I N V A D E R S **also being trashed and rewritten soon**

||Chapter 12 - The Pit||

  "All of us get lost in the darkness, dreamers learn to steer by the stars." ~Rush, The Pass  

  ☽☓☾ 

After Winston came to, we were guided out of the room. I heard the low creak of a heavy door swing open as we exited the room, we took a right and began walking. The floors were hard beneath my boots and I could hear my foot steps echo off the walls. I started counting how many steps I took.  At seventeen  steps, I heard Winston stumble beside me.

"Winston?" I hissed.

"Huh?" He mumbled.

"Are you okay?"

"Well, my head is throbbing, this blindfold is itchy and my foot is numb. What do you think?" 

"You'll live."

After thirty more paces, we stopped and began descending stairs. There were twelve steps between every landing. We had passed four landings when we stopped again. The air was colder in our new location, the damp chill clung to the exposed skin on my arms. I shivered and I wished desperately that I was wearing something warmer than a tee shirt and ripped jeans. 

"You're about to go into the Pit." The hybrid said sternly. His voice did not echo, so I assumed the room we were in was not very spacious.

A something heavy suddenly weighed down on my shoulders. I realized that he had put the straps of a heavy backpack onto my back. "What's that for?" I asked.

"Your survival." He said allusively.

I heard a four beeps to my left followed by a deep grating noise directly in front of me. 

"Remember what I told you. Good luck." He said into my ear as he cut the zip ties off my wrists.

I tore the blindfold off, but before I could turn around to see the face of my captor, he had already shoved me into a room with Winston in tow. The door immediately grated shut behind us and we were left in total darkness. 

  ⦁X⦁X⦁X⦁

"Well this is just great isn't it?" I muttered.

A hand touched my shoulder. I jumped. 

"It's me, calm down." Winston said.

"Oh, well I apologize for being a little jumpy." I snapped.

Suddenly, a beam of light  appeared from a large disk embedded in the floor in the center of the room. It illuminated the circular shape of the room we were in. The walls were high and made of an unpolished metal while the floors were plain cement. 

"Step onto the platform in the center of the room." A man's voice ordered from a speaker high above us. It was not the hybrid's voice, this voice reminded me of cold slime being poured down my back.

Winston gripped my arm tightly as we made our way to the glowing disk. I cautiously put one foot on the glowing white surface. I nodded to Winston that it was safe and we both stepped on. There was a series of chimes from the speakers as my feet began to grow hot.

All at once, the platform dropped. I shrieked and grabbed Winston tightly. We shot down through the hole in the floor like a rocket in a straw. 

Seconds later, the platform jolted to a stop, almost causing my legs to buckle from the force.

"Step off the platform and proceed to the next room."

I adjusted the straps on my back pack and cautiously walked forward. By the dim light, I could see a tall archway that led to an enormous tunnel. The walls were rounded like a train tunnel, but made out of rusty steel while the floors were made of rough stone. It was the the most peculiar combination in my opinion. I could see at the end of the tunnel there was a blinking red light, but I couldn't make out what it was.