Chapter Three: Take my breath away
Munching on some leftover fruit pastries, Astral happily relaxed in the lunchroom during his break. His spirits were certainly better, especially once he flipped over his brain to realize things weren’t that bad.
A good lunch, the usual soft murmur in the lunchroom; it made things feel more normal.
“Hey, Astral, mind if I have a seat?” Flask Heat said, the Thestral nodding with a wave of his hoof. Ordinarily, Flask would be technically his supervisor, but the older pony had transferred departments just after Astral had been hired.
So, now they could be friends without any ‘company ladder’ pressure.
“How goes it, Flask?” Astral asked between bites, the earth-pony chuckling.
“Oh, the same old same old. You?”
“Pretty much the same. I’ll probably go camping tomorrow, clear my head,” Astral replied, Flask nodding knowingly.
“Oh, the collapse thing? Horrid stuff, that,” he muttered. Astral noticed how his friend was shifting, the older pony more antsy than normal. “Hey Astral? Can I give you a tip, as a friend?”
“Huh? Sure, I can take all the help I can get,” Astral said with a shrug, immediately, but subtly shifting to lean a bit closer. Flask wasn’t this serious often.
Or rather, ever.
“If anything ever goes wrong here, and you don’t know what to do, the code 03240 will help. It can get you out of a lot of trouble, and into a lot of other places,” Flask whispered. “Just some friendly advice from someone who has been here a while. Your badge and that code are quite useful together.”
“Huh. Uh, ok? Thanks? I’ll keep that in mind,” Astral said, every sense in his body starting to hum with anxiety. The cryptic message was enough to make the Guard suspect poor Flask was starting to lose it with the stress.
“I’ve got to go; take care.”
And then he was gone, Flask leaving as if all was normal in the world, the earth pony chuckling and laughing with some of his colleagues as they aimed towards the elevators.
Everything Astral had learned as a Guard trainee was pointing him towards one conclusion. Something was going to happen, and Flask knew about it. But why the code?
Astral had half a mind to clock out early, but was Flask acting odd enough a solid reason?
Considering how the stallion’s stomach churned for the next hour, that answer was good enough for him. He hadn’t taken a day off in a few months, and after the collapse incident, this probably wouldn’t raise any eyebrows.
It was either that or sit in his booth miserable for a few hours wondering what Flask had meant.
Ugh. I’d rather be anxious at home rather than here.
“Hey, Ledger?” The Guard asked, tuning into the private frequency for his supervisor.
“What’s up, Astral?”
“I’m honestly not feeling that great. Mind if I clock out an hour or two early?”
A surprisingly empathetic sigh was heard from the other end.
“That collapse thing really got to you I take it? Yeah, no worries. Just be on time Monday evening.”
“Thanks, Ledger. I’ll let you know when I clock out.”
His nerves satisfied; Astral leaned back in his chair with a firm nod. Another hour and he’d be gone.
I don’t know what you’re playing at, Flask. But you’re going to get an earful from me on Monday for this stunt.
Oddly, the stallion wasn’t the type to play these types of pranks. Mysterious codes and such just didn’t fit with Flask’s personality. If anything, Flask Heat had been more of a mentor to him than anything over these three years. Of course, that was the unsettling thing about it.
The clock seemed to taunt the Thestral, moving slower than ever before. Ten minutes, twenty, Thirty…
His green eyes narrowed, his left monitor lighting up with angry red alerts.
Error codes?
“Ledger, this is Astral. I’m getting a ton of error codes up here. Is there a systems failure somewhere?” he asked into the radio.
The Guard was abruptly aware of the deafening silence. There was nothing. No hum of the air conditioner, no distant voices, and more importantly, no response from his supervisor.
Ok. So, we have a systems failure. By the book it is.
Pulling out a small folder, Astral ran down the ‘what to do’ section. It was fairly simple; there were only a few steps for major events like a systems crash. He wasn’t supposed to fix any of them, just let the proper ponies know after doing some basic troubleshooting.
And yet the errors continued to spread.
Loss of signal on SL-1, SL-2, SL-3, and SL-4. That’s not possible…
“Ok, rebooting the system,” Astral muttered, turning the device on and off again. If anything, that caused even more errors to flood the screen.
“Hey, this is Astral at the front security desk. Is there any support staff on the line?” the Guard asked, having punched the number for general support.
Static.
Astral’s sensitive ears abruptly spasmed, the bat-pony wincing in pain as a garbled mass of loud noises blasted from the speaker. The stallion felt fear gnaw into his heart as a single word was clearly yelled; he didn’t know where from though.
“RUN!”
He couldn’t make out much else, and the background noises sounded an awful lot like screaming.
“Ledger, what’s going on? I’m set to clock out here,” Astral asked again, even as he packed up his things and began to trot quickly towards the exit. The number of ‘weird and creepy’ events was one too many now.
Pushing against the door, Astral’s heart now rose into his throat. Hidden locks were now visible along all four sides of the rectangular doors, massive metal clamps springing from the walls. Another few solid blows to the door made it clear they weren’t going to budge, and Astral had half a mind to fire one of the explosive bolts at the entrance.
He began to walk back to his booth for that reason when a disembodied voice began to play over the speakers.
“Emergency. Emergency. Lockdown in effect. All essential personnel prepare for site-to-site transport. Emergency, Emergency…”
“Site-to-site transport?!” Astral muttered, now looking back at the sealed doors as his heart continued to fall. He knew that the doors were far too thick even for the bolts, his original idea dashed to pieces.
The space between the exit and the wall began to be filled with a foul-smelling foam, the substance hardening within moments to what appeared to be concrete.
“What is-”
Something shook the entire facility, a few cracks now appearing on the stone floor as Astral dove into his booth. The monitors were now all flashing red, errors and warnings dominating the screen.
That was enough for Astral, the bat-pony snagging his crossbow and bag quickly. He was almost on autopilot, his Guard training (and nerves) prompting him to stuff the remaining food and water into the side-saddle pouch quickly before trotting down the halls. Surely there had to be someone?!
No pony was visible on the first floor, locker rooms and elevator areas being barren. A quick jog up the stairs to the main, rather stereotypical office floor was likewise equally empty. The large windows were all sealed; massive metal plates having replaced the glass.
Judging from the still-operating computers and a whistling kettle, the ponies had left in a hurry. There was even a pile of dropped papers as if the creature carrying them had been whisked away mid-step, coffee cup spilled on the floor.
“Emergency. Power grid failure. Primary containment systems have failed. All essential employees have been secured. All non-essential employees please stand by. Systems Error. Systems Error. Emergency, Primary-”
Considering how another rumble shook the facility, ‘standing by’ was the last thing Astral wanted to do.
Jogging downstairs again, the Thestral beelined to the locker room; he should have visited here first!
Retrieving the portal crystal, the stallion gave it a nudge, only to have the item fizzle and sputter. Another few attempts and it was clear that something was blocking any way in or out; magical or not. His apartment portal was blocked, but it went into the saddlebag regardless.
He forced himself to take deep breaths, panic starting to cloud his thoughts. There was a reason he hadn’t wanted to become a Night Guard! Why seek out the crazy situations when in Equestria, they find you!?
“Warning. Containment protocols a-a-a-a-activated,” the disembodied mare’s voice sounded. “Step One containment authorized. Venting and replacing of oxygen of above-ground floors one and two commencing. All non-essential employees still inside the building will have next of kin informed of your demise. Please take deep breaths to ensure a peaceful passing. Warning…”
“WHAT!?” Astral shouted, hooves carrying him to the elevators. The stairway was sealed with the weird, concrete-like foam, but somehow the series of six elevators were still glowing cheerfully as if all was well in the world.
The air abruptly began to move out, hidden fans sucking away the life-giving oxygen.
Think Astral THINK!
Wait. Flask Heat…
As his vision began to waver, Astral entered one of the waiting elevators, a pleasant *ding* sounding out as he punched the buttons; only SL-3 glowing in response. But the elevator didn’t move even after he scanned his badge.
It's locked down. Usually I just scan a badge. I've never visited a floor when it's locked. You need a code for that.
But I don’t know any-
His hooves punched in the numbers; there was a single code he knew.
If this works…
‘0…3...2…4...0’
“Code accepted. Administrator override sub-routine initiated.” The mare’s voice said happily as the elevator doors closed, Astral leaning against the wall.
As the elevator dropped, the facility shook again.
“You have arrived at Sub-Level Three.”
As the doors opened, oxygen flooded into Astral’s lungs, the Thestral coughing as he staggered out of the elevator.
“Oxygen replacement complete on all above-ground levels. Re-evaluating containment measures. Stand by.”
“Go to Tartarus, you oxygen-sucking witch!” Astral spat, still sucking in deep breaths. It was a computer, that much he knew, but it made him feel better to yell at it.
“Ok. First things first. Let’s see if anyone is down here, get some supplies, and wait for rescue. Not a bad plan.” he said to himself, one hoof moving in front of the other.
“First to the offices, then I’ll check-”
Astral’s voice cut off abruptly, the pony skidding to a stop.
His hind legs began to shake, the security guard took out his crossbow with a quivering grip.
Staring at him with dead eyes, was Ledger, the pony lying flat on the tiled, blood-stained floor. He had been clearly running and been cut down mid-stride.
Where the bottom half of the pony was, Astral didn’t know. But the blood-stains aimed towards a familiar hole in the floor.
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Interesting
10959582
Glad you think so!
So no camping?
10960024
Doesn't look like it....
This heavily reminds me of either Black Mesa or a SCPF site. Is the story perhaps based on one of those universes?
10960328
Not directly, but I'm definitely a fan of SCP/Half life. I'm aiming for the general 'vibe' that both those games/lore gives. The original idea was from a brief game called 'Security Booth' I saw on a lets play, and there's a similar storyish thing I worked on in the same vein many years ago.
Things....just ran wild after the original idea.
10960422
Well, this certainly is interesting. I will watch your career with great interest. And a shotgun. But mainly interest.
10960508
I'd definitely recommend the shotgun....
“When I said ‘deadly neurotoxin,’ the ‘deadly’ was in massive sarcasm quotes. I could take a bath in this stuff. Put it on cereal, rub it right into my eyes. Honestly, it's not deadly at all... to me.”
11094089
This is interesting. Flask transferred departments from where? From overseeing guards? From later story details Flask is very high into the company structure. He’s been there long enough to raise a daughter to adulthood and had enough influence to grant Admin level access to bypass *every* security safeguard. So why would he be overseeing surface-level guards with lowest levels of clearance?
…. missing period.
…. Uh. Astral goes to SL-3 in chapter 1 to flip the breakers for SL-4. Without a code. So…. what gives?
… the paragraph ends after this, so that comma after plan should be a period
11178334
Interesting indeed
Thank you for those; I modified the SL-3 bit to make more sense!
11178571
Ah yes, that change works.
11178931
Thank you for pointing it out! I was like...waaaaaaaait a minute.
Currently re-reading this story because I enjoy it that much!
Something that stood out in Chapter 3:
This reminded me of Silent Hill; a total lack of sound often puts me on edge.
11204205
I'm glad it's so fun to read! With Cure for a Toxin having finished, this one has my full attention. Expect a chapter (or two) each week!
And yeah, the absence of noise can be really creepy.
Seamless plot point integration
11684276
