Once she had taken a moment to breathe, Everest feverishly looked around the mess of overturned boxes. There had to be something, anything, even the smallest thing she could use to defend herself. That wicked animal was still out there, prowling the ceilings and walls for stragglers. Even after spearing her leg, the monster allowed her to crawl away. She had been helpless, bleeding out like a ruptured sack, but the killing blow never came. It let her run. A pit formed in her stomach as she nosed around the cardboard mess, her wounded leg wincing with every frail movement.

"This can't be happening." She shakily repeated to herself. "This isn't happening, it can't be happening. Why me?"

She had already tried the radio in her collar. Not a single thing responded to her desperate pleas for help, only silence emitting from its speaker. The Ruff Ruff Pack had collars, she knew it for a fact, but the damned things weren't tuned to the right signal.

Canine whimpers filled the room as she searched for anything of use. Worthless medical equipment, a blizzard of papers and dust, all laid strewn across the floor. Her aimless searching finally seized as she unearthed a small object under a stack of pens: A spare phone. Relief flooded her mind as she thanked the deities above, gripping it as if it were own child. It wasn't entirely a victory, as Everest frantically dialed 911 only to get no outer service. "No!" Came her silent cry, gripping what could be the only thing to save her life. With nothing left to turn, she dialed the numbers of the ski lounge itself, calling the phone in the lobby. Surely there was just enough to connect her, there had to be. At least a dozen other phones dotted the ski lounge in the other areas, but they all had different numbers, and Everest couldn't remember a single one.

"Please work," she plead. "Please work." She held the phone close to her, letting it buzz.

The sound of distant ringing echoed from the hallway, the lobby phone loudly announcing itself. It wasn't long before a stench of blood hit her nose, and hurried scampering passed by the door to her closet. Everest's heart dropped, realizing the creature could hear the phone as well. She cut the call in an instant, silencing the receiving phone to hopefully spare the life of anyone walking to it. Backing herself into the corner, her hope was starting to fade as her options ran dry. Pleading for luck, she dialed the only number left she knew: The intercom. A few buttons and Jake's passcode was all it took, and Everest's voice was broadcast throughout the whole building.

"Hello?" She spoke into the phone, and instantly she heard the massive echo of her own voice bouncing off the walls. "This is Everest, I'm... I've locked myself in a closet. If any other dogs are still alive, tune your-" her mind blanked as she tried to remember the numbers. "Tune your collar to 44.2, please." She hung up and let the phone fall, her heart still racing. "Please work. Please..." She could only pray her response met any living ears.

For a long time she dwelled within the closet, pacing back and forth and looking over the spilled boxes. Her heart longed for Jake, for him to sweep in and carry her out of this miserable nightmare, but a sinking feeling told her she would get no such rescue. Every minute that passed, her hope would only fade even more. Sitting down on the dirty tile floor, Everest hung her head. Then, like the sound of an angel piercing the darkness, a voice emitted from her collar. "Hello?"

The husky snapped to attention, jumping up in surprise. "What? Who is this? Who's talking?"

"It's Dwayne." The dog said in a low voice. "I heard you on the intercom."

"You're alive!" Everest was flooded with joy, her sorrow burning to ash at the reveal of one more still living. "Thank God, thank them all! Where are you?"

"Uh... I'm in a really big and dark room." Dwayne reported, sounding uncertain. "There's a lot of computers around me, and these giant boxes with little lights."

"That's the server farm! You're down in the server farm!" The husky had to physically restrain her excitement. "Have you seen Jake or Gasket?" She rattled off her questions, desperate for the answers.

"No, I haven't." The Great Dane said, his voice on edge. "I heard screaming, so I ran downstairs. Do you know what's happening?"

A good question. Everest had little clue herself, but what she did know was a grim scene. "There's... there's something in the ski lounge." She said, quivering at the memory. "I don't know what it is, it's some... monster. It killed Hubcap, I saw it myself!"

"Hubcap? It... did it really?"

"I saw it with my own eyes, Dwayne. It... it was horrible."

"Oh." His voice deflated, filling with sorrow upon realizing a treasured friend was gone. "But Gasket's still out there... right?"

"I don't know, I haven't found her... or her body. But I haven't found Jake either, he's smart, he's probably hiding in our saferoom."

"Saferoom?"

"Yeah, like a storm bunker, you know? If he's anywhere, he's there." A glow of determination began to rouse within her. "I have to get to him. He surely heard my voice on the intercom, he knows I'm alive now."

"Where is the saferoom?" Dwayne asked, mirroring her resolve. "I should get there too."

"Lower floor. There's a secret door in one of the archive rooms. All we have to do is get there and reunite with Jake. Then we can take my snowplow and get out of here."

"You have a snowplow outside?" Dwayne asked in surprise. "Why don't we just go there and escape?"

"I'm not abandoning my owner!" Hissed the husky. "I'm going to get him out of here."

"Don't you think he would've wanted you to just get out as soon as possible? I don't imagine he wants you to stick around in a time like this."

"No! I'm hitting the saferoom, and you are too! There are things in there we can use, there's just... one problem." She winced, remembering a horrific detail. "We're being hunted."

The Dane's voice significantly rose in unease. "What is it?"

"I don't know what 'it' is, you literally can't see it. It's fucking invisible." Everest spat. "It snuck up on me and... got me in the leg."

"All you alright?"

"I'll be fine! We just..." she breathed, feeling claustrophobic in the closet. "We just need a plan."

They sat in silence, pushing past the nerves in their mind as they tried to come up with any possible course of action. Pacing around the room, Everest spoke her ideas allowed. "We need a way to track it, or... trap it? Ugh, what would the PAW Patrol do in a time like this?" Irritation coursed through her, knowing the team of six would likely have the whole situation resolved by now. Five, she grimly corrected herself. It was a team of five now. If she made it out of this alive, Everest wanted to be the first dog at Skye's funeral, and personally confront Chase for his actions.

"You're in the server room, right?" Everest said. "I think our security room isn't too far from there, it's basement level too."

"What's in there?"

"Nothing entirely useful," she sighed. "But we do have CCTV cameras all over the lounge. I'm pretty sure the camera console is in that room." She muttered, her plan coming together in her head. "If we can find the creature on the cameras..." her voice faded, immediately realizing the flaw in her plan. "A creature... that's invisible. Ugh, it won't work." With a huff she mentally threw away the whole plan, slouching against the wall in irritation.

"Are the cameras motion-activated?" Dwayne asked suddenly. "If they are, it would still work."

"They are, but how? Didn't you hear me, the monster's invisible."

"I remember a lot of the things I used to do with the bikers. We would take odd jobs for people for money." He said, much to Everest's confusion.

"So?"

"In one of them, we got paid to install cameras around a house. It was an old lady, she couldn't do it herself." He chuckled to himself. "Hubcap demanded pay, but I saw Gasket discreetly give the money back when he wasn't looking. The lady was very happy with her... it made me happy too."

"Dwayne, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I learned about cameras that day." He continued. "The one's we installed were motion activated, but not by physical objects passing in front of them. They had like... sensors. Like, a heat dectector and uh... I think it was called super violet?"

Everest blinked. "Super violet? Do you mean ultraviolet?"

Ultraviolet sensors were found in certain types of security cameras. They enabled its watchful eyes with the ability to detect wavelengths of light not visible to traditional-brand cameras. They were usually intended for forensic advantages and enhanced security. It's most profound feature: detecting bodily fluids, especially ones invisible to the naked eye.

Slowly his words began to piece together in the husky's head. Every living thing on Earth left traces, no matter how minuscule, even if they were completely invisible. Whatever the creature was, perhaps it was truly formless to their own eyes, but under a camera designed to sense body heat or DNA? "That would work..." she said, in awe at Dwayne's idea. "And it's come into contact with plenty of blood and bodily fluid. Under an ultraviolet sensor it'd glow like a fuckin' Christmas tree!" Everest looked up at the wall, contemplating her chances. "All this assuming our cameras can do that to begin with."

"Well... do they?"

"I don't know, I don't remember when Jake bought them. Ultraviolet sensors; probably not. But the body heat is a... maybe." She couldn't stay in this closet forever, she had to move. "Dwayne, get to the security room. I'll call the lobby again to attract the creature there, that should give you enough time to move safely."

"Alright, tell me when." He said, steadying his breathing.

Everest turned back to the dropped phone and redialed the number. After less a few seconds, the lobby phone once again reawakened with an annoying ring. She waited patiently for the rabid scrabbling of the creature to pass by her door, but it never did. It had likely moved to an entirely different part of the lounge, taking a new route to the lobby. "Okay, new problem: I can't hear it." She winced into her radio. "But it's fast, so it's likely there by now. Probably about to spear the phone or something."

"Should I?" Dwayne asked.

"Yeah, go. Go!" Knowing the coast was -temporarily- clear, Everest swiftly moved to the closet door and pushed it open. She carried the spare phone in her teeth, knowing it would be foolish to leave such a thing behind. Her leg wept pain from the movement, fighting against the stress on its punctured muscle. She couldn't dwell on it now, she had to get somewhere before the killer came back. Peeking out into the hallway, her eyes caught the dried blood trail she had left earlier. It was a grisly sight, a sick feeling coming to her stomach as nausea swayed her body. No time. Pushing through the pain, Everest slipped into the open and took to the hallway, travelling as far away from the lobby as she could.

She made it into one of the seating areas of the lounge, a dark room of unfolded tables and plastic chairs. Ski equipment littered the floor, likely from inconsiderate patrons discarding their gear instead of returning it formally. Moving under one of the chairs, the best protection she could possibly find, she set the phone down and waited for an update. "Dwayne, you there?" She looked around hastily, scanning the locked metal cabinets that lined the walls. "Dwayne!"

"I'm here." He reported in finally. "I made it inside."

"Can you lock yourself in there?"

"I... could try jamming a door, but there's a massive vent in here."

"Well... sure," Everest waved off. "There's vents all over the lounge."

"Do they have cameras inside them?"

"What?" The husky furrowed her eyebrows. "No. They're vents, why would they?"

"I'm just asking. The creature could probably use them, but you're right."

Everest's heart dropped like a weight of a skyscraper. Her voice cut out as terror ran through her mind, even as Dwayne called her name over and over through the radio. He was right. He was absolutely, horrifyingly right. She had personally witnessed the creature moving along the ceiling, so vent access was completely possible. The vents were numerous and ran all over the ski lounge like a fungal network. If it got into a vent, it could reappear anywhere it wished, and they would never know where it went until it actually reemerged.

And Dwayne would be a sitting duck.

"Everest?" He said, his repeating voice finally getting through to her.

"Y-yeah! I'm... here," she spluttered. "Do you see the camera control?"

The muffled sounds of movement came through from his end. "I do actually! I've seen stuff like this before." He paused for a moment, getting settled in while Everest nervously listened to her surroundings. Dwayne rustled around before he spoke again: "Here it is. The screen is right in front of me... oh wow." His voice glowed with awe. "You really can see everything from here. This is cool."

"Focus!" Everest snapped, baring her teeth with impatience. "Do you see anything that can help us track the creature?"

"Give me a minute, using a keyboard with paws is difficult." He spent a moment without a word, although every second of silence was riding Everest's anxiety. "Okay, I see the camera control, and I see how to switch between cameras. This is neat and all... but I don't see anything on them."

"Do they have infrared vision?" She asked him.

"I... think? How would I know?"

"Look for a... button or something. There has to be a way." Everest grabbed the phone and dialed up the lobby again, seeking to keep the creature as far away as possible with what little she could do. To her silent dismay, the call failed. The lobby phone had been destroyed.

Dwayne came through again. "I don't see anything."

"Uhm..." the husky scrambled for an answer. "Do you see the terminal? Try typing the command itself; 'toggle infrared.'"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Dwayne was struggling. He was already being consumed by his own stress as he made haste for the security room. His movements were sloppy, his breathing uncoordinated as he raced for safety. Everest's pushy demands weren't helping, only further riding his anxiety. A part of him almost snapped a biting retort, nearly snapping for her to just shut up. He couldn't say that to her, she didn't need that, he told himself. He just had to push through, push through and work this confusing, complex machinery.

"How do you spell infrared?" He asked shakily, holding his sweating paws over the keyboard.

"Are you serious?" Everest growled through her radio.

"Words are hard, okay!?" The Dane quipped, feeling unsafe under the massive vent opening. "I'm trying my best, now how do you spell it?"

With obvious exasperation in her voice, Everest slowly listed off each letter in the word, while Dwayne carefully followed along at the computer. Processing the command, the screen in front of him changed. The camera view was bathed in blue, the footage switching over to its heat-seeking setting.

The impatient husky could be heard on the line. "Did it work?"

"It did!" Dwayne widened his eyes, mesmerized by the flood of cool colors. "Hold on, let me see if I can..." He took to the camera control, cycling through different views all across the ski lounge. He only basic knowledge of how to work a machine like this from a past odd job, anything else he'd have to ask Everest about. Images flashed in front of his eyes; the lobby, a hallway, another hallway, the back of the lounge, a garage, another room.

There it was.

A massive red splotch was moving on screen, its body heat detected by the camera. It stalked on the ceiling, creeping like a giant roach about to drop on someone's head. Even with the considerable distance between them, Dwayne couldn't help but feel petrified at the sight of the killer. "Everest," he said with a nearly frozen voice. "I... I found it. It's in a room with a bunch of skis and hanging clothes."

"That's the equipment storage room." She replied. "I know where that is, the nearest phone to there would be..." She paused. "The outside hallway. If it went there, that would place it even farther from us. If I can call the phones around the lounge, we should be able to lure it by sound and keep it off us. Do you see any papers in there with listed numbers?"

He almost gave no reply, instead staring at the malicious creature through the cameras. At the squint of his eyes, he could somewhat make it out its physical proportions. Although the finer details were obscured to him, the creature's shape was easily seen. The body resembled that of a dog, with four legs, a muzzle, and pointed ears. Yet there was something unkempt about it, something ragged and straggling. Two thin tails hung from its rear, moving in the air like snakes. They were nearly long enough to reach down to the floor, and both tails were tipped with what resembled spearheads. They weren't just appendages, Dwayne realized with a cold shiver, they were weapons.

"Dwayne!" Everest snapped.

"Ah! Uh- right!" The Dane shook his head of the nerves, turning to the nearby tables strewn with paperwork. "Numbers, numbers, right." The search was messy, as objects crashed to the floor as they were bumped off, but Dwayne eventually unearthed a sheet of paper that resembled what the husky wanted. "Okay, I think I found it." He reported in. "Which phone do you need?"

"The one outside equipment storage."

"Uh..." He blinked, looking down at the listed phone numbers. "Does it have another name? I don't see that on here."

His companion was noticeably fed up with his incompetence. "Ugh! West hallway! Maybe... upper west?"

"Oh, I see it!" He said, desperate to be helpful. "I'll read you off the number."

For the first time that dreadful night, something had gone properly. Dwayne witnessed the creature on the cameras, watching it stop and prick its ears, before suddenly racing out of the room. Cycling through the feeds, the Dane observed the monster traversing the lounge, responding the ringing of the phone. "You did it!" He said, wagging his tail.

"For now, at least," Everest said grimly. "I don't know how many times this will actually work. It already broke the phone in the lobby, no reason it won't do that again." She went quiet for a moment, thinking over their plan of action. "Okay, I need to get to the saferoom. Using these numbers, I can call the phones to lure it away from me, but it won't be able to hear a phone across the whole lounge. I can only call phones I know it'll hear. Dwayne, I 'need' you to keep tabs on where that thing is at all times."

"You can count on me," the Dane nodded. "If we find Jake, maybe we can find Gasket too."

"Maybe. And you need to tell right away if it goes into a vent. It'll show up anywhere, so you better race to find it. We need to move to quickly, because it 'will' shred the phones if it gets pissed off. Then we'll have nothing to keep it away." Everest gave out a long sigh. "Okay... are you ready?"

"I am." Dwayne took to the camera console, awaiting her commands.

"Alright... let's do this."