Maka let out an enervating huff that fogged her visor momentarily as she pushed back the loose strands of hair from her vision and stared at the locked door that was being repeatedly beaten on from the outside.

Before trying Soul's proposed outlandish plan, she suggested they wait it out to see if the creature would lose interest. For scientific research, she reasoned. Conclusion was that the creature would not lose interest, and in fact would only become increasingly more agitated the longer they sat in silence.

The humidity in the room had his clothes feeling very unpleasant. The kevlar jacket that had been provided did a bang up job on keeping the heat trapped inside and Soul was loathing every second of it. The heat of the room was causing a lot of condensation build up on their visors, making it increasingly difficult to see considering they had no viable way of wiping the inside clean.

He lolled his head to the side, resting his ear on the shelf and closed his eyes. It was almost rhythmic, the beating on the door. Dare he say it was becoming comforting in a way?Although he could do without the inhuman screeching that occasionally rang out against the beat.

Maka's loud huff had brought him back down from the tired daze he was finding himself falling into and he watched as she got to her feet slowly. "We'll try your plan." She sounded almost unwilling. He can't blame her though, his plan had a great chance of failing. But they have no other choice.

Soul pulled himself to his feet with the help of the shelf and stretched. His muscles ached and he felt light headed, but nonetheless, he gave her a nod of agreement. She sucked in her breath and exhaled unevenly.

Nervous.

"For clarification," She adjusted the straps on her backpack as she readied herself. "We open the door, it rushes in and we trade places with it, locking it in here." He can see her mapping out her steps in her head with her body language. He smiled.

"That's the plan." He confirmed, trying to push his own nerves down.

"And if it doesn't work?" She paused, looking at him over her shoulder as she positioned herself next to the door. He hadn't really put much thought into dying. He had blocked that thought from his mind and just accepted it as a fate that he could land on while he was down here.

Soul took his position beside her, cramming her against the wall between him and the door. "Then you run like hell and find Kid and Blake." She stared up at him in disbelief, unable to come up with a response.

"You open that door on three, got it?" He placed his hand on top of her head and twisted it back around to face the door, not giving her a chance to argue. With his free hand, he gripped the handle of the combat knife that was tucked away in his belt.

"One…" he counted the pounding at the door in his head.

"Two…" He waited for the next round of rhythmic pounding to start. "Three!"

Maka spun the vault lock on the door and the creature had thrown itself at the door just like he counted on it to do. She tugged the door open and they both watched as the creature dived into the room with them, slamming into the shelving across the way. Before she had time to consider freezing, her feet had her moving to snake around the door and hop over the small lip of the doorway.

The creature howled and spun around to face them on all fours. Its mouth agape, sectioned off into four, it had rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth. Eyeless, it still felt like it was staring directly at them.

As Maka made it over the doorway's lip, the creature snarled and lunged forward. Soul had blocked it from reaching her with its mouth open and went stumbling backwards as he tripped over the lip of the doorway. He landed on his back, head slamming against the metal floor made his vision black for a second; and the creature thrashed against his arms to reach his face.

With his knife in hand as he fell backwards, he had successfully shoved it down what he could only assume was the creature's throat. But in doing so, the creature had latched onto his forearm with its razored maw.

Soul held back his cry of pain with a grunt and pushed back against the heavy creature. Its skin was slick with mucus and the stench that seeped in through his mask's filter was foul. The more he pushed back against it, the harder it seemed to grasp his forearm with its maw. Soul tossed his head to the side, frantically looking at Maka as she stood frozen against the wall.

"What are you doing?! Run you idiot!"

Her watching Soul stop the creature mid-launch and fall backwards gave her mind time to think, and it chose to freeze. Time felt like it had slowed and she could swear she was hearing the crunch of bones.

His grunt of pain shocked Maka back into reality and her brain went into overdrive. She began looking around for anything to grab to help him. When something metal hit her elbow from her side she stopped herself in her tracks. Her gun! An idiot, she was!

She pulled her secondary gun from her side and analyzed it quickly. A small pump action shotgun. She pulled it open and began fumbling with the ammo casings, occasionally glancing up at Soul worryingly.

Once she had managed to load the two shots into the gun, she widened her stance and took a deep breath. "Hey!" She called out, trying to get the creature's attention off of Soul's forearm.

Bang!

One shot to the stomach had the creature releasing his arm and snarl towards her. Soul took the opening to jam his knife into the creature's chest and drag it across with all the strength he had left. Blood pooled around his hands and down his forearms as the creature brought its attention back down on him.

In retaliation to Soul's attack, the creature swiped its own claws down on Soul and all Maka heard was Soul cry out before she pulled the trigger again.

Bang!

Warm and nothing but dead weight, Maka watched the creature slump heavily down on top of her partner. She lowered the gun and waited, watching the pile of bodies before her.

The creature began moving, as if it was struggling to sit up and she raised her gun at it once more. She waited, finger itching to move to the trigger again. The creature slumped over to the side and she lowered the weapons quickly after realizing that Soul was the one moving the body.

"S-Soul?" Maka inched her front foot forward. Soul groaned in response to her calling out his name. She gasped and dropped her weapon to her side, dropping down to her knees beside him. "Oh god… god… okay." Not having any clue what to do, her hands hovered over Soul's body, eyes scanning every inch of him.

He grumbled something inaudible before gasping for much needed air. She leaned down, pulling her hair away from touching his wound. "What?"

"You're out of ammo… gah!" Maka rested her hand on his chest, finally getting a good look at the wound he had acquired while simultaneously stopping his chiding.

She breathed out, eyeing the creature laying still at Soul's side, just waiting for it to jump back up and finish the job. He groaned again, resting his head back on the metal floor that was pooled with mixed blood.

All he could feel was hot. His vision was beginning to become spotty. Little dots made his peripheral fuzzy and god did his chest burn. His visor was smeared with the creature's blood, but it looked like he was looking through something smeared with motor oil.

He tried sitting up, causing pain to shoot through his torso. He felt Maka's hand settle on his shoulder to steady him.

Several distant roars made Maka tense up, giving Soul's shoulder a squeeze. It sent a pain unlike any other through his body and he curled in on himself, trying to pull away from her grip. She released the tension quickly after realizing what she was doing and got to her feet in a squatting position.

"Soul, we need to go, now." It came out as a shaky whisper.

He took a breath in and shuddered as he exhaled. Maka gently pulled his arm over her shoulder and counted down before lifting him to his feet. She paused, letting him regain his balance and reorientate himself as she snaked an arm around his waist. She glanced over her shoulder, praying that the creatures weren't waiting in the darkness down the hall to attack.

"Let's go." He confirmed he was ready to move and brought her attention back to keeping him fully on his feet.


"Are you getting anything?" Blake asked in a hushed tone, looking up from his feet as he paced in front of the windows. Kid shook his head, dropping his hand from the comms located in his ear.

"They must have wandered too far for the signal to reach."

"Then we go towards the direction we last saw them heading. Easy." Blake pointed towards the wall, down the hallway that led back into the main chamber.

"Back towards the hoard. Yes, what a great idea prisoner, you go on ahead. I'll catch up with you." Kid deadpanned, dropping his eyes back down at the map on the table.

"It's Blake." He took a warning step towards Kid, fist tight as his side. His stern voice pulled Kids eyes back up to lock with his own.

"Okay, Blake." Kid scooped the map from the table and packed it away in his bag. "You're an explosives expert, yes?"

"...yeah, let's go with that."

"Good because we need a distraction. Grab your gear." Kid slung his bag back on his shoulders and snatched his rifle from its resting position against the table.

The airlock hissed louder than needed as they both peaked their heads into the corridor, looking down either side. Once they noted it was clear, Kid took the lead down the path away from the main chamber.

"We're going towards where those monsters went?" Blake's staticy voice protested over comms as he tried to keep up with Kid's long strides.

"This corridor leads straight into a conservatory that has blast door entrances. If we manage to make enough noise here, then it'll draw them away from the passage we need to take to head over to the others and we can seal them off." They rounded the corner that led them straight into the blast door Kid was expecting and it drew the first smile on his face down here that Blake witnessed.

Kid slid down to his knees as he ran over to the keypad and began pressing away at the numbers. Blake watched their backs while he waited for the doors mechanical gears whir to life.

"What? No alarm this time?"

"That alarm door was what sealed off this section from the others. It was the only way to access this side of the layout. Once you're through the security, there's no need to go through another." Kid informed as he pulled himself to his feet, watching the door lift from the floor.


Every step felt like she was carrying a car on her shoulder as Soul leaned into her for support. Her abdomen burned with the angle it was being held at and her bicep ached as it clung around his back for anything to stop him from falling away from her.

They were able to make it down the long corridor and past a few of the smaller doors before they heard the roars of the kishens from behind. They had found their scent and were clearly on their trail. Hearing the first roar that echoed behind had them both stop in their tracks as it pierced their ears.

Maka glanced over her shoulder and Soul's bicep, fully expecting one of the creatures to be approaching them but was met with the curved wall they had just navigated from. Soul tugging on her to keep moving pulled her chin forward and she picked up her pace.

It felt like she was just carrying him at this point with how fast they were moving and how little Soul's feet were taking their own steps. She couldn't tell if he was getting weaker with every step or if his weight was finally bearing down on her muscles enough to tire her out.

"Stop, Maka- stop." Soul placed his hand against the wall to his side and pulled away from her slightly. He brought his free hand to the open wound on his chest and groaned in pain.

"What? No, Soul, we need to keep moving." She panted. Her lungs burned as they tried to absorb the small amount of oxygen the gas mask allowed with each inhale. He shook his head in response as she spoke, dropping his chin to his chest in exhaustion.

"I can't." She watched as his stance wavered a little and her grip at his side tightened ever so slightly. Another inhuman roar echoed down the hall and it sounded much closer this time. Maka gave him a stern look through her visor and ignored his complaints as she tugged his body back against hers and continued moving.

"I am not authorizing you," She grunted as his body became significantly heavier, "to die in this hallway." Soul's chin dropped against his chest against, and swayed with every step she forced them to take. Maka ducked her head down enough to see that he was no longer conscious in her arms and let out a pleading sob.

She stopped and leaned Soul's body against the wall to readjust her grip, tucking both of her arms under his from his backside and began dragging his lifeless form down the hallway to the nearest side door.