relaxed and threw his back against the door to catch his breath, horrifying screeching and claws scraping against the metal plated floor behind the door caused both of them to freeze up once more. Neither of them moved until the scratching and inhuman noises faded off in the distance.

Once they figured they were in the clear, Maka rested her hands on her knees and let out the breath she held from anticipation. Soul slid down the door and rested his elbows on his knees, dropping the hammer slowly from his grip. She watched him rest the visor of his gas mask against his forearms and bury his face.

"All of those were people…" His voice was hoard, his breath hitching as he spoke, trying to catch his breath. Maka lowered herself to the ground, resting on her knees and removed her backpack from her shoulders. "For what… some sick experiments?" She honestly couldn't tell if he was talking to her or to himself out of delirium.

"We severely miscalculated the population density and danger of this mission." Maka mumbled her thoughts aloud, pulling Soul's head up from his thoughts.

"You both knew what we were coming into down here." He exasperated and slammed his fist against the floor.

"To a very small extent, I knew." Maka refused to make eye contact with him as she confessed. "I didn't know how bad it truly was. I thought they had gotten it under control and secured the outbreak into a sector of the lab-"

A loud bang echoed throughout the small supply closet as muffled screeching was heard outside the door. They'd been found. From the sound of it though, there was only one of them.

Soul had spun around and pushed himself away from the food with his feet, slamming his back against the shelf beside Maka. They said nothing as another inhuman yell flooded their ears.

The banging stopped, and they listened as the creature sniffed around the doors edges.

Soul could practically hear his heart beating in his ears as he watched the door, waiting for something to happen.

The claws tapping on the metal floor, could be heard pacing as more sniffing at the doors seal started up.

Bang!

Silence. One. Two. Three.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The repetitive banging on the door was louder and faster as the creature determined they were locked behind the door. Soul could feel his muscles tighten with every metallic bang on the door.

"Soul…" Maka's voice softly buzzed in his ears through the comms. An attempt to speak quietly so the creature couldn't hear her, but loud enough for him to. "We need to get out of here before it calls more of those things."

Soul Stuttered at first, trying to regain what little energy he might have left from his rollercoaster of adrenaline rushes. "I-I might have an idea but you're not going to like it." He glanced over to her and furrowed his brow.


"This way to the right!" Kid yelled over comms. Blake nearly dove around the corner as he slammed his hand down on the control panel of the door behind them. The hissing of it shutting behind them was followed shortly by multiple thuds against the metal door.

Before Kid could direct Blake any further down the endless corridors, Blake had shouldered him into a room and closed the airlock doors.

The room was a small chemical lab with two rows of elongated tables covered in lab equipment. There were four observing windows lining the wall adjacent to the door they had just entered. Emergency lights basked the room in a dim scanning yellow light every few seconds.

A loud clang of the small door being busted open from the kishens pursuing them made them both jump and look uselessly towards the airlock.

"Down, now!" Kid pulled Blake down by the shoulder, ducking them behind the elongated table in the center of the room. Blake crawled away from Kid on his hands and knees to the closest end of the table and peaked around the corner, watching the window with one eye. Kid took the time to go through his ammo bag and reload his side arm.

Green eyes watched as five of the disfigured humanoid creatures stumbled their way down the hallway, all walking on two legs unlike the few they've encountered that crawl around on all fours in the main room before they were split apart. The bipedal ones, Blake noted, seemed to be a lot slower than their counterparts.

He slammed his back against the table, hiding his face from view as they screeched and began passing the second window. Kid's head followed the sound of them scampering down the hall, and holstered his weapon.

"Good call," He whispered, "Hiding away instead of following the corridor." The compliment took Blake aback and a cheeky grin could be seen spreading across his face behind his fogging visor. Kid rolled his eyes and propped himself up on one knee as he peeked over the table.

"We seem to be in the clear for now." Kid clicked his comms off, and his voice sounded a little muffled compared to the clear channels. Rising to his feet, he slung his back off his shoulder and placed it on the lab table as he began digging through it.

"So now that our plan went to shit, what's next?"

"Assuming Maka and Evans are fine, our first priority is to regroup with them. Maka is the only one capable of rebooting the reactor." Kid pulled a folded up map from his bag and flattened it out on the table's surface. Blake peered over his shoulder as he watched Kid trace the layout with his fingers, trying to follow their pathing. There was a heavy silence in the air as Blake debated on asking the dreaded question.

"And.. if she isn't?" Kid's fingers paused their tracing and he raised his head up, turning to look Blake in the eyes.

"Then Evans failed his mission and will be executed if he makes it out of here himself." There was a grim tone to Kid's voice that made Blakes blood run cold. "The reactor restarting is the only way we can restore communication with topside. WIthout it, there's no way we can call for a ride out of here. We'd have to go by foot." Kid pinpointed their location and began tracing multiple paths, one back to the room where they were separated and one that led them straight to the reactor.

"And I don't know about you, prisoner," Kid paused and looked back at Blake, "But I'd rather not travel 1700 meters to the surface in a labyrinth with these creatures."