Deciding I couldn't spend the rest of my time in this one room, I hazarded a look outside the window. The corridor looks normal. Completely devoid of people, granted, but the place looked normal and that was good enough for me. Collecting up whatever supplies I could carry in a bag I wasn't sure had always been there, I headed for the elevator, hoping it would be as simple as picking a floor and heading out of this crazy place.

You probably know that didn't happen. I wouldn't very well have started this chapter like this had I been able to just walk right out of there. The lift made it down a floor before the walls peeled away, revealing the rusted red beneath. The lift door broke away into a set of equally rusted bars. I stared out into the corridor. It was dark, with barely enough light to see two feet in front of me. What little I could see looked like the corridor from before.

The bars slid upwards, releasing me into the nightmare. I was hesitant to advance. I could hear something…something like faint radio static. The emergency intercom had been replaced with an old radio, probably broken by the racket it was making, and a note had been pinned above it.

"Watch out, little girl. The monsters are coming."

The note puzzled me for a moment, but as the static grew louder, I understood. I peered round the side of the door, only to see a monster slithering closer. The best way I can describe it is as a black mass of writhing tentacles, as wide as half the corridor and tall enough to touch the ceiling with where a head should've been. The closer it got, the more uncomfortable I felt. It didn't seem like it wanted to talk.

I pulled out the handgun I'd stuffed in my back pocket, shooting twice in the hopes it might go down. No such luck. The beast grabbed my shooting arm, pinning it to the back of the elevator and grabbing my legs with two more tentacles. It was strong, too strong to struggle free from, and as it began undoing my shorts I panicked.

I felt a weight in my back pocket. I pulled out a knife, a switchblade, and before I knew it I was slicing through the tentacle at my arm. I shot four more times and the creature roared. It fell down dead, leaking black blood. I pulled up my shorts and crouched in the corner for a moment. I felt nauseous. I felt nauseous even considering what it was trying to do.

I regained my composure after a few minutes of shameless crying. I figured the radio must have reacted to the monster, since it had been quiet ever since I killed it. The radio clipped perfectly into my belt loop, and didn't make a sound for at least a couple of corridors. Along the way, I tried to open a few doors, but the locks were all jammed or broken or something.

The radio sparked to life, crackling its warning. I peered round the corner, immediately noticing what it was warning me about. Three hulking beasts were patrolling their territory. Their hands scraped across the ground, knuckles dragging like gorillas. Their skin looked rough and yellow, like aged parchment, and thick smog concealed their faces. Trying not to envision what might be beneath the smog, I edged carefully across the wall, hoping not to draw their attention. I had a feeling a knife and a few bullets wouldn't be enough to take them down.

I picked a door at the corner and dived in, slamming the door behind me. I didn't want those creatures to have a chance at following me. I'd chosen an odd room. It was empty, rusted dark red, with a simple refrigerator lying dormant in the middle. It wasn't plugged in and appeared to be broken, but curiousity won out and I still had a look inside.

I was dreading what I'd find. Perhaps it would be a corpse, or a trap for unsuspecting adventurers, or a monster waiting to be set free. My hands wouldn't stop shaking as I reached out for the handle. The door was heavy. It took all my strength to wrench it open, which was enough to send me crashing to the floor with all the grace of a brick.

Once I realized there was no booby trap or monster attack, I dusted myself off and peered nervously into the fridge. Inside the fridge was a katana, polished and sharp compared to its filthy container. Puzzled about what it was doing in there, I picked it up and examined it carefully. This would make a good addition to my arsenal. It felt heavy, but light enough for me to wield without too much difficulty.

As soon as I heard the click of the lock, I realized the mistake I'd just made. I raced to the door, trying to tear it open but to no avail. I wrestled with the handle, desperate to leave in fear of what was next to come. Another of the huge eyes opened up on the wall, a devilish laughter accompanying it as if the eye itself were amused by my terror.

Two black tentacle creatures rose from the shadows. My attempts at escape grew more feverish, until I turned in acceptance of the fight ahead. Flight was not an option. I readied my newly acquired katana, but any hopes of using it were short-lived. The monsters grabbed a leg each, slamming me into the floor and swiftly pinning my arms above my head. The urge to scream with horror rose in my throat as the tentacles got to work undoing my shorts and flinging them carelessly to the side.

Pure fear gave me the strength to pull my arms free, snatching the katana and stabbing through one of the monstrosities. My sword sliced through the two fiends like butter. The fight was over in moments, as the two beasts lay bleeding black on the floor. There was an odd satisfaction in seeing my attackers dead at my own hands. That satisfaction was set aside as it dawned on me what my fate could have been.

It took me at least ten minutes to calm myself enough to leave the room and wipe the last of my tears away. I've always been emotionally weak, enough to cry significantly more than most people I knew. The fact I was alone in this hell only made it worse.

As I entered the hall, I noticed the world had returned to normal. Within ten seconds, a blonde woman, older than me but young in the grand scheme of things, dashed towards me and clung to my arm, sobbing and begging me to save her from the monsters. I paused a moment, took a deep breath, and asked the woman what her name was.

"Lisa." She smiled nervously, regaining some composure, "Lisa Smith. Sounds so boring, doesn't it?"

I was a little apprehensive of how this woman had instantly latched onto me, but she was the first real person I'd met. I was thankful not to be by myself anymore. She noticed the scratches on my back from earlier and offered to patch me up, which I agreed to. She led me to a hospital room and I sat on the bed while she disinfected the wounds and bandaged me up.

"You know, you shouldn't walk around like that." She said after a while.

"Like what?" I asked, puzzled.

"Y'know, like...like that. With the white vest and the tiny denim shorts. You'll just encourage the monsters." She tutted disapprovingly.

"Hey, whose side are you on?" I snapped, annoyed by this and somehow ignoring the significance of what she'd said, "They don't even see me anyway. They don't even have eyes."

"So what do they look like then?" She asked, clearly confused by what I'd said, "How do they know you're there if they don't see you?"

"They...they sense me. And then they feel me to see where everything is." I murmured, fidgeting uncomfortably as the floor became suddenly fascinating.

"I see...well, you'd better get some rest." Lisa stood and smiled, "That's you all patched up, but you need some sleep. Looks like you've been through something rough. I'm just going to go get some more medical supplies, I'll be back soon."

I watched her leave, and was almost frightened she wouldn't come back. I curled up on the bed, doing my best not to reflect too much in all I'd been through. Tearing a strip from the best, I polished the blood from my katana until my arms ached too much to continue. I set it down, my eyes drawn to the bottle of sleeping pills next to the bed. I downed a few, slipping into a comfortable sleep as I awoke to the familiarity of my bedroom.