The tiny oxygen canister wasn’t mana tech. Every breath counted. It only contained a finite supply to keep Echo alive for a short time in emergencies. There was no way to tell how much was left or when it would run out. Although she held her breath for as long as physically possible between inhales, she felt it getting lighter with each inhale. 

Echo’s hand skimmed over the surface of the wall, slowly, carefully, with the briefest whisper of contact. Every step was slow, careful and calculated. Her heart was beating like a drum in her brain over and over as she inched her way through the dark. She was unarmed, blind, and running out of air. 

She wasn’t alone.

Taktaktaktaktak…

She paused.

TaktaktaktaktaktaktaktaktaktakTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAK!

It brushed past her and was gone again in less than a moment. Neither of them could see each other, but she’d been listening to the thing run around in endless circles since they’d been trapped together. It had provided a detailed idea of the area's shape and scale. Echo was certain she was in one of the corridors near the elevator lobby.

Navigating with sound alone wasn’t a normal skill, even for engine rats, but it had kept her alive on more than one occasion in the mines. Someone had only once made a joke about her ‘Echo-locating’; she’d promptly knocked out five of his teeth and fed them back to him through his nostrils. That was before someone explained what echolocation meant, but the pun was never brought up again.

The corridor had collapsed in at least two different points, but she did find a few unlocked guest rooms. There wasn’t anything useful in them, but they painted a better idea of where to go next. From what she recalled of the layout, the elevators would be around the bend, which meant the door she was looking for should have been close.

Echo could feel the pressure in her lungs fade as she slowly let her ragged, hoarse breath out. Trying to breathe quietly was exhausting. Lack of oxygen was exhausting. Even after decades of living with ‘powder lung’, it hit her like a cement truck every time. At the rate she was going, there wouldn’t be any strength left to join the fight outside. 

A small huff of disappointment exited her nose. It was a mistake. Something tickled her throat. Before she could control herself, she started violently hacking up her lungs. She gasped for air, but got a lungful of dust. Choking, she doubled over and pressed the canister quickly into her mouth, sucking in desperately.

TAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAK!

Scrambling to go back the way she came. She sprinted along the wall, dragging her hand along it until she found an opening. Grabbing the doorframe, she swung with all of her momentum, sending herself into the room. “Oof.” Landing on the mattress took the last of her air. She gripped the canister in her teeth while she took a deep breath, trying to keep her hands free and her head clear.

The hotel room was only an economy-class. A tiny style nicknamed a ‘traveller coffin’. The low-priced rooms featured nothing beyond a single bed crammed in one end and space for luggage, designed for people who couldn’t afford privileges like running water or sunlight. 

The thing outside the door ran into the doorframe with a loud thwomp and shrieked so loud she could feel the resonance in her teeth. Its feet taktaktak-ed anywhere they could reach through the narrow doorway. Echo rolled tightly up against the wall, hoping to stay out of the way; It was like trying to dodge throwing knives while blindfolded: an educated guess at best. The next foot-knife could be anywhere.

The beast’s feet were sharper than she realised in other encounters. It sounded like they were drawing deep gouges into the solid concrete. She could hear the pointed feet snag on fabric, ripping everything they came in contact with. There was no doubt in her mind that it would tear her into ribbons if it caught her. She didn’t think she’d be lucky enough to get eaten first. There was no way she could dodge legs in the dark. She knew that. She just needed to get it off her tail before it stabbed her somewhere vital. Easy… probably…

She made her way to the foot of the bed, carefully slipping off the end while hugging the wall. With both hands, she pushed the bed frame toward the door with everything she had. It moved easily with a loud squeak before she felt the metal bed frame hit the creature's legs. There was a wet, crunchy sound as the appendages gave way and the monster recoiled.

SKREEE!

The bed hit the doorframe, jerking Echo’s stomach and refusing to budge any further. In a heartbeat, she hastily scrambled under the bed toward the open door, using it as cover. 

SKREEE!

It didn’t take long for the beast to retaliate. The thwomp thwomp thwomp of its attacks nearly matched the pulse in her ears. The mattress exploded next to her head where the beast’s foot smashed through the bedframe. Another pierced through somewhere behind her, prompting her to move faster. It didn’t seem to notice her directly under it. As soon as she was far enough, she sprang to her feet. For the sake of speed, she was less careful about the steps she took as she tried to find her bearings again.

Where are you? You have to be here somewhere! The brick wall seemed to stretch on for eons, even as she dashed along it. She stumbled over something and her fingers snagged on a ridge. It wasn’t like the doorframe to the traveller’s coffin. It was cold, solid and had no handles.

Taktaktaktak!

She shoved at the metal door with her full body weight, but it didn’t budge. It was jammed tight. The air in her lungs was getting too thin, her body fighting the instinct to breathe.

TAKTAKTAK!

She grunted to herself and kicked wildly. 

SKREEE!

Something clicked on the other side. The door swung open and she fell through. Something sliced the side of her calf, hot and sharp as a knife. There was no air left to scream. Echo reached up, her fingers brushing against smooth metal.

SKREEE! TAKTAKTAK!

In one smooth motion, her hand closed around the pistol grip under her fingertips and whipped around to point the gun at the monster. She closed her eyes and flicked the switch. The other side of her eyelids lit up. One eye cracked open, just enough to see what she was aiming for in the bright torchlight. The beast reared up on its back legs, shrieking and stumbling back, its ‘face’ was cracked and deformed from colliding with the walls; an easy target.

My turn to be the monster!

With a feral grin, she opened fire on the creature without reserve, bolt after bolt searing through its exoskeleton until the mana gauge ran out. It fell lifeless before the built-in torch blinked out of charge. Satisfied, she lay on her back and sucked in a deep breath through her teeth. Her lungs barely filled. She could taste the other gases. The canister was just about empty. It wasn’t over yet.

Feeling around for a new pistol, the mana gauge lit up once it left its charge point. Various firearms were neatly stacked along the walls of the closet-sized storage space, a few empty slots suggested she wasn’t the first to find it. 

There was no time to take everything with her. With a rifle slung over her back and an extra pistol tucked into her belt, she kept another in her hand to use the torch. 

The beast had only been comparatively small compared to the ones she saw in the street, which was disappointing. It was missing a few legs and one was barely hanging on by a thread. She was glad she couldn’t smell it; The entire front half of it had been obliterated by laser bolts. Various innards and goop were starting to pool over the floor. It was an active effort to step around the sticky mess.

One of the elevator doors was already partially open when she found them. She took one last shallow, ragged breath before tossing the oxygen canister into the drop and pressing her back to the wall to wait. It hit the bottom quickly, bouncing a few times. There were no other sounds. Confident there was nothing in there to eat her, she leaned over the edge, shining the torch down to check. The maintenance ladder was still intact. It was a clear run to the lowest floor, by her guess, about eight stories. 

It wasn’t long before the air felt like sandpaper in her throat. The stinging sensation was overwhelming. Every breath was more laboured than the last. One more rung. Then another. Step by slow step, the pain in her leg was negligible while her lungs were on fire. Echo hadn’t reached the halfway mark, but her vision was full of impossible colours she’d never seen or imagined before. 

Her foot missed a rung. The hand holding the pistol slipped. By some miracle, she managed to stay on the ladder. She clutched the smooth metal as tight as she could while her blood marched through her eardrums. Something further below made a noise, but when she craned her neck to see, the whole world tilted. Up and down seemed like suggestions as physics struggled to keep up with her. She nearly lost her grip again.

“Eu te encontrei!”

The words resounded through the whole elevator shaft, repeating over and over in the depths of her skull. The vague shape of Ember climbing up the ladder so easily was annoying. Many things came easily to Ember. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was holding him back from his real potential. 

Echo held out her gun with a shaky hand, allowing Ember to take it. She barely registered him push the mask into her hands, but the texture sent a wave of relief through her exhausted body as if by instinct. On her first breath, her body felt lighter almost instantly. It felt like every thought she’d had until that point raced to the surface all at once; a floodgate opening in her mind. She giggled hysterically, the distorted noise like something straight out of a horror story as it bounced around the elevator shaft.

“That’s creepy.” The offworlder said quietly. She guessed she wasn’t supposed to hear them to start with, but the shaft seemed to amplify every sound.

“If you want to stay alive, you need to be the bigger monster,” Echo commented, following Ember back down the ladder again.

“You’re… not wrong.” The man agreed, staring at her from the elevator door on the next level. “Do you have an extra torch we can use?”

Echo tilted her head. “What do you mean? You’re holding one.”

“What?” 

The offworlder frowned until Ember reached over and flicked the switch on their gun. “Here. All the pistols have one.”

Echo could see a blood vessel threatening to pop in the man’s face, even as he breathed deeply through his nose. He looked deathly pale. 

“Let’s go. The fight is outside waiting for us!” she urged, continuing down the ladder before them.

“This is the ground level. Where are you going?” Blue asked. He looked half beaten as well. It was clear that neither of them would have lasted long on their own. Tollindo didn’t play nice, even with locals.

Echo’s excitement came out as an almost sadistic grumble. “The garage. I have this amazing idea!”