Disclaimer: LEGO Universe belongs to the LEGO Group.
In his young age, Andrew rarely thought about death and the possibility of him dying early. The only times he worried about dying was when he was playing video games, but even then, those games allowed him to respawn over and over again.
But Andrew wasn't naive. The gunshot cutting off Bailey's scream reminded Andrew that the entire situation was very, very real. And that there was no such thing as respawning in real life.
Seeing Bailey's lifeless body fall to the ground, Andrew was quick to push Liliana down underneath the window out of pure instinct, not even checking if she was going to duck down anyways. Not that it even mattered, seeing that her eyes were wide from shock and her hands clasped over her mouth. Andrew figured that Liliana wouldn't mind.
That wasn't a person that killed Bailey, was it? It certainly looked human, wearing a grey jacket, brown cargo pants, and a black ski mask. It also wielded an assault rifle that Andrew definitely saw before in one of the futuristic Call of Duty games, but the name was lost to him right now.
But everything else about it looked so wrong. Part of its jacket was torn, revealing half of its purple ribcage that caged something that glowed red inside of its body. The skin around his eyes was dark purple. And speaking of the eyes, they also glowed red.
Was that thing… No, that can't be a Stromling from LEGO Universe. Andrew doesn't remember them being this brutal and wearing stuff like that… Right?
Ugh, focus Andrew! Survival first, pondering later!
Andrew turned his head towards the others, shakily bringing a finger against his mouth to tell the others to stay quiet or they were all going to die. The others may have already gotten the message though.
"Okay… This just got a lot more real than I thought it would…" Christian whispered to himself, his own eyes wide in shock as well.
"Stay. Quiet," Jacob reminded Christian through gritted teeth. No doubt the stress was getting to him as well.
"…Guys, we gotta do something. That… Thing out there is gonna come in here," Armando pointed out.
He was right. With Bailey dead, there's no reason that whatever killed her was going to check in here for more people to kill, if the massacre outside was anything to go by.
Something had to be done.
"…I'm gonna go wait next to the door. If that thing comes in here, I'm gonna catch it off-guard," Andrew explained his plan.
"What?! You can't be serious, Andrew! There's no way that you can deal with that thing," Armando replied, worried for his best friend.
"We're gonna die if we don't do something. Besides, I played a ton of airsoft before, so it should help me a bit here… I think." Andrew mentally face-palmed himself. Who was he kidding? No way shooting at other people with airsoft guns will help him with hand-to-hand combat.
Aidan wasn't convinced, curling up into a fetal position and burying his face in his knees. "Oh god, we're going to die…"
Tynan kneels to pat his brother's shoulder. "…As if I'm gonna let that happen." Tynan's face suddenly bore the look of determination. A far cry from his usual jokester personality. He looks over at Andrew. "This plan is crazy, but crazy is just what we need right now. I'm helping."
"Count me in as well," Armando chimes in. "I'm not letting you two do it alone."
Andrew nods to Armando and Tynan. Three-on-one meant the odds were in their favor, Andrew hoped. "All right, well… Let's go wait next to the doorway. Everyone else, hide."
As everyone else quietly moved to the darker corners of the room and hid behind whatever they could find, Andrew, Armando, and Tynan crept toward the door. Andrew and Armando would crouch on the right side of the opening, while Tynan stood to the left where the door would swing in towards.
Just in time too as Andrew started to hear footsteps outside the door. The footsteps slowly got louder and louder as the thing outside approached the door... Though they weren't as loud as the beating of Andrew's heart in his chest. At least to just the boy, thankfully.
The clicking sounds of the door handle turning made that beating heart drop within Andrew. The door swings open, and the first thing that Andrew caught a glimpse of was a gun. And as more of the supposed Stromling walked into the room, the gun was the first thing that Andrew lunged at and grabbed.
Caught off-guard, the Stromling lurches forward from the sudden weight of Andrew. Soon after, Armando jumps onto the back of the Stromling, causing it to lose its balance and fall face-first onto the ground.
Unfortunately for Andrew, he would fall to the ground with the Stromling. "Woah- Oof!" Andrew hits the ground on his back, hearing the clattering of the Stromling's gun as it hits the ground and slides away from its owner.
Andrew lets out a groan as he pushes himself up into a sitting position, seeing Armando struggle to keep the Stromling on the ground by weakly hitting its head with his fists. As if things the whole situation wasn't enough, he spots the Stromling's buddy start to walk through the doorway and aim its rifle at Armando.
Thankfully, Tynan slams the door into the face of the standing Stromling just before it could shoot. The Stromling stumbles back, briefly stunned by the door hitting its face. However, Tynan doesn't seem to notice it as his attention was turned towards the Stromling on the floor.
"Come on, then," Tynan loudly shouts as he runs to the downed Stromling and starts stomping its head as hard as possible.
Andrew was quick to point out the Stromling standing in the doorway. "Tynan, behind you!"
But it was too late. The Stromling shook its head, recovering from having a door slammed into his face. It raises its rifle at Tynan.
BOOM!
A loud gunshot made Andrew's ears ring, and it felt like time slowed down as he waited for Tynan to fall to the ground.
Instead, the Stromling behind Tynan fell.
Having heard the gunshot from behind, Andrew turns around with wide eyes. He saw smoke come out of the barrel of the gun that the tackled Stromling dropped.
And the person holding the gun was Aidan.
"O-Oh, my god..." Aidan's arms became shaky as he realized what he did. He lets go of the rifle, letting it drop to the floor.
Tynan and Armando briefly stopped focusing on the last remaining Stromling to look at Aidan. Said Stromling started trying to push himself back up, trying to take this opportunity to recover.
"Hey! He is trying to get back up," Jacob shouted, quick to try and get Armando and Tynan to focus on the Stromling.
Christian, briefly looking at the gun that Aidan dropped, takes it and holds it by the barrel. "I got it!" He stands up and charges toward the recovering Stromling before sending the butt of the gun's stock against its face.
The attack was enough to knock the Stromling out cold as it collapsed back down on the floor, now no longer moving.
Armando stands up, looking at the unconscious Stromling. "Phew... Nice one, Christian."
Christian nods to Armando. "Thanks... Just can't believe we just did that."
Meanwhile, Tynan would go to Aidan's side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, are you all right?"
"...I-I killed someone..." Aidan's voice squeaked out as he quivered, his eyes shifting between the Stromling he shot and his own hands.
Tynan kneels so that his head was at the same level as Aidan's. "Hey, look at me. You didn't do anything wrong. He was gonna kill us, and you saved us."
Andrew, letting out a sigh, slowly started to push himself up to his feet. Hearing someone walk to him, he looks to his left, seeing Jacob offering a hand to him.
"Here," Jacob simply said. Andrew grabs his hand and gets pulled up onto his feet. "We should move... Before more of them come."
"Right... Come on, guys." Andrew takes a glimpse outside the window, making sure that nothing else was outside in the storage room, before walking to the door out of the office.
Looking back, he sees Jacob, Christian, and Armando immediately following him. Though Tynan, Aidan, and Liliana weren't as quick.
Tynan had just finished comforting Aidan the best that he could in this situation, offering him a hand. "Come on. We'll be back home soon."
Aidan was about to take Tynan's hand when he sees Liliana still huddled in the corner of the room. "...H-Hold on." He crawls to Liliana and taps her shoulder. "Lily-"
"I-I know... Just..." Liliana takes a deep breath in before looking up at Aidan. "Okay... Let's go..."
Aidan and Liliana soon stand up and walk with Tynan to join the rest of the group. Andrew leads everyone back out into the storage room and towards the door leading to the outside of the building.
He takes another glimpse back, seeing Liliana start to fall behind as she looks at Bailey's body lying on the ground.
"...Lily, come on," Andrew calls out to her. "There's nothing that we can do for her. We need to lea-"
The clicking of the door handle turning made the group stop dead in their tracks. Andrew turned his head just in time...
...To see the door creak open.