Chương 22: Tracking Life
It was at this time that it happened upon an array of evenly spaced prisms whose sides nearly reached the ceiling in a room twice the height of the previous hallways and able to fit twelve prisms on the side facing the doorway and a blur of countless others down the path.
Each prism which was almost as long and wide as it was tall within held creatures of various shapes colors and sizes, some of which had long protruding limbs and others formed a seemingly harmless blob. But most common were the pale wrinkled rodent-like creatures which were packed together in each prism.
Slicing through sides of its view was a narrow walkway with countless slits that let the mole see the cone shaped lamps that hung from a thin wire up above. Beyond that there was a set of rails that only sections could be seen as they reflected the lamplight from just below. In the corner there were several beams of metal that were folded up in a tight zigzag and at the end of the line, it split into six long and seamless fingers, two of which were opposing the four others. Attached to the sixth and last segment on the exterior of the finger however, were long and thin capsules which spanned the entire length of the segment.
The mole chased after the scent that had eluded it for so long, squeezing between the prisms which were driven into the ground by long bolts that tore up the concrete below as they were pushed aside and torn out.
Where was that smell? The smell faded away as the mole rushed head first, following the scent to find nothing.
Wrong room.
It turned back immediately but that was only after it had knocked aside eight pairs of cages.
--Sample Cage 455-464211--
Within the cage there were several moles pressed against the side, attempting to see the carnage that the rampaging mole had just caused. But all of a sudden, they saw it stop two cages away.
Inside, a mess of voices erupted as the berserk mole drew closer and closer.
"Come just a bit closer you big fool… just a bit closer…"
"Why do we want him to come closer! It'll eat us all!"
"It could break us free!"
"Yeah then eat us!"
"Don't worry! It can eat Jonathan first!"
"What? Why would we want him to be eaten! He's one of us!"
"We agreed that he would help us get out and if he sacrifices himself to let us escape, then the deal is done!"
"Why would we abandon him though! We shouldn't!"
"Ah whatever, it's all over anyways."
"What do we do about him though?"
"Eh just let the sleeping beauty lie down. Unless anyone wants to kiss him?"
"Hahahah!"
--Sample Cage 072827--
The darkness of the cage suited the lurking being inside. It had sensed the vibrations through the air with its two black probes that waved around in the air which formed thin whips in the air.
A fellow creature had wreaked havoc here. Did they escape? There used to be occasional arcs from the wall to the platform it was standing on, but it seemed like those had faded away along with the hum in the air. Did touching the wall not hurt anymore? No pain in trying. Except for the pain that came with touching the wall.
It gingerly brushed one the wall with one of its probing antennae, ready to draw back at any moment. No pain. With its six legs it lifted itself and placed itself on the very edge of the platform. It suddenly reared up by throwing its foremost limbs up and back to lift itself. As it fell down it stiffened its two spear tipped legs in preparation. The two legs fell down and anchored themselves into the concrete which was only a thin layer between the metal platform and the wall and shattered under the two spear points that stabbed themselves in. Its two claws then flew forwards at the bulge the mole had created previously.
A reddish orange pincer encased in a dry shell poked through. The two prongs of the pincer spread open to tear the sheet metal apart along with the chain linked fence. A second pincer fell through the metal puncture wound on the metal to the right of the previous one. It dragged itself over and created a gaping tear in the wall that was meant to keep it out.
When it tore a sizable hole, the two legs which had previously stabbed into the concrete poked out, clasping onto the bottom edge of the hole and pulled the rest of the body out. Two beady eyes on thin stalks showed themselves under a large overhanging shield on its back. It looked both ways before finally stepping out onto the hallway and just like the mole before, saw the light and followed it.
--Laboratory Hallway--
As the mole passed through the hallway, sniffing at each door, it felt like the current door was the one. Inside was a floor to ceiling prism, smaller than the ones in the other area, but featuring thicker and different types of materials.
Inside the cage was a teardrop shaped shell which was splattered with dots of blue orange and green, but was overall a dark rich brown. Sticking out the sides of the shell were six pairs of legs with thin hairs on each that made the legs seem thicker than they actually were.
This was it.
--Bottom floor elevator lobby--
072827 was considerably smaller than the mole, half the size in each dimension but what it lacked in size, it made up for in its reddish blue shell and large thick pincers.
Following the path of the mole into the shaft, it walked into the very bottom of the shaft and saw light cast down from above from the hole that the mole made. Once again, it reared itself up and stabbed its front legs into the wall, but this time it dug them deeper in and pushed them in to curve them and hook onto the wall better.
Slowly 072827 made its way up and into the hole. As it climbed up and exerted itself, hooking into the metal walls and slowly pushing itself up. All the while its antennae waved around, finding the faintest scent of weak prey, which was the mole that had ran up earlier.
It too, was met with a long hallway that had a trail of dirt leading down the middle with a path of destruction on the ceiling.
But the one oddity in the path of destruction was a dip into one doorway and back out again, resuming the path of destruction in the ceiling. It grew curious as well and turned itself so it was facing into the doorway and it too was met with prisms that lined up beyond what the eye could see.
What it could see however, were the small creatures trapped inside each prism and so pounced atop the first cage.
Inside was a blue crab only slightly smaller than 072827 that was designated 074244. It scuttled around, pushing itself to the furthest end of the prism which was at a steep slope due to its toppling but could only watch as 072827 opened its pincers against one corner and crushed it.
The plastic simply snapped as a result and it was left with a large hold that it gently dropped its back through first, swung for a moment as only its two front legs held onto the edge of the hold and dropped itself in with a dull thud.
It slowly approached the crab in the upper corner as it made its way up the slope. As 072827 made its way up the slope, the blue crab suddenly reached an epiphany that it could not run or hide any longer.
It rushed down from its perch, only to be met with a wide open claw of 072827. And then the pincers closed down on the body of the crab, squarely over the main shell as it was first clutched onto, but then cracks slowly started forming around the shell: a spiderweb as the force caused the shell to bend under its pressure. The thin membrane right under the shell held the insides of the crab in, but not for long as the pressure inside blew up and the juices of the crab squirted all around like a can of silly string.
The killer freshly baptized in the blood of his prey, slowly descended upon its prize as two guard pieces of shell parted to allow an extended set of teeth to clamp onto whatever meat it could find and tear it out. The juices slowly dripped down the side of the prism as it feasted.
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