Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Spun Out

The going was slow. It probably wouldn't have taken them long if they had headed straight down. Adam had a hunch that the root of the problem was likely to be found at or near the generator itself. Yebb could have led them there following the derelict signs and arrows saying "generator room", but Adam was unwilling to leave any area of the facility unexplored.

Basically, he wanted all the little stuff dead before they went after the big thing.

It was a good idea, but it certainly wasn't good for her nerves.

So far their journey had uncovered a dramatic story of terror, life and death.. A lot of the Tricar that worked here had lived on sight as well. Yebb knew this, but remembered it when they stumbled upon one of the dorm like rooms, basically just a long narrow hall with beds lined up two to three feet apart from each other bolted to the walls at least three beds high.

The ground was a mess, covered in a light layer of slime and scattered here and there with absent personal items. The Tricar were said to be less sociable than other species, and that was sort of true. They didn't live in traditional family groups based on blood relation, but they did tend to form large packs for the reason of safety and warmth. While that had not been the case here, the large communal room was pattered after that.

Yebb scanned her eyes over the walls reading the years and years of graffiti through the gentle layer of slime. There were names and phrases and stupid little poems. Most of them were swear words, funny how that is something common among multiple alien groups. The percent for writing rude words on things.

And then there were the bodies, at least two of them that she could see. They met the first one as they were coming down the central isle of the room. The Tricar wore no work equipment , which made it clear that he had been off duty. He had fallen facing away from the end of the room, and his arms were stretched out as if he was reaching for the door. Due to the cold chill of the climate his body wasn't decomposing, but large pieces of him were missing, and strange growths were protruding from his back.

Down at the end of the room, they found the second body. She was lying back flat on her bunk arms held out to the side. The metal bedframe where she lay was scored with gouges from where her nails had bit into the metal. On the wall just next to her head there was a large hole in the metal with ragged torn edges, like soemthing had burst through.

Sunny looked over the scene rather critically examining the body, "These bodies are older than the one we found in the storage room. These were likely killed as the problem was beginning to escalate but before it was known about by whoever owned that HASMAT guy. They likely thought they were safe here." She ran her fingers over the wall , "They were caught by surprise, one of them came out of the wall and attached itself to her face." She pointed down at the body which was mostly in tact aside from its missing face. it was an odd if ot disturbing image, a perfectly preserved Tricar, except for the grinning skull.

Sunny traced a line from point to point on the body, "There were multiple of whatever attacked them, likely a swarm erupted through that hole." She motioned to the destruction of the room, "They tried to run and most of them made it." They glanced back at the tricar lying on the floor." Sunny stood and took a step ack, "Hard to saw how it all happened. Likely it started kind of gradually down at the generator, they tried to study it, to get rid of it, and they were containing it ok for a while. Work was still beoing done, but what the didn't know was that the little bastards were secretly burrowing through the walls the entire time. This is probably the moment they all decided to pull out."

"Your Sezy when you do detective work." Adam said leaning in a way, that was likely supposed to be casual against one of the bedframes.

"No flirting when we are working." She said reaching out to prod the body.