‘I knew no one could resist the parachute soldiers.’


    Lacking a laser pointer, cat toy production had been limited. Considering his audience, he figured kids toys could work too. Not really having much material to work with left him with simple stuff and he had a nice base in the stuffed cat. Grabbing a pillowcase and some leftover rope from his pouch, he had made a pretty basic parachute. After he had coaxed the girl into the hall, he had punted the toy as far as he could manage with the space.


    Sure, kicking the toy probably wasn’t the best, but between the very low ceilings and his desire to get the parachute working, which would need an arcing path due to those ceilings, there wasn’t much he could do about it. It certainly wouldn’t have gone that far with a throw. Besides, the girl didn’t seem to mind much.


    As she ran off down the hall to grab her toy, he returned to his room. Expecting to have to show her how the thing worked a few times before she started enjoying it herself, he grew a bit worried when she didn’t come back. A quick peek out the door showed empty hallways.


    ‘Guess she only needed the one demonstration.’


    Probably for the best. The industrial tunnels would be a much better place to throw the toy around, the ceilings allowing a longer fall. If he ran into her on his way down he would make sure she had what she needed. The things he could help with now were a limited list, but he could at least make sure she had choco-sticks and some entertainment. He was only gonna be gone a day or two before his own stores would require him to return, problem fixed or not.


    If he found any wood on his way there he would knock on that as well.


    ‘Can never be too safe.’


    <hr>


    He didn’t run into the girl on his way to the elevator, so he made sure that there was something to eat in the mess hall’s lower cabinets. He was fairly sure at this point there wasn’t anything that could physically attack the girl on this level. Once she had that first shower and he had a chance to look around he hadn’t found any evidence of life beyond the two of them. So long as she didn’t open any doors while he was gone, she was safe. Well, safe from outside threats, she could still hurt herself.


    That was all a bit too much good news though. His trip back to the other level didn’t have any hiccups and he was in a strong position now that he was here due to having had the time to do a little translating. Something would need to go wrong. The sooner the better, as the longer things were going his way the worse the bad thing would be.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    He decided not to follow in his footsteps from last time, thinking that it was better to cover new ground. He was tempted to follow his ears and ignore the markings, as machinery that could take enough power to flicker the lights should be pretty loud. He settled on a compromise approach though, following the markings in the direction with the loudest noise.


    Opening every door he came across with his pan out in front, he decided that he had to be in some kind of bio lab area. He wasn’t sure what made this lab different than the one on his level, but he made sure to close all the doors once he passed, no reason to tempt fate more. The only worrying part being that nothing was active when he opened the doors.


    He seemed to be going in a good direction though, the background noise now included liquid sounds. Either pipes or some kind of open plant. He wished he had the time to examine some of the rooms he was looking in, if they were actually bio labs they could have medicine and other chemicals he could use. Like something to clean water for example.


    He stopped.


    The room he had just opened seemed to have some kind of glassware. The temptation to go in and start looking around for things was hard to resist, but this wasn’t what he was here for. The best he could do was mark it on his map as he updated it and move on. This level was going to be a treasure trove once he found that pesky machinery.


    It took him several hours of being an aggressive door to door salesman before he made his next big find. The rooms stopped appearing and the markings on the wall slimmed way down. There was only a single line left heading off into the wide hall in front of him. He hemmed and hawed a bit but this was much too intriguing to ignore.


    As he walked down the hall that seemed to be much longer than he imagined, the auto lights making the distance hard to judge, he could hear the liquid noise grow louder. Any other day he would consider this a jackpot. Even if this was a dead end, he knew there was a lot of liquid flowing behind the walls in this location. He even made a note in his book as he was walking, making sure he knew to check back here.


    It seemed the note would be irrelevant though, as he came to the end of the hall and a large door. He really wasn’t used to things around here being properly industrial sized, but he had to give it to the door.


    “This is clearly a boss arena.”


    Hefting his pan, that felt a bit lacking now, he approached the wall on the right side. Looking around for a while he managed to find the panel. Said panel seemed to have questions for him though, obviously angry that he had yet to take it to a nice restaurant.


    Or maybe it preferred something more intimate, wine, candlelight and all that?


    Whatever its preference, the only part of the text he understood was the very universal yes/no at the bottom. Seemed like that hadn’t faded into history at least.


    “Course I meant it when I said I would take you to dinner!”


    Admonishing the panel for being impatient and hoping he couldn’t sign his soul away to technology yet, he hit the yes button. It seemed to be enough for the computer, as the door started to open after a series of unlocking noises.


    He hoped they were door noises at least, his pan wasn’t gonna cut it otherwise.


    Stepping up to the threshold of the door as he squinted against the ever-present brightness, all he could do was stare at what he had found. Breaking out of his awe-inspired staring he thrust his hands into the air in triumph.


    “Fuckin yes!”