“John! It is good to see you my friend.”

John smiled at the heartfelt greeting from Atim. He was also pleased to see the man had the good sense to avoid giving him a hug or handshake, something he hoped the woman still clinging to his arm would clue into.

“And who is this,” there was a slight hesitation as Atim noticed something in John’s eyes, “friend of yours?”

The woman jutted a hand out with the palm down and the fingers slightly splayed. To John’s horror he realized the woman expected Atim to kiss it. Atim never came to this realization and simply stared down at the hand.

“I’m Nilly, I’m John’s friend…for now.”

John was further disgusted by the woman’s presence and felt the flickering of dark thoughts entering his mind again.

“My name is Atim, welcome to our group.”

The woman giggled and John lost his patience with her. He snaked his arm out from hers and plunged his hand into his pocket so fast he nearly took the pants to the floor. He could feel his cheeks growing a little red as he subtly hiked them back up.

Atim caught John’s eye and John was grateful to see a flash of sympathy there. The man turned back to the rest of the group and John saw that there was another member. It was a young man, probably no more than twenty wearing a gray jumpsuit.

“This is James, he was with Tara when she woke. He says he was in training to be part of the maintenance crew on a particular anomaly.”

“Which anomaly,” asked John curiously.

“I’m not sure,” said James timidly, “Today was the day we were supposed to be briefed on what we were supposed to do. The alarms started going off, everything went psycho, we all ran down the halls until we fell into the floor and I woke up here.”

He started looking around the room anxiously.

“I really ought to find them.”

“There’s a good chance they aren’t here yet.”

“Why not?”

“Time doesn’t behave as it’s supposed to. Tim has been here for nearly two weeks and he arrived the same day the containment breach happened.”

John realized that Tim was the man with no shirt on.

“But that happened today,” said the young man slowly.

“And it happened a few days ago for me. Like I said, time doesn’t behave like it should here.”

“Has anyone found a way to get out of here?”

“If they had we’d all be out young man,” said Rebecca with a huff.

“Have you learned anything,” said Tim in John’s direction.

“No nothing. I did wake up with-.”

“John,” said Nilly with a whine, “you haven’t introduced me to all your friends.”

John grit his teeth as Rebecca raised an eyebrow and Tim started grinning.

“This is Nilly.”

“John’s other friend,” said Nilly trying to snake her arm into John’s again, “he saved my life earlier.”

“He did, did he,” asked Tim with far too much enthusiasm.

“I was lying on the ground after being pushed over by this ruffian and John saved me.”

A little bit of the grin slipped as Tim met John’s gaze.

“Who was the…ruffian?”

Nilly was about to respond but John quickly interrupted her. It wasn’t that he wanted to talk he simply didn’t want her to keep talking.

“He’s about six five or so, covered in blood with scratches on his face.”

The group grew silent and John was startled by the dark look that flashed angrily across Tim’s face.

“Yeah we know that asshole,” he said spitting.

“Who is he?”

“How do I put this? If he wakes up in a room with a man he keeps to himself, but not if it’s a woman.”

John felt his blood begin to boil as Kiara entered his mind. He wondered if he was responsible for the bruises on her arms or if another coward was.

“A few people have tried to…deal with him. But the man must be ex-military or something because he can handle himself. I’ve personally seen him kill two men with his own hands.”

“He’s actually part of what we wanted to discuss today,” said Atim in a hurry to change the subject.

“What do you mean?”

Atim motioned around the room.

“For some reason the…thing will take a break from eating. The rooms will be opened and we’re free to roam around for a few days. Three days is the longest it’s ever happened.”

“Why does it do that?”

Tim titled his head.

“I personally think it’s because the thing wants us to get all riled up before the next feeding.”

“What do you mean riled up?”

“Well, it’s pretty common for a few bodies to pile up when we’re free to roam. My theory is that it wants to gorge or it needs us to do the dirty work of killing for it for whatever reason.”

“You’re saying people kill each other?”

Atim nodded.

“People are on edge and paranoid as it is, stick everyone in the same room with no knowing how long it’ll be before the next feeding and emotions run high.”

“It also doesn’t help that you have psychos in here like the man you were just talking about,” said Tim bitterly, “those jackasses like to blow off steam at the expense of others. Fights will break out, people squabble over things, and before you know it people are bashing each other’s heads in.”

John looked around the room and was disturbed to find many men and surprisingly a few women were eyeing the room with a hungry look in their eyes. He’d gotten a taste of it yesterday, but now it seemed more intent, more calculated.

“It’ll get sketchy for the next few days so everyone needs to be on guard,” said Tim as John looked around, “the men will take shifts keeping watch when everyone sleeps and during the day we need to start building our numbers.”

“I might have met someone when I woke up,” said John trying to find Kiara in the crowd.

“Someone who can help?”

“More like we can help her,” responded John sadly, “she’s been through some things here.”

Nilly suddenly cooed and laid her head against John’s shoulder.

“You’re such a hero.”

John closed his eyes in an effort to control himself. When he opened them again he was irritated to see Tim’s grin was back.

“Atim will take the first night, John you should have second, and I’ll have third.”

“Do you want me to be on watch,” asked James.

“No offense kid, but I know I can trust these two. Be on good behavior and you can have the fourth night.”

“Shouldn’t we take shifts each night?”

Tim frowned at John before looking around.

“You’ll quickly find out that nobody does a lot of sleeping around here. Odds are you’ll spend half your time nodding off or trying to stay awake whether you’re on watch or not. Nighttime is whenever the most people are asleep around here.”

John frowned back.

“What I’m trying to say is that being on watch really only lasts a few hours before somebody does something stupid and it wakes everybody up. The groups that have someone always on watch tend to be messed with less than those that don’t.”

“Not to mention, time doesn’t behave properly here. The next three days could genuinely be three days or they could be weeks we mistake as days or a single day that feels like three. With no means to keep time and nothing to occupy it, it’s all relative.”

John wasn’t sure how to process any of that. In the end he decided it was best to trust the group. They’d survived this long and had been here longer than he had after all.

“So what’s the plan now?”

“Do a little outreach,” said Atim looking around, “see if we can convince others to join us.”

“Stay close, if you’re off on your own we won’t come to help you.”

John met his gaze and the man shrugged.

“There’s plenty of crazies in here. Hardened criminals used for testing or people who lost their minds along the way. Anyone relatively normal has been eaten or killed. You don’t survive here long without getting your hands dirty now and then.”

John was about to say something when Nilly suddenly patted his shoulder.

“John will take care of me.”

Tim grinned.

“Yeah I’m sure he will.”

This time when the dark thoughts crept in John let them linger a little longer. Normally he didn’t feel this angry towards random strangers but this woman was being a little more bothersome than most. She was annoying, but most of the darkness was due to how her sudden clinginess made him feel.

He had no delusions that her feelings towards him had any depth or genuine core to them. He was merely a means to stay alive and she was going to say and do anything to try and establish a connection with him. A part of him was confident she’d happily sleep with him if it meant having his protection.

As she snuggled up against him he wasn’t sure what bothered him more. That she was in the process of trying to manipulate his emotions to feel safe. Or that she might be forcing herself to develop feelings for him because he could offer what she needed at that moment.

It made him feel gross.

Pulling out of her grasp he started walking towards a nearby group of people. Tim snickered as Nilly blustered a moment before following him.

“What was that about baby?”

“Stay with them.”

“But I want to come with you.”

John turned to her and something in his eyes must have revealed the dark thoughts lurking in his mind because she stopped.

The flash of fear in her eyes both exhilarated and frightened him. He took a deep breath and quelled the worst of the darkness.

“I need to find more people to join our side to give us a better chance of surviving the next couple of days. I don’t know how to do that and I can’t be distracted while I’m doing that.”

For a brief moment John thought she saw the wounded look flash over to one of brief anger, but he couldn’t be sure. Because the shift of emotions gradually turned into one of acceptance.

“I’ll miss you. Don’t be gone too long.”

John grit his teeth silently as she blew a kiss at him and Tim flashed him a thumbs up.

 

#

 

“We’re not interested in joining your harem.”

John wiped a hand down his face noticing for the first time just how grimy he felt. It didn’t help that junk was still clinging to his hand.

A trio of women were looking at him nervously as they lounged against the wall. They were his fifth attempt in what felt like hours to bring more members into the group. He quickly learned that most everyone had found someone they knew, no matter how remotely, and quickly built their own groups.

This group was two women wearing fairly new clothing following a woman whose clothes were filthy and sported a few bruises on her face and arms. There was a coldness to her eyes that made John question whether there was anything he could say to convince them he was trustworthy.

“I’m not creating a harem, I’m with a group of people who are interested in surviving the next couple of days.”

“You don’t think others have tried that line with us,” asked the women who seemed to be the mouthpiece for the group while the seasoned member silently stared him down.

“There’s no strings attached for joining us,” he hesitated and regretted it as the other silent woman raised her eyebrow.

“Maybe an expectation to help keep watch and fight off others,” he said quickly before they leaped to too many assumptions.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair when there was no response.

“Look, I’m not going to pretend I know fully what’s going on around here. This is my second day and I’ve only been through one feeding. But three of our members have been here a while with one being here a week or two. So far they’ve done right by me and I think they can be trusted.”

“You think?”

“They haven’t tried anything with me or the others in the group. More importantly they’ve warned me about some of the dangers here.”

He looked at each member of the group and was promptly met with cold stares.

“At the very least we’re asking for your help if bad things start happening and we’re willing to help if you ladies get in trouble.”

Again he was met with cold stares.

“What do you say?”

The woman acting as the mouthpiece was about to speak again when the woman in filthy clothes put a hand on her shoulder. John felt a glimmer of hope.

“Answer me one question,” she said with a croak that made John wince, “are those your clothes?”

John looked down at himself. The oversized shirt was a little dirty but didn’t look too bad. The pants on the other hand were constantly sagging to the point he was hiking them up every few seconds. He expected the belt to break at any second and leave him exposed to the entire chamber.

“No, I had to borrow them.”

“Is the original owner dead?”

“As far as I know he’s not,” said John with a frown.

The woman gave a knowing smirk and shook her head.

“Anyone with clothes that don’t fit and in better shape than themselves is a dead giveaway here. Leave now before we kill you.”

John was about to say something when the woman who’d been quiet up to this point pulled a small object from her clothes. A quick glance told him it was a shiv made of a cluster of sheered wires tied together with cloth.

With a sigh he held up his hands and started backing away. When he was a few feet back he tried one last time.

“We’re over there if you need anything.”

They continued staring at him silently as he turned and walked away, glancing over his shoulder at them. Part of him approached them out of compassion when he saw the filthy woman’s bruises. The other two didn’t seem like fighters, but he figured they were healthy enough and merely having greater numbers would help.

Shaking his head he turned to look around the room and was met with more than a few openly staring at him. He hiked up his pants no longer caring if anyone noticed. There were plenty in various states of undress with a few like Tim bordering on complete nudity.

It was surprising that there weren’t any entirely naked. Especially considering when the thing fed it took the clothes with it making them a dwindling commodity. He noticed a few people in groups would exchange clothes, but it couldn’t have been the kindness of the collective that kept everyone relatively clothed.

Closing his eyes for a moment and running a hand through his hair he tried silencing the questions that kept creeping into his mind. Being here was overwhelming. The room was humid and warm, the water constantly lapped at his feet, and there was a perpetual feeling of grossness as unspeakable things stewed in the water around him.

Adding to this constant state of unease were the people. On the edges of the room people did their best to get some sleep and hang onto their sanity. The filthy state of everyone, the frightened glances, and the constant sobbing was soul wrenching.

But what really concerned him were the groups in the center of the chamber. Hard looking men covered in tattoos, scars, and fresh wounds.  The bloodied man John ran into earlier was among their ranks and was surrounded by a motley group of similarly hardened men and women.

The laughter, screams, and sobbing from those individuals sent chills down John’s spine and he avoided looking in that direction as best he could. But even now he could feel the hard and calculating stares on his back as they assessed whether he was a threat or something else.

Hiking his pants up he wondered if he even remotely came off as a threat.

Glancing around again he considered approaching a few people but couldn’t find the motivation to. He also kept an eye out for familiar faces. Part of him hoped he wouldn’t encounter Nel or Sasha in this vile place, but a selfish part of him was wanting their companionship. Having either of those two warriors would certainly help him sleep better at night.

Exhaustion finally sapped the last of his motivation and he started wandering back to the group. He could see Tara, Tim, and Nilly sitting against the wall. To John’s amusement Nilly was talking to Tim who appeared to be sleeping, or at least pretending to.

The smile quickly left his face as he felt an arm snake around his neck. It was so sudden and unexpected he froze as the grip tightened while still leaving him room to breathe.

“You should be more careful,” said a familiar deranged voice, “you’re only a fourth lucky, if you want to be third you need to stay alert.”

John’s brain was in overdrive trying to determine what to do, but it was as if some part him was misfiring and nothing could form.

“If you stay with me this won’t happen. Next time it might not be nice me, but someone else, someone less nice.”

The man giggled and slowly removed his arm. John quickly turned and massaged his neck where the man’s grimy limb had been.

“What do you want,” he said in as stable a voice as he could muster while his heart raced.

The man grinned and scratched at a scab under his arm.

“You’re lucky, so lucky.”

“How am I lucky?”

“You saw the thing and now you get to see the choosing.”

“The what?”

“Now we decide, we decide who gets chosen. It’s a great honor, now we get to be the thing.”

He giggled and his eyes flashed around the room.

“We’re thinglets.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to watch you. I want to see as it becomes fresh.”

John considered telling the man to leave, but he didn’t like how the man reacted last time he tried. Yet the prospect of being followed around by this lunatic wasn’t comforting either.

“Go back to your friends,” said the strange man as if reading his mind, “choosing will take time. It takes desperation, fear.”

Giggling he shambled away, his feet churning the water as he went. John noticed numerous individuals eyed the man warily before looking back at him with renewed fear and interest.

John had a feeling he would have a hard time convincing anyone to join their group after this.

 

#

 

Returning to the group he found the others had been a little more successful. James had brought in a young man whose eyes darted around the room like a cornered rabbit. Tim seemed annoyed by his presence and John wondered how long he would last before his heart gave out or sanity left him.

Atim had brought back a young couple, Amy and Breton. They were part of a maintenance crew that was fleeing to a security station when the floor swallowed them. Both were fairly new and had good physiques, John felt a lot better having them around.

Rebecca had the same success as John, though given her demeanor it was hardly surprising.

All things considered they were no longer one of the smaller groups in the room. Tim pointed out this made them a less ideal target which increased their odds significantly.

Though as he was currently explaining it left them vulnerable in the long-term.

“As the days go by people get nervous and fights start breaking out. Eventually the littler groups will start forming up with larger ones when they realize they can’t protect themselves. Day two or three and the bigger groups will start choosing.”

Recalling the strange man’s words from earlier sent shivers down John’s spine.

“The bigger groups will debate amongst themselves who should be offered up as sacrifices. Once chosen those groups will use their numbers to isolate the chosen individuals and kill them. Their bodies will be lined up next to the opening in the hopes the thing will be satisfied and leave.”

“Will it?”

Tim shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s one body or six the thing will still pick off one or two living people from the pack.”

“So is there any point to killing people?”

Tim shrugged.

“Normal feedings it seems to eat fewer living if there are dead. But for some reason after these resting periods it’ll eat anywhere from one to five or so. I’ve seen it eat four when six people were on the ground and only one when two people were dead.”

“So our plan is to become one of the larger groups and prevent a choosing,” asked James.

Tim snorted.

“Not going to happen. If we’re too large we’ll become a threat to the center groups and they’ll prioritize picking off our numbers. The best we can do is be large enough to pose a threat if they try to choose us but not be so large we’re seen as competition.”

“How many people will that take?”

“I’d be comfortable with at least a dozen. Fifteen would be ideal and twenty would start to make them nervous.”

Doing a quick headcount John was pleased to see their group was nine in number. That meant at least three more at minimum and they were halfway to the ideal number.”

“Before you get your hopes up we’re still a ways away.”

“What do you mean,” asked Amy.

“The bigger groups will only consider men to be a threat to their efforts.”

“Excuse me?”

Tim sighed at the offended tone in her voice.

“Are you saying women can’t hold their own in a fight?”

“You see those men over there?”

John didn’t have to look to know Tim was pointing at the center groups.

“Your average man over there is around six feet tall, two hundred to three hundred pounds of muscle, and has been in a fair number of bar fights if not outright killed a few people before coming here. Your average woman in this room is going to be shorter, thinner, less muscular, and won’t have been in nearly as many fights.”

“I’ve taken plenty of self-defense classes,” said the woman thinly, “I can handle myself against any man over there.”

Tim snorted and shook his head.

“You’re probably educated in fighting, but you’re not experienced.”

“I’m a black belt-.”

“Have you ever killed anyone?”

Amy frowned.

“Of course not.”

“Do you know how hard you need to hit someone to crack their skull? Can you overcome the hesitation to jab someone’s eye out if necessary? Can you keep fighting after one of your ribs is cracked?”

When she didn’t respond he continued.

“I guarantee just about everyone over there can answer those questions. You could probably take your boyfriend here in a fight,” he said nodding to Breton, “but you don’t stand a chance against those psychopaths.”

John could see Amy bristling at Tim’s words. He was sympathetic to her irritation but knew that Tim was speaking the truth.

“Hell, I don’t trust my own chances against them.”

“I still think you’re wrong.”

“And you’re free to think that,” said Tim numbly, “but keep in mind that either we find more men to join our group or you need to be ready to find out which of us is right firsthand.”

  She clearly wasn’t pleased by his comments, but something must have resonated because she stayed silent.

“Atim’s on watch first night,” said Tim before Amy changed her mind and kept arguing, “everyone try to get some shut eye while you can.”

And with that he promptly slumped against the wall and closed his eyes. John saw Amy shake her head and walk a few feet away with Breton chattering in her ear. Atim caught John’s eye and came over to talk with him.

“I’m not pleased with how he said that, but it is true,” murmured Atim, “we need to keep a close eye on the women in our group because they’ll become targets.”

“They’re typically chosen?”

Atim shook his head.

“They’ll pick any men who pose a threat first. Women tend to be…”

The hesitation in his voice spoke volumes.

“Tools, either to entertain themselves, keep their underlings happy and in-line, or for recruitment purposes.”

“That’s disgusting,” said John flatly as he glanced at the center crowds.

“Agreed, I wouldn’t lose any sleep seeing each and everyone of those cowards be consumed by the thing.”

Atim closed his eyes a moment and sighed. When he opened them again he gave a small smile.

“Forgive my darkness. Get some sleep while I’m on watch. You’ll need it in the coming days.”

John grunted as Nilly suddenly squeezed him into a hug. She had been away attending to ‘lady things’ as she called it and had seemingly come back. John was acutely aware there was no way to wash hands in this place as her stubby fingers massaged into his stomach.

“I’m so glad you’re with me.”

John was ready to brush her off when it occurred to him how frightened she must be in this place. It was a brief moment of compassion that broke through the darkness and he could almost forgive her irritating nature.

“Just stay close to the group,” he murmured.

“Don’t worry,” she cooed in his ear, “I’m not going anywhere.”

John wearily he shook her off and sat against the wall. She was immediately at his side nuzzled against his shoulder. He wrenched his eyes shut and prayed sleep would take him soon.

 

Author’s Note:

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