The lights flickering around him from a lack of maintenance, Neil did here what he did back in school. He leaped down the stairways 4 to 5 steps at a time, merely holding the railing momentarily to gain balance with his leaps. His long legs helped him make huge progress going down. It was actually kind of fun. He'd not had to run from something in months! That sobered him up, however. He still needed to run for his life, not from a prison cell. He'd seen how strong those things were. The door to the stairway was sturdy and thick, but once the flames from his liquid fire had died down, they'd rip through it in less than a minute- 

The entire station jerked halfway through Neil's leap, realigning where his landing would be. To his misfortune, the railing of the stairs hit him between the legs, and he was glad of the explosive roar that followed the violent shake, because he squealed like a girl and slid down unceremoniously to C level, coughing and finding no real strength in his limbs. "God...damn..." He sputtered, clawing at the ground and glad he'd shut off his flamer earlier, for it hit the ground like he did. "[i]Fuuuuuuuuck[/i]..." He'd rather the Alien's have fed on him, than feel this way. 

"If that was Sayeeda," he wheezed. "She owes me big time." Grimacing, he pulled himself to his feet less than a minute later, his legs still weak and his arms not wanting to answer his mind's call, but stubbornly he moved them and grabbed his flamer. 

He opened the door to C level, and found himself face to face with three of the Xenonids straddling corpses, feeding at their leisure. In the brief glimpse before he exclaimed "Oh fuck!" he found he was glad to see Sayeeda's face was not among the dead, and he slammed the door just as the Xenos had leaped sideways in that horrifyingly machine-like and alien fashion. The metal door to the stairway banged from the sheer force, and he nodded. "Right. D level...D level sounds good." 

He made his way down the stairs (carefully this time, one step at a time) and found the door to D level. He sighed, placing one hand on the handle and one hand on the trigger of his flamer. It was a heavy weapon, but he felt confident he could blast through the door easily enough once it was opened. He breathed in and closed his eyes. "Please be good, please be good." He opened the door, and he never thought Sayeeda looked sexier than she did right then. 

"Oh my god," Neil breathed, dropping his flamer. Sayeeda was just getting up, and the fact that they were in a cavern-like corridor mattered to him very little. "I'd kiss you if I didn't think you'd knee me. And I think I've already had enough trauma in that region for one day. What happened? What's going on?"
[@Penny]