Albur held his rifle and walked into tha path he chose. This factory appears to be producing canned food, namely canned meat. But both lab-grown meat and luxury fresh animal meat are no where to be found, no matter freshly cut or ice freeze, all traces of meat are gone.
The conveyor belts were all stuck by the purple substances. Tiny little consumer lifeforms crawled around the place and bit on the walls out of hunger.
"For a large factory the meat production is so little." Said Havoc.
"I mean look around here, there's are little consumer lifeform thingies. They must have eaten every bit of meat here."
"Even so, a large factory like this should have lots of meat, these little creatures shouldn't have eaten this lot."
"I don't know about that."
Albur walked further into the factory. He then found a door, he opened it, it is a large room that seems to be the control room of a factory conveyor belt.
Albur took a step in, but upon stepping on the floor, it suddenly sank, Albur quickly took a few steps back out of survival instinct. He looked at the floor, the metal floor became soft and feels like stepping on sand when Albur put his foot on it.
He looked around, and found out that the room is covered with more purple substances and the air is way more damp. He took out his walkie talkie.
"This is Albur speaking, I'm in the 3rd path of the factory."
"Why suddenly contact us all?"
"Um, I'm seeing unusual stuffs here."
"Like?"
"The floor here, they feel like stepping on sand, it sinks when you put your foot on it. And the room, is awfully purple, the purple substances on the wall are thicker and the air is more damp. Its disgusting here."
"Is anyone else seeing what Albur is describing?"
"Nope, I am not seeing anything Albur is talking about. "
"Just little critters."
"We'll be heading to your location, Albur. Stay where you are. "
"What? Why?"
"His description sounds like the core might be there."
"Whatever, let's go then."
"Don't move Albur, we're coming to you."
"Got it, over."
Albur kept the walkie talkie. He looked around the room and touched the walls.
"This virtual hazmat suit doesn't prevent odor huh?"
"It still prevents potential AC-23 virus microorganisms to enter your body."
"Though I'm curious why can survivors survive this long when exposed to this kind of place?"
"They fill the tumor but isn't that deadly due to its small dose and indirect contact to blood. I don't think this thing follows oxygen into out blood. Even if it does, its small quantities are not enough to beat the immunity system. Though I estimate if a survivor stayed here for way too long he will mutate into a virus lifeform. "
"Gotta find them as soon as possible then."
Albur sighed as he took a step into the room. But suddenly, the floor started sinking even deeper, Albur took a few steps back, but the floor behind him sank as well. At last, the floor collapsed and Albur fell.
He got hit by lots of metal sticks and bars when falling and fell into a duct leading to a garbage disposal. Albur managed to brace himself by bracing his limbs on the duct to not fall into the piles of garbage. When his rifle fall he managed to catch it with his mouth.
"Woah! Woah! I had been taken to lots of places! But never the garbage disposal!" Havoc yelled in fear.
"Remax, buddy, I'm gwabbing you wif my mouf, you wom fall." Muffled Albur.
Then, Albur's walkie talkie buzzed.
"Albur? What's wrong? What's that noise?"
Mysty talked through the walkie talkie.
Albur signaled Havoc to reply the walkie talkie.
"Hey Robin! Me and Albur fell into a garbage disposal duct! We're below the room we are standing just now!"
"What? Garbage disposal?"
Suddenly, a squeak sound is heard, Albur's hands are slipping and they are slowly falling into the garbage piles.
"Sent back up now! I don't want to fall into garbage!" Havoc yelled in extreme fear.
"Qill! Man! Its jast gabeach, not something dweadly!"
"Just sent back up already!"
Then, Albur slipped deeper into the duct. Havoc begun to yell uncontrollably.
Then, something grabbed Albur by the collar. Albur turned his head and looked at that thing. It's Johnson's robot claw, in grapple hook mode. The hook gripped onto Albur and the cable started to retract, Albur let go of his bracing arms, letting the claw to slowly pull him up.
After a few seconds, Albur reached the hatch of the duct. Covie quickly grabbed Albur using both of her hands and pulled him out of the duct. Albur coughed as he removed his rifle from his mouth. Johnson pushed the claw to lock back into the springs and helped Albur up. Covie checked and ensured Albur has no injuries.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine... where are the others?"
"They are coming. Mysty just notified me to come save you quickly, I thought its something da heroes, and it turns out to be just a little virus yelling."
"Bro! I don't wanna fall into a garbage pile! I'm a sensitive device! Take good care!"
Then, Albur heard footsteps running towards their location above then. Then, Mysty and Rhea stuck their heads out from the platform above Albur's head, looking down.
"Hey! Albur! You good?"
"Yeah! I'm fine!"
"I thought you are in great danger. "
"Its Havoc, he yelled so loud just because he don't wanna....."
"I'm a sensitive device! I don't wanna be dirty!"
"Yeah, right."
Rhea looked around the place.
"Where is that room you described earlier?"
Albur looked up and turned his head left and right, trying to find the hole he fell through. Then, he spotted, it, a room that is attached to the wall that have stair cases leading to it with a big hole under it.
"That one." Albur pointed at the hole. Everyone looked up, and found the hole.
"There's a staircase leading to it. Come on, let's go."
Mysty walked to the staircase, Rhea followed up. Johnson located where the room is and fired his robot claw while in grapple hook mode and retracted the cables to sent himself flying to the room. Albur blinked and stared at Covie.
"Need a hand?"
"Thanks."
Covie grabbed Albur and take him with her while she flew to the room.
The crew reached the room and stood by the door. Covie flew near Johnson and dropped Albur on the ground. Rhea scammed the whole room and took a handful of the desertificated ground and observed.
"This room seems to be heavily corrupted by the AC-23 virus molecules. Its structure is already breaking apart and weakening. "
Rhea took out the energy detector and pressed it. The detector's antenna started to glow, the beep sounds became so frequent it nearly became a consistent high pitched noise.
"It must be around,"
Rhea looked at the floor, and thought for a second.
"Covie, can you fix the floor?"
Covie stared at the floor which the is nearly becoming the material of sand.
"Let me try...."
Covie put her hands together and formed a green orb. She pushed it to the ground, the whole room is covered with green energy. Then, it faded. She put her hands on the floor, then gently push it, then pushed harder, the floor turns out to be completely fixed.
"Huh, never thought I would really work."
"This floor isn't completely corrupted yet, it is just starting to weaken, but be careful, I don't think it can last very long."
The crew looked around the room. Trying to find anything that may look like a core.
"Why can't this energy detector detect things more accurately? You can see where the cores are and can't see where is its specific location?" Questioned Johnson.
"This thing had been messed up by those tiny virus molecules in the air, it couldn't show things that clear like it used to outside the tumor."
Rhea hit the detector onto her palm and actuvate it again. Suddenly, its antenna pointed at the ceiling, and its beep sounds became a high pitched continuous tone noise. The crew looked at the ceiling. Albur fired a shot at the ceiling, creating an opening.