South Park: An Adventure Into the Deep

The Music of Machinery

Kyle was freezing, they'd gone back into the room Stan was trapped in. He convinced Stan not to go into his room, claiming that it was because he didn't see a way out when he was in there, which was true. His real motive, though, was that  he didn't want Stan to get hurt from the insanely sharp ground in that room, he'd seen his friends fingertips bloodied by smashing in the wall to get to him and wanted to save him this time, even if it was just from a few small wounds on his feet.

The light from the room Kyle was trapped in illuminated the dark walls and the warmth chased out the chill around them. When Kyle looked over he noticed that Stan was still shivering. Man, he's freezing. He grabbed his friends hands to warm them and smiled when Stan's eyes were crinkled by a grin.  Looking closely, Kyle noticed how Stan's eyes caught the dim light, twinkling a faint silver and he was reminded of when they were swimming in Stark's Pond. He remembered how he felt almost nervous to talk to Stan, he remembered why he felt a little nervous. 

Kyle had been thinking about the joke at the coffee shop for a few days before all of this happened, he could feel himself  growing more interested in his friend and wanted to bring it up. He wanted to ask if Stan if he felt the same, or at least hint at it. He'd been psyching himself up in the mirror at home before they headed over to Clyde's. 

"Stan," Kyle croaked, feeling his face heat up. "No way, dude!" Stan moved away from Kyle, puling his hands free as he started towards a wall. "There's a door here!" He turned the knob and it creaked open, "I don't know how I didn't find it earlier. I thought I went around the entire room..." Kyle was looking down at his hands, rubbing his fingers against each other, they were suddenly cold. "Yeah.." He mumbled. "C'mon, dude. Let's get out of here." 

Kyle didn't know what he was expecting but what was behind the door certainly wasn't it. They had just stepped into what seemed to be a giant underground warehouse. There were hundreds of cables running across the stone ceiling. Old, rusty machines whined and puffed as they operated, a constant uneasy clanging and whirring filled the place. The machines seemed to be making weapons, sharp tools of steel and obsidian being pushed along nearly broken down conveyor belts. 

Stan grabbed Kyle's hand and yanked him behind a pile of  metal boxes. "Wh-" Stan covered Kyle's mouth, shushing him. Crouching on the ground Kyle shot a confused look at his best friend, "What is it?" He whispered, barely able to hear himself over the crashing of machinery. "There's demons or something here, dude." Stan looked panicked and Kyle placed a hand on his arm to comfort him, "What do you mean?" "I mean it was red, had horns and was covered in fur. A fucking demon, dude." He peeked out from behind their cover and Kyle pulled him back. "We gotta sneak out of here." Stan whispered.

Kyle peered around the boxes, the metal cold despite the heat surrounding them. He scanned the room for possible escape routes. He noticed that there were only two or three demons in the room that he could see, they seemed to be stationary. They must just be watching over the machines, not guarding this place. There was a clear blind spot close to them, a ladder that went up to metal gratings that was mostly hidden behind a large machine that pushed out swords. 

"There," Kyle pointed. "If we can sneak over to that ladder we can get out of here." Stan nodded, "Yeah, okay. Follow my lead." Kyle didn't question him and when Stan flattened himself against the cold floor and started to slowly army crawl toward the ladder he did the same without hesitation. The floor was like ice to Kyle's bare skin and he didn't imagine that Stan felt much better, especially after spending who knows how long in that frozen room. He suddenly regretted borrowing swimming trunks. 

After what was an unbearably long time, they reached the ladder and Stan ushered Kyle up, promising to keep watch as he climbed. Kyle didn't mind, and told him that if anything was up there he'd hold it off as long as he could. There weren't any monsters or demons waiting for them on the metal grating, but Kyle stayed crouched and looked around cautiously just in case. He slowly inched away from the ladder, holding onto the railing as he did, not wanting to put his full weight onto the grating out of fear that it would break or make a loud noise. He heard a soft clicking sound, like metal scraping against metal. He almost didn't hear it at first, it was lost in the cacophony of shrill metal that filled the room but once he heard it his ears fixated on it and he froze in fear. The noise was coming from the ladder. Oh god, they got Stan, they killed him and now I'm alone. I'm alone and I have nothing here. I'm going to die.

He moved slowly towards the ladder, pulling his fist back in anticipation. He was terrified, but fully prepared to rip this thing apart to avenge Stan. The sound grew louder, Kyle could feel his heart pounding in his ears. He held out hope that Stan escaped somehow and would make a last minute appearance to help him fend off the creature. Kyle quickly leaned forward, ready to ambush- 

"Stan?" He spoke a little louder than he intended and his friend impulsively shushed him. "I got us weapons." Stan whispered. Kyle saw that he was carrying two large swords, and reached down to grab them. He set them aside and moved out of the way so Stan could climb up. He examined the swords and was interested by the blades. The blades were darker than normal metal and had a strange watery pattern that seemed to be constantly moving across the surface. The sword was weighty and made Kyle feel powerful, nearly unstoppable.

"Did you see any doors or anything up here?" Stan took his own sword and took a couple of swings turned away from Kyle. "Yeah, over here." He got up, leading Stan to a metal door on the left of them. It was covered in strange patterns,and was almost comical how much they just looked like a label in another language. "Get behind me." Stan said, Kyle obeyed and positioned himself behind his friend so that he could still see around him in case there was trouble.

Stan opened the door slowly with one hand, bracing himself with the sword. Kyle readied himself for a fight but as the door opened further he found all of the courage given to him by the sword washed away. In the room were three mangled looking creatures. They had deep red skin, with arms covered in thick brown fur. Protruding from their heads were crooked horns that looked as though they had been broken and healed incorrectly repeatedly. The creatures foreheads were that of cavemen, pronounced brows that furled and wrinkled with inhuman anger. Beneath wild bushy eyebrows were beady eyes, though small and dark they were full of fury. Despite their primitive appearance, they seemed to be holding paper office cups with black ties hanging loosely around their thick cow-like necks. One of the beasts growled and crushed the paper cup in his hand, the contents turning to steam as it touched it's scorching flesh. 

"Oh, shit!" Stan spat out, "Run, dude!" Kyle didn't wait to be told again and scrambled away from the door and began to clumsily descend the ladder. He glanced behind him once to see the thing lurch out of the room with its kin, swiping at Stan. Anger filled him and he leaped back up onto the metal grating, barely avoiding Stan who was now at the ladder. Kyle raised his sword and swung out at the beast, shouting with rage. "Dude, no time!" Stan grabbed his arm and pulled him down with so much force that they fell onto the cold floor but the shriek of the beast let him know that he'd wounded it. He would have gotten a bit a satisfaction if it weren't for the fall that knocked the wind out of him. Stan pulled him up and away from the ladder, Kyle barely had a chance to grab his sword before Stan was dragging him back to the freezing room by his hand. Stan's hand was still cold from being in there in the first place but there was no other choice, for now it would get them away from the demons.

Kyle slammed the door behind them and was shocked to see that it disappeared as soon as he closed it. He backed away, fearful that the beasts would find a way to break into the room but there was no sound. No screeching of machinery, no pounding or clawing of an enraged monster, just the sound of him and Stan panting in the empty room. "Kyle, what the fuck were you thinking." He turned to face Stan, out of breath and bewildered "What?" "You could've gotten killed pulling that shit." Stan sounded angry but his face showed more concern than anything. "I-I'm sorry, dude, I just saw that thing trying to attack you and I wanted to help, I wanted to-" He was cut off by Stan, "I can take care of myself," He spat out. Kyle flinched at his tone and Stan softened his voice a little, "Just worry about you." "Okay."