A24 slowly crept through the factories rooms and halls, following the tentacles deeper into the floor, possibly even away from the exit. Well, escaping was not the objective he and his crew had while designing these suits. Originally, they wanted to work for a few more weeks and murder their Lina, or capture it if possible, but the intervention of the police with H49 forced them to drop down too early.
He was annoyed, a headache creeping through his head: "Me damn it!" He cursed while avoiding as many undead as possible and carrying his dagger between his fingers. He was a little bit sad that he did not grab his plasma sword before coming down here, but what could he do?
His footsteps were almost completely silent, but one could hear the tapping of his feet if one heard from close enough. The floor was dirty, blood and meat and other bodily fluids were covering it. It was very sticky, as if someone poured glue on it.
With every room, the amount of undead lessened, but the ones still inside were closer and closer to finish their transformation into hounds. Inside he was happy that he killed all those undead in his citadel, meaning his friends would not have to turn into these creatures.
He finally stepped into a room which was empty.
A24 sat down and leaned against a wall and facing into the center of the room so he would have it easy to attack entrance as well as exit simultaneously. Then, while scanning the room, he finally noticed: The rooms are getting more developed, but it was hard to tell while traveling through due to the fluids and parts inside. He had to be getting closer to the exit!
"I hope that I can kill you easily, Lina! But escaping will be my priority for now!" He took a deep breath, held it for a moment and then released it. He repeated this until he felt energized again and continued.
Sadly, the next room was not as empty as he had hoped for. "Crap…" It was filled with a dozen undead and two hounds. They were feeding on some of the acid transported through the tentacle, until they noticed him speaking. The undead instantly jumped towards him.
A24 did not have enough time to dodge and was pressed to the ground by one of the undead, holding him away from his face. The undead got heavier once more jumped on top of the pile.
He cut at them continuously, killing two of them by severing their tentacle and cutting off the hand of another one. Then he just started stabbing like a maniac, holding them with his legs and using his free hand to get through the corpses blocking his waist to activate the shield. "My poor battery." He muttered and felt around.
He felt something, hopefully the button, and pressed it. A shield extended across his skin and armor and started burning and melting the skin of the undead. They did not stop attacking.
A24 stood up and attacked back, with his shield helping, he killed them in a few moments. But the hounds… "Frick!" He said and turned around, scanning for the hounds.
One of them vanished, possibly giving information about his whereabouts to the Lina, or calling for more hounds. And while A24 was not convinced or confident that he could kill two hounds, he was pretty sure one would be possible.
They stared at one another, bloodlust filling their eyes and both in their fighting stance. A24 felt the urge to say something cool, but suppressed that urge and sprinted towards the hounds. He dropped a shield grenade while running and jumped over the hound which expected him to roll and dodge.
His dagger cut across the back of the creature and the shield grenade was still extending. He continued to dodge the attacks while stabbing and cutting at the creature, but the hound was not so slow as to miss an attack against a mere human.
The hound turned around and kicked A24 across the room with a swift and fast movement. "That…" He started spitting blood, "hurt!"
He ran at the hound, dagger in hand and drenched in his own blood. In the air the hound grabbed his leg, or bit into it, and pulled him back. The shield finally extended and cut off A24's lower half of his leg.
A24 lay grinning and crying behind the shield, happy to be on the correct side of the shield without the hound.
⟪⚪⟫
A group of Teddys was lazily walking through a park after a hard day of work. They just closed down their little coffee shop and are relaxing before going home.
"Did you hear?" One of them asked.
"Hear what?"
She then spoke again: "A week and a half ago, a group of policemen went missing after hunting down that A24 guy."
"The traumatized one? That is scared of the darkness?"
"Yes, that one." The group of Teddys all looked concerned, "I just hope they are still alive."
For a few steps they walked in silence, scared for the lives of the policemen. The artificial sun was slowly going down, simulating a day-night cycle. They then said goodnight to one another and waved goodbye. Each walking into a different direction.
One lone Teddy was slowly hopping towards the buildings in which she was living. They were designed to resemble European medieval architecture which was often used in fantasy worlds.
She was going along a path punctured by grass and flowers. "So sad we don't have these kinds of buildings in our citadel." She sang. There was not much happening around the super citadel.
While the Teddy was walking, or hopping, past a building the door was thrown open, almost breaking it off the hinges. The Teddy jumped in surprise, out of the hypothetical trajectory of the door.
Once she stopped her movement and looked towards the door, ready to protect herself, she saw multiple people leaving the house.
It was a group of Max clones, each of them wearing the same type of armor. It was heavily damaged and drenched in blood. All of them were carrying weapons and had shields around their skin which deactivated the moment they stepped out of the building. Two of them held another Max clone who had passed out. It was—
"H49?" The Teddy mumbled. She was not sure, but a policemen Max clone? And the way he looked it would make sense that he was gone for over a week. She was stunned for a moment, then ran towards them, trying to help them.
"Inform the police!" One of the Max clones yelled at the crowd of Pheddies which had formed around them, "And don't fricking forget to call for medical help!" He fell to the ground and passed out.
Multiple Pheddies ran in different directions, they had no idea where to get either the police or medical help, they just hoped that one of them would find them.