The Backrooms: Zeta Code

Chapter 2: Halls of deception

We were in a narrow hallway, barely bigger than my shoulder width, and I was facing Kash. The hallway was surprisingly clean, pristine white walls on both sides of us. The ceiling, also white, had florescent lights evenly spaced out. The floor was covered by a blue carpet, and there were a few doors on the walls. We tried some doors, but none of them opened, so we moved on. Kash walked up front while I brought up the rear, looking back every few minutes to check we were safe. When I checked the radio when we first arrived, It told us to keep walking forward, so we did.

After an hour, we found a brown door, and behind it continued the hallway. We tried the brown door, but it was locked. The radio still said to go straight ahead, so we tried a door near the brown one, and it surprisingly opened. We walked in to a standard apartment space, with a connected living room and kitchen, a dinner table at a corner. When I checked the fridge, it was filled with mostly rotten food that had mold growing, but a few bottles of Almond Water as well, which we took to replenish our bottles that we already drank. Kash found another door in the living room that might lead to the otherside of the door, and when we opened it our suspicions were confirmed. The door opened back to the same hallway, and we continued on.

We walked for another 30 minutes before I started hearing voices whispering. "Kash?" I asked her. "Do you hear anything whispering?" She stopped, put her ear into the air, and said, "No, but I think we should hurry up." The radio still said to continue forward, so we walked like that for another hour before we reached a very random remote control on the floor. I picked it up, studying it's appearance. It looked like a standard television remote, so I placed it back down and continued forward. Suddenly, I had the strangest feeling that I was being watched. I whipped around, but there was nobody there. Kash must have noticed, as she stopped so I could catch up, not needing an explanation on why I stopped. She probably had the same feeling.

We stopped shortly after for a rest, as we had been walking for two hours without rest. I checked the hallway behind us once more in case I missed anyone, but there was nothing. Still, I felt the odd sensation that I was being watched. My heart dropped as I made a realisation. I stood up, and said, "Come on, Kash, we should continue if we want to get to Axel in time." She complied, standing up. I had no idea how to tell her that there was something on the ceiling following us without alerting the thing. It was definitely waiting for us to fall asleep or something else to eat us, and I would ensure that would never happen.

Eventually, the arrow head was in view, saying that we were about one mile away from the place we were supposed to go. I heard a low growling from above me, and knew that the rhing was about to strike. Without warning, I pushed past Kash and grabbed her hand, pulling her with me. "Hey! What-" She started to say, but wasn't able to finish before the thing let out a gutteral screech and dropped to that floor with a thud, giving chase. Rusking a quick glance back, I saw a thin, pale white body with long claws at the ends of its hands and two pitch black eyes. That was all the incentive Kash needed to run in pace behind me, never falling behind. Eventually, I heard the thing start to speed up, and I quickly came up with a plan. "Kash, get in front of me!" I shouted. She complied, overtaking me in the narrow hallway without losing speed. I gripped my Squirt Gun tight, turned my whole body around and fired.

The corrosive liquid burned on the creature's face as it ran straight into the Liquid Pain. It screeched in agony, falling to the floor and clawing at its own face. My plan had worked, and I ran to catch up with Kash. Thankfully, she waited for me patiently at what I assumed to be where we needed to go. It was a pitch black door, with no other doors around it. I hesitated at first, but then I heard the creature screeching behind, and I jumped in. I saw Kash jump in behind me and lock the door, then I fell face first into a polished marble floor.