Sneaking through a sewer main would never be my top choice to use as an escape route, but having a choice during an emergency was a luxury we didn't have.

The sewer line beneath the village was about as dank, dank, and rank as I expected with little to no visibility apart from the slim rays of light coming down through the grates by the streets above us. Aaron came prepared with a battery-powered torch, which helped substantially as he led us through the narrow passageway beneath the village. I was thankful we had a small platform to stand on that would keep us out of the stagnant sewage, but I doubted we would emerge from this endeavour with clean boots.

I could sense the cremators still roaming around on the surface. Although there weren't any nearby at the moment, they were covering a lot of ground, which could incite an unwanted encounter if we didn't outpace them. I didn't know where this pipe was leading us, and neither did Aaron. Still, he remained poised enough to say that we would most certainly find an exit that would lead us outside of the village, but his thoughts told me that he feared whether or not he might have overcomplicated things by leading us down here.

"You took the safest route," I said, quelling a concern he didn't voice as my voice echoed throughout the passageway. "Better than contending with those brutes."

Aaron didn't stop moving, but he did turn his head around to look at me. "Hey, did you just use your mind magic on me?" he accused, sounding more playful than peeved.

"Not deliberately," I said, keeping my hands tightly gripped around the straps of my backpack. "Sometimes your thoughts can be a little louder if your emotions are amped up."

Aaron snorted. "I guess that's what being within fifty feet of a cremator can do to ya." He returned facing front-forward, shining his light further down the ongoing tunnel. "Knowing why they're even hear would help to alleviate things a bit, but I don't think by much. The fact that they're here means that there might be something much worse than them out here."

"And I wonder what that could be…?" I murmured to myself, though the acoustics of the pipe amplified it to an audible mutter.

Soon after, the winding pipe we were trudging through finally ended and we emerged into a cavernous space. This was a tremendous relief on my back having to hunker down with all of my trappings weighing me down, though Aaron appeared like he was built to take on any pressure as he hardly had to stretch at all once he stepped out in the open.

He shined his light around in our new environment. We had wound up in a much more cavernous section of the sewers. We were just off to the side of a huge dome-like enclosure with walls made from brick, and the only source of light was a single square-shaped grate up on the centre ceiling of the dome. Me and Aaron stepped onto a mushy ground that contained runoff from the pipe we travelled through, but encircling the entirety of the dome was a grated floor with welded handrails, which was suspended over a massive pit that led deeper into the earth.

I could see various other pipes around our domed environment just like the one we came out from, which suggested that waste was meant to pool here in some capacity. It was clear that this was a central area of the village sewer system, though the lack of surface activity made the whole place just as dead and quiet. While I was observing this new area and monitoring the cremators above us, Aaron spared little time to take in our unsanitary surroundings and immediately began thinking of what to do next.

"Well, there's a lot more pipes we could run through," he noted, "but with the lack of a map, I doubt we'll have an easy time figuring out where to go. But hey, if you had enough of sinking your ankles in excrement, there's some stairs just over there."

He pointed over to a dark, but visible corner a couple dozen feet away from us, which housed a staircase that led up to the surface. As much as I hated having to endure sneaking through this waste-ridden dungeon, I sensed hostels above us. "I don't think we should," I advised. "There's a cremator lurking around up there. I think we may have unwittingly found ourselves venturing even closer to the heart of the village."

"Damn…" Aaron cursed. "I guess we should head back then. Maybe the one we saw is long gone by now?"

Not particularly wanting to subject my nose to that filth we walked through again, I nudged Aaron's focus in another direction. "Why don't we look around for a moment? There's bound to be some kind of map that'll show us the way out. Maybe posted somewhere on a wall?"

"You're right. How would the old workers find their way around otherwise?" Aaron agreed. I could sense an immense relief in his mind as he said this as if he were pleased that I opted not to backtrack. I was pleased to know that we were both on the same page when it came to our preferences in waste travel.

We were about to venture forth to walk around the grated ring over the pit in hopes of finding a map when a screeching metallic sound loudly went off that made both of us jump, coming up from where the staircase led. A faint strand of daylight illuminated the clammy steps, where the shadow of a tall lanky figure could be seen along the wall. I gasped in confused terror.

While I had sensed a cremator close by on the surface, I did not realize it was so close to the entryway into the sewer that was only feet away from us. "Oh, that's not good…" Aaron said, veering urgently towards the grated ring. "Let's move, lassie!"

Aaron began lumbering urgently towards the edge of the pit, and I felt a sudden panic completely overtake me. I didn't know what it was, but everything inside screamed not to go close to the edge for any reason. "Stop!" I yelped, grabbing the giant man's arm, effectively making him stop.

"Wha—?!"

"Get back! We can't go that way. Stay away from the edge…"

"Krystal, what are you on about—?"

The shadow at the top of the staircase began to shift, and the frightening figure of the cremator crouched its way into the entryway and began its descent down. Its round yellow eyes glowed eerily within its black silhouette as it carefully navigated the steps. The tunnel we came through was our only means of escape, but I feared that drop-off was too close to its ceiling for Aaron to properly climb up from, as he could hardly squeeze his way through it coming down. We were effectively cornered, but we weren't helpless.

I drew my machine gun for the first time and aimed at the staircase while Aaron drew his glistening magnum. Seconds later, the cremator finally made it to our level and rose to full height now that it no longer had to crouch. It took notice of us instantly and proceeded to stare intently at us, breathing long and uncomfortable-sounding breaths that were amplified by its breathing filter.

I could read its thoughts; it did not expect to find us and was calculating whether or not it should regard us as a potential hazard. Its inaction only made the stand-off more tense, which was getting to Aaron a little. "Keep back, stretch. I'm warning ya…" he said to it in a low, controlled voice, keeping a steady aim at its white spherical head and keeping his free arm over me protectively. I could sense that the cremator did not comprehend Aaron's warning, but it eventually concluded that we were not worth pondering over and continued forward toward the railing, treading slowly and ominously as it continued to breathe audibly.

Me and Aaron kept our aim on it as it moved past, but lowered our guard slightly when it had its back to us. The cremator eventually reached the railing and looked down at the pit below. Having not had a chance yet to look down there for myself, I couldn't know what it was seeing, but it didn't tick the cremator's interest either.

Before me and Aaron could hope to shuffle towards the same staircase the creature came from, the cremator suddenly turned around and looked at us, making us freeze where we were. Its 'thoughts' were different now, and they had turned considerably more hostile. It must not have wanted us to leave because it raised the heavy barrelled tool at us, wheezing with assertiveness.

"Christ…" Aaron gasped, pointing his gun. "Lassie, run up the stairs! Quickly!"

Then suddenly, within the time it takes for one to blink, a long blue streak shot up from the pit behind the cremator and impaled straight through its abdomen, which I soon realized was a huge bioluminescent tentacle with a harpooned end. We watched in horror as the tentacle whirled the caught cremator all around, slamming it into the ceiling and onto the floor before dragging its beaten body passed the railings and down into the pit.

The whole sequence was so shocking I had my back up against the wall, and Aaron I found had mimicked me. "What… The… Hell was…?"

Then, stealing the attention once again, the monstrous wormy limb rose above the pit again, accompanied by two more that were identical in appearance but had a different "head". This creature was an incredible sight to behold, just as much as it was a horror show. These tentacles were made of neon blue, gelatinous transparent flesh, where its intestines and other organs were visible.

Aside from its barbed, harpoon-headed tentacle, there was also one with a fleshy cavity that opened and closed, potentially surviving as a mouth, and another tentacle with a large, yellow almost tulip-shaped organ that I could sense was an eye as it loomed in front of the others, observing me and Aaron hungrily as wet croaking sounds could be heard emanating down in the pit.

I could feel Aaron tremble with fear and was about to aim his gun, but I squeezed his hand tightly before he could. "Look… Down…" I instructed him, quite firm in my tone. Hesitation flashed in Aaron's mind, but he did as I told him.

I looked up at this creature directly into its singular eye, which roused its fixation with me as its tentacles grew in length, extending towards me. I sensed its curiosity in me, figuring that it had never encountered another creature sizing it up the way I was. Even so, that would also register as aggression, so I had to play this delicately for our lives depended on it.

One of the earliest skills I had ever learned to master in my youth on Fortuna was to ward away vicious beasts that were multiple times my size with my telepathy. I cranked this ability up tenfold when dealing with this disturbing creature, which looked aquatic and may have been a colonial organism. I had never tried this tactic on a beast of this unique nature, so anything could have happened, and I prayed that it would not end with me sharing the poor cremator's fate.

The tentacle with the one yellow bulbous eye came within feet of my face as the other two slowly waved around me. Aaron stayed still and did not look up, though he was still clutching my hand—both because he wished to protect me and because he didn't want to be alone with this thing. Without holding anything back, I telepathically told this creature that we were not worth its time and that it was going to go straight back to its safe den and we were going to leave it alone.

Of course, I was afraid, and I was sure that it registered clearly on my muzzle, but I repeated this message on loop until I no longer had to. After what felt like weeks of (mostly) unwavering composure and insistent telepathy, the colonial organism that had been studying me eventually relented, groaning with dissatisfaction as the tentacles passively retracted back towards the pit before eventually disappearing out of sight, though the resonating creaks and croaks from its agitation could be heard trailing off into silence.

My arms sagged as I felt the tension leave my body like fluid being drained from a tank, and Aaron noticed this as my grip on his hand eased. "Lassie?" he whispered, still with his eyes shut. "What's going on?"

I turned and smiled at my friend. "We can head up now," I said. "Come along."

Me and Aaron breached the surface shortly thereafter and left the village without any interference from the other four roaming cremators.

However, we were able to catch a glimpse of them converging on the sewer entrance a few minutes after we left it before delving down into it in a single file line. They must have sensed their peer's fate in some way and met up to investigate together, though their minds were so blank and computer-like it wasn't easy to read if they had any sense of loss or worry—if they were even capable of that at all.

Whatever the case may have been, I was more worried about getting back to the estate, and Aaron most certainly shared that desire. We left the village without a hitch, returning on the dirt road with our trappings still in our bags. We were both in rather high spirits after all that we had encountered beneath the village.

"You know, I'm starting to think that maybe that see-through octopus thingy was the reason why the village has been abandoned for all these years," Aaron theorized, which sounded plausible on my end.

"And it took the Combine this long to respond to it?" I wondered.

"Rural communities are no-goes under Combine rule, lassie. I'm amazed this one even held out as long as it did," Aaron said. "You see, once our new 'benefactors' started getting comfortable around here, they began hustling people out of the countryside and into cities—the remaining ones they hadn't levelled yet, that is. Alien critters were still running rampant after the Black Mesa incident and deployed their pest control units to get rid of them while the people remained secured within urban confines. They never let them back out, of course. Who knows where they all could be now, even if most of them are alive at all."

That was a sombre reality to process. I could not imagine what these people had to go through after having endured two cataclysmic events that completely upended their world and their lives. I took another glance back at the abandoned village we were leaving behind and thought for a moment.

"Perhaps that creature in the sewers was one they missed," I suggested. "I wonder if those cremators are equipped to deal with it."

"They've got plasma-throwers, lassie. When you got one of those you can solve any problem—especially if you're a sadist."

I humorously chuffed a bit under my breath. I suppose that was a true statement. There was a moment after when we both met each other's gaze, and he gave me a closed smile that was as warm as the midday sun right above us.

"Nice save back there by the way, lassie. I owe you my life after that."

"Don't feel so," I reassured, though touched that he'd say that. "I had no guarantee what I did would work. I had a strong feeling that fighting it would have been hopeless."

"That's true. That thing looked like it would've been a nightmare to shoot at anyway," Aaron shrugged, though he maintained a soft gaze on me. "You are proving to be quite the extraordinary fox, Krystal. What other tricks do you have in store?"

"That all depends on whether or not I will need to use them."

"Hardly anything is certain out here in the outlands, lassie, as I am sure you have already witnessed firsthand."

I didn't have a platform to argue with that. "I suppose I did."