- Sdrawkcab Eman
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Here it is, chapter 8, and at the exact 10 000 character limit!
****Chapter 8: Not Again!****
I ran forward as fast as I could through the purple hallway, desperately trying to catch up with my squad. I thought that they were probably around the next corner, just a few steps away. I reached the corner, but this corner wasn't a corner. It was a dead end! I looked around frantically, searching for anywhere the group could have gone. I couldn't find any other way out of the dead end. I turned around and ran back the other way, faster than as fast as I could.
I gasped when I saw it. The other corner, the one I had just went through, was now nothing more than a dead end! I slowly turned around in circles, seeking for any possible way out of this hallway. There was a dead end in either direction. I ran back and forth through the hallway, finding nothing more than a dead end at each end.
After running back and forth through the hallway about fifty times, I slowed to a stop and sat near the centre of the hallway. I was breathing heavily, and I slowly crawled over to the wall and leaned against it. I looked left, then right, slowly, staring at the dead ends. I was worrying more now than I ever had before. I was trapped in this hallway, with what seemed like now way out. All I could do was sit there and starve to death. Or maybe I'd die of dehydration first. Actually, I'd probably run out of air first. I didn't know how much air those tanks could hold.
I thought about just taking off the mask, but I just kept sitting there, leaned up against the shiny purple wall. Eventually, I caught my breath, but I still had no way out of here. But how did that group get out? Maybe the end of the hallway just closed themselves after they went through! I hastily launched back up to my feet, and ran toward the direction that the rest group had gone. I examined the walls of the corner closely, looking for any microscopic cracks or seams that might open. I checked all three sides of the corner, but I was unable to find any.
I walked over to the support beam, and I sat down beside it. I thought about taking off the mask again. I slowly reached up to it, and moved my hand over it, looking for some kind of a latch. I found one! I felt it with my fingers for a couple of seconds, so that I knew which way to unlock it. I froze there, trying to decide if just ending it all right then was a good idea. I couldn't decide, but I could always put the mask back on. I hesitated, then pulled the latch open, but the mask didn't come off. I checked the other side, and found an identical latch on the other side. I carefully unlocked it, and the mask fell off of my face.
I panicked. I didn't want to die now, not now, not like this. I scrambled to pick the mask back up. I lifted it up and moved it toward my face, but before the mask was all the way up, I stopped. I put the mask back down, slowly, and I grabbed onto the tube that was connecting it to my tank. I pulled on it, trying to disconnect it from my air tank. I pulled harder, gripping it tightly, so tightly that my knuckles began to hurt. The tube came off, so suddenly that I fell over forwards, slamming my face into the floor. I groaned and winced, then rolled over onto my back, and stood up. I pressed my left hand onto my forehead. I had a headache again.
I slowly stood back up, placing my right hand on the wall for balance. The pain in my head was fierce, but I could still breathe. The air in this hallway was the same as the air in my tank. But the elite had been in the hallway before and he could still breathe. Maybe the masks were just another way for the elites to control us. They probably didn't even do anything.
While going over that thought, I slowly walked down the hallway, hunched over with my left hand on my forehead, and partially covering my eyes. About half way through the hallway, I gradually came to a halt, and leaned against the wall. Then I slowly slid down, until I was sitting. I glanced toward the other end of the hallway, then looked forward again, to wards the wall. I quickly whizzed my gaze back to the other end of the hallway. I thought I had seen a bright green ball of light in that direction. I stood back up, staring at the spot where I had seen the light. I slowly walked forward, staring at that spot. The degree of pain in my head suddenly skyrocketed. I winced, but I tried to ignore it. I continued to walk forward, all the while staring at that spot.
Suddenly, a piece of the wall exploded, sending part of the panel flying into the opposite wall. I jumped back, and stared at the hole in the wall. The wall behind it was dark gray, and there was a rectangular opening at the bottom, just big enough for a grunt to get through. I cautiously got down on my hands and knees and crawled toward the opening. There was a light breeze flowing through it. I flattened myself onto the floor, and put my arms forward. I used my feet to push myself forward, into the opening. The inside was dimly lit, but shiny. There was a bright green glow at the other end of it.
I inched my way through the passageway, using my feet and hands to push and pull my way through. After what seemed like hours, I reached the other side. There was another opening to my left. All I could see was green on the other side. I tried to turn around, but it was too tight. I rolled over onto my side, and put my hands forward, through the opening. I tried to grab onto something, and I managed to hold the outside of the passageway. The surface was sticky. I pulled myself forward, with my legs pulled up. I moved forward, but my legs became stuck. I rolled over to my other side, and bent my knees, then pulled myself out of the passageway.
My headache was gone. All I could see was green, except for a small slice of the marshy dirt ground below me. I turned around, looking for the narrow passage that I had just crawled through. It was gone. I turned back around, and I walked forward, looking downwards to make sure that I didn't run out of ground. Eventually, I found a message carved into the ground. I bent down to get a better look, but the carving disappeared. I looked back up, and the green fog faded away. I saw trees off in the distance. I looked up, and saw the same green, glowing clouds from that hallucination from before. They were bright enough that the whole area seemed to be lit by a sun, even though the sun was still gone.
I turned around to see more of this vast world, and I saw that there was a cliff in the distance. On top of the cliff was some kind of purple and blue vehicle. It looked a lot like the phantoms, but it was bigger. It's probably where I had just come from. Suddenly, a mammoth piece of metallic debris flew into the ship, and smashed it, and the ground, to pieces. I jumped as the vibration flew by me.
I backed away slowly, but then I saw that the ground was collapsing from where the debris hit it. I started to run away from it, glancing backwards at the crumbling ground. It was gaining on me. I tried to run faster, but I couldn't. The ground collapsed under me. I fell down. There was nothing but emptiness below me, blackness. I fell into it, and landed back on the ground. I looked around, confused. The gigantic hole in the ground was right in front of me, but it wasn't collapsing anymore.
I slowly backed away from it, then turned around. Melip was standing there, and I jumped when I saw him.
"Melip!" I said, relieved that it was just him, and not some dreadful monster. "What are you doing here?"
Melip just stood there, staring at me. He was still wearing his mask. "What you doing here? Why you no have mask?"
"Melip?" I said, "why are you talking like that?"
"Me no know, me only find you." he said, stupidly. "They want find you. They want put thing in you head. Not so bad."
I put my right hand on Melip's shoulder. "Snap out of it Melip!"
Melip suddenly ran in the other direction. I ran after him, but I couldn't catch up. He was running incredibly fast, about twenty times faster than I was. I saw him turn and run into a patch of trees, and vanish from sight. I kept running, hoping that Melip had stopped in the forest. I eventually reached it, and looked for Melip. I saw him standing there, completely motionless, with his back to me. I walked into the forest, carefully stepping over tree roots.
"Melip!" I called out. Melip just stood there, staring deeper into the woods. I slowly walked closer to him. "Melip," I called, weakly. "Melip!"
"Melip," Melip said, monotonously. "Me Melip!"
I paused when I was about an arms length from Melip. He was still standing there, motionless, staring forward. "Um, yeah, uh, you Melip," I said. I started walking forward again, toward Melip. I walked passed him, and turned around to face him. Melip's face was expressionless, and blank.
"Look," Melip said.
I turned around, and I saw a room from that place I was in before. It was fairly large, with purple walls and a blue-gray floor. There was a large door on one end, and the opening to a hallway on the other. There were tables scattered around one side of the room. I could see shadowy figures in it.
"Closer," Melip said.
I walked toward the room, and I stepped into it. The air all around me changed. I turned around, and I saw a solid wall where I had come into the room just moments before. I turned back around, to face the shadowy figures. The figures slowly transformed into grunts. There was a single grunt laying motionless on the ground. The rest of the grunts were all huddled around the motionless one.
I saw that one of the grunts in the group was Pel. Another one was Melip. I recognized most of the other ones, too. I slowly walked toward the group. Nobody in it seemed to notice me. I peered over their heads, and looked at the motionless grunt that was laying on the floor. I recognized that grunt immediately. The motionless grunt was me.