For one stretched, breathless second, the world simply… vanished.
Nora didn't feel herself falling at first.
There was only weightlessness—an empty, floating sensation, as if gravity had forgotten they existed. Then, all at once, the drop hit.
The ground rushed upward.
Wind tore past her ears in violent spirals.
Rian screamed somewhere to her left.
Kael cursed above her.
And the darkness swallowed all three of them whole.
Nora's body twisted in the air, her arms flailing for anything—anything—to latch onto. The void around them was cold, viscous, like falling through thick ink rather than air.
Then—
A blinding flash.
Metal slammed against her back. Air burst from her lungs. Pain spiked across her spine. For a moment she couldn't move, couldn't even think.
Her ears rang.
Her vision blurred.
But slowly… painfully… reality settled.
She lay on a grated floor—wet, rusted, trembling beneath her as if something massive moved underneath.
Nora groaned, pushing herself up onto her elbows. "Rian? Kael?"
"I'm—here…" Rian's weak voice echoed from somewhere close, followed by a fit of coughing.
Kael let out a low growl as he dragged himself upright. "I swear this facility is trying to kill us every five minutes."
Nora forced herself to stand.
The room around them was enormous, circular—like a forgotten industrial well carved deep beneath the complex. Dank air clung to her skin. Water dripped from pipes high above, hitting the metal floor with slow, hollow plinks.
The only light came from a row of flickering bulbs running along the wall—barely enough to illuminate the long, spiraling walkway that wrapped downward. Beneath the grate floor, black water churned lazily, too dark to see through.
Something moved in it.
Something large.
Nora stepped back instinctively.
"This place shouldn't exist," Rian whispered. "It's not on any blueprint. This is… something else."
Nora's fingers closed around the rectangular device she'd grabbed from the pedestal. It vibrated once—almost like a heartbeat—and then fell silent again.
Kael noticed. "That thing again. Why does it react only down here?"
"I don't know," Nora admitted. "But it's leading us somewhere."
A deep groan echoed from below.
The metal walkway trembled beneath their feet.
Rian stiffened. "Tell me that was the pipes."
"It wasn't," Kael muttered.
The sound came again—louder.
Closer.
Nora scanned the chamber walls.
Thick claw marks—huge, uneven gouges—ran across the metal, some fresh enough that flakes of steel dust still clung to the edges.
Something lived down here.
Something that liked tearing metal.
The walkway shook again. Dust fell from above.
Kael raised his weapon. "We need to move. Staying in one place is a good way to die."
They started down the spiral path, their footsteps echoing in the cavernous well.
After a few meters, Nora noticed faded symbols scratched into the railing—repeating shapes, looping lines that looked like warnings rather than words. Some were carved deep, as if someone had done it in desperation, their hand shaking.
Rian brushed his fingers over one. "These weren't made by workers."
Kael nodded grimly. "They were made by survivors."
The walkway narrowed and dipped downward even more steeply. The air grew colder, the lights dimmer. The water below churned violently for a moment—as though something massive brushed the underside of the metal grid.
Then it surfaced.
A single pale eye broke the surface of the water—round, unblinking, larger than Nora's hand.
It stared straight at her.
Nora forgot how to breathe.
Rian stumbled back against the railing.
Kael lifted his gun—
But the eye sank silently beneath the surface.
The water stilled.
Nora's heart hammered so loud it drowned out the dripping pipes.
"That wasn't a monitor creature," Rian whispered. "That was something else."
"We keep moving," Nora said, pushing forward even though her legs trembled. "Whatever it is… it's not the only thing down here."
They continued in tense silence until the walkway opened onto a wide steel platform.
At the center stood a rusted control console—its screens shattered, its buttons ripped out, wires hanging like torn veins.
But something sat on top of it.
A journal.
Old.
Water-stained.
Pages warped.
Nora picked it up carefully.
The first page was filled with frantic handwriting—letters jagged, ink smeared.
"If you find this, turn back.
Level Zero wasn't the beginning.
It was the last warning."
Another deep groan rolled through the chamber.
Kael scanned the shadows. "Nora… read faster."
She flipped the page.
The next line froze her blood.
"It swims in silence.
It climbs when hungry.
And it can smell fear the way we smell smoke."
Rian swallowed hard. "What the hell are they talking about…?"
A metallic clang rang out above them.
Nora snapped her head up.
Clinging to the underside of the walkway, limbs splayed like a grotesque spider, was the creature from the vents—the shadow-limbed monster that had chased them earlier.
Its head twisted toward them, joints bending at unnatural angles.
It dropped silently onto the platform, water dripping from its form.
Kael stepped forward, weapon raised. "Get behind me."
The monster lunged—
And the water behind it exploded upward.
The other creature—the massive one beneath the surface—shot out of the water with a roar that shook the chamber walls. Massive jaws clamped down on the shadow creature mid-air, crushing it like brittle glass.
The shadow monster shrieked once—then vanished into the depths as the larger beast dragged it under.
The water rippled…
then went still.
Nora stared in stunned silence. "It just saved us."
Rian shook his head. "No… it didn't even notice us. It just wanted the other thing."
Kael exhaled slowly. "Let's leave. Before it notices its next meal."
Nora tucked the trembling device into her pocket and stepped toward the next walkway leading deeper into the unknown.
The journal in her hand fluttered open on its own.
The final written words stared back at her:
"It's not the creatures you should fear.
It's the truth buried beneath them."
Nora swallowed.
"I think," she whispered, "we're about to find that truth."
The platform vibrated beneath them.
Lights flickered.
And a door at the far end slid open—inviting them deeper into a place no one was meant to see.
[To be continued...]