A/N Nothing to say again, except enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter 11: Rapid descent

The next half hour or so was more or less uneventful. It could have easily be chalked up to a simple dungeon crawl to find the fuses necessary to power the doors. They got stuck a few times trying to find them, but a but of thinking outside the box allowed them to prevail. This was one such situation: In which they needed a key that was trapped within the guts of a stuffed bear.

"Six... What is that?" Mike asked, gesturing to the small wooden toy in her grasp.

"Nothing." She replied.

"Looks like something."

"It's nothing..." She snuggled it close to her chest. All this time running from danger and making choices they weren't proud of... it was easy for Mike to forget they were all still just kids... just kids... and seeing Six play with that small toy horse nearly broke his heart, but he steeled himself. They were still in a dangerous situation and he'd handle these issues when the time was right.

"Alright then... So, how do we get this thing out of the bear?"

"No clue." Mono replied as he tried to tear the bear apart with his hands. "This isn't some sort of fabric... it's leather of some kind..."

"The only animals I've seen so far is human." Six mumbled. At the same time, an elevator dinged and Frisk and Chara emerged.

"Lets keep that detail to ourselves."

"We searched around down there." Frisk started.

"All we found were a few knick-knacks and a huge furnace." Chara finished.

"A furnace eh? Hmm..." Mono studied the bear in his hands. "I have an idea." Mono marched off towards the elevator with the others in tow. They rode the elevator, listened to the muzak, and arrived in the lower levels. They watched as Mono hurled the bear into the incinerator and power it on. A large warm glow filled the room, which they all gathered around and warmed up beside. As they waited for the toy to burn, they decided to make small talk.

"So... You think we'll make it out of this alive?" Mike asked.

"Nice campside chatter, dude." Chara replied in a mocking tone.

"It's a fair question... What real chance do we have of surviving this?"

"We gotta keep hope alive. I mean, look at what we've been though so far."

"That's a pretty bad case to make. I mean, take me for example: I've been shot, beaten, got my knuckles busted, and nearly cannibalized. I'd say I alone have had too many close calls, imagine what could happen to you guys."

"It's not like you've died yet." Six replied. Mike frowned a bit at her, but Frisk backed her up.

"She does have. a point, you've managed to bounce back from your injuries so far. We're more cautious now." Mike rubbed his sore shoulder and winced once his knuckles flaired with pain.

"Nnn... I don't know how much I got left in me... Another injury like that..." A gentle hand rested on him.

"It won't come to that... You've risked yourself for us more than once now... we owe you that much." Frisk said

"Yea, man. Take a rest, let us do the work." Mono added. Mike looked away to stare at the fire for a moment, contemplating his own mortality before he felt a soft nudge at his side. He looked and saw the toy horse Six had been playing with.

"Cheer up, sport." She said. Mike took the toy and held it for awhile.

"Thank you... guys... I don't know what to say."

"Don't about it." Mono replied. They noticed the flames of the furnace had died down a lot. "The bear must be done soon... You guys ready for what's next?"

"As we'll ever be, I suppose." Mike said as he touched the horse one last time before setting it down and leaving.

Later

They found themselves riding an elevator again. But this time, they went far deeper than they had before.

"All this work just for a stupid fuse..." Chara complained.

"Itll be worth it in the end... hopefully..." Mono replied. "I mean... I haven't seen anything too bad in awhile... maybe this place is-" As they descended, they noticed a few rooms filled with... jeeze... they didn't even know what. They looked like human but... none had a head. At least, one that was theirs to begin with. Most had prosthetic limbs and heads with only an original torso left behind that showed that they were once people to begin with. Although that was scary enough on it's own, the fact that once the light of their elevator left the room, they almost swore they saw rapid scuttling. They stood there, frozen in terror as to what they just seen, before the ding of the elevator broke them from their trance.

"We'll... We're here..." Frisk said. She and Chara both walked off into the dim light of the room.

"Wait..." Six said as she, too, stepped out and looked around. "This isn't the basement-" All of a sudden, the cords connecting the elevator snapped. Mono and Mike's eyes widened and tried to jump out of the elevator, but the final cord snapped before the could and they began crashing down, down, down... down to the deepest reaches of the hospital.

"NO!" The girls screamed as they ran to the edge and looked down. All they saw was darkness.

The depths

Mono slowly rose and groaned in pain. He held his sides and staggered to his feet. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the flashlight he had found earlier while searching for fuses. He turned it on, amazed it still worked, and searched for Mike among the wreckage.

"Mike?" He coughed a few times from the effort of his callout. "Mike, where are you?" He head slight shuffling followed by a groan.

"Over... Here..." He groaned. Mono frowned and tried to follow the sounds with his light but had a bit of trouble. Eventually, he found what looked to be the figure of Mike among the darkness. He excitedly shown his light in Mike, and immediately shouted in shock at what he saw.