2 Crazy Nights

Chapter 2.

In the Belly of the Beast

The two men were slowly making their way down the stairs, descending even deeper into the belly of this facility. In a few minutes, they reached the end, and with a nice *splish* they both stepped into shallow water.

It wasn't visible from above, and it was maybe only an inch deep, but it made it clear, that this bottom level, this cellar was likely flooded like this everywhere. This didn't help with their hopes of turning on the power, as who knows what part of the grid will be completely usless and broken from the water-demage.

As expected, with water all over the floor, all the rest of the interior was demaged. The walls looked like they were sweating. Strangely, so were Philly and Chad. The air around them was stale and damp, and uncharacteristically warm.

That's not to say it was hot, but definitely not as cold, as one would expect a basement to be either.

These hallways showed signs of the same hurried abandonment as the ones above, only they were a lot more deteriorated.

All kinds of molds and other such spots were hanging around on the walls. The pair didn't only tread the water, as ever so often it also dripped on them from the cieling. There were a few lamps along the corridor, some broken on the ground, some half-hanging out of their sockets.

After a few minutes in these newly worsened conditions, the duo arrived at a junction. The hallway turned left, and there was a door straight ahead. It had a sign above it, reading:

Electrical Main

Authorised Personnel Only!

"The generator ought to be in there" Philly thought out loud, but his partner wasn't listening to him. He started slowly wandering down the hallway, as it continued.

Broken and turned-over steel shelves rusted away on the ground, with old and soggy cardboard boxes and floating pieces of paper surrounding them and littering the corridor.

The air seemed to get warmer and warmer, as Chad made his way down the hall.

"Hey! Kid!" Philly rushed after him "Shouldn't we, ya know, stay together?"

The young man looked at him with determination in his eyes. "I'll go and find those pesky pipes, you just worry about getting us some power." he responded, and put one hand on Philly's shoulder.

"Here, lemme' give you some extra batteries. Two for the flashlight, and two more for the radio. We sould be careful with our lamps, so as to not run out of light, right? But I'm sure you'll get us some power!"

Philly thought for a second, but he could see the advantage in splitting up. It would make things a whole lot faster, if they managed to turn the power on and deal with the pipe-problem too right away, without wasting even a second. Then they can just regroup and get out of here! He looked at the young man with a heavy gaze. He trusted this boy implicitly, and this wasn't about to change.

"Well" he sighed "Let's switch the radios on then, shall we?"

They both flipped the small dial, and following a second of static noise, the radios turned on.

"Let's stay on Channel 4" Philly continued "That one has the strongest connection."

Chad did a playful salute, showing he understood. Philly nodded, and was just about to walk back, when Chad cleared his throath.

"See you soon Boss!" he grinned, and started down the hallway once more.

Philly looked at him for a few seconds, before saying "See you soon, Kid!" He walked back to the door, and flashed his light on the sign above it.

"Here comes nothing!" he sighed, before he pulled the door open and stepped in.

As Philly walked through the entrance, he felt a suddent chill. The air around him was significantly cooler than it was in the previous hallway. The pools of water were present in here too, just as shallow as before. Philly made his way through the corridor. He soon figured out the reason for the suddent drop in temperature: The walls were all iron-clad. They were probably painted at some point, but all of that had chipped off over the many years of neglect. On top of that, rust was eating away at the steel installations aswell, and if Philly directed his light into the holes that had formed in the great iron slabs, he could see into the space between the walls.

Needless to say, this corridor also showed signs of rapid abandonment, with knocked over steel shelves and broken glasses and vials.

Upon closer inspection, remains of gauges and other measuring instruments could be seen in the walls.

Philly thought, at some point this corridor must have been full of people, like scientists or something, all working at these walls, monitoring some..... thing. Or things. Who knows? It was really hard to tell, as all the labels have long since come off, and nothing could be deciphered from the gauges themselves.

Philly walked through another door, not even batting an eye on the sign, saying:

Main Power Control-Room

Entry with only Lv.7 Permit

He found himself in a large room, with surprisingly little treversable space in it. Most of the floor was taken up by control panels, tables straining under massive piles of paper, and office chairs that, much like everything else in this underground bunker, were in complete disarray.

The walls were full with chalkboards that still had some electricity related problems on them. Besides these, there was one central control panel, that looked to be the main one. Next to it on the wall was a lever in the off-position.

Philly was sure this one was the ticket to restoring power, but before he could get there, he noticed two things.

First was the lack of water-demage everywhere. Seems like this room was proofed enough, not to get flooded even when everything else did.

Second, he saw on one of the tables a small, lether-bound notebook. He flipped through it, but the small book wasn't full. The last entry was written in red ink, instead of the usual blue or black.

"The excursion had been brought under control and all following power-spikes have been prevented." Philly read out loud "But the equipment had suffered a large amount of demage. The main panels are fine, but the monitoring hallway next door was blown almost all to pieces. We have recived a message about another potential problem, and must attend an emergency meeting.

In case I'm not back by the time operations can resume, I'll leave detailed instructions on how to restore power to the systems."

The entry was not signed, but flipping back to the front of the diary, Philly found the name: Dr. Albert von Stein, Electro-phisicist.

Sure enough, after one more minute of looking around, Philly found a piece of paper with the instructions.

Chad was making his way down the corridor, that kept going on and on, with no branching paths or doors opening from it. As he kept moving, he noticed the water level slowly getting higher.

He also started hearing strange noises, like the groaning of metal, straining under pressure. Unlike any sane individual however, Chad took this as a good sign. The sound could have easily come from the pipes he was looking for, so every so often he stopped to listen for the noise.

As he kept moving forward, the sound got louder, untill he finally reached a junction. He was sweating fiercly from the ever increasing heat, as he stood in shin-hight water.

Ahead of him were two doors. The one on the right had "Water- and Heating Main" written on it, while the other had no indication as to what was behind it.

Then, Chad heard the strained groaning sound again, coming from the right. He stepped in without a second thought, and had the exact opposite expirience his colleague did when he set foot in the electrical hallway.

The temerature had raised almost 10 more degrees, despite already being quite high. He saw pipes running on the cieling, and he noticed that some of them went through the wall into the room behind the left-side door.

Not sure about what his next step should be, he decided to radio his partner.

"Phil, do you copy?"

The line sizzled for a moment, before the other end connected.

"Hey Kid, yeah! I hear you loud n' clear! Now it's good we're talking, 'cause I think I know how to turn on the power!"

While talking, Chad kept looking around the corridor. He accidentally bunped his flashlight into something on the wall. He didn't see what it was, only a "splash" in the water. Not thinking much of it, he kept examining the old panels.

"A few more buttons to press, and soon all systems should be online! -over-" Philly continued.

On the other end, the young man got caught up on a few dials on the wall, showing signs of life. Due to the heat, the air was really damp, which could easily dull anyone's sences. Still, Chad felt like sonething was off. There was a funny smell in the air. He kept looking around for the source, while he could hear his partner on the other end of the line, getting closer and closer to turning the power back on.

Then, he noticed a black wire sticking out of the panels on the wall.

"This isn't safe at all..." he thought to himself, completely dismissing virtually everything he's seen so far, while venturing down into this facility.

"Okay, I'm all set!" Philly chimed in on the radio "Now I only have to wait ten more seconds, and pull the lever, so I'm gonna' count down!"

As he did, Chad kept looking around the wall. He found a strange socket, that didn't look like anything else. As he put his hand up to it, the young man could feel air rushing out, but something was wrong with it, as the outled had rough and sharp edges. Like something broke off of it.

"....four, three, two..."

His eyes suddently widened in realization, and he almost crushed the radio in his hand, while pushing down the talk-button.

"One. And let there be light!" Philly exclaimed triumphantly, as he pulled the reset-lever.

"WAIT!" His partner screamed, but in vain.

Suddently, the air in the flooded corridor ignited, as the sparks from the exposed wire touched with the leaking gas. An immense explosion followed, that blew Chad through the concrete wall, right into the other room. It also knocked down most of the corridor, as the walls and cieling caved in, blockng the passage.

Miraculously, the system was succsesfully rebooted, as lights turned on with a buzz, and ventillation systems whirred to life.

Philly rushed down to see what happened, as the explosion rumbled through the entire struckture, and Chad didn't answer on the radio.

He passed a door half blocked by a pile of concrete rubble before he arrived at the two-door junction. The one on the right only had three smoking hinges left of it in the frame, as the door itself blasted clean off in the explosion. Carefully, he stepped inside, and looked around.

"Kid?" he called a little nervously "You in here?"

Then he spotted the human-sized hole in the wall. He clambered through, and saw Chad, resting on top of the remains of two wooden cabinets.

"C'mon Kid, this isn't time to laze around, we have to find those trobulesome pipes and make them right!" Philly joked in a nonchalant tone.

Chad just gestured to him to get closer.

As he looked up, his head was covered in dust, while his face was pretty red from the explosion, but otherwise looked unscaved. He carefully grabbed his partner's vest, and pulled him close.

"...n-next time" he whispered hoarsly "you could wait just a sec *cough* when I ask you to...*cough cough*

"Sure Buddy, can do."

With that, Chad dropped back on to the pile of debris. Philly just chuckled to himself, and left his friend to have a moment of rest, while he kept exploring the corridor.

Though a section of them was blown off, the pipes that came here from the other side, kept going along the length of the hallway.

With this being their only real clue, he decided to follow them.

Meanwhile, Chad slowly got up, dusted his clothes and checked if his radio still worked. Thanks (probably) to some wizardry, it looked as good as new. The same however could not be said about his flashlight, only the hilt of which remained.

"Hey, uuuh Phil? I'll go back and check if we still have a way out. The explosion might have knocked some stuff down.-over"

A few seconds later he got his answer.

"Sure Kid, I'll keep looking for our pipes in the meantime. Over and out."

The young man slowly made his way back through the hallway, but he didn't get far before noticing something new.

A door had seemingly appeared out of the blue. He was racking his brain trying to figure out how he managed to miss a whole door before, but no matter how much je thought, he couldn't remember it being there the first time. Then, the answer presented itself in the form of plaster, laying in a small pile at the door's base.

Only now did Chad realize, that the water, which reached almost up to his knees before, had drained away almost entirely. He wasn't sure where, but maybe the electrical systems coming online also included a drainage pump or something like that.

Following a bit of tugging, the door finally opened. To Chad's dismay, the lights weren't on in there. He tried the switch on the wall, but it did nothing. Having resigned himself to more uncertainty in the darkness, he switched on his flashlight, and stepped in.

It was clear, that this room wasn't like anything they have seen so far. There were no sign of a fast exit, which would be explained by the fact, that the door had been sealed. And it wasn't a rush-job either! The interior here was still old, dusty, and a little scuffed in a few places, but everything looked largely intact.

"Heck, if it weren't for that explosion just now, this place wouls probably be in pristine condition!" Chad muttered to himself. Soon, he why this room was left in such a good state, compared to the rest of the facility.

"DANGEROUS" read one label "Spontaniously Combustable" read another. Chad very carefully, but also very quickly put that one back down, and proceeded to stay as far away from it as he could.

On the counter at the back of the room, stood a wierd machine. It had glass tubes and round vials, some wheels that looked like they belonged on a film projector, and a strange, violet colored powder loaded into it.

Curiosity having gotten the better of him, Chad decided to turn on the machine. It had power, so he only needed to switch it on.

As he did, the contraption wheesed and coughed a little, before hoarsly whirring into life. It continued to make questionable sounds, even after it had properly warmed up.

The poweder disappeared within the mechanism, only to reappear as a violet colored liquid in the tubes, followed by the machine emitting some steam.

Then, a small flame turned on underneath a vile, and the liquid flowed into it, as if on cue.

Chad was mesmerized by what he was seeing. It was like one of those TryItAtHome Chemistry sets, that kids could play around with. Exept this one seemed to be rather fine-tuned, despite all the time it must have spent down here gathering dust, instead of producing data.

But now, it's time has come to shine (once more?). The liquid turned into violet steam, which was, once again, pushed through a series of glass tubes.

A small vent opened at the bottom of the machine, right where the smoke was going. The wheels kept turning faster and faster... untill one of them broke off. A few sparks flew, and Chad got so scared that he'll be blown up a second time, he didn't notice the small vent closing, and the violet vapor escaping out into the air.

The small cloud was meant to be harmless, because contacting air neutralized all of it's components within a second or two. Unfortunately, Chad was standing right in it's way, and it hit him, before disappearing completely. It went into his eyes, he inhaled it, swallowed it, and absorbed some of it through his skin. The young man stumbled backwards, out of the room, and back into the hallway.

A vortex formed in front of his eyes. A dark spiral, that swallowed everything around him, untill he was standing in a black void. He looked up, and saw a night sky, with dawn on it's way at the eastern horizont.

Not far from him however, stood a figure. It looked like a human, in fact it looked like his partner! "Hey Phil!" he called out, and the figure looked up!

Exept, it wasn't Philly. It's head was white as chalk, and the surface of it's face looked smooth. The glasses on it's head turned out bot to be glasses at all, when it blinked, and the "glasses" opened outward in two pieces, split horizontally in the middle. The eyes they revealed shone bright yellow, with a black outline.

Suddently, it fixed it's gaze on Chad. The two were locked in a staring contest for a few moments, before the creature's body turned away instead of it's head, and it started running towards Chad, who was scared down to his toes. Quickly grasping his situation, he too turned scab, and high tailed it out of there as fast as his legs could take him.

Not twenty steps away, in the left-side hallway, Philly was still following the pipes on the cieling. Now, that most of the lights were on, it was much easier to treverse these abondened rooms and corridors. Still, the ever present remains of heavy water-demage, and light-speed abandonment could be observed. Sometimes he stopped for a bit, and read a few passages from the little book.

"Day 9. Subject 125, human male, age: mid 40s, hight: 188 cm, weight: 85 kg.

After being introduced to the substance "Flower Dust" subject has developed light blue eyes, he's skin had paled, and his hair turned black."

Philly continued walking along the hallway, untill he came across a fork in the road. The hallway split into two, and the pipes on the cieling continued in both directions.

He didn't know about the noise Chad tried to follow, so when he heard it faintly from the right, he paid it no mind and went left instead.

There was no way for him to know where he was going, but he didn't seem too fussed about his situation. He became so invested in the journal entries, that at some point, he just sat down behind what used to be a desk in an old office, and kept on reading.

Chad's whereabouts didn't cross his mind once. "He's probably okay" he told himself, then dove back into the pages.

"Day 13. Even more unusually, in spite of having been given a specific set of clothing to wear while testing, following the consumption of Flower Dust, subject 125 always appears in a blue-gray suit, white shirt and black tie.

No matter how many times subject changes into clothing suitable for tests, the next day, they will be back in the suit, DESPITE not getting it back the previous day.

No idea, as to where the suits come from."

"Day 25. The previously mentioned "new" clothing item, a.k.a.: the black lether suitcase (dimensions: 120cm×70cm×5cm) seems to work in a similar fashion (...) to the suit, subject 125 continues to appear in, as in, subject 125 will carry the suitcase on his person, but even if it's taken away and NOT returned, subject will have a new one in his person the next day."

For the first time since they entered the crawlspace in The Bank's bathroom, Philly checked his watch for the time. He knew they started exploring some time in the afternoon.

Now, it was 00:47. They spent the entire rest of the day, and it would seem most of the night aswell, underground.

For some reason, he still didn't worry about his partner. It didn't even occour to him, that his young colleague should have been back a long time ago, considering he only wanted to check, wether there was any rubble blocking their way out, or not.

Chad didn't even call on the radio to update him on the progress, and rather uncharakteristically, Philly felt offended by this. "Well, I guess he can call whenever he wants..." he grunted to himself, not knowing that his friend had actually tried contacting him several times, but his radio had died and he forgot to change the batteries.

With that, Philly made himself as comfortable as he could in the run-down office, and drifted off to sleep, not giving any meaningful thought to the days events.

On the other side of this extensive underground bunker was Chad, completely out of his mind. He was still being chased by that thing that looked almost, but not quite like his partner. His surroundings seemed to change with every passing second.

One moment, he was running out in the desert at night. Then, he looked back to see how close the creature was to him, just to a train running towards him at full speed. It whistled loudly, and Chad dove out of the way. When he managed to get back on his feet, he found himself standing on the cushion of an armchair, floating in a light blue voud, with other pieces of furniture floating around him aswell.

The creature was still behind him, jumping from piece to piece, trying to get at him.

The young man did everything he could, to stay ahead of it, but he mis-timed obe of his jumps, and couldn't reach the coathanger he was aiming for. He started falling, and hut a table on the way down, before the endless blue shifted again, and now Chad found himself above The City, still falling. He tried to angle himself in a way, so as to hit the softest surface possible.

Without any warning, he saw a pane of glass in the air, and he was falling straight towards it! He could make out the creature on the other side, waiting just fir him.

He couldn't divert himself, shut his eyes as he broke through the glass.

He landed on soft, but solid ground. It was grass! He slowly sat up, amd found that he had a pump shotgun in his left hand. Surrounding him were tall hedges, as far as he could see.

He wanted to get up, but had no energy left, and collapsed back down.

As if not even a second had passed, Chad woke up again on the same grass, between the same hedges, with the same shotgun in his left hand.

What he didn't know, was that this time, he didn't really get back up, as he was still laying in a room, somewhere deep in the abondened facility...