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The days progressed slowly for Sarge. Within the twelve days he’d been trapped in this facility for monitoring, he had little interaction with anyone outside of Borislov and Davison. The two were certainly very kind-hearted toward Sarge, but he wanted the company of more than just them… and Starfish. Between the three of them, Sarge had his blood drawn a few more times, was asked what kind of video games he liked every other day, and was asked several times if he needed a hug. Sure, there’d be a few people that would come in and give him that ‘disinfecting’ bath every so often. But he wanted normal interactions with people, not a whole bunch of people doting on him. He knew it was out of necessity, apparently… but he wanted to do more than be cooped up in a single room all day.

Starfish had said it successfully sent a message to the addressed individual, “Caretaker Xenon,” and even sent a voice recording of Xenon stating who he was. He knew Xenon was quite an intrepid detective, but he doubted Xenon could actually make it into such a high-security facility anyway. Not without proper clearances, of course.

All these ‘protections’ made Sarge become agitated. He truly wanted to know what was going on outside his cell, but no one would give him a straight answer. He even asked Starfish for information, but it merely stated ‘protect Detective Sergeant Wolf’ before hugging itself around him.

“This is all a bit excessive, don’t you think?” Sarge asked Davison on the thirteenth day when the man came in with a few requested video games.

“What is?” Davison replied as he placed the games on the table. “Is the food too much?”

“No, it’s all fine,” Sarge said. “But I haven’t left this room for anything more than that ‘bath’ thingy for the past… several days. No one’s told me anything that’s happening outside. Shouldn’t I be a little more informed on these topics?”

“They’ve got it under control, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Davison walked to the door of the room. “They’ve been installing a lot more safety measures to keep with Unit_00’s robots.”

“Have they actually SEEN Unit_00?”

“Uh… no.” Davison shook his head. “Thank goodness for that, right?”

“How is that even good?” Sarge bit his tongue to avoid snapping. “How can you fight something if you don’t even know what it looks like?”

“I don’t know all the details on it, honestly. I just know mentions that Unit_00 adapts itself quickly and efficiently to accomplish whatever task it needs to do. Guess that means it doesn’t have a defined shape.” Davison shrugged and then tilted his head. “Are you okay, Mister Sergeant? You seem to be more agitated than usual.”

“Try being hulled up here for two weeks with no outside contact and a robot that won’t give you privacy.” Sarge rolled his eyes. “I appreciate that you guys are wanting to protect me, but I feel like I gotta do more than just sit idly.”

“I get that you are good at your job, but right now isn’t the best time to let you-”

The lights of the floor dimmed. This was programmed into the system to simulate ‘night time’. There would only be a few, dark red lights that would glow inside the hallway. It made the place look eerie. Sarge had gotten used to the transition, but he didn’t like the unsettling atmosphere the red lights gave.

“Ahh, see that?” Davison pointed at the ceiling. “Night time, anyway. Best get some sleep, Mister Sergeant.”

“Don’t deflect my question again, Davison!” Sarge bit back, but Davison was already out the door. It closed shut behind him.

“Urgh!” Sarge dropped onto the bed and placed the pillow on his lap. He shoved his face into it and screamed. He wanted, so desperately, to at least talk to one of his friends again, but knew fully well that Starfish couldn’t send a message out again like last time. The only person the mainframe even knew about was Xenon. He was the only person who supposedly superseded Sergeant Wolf in ‘ranking’. He tried to send a second message to Xenon, but Starfish stated that Xenon was nowhere to be found.

“Maybe I should’ve been less cryptic.” Sarge removed his face from the pillow and looked over at Starfish. “Can you tell me any news about what’s going on outside?”

“Must protect Detective Sergeant Wolf,” Starfish said for the Umph-teenth time.

“Can’t you report anymore casualties or something?” Sarge asked.

“Previous report of casualties raised your stress levels. This is not a wise choice.”

“I can’t just be kept in the dark!” Sarge retorted.

“The lights will turn on in nine hours. The darkness of this floor of the facility is meant to-”

“I KNOW what it’s supposed to do! I’m just meaning it metaphorically. It means, ‘I can’t keep being told nothing about a situation that is clearly forcing my involvement’.” Sarge moved the pillow back into place and laid his head down on it. “I don’t even know if Xenon is okay.”

“Caretaker Xenon is not at given address. Caretaker Xenon’s location is unknown,” Starfish repeated.

Sarge didn’t want to reply. He knew fully that Xenon got the message. Unit_00 was possibly after Chomby… but Sarge didn’t even know if that was true. He couldn’t figure out why Chomby’s song was an anomaly in the first place. It wasn’t any different from the other music that he’d stored in Sarge before. What made this thing so different?

Sarge closed his eyes. He could feel his belly was now beginning to sag into the bed. He’d managed to gain enough of a fat reserve now to deal with one, major, non-immediately-life-threatening injury. If he ended up encountering Unit_00 in some way, he’d be able to at least survive for a while if he took damage.

Sarge felt his mind begin to slip into sleep while he imagined he was talking to Chomby. Xenon had fully donned the jacket so that Chomby and Sarge could talk in real life. Sarge felt a smile creep onto his face as he could just imagine seeing Chomby’s very first, real-life smile as the two would open their arms for a hug. Right when he was about to feel the warmth of his soundbyte friend, he felt a cold, metallic tentacle wrap itself around his chest, causing him to startle awake.

It was still dark in the hallway. Sarge couldn’t see anything though. He’d usually be able to see shadows being cast in the red light, but it was almost pitch black now.

Sarge lifted a hand to his chest. He could feel Starfish’s tentacles. They were fully wrapping around his torso like a strangely-shaped chestplate.

“S-starfish? What are you doing?” Sarge asked.

“E-e-e-e-ee-e-e-e-ee-e-e-eeeee,” Starfish replied. Its eye light was flickering. “E-e-e-e-e-e-eerror c-c-c-c-c-c-ccommunicating…. D-d-d-d-danger. D-d-d-d-danger. D-d-d-d-danger.”

“W-what?” Sarge immediately got out of bed. “What do you mean?”

“P-p-p-protect… P-p-p-protect… Det-Sar-Wol… P-p-p-protect.” Starfish’s tentacles began to loosen a bit. “P-p-p-pro-pro-pro-pro-”

“Starfish! Are you okay?” Sarge immediately ran over to the desk. He remembered there was a ‘panic’ button on the underside of it that he could press if something was wrong. “Starfish! What’s going on? I need an answer if it’s dangerous!” Sarge felt a circular button and immediately pressed it. He didn’t know if it was supposed to give him some sort of feedback, but it was completely silent. He then grabbed his phone out and tried to turn it on. It didn’t do anything. He knew it was low on batteries, but he thought he had enough left to at least turn on the flashlight.

“F-f-f-facility… b-b-b-b-breach. E-e-e-error… E-e-e-e-error… e-e-e-e-eerrrrrrrrrrrrrr-” Starfish’s tentacles loosened to the point where the robot’s entire body dropped from Sarge’s chest. It clattered to the floor.

“S-starfish!” Sarge bent over to try and get the robot’s tentacle to move. “Come on! If there’s danger, now’s not the time to fail. What’s going o-”

Sarge stopped speaking. He couldn’t hear this noise while standing up, but now that he was bent over, he could hear the sound of static coming from the desk drawer. He got to his feet and opened it. It was the console Davison told him about before. Sarge had played a few games on it over the past several days, and he knew for a fact that the speakers on it were in working condition.

He lifted the console to his ear. The speakers shrieked out an all-too-familiar static noise that his earpieces made in the cabin.

“A collector?” Sarge asked. “But, how?” He immediately lowered a hand to the panic button again and started to press it rapidly. “How could a collector get in here? What’s… going on?”

Sarge hoped the button actually worked, because he was feeling panic right now.

“Davison?” He yelled out. He knew that, unless the door to this room was opened and Davison was standing in it, the man couldn’t hear him… but he fully hoped there was a secret audio-recorder that he wasn’t told about stashed somewhere in the room. “Davison! I think I’m in danger!”

To his lack of surprise, there was no reply.

He looked up at the security cameras that Davison had pointed out before. They usually had a red dot glowing, showing they were still working… but there was no red dot.

As far as Sarge knew, this facility was supposed to have backup generators that would activate if the power went out. Even then, they didn’t seem to be on. It was almost as if all the electrical equipment had been fried by something…

Sarge felt the fur on the back of his neck raise. The E.M.P.. It had to be. There was no other explanation for it. But how did the pulse manage to go off? Better yet, how did it manage to fry the electronics twelve stories below a mountain?

Could that mean…? Sarge realized that he hadn’t been able to fully scan the room. It was completely pitch black. But now that he realized what had just happened, he had the feeling he wasn’t alone in here. He wanted to hazard a guess.

“Unit… Zero?” His voice came out almost as a whisper, but the whisper suddenly felt loud against the silence. The only thing outside of his voice that was audible was the quiet static of the gaming console.

There was no reply.

“What are you doing here?” Sarge asked, hoping for a response.

Still no reply.

Sarge began to feel his way from the desk toward the door. Maybe he was just lucky and Unit_00 wasn’t actually here. Maybe it was a power failure? If the door was still closed, maybe he was still safe?

Sarge sidled across the glass until he felt the door frame. He inched his hand around the smooth, metallic embellishment and tried to feel for the solid, metal, sliding door. To his dismay, the door was opened. Was it supposed to open when the power failed? Maybe it was just a fail-safe.

Sarge sidestepped through the doorway and into the hall. Davison had told him that the fire escape was down the hall to the left. This happened to be right near the elevator. He kept his hands firmly pressed against the wall so he wouldn’t lose his way. He had only actually seen the entire hallway once, but he knew it was a straight shot to the elevator. The fire escape had to be nearby there, right?

<Someone would have been down here by now if they knew the floor lost power.> Sarge bit his lip. Every inch he made toward the elevators made his heart rate increase. <Does this mean they don’t know… or did something happen to them?>

Sarge closed his eyes, knowing fully well his sight wasn’t going to help him much right now. He focused more on his other senses, seeing if he noticed anything abnormal.

As far as he could tell, the hallway smelled like it always did – polished metal. Its aroma was unnaturally sterile and somehow made Sarge’s nostrils feel irritated when he first came down here.

Touch was a pretty obvious one. Right now, he felt the cold metal floor under his paws. His hands could feel cracks in the wall where the metal panels connected. Aside from these two sensations, he didn’t feel much else.

Hearing was his best sense right now. He could hear every foot fall he made. He could also hear his clothes and hands rubbing against the metal wall. These two sounds were normal to him. The one sound, however, that didn’t make sense was a tapping noise coming from his room.

Tap-tap-tap-tap. It was four rapid sounds followed by an extended period of silence. He wasn’t fully sure how to recognize the noise, but it wasn’t something he’d heard before. Curiosity made him want to go back, but the fear response he currently felt prevented him from doing so.

The sounds never seemed to be getting any closer, that was a good thing… but they never sounded like they were getting any further. This meant that something was following Sarge. If it was one of Unit_00’s robots, then he knew it could see him with that ‘thermal vision’ the mainframe mentioned. If this was the case, he was at a complete disadvantage.

Tap-tap-tap… tap. The noise still didn’t sound any closer, but he noticed the hesitation on the last tap. An irregularity. Why?

Sarge felt a wide crack with his right hand. When he dragged his hand up and down, he recognized it as the elevator door. Good. He made it here, but now where was he supposed to go? He quickly felt around for the elevator button and pressed it. To his lack of surprise, it didn’t work. He figured that was the case but hoped the button would at least light up the area a little bit. Then he could look for the door more easily.

Tap-tap-tap-tap. Because he’d spent time at the elevator, he noticed the tapping noise was now sounding closer. His heart lurched as he slid past the elevator quickly, now pressing his entire back against the wall. Perhaps there was a door handle he could feel for. That was his best bet of finding his escape route.

Sarge quickened his pace, now almost jogging down the hallway while feeling against the wall he was on. He estimated he’d moved at least thirty feet past the elevator by this point. Where was that fire escape?

Sarge felt a piece of metal poke into his back as he tried to slide past it. He’d hit it with enough force to bruise his side, but he bit back the pain and threw a hand to the metal protrusion. It felt like a handle.

<Please be the fire escape!> Sarge begged as he turned the handle and flung the door open.

His nostrils were immediately met with a very strong, metallic odor that almost made him gag. He plugged his nose to allow his brain time to process the smell. He was certainly not a stranger to this scent, but he’d never smelled it this strongly before.

Blood.

Was this even the stairwell? Why did it smell like blood?

Sarge focused his senses on this room. It felt colder than the hallway was, meaning it was either less ventilated or it was bigger. He could hear a faint rustling of wind. There was possibly a draft here. He clicked his tongue and heard it reverberate off the walls. Based off the echo alone, this room sounded rather large. With another tongue click, he was able to identify the room was narrow but tall. This seemed like the stairwell.

<I’m on floor 12. That means it’s twelve flights of steps up to the main area, right?> Sarge shut the door behind him and continued to sidestep around the wall until he felt a handrail that went upward. Now using it as his guide, he carefully climbed the steps. Because he couldn’t see where he was stepping, he felt rushing would be too dangerous. He just wished he could see what was happening.

He managed to make his way up two flights of steps when he heard a door creak open from below. It must have been on the floor his room was in.

Tap-tap-tap-tap. The noise echoed through the stairwell, now sounding a lot more audible than it had been before.

Doing his best to ignore it, Sarge quickened his pace. Now that he had a feel for the steps, he was able to skip a few of them on his ascent.

When he turned the corner leading to floor B6, he noticed a dim light source coming from beyond a doorway. If he was correct, this was the floor that Doctor Borislov’s lab was on. Why was there a light on?

Sarge quickly ran to the door and peaked through the window. He could see a faint, blue colored computer monitor. It was shining light on someone enough for Sarge to see their silhouette. He could recognize the shape of Borislov’s glasses on the person.

Tap-tap-tap-tap. The tapping was very distant now. He’d certainly outpaced the entity following him. This may give him enough time to grab Borislov and get out of here.

Sarge grabbed the door handle and attempted to open the door. It felt like something was preventing the door from opening.

Sarge knocked on the door, hoping the person at the computer would turn around. They didn’t.

Sarge then decided to slam his shoulder into the door. He felt it move open slightly, and a small gust of air blew into his nostrils. He immediately backed away from the door. The smell of blood was a lot stronger in there.

Sarge pushed against the door again. It opened a little more.

The person at the computer still didn’t react, but Sarge was now able to shove his arm through the doorway and pry it open the rest of the way. He had a rising suspicion that the person in the chair was, in fact, dead, but he hoped they weren’t. He also knew that the only source of light he’d seen for the past several minutes was this monitor screen. If it was on, then perhaps there was another electronic that was unaffected by the EMP?

Sarge quickly ducked into the room. He felt something fall in front of the door when he closed it. He didn’t have time to question what that object was.

“Borislov?” Sarge hissed as he crept around the chair.

Even though the light was dim, Sarge could recognize the researcher’s features almost immediately. But he was unresponsive.

“Borislov!” Sarge whispered as he bent over and tapped Borislov’s cheek. “Wake up!”

The researcher’s body was warm. Sarge immediately checked for a pulse. There was none.

Sarge cupped a hand to his mouth. Borislov was dead. Sarge then looked over at the door, remembering the object by the door. He turned the monitor screen to shine more light in that direction. He felt his stomach churn when he saw the unmoving body of Kelsey, Borislov’s assistant. Her eyes were stuck in a horrified stare toward the monitor. There was a pool of blood that seemed to come from her abdomen. In her hand, was what appeared to be a flashlight.

“I’m… so sorry,” Sarge whimpered. He slinked over to Kelsey and put his fingers to her chin. Though he was hoping for the best, there was no pulse… as he expected. “I… I’m so sorry to both of you.”

Sarge grabbed the flashlight. He clicked it and it flickered on. He quickly used it to scan the room. It was Borislov’s lab. He didn’t realize there was a door directly to the stairwell from here, but he supposed it made sense.

He gently turned Borislov’s chair around and examined the man’s body. He noticed he, too, was bleeding from his abdomen. It looked like something had torn into him from there.

Sarge felt himself heave a bit at the sight but immediately backed away to stop himself.

Both of them had a hole in their abdomen. As terrifying as it was, this made logical sense to Sarge. If Unit_00 was the cause of this, then it was probably looking for the anomaly. Since the anomaly was found inside Sarge’s abdomen, the computer’s logic dictated it would find the anomaly in an abdomen of some sort, especially since it seemed to have disappeared.

Sarge gritted his teeth and squinted his eyes shut. He could feel himself beginning to cry. Imagining the pain and fear these two must have felt in their final moments was heartwrenching to him… but he knew he couldn’t stay long. He needed to get out.

Sarge ran back to the door. Now that he could see things better, he had no difficulty finding the handle and barreling through the doorway toward the staircase. He saw that the steps were a deep red coloration. It looked like something, or someone, had been dragged down the staircase, leaving behind a trail of blood. The blood seemed to have already dried, meaning at least several minutes must have passed since that trail was made.

Tap-tap-tap-tap. The sound was certainly closer than it had been before, but Sarge knew it was still, at least, two flights down.

Now Sarge could see where he was going, he quickly jumped up the flights of steps, making it to the first floor in thirty seconds.

He panted heavily as he walked to the door. He could barely hear the tapping sound at this point. Good. This would give him more time to escape.

Sarge grabbed the handle and yanked the door open. Scanning the hallway on the other end with his flashlight, he first looked down the left corridor. He saw it only led into the darkness. He then looked down the right corridor. He could see the elevator door several yards away. If he was correct, this is the direction he needed to go down to get to the facility’s exit.

Without hesitating, Sarge closed the door behind him and rushed down the hallway. His fear now led to a determination to survive as he bolted past many rooms that had their doors broken in. He could see quick glimpses of bodies, scrapped robots, and pieces of both thrown around the area. The hallway quickly became more littered with corpses as Sarge approached what he hoped was the entrance… but then he realized – wouldn’t something be guarding it?

As far as he knew, this was the only way out of the facility. No one had told him of a secret entrance anywhere. If Unit_00 knew this, then it would have something stationed there to prevent anyone, or anything, from escaping.

Sarge slowed his pace to a walk and turned off his flashlight. He could see a light up ahead. It was a pale silver in color. It looked like it could have been the full moon leaking in through a window just beyond the hallway’s corner, but Sarge recalled a waning crescent moon on his first day at the facility. He’d been here for thirteen days. At most, the moon outside would only be a half moon, which Sarge knew wasn’t enough light to make that silvery glow.

He quietly tip-toed to the corner of the hallway, making sure to stay in the shadows. He stared at the light on the ground. It appeared to be more like the light of a spot light than a window. But, what was it?

Sarge felt he needed to test a thought that was in his head. He knew looking around the corner would get him instantly spotted by whatever was currently there, IF it was a robot of any sort. It would also only be a matter of time before their thermal sensor could pick up the warmth coming from the hallway.

Sarge stuck a hand to the ground and felt around for some sort of loose debris. He felt his fingers brush past a small tube of metal. He assumed it was a bullet casing. He quickly snatched it up then took a note of where the light was currently shining. If he was correct, it currently wasn’t shining on the ceiling.

He quietly took a deep breath then tossed the bullet in an upward arc as close as he could get it to the ceiling without touching it. He was thankful the trajectory was good enough to both avoid the spotlight and the ceiling.

The casing vanished into the darkness where Sarge heard it clink against a wall about twelve feet away before bouncing to the ground.

The spotlight moved. And was now staring at the opposing wall. Sarge took this opportunity to peak around the corner. He hoped to get a better view of whatever this thing was.

It was hard to see, due to it only being a silhouette, but it was certainly some sort of robot. Unlike all of Unit_00’s robots, this one was almost wire-thin in its construction. Its body, torso, arms, and legs, looked more like cables than anything else. On its chest was what appeared to be a spherical shape that housed whatever was shining the spotlight. Sarge realized that must have been the robot’s eye. Behind it, he could see the faint outline of a door. There was a small bit of light coming from under the door, and a faint breeze was gently wafting its way toward Sarge. He could smell a mountain breeze.

This was his way out.

Sarge continued to scan the robot for a split second longer, trying to find any other details that he could. If he wanted to get past this thing, then he needed to find out anything he could about how it functioned. For such a twig-like entity to be guarding the only exit to the facility, it must be very dangerous.

Sarge hid behind the corner again before the robot’s eye caught a glimpse of him. He closed his eyes, trying to keep the vision in his mind vivid.

He saw the wiry arms, the eyeball in the chest, the spotlight itself… and then he could see a word embelished above the eye in a faint, blue color. Just like with Unit_01 and Unit_02, this robot had a number on its chest. But Sarge wished he could’ve seen it a bit longer… because his mind must have been playing tricks on him.

Sarge opened his eyes and saw the spotlight was now back to its original position. He wanted to concentrate on that spotlight, but he could only think of the number he saw. It was the very thing that he’d been worried about ever seeing with his own two eyes. But he knew it was going to happen. He knew from the very moment he stepped into the facility that he was going to see it.

Unit_00.