“Come on, come on!” Mik muttered to himself, nervously watching the bar on the computer. He was certain it had been at ninety eight percent for ages. 

Eralis was standing near the door. He had hurriedly locked it as that strange screeching sound grew closer. Mik didn’t know what could possibly be generating that noise, but the Fed’s pale face and white knuckle grip on his pistol did not bode well. 

“What are you worried about?” he asked as Eralis backed up into the corner, as far away from the door as possible. “Aren’t you supposed to be pals with the guards?”

“That’s no guard!” Eralis’ voice shook. He looked like he was going to be sick. “There’s no reasoning with what’s coming.”

“And what’s that?”

“Just finish the download!” 

The computer screen finally flashed green. “That’s it!” Mik snapped his gauntlet screen closed and disconnected. “Let’s get out of here!” 

Eralis grabbed Mik’s vest, yanking him back as he turned towards the door. 

“Let go!” Mik jerked out of his grip.

The whirring sound grew louder as something slammed into the door. Sparks started flying and the screech became nearly unbearable. The door was beginning to glow from the friction. Mik’s blood ran cold. 

“Up! We need to go up!” Eralis urged in a hoarse whisper, barely audible above the squealing of metal on metal. 

Mik leapt into action, scrambling onto the console. It looked like there was barely enough room for him to crawl on top of the computer banks.“There should be a maintenance shaft around here somewhere!” He grabbed the edge of the metal and pulled himself up, wriggling into the tight space between the computers and the ceiling. 

Eralis followed, eyes trained on the door. The gun was still in his hand, but it was pointed at the ground. 

“Get ready to shoot if it gets through the door!” Mik crawled across the computers, looking for any sign of weakness in the ceiling plating. 

“It won’t do any good! We’d need grenades to slow it down!”

“Fantastic,” Mik muttered to himself. He thought he might have something, the tiniest gap in the plating, but he didn’t have much room to push. He tried to turn over, his shoulders scraping against the roof as he slowly wiggled his way onto his back. 

“Hurry up!” He could hear the terror in Eralis’ voice. He wasn’t even trying to hide their presence any more. 

“I’m working on it!” Mik reached up, pushing against the edge of the plate. It gave slightly. He pushed harder.

“It’s nearly through the door!”

Mik slammed his fists into the ceiling. “Come on, move!” The gap was growing, but slowly. Too slowly. “Eralis, get in here!”

The Fed tossed his gun into the crawlspace and started working his way in. It was a much tighter fit for him. He grunted and kicked, inching his way along.

Mik kept working on the plate. “Help me push.”

There was a rending screech and crash as something broke through the door. The whine intensified and Mik could see sparks flying up as the thing, whatever it was, moved about the room. 

Eralis finally managed to work his way up next to Mik. There was no way he could get himself turned over, so he pressed his palms against the computers and started forcing his back up into the plate. Mik kept pushing. 

The computer banks shuddered as something slammed into them. Mik stifled a yelp, and pushed with all his might as a flood of adrenaline ran through his veins. There was a screeching pop and his hands suddenly shot upwards as the plate came free. 

Mik shoved the loose plate to the side and pulled himself up into a slightly larger crawl space. Wriggling out of Eralis’ way, he opened his computer and pulled up the map of the lab. 

Eralis crawled up next to Mik and began shoving him, trying to get him to move. 

Mik motioned for him to wait while he got his bearings. He studied the map for a moment then started crawling in the general direction of the docking bay.

The screeching behind them seemed to intensify, growing louder and more angry before it began to fade as they got farther away from it. It was pitch black, the glow from Mik’s computer screen the only light they had. He had to be careful not to blind himself as he pulled himself along.

“What was that?” Mik panted as he crawled forward, pushing dust and cobwebs out of his way. 

“Razer.” Eralis grunted behind him. “Mechanical killing machine, created during The War and repurposed after it ended.”

“Lovely.” Mik coughed as he stirred up some dust. “I take it you weren’t expecting them to be here?”

“I expected you to be competent enough to avoid activating them,” Eralis snapped. “I see that I was mistaken.” 

“If you had told me what I was looking for in the first place, I might have been able to prepare for the right traps!” 

“Just get us back to the ship, scav! Or I’ll shoot you myself.”

Mik frowned and glanced at his computer. “I think we’re above the hallway now. If we drop down here, we should be able to hang a right and have a pretty straight shot to the bay.” 

“Can you open the panels from this side?”

“I can try.”

Mik used his computer for light, looking for the seams where the panels connected as he kept crawling forward. Hmm. That one seems a bit loose. He reached out and gave it an experimental push.

There was a squeak and crash. Mik let out a yell as he fell through the ceiling, tumbling to the ground below. He landed on his back with the wind knocked out of him, unable to do anything as a dark figure spun towards him. Red light glinted off a knife as it arced down towards him.