And There Was Another✔️

Chapter 29: Into the Dark

There was no more blaster fire coming from the basement as Seth rushed down the stairs. He nearly fell twice. As he reached the bottom, his radio finally crackled to life.

"Seth, we've got a situation here," Nova said, her voice coming through a haze of static.

"Where are you?" he replied, taking a few seconds to orient himself, then began sprinting down the appropriate corridor.

"In the reactor bay."

"I'm almost there. Are you safe?"

"Yes. Be careful. Something's out there."

The other two followed him closely. He couldn't see anything in the passageway with them, but there was definitely blood on the floor. A trail of it was leading from the gloom down the way into one of the closed doors. He skidded to a halt and flicked on his flashlight, then played the beam down the dark corridor. Just more metal, more walls, more of the blood trail. Right as he began to turn away, Seth thought he saw something shift at the edge of the light. He refocused the light, watching, but nothing else came and he reluctantly wrote it off as a trick of the light.

"We're here, there's nothing out here," he said, knocking on the door.

A few seconds later it opened up and the three of them came in. Nova closed it behind them. They'd come to the heat sync room, which wasn't particularly large. It was stuffed full of machinery and equipment, leaving little room for the others. Seth could see the job Kato had started. A panel was removed and he could see into the electronic guts of the machinery, and a small collection of tools sat on the floor.

Presently, Kato was crouched over an injured Weston. She had a nasty gash down one of her legs and had bled heavily, though it looked like Kato had stopped the worst of it.

"What happened?" Jennings asked.

"Something out there," Weston replied, sounding strained. "I think it got Jackson. I tried to go after them, but one of them got me bad."

"I'll handle it," Seth said. He almost whirled back around and walked right out there, but he remembered that he had lead on this mission. He looked at Jensen for a moment, then looked over at Kato. "Kato, get back to work. Nova, take over for her. Jensen, Spalding, you're on guard duty outside the door."

"What are you doing?" Nova asked.

"I'm going to find Jackson," Seth replied. He turned to face the door.

"Seth, no," Nova said firmly. He looked back. Kato was halfway in between Weston and the open panel, glancing back at Nova uncertainly.

"Nova-" he began.

"Seth, whatever is out there, it's extremely dangerous."

"She's right," Weston said, then winced.

Seth sighed, then glanced at Jensen and Spalding. "Jensen, you're with me. Spalding, you've got door duty. Nova, as soon as you're done patching up Weston, join him. Kato, grab the stuff you need as fast as possible."

Kato responded affirmatively in a clipped tone, she was already back to work, crouched in front of the open panel. Nova nodded tightly and moved over to Weston.

"Let's go," Seth said to Jensen.

"Yep," he replied, clearly eager to get out there and find his missing trooper. Seth felt his pain. They stepped out of the room back into the hallway, clearing it again. Still nothing, though he thought he heard something coming from the way yet gone.

"Wait right here," Seth said to Spalding, who nodded.

They left him standing with his blaster rifle, then began to make their way slowly down the passageway. Both men shined their flashlights ahead of them. Nothing but a cold chromium corridor. Seth made slow progress down the passageway, eyes wide, listening intently for anything at all. After what felt like a long time, they reached the junction. He looked around, down all three of the other corridors. Two were clear, but the third...