“Uh, what happened to the doors? I swear they were here a moment ago…”
Retvik swung his light source over to where Litvir was standing. Where steel doors once stood, there was now nothing more than a fleshy, pulsating mass.
“Did they move?”
“Bigger question…” Retvik growled. “Where is Arkadin?”
A sudden telepathic burst ran through Litvir and Retvik’s minds, but it mostly came through as static. Arkadin was clearly on the other side of the door, yet the gooey flesh was hindering their communication.
“Fucking door sealed shut behind me as soon as I entered. This place wants to split us apart.”
“Indeed…” Retvik muttered. “Stand back. I will burn down the door.”
“Are you sure that is a good idea?” Litvir asked. “Because you might end up blowing us all up.”
“There is hardly any air in here, Litvir, the only flammable materials are the flesh walls themselves.”
“Yes but-”
Before the argument could continue further, the two Decaylings realised the problem had answered itself. The flesh suddenly began to retreat, revealing the steel door once more. With a heavy grunt, Arkadin pushed the door open from the other side.
“How did you do that?” Litvir blinked.
“Death-touch…” Arkadin frowned. “Don’t like using it though.”
Retvik and Litvir hurried through the doorway, following Arkadin as he turned around and headed deeper into the darkness. Luckily, their destination, an overgrown computer terminal, was just about visible in the red-fogged darkness.
“Death what now?”
Arkadin grunted, making his way towards the terminal and not answering the question. This was the last terminal they needed to interact with, but it was particularly fleshy and horrible. Thankfully, the port which Arkadin needed to access the terminal was just about reachable and only partially covered in horrible puss and other fluids.
With a bit of fiddling around and doing his best not to make actual contact with the flesh, Arkadin managed to insert his small tracking device and get it working. A green light blinked on the device’s side, confirming that everything was done correctly.
“We good?” Litvir tutted. “Because the voices are getting annoying.”
“You have not just blocked them out?” Retvik grunted. “It is not too hard.”
“They are very loud, Retvik. And I am pretty sure some of them are asking me to take this force field suit off so they can, and I quote, “suck on my large, tasty genitalia”. Are you two not hearing this?”
“I am,” Retvik frowned. “But who would want intercourse with, well, any of this? Arkadin, can you hear the voices?”
Arkadin got up from the console, shaking his head. “I have been inside meat fortresses like these before. Makes me somewhat better equipped at ignoring their beckons.”
“Meat fortress… An apt name…” Litvir muttered. “I assume this place just wants to capture us and kill us, yes?”
“After turning you into a mindless zombie, sucking out any useful fluids and genetic material, then slowly digesting you over hundreds of years, yeah, basically.”
Litvir’s eyes widened. Arkadin’s reply was… a little too informative. He knew this place was bad but he didn’t know that this place was THAT bad. Realising just how much trouble they were in, Litvir devoted extra attention to ignoring those horrible voices.
“Are you done, Arkadin?” Retvik asked, changing the topic.
“I am.”
“Alright. Let us deploy our extraction beacons and get out of here.”
Litvir and Arkadin both nodded. The three Decaylings pulled a new device off each of their utility belts and activated a button on the side, then waited.
And waited.
And waited.
“So, uh… how long is this going to take?” Litvir frowned.
“I… I don’t know…” Arkadin muttered. “Hopefully not too long…”