The Firefly (Mass Effect Andromeda)

Chapter 45

Evra and Jas realized quickly that they were in the same ruins, but somehow before their destruction. They wandered the hallways, confused and disoriented, seeing clean and clear places that had not existed before they used the console.

Pods hung from the ceiling and attached to the wall, sticky and curved, a golden color, with long black tendrils trailing across the floor. "Creepy." Jas muttered. "What are they?"

"Do I look like a scientist?" Evra said archly.

They'd been walking only a few minutes when the grating noise started, like metal scraping against metal. The two men glanced at each other in alarm, cocking their weapons. Footsteps came pounding down a nearby corridor.

Olro crashed around, his face lighting up in relief at the sight of them. His clothes were torn and he was bleeding from a wound to his arm. "Monsters!" The scientist gasped, panting, "Monsters, everywhere. Need to hide."

The three men burst into a silent side room, locking the door. The horrifying noises moved closer and closer and then passed. A sigh of relief passed between them. "Where are we?" Jas demanded of Olro.

"If I had to guess," The nervous scientist, "I'd say we've gone back in time. Remarkable really, but we're here before this place was obliterated. As for what those creatures are though, I have no idea."

"Well we need to keep moving!" Evra insisted, "We need to find the others, make sure that they're safe."

So they did. The three Angaran men kept running, pursued by the monsters. Creepers, Jas called them sarcastically. You could hardly miss that din echoing against the walls. And then, they were caught.

They reminded Evra of huge insects, six-legged, bodies plated in a way that seemed metallic, the scales rusty, bloody around the edges. Above this was a pale, bare head, fleshy almost, but with razor sharp teeth. There were spikes at the end of each leg.

They had opened fire, fought as much as possible. The monsters had closed in. "We're running out of ammo." Jas yelled, "Fall back!"

They tried to retreat but Olro tripped. As he scrambled to his feet, one of the insects lunged, knocking the scientist off his feet. Evra and Jas opened fire but it was too late. The creature's jaws had clamped around the hapless man and as he screamed, blood ran from his shoulders and across his chest until he fell limp.

"There's nothing we could do." Jas said as they escaped. Jas's leg was bleeding badly.

"What is this place?" Evra said again, his voice a low dull moan.

It took them almost a full day of limping around before they ran into the other missing Angarans. Yoval and Gafro were sitting in what seemed to be some kind of living quarters as they entered.

"What are you doing here?" Yoval cried out, jumping to her feet.

"Looking for you." Jas growled. "We thought you might be in trouble."

"We are." Gafro admitted. "We can't get past the monsters."

"We've been calling them Creepers." Jas said sighing.

"They killed Olro." Evra told them.

"What?" Yoval gasped, visibly upset. She sat down. "How?"

"The Creepers." Evra said, "They were chasing us and we didn't stand a chance."

Lost and trapped, the Angarans spent weeks searching the vast corridors of the complex, looking for an exit or a console like the one they had used to arrive. They failed miserably, but found many wonders within the Remnant building.

Almost three weeks after their arrival, they found a way to the surface. The air was thick and hot. There was an opening to the outside. And it was an explosion, frozen in time, blocking their path.

"This is ridiculous!" Yoval screamed. "We're never going to get out of here."

"It's not real." Jas shook his head. "It can't be. Time doesn't just stop like that. It's a hologram, an illusion."

"It feels hot enough to be real." Gafro pointed out. "We should keep looking, see if there's a way around."

"I'm telling you, it's fake!" Jas insisted. "Watch!" He strode towards the fire, flinching a little at the heat.

"Jas, don't!" Gafro yelled but it was too late. Jas ran into the flames and burned up before their eyes. The smell was horrendous but what lingered in Evra's thoughts for the rest of his life was that long scream that echoed around the room.

The three of them stood there, arms wrapped each other. It was that moment that their situation seemed to really dawn on them. They were trapped, prisoners in that place. They couldn't find their way back, nor could they escape the building.

Gafro and Yoval grew closer in adversity, and Evra coped as best he could, starting to carefully map out areas of the complex. The weeks turned into months and the months turned into a year. Time continued to flow. Several years passed.

Gafro changed.

He would disappear, sometimes for days at a time on long walks. The normally placid man would snap at Yoval and Evra over the tiniest things. One day he came back wounded after wandering into Creeper territory.

They tried to help him, tried to talk to him, but he just shut them down.

One day he and Yoval were sitting, eating, when they heard a single gunshot.

Evra ran, Yoval right behind him, panic and fear setting in. He reached the room first, and seeing what was there, tried to stop Yoval. "No!" He exclaimed. "Yoval, don't look."

She struggled in his arms and pushed past.

Gafro lay perfectly still on the floor, the gun still in his hand. There was less blood than Evra had expected. He looked like a statue, his eyes glazed in death.

Yoval screamed, an endless screech that seemed to go on and on, holding the dead engineer in her arms. She was never the same again.

*

Evra turned to Olivia as they stood in the corridor, looking at the place where Jas had died. "We learnt to use this place over the years. We learned to use the machines to make food, to take care of ourselves and stay alive. It just kept healing us, and death seems to pass us by." He sighed.

"Did you ever think of returning? Fighting your way through?"

"I didn't know the way." Evra shrugged, "For a long time anyway. Yoval does, but she's not exactly here most of the time." Sadness crossed his face. "Besides, the world will have changed. I'm so used to isolation now that I don't think I could ever go back."

"What is this place?"

"Over the years, I have searched. It was a complex of the Ancestors. A bunker I believe, a safe haven. It's not a military base as such. I believe it was designed as a refuge, a living place for many of their people. And it's trapped."

"Trapped?"

"A bubble of time." Evra sighed, with a smile. "Something happened here. A war perhaps. You've seen the signs of battle. They must have activated this in the last seconds before the explosion." He nodded at the fire. "Everyone within was trapped, living their lives here unable to leave while time passed outside. Outside of this bubble, the complex was destroyed, but the invaders would have found no one within. How strange, how complex are the ways of gods." He mused.

"And they eventually died out, the survivors of this bubble as you call it. But what about the Creepers?"

"Perhaps they were already here, smaller perhaps and over the years of isolation they have evolved and become an infestation." Evra frowned.

"Will Scott be alright here?" She asked, "My friend?"

"He is healing." Evra smiled again. "It will be several days before he wakes. Come, let me show you more of the place."