G.T.F.O.E

by Android Wright

Rating: teen
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Other, Thriller, Original Character, Violence, Crossover, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 5283

Woken from hydrostasis and thrown into the depths of The Complex, an unending maze of darkness and death, an untrained Twilight must navigate lethal missions, and grotesque horrors.

She was never supposed to survive.

Dragged from hydrostasis and thrown into the depths of The Complex, an endless industrial hell crawling with horrors, she is given only two choices—complete the mission or die.

She has no experience. No training. No memories. Just a mask she can’t remove, teammates she barely knows, and weapons she barely understands. But hesitation is a death sentence, and down here, death is never merciful.

With each drop, the missions grow deadlier. The team grows smaller. And piece by piece, she loses what little identity she has left.

There isn't many rules down there, but one universal law;

"Don't Move When Their Hearts Beat"

Based on the game GTFO, by 10 CHAMBERS

Published 2025-02-13 21:40:04 UTC
Last updated 2025-02-14 12:43:03 UTC

1 - “I’m being… Assessed?”

Cold.

It’s the first thing I register—a deep, piercing cold that seeps into my bones, numbing everything. My body feels wrong, like I’ve been stretched too thin and left to freeze. I can’t move. Can’t think. Everything is dark, my mind a fog of half-formed thoughts and distant, echoing noise.

Then, suddenly a dim, flickering light burns against my retinas, and I gasp, choking on air that tastes like metal and chemicals. My breathing feels restricted, as if trapped underwater, unable to surface. My lungs seize, my chest heaves, and I cough, hard, my throat raw like I haven’t used it in days. Weeks? I don’t know where I am. I don’t know how I got here.

I blink rapidly, trying to shake the static from my mind, my vision swimming. My limbs are sluggish, unresponsive, like they don’t belong to me. I want to reach up to my face, to clear whatever obstruction is choking me, but a heavy pressure clamps around my hooves, my torso, and my neck. Restraints. The realization sends a spike of panic through me. I try to move, to struggle, but the cuffs hold tight.

I wrack my brain, trying to fill in the blanks, to try and make sense of whatever nightmare I awoke into. However, whenever I try to remember before all of this, my mind blanks. How did I get here? Why am I here? Who even is I?!

I can’t remember who I am.

Then, a sound.

A low hiss, like pressurized gas being released. A mechanical whirr follows, distant but growing louder. My surroundings lurch, and my stomach drops as if I’m suddenly in freefall.

Where am I? What is happening?!

I try to speak, but my lips barely part before a voice cuts through the noise.

Cold. Monotone. Uncaring.

"Preparing Subjects for drop."

A loud clunk reverberates around me, and suddenly—I’m falling.

The restraints let go all at once, and gravity takes hold. My stomach twists, my arms flail, but something catches me—a thick harness clamps tight around my chest, jerking me mid-air. The world around me spins as I dangle, helpless, from a mechanized rig, cables groaning under the weight of my iron sarcophagus.

I don’t belong here.

A deep tremor rumbles through the metal framework around me, distant but heavy. A warning. A heartbeat from something old beneath us.

Then, from above, the voice speaks again.

"Descend."

And the cables release.

And I scream as I am cast into Tartarus.

After several seconds, I will myself to open my eyes.

I am still falling.

I hear the woosh of floors and platforms rushing by.

Lights fly past me like shooting stars.

I wonder if I’ll ever see the stars again, or anything really. What if I am doomed to splatter all over the bottom of this pit. That is, if the pit has a bottom. Not a too bad way to go. Just a fall, a thud, then nothing.

“Subject 10102010!”

A grating artificial voice calls out, interrupting my thoughts. “Umm…” I start, barely able to hear myself over the sound of rushing wind, “are you…talking to me?”

“Affirmative, Subject 10102010. You have been selected for basic training before your first deployment.”

A slew of questions rushed into my mind. It was all I could do to not scream all of them at the mechanical voice, but I stopped myself. The voice referred to me as “subject”. The word “subject” suggests study. Data collection. Reason.

“Um, Excuse me, but I believe there may be a misunderstanding.” I said, the confusion clear in my voice.

There is no response.

This frustrates me, surely somepony is listening.

“Hey!” I call out, “This is wrong! I don’t belong-!”

A sudden lurch and screech emanate from the metal rig above me, and I feel the force of deceleration on my body.

Sparks fall down around me. The result of metal grinding on metal.

I force myself to look down, and I am met with a floor rushing up to greet me.

The harnesses holding me in place suddenly release before the rig has even come to a full stop.

The moment my hooves meet the ground, my legs buckle, and I collapse onto the cold, damp floor, my limbs still weak, my mind still struggling to keep up. The world is spinning, my breath coming in short, forced bursts.

I realize, My limbs are free. I can finally make sense of the pressure on my face.
I slowly move a hoof to my face, my leg protests with ache, and I groan.

Before my hoof even reaches my face, it stops short. Obstructed. A small smudge left at the point of contact.

A mask.

That explains the resistance I feel with each breath.

It covers my mouth, my nose. I can now feel the straps digging into the back of my head, compressing my mane, leaving little room for my horn. Tight and unyielding. My breath echoes inside it, shallow, frantic, adding to my sense of claustrophobia.

I have to get this off!

I scrape at it. Tug. Yank. Twist. It doesn’t budge.

Why won’t it come off?

I try again. My hooves slip against the edges, looking for a clasp, a buckle, something. But it’s seamless—part of me now.

Panic coils in my chest. My heartbeat pounds in my ears. I can’t take it off. I can’t take it off.

It feels wrong. Like a muzzle.

Then the voice crackles through a radio in my ear. Calm and Unbothered as ever.

“Please refrain from your contagion filtration device. If the device is removed, then you will be dispatched within minutes; either from the airborne pathogen in the area of operation, or the implanted explosive in your Loyalty Pendent.”

That caught my attention and snapped me back to my senses. There was a bomb implanted on me? A small, collar-like instrument beeped around my neck, and I froze.

“Alright, noted. If I don’t do what you want I will die.” I mumble aloud, processing the information.

I take a brief moment to see where I’ve been dropped into.

It’s so dark. It feels as though the murkiness is physically closing in around me.

The first thing I notice is how cold I am down here. Even though I’m covered head-to-hoof in a grey jumpsuit, there is a deep, biting chill that seeps into my bones, as if the air itself has been dead for centuries.

Then, the lights come on.

A sickly red glow pulses through the room in slow, deliberate waves, barely strong enough to push back the suffocating darkness. The walls—if they can even be called that—are a tangled mess of corroded metal, thick industrial pipes, and jagged concrete, all slick with something.

Faint trails of moisture slither down the surfaces, disappearing into the grated floor below. The distant hum of machinery vibrates through the air, like a dying beast exhaling its last breath.

“Please stand by for training equipment”

The metal structure that had lowered me down whined as hydraulic arms pulled a crate from the rig and lowered it next to me.

The metal crate hisses as it unlocks.

Inside, there are two tools, or at least that's what they look like at a first glance. Upon closer inspection, I realize, they are indeed tools. Just for a more sinister purpose.

These were firearms.

I wasn’t too unfamiliar with guns, although relatively rare in the Equestrian armed forces, they were quickly implemented by the Crystal Empire. They were supposed to give less-trained soldiers more of an edge during battles.

…How did I know that?

The weapon isn’t sleek or refined. It looks cobbled together from spare parts, the barrel thick and reinforced, the grip wrapped in tattered cloth for comfort. A jury-rigged rail system runs along the top, rusted but sturdy.

I instinctively reach out with telekinesis, but I’m met with a sharp pain in my horn, resulting in my spell to fail.
I reach up to investigate what occurred. Had I damaged my horn somehow?

I trace along the crevices in my horn and discover a smooth, metal ring at the base, where my horn meets my skull.

A dispersion ring? These are reserved for unicorn prisoners-

“Feel free to make use of the Target Acquisition and Conventional Handling Unit provided to all non telekinetic assets.”

That voice was beginning to get on my nerves. Before I could curse my frustrations, another crate slammed down beside me and hissed open.

This one contained a cumbersome looking saddle pack. It was covered in mechanical gyroscopic mechanisms with picatinny rail slots, meant to hold and aim firearms. All of this was complimented by a robotic, clawed limb that adorned the pack, designed for picking up items with precision.

Without any other choice I began fumbling with the pack, trying to slide it over my back. Doing this without magic was a grueling process.

After finally tightening the last strap, I go to collect the rest of my “training equipment”.

Using the robotic claw, I pick up the first weapon, a compact submachine gun.

The weight is heavier than expected, the metal cold and unforgiving. My eyes scan over the mechanisms—how does this thing work? A slide, a latch—no, a bolt? The magazine was missing. Empty. Some weathered writing carved into the side read, “Van Auken LTC5”.

I slide the SMG onto one of the many picatinny rails and it clicks into place. The gyroscopics moving to match my head and eye movement.

The second gun I thought I recognized, a pistol, but it wasn’t like any pistol I had ever seen before. It was BULKY, and by analyzing the diameter of the metal-shrouded barrel, I could tell whatever caliber it shot would be both devastating to the target and the shooter. Engravings on the side read "Shelling Arid .50"

With both guns secured to me, I press forward into the darkness. Hoping for either answers or a way out.

Author's Note

Hello, Hello!
I'm so excited to finally get this concept down on paper!
Naturally, I'm a bit inexperienced with this, so you can expect a bit of a slow burner.
Either way, thank you for taking a peak at my first story, and I hope you keep an eye out for the next update. (Coming Soon)
Seeyas!

2 - "...They react to light and sounds!"

These hallways seemed to go on forever.

My hooves press against grimy metal grates, each step sending a dull clank echoing into the dark. Overhead, rusted pipes crisscross the ceiling like tangled veins, some dripping condensation, others hissing steam from unseen fractures. The air is thick—stale, metallic, tinged with the distant scent of oil and something fouler, something that clings to the back of my throat, yet unknown.

Dim, flickering floodlights line the walls, their glow barely cutting through the murk. Some have burned out entirely, leaving stretches of the corridor swallowed in black. The shadows play tricks, shifting with every movement, teasing shapes that aren’t there.

Despite the dispersion ring digging into my horn, I am just able to conjure a small light to help me navigate in the dark. It is incredibly faint though, and leaves me with complete darkness in my peripheral vision. Although I was alone, my mind began to wonder what was hiding in the dark.

The silence is heavier than the guns I carry on my TACH pack.

I pass an overturned tool cart, its contents scattered—wrenches, saws, a cracked welding mask. A reminder that someone was here once. Workers, engineers, ponies who had plans for this place. What was this place even for?

There had been ten-meter high shelves, all stocked with crates of varying sizes. It gave off the impression of an abandoned warehouse. What could they possibly need to store this far down?

Further down, a massive ventilation fan creaks as it spins lazily, barely holding together. The vents rattle every few seconds, the sound just soft enough to make my skin crawl. Just enough to make me listen harder.

Somewhere ahead, water drips steadily from a broken pipe, the rhythmic plink, plink, plink the only thing marking time. For a moment, I allow myself a moment of peace. Listening to the gentle metronome of water.

Or at least until that moment is forced out of my mind.

“Subject 10102010 has entered the area of operations,” blared the synthesized voice into my earpiece, making me wince, “Subject’s assignment is to make their way to the extraction point in Zone 50.” A holographic display appeared on the inside of my visor, relaying my objective.

NAVIGATE TO ZONE 50

I release a prolonged sigh, the filters on my mask hissing. I stare down into the puddle that had accumulated from the leaking pipe. Looking back at me is a lavender purple mare with tired eyes. I don’t recognize her. If only I had a better look.

This mask—this damned mask—covers everything below my eyes, smooth, expressionless, a prison of dull metal, composite plating, and filters. I reach up, hooves brushing over its surface, feeling the rigid shape, the cold edges that have become a part of me. Will I ever see myself smile again?

I scan up and down at this stranger in the water. Just below the collar on the jumpsuit, there was a patch, one that read "#10102010", the same number my jailer had been referring to me as. I push away from the puddle, tired of being deponyfied by everything around me.

Then something catches my eye.

Just below the small, worn patch sewn onto my suit, just above my chest, there was something else. It’s partially covered in grime, but I can still make out faint, faded letters.

“⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ - Sparkle”

I stare at it, my mind grinding to a halt. The letters feel alien, distant like they belong to someone else. But I know them. They belong to me. Was this my name?

I try saying it aloud, to see if it felt right.

It does.

I don’t know who I used to be. But I will not let this place change what little is left of me.

I take a breath, steady myself, and keep moving.

I will make it through this!

I am now practically skipping down the winding hallways now, still singing my newly recovered name. Filled with a new determination.

“Sparkle, Sparkle. That’s me!” I took on an exaggerated tone, “'Oh, didn’t catch my name? Why, it’s Sparkle, of course!'”

It felt like I was finally figuring things out. Putting the pieces together!

There were several doors, each was labeled with a specific room number and where they led to. According to the last door, I am entering Zone 48-C, and am about to enter Zone 49. This was going pretty well so far.

That's what I thought until I got a look at the next door.

Most of the doors in this place are plain steel slabs—scarred, rusted, barely holding together after years of neglect. But this one? This one is reinforced. Thick plating, heavy-duty hydraulic locks, and caution markings faded with time but still visible.

Security Door 49.

The label is stamped into the metal, bold, utilitarian, practical, like it was meant to keep people out... or maybe keep something in?

I step closer, running my aching hoof along its surface. Unlike the others, this door isn’t just built to last—it’s built to withstand. The frame is reinforced, welded into the walls like a vault.

A control panel blinks to life at my approach. Red, waiting. A circular hologram sits at my feet, a thin ring of LED lights glowing dimly, waiting for an input.

“Please step into the bioscan”

A bio... scan?

That’s all it needs? No code, no authentication—just me, standing here.

I step into the circle. The ring pulses, scanning, processing.

Why did they need a door like this?

I glance back at the ruined corridors behind me. The endless shelves, the shattered lights, the lifeless facility that stretches endlessly into the dark.

What were they protecting?

What were they afraid of?

…And is it still in here with me?

“Bioscan sequence complete, door unlocked.” The lock releases with a THUNK. The door groans, hydraulics hissing as it slowly grinds open.

Just a little further.

The moment I trot over the threshold to Zone 49, an entirely new smell assaulted me through my mask. One that made my instincts scream, “Danger, Danger, Run!”

Rot and decay.

“Warning, imminent combat threat. Hostile entity’s currently occupying this zone.” The voice buzzed in my earpiece. I hesitate. Combat threat? As in… threat to my life? This was starting to sound even less like basic training.

“Uh, voice?” I begin tentatively, “If there was a threat, how would I deal with it? These weapons are empty.” I gesture to the guns on my TACH pack.

“Subject must assume stealth protocol,” It said in response, “stay low, turn light sources off.”

I didn’t have much choice but to listen. I crouched down and stifled my magic. Once I composed myself, I pressed onward.

The air is thick—too thick—like the walls themselves are breathing. Without my light magic, the dim, flickering red light barely cuts through the gloom, painting everything in long, distorted shadows. My hooves shuffle, slow, careful. Every step suddenly feels too loud.

Something is here. I can feel it. Hear it. Smell it.

I round the corner, heart hammering, sweat slick against my skin.

Then I saw it.

My breath catches, and my body locks up, every muscle screaming to run, to do anything but stand here and stare!

It’s a pony.

No. It was a pony.

A twisted, balding husk of flesh, hunched and motionless. Its legs, unnaturally long, ending in claws. It’s body, twitching in slow, sporadic pulses. Its skin is wrong—stretched too thin in some places, bloated in others, veins bulging like something is crawling underneath. And its face—

Oh God, its face.

A mess of exposed muscle and ruptured flesh, with no eyes, no nose. Just a gnarled, gaping maw, slack and drooling, like it’s waiting to scream.

But it doesn’t.

It just sits there. Breathing.

A deep, wet inhale followed by an agonizingly slow exhale, like something struggling to stay asleep. A sound that sticks in my ears, hot and damp and wrong.

I don’t move.

I don’t even breathe. I swallow, and even that feels too loud.

I have to get out of here. Now.

I take a step back—

The thing jerks.

A spasm, sudden and violent, its joints tensing. The wet, rattling breath hitches. My lungs seize. I freeze in place, heart pounding so hard it hurts.

For a second—just one horrible second—I think it's going to wake up.

But then... it settles. Its body relaxes, its head tilting slightly, as if listening. Then, the long, slow exhale returns.

Still asleep.

I don’t know how long I stand there, waiting, drowning in terror, before I finally gather the courage to take another step forward. And another. And another…

A jarring noise erupts from my earpiece, nearly making me yelp. “Subject must dispatch hostile before continuing.”

Thank Celestia that racket was just in my own head. Otherwise, that thing would have surely woken up and lunged at me.

Wait... I’m supposed to KILL it?!

I have nothing to shoot it with.

My heart slams against my ribs. My breath rattles inside the mask. My neural connection to my TACH pack still aims my empty SMG at it. Like that will somehow make it useful.

I am unable to use magic against it. I’m unable to even lift an weapon.

Think!

I look down at my feet. Do they want me to use… my hooves?

I snap myself back to reality. I’m really thinking about stomping out something’s life here! Sure, it didn’t look like it, but this was surely a fellow pony at some point. Corrupted and twisted by something.

“Subject must dispatch hostile before continuing.”

I have no other choice, if this is what it’s going to take to escape this place, then what options do I have?

I harden my resolve, and begin slowly stepping forward.

The Sleeping pony shifts again. Pulsating and twitching—almost awake—but not yet.

I stop, waiting for it to go back to it's calmer state.

Something happens, whether it was my hoof dragging too loudly or the thump of my own heartbeat, the monster thrashes.

I panic and pounce forward, raising my forehooves into the air. I know nothing of ending life. I don’t even know how hard to hit.

Hard as I can, I guess!

“I’m sorry…” I squeak

With a resolvent yell, I slam myself down. The bottoms of my hooves connect with the top of its skull with a wet, sickening CRACK. The force jars my legs, my face goes numb, my stomach lurches. It doesn’t go down. It just shudders, lets out a choking gasp, opening its jaws that split all the way down its neck.

I can’t stop what I started. In a frenzy, I stomp again.

And again.

And again.

Finally, something gives. Bone, flesh—it all caves in. The monster collapses, its limbs twitching in a grotesque death rattle. Near-congealed Blood spills out onto the floor, thick and dark, pooling around me.

The whole scene causes my stomach to finally give in, and I begin to heave. Whatever liquid food they’ve been sustaining me on, all it results in is bile, acidic and bitter.

Fortunately for me, most of my stomach’s contents is purged out of the carbon dioxide filter on my mask, preventing me from asphyxiating.

I open my eyes again, expecting to be sick again from the result of my “training exercise”.

But instead, I’m shocked. The body is…decomposing?

The creature’s corpse becomes rigid, small cracks begin to form on it. As if made of brittle stone, what remained of the sleeping pony collapsed into a pile of dust and pitch black crystals.

Am I losing it? Those crystals. The shine. The formation. They seemed… Eerily familiar.

“Subject, congratulations.” The voice commented, completely void of emotion.

I wasn’t too proud of the word that left my mouth in response to the voice's dead praise.

I was now hyper alert to every sound and creak this place made, and I was right to be.

Inside Zone 49, there were those things everywhere. Leaned up against walls, curled up on the ground, just standing there menacingly. The rooms were big enough where I could avoid them altogether, no need to go through that again. I hoped I would never have to.

One of the rooms I entered was particularly bad. There were no Sleepers, thank goodness, but the steel reinforced ceiling was completely caved in, collapsing shelves and bursting pipes.

The concave nature of the room left a small pool in the middle where moisture from the pipes, with an abundance of moss and grass around the edges. It looked almost serene. Who knew just getting a little glimpse of nature could bring such ease to my mind.

I was about to move on, stepping around what I thought was just another pile of scrap and rubble, when something caught my eye.

A small metal box, half-buried beneath dust and debris, wedged between rusted pipes.
At first, I think it’s just more useless junk—another remnant of whoever worked down here before this place became a tomb.

But then I see the markings.

Ammunition!

My breath catches. I immediately utilize the claw on my TACH pack, wrenching the box free from the pile, my body trembling as I snap it open. Inside, nestled in foam padding, was a magazine and several crystal-tipped rounds. There were some for the my pistol too.

I exhale slowly, relief washing over me like a dying ember of warmth. Finally, finally! I grab the magazine, the TACH pack automatically loads it into the empty mag well of my SMG with a satisfying click. The bolt racks, I feel the weight of a gun that is now more than just a lump of metal strapped to my sides.

Now it can kill.

I should feel safer. In a way, I do. But the comfort is thin. hollow.

Because now, there are no excuses.

Now, when something comes for me, I won’t just run. I won’t just hide. I’ll have to pull the trigger.

I think about the Sleeper, the one I caved in with my hooves, how long it took to die, the way my legs wouldn’t stop shaking afterward.

This will be faster than that. Cleaner. More efficient.

But that doesn’t mean it will be easier.

Zone 49-E,

This room—if you can even call it that—is an extensive hallway. From my estimate, I’d say it’s nearly 100 meters in length.

Even then, it’s hard to miss what’s at the end of it. Another security door. The red glow of the security panel pulses like a heartbeat. Sealed. Locked. Behind it—freedom. Extraction. My way out.

“Warning, imminent combat threat.”

I jump, startled. Again.

That was really starting to get annoying, yet I appreciate the early warnings. It really was time I came up with a name for the voice that was by my side throughout all of this.

A name echoed from a deep place in my mind. One that gave a sense of familiarity, but I couldn’t quite call it to the front of my brain. It was something…Sharp.

Thorn? No, too organic.

Spur? Nah, too country.

Barb? Definitely not, too 1960s.

Point? That could work.

It definitely complimented the voice’s directional and bossy undertone.

Point it is!

“Alright, Point. Where is the threat?” I ask, testing the name. It felt good, felt as though I had a friend down here.

“Opening this door will trigger an alarm.” Point replied, “Hostile entities will swarm this area until the alarm is deactivated.”

My ears droop. The moment I activate the sequence, the door will start screaming. Blaring sirens, flashing lights, a beacon in the dark. And then they’ll come. The things lurking in the corridors, the ones that will wake up due to a pin dropping.

This was about to be a lot of pin drops.

I swallow against the lump in my throat and glance behind me. The hallway is narrow—good for a funnel. Bad for a last stand.

I gallop back to shut the standard door behind me, locking it tight, before returning to the security door. Not to keep them out, just to buy myself a few more seconds.

My body aches, my breath is ragged inside the mask. I’m so close. But between me and escape is the one thing I’ve been dreading

Deep breath. In. Out.

I activate the bioscan.

The door wails like a dying creature, flashing yellow and red as the security sequence begins.

I hear distant screeches.

A rumbling. Dozens of limbs skittering, crawling, barreling through the dark. The horde is waking up. I now hear the claws on the flimsy door.

I plant my feet, heart hammering. The scanner sequence crawls across the screen.
20%...25%...30%...

Too slow.

I hear a crash in the hallway behind me, and I whip around. The creature’s silhouettes now visible through the pulsing light, shifting, crawling. The red strobes of the alarm lights cast grotesque shadows against the walls, stretching the shapes of the things that are coming for me.

I brace myself for contact. I plant myself to give the TACH aiming gyros the best chance of hitting my targets. No running. No hiding.

Just survive!

A shape bursts into the light— long limbs, boiled flesh, a mouth that peeled back the neck, exposing rows of sharp teeth and even a barbed tongue!

I stare right down its throat and think the word, SHOOT.

The SMGs recoil bucks against my body, sending the muzzle towards the ceiling. The burst of fire shreds through the first Sleeper’s head, sending it sprawling, twitching. But it’s STILL STANDING.

How could anything take a bullet to the face and continue charging? I don’t have time to dwell on the one target. There are more. Much more.

I fire again. Short bursts. Controlled.

A Sleeper drops. Then a second. Then a Third.

My ears ring from the close-range blasts, the heat of the muzzle flash lighting up the swarm just long enough to see how many are left.

Too many.

The magazine runs dry. I curse, switching from my SMG to the high caliber pistol. I line up my shot, and brace.

SHOOT.

The sleeping horror that leaps at me meets the barrel. The firing pin clicks, and its head becomes a spray of bone and blackened gore. It doesn't get back up. The kickback from the high caliber took me off my feet and sent me sliding backwards.

Before I could regain my footing, I looked back at the door.
…95%...

Another Sleeper lunges at me. I position myself so I can shoot it with my pistol.

SHOOT!

The gun clicks. Jammed.

There’s no finesse. No precision. Just instinct. I raise my forehooves.

I stomp. Trample. Crush. Blood sprays across my visor, warm and thick. I don’t think. I don’t feel.

Something tackles me. I hit the ground hard, the weight of it crushing, its breath wet and rotting in my ear.

I put my hooves between its face and mine and push, barely holding it back. My muscles scream. My body shakes.

Then—

“Bioscan sequence complete, door unlocked.”

I use everything I have left to throw the Sleeper off me and scramble for the door.

I dive through, and it slams shut behind me.

The alarm door seals shut behind me, cutting off the shrieks of the horde. The silence is so sudden, so absolute, that for a moment, I think I’ve gone deaf from the gunfire.

I collapse. I don’t move. Can’t move. My body is coated in sweat, blood, grime. My gun is empty. My hooves are slick with things I don’t want to think about. My chest rises and falls in ragged gasps, my body still trembling from the adrenaline that hasn’t caught up to the fact that I survived.

I survived.

The air in this room is different. Stale, but not rotting. It’s clean. Safe.

Then I hear it.

A distant, mechanical hum.

I look up.

The ceiling is nothing but blackness, stretching endlessly above me—except for the single, massive metal arm descending from the dark. It’s slow, deliberate, its clawed harness opening wide as it lowers toward me.

The Rig. The same crane-like machine that lowered me down here.

When the harness reaches my limp body, it clamps down around me, securing my arms and legs. I barely flinch.

My mind is still trapped in the hallway behind me. The swarm. The blood.

The harness lurches upward. The ground falls away beneath me, and the pit below disappears into a swirling void of blackness.

The complex sinks beneath me as I ascend.

I don’t fight it.

I don’t scream.

I just let it take me.

“Reinitializing Hydrostasis.”

As I rise, I feel something pierce the back of my neck. A sudden, sharp pressure—then a flood of cold liquid.

“I’m not leaving... am I?” I stammer, to no one in particular, tears welling up in my eyes.

My limbs go heavy.

Darkness creeps in at the edges of my sight.

I go to sleep,

Dreading the moment I am to be woken up again.

Author's Note

Phew!
Bit of a long chapter.
Glad you saw it through!
This concludes the introduction.
You can certainly expect some "Friends" in the next update!
Seeyas!