From The Maw

Chapter Ten

  We jump down from the hole in the wall onto a pipe. The pipe is huge but also slick with water so we take it carefully. As we walk I can feel a gentle swaying. I never noticed it before because I was always terrified and running for my life. We find ourselves in front of a really tall wall, there's a ladder in front of us and a hole that the ladder leads to. I let Seven start climbing the ladder first and I follow behind him. We crawl through the hole into... light? I walk forward and the light hurts my eyes from being in the gloomy place the entire time. I see a ship with huge bulbous people walking across a board onto... whatever this place is. I try to ignore the bulbous monsters and instead look at Seven. He's looking at the light as if he's amazed. "Seven?" "It's so pretty." He says. I smile as I see something spark in his eyes that wasn't there before. Hope maybe? I see a chain that looks climable and I jump onto it and start climbing. The chain is slick with water but I continue upwards. The chain switches to a ladder halfway up and I continue forward. I crawl through a hole in the wall and it takes a small amount of time for my eyes to readjust to the dim lighting. Seven joins me and he blinks a few times to readjust his eyes.
  We walk forward on a pipe thing as bulbous people enter this place below us. We crawl through a vent hole and fall down a small drop. We go over to some boards and pull one off the crawl into the vent. We emerge from the vent and walk along another pipe. We make a turn and suddenly the bulbous people are in front of us, entering somewhere. I see a climable gate like thing the things are entering through and I start climbing it with Seven beside me. As we climb I see a lady standing on a balcony watching the people enter. She has a white mask on and her hair is up in a bun. I don't like her. She seems to radiate malice. I ignore her and continue my assent with Seven. I crawl into a hole on top of the gate like thing and see some light fixtures in front of me.
  Me and Seven run and jump onto the light fixture. We do that for the next two and then jump onto the floor level with the light fixtures. I see a partially open door and we squeeze through that. We're in a room with a lot of food on tables around us. Seven jumps up onto a table and grabs something before hoping back down. I look at him weird. "What? I was grabbing some food in case you get hungry again." I smile at him and we continue forward. We go into the next room and I see a bulbous thing stuffing it's face. I'm repulsed by the sight. We sneak under it's table and continue forward. We squeeze through a doorway and break some bottles. Suddenly a thing starts chasing us. It's so fat all it can do is crawl on the floor. We run away from it as fast as we can, we see a ledge up ahead and climb up at the same time. The things tries to follow but it's too fat.
  I see a table with two things seated at it eating. I see a window, a lamp we could possibly swing from, and a climable stack of plates. Me and Seven hop up onto the table and start climbing the stack of plates. The things see us and reach for us. We climb up on top of the plates and Seven stops me. "Do the thing we did when riding the hooks away from the Kitchen." He says. I nod and wrap my arms around his neck. He jumps and grabs onto the lamp, he swings back and forth a little before letting go and landing on the window. I let go of his neck and smile. "Thank you." He shrugs. "We're friends, friends save each other occasionally." We hop down from the window onto the floor. We walk past some things eating and I realize the only way out of here is climbing up onto the table and running.
  Me and Seven climb up onto the table and run as those things reach for us. We climb up onto boxes and those things just go back to eating. We jump and climb up a fence like thing. We climb up to the next floor and I see a tray of food on ropes. I point it out to Seven and we jump onto it. We then jump onto the floor and continue our journey. We walk past things eating and the sounds they make while eating makes me want to throw up the little food I have in my stomach. I see that to get out of this room we have to run past these things again. I sigh and jump onto the small ledge in front of me, I then jump up onto the railing separating these things from the others. I jump down and grab Seven's hand while I run. We run and some of the things crawl after us. I see a single lantern after a small ramp and I tell Seven to keep running as I slow down.
  He doesn't need further encouragement. He runs and I jump onto his back getting a piggy back ride as he runs up the ramp and swings from the lantern. We land on a small shelf and I slide off of Seven's back. "Thanks." "Stop thanking me for saving your life, I think it's going to happen alot." I smile and hug him. "Okay. Let's go." We jump down and walk forward. We walk under a wooden shelf and walk past some things when one of them falls out of his seat and crawls after us. We run and climb up onto the wooden shelf. The guy gets stuck and we hop down onto his back and then onto the floor. We run as he turns and chases after us again. We slide through a hole in the wall and into temporary safety. We slip through another hole in the wall and come out into a hallway. I hear the elevator and we run.
  I look over my shoulder to see a chef on the elevator before running even faster. We run into a bathroom and hide in a box. We're squished together again because the box is small. The chef enters and looks for us before leaving again and shutting the door behind him. We crawl out and I see there's no way out. I sigh and sit down on the floor. "We come all this way just to get stuck in a stupid bathroom." I mutter. Seven laughs. I look at him weird. "Sorry, I just find it funny the way you said it, also, haven't you noticed things aren't always what they seem?" He asks. I realize he's right. I see a mirror and I pick up a roll of toilet paper. "This mirror is the only other thing in this bathroom that could be a way out, maybe." I throw the toilet paper at the mirror and watch it shatter to reveal a room on the other side. The room has a chair which is creepy but I use it to climb up and start climbing a cage like wall.
  I look down to see Seven following me. We crawl through a grate in the floor above us and we squeeze through some bars on the other side. We walk across a pipe and into a vent on the other side of the room. We walk out onto the pipe above the hallway we ran through and I can hear the chef chopping stuff in a room. We walk across the pipe and jump down onto a cupboard before jumping down onto the floor. We run into the elevator and we go up. We arrive on the next floor and we walk out into a hallway. For once nothing is chasing us. We walk through an open doorway into a hallway with what looks like doors. My suspicion is confirmed when one opens and a bunch of things start chasing us. We run down the hallway passing more opening doors, we run into another room, we jump the small ledge and keep running.
  We run under a table and go through a doorway into a hallway that goes right and down. We run down the steps and make a left. We run past a shelf that falls behind us and we quickly climb the one that falls in front of us. We then jump up onto a table and run across that. People reach for us and I see a single lantern up ahead. I slow down so Seven can jump first and as he jumps I jump with him and wrap my arms around his chest. We swing forward and land on the floor in a heap. I look at Seven and smile. "Sorry about that, I didn't have time to jump on your back or anything." He nods and we stand up. We squeeze through a doorway that partially open and I hope no more of those things chase us. We walk forward some but then my stomach growls and I cough.
  "Six? Do you need food?" Asks Seven. I nod and he searches his pockets for the bit of food he took. "Where is it? Come on!" He searches his pockets frantically coming up with nothing. "Sorry Six, it must of fell out while we were running." I stand there holding my stomach in pain. "You lost it?" He nods sadly. I groan and start walking forward. "Maybe there more food this way." We walk forward and another hunger pain hits me. It's so bad I fall to the ground. Seven walks over but I push him away and stand up, my stomach continues to growl and I know if I don't get food soon I'm going to die. I walk into a room and I see a nome with a sausage. Another wave of hunger hits me and the nome picks up the sausage holding it out to me. I salivate at the sight of food. But I'm not looking at the sausage. I smile and walk towards the nome.
  "Six?" Seven's voice is far away again. I reach out towards the nome. A part of my brain is telling me to take the sausage and eat. But another part of my brain, a feral side, is telling me to lunge at the nome. Eat the nome. The nome holds out the sausage again but I reach past the sausage towards the nome. The feral side of me is taking over. Suddenly someone jumps past me and moves the nome out of my way. They shove the sausage into my mouth and I eat it. I don't taste it while I eat. I finish the sausage feeling better and I look to see Seven holding the nome. "Six?" I look at him odd. "What's wrong?"
  "What's wrong? What's wrong?! Six, you tried to eat a nome when it was kindly offering you a sausage! WHY DID YOU TRY TO EAT THE NOME?!" I take a step back. "I- I'm sorry." I sit down and put my face in my knees.

Six, it will be okay, maybe if he doesn't trust you you should just leave him behind.

  I can feel Mono's hand on my shoulder. I stand up and look at Seven. "Do you trust me? Because if you don't maybe I should just leave." Seven puts down the nome. "I trust you Six, I was just scared when you tried to eat the nome. I'm sorry for yelling." I smile at him and Mono's words float out of my head. "I'm sorry too, I don't know what came over me. And I'm sorry for threatening to leave you." I hold out my hand. "Let's go." He grabs my hand and smiles. We climb a box and crawl through a window out of the room. We walk down a hallway using Seven's flashlight to light our way. We hold hands as we walk. We come to a ladder and I climb up it first, ready to get out of here. I crawl through a grate and see the lady I hate enter an elevator. The doors close behind her and Seven climbs up beside me.
  "Six, why do you look mad?" Without answering him I grab a pot and throw it at the button. The pot hits the button and the light turns on. We stand there for a minute waiting for the elevator. When the doors open I grab Seven's hand and walk into the elevator.
"Let's get out of this place."