Freyr nearly tripped over a low wall between two industrial sheds before stopping to let the two soldiers catch up. When they did, Osman ordered the private to give his chest mounted torch to Freyr, leaving him with just the light at the end of his gun. They carried on running, Osman trying her comms again to no avail. After a couple of minutes, they saw lights flickering in the gloom and headed for them.

They found most of the CraSec search teams covering a warehouse a few plots down from the office buildings. They hunkered down behind a parked corporate buggy while Osman got a sitrep. “There are some really strange noises coming from inside, sir!” The sergeant hissed. True to his word, a mixture of scrapes interrupted the otherwise ominous quiet from inside the shed. “We’re surrounding the place now.” Osman nodded. “If it’s one of the things that abducted the Skinners, we should proceed with extreme caution. Rowe is turning the power back on, and then we’ll call for backup. Box this thing in ti- Freyr! Where are you going!” Freyr was quietly but quickly crossing the distance between the CraSec perimeter and the warehouse. “Fuck! Hold position until I give the signal!” Osman growled before setting off after the scientist.

[hr]
A wet, gravelly crunching replaced the ticking noise in the creature's throat. It's anguished facial expression slipped away to nothing, replaced by a dead stare. When it spoke again, Its voice was no longer that of a little girl, but of something...older. "I remember so little of what I was. But I do remember you. I have [i]seen[/i] you, crawling from the ocean to the rocks. How you've grown. I think i have a use for you after all…” The creature’s teeth rattled as it smiled widely and began inching across the intervening space between them.

[hr]

Freyr just knew she needed to face what was inside. If it was one of those creatures, and she could communicate with it, she may learn if David was inside, or whether it had bastardised his features for some other purpose. Who knew what it was doing in this warehouse - it could be digging its way out, in which case waiting for backup would let it get away. She crept over to one of the staff entrances and tried the door; it opened. She slipped inside and turned her torch on but kept her hand firmly clamped over the end to stop it giving her away. She took it off for half a second, and saw she was in a small staff room, with sofas and a kitchenette. There was a door at the opposite end, which she quickly tiptoed over to.

The mesh window of this door didn’t give much away; Freyr could only make out a few faint lights and sparks coming off some kind of machinery. She gave the door an experimental push and it cracked open. Poking her head through, she could hear echoey talking in what sounded like a cavernous space. Her heart was pounding, and her breath came out as ragged gasps. Slowly and with shaking hands, Freyr raised her torch and uncovered her hand in the direction of the talking.

One of the creatures from the video lit up in the torchlight, as did a tall scaled being Freyr didn’t recognise. The creature briefly recoiled from the light before shrieking. It charged forward on it’s spidey legs and almost unbelievably, even to herself, Freyr stepped out from the doorway with her hands up. “I’m just here to talk!” She shouted over the sound of screaming, her torch pointing at the floor in front of her. After a couple of seconds, David’s familiar face appeared from the gloom, barely two metres away. Freyr couldn’t breathe.