A/N Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 13: The depths below

Meanwhile

Mono looked in rising horror at the grisly scene before him. Mike was lying under a small pile of rubble, barely moving and clearly in pain and distressed. Even in the pitch black darkness, Mono could still see the dark liquid pool of crimson fluid leaking from where Mike was.

"Oh geeze... okay... I'm gonna try to get you free." He said as he began to dig through the rubble.

"Mono... You need to hear what I'm about to say." Mono ignored him and just continued to dig. "You... You should stop..."

"No. I'm getting you out of here. Try not to move too much-" Mono removed one final chunk of metal and rock only to see a large shard if metal had impaled Mike through his side. Mono stood there in shock, not sure as of what to do next.

"I... I tried to tell you..." Mike groaned as he held the metal piercing his body. "You... You need to leave."

"No... I'm not going to leave you here. We're in a hospital for goodness sake. There's gotta be something to help you..." Mike groaned and tried to stand. He was semi-successful, but the metal chunk in him nade it very difficult, and certain movements would cause blood to torrent out of him with the effort.

"I... I can barely walk..."

"Then I'll help you." Mono replied quickly as he took Mie's arm and put it over his shoulder. "Lean on me." Mike did so, and they began to leave the wreckage of the elevator. "It's so dark in here... There's gotta be something..." Mono helped Mike to a small block of stone for him to rest on. Mono then searched the room in search of a flashlight. He turned over boxes, opened drawers and even went back to the elevator to search there. Fortunately, he managed to find a working flashlight lying under a pile of dirty rags. He took it and turned it on only to realize that the pile of rags was actually clothes. "What the...?" He glanced around more and noticed a TV nearby. "Odd..." He shook his head and returned to Mike. He helped him back up and together, they continued on their journey, now able to see what was in front of them. Unfortunately... that also meant Mono could clearly see the extent of Mike's injuries. They weren't pretty... his face was cut and beaten by the fall, much like himself, but the fallen bits of rock and metal left many bad bruises all over his body and his head was bleeding pretty bad, to where the blood trickled down under his eye, past his cheek, and down his chin where it then dripped onto the floor. Looking back, Mono noticed a small yet steady trail of blood behind them. If nothing else, he needed to staunch the bleeding. Mono was smart enough to know the metal in Mike's body was stopping a lot of the blood, but he couldn't just leave it inside him forever. He'd need to remove it eventually. "Come on Mike... lets see if there's any bandages around here." Mike could only weakly nod as Mono lead him through the hospital. Along the way, they passed many bits and pieces of prosthetic limbs and medical tools, but none of which Mono could use. He wondered what all these limbs were for... but frankly, he didn't want to know. His only goal was to get Mike help and escape this place as fast as possible.

"I don't like this place..." Mike mumbled. "Feels... wrong... Like we're being watched..." Mono nodded in agreement. He didn't quite know why... but he did indeed feel like eyes were watching his every move. Mono shivered.

"This room doesn't have anything we can use... Look, over there, maybe that room will-" Suddenly, they heard a ruckus from nearby. Quick as he could, Mono shone his light in the direction of the noise only to see what appeared to he a mannequin standing nearby. "Strange... Was that there a moment ago?"

"Not sure... Too... Too dark to tell..." Mono furrowed his brow under his bag and flashed his light all over the menacing figure, studying it. His shone his light at its legs and as soon as he did, he noticed that the arms and 'head' moved. He quickly shined his light back up and sure enough, the arms and head were in different positions. Mono tensed up in shock and fear.

"What is this thing...?" He asked no one in particular. Slowly, the two inched their way backwards, making sure to keep the light in the thing. Mono deduced that it could not move while directly in the light. He used this knowledge to creep closer to the door and eventually slip in with Mike and close the door behind them. "There... that's over with..." Mono said. But... He spoke too soon. As soon as he turned around, his light illuminated nearly a dozen or two of the mannequins, all of which were staring right at them. Mono's legs locked in terror and the light quivered in his shakey hand. Mike noticed this and sighed.

"Mono... Give me the light..."

"What? Why?"

"So you can get by... There's no way you'll be fast enough to get past them while shinning your light to keep them at bay..."

"No. Stop saying these things. We'll figure something out."

"There's nothing to figure out... Just go... You have a much higher chance of surviving than me... Tell my sisters... I love them..." Mono glared at Mike.

"You tell them yourself, you hear me? Now come on." Mono, filled with determination, marched right into the mannequins while shining his light on as many of them as possible. Mike began to resist, but quickly realized that doing so would only make Mono's job harder, so he just decided to try his best to keep up with him and be his second pair of eyes.

"Left...!" Mike shouted. Mono blasted a few mannequins with his light, stopping them dead in their tracks just as they were about to grab them. Mono then blasted a few to the right with the same results. The two worked in unison the best they could doing a fairly good job of keeping the monsters at bay. But Mike... He wasn't doing so good. The added effort of moving fast to keep up with Mono was extremely draining... He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up. "Mono... I can't keep this up much longer..." Mike groaned as he gripped the metal in his side tightly, trying his best to make sure it doesn't move.

"I can see the door. We're almost there. Just a few more yards." Mono replied as he blasted a few more.

"Yards... Yards..." Mike began to mumble this over and over to himself. His head began to swim and his vision tunneled. The light from Mono's torch was blindingly bright despite how dim it really was. Mike could see the monsters closing in, ready to snatch them up. Mono was going as fast as he could, but Mike could tell he was getting exhausted. Mike knew they didn't have many options, but he did have one that just might work. Mike gripped ahold of Mono as tight as he could.

"What are you-" Before he could finish his sentence, Mike used as much strength he could muster to launch Mono forward towards the door. Mono yelped in shock as he collapsed to the ground. He quickly stood up and looked around and noticed that he was at the door. He also noticed that Mike was now completly in the dark and therefore, totally defenceless. However, he then noticed that he had his back pressed directly on the door, meaning he had an entire side that he didn't need to worry about defending. Mono's eyes widened as he realized Mike's plan. He quickly shined his light directly on Mike, illuminating him and rendering him safe from the mannequins, who were fixated in the much weaker prey. "Come on! Hurry! They're starting to notice me!" Mono pleaded as he kept his light on Mike. Mike groaned and began to stagger towards Mono, but it was such a grueling task. Each step felt like being stabbed with a white hot poker directly to his sides, and as each step he took, it seemed like he was getting further and further away from Mono. His vision began to darken and his legs began to give out. He extended his hand towards Mono before losing his footing and collapsing. The last thing he saw was Mono's blinding light before darkness consumed him.