Work Text:
You’re never drinking again in your life. One too many shots made your life spiral into chaos. You decided to test your limits, and ended up thinking it was a good idea to steal a navy-tinted Camaro, and ended up getting a hefty prison sentence for DUI and auto theft after police found you half-asleep driving carelessly down a backroad. Now owing money and wanting to get out of a 7 year prison sentence, you hastily accepted the slightly suspicious offer from some facility named Urbanshade, offering you a million dollars and your sentence lifted at the cost of retrieving the crystal powering their now abandoned underwater facility. Greed shakes even the wisest people to their core, meaning there was little restraint left within you to decline such an intriguing proposal. Now suited up in a rather itchy jumpsuit, you were lost in the labyrinth that was the consequence of various bad decisions.
Piercing fluorescent lighting and a lingering metallic smell constantly filled your senses. Would you rather have not taken the offer and suffer the costly consequences? Maybe, but debt didn’t sound too nice. Now, stuck in the loop of constant death and redemption, you could care less about most things, slowly losing hope on even getting out of this damned blacksite. Getting used to maneuvering all the grotesque creatures proved to not be nearly as difficult as you expected at first; however, it was rather the site’s rogue AI that was causing you the most turmoil. There were plenty of other expendables rummaging through each nook and cranny at all times, and it seemed like he spent nearly all of his time targeting you! The sound of his glitchy snickers every time you found yourself trapped with an outraged eyefestation’s radiation stabbing into your skin drove you to the brink of insanity. Not a single moment existed without Painter plotting or initiating some kind of attack against you. He had you attached to strings, pulling and prodding at your sanity every chance he got. It was decided: you had to show him up one way or another.
You’d passed through several doors completely unscathed, much to your surprise. Usually, you’d be pleasantly greeted by the otherworldly more often than not. Now? Barely anything was coming your way… rather strange. It’s best to assume you just got lucky and don’t spare too much thought, there’s no time for that here. This streak of luck continued till a certain ominous door opened. Even the air rushing through the atmosphere here felt different. The room was completely dark, but from what you could see, the room appeared to be rather expansive. Tall windows adorned the side walls, letting only a pinch of what little light remained this deep under the sea leak through. With no threat in sight, you headed in. Practically swatting around for any drawers or objects, you nearly tripped over yourself scrambling around carelessly in hopes of finding resources. You swore you just had a flashlight… that would be rather handy now, no? Scanning your surroundings, sensing the irregular thickness of the air, you paused. Something wasn’t right—no, this isn’t normal. Just as you began to question your recent probabilities, cold, circular metal and a sudden, sharp flash of light bored into the back of your head, followed by an all-too-familiar voice: “I wouldn’t even dare to breathe right now if I were you.” That same venom-filled sneering stung in your ears, teeth gritting at the mere sound of it. However, not wanting to tamper with fate, you remained silent. Only the heavens above know how this is going to end.
After a slight hitch of your breath, you caved in and surrendered to his word. After all, it would be rather hard to do anything besides comply with a firearm nudging the back of your skull. With a rather distasteful sigh and a hesitant retraction of the weapon, Painter took a few steps towards you, glaring straight daggers at your exhausted form. In this inescapable labyrinth, keeping track of time was more of a loose memory rather than a commonality. Sighing heavily, you try to take a second to explain yourself in hopes of making amends; but, before you can, a sudden bullet fires from the rifle. You freeze and shudder in panic, closing your eyes and hoping for the best.
You shoot awake in a panic, calming down as you realize that you’re unharmed, and that was likely just another stressful dream resulting from the constant anxiety you had to go through in here. There was no time for rest in here, you needed to pull yourself together. It was times like these where you’d pray for a wall dweller, despite all your past grievances. All you’d have to do is stall long enough for some kind of Angler to come and have the feast of your dreams—well, the best source of food possible miles under the sea, at least. Wall dweller meat basically tasted and felt like unseasoned tofu, much to your surprise. Luckily you liked tofu, who knows what you’d be having to scrummage up if you didn’t. All culinary talk aside, it was pitch black all around, and you’re pretty sure your flashlight is on its last inch of life. There’s bound to be batteries around here somewhere, right?
You attempted to rummage through some drawers, not even bothered by the fact you’re invading what used to be somebody’s workspace. To no surprise yet some surprise, there were no batteries to be found. Oh come on, there’s about a billion different light sources you see every 2 doors and you can’t find a single battery? How’s the light gonna work with no fuel?! It’s whatever, you’ll find one eventually. You scanned over the room once more, making sure you checked every drawer, which you’re pretty sure you did. Hey, it was a good thing you looked at them all, otherwise you wouldn’t have noticed there was a keycard. Carefully crouching and scanning the card at the door’s reader, the door beeped and slid open, revealing the next room. Luckily, this one was lit; However, the second you opened it, you noticed it was much larger than the last one, and had an endless expanse of drawers and side rooms—which were most likely filled with even more research and equipment.
Time to stock up.