Breakthrough

Aftermath
There was truly nothing but infinite darkness in which he was floating. The space seemed to
be somehow deprived of gravity rendering him suspended freely in the space.
However, upon further thought, he realised he wasn't still but moving quite slowly. Before he
could assess the situation, he heard a faint sound. However, it was slowly getting louder.
It was now a bit audible and all he could hear were chants of otherworldly language.
The voice seemed to be soft yet he could feel its pain when it said “h’te bokr Meryl”
What did it mean? He couldn't tell and honestly didn't care. It seemed like a group of words
were thrown into a mixer before being reassembled in a meaningless mess.
And then before he knew it, he was awake. Either way, it was a lot for him to process at the
moment and knowing the memory of his weird dream will slowly fade away as the day goes
on, he decided to not give any other thought to it.

He woke up to a keen headache, and it was pretty weird. Even though the headache was
not normal for it had become a staple of his life for some reason ever since they finished the
project, it was the fact that he was able to sleep yesterday which had become quite scarce
lately.
Something was truly wrong with that telescope as if it had wrought doom upon them -
indirectly they themselves had brought it upon themselves. He couldn't think much of it
because it had only been a couple of weeks since it was developed and it could merely be a
coincidence.
He got up from his chair and arranged the documents laying around on the table, making a
stack of them before putting them in his cupboard. He was still in a morning daze, moving
slowly when he looked out of the window and something was different. Amidst the darkness
and glittering points, there was a large piece of metal floating outside. This immediately
threw him out of balance and he ran towards the pane to get a better look.
On closer look, he safely confirmed the large metallic scrap which seemed to be a part of
some sort of shuttle. If something serious was going on, there was little he could do as
hoping for help was futile this deep in space. He put on his class suit and opened the door of
his room which led to a horizontally connecting hallway.
In short, he was horrified. Seeing the blood all over the confined tunnels surely wasn't an
everyday thing.
He could think of 3 scenarios which led to this. First was that the revolt had finally taken
place, with all the researchers and security fighting each other to death - this was the sanest
assumption he had made. The second one was that the one at the top feared that the cover
had been blown off this project and decided to commit mass genocide, killing all evidence
along with the scientists. The last assumption however was the most terrifying. Maybe, all
the ordeals they’d been going through had gotten into them and made them lose their sanity,
making nothing but chaos fall everywhere. Whatever it was, it all happened quite quickly in
the 4 hours he had slept through.
Walking through the corridor he could still hear faint screams from other quarters which
seemed to be in the other sector. He was getting very anxious as the tension was building
up.
He then looked at the door which led to the cafeteria, what would've happened there and
most importantly, what horrors might lie there. He swiped his card and the door slid open.
Inside was as dark as outside. He lit his suit and partially illuminated the dark room. He
looked at the turned tables and the broken counter, at the scattered plates and cutlery.
‘Who’s there?’ A broad yet somehow timid voice asked from behind an inverted table.
‘I mean no harm’ Eve replied to prove his pacifist thought.
‘They all said the same, whilst they were human that is…’ the person replied in a low voice.
‘Wha- what happened here?’
The man got up and revealed himself. His wrist had a cut which wasn't that deep but wasn’t
that shallow either. He had something in his other hand, the plasma cutter. It wasn't a
weapon but a devastating tool - used to cut diamond-like hard substances from a safe
distance.
‘You sure are one hell of a man who happens to have missed all of this- are you serious
though? ’ the person asked
‘I slept through, I guess?’ Eve walked closer slowly but the man backed off a bit too.
‘Stay there…’ he said as he examined him ‘...do you happen to have run into one of those?’
‘Who?’ Eve was genuinely confused and the man could tell.
‘Well, you aren’t lying’ the person came closer and then said :
‘I am Drew, from the 3rd sector. The ship is descending to hell, to say the least. With all of
those monsters roaming around, I doubted anyone would be left alive and well, here is
someone completely unaware of this whole circle of hell.’
‘I don't know but at least I'm up now’ Eve said and then briskly looked towards the door as
he heard footsteps of sorts.
‘Someone’s here I guess’ Eve said
‘Somethings here I’d say’ Drew held his wrist and then gave the cutter to Eve saying:
‘Actually, you coming here was the last best thing I could hope for… here take this and blast
them away. I'm not in good condition, to say the least, but I sure do hope you are in it’
Eve hesitated but then finally took it and pulled the small lever located at the top of its
behind.
‘Well, what about you?’
‘Why, I'm coming with you of course! I'm not that brave to sacrifice myself for someone I've
just met even if it were for the sake of humanity. You protect me and I will tell you the way I
know to get out of this mess’
Eve looked at him ‘I wouldn't expect more to be honest, for I would react the same. Well, let's
get on with it, shall we-’
The footsteps appeared to be getting prominent to the point Eve doubted if whatever was
heading towards them was human. A shadow loomed over the edge of the door as both of
them stared right at it as if there were no tomorrow - and it was very likely that there was no
tomorrow.
End of the line
He was running for almost half an hour now, stopping to catch his breath now and then but it
seemed that he had hit the end of the hallway. However, the most bizarre thing was probably
the absurd length of the hallway. He couldn’t remember any of the passages being this long -
being around 500 m in continuation - and now there was just a wall, no door, no turn, no
indicator; just a plain wall.
He looked at the plasma gun in his hand as he rested leaning on the wall with the other
hand. The gun’s barrel had a miniature screen with 8 bars lined up in it. Each bar
represented 3 shots and it appeared the gun had charged completely. He took a deep
breath, at least something was in his favour.
He then sat down with his back on the wall, closing his eyes ‘ for a moment ’ or so he
thought.
Just as he sat down, he began to think. All sorts of thoughts sprang up in his mind within a
few moments. What should he do? What will he do? What had happened? Will he live to see
tomorrow? Is there a tomorrow? Is this all real?
Moments later, before he could tell, he was yet again floating in the infinite darkness. Every
thought seemed to have phased out as he looked at the silence and felt the nothingness. His
heart felt as gloomy as the darkness outside as if he were resonating with the void.
However, despite being similar to the last time, this time he could see something. Something
so large he himself was surprised he hadn’t noticed it till now. ‘Enormous’ and ‘big’ were not
enough to explain its size and he could feel its presence reverberate inside his body. A
sensation of something - something out of the mortal bounds. Even with the gigantic
proportions and crystal clear void, he could not perceive the appearance of the creature. It
wasn’t that the creature was weird or inconsistent in shape - no. It had a definite shape and
fixed outlines, bright as the sun, almost blinding. It was as if the images he was
accumulating of the thing were slipping past his consciousness, just like the sand flowing
despite being held with a clenched fist. He could not help but look at it even harder, so hard
that he almost couldn't hear the chantings that were repeating faintly. The creature emitted a
radiant blue aura which seemed to be disguising itself in the darkness, just like camouflage.
The chantings were slowly getting louder, this time repeating the otherworldly phrase “devia
MEHRYL! Sate yog MEHRYL!”. It seemed more like hailings than mere chantings as if
celebrating the grand arrival of someone magnificent and royal.
The creature was now gone with nothing but a faint blue aura and that's when he blinked last
time. He opened his eyes and saw he was back in the metal hallway, laying on the floor. He
had lost sense of time the moment he started running and couldn’t tell how much he had
‘dreamed’.
He got up and took a good look around himself. Everything was surreal which forced him to
think from time to time if this all was real. He started walking nevertheless with nothing but
just the lust for survival driving him. He stretched his body a bit which felt stiff and was
aching mildly. Ignoring the pain, he continued towards the door on his left.

…
Eve looked at the shadows as the dark figure swept past the door with footsteps now
drawing further. It seemed the thing hadn’t noticed them, maybe it was the darkness of the
hall.
Drew looked at Eve and shrugged. ‘We got lucky I guess’ Drew said as he took exactly 3
steps ahead from where he could see a bit outside of the door. Eve followed him asking ‘is it
gone?’
‘Seems so’ he replied. They then proceeded until they reached the passageway from where
Eve had earlier entered. The corridor seemed to have changed. Eve could swear he didn't
take any turn on his way as he looked at a sharp turn in the direction he had supposedly
come from. ‘Doesn't seem familiar to me’ Eve remarked, Drew also looked around and
acknowledged his words. ‘Same here, it sure does feel different…’
Eve walked towards the wall at the turn and gently touched it. ‘It seems like it has been here
forever, conflicting the fact it wasn’t.’
The wall looked like other walls and it didn't seem to have been attached separately even
though it wasn’t there previously.
It was now that Eve realised what had been happening even though it should be impossible.
But they weren’t able to replicate it when they allegedly wanted to, let alone the fact it was
supposedly acting naturally at the moment. However, this led to another stark realisation that
filled all of this with some meaning. Perhaps the scope had malfunctioned - not that it ever
functioned.
Eve also realised that drew hadn’t drawn this conclusion yet and he didn’t even want to tell
him either for it would be too tiresome to explain such a phenomenon to an untrained mind.
Considering everything he had concluded, it was logically impossible to escape this hell. Eve
instantly felt sadness building up deep in his heart, slowly but steadily, accompanied by the
feeling of being lost to a fight he hadn't even fought. He didn't tell Drew any of this for he
didn't want to kill his hope before his shell.
‘Well then, let's go this way-’ Eve said as he turned around and started walking.
Drew saw Eve suddenly snapping out of something and proceeding to turn around mumbling
some words before starting to walk. He suddenly felt a bit concerned about his mental state
and also feared what would become of him in the near future if this keeps up. He dashed
ahead and stopped Eve by his shoulder ‘Don’t worry, we will get out of here - I've got a
brilliant plan!’
Eve knew clearly that he was bluffing and couldn’t help but laugh inside pathetically upon
themselves. They both knew there was no way out for them, yet they were clinging onto a
false hope that they themselves created to keep them going.
It wasn’t like they had anything to lose, so betting on this false hope was the only option right
now - at least it would spare them their sanity for a while more and let them live their last
moments in their right minds.
‘Sure we will’ Eve said as he faked a smile, vaguely.
Eve continued walking, there was an awkward silence for about half an hour and seeing they
weren’t getting anywhere, Drew finally asked ‘What sector are we in?’
‘No idea, I thought we might eventually hit a gathering hall but we haven’t… perhaps we
shall start taking turns now-’ Eve said as he turned towards the other corridor joining the
current one in which they were walking.
Drew hesitated a bit and said ‘Fair enough.’
The walking continued for another fair amount of time before they finally hit a Data hall.
The data hall was a room in each of the sectors containing all the data - as the name
suggests.
Eve looked at its door which had a trail of blood seeping down the handle, and much to their
surprise it was still fresh. Someone was inside. The duo quickly exchanged glances and
nodded their head.
‘Listen, I must tell you that those things, th-they don't feel anything so even if you unload a
full cartridge into their head, be prepared for the thing might still fight back; this also led me
to the conclusion “shooting in the head” strategy is too impractical. Shoot their limbs I’d say
unless you’re sure about yourself in close combat - which I personally am not.’ Drew gave a
heads-up to Eve and the latter listened carefully.
The moment he got close to the door, he heard sounds of things colliding with each other -
more specifically a rough, hollow object with something metallic.
He backed up a bit and Drew got in a ready position, ready to tackle.
Eve slowly stretched out his arms until they reached the handle of the door and softly clicked
it.
Swiftly he withdrew his hand and took 3 steps back. The door slid open, and the red lights of
the room flooded them and amidst the blood mist there stood a thing which also seemed to
have noticed them. The thing reeked of stale blood and rotten corpse and it slowly turned
towards them until its hollow eye sockets along with the partially exposed skull - which was
covered in pale, dead skin - looked at him. The thing almost immediately let out a shrill
scream as it suddenly dashed ahead with its unusually large arms spread like a scythe,
ready to chop off his head. Eve jumped back immediately as he immediately shot 3 times
with little or no pause in between. The thing seemed unphased, and it's now slowed torso
slammed against Eve - throwing both of them off balance. Eve fell towards the wall and
immediately turned towards the creature even before he could gasp for some air. He saw the
creature turn towards Drew and prepare to dash. He shot again, this time at its arm which it
was supposedly preparing to lash out at Drew. He stumbled this time - a bit - and fell on the
ground with its head on the wall.
Eve shouted at Drew asking him to back and he proceeded to slam his left foot into its dead
skull until it was nothing more than a mess of skin and mashed bones. He was taking
support with his arms on the wall, thrashing him when its torso again moved, attempting to
get up. Drew immediately saw an opening and picked up the cutter which Eve threw in an
attempt to smash the creature. Drew unloaded one last shot and the creature didn't move
after that. With the last shot, the creature was left in the wall with his head nothing more than
a mush of red and hard substance which was once blood and bones of its skull and his left
arm severed due to repeated shots and a large hole in its torso which was created after
Drew’s shot.

He was sure he heard it, the gun shots, however he couldnt believe his senses that easily
after all. After a bt of delay, another echo of gunshot fell into his ear. He wasnt sure about it,
but it seemed like a good idea to follow the sound which will hav