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The thumping of Hensley’s boots reverberated in the dark stairwell. Esther followed closely, pinching the back of his dusty white and blue uniform. The winding stairs were cold beneath her unprotected feet, and she could feel every edge of the industrial steps when she misstepped. Their only light source illuminated a measly few feet ahead of them. Hensley proceeded slowly, confirming there wasn’t something unexpected just past their field of vision.

He paused in his step. Esther, having learned after the first few times, stopped before slamming into his shoulder... again. She peered out from behind him.

“What is it this time?”

“I’m not sure,” he replied.

Hensley motioned for her to stay where she was as he ventured further. Her eyes followed the pinprick of light pointing at the steps. The few times before had been patches of rubble that had rolled from the floor above or from the wall itself. This time the steps were covered in a murky stain.

“Is this... blood?” Hensley asked, pointing down at a dark red stain.

“It’s drying, but recent,” Esther replied, taking a few steps toward him.

She stood beside him, careful to keep her feet away from the coagulating red splotches. There was a large splatter where Hensley was pointing. Esther’s eyes followed his cautious light as he tracked the trail of blood further down the stairs. The trail streaked further around the bend of the stairwell, out of eyesight.

“They were in a hurry,” Esther observed.

“Wouldn’t you be?”

The doctor smacked his arm, rolling her eyes.

“Why were they in a hurry?”

Hensley rubbed his arm, pursing his lips as he gave her question some serious thought.

“Well, I’m not an expert,” he paused, giving a nod her way, “but that looks like a lot of blood.”

He swiveled their pen light around the stairwell. Behind them was the way they came, and before them was the trace of blood.

“And there’s no debris anywhere,” he continued. “Running into something’s out of the question.”

“A third party?” she suggested.

Hensley grimaced at her words. Esther thought back to the scene outside of the Engineering Bay. She tugged on Hensley’s sleeve.

“You don’t think...?”

He shook his head.

“Let’s continue on. You said it’s drying, so it’s been a while.”

“An hour at most,” she elaborated.

“Look, ten minutes or an hour doesn't matter.”

She could only motion for him to take the lead again. They couldn’t exactly travel down the stairs any slower than before, however, Hensley, as a precaution, walked farther ahead to check around the bend. With her fingers sliding along the left wall, Esther followed the thin pen’s light and the sound of Hensley’s call outs and footsteps.

“Hold up,” Hensley’s voice called out in a whisper.

His voice was tense and strained. Esther stopped. The thumps of his boots retreated up the stairs towards her. He had his hands covering the light, only allowing the minimal amount so he wouldn’t trip up the stairs.

“What?”

“We're at the exit,” he replied.

“Well, what do we do? We can’t just stay here.”

They sank into silence.

“I’ll go check out the situation,” Hensley said. “You stay here. If the coast is clear, I’ll come back for you.”

“And if the coast isn’t clear?”

“I’ll try to buy you some time. Run to the Elevator.”

“Then what about you?”

A small smile flitted across Hensley’s face.

“I’ll think about it when we get to that point.”

Esther stared at Hensley, but he’d already turned and disappeared around the bend. She was now waiting in darkness. Hensley’s footsteps were a faint sound, the only noise in the stairwell, and they were fading quickly until she almost couldn’t make them out anymore.

She leaned against the wall, her back feeling the cold through her lab coat. This was it: the first floor. Once they made it to the Elevator, she’d finally leave this station. Her last day at work had turned out to be disastrous: hull breaches, a full-scale evacuation, and what could be a new form of a terrorist attack. Esther rubbed her temples with her fingers.

I hope the others made it out safely, she thought.

Her thoughts slipped over to a few days ago, the day that became the catalyst for her decision to transfer. She bit her bottom lip, slapping her cheeks so her thoughts wouldn’t tumble and roll into that chaotic maelstrom. She could continuing mourning later.

The doctor pushed off the wall, standing straight again. Footsteps were coming up the stairs. A small prick of light touched the gray wall some steps ahead of her, illuminating it the way only a LED could. Following it up the stairs was Hensley.

He gave her a nod as he approached her. She gave him a quick once over. He looked fine, and she hadn’t heard anything since he’d gone.

“I assume everything is in the clear?”

“The blood trail leads towards the elevator, so I’m hoping whoever was here before us made it. I followed it for a bit and saw nothing, so we should be fine.”

Hensley gestured for her to follow. They sped up their previous pace, although still within the amount of exertion Esther could handle. Hensley kept the light pointed forward, occasionally flicking downwards to glance at the blood trail. They cleared the rest of the stairs in a matter of seconds, and exited out onto the first floor.

The trail continued strong out here. The only sounds in this usually crowded area were the clear thumps of Hensley's footfalls. She had thought the narrow stairwell was a cesspool of scary thoughts and home for triggers of the overactive imagination, but the wide hallway they entered proved her wrong. There was a strong chill that crept up her legs, transmitting the cold from her toes to her back. Esther clutched the back of Hensley’s uniform, her head flitting side-to-side only to survey the disconcerting darkness.

It was only then that she noticed. Mixed among the deep thumps of Hensley’s boots was another sound. Something strange, a noise that seemed in between water sloshing and squishing. She pulled Hensley’s jacket, preventing him from taking another step forward.

“D-Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

He hushed himself, flicking the light up to point ahead. They both stumbled backwards away from the scene they saw.

“What the fuck?” Hensley whispered, grabbing Esther’s wrist and backing away.

His light had illuminated three giant flesh colored blobs. Their viscous bodies swayed where they sat, thick tendrils sweeping the ground around them. Beneath their bodies, Esther caught sight of the edge of a white lab coat. Half of it had been ripped to shreds, and pieces were floating within the nearest one. The top parts of another seemed to be covered in white cloth. The trail of blood ended at them.

Once the light revealed their presence, all three surged toward Hensley and Esther. Hensley's grip on her wrist tightened and he yanked her out of their reach. They ran.

She glanced over her shoulder at the slime blobs. They swarmed forward, charging at them at power walking speed with tentacles waving in the air. Imagine a squirming wall of flesh paste, a streak of red in them, surging down the hallway towards them. The doctor gagged at her own description, and turned away.

Esther stumbled along, forcing her legs to stride forward and match Hensley’s quick jog. Her legs felt heavy, and every step took effort. Her knees protested, practically creaking as she strained onward. She gritted her teeth, focusing on Hensley's death grip.

The doctor took another step, and her knee squeaked its last creak. She collapsed, but was dragged to her feet by Hensley.

“Shit. Come on,” Hensley said, skidding back to her side.

He hooked his arms under her knees and back, and lifted her up. The flashlight was tucked behind his ear again, and she grabbed it as he started sprinting. She pointed the light forward, guiding him so he wouldn’t send them both tumbling into the slimes’ grasps.

Her free hand clung to his jacket, her eyes darting back at the slimes that had caught up. With her in his arms, sweat rolling down his forehead, and the slime wall clipping his heels, Esther could only tug on Hensley’s sleeve in a desperate plea.

“Put me down!”

“Hush, would you?” he scolded, making an attempt to pick up his lagging pace.

Esther glanced behind them. Luckily, their pursuers weren’t fast to begin with, so Hensley’s last ditch attempt worked. He widened the gap between them, and she couldn’t help but rethink her opinion of him.

“We’re losing them,” she reported.

“Hah, see?” Hensley said between breaths.

The doctor slapped his shoulder.

“You’re tiring faster than they’re chasing us,” she reminded.

“I’ll last long enough to find a place to hide,” he retorted, sweat visibly trickling down his face.

“And where would that be? We’re in the Residential Sector!” she hissed, pointing the light at the locked doors they were passing.

The room numbers flashed under her pen light, revealing the numbers 226. In her knowledge, the stairs let out in Sector 1A. Her room was in Residential Sector 3A, Room 187, half the ring from where they were currently. She had no idea where Hensley’s was, but, considering he was a technician, his room was probably in Sector 6A, which was on the other side of the space elevator. Unless he randomly had someone else’s keycard, she didn’t see a way out of this.

She could feel Hensley gradually slow in his high speed sprint. She had no idea where he was aiming for, but evidently he had more of a plan than she did.

“Shit,” he spat, rounding the bend into the 230s.

The light revealed another trio of slimes, their bodies bobbing as they patrolled the width of the hallway. This set seemed smaller than the ones chasing them, but that didn’t matter at the moment.

Hensley sped up. Esther held on, her fist clenching the front of his uniform.

“What are you going to do?”

“Just hold on!”

The slimes ahead of them halted their patrol and began to form their own wall. Hensley charged at them, stomping his foot as he leaped over them. Esther closed her eyes, bracing herself as she felt the jolt from hitting the ground. She rolled, her arms raising goosebumps from where they collided against the floor.

She scrambled into a sitting position, examining the groaning technician beside her. She flashed the light at his leg. His pant leg had been ripped off, along with a layer of skin. She glanced at the slimes that were surrounding them to see the middle one had absorbed the bloody mess. Shouldn’t slimes melt instead of bite?

“Hensley! Get up!”

The doctor pushed off the ground, but even her own legs weren’t cooperating. The slimes approached them, their tendrils reaching out to Hensley’s injured leg and the edges of her lab coat, which had fanned out behind her.

“Fuck,” Hensley muttered, propping himself on his elbows.

He shoved her away from him, narrowly saving her lab coat from being chewed on.

“Go! Crawl! Leave!”

“But!”

“Get out of here, Emerson!”

The technician crawled forward just to shove her further away. The slimes had attached themselves to his foot. They seemed more interested in him than her, although she noticed the outliers were approaching her. She glanced at Hensley, who was kicking the slimes away from him, both his legs bleeding profusely now. His work pants had become capris, and the slimes munching on the fabric waved their tendrils in the air, searching for more. She inched away from him.

“Ha hah! Fear me!”

A blur of white rushed past her, landing on one of the slimes snacking on Hensley’s legs. The slime exploded in a splattering of flesh colored goop. The surrounding slimes converged on the mucus-like carcass, ignoring the new arrival and Hensley.

“Yuck, I just got this lab coat,” Vaughn complained, standing to affirm himself as the culprit behind the slime murder.

“Toast? What the hell?” Hensley spluttered as the scientist jogged over to them.

“Doc! Hensley! Let’s go!”

Vaughn offered a hand to Esther, who stood on unsteady legs, and together they both yanked Hensley up. The scientist picked up the fallen pen light, pointing them all forward. The slimes behind them had absorbed their dead compatriot, and were bunching up into a wall again.

“Come on!”

“Ugh, it burns!”

“Keep moving!”

Limping forward, Hensley pulled her along. Vaughn kept behind them, pushing them forward. The original wall of three slimes had added to their numbers and now counted five, expanding their wall’s height and width. If anything, increasing their mass decreased their speed, although that didn’t stop their nasty tendrils flicking at their heels, scraping Hensley’s boots and the long tails of her and Vaughn’s lab coats. Blood dripped from Hensley’s legs, leaving a trail behind them.

The technician kept a hand on her shoulder, supporting her as they trotted along. Vaughn warded off the slimes, teasing them by stepping into their range and pulling away again. He pranced around the group, sometimes running ahead with the light to check where they were at. The edges of his lab coat was in tatters, from those seconds where the slimes got a taste of him.

Despite his face set in an expression of gritted teeth and acting like a tough guy, Hensley was falling apart. Blood was everywhere: his legs, the floor, her lab coat, her legs, Vaughn’s lab coat. Sweat was freely dripping down his neck. His back tensed with every hurried step they took, and Esther felt pained knowing that he was also carrying her dead legs along with his own weight.

“Hey, Hensley, where’s your room?” Vaughn asked as he shoved the two of them forward.

Hensley tripped, sending the two of them stumbling forward again. Vaughn caught them by the shoulder, a hiss of pain coming from him as he pushed them away from him. Esther glanced back to see the slimes had swarmed forward and snagged the back of his lab coat. The scientist struggled the coat off, tossing it at the slimes before continuing nudging them forward.

“Right there. Room 244,” Hensley said, vigor returning to his footsteps.

Vaughn flashed the light on one of the doors to their right. Beside the door was the card sensor. They found their reserve source of energy and sprinted for the door. Hensley handed her over to Vaughn and pulled out his ID from beneath his uniform, slapping it against the sensor. His room opened and the three tumbled in. Vaughn slammed the titanium door shut behind him, closing the slimes out and them in.

“Let’s take a nap, shall we?” the scientist joked as both Esther and Hensley collapsed on the ground.