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Zak hadn’t been paying enough attention. In her defence, she’d been mining for days and the lack of sunlight was getting to her. All she needed to do was find one iron deposit, and she was getting annoyed and impatient as she swung her pickaxe in all directions with wild abandon. She realized her mistake all too late as the ice beneath her shattered and she plunged into a cavern below.
The fall wasn’t far, but landing on her back knocked the wind out of her and catching her breath was hard in this new atmosphere. The air was heavy, it smelled and tasted weirdly familiar? And the ground was…..squishy? She sat up, blinking and shaking off the daze as she looked around only to once again lose her breath at the sight around her.
Meat, that’s why the air tasted familiar, the whole cavern was made of meat. The walls, the floor, parts of the ceiling that weren’t ice, it was all red, squishy meat. She could hear it, squelching underfoot, the sound was almost deafening. How could she hear every squish over all this screaming? There was so much screaming! She could hear one voice, yelling out over all the others. Over all the screaming, and rumbling, and the meat squishing.
You! Graduate! Take the manipulator and run! Get to safety!
Where was safety?? All she could see was meat! All her classmates and friends exploding into meat as dark tentacles tore through them like paper! The tentacles were chasing her, covered in meat. Who were they covered in? Who was she stepping in? The squishing sound filled her head as meat and blood filled her boots.
"Command! Zak! Stop!"
She couldn’t stop, as much as she wanted to she couldn’t. The Grand Protector told her to run! The tentacles were closing in on her, they grabbed at her arms as her friends screamed for her. She yelled and fought as they pulled her back, back into the swirling vortex of meat and screaming. She couldn’t escape! They were too strong even for her! Everything went black as the tentacles wrapped around her, almost lovingly, as she went limp. Letting the darkness overtake her.
Her butt was cold. That was normal though, right? Humans always said death was cold, but she figured it would be more…. All encompassing. Something was holding her too. Was it a tentacle? No, it was way too hard. In fact everything around her was hard and cold. There was no warm fleshy give anymore.
She slowly opened her eyes taking in the blurry orange and blue around her. There was no red anymore, no dark tentacles, just the light of a nearby torch glowing off the crystal like ice walls. She was back up in the cavern she’d been digging in before, the hole she’d fallen through about 20 feet away. Even though she couldn’t see it from here, she could still pick up the taste of meat in the air coming from the horror below. A shudder ran through her causing whatever was holding her to move, it’s grip loosening.
“Concern. zak, are you all right?” Nightspear’s face suddenly filled her vision, the Glitch’s red eye lights blinking in concern. She’d completely forgotten the outlaw was even down here with her. Lost as she had been first in her search for ores and then in….. Whatever had just happened….
“Floran isss…. Not sure.” She hissed quietly, sagging into his hold and curling up closer. She so rarely got hugs, and Nightspear never gave them. It felt nice, despite how hard and pointy he was. But then again, she was pretty pointy too.
“Query. Can you tell me what happened down there?”
Zak shuffled uncomfortably, resting her face against his shoulder “ Floran….. Isn’t sure……..Ssssudenly it was like… Floran wasss back on Earth. While it wasss being destroyed! All of Floransss friendsss were being killed! T-torn apart into m-meat” A sob caught in the back of her throat as she shoved her face into the Glitches neck. He hugged her tighter as she trembled against him, making soft shushing noises that sounded more like static coming out of his speakers until her breathing evened out again.
“Suggestion. You were having a PTSD flashback. Have you ever had anything like this happen before?” Zak thought for a second, still hiding her face. “Sssomething similar happened to Floran once. Before taking on crew Floran accepted a bounty and the perssson who hired Floran also hired an Apex merc to help.” She took a deep breath, trying to keep calm as she relived the memory. “Apex…. Didn’t see the target in time. She wasss cut down in front of Floran. The blood…….”
“Realization. Is that why you only hire Glitch, Floran, or Novakid’s to be part of your crew?” She nodded, sniffling “There were lotsss of non-meat peoplesss who died on Earth too, but there were ssso many more meat bodies. Humansss….. Hyotl….. Apex…. Avian….. Friendsss….” Nightspear shushed her before she could get worked up again gently rocking back and forth. “Comforting. You don’t have to continue. It’s ok.” She sighed relaxing “Thankssss.”
They stayed like that for a while, Zak was almost falling asleep when Nightspear suddenly stood, picking her up as he went, and started walking back up the cave they’d come through. “Softly. Don’t worry about finding the iron for now. You deserve a rest. We’ll dig more elsewhere later.” Zak smiled closing her eyes. “Floran promises to pull the spinesss out of your clothesss when we get home.”
“Appreciative. Please and thank you.”