Son of a metcor, Cyprian growled. It’s a countdown timer. Cyprian wanted to howl in rage. That awful worm, with its stabbing tongue, is down there alone with Riley.
The general heard Aculus rushing his back and quickly grabbed the access card, before spinning around. The warrior’s blade deflected off the sealed door, when Cyprian dodged left.
“I see that you weren’t just being kind,” Aculus snarled his red eyes flashing.
“I’m not looking for new friends,” Cyprian retorted.
Cyprian fought the bony warrior, keeping a keen eye on the blinking sensor the entire time.
Chapter 6. Surrender
Riley
Riley studied the room where she acquired her weapon. There were doorways, one on all four walls. She couldn’t go back the way she came. The guards had barred the metal door. Riley peered down the short hallway to the right, and saw another room. It was the same to her left. She peered down the final hall, but couldn’t see where it led. Riley headed into the room on her right, since it seemed safer than the unknown.
Riley stopped when she almost stepped on the remains of another body. This one had a violent looking, curved knife jammed between its ribs.
God only knows what will be waiting in the next room.
“Add a pack of cigarettes to the list of things I wish I fucking had on this sleigh ride of bullshit. You shouldn’t smoke. It’s not good for you,” Riley mocked all the people that convinced her to quit. “Neither is being trapped in a wicked crazy dungeon with a bunch of aliens hunting me,” Riley yelled.
She gripped her weapon tight, as she wandered from one room to the next. Half of the chambers held at least one body that had been reduced to bones.
“You need to clean up down here. It’s disgusting,” Riley hollered. She knew Cuttles was listening. “If anyone watching this thinks they’re staying in some fancy resort, think again. Do you have any idea of the vermin that swarmed my cell? Flesh eating cor. Don’t think they aren’t getting all their nasty little hairs and germs all over the slop they’re serving in those overpriced restaurants,” she ranted.
It felt good to yell. Riley didn’t truly believe Speck was vermin, but everyone else did. Riley hoped she pissed off the Overseer with her impromptu Yelp review.
Riley stopped as she entered the dozenth room. It had four entryways, and laying on the floor was the recognizable skeleton with the nasty cleaver wound to its oblong skull.
“Are you kidding me. This is a giant fucking circle.”
Riley huffed in agitation, as she threw her hands up. She hadn’t come across a suitable place to hide or stand her ground on her little tour. She looked at the hall leading to the center of the giant circle. It was the only place she hadn’t explored yet.
You need to check it out, Riley told herself as she nervously eyed the passage. Or you can make your stalker chase you in a circle. That’ll work. That’s an intelligent plan, Riley sarcastically berated herself for being a coward.
Riley summoned her courage, then headed down the hall. She didn’t know if she had company yet, or what else lay ahead. As Riley walked, she imagined poisoned arrows shooting from the walls, like a scene from Indiana Jones. It made each step difficult.
She was playing a freakish game of Russian roulette. Besides the bodies, she hadn’t found and nasty surprises in the ring of rooms. She was certain her luck would be changing any minute now. Her rapid breath echoed off the narrow hall’s stone walls, sounding incredibly loud. When the passage turned to the left she paused. Riley listened but didn’t hear anything around the bend. She continued, but was confused to find the passage dodged back to the right again.
“What the hell?”
The only thing she could figure was that it slowed down the hunter and prey, or created a good spot to ambush someone. It was the best hiding spot she’d come across so far, which was pathetic.
Riley walked another dozen yards and came to a vast room. Her eyes were instantly riveted to the yellow door in the center of the room.
“An elevator. That’s where they’ll enter,” she murmured.
Riley circled the elevator shaft as she studied the room. On one side, a pile of bones lay beneath a pair of shackles on the wall. On the other side, the remains of some poor creature lay atop a stone platform. Besides the bodies, she was still blissfully alone.
“Why Cuttles you are fond of me. There’s not a single trap or nasty little surprise waiting for me,” Riley yelled acerbically. “Remind me to give you a gift when I see you again.” Riley shook her ax at the ceiling.
It’s time to come up with a plan.
Riley paced a safe distance from the elevator, debating what she could do to keep someone from exiting the shaft.