T-Plus 10

It took another round of investigation and alien splatters before they found the correct room, all Joey’s work of course. As it turned out, every single lounge in that hallway had been taken over by aliens. After waiting for the intern to clear out the first lounge, the three of them settled on the furniture that weren’t covered in splotches of pink. Audrey especially stayed clear of the mess. Her complexion got greener, and she curled up into a ball of sleep to curb the queasiness. With their precious Navigator out for the count, Esther and Joey decided to take a break as well.

Years of early days were ingrained into her body, and even today her biological clock woke Esther up at the usual time. She stretched, hearing the satisfying pops from her spine as she straightened out of the cushioned chair she had chosen as her makeshift bed. One night sleeping in an uncomfortable position and she already missed her cot they had in their base, or better yet, her own bed two floors below.

Light snores filled the room. There was an occasional twist of fabric as someone turned in their sleep. She patted her chest, aiming for the pocket where her pen light usually rested only to feel the soft feeling of her sweater, only then remembering she had taken her lab coat off last night to use as a makeshift blanket. She leaned forward, patting her coat down until she found the pocket with her light. She flicked it on, pointing it toward the ground. The sudden bright light caused her to shut her eyes in pain, but soon they adjusted to the light. If she squinted, she could make out the curled form of the Navigator on the couch across from her. On the only stretch of clean floor some distance away from them was Joey.

Esther lowered her feet to the ground, slipping her feet back into the shoes she had left off. Across from her, she could see Audrey stirring where she laid. As the doctor shuffled over to where the intern was, the Navigator had already sat up, stretching the kinks out of her own skeletal system.

“What time is it?” the Navigator asked, rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes. She covered a yawn behind her hand, still blinking in a daze.

“Hey, wake up,” Esther said, kicking the intern with the tip of her shoe.

The pile of what was the intern’s body groaned as it turned. Esther rolled her eyes, kicking Joey again.

“Wake up!”

Another groan came as a response. With a sigh, she sat on him, putting all her weight on his side. He ignored her for a bit before finally succumbing to waking up.

“Do you have to do this?” he complained through huffs.

She stood once his breaths became more forced. With her weight off his stomach, he took deep breaths as he sat up, glaring at her.

“You don’t have an easier way of waking me up?”

“You wouldn’t wake up if it was anything lighter,” Esther replied, making her way back to her seat.

“Uggggh,” Joey groaned, flopping back down on the ground in an eagle spread.

Given another thirty minutes, the trio collected themselves and prepared to explore deeper into ARCNAV’s laboratories. There’d been some clear containers, used to store food and drinks according to Audrey, secured in the cabinets in the lounge. Each of them kept at least one container on them, and they filled them with what remained of Joey’s massacre yesterday.

“You think these’ll work?” Joey asked as they filed back outside.

Esther pointed at the other three rooms still full of aliens.

“Test it out. Best outcome is you kill a few more, and we have fresher test subjects.”

Joey sighed, handing over his backpack as Audrey opened the room across from them. He slipped inside, shouting his signature war cry, although Esther could tell there was less enthusiasm than previously. He returned several minutes later, two completely full containers in his hands.

“Good news. One night old alien is still pretty fresh,” he declared. “Now hand me over your containers, so we can pack it to the brim.”

The girls handed over their containers, and the intern disappeared back inside, coming back with double the containers they had handed him. He handed one back to each of them, storing the extras into his backpack for later. They headed back into the rotunda, staring at the remaining three hallways they hadn’t explored yet.

“What’s in the other hallways?” Joey asked.

“The one right across from us over there is the higher ranking Navigators’ lounges,” Audrey explained. “The two gated ones lead further into the labs themselves. The one to our left is the lower ranks, while the other one is for the higher ones.”

“It seems our alien friends’ nest might be somewhere in the higher ranking labs then,” Esther surmised, nodding her head at the traces of the giant alien.

Audrey glanced in the gate’s direction, her face paling again.

“Since we know where the general direction of the nest is, my objective here is done,” Esther declared.

“I thought you were going to suggest finding the exact location,” Joey muttered.

The doctor rolled her eyes. “I’m not suicidal.”

“I want to check the lower labs,” Audrey said, interrupting them.

As the other two pair of eyes centered on her, she continued.

“I haven’t seen any traces of the others,” she explained. “My friend... she’s a lot stronger than me... and on the first day of this mess, she was with me. She said she’d check out the situation and told me to stay in the lounge, but...”

Esther raised an eyebrow, keeping silent as she regarded the young Navigator. Evidently, despite being all high and mighty as most of her kind, being a witness of the intern’s messy shenanigans had mellowed her out. The doctor crossed her arms, looking to the intern. She had already declared her intentions, so the decision was on him.

The intern swept his hand through his hair. He was silent for a moment before turning back and forth, staring at the other two. He pointed at himself, staring at Esther.

“Wait, I have to decide?”

At this point, Esther knew her facial muscles were either getting an unnecessary workout or her eyebrow was going to freeze where she raised it. Instead, she rolled her eyes at him.

“I already said I was done here, so yes, if you want to be the knight in shining armor, go ahead. I’ll go where you go. I can’t head back on my own, after all.”

“I have to decide? But, but you always decide, you’re...”

He waved his arms, stuttering syllables at her. She waited, but it didn’t seem like he was going to form a coherent sentence any time soon.

“I’ll go by myself then!” Audrey snorted, regaining her vigor when Joey’s indecision extended longer than her patience. She turned on her heel and marched toward the locked gate, pulling her ID badge out of her pocket.

“W-Wait! You can’t go alone!”

“Took you long enough to make a decision,” Esther said, shaking her head as she followed the Navigator.

After another moment of waving his arms in distress, Joey followed after. Audrey had already unlocked the gates and run ahead, her location marked by the waving of her light up ahead. Joey ran after her, leaving Esther to catch up to them at her own pace. Even if their lights disappeared from her view, the intern’s hysterics would be easy to hear through the thick walls. It wouldn’t be too hard to find them.

The lights swung from side to side as they checked something on the walls. They stared at it for so long, Esther caught up to them with her slow walking speeds. As she approached them, she noticed it was too silent. Other than the appalled looks on their faces, neither of them said anything. Upon reaching them, she turned her light toward the walls too.

There were splatters on the wall where it connected to the floor but not in the usual pink. It was a darker color, a redder shade. It had dried into a dark brown on the walls, but she still recognized it at a glance. She kneeled, pointing her pen light at the corners. It’d been several days now, that much was obvious at a glance. The splatter was in the general form of a human, but the uniform that had crumpled in its place was what the other two were staring at.

It was purple in color, and close to the empty sleeve was an ID badge identical to Audrey’s. It was covered in blood, and the image was completely covered, but parts of the name could still be read. In bolded Comic Sans, the name “Valentine Marino” was printed at the bottom. Esther pointed her light away from the ID badge, looking at the number of stars on the purple uniform. Unlike the two stars that were on Audrey’s shoulder and chest emblems, this uniform had four, one star below what would be considered high ranking. Her death by aliens would be a loss for the UEA.

The doctor picked up the badge and showed it to the living Navigator. Audrey paled further once she saw the name on the ID clearly. She shook her head, falling to her knees as she grasped the dirtied purple uniform on the floor. Tears didn’t stream down her face, but the girl clenched her teeth and her hands shook as she picked the uniform up and hugged it.

Esther glanced at Joey, nodding toward the darkness down the hallway. He, for once, understood her intentions and patrolled further away, leaving the two of them alone. The doctor stepped away from the Navigator, pointing her light around them.

The majority of the stains were centered around the uniform, but there were several on the floor reaching up to that point. Starting from the entrance of the gates to where she finally succumbed to the aliens were bloody streaks. Most of it had been cleaned up, probably by the aliens that missed out on the feast, but the footprints themselves were still pretty clear. She followed the footprints past the mourning figure of Audrey, and pointed her light the rest of the way until they reached Joey’s boots. There was someone else that was with her, and it looked like they made it further than Valentine had.

Joey returned, leaning over to whisper into Esther’s ear, keeping his voice low so Audrey wouldn’t be disturbed.

“There are traces of more dead up ahead, and a lot of dead aliens too. I couldn’t check the room, but there are traces of some recentish footprints, I think.”

Esther nodded, glancing over at Audrey who was standing from her moment of grief. She turned to them, her eyes red but still dry.

“Let’s go. According to the footprints we’re standing on, there were more with her, right?”

They nodded, and Joey took the lead. The atmosphere between them had turned somber, although it was still as quiet as before. Audrey walked behind the intern, her light pointed straight ahead, ignoring the blood splatters they came across. Esther pointed her light at them, picking up the ID badges that were discarded. The collection was deposited in her pocket, a mental note of how many stars were attached to each uniform they came from. None were more than three or less than two, and in total her pocket held about ten of them.

With each one she collected, Audrey’s pace became more hurried, and she was practically pushing Joey forward with each step. As they power walked down the hallway, they passed a multitude of laboratories, each labeled like those outside of ARCNAV, with a giant number beside each door. Esther glanced at each label as they passed, catching names such as “Bionics Lab 1” or “Stabilization Room 3” or “Star Map Room.” If they weren’t in such a hurry, Esther would’ve loved to get Audrey to open each room and let her read through their research notes.

The footprints they followed ignored each door, rushing forward. Soon, they slowed as their lights hit a door at the end of the hallway. The elaborate white letters on the wall labeled it as Lab Room 20, with the plaque named it as “Warp Equipment Room.” The footprints disappeared underneath the door.

Audrey tapped her badge on the door, and the trio held their breath as the lock clicked open. Joey pulled the doors apart, letting Audrey and Esther slip in first before he let it close behind him. As they swept the lights around the room, they heard a voice.

“Dr. Emerson?”

Esther turned her light toward the voice, her eyes widening at the person appearing in their lights. He was a mess, as messy as the boys got when they came back from crawling through the dusty vents. His hair was a rat’s nest, his appearance disheveled. A short purple coat covered the rest of his purple uniform. His pants were ripped near the ankles, and makeshift bandages were wrapped around his exposed legs. Six stars were emblazoned across his chest and down his sleeves, three on each arm.

“Aaron,” Esther said in greeting.