Postmortem Ch4 || What Remains of the Alpha Labs

The horrible, wretched feeling that had been gnawing inside of Tobias’ chest now clawed inside his head as well. His head ached. His stomach hurt. The ground felt as though it moved beneath his feet even when he was standing still, threatening to throw him off balance.

Whatever waited for him down here sucked his breath from his lungs, made it hang in the air like a ghost for all to see before it faded into nothingness. The warmth of the greenhouses in Zone B felt so far away, felt so long ago. There was nothing but cold and death down here. What lights remained were barely functional, the ones that still had some life in them flickered only briefly before they died once again. But still, he could see. It wasn’t the weak lights on the ceilings that bathed the path he walked in a harsh, cold blue glow.

Oh, but he wishes it were, because then, he wouldn’t see the tube of ice and frost that towered before him. Not just ice, but something else. Something big was contained inside, fractions close enough to the surface that he could make out the shapes of bones. What monsters the ones who came before must have been. The soul that was ensnared in the ice here could never rest, forever on display and frozen in time.

And it wasn’t just one. When he finally managed to tear his gaze away from the horrors of the first cryotube, there were more. Dozens lined the corridor, hooked up to tubes that snaked out from the side of the tubes and disappeared either into a control panel in front of the tube or up into the ceiling. Some of the tubes were dark, but almost all of those that were lit, there were shadows just underneath the glass and frost that suggested their contents. How many of the dead were kept here, suspended in eternity? They could never be freed, they could never rest.

But that...was not why he was here. This was not what the path had drawn him in for. This was not why he had to go down into the depths, though it pained him to leave them here in this state. There was something else that required his attention. Reluctantly, he passed through the corridor of the frozen dead, feeling their eyes upon him. Behind doors that he couldn’t get through, he knew there were more. Walls and walls of frozen specimens, cryopods, sheets of ice that had long ago frozen over objects and items that would never again be revealed.

When the chill finally relented, it was because it was replaced by unrelenting heat that came from the reactor room in waves. Though it had been stabilised thanks to the efforts of the island residents, the ones that Rime so despised and who had thwarted Nidhogg’s grip over the facility, the effects of the unstable reactor would be felt for a long, long time. His headache worsened.

Slowly, carefully, he followed the threads of the feeling that drew him forward. They were so much stronger now. Almost lost, and now, suddenly and almost violently, they tugged at him, claws in his hide that tried to pull him over the edge of broken walkways. It was only when he let them pull him forward enough that he saw what they were trying to show him. Then, suddenly, the threads snapped. The feeling faded. This was what the path had been directing him towards.

The way down to the floor of the reactor room is difficult to access and crowded, pieces of the metal grate floor having rotten out and fallen away. He had to get down there though. The last stretch of down, and he knew that someone needed him.

The body of the stranger that he came upon was small, for a suchomimus. Pale, like he’d never seen the light of day. A horrible wound ripped across his back and hips where Nidhogg had savaged him and thrown him over the edge of the railing. His ribs rose and fell as he breathed, weakly. Alive.

The living needed to be separated from the dead.

Tobias gently prodded the sucho’s body body with his muzzle. For a moment, Click doesn’t even stir. Tobias disturbs him again, persistent. He can get Click out of this place, but he needs Click to help him just this once. Click protests quietly, a weak sound that rattles in his chest. The blood on his jaws was not his own, but Nidhogg’s. He’d stolen the tip of the alpha’s tail. He would survive.

“You need to stand.” Tobias’ voice is gentle, but firm.

Click was still for a moment more, then slowly, slowly shifted his forelimbs. His hips were painful to move, but he could at least push himself up. Slightly.

It was enough. Tobias managed to push himself up beside and beneath Click’s chest, giving the small sucho the support he needed to walk up a battered metal staircase that took them back up to the main floor of the reactor room and then slowly, slowly, back through the hallways lined with the frozen dead. It was almost more than Click could take to continue moving past that. Tobias exhaled, pausing at the first of the many sets of staircases that would get them to the surface. Though he could provide support to the small suchomimus to keep him going, he couldn’t carry him all the way up to the surface. Click was both too big and too weak. More help was needed.

Though it felt wrong to leave without him, Tobias made the ascent through the dark alone, Click left by the stairwell.

Rime had returned to the massive cage that acted as a home for both her and her parent, and she didn’t appear to be pleased to see that Tobias had returned as well. Before she could bristle, though, she and Basalt both smelled the blood. Rime snorted. That was to be expected. What else did any of the intruders expect to find down there but their own deaths?

“I need help,” Tobias said plainly. Rime scoffed, but quieted when Basalt nudged her with their nose. Tobias searched for what he could say so that they might aid him. Rime had let him past because he sought to take the intruders from their home, was that not what he was still trying to do? Or perhaps she thought that he sought to starve them - the dead were food before they were added to the Grave.

“I...cannot take the living from where they shouldn’t be. Not alone. Help me take him from here, and I’ll never return to bother you again.” This much, he was certain. His time in the furthest depths of the Morpheus Alpha Labs was coming to a close. He just had to get himself, and Click, out. For now, he stood before the giants and waited in silence.

The giants murmured between themselves, their voices so deep and grand that he felt them in his bones. “You should help him.”

Rime looked annoyed at the mere thought, but Basalt continued. “It will give you a reason and a chance to explore outside these walls. You shouldn’t stay here forever.”

“I like it here,” Rime countered, exhaling in a huff.

Basalt’s voice had a light, humorous tone to it. “Only because you don’t know any different. There’s not much left for us here anymore.”

But there was. The hideous face of her old friend locked away behind the ice, all the bones of the dead in the Grave of the Ancients. Who would tend to them if they all left, abandoned them to anyone that might again find their way down here? She couldn’t just leave them.

Basalt rested their muzzle atop hers, smoothed their chin along the top of her crest. A little adventure would be good for her. If she still liked the facility more, then there was nothing stopping her from coming back down when she had seen what the world beyond the walls had to offer. Before she left, though, the outsiders needed her help.

Rime scowled, but did as she was told, just as she always had when Basalt asked something of her. Once again, the behemoth heaved herself to her feet and headed towards the stairway that lead to Zone D. She didn’t stop to make sure that Tobias was following - she assumed, at this point, that he knew where he was going if he had purposefully come to get her.

The descent was slow, the stairs creaking under the weight of a creature they weren’t built to hold. The turns were awkward and made Rime’s short temper even shorter, and by the time they reached the bottom, Tobias was no longer sure of his decision to seek the pale acro for assistance.

Despite a short temper, she knelt, allowing Tobias to gently push and persuade Click into a rough standing position so that they might maneuver him onto Rime’s back for easier carrying. She could support the weight of the small sucho much easier than he could, and the thick ruff of quills along her back kept him from sliding off towards her tail.

Even roughly secure, the ascent was just as slow, if not slower than the descent as Rime struggled to climb the steps and not knock the wounded intruder from her back. Tobias walked behind, ever watchful and occasionally giving a small word of warning that Click was slipping. After the second angry snap of jaws - she could feel that he was slipping - Tobias fell totally silent and simply observed.

Rime was sullen and just as quiet as they walked, now that the intruder wasn’t trying to tell her what to do. She could almost even forget that he was there, except for the quiet clack clack clack of his claws against the tile as they walked. He was quiet company, different from the intrusive invaders that had come before. It would’ve been nice, if it wasn’t weird. It seemed like it was the only sound that he made. He was like a shadow.

She rumbled a quiet greeting and farewell to Basalt as they passed by their manmade den. Basalt answered with a quiet call of their own. Rime had no doubt that she would return - she was only leaving because Basalt had asked her to.

She paused at the foot of the next stairwell. She’d only gone up a few times, and it had never been because she wanted to have a nice and friendly chat with the dacen. How many of them remained? If they had to fight their way out, then there was no point in her carrying the suchomimus up with them. He was dead here, or he was dead there when the dacen finished him off.

Tobias seemed to sense her apprehension, and spoke in his strange, calm, flat voice. “I have a friend. He will let us pass.”

Rime turned her head to look down at the cryo, an expression of annoyed disbelief on her face. A friend amongst the dacen? It seemed unlikely, given that his sharp teeth and claws indicated that he would eat the dacen’s kin just as she would. But fine, she’d take them up. She would survive, it would only be their deaths. Then her kin could eat, and their bones would be disposed of. They would not join the Grave.

Again, Rime climbed the stairs ahead of Tobias. The metal creaked and groaned beneath her weight, but held strong as they slowly, slowly ascended.

When they finally neared the top, Tobias lifted his head and gave a quiet call. Rime turned her head to glare at him. “Are you stupid?” she hissed, her teeth bared. “Do you want the dacen to know that we’re coming?”

Tobias blinked, his pale eyes emotionless as he simply replied “yes,” as though it were obvious. Many of the dacen had gone now, as many of the acros had. The ones that remained were too old or slow to hurt them. He had passed through unchallenged, save for by his friend - and his friend would help them.

Rime snorted and shook her head. Maybe he was stupid.

“Hello?” A voice called out from the warehouse beyond the door. “Is that you? I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name before.”

Rime exhaled a heavy sigh. Of course there was someone that had heard his little greeting call. There was no point backing off now. She stepped forwards, squinting at the harsh difference between the well-lit warehouse and the dark depths of the stairwell and her home far below. There would be a dacen before her, she knew that much. She kept her jaws parted to show her teeth that the dacen might keep his distance until she could see properly.