JELLYFISH

DOOR 023

Emil's and Evelyn's horror matched [name]'s own; [name] was the first to come to their senses. Who were they kidding? At this point, anything was to be expected with Urbanshade's security. If they weren't able to contain the Searchlights, who is to say the monsters couldn't do whatever they wanted? Multiply and hunt the expendables within the water who were attempting to extract with the Crystal attached to one of their PDGs, maybe that was their goal.

[name] turned their attention toward the two once again. Evelyn began swimming back, her hands grabbing aimlessly below her as Emil turned to grab her shoulders. There no doubt was even more fear in the water than before. Nobody would've expected a second Searchlights to appear, everything was blind to [name], the one who had seemed to know everything up until this point.

Yet it was still so familiar. Was it because of that dream?

A hand came down gently on their shoulder and [name] turned to meet Emil's eyes. He pointed down near the light where Evelyn clung even tighter to it, keeping herself planted and unmoving. Even behind the fog of the glass, [name] was sure they met her eyes, those frightened, hollow eyes.

Okay. Okay, it was fine. This was fine. It would have been better if Evelyn stayed put underneath the canopy of stone and not subject herself to the horrors above rather than try and fail upon swimming out into the middle of nowhere. Evelyn wasn't a great swimmer after all.

[name] pulled away from Emil and looked at him, then pointed up at the open hole just a quick swim away from them. They had to get up there; they had to do something other than sit and wait for a miracle to happen. Emil nodded, albeit with some apprehension. They couldn't blame him, and it hurt to think that after all of this was over, one of them could be dead.

Rather than swimming out through the triangular gap in the ceiling, [name] swam further into the cave where rusted boxes stacked on top of each other in front of a slanted cargo crate. A green light came from the very edge of the top of the crate, showing that it was possible to swim through. It provided a good area of cover, but swimming through a crate that was pointed up at the brightened water above didn't sit right with them. They took the chance anyway, head turning quickly around their surroundings to check for the Searchlights.

Their eyes fell on a crate sitting on the sand not too far away and they made a break for that place instead of the one they were idling at. It was open on both sides, a green flare sitting at the center of the metal box. [name] pressed a hand to the roof of the rusty object, eyes darting to the Searchlights in the distance.

Maybe that's where Oz and Kei are... They thought absentmindedly. It's not that [name] felt worry for them, but a need to know whether they were dead or alive.

They swam to the opposite side of the crate, noticing a thick tube running out from under the ground; but there were no sparks coming from the center, and this entire area felt familiar.

Damn it! They narrowed their eyes, but released that tension upon feeling the shift of their diving mask, I went in a circle!

One of the Searchlights had slowly made its way over to where they currently were, so [name] waited patiently, watching from the safety of the rusted crate as it tilted and swung in the water, never diving lower than it originally was. A comforting, warm heat ran across [name]'s body as the orange lights hit the cargo crate, and a sudden urge to throw themselves out in the open poked into their mind to which they only took a step back in fear they would subconsciously adhere to that command.

Once the Searchlights had completely swam over the top of the crate and turned left, [name] swam out of the front of the crate (from where they had entered). Their eyes immediately landed on the second beast that swam in a circle over the center of the terrain, tilting its body in [name]'s direction. They stuttered in their movements and then swam left, back toward where they had originally started and into the cave they had adventured through first. Back to square one.