"Up here, I think," Wilhelm whispered as the group gone through the last corridor that took them to a spiraling staircase leading upwards.

Having made it this far, Wilhelm and Edgar were certain that this would take them to the hidden scientists.

Without much ammo left due to the run-ins they experienced, Wilhelm winces as he worried what they would do if they encountered any of the soldiers that'd be lurking nearby keeping the scientists protected while they experimented controlling the Zone.

"If they have soldiers, then soldiers would have access to ammo, no?" Paul suggested that if they were careful, they could find a way to the soldiers' weapons locker and raid it without them knowing.

Slowly nodding, Wilhelm mustered that Paul had a point, but worried that there was a chance that Paul was wrong with his assumptions.

Chewing on his inner lip, Paul then said that while there was a chance, they had no other choice but to try, anyway.

"I hear her, calling," Edgar utters as Anya helped him up the spiraling staircase while the group continued their trek.

As she helps him, Anya asks him, "What's she saying?"

She heard back, "She's telling us to come."

His connection reestablished with the Zone, Edgar hears her in his mind, telling him things as he was guided by her words to the top of the spiraling staircase.

Upon reaching the top of the spiraling staircase, there was a door that Paul and Wilhelm forced open, the pressurised air blasted them as they rushed inside, greeted by the bitter cold.

Hearing the Zone clearly, Edgar turned his head as they're near the reinforced windows.

Peering outside, Paul sees soldiers busied fighting off the animals of the Zone.

Having access to better firearms, the soldiers edged out against the animals, that Paul wondered how long the Zone can keep this battle going.

Their footsteps echoing against the grey walls, Edgar led the group to a room that the Zone told him that she thinks there's something they can use inside.

He then informed Paul that the Zone is allowing him the use of his object.

Reaching into his pocket, Paul brought out his Sonic Screwdriver.

Upon pushing the button, he sees it working as normal, the Zone indeed stopped blocking it, and he used it on the biometrical locked door.

It opened with ease and the group slipped inside as they took inventory of what was inside, plenty of ammo stored behind caged lockers.

"Take only what you can carry," Wilhelm reminds the group as he grabbed ammo for Vespa.

Grabbing ammo for his shotgun, Paul reached for the boxes as Taylor stood beside him while looting ammo for the makeshift rifle, both felt this was the end of the long journey.

Once they stopped the scientists and ensured Wilhelm and the others would be fine, they would be able to reunite with the TARDIS.

As he checked his shotgun, Paul stopped as his angel eyes slowly moved to the reflective glass.

He wasn't imagining it; he saw an outline of a man wearing a pressed suit.

Without alerting the others, he continued loading his pockets with ammo, before turning around.

There was no one there, no one saw him, but Paul knew someone was watching them.

Wilhelm asked if they were ready and once, they affirmed they were, they returned to the corridor, and Edgar pointed them in a direction.

Walking with his shotgun trained, Paul kept his angel eyes trained, prepared for the man to show up, yet again, but he never did.

Didn't catch the man's face, but Paul saw the outline, and it was good enough for him.

Regarding whom he was, Paul didn't know whether he was one of the scientists or an independent individual.

Behind him, Edgar began muttering under his breath, like he was talking to someone, but the way he was talking, it sounded like he was unfamiliar with this unseen entity.

Coming around a turn, they stopped when there was a large boom in the distance from the soldiers' using grenades as a countermeasure against the attacking animals.

"Here," Wilhelm pointed towards a foreboding door that looked impossible to open from the outside.

Far different than any other doors they came across, reinforced to the point that Wilhelm suspected that not even a nuke could break it down.

Stepping forward with his Sonic Screwdriver, Paul responds that he doubted the door can circumvent a flick of the wrist.

And he would be correct.

The colossal door with reinforced glass and steel slowly opened and exposed a room with a sickly blue hue to it.

Cold air settled to the ground as white fog covering their feet as they stepped inside, weapons trained, eyes attentively moving between areas.

Heavily sterilised to the point that it hurt Paul's nose; he could see pipes feeding some sort of liquid into a room ahead of them.

Glancing up, he noticed nozzles pointed downward, but they weren't sprinklers, something else.

This was a decontamination room and he felt a jolt as the nozzles turned on automatically from sensing their presence, drenching them in dissipating liquid that smelled artificially clean.

When the nozzles stopped spraying them, they recovered as the liquid dried on their skins and clothes.

"This is closest to a bath I've had for weeks!" Wilhelm commented as he touched his skin.

He saw disapproving looks from Anya and Taylor before reminding them that being in the Zone meant that the ability to reliably taking baths was a luxury.

Trust him, he would love to have a reliable bath every now again, but with the fears of being shot in the tub or devoured in it, well, just be thankful he didn't smell as badly as some of the "freaks" in the swampy areas.

Turning his head, he sees that the door ahead of them automatically opened after they been decontaminated and Paul inching ahead with his shotgun as he checked for any signs of the soldiers or the scientists.

Once he confirmed that there wasn't anyone in the corridor, he motions for the others to follow him into the corridor with the sickly smell.

Enshrouded in the sickly blue light, the group hurried through the corridor towards the only door at the end and before Paul could open it with his Sonic Screwdriver, it opened on its own, allowing them inside.

Glancing around their new surroundings, there's crates stacked to the ceiling, some opened from the sides, some still intact, and it began with Edgar getting shot from afar, Anya and Taylor pulling him to safety as Wilhelm and Paul working together taking shots against the encroaching soldiers.

"Here!" Taylor gave Anya something to press against Edgar's wound as she quickly wielded the makeshift rifle against the soldiers.

Smoke filled the air as soldiers opened fire and the trio fired back.

Seeing the soldiers up close, Wilhelm mustered that they couldn't be human.

From the way they moved and coordinated attacks, he almost thought them as machines, until Paul managed to take shots against one.

Vivid red blood oozed from the bullet holes and yet it didn't deter the soldier from retaliating against Paul.

It took Taylor and Wilhelm shooting him in the head for the soldier to finally drop to the ground.

Still, there were more soldiers and ammo growing scarce by the minute, yet the soldiers seemingly having infinite ammo.

Due to the makeshift nature, the rifle Taylor used jammed while shooting an encroaching soldier.

Unable to unjam the rifle in the short amount of time with the soldier on fast approach, Taylor tried using it as a blunt object.

Protected with the reinforced armour, the soldier shrugged it off, and grabbed the makeshift rifle out of Taylor's hand.

While he was concentrated on the rifle, he failed to spot the hidden knife Taylor kept on her person, and she jammed it as far as she could into his gut.

With the soldier distracted by the knife sticking out, Taylor hurried away from him, returning to Edgar and Anya's side and found Anya in distress as her hands trembled.

"He won't stop bleeding!" Anya panicked as Taylor knelt beside her as her emerald eyes dropped to Edgar.

Anya's hands stained in red as she tried to keep pressure on his wound, but unnaturally the blood continued to flow.

It was as though the Zone intently wanted Edgar to die.

"What are we going to do?" Anya looked towards Taylor for guidance as they heard the gunfire raging on.

Seeing the blood oozing out despite Anya keeping the pressure, Taylor attempted to help stop the bleeding with what she kept in her pocket, but her attempts were thwarted by the Zone.

"Edgar, why is she letting you die?" Taylor questioned Edgar as she sees the wounded man stirring, though she could see life fleeting in his vacant eyes.

His lips moving, Edgar revealed that it was what he wanted, the Zone is granting his wish after following her wishes to this point.

Until now, he couldn't die, nothing could hurt him, the Zone would prevent it from happening, force Wilhelm into protecting him when she couldn't.

"E-Edgar why?" Anya questioned why the seemingly egocentric man wanted to die so terribly that the Zone incentivised him to aid her with it as his reward.

Struggling to breath, Edgar says, "In truth, there is nothing left for me here, they're all gone, taken from me. Now, that my debt has been paid, I will join them."

The women watched Edgar's life waver until he took his last breath and, on his face, a smile.

"Oh god!" Anya held a hand over her mouth as she openly seeped at the sight until Taylor pulled her to safety as the gunfire continued to rage.

Working in tandem with Wilhelm, Paul took concentrated shots at soldiers while Wilhelm worked picking them off, but it felt hopeless, Wilhelm kept count of his and Paul's ammo and it was dangerously low, but they're looking at eight soldiers.

The makeshift rifle jamming at the worst time only solidified his worry.

"I… hear someone…" Anya jolted as she heard a voice in her mind, a woman's, it felt as though it was in the corner, but it was like she was right beside Anya.

Turning her head, Taylor asks, "Are you hearing the Zone?"

Her eyes moving as Anya listened to the woman, she informed Taylor, "He-he's telling me, there's a storm coming."

Taylor was unable to question this, when she heard Wilhelm and Paul retreating towards her and Anya after spending the last of their ammo.

Upon seeing Edgar's body, Wilhelm openly wept as he uttered, "No! Not the old coot!"

The only friendly face in the entire area, dead, blood oozed out of his wound despite Anya and Taylor's efforts, and Wilhelm grew even more disheartened when he heard that it was Edgar's wish.

He couldn't openly weep, there were still soldiers firing on them.

Fleeing with Paul and the women, Wilhelm had to leave Edgar's body behind.

"Rest well, brother-stalker," Wilhelm utters under his breath.

Hearing the woman in her mind, Anya led the trio towards another door, narrowly avoiding the remaining soldiers as they open fired on them.

Upon entering another room, the door behind them sealed, no matter how many bullets the soldiers fired on the door, it remained impenetrable.

Allowed some respite, Wilhelm let the tears that built up in his eyes roll down his cheeks as he bitterly wept at Edgar's death.

Gingerly touching his shoulder, Anya tells him that it was Edgar's wish, to find peace, but Wilhelm grew angry at the thought Edgar would want to die.

"He was dying of cancer, she was only prolonging his life until now, he would have suffered, Wilhelm," Anya insisted that Edgar wouldn't have lived a long prosperous life outside the Zone.

Bitterly shaking his head, Wilhelm grew despondent as he struggled to find reason, but Anya solidified it: Edgar was dying from cancer and living in the Zone with his prolonged life wasn't living.

He kept this from Wilhelm so he wouldn't worry about him and do something foolish.

"He was a good man, Wilhelm," Anya summarised.

Slowly nodding, Wilhelm softly sniffled as he knew that he could not retrieve Edgar's body from the other room before forced moving forward with the final stretch, as Anya helped them find the pod room.

Anya explained that the Zone was keeping the scientists focused on her, allowing Anya and the others time to unplug the pods, effectively depriving the scientists of their connections, and disarming the soldiers of theirs.

Anya wouldn't lie to Paul, by unplugging the pods, they're effectively killing the scientists since they have been sealed in the pods for so long, they depend on constant power.

"They made their choices, so have we," Paul declared.

Together, they worked in tandem going around the pods, doing everything they could to destroy the cables feeding into them.

Peering inside the pods as she helped destroy the cables, Anya sees the scientists seemingly frozen in time for decades, willingly entering the pods knowing that by doing so they would remain in the pods for perpetually for the sake of their work.

Ripping out the cables with his bare hand, Paul peered into the pod as he watched the power failing, the scientist remaining in his comatose state until the power completely failed, and death was sure.

This continued until all thirteen pods were disconnected and upon the last one disconnecting, Anya pointed upright as she warned the Zone's unleashing a storm upon the area to rid the rest of the soldiers.

No longer fighting the scientists, the Zone put all efforts on the soldiers, and the group felt the ground shaking underneath them as the storm began forming.

This one was different, vicious, the Zone wanted revenge for the trespass.

Already Paul and Anya felt lightheaded as the storm was fast approaching.

Pulling on his arm, Taylor brought him to the wall, helping him sit down as she knelt beside him.

Wilhelm helped Anya as they heard the droning noise overhead, louder than Wilhelm remembered, and he felt the building rattling under him.

Sirens began blaring as the building picked up on the energy spikes, mixed with the droning noise outside, it felt like the world was ending.

Feeling Taylor holding him in her arms, Paul felt his eyes grow heavy as he lost unconsciousness amid the storm.

This time, Paul had a dream, well, what he thought was a dream, he wasn't sure, but when he opened his eyes, the pod room was in darkness, and he was alone.

Getting up, Paul moved around as he called out to Taylor, but she didn't respond.

His footsteps echoing throughout the empty pod room, Paul calls out to Taylor, once more she didn't respond, and neither did Wilhelm and Anya.

"Ah… Mister… Smith… in the… flesh," he heard a man stiltedly calling out to him in the darkness.

Standing defensively, Paul called out to the figure as he saw him moving into the low-light area of the room.

A man in a pressed suit with illuminating blue eyes.

"Who are you?" Paul questioned the man.

He watched the man's face contort into a smile as the man replied with a sly, "A… demon… to some… an… angel… to others."

The way the man talked, he sounded either foreign or complicated, Paul wasn't sure, but he wanted answers, and he demanded them from the man.

"She… was… very… accommodating," the man sounded pleasant as he described how he and the Zone seemingly worked out a deal together.

The Zone wanted Anya and the man wanted something in return.

"Why?" Paul demands an answer.

He watched the man move around the pod room, looking into the pods, as he does, he says to Paul, "A mother… loves… her daughter… Mister Smith…"

Baffled, Paul demanded an elaboration and the man gave it to him by changing the scene around them showing a woman standing idly in a field of sunflowers.

"The… entity you know as the… Zone… needed an avatar… and wellshe was the one to hear her," the man explained the significance of the woman that he claimed encountered Paul's parents at some point before, now an avatar of the once voiceless Zone.

The scene swiftly changed to a laboratory with large machinery that the man explained was where it all started.

The Soviets wanting to control the masses using a force they didn't understand and Paul caught sight of a silhouette in the shape of the man before him in the corner watching the scientists working on the project.

"You're the reason it's alive!" Paul sums.

A stiff nod, the man expressed that he initially didn't care what the Soviets were doing, but saw an opportunity, and he took it.

"She… wanted to live… and I… obliged," the man expresses how the Zone fought back against the scientists when they realise what was happening, panic on their faces, and the man helped the Zone grow stronger so she could fight back.

Wearily, Paul questioned what the man got out of the deal and he smiled at him with his fine lined face stretching back.

"She… offered me… an… opportunity… to meet you," the man explained what he got from helping the Zone escape the scientists' clutches.

At a later point at the man's discretion, he wanted to meet Paul, and the grateful Zone obliged in his request, stealing away his TARDIS so he couldn't leave, allowing the man the opportunity.

Gesturing, Paul mustered, "Well, I am here, now, what do you want from me?"

He heard the man as he moved around the new scene, showing the heart of Chernobyl, "There… is… a matter… of your debt… Mister… Smith."

Scoffing, Paul pointed at the man as he stated, "I don't recall incurring debt from you!"

The light blinded him as he was taken to yet another scene, he could smell the salty air from the ocean, the smell of sewage, and when he lowered his hand, Paul saw they were in an alleyway with the TARDIS in the middle.

Paul watched as the door opened and sees his beloved uncle stepping out, pulling on his cream-coloured coat.

Before he could even move outside the threshold, bullets struck his chest, sending him tumbling out of the TARDIS.

"Uncle!" Paul ran to his beloved uncle's side, though he tried, he couldn't touch his uncle, a force prevented him.

Stepping around the opposite side, the man goes, "But… I… nudged… events to go… differently…"

Paul watches as the scene reversed like a tape, his uncle rose from the ground, bullet holes missing, returning to standing in the threshold of the TARDIS right as rain.

The scene played differently as Paul sees his uncle stepping out of the TARDIS, noticeably confused as he looked around, not noticing his nephew or the man, before walking onward to his latest adventure.

However, Paul was quick to point out that he didn't see the shooter, that the scene that the man tried showing him wasn't the true event that happened.

Lightly chuckling, the man muses, "You… are… your… father's… son…"

True, what killed Paul's uncle wasn't a shooter, not exactly, but the man kept that information close to his chest, as he stated that because of him, Paul's uncle lived.

Thus.

"What do you want me to do?" Paul demanded to know.

The scene changed around them, returning back to the pod room.

"In time… I will… come… for you… Mister… Smith," the man tells him. "When… you… help me… the… debt will be… paid."

With that, he turned his head with his arm outstretched and opened a door with bright light shining through the doorway.

Before he left, he tells Paul, "Prepare… for… unforeseen… consequences… Mister… Smith."

Feeling hands on his face, Paul opens his eyes and sees Taylor staring into them with worry in her eyes.

Behind her, the TARDIS, but Wilhelm and Anya were nowhere.

Forcing himself upright, Paul struggled as he asks where Wilhelm and Anya went.

"Anya… I don't know… she just disappeared!" Taylor gestures as she tells Paul how they listened to the storms outside when Wilhelm noticed Anya slowly fading away before their very eyes.

She was not screaming in pain or crying, she was calm, and she told them before she disappeared completely that they have safe journeys.

"Wilhelm?" Paul asked about him.

As she frowns, Taylor informed him that after the storm went through, he went to find Edgar's body, and that he won't be coming back through here.

He was leaving with Edgar's body and that was that.

"I understand. Are you okay?" Paul turned his attention to her.

Nodding, Taylor satiated his worry telling him that she was fine, shaken, but fine.

The TARDIS showed up as the Zone gave it back to them.

"What about you?" Taylor helped him up from the ground.

Rubbing his eyes, Paul says that he had better days, but that's the life of the Doctor.

As she held his arm, Taylor asks what he wants to do, now.

Thinking, Paul suggested that they take their leave, now.

Nothing good can come staying here and Wilhelm already made his choice.

They did what they set out to do, now they can go home.

Slowly nodding, Taylor helped him to the awaiting TARDIS.

After it disappears, the man with illuminating blue eyes stepped out of the shadows.

"I… will… see you… soon," he vows.

THE END