Intruder Alert

Chapter 14

As soon as the panel had slammed shut behind her, Pidge sprinted straight into the dark. Being focused on trying to get away from the tunnel as far as she can she isn't too focused on the fact that the tunnels are pitch black. She was reminded of it a moment later when she tripped over her own feet. Taking a moment to gather her bearings she glanced behind her. She knew that she wasn't going to see anything, but the weird thing was that it brought a kind of comfort knowing that the darkness provided a kind of security for her.

Rising to her feet she continued on at a slower pace. After a while, she became accustomed to the sound of her bare feet hitting the sand-covered metal and her breathing. Moments passed where she found herself wondering about how the other paladins were faring and if they had found the bunker yet. If they had managed to find the bunker were they looking for her? Not bothering to dwell on it too long she began to think about a game plan. Her main priority was to stay alive as long as she could...that is until she came across her friends and they kill her. Knowing her friends they would try and come up with a way to stop it, but something told her she shouldn't try to.

A new sound brought her to a halt. Quieting her breathing the sound of footsteps reached her ears. They sounded like they were coming up from a side hall to her left, which meant she had three options to take. As if on cue a small light rounded the corner followed by three distinct voices that she would recognize in a crowded market. She froze for only a second like a deer in the headlights before she took off down the hallway in the opposite direction. Shouts of protest ensued as she attempted to create distance between them.

Just barely noticeable was a smaller corridor that she quickly ducked into. Despite them having a light she had made sure that she was far enough ahead that it couldn't reach her. This was too soon. She couldn't be found yet. She had no game plan, no idea of how she was going to tell the rest of the team. She gulped in the cold air her head growing light. Sinking to the floor, her back to the wall she choked on the air. Her coughs rang out and she was sure that it would bring them back, but no one came.

She couldn't bring herself to face her team even though she knew she had no other choice. It was selfish of her to want to preserve her own life instead of doing anything in her power to save her friends, even if it meant losing her own. She caved in on herself, with her knees brought to her chest she sobbed, tears making a path down her cheek.

As she sat there crying and doing her best to accept her fate the air around her grew crisp with the sharp bite that temperature below freezing would only bring. Then, with not a care in the world snow began to fall. In the dark tunnels, it was light kisses to your bare skin. Landing then melting almost immediately, only to leave you with a cold spot from where it landed.

"Great now we have to find her in this?" Hunk asked as he swept the penlight across the tunnel. He had been the one to spot her before she had taken off in the opposite direction. "I saw her, I know I did!"

"No one's saying you didn't, Hunk," Shiro replied, "We all saw her..." She had been so frozen with fear that he was able to physically watch as the color drained from her face. Her eyes had been as wide as saucers maybe even bigger. The one thing however that scared Shiro the most, was how fast she disappeared. They had been feet from her and she just disappeared into thin air.

"If anything we'll keep us going we need to find Pidge before we can hardly move. The temperatures dropping more every second and it won't just be her freezing to death out here." It was the first he had spoken since they had left the bunker. It was also startling how serious his tone was. With the mutual agreement, the three continued on deeper into the tunnels not knowing that they had already passed their teammate.