Siton woke up feeling quite refreshed. Groggily pulling himself up he quickly assessed his situation. Judging from the light he quickly established that it was at least a few hours after sunrise. He also couldn’t see any rats trying to get to him anymore. Although judging from how persistent they had been previously he wouldn’t put it beyond them to be lying in ambush at one of this room’s exit. He also found himself to be quite hungry and thirsty. It looked like a little trip away from his pod was in order.

But before that, he had a couple of things to do. The first one was to munch on a dry ration bar and then relieve himself. Once that was done, he went on to his next task. He needed to check on his wounded foot to make sure it had been healing properly. True he had been delaying it a fair bit, but he had kinda been busy in the past couple of days.

Gently unwrapping the bandage on his foot, he quickly let out a sigh of relief. All was fine, it was still a bit bloodstained but everything seemed to have healed as intended. Though he should still be careful with it to make sure he didn’t re-open his wounds. Unlike what he did with his previous stunts.

Next was establishing some goals, if he was to survive here, he needed to have something to work towards. Thus, after some thinking, he came up with a short list ordered from highest to lowest priority.

1

Survive (self-explanatory, long-term goal).

2

Get out of this cave. Remaining stuck here won’t accomplish anything, especially when I run out of food.

3

Find shelter, a water source and a food source outside the cave (in order of priority).

4

Find Fred.

5

Find more people (it’s getting lonely here ☹).

6

Explore the potential of that energy (note: should name it something, let’s go with Energy X for now) (also long-term goal).

With that established he began to think of a plan for his departure. Going out without one wouldn’t do him any good. Especially if the rats were waiting for him as expected. First, he needed to bring his FAK, rations, and everything that could be of use to him. That included the hatch which was quite light despite its sturdiness and the Ziplock bags (except the cut one). If he washed the bandages, he could use them to strap the FAK to himself, allowing him to chuck his rations and bags in there and use it as a makeshift backpack. Then he’d have his hands free to hold his ‘shield’.

Now all that was left was to sort his course of action. He’d first try and get off the pod as quietly as possible, following which he would go to the stream. There he’d have a drink, wash the bandages and fill a few of those Ziplock bags with water. Assuming they don’t open and disgorge their content at the slightest pressure, though that seemed unlikely for something designed to be used in spaceships. Then he’d follow the stream down to an exit hoping that it doesn’t join some sort of underground river. The reason he didn’t decide to go for the other exit is because he suspected that it led to the rat’s nest. The idea of even more of those sent a shiver down his spine.

Taking time to go over his possessions and plan once more, Siton finally felt ready to go. He quietly took a hold of the hatch and gently placed it down on the grass to act as a bridge. He then grabbed everything he needed and silently made his way across, picking the hatch back up in the process. Moving slowly towards the stream, Siton was paying very close attention to his surroundings. Making sure nothing got the jump on him.

Following the walls, while avoiding the occasional mushroom, he finally arrived at the entrance of the side tunnel. Carefully peeking around the corner, Siton made sure there weren’t any rats in it. Trying not to let the pressure get to him, he breathed in and out deeply. In and out.

‘All is well…’ He was ready to go again.

He quickly made his way into the side tunnel and then to the stream. Crossing to the other side, he positioned himself in such a way that the wall was in between him and the other entrance. Preventing anything coming from there from seeing him. Now out of sight he quickly gulped down some water, although not too much as that could actually work against him. Next, he quickly washed the bandages, letting the mix of dried blood and foam dye the stream red. While he was at it, he also decided to quickly clean his foot. Once he was done with that, he took out a two out of the four Ziplock bags he had and began filling them with some clean water.

When that was completed, he placed everything back in his FAK and used the bandage to tie its handle to his upper left arm. Made of synthetic fabric and roughly twice as wide as his arm, the FAK looked a little bit out of place, but at least it seemed like it would work. The whole process was a bit awkward, but he managed it. Just in time as well.

True the rats weren’t able to spot him but they sure as hell could spot his absence. It didn’t take much brainpower to infer that he had gone down the other tunnel. And thanks to his little hiding spot they didn’t exactly know where he was. However, that was a double edge sword, he didn’t know where they were either, and these rats were rather silent when moving. This is why Siton was taken off guard when one of them peeked around the corner just as he finished tying the green FAK to his arm.

His satisfied smile instantly turned sour.

He needed to leave now. He slowly began to move backward, making sure to keep eye contact with the rat. Trying to gain some distance before he’d have to make a run for it. And it seemed to be working, the rat had yet to move. Slowly but surely Siton made his way inside the dark tunnel. This went on for a small while, and when had put roughly 10 meters between them he was suddenly interrupted. Another head had turned the corner, one belonging to an abnormally large rat.

Easily twice the size of the other rats, this one towered above them. Its stony patches looked more like large stony scales at this point. They were significantly thicker than their counterparts. With spikes atop them, they made the rat look far more threatening. Yet, its most intimidating feature was its jaw. It was built to crush rock, a monstrosity easily half as long as the body, fully reinforced with stone plating.

The huge rat slowly opened its jaw, revealing a set of huge stake shaped teeth. Built to perforate the hardest stones found within these caves, they were easily capable of reducing Siton’s skull to mush without even trying. Saliva slowly dripped from its mouth, falling on the stone at its feet. Causing it to sizzle.

As this rat’s diet mostly consisted of the sturdiest rocks it could find it had evolved to be able to digest them. This included the pre-digestive enzymes found in saliva and caused them to be extremely efficient at processing rocks. Although it was intimidating, it would have absolutely no effects on flesh.

Of course, Siton didn’t know that. All he could see was a giant murder machine that had acid for saliva.

It was time to leave.

He pivoted on his feet as fast as he could and sprinted down the tunnel with all his might, following the stream. He faintly heard the rats scramble to give him chase. Swearing under his breath he pushed himself to run even harder. As so he ran and ran until his feet hurt and lungs ached. Slippers were not ideal footwear for running, especially when one had been perforated by razor-sharp grass.

The tunnel he was in was progressively getting darker, due to the absence of holes through which the light could shine through. Making it even harder for him to run, especially at that hard to maintain pace. But he couldn’t stop, he could hear the loud thumps of the large rat as it gave him chase. His ten-meter head-start steadily began to shrink as he had to slow down to pay more attention to his footing. The rat, on the other hand, wasn’t concerned the least about it, its species had adapted to live in tunnels. Seeing in the dark came with the job.

Feeling more and more desperate as he could hear the rat gaining ground on him and as his surroundings slowly inched closer to pitch black, Siton felt himself lose his cool.

‘No. It can’t end this way. I’ve finally found something great, a purpose. Something that I can achieve, that no-one has seen before. Why do I have to die in this nameless cave to some random murderous mutated rat! I have to live!’

Suddenly, as if answering his plea, the Energy X within his body started to stir. It was composed of the energy he had passively absorbed ever since he’d arrived. He could feel it within him, boiling, furious, powerful, responding to his desires yet so distant. He could feel it push against some invisible barrier deep within, it wanted to act and grant his wish. But the barrier wouldn’t give, as if something more was required, a form. Siton somehow knew what was missing and pushed harder.

‘I won’t die here. I need speed, I need strength, I need energy, I need the power to survive!’

Having met the mysterious criteria, the flood gates within Siton broke. Releasing a veritable unbound tsunami of tremendous power within his body. He could feel every bit of the raging white-hot energy coursing through his veins, burning its way into his muscles, organs, tendons, bones and every fiber of his being. Yet he felt no pain, it was more akin to the satisfying feeling one had post-workout but massively amplified. He felt his muscles grow and then condense back down to their previous size, he could feel his bones harden and yet lighten, he could sense his tendons and ligaments become more flexible but firmer. He felt powerful.

The gates closed; it seems he had used up all of the energy. But it was worth it. He felt better than he ever had. Filled with energy, he began to run with renewed vigor. His eyes now able to pierce through the darkness, although it wasn’t full-blown night vision it was enough for him to catch back up to his previous pace. And more. He felt himself accelerate far beyond his old speed. Faster than he had ever run before. Faster. This felt incredible.

With his newly heightened senses, he could hear the rat lose more and more ground behind him. There’s no way he was going to risk fighting a creature that had probably been using EX (Energy X) its whole life if it had brought such significant changes to him. Losing himself in the glee of his newfound abilities, he failed to notice the chasm at the end of the tunnel until it was too late. Since it was fully underground, the darkness had made a rather good job at hiding it.

This is why Siton failed to notice the 5m wide crevasse until he was only a few meters away. Fortunately, it seemed that the tunnel continued on the other side. Running at full speed, there was no way he could stop without falling inside. It was do or die. Luckily for him, he had experience with that kind of stuff (*cough* grass *cough*). His brain kicked into overdrive and time slowed down. Getting used to this strange phenomenon, Siton carefully used the time to plan his steps. Making sure to launch from his intact foot this time.

Following his pre-planned path with barely acceptable accuracy, Siton found himself at the edge to the abyss with full momentum. Pressing down on his left foot with all his might he shot into the air like an arrow. The jump was perfect, it looked like he wasn’t going to have any problems reaching the other side. He was even prepared for the landing this time, having learned his lesson.

What he wasn’t prepared for was overshooting his target. He had jumped too high, if only slightly, but still too high.

*Bonk*

His head hit the top part of the tunnel as his body made its way within. Now destabilized, confused and most importantly full of momentum Siton crashed on the ground harder than his pod did. But he had made it, he was alive! There was no way that the chubby rat would be able to make the leap.

And indeed, turning around (after having checked on his rapidly swelling forehead) he spotted a huge angry rat glaring at him from the other side. Next to a tiny waterfall that disappeared into the abyss.

“Now that was something.” He whispered, still shaking from the adrenaline.