“The Director?” you ask.
“Yes, hurry! Before the Demons break through!”
“Go where?” You glance around, but the only exit you see is the exit door. And unless he was lying, he isn’t going to want to go through there.
“No time!” he shouts over the sound of metal straining. The Beast’s body spasms, vibrating uncontrollably: a blur-like effect surrounds him, and you can’t see where he begins or where he ends anymore. Faster than your eye can track, the blur is suddenly next to you. Wisp is forcefully thrust into your chest, and instinctively, you wrap your forelegs around her; and not a second too soon. The Beast wraps his blurry forelegs around you and throws you into the air. Straight up. Flying the though the air, you smack the back of your head on the ceiling. Then you go through the ceiling. And then everything goes black. . . .
Except, you’re still conscious as you fall a short distance and land on your stomach. You try waving a hoof in front of your eyes, but you can’t see anything. You’re blind.
Wisp chirps quietly.
“Shhhh,” you hiss. Carefully feeling around, your hoof slides along the floor and meets the fleshy dampness of something.
“Shhh,” whispers the Beast, shifting whatever it is that you’re touching. “Keep it down.”
You quickly retract your hoof, shaking it violently to rid it of the moisture. You dimly hear the sound of the foals finally breaking through the door below you.
The voices are muffled, but still audible. “Where did he go?”
“Must’ve went into the exit,” a voice giggles.
You hear rapid scrambling as the foals run along the hallway. Reaching the end, the sound of the screaching door reverberates around the room.
And then, silence. Complete silence.
“You can light up your horn now. And breath.”
Slowly letting out the breath you hadn’t been aware you were holding, you slowly light up your horn. Your exhale turns into a sigh as the room comes into view: it was just dark. “Now what? Where are we?” you ask, looking at what little you can see. The room appears to be a small concrete box with a hallway disappearing off into the distance and a semi-transparent hole cut in the floor; through it, you can see the hallway where you used to be.
“A whole new level of this madness,” grunts the Beast. “You don’t think they planned for an outbreak? This is their fallback level.”
You tap the semi-transparency and it ripples like a puddle of water. Pressing harder, you discover that it feels like the floor.
“Force field, high velocity penetration only; if you don’t know exactly where the holes are, you’ll kill yourself hitting the wall. Hurts like hell though. You get used to it.” He quickly stands up. “Follow me.”
Wisp rubs her head and cheeps angrily. She points to the Beast and lets out a quiet huff.
“Yes, my head hurts too,” you whisper, placing her on your back with your magic. “So when are you going to start answering questions?” you ask the beast, causing him to stop.
“Like what?” he asks. “I already told you I don’t know much.” He lets out a grating cough.
“You said, ‘I’m you, you’re me.’ What does that mean?” you ask, trotting up beside him.
He gives you a sidelong glance for a long minute, then continues walking. “Merely a speculation of mine,” he says finally. “But we’ll have to check the director’s office to be sure.”
“Why won’t you tell me?” you growl.
“I’ll bet you have plenty of speculations too, but you don’t know anything for sure, do you?”
“Well . . .”
“Everything will be answered when we get to the director’s office.” He lowers his voice to barely audible levels. “It has to be . . .”
Not quite sure how to respond, you walk on silently. Well, silent apart from the sound of Wisp quietly snoring on your back. Poor thing must be tired. Then again, so are you: your eyelids are burning, your limbs are lead, and your head aches dully from repeated magic usage. Twist after twist, turn after turn, you mindlessly follow the Beast past countless hallways and presumably locked, or unimportant, doors. Within minutes, you are lost beyond hope. If the Beast left you . . .
“We’re here,” he says, cutting into your thoughts.
You look up to see a door like every other. “Are you sure this is the one?”
He nods slowly and points to a small plaque on the door
The Director
“I don’t know what’s on the other side of this door, but there have to be some answers. How do you want to go about this?”
>Quietly sneak into the room.
>Kick down the door.
>Look for another way in.
Chapter is locked. Nothing remotely witty to say.