Slowly Warming

"Which way should Plex go?" Garrett asked to Cerezie. "If he goes towards either open exit, Plex should be fine, but there might be something useful behind the metal door."

Cerezie surveyed the room again, looking at the three exits. After a bit of internal debate, she pointed towards the opening on the opposite side of them. "Having feel that way we needing go."

"Go that way," Garrett said in a hushed tone, pointing towards the exit that Cerezie had mentioned. Plex nodded and slowly walked until it made it across the room. It held a hand up in a crude thumbs-up position. "Okay, so we just have to be very quiet as we go through."

Cerezie nodded and headed first into the room, being very cautious as she stepped. The scattered mining equipment and rocks made for noisy landmines that would get them filled with holes. Once Cerezie made it halfway through, Garrett followed in suit, mimicking her steps as best as he could. The turret swiveled around, a few times in the direction of Garrett or Cerezie, causing them to pause in place until the turret moved again. After what felt like an agonizingly slow five minutes, both Cerezie and Garrett made it across the room with Plex.

"Oh, that was heart-pounding," Garrett said, his nerves relaxing and he let go of breaths he wasn't even aware he was holding.

"You did well, Boss," Plex said, giving Garrett a gentle pat on the back.

"No time rest," Cerezie said, though clearly shaking a little from the ordeal. "Must keep move deeper. Mission of importance." She began to lead the way forward.

"So, Boss, what did Cerezie say?" Plex asked, as it began to follow Cerezie. "I still do not understand her Illiman dialect."

"She has a mission of sorts," Garrett said, feigning ignorance of what Cerezie was doing down here. In truth, he only partly had an idea of what Cerezie was doing. The last time that he had met her, she was looking for a place called SilentBark. However, with the nature of Asuria, it's possible that her mission had changed entirely. He had to know. Garrett sped up a bit and now was walking side by side with Cerezie. "So, you mentioned a mission. What is your mission anyways?"

Cerezie stopped and turned to Garrett, glaring daggers at him. She was about to reach for her rifle, but Plex stepped up and looked at Cerezie. "It would be wise to not fight with each other."

"I just want to help," Garrett said, trying to calm her down. "But I can't help you if I don't know what I'm helping you with."

She looked back and forth at Plex and Garrett before sighing, her cold and stand-offish demeanor changing to a nervous woman who was in way over her head. She gently rubbed her right arm and stared down towards the ground. "Needing find Archie."

"Who is Archie?" Garrett asked, glad that Cerezie was starting to open up to them.

"He important for discover SilentBark." So, she did still need to find that place. "Need find clue to where he is. Treasure he seek, so finding treasure mean finding Archie." She was trying to appear calm and collected and confident, but Garrett could see the nervous look behind her eyes. Whoever this Archie man was, it was both important and terrifying to her.

"Then we'll help you," Garrett said, extending a hand. "We'll work together to find the treasure and find Archie."

Cerezie turned away from Garrett, almost about to cry in happiness. Still, she took a deep breath and turned back, shaking his hand. "I thank for you." She smiled warmly at him before turning back to the tunnel. "Must keep go deeper."

"Then let us not waste time. That scout drone might be bringing back reinforcements at any moment," Garrett said.

The three of them nodded and continued on their way. After a few minutes of walking, they came across a large empty room with two tunnels on the other end. There wasn't any mining equipment or robots or anything else besides rocks in the room. They weren't special rocks either or arranged in any patterns the three of them recognized. Still, they were very cautious as they walked in.

"I do not spot any traps nor sensors of any sort," Plex said, scanning around the room. It walked to the center and looked around, spotting nothing out of the ordinary. "There are also no enemies waiting to ambush us."

"Well, I guess we can count ourselves lucky," Garrett said, hobbling into the room. He groaned a bit as he stretched his back. "Which way should we go? There are two paths."

"I am not aware of what lies beyond the pathways." Plex walked over to the one exit, then the other, looking down them. "I also cannot gather any more information about what is down them."

"So, we'll have to pick one then. Cerezie, what do you think?" It was at that moment that Garrett realized that Cerezie was still standing at the entrance, staring down at the ground and nervously clutching her rifle. Her hands were shaking and her knees even more so. She looked very similar to how she was during the first timeline when they were in the room with the Murder Crystal. Seeing her like that sent a wave of panic through Garrett.

"No trusting room," Cerezie said. "It feel bad mojo."

"If Cerezie has a bad feeling about this room, maybe we should go back," Garrett said, hobbling over to Cerezie. He put his hands on Cerezie's in an attempt to calm both of their nerves. "Besides, there were two other exits that we could have gone through. We should-"

Garrett was interrupted by the sound of heavy metallic thumping coming from the path they had come out of. The three of them nervously turned to the source as it began to grow louder and closer.

"If my sensors are correct, I believe our pursuers are getting closer," Plex said.

"Come on!" Garrett said as he grabbed Cerezie's wrist. "We have to get moving."

As they both crossed the threshold into the room, the whole room shook. The entrance and exits all were suddenly covered with glowing red energy.

"What happening?" Cerezie asked, aiming her rifle around.

The ground rumbled as spots on the ground began to cave away. Emerging out from the ground were Biters and other small metal robots, all with glowing red eyes aimed at the three adventurers.

"We've got company."