Beyond The Glowing Whirlpool

Chapter 9: UNEXPECTED INTRUDER

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Stacie was all jitters. It was the day before the expedition, and she was scrambling around, getting ready for it feeling excited and nervous all at once. Though it wasn't her first time traveling to a mysterious and exotic location, she knew full well that this particular trip wasn't going to be like any that she'd ever experienced before. Not only it's on a brand new, uncharted, and unfamiliar land, it's on a different planet too, and very dangerous. But despite her nervousness, she was really looking forward to it.

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Their group was supposed to leave the base at first light the next day, and so Stacie went to bed early, in hopes to get a decent amount of rest. But her emotional swings kept her awake almost the entire night and after a good few hours of frustrating tossing and turning, she gave up and got out of bed. 

"What's the use of forcing myself to fall asleep, if I can't calm my nerves, and besides, we have to get up in a few hours anyway. So, even if I do manage to fall asleep somehow, it will only make me more tired." And so she decided to take a stroll around the sleeping base*. 

It was around two a.m. in the morning. She slipped on a shawl over her tank top and soft, flannel pajama pants, and went out of her room. It was very quiet, and still all around. Atlantis looked very different at night than during the day. Dark hallways, lit up by a dim, torch-like looking lamps all along the walls, casting long dark shadows creeping up the halls, seemed even more mysterious and ominous. In some places, the light was flickering, and in others have gone out completely, indicating that the fuel of the city, was slowly burning up more with each passing day. Those usually cheerful, and bright hallways lit up by broad windows in the day time, looked eerie, and almost frightening at night. She looked up to the glass skylight, that stretched through the entire main hallway, and was greeted by a night sky filled with millions of sparkling stars, with two moons softly casting a bluish light down through that gorgeous, glass ceiling that gave an illusion of open space.

Stacie aimlessly wandered around the base until she found herself at the very end of it, in a section that was deserted because of the power shortage here and there in that area. As she was nearing the last corridor turning to the right of her from the main hallway, she suddenly paused a few feet away from it. At that moment, she thought she heard a swish sound of a door open and close. It made her suddenly halt and listen. When nothing else happened, she slowly tiptoed closer and peeked in. It was a pretty short hallway that merged into a 'T' shape with another hallway on the opposite end and had several rooms on each side. The hallway on the opposite end had flickering lights to one side and completely dark to the other, and it looked kind of creepy in the dead of the night. Stacie stared into the far end of the corridor from her corner. No one was there. 

"Hmm, strange. Am I hearing things? No one is supposed to be staying in this section." She thought. "Maybe it was just a sea wave crashing against the side of the wall". She decided and was about to turn back. 

But right at that moment, she caught a glimpse of a shadow move on the far end. Spooked, she froze on a spot. 

"What was that?" She stared into the dimness of the hall, practically straining her eyes, trying to see. 

Can anyone else be up at two a.m. in the morning besides her? She wondered. If so, what are they doing here, at night? 

"Could... Could there possibly be an intruder?!" Flashed through her mind with alarm. "Oh my... What should I do if it is? Should I wake the captain? What if whoever it is, gets me first..." She stood frozen to her spot with millions of creepy thoughts running through her head until she realized, that she was starting to scare herself. "Get a grip, Stacie! There's no way an intruder can get in here. Atlantis is under a Satteran surveillance 24-7! There's no way someone can sneak past their very tight security." She tried to convince herself.