章 23: Liquid Life
"Jonathan wake up! I didn't give you my share for nothing!"
"He's still asleep? Well wake him up! There's no excuse now!"
"But what if we wake him up and the monster leaves! Then he'll turn on us!"
"He won't! Don't worry!"
"Fine Matt, you wake him up then!"
"What? Why me? It should be Mark!"
"No way! He'll be the most angry at me!"
"Fine! I'll do it then!"
"Wait Angela! Are you sure?"
"We're about to die! Of course!"
"What will you do?"
"I'll bite him of course! What did you think I was about to do! Kiss him?"
Angela stood up and unsteadily walked over, gingerly taking each step as if she would wake the beast there. As she approached the mole that was lying on its side, legs splayed out, the pauses between each step grew longer and longer, until she came to a full stop every time she took a step. But she continued step after step.
Closer and closer she went, until she could see the faint rising and lowering of his chest and the faint mist that blew out along with every lowering. She gingerly positioned her head directly over one of his hind legs. She opened her mouth which featured two large rectangular teeth, much longer than they were wide, but as she did so, a drop of liquid started forming on the edges of one of her teeth.
This drop flew back up the tooth as she lunged down and along with the drop came a mist of blood. She sprang straight up and flew backwards in a perfect parabola as the muscles of the unconscious mole below her tensed his muscles in response to her bite.
Jonathan shook awake, baring his teeth as he saw all the moles huddled in the opposite corner with a trail of blood leading towards one of the moles with bloodied teeth.
"What so urgent?"
The others pressed against each other even more, squeezing the mole at the very corner until he barely had any room to breathe.
"What's up? Did I kill someone? One two three four five six seven eight… Nope, we're all here!"
"Wait, you're not mad at us?"
"What am I mad at you for?"
"Well um… She bit you!"
"Hey! We all agreed to it! Besides, there's something more important! That thing!"
"Huh? Oh, should we get out now?"
"Yes! It doesn't seem to be able to get at us! So hurry up!"
--Sample cage 017999--
In the confines of cage 017999 a series of bright yellow veins were strewn across the entirety of the metal platform creating a cluster in the center where a yellow bulb formed by a skeleton of veins which were slightly darker and stood stiff compared to the vibrant yellow which bulged out between each vein.
It had already expanded to the walls and now a vein could be found within every square meter, streaking across the dull grey background. The liquid inside the veins could be described as crystals being suspended in a yellow liquid as they drifted around. Throughout the vein however, were small holes that allowed the liquid to breathe and absorb the air around it to condense into its shield.
At certain points it was possible to see through an entire vein and what could be seen at the other side would be a deep gouge carved into the metal platform under each vein. Now, the veins rapidly grew towards the metal walls which no longer burnt the casing which the liquid built for itself as it expanded, forming a vein-like tunnel. Under the central portion, the liquid had actually dug deep into the platform, albeit to no success in its attempts to escape; however, it did conceal the damage done from its captors.
Now, it expanded to the walls which no longer dealt pain and as it bored through the metal sheets, it was met with the same lit hallway the mole and 072827 had gone through. A single vein snaked through the entire hallway, following the light just as its predecessors had done. It rapidly creeped up the shaft like vines on a tree and for all the trouble that the two had previously faced, the liquid faced none as it simply grew higher and higher as the liquids inside sensed the light.
Back in the cage however, the liquid had begun to empty itself from its previous state; the very tip of the bulb had deflated as the liquid drained out in search of food. Once it reached the brightly lit hallway it heard the snapping of plastic and immediately sped up in a straight line towards the sound. It hit a wall, but that was no problem as it immediately split up into two, one to continue following the path down the hallway and another to climb up the wall.
The path up the wall bore no fruit as it reached the very top and was faced with a path that led back the other way and so it focused its attention back on the vein running down the hallway.
The bulb was now an eighth empty.
Facing the countless doors in the hallway, there was a simple solution. Go down them all. A vein immediately split off to go down one door but was met with a dark dusty room full of sealed boxes made from dead tree carcasses flattened until there was no thickness left.
The next room was filled with boxes made from dead tree carcasses but this time open and filled with instruments of melted sand. The very next room was a wide open one with a large purple shelled creature that wrapped the latter end of its body under it as its six legs propped it up to allow for its two large claws to puncture and shatter glass prisms, two of which had already been shattered open. The second prism which was shattered still had two creatures in it, one being the aforementioned one and the other being a similar but slimmer glossy black without the oversized pincers and simply two legs instead.
The latter had decided to form a wall made of sticky threads which it attached all over as it huddled in the corner with a thread leading to one of its legs.
The liquid decided to follow into the second prism and climb up the slope.
072827 turned around and slammed its claw into the vein which was snaking up to it only to have it shatter the plastic walls below it which sent itself falling down as the liquid was left midair to continue its path up the slope.
Which one to go after?
Why not both!
It simply split up and one vein continued forwards, building itself across the gap while the other hung down, letting itself slowly drop. It reached the slim black creature first as it grew onto and coiled around it as it thrashed around with its eight legs, only to slowly stop as the liquid bored within and a backflow of brownish liquid came up. However, the brownish liquid was soon overtaken again by the bright yellow.
The other vein however, was taking its time crawling down and the opportunistic 072827 creeped up and swung a pincer at the vine hanging down. It cracked all the wall at the split up in the hole, but immediately sealed itself up albeit at an angle which it immediately shifted direction so that it was going down again.
It reached the floor and continued growing.
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