Chapter 3: Subject 7

"You might be by yourself. But you are not alone."

Akikta paced around in circles while sweating profusely. Even with O.R.C.A's help, it'd take him years to build something long enough to reach the top of the destroyed hatch. "Fuck man, this is bad. Real bad." Akikta muttered and turned to look back up at the light. Freedom was so close, yet so far. He looked at the walls, thinking about making a gadget that could stick to them and carry Akikta to the top. The teen reminded himself that he wasn't crafty enough to build something like that.

"Think Akikta, what would Father Axe do..." Akikta racked his brain for worthwhile ideas and placed himself in the shoes of Father Axe. After a moment of silence, a light bulb went off in his head. He remembered Father Axe and a few other members building an alternative exit in case something like this happened. "Right! Right!" He exclaimed happily, the fear almost disappearing as quickly as it appeared. Akikta had only been to the alternative exit once, so he only had a general idea of where it was. But that was better than nothing. Akikta looked at the light one last time before speed-walking out of the area.

Through twists and turns, Akikta roamed through Alterna's decayed and flooded zones. Such a sight brought an uncomfortable gloom to his heart, especially when he saw his favorite seafood place practically drowning in water. "Orca, how exactly did the launch fail?" Akikta asked; the question had popped into his mind randomly. The disaster was still largely unknown to Akikta. He figured O.R.C.A would have more information about it.

"The boosters caused an overflux of energy within the crystals used to construct the simulated skies. This resulted in a chain reaction of explosions, causing debris to fall onto the inhabitants and buildings below." O.R.C.A was quick to educate Akikta on the events that took place. It was a lot worse than Akikta had hoped, but it would also explain why Alterna looked so devastated. Akikta would have to thank the Great Spirit for sparing him from such a catastrophe.

Eventually, Akikta found himself at the bottom of a small spherical vault in the wall. He raised a brow, as the sight wasn't familiar to him at all. Has this always been here? It looked relatively new and in good condition compared to everything else he had seen thus far. The vault door had the words "Holdout Zone 7" plastered on the front. Akikta looked the vault door up and down before placing his hands on his hips. "Maybe this is the alternative exit? I don't remember it looking like this, but I guess anything can change."

With a sense of excitement, Akikta grabbed hold of the vault door handles and tried to turn them. At first, they wouldn't budge an inch. But after straining and putting his back into it, the door made a loud whirring sound before Akikta felt any progress being made. After about half a minute, he got the door open.

Holdout Zone 7 was, unfortunately, not the alternative exit. Instead of being met with the outside breeze and sun, Akikta was met with a dark room filled with furniture, empty cups and cans, broken plates, and guns...but there wasn't a person in sight, living or otherwise. "Yea, I...don't remember this at all," Akikta said, treading further into the dark room with curiosity urging him to continue exploring the strange new area. He was hopeful he'd find a hint of where the alternative exit may be. But as he went further in, things grew more disturbing.

There was a minimal amount of light present, but enough to see the area change the further he went in. Furniture that was neatly sorted and set at the front of the Holdout Zone became broken and thrown into disarray further in the back. Some guns were broken, and though he could barely see them, bullet holes were in the walls, floor, and ceiling. "This is getting creepy," Akikta commented, but didn't turn and go back. His curiosity would lead him to a new metal door. Unlike the vault door, this door had more than one writing on it and the wall surrounding it. All of them were alarming. Things like "DO NOT OPEN" and "TURN BACK" were written in all caps in some dried liquid which Akikta could tell was ink.

Normally, Akikta would heed the warnings and turn around. But the revelation that he was the last of his species was far more frightening than the notion that something dangerous was behind the door. Besides, it's been twelve thousand and something years. Whatever was once here is long gone by now. Right?

That's what Akikta made himself believe. His curiosity and determination to find clues about the alternative exit outweighed any concerns he had. So, with one quick inhale, Akikta grabbed the knob and swung the metal door open. Immediately, light entered the dark room he was in, which Akikta could now see was a lobby of some sort. The room on the other side of the metal door was well-lit and stretched outward. Nothing of importance was there, so he continued forward and came across yet another door.

With the uneasiness gone, he had an easier time opening the next one and came across a long hallway with yet another door at the very end. To his right, there was just a blank gray wall. To his left was a glass panel that stretched as far as the hall.

Akikta peered through the glass and spotted two things out of the ordinary. The glass panel allowed whomever to peek into an elongated room with a broken door in the back. The broken door lead to a pitch-black room with seemingly no light. Despite the room being as long as the hallway, it was completely white and bare of anything aside from a small black puddle. Akikta mistook it for water at first, but then he realized the lobby and rooms before were not wet. This room was fully sealed from any flooding. Akikta did not proceed forward as the black puddle caught his full attention. He tried to figure out what it was, only to see it wriggling around on the floor. He thought his eyes played tricks on him, but the more he watched, the more it moved. And then it stopped.

An uncomfortable sensation returned to Akikta before he saw the puddle move across the floor like black sludge. Its movements were like ink. But he could not discern why or how it was moving in the way it did. It was almost like it was alive.

Akikta backed up to the wall behind him as the ink grew closer and somehow larger. Then, in a defying act of physics, the ink elongated itself vertically to be taller than Akikta by a foot, which was terrifying since Akikta was six feet.

After elongating itself, the ink shuddered and spurred. Akikta didn't know what it was doing, but against his better judgment, he watched. The black ink formed arms and legs. It became slimmer and even formed two white dots for eyes. It copied the shape of Akikta and tried to mimic the teen. He didn't want to admit it, but the ink creature was kind of successful.

Akikta eyed the tall creature from behind the safety of the glass. The creature, in turn, observed Akikta. They both were intrigued by each other, wondering what the other was doing and what they would do next. Akikta hesitantly approached the glass and reached his hand out, about to touch the glass so the creature would copy him and do the same. Then, the ink creature let out a bone-chilling shriek, making Akikta cover his ears. Even when it was behind the glass, it was still loud. Miraculously, the glass did not shatter.

Akikta, with his ears still covered, turned to look at the creature, only to see its mouth was agape. Though it had no pupils, Akikta felt a malicious glare within the whites of the ink creature's eyes. The ink creature would start to headbutt the glass, emitting a loud thud with each strike. The first headbutt did nothing but startle Akikta, but the second headbutt caused a crack in the glass. Akikta's body screamed at him to run, and without thinking, he took off back toward the lobby of Holdout Zone 7.

When he reached the door leading to the hallway, he heard a thud again. The creature continued to bang its head on the glass. By the time he made it to the metal door, he had heard a faint shatter in the distance behind him. Once again, against his better judgment, Akikta looked over his shoulder, only to see a black figure barreling toward him from afar.

His body tensed as he felt a shiver shoot down his spine, but he didn't dare get paralyzed this time. He whipped his head forward and increased his speed. The adrenaline made him focus. He jumped and flipped off and over furniture to get to the vault door quicker.

As soon as he reached the door, he grabbed the sides of it and pushed with everything he was worth. Maybe it was easier to close, or the adrenaline surging through him strengthened his muscles, but either way, the vault door closed faster than when he opened it. He saw a glimpse of the ink monster rampaging through the lobby and destroying any furniture in its way before he got the vault door closed. He turned the handles on the door to lock it, only to be pushed back by a hard thud from the other side of the vault.

Akikta fell back hard, and the monster on the other side banged on the vault door. The banging was loud, but not as loud as the beating Akikta felt in his chest. If Akikta's organs were a band, his heart would be the drummer.

He sat there in shock, listening to the creature bang on the door nonstop. Akikta got himself somewhat together before he scrambled to his feet and ran away. At that moment, he forgot all about finding the alternative exit.