Chapter 221 - A Plan Is Better Than Nothing
"What happened?!" asked the girl with an anxious tone. She had noticed what had happened to the drawer that Daniel had tried to shift into his pocket dimension, and she couldn't help but think that the same could have happened to her if Daniel hadn't stopped in time. If that wasn't enough, she could feel the pulling of the two different powers.. The experience was painful and horrifying.. It was as if every fiber of her body was being pulled in two different directions at the same time.
Daniel became pensive for a good minute, then said "It seems that this won't work.. There must be something wrong with the spatial blockade.." While Daniel spoke, in his mind, he was gathering the comprehension of what he had learned about a damaged spatial formation. Of how a protection would easily become a cage for the people it was meant to protect. A new concept of space essence was forming.
"Did you see the captain?" Daniel asked to the woman.
The woman shook her head while saying "No, when these monsters started to appear a few days ago, I was working at the counter. I took all the people I could, and escaped here. The screams of the other people covered our escape."
After hearing the woman's response, Daniel turned to look at Jerigh, and said something to him through a wisp of spatial essence. Jerigh responded to whatever Daniel had said with a faint nod.
"Tell me about all of the formations within the ship."
The woman, initially confused by Daniel's question, quickly started to tell him about all of the types of formations which the ship possessed. Spatial formations, defensive formations, combustion formations, and many more. It was only after the woman got to the sound formations, that he stopped her.
"Where are the controls of the sound formation that allows the staff to make announcements?" He asked with a hint of urgency.
"In the bridge. There is a hall with a high level sound sphere. There is no barrier that you can't talk through if you use the sound essence emanated by that sphere." Said the middle aged woman. She then added "Why would you want to know where the communication formation is?"
"I have a plan.." Responded Daniel.
This time, Daniel didn't need for the mission to create a plan for him. He was able to think of one by himself, and yet, he still thought intensely about his plan, as he wanted a quest to form around it. He opened his eyes with a satisfied expression only a minute after that. He then noticed that a lot of people were looking at him.
"This is my plan.." Said Daniel before explaining in detail what he wanted to do.
-----
"Are you sure that it's this way?" Der asked to the two young girls, receining a quick nod by the older sister right after.
The reason for Der's doubts, was caused by the fact that they had arrived at the kitchen, and the deeper they went in that path, the bloodier and more gruesome the scenery became. It was like they were approaching the true source of where these monsters had come.
They had just come out from the backstage of the theater, and the place was a real mess. Virtually every person who was working in the backstage at the time of the play, had either died or turned. Blood was everywhere, and it dripped down the ceiling and walls. Whoever was the owner of that blood, was definitely not alive now.. Or at the very least, not as a human.
The scenery did not change for the better in the kitchen, where the walls were painted in red, and the raw pieces of meat could hardly be distinguished between the remains of flesh that had been recently ripped off of the unlucky staff of the kitchen.
For a few seconds minutes, they walked through the large kitchen in complete silence, but during a moment of distraction of the oldest sister, she hit a pan's handle with her hip, and caused a few large metallic items to fall loudly on the marble floor. The noise was so loud, that it could be heard even if the kitchen was at the chaotic state it usually was, during its working hours.
The minds of the two girls went blank, but Der maintained his calm. He quickly looked around, and noticed a massive metallic door. He then grabbed the two girls by their waists, and dashed towards it.
Without caring about making too much noise, he grabbed the large handle of the door, and opened it. Behind this door, he found three young women and a middle aged man hiding.
"AAAAAAHHH" the four people screamed in panic as they noticed that the door had opened. They had hidden in there when the monsters had entered the kitchen, and didn't know what they were capable of. So, when they saw the door open, they thought that the time of their death had finally come.
This time, Der was truly anxious.
He threw the two little girls into this cold storage, and said "Make them keep quiet!" He then closed the door behind them. Once alone, he turned to look at the entrance of the kitchen.. And there.. Two monsters had already entered.
These two monsters were trying to scout the kitchen. They had entered from two different entrances, and were moving around the isles in order to find the source of the screams.
What was unfortunate, was that those two were the only entrances to that area of the kitchen.. And he was trapped at the head of the isle, and towards where the two monsters were converging.
For a few seconds, Der hoped that the two monsters would turn around and leave, but that never happened. Instead, they kept walking on both sides of the isle and towards him.
Without thinking about it twice, he grabbed a large pot, and threw it above the isle, and towards the other end of the kitchen, right where the girl had bumped against the pan's handle. The pan hit a few more kitchen tools that were hanging from the low ceiling, and caused a deafening sound to resound loudly as they all fell together.
The monsters instantly turned towards the close source of the sound, and dashed in that direction, clashing together. The two exchanged a few blows, but then stopped right after. Almost as if realizing that the noise had probably been caused by the other monster, they both left from the way they had come from.
It was only after the two monsters disappeared from his sight, that Der dared to take a breath. His heart was about to explode, and sweat was forcing his clothes to tightly stick to his back.
After calming himself down, Der walked towards the cold storage, and opened the door once again. This time, nobody shouted. It was clear that the two girls had already explained to the four what would attract the monsters.
As the two girls saw Der, they immediately run towards him. He had already saved them twice, and they trusted him completely.
Der talked for a bit with the kitchen staff, and from them, he learned that there was a crash, and a loud noise that came from the direction where Der and the two girls were going to. More specifically, right where the water tanks which were used to keep the drinking water, as well as the salty water that contained all of the fish and aquatic beasts that the kitchen would cook for the restaurants, or for the room services, were held.
From the way the members of the kitchen staff talked, Der understood something important.. He was able to backtrack the origin of these monsters thanks to the timeline of all of the events he had witnessed.. And that could only mean one thing.. They were walking straight into it.
The theater's bloodbath had happened just a few minutes earlier, and from what the kitchen staff told him, they had been hiding in the cold storage for at least ten minutes. Whatever had happened to the ship, had happened in the ten minutes between the start of the play, and when the monsters had entered into the kitchen.
After looking at the pensive expression on Der's face, the older of the two sisters said "The area of the water tanks is between the kitchen and the room where the crystals are used to activate the propulsors.. We can't avoid it.."
There was no doubt in Der's mind that he needed to check that place out.. Who he was worried about, were these two little girls. With hesitation, he took a knee in front of them, and said "I don't think that there is a more dangerous place than where we are going.. Are you sure you want to follow me there?"
The two girls looked at each other quietly. The younger one was clearly terrified, and the idea of walking towards where these monsters had appeared scared her even further. On the other hand, the older sister was considering their options. She quietly turned to look at the jumpy members of the kitchen staff, and remembered how their weak nerves had almost killed them all just a minute earlier.
Finally, after a full minute of consideration, she grabbed her younger sister's shoulders, and said "We are coming.. Our parents are there.. We have to come."
Der quickly understood the reason why the older sister had decided not to stay hidden with these other people. He quietly nodded at them, and stood back up. Then, he started to walk towards the door that lead to the water tanks.
A voice came from behind them, and stopped them on their tracks. It was the voice of one of the three girls. "Take us with you.. Please." She said with fear. She couldn't stand the idea of being left to hide once again.
Der turned to look at the group, and after noticing how weak-willed they were, he said "If the monsters come from the area where we are going.. Leave from the other side.. Don't make a noise.. Go to the deck. There shouldn't be any monster there." He then left with the two girls.
The reason why Der had refused to take these four people with, was because he was sure that, if a monster appeared right in front of them out of the blue, at least one of them would let out a blood curdling scream that would cause their deaths in a matter of moments. He could not allow that.
After Der and the two girls entered the corridor and walked a few dozen meters, they heard a few feeble screams come from behind them. These screams were interrupted abruptly by something clearly different from the person's will.
He had made the right decision.
After a couple of minutes, Der and the two girls left the corridor they were walking in, and arrived on a long metallic catwalk. This catwalk was right above two massive water tanks two cubic kilometer in size, and which contained at the very least ten thousand litres of water each.
One of them had clean water, while the other, contained salty water.. On the ceiling, a huge hole had been ripped open, and from its trajectory, Der could infer that whatever had opened it, had fallen right into the salty water tank..
From where he was standing, Der could see a few monsters walk aimlessly on the catwalk.. In order to reach the other side, they would ultimately need to go through them.
While Der was considering his options, unbeknownst to him, the murky waters of the salty water tank started to wave gently.. And a few blurs could be seen at the bottom of the massively large room.
Without much choice, Der and the two little girls took their shoes off to avoid making too much sound when stepping on the metallic catwalk, and one step after the other, they made their way into the room.