Doors Plot: Screams in the Night

[wipeawaythedebt]

The power has gone out. Routine automated maintenance systems and life support are the only things running. They're not enough. The lights have gone out, and they won't be on again for three days. The miner of the Midnight Isle used to take these power downs as unofficial holidays. Card games by battery-operated lights, cold canned dinners and gossip among men who were away from home a year or more at a time. But not now. Now the darkness was silent...

...until it wasn't.

The sounds in the walls, the scratching and slithering get louder and louder until there's a crash from somewhere deep in the ground. That's when the screams start. Inhuman screams from inhuman throats broken only by the sounds of crystalline claws on the metal floors. Shadows grew into monstrous forms with ebon-black scales and no eyes. The monsters of the Midnight Isle were freed from the dark.

And they were hungry.

Comments

[notinanybook]

Emma's through the door first, immediately moving to stand on the other side to keep it open until she counts three more heads behind her. She doesn't even know if they'll be able to close this thing and lock it once they're inside, but they have to try. Only then will they be able to start regrouping and figure out what to do next.

She peers around the door to see Booker down the hall a ways further still, his arm limp at his side.

"Come on!"

[adifferentlife]

The room they end up in is thankfully free of monsters and still has flickering lights. Not that it shows Sybil anything but a series of doors that circle it. There's nothing to block the way they've come through, no weapons, nothing of use.

She's barely thinking when she lunges forward, pulling open a door only to see more of the moving black shadows that plague them already. She slams it shut, her back against it and sweat on her brow. "Not this way."

[wipeawaythedebt]

He can't work his arm like he wants to. Sparing a quick glance, he realizes he's got a tooth or spear-like scale or something stuck clean through it. Gripping it tightly, he pulls hard and fast, grunting at the flaring red-hot pain. In his arm, it's a hindrance, in his hand, it might be a weapon. Which is good, because he knows he's low on salts and running out of power.

He's the last one in the room and he shuts the doors, but not before setting fire and electrical traps in the hall. Anything coming for them will be slowed by going through the traps. Grabbing a chair, he wedges it under the doors. It won't stop anything for long, but it buys them some time.

"Check the other doors. I'll watch these."

[cagedlamb]

Elizabeth found herself almost drawn to Booker, to try to check the injury that was so apparent. But she knew they had to get out of there, that it wasn't safe to pause yet. With one small glance in his direction, she took a deep breath and hurried to the farthest left door.

What she found was rubble. It was piled high near the door, leaving little room to even consider squeezing through the space. She might be able to do it, but she doubted someone like Booker would be able to. It wasn't an option right now.

"Nothing! Someone try another!" she exclaimed.