Flow found an easier way into the central terminal that luckly didn’t involve going through the service tunnels again. Navigating through the freighter park again, and over the dead zombies littering the path, the pair found a similar garage area that would take them directly into the main mall of the terminal. From there they had to make their way to the opposite side to where the shipyards were located, then find a ship that had both a warp core and energy crystal. If Flow could find a ship that could fly, that would save her having to haul the scrap out without the aid of Clive, and if she’s lucky maybe even use that to fly off the planet (provided it was spaceworthy).

On the way through the service tunnel, Flow came across a horde of fallen zombies. The sight surprised her when her headlamp fell on one that was slumped against the wall, almost firing before realizing it had fallen. What was peculiar was the wounds. Like the soldiers she found, these zombies had been clawed at. Not to mention yet more piles of black quartz, with some emitting an eerie orange glow as small particles drifted from the heaps.

Blinky once again beeped, trying to urge Flow to abandon the quest and go back to the farm.

“Come on. We’ve come this far,”

Flow reached a back door to one of the shops of the mall. She was about to open them when she heard the shrieks of zombies. Flow backed up and readied her shotgun for the wave. However, there were other shrieks and ones that sent a shiver down her spine. A struggle could be heard at the other end that lasted briefly. Flow waited until the sounds died out before she slowly opened the door, forgetting she had her light on.

Inside the toy shop she entered, her light caught on a pair of figures standing at the body of a zombie. It was human in appearance, but through the light, she saw it covered in a mud green carapace, a quartz spine that seemed exposed and shown with the same orange light she saw in the piles she passed and a three-fingered claw that leaked blood. Flow froze as the creatures responded to her light, showing a blackened human skull with three green carapace plates, no eyes and a jaw of green teeth.

Blinky zoomed-in behind Flow and immediately turned off his light before ducking into Flow’s cloak. “Uh oh…”

Both monsters shrieked before charging at Flow who scrambled to aim and fire her shotgun. She hit one in the head and watched it explode into black and green powder. Firing again, she missed the second as it got closer, firing once more at point-blank range blowing a hole through its chest. With a cry, the monster collapsed backward, disintegrating before it even hit the ground.

More shrieks could be heard, echoing through the derelict store. Flow turned, and to her horror saw more of the creatures charging towards her, around eight in total all howling a haunting cry. Out of instinct, Flow conjured an ice barrier that sealed the ile.

“Shit…” Flow hyperventilated as she took out slugs from her ammo pouch. She only slotted one shot when she heard something crack. Jumping, the shots fell from her hand as Flow took several steps back. She looked back at her Ice wall and saw a large crack in the center. Then a three-clawed hand broke through it. More holes emerged as the creatures forced their way through. Flow fired at what she could see, destroying three of them before the barrier collapsed and the remaining five charged towards her. Flow moved back and fired, destroying three of them before her shotgun ran out of ammo.

“Shit!”

In a panic, Flow discarded her shotgun and brought out her rifle, firing at full auto and destroying one before being forced to duck under a wide swing from the final one. She fired, catching the monster in the back before her gun ran dry, then drew her pistol out and fired five shots at the monster before a bullet finally hit the head, causing it to disintegrate into black quartz.

Even as the quartz scattered across the ground, more howls could be heard. Quickly, Flow changed her magazine in time for another wave to come into view. Flow opened fire, destroying one before running through the dilapidated store. Flow threw an ice grenade at the hoard. When it exploded on impact, the ice starts ripping the monsters apart, the ice shards embedded and flash froze sections of the monsters, breaking them apart tripping off legs and arms. With her back to the wall, Flow turned to the staggering hoard and opened fire, emptying her entire magazine until the enemies were gone, broken apart and scattered on the ground as black quartz.

At last, silence fell. No more haunting screeches could be heard.

Taking deep, frantic breaths, Flow slowly collapsed to the ground using the wall to support her. Blinky was, as always, right by her side. “Wh-what… what are those things…?”

Blinky fashed a red light; meaning there was nothing in his database about them.

After a brief respite, Flow slowly picked herself off the ground and changed the magazine of her rifle while approaching where the monsters were. The floor was covered in fragments of her ice as well as the quartz, with some limbs of the creatures remaining, though slowly losing form. It was exactly what she found at the destroyed ship.

“Guess we know what attacked them, huh buddy.”

Before Blinky could respond, another moan could be heard. Despite it sounding far away, Flow couldn’t help but jump to attention, keeping her finger close to the trigger of her rifle. Blinky gave off several sounds and beeps, reminding her that she promised to go back if it got too dangerous.

“… Not yet,” Flow slowly walked to the door of the store with Blinky still beeping behind her. “At the very least we should find out what these things are. What if they attack the farm?”

Blinky beeped and whistled his disapproval.

“Also… those soldiers. Why come here of all places? Even if they picked up a distress signal we put out, it makes no sense for them to land anywhere near the colony.”

Blinky went silent before beeping again.

“… Alright, they could just be here for the same reason I’m here; to salvage.” Flow sighed. “Still, better safe than sorry.”

She took one step forwards before being stopped by Blinky flying in her face.

“Just a bit further, then we’ll go back. Promise,”

Another cry echoed through the building, once more snapping Flow to attention.

“Either way… I don’t think we should stay here.”

****

The ground through the small wing of the mall was littered with zombie bodies, mixed with the black and green quartz and the odd part of the creature’s Flow just fought. The dim lighting added to the tension, putting Flow more on edge than she ever had, not eager to encounter the creatures again.

Fortunately for her, she encountered no other threats. However, the journey had plenty of scars of battle that took place moments ago given the state of several of the zombie bodies. The entrance to the main rotunda was enough to send chills down Flow's spine as before it was piled high with zombie bodies, likely from a hoard that the monsters must have provoked. Quartz was everywhere with some fragments of the monster’s bodies still intact.

Yet more disturbing were some of the scars Flow identified while walking over them. Most of the zombies were scarred with gouging claw marks, some looked to have been shot by something that was clearly not bullets given how large of a wound that was left on them, and with something that burnt through the body rather than pierced. Some zombies were cut into ribbons, not something one of the monsters seemed to be capable of. Then, close to the entrance was the remnants of a barricade that had been blasted open by some kind of explosive given the scorch marks on the ground with the zombies close by burnt to a crisp- just like the soldier at the wrecked ship.

Yet despite the mound and Blinky once more trying to persuade her to go back, Flow pressed forward into the main rotunda. This massive, five-layered building with various shops located on each floor, still lit up by floodlights, all be it with several dark spots.

“Okay, where too?”

Blinky brought up his map showing the floor plan of the central terminal.

“The… second floor? Looks like we can get up to-”

Gunfire then echoed. Flow jumped and ducked for cover. The gunfire continued, along with the sounds of the creatures.

“Who’s… is someone alive?”

Blinky did a quick proximity scan of the floor and flashed green. There was a survivor, possibly one of the soldiers.

“Where’s it coming from?”

Blinky hesitated to respond.

“Someone’s in trouble! We gotta help!”

Reluctantly, Blinky nodded before flying off across the rotunda’s floor. Flow followed behind, eager to find out who was. Blinky took her down another corridor of ruined shops with the sounds of gunfire getting closer. Then there was a loud bang, which stopped Flow in her tracks, on instinct she ducked behind some debris, followed by the sounds of the creatures getting louder.

“You mother… fuckers…” A man then came into view, crawling on the ground while aiming his pistol and firing.

“Oh no. Hey-!” Flow was about to jump out when something else came into view that caused her to freeze. It was one of the creatures that had jumped her, but massive, towering almost nine feet tall, with thicker green carapace armor, thick enough to block the bullets fired from the poor man’s pistol. Its head was a similar skull with armor, but with a glowing orange crystal embedded in its forehead. In its hand was a sword as big as Flow’s body, which she watched helplessly as it plunged it’s massive sword into the man, killing him.

Flow ducked down, even more, frozen in place by the monstrosity before her. Five of the smaller ones then came into view, along with a second large one, communicating in grunts and hisses that Flow could barely comprehend as language. For a few agonizing moments, Flow watched, praying that they took no notice of her. As though the gods were listening to her, the monsters moved on, walking over the body and disappearing down the dark corridors.

“Wh-what the…?” Shaken, Flow carefully moved out from cover, keeping her finger close to the trigger. It was indeed one of the soldiers with his outfit nearly identical to those outside by the wrecked ship. Whatever those creatures were, they were hunting them. And given the state of both the ship and the trail of zombies, they were winning.

“Okay, I think it’s time we got outta here,” Flow finally relented. Even if it meant being scolded by Mom, the farm had to be alerted to these creatures. “Where’s the closest exit?”

****

With Blinky leading the way, Flow circled back to the main rotunda, luckily without incident. However, once she walked into the open space, Blinky’s proximity alarm flashed. As Flow readied herself, she heard a misty cry from overhead. Slowly, Flow looked up.

“What… is that?!”

Hovering in thin air was something that resembled a thin human woman but with nothing else even remotely resembling a human being. It was tall, green with the outline of a black skeleton on the outside of its body, its ribs stopping short of its small bare, nippleless breasts with a glowing orange crystal in its chest. Around its hips was a loose fabric of webbing coming to the tip of her bone-thin, black feet. Its head was disturbingly a skull with an elongated cranium, empty eye sockets and a lipless jaw.

“Y-you don’t think it sees us?” Flow asked Blinky as she inched backward.

The woman raised its long right arm. In the palm, green energy formed before being thrown towards Flow. On instinct, Flow created an ice wall that held following the small explosion on impact. Rattled, Flow ran to the left of her ice barrier and fired on the woman and watched as her bullets hit an invisible barrier that surrounded the woman. More green energy formed in the woman’s palm, but this time the woman raised it to the sky.

All over the rotunda, green lights formed on the ground, and from them, the smaller creatures emerged in groups of six. Reloading, Flow opened fire on the group closest to her. When her gun went dry, she retreated behind her wall as yellow balls of energy were fired at her. On the terraces above her and at the rears of the clawed monsters were monsters with the left arm morphed into a crusted gun. Once reloaded, Flow broke cover and fired at some of the gunners, watching them collapse into quartz. Looking up she saw the woman charging another attack. Flow created another ice wall which blocked the attack while destroying a number of the monsters. Yet more green lights formed and more of the monsters poured forth, materializing out of thin air. Flow fired at them until her gun ran dry, throwing an ice knife at the closest monster before doing the only thing she could; run.

Both her and Blinky charged down the passage they had come from with the monsters still in hot pursuit. Reloaded, Flow unclipped her rifle from her sling and fired blindly behind her. She didn’t even know if her bullets were hitting their marks, so panicked she was in her-

Blinky’s proximity warning went off, but too late. Something rammed into Flow’s right side, sending her flying. Her rifle fell from her hand as she slammed across the ground.

Flow growled as she forced herself to her front. Approaching her was one of the large monsters, ready to impale her with its weapon. Frantically, Flow drew her pistol and fired, watching helplessly as the bullets bounced harmlessly off its body. When it loomed over her, Blinky rushed into its field of view, distracting it momentarily. Flow used that to throw an ice knife that caught it in the jaw (piercing through the carapace, freezing the area around the wound).

“B-Blinky!” Discarding her pistol, Flow shot up and ran, leaving the staggering monster behind her while the smaller ones passed by. The small droid leads the way, ferrying Flow through the mall, bursting through a pair of doors before turning and creating a thick layer of ice walls.

“Th-That… that outta hold them…” A loud bang and crack could be heard on the opposite side. “Oh come on!”

Flow turned and ran- “WHA-?!!!” Stopping just short of a large hole in the way. She looked around frantically but saw no other way forward. The opposite end was blocked by debris and there were no other doors. She was trapped.

“B-Blinky?” Her little companion scanned the area as fast as it could to find some means for her to escape but found nothing. The sounds of the ice breaking behind her were getting louder.

There was only one way out.

“Blinky…” Flow took a deep breath. “If I get outta this alive… I promise to listen to Mom more often.”

Before her companion could express any kind of objection or conformation, Flow jumped into the hole, right into the pitched black darkness below.