INVESTIGATE THE HATCH
Darking a deep breath and swallowing once more to steady your shaking form, you kneel down by the hatch, and examine
it closely. It is only loosely attached, clearly designed to be removed and reapplied for maintenance or something of the
sort, but the metal clips that are holding it on were tough ones, and after a few tries, even your strange new hands and
their claws manage to do very little, despite the fact that your arms seem surprisingly strong for how thin and scrawny
they are, beneath the fur that had sprung up there – still a shock to see, in the dark lighting. You will have to find
something to pry it open with.
Hoping in desperation that none of the boxes were empty, you spin around, and open the lid of the nearest one. Nothing
but the empty floor inside. Going through box after box, heart-rate accelerating once more as the fear of the door to the
room opening unexpectedly drives you more and more paranoid, you scramble for several minutes, before your hands
finally blindly hit upon something hard in the bottom of one of the boxes, and pull out to reveal a strange triangle-shaped
piece of metal, about the length of your forearm. Grinning in victory despite yourself, you kneel down with your
newfound tool, and wedge the corner of the thing between the cover and the wall. With one tug, the whole thing comes off
and clatters with some noise to the floor, causing your momentary joy to be lost in a flutter of new rushed heartbeats,
while you freeze and look over your shoulder at the door.
After a long breathless moment, no noise came, and you continued to examine the opening. It was just large enough for
you to fit through, if you curled your knees up and went face first. Discarding the piece of metal, you bend your head, and
get on all fours – pulling yourself into the vent with both arms, finding the space even more of a tight fit than you had
reckoned. Inside, you can see that the surfaces are made by a more generic, earthly metal – seemingly aluminum or some
such – and leading off into the distance for about ten feet, where a dim light can be seen from a far source. You clench
your muscles, and begin attempting to move forward. The process is hard, and very uncomfortable, but eventually you
find a reliable means by which to make progress down the tube – squirming in opposing direction until your body weight
shoves you onward, accompanied by occasional kicks of your feel and floundering motions with your hands.
Determination fuelled only by fear, you push through your earlier exhaustion and nausea with gritted inhuman teeth. Inch
by inch, you make progress, until you are moving forward several lengths at a time. This success is short-lived, however,
as you soon come to a place where the tubes split into two directions – one seeming to be the source of light, and the other
appearing more dark, and longer in a straight direction. With no way to turn around, you are going to have to choose one
to go down.
Written by Doppelfoxx on 29 January 2022
The end (for now)