A ruined Vacation

Kit hopped slowly behind the creature as it rumbled along the tunnels, turning here and there at seemingly random intervals, and was awed by the creature's aspects. Despite the Glyphs being a bright white, they shed a red light that preserved what little vision that Kit had in the dark as long as he didn't look directly at the creature... the "Golem", as he preferred to call it. The boulders that comprised it's tail were completely smooth and free of blemishes, and every once and a while, and at most one at a time, they would hover slightly above the ground and, after rotating in a completely different manner then the others, place itself back along the ground and roll normally.

As Kit was inspecting one of the boulders, a clear pure tone that wasn't too unlike an empty glass being tapped, resonated behind him and the Golem's torso immediately shifted from the farthest end to the end that was right beside Kit, causing him to jump and fall over. The stone construct stood stock still as it surveyed the darkness for a few minutes before it's torso transposed once more and it rumbled long it's way, Kit hurried to follow it as he fought to urge to look over his shoulder.

|*|

For hours the two being continued to wander the tunnels, with the only changes being the fact Kit moved to walk alongside the Golem... and the Glass like sound that resonated in the darkness behind them in a periodic, almost mechanical fashion. Kit was getting tired, the pace wasn't fast but it was all he could do to keep up with his injured foot and the pain in his shoulder was worsening. "Maybe I shouldn't have followed this thing... it's probably leading me deeper and deeper." He mumbled to himself. They came across a junction and turned left, like they had done several dozen times that day... though this time they almost immediately came upon a wall of wood.

The wall wasn't much to look at, sure it's size dwarfed even to Golem, but it was rotten, and holes showed in more then a few places, one of which was the door that once stopped unwanted traffic but now served as food for a disgusting mural of fuzzy, multi-colored mold like the rest of the wall. As Kit studied the door on the ground the Golem moved up to the wall and reached to the wood with it's arms, and when Kit looked up at the arms above his head as they were brushing the wall lightly, knocking off a small amount of fluff and rot. Then, without so much as a grunt, the Golem's torso did it's magic act and it moved back down the tunnel.

Should I follow it? Kit asked himself as he looked at the rapidly darkening wall in front of him, If there was an installation, it's only natural to assume that it has an exit to the surface. and with one last look at his guide, he realized it had passed the tunnel that they had come from. The tone that had been chasing him for so long resounded once more, his eyes went wide when he saw the tunnel seethe and roil and he ran.

Kit found himself in complete darkness, save for what looked like a doorway to his left, "Light means people!" He grunted to himself as he ran full tilt, only to drop on his face after two steps. The rock he landed on knocked the wind out of his lungs, but he dragged himself slowly to the door as he wheezed. The sound rang through the door behind him as managed to lift himself up and through the doorway, only to find it's accompanying door was no where to be seen and the light wasn't being produced by lanterns or candles, but mushrooms that clung to the ceiling at irregular intervals.

Kit ran forward and didn't fall flat on his face till after the shovel was ripped from his hands, and he could only watch in horror as it ascended slowly toward one of the mushrooms, dancing like a puppet on a string, and just when Kit thought the shovel would hit the mushroom, the mushroom bloomed like a flower and revealed what looked like a rock crusher and reduced one of the two things that had let him come this far to dust. Kit snapped out of his stupor when a chunk of iron the sized of a dime smacked him between the eyes. He scrambled towards the far door, being careful to avoid walking beneath the glowing death. Kit managed to make it to the door, he also managed to break his personal record for how far he had ever hopped on one foot, and when he looked back he saw the mushroom that had eaten his shovel was glowing brighter then the rest... and the snouts that were crowding the door by it weren't moving any further.

"They don't like the light apparently..." Kit said to himself as he turned and hopped down the hall, "I hope that luck holds up."

|*|

Kit wandered blindly, with no light to guide him except for the occasional "Crushroom" that always seemed to light up cross paths, every once in a while he would hear the crystal sound of his pursuers at varying distances and he smiled a little at the thought of them being lost as well. Kit wandered and wandered till he caught sight of a light that wasn't on the roof, but in the wall at the far end of the hall. "What's that?" he moved towards it, it was glowing a faint red and as he got closer it seemed to take the shape of a rock, "hmm?" he stood in front of it for a moment and looked down the halls to his left and right, then he stuck out his hand to cross to the other wall and his hand wrapped around something long, hard and pockmarked, not too unlike rusty prison bars. "Maybe it was a vault of somekind?" Kit wondered out loud, "So maybe it's worth something." he grabbed the glowing rock... or at least he meant to before the "Iron" in his shifted. "Oh shit." was all that escaped his lips before he threw himself to the left, narrowly avoiding the creature that erupted from the wall.

Kit ran as fast as he could down the hall, forgetting the pain in his foot, and almost knocked himself out on a wall that had sprouted out of the darkness, and when Kit hit the ground he threw himself to the side, but ran right into a wall... and that's when he realized the creature hadn't chased him, but had proceeded down the hall he had come from. "I hate this place." he said to himself as he laid on his back and stared into the darkness above him, then the pain returned with a vengeance. He seized up, suppressed a scream, and smashed the ground with his good arm.

As he blinked the tears out of his eyes he heard "That" sound again, though it was far away. "Absolutely hate this place." He stated simply as he picked himself up slowly and painfully. His hand touched he wall he had met face-to-face and he pulled his hand away when he got a splinter, "Strange," he said to himself, "I don't think any other walls were wood..." he ran his hands all over the wall, looking for a handle or latch, but instead his hands went around it where the walls should have met with it. "Strange."

He made his way around the wall and was met with more darkness, "Should have expected as much." He told himself as he step forward carefully, his right hand testing the air in front of him. "It was probably just a-" his head ran into something. He wheeled in place, until his hand hit what his head hit and he clamped onto it. He heard that sound again, and it was alot closer. "Great." he said as he checked around the beam and found that the wooden ceiling went down on a slant, "And now I'm stuck in a dead end." he said to himself calmly, then he realized exactly what that meant.

OH GOD, NO! He screamed in his head as he plastered himself against the wall, I can't die here, too many things left undiscovered, too many things left unsaid or undone! He saw nightmarish things coil around in the darkness, and when he closed his eyes they persisted. He started hyperventilating as he just repeated the word "No." to himself in a whisper.

Your pathetic, The older voice rang in his head, Nothing till now has even made you twitch: joy, rage, sadness, pride.

I have reason to be afraid, dammit!

If your pathetic ass tried to check the ceiling again, and you know walk along with it, maybe you'll find a crawl space, or an emergency exit?

It's no use, those- "That" sound shattered the darkness once more, and it was almost on top of him, OH GOD, NO!

Buck up, find away out, and get back home.

Kit huffed and he puffed but he still pulled himself away from the wall and checked the ceiling once more, frantically but thoroughly. And when he cut his hand on something metal, he let out a yelp of pained relief, "Yes!" he barked as he fumbled with it, found out it was a latch. "YES!" he shouted as he lifted it, pulled his hands back, and pushed up. After a full minute of pushing, he realized the roof wasn't going to budge. "NO!" he screamed, he knew that it would bring those things on his head, but he didn't care.

"Screw you!" He shouted at the roof, "Screw you!" he shouted at the dark, "FUCK YOU!" he shouted at the creatures behind him, "AND FUCK YOU!" he shouted at the latch as he swung at it blindly, and after a few misses he managed to hit something, though it wasn't the latch, and his hand shot through the roof as he was blinded by a bright light.

"AHH!" he heard through the hole as he sucked air like a root beer float, "What's that?!" he heard a young, rather feminine, voice say.

"SNAKE!" another, slightly less feminine, voice shouted and pain exploded through his arm as it cracked out a loud report.

"GAH!" He screamed as he pulled it back through.

"Snakes don't scream like that!" a third voice berated the perpetrator loudly, "Yah alright down there?"

"I've been better." He hissed through his teeth as he cradled his arm, "Could you help me out of this hole?"

A pause, followed by a shuffling of feet, Then, "Unless your almost as thin as your... squiggly appendage thing, Ah think we're gonna need some help..."

Kit looked back up at the hole and let his eyes adjust to the light, and his hopes fell. His "Salvation" was lit by an orange sky, and even as he watched the sun sank lower in the sky... and "Salvation" was through a thin slit in the wall, probably an observation slit if he had to hazard a guess.

"Oh no..." He said to himself as the crystal glass was tapped once more on the other side of the only other way out