Chapter 6- Submerged Logic
592 Words
"…Zamora…"
Every hair on her body stood on end.
The hallway was pitch-black, full of terrified breathing and nothing else. No one moved. No one breathed louder than they had to.
Then, again. Closer this time.
"Zamora…"
Kate's grip on her arm tightened hard enough to hurt.
"Did you hear that?" she whispered, shaking.
Before Zamora could answer, the stranger's hands clamped over both their mouths.
"Don't speak."
His voice had dropped into something low and dangerous, and somewhere deep in the shadows, something moved.
SCRAAAAAPE.
Metal groaned nearby, and the panic that had barely settled started rising again.
"It's here—"
PLAYER RAYMON1 ON LEVEL 60 HAS BEEN ELIMINATED. LEVEL ONE REASSIGNMENT INITIATED.
"TURN THE LIGHTS BACK ON!"
"PLEASE!"
"WHAT?! YOU COME BACK HERE AGAIN?!…"
A shout rang out far down the hallway, immediately swallowed by silence.
PLAYER GUEST341 HAS BEEN ELIMINATED — GAME OVER.
The announcement echoed through the dark, calm as a weather update, like nothing at all had happened.
Zamora's heart pounded against her ribs.
"How is it finding people…" Kate whispered.
The stranger's expression darkened.
"It hears panic."
A sharp metallic clang sounded somewhere above, and the emergency lights flickered back on, dimmer now, like even the lights had given up a little.
The hallway came into view.
Empty, except for bodies scattered across the floor and blood smeared up the walls and across the ceiling.
"What the hell…"
Then she noticed something worse. The writing on the walls had changed. New scratches, fresh ones, carved into the metal like they'd been made seconds ago.
THE SAFE ZONE MOVES.
DON'T LET THEM MARK YOU.
IT LIKES THE ONES WHO REMEMBER.
She froze on the last one.
Remember?
Before she could think any harder about it—
BOOOOOOOM.
An ear-splitting blast rocked the prison. Dust rained from the ceiling, and the alarm screamed back to life.
WARNING: LEVEL ONE STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE DETECTED.
SECTIONS OF THE PRISON ARE NOW UNSTABLE.
Kate looked seconds from crying.
"Can this place get ANY worse?!"
The system answered immediately, like it had been waiting for the cue.
NEW EVENT INITIATED: FLOOD PROTOCOL.
For one frozen second, nobody understood. Then they heard it. Rushing water, far below, getting closer.
"Oh no…" the stranger muttered.
A heartbeat later, prisoners further down the hall started screaming.
"THE WATER'S RISING!"
"RUN!"
The prison shook violently, and freezing black water burst up through the grated floor. People, debris, blood—all of it swallowed within seconds. The current moved too fast, faster than water should move, and something was moving inside it. Long, pale shapes, thrashing just beneath the surface.
PLAYER GUEST991 HAS BEEN ELIMINATED — GAME OVER.
PLAYER RYKER HAS BEEN ELIMINATED — GAME OVER.
The water climbed by the second. Kate pressed herself back against the wall, eyes wide.
PLAYER ASHA HAS JOINED THE ENFORCERS ON LEVEL TWO.
"There are things IN IT—"
The stranger's gaze snapped upward, toward a broken maintenance hatch near the ceiling.
PLAYER AUGUST3 HAS BEEN SENT TO THE DUNGEONS ON LEVEL 12.
"There!"
The hatch hung open above the torn pipe, just out of reach. The water kept pouring in, and somewhere close another scream cut off as a prisoner vanished beneath the black surface, leaving only a spreading bloom of red.
PLAYER ASHLEY HAS BEEN ELIMINATED — GAME OVER.
The system added, calm as ever:
FLOOD PROTOCOL WILL CONTINUE UNTIL PLAYER COUNT REACHES ACCEPTABLE LIMITS.
That landed harder than the flood itself.
Acceptable limits?
How many people were they supposed to lose before this thing was satisfied?
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD