Note: if you haven't read "Squadron IX" yet, you probably should check it out, since this is a continuation of that story that probably won't make sense if you haven't read the first part. Also, as I said in my last bulletin, I'm going to be inactive for a few days, beginning tomorrow, so if I don't respond to something, I'll see it afterward.
----
"This is an emergency alert. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill. [REDACTED] has been detected within the building. Please proceed with the following instructions.
If you are in Sectors One, Three or Seven, all internal and external doors of these areas will be locked. Proceed to safe areas if you are able to leave; if not, get in a secure position and prepare to evade or defend against [REDACTED]. All other sectors, emergency lighting will guide you to a safe area-"
(static)
---
Ten minutes before:
The building was dark and lonely; ▇▇▇▇ had quickly grown used to the gloomy setting of the place. He carried a massive stack of files through the hallway, and the sound of his footsteps on the hard floor was jarring against the silence of the facility. He peered out a window and saw fog so dense he could barely see anything else; he wished to go outside and take a breath of the fresh air, but he had a job to fulfill, and he'd do it if it took all day and all night.
His team was supposed to locate Squadron IX, who went missing in Cydonia, and so far, the search had been fruitless, aside from one thing: one member of the squadron was already there, alive, in the very same building. But she had no idea where the others were; in fact, she was worried for their whereabouts herself.
He recalled his conversation with the remaining member and what she had last told him -- that she had seen someone else who was "taken", in her words -- but could not make any sense of it.
It was at that moment that the alarms began to blare.
---
Twenty minutes before:
"It's time," ▇▇▇ murmured.
"What?" they asked her, perplexed by what she had to say; she knew they wouldn't understand.
"Nothing."
"If you know something about where the others are, please tell-"
"I don't."
"But you're the last person to ever see them."
"Look, I don't know where they are. All I know is that it's coming back, and it's coming back soon."
"What's coming back?" they asked her, as if she knew what it was. All she knew is that it had taken them and that it was returning. Which is what she had told them so many times, but they kept insisting that she knew something more.
"It's-" she began, then took a deep breath -- the air was stuffy and uncomfortably warm -- and looked each of them in the eye. "I can't explain what it is, but believe me, I know it's coming here next, because there are people here it wants, okay? You need to prepare to defend yourselves."
But they won't listen, she thought. They won't, and it'll be their own downfall.
---
Back to present time:
▇▇▇ stood there, in the center of the chaos unfolding in the place, and knew that, at this point, there was nothing she could do for those in the building. She had warned them as much as she could.
A few of them followed her as she picked up what she could of the files she had to recover -- those about her own squadron, the ones that could help her save them -- and left the facility.
She knew the rest of the squadron was alive, and that it was up to her to get them back. She turned back as she walked away from the building, into the depths of the fog, and saw that the lights had all gone out.
All but one, in the top floor. The third from the left side of the building. It glowed, standing out against the darkness.
And she knew one thing: she had to go back.
---
▇▇▇▇ was in an empty room, with the door securely locked. There was this odd sound in the background -- like ocean waves layered with a million different quiet voices. He tried to see where the sound was coming from, and eventually pinpointed it to one place.
A snow-globe on the desk, its holiday spirit seeming so out of place in the darkness of the facility.
He approached it carefully, and in the reflection in the glass, he thought he saw the faces of the ones who had vanished in Cydonia.
Replies
Interesting.